1. [1717?] A document which, could it be recovered, would go far towards clearing up some of the uncertainties which exist as to Lord Oxford’s intercourse with the Pretender and his agents, subsequently to the death of Queen Anne, was seen by Sir James Mackintosh among the Stuart Papers acquired by George the Fourth. It was afterwards vainly searched for by Lord Mahon, when engaged upon his _History of England, from the Peace of Utrecht_. [Sidenote: _Edin. Rev._, vol. lxii, pp. 18, 19.] It is still known only from the cursory notes made by Mackintosh, and referred to by a writer in the _Edinburgh Review_ in these words: ‘During Oxford’s confinement in the Tower there is a communication from him to the Pretender, preserved among the Stuart Papers, offering his services and advice; recommending the Bishop of Rochester as the fittest person to manage the Jacobite affairs,—the writer himself being in custody; and adding that he should never have thought it safe ‘_to engage again_ with His Majesty if Bolingbroke himself had been still about him.’ 2. 1717. September 29. Bishop ATTERBURY to Lord MAR:— ‘Your accounts of what has been said here concerning some imaginary differences abroad have not so much foundation as you may suppose. At least, if they have, I am a stranger to it.... The result of any discourse I shall have with [the Earl of Oxford?] will be sure to reach you by his means. [Sidenote: _Stuart Papers_, 1717.] You will, I suppose, have a full account of affairs here from his and other hands.’ 3. [1717?] The same to the same. [Sidenote: _Ibid._] ‘Distances and other accidents have, for some years, interrupted my correspondence with [the Earl of Oxford?] but I am willing to renew it, and to enter into it upon a better foot than it has ever yet stood, being convinced that my so doing may be of no small consequence to the service. I have already taken the first step towards it that is proper in our situation, and will pursue that by others as fast as I can have opportunity; hoping that the secret will be as inviolably kept on your side as it shall be on this, so far as the nature of such a transaction between two persons who must see one another sometimes can pass unobserved.’ [Sidenote: _Edin. Rev._, as before.] 4. 1721. ‘Among the same papers,’ says the Reviewer quoted on the previous page, ‘there is a letter from Mrs. Oglethorpe to the Pretender (Jan. 17, 1721), containing assurances from Lord Oxford of his eternal respect and good wishes, which from accidental circumstances he had been unable to convey in the usual manner.’ 5. 1722. April 14. THE PRETENDER [to Lord OXFORD?]