l tribe,
Smile without art and win without a bribe.

Another Whig statesman for whom Pope seems to have entertained an
especially warm regard was James Craggs, Addison's successor as
Secretary of State, who died whilst under suspicion of peculation in the
South Sea business (1721). The Whig connexion might have been turned to
account. Craggs during his brief tenure of office offered Pope a pension
of 300_l._ a year (from the secret service money), which Pope declined,
whilst saying that, if in want of money, he would apply to Craggs as a
friend. A negotiation of the same kind took place with Halifax, who
aimed at the glory of being the great literary patron. It seems that he
was anxious to have the Homer dedicated to him, and Pope, being
unwilling to gratify him, or, as Johnson says, being less eager for
money than Halifax for praise, sent a cool answer, and the negotiation
passed off. Pope afterwards revenged himself for this offence by his
bitter satire on _Bufo_ in the Prologue to his Satires, though he had
not the courage to admit its obvious application.

Pope deserves the credit of preserving his independence. He would not
stoop low enough to take a pension at the price virtually demanded by
the party in power. He was not, however, inaccessible to aristocratic
blandishments, and was proud to be the valued and petted guest in many
great houses. Through Swift he had become acquainted with Oxford, the
colleague of Bolingbroke, and was a frequent and intimate guest of the
second Earl, from whose servant Johnson derived the curious information
as to his habits. Harcourt, Oxford's Chancellor, lent him a house
whilst translating Homer. Sheffield, the Duke of Buckingham, had been an
early patron, and after the duke's death, Pope, at the request of his
eccentric duchess, the illegitimate daughter of James II., edited some
of his works and got into trouble for some Jacobite phrases contained in
them. His most familiar friend among the opposition magnates was Lord
Bathurst, a man of uncommon vivacity and good-humour. He was born four
years before Pope, and died more than thirty years later at the age of
ninety-one. One of the finest passages in Burke's American speeches
turns upon the vast changes which had taken place during Bathurst's
lifetime. He lived to see his son Chancellor. Two years before his death
the son left the father's dinner-table with some remark upon the
advantage of regular habits. "Now the old gentl