*

all her majesty's fubjects, fo being now at its greatest height under his excellency Thomas earl of Wharton, a fhort account of his government may be of fome use or entertainment to the prefent age, although, I hope, it will be incredible to the next: And, because this account may be judged rather an hiftory of his excellency, than of his government, I must here declare that I have not the leaft view to his person in any part of it. I have had the honour of much conversation with his lordship, and am thoroughly convinced how indifferent he is to applaufe, and how infenfible of reproach: Which is not a humour put on to ferve a turn, or keep a countenance, nor arifing from the consciousness of innocence, or any grandeur of mind, but the mere unaffected bent of his nature.

He is without the fense of shame or glory, as fome men are without the sense of fmelling; and therefore, a good name to him is no more than a precious ointment would be to thefe. Whoever, for the fake of others, were to describe the Queen Anne.

VOL. XIII.

A a

nature

nature of a ferpent, a wolf, a crocodile, or a fox, must be understood to do it without any perfonal love or hatred for the animals themselves.

In the fame manner his excellency is one hom I neither perfonally love nor hate. liee him at court, at his own house, and fometimes at mine (for I have the honour of his vifits) and when these papers are public, it is odds but he will tell me, as he once did upon a like occafion, that he is damnably mauled; and, then with the easiest transition in the world, afk about the weather, or time of the day: So that I enter on the work with more chearfulnefs, because, I am fure, neither to make him angry, nor any way hurt his reputation; a pitch of happiness and security to which his excellency hath arrived, and which no philofopher before him could reach.

I intend to execute this performance by firft giving a character of his excellency, and then relating fome facts during his government, which will ferve to confirm it.

I know

I know very well that mens characters are best known from their actions; but thefe being confined to his administration in Ireland, his character may, perhaps, take in fomething more, which the narrowness of the time, or the fcene, hath not given him opportunity to exert.

Thomas, earl of Wharton, lord lieutenant of Ireland, by the force of a wonderful conftitution, hath paffed, fome years, his grand climacteric, without any vifible effects of old age, either on his body or his mind, and in fpite of a continual proftitution to thofe vices which ufually wear out both. His behaviour is in all the forms of a young man at five and twenty. Whether he walketh, or whiftleth, or fweareth, or talketh bawdy, or calleth names, he acquitteth himself in each beyond a templar of three years ftanding. With the fame grace, and in the fame ftyle he will rattle his coachman in the middle of the ftreet, where he is governor of the kingdom; and, all this is without confequence, because it is in his character, and what every body expecteth. He feemeth to be but an ill diffembler, and A a 2

an

an ill liar, although they are the two talents he most practifeth, and most valueth himself upon. The ends he hath gained by lying appeared to be more owing to the frequency, than the art of them: His lies being fometimes detected in an hour, often in a day, and always in a week. He tells them freely in mixed companies, although he knows half of those that hear him to be his enemies, and is fure they will discover them the moment they leave him. He sweareth folemnly he loveth, and will ferve you; and your back is no fooner turned, but he tells thofe about him you are a dog and a rafcal. He goeth conftantly to prayers in the forms of his place, and will talk bawdy and blafphemy at the chapel door. He is a prefbyterian in politics, and an atheist in religion; but he chuseth at present to whore with a papist. In his commerce with mankind his general rule is, to endeavour to impofe on their understanding, for which he hath but one receipt, a compofition of lies and oaths: And this he applieth indifferently to a freeholder of forty fhillings, and a

privy counsellor; by which the easy and the honeft are often either deceived or amused, and either way he gaineth his point. He will openly take away your employment to-day, because you are not of his party; to-morrow he will meet or send for you, as if nothing at all had paffed, lay his hands with much friendship on your shoulders, and with the greatest eafe and familiarity, tell you that the faction are driving at fomething in the house; that you must be sure to attend, and to speak to all your friends to be there, although he knoweth at the fame time, that you and your friends are against him in the very point he mentioneth : And however abfurd, ridiculous, and grofs this may appear, he hath often found it fuccessful; some men having such an aukward bashfulness, they know not how to refuse on a sudden, and every man having fomething to hope or fear, which often hinders them from driving things to extremes with perfons of power, whatever provocations they may have received. He hath funk his fortune by endeavour