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PREAMBLE TO Mr. HARLEY'S PATENT.
The Reasons which induced her Majesty to create the Right Honourable Robert Harley a Peer of Great Britain, being a translation of the preamble to his Patent, dated May 11, 1711, and generally supposed to have been written by Dr. Swift.
[Printed from a copy in the Harleian Miscellany.]
WHATEVER favour may be merited from a just prince, by a man born of an illustrious and very ancient family[1], fitted by nature for all great things, and by all sorts of learning qualified for greater; constantly employed in the study of state affairs, and with the greatest praise, and no small danger, exercising variety of offices in the government: so much does our well-beloved and very faithful counsellor Robert Harley[2], deserve at our hands: he,
- ↑ This noble family is descended from the ancient house of the de Harlais in France. Their common ancestors were probably a family of that name resident in Shropshire long before the Conquest.
- ↑ Robert Harley, esq. eldest son of sir Edward Harley, was born in London, Dec. 5, 1661. He was educated at Shilton, a private school in Oxfordshire, remarkable for producing, at the same time, a lord high treasurer (the earl of Oxford) a lord high chancellor (lord Harcourt) a lord chief justice of the common pleas (lord Trevor), and ten members of the house of commons, who were all contemporaries as well at school as in parliament.
