Page:The Wentworth Papers 1715-1739.djvu/43

 INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR. 2/

malt liquors was yet far from extinct among the upper classes.

Writing on 2ist February, 1711, to congratulate the Duke of Argyll on the command of the Queen's forces in Spain, Lord Raby adds " as I have had the honour of knowing you long I must take the liberty to say there is nothing I have longed for more than the ambition of that command ; since naturally it had fallen to my share, had I not been sent (with show of friendship) hither, to this scribbling trade, from my command in Flanders, for my regiment to be sent over into Spain to make a way for others to come in their room to Flanders. I had the good fortune to be Colonel when Mr. Stanhope was but Captain last war, and to be a general officer this, when he was but Colonel ; for I served from the very revolution where I begun in Scotland, and did not miss one campaign last war, and I do protest that I came here with reluctance, and continued every year since soliciting with importunity my return, as promised, to my post in the army, but as your grace sees, in vain. I beg you to believe me that there is no man in Great Britain (since I have lost all hopes myself) that I had rather had that command than your grace." on his appointment as Lord Townshend's successor in the similar, but much more important capacity at the Hague. In September he was created Earl of Strafford. To this succeeded in a few months his nomination as joint plenipotentiary with the Lord Privy Seal, Dr. Robinson, Bishop of Bristol, to negociate the celebrated Treaty of Utrecht. Many of the circumstances of personal interest connected with his earldom and special diplomatic mission are fully dealt with in the many private letters addressed to Lord Strafford at the time, which are printed in this volume, so they need not be touched upon here. The biographers of Matthew Prior state that he also would have been one of the plenipotentiaries at Utrecht but for the haughty refusal of Lord Strafford to be associated with a person of such low birth. Of the intention to send Prior we have but one piece of evidence in the Wentworth correspondence ; nothing has been found in it to

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