It is to

fuppofe, entered in our Journals. be an equivalent for our want of a public vote; which it was told the Speaker and Sir Chr. Mufgrave, in my hearing*, that we did not defire or expect; and, confequently, we muft not be furprized if we had it not; nor that the Speaker read the Order of Thanks at five o'clock, in a thin and weary House. It would have been more for our intereft certainly to have had a more public notice taken of us.

I am your Lordship's most dutiful humble fervant, FR. ATTERBURY.

acknowledgment by any mention of my own perfonal zeal and deference to your Houfe, which upon another occafion would be more properly expreffed by, Reverend Sir, your moft faithful and most humble fervant, ROBERT HARLEY. "My most humble service attends thofe other reverend perfons, who came with you last night." [See their names in p. 178.]

* When he attended with the Prolocutor.

LETTER LXV.

To Bp.

TRELAWN Y.

May 23, 1704.

I

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR LORDSHIP,

HAVE delivered the meffage you or dered me to Secretary Hedges, and he promised in a few days to give me an account of it. The other new Secretary is fo bufy in fettling himself in his office, that I have been able as yet only to have one minute with him, and that in his office, where twenty people were waiting to speak with him (and among the reft, the Bishop of Bath and Wells+); fo I had no opportunity of difcourfing him as your Lordship directed, but foon hope to find one. I delivered your Lordship's fervices only, and mentioned a word about the living, left he should take it ill that Secretary Hedges was folely applied to in that matter. He told me he should write to-night, or next poft, to

Robert Harley efq. (afterwards Earl of Oxford) was appointed Secretary of State May 20,

1704.

+ Dr. Hooper.

your

your Lordship. I have been at the Dean of Exeter's*; but he was at Paddington. His fervant told me that he was better than he had been, and came to town for good and all tomorrow. I will call again before this week is fpent. He hath been very ill; but, by his leaving the country, it fhould feem that his health is pretty well established. The Bishop of Rochefter is at Bromley, and returns not till Whitfunday. Bath and Wells's-privy t feal to discharge his firft-fruits hangs in the hedge; he hath not yet procured it, which makes him a little uneafy.

I know little as yet how affairs ftand here, and fo cannot pretend to give your Lordship any account of them. Only, Only, the fenfibleft people I meet with are of opinion that there will be no new Parliament.

I return your Lordship my most hearty thanks for all your noble favours towards me; and will study, while I breathe, to fhew myself your Lordship's most obliged, dutiful, and faithful fervant,

FR. ATTERBURY.

Dr. Wake. Dr. Sprat. Dr. Hooper.

N 4

I find,

I find, Dr. Edifbury doth folicit for G,

Clark, even in exclufion to Sir W. Whitlock*. The Solicitor General + was ftruck laft night with the beginnings of a fever, and is dangerously ill. The Mafter of the Rollsdrank the healths of your Lordfhip and the whole family quite through to me on Sunday, and commanded me to give you his most humble fervices,

I

LETTER LXVI.

To Bp. TRELAWN Y.

Chelfea, May 27, 1704.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR LORDSHIP,

CANNOT yet get at the new Secrctary §, fo as to have any private difcourfe with him; but will do it as foon as he is the leaft at leisure. I find Broadhempfon is dif pofed of, though I know not yet to whom.

As member for the University of Oxford. See pp. 128, 139. Sir William was a Bencher of the Middle Temple; and is fuppofed to have been the Shoeftrings of the Tatler.

+ Sir Simon Harcourt. Sir John Trevor. § Mr. Harley.

Tutchin

Tutchin* the Obfervator + was exceffively impudent to Secretary Hedges, when he appeared before him. Dr. Radcliffe

carried his

* A defpicable fcribbler in the reign of King James the Second, who very early in life became obnoxious to the Government from the virulence of his writings. He was profecuted for a political performance on the fide of Monmouth, and, being found guilty, was fentenced by Jeffreys to be whipped through feveral market-towns in the Weft, To avoid this fevere punishment, he petitioned the King that the fentence might be changed to hanging. At the death of this unfortunate Monarch, he wrote an invective against his memory, which even the severity of his fufferings can hardly excufe, He was author of "The Obfervator,' originally begun by L'Estrange in the last century, and refumed by Tutchin April 1, 1702, Becoming obnoxious to the Tories, he received a fevere beating in August 1707, and died in much diftrefs in the Mint, on the 23d of September following, at the age of 47. In fome verfes on his death, he is called Captain Tutchin."

The number complained of in the Houfe of Commons was that " On Occafional Conformity," Dec. 8-11, 1703."

Dr. Radcliffe is faid to have been perpetually involved in difputes with his medical brethren, who confi lered him in the light of an active, ingenious, adventuring empiric, whom conftant practice brought at length to fome kill in his profefion. The ban mot of Queen Anne (which Atterbury has preferved in p. 81) will be illuftrated by the following anecdote: "In 1699, King Wil

liam, returning from Holland, and being much

❝ out