Excerpt from Lord Bolingbroke: Being Extracts From the Political Writings of Henry St. John Viscount Bolingbroke A few biographical details regarding the author of the following extracts may not be considered out of place in this little volume. Henry St. John, afterwards Viscount Bolingbroke, was born at Battersea in the month of October, 1678. He was of an ancient, and, in some respects, an illustrious family. His mother was Lady Mary, second daughter and joint heiress of Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick. His father possessed no title to fame, but some to notoriety, inasmuch as he treacherously killed Sir William Estcourt in a duel - a crime for which he was sentenced to be hanged, but subsequently procured a pardon. Young St. John was sent to Eton to be educated, and from thence, in due course, he was removed to Oxford. Both his school and his college days would appear to have been spent in a manner, excusable perhaps in youth and indiscretion, but not conducive to good report. From Christ Church, St. John removed to London, and in 1697 he left England in order to go the "grand tour." "The years 1698 and 1699," says Mr. Macknight, one of his biographers, "were spent by St. John in wandering through France and Italy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.