or BULLINGBROKE, a town of Lincolnshire in England, and of great antiquity, but now in a mean condition. It gives title of Viscount to the St Johns of Battersea. E. Long. o. 40. N. Lat. 53. 15.

Bolingbroke (Henry St John), lord viscount, a great statesman and philosopher, descended from an ancient and noble family, was born about the year 1672. He had a regular and liberal education; and by the time he left the university, was considered as a person of uncommon qualifications: but with great parts, he had, as it usually happens, great passions, and these hurried him into many indiscretions and follies. Contrary to the inclinations of his family, he cultivated Tory connections; and gained such an influence in the House of Commons, that in 1724 he was appointed secretary of war and of the marines. He was closely united in all political measures with Mr Harley: when, therefore, that gentleman was removed from the seals in 1707, Mr St John resigned his employment; and in 1710, when Mr Harley was made chancellor of the exchequer, the post of secretary of state was given to Mr St John. In 1712 he was created Baron St John of Ledward-Tregozze in Wiltshire, and Viscount Bolingbroke. But being overlooked in the bestowal of vacant ribbons of the order of the garter, he resented the affront, renounced the friendship of Harley then earl of Oxford, and made his court to the Whigs. Nevertheless, on the accession of George I., the seals were taken from him; and being informed that a resolution was taken to pursue him to the scaffold, for his conduct regarding the treaty of Utrecht, he withdrew to France. Here he accepted an invitation to enter into the Pretender's service, and accepted the seals as his secretary: but he was as unfortunate in his new connections as in those he had renounced; for the year 1715 was scarcely expired, when at the same time that he was attainted of high treason at home, the seals and papers of his foreign secretary's office were taken from him; followed by an accusation from the Pretender and his party, of neglect, incapacity, and treachery. Such a complication of distressful events threw him into a state of reflection, that produced by way of relief a consolatory philosophy, which he wrote the same year under the title of Reflections upon exile; and the following year drew up a vindication of his conduct with respect to the Tories, in the form of A Letter to Sir William Wyndham. His first lady being dead, he about this time espoused a niece of the famous Madam Maintenon, and widow of the marquis de Villette, with whom he had a very large fortune. In 1722 the king was prevailed on to grant him a free pardon, and he returned in consequence to England; but was by no means satisfied within, while he was yet no more than a mere titular lord, and remained excluded from the house of peers. This stigma operated to fix him in enmity to Sir Robert Walpole, to whose secret enmity he attributed his not receiving the full extent of the king's clemency: hence he distinguished himself by a multitude of political writings, till the year 1735; when being thoroughly convinced that the door was finally shut against him, he returned once more to France. In this foreign retreat he began his course of Letters on the study and use of History, for the use of Lord Cobury, to whom they are addressed. Upon the death of his father, who lived to be extremely old, he settled at Battersea, the ancient seat of his family, where he passed the remainder of his life in philosophical dignity. Pope and Swift, one the greatest poet, the other the greatest wit, of the time, perfectly adored him; and it is well known that the former received from him the materials for his incomparable poem the "Essay on Man."—He died in 1751, and left the care and benefit of his MSS. to Mr Mallet, who published them together with his former printed works, in 5 vols 4to: they are also printed in 8vo.