BOLINGBROKE, HENRY ST. Joinv, Viscount, b. at Battersea, Oct. 1, 1678, was edu cated at Eton and Oxford, after which he traveled for about two years on the continent, and in 1700, shortly after his return, married the daughter of Sir henry Winclicomb, from whom, however, he soon separated. Up to this period, he was chiefly notable for his extreme dissipation; but having entered parliament in 1701, he devoted himself to politics, and joining the tory- party, soon made himself prominent as an orator. In 1704, made secretary at war. This office he retained till 1708, when the whigs came into power, after which he retired from politics, and gave himself up to study, but still retained great influence as the queen's favorite counselor. On the fall of the whig party in 1710, he was made secretary of state for foreign affairs. In 1712, he was called to the house of lords by the title of viscount Bolingbroke, and in 1713, against the wish of nearly the entire nation, concluded the peace of Utrecht. Having previously quar reled with his old friend Harley—now earl of Oxford, and his most powerful rival—he contrived his dismissal in July, 1714, and immediately proceeded to form a strong Jaco bite ministry, in accordance with the well-known predilections of his royal mistress, Whose death, however, a few days after, disconcerted his dangerous and unprincipled schemes. The accession of George I. proved a death-blow to his prospects. On the 28th of Aug., he was deposed from office; in Mar., 1715. he fled to France; and in Aug. ,of the same year was attainted. For sonic time he held the office of secretary of state to the pretender; but his restless and ambitious spirit yearned for the "large excite ment" of English politics. His efforts to obtain a pardon not proving in the mean time successful, he retired to a small estate which he had purchased near Orleans. In 1718, his first wife (lied, and in 1720 he married the rich widow of the marquis de Vilette. A
judicious use of this lady's wealth enabled him to return to England in Sept., 1724. His property was him, but be was never permitted to take his seat in parlia ment. He therefore betook himself to his villa at Hawley, near Uxbridge, where he occasionally enjoyed the society of Swift, Pope, and others of his old friends with whom be had corresponded in his exile, and where he diversified his moral and metaphysical studies by his attacks on the ministry in his periodical, the Craftsman, in which the let ters forming his Dissertation on Parties first appeared. In 1735, finding his political hopes clouded forever, lie went back to France, in deep chagrin, and continued there till 1742. During this second residence abroad, lie wrote his Letters on the Study of History, in which he violently attacked the Christian religion. He died, after a long illness, 1751. His talents were brilliant and versatile; his style of writing was polished and eloquent; but the fatal lack of sincerity and honest purpose which characterized him, and the low and unscrupulous ambition which made him scramble for power with a selfish indiffer ence to national security, hindered him from looking wisely and deeply into any ques tion. His philosophical theories are not profound, nor his conclusions solid, while his criticism of passing history is worthless in the extreme. He was one of those clever, unscrupulous men, unhappily too common, who forget that God has something to do with the government of this world as well as themselves. and who, in spite of all their ability, can never see that swift destruction treads, like Nemesis, on the heels of those who dare to trifle with the interests and destinies of a great people. His collected writ ings were published by Mallet (5 vols., Land. 1753-54).