that office January 1ft 1711; but the extraordinary trouble he met with in the discharge of it proved to be more than he could endure long. Befides, he began to decline in his health, and this, joined to his natural indifpofition to the fatigue of any kind of business, furnished a fufficient pretence for quitting the employ, which he held only till about midfummer 1712 †, when he retired to a gentleman's house lingbroke's friends, came to pay a visit to our Author, and brought along with them the key of the Gazetteer's Office, together with another key for the use of the Paper Office, which at that time was made the repofitory for the Pope, the Pretender, and the Devil, together with the effigies of Dr. Sacheverell and tome other high priests, who were seized in a grand cavalcade as the mob, called then the Low-church Mob, were marching along in great triumph to burn them at Whitehall or Charingcrofs. The day following this friendly vifit, being new-year's-day 1711, the Doctor took poffeffion, and entered upon his office, and in two or three days after dined with the Secretary, and thanked him for his kind remembrance of him at a time when he had almoft forgot himself. The author of Dr.King's Life tells us, that about half a year after Dr.Sachevefell's trial Mr.King was applied to by Dr. Swift, Dr. Freind, and fome others, to write The Examiner, and accordingly undertook it, and began that paper about October 10th 1710,which he continued by the affiftance of thofe gentlemen, and many others who afterwards favoured him with their correfpondence; but the Doctor's ill state of health obliged him to quit fo fatiguing an employ in about four months, when it fell into other hands. + There appear to have been more reafons than one for the Doctor's quitting this employment. The author of his Life, published by Curl, has related an inftance of inhumanity in F on the Surrey fide of the Thames, where he had paffed a fummer or two before. Here he enjoyed his loved tranquillity with a friend, a bottle, and his books. However he croffed the water, and made frequent vifits to his relation the Lord Clarendon at Somerfet-house as long as he was able; but as the autumn feafon advanced he drooped gradually, and then neither cared to fee or be seen by any one; and winter drawing on, he shut himself up entirely from his nearest friends, and would not fo much as fee his noble relation, till his Lordship, hearing of his weak condition, fent his fifter to fetch him in a chair to a lodging he had provided for him oppofite to Somerfet-houfe in the Strand, where next day about noon, being Christmasday 1712, he yielded up his breath with all the patience and refignation of a philofopher, and with the true devotion of a Christian hero. Lord Alderman Barber towards Dr. King. This magiftrate was then printer of The Gazette, and was fo cruel as to oblige the Doctor to fit up till three or four o'clock in the morning, upon those daysThe Gazette was published, to correct the errours of the prefs, which was not the business of our Author, but a corrector who is kept for that purpose in every printing-office of any confequence. This flavery the Doctor was not able to bear, and therefore quitted the office. The Alderman's severity was the more unwarrantable, as the Doctor had been very kind in obliging him by writing Examiners and some other papers gratis, which were of advantage to him as a printer. Those writings at that juncture made him known to the ministry, who afterwards employed him in the ftate paper called The Gazette, Volume I. c Clarendon took care of his funeral†, and had him decently interred in the cloisters of Westminsterabbey, where he lies next to his master Dr. Knipe, to whom a little before he had dedicated his Hiftorical Account of the Heathen Gods. In 1732 there came out in octavo Remains of the late learned and ingenious Dr. William King, fome time Advocate of Doctors Commons, Vicargeneral to the Archbishop of Armagh, and Record-keeper of Ireland, containing Miscellaneous Pieces in Verse and Profe, &c. &c. In this publication we have the following particulars relating to Dr. King's character. That in his morals he was religious and virtuous; modeft and chafte to that degree, that he was never known to speak an immodest word or write a lewd one; that though he could not endure his business as an Advocate, yet he made an excellent Judge in the Court of Delegates, as often as he was called to that He had the greatest esteem poffible for Lord Clarendon, and could not be perfuaded to go to reft the night before his death, or lie down, till he had made fuch a will as he thought was agreeable to his Lordship's inclinations, whereby he conftituted Elizabeth King, his fifter, his fole executrix, and refiduary legatee of all his eftate or estates real or personal, in poffeffion or reverfion. But the writer of his Life intimates he had fpent his paternal eftates, and that after his return from Ireland his ftudent's place at Chrift-church was all he had left: this he retained to his death, and the profits thereof, together with the bufinefs of his profeffion, and the friendship of his acquaintance, which was very large, and that of the greatest quality, were his chief fubfiftence. bench; that, however, his chiefest pleasure confifted in trifles, and he was never happier than when he thought he was hid from the world; yet that he loved company, provided they were fuch as tallied with his humour, (for few people pleased him in conversation) and it was a true fign that he liked them if he could be tolerably agreeable, at which times his difcourfe was cheerful, and his wit pleasant and entertaining; that he was a great dissembler of his natural temper, which was morose and peevish where he durft fhew it; but he was of a timorous difpofition, and the leaft flight or neglect would throw him into a melancholy ftate of defpondency; that he would fay a great many illnatured things, but never do one; that he was made up of tenderness and pity, and tears would fall from him on the smallest occafion; that he was a Civilian exquifitely well read, a skilful Judge, and among the learned an universal scholar, a critick, and an adept, in all sciences and languages expert, and our English Ovid among the poets; and that as an Author his character may be fummed up in the following lines: Read here in fofteft founds the sweetest satire ; A pen dipt deep in gall, a heart good nature. Thus he is reprefented by the writer of his Life, who profeffes a particular love and esteem for him; and if the picture bears a just resemblance of the original, Dr. King must have been a true humourist. Indeed he has drawn his own character excellently in the following verfes found in his pocket at his death, being just fresh written with a lead pencil: I fing the various chances of the world, Thro' which men are by Fate or Fortune hurl'd. But paint in verfe my notions as they flow; |