his court skill than at this time, to hinder Dr. Pratt from the provostship; not only from the personal hatred he had to the man, upon the account of his patron and principles, but that he might return to Ireland with some little opinion of his credit at court, which had mightily suffered by many disappointments, especially the last, of his chaplain Dr. Lloyd. It would be incredible to relate the many artifices he used to this end, of which the doctor had daily intelligence, and would fairly tell his Excellency so at his levees; who sometimes could not conceal his surprise, and then would promise, with half a dozen oaths, never to concern himself one way or other, these were broke every day, and every day detected. One morning, after some expostulations between his Excellency and the doctor, and a few additional oaths that he would never oppose him any more; his Excellency went immediately to the Bishop of Ely, and prevailed on him to go to the Queen from him, and let Her know, that he never could consent as long as he lived, that Dr. Pratt should be provost, which the bishop barely complied with, and delivered his message, though at the same time he did the doctor all the good offices he could. The next day, the doctor was again with his Excellency and gave him thanks for so open a proceeding; the affair was now past dissembling, and his Excellency confessed that he did not directly oppose him, but collaterally he did: The doctor a little warmed, said, "No my lord, you mean directly you did not, but indirectly you did." The conclusion was, that the Queen named the doctor to the place, and as a further mortification, just upon the day of his Excellency's departure for Ireland.

But here, I must desire the reader's pardon, if I cannot digest the following facts in so good a manner as I intended; because it is thought expedient, for some reasons, that the world should be informed of his Excellency's merits as soon as possible; I will therefore only transcribe the several passages as they were sent me from Dublin, without either correcting the style, or adding any remarks of my own. As they are, they may serve for hints to any person who may hereafter have a mind to write memoirs of his Excellency's life.

A relation of several facts, exactly as they were transmitted to me from Ireland (about three months ago, and) at several times, from a person of quality, and in employment there.

The Earl of Rochford's1 regiment of dragoons was embarked for Her Majesty's service abroad on the 27th of August, 1709, and left their horses behind them, which were subsisted, in order to mount another regiment to fill up their room; as the horses of Lieutenant-General Harvey's' regiment had formerly mounted a regiment raised, and still commanded by the Duke of Ormonde; on which occasion the duke had Her Majesty's order only, for as much money as would supply the charge of the horses till the regiment was raised, which was soon after, and then it was put on the establishment as other regiments, but that which was to supply the Earl of Rochford's, had not a commission granted till the 29th of April, 1710, and all the pay, from the 27th of August, to that time, being above 5700l. was taken under pretence of keeping the horses, buying new ones in the room of such as should be wanting or unserviceable, and for providing accoutrements for the men and horses: As for the last use, those are always provided out of the funds for providing clothing, and the Duke of Ormonde did so: As for horses wanting they are very few, and the captains have orders to provide them another way, and the keeping the horses did not come to 700l. by the accounts laid before the committee of parliament; so there was at least 5000l. charged to the nation more than the actual charge could amount to.

Mrs. Lloyd, at first coming over, expected the benefit of

1 William Henry Zulestein de Nassau succeeded his father as second Earl of Rochford in 1709. He joined the army in 1702, and fought under the Duke of Ormond and the Duke of Marlborough. He was killed under Galway at the Battle of Almanza, July 27th, 1710. [T. S.] 2 Daniel Harvey, son of Sir Daniel Harvey, became a major in 1691; lieutenant-colonel in 1694; colonel in 1695; brigadier-general in 1703; major-general in 1704; lieutenant-general in 1707; and general in 1709. [T. S.]

3 The " cast wench" already referred to, who became the wife of Dr. Lloyd. [T. S.]

the box-money, and accordingly talked of selling it for about 2007. but at last was told, she must expect but part of it, and that the grooms of the chambers and other servants would deserve a consideration for their attendance. Accordingly his Excellency had it brought to him every night, and to make it worth his receiving, my lady gave great encouragement to play, so that by moderate computation, it amounted to near 1000l. of which a small share was given to the grooms of the chambers, and the rest made a perquisite to his Excellency, for Mrs. Lloyd having a husband and a bishopric promised her, the other pretensions were cut off.

He met Lieutenant-General Langston' in the Court of Requests, and presented a gentleman to him, saying, "This is a particular friend of mine, he tells me he is a lieutenant in your regiment; I must desire you will take the first opportunity you can to give him a troop, and you will oblige me mightily." The lieutenant-general answered, "He had served very well, and had very good pretensions to a troop, and that he would give him the first that fell;" with which the gentleman was mighty well satisfied, so returned thanks and withdrew; upon which, his Excellency immediately said, "I was forced to speak for him, because a great many of his friends have votes in elections, but damn him, he's a rogue, therefore take no care for him."

He brought one May to the Duke of Ormonde, and re commended him as a very honest gentleman, and desired his grace would provide for him, which his grace promised, so May withdrew; as soon as he was gone, his lordship immediately said to the duke, "That fellow is the greatest rogue in Christendom."

Colonel Coward' having for some time received pay in two or three regiments of the army, as captain, but never done any other service to the crown, except eating and drinking in the expedition to Cadiz,3 under the Duke of

1 General Francis Langston, who died in 1723. [T. S.] 2 I cannot identify this Coward. [T. S.]

An expedition originally planned by King William III. against Philip of Spain, and attempted after his decease on the advice of Marlborough. Unfortunately for the expedition the Duke of Ormond was not the man to take charge of it. Dissensions between the Dutch

Ormonde, finding he had not pretensions enough to rise, after he had sold the last employment he had, applies to his Excellency, who gave him so favourable a report that he got above 900l. as an arrear of half-pay, which he had no title to, and a pension of 10s. a day, which he reckoning as much too little for his wants, as every body else did too much for his pretensions, gave in a second petition to the Queen for 10s. a day more to be added; which being referred to his Excellency, he gave him a favourable report, by means whereof 'tis hoped his merit will be farther rewarded.

He turned out the poor gatekeeper at Chapelizod gate, though he and his wife were each above sixty years old, without assigning any cause, and they are now starving.

As to the business of the arsenal, it was the product of chance, and never so much as thought of by the persons who of late have given so many good reasons for the building it, till upon enquiring into the funds they were found to hold out so well, that there was an absolute necessity of destroying about sixty or seventy thousand pounds, otherwise his Excellency for that time could hardly have the credit of taxing the kingdom. Upon this occasion many projects were proposed, all which at last, gave way to a proposal of a worthy person, who had often persuaded the nation to do itself a great deal of harm, by attempting to do itself a little good, which was, That forty thousand arms should be provided for the militia, and ammunition in proportion, to be kept in four arsenals to be built for that purpose; which was accordingly put into the heads of a bill, and then this worthy patriot, in his usual sincerity, declared he would not consent to the giving money for any other use, as every body thought by the words he spoke, though afterwards he and English troops, and between the soldiers and sailors, followed by a total lack of discipline, produced most disgraceful scenes. Instead of proceeding to attack the Spaniards, the army was allowed to waste time in disgusting plunder and outrage. "Churches were robbed," says Macaulay, "images were pulled down; nuns were violated. The officers shared the spoil instead of punishing the spoilers; and at last the armament, loaded, to use the words of Stanhope,' with a great deal of plunder and infamy,' quitted the scene of Essex's glory, leaving the only Spaniard of note who had declared for them to be hanged by his countrymen." [T. S.]

shewed them that his meaning was not to be known by the vulgar acceptation of words; for he not only gave his consent to the bill, but used all the art and industry he was master of to have it pass, though the money was applied in it to the building one arsenal, and ammunition and other stores proportionable, without one word of the militia: So the arsenal was conceived, and afterwards formed in a proper manner; but when it came to be brought forth, his Excellency took it out of the hands that had formed it, as far as he could, and contrary to all precedents, put it out of the care of the ordnance board, who were an office to have taken care of the receipt and payment of the money, without any farther charge to the public; and appointed his second secretary, Mr. Denton, to be paymaster, whose salary was a charge of above five hundred pounds in the whole; then thinking this too small a charge to put the public to for nothing, he made an establishment for that work, consisting of one superintendent at three pounds per week, eight overseers at seven pounds four shillings a week, and sixteen assistants at seven pounds four shillings a week, making in all seventeen pounds eight shillings a week, and these were almost all persons that had no knowledge of such business; and their honesty was equal to their knowledge, as it hath since appeared by the notorious cheats and neglects that have been made out against them, insomuch that the work that they have overseen, which, with their salaries, has cost near three thousand pounds, might have been done for less than eighteen hundred pounds, if it had been agreed for by the yard, which is the usual method, and was so proposed in the estimate; and this is all a certainty, because all that has been done, is only removing earth, which has been exactly computed by the yard, and might have been so agreed for. Philip Savage, Esq;' as chancellor of the exchequer, demanded fees of the commissioners of the revenue, for sealing writs in the Queen's business, and shewed them for it some sort of precedents; but they not being well satisfied with them, wrote to Mr. South, one of the commissioners (then in London) to enquire the practice there; he sent them word Represented county Wexford in the Irish Parliament from 1692 to 1714. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer for Ireland from 1695 to 1717. [T. S.]

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