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scribe the stature, the behaviour, and aspect of the Duke of Marlborough, I question not but it would fill the reader with more agreeable images, and give him a more delightful entertainment, than Gloucester, whom King William delivered into his hands with this remarkable expression, My lord, make him but what you are, and my nephew will be all that I wish to see him.' Upon the accession of Queen Anne to the throne, he was made a knight of the garter, and captain-general of her majesty's forces, and sent over to Holland with the character of ambassador extraordinary, and minister plenipotentiary. The States too, in compliment to the Queen, and as a proof of their being sensible of the Earl's own merit, constituted him captain-general of their forces, and assigned him a pension of one hundred thousand florins per annum. To relate all the atchievements he performed during the ten years that ensued, i. e. from 1702 to 1712, would be almost to give a history of Queen Anne's reign. It may be sufficient here to observe, that he defeated the French armies, though headed by their ablest generals, and always superior to him in point of number, in several pitched battles, at Blenheim, at Ramilies, at Oudenard, at Malplaquet, &c. ; that he reduced almost every place of importance in the French and Spanish Netherlands; saved the empire; secured the United Provinces; raised the glory and consequence of Great Britain; and humbled the pride of the French monarch to such a degree, that that ambitious prince, who, but a few years before, had seized, in imagination, the dominions of all his neighbours, now began, in earnest, to tremble for his own. In a word, it may be said of this general, what can hardly be said of any other, that he never fought a battle which he did not gain, nor ever besieged a town which he did not take. Even in the earlier part of his life, he gave evident signs of what he afterwards proved. Prince Vaudemont, it is said, delivered himself to King William in the following terms: There is somewhat in the Earl of Marlborough, that I VOL. IV.

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what can be found in the following, or any other book.

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One cannot, indeed, without offence to yourself, observe, that you excel the rest of mankind

want words to express; he has all the fierceness of Kirke, all the judgment of Laniere, all the conduct of Mackay, and all the intrepidity of Colchester; and either my skill in faces deceives me, which yet it never did, or he will make a greater figure as a general, than any subject your majesty has.' The king smiled, and replied,' Marlborough is obliged to you; but I really believe you will lose no credit by your prediction.' His great merit met with a suitable reward. He was honoured, six different times, with the thanks of the house of commons, was created a duke, had a pension of five thousand pounds a year settled upon him out of the post-office revenue, and was presented with the manor of Woodstock and the hundred of Wotton, where the queen caused to be erected for him a noble edifice, called Blenheim-house, in memory of the victory which he had gained at that place. He was likewise created a prince of the empire, by the title of Prince of Mildenheim, in the province of Swabia. His prudence and moderation were equal to his other great qualities. For when, upon the change of the ministry in 1710, he found his interest at court considerably diminished, or rather totally annihilated, he still continued to serve his country in his military capacity; and when stripped of his command about two years after, and even cruelly and unjustly persecuted, instead of embroiling the administration by his personal disputes, he retired into a foreign country, where he remained till the decease of Queen Anne; and returning to England at the accession of King George the First, he was by that prince re-instated in all his former employments. He died June 16, 1722, in the seventy-third year of his age, and was interred with great funeral pomp in Westminster-abbey.

in the least, as well as the greatest endowments. Nor were it a circumstance to be mentioned, if the graces and attractions of your person were not the only pre-eminence you have above others, which is left, almost, unobserved by greater

writers.

Yet how pleasing would it be to those who shall read the surprising revolutions in your story, to be made acquainted with your ordinary life and deportment! How pleasing would it be to hear, that the same man who carried fire and sword into the countries of all that had opposed the cause of liberty, and struck a terror into the armies of France, had, in the midst of his high station, a behaviour as gentle as is usual in the first steps towards greatness! And if it were possible to express that easy grandeur, which did at once persuade and command, it would appear as clearly to those to come, as it does to his contemporaries, that all the great events which were brought to pass under the conduct of so wellgoverned a spirit, were the blessings of Heaven upon wisdom and valour; and all which seem adverse fell out by divine permission, which we are not to search into.

You have passed that year of life wherein the most able and fortunate captain, before your time, declared he had lived enough both to nature and to glory; and your Grace may make that reflec

tion with much more justice. He spoke it after he had arrived at empire by an usurpation upon those whom he had enslaved; but the Prince of Mindelheim may rejoice in a sovereignty which was the gift of him whose dominions he had preserved.

Glory established upon the uninterrupted success of honourable designs and actions, is not subject to diminution; nor can any attempts prevail against it, but in the proportion which the narrow circuit of rumour bears to the unlimited extent of fame.

We may congratulate your Grace not only upon your high atchievements, but likewise upon the happy expiration of your command, by which your glory is put out of the power of fortune: and when your person shall be so too, that the Author and Disposer of all things may place you in that higher mansion of bliss and immortality which is prepared for good princes, law-givers, and heroes, when he in his due time removes them from the envy of mankind, is the hearty prayer of,

MY LORD,

Your Grace's most obedient,

Most devoted humble servant,

THE SPECTATOR.

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I AM very sorry to find by your discourse upon the eye', that you have not thoroughly studied the nature and force of that part of a beauteous face. Had you ever been in love, you would have said ten thousand things, which it seems did not occur to you. Do but reflect upon the nonsense it makes men talk, the flames which it is said to kindle, the transport it raises, the dejection it causes in the bravest men; and if you do believe those things are expressed to an extravagance, yet you will own, that the influence of it is very great, which moves men to that extravagance. Certain it is, that the whole strength of the mind is sometimes seated there; that a kind look imparts all that a year's discourse could give you, in one moment. What matters it what

N° 250. Let. I.

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