their antagonists, and then worry One another.  They have already mumbled poor Sir Thomas Robinson cruelly.  The Chancellor of the exchequer(527) crouches under the storm, and seems very willing to pass eldest.  The Attorney-General(528) seems cowed, and unwilling to support a war, of which the world gives him the honour.(529) Nugent alone, with an intrepidity worth his country, affects to stand up against the greatest orator, and against the best reasoner of the age.  What will most surprise you is, that the Duke of Newcastle, who used to tremble at shadows, appears unterrified at Gorgons!  If I should tell you in my next, that either of the Gorgons has kissed hands for secretary of state, only smile:  snakes are as easily tamed as lapdogs.

I am glad you have got my Lord of Cork.(530) He is, I know, a very worthy man, and though not a bright man, nor a man of the world, much less a good author, yet it must be comfortable to you now and then to see something besides travelling children, booby governors, and abandoned women of quality.  You say, you have made my Lord Cork give up my Lord Bolingbroke:  it is comical to see how he is given up here, since the best of his writings, his metaphysical divinity, have been published.  While he betrayed and abused every man who trusted him, or who had forgiven him, or to whom he was obliged, he was a hero, a patriot, and a philosopher; and the greatest genius of the age:  the moment his Craftsmen against Moses and St. Paul, etc. were published, we have discovered that he was the worst man and the worst writer in the world.  The grand jury have presented his works, and as long as there are any parsons, he will be ranked with Tindal and Toland—­nay, I don’t know whether my father won’t become a rubric martyr, for having been persecuted by him.  Mr. Fraigneau’s story of the late King’s design of removing my father and employing, Bolingbroke, is not new to me; but I can give you two reasons, and one very strong indeed, that convince me of its having no foundation, though it is much believed here.  During the last year of the late King’s life, he took extremely to New Park, and loved to shoot there, and dined with my father and a private party, and a good deal of punch.  The Duchess of Kendal, who hated Sir Robert, and favoured Bolingbroke, and was jealous for herself, grew uneasy at these parties, and used to put one or two of the Germans upon the King to prevent his drinking, (very odd preventives!)- -however, they obeyed orders so well, that one day the King flew into a great passion, and reprimanded them in his own language with extreme warmth; and when he went to Hanover, ordered my father to have the new lodge in the park finished against his return; which did not look much like an intention of breaking with the ranger of the Park.  But what I am now going to tell you is conclusive:  the Duchess obtained an interview for Bolingbroke in the King’s closet, which not succeeding, as lord Bolingbroke foresaw it might not at once, he left a memorial with the King, who, the very next time he saw Sir Robert, gave it to him.