m 



CHURCHILL. 



;t I. h wa rwtorvJ to all hn homran, and decla- 



tain general and commander in chief i 

 ' fo:, ..' In this capacity he was not long able to act an 

 ffic-nt -pirt, for ag* nd care had unpaired both hi 

 and body. Soon after giving directions for check- 

 ':e rebellion in 171. A \- retired from public boii- 

 rm, and pasted hi remaining year* in the- cor. 



.ultiei afforded, it u raid, an feeing 

 , viewed in contrast with his former splen- 

 dour Hit death took place at Windsor lodge in 17-"-', 

 in kit 7SJ year. He left no ton, but four daughters, 

 and hn title has dctcended to the posterity of hi. second 

 daughter. 



It remains that we say a few words on a part of 

 Duke's conduct which has been much animndvcrted upon, 

 we mean his behaviour to the Stuart family. It ap- 

 pears, from " M'Pherson's State Papers," that he conti- 

 nued to give them hopes of a friendly disposition on his 

 ' part, after he was evidently connected with the house of 

 Hanover. M'Pherton, it is manifest, was not partial to 

 the Duke's memory, nor slow in bringing forward what- 

 ever could commute a charge against him. At the same 

 time, it would be coctrary to historic fidelity to represent 

 the Duke as much fairer-than the majority of those who 

 pas their life in courts and cabinets. He would have 

 tided, in all probability, with either Hanover or Stuart, 

 as best suited his political views, and might have leaned 

 decidedly to the htter, had there been any hope of their 

 conforming to the Protestant religion. Those who ac- 

 cuse him of unbounded avarice will do well to recollect, 

 that all the temptations of this nature, offeied to him by 

 the French court at the conferences of Gc-rtruydtiiburg, 

 were completely unavailing. '(#) 



CHURCHILL, CHARLES, was bom in Vine strett, 

 in the parish of St John the Evangelic, Westminster, 

 in February 1731. His father was for many years cu- 

 rate and lecturer of that parish, and rector of llainham 

 near Grays, in Essex. Young Churchill was placed at 

 Westminster school at eight years of age, and, in his 19th 

 year, applied for matriculation at Oxford, but was re- 

 jected, either from inability to answer the questions that 

 were put to him on his examination, or from a petu- 

 lant contempt of his examiners, wh.ch was mistaken for 

 ignorance. He was afterwards admitted to Cambridge ; 

 but instead of revisiting the university, he made a cTra- 

 destine marriage in London, after the discovery of which, 

 his father took home the imprudent couple to his own 

 house for a twelvemonth. Young Churchill now appli- 

 ed in earnest to such studies as might fit him for the 

 church. At the customary age he received deacon's or- 

 ders, and in 1756 was ordained a priest. He first preached 

 at Cadbury in Somersetshire, and at Rainham his father's 

 living. At the latter place, he endeavoured to provide 

 for bis family by teaching the youth in the neighbour- 

 hood ; but in 1758, his father's death opened a new 

 prospect to him in the metropolis, where he was chosen 

 nis successor in the curacy and lectureship of St John's. 

 For some time he performed his duty in these offices with 

 external decency, and added to his income by private tu- 

 ition ; but about his 27th year he began to relax from 

 habit* of industry and decorum, and to plunge into debt 

 and dissipation. The father of his friend, Lloyd the 

 poet, one of the master* of Westminster, persuaded his 

 creditors to accept of five shillings in the pound, and to 

 grant him a release. Amid all the profligacy of Chur- 

 chill's life, it deserves to be told, that when he had after- 

 wards realised some money by his writings, he voluntari- 

 ly paid the full amount of his debts. After several po- 

 A efforts, which were either suppressed by advice of 



his friends, rejected by the bookseller*, or which attract- 

 ilicant notice in a maga/ino, his attendance 

 at the theatres suggested a subject of satire against a set 

 of men, who have seldom any means of retaliation. Thi: 

 Rosciad appeared in 1761, and its success, together with 

 that of its sequel the Apology, a siverc satire on t'n 

 viewers who liaj attacked it, was such as to produce at 



.me and profits, and to open new piospccts to his 

 ambition. Unhappily the d-oline o( hi* nural conduct 

 kept pace with the rise <f las literary name. His pro- 

 fligacy drew dvjvn the displeasure of the dean of West- 



r, and had long shocked his |- -. Chur- 



chill conceiving his dignity above reproof, and probably 

 feeling his habits beyond the power of reformation, t 

 off his clerical character, and with that the few restraints 

 of external decency which it yet imposed. He dressed, 

 his uncouth form iu a splendid fashionable suit, parted 

 from his wife, and addressed a poem, entitled Night, to 

 his friend Lloyd, which is little more than a doleful ex- 

 hortation not to blui>h for immorality. His next publi- 

 cation was the Gliost in 176-', founded outhe Cock lane 

 story, but which he contrived to m ike the vehicle of 

 some characterist ; c H .uamtance with 



Wilkes commenced about this tune, and he probably 

 wrote in the North Briton. For this political patron, 

 his Prophecv of Famine was contrived, a piece, which 

 haa strong though scurrilous humour, and was admirably 

 fitted to raise the horse laugh of party and nationality. 

 The Epistle to Hogarth, his next pottical production, 

 was much more personal, and, from its personality, more, 

 malignant. Whatever was the cause of the quarrel, and 

 it is by no means certain whether Hogarth's caricature 

 of the IV-tr a-.d the Mu- of P-rlcr (in allusion to 

 Churchill's fondness for that beverag. ) preceded or fol- 

 lowed the poet's angry epistle, it is disgusting to peruse 

 his reproaches of the painter for being old and infirm. 



In 1763, Churchill seduced the daughter of a trades- 

 man in Westminster, but, after a fortnight's cohabitation, 

 they were seized either with satiety or repentance, and 

 her father was persuaded to take her back. Her home, 

 however, being made int<>ler;ib*e to her by the ill nature 

 of a iister, Churchill thought himself bound in honour to 

 renew the connexion. While the subject was public, he 

 wrote the Conference, a piece full of penitence and expres- 

 sionsof grief. In the same year, the duel between Wilkei. 

 and Muitiii nave occasion to his poem entitled the Duellist. 

 His Author, an inconsiderable effusion, appeared during. 

 the same year. His Gothham, published in 176-t, has a 

 few strong lines, but is heavy, and without a distinct ob- 

 ject or plan. The Candidate was written against Lord 

 Sandwich, when he competed for the stewatdship of the 

 university of Cambridge. Churchill, with great impar- 

 tiality, attacks his Lordbhip for the same vices which 

 distinguished himself. The two last pieces published m 

 his lifetime, viz. the Time.s, and Independence, added 

 little to his reputation. Towards the end of October, 

 he accompanied Mr Cotes, one of W.lkes's partizans, on 

 a visit to the exiled demagogue in France. 1 he party 

 met at Boulogne, where Churchill was auacked with a 

 fever, that terminated his life in his Mth year, 

 will is to be credited, he left money at hi., death. On 

 his tomb was written, " Life to the last enjoyed, here 

 Churchill lies." 



Churchill died at that early age, when most men 

 only beginning to distinguish themselves, and his genius 

 certainly contained the seeds of greater excellence than 

 it ever brought to maturity. The poetical characte 

 which he did attain, is that of a bold, courageous, bu 

 slovenly artist. He 1m more of the vehemence ol Dry- 



