BOLINGBROKE, VISCOUNT. 



KOLINOBROKE, VISCOUNT. 



BOUNUBKOKE, HENRY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT, the son of 

 Sir Henry St John. Bart, afterwards Viscount St John, of Battersea, 

 VM bom MBaMersea, October], 1078. His mother was Mary, daughter 

 of Robert Rich, earl of Warwick, under whose superintendence his early 

 education was conducted on tho strict puritanical principle* which she 

 had herself adopted ; and this training, from its rigour, as Bolingbroke 

 hisj -" affirms, " prepared him to beoome a high Churchman." He 

 was seat to school at Eton, from which he proceeded to Cbristohureh, 

 Oxford ; and on leaving tho university he appear* to have gone to 

 travel on the continent He is supposed to have been abroad during 

 the years 168 and 1 AM, but all that is known of his travels is that he 

 visited Milan. In 1700, soon after his return, he married Frances, 

 daughter and one of the co-heiresses of Sir Henry Winchcomb, by which 

 alliance be cam* into the posetsaion of considerable property. His wife 

 and ho however could not agree, and they soon parted. 



St John bad before thi* produced a few short poetical pieces of 

 little merit, but he was chiefly known as one of the most dissipated 

 among the young men of fashion of the day. In February 1701 he 

 entered parliament as member for Wotton Basset, a family borough, 

 from which his father retired to make room for him. At this time 

 the Toriea, with Rochester and Qodolphin at their head, were in power ; 

 and to this party, which was also dominant in the new House of 

 Commons, St John from the first attached himself. Their leader 

 Harley, whom they had placed in the chair, and St John were already 

 intimate friends. He sat also both in the next parliament which met 

 in December of the same year, the lout called by King William, and in 

 the Brut held by Queen Anne, which assembled in October 1702. On 

 Harley being made secretary of state in 1704, his friend St John was 

 brought into the ministry as secretary at war. This office he continued 

 so hold for nearly four years till February 1708, when, upon the form- 

 ation of a Whig administration under Marlborough and Godolpbin 

 (who had by this time changed their politics), he and Harley went out 

 together. 



He did not seek a place in the next parliament, which met in 

 November 1709; but retiring to the country, withdrew altogether 

 from politics, and gave himself np for two years to stndy. By the 

 end of this period another complete revolution in the cabinet had 

 taken place, and the dismissal of Godolphin in the beginning of August 

 1710 had again elevated the Tories to power, with Harley at their 

 head. St John was now made one of the secretaries of state, with the 

 direction of foreign affairs. In the new parliament he was returned 

 both for his old borough of Wotton Basset and for the county of Berks. 

 He elected to sit for Berkshire. 



The biography of St John for the next four yean forma a principal 

 part of the history of the memorable administration of which he was 

 one of the leading members. That administration remained at tho 

 bend of aoaiis till it was suddenly npset by the death of the queen in 

 the beginning of August 1714. During its tenure of power it had 

 terminated by the inglorious peace of Utrecht (signed llth of April, 

 1713) the war with France, which hod lasted since 1702. In the 

 negotiations by which this event was brought about St John bore the 

 chief part. There is much reason for doubting however if the 

 restoration of peace was the ultimate or principal object of his zealous 

 exertions. There is indeed strong ground for believing that both be 

 nd Hariey, almost from their first entrance upon office, contemplated 

 the restoration of the Stuart family to the throne, if circumstances 

 should prove favourable for such an attempt, or if their own interests 

 should appear to demand the measure. St John was called to the 

 House of Lord, by the title of Viscount Bolingbroke in July 1712; 

 sad soon after this, from various cansee, an estrangement and rivalry 

 rose between him and his old friend Hariey (now Earl of Oxford and 

 lord treasurer). Principally, as it is understood, through the aid of 

 Lady Muham, Bolingbroke was enabled to effect the removal of his 

 competitor on the 27th of July 1714. 



Bolingbroke set about forming a cabinet chiefly composed of staunch 



're 

 hioh 



Jaeobites ; but before he could complete his arrangements they we 

 in an Instant irretrievably overthrown. The death of the queen whit 

 followed within a week, and the prompt and decisive measures taken 

 at the instant by the friends of the bouse of Hanover, made Holing- 

 broke's triumph only that of a moment Utterly bswfldered by the 

 calamity, he was unable to act with the necessary promptness and 

 decision, and the power passed wholly out of bis hands. After having 

 heoB treated by the Lords Justices in a manner which sufficiently 

 bowed whs* be had to expect, he was on the 28th of August by the 

 king's order dismissed from his poet He remained in the country 

 tor some time after this, and even appeared in parliament and took on 

 active part in debate, as if he had nothing to fear; but alarmed at 

 length by the temper shown by (be new House of Commons, which 

 had commenced its sittings on the 17th of March 1716, on the 27th 

 of the same month he suddenly left London in disguise, and succeeded 

 making his escape to France. On the 6th of August following, by 

 order of the Commons, he was impeached by WalpoU at the bar of 

 the HooM of Lords of high treason and other high crimes and misde- 

 meanour*, and having failed to surrender himself to take his trial, he 

 was attainted by Act of Parliament (Anno 1 Oeo. 1, cap. 16). In the 

 *?*""** ** k* 1 ent < > * " service of the Pretender, who 

 appointed him his secretary of state, or prime minister, and employed 

 him to solicit the aid of the French government to the expedition then 



Mwparing to assist in effecting a rising in favour of the exiled family 

 n Great Britain. When the prince set ont in person for Scotland at 

 the end of the year, Bolingbroke was left in charge of his affairs in 

 h-anee. On hi* return however, after an absence of about six weeks, 

 he prince suddenly dismissed him from his employment, and soon 

 liter had him formally impeached before what he called his parliament 

 or neglect of the duties of his office. Bolingbroke now endeavoured 

 o make his peace with the court of St. James's, but after some negoti- 

 ations had taken place by means of Lord Stair, the English ambassador 

 n Paris, the affair ended by the ministry declining to grant the pardon 

 'or the present 



Bolingbroke remained in exile for the next seven yean, during which 

 is kept up a correspondence with Swift, Pope, and other literary friends 

 n England, and also drew around him a circle of new acquaintances, 

 comprising some of the most eminent men of the continent He r 

 irincipally on a small property called La Source, near Orlean, which 

 e had purchased in 1719, and which he hod taken great delight in 

 aying out and decorating. His wife having died in November 1 7 1 \ 

 n May 1720 he privately married the widow of the Marquis de Vi 

 a niece of Madame de Maintenon, who brought him a considerable 

 'ortune. It was to this lady's exertions and management that he was 

 eventually indebted for liberty to return to his own country, which 

 le obtained in May 17-3, principally it is understood through the 

 nterveution of the king's mistress, the Duchess of Kendal, whom Lady 

 Bolingbroke bribed with a sum of eleven thousand pounds. Bolin^- 

 oroke however, although he came over for a short time in June of this 

 year, did not take up his residence in England till September 1724. 

 He now, by means of a large sum which he had gained in Law's 

 Mississippi scheme, gave the Duchess of Kendal ample additional 

 inducements to advocate anew his claim to the restoration of hi 

 property and his seat in the House of Lords, and he pent in to the 

 king and the houses of parliament a formal petition to the same effect. 

 The restoration of his property was granted to him by an Act of Parlia- 

 ment which received the royal assent on the 31st of May 1725. The 

 complete reversal of his attainder however, the operation of which 

 still excluded him from the House of Lords, was steadily refused to 

 all bis solicitations. Upon finding the doors of parliament thus shut 

 against him, he engaged in a course of active opposition to the ministry 

 through the medium of the press ; and hi* political papers, published 

 first under the title of the ' Occasional Writer,' and afterwards con- 

 tinued in the ' Craftsman,' excited for some years much attention. It 

 was in the ' Craftsman ' that the series of papers from his pen originally 

 appeared which were afterwards collected and published separately 

 under the title of ' Letters upon the History of England, by Humphrey 

 Oldcastle,' and also the subsequent series of letters forming his ' Dis- 

 sertation upon Parties.' 



Wliile thus employed he resided at the villa of Dawley, near Uxbridge, 

 which he hs<l purchased on his return. Here he occupied himself not 

 only in carrying on this political war, but also, as it afterwards appeared, 

 in writing various treatises upon moral and metaphysical subject* which 

 he did not send to the press. The state of parties in the new parlia- 

 ment, which met in January 1735, convinced Bolingbroke that the 

 hopes in which he had so long indulged of the overthrow of the ministry 

 were for the present at on end, and in disgust he suddenly left England, 

 and returned to France. But another matter may have had some share 

 in quickening his departure. In this year, as appears from a note in 

 Tindal's ' History of England," there was published in London an octavo 

 pamphlet containing a correspondence of some length which hail taken 

 place between Bolingbroke and the secretary of the Pretender imme- 

 diately after his dismissal from the Pretender'* service in 1716. The 

 pamphlet was immediately suppressed, but Tindal has printed th 

 letters at large ; and their contents are such a* it certainly could not 

 have been agreeable to Bolingbroke to see laid before the public. 



He remained in France, residing at a peat called Chantelou, in 

 Touraine, with the exception of a short visit which he paid to England 

 to dispose of Dawley, till the death of his father in 17I-. I 

 returned to take possession of the family estate at Battvrsea, where he 

 resided for the most port till his death on the 12th of December 1751. 

 The year before, the death of his wife, by whom ho had no family, 

 had terminated a union which seemed to the last to have been one of 

 great happiness and strong affection on both sides. Most of his old 

 friends also, both literary and political among the number I'op'', 

 Swift, Gay, and Atterbury were now gone. In politics he hod 

 almost ceased to take any active part for some years before hi* death ; 

 the fall of Walpnle in 1742, the event to which he had looked for so 

 many years for hia full restoration to the rights of citizenship, and 

 probably his re-admission to political power, having, when it came, 

 brought no advantages either to himself or his party. 



Bolingbroke bequeathed all his manuscript*, with liberty to print 

 them, to David Mallet, who had gained his favour by consenting some 

 years before to appear as the editor of his work entitled ' The Idea of 

 a Patriot King,' and to put his name to an advertisement prefixed to 

 it, in which some very injurious and, in the circumstances, unbecoming 

 reflections were made upon the conduct of his recently deceased friend 

 Pope, who, shortly before bis death, had, without the knowledge of 

 the author, got an impression of the work thrown off from the manu- 

 script which bad been lent to him. Mallet published the several 

 treatises which had been thus left to him, along with all Bolingbroke 1 s 



