tened to their thundering denunciations-less where Irish members are concerned— made more vehement and more stinging by less common and less malignant, and inconthe constant failure of his military enter- sistencies and tergiversations more generally prises-with coolness always, with sleepiness defensible on the ground of altered circumoften.* It was easier for him to keep in stances or honestly modified opinions. The office than to keep awake, except when three great statesmen we have just named Burke startled him with some scandalous were all more or less guilty on all counts of false quantity and when finally driven this indictment, yet their advent into public from power by an irresistible combination life marked the dawn of a better day. We of misfortunes and of foes, he retired with may grieve over several things they did, we the politest of bows and the most benevo- may regret much of the language which they lent of smiles. His antagonists had collected thought themselves justified in using, but, for a grand battle; Lord North rose in his on the whole, we feel proud both of their place, and declared the administration at an genius and their character. Even their conend. Of course, the House adjourned im- temporary, Sheridan, though unstable and mediately. It was an awfully wet night, unprincipled in private life, was, on the and in those days cabs were not; the mem- whole, steady and consistent in his public It is curious that Burke, Fox, and bers, expecting a prolonged debate, had or- course. dered their carriages at one or two o'clock Pitt, all changed sides. Fox, the leader of in the morning; and Lord North, as he the modern Whigs, entered life a Tory, and passed through the baffled and imprisoned at first distinguished himself as a violent Pitt and Burke began as Whigs and crowd of his opponents to his own chariot, one. bowed to them right and left, saying, "Adieu, ended as standard-bearers and idols of the gentlemen, you see it is an excellent thing Tory party. Burke, far the greatest and purest of the three, can, indeed, scarcely be to be in the secret!" charged with inconstancy or desertion of party. He began life as a warm friend to the principles of constitutional liberty; he ended life, we believe, in the same creed, and with the same affections. But when he was young those principles were in danger from the Crown and the aristocracy; when he was old they were in danger—or at least he honestly and not unwisely deemed sofrom democratic violence and folly. His inconsistency was less that he fought for a different cause, than that he fought against different assailants, with different weapons and under a different banner; and he made that inconsistency appear greater than it really was, because his fierce and ungovernable sensibility led him always to push his position to the utmost verge of truth and to state his doctrine in the extremest language. When contending against the unconstitutional influence of the Crown, and the tyrannical behaviour and desires of the "King's friends," he brought forth from his wellstored armoury every maxim of boundless liberty, every claim of popular right, every lesson of history which teaches courage to the citizen and affords warning to the Sovereign. He preached the faith of freedom in sentences so spirited, so brilliant, and so terse, that they were remembered and used against him with telling effect, when it became necessary to preach the faith of order One of his noble and authority instead. critics goes so far as to say that "it would be difficult to select one leading principle or prevailing sentiment in Mr. Burke's later writings to which something extremely ad We now emerge into a purer and clearer atmosphere. Factious opposition and fac tious manœuvres we still unhappily meet with from time to time, and we fear we always shall, as long as Parliamentary warfare exists, when public excitement rises high. Violent and unwarrantable language still occasionally disfigures our debates; and changes of opinion and of party connexion are by no means unfrequent, indeed, become almost more so as we get nearer our own day. But faction becomes less mischievous and shameless; invectives more measured and decorous; unfounded accusations-un * A prosing old sailor, well known for his lengthy orations, having risen to speak on an Admiralty question, Lord North said to one of his supporters; Now,- -will give us a history of all the naval battles from that of Salamis to that of last year; I shall take a nap-wake me when he gets near our own time." After an hour's infliction the friend nudged Lord North. My Lord, my Lord, wake up, he has got to the battles of Van Tromp." dear!" (said the sleepy minister,) "you've waked me a hundred years too soon!" 66 "Oh Burke was very inaccurate, and Lord North had a very sensitive ear. One night when he was napping, Burke stopped in his speech, and pointed at the minister nodding on the Treasury Bench, saying, "Quandoquidem bonus dormitat Homerus." Lord North instantly started from his slumbers "Dormitat, Sir, for God's sake!" On another question, Burke was preaching economy, and made repeated use of the quotation, "Magnum vectigal est parsimonia" Lord North, in a low tone, corrected him-" Vectigal, Mr. Burke." Burke immediately took it up"The noble Lord hints that I am wrong in my prosody: I thank him for the correction, as it gives me another opportunity of shouting forth that inestimable maxim- Magnum vectīgal est parsimonia!'" qualities, and to convey to others their vivid impression of those amiable and endearing virtues, and that wonderful eloquence which made those who knew him always indulgent, and often blind to his po verse may not be found in his earlier works." | Whig party, and will probably remain This may be very true; but it must be re- so as long as any of his contemporaries remembered that the former were written main to cherish the memory of his personal when "the power of the Crown had increased, was increasing, and ought to be diminished;"-the latter came forth when democracy was rampant in France and threatened to become dangerous here, when monarchy and nobility had gone down be-litical errors. He must have been the most fore the tempest, when the wickedest and loveable of men, vehement, impetuous, and wildest doctrines were proclaimed in the dissipated; but generous, manly, affectionname of liberty, and when the populace, ate, and, in private life, as simple as a child. from being the oppressed, had become op. He had vast genius, but little learning-pressors in their turn. Then Burke turned the powers but not the training of a states. to the quarter whence the peril threatened man. He acquired his political knowledge the other side of his gorgeously painted as he formed his political opinions, in party shield; and people clamoured that he had strife. Hence he had no philosophy, nor changed his armour and his war-cry. Of the slightest tincture of financial or economic any thing that deserves the epithet of "ter- science. His eloquence was not like that giversation" we unhesitatingly acquit him; of Burke; it was neither the pavóμeva of the charge of violent and exaggerated lan- oopía of Aristotle nor the copiosè loquens guage we must pronounce him very guilty.* sapientia of Cicero; it was the brilliant arHe was vehement by temperament, of acute gument or the violent invective of a great susceptibility, of turbulent and excitable master of Parliamentary warfare. His faults imagination; and he could seldom curb and his false steps arose from his position himself sufficiently to avoid stating a princi- and education as a party leader. His busiple far too wide for the occasion, or clothingness was to defeat an adversary, to overa truth in language whose extravagance almost made it degenerate into a fallacy. Wise as he was, profoundly philosophic as was the character of his intellect, his passions, when once aroused, blinded him to everything but the immediate question or the immediate foe before him; and his passions were easily aroused, for his affections were warm, his sympathies quick, and his hatred of wrong or oppression prompt and earnest even to morbidness. Hence, though generous and open-hearted, he pursued an antagonist as he would have done a criminal; and though wide and comprehensive in mind, far beyond his age, his language and conduct were too often those of a narrow and heated partisan. But when every reasonable deduction from his greatness has been allowed for, he will still remain entitled to all our veneration; and his writings must always be consulted as perfect arsenals of political wisdom, un matched alike for glowing eloquence and profound and comprehensive statesmanship. Charles Fox has long been the idol of the * In speeches his invectives not unfrequently degenerated into scurrility, sometimes into positive indecorum. And even in his published writings the exuberancy of his fancy and feeling often gets the better both of taste and decency, and runs riot in the most unpleasant and indefensible metaphors. We do not quote any, because we would willingly forget them, as well as every other spot upon the brightness of a genius from whom we have derived more pleasure and instruction than from any other author in our own or any language. throw a rival, to detect the errors of a minister; and he threw his whole heart into his work with an impetuosity which detracted from his statesmanship and made him often blind alike to the merits of a foe and to the real interests of his country. He made a gallant fight for the liberties of his fellow citizens against the arbitrary measures of Mr. Pitt in troublous times, but we incline to think that he inflicted serious injury on the Whig party and hampered his subsequent freedom of action by his unmeasured admiration for the French Revolution. In fact, with the secession of Burke, the philosophy and moderation of that section of politicans disappeared, and party too often afterwards degenerated into faction. Fox, entering Parliament under the auspices of his father, the first Lord Holland, was of course a Tory; and being impetuous. by temperament, was by no means a moderate one. But his dismissal by Lord North for some act of insubordination, tallying in time with the influence of Burke's society, threw him into the arms of the opposition, and for many years he was the most merciless denouncer of the person as well as the policy of the minister. He soon rose to the front ranks of his party; and when Lord North resigned came into office with the Marquis of Rockingham. On the death of that nobleman, when Lord Shelburne was made Prime Minister, Burke, Fox, and Sheridan resigned, and, to the disgust of the in our history, (we believe,) a British general communicated to the enemy the secret of a hostile expedition, which failed in consequence of this betrayal, and cost the lives of 800 men and their commander.* James to William, probably betraying women whom his handsome person and fasWilliam to James also, but carrying on his cinating manners induced to intrigue with intrigue with such dark ability, that to this him. He repaid the confidence and favour day historians are in the dark as to which of the sovereign who had loaded him with monarch he really intended to adhere to. benefits, by enticing him into danger and Probably his only idea was to secure himself then deserting to the enemy, and endeaa pied-à terre in either camp. vouring to carry over his whole army with The Earl of Shrewsbury and Lord Car- him. He shortly after proceeded to betray marthen, while ministers and trusted minis- the monarch whom he had thus mainly ters of William, kept up, for a time at least, contributed to instal, by intriguing with the treasonable intercourse with the banished monarch whom he had abandoned and desovereign; though the first had been one of throned; and, not content with this infamy, the leading men inviting the Prince of which he shared with many contemporaries, Orange to the throne, and was one of he perpetrated another, which belongs to the most noble and beloved statesmen of him alone: For the first aud only time his day. Many others were implicated in the same dishonourable transactions, but on none have the treacheries of that shameless time left so deep a stain as on Marlborough -a stain which his after-glories rendered yet darker and more astounding. His, indeed, The iniquities of the leading politicians in ⚫ is one of the most singular and perplexing the reign of Anne were at least as mean, if characters in history. He was gifted with a degree less daring and gigantic. Parthe most wonderful powers of fascination, liamentary corruption was extensive and both of mind and person. His manners unblushing; the Speaker, himself bribed, were both dignified and winning, his external decorum unfailing, his courage serene and imperturbable, and his diplomatic and military genius of the very highest order. His army was the best conducted and most "respectable" in the world. He allowed no improprieties of behaviour;-he read prayers constantly to his troops, and would tolerate no swearing or licentious language. He was in all things a model of the TÒ пρÉлоν. His success, both as a general τὸ πρέπον. and an ambassador, has been rivalled by Wellington alone. Yet he seems to have had no one really estimable virtue in his character, and to have been devoid both of patriotism, of principle, and of shame, to a degree absolutely inconceivable. His sister was seduced by James II. He at tached himself to that Prince, and gained his promotion by conniving at his family dishonour. He laid the foundation of his independence* by accepting money from the * Marlborough's love of money seems to have been insatiable. Here is a list of the offices and emoluments he at one time enjoyed, in addition to vast Parliamentary grants of cash and estates:Plenipotentiary to the states, was its official instrument. Intrigues for the restoration of the Pretender still continued among leaders of the Opposition and Ministers of the Crown alternately,-somewhat redeemed from their previous enormity by the fact that the weak Queen, in her hatred for her Hanoverian successors, gave them a languid and fitful countenance. Ministers intrigued against their colleagues, and used the passions of ladies of the bed-chamber as their tools. Harley and Bolingbroke undermined Malborough and Godolphin, and then quarrelled with and plotted against each other; completing their "scandalous chronicle" by deceiving their allies, and entering into clandestine negotiations with their enemies; throwing away, for the mere purpose of maintaining themselves in office, the fruit of all the splendid and matchless victories of Marlborough; and terminating the most glorious war which this country had ever waged, by the most disgraceful £9,500 £,7000 General of the English forces, on Mr. How's Establishment, . 5,000 General in Flanders, on Mr. Brydge's Establish ment, 5,000 Master of the Ordnance, Travelling charges as do., do., * One contemporary says, that the Duke and Duchess between them had £90,000 a-year of salary. Marlborough continued his double treachery to 3,000 1,825 the last. In 1713, we find him professing the 2,000 most unbounded devotion to both monarchs elect,5,000 the Elector of Hanover and the Pretender. In 1715, 10,000 while Commander-in-Chief of the British army, and a Member (though a neglected one) of the Cabinet, 15,000 he sent a sum of money to the Pretender, which served to aid him in raising troops for the rebellion £54,825 of that year.-Lord Mahon. 1,000 treaty she had ever signed! Well might as we proceed, we shall find the improveMacaulay write," Among those politicians ment which we have asserted to consist in who, from the Restoration to the accession four principal points,--far greater pecuniary of the house of Hanover, were at the head purity;* more scrupulous observance of of the great parties in the state, very few party honour and consistency; less animosity can be named whose reputation is not and more decency in the conduct of political stained by what in our age would be called hostility; and a higher sense of public gross perfidy and corruption. It is scarcely duty, with a more comprehensive view of an exaggeration to say that the most un-public interests and requirements. principled public men who have taken part in affairs within our memory would, if tried by the standard which was in fashion during the latter part of the 17th century, deserve to be regarded as scrupulous and disinterested." With the undisputed succession and the consolidated power of the House of Hanover came in a new era of statesmanship,-a period of modified and somewhat amended morality, of mitigated if not of meaner passions. The stakes played for were less high, the feelings excited by the game less virulent and intense, the laws of the game more moderate and decent, as well as better observed. The matters involved in the strife of politicians were henceforth the change of Cabinets, not of dynasties; the legislation, not the liberties, of an empire; the retention of power, not the preservation of life. Since 1714 no British statesman has run any risk of losing his head: even the impeachment of Oxford, whom we now know to have been a traitor, fell through; even Bolingbroke was pardoned. Impeachment is still occasionally threatened, and has once or twice been voted; but no punishment has ever followed. Intrigues, too, became less desperate, public profligacy less shameless, party warfare somewhat less acrimonious. But this was a gradual change, and at first not a rapid one. About the same period also the conditions and the arena of statesmanship became somewhat altered. With the repeal of the Triennial Act began that supremacy of the House of Commons over its two co-ordinate powers which has ever since been growing more decided and more confirmed. Walpole was, we believe, the first Prime Minister who ever sat in the lower House,-certainly the first who ever remained there by calculation and from choice. He was in office for nearly forty years, and was First Lord of the Treasury for twenty-one. He, too, consolidated and systematised that system of Parliamen tary management which remained in practice for upwards of a century. He was the first Premier who held nearly the same position both with regard to the Court, the Cabinet, and the House of Commons, as Premiers of our day hold. With his accession to power, therefore, we may fairly commence our comparison of the present with the past. And, Walpole was beyond question the most eminent, the ablest, and the most successful statesman of his day. Of all who acted prominently in that time he was, though by no means brilliant, yet certainly the man of the soundest judgment, the clearest head, the fewest prejudices, and the mildest passions. His ambition only was excessive and insatiable. He was, as Hume well says, "moderate in exercising power, not equitable in engrossing it." He was in private life, and on the whole in public life too, a man of loyalty and honour. He understood the interests of his country wonderfully well, and served them with a rare fidelity-for his age. He understood the interests of his ambition still better, and served them still more faithfully. He was, with the exception perhaps of his brother-in-law Lord Townshend, the most respectable statesman of that barren period. He was also the most clement and forbearing towards his adversaries. From his conduct and his sufferings,-from the things he did not scruple to do, and the hostility he was compelled to endure, we may, therefore, gain a very fair picture of the public morality of one hundred and thirty years ago,-of the language which it was thought decent to use,-of the charges which it was not shameful to make,-of the conduct which it was not infamous to pursue. 1694-1815, corruption seems to have been rife and During the reign of Triennial Parliaments, from general. Burnet admits that King William was obliged to sanction it, though most unwillingly. Some scandalous transactions were brought to light; known. Several members of the House of Com mons were detected in a system of false endorsements of Exchequer Bills. Sir John Trevor, the Speaker, accepted a bribe of £1000 from the city of London, and, indeed, was himself for some time the person who managed the bribing of the members. The Secretary of the Treasury, too, was sent to the Tower for (being found out in) a similar offence. numbers as scandalous must have remained un + Strange freedom of language was tolerated in those days. Walpole "wanted words to express the villany of the late Frenchified Ministry." Yet when Shippen, the Jacobite leader, out of pure spite, made a charge of embezzlement against Lord Cadogan,-one of Walpole's late colleagues,-Walpole did not think it unworthy of him to support the attack with such vehemence that it ended in violent hemorrhage, which compelled him to leave the House. Yet on the whole, compared with his contemporaries, Walpole was clement and forgiving. He submitted to be bullied and thwarted by opponents of whose treasonable practices he was well aware, and whose lives and liberties were sometimes in his power. He bandied hard words with them, but he never menaced them with criminal prosecution. He was inexorable to colleagues who opposed him,-placable towards open enemies. He even protected Sunderland, and endeavoured to protect Aislabie, when their connexion with the South Sea delinquencies had exposed them to popular vengeance. He was essentially a mildtempered and good-natured Minister. Yet language like the following seems to have been common and " Parliamentary," both with him and his antagonists. When Sir William Wyndham and his party seceded in a body, Walpole answered the final speech of that leader thus :- Walpole entered life as a Whig, and re- | fall from power a similar accusation was mained a Whig and a leader of the Whigs again brought forward, but totally failed. till his death, during a time when the questions and feelings which divided Whigs and Tories were far more important and more virulent than now. He early became a great favourite with the King. When his immediate chief and friend Lord Townshend was dismissed by Stanhope, Walpole resigned along with him, in spite of royal entreaties that he would remain; but promised that he would offer no factious opposition. Yet he at once allied himself with the most violent Jacobites and Tories, with Wyndham and Shippen at their head, to thwart every measure of the administra tion of which he had been a member,-measures even which he was known to approve, -measures of which he had himself been the originator. The Schism Bill, an infamous law against Dissenters, forbidding them even to educate their children,-which he had opposed and denounced with the most vehement and righteous indignation when proposed,-Stanhope proposed to repeal: Walpole voted against the proposal. Hea practical statesman-inveighed against a standing army, and proposed its reduction to 12,000 men, when one rebellion had been just with difficulty quelled, when another was known to be imminent, and when invasion was hourly expected. He did not even scruple to oppose the annual Mutiny Bill-without which, as he well knew, no army could be held together for a month. And finally, he who was the most vehement of Lord Oxford's denouncers, and the chair man of the committee for preparing his impeachment, two years afterwards-nothing being changed except his own Ministerial position-joined the Tories in a skilful and successful intrigue for procuring Oxford's acquittal. "In short, in looking through our Parliamentary annals, (says Lord Mahon,) I scarcely know where to find any parallel of coalitions so unnatural, or of opposition so factious." Charges of malversation and peculation were among the commonest party weapons in those days; and public men voted upon them, as they used to vote on controverted elections, not with any reference to evidence, but solely to the party opinions of the accused and the accuser. Marlborough, Stanhope and Townshend had all been charged with crimes of this sort, without the shadow of foundation. Nay, Walpole himself at the commencement of his career had been expelled the House of Commons, and committed to the Tower on a similar charge of the blackest dye,-groundless, but not the less successful on that account; and on his "The gentleman who is now the mouth of this faction was looked upon as the head of those traitors who, twenty-five years ago, conspired the destruction of their country and of the royal family, to put a Papist pretender on the throne. He was seized by the vigilance of the then Government, and pardoned by its clemency; but all the use he has ungratefully made of that clemeney has been to qualify himself according to law, that he and his party may some time or other have an opportunity to overthrow all law. They went off like traitors as they were, Sir; but their retreat had not the detestable effect they wished, and therefore they returned. Ever since, Sir, they have persevered in the same treasonable intention of serving that interest by distressing the Government." Walpole had long been accustomed to the terms "corrupt tyrant," "wicked Minister," and other similar amenities, and seemed to care little for them. The attack made against him at the close of his career by the union of all whom he had opposed, and all whom he had dismissed, and all whom he had disappointed, is for its unmeasured and unscrupulous invective one of the least reputable passages in our Parliamentary history. The language held by Pitt,-a |