ptions at 1000 l. per Cent. and to extort about 10 Millions more
from the miserable People of Great Britain; with some Observations on
the present State of Affairs both at Home and Abroad. In the same year
he published A Letter to Mr. Law upon his Arrival in Great Britain,
which run through seven editions very soon. Not long afterwards the duke
of Portland, whose fortune had been likewise destroyed by the South-Sea,
was appointed governor of Jamaica, upon which he immediately told Mr.
Budgell he should go with him as his secretary, and should always live
in the same manner with himself, and that he would contrive every method
of making the employment profitable and agreeable to him: but his grace
did not know how obnoxious our author had rendered himself; for within a
few days after this offer's taking air, he was acquainted in form by a
secretary of state, that if he thought of Mr. Budgell, the government
would appoint another governor in his room.

After being deprived of this last resource, he tried to get into the
next parliament at several places, and spent near 5000 l. in
unsuccessful attempts, which compleated his ruin. And from this period
he began to behave and live in a very different manner from what he had
ever done before; wrote libellous pamphlets against Sir Robert Walpole
and the ministry; and did many unjust things with respect to his
relations; being distracted in his own private fortune, as, indeed, he
was judged to be, in his senses; torturing his invention to find out
ways of subsisting and eluding his ill-stars, his pride at the same time
working him up to the highest pitches of resentment and indignation
against all courts and courtiers.

His younger brother, the fellow of New-College, who had more weight with
him than any body, had been a clerk under him in Ireland, and continued
still in the office, and who bad fair for rising in it, died in the year
1723, and after that our author seemed to pay no regard to any person.
Mr. William Budgell was a man of very good sense, extremely steady in
his conduct, and an adept in all calculations and mathematical
questions; and had besides great good-nature and easiness of temper.

Our author as I before observed, perplexed his private affairs from this
time as much as possible, and engaged in numberless law-suits, which
brought him into distresses that attended him to the end of his life.

In 1727 Mr. Budgell had a 1000 l. given him by the late Sarah, duc