In 1727 Mr. Budgell had a 1000 l. given him by the late Sarah, duchess
dowager of Marlborough, to whose husband (the famous duke of
Marlborough) he was a relation by his mother's side, with a view to his
getting into parliament. She knew he had a talent for speaking in
public, and that he was acquainted with business, and would probably run
any lengths against the ministry. However this scheme failed, for he
could never get chosen.

In the year 1730 and about that time, he closed in with the writers
against the administration, and wrote many papers in the Craftsman. He
likewise published a pamphlet, intitled, A Letter to the Craftsman,
from E. Budgell, Esq; occasioned by his late presenting an humble
complaint against the right honourable Sir Robert Walpole, with a
Post-script. This ran to a ninth edition. Near the same time too he
wrote a Letter to Cleomenes King of Sparta, from E. Budgell, Esq; being
an Answer Paragraph by Paragraph to his Spartan Majesty's Royal Epistle,
published some time since in the Daily Courant, with some Account of the
Manners and Government of the Antient Greeks and Romans, and Political
Reflections thereon. And not long after there came out A State of one of
the Author's Cases before the House of Lords, which is generally printed
with the Letter to Cleomenes: He likewise published on the same occasion
a pamphlet, which he calls Liberty and Property, by E. Budgell, Esq;
wherein he complains of the seizure and loss of many valuable papers,
and particularly a collection of Letters from Mr. Addison, lord
Hallifax, Sir Richard Steele, and other people, which he designed to
publish; and soon after he printed a sequel or second part, under the
same title.

The same year he also published his Poem upon his Majesty's Journey to