BOLINGBROKE, HENRY ST JOHN, VISCOUNT (1678-1751), English statesman and writer, son of Sir Henry St John, Bart. (afterwards 1st Viscount St John, a member of a younger branch of the family of the earls of Bolingbroke and barons St John of Bletso), and of Lady Mary Rich, daughter of the 2nd earl of Warwick, was baptized on the 10th of October 1678, and was educated at Eton. He travelled abroad during 1698 and 1699 and acquired an exceptional knowledge of French. The dissipation and extravagance of his youth exceeded all limits and surprised his contemporaries. He spent weeks in riotous orgies and outdrank the most experienced drunkards. An informant of Goldsmith saw him once "run naked through the park in a state of intoxication." Throughout his career he desired, says Swift, his intimate friend, to be thought the Alcibiades or Petronius of his age, and to mix licentious orgies with the highest political responsibilities.[1] In 1700 he married Frances, daughter of Sir Henry Winchcombe, Bart., of Bucklebury, Berkshire, but matrimony while improving his fortune did not redeem his morals. He was returned to parliament in 1701 for the family borough of Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire. He declared himself a Tory, attached himself to Harley (afterwards Lord Oxford), then speaker, whom he now addressed as "dear master," and distinguished himself by his eloquence in debate, eclipsing his schoolfellow, Walpole, and gaining an extraordinary ascendancy over the House of Commons. In May he had charge of the bill for securing the Protestant succession; he took part in the impeachment of the Whig lords for their conduct concerning the Partition treaties, and opposed the oath abjuring the Pretender. In March 1702 he was chosen commissioner for taking the public accounts. After Anne's accession he supported the bills in 1702 and 1704 against occasional conformity, and took a leading part in the disputes which arose between the two Houses. In 1704 St John took office with Harley as secretary at war, thus being brought into intimate relations with Marlborough, by whom he was treated with paternal partiality. In 1708 he quitted office with Harley on the failure of the latter's intrigue, and retired to the country till 1710, when he became a privy councillor and secretary of state in Harley's new ministry, representing Berkshire in parliament. He supported the bill for requiring a real property qualification for a seat in parliament. In 1711 he founded the Brothers' Club, a society of Tory politicians and men of letters, and the same year witnessed the failure of the two expeditions to the West Indies and to Canada promoted by him. In 1712 he was the author of the bill taxing newspapers. But the great business of the new government was the making of the peace with France. The refusal of the Whigs to grant terms in 1706, and again in 1709 when Louis XIV. offered to yield every point for which the allies professed to be