BUDGELL, Eustace (1685-1736), a literary man of some eminence in lιis time, the son of Dr Gilbert Budgell, was born at St Thomas, near Exeter. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, from which he removed to the Inner Temple, London; but instead of studying law, he devoted his whole attention to literature. He was befriended by Addison, who was first cousin to his mother, and who, on being appointed secretary to Lord Wharton, lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1710, took Budgell with him as one of the clerks of his office. Budgell, who had read the classics and the best English, French, and Italian authors, took part with Steele and Addison in writing the Toiler. He was also a contributor to the Spectator and the Guardian,— his papers being marked with an X in the former, and with an asterisk in the latter. He was subsequently made under-secretary to Addison, chief secretary to the lords justices of Ireland, and deputy-clerk of the council, and was afterwards chosen a member of the Irish parliament. In 1717, when Addison became principal secretary of state in England, he procured for Budgell the place of accountant and comptroller-general of the revenue in Ireland. But the next year, the duke of Bolton being appointed lord-lieutenant, Budgell wrote a lampoon against Mr Webster, his secretary, in which the duke himself was not spared. This led to his removed from his post of accountant-general, upon which he returned to England, and, contrary to the advice of Addison, published his case in a pamphlet. In the year 1720 he lost <£20,000 by the South Sea scheme, and afterwards spent £5000 more in unsuccessful attempts to get into parliament. This completed his ruin. He at length employed himself in writing pamphlets against the ministry, and published many papers in the ...