Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/23

14 of; and that therefore you will look upon any that shall propose or advise to the contrary as unfit persons to be near you, and on those who shall persuade you it is lawful as sordid flatterers, and the worst and most dangerous enemies, you and your kingdoms have. What I have set before your majesty, I have written freely, and like a sworn faithful counsellor, perhaps not like a wise man with regard to myself as things stand; but I have discharged my duty, and will account it a reward if your majesty vouchsafe to read what I durst not but write, and which I beseech God to give a blessing to."

It was not, however, thought advisable to remove him from his high office on account of his free style of writing to the king, but the Duke of Ormond was easily prevailed upon to exhibit a charge against him on account of his reflections on the Earl of Castlehaven's Memoirs, (in the which, for his own justification, he had been obliged to reflect on the duke): this produced a severe contest between these two peers, which terminated in the Earl of Anglesey's losing his place of lord privy seal, being dismissed from the council, and his letter to Lord Castlehaven voted a scandalous libel, though his enemies were obliged to confess he was treated with both severity and injustice. After this overthrow he lived very much in retirement at his country seat at Blechington in Oxfordshire, where he seemingly resigned all ambitious views, and devoted his time to the calm enjoyment of study; but so well versed was he in the mysteries of court intrigues, that he got into favour again in the reign of James II. and is supposed to have been destined for the high office of lord chancellor, if the design had not been prevented by his death, which happened at his house in Drury-lane, April 6, 1686, in the 73rd year of his age. He left several children by his wife, who was one of the co-heiresses of Sir James Altham.

He was a man endowed with superior talents and extensive learning, was well versed in the Greek and Roman