se from lord Sunderland, that as soon as the present clamour was a
little abated, he would do something for him.

Mr. Budgell had held the considerable places of under secretary to the
Lord Lieutenant, and secretary to the Lords Justices for four years,
during which time he had never been absent four days from his office,
nor ten miles from Dublin. His application was indefatigable, and his
natural spirits capable of carrying him through any difficulty. He had
lived always genteelly, but frugally, and had saved a large sum of
money, which he now engaged in the South-Sea scheme. During his abode in
Ireland, he had collected materials for writing a History of that
kingdom, for which he had great advantages, by having an easy recourse
to all the public offices; but what is become of it, and whether he ever
finished it, we are not certainly informed. It is undoubtedly a
considerable loss, because there is no tolerable history of that nation,
and because we might have expected a satisfactory account from so
pleasing a writer.

He wrote a pamphlet, after he came to England, against the famous
Peerage Bill, which was very well received by the public, but highly
offended the earl of Sunderland. It was exceedingly cried up by the
opposition, and produced some overtures of friendship at the time, from
Mr. Robert Walpole, to our author. Mr. Addison's death, in the year
1719, put an end, however, to all his hopes of succeeding at court,
where he continued, nevertheless, to make several attempts, but was
constantly kept down by the weight of the duke of Bolton. In the
September of that year he went into France, through all the strong
places in Flanders and Brabant, and all the considerable towns in
Holland, and then went to Hanover, from whence he returned with his
Majesty's retinue the November following.

But the fatal year of the South-Sea, 1720, ruined our author entirely,
for he lost above 20,000 l. in it; however he was very active on that
occasion, and made many speeches at the general courts of the South-Sea
Company in Merchant-Taylors Hall, and one in particular, which was
afterwards printed both in French and English, and run to a third
edition. And in 1721 he published a pamphlet with success, called, A
Letter to a Friend in the Country, occasioned by a Report that there is
a Design still forming by the late Directors of the South-Sea Company,
their Agents and Associates, to issue the Receipts of the 3d and 4th
Subscri