all the books with the
form of business being secreted, and every thing thrown into the utmost
confusion; yet he surmounted these difficulties with very uncommon
resolution, assiduity, and ability, to his great honour and applause.
Within a twelvemonth of his entering upon his employments, the rebellion
broke out, and as, for several years (during all the absences of the
lord lieutenant) he had discharged the office of secretary of state, and
as no transport office at that time subsisted, he was extraordinarily
charged with the care of the embarkation, and the providing of shipping
(which is generally the province of a field-officer) for all the troops
to be transported to Scotland. However, he went through this extensive
and unusual complication of business, with great exactness and ability,
and with very singular disinterestedness, for he took no extraordinary
service money on this account, nor any gratuity, or fees for any of the
commissions which passed through his office for the colonels and
officers of militia then raising in Ireland. The Lords Justices pressed
him to draw up a warrant for a very handsome present, on account of his
great zeal, and late extraordinary pains (for he had often sat up whole
nights in his office) but he very genteely and firmly refused it.
Mr. Addison, upon becoming principal secretary of state in England in
1717, procured the place of accomptant and comptroller general of the
revenue in Ireland for Mr. Budgell, which is worth 400 l. a year, and
might have had him for his under secretary, but it was thought more
expedient for his Majesty's service, that Mr. Budgell should continue
where he was. Our author held these several places until the year 1718,
at which time the duke of Bolton was appointed lord lieutenant. His
grace carried one Mr. Edward Webster over with him (who had been an
under clerk in the Treasury) and made him a privy counsellor and his
secretary. This gentleman, 'twas said, insisted upon the quartering a
friend on the under secretary, which produced a misunderstanding between
them; for Mr. Budgell positively declared, he would never submit to any
such condition whilst he executed the office, and affected to treat Mr.
Webster himself, his education, abilities, and family, with the utmost
contempt. He was indiscreet enough, prior to this, to write a lampoon,
in which the lord lieutenant was not spared: he would publish it (so
fond was he of this brat of his brain) in o
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