1

JOHN,

LORD SOMERS,

2

ONE of those divine men, who, like a chapel in a palace,, remain unprofaned, while all the rest is tyranny, corruption, and folly. All the traditional accounts of him, the historians of the last age, and its best authors, represent him as the most incorrupt lawyer, and the honestest statesman; as a masterly orator, a genius of the finest taste, and as a patriot of the noblest and most extensive views; as a man, who dispensed blessings by his life, and planned them for posterity. He was at once the model of Addison, and the touchstone of Swift: the one wrote from him, the other for him. The

3

2 ["This great lawyer," says Mr. Seward, "to whom every Englishman who feels the blessings of that constitution of government under which he has the happiness to live, owes the highest obligations for the excellent and spirited defences he made of the two great bulwarks of it, the limited succession to the crown, and the trial by jury, is splendidly yet justly delineated by the spirited pencil of lord Orford." Anecd. vol. ii. p. 272. The anonymous author of Remarks on this Catalogue has, on the contrary, thought lord Orford's picture of Somers greatly overcharged, and his encomiums much too lavish. See p. 82.]

3 Since this work was first printed, we have seen Dr. Swift's Four last Years of the Queen,” where is a character of lord

former, however, has drawn a laboured, but diffuse and feeble character of him in the

Somers very different from what is here given, and from the picture drawn of him in the dedication to the Tale of a Tub. Yet, distorted as the features are in this new history, it is a pleasure to find that party-malice attempted to discolour rather than to alter them. How lovely does a character burst forth, when the greatest objections to it are, that it was steady to its principles, of universal civility, conscious of an humble birth, of no avarice, of satisfied ambition, that the person so accused did violence to himself to govern his passions, and (one can scarce repeat seriously such a charge!) preferred reading and thinking to the pleasures of conversation. How black a statesman not to be fickle! How poor a philosopher, to master his passions when he could not eradicate them! How bad a man, to endeavour to improve his mind and understanding! -Can one wonder that lord Bolingbroke and Pope always tried to prevent Swift from exposing himself, by publishing this wretched and ignorant libel! and could it avoid falling, as it has, into immediate contempt and oblivion? However, as the greatest characters cannot be clear of all alloy, Swift might have known that lord Somers was not entirely justifiable in obtaining some grants of crown-lands, which, though in no proportion to other gains in that reign, it would have become him to resist, not to countenance by his example. [N. B. "One might as well," observes lord Hardwicke, "lay a heavy charge on his father's (sir Robert Walpole) memory for the grants of lucrative offices obtained for his family, and taking a pension when he resigned. Lord Somers

[It has been remarked however that Swift yielded to their advice: so that the piece, being posthumous, must be read with that consideration in the author's favour. See Biog. Brit. vol. v. p. 3755. note 62.]

thousand more prejudices. The great chancellor de l'Hospital seems to resemble Somers most in the dignity of his soul and the elegance of his understanding.

The momentous times in which he lived, gave lord Somers opportunities of displaying the extent of his capacity, and the patriotism of his heart; opportunities as little sought for the former, as they were honestly courted and pursued for the latter. The excellent balance of our constitution never appeared in a clearer light than with relation to this lord, who, though impeached by a misguided house of commons, with all the intemperate folly that at times disgraced the free states of Greece, yet had full liberty to vindicate his innocence, and manifest an integrity, which could never have shone so bright, unless it had been juridically aspersed. In our constitution Aristides may be traduced, clamoured against, and when matter is wanting, summary addresses may be proposed or voted, for removing him for ever from the service of the government; but, happily, the factious and

6 As happened in the case of lord Somers. Vide Burnet, vol. ii. p. 267. [Here probably the famous motion may be alluded to. Dr. Lort.]