ill confess my own weakness to you.
I do not think so highly of that writer, as I seem to do in my book; but
I thought it would be imputed to prejudice in me, if I appeared to
undervalue an author of whom so many persons of sense still think
highly. My being Sir Robert Walpole's son warped me to praise, instead
of censuring Lord Bolingbroke. With regard to the Duke of Leeds,[2] I
think you have misconstrued the decency of my expression. I said,
_Burnet_[3] _had treated him severely_; that is, I chose that Burnet
should say so, rather than myself. I have never praised where my heart
condemned. Little attentions, perhaps, to worthy descendants, were
excusable in a work of so extensive a nature, and that approached so
near to these times. I may, perhaps, have an opportunity, at one day or
other of showing you some passages suppressed on these motives, which
yet I do not intend to destroy.

[Footnote 1: Sir R. Walpole was so far from having any personal quarrel
with Bolingbroke, that he took off so much of his outlawry as banished
him, though he would not allow him to take his seat in the House of
Peers.]

[Footnote 2: This celebrated statesman was originally Sir Thomas
Osborne. On the dissolution of the Cabal Ministry he was raised to the
peerage as Earl of Danby, and was appointed Lord Treasurer. An attempt
to impeach him, which was prompted by Louis XIV., was baffled by
Charles. Under William III. he was appointed President of the Council,
being the recognised leader of the Tory section of the Ministry; and in
the course of the reign he was twice promoted--first to be Marquis of
Carmarthen, and subsequently to be Duke of Leeds.]

[Footnote 3: Burnet, the Bishop of Salisbury, to whose "Memoirs of His
Own Time" all subsequent historians are greatly indebted. He accompanied
William to England as his chaplain.]

Crew,[1] Bishop of Durham, was as abject a tool as possible. I would be
very certain he is an author before I should think him worth mentioning.
If ever you should touch on Lord Willoughby's sermon, I should be
obliged for a hint of it. I actually have a printed copy of verses by
his son, on the marriage of the Princess Royal; but they are so
ridiculously unlike measure, and the man was so mad and so poor, that I
determined not to mention him.

[Footnote 1: Crew was Bishop of Durham. He is branded by Macaulay (c. 6)
as "mean, vain, and cowardly." He accepted a seat on James's
Ecclesiastical Commission, and when