Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/273

Rh his departure from England for this purpoſe, he took the rout of Holland, and viſited ſeveral courts of Germany, and that of Hanover in particular.

Though his lordſhip was now poſſeſſed of his family eſtate, as much as a minor could be; yet his truſtees very much limited his expences, and made him too moderate remittances, for a perſon of his rank and ſpirit. This gave him great uneaſineſs, and embarraſſed him much in his way of living, which ill ſuited with the profuſion of his taſte. To remove theſe difficulties, he had recourſe to mortgaging, and by premiums and large intereſt paid to uſurers, ſupplied his preſent neceſſities, by rendering his affairs ſtill worſe.

The unhappy diviſions which reigned in England at the time this young peer made his firſt entry into public life, rendered it almoſt impoſſible for him to ſtand neuter, and on whatever ſide he ſhould declare himſelf, ſtill there was danger. The world generally expected he would follow the ſteps of his father, who was one of the firſt Engliſh gentlemen who joined the prince of Orange, and continued firm to the Revolution principles, and conſequently approved the Hanoverian ſucceſſion, upon whoſe baſis it was built. But whatever motives influenced the young marquis (for king William had beſtowed this title on his father) he thought proper to join the contrary party. The cauſe of his abandoning the principles of the Whigs is thought to be this.

The marquis being arrived at Geneva, he conceived ſo great a diſguſt at the dogmatical precepts of his governor, the reſtraints he endeavoured to lay upon him, and the other inſtances of ſtrict diſcipline exerciſed in that meridian of Preſbyterianiſm, that he fell upon a ſcheme of avoiding theſe intolerable incumbrances; ſo, like a torrent long confined within its bounds by ſtrong banks, he broke looſe, and entered upon engagements, which, together with the natural impetuoſity of his temper, threw him into