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ADDENDA.

Mr. Malone, in his Life of Dryden, is very angry with Stringer for relating the anecdote inserted in p. 20, and with Martyn for copying from him. He has clearly proved that it is untrue. Erasmus-Henry, the poet's youngest son, and the only one educated at the Charter-house, was not admitted until February 5, 1682-3, a few days after Shaftesbury's death. He was admitted upon the nomination of Charles the Second. Malone only knew this work from the quotations from it in Kippis's article in the Biographia Britannica. The refutation is equally honourable to the Earl and the poet to the Earl, as affording the highest proof of his judicial integrity, since it drew such admiration from an enemy; to the poet, as releasing him from that imputation of ingratitude which must have rested upon him had he written his poem of the Medal against a man from whom he had received so important an obligation.

The following paragraph was omitted in Vol. I. page 320, after line 13:

"The original article has since been published by Lord John Russell, in his Life of Lord William Russell, and the treaty at length by Dr. Lingard, in the Appendix to the seventh. volume of his History of England; but although the sums stipulated to be paid by Louis were considerably less than those stated in the draft, the scope of the treaty was precisely the same."

THE LIFE

OF THE

EARL OF SHAFTESBURY.

INTRODUCTION.

HISTORIES of former ages are allowed to be useful, by bringing down their most illustrious persons to our acquaintance, and giving us the benefit of their conduct. But the examples of excellent men of our own country must have a more lively and extensive influence; because we are engaged in the same interest, have the same constitution to preserve, and, perhaps, ought to pursue the same measures which they have espoused, and with steadiness and vigour maintained. The true spirit of liberty is cultivated by observing the lives of its assertors; and an impartial review of the principles and proceedings of our most eminent patriots may probably raise up and animate new ones. If to oppose a growing arbitrary

VOL. I.

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power in every insidious and artful step of its progress-to be first in raising, and the chief in conducting, a legal, constitutional, and spirited opposition, at the expense of ease, health, and fortune, at the utmost hazard of life and in the most critical times, be the characteristic of a patriot, no man ever had a juster title to it than the first Earl of Shaftesbury, who seems to have imbibed in early youth the genuine spirit and love of English liberty. Its generous flame he cultivated and improved in maturer life, and maintained an inviolable attachment to its essential interests to the very last. The love of liberty was his ruling passion. Neither sickness, sufferings, nor age itself could weaken its force. His zeal for the public was as ardent, as the occasion for it was extraordinary. The violence of the court measures required a person as active and steady as he was. A lukewarm zeal had been insufficient, and had only strengthened the hands of the court against the people.

If it be considered with how much acrimony his character was treated in his life-time by venal writers for a corrupted court, incensed at his conduct and interested in his destruction, or with what credulity later authors have taken up all the

aspersions then thrown upon him, and with what partiality they have misrepresented him, it may be thought an act of justice to set him in a true light; and as this is done in the following work by a plain narrative of his actions and conduct, supported by the evidence of authentic vouchers, I have no doubt but the attempt will be received with that candour to which truth is always entitled.

It is not only a justice to his memory, but may be of advantage to the public; for if fixing ignominy upon those who interest themselves in a peculiar manner for their country may discourage others from an active life, the removal of that ignominy may incite them to follow such examples.

The Earl of Shaftesbury had himself written a history of his own times, and, when he was forced to fly into Holland to avoid the designs which the court had formed against him, he intrusted it to the care of Mr. Locke, with whom he became acquainted upon the following occasion. When he was at Oxford, in the year 1666, he was confined to his chamber by an illness, which was owing to an accident he met with at the Restoration. He had been sent with other commissioners from the parliament to Breda, to invite King

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