1803.]° 
commonly confute; as articles, to pre- 
vent diverfity of opinions, and which 
greatly increafe diverfity, of opinions ; as 
articles made in the days of bigotry, by 
men who had no critical {kill in the Scrip- 
tures, to fetter the ages of learning and 
free-inquiry: and yet for sdol. per ann. 
or lefs money, there are men who will 
fubf{cribe, who will contend for fubferib- 
ing to thefe faid Articles, whether men be- 
lieve them or not. 
Pudet hee opprobria, &c. 
Tam pleafed, that I have had the hap- 
pinefs to fee you once.—I hall never fee 
you more in the world. IF am delighted 
with the profpet of meeting you in a - 
better ftate, where there are no fubfcrip- 
tions to Articles required, no bigotry, not 
any thing elfe to grieve or offend any 
more, ; 
With great efteem, &c. 
. G. Benson. 
LORD BATHURST fo MR. PRIOR. 
Not daring to difobey your com- 
mands, I return your A/ma by this mef- 
fenger ; but why you could not (uffer her to 
ftay with mea little longer, I can’t tell. 
I own I am in love with her, but as fhe 
_ is immaterial and all fpirit, you might me- 
thinks have fafely left her with me: but 
I rather choofe to follow your inclinations 
though they feem'to me unreafonable, than 
sratify my own, though very juftifiable. 
DUKE of BUCKINGHAM 7@o MR. PRIOR. 
-For fear I fhould wear out your Poem* 
with reading it fo often, "tis here returned, 
with all the thanks imaginable for fo 
agreeable an entertainment. But notwith- 
ftanding all my luxury at this firft courfe, 
I am impatient for a fecond, whenever 
you will extremely oblige, is 
Your moft humble Servant, 
BUCKINGHAM. 
DR. HUGH CHAMBERLAIN fo the PRIN- 
CESS SOPHIA, relative to the BIRTH 
of the PRETENDER. 
Hague, 4th of Ofober. 
May it pleafe your Royal Highnefs, . 
I fhould not have prefumed to have in- ° 
terrupted your better-{pent hours with my 
rude and unpolifhed lines, had I not ea- 
couraged by your gracious commands 
fent by the Rev. Heer Meaichen, Minif= 
ter of the Gofpel to the Lutheran Church 
in the Hagh. He was pleafed to give me 
a fhort account of a D.fcourfe palled in 
*® Firft Book of Solomon, 
Letters never before publifbed. 
@45 
your Royal Highnefs’s prefence, wherein, 
my name was mentioned upon two different 
fubjeéts, of which I think it my duty to 
give your Royal Highne(s the beft fatis- 
faction I can.; the firft related to my at- 
tendance at the Birth of the Pretender to 
the crown of Britain, now firmly fettled by 
law on your Royal Highnefs. In this £ 
perceive the Heer Meaichen was mifled, 
confounding my dilcourfe with him on 
this matter together with the converfation 
he might have had with others, occafioned 
by pamphlets then here current, pretending 
/ an account how far I had been therein 
engaged, to which feveral falfehoods were 
added.. One of thofe papers was writ by 
Mr. Burnett fon to the Bifhop of Salifbury. 
The matter of fact follows.  - 
On Sunday morning, the day of the 
month and year occurs not to my memory,» 
the Queen fent early a footman to fetch 
me to St. James’s: but, late the night be- 
fore, being gone to Chatham to vifit a 
patient, he mifled me. A poft was imme- 
diately difpatched, and I haffened and 
found a child newly-born loofe and une 
dreft, in Lady Powis her lap; and, as I 
was informed, brought forth an hour be- 
bore Icame. I was not long in the cham- 
ber when came the late Duke of Hamil- 
ton, then Lord Annan:—more as to this 
particular I cannot offer of my own know~ 
ledoe, but I fhall fubjoin a few probable 
citcumftances ; for inftance, the Dutchefs 
of Monmovth having fometime before 
fent for me, and being in the mean time 
gone to the Queen’s levy, left order; I fhould 
wait her Grace’s return; when arrived, 
fhe was pleafed to make this excufe for 
my waiting, that fhe had been with her 
Majeity, faw her fhifted and her belly very 
big, which I fuppofe nothing can fo foon 
reduce as the bearirg of a child; other 
tumors, requiring for a compleat abate- 
ment, weeks, months, or years. This 
relation being wholly by chance, and men- 
‘tioned by one at that time difobliged by 
the court, I take to be genuine, without 
artifice or difguife, fo that I never fince 
queitioned it. Another circumftance in 
this cafe is, that my being a noted Whig, 
and fignally cpprefled by King James, they 
would never have hazarded fuch a fecree 
asa {uppofitirious child, which had I-been 
at home time enough to have immediately 
followed the fummons, I muf have come 
time enough to have difcovered, though 
the Queen had. ufually very quick labours, 
Next morning, meeting the King coming. 
through the Park to St. James’s, he was 
pleafed to tell me, that, when he Jfent, I 
was abfent; to which I humbly replied, 
moig¢ 
