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BOLINGBROKE, HENRY ST JOHN, VISCOUNT ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 164 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BOLINGBROKE, See also:HENRY ST See also:JOHN, See also:VISCOUNT (1678-1751) , See also:English statesman and writer, son of See also:Sir Henry St John, See also:Bart. (afterwards 1st Viscount St John, a member of a younger See also:branch of the See also:family of the earls of Bolingbroke and barons St John of Bletso), and of See also:Lady See also:Mary See also:Rich, daughter of the 2nd See also:earl of See also:Warwick, was baptized on the loth of See also:October 1678, and was educated at See also:Eton. He travelled abroad during 1698 and 1699 and acquired an exceptional knowledge of See also:French. The dissipation and extravagance of his youth exceeded all limits and surprised his contemporaries. He spent See also:weeks in riotous orgies and outdrank the most experienced drunkards. An informant of See also:Goldsmith saw him once " run naked through the See also:park in a See also:state of See also:intoxication." Throughout his career he desired, says See also:Swift, his intimate friend, to be thought the See also:Alcibiades or See also:Petronius of his See also:age, and to mix licentious orgies with the highest See also:political responsibilities.4 In 1700 he married Frances, daughter of Sir Henry Winchcombe, Bart., of Bucklebury, See also:Berkshire, but See also:matrimony while improving his See also:fortune did not redeem his morals. He was returned to See also:parliament in 1701 for the family See also:borough of Wootton Bassett in See also:Wiltshire. He declared himself a Tory, attached himself to Harley (afterwards See also:Lord See also:Oxford), then See also:speaker, whom he now addressed as " dear See also:master," and distinguished himself by his eloquence in debate, eclipsing. his school-See also:fellow, See also:Walpole, and gaining an extraordinary ascendancy over the See also:House of See also:Commons. In May he had See also:charge of the See also:bill for securing the See also:Protestant See also:succession; he took See also:part in the See also:impeachment of the Whig lords for their conduct concerning the See also:Partition See also:treaties, and opposed the See also:oath abjuring the Pretender. In See also:March 1702 he was chosen See also:commissioner for taking the public accounts. After See also:Anne's See also:accession he supported the bills in 1702 and 1704 against occasional conformity, and took a leading part in the disputes which arose between the two Houses. In 1704 St John took See also:office with Harley as secretary at See also:war, thus being brought into intimate relations with See also:Marlborough, by whom he was treated with paternal partiality.

In 1708 he quitted office with Harley on the failure of the latter's intrigue, and retired to the See also:

country till 1710, when he became a privy councillor and secretary of state in Harley's new See also:ministry, representing Berkshire in parliament. He supported the bill for requiring a real See also:property qualification for a seat in parliament. In 1711 he founded the 4 Swift's Inquiry into the Behaviour of the See also:Queen's Last Ministry; Mrs Delaney's See also:Correspondence, 2 See also:ser., iii. 168. it See also:Brothers' See also:Club, a society of Tory politicians and men of letters, and the same See also:year witnessed the failure of the two expeditions to the See also:West Indies and to See also:Canada promoted by him. In 1712 he was the author of the bill taxing See also:newspapers. But the See also:great business of the new See also:government was the making of the See also:peace with See also:France. The refusal of the Whigs to See also:grant terms in 1706, and again in 1709 when See also:Louis XIV. offered to yield every point for which the See also:allies professed to be fighting, showed that the war was not being continued for English See also:national interests, and the ministry were supported by the queen, the parliament and the See also:people in their See also:design to terminate hostilities. But various obstacles arose from the diversity of aims among the allies; and St John was induced, contrary to the most See also:solemn obligations, to enter into See also:separate and See also:secret negotiations with France for the See also:security of English interests. In 'May 1712 St John ordered the See also:duke of See also:Ormonde, who had succeeded Marlborough in the command, to refrain from any further engagement. These instructions were communicated to the French, though not to the allies, Louis putting See also:Dunkirk as security into See also:possession of See also:England, and the shameful spectacle was witnessed of the See also:desertion by the English troops of their allies almost on the battlefield. Subsequently St John received the congratulations of the French See also:minister, Torcy, on the occasion of the French victory over See also:Prince See also:Eugene at See also:Denain.

In See also:

August St John, who had on the 7th of See also:July been created Viscount Bolingbroke and See also:Baron St John of Lydiard Tregoze, went to France to conduct negotiations, and signed an See also:armistice between England and France for four months on the 19th. Finally the treaty of See also:Utrecht was signed on the 31st of March 1713 by all the allies except the See also:emperor. The first See also:production of See also:Addison's See also:Cato was made by the Whigs the occasion of a great demonstration of indignation against the peace, and by Bolingbroke for presenting the actor See also:Booth with a See also:purse of fifty guineas for " defending the cause of See also:liberty against a perpetual See also:dictator " (Marlborough). In the terms granted to England there was perhaps little to criticize. But the manner of the peacemaking, which had been carried on by a See also:series of underhand conspiracies with the enemy instead of by open conferences with the allies, and was characterized throughout by a violation of the most solemn See also:international assurances, See also:left a deep and lasting stain upon the national See also:honour and See also:credit; and not less dishonourable was the See also:abandonment of the Catalans by the treaty. For all this Bolingbroke must be held primarily responsible. In See also:June his commercial treaty with France, establishing See also:free See also:trade with that country, was rejected. Meanwhile the friendship between Bolingbroke and Harley, which formed the basis of the whole Tory See also:administration, had been gradually dissolved. In March 1711, by Guiscard's See also:attempt on his See also:life, Harley got the See also:wound which had been intended for St John, with all the credit. In May Harley obtained the earldom of Oxford and was made lord treasurer, while in July St John was greatly disappointed at receiving only his viscountcy instead of the earldom lately See also:extinct in his family, and at being passed over for the Garter. In See also:September 1713 Swift came to See also:London, and made a last but vain attempt to reconcile his two See also:friends. But now a further cause of difference had arisen.

The queen's See also:

health was visibly breaking, and the Tory ministers could only look forward to their own downfall on the accession of the elector of See also:Hanover. Both Oxford' and Bolingbroke hadd maintained for some See also:time secret communications with See also:James, and promised their help in restoring him at the queen's See also:death. The aims of the former, prudent, procrastinating and vacillating by nature, never ex-tended probably beyond the propitiation of his Tory followers; and it is difficult to imagine that Bolingbroke could have really advocated the Pretender's recall, whose divine right he repudiated and whose See also:religion and principles he despised. Nevertheless, whatever his See also:chief See also:motive may have been, whether to displace Oxford as See also:leader of the party, to strengthen his position and that of the See also:faction in See also:order to dictate terms to the future See also:king, or to reinstate James, Bolingbroke, yielding to his more impetuous and adventurous disposition, went much further 1 See also:Berwick's Mem. (See also:Petitot), vol. lxvi. 219.than Oxford. It is possible to suppose a connexion between his zeal for making peace with France and a See also:desire to forward the Pretender's interests or win support from the See also:Jacobites.' During his See also:diplomatic See also:mission to France he had incurred blame for remaining at the See also:opera while the Pretender was See also:present,' and according to the See also:Mackintosh transcripts he had several secret interviews with him. See also:Regular communications were kept up subsequently. In March 1714 Herville, the French See also:envoy in London, sent to Torcy, the French See also:foreign minister in See also:Paris, the substance of two See also:long conversations with Bolingbroke in which the latter advised See also:patience till after the accession of See also:George, when a great reaction was to be expected in favour of the Pre-See also:tender. At the same time he spoke of the treachery of See also:Marl-borough and Berwick, and of one other, presumably Oxford, whom he refused to name, all of whom were in communication with Hanover.' Both Oxford and Bolingbroke warned James that he could have little See also:chance of success unless he changed his religion, but the latter's refusal (March 13) does not appear to have stopped the communications. Bolingbroke gradually superseded Oxford in the leadership. Lady See also:Masham, the queen's favourite, quarrelled with Oxford and identified herself with Bolingbroke's interests.

The harsh treatment of the Hanoverian demands was inspired by him, and won favour with the queen, while Oxford's See also:

influence declined; and by his support of the See also:Schism Bill in May 1714, a violent Tory measure forbidding all See also:education by dissenters by making an episcopal See also:licence obligatory for schoolmasters, he probably intended to compel Oxford to give up the See also:game. Finally, a charge of corruption brought by Oxford in July against Bolingbroke and Lady Masham, in connexion with the commercial treaty with See also:Spain, failed, and the lord treasurer was dismissed or retired on the 27th of July. Bolingbroke was now supreme, and everything appeared tending inevitably to a Jacobite restoration. The Jacobite Sir See also:William See also:Windham had been made See also:chancellor of the See also:exchequer, important military posts were placed in the hands of the faction, and a new ministry of Jacobites was projected. But now the queen's sudden death on the 1st of August, and the See also:appointment of See also:Shrewsbury to the lord treasurership, instantly changed the whole See also:scene and ruined Bolingbroke. " The earl, of Oxford was removed on Tuesday," he wrote to Swift on the 3rd of August, " the queen died on See also:Sunday! What a See also:world is this and how does fortune banter us!" According to Herville, the French envoy, Bolingbroke declared to him that in six weeks he could have secured everything. Nevertheless the exact nature of his projects remains obscure. It is probable that his statement in his See also:letter to Windham that " none of us had any very settled See also:resolution " is true, though his See also:declaration in the Patriot King that " there were no designs on See also:foot . . . to See also:place the See also:crown on the See also:head of the Pretender " is a palpable falsehood. His great See also:object was doubtless to gain supreme See also:power and to keep it by any means, and by any betrayal that the circumstances demanded; and it is not without• significance perhaps that on the very See also:day of Oxford's dismissal he gave a See also:dinner to the Whig leaders, and on the day preceding the queen's death ordered overtures to be made to the elector.' On the accession of George I. the illuminations and See also:bonfire at Lord Bolingbroke's house in See also:Golden Square were " particularly See also:fine and remarkable," s but he was immediately dismissed from office. He retired to Bucklebury and is said to have now written the See also:answer to the Secret See also:History of the See also:White See also:Staff accusing him of Jacobitism.

In March 1715 he in vain attempted to defend the See also:

late ministry in the new parliament; and on the announcement of Walpole's intended attack upon the authors of the treaty of Utrecht he fled in disguise (March 28, 1715) to Paris, where he was well received, after having addressed a letter to Lord See also:Lansdowne from See also:Dover protesting his innocence 2 Hist. See also:MSS. See also:Comm., See also:Portland MSS. v. 235. 3 See also:Stuart MSS. (See also:Roxburghe Club), ii. 383. Hist. MSS. Comm., MSS. of H. M. the King, Stuart Papers, i. p. xlviii. Sichel's Bolingbroke, i.

340; See also:

Lockhart Papers, i. 46o; See also:Macpherson, ii. 529. c See also:Wentworth Papers, 408. and challenging " the most inveterate of his enemies to produce any instance of his criminal correspondence." Bolingbroke in July entirely identified himself with the interests of the Pretender, whose secretary he became, and on the loth of September he was attainted. But his counsel was neglected for that of ignorant refugees and Irish priests. The expedition of 1715 was resolved upon against his See also:advice. He See also:drew up James's declaration, but the assurances he had inserted concerning the security of the See also:Church of England were cancelled by the priests. He remained at Paris, and endeavoured to establish relations with the See also:regent. On the return of James, as the result of See also:petty intrigues and jealousies, Bolingbroke was dismissed from his office. He now renounced all further efforts on the Pretender's behalf.' Replying to Mary of See also:Modena, who had sent a See also:message deprecating his See also:ill-will, he wished his See also:arm might rot off if he ever used See also:pen or See also:sword in their service again!' He now turned to the English government in hopes of See also:pardon. In March 1716 he declared his final abandonment of the Pretender and promised to use his influence to secure the withdrawal of his friends; but he refused to betray any secrets or any individuals.

Phoenix-squares

He wrote his Reflexions upon See also:

Exile, and in 1717 his letter to Sir W. Windham in explanation of his position, generally considered one of his finest compositions, but not published till 1753 after his death. The same year he formed a liaison with See also:Marie Claire See also:Deschamps de Marcilly, widow of the See also:marquis de See also:Villette, whom he married in 1720 after the death in 1718 of Lady Bolingbroke, whom he had treated with cruel neglect. He bought and resided at the See also:estate of La Source near See also:Orleans, studied See also:philosophy, criticized the See also:chronology of the See also:Bible, and was visited amongst others by See also:Voltaire, who expressed unbounded admiration for his learning and politeness. In 1723, through the See also:medium of the king's See also:mistress, the duchess of See also:Kendal, he at last received his pardon, returned to London in June or July, and placed his services at the disposal of Walpole, by whom, however, his offers to procure the accession of several Tories to the administration were received very coldly. During the following See also:winter he made himself useful in France in gaining See also:information for the government. In 1725 an See also:act was passed enabling him to hold real estate but without power of alienating it.' But this had been effected in consequence of a See also:peremptory order of the king, against Walpole's wishes, who succeeded in maintaining his exclusion from the House of Lords. He now bought an estate at Dawley, near See also:Uxbridge, where he renewed his intimacy with See also:Pope, Swift and Voltaire, took part in Pope's See also:literary squabbles, and wrote the philosophy for the See also:Essay on See also:Man. On the first occasion which offered itself, that of Pulteney's rupture with Walpole in 1726, he endeavoured to organize an opposition in See also:conjunction with the former and Windham; and in 1727 began his celebrated series of letters to the Craftsman, attacking the Walpoles, signed an " Occasional Writer." He gained over the duchess of Kendal with a bribe of r',coo from his wife's estates, and with Walpole's approval obtained an See also:audience with George. His success was imminent, and it was thought his appointment as chief minister was assured. In Walpole's own words, " as St John had the duchess entirely on his See also:side I need not add what must or might in time have been the consequence," and he prepared for his dismissal. But once more Bolingbroke's " fortune turned rotten at the very moment it See also:grew ripe,"' and his projects and hopes were ruined by the king's death in June.' Further papers from his pen signed " John Trot " appeared in the Craftsman in 1728, and in 1730 followed Remarks on the History of England by See also:Humphrey Old-See also:castle, attacking the Walpoles' policy.

'The See also:

assault on the govern- ' Hist. MSS. Comm., Stuart Papers, i. 500; Berwick's Mem. (Petitot), vol. lxvi. 262. 2 See also:Coxe's Walpole, i. 200; Stuart Papers, ii. 511, and also 446, 460. a Hist. MSS. Comm., See also:Onslow MSS. 515.

1 Bolingbroke to Swift, June 24th, 1727. He adds, " to hanker after a See also:

court is below either you or me." Sichel's Bolingbroke, ii. 267; See also:Stanhope, ii. 163; Hist. MSS. Comm., Onslow MSS. 516, 8th See also:Rep. Pt. III. App. p. 3. This remarkable incident is discredited by H.

Walpole in Letters (ed. 1903), iii. 269; but he was not always well informed concerning his See also:

father's career.ment prompted by Bolingbroke was continued in the House of Commons by Windham, and great efforts were made to establish the See also:alliance between the Tories and the Opposition Whigs. The See also:Excise Bill in 1733 and the Septennial Bill in the following year offered opportunities for further attacks on the government, which Bolingbroke supported by a new series of papers in the Craftsman styled " A Dissertation on Parties "; but the whole See also:movement collapsed after the new elections, which returned Walpole to power in 1735 with a large See also:majority. Bolingbroke retired baffled and disappointed from the fray to France in June, residing principally at the See also:chateau of Argeville near See also:Fontainebleau. He now wrote his Letters on the Study of History (printed privately before his death and published in 1752), and the True Use of Retirement. In 1738 he visited England, became one of the leading friends and advisers of See also:Frederick, prince of See also:Wales, who now headed the opposition, and wrote for the occasion The Patriot King, which together with a previous essay, The Spirit of Patriotism, and The State of Parties at the Accession of George I., were entrusted to Pope and not published. Having failed, however, to obtain any See also:share in politics, he returned to France in 1739, and subsequently sold Dawley. In 1742 and 1743 he again visited England and quarrelled with See also:Warburton. In 1744 he settled finally at See also:Battersea with his friend See also:Hugh See also:Hume, 3rd earl of See also:Marchmont, and was present at Pope's death in May. The See also:discovery that the poet had printed secretly 1500 copies of The Patriot King caused him to publish a correct version in 1749, and stirred up a further altercation with Warburton, who defended his friend against Bolingbroke's See also:bitter aspersions, the latter, whose See also:con-duct was generally reprehended, See also:publishing a See also:Familiar See also:Epistle to the most Impudent Man Living. In 1744 he had been very busy assisting in the negotiations for the See also:establishment of the new " broad bottom " administration, and showed no sympathy for the Jacobite expedition in 1745.

He recommended the See also:

tutor for Prince George, afterwards George III. About 1749 he wrote the Present State of the Nation, an unfinished pamphlet. Lord See also:Chesterfield records the last words heard from him: " See also:God who placed me here will do what He pleases with me hereafter and He knows best what to do." He died on the 12th of See also:December 1751, his wife having predeceased him in 1750. They were both buried in the See also:parish church at Battersea, where a See also:monument with medallions and See also:inscriptions composed by Bolingbroke was erected to their memory. The writings and career of Bolingbroke make a far weaker impression upon posterity than they made on contemporaries. His See also:genius and See also:character were superficial; his abilities were exercised upon ephemeral See also:objects, and not inspired by lasting or universal ideas. See also:Bute and George III. indeed derived their political ideas from The Patriot King, but the influence which he is said to have exercised upon Voltaire, See also:Gibbon and See also:Burke is very problematical. Burke wrote his Vindication of Natural Society in See also:imitation of Bolingbroke's See also:style, but in refutation of his principles; and in the Reflections on the French Revolution he exclaims, " Who now reads Bolingbroke, who ever read him through?" Burke denies that Bolingbroke's words left "any permanent impression on his mind." Bolingbroke's conversation, described by Lord Chesterfield as " such a flowing happiness of expression that even his most familiar conversations if taken down in See also:writing would have See also:borne the See also:press without the least correction," his delightful companionship, his wit, See also:good looks, and social qualities which charmed during his lifetime and made See also:firm friendships with men of the most opposite character, can now only be faintly imagined. His most brilliant See also:gift was his eloquence, which according to Swift was acknowledged by men of all factions to be unrivalled. None of his great orations has survived, a loss regretted by See also:Pitt more than that of the missing books of See also:Livy and See also:Tacitus, and no See also:art perishes more completely with its possessor than that of See also:oratory. His political See also:works, in which the expression is often splendidly eloquent, spirited and dignified, are for the most part exceedingly rhetorical in style, while his philosophical essays were undertaken with the chief object of displaying his eloquence, and no characteristic renders writings less readable for posterity. They are both deficient in solidity and in permanent See also:interest.

The first deals with See also:

mere party questions without sincerity and without See also:depth; and the 'second, composed as an amusement in retirement without any serious preparation, in their attacks on See also:metaphysics and See also:theology and in their feeble See also:deism present no originality and carry no conviction. Both kinds reflect in their Voltairian superficiality Bolingbroke's manner of life, which was throughout uninspired by any great ideas or principles and thoroughly false and superficial. Though a libertine and a free-thinker, he had championed the most bigoted and tyrannical high-church See also:measures. His See also:diplomacy had been subordinated to party necessities. He had supported by turns and simultaneously Jacobite and Hanoverian interests. He had only conceived the See also:idea of The Patriot King in the See also:person of the worthless Frederick in order to stir up See also:sedition, while his eulogies on retirement and study were pronounced from an enforced exile. He only attacked party government because he was excluded from it, and only railed at corruption because it was the corruption of his antagonists and not his own. His public life presents none of those acts of devotion and self-See also:sacrifice which often redeem a career characterized by errors, follies and even crimes. One may deplore his unfortunate history and wasted genius, but it is impossible to regret his exclusion from the government of England. He was succeeded in the See also:title as 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke, according to the See also:special See also:remainder, by his See also:nephew Frederick, 3rd Viscount St John (a title granted to Bolingbroke's father in 1716), from whom the title has descended. A life of Bolingbroke appeared in his lifetime about 1740, entitled See also:Authentic See also:Memoirs (in the See also:Grenville Library, Brit. See also:Mus.), which recounted his escapades ; other contemporary accounts were published in 1752 and 1754, and a life by Goldsmith in 1770.

Of the more See also:

modern See also:biographies may be noted that in the See also:Diet. of Nat. Biog. by Sir See also:Leslie See also:Stephen, 1897; by C. de See also:Remusat in L'Angleterre an z8me siecle (1856), vol. i.; by T. Macknight (1863); by J. Churtoti' See also:Collins (1886); by A. Hassall (1889); and by See also:Walter Sichel (1901-1902), elaborate and brilliant, but unduly eulogistic. (P. C.

End of Article: BOLINGBROKE, HENRY ST JOHN, VISCOUNT (1678-1751)

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