is
force was always superior to ours, he always endeavoured to avoid a
battle; and succeeded in that timorous policy except on two occasions,
when Lord Howe and afterwards Admiral Byron brought him to action, but
only with indecisive results.]

I am once more got abroad, but more pleased to be able to do so, than
charmed with anything I have to do. Having outlived the glory and
felicity of my country, I carry that reflection with me wherever I go.
Last night, at Strawberry Hill, I took up, to divert my thoughts, a
volume of letters to Swift from Bolingbroke, Bathurst, and Gay; and what
was there but lamentations on the ruin of England, in that era of its
prosperity and peace, from wretches who thought their own want of power
a proof that their country was undone! Oh, my father! twenty years of
peace, and credit, and happiness, and liberty, were punishments to
rascals who weighed everything in the scales of self? It was to the
honour of Pope, that, though leagued with such a crew, and though an
idolater of their archfiend Bolingbroke and in awe of the malignant
Swift, he never gave in to their venomous railings; railings against a
man who, in twenty years, never attempted a stretch of power, did
nothing but the common business of administration, and by that
temperance and steady virtue, and unalterable good-humour and superior
wisdom, baffled all the efforts of faction, and annihilated the falsely
boasted abilities of Bolingbroke,[1] which now appear as moderate as his
character was in every light detestable. But, alas! that retrospect
doubled my chagrin instead of diverting it. I soon forgot an impotent
cabal of mock-patriots; but the scene they vainly sought to disturb
rushed on my mind, and, like Hamlet on the sight of Yorick's skull, I
recollected the prosperity of Denmark when my father ruled, and compared
it with the present moment! I look about for a Sir Robert Walpole; but
where is he to be found?

[Footnote: 1 It is only the excess of party spirit that could lead
Walpole to call Bolingbroke's abilities moderate; and he had no attacks
on his father to resent, since, though Bolingbroke was in 1724 permitted
to return to England, he only received a partial pardon, and was not
permitted to take his seat in Parliament. Walpole has more reason to
pronounce his character detestable; for which opinion he might have
quoted Dr. Johnson, who, in reference to an infidel treatise which he
bequeathed to Mallet for publicati