very unjustly on lord Bolingbroke, as may be seen in his letter to miss Vanhomrigh, August 1, 1714. "I am not of your opinion about lord Bolingbroke, perhaps he may get the staff, but I cannot rely on his love to me. He knew I had a mind to be historiographer, though I valued it not but for the publick service; yet it is gone to a worthless rogue, that nobody knows." But it appears from a letter of Dr. Arbuthnot's, July 17, 1714, that lord Bolingbroke was most hearty in his cause; where he says, "I gave your letter, with the enclosed memorial, cavalièrement to lord Bolingbroke. He read it, and seemed concerned at some part of it, expressing himself thus: 'That it would be among the eternal scandals of the government, to suffer a man of your character, that had so well deserved of them, to have the least uneasy thoughts about those matters.'" But the truth is, that it was out of my lord's power to have served him in this point, as the memorial was not put into his hands till a fortnight after the place had been disposed of[1]. So that it is probable it never was presented to the queen. And his friend Ford, to whom he had also communicated his suspicions of Bolingbroke, vindicates him from the charge in a letter written five days after the queen's death, where he says, "I really believe lord Bolingbroke was very sincere in the professions he made of you, and he could have done any thing. No minister was ever in that height of favour, and lady Masham was at least in as much credit, as she
- ↑ In a letter from Charles Ford, esq., to Dr. Swift, July 20, 1714, is the following passage. "I thought you had heard the historiographer's place had been disposed of this fortnight. I know no more of him who has it, than that his name is Maddocks."
