ed her calamities, and the
name of an Englishman was reverenced through Europe, no poet was heard
amidst the general acclamation; the fame of our counsellors and heroes
was entrusted to the Gazetteer.

The nation, in time, grew weary of the war, and the queen grew weary of
her ministers. The war was burdensome, and the ministers were insolent.
Harley and his friends began to hope that they might, by driving the
whigs from court and from power, gratify, at once, the queen and the
people. There was now a call for writers, who might convey intelligence
of past abuses, and show the waste of publick money, the unreasonable
conduct of the allies, the avarice of generals, the tyranny of minions,
and the general danger of approaching ruin.

For this purpose a paper, called the Examiner, was periodically
published, written, as it happened, by any wit of the party, and
sometimes, as is said, by Mrs. Manley. Some are owned by Swift; and one,
in ridicule of Garth's verses to Godolphin upon the loss of his place,
was written by Prior, and answered by Addison, who appears to have known
the author either by conjecture or intelligence.

The tories, who were now in power, were in haste to end the war; and
Prior, being recalled, 1710, to his former employment of making
treaties, was sent, July, 1711, privately to Paris with propositions of
peace. He was remembered at the French court; and, returning in about a
month, brought with him the abbe Gaultier, and M. Mesnager, a minister
from France, invested with full powers.

This transaction not being avowed, Mackay, the master of the Dover
packet-boat, either zealously or officiously, seized Prior and his
associates at Canterbury. It is easily supposed that they were soon
released.

The negotiation was begun at Prior's house, where the queen's ministers
met Mesnager, September 20,1711, and entered privately upon the great
business. The importance of Prior appears from the mention made of him
by St. John in his letter to the queen.

"My lord treasurer moved, and all my lords were of the same opinion,
that Mr. Prior should be added to those who are empowered to sign; the
reason for which is, because he, having personally treated with monsieur
de Torcy, is the best witness we can produce of the sense in which the
general preliminary engagements are entered into: besides which, as he
is the best versed in matters of trade of all your majesty's servants
who have been trusted in this secret