CHAP. VIII. Macaulay's Essay on the Comic Dramatists of the Restoration, in the excellent Memoir by professor WARD, prefixed to the Globe edition of the Poems, and in the admirable study of the poet's genius by professor LOWELL.' 1 See Among my Books. By James Russell Lowell. First Series. 1870. 371 CHAPTER IX. THE REVOLUTION SETTLEMENT AND THE RULE OF THE WHIG ARISTOCRACY. CHAP. IX. already AMONG the writers enumerated in the preceding chapter, Burnet, Luttrell, Evelyn, Dalrymple, Mignet, and Macaulay, continue to be of service for the earlier part Works of the present period. The Hardwicke State Papers described. include materials relating to the Partition Treaty, the Treaty of Utrecht, and the embassy of lord Stair in France. (A.) Correspondence and Papers. Of the domestic State Papers no calendars have as yet appeared, but the collections made in the last and present century by Carstairs, Macpherson, and Coxe, the biographer of Marlborough, in some measure supply the want. Of these, the Correspondence of the Duke of Shrewsbury, edited by COXE, is of considerable value, and the documents at the time of publication were entirely new to the public. They are distributed into three parts: (1) Shrewsbury's correspondence with king William from the commencement of his official career, when appointed secretary at the Revolution, to the year 1700; 1 Private and Original Correspondence of Charles Talbot, Duke of Shrewsbury, with King William, the Leaders of the Whig Party, and other distinguished statesmen. Illustrated with Narratives, Historical and Biographical, from the Family Papers in the possession of her Grace the Duchess of Buccleuch. By William Coxe. 1821. Corre spondence of Shrews bury. СНАР. Macpher- Carstair's (2) his correspondence with admiral Russell, during the command of the latter in the Mediterranean in 1695, and also at the time of his successful expedition to the coast of France in 1696, his correspondence with viscount Galway (1695-96), illustrating the policy of the duke of Savoy in relation to the Grand Alliance,-that on the negotiations connected with the Peace of Ryswick (1696-97); (3) his confidential correspondence, extending over the period 1695-1704, with Sunderland, Somers, Wharton, Russell, the earl of Orford, and Halifax. The collection of Original Papers by MACPHERSON,' the author of the poems attributed to Ossian, is also of importance, but lies under the suspicion which attaches to all the literary performances of this unprincipled writer, and the papers, according to Coxe, are 'garbled.' They comprise those left by Nairne, who was undersecretary to the ministers of James II. and his son from the Revolution to the year 1713, and also a considerable portion of the correspondence of the house of Hanover with their agents and partisans in Britain during the reign of queen Anne. The State Papers and Letters collected by CARSTAIRS, the private secretary of William III., remained unpublished a long while after his death, and were at length given to the world, in 1774, by the industry of Joseph M'Cormick, a Presbyterian minister. They relate mainly to affairs in Scotland during the period 1691-1718, especially the massacre of Glencoe. They 1 Original Papers: containing the Secret History of Great Britain, from the Restoration to the Accession of the House of Hanover. 2 vols. 1775. 2 State Papers and Letters, addressed to William Carstares, confidential Secretary to King William during the whole of his Reign: afterwards Principal of the University of Edinburgh. To which is prefixed the Life of Mr. Carstares. Edited by Joseph M'Cormick. Edinburgh, 1774. also comprise short memoirs of the statesmen,-secretary Johnston, earl of Argyle, secretary Ogilvy, lord Tarbat, earl of Melville, marquis of Annandale, and others, -whose correspondence is included in the collection. СНАР. IX. Tracts. (B.) Contemporary Writers.-The numerous political State pamphlets called forth by the incidents of the Revolution of 1688 and the contests during the reign of William, were collected and published early in the eighteenth century.1 Letters on Locke's Letters on Toleration, 2 perhaps the most Locke's original of all his writings, were designed to vindicate Toleration. the Toleration Act of 1689, which, however, he regarded as an imperfect measure. In connexion with the Letters the criticism in the eleventh chapter of Macaulay, and that in the tenth chapter of Hunt's Religious Thought, will be found eminently suggestive. Locke's position may be regarded as that of the national Church. The eventful reign of William and Mary, and the equally stirring times of queen Anne, with their domestic struggles and brilliant continental victories under Marlborough, almost entirely failed to call forth any historic talent worthy of the age. Only two writers of real genius even attempted to record the history of their country. SWIFT, in his Journal to Stella and Swift's Journal History of the Four Last Years of Queen Anne's Reign, and describes the course of events immediately prior and History. subsequent to the Peace of Utrecht. The latter work, which he considered the best he had ever written,' was A Collection of State Tracts published on occasion of the late Revolution in 1688, and during the Reign of King William. 3 vols., fol. 1705. 2 Four Letters on Toleration. By John Locke. Reprint of seventh edit. 1758. Reprinted by A. Murray. 1870. 3 Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D., with Notes and Life of Author. By Sir Walter Scott, Bart. 19 vols. 1824. Vols. ii. and iii. 4 Ibid. vol. v. CHAP. Political But not published till thirteen years after his death. It reflects, in a very marked manner, the spirit of animosity by which he was actuated after his defection from the Whig party, and the imputations he casts upon prince Eugene, Marlborough, Burnet, and other distinguished characters are of the darkest kind. His portraits of his friends, Ormond, Bolingbroke, and Harley, on the other His minor hand, are equally exaggerated in their praise. Pamphlets, notwithstanding these demerits, the fragment is well deserving of perusal. The same may be said of his pamphlet On the Conduct of the Allies,' which materially modified the national policy in relation to the war,-of his Tale of a Tub, which, as a satire on religious parties, may be compared with Dryden's Hind and the Panther, -of the Drapier's Letters, which rescued Ireland from the infliction of a national slight,—and of his Inquiry into the Behaviour of the Queen's last Ministry, written June, 1715. Swift's criticisms of lord Clarendon's History and Bolingbroke's Works and dence. Burnet's Own Times should also be noted." BOLINGBROKE, in his Letter to Sir W. Wyndham, gives his version of the circumstances under which he Correspon had assisted to negotiate the Peace of Utrecht, and brings a heavy indictment against the political conduct of his rival, Oxford. His Idea of a Patriot King (1738) and Letter on the State of Parties at the Accession of George I. embody his views in relation to a subsequent period. The principal source of information as regards 1 Works of Swift. By Sir W. Scott, vol. ii. 2 Ibid. vol. x. On this see the criticisms in Abbey and Overton's English Church in the Eighteenth Century, i. 450-2. Ibid. vol. vi. Ibid. vol. v. Ibid. vol. xii. • The Works of the Right Honourable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke. 5 vols. Edited by David Mallet. 4to, 1754. |