IT

SAVAGE.

T has been obferved in all ages, that the advantages of nature or of fortune have contributed very little to the promotion of happinefs; and that those whom the splendour of their rank, or the extent of their capacity, have placed upon the fummits of human life, have not often given any juft occafion to envy in those who look up to them from a lower ftation: whether it be that apparent fuperiority incites great defigns, and great defigns are naturally liable to fatal miscarriages; or that the general lot of mankind is mifery, and the misfortunes of those whofe eminence drew upon them an universal attention, have been more carefully recorded, because they were more generally obferved, and have in reality been only more confpicuous than thofe

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thofe of others, not more frequent, or more fevere.

That affluence and power, advantages extrinsic and adventitious, and therefore easily feparable from those by whom they are poffeffed, fhould very often flatter the mind with expectations of felicity which they cannot give, raises no aftonishment; but it seems rational to hope, that intellectual greatness fhould produce better effects; that minds qualified for great attainments should firft endeavour their own benefit; and that they who are most able to teach others the way to happiness, should with most certainty fol low it themselves.

But this expectation, however plaufible, has been very frequently disappointed. The heroes of literary as well as civil history have been very often no less remarkable for what they have atchieved; and volumes have been written only to enumerate the miseries of the learned, and relate their unhappy lives, and untimely deaths.

To these mournful narratives, I am about to add the Life of Richard Savage, a man

whose

whose writings entitle him to an eminent rank in the claffes of learning, and whofe misfortunes claim a degree of compaffion, not always due to the unhappy, as they were often the confequences of the crimes of others, rather than his own.

In the year 1697, Anne Countess of Macclesfield, having lived for fome time upon very uneafy terms with her husband, thought a public confeffion of adultery the most obvious and expeditious method of obtaining her liberty; and therefore declared, that the child, with which fhe was then great, was begotten by the Earl Rivers. This, as may be imagined, made her husband no lefs defirous of a feparation than herself, and he profecuted his defign in the most effectual manner; for he applied not to the ecclefiaftical courts for a divorce, but to the parliament for an act, by which his marriage might be diffolved, the nuptial contract totally annulled, and the children of his wife illegitimated. This act, after the ufual deliberation, he obtained, though without the approbation of fome, who confidered marriage as an affair only cognizable by ecclefiaf

tical judges*; and on March 3d was separated from his wife, whofe fortune, which was very great, was repaid her; and who having, as well as her husband, the liberty of making another choice, was in a fhort time married to Colonel Brett.

While the Earl of Macclesfield was profecuting this affair, his wife was, on the oth of January 1697-8, delivered of a fon, and the Earl Rivers, by appearing to confider him as his own, left none any reafon to doubt of the fincerity of her declaration; for he was his godfather, and gave him his own name, which was by his direction inserted in the register of St. Andrew's parish in Holborn, but unfortunately left him to the care of his

This year was made remarkable by the diffolution of a marriage folemnized in the face of the church. SALMON'S REVIEW.

The following proteft is registered in the books of the Houfe of Lords.

Diffentient.

Because we conceive that this is the firft bill of that nature that hath paffed, where there was not a divorce first obtained in the Spiritual Court; which we look upon as an ill precedent, and may be of dangerous confequence in the future. ROCHESTER.

HALIFAX.

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mother,

mother, whom, as he was now fet free from her husband, he probably imagined likely to treat with great tenderness the child that had contributed to fo pleafing an event. It is

not indeed eafy to discover what motives could be found to over-balance that natural affection of a parent, or what interest could be promoted by neglect or cruelty. The dread of fhame or of poverty, by which some wretches have been incited to abandon or to murder their children, cannot be fupposed to have affected a woman who had proclaimed her crimes and folicited reproach, and on whom the clemency of the legislature had undeservedly bestowed a fortune, which would have been very little diminished by the expences which the care of her child could have brought upon her. It was therefore not likely that he would be wicked without temptation, that she would look upon her fon from his birth with a kind of resentment and abhorrence; and, instead of supporting, affifting, and defending him, delight to fee him ftruggling with misery, or that the would take every opportunity of aggravating his misfortunes, and obftructing his refources, and with an implacable and

restless