174

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XIX.

16113 .

State ofIreland.

and true information to the arbitrary will and pleasure of amercenary and perhaps ignorant licenser. Among those whoprotested were Halifax, Shrewsbury and Mulgrave, three noble-men belonging to different political parties, but all distinguishedby their literary attainments. It is to be lamented that thesignatures of Tillotson and Burnet, who were both present onthat day, should be wanting. Dorset was absent. *

Blount, by whose exertions and machinations the oppositionto the censorship had been raised, did not live to see that oppo-sition successful. Though not a very young man, he waspossessed by an insane passion for the sister of his deceasedwife. Having long laboured in vain to convince the object ofhis love that she might lawfully marry him, he at last, whetherfrom weariness of life, or in the hope of touching her heart, in-flicted on himself a wound of which, after languishing long, hedied. He has often been mentioned as a blasphemer and self-murderer. But the important service which, by means doubt-less most immoral and dishonourable, he rendered to hiscountry, has passed almost unnoticed. **

Late in this busy and eventful session the attention of the

* Lords’ Journals, March 8. 169j.

** In the article on Blount in the Biographia Britannica he is extolledas having borne a principal share in the emancipation of the press. Butthe writer was very imperfectly informed as to the facts.

It is strange that the circumstances of Blount’s death should be souncertain. That he died of a wound inflicted by liis own hand, and that helanguished long, arc undisputed facts. The common story was that heshot himself; and Narcissus Luttrcll, at the time, made an entry to thiseffect in his Diary. On the other hand, Pope, who had the very bestopportunities of obtaining accurate information, asserts thatBlount, “beingin love with a near kinswoman of his, and rejected, gave himself a stab inthe arm, as pretending to kill himself, of the consequence of which horeally died." — Note on the Epilogue to the Satires, Dialogue I. Warbur-ton, who had lived first with the heroes of the Dunciad, and then with themost eminent men of letters of his time, ought to have known the truth;and Warburton, by his silence, confirms Pope’s assertion. Gildon’srhapsody about the death of his friend will suit either story equally.