Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/55

Rh Verſailles, eſpecially the paintings of Le Brun, wherein the victories of Lewis XIV. are deſcribed, aſked him, whether King William’s actions are to be ſeen in his palace? ‘No Sir, replied Mr. Prior, the monuments of my maſter’s actions are to be ſeen every where, but in his own houſe.’

In the year 1697 Mr. Prior was made ſecretary of ſtate for Ireland, and in 1700 was created maſter of arts by Mandamus, and appointed one of the lords commiſſioners of trade and plantations, upon the reſignation of Mr. Locke. He was alſo Member of Parliament for Eaſt-Grinſtead in Suſſex. In 1710 he was ſuppoſed to have had a ſhare in writing the Examiner, and particularly a Criticiſm in it upon a Poem of Dr. Garth to the earl of Godolphin, taken notice of in the life of Garth.

About this time, when Godolphin was defeated by Oxford, and the Tories who had long been eclipſed by the luſtre of Marlborough, began again to hold up their heads, Mr. Prior and Dr. Garth eſpouſed oppoſite intereſts; Mr. Prior wrote for, and Garth againſt the court. The Dr. was ſo far honeſt, that he did not deſert his patron in diſtreſs; and notwithſtanding the cloud which then hung upon the party, he addreſſed verſes to him, which, however they may fail in the poetry, bear ſtrong the marks of gratitude, and honour.

While Mr. Prior was thus very early initiated in public buſineſs, and continued in the hurry of affairs for many years, it mull appear not a little ſurprizing, that he ſhould find ſufficient opportunities to cultivate his poetical talents, to the amazing heighth he raiſed them. In his preface to his poems, he ſays, that poetry was only the product of his leiſure hours; that he had commonly buſineſs enough upon his hands, and, as he