from that real worth, inftead of promoting the character of either, did but leffen, and render it fufpicious. I leave you, therefore, to the great opportunities, which are daily in your power, of bestowing on yourself what nobody else can give you; and, wishing you health and profperity, I omit to dwell upon fome very late actions of yours in public, which unhappy prejudices made as little expected from you, as the zeal and foli-. citude which you fhewed for my private interefts in the fuccefs of this Play. I fhall fay no more, trusting to the gallantry of your temper for further proofs of friendship; and allowing you, like a true woman, all the good qualities. in the world now I am pleased with you, as well as I gave you all the ill ones when I was angry with you. I remain with the greatest truth, Sir, your most humble, moft faithful, and moft obliged fervant, DE LA RIVIER MANLEY.

I

LETTER

MY LORD,

CCCCLI.

To Bishop HOADLY *.

[1718].

HOPE I shall be able to wait upon you at the place you command me at three of the

clock

*Dr. Benjamin Hoadly, born at Wefterham in Kent, Nov. 14, 1676; admitted Penfioner of Catharine Hall, Cambridge,

Feb.

clock on Monday next. There is no great danger of your affuming more power than is welcome you never exert fo much as is voluntarily given you*. Coming home the other night, after your great condefcenfion in liking fuch pleasures as I entertained your Lordship with, I made the diftich, which you will find if you turn over the leaf:

Virtue with fo much ease on Bangor fits,

All faults he pardons, though he none commits. I am, my Lord, your moft obliged, most obedient, humble fervant, RICHARD STEELE.

LETTER

In 1701, he

Feb. 18, 1691; elected Fellow, Aug. 23, 1697. was appointed lecturer of St. Mildred, in The Poultry. In 1704 he obtained the rectory of St. Peter's Poor, in Broad Street; and Feb. 13, 1710, was prefented to the rectory of Streatham in Surrey. Feb. 16, 1715-16, he was admitted and fworn King's Chaplain; and confecrated Bishop of Bangor March 18. In 1721 he was tranflated to Hereford, and confirmed Nov. 3. In 1723 he was tranflated to Salisbury, and confirmed Oct. 29. And, eleven years after, was advanced to the bishoprick of Winchefter, (confirmed Sept. 16, 1734,) which he held near twentyfeven years; till, on April 17, 1761, at his palace at Chelsea, in the feme calm he had enjoyed amidst all the storms that blew around him, he died, full of years and honours, beloved and regretted by all good men, in the 85th year of his age. His ufeful labours, which will ever be efteemed by all lovers of the natural, civil, and religious rights of Englishmen, were collected, in three folio volumes, by his fon, Dr. John Hoadly, chancellor of Winchester, the laft furviving male of a very numerous and refpectable family, who prefixed to that publication a fhort account of the venerable Bishop's life.

*See before pp. 173, 180, 189.

+ The following article is extracted from a letter written by Dr. John Hoadly: "My father, when Bishop of Bangor, was,

"by

LETTER CCCCLII*.

To the Right Hon. Sir JOHN WARD, Knight, Lord Mayor of London.

MY LORD,

[1718.] SI think it manifeft that the defign, explained in the following account, will introduce a new and profitable course of trade; I

A

"by invitation, prefent at one of the Whig-meetings, held at "The Trumpet in Shoe Lane, where Sir Richard, in his zeal, "rather exposed himself, having the double duty of the day upon “ him, as well to celebrate the immortal memory of King Wil"liam, it being the 4th of November, as to drink his friend "ADDISON up to conversation-pitch, whose phlegmatic confti"tution was hardly warmed for fociety by that time STEELE "was not fit for it. Two remarkable circumstances happened: "John SLY, the hatter, of facetious memory, was in the house, "and, when pretty mellow, took it into his head to come into "the company on his knees, with a tankard of ale in his hand, “to drink off to the immortal memory, and to retire in the same "manner. STEELE, fitting next my father, whispered him, Do "laugh; it is humanity to langh. Sir Richard, in the evening, "being too much in the fame condition, was put into a chair, "and fent home. Nothing would ferve him but being carried "to the Bishop of Bangor's, late as it was. However, the "chairmen carried him home, and got him up ftairs, when his 66 great complaifance would wait on them down ftairs, which he “did, and then was got quietly to bed. The next morning he "was much ashamed, and fent the Bishop the diftich printed "above. On fuch another occafion the waiters were hoisting “ him into an hackney-coach, with some labour and pains, when "a Tory mob was paffing, with their cry, DowN WITH THE "RUMP!-Up with the Rump, cried Sir Richard, or I fall not "be at home to-night."

*Prefixed to the "Account of the Fish-Pool;" of which fee feveral of the preceding Letters, particularly Lett. CCLXXIX. P. 165.

3

prefume

presume to address this narration to the greatest magiftrate of the greatest commercial city.

Your perfonal eminent qualities, as a good citizen and man of bufinefs, which I have frequently heard you exert, where you, with great ability, represent the fame city in another honourable character *, entitle you also to the veneration and esteem which determine me in my present application.

The arts and sciences (in which I pretend to no accurate skill) fhould always be employed in enquiries that may tend to the general advantage; and they muft lose the name of liberal, when the profeffors of them feclude themselves from fociety, or live in it without applying their abilities to the service of it. For it is by the joint force of men of different talents that useful purpofes are beft accomplished; and a certain felicity of invention in one, joined to the experi ence and practical skill of another, may bring works to perfection, which would be fo far from growth, that they would not fo much as have had birth, but from the good intelligence be tween perfons of unlike abilities, whose good will towards each other united their endeavours.

*He reprefented the city of London in the parliaments elected in 1708 and 1714, and the borough of Dunwich in 1722. He was elected Alderman of Candlewick Ward in 1709; ferved the office of Sheriff in 1716, and that of Lord Mayor in 1718-19. He was also one of the Directors of the Bank; and died March 12, 1725-6.

I dare promise your Lordship, that the correfpondence between the undertakers of this defign, will produce to the world many other operations*, which will create more wonder that they were not performed before, than that they are now brought into ufe. For it is certain, that great and worthy works are every day loft, by the distance which is kept between men, from the very reason which should make them feek each other in their different ways of life and education.

Among the employments of human life, that of the merchant (whofe good is the good of all men) fhould by all be held in the firft efteem: it is he who enlarges the interefts of his country; it is he, who, by his credit, makes his fellow-citizen every where at home, and extends the offices, advantages, and civilities, of acquaintance and neighbourhood, to all parts of the habitable world.

The following invention is proposed to be carried on with a fuperior regard to the laws and rights of commerce, which oblige every man to think of himself but in the second place,

*If it were not that Steele had been, long before this time, laughed at as a chemift who was fearching in vain for the philofopher's ftone, one might have supposed, from this passage, that "the laboratory at Poplar, now converted into a garden-house," was the scene of the secret operations whence the Fish Pool and other wonderful difcoveries were to originate. See Supplement to Swift, cr. 8vo, vol. I. p. 111.

or