1710, he was appointed a commissioner of the Stamp Duties, which he retained after that ministry was dismissed by whose favour the place had been conferred. The Tatler was almost immediately followed by the Spectator and Guardian. In the course of the Guardian he began to take a greater share in the politics of the day, and engaged with considerable warmth against the ministry, though rather covertly but at length resigning his place in the Stamp Office, and a pension which he had enjoyed as belonging to the household of Prince George of Denmark, he declared open war against the ministers, by publishing a Guardian on the demolition of Dunkirk, and other political tracts. On the dissolution of parliament he was returned member for Stockbridge, in Hampshire; but was expelled the house a few days after he took his seat, for some publications which were voted to be seditious and scandalous libels. The most celebrated of these, The Crisis,' requires some notice here, that its proper author may be assigned. That Steele's name appeared to it, and that he was punished for it, is certain; but a letter published lately by Dr. Somerville, in his 'History of the Reign of Queen Anne,' proves that it was written by Mr. William Moore, a lawyer, and a coadjutor of Steele's in the Englishman,' and perhaps in other political effusions. This letter, dated June 6,

6

1716, is addressed to the late Lord Macclesfield, then lord chancellor. It is probable that Steele had the courage to stand the prosecution, perhaps thinking it might end in a reprimand, and could not with honour retract, or give up the real author, when matters came to be more serious. Moore, indeed, speaks lightly of Steele's punishment: Had matters been carried to extremities against that gentleman (Steele) on account of that book, my fate would certainly have been more severe than his; for my profession as a lawyer would have been esteemed an aggravation of my crime by the then ministry, and consequently of my punishment.' The reader, however, must yet consult Steele's 'Apology,' before he can be entirely satisfied that he had not such a share in the production of this pamphlet as rendered it necessary for him to abide the consequences.

Immediately after his expulsion, Steele issued proposals for writing the history of the Duke of Marlborough, whose character he always defended; but this work was never executed. At the same time he wrote The Spinster;' and, in opposition to the Examiner, he began a paper entitled 'The Reader.'

*

This contest was beneficial in the end. On the death of the Queen, he was appointed Surveyor of the Royal Stables at

*See Preface to Guardian.

Hampton Court, and put into the commission of the peace for the county of Middlesex; and having procured a license for chief manager of the royal company of comedians, he easily obtained it to be changed in the same year (1714) into a patent from his Majesty, appointing him governor of the said company during his life, and to his executors, administrators, or assigns, for the space of three years afterwards. He was also chosen one of the representatives of Boroughbrigg, in Yorkshire, in the first parliament of George I., who conferred the honour of knighthood upon him, April 8, 1715, on his presenting an address from the Lieutenancy of Middlesex and Westminster, which was his own composition. In August following, he received 500l. from Sir Robert Walpole, for special services. Such honours and emoluments encouraged him to triumph over his opponents in several pamphlets written in this and the following year. In 1715, he was appointed one of the commissioners for enquiring into the estates forfeited by the late rebellion in Scotland. This occasioned his paying a visit to that kingdom, during which he conceived the hopeless project of uniting England and Scotland in church, as well as state. While

*

*See this affair, which was strangely misrepresented at the time, satisfactorily explained in Nichols's Life of Welsted, prefixed to his Works, p. 22, 8vo. 1787.

a member of this parliament, he voted for a repeal of the Triennial Act, and of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts; but opposed the Peerage Bill, not only within doors, but without, in a paper called 'The Plebeian.'

6

With all the advantages above mentioned, Steele never practised economy: and in 1718 we find him endeavouring to relieve his necessities by the scheme of The Fishpool,' and at the same time increasing them by a fruitless opposition to the measures of the Court, by which he was deprived of his theatrical patent. He then published The Theatre,' in periodical numbers, the first of which appeared on January 2, 1719-20. In 1720, he more laudably employed his pen against the mischievous South Sea scheme; and next year he was restored to his office and authority in the play-house in Drury-lane. Here he produced his celebrated comedy 'The Conscious Lovers,' which was acted with great success and advantage to the author. The King, to whom the play was dedicated, presented him with the munificent gift of 5001. Yet, soon after, he was again reduced to poverty, and obliged to sell his share in the theatre, and was cast in an action which he commenced against the managers, in 1726. He is now said to have been attacked by a paralytic disorder,* which

* It is with great pleasure, I copy the following correction

greatly impaired his understanding; and in this melancholy state he was removed to Carmarthen, where he died, Sept. 1, 1729, and was privately interred, according to his own desire, in the town chancel, on the 4th of the same month.

His first wife was a lady of Barbadoes, by whom he acquired a valuable plantation. She died a few months after her marriage; but of her name, character, or the time of her death, we have no account.* His second wife was Mary, the daughter of Jonathan Scurlock, of Languanor in Carmarthenshire, Esq., by whom he had three children, a daughter, Elizabeth, born

of this statement: 'Steele retired into Wales before he had the paralytic stroke, that deprived him of his intellectual faculties, and solely on the principle of doing justice to his creditors, at a time too when he had the fairest prospect of satisfying all their claims to the uttermost farthing.' Tatler, (8vo Edit. 1806,) note on No. 176; which also contains an able vindication of Steele from a distorted sketch drawn by Mrs. Talbot. See also No. 251, note on Whiston.-Some anecdotes, very honourable to Steele's character, are given in Victor's Original Letters, vol. i. pp. 327, 350; but it is more highly indebted to Dr. Rundle's Anticipation of the posthumous Character of Sir Richard Steele, published by the Rev. Weeden Butler, in his very interesting life of the amiable Dr. Mark Hildesley, Bishop of Sodor and Man, 8vo. 1799.

*This lady is supposed to be alluded to in Tatler, No. 117; if so she was of a Kentish family. Yet this paper was written by Addison. Of the incident supposed to relate to Mrs. Steele, Dr. Beattie says, 'One of the finest moral tales I ever read is an account in the Tatler, which, though it has every appearance of a real dream, comprehends a moral so sublime and so interesting, that I question whether any man who attends to it can ever forget it; and, if he remembers, whether he can ever cease to be the better for it.' Dissertations, Moral and Critical, 4to. 1783.