No More Learning

[432] Nay, in the other extreme, we find him, in another
place, talking of the martyrdom of Stephen, so many ages after; and, if
so famous an author can forget his own rules of unity, time, and place,
I hope you'll give a minor poet some grains of allowance. "

Sir E. Godfrey's murder is disguised under that of Amnon, Tamar's rape
being explained the discovery of the plot:

Baal's cabinet intrigues he open spread;
The ravish'd Tamar, for whose sake he bled.

As Settle's poems have long fallen into total oblivion, from which his
name has only been rescued by the satirical pen of Dryden, and as he
was once thought no unequal rival for that great poet, the reader may
be curious to see a specimen of his style; I have therefore inserted
the few of the leading characters of "Absalom Senior," in which he has
"rhymed and rattled" with most tolerable success.

DUKE OF MONMOUTH.

In the first rank the youthful Ithream stood,
His princely veins filled with great David's blood;
With so much manly beauty in his face,
Scarce his high birth could lend a nobler grace;
And for a mind fit for this shrine of gold,
Heaven cast his soul in the same beauteous mould,
With all the sweets of prideless greatness blest,
And affable as Abraham's angel guest.

SHAFTESBURY.

That second Moses' guide resolved to free
Our Israel from her threatening slavery;
Idolatry and chains, both from the rods
Of Pharaoh masters and Egyptian gods.

* * * * *

Such our Barzillai; but Barzillai too,
With Moses' fate does Moses' zeal pursue;
Leads to that bliss which his own silver hairs
Shall never reach, rich only to his heirs.
Kind patriot, who, to plant us banks of flowers,
With purling streams, cool shades, and summer bowers,
His age's needful rest away does fling,
Exhausts his autumn to adorn our spring;
While his last hours in toils and storms are hurled,
And only to enrich the inheriting world.
Thus prodigally throws his life's short span,
To play his country's generous pelican.

The ungainly appearance, uncouth delivery, and versatile politics of
the famous Duke of Lauderdale, are thus described:

Let not that hideous bulk of honour 'scape,
Nadab, that sets the gazing crowd agape;
That old kirk-founder, whose coarse croak could sing
The saints, the cause, no bishop, and no king;
When greatness cleared his throat, and scoured his maw,
Roared out succession, and the penal law.

* * * * *

To Absalom's side does his Old Covenant bring,
With state razed out, and interlined with king.

JEFFERIES.

Of low-born tools we bawling Shimei saw,
Jerusalem's late loud-tongued mouth of law;
By blessings from almighty bounty given,
Shimei, no common favourite of heaven,
Whom, lest posterity should lose the breed,
In five short moons indulgent heaven raised seed,
Made happy in an early teeming bride,
And laid a lovely heiress by her side. [433]

But, as was reasonably to be expected, Settle has exerted his whole
powers of satire and poetry in the description of his antagonist
Dryden: And here let me remark, that almost all the adversaries of
our author commence their attack, by an unwilling compliment to his
poetical powers:

But Amiel[434] had, alas! the fate to hear
An angry poet play his chronicler;
A poet raised above Oblivion's shade,
By his recorded verse immortal made.
But, sir, his livelier figure to engrave,
With branches added to the _bays_ you gave,
No muse could more heroic feats rehearse;
Had with an equal all-applauding verse,
Great David's sceptre, and Saul's javelin, praised,
A pyramid to his saint, Interest, raised:
For which, religiously, no change he mist, }
From commonwealth's man up to royalist; }
Nay, would have been his own loathed thing, called priest; }
Priest, which with so much gall he does describe,
'Cause once unworthy thought of Levi's tribe.
Near those bright towers, where Art has wonders done, }
And at his feet proud Jordan's waters run, }
Where David's sight glads the blest summer's sun, }
A cell there stands, by pious founders raised,
Both for its wealth and learned rabbins praised;
To this did an ambitious bard aspire.
To be no less than lord of that blest choir;
Till wisdom deemed so sacred a command
A prize too great for his unhallowed hand.
Besides, lewd Fame had told his plighted vow
To Laura's cooing love, perched on a drooping bough;
Laura, in faithful constancy confined
To Ethiop's envoy, and to all mankind;
Laura, though rotten, yet of mould divine,
He had all her ----, and she had all his coin;
Her wit so far his purse and sense could drain.
Till every ---- was sweetened to a strain;
And if at last his nature can reform,
As weary grown of love's tumultuous storm.
'Tis age's fault, not his, of power bereft,--
He left not whoring, but of that was left.

Settle's end was utterly inglorious. In 1683, he deserted the cause
of the Whigs, and returned to that of the Tories; for whom he wrote
several periodical tracts, in one of which, entitled, "A Narrative," he
accused his old patron Shaftesbury of correcting the famous "Character
of a Popish Successor;" and objecting, that it did not speak favourably
enough of rebellion. [435] Whether compelled by poverty, or through
zeal for the royal cause, he became a trooper in King James's army,
when it was encamped on Hounslow-Heath. [436] Finally, he took the
prophetic hint conveyed in Dryden's lines, and became, not indeed the
master, but the assistant, to a puppet-show, kept by a Mrs Minns, in
Bartholomew-fair. Thus, the expression, which Dryden had chiefly used
in contemptuous allusion to the share which Settle had in directing the
Pope-burning, and the fire-works which accompanied it, was literally
fulfilled. [437] Nay, poor Elkanah, in his old age, was at length
obliged not only to write for the puppet-show, but to appear in it as
a performer, inclosed in a case representing a green dragon of his own
proper device. There are few readers, who need to be reminded of Pope's
famous lines,--

Yet lo! in me what authors have to brag on!
Reduced at last to hiss in my own dragon.
Avert it, heaven! that thou, my Cibber, e'er
Should'st wag a serpent-tail in Smithfield fair!

In the close of life, this veteran scribbler found admission to the
Charter-house; and in that hospital, in the year 1724, died the rival
of Dryden.

In person, Elkanah Settle was tall, red-faced, and wore a satin cap
over his short black hair.


Note XVI.

_Now stop your noses, readers, all and some,
For here's a tun of midnight-work to come,
Og from a treason-tavern rolling home. _--P. 333.

Our author had very shortly before the publication of the second part
of "Absalom and Achitophel," made his enemy, Shadwell, the subject of
a separate and cutting personal satire, called "Mac Flecnoe. " That
poem, as we have noticed in the introductory remarks, has reference
principally to the literary character of his adversary; while, in the
lines which follow, he considers him chiefly as a political writer, and
factionary of the popular party. Shadwell's corpulence, his coarse and
brutal debauchery, his harsh and clumsy style of poetry, fell under
the lash on both occasions; and it is astonishing, with what a burning
variety of colours these qualities are represented. The history of his
literary disputes with Dryden may be perused in the introduction to
"Mac Flecnoe. " In the "Vindication of the Duke of Guise," Dryden has
also given a severe flagellation to his corpulent adversary, in which
he says, "that although Shadwell has often called him an atheist in
print, he believes more charitably of his antagonist, and that he only
goes the broad way, because the other is too narrow for him. "

Besides avenging abundance of personal abuse, Dryden, in the person of
Shadwell, chastises a great supporter of the Whig cause and principles.
Shadwell himself complains, that, in the days of Charles and James,
he "was silenced for a non-conformist poet. " He was the chief among
the "corrector-men," as the authors and publishers of the Whig party
were oddly entitled;[438] and received the reward of his principles
at the Revolution, succeeding, as is well known, our author in the
office of poet laureat. In the epilogue to the "Volunteers," a play of
Shadwell's, acted after his death, the friends of the Revolution are
called upon to applaud their favourite bard's last production:

Crown you his last performance with applause,
Who love, like him, our liberties and laws;
Let but the honest party do him right,
And their loud claps will give him fame, in spite
Of the faint hiss of grumbling Jacobite.


Note XVII.

_These, gloomy, thoughtful, and on mischief bent;
While those for mere good fellowship frequent
The appointed club, can let sedition pass,
Sense, nonsense, any thing to employ the glass. _--P. 335.

The reader will find some account of the King's Head Club, Vol. VII.
p. 154. North gives the following lively account of the _vulgar_, as
he calls them, of the popular faction. Their employ, according to him,
was, "to run about whispering here and there, by which management they
kept up the spirits of their fools, whose fire, without a continual
_pabulum_ of fresh news, talks, and hopes, would go out. Amongst these,
the cues and hints went about; honest, drunken, lying fellows, good
company, and always dear friends. A nod, with a wink, had a notable
signification, if it followed, 'Have patience, you shall see. '--'I
know somewhat extraordinary will be done shortly and soon, which
will secure all on our side. ' And thus passively wicked were these
underlings, or fry of the party: they knew of the intrigue no more,
and were concerned as the wood of drums and the brass of trumpets are
in the war. "[439]--"The pastime of this meeting, called the Club, was
very engaging to young gentlemen, and one, who had once tasted the
conversation, could scarcely ever quit it. For some or others were
continually coming and going, to import or export news or stories, as
the trade required and afforded. There it was known in half an hour,
what any member said at the committee of elections, or in the house,
if it sat late. And every post carried the news and tales legitimated
there, as also the malign constructions of all the good actions of
the government, especially to places where elections were depending
to shape men's characters into fit qualifications to be chosen or
rejected. The Pope himself could not make saints so readily as they
Papists, and so half-three-quarter Papists, as belief was prompt
or difficult. And a lewd atheistical fellow was as readily washed
clean, and made a zealous Protestant. For that genus of perfection
was not wanted in this dispensation, where no vice, immorality,
heresy, atheism, or blasphemous wit, had not professors ready to
embrace willing disciples, who, for the sake of such sublimities of
wit and sense as they were accounted, were ready to prostitute all
principles of duty, and especially those that regarded allegiance to
the crown. "[440]

The well-known distinction of this famous club was a green ribband: in
opposition to which, the Tories wore in their hats a scarlet ribband,
with the motto, _Rex et Hæredes_. The prologue to "Anna Bullen" very
sensibly expostulates against these party badges:

Was't not enough, vain men, of either side,
Two roses once the nation did divide;
But must it be in danger now agen,
Betwixt the scarlet and green ribbon men?


Note XVIII.

_But in the sacred annals of our plot,
Industrious Arod never be forgot;
The labours of this midnight magistrate
May vie with Corah's, to preserve the state. _--P. 335.

Sir William Waller, son of the parliamentary general of the same
name, distinguished himself during the time of the Popish plot, by
an uncommon decree of bustling activity. He was a justice of peace;
and, unawed by the supposed fate of his brother in the commission,
and in knighthood, Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, he stood forth the bold
investigator of this bottomless conspiracy. It was he who had the
fortune, by the assistance of Captain Dangerfield, to detect what was
called the Meal-Tub Plot, which that fellow, who had been trafficking
with both factions, and probably meant to cheat both, chose to
represent as a sham conspiracy, contrived to ruin Shaftesbury and
his friends. Upon this occasion, Sir William had much closeting with
a magnanimous midwife, called Mrs Cellier, whom Dangerfield charged
as an agent of the court, and who afterwards alleged, that the
knight took some uncommon means to extort confessions from her. Sir
William Waller was also the person who discovered Fitzharris's Plot;
and he intimated, that the king, who intended to turn it upon the
Protestants, was so much displeased with his blowing up the project,
that he threatened to have him assassinated. The Tories alleged, that
the pleasure of making these discoveries was not Sir William's sole
reward, any more than zeal was his only motive for gutting the Popish
chapels. "In which," says North, "he proceeded with such scandalous
rigour, as to bring forth the pictures and other furniture of great
value, and burn them publicly; which gave occasion to suspect, and some
said positively, that, under this pretence, he kept good things for
himself; in a word, he was called the priest-catcher. "[441] Anthony
Wood joins in the accusation of his rifling the Papists' houses of
goods, and appropriating chapel ornaments as popish trinkets. I find
that respectable person, Miles Prance, the witness, enters into a
solemn vindication of the justice, from the practices alleged by North,
Wood, and by the poet. "Another damnable scandal they have broached,
which, though it be principally levelled at Sir William Waller, as
if he, under pretence of searching for priests, and seizing popish
trinkets, should take away money, plate, and other things of value
from the owners, and necklaces of pearl for beads; yet, since I very
frequently went along with him, it does obliquely reflect upon me, and
I cannot but do that worthy gentleman the right to justify him against
such a most false, groundless, and malicious slander: I do therefore
declare, in the presence of God, and shall be ready to attest upon
oath, that whensoever I attended him in searches, which was almost
every day, I could never discover in him the least inclination to any
such base practices; but that, to the contrary, he behaved himself as a
good Christian and just magistrate; for, wherever we came, what money
we found was left in the owner's possession; and as for chalices, and
pieces of plate belonging to priests, and used in their mass, or for
keeping of holy oil, we did indeed batter or break them to pieces, but
always returned all the pieces to the proprietors. But their copes and
priestly vestments, superstitious pictures, habits of monks belonging
to their peculiar orders, and such like trumpery, we did sometimes take
away, and cause them to be publicly burned, never making any advantage
thereof. And as to any necklaces of pearl, reported to be by him taken
away, I am more than confident the same is as arrand a lie, as that he
thought one Bedingfield, whom he took at Newark, to have been the same
Bedingfield, who died in the Gatehouse; for he well knew it was another
man. "[442] Prance confirms this attestation by a special case, in which
Sir William returned to a priest, not only his money, but a silver
tobacco-box. [443]

Derrick mentions Sir William standing candidate, in 1679, to be a
member of Parliament, in which he failed; and adds, that the publicans,
who trusted him, found much ado to get their money. When the court
party gained an ascendance, Sir William Waller was first struck out
of the commission, and afterwards committed to prison, to the great
triumph of the Tories. [444] He afterwards went to Holland, and with
Robert Ferguson and Bethel is specially excepted from the general
pardon granted after Monmouth's defeat. RALPH, Vol. I. p. 918.


Note XIX.

_Who for their own defence give no supply,
But what the crown's prerogatives must buy;
As if their monarch's rights to violate
More needful were, than to preserve the state! _--P. 336.

The Whigs of those days had constant recourse to the desperate remedy
of refusing supplies, when dissatisfied with the court. This ultimate
measure ought only to be adopted in cases of extremity; because the
want of means to maintain the usual current expences for the law, and
the defence of the country, gives a perilous shock to the whole system
of government. At that time, however, it was held so effectual a check,
and so necessary, that the Whig citizens, in a paper of instructions
furnished to their representatives in 1680-1, having thanked them for
their good service, more especially for their zeal for the Exclusion
Bill, proceed to recommend, "that they would still literally pursue
the same measures, and grant no supplies to the crown, till they saw
themselves effectually secured from popery and arbitrary power. "


Note XX.

_His absence David does with tears advise,
To appease their rage; undaunted he complies. _--P. 337.

In 1678-9, when the plot hung like a comet over England, the king
thought it necessary to assent to the counsel of the Earl of Danby,
and request the Duke of York to give way to the storm, and silence
the popular clamour, by retreating for a season to the Continent. The
Duke requested a particular order, lest it should be supposed he fled
from a consciousness of guilt. The order was in these words: "I have
already given you my resolution at large, why I think it fit that you
absent yourself some time beyond the seas. As I am truly sorry for
the occasion, so you may be sure I shall never desire it longer than
it may be absolutely necessary for your good and my service. In the
meantime, I think proper to give it you under my hand, that I expect
this compliance from you, and desire it may be as soon as conveniently
you can. You may easily perceive with what trouble I write this to you,
there being nothing I am more sensible of than the kindness you have
ever had for me. I hope you are as just to me, as to be assured, that
no absence, nor any thing else, can ever change me from being truly and
kindly yours, C. R. February 28th 1678-9. " Superscribed, "For my most
dear friend the Duke of York. "

Authors differ concerning the "store of parting tears," which were shed
on the separation of the royal brothers. Burnet says, that the duke
wept much, but the king did not seem affected. Others affirm, that both
brothers testified much emotion. The duke retired to Brussels, where he
remained till the time of the king's illness, so often mentioned.


Note XXI.

_Dissembled patriots, bribed with Egypt's gold,
Even sanhedrims in blind obedience hold. _--P. 341.

That Charles II. was a pensioner of France, is now generally allowed.
But, though Louis was willing to afford the king of England such
supplies as to save him from the necessity of throwing himself on his
parliament, it was equally his policy to foster such opposition to him
in that assembly, as might totally engage the eyes of both parties
upon domestic feuds, and withdraw them from marking his own ambitious
strides towards universal power. For this it was necessary, that his
minister Barillon should have an understanding with the leaders of
the popular party. Hence each faction, as truly as loudly, accused
the other of the unworthy dependence on France, to which both were in
secret reduced. An account of the French intrigues with the popular
party, and of the money distributed among their chiefs, may be found in
_Dalrymple's Memoirs_.


Note XXII.

_From Hebron now the suffering heir returned,
A realm that long with civil discord mourned;
Till his approach, like some arriving god,
Composed and healed the place of his abode. _--P. 343.

In some respects, the presence of the Duke of York in Scotland was very
acceptable to the nobles and gentry of that kingdom. There is, among
Somers' Tracts, a letter from a person of quality in Scotland, who
professes, that, although a zealous Protestant, he had been converted
from his opinion in favour of the Bill of Exclusion, by "the personal
knowledge of his very many excellencies and virtues. " Doubtless, many
circumstances drew the Scots to the faction and favour of the Duke.
They saw the halls of their ancient palace again graced with the
appearance of royalty, and occupied by a descendant of their long line
of kings. The formal, grave, and stately decorum of James, was more
suitable to the manners of a proud, reserved, and somewhat pedantic
people, than the lighter manners of Charles. The proud, as well as the
ingenious, know, and feel, the value of favours conferred by those who
resemble them. York applied himself particularly to secure the personal
attachment of the Highland chiefs, and to staunch the feuds by which
their clans were divided. He, no doubt, reckoned upon the assistance of
these ready warriors, in case the sword had been drawn in England; but
he little foresaw, that the last hopes of his family were to depend on
the generous attachment of the descendants of the chieftains whom he
then cultivated, and that his race were to involve in their fall the
ruin of the patriarchal and feudal power of these faithful adherents.
But if the conduct of James in these particulars was laudable, on the
other hand, by introducing an inconsistent and absurd test into the
law, by making it the means of ruining a loyal and innocent nobleman,
the Earl of Argyle, by satiating his own eyes with the tortures
inflicted on the Covenanters,--he gave tokens of that ill-judged and
bigotted severity, which was the cause of his being precipitated from
the throne. Settle gives a juster, if a less poetical, account of the
manner in which he spent his exile:

Whilst sweating Absalon, in Israel pent,
For fresher air was to bleak Hebron sent,--
Cold Hebron, warmed by his approaching sight,
Flushed with his gold, and glowed with new delight,--
Till sacred, all-converting interest,
To loyalty their almost unknown guest,
Oped a broad gate, from whence forth issuing come
Decrees, tests, oaths, for well-soothed Absalom.


Note XXIII.

_'Mongst whom was Jothran, Jothran always bent
To serve the crown, and loyal by descent. _--P. 343.

Admiral Legge, created Earl of Dartmouth by Charles II. , and a
particular friend of the Duke of York. When James came to the throne,
he loaded Dartmouth with favours, and paid a singular testimony to
the family loyalty, celebrated in the text. In 1687, while the earl
attended the king on his progress, the city of Coventry presented his
majesty with a massive gold cup, which he instantly delivered to Lord
Dartmouth, telling him, it was an acknowledgement from the city for the
sufferings of his father, who had long lain in jail there, on account
of his adherence to the king during the civil wars. In the succeeding
year, Dartmouth was made admiral of the fleet of England. He was,
perhaps, the worthiest man, and most faithful servant, in the court of
King James, whom he truly loved and served, though he disapproved of
his arbitrary encroachments, and spoke his mind on the subject without
fear or scruple. Although a hereditary enemy of Lord Russell, Dartmouth
had the generosity to interfere in his favour. He set sail from Torbay,
with the English fleet, to intercept that of the Prince of Orange, at
the time of the Revolution. Had they met, a bloody action must have
been the consequence; but God ordered it otherwise. The same wind,
which carried the Dutch fleet into Torbay, forced back the English to
the Downs; and before Dartmouth could again put to sea, the officers
and sailors were as unwilling to resist the Prince of Orange, as the
nobles and land army. When Lord Dartmouth found it was entirely out of
his power to serve King James, he called a council of war, and joined
in an address to King William. In 1691-2, he was committed to the
Tower, on suspicion of holding correspondence with his old master.


Note XXIV.

_Nor can Benaiah's worth forgotten lie,
Of steady soul when public storms were high;
Whose conduct, while the Moor fierce onsets made,
Secured at once our honour and our trade. _--P. 343.

General Edward Sackville, a gentleman of good quality, related to the
Dorset family, who had served at Tangier with great reputation, both
for courage and judgment. Being a particular friend of the Duke of
York, he expressed himself very contemptuously concerning the Popish
conspiracy, saying, "they were sons of whores who believed there was a
plot, and he was a lying rogue that said it. " The Commons, being then
in the very height of their fermentation on this subject, not only
expelled Sackville from the House, but prepared an address to the king,
that he might be made incapable of holding any office. He was committed
to the Tower, but shortly afterwards set free, and restored to his
military rank, though not to his seat in the House. After noticing
Dartmouth, Sackville, and the other real friends of the Duke of York,
the poet stigmatizes those concealed enemies, who now affected to
congratulate his return:

---- ----Those who sought his absence to betray,
Press first their nauseous false respects to pay;
Him still the officious hypocrites molest,
And with officious duty break his rest.

A marginal note on Luttrell's copy points out the Earl of Anglesea as
particularly concerned in this sarcasm. In a prologue, spoken before
the duke at his first appearance at the theatre after his return,
Dryden is equally severe on these time-serving courtiers:

Still we are thronged so full with Reynard's race,
That loyal subjects scarce can find a place.
Thus modest truth is cast behind the crowd,
Truth speaks too low, hypocrisy too loud.
Let them be first to flatter in success;
Duty can stay, but guilt has need to press.


Note XXV.

_Who now an envious festival installs,
And to survey their strength the faction calls,
Which fraud, religious worship too, must gild;
But oh how weakly does sedition build!
For, lo! the royal mandate issues forth,
Dashing at once their treason, zeal, and mirth. _--P. 346.

The Duke of York maintained some interest in the city, by being
captain-general of the Artillery Company, who invited him to dine at
Merchant-Taylors' Hall, on April 21, 1682. The party of Monmouth and
Shaftesbury resolved to have a meeting in opposition to that which was
proposed; and tickets, at a guinea a piece, of which the following is
a copy, were circulated among their adherents:

"It having pleased Almighty God, by his wonderful providence, to
deliver and protect his majesties person, the Protestant religion, and
English liberties, hitherto from the hellish and frequent attempts of
their enemies the Papists; in testimony of thankfulness herein, and
for the preserving and improving mutual love and charity among such
as are sensible thereof, you are desired to meet many of the loyal
Protestant nobility, gentry, clergy, and citizens, on Friday the 21st
day of this instant April, 1682, at ten of the clock, at St Michael's
Church, in Cornhill, there to hear a sermon, and from thence to go to
Haberdashers' Hall, to dinner, and to bring this ticket with you. "

A sermon was accordingly prepared for this great occasion;[445] and
doubtless contained what is vulgarly called a touch of the times. All
other preparations for this great entertainment were made with proper
magnificence; but the design was utterly quashed by the following
proclamation:

"Whitehall, April 19. His Majesty was pleased, this afternoon, to make
the following order in council, at the court of Whitehall, this 19th
day of April, 1682. By his Majesty, and the Lords of his Majesty's most
honourable privy council.

"Whereas, the appointing of publique fasts and thanksgiving is matter
of state, and belongs only to his majesty, by his prerogative, and
his majesty being informed that, in the city of London, invitations
have been made of great and unusual numbers, by printed tickets, one
of which is hereunto annext; his majesty looks upon the same as an
insolent attempt, in manifest derogation of his right, and of dangerous
consequence: The matter of the said invitation being of a publique
nature, and the manner of carrying it on, tending to sedition, and
raising distinctions and confederacies among his subjects, against
the known laws and peace of the kingdom, his majesty, therefore, by
the advice of his council, hath thought fit, and doth hereby strictly
charge and command the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, as they will
answer the contrary at their peril, to take immediate and effectual
care to prevent and hinder the said meeting, as an unlawful assembly;
and all sheriffs, constables, and others his majesty's officers in the
said city, are hereby commanded to be aiding and assisting therein. "

This disappointment, trifling as it may seem, was of great disadvantage
to the Whigs. It made them ridiculous; which is more fatal to a
political party than any other misfortune; for few chuse to belong to
the faction who have the laugh against them. The Tory poets exulted in
the opportunity of showing their wit; and we have perpetual allusions
to this ludicrous incident, in the fugitive pieces of the time. Thus,
Otway, in the prologue to the "City Heiress, or Sir Timothy Treatall:"

This dæmon lately drew in many a guest,
To part with zealous guinny for no feast;
Who, but the most incorrigible fops,
Forever doomed in dismal cells, called shops,
To cheat and damn themselves to get their livings,
Would lay sweet money out in sham thanksgivings?
Sham-plots you may have paid for o'er and o'er,
But who e'er paid for a sham treat before?

In a congratulatory poem on the Whigs entertainment, we have a similar
strain of exultation, though, I believe, it is there ironical:

Hollow boys, hollow, hollow once again!
'Tother half crown shall then reward your pain;
Alas! poor Whigg, where wilt thou sneaking go,
Thy wine is spilt, thy pyes and cakes are dough;
Down go the coppers, tables, shelves, and all,
And so fare well to Haberdashers' Hall.

"The Loyal Feast, appointed to be kept in Haberdashers' Hall, on
Friday the 21st of April, 1682, by his Majesty's most loyal true-blue
Protestant Subjects, and how it was defeated. "

The Whigs from north to south, from east to west,
Did all contribute to a loyal feast;
To this great work, a guiney was the least.
They cleared the stalls of fish, flesh, fowl, and beast,
Where Tony and brave Perkin was a guest;
But what succeeded this, made up the jest.

* * * * *

Tony was small, but of noble race,
And was beloved of every one;
He broached his tap, and it ran apace,
To make a solemn treat for all the town.
He sent to yeoman, knight, and lord,
The holy tribe to entertain,
With all the nation could afford;
But Tony will never be himself again.
* * * * *

With thanks and prayers for our good king,
They vowed to solemnize the day;
But royal Charles, he smoked the thing,
And sent the rabble with a pox away.
He sent his summons to the cit,
Seditious meetings to refrain;
The feast was broke, and the guests were beshit,
And Tony will never be himself again.

And now the capons fly about,
With fricassees of amber grice,
And chickens ready dressed, they shout
About the street for pence apiece.
The Whigs did wish the counsel choked,
Who did this noble feast restrain;
All down in the mouth, to be thus bawked,
Poor Tony will ne'er be himself again.


Note XXVI.

_First write Bezaliel, whose illustrious name
Forestals our praise, and gives his poet fame:
The Kenites rocky province his command. _--P. 347.

The Marquis of Worcester, Lord President of Wales, was a keen opponent
of the Bill of Exclusion; insomuch, that, by a vote of the Commons
in 1680, he was declared a favourer of Popery, (then an imputation
of tremendous import,) and an address was appointed to be preferred
against him, Halifax, Clarendon, and others, as enemies to the king
and kingdom. It may be supposed, that this was far from lowering the
marquis in the king's esteem; on the contrary, in 1682, he was created
Duke of Beaufort. At the Duke of Monmouth's invasion he commanded in
Bristol, and was an effectual means of stopping his progress; for,
when he approached that city, which contained many of his partisans,
the Duke of Beaufort, finding there was great danger of an insurrection
in the place, declared, that he would burn the town the instant he
saw the slightest symptoms of disloyalty. When this was made known to
Monmouth, he exclaimed, "God forbid I should be the means of exposing
so noble a city to the double calamity of sword and fire! " Accordingly,
he instantly altered the direction of his march, leaving behind him
that rich and populous city, which, if he could have carried it,
contained men to increase his forces, stores to supply them, arms to
equip them, and money to pay them. This proved a fatal indulgence of
compassion:

"Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. "

The Duke of Beaufort continued to be a friend to James, after, by
abdicating his throne, he had ceased to be a friend to himself. He
voted against William in the Convention Parliament. Lord Herbert,
of Ragland, the duke's eldest son, in whom he "saw all his glories
copied," as the poet has it, was, according to Wood, entered at Christ
Church, Oxford, and took the degree of Master of Arts in 1681.

An account of the Duke of Beaufort's noble house-keeping, and mode of
educating his family, has been preserved by Roger North, and presents
so curious a picture of the interior of a great family, in the end of
the 17th century, that I think the reader will be pleased to see it:

"One year his lordship, (the Lord Chief Justice North, afterwards Lord
Keeper Guilford,) concluding at Bristol, made a visit at Badminton
to the Duke of Beaufort, and staid about a week. For the duke was
descended from a North of his lordship's family, viz. one of the Lord
Edward North's daughters, whom a lineal ancestor of his Grace married.
So, besides conformity of principle, with respect to the public, they
were, by this relation, qualified for mutual respect and honour. I
mention this entertainment as an handle of shewing a princely way of
living, which that noble duke used, above any other, except crowned
heads, that I have had notice of in Europe; and, in some respects,
greater than most of them, to whom he might have been an example. He
had above L. 2000 per annum in his hands, which he managed by stewards,
bailiffs, and servants; and, of that, a great part of the country,
which was his own, lying round about him, was part, and the husbandmen,
&c. were of his family, and provided for in his large expanded house.
He bred all his horses, which came to the husbandry first colts, and,
from thence, as they were fit, were taken into his equipage; and,
as by age, or accident, they grew unfit for that service, they were
returned to the place from whence they came, and there expired;
except what, for plenty or unfitness, were sold or disposed of. He had
about two hundred persons in his family, all provided for, and, in
his capital house, nine original tables covered every day: and, for
the accommodation of so many, a large hall was built, with a sort of
alcove at one end, for distinction; but yet the whole lay in the view
of him that was chief, who had power to do what was proper for keeping
order amongst them; and it was his charge to see it done. The tables
were properly assigned, as, for example, the chief steward with the
gentlemen and pages; the master of the horse with the coachmen and
liveries; an under steward with the bailiffs and some husbandmen; the
clerk of the kitchen with the bakers, brewers, &c. all together; and
other more inferior people, under these, in places apart. The women
had their dining-room also, and were distributed in like manner: my
lady's chief woman with the gentlewomen; the housekeeper with the
maids, and some others. The method of governing this great family was
admirable and easy, and such as might have been a pattern for any
management whatever; for, if the Duke or Duchess (who concerned herself
much more than he did; for every day of her life, in the morning, she
took her tour, and visited every office about the house, and so was
her own superintendant) observed any thing amiss or suspicious, as a
servant riding out, or the like, nothing was said to that servant,
but his immediate superior, or one of an higher order, was sent for,
who was to enquire and answer if leave had been given, or not; if
not, such servant was straight turned away. No fault of order was
passed by; for it may be concluded, there are enough of them that pass
undiscovered. All the provisions of the family came from foreign parts,
as merchandize. Soap and candle were made in the house, so likewise
the malt was ground there; and all the drink that came to the duke's
table, was of malt sun-dried upon the leads of his house. Those are
large; and the lanthorn is in the centre of an asterisk of glades, cut
through the wood of all the country round, four or five in a quarter,
almost _a perte de vue_. Diverse of the gentlemen cut their trees
and hedges to humour his vistos; and some planted their hills in his
lines, for compliment, at their own charge. All the trees, planted in
his parks and about, were fenced with a dry wall of stone, taken out
where the tree was set. And with all this menagery and provision, no
one, that comes and goes for visits, or affairs with the duke, (who
was lord-lieutenant of four or five counties, and Lord President of
Wales,) that could observe any thing more to do there than in any other
nobleman's house; so little of vain ostentation was to be seen there.
At the entrance where coaches ordinarily came in, the duke built a neat
dwelling-house; but pompous stables, which would accommodate forty
horses, as well as the best stables he had. This was called the inn,
and was contrived for the ease of the suitors, as I may call them;
for, instead of half-a-crown to his servants at taking horse, sixpence
there, for form, served the turn; and no servant of his came near a
gentleman's horse; but they were brought by their own servants, except
such as lodged, whose equipages were in his own stables.

"As for the duke and duchess, and their friends, there was no time
of the day without diversion. Breakfast in her gallery, that opened
into the gardens; then perhaps a deer was to be killed, or the gardens
and parks, with the several sorts of deer, to be visited; and if it
required mounting, horses of the duke's were brought for all the
company. And so, in the afternoon, when the ladies were disposed to
air, and the gentlemen with them, coaches and six came to hold them
all. At half an hour after eleven, the bell rang to prayers, so at six
in the evening; and, through a gallery, the best company went into an
aisle in the church, (so near was it,) and the duke and duchess could
see if all the family were there. The ordinary pastime of the ladies
was in a gallery on the other side, where she had diverse gentlewomen
commonly at work upon embroidery and fringe-making; for all the beds
of state were made and finished in the house. The meats were very
neat, and not gross; no servants in livery attended, but those called
gentlemen only; and, in the several kinds, even down to the small beer,
nothing could be more choice than the table was. It was an oblong and
not an oval; and the duchess, with two daughters only, sat at the
upper end. If the gentlemen chose a glass of wine, the civil offers
were made either to go down into the vaults, which were very large and
sumptuous, or servants, at a sign given, attended with salvers, &c. and
many a brisk round went about; but no sitting at table with tobacco
and healths, as the too common use is. And this way of entertaining
continued a week, while we were there, with incomparable variety: for
the duke had always some new project, building, walling, or planting,
which he would show, and ask his friends their advice about; and
nothing was forced or strained, but easy and familiar, as if it was,
and really so I thought it to be, the common course and way of living
in that family.

"One thing more I must needs relate, which the duke told us smiling,
and it was this: When he was in the midst of his building, his
neighbour, the Lord Chief Justice Hales, made him a visit; and
observing the many contrivances the duke had for the disposing of so
great a family, he craved leave to suggest one to him, which he thought
would be much for his service, and it was, to have but one door to his
house, and the window of his study, where he sat most, open upon that.
This shows how hard it is for even wise and learned men to consider
things without themselves. The children of the family were bred with a
philosophical care. No inferior servants were permitted to entertain
them, lest some mean sentiments, or foolish notions and fables, should
steal into them; and nothing was so strongly impressed upon them as a
sense of honour. Witness the Lord Arthur, who, being about five years
old, was very angry with the judge for hanging men. The judge told
him, that, if they were not hanged, they would kill and steal. 'No,'
said the little boy, 'you should make them promise upon their honour
they will not do so, and then they will not. ' It were well if this
institutionary care of parents were always correspondent in the manners
of all the children; for it is not often found to prove so. " _Life of
the Lord Keeper Guilford_, p. 132.


Note XXVII.

_Brave Abdael o'er the prophet's school was placed;
Abdael, with all his father's virtue graced. _--P. 348.

Christopher, Duke of Albemarle, son to the restorer of the monarchy.
He seems to have had no particular character of his own, excepting
that he was fond of mechanics, and suggested some improvements on the
diving-bell. The Whig writers seldom mention him without a sneer at his
understanding. [446] His talents were, however, sufficient to recommend
him to be chancellor of Cambridge, in place of the Duke of Monmouth,
once the idol of the university, but whose picture they, in 1682,
consigned to the flames, with all the solemnities of dishonour. [447]
There is a Pindaric ode upon the election of the Duke of Albemarle
to this presidency over the seat of the Muses, containing a suitable
quantity of bombast and flattery; it concludes by promising his grace
a poetical immortality:

Some happy favourite of the nine,
Some Spenser, Cowley, Dryden, shall be thine;
Happy bards, who erst did dream
Near thy own Cam's inspiring stream;
He midst the records of immortal fame,
He midst the stars shall fix thy name,
The muses safety, and the muses theme.

When Monmouth undertook his ill-fated expedition, Albemarle marched
against him with the militia of Devon; but the ex-chancellor of
Cambridge baffled the attempts of his successor to coop him up at
Lyme, and compelled him to retreat with some disorder. Monmouth, after
assuming the title of king, sent a summons to Albemarle to claim his
allegiance, who returned a cold and contemptuous answer. In 1687,
Albemarle was sent abroad as governor of Jamaica; in which island he
died.


Note XXVIII.

_Eliab our next labour does invite,
And hard the task to do Eliab right. _--P. 348.

Sir Henry Bennet was the constant attendant of Charles II. during
his exile: after the Restoration, he became a member of the Cabal
administration, and secretary of state. He was finally Lord
Chamberlain, and through many turns of politics retained the favour
of Charles II. , perhaps as much from making himself useful in his
pleasures, as from the recollection of his faithful attachment. He was
learned, and accustomed to business; but, being naturally of a slow
understanding, and having acquired a formal manner during his stay in
Spain, much enhanced by a black patch which he wore to conceal a wound
on his nose, there was something ridiculously stiff in his demeanour.
Charles II. , who put no value upon a friend in comparison to a jest,
is said to have had much delight in seeing the Duke of Buckingham, or
any of his gay courtiers, by the help of a black patch and a white
staff, enact Harry Bennet. Mulgrave thinks, that a ludicrous idea being
thus associated with Arlington, and all that concerned him, he came
to be generally thought a man of less abilities, than he really was.
He adds, he was of a generous temper, and served his friends warmly.
Being once ungratefully used by one whom he had benefited, he asked
Mulgrave, what effect he thought it would have upon him; and prevented
his answer, by saying, it should neither cool his present friendship,
nor prevent him of the greatest happiness of his life, which was to
serve the first deserving person that fell in his way. [448] Although
the Duke of York disliked Arlington, yet he suffered him to retain his
situation at court. His religion may have saved him from disgrace; for
Arlington was privately a Catholic, and avowed himself to be so on his
death-bed. [449] He died July, 1685.


Note XXIX.

_And blessed again, to see his flower allied
To David's stock, and made young Othriel's bride. _--P. 349.

Lady Isabella Bennet, only daughter and heiress of the Earl of
Arlington, was married to Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton, second son
of Charles II. by the Duchess of Cleveland. This match was against
the inclination of the duke's mother; for Derrick says, he saw a
letter from her to Danby, dated at Paris, in 1675, thanking him for
endeavouring to prevent the match. The Duke of Grafton was bred to
the sea. After Monmouth had taken the popular courses which we have
reviewed, the king endeavoured to set Grafton, though inferior in
all personal accomplishments, in opposition to him, in the hearts
of the people. He was appointed steward of the Loyal Apprentices'
entertainment,[450] and otherwise placed in the public eye, as the
rival of Monmouth. He also was admitted to share his more profitable
spoils, getting one of the regiments of the guards, formerly under
Monmouth's command, when the Duke of Richmond was made Master of
the Horse. [451] Grafton was sent against Monmouth on his landing in
the west, and attempted to beat up his rear with a body of horse,
as he marched towards Frome; but was defeated, and very nearly made
prisoner. [452] The Duke of Grafton participated in the general
discontent which James II's measures excited through the kingdom,
and remonstrated against them with professional frankness. The king
ridiculed a seaman's pretensions to tenderness of conscience; and
Grafton answered sturdily, that "if he had not much religion himself,
he belonged to a party who had. " He was with the king when he headed
his army to march against the Prince of Orange, and joined with
Churchill, in exhorting him to hazard a battle. We must hope, that they
meant to share the risque which they recommended; and that it was only
a consciousness that the king had deserted his own cause, which induced
them to go over to the prince, when their counsel was rejected. On the
28th September, 1690, the Duke of Grafton was mortally wounded at the
siege of Cork, as he commanded the squadron which covered the landing.
He seems to have been a brave, rough, hardy-tempered man, and would
probably have made a figure as a naval officer.


Note XXX.

_Even envy must consent to Helon's worth;
Whose soul, though Egypt glories in his birth,
Could for our captive ark its zeal retain,
And Pharaoh's altars in their pomp disdain. _--P. 349.

Lewis Duras, Earl of Feversham, brother of the French Marshals Duras
and De Lorge, and nephew to the famous Marshal Turenne. He was born of
a Huguenot family, and retained his religion, or the form of it, when
both his brothers conformed to the Catholic church. The Duke of York's
opportune return from Flanders is said, by Sir John Reresby, to have
been planned by this nobleman; who is, therefore, introduced here with
singular propriety. He is said to have been brave; but appears, from
the only remarkable action in which he was ever engaged, to have been
a bad general, and a cruel man. James II. , who had a high esteem for
Feversham, placed him at the head of that body of disciplined troops,
which checked the career of Monmouth. He advanced to Bridgewater, of
which Monmouth had got possession, with some of the finest regiments
in the service, and 30 field pieces. The unfortunate adventurer
seemed to have no refuge left, but to disperse his forces, and fly
for his safety; when the mode in which Feversham conducted himself
gave him a fair chance for victory and a crown. He encamped in the
open country, three miles from the enemy, with only a dry ditch in his
front; dispersed his cavalry in the neighbouring hamlets, and retired
quietly to bed, without either sending out reconnoitering parties, or
establishing advanced posts. [453] It is no wonder, that, that in such
a careless state, he should have been completely surprised; it is only
singular, that, even allowing for the cowardice of Lord Grey, who fled,
instead of performing the safe and easy duty committed to him of firing
the horse-quarters of Feversham's army, he should have been able to
recover the consequences of his negligence. Monmouth's men fought for
three hours after they had been deserted by their cavalry, with the
innate courage of English peasants. Feversham was still hard pressed,
notwithstanding the gallant assistance afforded him by Dumbarton; when
the Bishop of Bath and Wells decided the day, by causing the artillery
to be turned upon the flank of Monmouth's followers. When they had
given way, Feversham exhibited more of the cold-blooded cruelty of
his country, than he had done of their genius and fiery valour, while
the battle lasted. The military bishop also proved himself a better
lawyer than the general, as he had shewn himself in the fight a better
soldier; but it was not till a warm expostulation was made on his part
that the general ceased to execute the prisoners by martial law, and
reserved them to a still more cruel fate from the forms of law, as
administered by the brutal Jefferies. Neither Feversham's blunders, nor
his brutality, seemed to lessen his merit in the eye of his sovereign.
He received the order of the Garter, on the 31st July, 1685, probably
on the vacancy occasioned by the Duke of Monmouth's death, whose memory
was on this occasion treated with signal ignominy. [454] At the time
of the Revolution, Lord Feversham was commander in chief, and proved
himself incapable of taking any spirited steps for James's interest;
for the army he commanded, though the officers were disaffected,
would probably have fought, had they been once fairly committed in
opposition to the Dutch. When the king resolved to abandon everything,
and forsake his kingdom, he left behind, a letter to Feversham, stating
that he should not expect his troops at present to expose themselves.
The general might have secured a part of his forces, by retreating
along with the high-spirited Viscount of Dundee, who marched back
into Scotland with the Scottish regiments; but Feversham was a man
of another mould, and rather chose to augment the general confusion,
by disbanding the army. When James was detected by the fishermen of
Kent, in his attempt to leave the kingdom, Feversham, with a party of
his guards, was sent to conduct him back to his capital. James also
chose him for the messenger, when, yielding to sad necessity, he sent
a letter to the Prince of Orange, inviting him to St James's. With
a view, doubtless, to increase the terror of the king's mind, and
precipitate his intention of a second flight, the prince arrested the
bearer of this humiliating embassy. This was the last public occasion
on which James had occasion to employ the services of the unmilitary
nephew of the great Turenne, whose name is connected with the most
blame-worthy and most melancholy passages of his reign.


Note XXXI.

_Our list of nobles next let Amri grace,
Whose merits claimed the Abethdin's high place;
Who, with a loyalty that did excel,
Brought all the endowments of Achitophel. _--P. 349.

These lines, which sufficiently vouch their author to have been
Tate, refer to Sir Heneage a Finch, an eminent lawyer, who was first
attorney-general, and, upon Shaftesbury losing his seals, succeeded
him as Lord Keeper. He was a most incorruptible judge, and could not
be swayed in his decisions even by the king's interference, which upon
all political occasions was omnipotent with him. He was a good lawyer,
and a ready orator; but upon this last accomplishment, he set, as
all lawyers do, rather too high a value: for they, whose profession
necessarily leads them often to speak against their own opinion, and
often to make much of trifles, are apt to lose, in the ingenuity of
their arguments, the power of making a real impression upon the bosom
of their hearers. North says, that the business, rather than the
justice, of the court, flourished exceedingly under Finch; for he was
a formalist, and took exceeding pleasure in encouraging and listening
to nice distinctions of law, instead of taking a broad view of the
equity of each case. He was a steady and active supporter of the Tory
party on all occasions; in reward of which, he was created Earl of
Nottingham. After a long and lingering disease, which terminated in a
deep depression of spirits, this great lawyer died in 1682, and was
succeeded by Lord Guilford, as Lord Keeper.


Note XXXII.

_Than Sheva none more loyal zeal have shown,
Wakeful as Judah's lion for the crown. _--P. 350.

Sir Roger L'Estrange was descended of a good family in Norfolk, and
during the civil war was in arms for the king. [455] Being taken
prisoner by the parliament, he was condemned to die, but found means to
obtain a pardon. He was a good performer on the violin; a quality which
recommended him to Cromwell, under whose government he lived, if we
may trust one of his antagonists, in ease and affluence; a circumstance
with which he was afterwards as often reproached as our author with his
panegyric on the Protector. The instant, however, that the restoration
of monarchy approached, L'Estrange was among the first to hail it,
and stepped forth to answer a pamphlet of Milton, on the subject of
a republic, by a retort, which he irreverently entitled, "No Blind
Guides. " After the Restoration, he was the great champion of the court,
the high church, and the Tory party. His principal vehicle of political
instruction was the "Observator," a paper published twice a week; but
he also edited another, called "Heraclitus Ridens;" and, independently
of both, published answers, replies, rebutters, and sur-rebutters, to
every attack made upon him, besides quires of pamphlets on all popular
subjects. For these good services, he was knighted by King James. His
style is in the last degree mean, crabbed, and low; yet he possesses
some power of argument and sarcasm. He appears to have first invented,
or at least first practised to a great extent, the foolish custom of
printing emphatic passages in a different type from the rest of the
page, and thereby too often effecting a point, which the reader is
unable to trace. For the other deeds of L'Estrange, and his numerous
bead-roll of fugitive pieces, the reader may consult the article in the
Biographia.


Note XXXIII.

_Calm were the elements, night's silence deep,
The waves scarce murmuring, and the winds asleep;
Yet fate for ruin takes so still an hour,
And treacherous sands the princely bark devour. _--P. 351.

The Duke of York, after a short visit to England, returned to Scotland
by sea. The vessel unfortunately struck upon a bank, called the Lemman
Ore; and the duke, with a few attendants, who crowded into the barge,
were all who escaped from the wreck. Burnet says, that the duke
showed no anxiety about the safety of any one save his dogs and his
priests, whom the bishop maliciously classes together. Others say, he
was principally interested about Churchill, who, at the Revolution,
requited his anxiety but indifferently. The Gazette says, that when the
barge put off, the poor sailors, who remained to perish, manned the
sides in the usual honorary form, and, indifferent to their own fate,
hailed the duke's safety with three cheers; a circumstance alluded to
a few lines below, where it is said, the sufferers,

With last loud breaths, their master's 'scape applaud.

In this shipwreck perished the Earl of Roxburghe, Mr Hyde, a son of the
great Clarendon, the Lord O'Brien, the Laird of Hoptoun, Sir Joseph
Douglas, Colonel Macnaughton, and about 300 seamen, besides the persons
of the duke's retinue.

The verses, which follow those concerning this lamentable accident,
describe the return of the Duke of York with his Duchess to England; a
voyage which they performed without any sinister accident, and landed
there upon the 27th May, 1682. On this occasion, they received many
poetical greetings, both on the duke's escape and their happy arrival;
as, for example, Otway's "Prologue to the Duchess, on her return from
Scotland, at the Duke's theatre, at Venice Preserved, &c. acted 31st
May, 1682. "

"A Pindarique Ode on their Royal Highnesses Return from Scotland, after
their escape at Sea. "

"To the Duke on his Return, 29th May, 1682, written by Nathaniel Lee. "

"A Congratulatory Poem to her Royal Highness, upon the arrival of their
Royal Highnesses in England, May 27th, 1682. "

"To his Royal Highness at his happy Return from Scotland, written by a
Person of Quality, 30th May, 1682. "

Heaven, who declares, in wonders so divine,
Care of succession in the rightful line,
That it protects you, with a guardian hand,
From Whiggish lemans, both of sea and land.

Also, "A Panegyric on their Royal Highnesses, and Congratulation on
their Return from Scotland. "


Note XXXIV.

_This year did Ziloah rule Jerusalem,
And boldly all sedition's syrtes stem. _--P. 353.

Sir John Moor, the tory Lord Mayor, an aged and respectable citizen,
of a mild character, and even hesitating and cautious in forming
his measures, though sufficiently determined when once satisfied of
their propriety. "Which character," says North, "was cut out for this
time and public occasion; for nothing but such firmness of mind, and
manifest goodness, with a seeming passive disposition, could have
protected from those rages of violence, as very often threatened him,
and which, probably, had broke loose on any one in his post, that had
carried matters with a stern and minatory behaviour. "[456] He was
proposed by the court-party in the city for Lord Mayor, and, being
scarcely opposed by the other faction, easily carried his election.
The Whigs were led into this blunder, by mistaking the principles,
and under-rating the resolution, of the candidate. Sir John Moor had
been bred a non-conformist; and, though he had taken the test with a
view to civic honours, that was no more than had been done by Bethel,
Cornish, and others, who retained in full vigour their sectarian
principles. Besides, from the gentleness and softness of the new
Lord Mayor's demeanour, his smooth and diffident way of talking in
private, and his embarrassed elocution in public, they conceived that,
even if completely gained by the court, he would prove too passive
and timorous, to serve them essentially against active and energetic
opponents. In both these particulars they were woefully mistaken.
Sir John proved to be most keenly disposed to second all the court
measures; and he was kept up to the pitch of resolution necessary for
carrying them through, by the constant support, encouragement, and
advice of the Duke of Ormond, whom the court employed to back him, and
who, during the contests which followed, dined with the Lord Mayor two
or three times every week. [457] This election, and its consequences,
was a severe blow to the fanatical interest in the city; the jovial
custom of banquets and feasting was revived; and the musicians, who had
been long under restraint, were restored to their privilege, which they
employed in chaunting forth the praises of Sir John the Restorer. [458]
More, of Morehall, was not for a time more celebrated in song, than the
Lord Mayor, his namesake; and a general revolution appeared to have
taken place in the manners, as well as the principles, of the citizens,
which, under the Whig government, had savoured not a little of the
ancient days of fanatical severity.


Note XXXV.

_Howe'er encumbered with a viler pair
Than Ziph or Shimei, to assist the chair;
Yet Ziloah's loyal labours so prevailed,
That faction, at the next election, failed. _--P. 353.

Ziph and Shimei were the Whig sheriffs in 1681; concerning whom,
see note upon Shimei in Part First. The _viler pair_ were Thomas
Pilkington, and Samuel Shute, who followed out the practice of their
predecessors, in the mode of packing the juries on political trials,
and had the honour to arrange that which acquitted the Earl of
Shaftesbury. They were much hated by the court; and, when they came
with the recorder to invite the King to dine with the Lord Mayor,
Charles forgot his usual politeness so far, as to answer sternly, "so
agreeable was the city's invitation, that he would accept it, though
brought by messengers so unwelcome to him as these two sheriffs. "[464]
Sir John Moor had a most violent contest with these two persons,
concerning the election of sheriffs for the ensuing year, about which
the court were exceedingly anxious.

It had been customary, when these elections were matters of little
consequence, that the Lord Mayor designated a citizen to hold the
office of sheriff, by the ceremony of drinking to him, and sending
him the cup. It was agreed by the court, that this custom should be
revived, as throwing the choice of one of the sheriffs into the hands
of their partizan, Sir John Moor.