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BOLINGBUOhB BOLIVAR. 



BOLING BROKE, Henry St John, viscount, a distin- 

 guished statesman and political writer, was born in 

 lb'72, at Baltersea, near London, of an ancient family, 

 nnd completed lii> studies at Oxford, where lie early 

 exhibited uncommon talents, and attracted general 

 attention. On entering the world, he displayed u 

 rare union of brilliant parts and elegance of manners, 

 with beauty of person, dignity, and affability, mid 

 such fascinating eloquence, that, according to the 

 unanimous testimony ot' his contemporaries, nobody 

 could resist him. Unfortunately, the passions of his 

 youth opposed the development of his talents; and, 

 in In- twenty-third year, he was distinguished princi- 

 pally as an accomplished libertine. His parents, 

 supposing Uiat marriage would have a salutary influ- 

 ence nj'ur. him. proposed to him a lady, the heiress 

 of a miUJBtWho united with a charming figure a 

 cultivated mind and noble birth. But the young 

 couple had lived but a short time together, when 

 irreconcilable disputes arose between them, in conse- 

 quence of which they separated for ever. Another 

 plan was adopted to give a better direction to the 

 impetuous character ot B. By the influence of his 

 father, he obtained a seat in the house of commons. 

 Hi re his eloquence, his acuteness, and the strength 

 of his judgment, attracted universal attention. His 

 former idleness was changed at once into the most 

 incessant activity. In 17U1, he was made secretary 

 ft war, and came into immediate connexion with the 

 duke of Marlborough, whose talents he discerned, 

 and whose enterprises he supported with all his influ- 

 ence. When, however, the whigs gained the ascen- 

 dency, B. fcave in his resignation. Now followed, as 

 lie said himself, the two most active years of his life, 

 in which he devoted himself to study, but by no 

 means neglected public affairs. He continued to 

 maintain a constant intercourse with the queen, who 

 preferred him to her other counsellors. The whig 

 ministry was overthrown, to the astonishment of all 

 Europe ; and B. received the department of foreign 

 affairs, in which post he concluded the peace of 

 Utrecht, of which he was always proud, and which 

 gained him general admiration. In concluding this 

 peace, every thing was unfavourable to him the 

 whigs, the peers, the bank, the East India company, 

 Marlborough, Eugene, the emperor, Holland, the 

 jealousy of all the European powers, the weakness of 

 his own queen, the irresolution, imprudence, and even 

 the envy of his colleagues. B. afterwards became a 

 prey to the impetuosity of his passions, and exhibited 

 a versatility of conduct that has rendered his loyalty, 

 his patriotism, and his whole character suspected. 

 The collision of the, whigs and lories produced such a 

 general excitement, that the ministers were attacked, 

 the peace was decried as disastrous, and the Protes- 

 tant succession was declared in danger. At this 

 moment, a fatal contention broke out between the 

 lord high treasurer (the earl of Oxford) and B., im- 

 mediately after the conclusion of the peace. Swift, 

 the friend of both, but particularly intimate with the 

 lord high treasurer, accused B. of having principally 

 contributed to the ruin of their party. Be this as it 

 may, queen Anne, provoked to the utmost by Oxford, 

 dismissed him four days before her death, and made 

 B. prime minister. But the death of Anne changed 

 the whole scene. George I. of Hanover ascended 

 the throne, and the whigs triumphed more completely 

 than ever. B., who could not impose on the Hano- 

 verian court by his plausible pretences, and who was 

 as much envied as he was hated, was dismissed by 

 king George, while yet in Germany, and fled to 

 f 1 ranee, upon learning that the opposite party in- 

 tended to bring him to the scaffold. James III., the 

 Prrtender, as he was called, invited him to Lorraine, 

 and made him his secretary of state. But, when 



Louis XIV. died, B. lost all hope of ihe success of 

 the Pretender, and repented of having entered into 

 so close a connexion with him. Whatever the feel- 

 ings and plans of B. may hare been, his intentions, 

 with regard to James HI., were doubtless honest. 

 Nevertheless, the latter deprived him of his dignity, 

 and transferred it to the duke of Ormond. Thus it 

 was the strange fate of B. to be charged with treach- 

 ery, both by the king and the Pretender. Oilers 

 were made to him by King George, on condition of 

 his revealing the secrets of the Pretender. This 

 proposal he at first declined, but afterwards yielded 

 so far as to promise a decisive blow against the cause 

 of the Pretender, on condition of the total oblivion ot 

 what had already passed, and of an entire confidence 

 for the future. VValpole, however, was afraid of K's 

 influence in parliament, and opposed his recall. B., 

 in order to forget his situation, applied himself to 

 writing philosophical consolations after the manner 

 of Seneca, but soon found sweeter ones in his mar- 

 riage with a rich and amiable lady, niece of madame 

 de Maintenon. In 1723, the parliament, which had 

 been so hostile to B., was at length dissolved, and 

 he was permitted to return to England. His estates, 

 however, were not restored until two years after, by 

 a particular act of parliament. On his return, lie 

 lived at first retired in the country, maintaining, how- 

 ever, a correspondence with Swift and Pope. But 

 no sooner was the voice of opposition heard in par- 

 liament, than he hastened to London, and, as the re- 

 storation of his seat in the house of lords was still 

 denied him, attacked the ministry during eight years, 

 in the journals or in pamphlets, with great success. 

 He drew upon himself powerful enemies, against 

 whom he directed his Treatise on Parties, which is 

 considered as his masterpiece. He then returned to 

 France, with the intention, as even Swift supposed, 

 of throwing himself into the arms of the Pretender's 

 party, against which charge Pope defended him, and 

 declared that he had himself advised his noble friend 

 to leave an ungrateful country, by which he was 

 suspected and persecuted. In France, B. wrote 

 (1735), his Letters upon History, which are admired 

 even at the present day, but in which the individua I 

 character of the author appears to the exclusion of 

 general views, and which were blamed, in particular, 

 for attacking revealed religion, which he had once 

 warmly defended. In 1729, in the midst of his con- 

 test with Walpole, he had suggested to Pope hip 

 Essay on Man, assisted him in the composition, and 

 supplied him with the most important materials. His 

 feelings finally carried him back to his country, 

 where he wrote (1738), his Idea of a Patriot King, 

 under the eyes of the heir apparent. He died in 

 1751, in his eightieth year, after a long and dreadful 

 disease, during which he composed Considerations 

 on the State of thft Nation. He bequeathed his ma- 

 nuscripts to David Mallet, who published them in 

 1753; but scarcely had they appeared, when a ge- 

 neral cry was raised against them, on account of their 

 revolting attacks on Christianity. They were pre- 

 sented by the grand jury of Westminster as subver- 

 sive of religion, government, and morality. B. was 

 capable of inspiring the warmest friendship and the 

 bitterest enmity. He was accused of immoderate 

 ambition, and of a proud, passionate, envious, and 

 implacable temper. His memoirs are useful, as il- 

 lustrating British history during the first quarter of 

 the eighteenth century. 



BOLIVAR, Simon, the great military captain of South 

 America, and the most prominent individual yet pro- 

 duced by the revolution in the late Spanish colonies, 

 was born in the city of Caraccas, July 24, 1783. His 

 father was don Juan Vincente Bolivar y Ponte, and 

 his mother, donna Maria Concepcion Palacios y Sojo, 



