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 must appear not
a little surprizing, that he should find sufficient opportunities to
cultivate his poetical talents, to the amazing heights 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 modestly adds, was only a poet by accident; but we
must take the liberty of differing from him in the last particular,
for Mr. Prior seems to have received from the muses, at his nativity,
all the graces they could well bestow on their greatest favourite.

We must not omit one instance in Mr. Prior's conduct, which will
appear very remarkable: he was chosen a member of that Parliament
which impeached the Partition Treaty, to which he himself had been
secretary; and though his share in that transaction was consequently
very considerable, yet he joined in the impeachment upon an honest
principle of conviction, that exceptionable measures attended it.

The lord Bolingbroke, who, notwithstanding many exceptions made both
to his conduct, and sentiments in other instances, yet must be allowed
to be an accomplished judge of fine talents, entertained the highest
esteem for Mr. Prior, on account of his shining abilities. This noble
lord, in a letter dated September 10, 1712, addressed to Mr. Prior,
while he was the Queen's minister, and plenipotentiary at the court of
France, pays him the following compliment; 'For God's sake, Matt. hide
the nakedness of thy country, and give the best turn thy fertile brain