THOMAS, MARQUIS OF WHARTON, [THE Son of Philip, lord Wharton, was created viscount Winchendon and earl of Wharton in 1706, was appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland in 1708 2, and in 1714 lord privy seal and custos rotulorum for the county of Westmorland. In the same year he was advanced to the title of marquis of Wharton and Malmsbury by George the first, and died in 1715.3 2 On this occasion an ode was addressed to him by Phil. Horneck, L.L.B. a writer rescued from utter decay by being pickled in the Dunciad. s A poem to the marquis's memory was printed in Dodsley's Collection, vol. v., and contains, among many other encomiums, the following tribute to his patriotism: "Nor bribes nor threat'nings could his zeal abate To serve his country, and avert her fate. 66 "He was a complete statesman," says Bolton *; a principal promoter of the revolution; zealous for the Hanover settlement; of great sagacity, elocution, and spirit." Dr. Percy attributes to this lord Wharton the Irish ballad of "Lilliburlero," on the authority of a small pamphlet cited in the last edition of the Reliques of English Poetry 5; and though the rhymes are slight and insignificant, "they had once," he observes," a more powerful effect than the Philippics of Demosthenes or Cicero, and contributed not a little towards the revolution in 1688."6 Dr. Warburton has given his lordship a higher title to the rank of authorship, by a letter inserted in Farnworth's edition of The Works of Nic. Machiavel, which contains the following information: Lord Shaftesbury drew a less partial estimate of the marquis in 1709, when writing to Mr. Molesworth: "Your character of lord Wharton is very generous: I am glad to hear so well of him. If ever I expected any publick good where virtue was wholly sunk, 't was in his character: the most mysterious of any, in my account, for this reason. But I have seen many proofs of this monstrous compound in him, of the very best and worst." See also art. of lord Shaftesbury, p. 61. Swift drew a horrible picture of this peer, and Curll published his will. A short charac ter of him was printed in 1714. + Extinct Peerage, p. 302. 5 Vol. ii. p. 376. • See Burnet's Hist. vol. iii. 7 Vol. iv. p. 361. ed. 1775. "There is at the end of the English translation of Machiavel's works, printed in folio, 1680, a translation of a pretended letter of Machiavel to Zenobius Buondelmontius, in vindication of himself and his writings. I believe it has been generally understood to be a feigned thing, and has by some been given to Nevil, he who wrote, if I be not mistaken, the Plato Redivivus. But many years ago a number of the famous marquis of Wharton's papers (the father of the duke) were put into my hands. Amongst these was the press-copy of this remarkable letter in the marquis's hand writing; as I took it to be, compared with other papers of his. The person who intrusted me with these papers, and who, I understood, had given them to me, called them back out of my hands, &c. "W. GLOUCESTER." "Prior Park, May 17. 1762." The pretended letter extends to twenty-six octavo pages, and can only therefore be characterized by a very contracted specimen : "That which the world calls rebellion, I believe to be not only rising in arms against any government we live under, but to extend to all clandestine conspiracies too, by which the peace and quiet of any country may be interrupted, and by consequence the lives and estates of innocent persons endangered. Rebellion then, so described, I hold to be the greatest crime that can be committed amongst men, both against policy, morality, and in foro conscientiæ: but notwithstanding all this, it is an offence which will be committed whilst the world lasts, as often as princes tyrannize, and by enslaving and oppressing the subjects, make magistracy, which was intended for the benefit of mankind, prove a plague and destruction to it for let the terror and the guilt be ever so great, it is impossible that human nature, which consists of passion as well as virtue, can support with patience and submission the greatest cruelty and injustice, whenever either the weakness of their princes, the unanimity of the people, or any other favourable accident shall give them reasonable hopes to mend their condition, and provide better for their own interest by insurrection. So that princes and states ought, in the conduct of their affairs, not only to submit to, if they were inspired by Heaven, or were all moral philosophers, but to weigh likewise what is probable, de facto, to fall out in this corrupt age of the world; and to reflect upon those dangerous tumults which have happened frequently not only upon oppression, but even by reason of malversation, and how some monarchies have been wholly subverted and changed into democracies by the tyranny of their princes." Lord Wharton's well-known ballad of Lilliburlero 8 was occasioned by the appointment of general Talbot, • Lilliburlero and Bullen-a-lah, are said to have been the words of distinction used by the Irish Papists in their massacre of the Protestants in 1641. See Percy's Reliques, ut sup. |