The alliance succeeded, though too late for Bolingbroke to enjoy the fruits of success; but in effecting the purgation of the Tory party from its taint of Jacobitism he rendered no inconsiderable service.

His foundation, moreover, of the _Craftsman_--the first official journal of a political party in England--showed his appreciation of the technique of political controversy.

Most of it is dead now, and, indeed, no small part of its contemporary success is due to the making of comment in terms of the immediate situation, as also by its consistent use of a personal reference which has, save in the mass, no meaning for today.

Though, doubtless, the idea of its inception was derived from journals like Defoe's _Review_ and Leslie's _Rehearsal_, which had won success, its intimate connection with the party leadership was a novel element; and it may therein claim a special relation to the official periodicals of a later generation.
The reputation of Bolingbroke as a political philosopher is something that our age can hardly understand.

"A solemn trifler," Lord Morley has called him; and it is difficult to know why his easy declamation was so long mistaken for profound thought.