LORD BOLINGBROKE'S WILL.

5

address to his Lordship.-Having introduced the poem with these two lines:

Awake, my ST. JOHN! Leave all meaner things

To low Ambition, and the pride of Kings !—

the Poet pursues his subject with inimitable beauty, till he finally bursts forth into the well-known, animated apostrophe:

Come then, my Friend, my Genius, come along,

Oh Master of the Poet and the Song!

Oh while along the stream of time thy name
Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame;
Say, shall my little Bark attendant sail,
Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale?
When Statesmen, Heroes, Kings in dust repose,
Whose sons shall blush their Fathers were thy foes,
Shall then this verse to future age pretend
Thou wert my Guide, Philosopher and Friend?
That, urg'd by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art
From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart;
For Wit's false mirror held up Nature's light,
Shew'd Pride whatever is-is right;
That Reason, Passion, answer one great aim;
That true Self-love and Social are the same;
That VIRTUE only makes our bliss below,
And all our knowledge is Ourselves to KNOW?

By Will he left his manuscripts to Mr. David Mallet, who, in 1754, published "The Works of the late Right Hon. Henry St. John Viscount Bolingbroke, complete, in 5 Vols. 4to." A considerable part is occupied by Letters or Essays addressed to Alexander Pope Esquire, on Religion and Philosophy. His Lordship pours out a violent philippic against

6

LORD BOLINGBROKE.

WHITFIELD.

Revealed Religion, and its Ministers are abused without mercy. Warburton and others made an ample reply to the pernicious contents of this posthumous publication.

As Bolingbroke on the mother's side was related to the Puritans, there is a report that his dislike to Religion arose from a good Presbyterian uncle making the nephew read a series of dull sermons, on each verse of the 119th Psalm, every Sunday evening! Be this as it may, politicians are too apt to consider religion in no other view than a state-engine, contrived to agitate the fears, and by this means to keep the people in subjection. Whitfield somewhere in his works remarks— "I had the other evening the honour of Lord Bolingbroke for an auditor; there he sat in a chair with all the dignity of an Archbishop; and when I came down from the pulpit after the service, he bowed and said, 'I thank you, Sir; you have handled the moral attributes of the Deity well!" This was a handsome compliment; for the moral attributes of the Deity are not always" handled well." Ministers of every denomination ought to hold them up, on every occasion, in a manner honourable to the character of the Supreme Being, for their operation is eminently conducive to the present and ultimate felicity of mankind. For the sake of young people, it may be necessary to conclude this account of Lord Bolingbroke, with Dr. Hugh Blair's character of his Works:-" Though I may have recourse to this author sometimes for examples of style, it is his style only and not his sentiments that deserve praise. An unhappy instance this author

LORD BOLINGBROKE'S INSCRIPTION.

is, of parts and genius so miserably perverted by faction and passion that, as his memory will descend to posterity with little honour, so his productions will soon pass and are, indeed, already passing into neglect and oblivion."

Battersea has a neat little church, with a monument to Bolingbroke, executed by Roubilliac; and his remains lie interred in a vault belonging to the family. The inscription on the monument runs thus:

Here lies

HENRY ST. JOHN,

In the reign of Queen Anne,
Secretary of War, Secretary of State,
and Viscount Bolingbroke:

In the days of King George I. and King George II.
something more and better.-

His attachment to Queen Anne

Exposed him to a long and severe persecution :
He bore it with firmness of mind.

He passed the latter part of his time at home,
The enemy of no national party,
The friend of no faction.

Distinguished (under the cloud of proscription,
Which had not then been entirely taken off)
By zeal to maintain the Liberty,
And to restore the ancient Prosperity,
Of Great Britain,

He died 12th of December, 1751,

Aged 79.

Oliver Goldsmith has canvassed the merits and de

merits of Lord Bolingbroke in an interesting piece of biography.

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BIBLE SOCIETY.

HORIZONTAL WINDMILL.

Here is also a Dissenting place of worship, where officiates the Rev. Joseph Hughes, one of the active and indefatigable Secretaries of THE BIBLE SOCIETY. With him, indeed, the idea of the Institution orginated. To the honour of the age be it recorded, that every Denomination has united (with the exception of a few narrow bigots), to patronize a SOCIETY which, regardless of the petty distinctions of party, has for its object the promotion of the best interests of mankind. It has worn down, even in its ordinary progression, the ungracious protuberances of bigotry, and promoted a spirit of candour, and of love, which is at once the badge and glory of our common Christianity.

The Horizontal Windmill at Battersea, is so conspicuous an object, that it must not be passed over in silence. It stands, as I have already observed, on the scite of the old mansion belonging to the Bolingbroke family. The height of the mill is 140 feet; the outer part consists of ninety-six shutters 80 feet high and 9 inches broad, which, by the pulling of a rope, open and shut in the manner of Venetian blinds! The main shaft of the mill is the centre of a large circle formed by the sails, which consist of ninety-six double planks, placed perpendicularly, and of the same height as the planks that form the shutters. The wind rushing through acts upon the sails, and blowing fresh, turns the mill with prodigious rapidity. This may be moderated by lessening the apertures till the force be annihilated. The mill grinds malt for the distillery. It was constructed after Hooper's Mill at

WANDSWORTH.

Margate; one more only of the kind is to be found in the United States of America!

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Wandsworth which we reach next, contains seven hundred houses and four thousand inhabitants; it stands on the Wandle, in the hundred of Brixton, Surry. It is six miles from London. Nearly one thousand of the inhabitants were lately returned as employed in various trades; particularly in calicoprinting, bolting-cloths for flour mills, distilleries, &c. The latter, belonging to Messrs. Bush & Co., are well known for their extent and respectability. The church is a modern edifice attached to an ancient tower, with a small cemetry. Some French Refugees settled here in the course of the last century. In 1787, a Quakers' Meeting was erected; and here are two schools of that persuasion. The town is situated between two eminences denominated East Hill and West Hill, over which are scattered Gentlemen's houses. Hence is a delightful view of the Thames, between the bridges of Putney and Battersea; whilst the two churches of Putney and Fulham are seen to the left embosomed as it were in woods; with a distant view of Harrow on the hill, as well as Hampstead and Highgate on the right; the whole forming a scene of picturesque beauty.

I should have mentioned, that in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, some of the leading Puritans seeing no prospect of Reformation by the Legislature, agreedto attempt it in a more private way; for this purpose they erected a Presbytery at Wandsworth, conveni