ices. He was Secretary to a Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland more than once; he was made Secretary to the
"Regents," as they were called--the commissioners intrusted by George
the First with the task of administration previous to his arrival in
England. He sat in Parliament; he was appointed Under-secretary of
State, and was soon to be for a while one of the principal Secretaries
of State. The last number of his _Spectator_ was published at the
close of 1714. This was indeed still a time when literary men might
hold high political office. The deadening influence of the Georges had
not yet quite prevailed against letters and art. Matthew Prior, about
whose poetry the present age troubles itself but little, sat in
Parliament, was employed in many of the most important diplomatic
negotiations of the day, and had not long before this time held the
office of Plenipotentiary in Paris. Richard Steele not merely sat in
the House of Commons, but was considered of sufficient importance to
deserve the distinction of a formal expulsion from the House because of
certain political diatribes for which he was held responsible and which
the Commons chose to vote libellous. At the time we are now describing
he had re-entered Parliament, and was still a brilliant penman on the
side of the Whigs. His career as politician, literary man, and
practical dramatist combined, seems in some sort a foreshadowing of
that of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Gay was appointed Secretary to Lord
Clarendon on a diplomatic mission to Hanover. Nicholas Rowe, the
author of the "Fair Penitent" and the translator of Lucan's
"Pharsalia," was at one time an Under-Secretary of State. Rowe's
dramatic work is not yet absolutely forgotten by the world. We still
hear of the "gallant gay Lothario," although many of those who are glib
with the words do not know that they come from the "Fair Penitent," and
would not care even if they did know.

{39}

CHAPTER III.

"LOST FOR WANT OF SPIRIT."

[Sidenote: 1714--The Duke of Ormond]

When Bolingbroke found himself in full power he began at once to open the
way for some attempt at the restoration of the Stuart dynasty. He put
influential Jacobites into important offices in England and Scotland; he
made the Duke of Ormond Warden of the Cinque Ports, that authority
covering exactly the stretch of coast at some point of which it might be
expected that James Stuart would land if he were to make an attempt for
the