Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18.djvu/246

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
232
REMARKS ON THE CHARACTERS


MATTHEW PRIOR, ESQ.,

COMMISSIONER OF TRADE.

On the queen's accession to the throne, he was continued in his office, is very well at court with the ministry, and is an entire creature of my lord Jersey's, whom he supports by his advice. Is one of the best poets in England, but very factious in conversation; a thin, hollow looked man, turned of 40 years old. This is near the truth.


A plain, good, heavy man, now much in years, and wearing out; very tall, of a fair complexion, and 70 years old. The most good for nothing prelate I ever knew.


Of a very good family in Scotland, of the name of Burnet, his father was lord [laird] of Cremont. He is one of the greatest [Scotch] orators of the age he lives in. His History of the Reformation and his Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, show him to be a man of great learning; but several of his other works show him to be a man neither of prudence nor temper; his sometimes opposing, and sometimes favouring, the dissenters, has much exposed him to the generality of the people of England; yet he is very useful in the house of peers, and proves a great pillar, both of the civil and ecclesiastical constitution, against the encroachments of a party that would de-

stroy