Philip Yorke, who then prefided in that court, difmiffed the information with encomiums upon the purity and excellence of Mr. Savage's writings.

The profecution, however, answered in fome measure the purpose of those by whom it was fet on foot; for Mr. Savage was fo far intimidated by it, that, when the edition of his poem was fold, he did not venture to reprint it; fo that it was in a fhort time forgotten, or forgotten by all but thofe whom it of fended.

It is faid, that fome endeavours were used to incenfe the Queen against him: but he found advocates to obviate at least part of their effect; for though he was never advanced, he ftill continued to receive his pension.

This poem drew more infamy upon him than any incident of his life; and, as his conduct cannot be vindicated, it is proper to fecure his memory from reproach, by informing those whom he made his enemies, that he never intended to repeat the provocation; and that, though, whenever he thought he had

any

any reafon to complain of the clergy, he ufed to threaten them with a new edition of The

Progrefs of a Divine, it was his calm and fettled resolution to fupprefs it for ever.

He once intended to have made a better reparation for the folly or injustice with which he might be charged, by writing another poem, called The Progress of a Freethinker, whom he intended to lead through all the stages of vice and folly, to convert him from virtue to wickedness, and from religion to infidelity, by all the modish sophistry used for that purpose; and at last to dismiss him by his own hand into the other world.

That he did not execute this defign is a real lofs to mankind, for he was too well acquainted with all the scenes of debauchery to have failed in his reprefentations of them, and too zealous for virtue not to have reprefented them in fuch a manner as fhould expose them either to ridicule or deteftation.

But this plan was, like others, formed and laid afide, till the vigour of his imagination

was

was spent, and the effervefcence of invention had fubfided; but foon gave way to fome other defign, which pleased by its novelty for a while, and then was neglected like the former.

He was ftill in his ufual exigencies, having no certain support but the penfion allowed him by the Queen, which, though it might have kept an exact œconomift from want, was very far from being fufficient for Mr. Savage, who had never been accustomed to difmifs any of his appetites without the gratification which they folicited, and whom nothing but want of money withheld from partaking of every pleasure that fell within his view.

His conduct with regard to his penfion was very particular. No fooner had he changed the bill, than he vanished from the fight of all his acquaintances, and lay for fome time out of the reach of all the enquiries that friendfhip or curiofity could make after him; at length he appeared again pennyless as before, but never informed even thofe whom he feemed to regard moft, where he had been, nor was his retreat ever difcovered.

.

This was his conftant practice during the whole time that he received the pension from the Queen: He regularly disappeared and returned. He indeed affirmed that he retired to study, and that the money supported him in folitude for many months; but his friends declared, that the short time in which it was spent fufficiently confuted his own account of his conduct.

His politeness and his wit ftill raised him friends, who were defirous of fetting him at length free from that indigence by which he had been hitherto oppreffed; and therefore folicited Sir Robert Walpole in his favour with fo much earnestness, that they obtained a promise of the next place that should become vacant, not exceeding two hundred pounds a year. This promife was made

with an uncommon declaration, " that it was not the promise of a minister to a peti"tioner, but of a friend to his friend."

Mr. Savage now concluded himself set at ease for ever, and, as he obferves in a poem written on that incident of his life, trufted

VOL. III.

X

and

and was trufted; but foon found that his confidence was ill-grounded, and this friendly promife was not inviolable. He fpent a long time in folicitations, and at last despaired and defifted.

He did not indeed deny that he had given the minifter fome reafon to believe that he fhould not strengthen his own intereft by advancing him, for he had taken care to distinguith himself in coffee-houfes as an advocate for the miniftry of the laft years of Queen Anne, and was always ready to justify the conduct, and exalt the character of Lord Bo lingbroke, whom he mentions with great regard in an epiftle upon authors, which he wrote about that time, but was too wife to publish, and of which only fome fragments have appeared, inferted by him in the Magazine after his retirement.

To defpair was not, however, the character of Savage; when one patronage failed, he had recourse to another. The prince was now extremely popular, and had very liberally rewarded the merit of fome writers whom

I'