13-05 TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THOMAS, EARL OF WHARTON.' MY LORD, HE author of the Spectator, having prefixed before each of his volumes the name of some great person to whom he has particular obligations, lays his claim to your Lordship's patronage upon the same account. I must confess, my Lord, had not I already received great instances of your favour, I should have been afraid of submitting a work of this nature to your perusal. 1 Thomas Wharton, born in 1640, was appointed by William III. Comptroller of the Household and a justice in Eyre. In 1706 he was created Viscount Winchendon and Earl of Wharton, and in 1708 Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland (when Addison became Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant). In 1714, after the accession of George I., Lord Wharton was made Lord Privy Seal, and given the titles of Marquis of Wharton and Malmesbury, in England, and Earl of Rathfarnham and Marquis Catherlough, in Ireland. He died in 1715, when he was succeeded by his son Philip, afterwards Duke of Wharton. Lord Wharton was a clever politician and a man of wit, but lacked the moral character of his Presbyterian father, the good b VOL. V. 131431 You are so thoroughly acquainted with the characters of men, and all the parts of human life, that it is impossible for the least misrepresentation of them to escape your notice. It is your Lordship's particular distinction that you are master of the whole compass of business, and have signalised yourself in all the different scenes of it. We admire some for the dignity, others for the popularity of their behaviour; some for their clearness of judgment, others for their happiness of expression; some for the laying of schemes, and others for the putting of them in execution. It is your Lordship only who enjoys these several talents united, and that, too, in as great perfection as others possess them singly. Your enemies acknowledge this great extent in your Lordship's character, at the same time that they use their utmost industry and invention to derogate from it. But it is for your honour that those who are now your enemies were always so. You have acted in so much consistency with yourself, and promoted the interests of your country in so uniform a manner, that even those who would misrepresent Lord Wharton.' Swift attacked him bitterly in 'A Short Character of His Excellency Thomas, Earl of Wharton,' 1710, and in A Pretended Letter of Thanks from Lord Wharton to the Lord Bishop of St. Asaph,' 1712. In the Tatler (No. 130) Wharton's zeal for the Protestant Interest,' and dexterity in defeating the skill and artifice of its enemies,' were adduced as proofs of his fitness to govern Ireland. your generous designs for the public good, cannot but approve the steadiness and intrepidity with which you pursue them. It is a most sensible pleasure to me that I have this opportunity of professing myself one of your great admirers, and, in a very particular manner, MY LORD, Your Lordship's most obliged, And most obedient humble Servant, THE SPECTATOR. Ad humum mærore gravi deducit et angit. -HOR., Ars Poet. 110. T is often said, after a man has heard a story with extraordinary circumstances, 'It is a very good one if it be true'; but as for the following relation, I should be glad were I sure it were false. It is told with such simplicity, and there are so many artless touches of distress in it, that I fear it comes too much from the heart. 'Mr. SPECTATOR, 'SOME years ago it happened that I lived in the same house with a young gentleman of merit; with whose good qualities I was so much taken, as |