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BOLINGBKOKE. 249 BOLIVAR. educated at Eton, and, it is said, at Oxford ; but the only ground for this assertion is that of the honorary degree conferred upon him by the uni- versity in 1702. During 10i)8'.)9 he resided on the Continent, and acquired a knowledge of the French language, which was afterwards of ser- vice to him. His early manhood was notorious for extreme licentiousness, but liaving entered Parliament in 1701, he devoted himself to poli- tics, and joining the Tory Party, soon made him- self prominent as an orator. In 1704 he was made Secretary of State for War. Thisofficeheretained till 170S, when the Whigs came into power, after which he retired from politics, and gave himself up to study, but still retained great influence as the Queen's favorite counselor. On the fall of the Whig Party in 1710. he was made Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In 171'2 he was called to the House of Lords with the title of Viscount Bolingbroke, and in 1713, against the wish of nearly the entire nation, concluded the Peace of Itrecht. Having previously quarreled with his old friend Harley — now Earl of Oxford, and his most powerful rival — he contrived his dismissal in July, 1714, and immediately proceeded to form a strong Jacobite ilinistry, in accordance with the well-known predilections of his royal mistress. Her death, however, a few years after, discon- certed his schemes, and the accession of George I. proved a deathblow to his prospects. On the 28th of August he was deposed from office: in March, 1715, he fled to France, and in August of the same year was attainted. For some time he held the oitice of Secretary of State to the Pre- tender; but his restless and ambitious spirit yearned for the 'large excitement' of English politics. His efforts to obtain a pardon not prov- ing in the meantime successful, he retired to a small estate which he had purchased near Or- leans. In 1718 his first wife died, and in 1720 he married the rich widow of the Marquis de Vilette. A judicious use of this ladv's wealth, enabled him to return to England in September, 1724. His property was restored to him, but he was never permitted to take his seat in Par- liament. He therefore betook himself to his villa at Dawley, near Uxbridge, where he occasionally enjoyed the society of Swift, Pope, and others of his old friends, with whom he had corresponded in his exile, and where he diversified his moral and metaphysical studies by his attacks on the Ministry in his periodical, The Craftsman, in which the letters forming his Dissertation on Parlies first appeared. In 1735, finding his polit- ical hopes clfnided forever, he went back to France in chagrin, and continued there till 1742. During his second residence abroad he wrote his I,ettcrs on the Htudy of Histori/. in which, as a Deist, he violently attacked the Christian re- ligion. He is believed to have influenced the thought of Voltaire. He died, after a long ill- iicss. in 1751. Bolingbroke has been styled 'the Alcibiades of his time,' and was admired by his contemporaries for his graceful person and charming manners. His talents were brilliant and versatile; his style of writing was polished and eloquent, and repays study to the present day; but the lack of sincerity and honest pur- pose which characterized him, and the unscrupu- lous ambition which made him aim for power, hindered him from looking wisely and deeply into any question. His philosophical theories are not profound, nor are his conclusions solid, wliile his criticism of passing history is worthless. His collected writings were published by Mallet (London, 1753-54). BiBLiouR.vpiiY. Goldsmith, Life of Lord Boling- broke (London, 1770) ; Cooke, Memoirs of Lord Bolinyhrole (London, 1835) ; Brosch, Lord Bo- liinibroke und die Whigs und Tories seiner Zeit (Frankfort, 1883); Macknight, Life of Boling- broke (London, 1863) ; Schlosser, Histort/ of the Eighteenth Century, Vol. III. (London, 1843-52) ; Stephen, Religions Thought in the Eighteenth Century (New York, 1876) ; Parke, BoUnghroke's Letters and Correspondenee (Lon- don, 1798) ; Collins, Bolingbroke: A Historieal Study (London. 1880). BOLINTINEANU, b6-len-te-ne-an'. Dimitri (1820-72). A Eunianian poet, born at Bolin- tina, Wallachia. He was a member of the civil service, but lost his post through the publication of political articles and poems. Subsequently, at the time of the revolutionary outbreak against the Russian protectorate, he was proscribed and fled the country. After his return, he was ap- pointed Jlinister of Public Instruction (1850). He was the representative poet of the Rumanian Renaissance. In addition to his Rumanian Melo- dies (1858) and other verse, he wrote dramas, satires, and works of fiction. BOLIVAR'. A city and the county-seat of Polk County, ilo., 39 miles north-northwest of Springfield. Mo., on the Saint Louis and San Francisco Railroad (Map: Missouri, C 4). It has a considerable trade in apples, poultry, eggs, patent medicines, horses, and mules. The city is the seat of the Southwest Baptist College, opened in 1878. Settled about 1835, Bolivar was incorporated in 1855, and is now governed under a charter of 1881, which provides for a mayor elected biennially, and a city council. The water- works and electric-light plant are owned and operated bv the nninicipalitv. Population, in 1890, 1485;' in 1000, 1869. BOLIVAR, bo-le'var. A northern department of the Republic of Colombia, bounded by the !Magdalena River on the east, the Department of Antioquia on the south, Cauca on the west, and the Caribbean Sea on the west and north. It covers an area of 21,345 square miles (Map: Colombia, B 2). It has a low surface, mostly still overgrown with thick forests and very little cultivated. Its chief rivers are the Magdalena with its tributary, the Cauca, and the Sinfi. all navigable. The climate is hot and extremely unhealthy. Population, about 300,000. Capital, Cartagena (q.v.). BOLIVAR. The largest State of Venezuela, bounded by the Orinoco on the north, Colombia on the west, the territory of Alto Orinoco and Brazil on the south, and the territory of Vuruary on the east (Map: Venezuela, E 2). It covers an area of 88,700 square miles and has a popu- lation exceeding 50,000. Capital, Ciudad Boli- var f<i.v. ). BOLIVAR. See Riobamba. BOLiVAR, N/y. pron. bi-le'viir, Simon, or BOLIVAR Y PONTE (178.3-1830). A South -American patriot, called the Liberator. He was born in Carficas, July 25, 1783, of a noble and wealthy family. After studying law in Madrid, he traveled extensively on the Continent, married, and returned to his native country, where his