Dr. Kippis observes, that of all the writers who have characterized the earl of Shaftesbury, lord Orford is the most severe. In his delineation, the earl appears not only destitute of virtue, but of ability: and yet the earl's bitterest enemies have acknowledged that his talents were of the first order. They have equally acknowledged that he never betrayed his friends, and that he stood firm against the allurements of bribery. Extremely different is the treatment which the earl of Shaftesbury has received from the judicious Rapin, who while he relates the actions of lord Shaftesbury with fidelity, whether favourable or unfavourable to his memory, has accompanied his narration with reflections which are equally the dictates of truth and of candour 4.

The great Mr. Locke was wonderfully struck with lord Shaftesbury's acuteness upon every subject; and though he was not a man of much reading, yet nothing, in Mr. Locke's opinion, could be more just than the judgment he passed upon the books which fell into his hands. But above all, Mr. Locke admired in him that penetration, that presence of mind, which prompted him with the best expedients in the most desperate cases; that noble boldness which appeared in all his public discourses, always guided by a solid judgment, which never allowing him to say any thing that was improper, and regulating his least word, left no hold to the vigilance of his enemies. Lord Shaftesbury has even been supposed to have assisted Mr.

Biog. Brit. ut sup.

Locke very much in his celebrated Treatise upon Toleration; as the outline of that work was found in his lordship's hand-writing 5.

The following portion of a letter from lord chancellor Shaftesbury to lord Carlisle, was printed by Mr. Seward in the supplemental volume to his Anecdotes of distinguished Persons, and is inserted from the want of a more interesting appendage.

" March 29, 1675. "It is certainly all our duties, and particularly mine, who have borne such offices under the crown, to improve any opportunity of a good correspondence and understanding between the royal family and the people, and to leave it impossible for the king to apprehend that we stand upon any terms that are not as good for him as necessary for us; neither can we fear to be accounted undertakers at the next meeting of parliament, for I hope it shall never be thought unfit for any number of lords to give the king privately their opinion, when asked; whilst in former days, through all the northern kingdoms, nothing of great moment was acted by their kings without the advice of the most considerable and active nobility that were within distance, though they were not of the privy-council: such occasions being not always of that nature as did require the assembling the great council or parliament. Besides, there are none so likely as us, nor time so proper as now, to give the only advice I know truly

Seward, ubi sup. p. 100.

• Edit. 1797, P. 52.

serviceable to the king, affectionate to the duke, and secure to the country, which is a new parliament.

"I hear from all quarters of letters from Whitehall, that do give notice that I am coming up to town; that a great office with a strange name is preparing for me, and such like; I am ashamed I was thought so easy a fool by those who should know me better. But I assure your lordship, that no condition will invite me to court during this parliament, nor until I see the king thinketh frequent parliaments as much his interest as the people's right. When our great men have tried a little longer, they will be of my mind."]

EDWARD, LORD MONTAGUE.

[EDWARD, second lord Montague, and father of the first duke of Montague, succeeded to the barony in 1644, and died in 16832. In his youth he made a Latin translation of Drayton's Heroical Epistle from Henry the second to fair Rosamond, which was printed at the end of Hookes' Amanda 3, with Miscellanea

• Bolton's Extinct Peerage, p. 193.

* This amatory farrago, written in imitation of Cowley's Mistress, was inscribed "to the honourable Edward Montague, sonne and heire apparent to the honours, estate, and vertues of the right honourable Edward lord Montague, baron of Boughton;" and it includes the following facetious compliments to his patron: "To give you the main reason of this present to your honour, beside the many private obligations which enforce me, I know none a more competent judge in poesie then yourself. You have surveyed more ground in the sweet Tempe of the muses, and to better purpose, than many who have walkt Parnassus, as often as duke Humphrey's spider catchers do Paul's, only to tell steps and take the height of a cobweb fancie. At those years when others do usually ride hobbies and swagger astride broomsticks, your honour was mounting the great horse, and learning to manage the noble swift-winged courser. Methinks I see the best wits strive to be your lackeys, as if you only could create laureats, which is no small preferment; for every poet is Apollo's footman, and consequently worshipful, and an esquire by his place. You differ as much from an ordinary poet as a traveller from a map-geographer, who by the help of old Ortelius, or John Speed our English Mercator, hath gone beyond sea, and rid post over the Alps, in his chamber. Thalia is proud, you admit yourself her fami

Poetica, &c. 1653. A short extract from the close of this version may afford a sufficient specimen of his lordship's Ovidian essay.

"Quid dicam? pereunt lacrymæ, suspiria, voces,

Quod mihi restat opis sævior hora negat;

Bellica terribili resonant mea castra boatû

Pejor at in toto pectore miles amor.

Te Rosamunda tuba, te classica nostra loquuntur,
Pugnandi signum tu Rosamunda mihi.

Illius intereant et vox et spiritus, audet
Qui meditata tuâ de nece verba loqui,

Nempe incerta tuo victoria ridet ocello

Illinc est mihi spes, vita triumphus, honos.
Tuque domus qua chara manet Rosamunda, beatus
Qua tuus et rex est, esto beata domus :
Detineat corpus quanquam fera Gallia, tecum

Cor manet, Elysium deliciæque meæ.

A copy of Latin verses by lord Montague when he was of Sidney college, occurs in the Cambridge collection, on the birth of prince Charles in 1631.]

liar; your hands must be kist when others stand aloof, like her waiting gentlemen; you carouse with the frolique lady at the fountain and sip Helicon in gold goblets, while poor vulgar students only refresh their temples with a wet finger, and beg rithmes in a night-cap. I assure you, it is seldome the muses' nag findes such good pasture amongst noblemen's horses; for most commonly a gentleman's Pegasus is as ill-favour'd as Pharoah's lean cowes," &c.