BATHURST, Ralph, M. D. an eminent physician, poet, and divine, was born in the year 1620. He studied divinity in Trinity College, Oxford; but the civil commotions ensuing, he changed the course of his studies, and applying himself to physic, took a doctor’s degree in that faculty. By dint of assiduous application, he soon rose to eminence in his profession, and in the time of the commonwealth was appointed physician to the state. At the restoration, however, he quitted the practice of physic; was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and president of his college; and, having entered into holy orders, was made chaplain to the king, and afterwards dean of Wells. Soon after, he filled the office of vice-chancellor of Oxford, and was nominated by King William and Queen Mary to the see of Bristol; but this honour he declined. His learning and talents were various. To the accomplishments of an orator, philosopher, and poet, he added an inexhaustible fund of wit, and was a facetious companion at eighty years of age. Ridicule was the weapon with which he used to correct the delinquents of his college; and he was so absolute a master of it, that he had it always at command. His poetical pieces in the Musae Anglicanes are excellent in their kind. He wrote several poems, both in English and Latin, and died on the 14th June 1704, in the eighty-fourth year of his age.

Bathurst, Allen, earl of Bathurst, one of the last luminaries of Queen Anne’s reign, was born in the year 1684. His studies and education were equally conducive to the brilliant figure he was destined to make in social life and in the senate, as a polite scholar, patriot, and statesman. These talents he had an opportunity of displaying as early as the year 1705, when, at the request of his father Sir Benjamin Bathurst, and the solicitation of the constituency of Cirencester, he served in parliament for that borough, his native place, with reputation and integrity. He distinguished himself particularly in the struggles and debates relative to the union between the two kingdoms; firmly supporting a measure which he thought calculated to strengthen the government and add to the prosperity of the country. Though he was contented to act a subordinate part in the opposition plannedbyMr Harley and Mr St John, ħis intimate friends, in order to sap the credit of the duke of Marlborough and his adherents, nevertheless he did good service to his party by arraigning, with more eloquence than truth, the conduct of the general and of the earl of Godolphin, whom he accused of lavishing the treasures of the nation on conquests more splendid than serviceable. The loss of the battle of Almanza, which happened about this time, seconded his efforts and those of his associates in dispelling what they called the intoxication of former successes, and disparaging achievements which reflect immortal honour on the British name. But his personal regard for Lord Somers, president of the council, suffered no abatement, although they were of different opinions in polities; and when that great man was deprived of office Mr Bathurst acted with such tenderness and delicacy as to preserve his esteem in a private station. In consideration of his zeal and services, the queen, in 1711, advanced him to the peerage by the title of Baron Bathurst, of Bat-tlesden, in Bedfordshire.

His lordship continued to speak his sentiments with undaunted freedom in the upper house, and became a vigorous opponent of the court measures in the reign of George I. and during Sir Robert Walpole’s administration. The acrimony of the prosecutions carried on against the earl of Oxford, Lord Bolingbroke, and the duke of Ormond, stimulated his indignation against such vindictive proceedings; and he observed, “that the king of a faction was but the sovereign of half his subjects.”

The South Sea Scheme having infected all classes with a spirit of wild speculation, when the people awoke from their delirium a vast number of families were involved in ruin. Lord Bathurst publicly impeached the directors, whose arts had enabled them to amass enormous fortunes during the prevalence of the mania; he represented that the national honour was concerned in stripping them of their ill-gotten wealth; and he moved for having all the directors of the South Sea Company punished for their sordid knavery, by the forfeiture of their estates.

When the bill was brought into the house of lords against Dr Atterbury, bishop of Rochester, that learned prelate, who to the graces of dictioń and style united the accomplishment of a just delivery, made a conquest of Lord Bathurst, who was one of the many friends whom the bishop’s eloquence, politeness, and ingenuity had procured him. His lordship spoke against the bill with great vehemence and propriety, observing, “that if such extraordinary proceedings were countenanced, he saw nothing remaining for him and others to do, but to retire to their countryhouses, and there, if possible, quietly to enjoy their estates within their own families, since the least correspondence or intercepted letter might be made criminal.” Then turning to the bishops, he said, he “could hardly account for the inveterate hatred and malice some persons bore the ingenious bishop of Rochester, unless it was that they were infatuated like the wild Americans, who fondly believe they inherit not only the spoils, but even the abilities, of the man they destroy.” He was one of the lords who entered his protest against the bill.

Lord Bathurst concurred with all his might in the opposition to Sir Robert Walpole, who now tottered on the brink of ruin. And when, after an obstinate struggle, this minister was forced to resign all his employments, Lord Bathurst was sworn of the privy council, and made captain of the gentlemen pensioners, a post which he resigned in 1744. In 1757 he was appointed treasurer to George III. then prince of Wales, and continued in the list of privy counsellors at that monarch’s accession to the throne; but, on account of his advanced age, he preferred enjoying his otium cum dignitate, to embarking again in political contentions.

Lord Bathurst’s integrity gained him the esteem even of his opponents, while his humanity and benevolence procured him the affection of all who knew him more intimately; and he added to his public virtues all the good breeding, politeness, and elegance, of social intercourse. Congreve, Vanbrugh, Swift, Prior, Rowe, Addison, Pope, Arbuthnot, Gay, and most of the men of genius of his own time, cultivated his friendship, and were proud of his correspondence. Pope’s Epistle on the Use of Piches is addressed to Lord Bathurst, whom the bard of Twickenham compliments in some highly characteristic lines. Sterne, too, in his letters to Eliza, speaks of him in terms of affectionate[7:4:449] admiration. “This nobleman,” says he, “is an old friend of mine: he was always the protector of men of wit and genius, and has had those of the last century always at his table. The manner in which his notice began of me was as singular as it was polite. He came up to me one day as I was at the princess of Wales’ court. < I want to know you, Mr Sterne; but it is fit you should know also who it is that wishes this pleasure: you have heard,’ continued he, ‘ of an old Lord Bathurst, of whom your Popes and Swifts have sung and spoken so much: I have lived my life with geniuses of that cast, but have survived them; and despairing ever to find their equals, it is some years since I closed my accounts, and shut up my books, with thoughts of never opening them again: but you have kindled a desire in me of opening them once more before I die, which I now do; so go home and dine with me.’ This nobleman, I say, is a prodigy: for at eighty-five he has all the wit and promptness of a man of thirty; a disposition to be pleased, and a power to please others, beyond what I ever knew; added to which, a man of learning, courtesy, and feeling.”

His lordship, in the latter part of his life, preserved his natural cheerfulness and vivacity, remaining always accessible, hospitable, and beneficent. Latterly he delighted in rural amusements, and enjoyed, with philosophical satisfaction, the shade of the lofty trees he had planted himself. Till within a month of his death he regularly rode out on horseback two hours before dinner, and drank his bottle of claret or Madeira after it. He used to observe jocularly that he could never think of adopting Dr Cadogan’s method, although Dr Cheyne had assured him fifty years before, that he would not live seven years longer unless he abridged himself of his wine. This was not doctrine at all suited to his lordship’s taste, or at least to his lordship’s practice. For, shortly before his death, having invited some friends to spend a few cheerful days with him at his seat at Cirencester, and being one evening very loth to part with them, his son, the late chancellor, who was present, objected to their sitting up any longer, adding that health and long life were best secured by regularity. The father thought and acted otherwise. He suffered the learned lord to retire, after delivering himself of the above admonition; but,as soon as he was gone,exclaimed,“Come, my good friends, since the old gentleman is gone to bed, I think we may venture to crack another bottle.”

Lord Bathurst was advanced to the dignity of earl in 1772, and lived to see his eldest son promoted to the peerage by the title of Baron Apsley, and several years lord high chancellor of Great Britain. His lordship married Catharine, daughter of Sir Peter Apsley, by whom he had two other sons, and five daughters. His death happened, after a few days illness, at his scat near Cirencester, in the ninty-first year of his age, and on the 16th of September 1775.