WILLIAM,

EARL COWPER,

[SON of sir William Cowper, bart. was brought up to the study of the law, and soon after being called to the bar, was chosen recorder of Chichester. He was king's counsel to William the third: soon after the accession of Anne was made lord-keeper of the great seal; and in 1706 created baron Cowper. In 1707 he was declared lord high-chancellor: and in 1716 was appointed lord high-steward for the trial of the rebel lords. In all his stations he acted with strict integrity, equanimity, and ability; and died on the 10th of Oct. 1723. 2

Ambrose Philips composed a long ode on his death, which thus speaks of his incorrupt judicial character:

"He the robe of justice wore

Sully'd not as heretofore,

2 Debrett's Peerage, and Collins's. A copious article of Lord Cowper was drawn up by Dr. Towers, in Biog. Brit. vol. iv. The duke of Wharton has told us, that he came not to the seals without a great deal of prejudice from the Tory party in general, among whom there was none but maligned him: but he had scarcely presided in that high station one year, before the scales became even, with the applause of both parties. True Briton, No. 39.

the true springs of private and domestic happiness; you had likewise so much more generosity of spirit and benevolence for mankind than they, as to insi

best servants of a

But as in doing

nuate gradually into the public, that as acting with all the noble simplicity of nature and common reason carries a man with ease and honour through all the scenes and offices of ordinary life; so the same principles which in friendship, love, and common converse and society, go to the composition of the person whom both sexes agree to call by the good-natured name of the generous, honest Man,' must necessarily contribute to the forming of the prince, and the truest patriots. this, you took a proper season to expose some of those brutish notions of government, and vile arts of wretched pretenders to politics, which are the bane of national felicity; you have provok'd your adversaries (while I was studying a compliment of thanks to you) to give you so high an encomium, that 't is impossible for me, with all the affection and veneration I have for you, to go beyond them. The writer of the Letter to the Examiner comparing you to Cato the censor, and forgetting (as men of his vivacity of imagination may be allow'd to do, without bringing their reading in question) that there were two Catos, applies to you Lucan's fam'd saying of the last:

'Victrix causa diis placuit, sed victa Catoni;

that however Providence dispos'd of events, he ad

This acute and polished production was printed in lord Somers's Tracts, 4th collect. vol. iv.; but its length precludes more than an extract complimentary to sir Richard Steele:

"I am not apt to judge too fondly of men by their first appearance: else, as the writer of the Letter to the Examiner has treated that author, I might have been tempted long since, and when I had seen little more than the Introduction to your Tatlers, to compliment you on your abilities.

"I own that from your setting out I hop'd for great benefit to the public from your lucubrations; but before you had passed a reasonable time of probation, one could not absolutely assure one's self, that you would make a right use of that excellent genius which Heaven has given you. Wit had so long and so generally been made to serve the vilest purposes, on pretence its end is to please, that the plainest truth in nature, namely, that honesty and pleasure are inseparable, seem'd irrecoverably sunk into oblivion, till you undertook to bring it up again into clear day, not by argument but example, by numerous sketches and some finish'd pieces drawn with irresistible strength and beauty.

"As you disclos'd your design by degrees, you had my esteem in proportion; and you will allow me to say, you had it not intire, till in the course of your papers I had observed that as you could discern and describe, much better than our Drydens and Lestranges,

ROBERT HARLEY,

EARL OF OXFORD.

THE history of this lord is too fresh in every body's memory to make it requisite to expatiate upon his character. What blemishes it had, have been so severely censured by the associate of his councils and politics, that a more distant observer has no pretence to enlarge on them. Besides, as the public conduct of this earl (to which alone I know any objections,) was called to such strict account by persons of my name, it would be an ungrateful task in me to renew any disturbance to his ashes. 3 He is only mentioned here as author of the following tracts:

"An Essay upon Public Credit, by Robert Harley, Esq." 1710.4

"An Essay upon Loans; by the Author of the Essay on Public Credit." 5

2 Lord Bolingbroke.

3 [Sir Egerton Brydges considered the earl of Oxford as much too great a man, on many accounts, to be thus slightly got rid of.] 4 Somers's Tracts, vol. ii. p. 1.

Ib. p. 10.