He also wrote _A History of Great Britain from the Restoration
to the Accession of the House of Hanover_, which Fox--who was, however,
prejudiced--declared to be full of impudent falsehoods.
Of his career little more need be said: he was too shrewd a man to need
sympathy; he took care of himself. He was successful in his pecuniary
schemes; as agent of the Nabob of Arcot, he had a seat in parliament for
ten years, and was quite unconcerned what the world thought of his
literary performances. He had achieved notoriety, and enjoyed it.
But, unfortunately, his forgery did fatal injury by its example; it
inspired Chatterton, the precocious boy, to make another attempt on public
credulity. It opened a seductive path for one who, inspired by the
adventure and warned by the causes of exposure, might make a better
forgery, escape detection, and gain great praise in the antiquarian world.
THOMAS CHATTERTON.--With this name, we accost the most wonderful story of
its kind in any literature; so strange, indeed, that we never take it up
without trying to discover some new meaning in it.
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