NOTE. THE Right Hon. Thomas Wharton (1645?-1715) was the third, but eldest, surviving son of Philip, fourth Lord Wharton. He was member for Wendover (1673-1678) and Buckinghamshire (1678). He succeeded his father as fifth Lord Wharton, February 5th, 1699. In 1706 he was created Earl of Wharton, and in 1714-15 Marquess of Wharton and Malmesbury. During the reign of James II. he was a strong opponent of court measures, and Judge Jeffries did all in his power to prevent his re-election to parliament in 1685. It is supposed that he drew up the draft of the invitation to the Prince of Orange in 1688. Whether he did or no is not certain; but he was in great favour with that prince throughout his reign in England. Under William he was Privy Councillor (1688-9); Comptroller of the King's Household (1689-1702); "Chief Justice in Eyre of all his forests, chaces, parks, and warrens, south of Trent" (1697-1702); Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire (1697-1702), as well as of Bucks (1702). When the Grand Alliance was formed he accompanied William to the Hague (1690-1). He took an active part in the debate in the House of Lords relative to the Partition Treaty, and Burnet tells us that it was he who moved that the King should treat no more with the French King, nor rely on his word without further security. On the accession of Queen Anne he was removed from his various appointments; but he made himself conspicuous by the part he took in the conference with the House of Commons against the bill for Occasional Conformity, and his support of the five Aylesbury men who were imprisoned for breach of privilege in 1704. In 1705 the University of Cambridge presented him with the honorary degree of LL.D. A fair insight into Lord Wharton's character, and one which would seem to go a long way to justify Swift's "character," may be obtained from reading Lord Dartmouth's note to Burnet's "History" (vol. v., p. 242, 1833, Oxford), in which is given a hint of Wharton's abominable conduct in a church. Wharton was one of the Commissioners for the Union of Scotland appointed April 10th, 1706. In 1708 he was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Joseph Addison was his Irish Secretary. In his essay on Addison Macaulay thus refers to Wharton: "The Lord Lieutenant was not only licentious and corrupt, but was distinguished from other libertines and jobbers by a callous impudence which presented the strongest contrast to the Secretary's gentleness and delicacy." And yet for this man the Irish House of Lords, in their address to the Queen, returned their thanks to Her Majesty for sending "a person of so great wisdom and experience" to be their chief governor. He was succeeded by the Duke of Ormond in 1710. During the latter part of Anne's reign he strongly opposed court measures, and was one of the famous Junto so often abused by Swift. 2 He was prominent in the prosecution against Dr. Sacheverell, and procured the appointment of Sir Thomas Parker as Lord Chief Justice, as a reward for his services in that affair. It was on his complaint, on March 2nd, 1713-14, against Swift's "Public Spirit of the Whigs," that the House of Lords condemned that pamphlet. (See note in present volume, p. 319). He was censured for receiving £1,000 from George Hutchisson to procure for that person the post of Register of Seizures in the Custom House. In 1713 and 1714 he was much in evidence against the Pretender; and when George I. arrived in England he was restored to the Privy Council and created a Marquess. His son Philip, by his second wife, Lucy Loftus, daughter of Lord Lisburne, was created Duke of Wharton. Mr. Robert Harrison, in "The Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography," describes him as "the profligate son of a puritanical father, and the father of a son more licentious than himself." Dr. Birch says that "King William was duly sensible of his services before and at the Revolution," and Wharton "received the utmost proofs of confidence and respect, and had the King's most intimate designs communicated to him. His probity and good affection in what concerned the government was well assured." Mr. Solomon Bolton in his "Extinct Peerage" (1769), speaks of him as "a worthy complete statesman, a principal promoter of the Revolution, zealous for the Hanover settlement, of great sagacity, elocution, and spirit." Lord Dartmouth, in one of his notes to Burnet's "History," says: "This charming Lord Wharton had the most provoking, insolent manner of speaking that I ever observed in any man, without any regard to civility or truth." And Mr. Onslow, in another note to the same work (vol. v., 1833, Oxford), remarks: "He was extremely odious to the Tories, and as much regarded by the Whigs, to whom he was always very firm and of great use from his abilities, especially in Parliament." Macaulay, describing the man in his "History," writes of him, under date 1693: "He was in his 47th year, but was still a young man in constitution, in appearance, and in manners. . . . The most dissolute cavaliers stood aghast at the dissoluteness of the emancipated precisian. ... To the end of his long life the wives and daughters of his nearest friends were not safe from his licentious plots. . . . To the religion of his country he offered, in the mere wantonness of impiety, insults too foul to be described. He lived in times when faction was almost a madness; and he possessed in an eminent degree the qualities of the leader of a faction. There was a single 'tie which he respected. The falsest of mankind in all relations but one, he was the truest of Whigs." His Whig friends called him "Honest Tom." A fairly impartial delineation of Wharton's character may be found in Coxe's "Marlborough," (vol. i., pp. 257-9, Bohn edit.). The pamphlet here reprinted is from an edition published in 1711, and "printed for William Coryton, Bookseller, at the Black-Swan on Ludgate Hill." It was written late in August, 1710, and the first edition was issued, probably, in December of the same year. In his letter to Stella, dated 8th December, 1710, Swift refers to its Probably the publication: "Here is a damned libellous pamphlet come out against Lord Wharton, giving the character first, and then telling some of his actions; the character is very well, but the facts indifferent. It has been sent by dozens to several gentlemen's lodgings, and I had one or two of them, but nobody knows the author or printer.' On the Ist January he again writes to her: "The character is rendered admirable; but most of the facts are trifles. It was first printed privately here, and then some bold cur ventured to do it publicly, and sold two thousand in two days who the author is must remain uncertain. Do you pretend to know, impudence? How durst you think so?" "bold cur" is the William Coryton of the Black Swan. Swift in calling his facts "indifferent" must have meant that he could have made them much stronger had he thought it wise to tell all he knew of his subject. Swift's hatred of the man must be placed to Wharton's infamous government of Ireland, and not so much to his dislike of Wharton's attitude to the ministers of religion. In the "Last Years of Queen Anne," Swift says of Wharton that "he had contracted such large debts, that his brethren were forced to leave Ireland at his mercy, where he had only time to set himself right." Archbishop King, probably suspecting the author of the "Character," wrote Swift his opinion of it: "We have published here," he writes, "a character of the Earl of Wharton, late Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. I have so much charity and justice as to condemn all such proceedings. If a governor behave himself ill, let him be complained of and punished; but to wound a man thus in the dark." The Archbishop's criticism, probably, assisted in the breach which later showed itself more plainly between him and the Dean. I have been unable to procure a copy of the first edition. Other references by Swift to Wharton may be found in the 13th, 17th, and 22nd letters to the "Examiner," in one of which he is depicted in the character of Verres, the infamous proconsul of Sicily. [T. S.] |