to observe, how much influence was retained by a person so totally devoid of clearness of head, and even of common manly spirit, as the Duke of Newcastle. By intriguing to overturn Walpole, his colleague, and by bargaining in boroughs, he became the most powerful amongst the Whigs. But his incapacity and dishonesty ruined the party, who did not for a long time recover the disgrace of having served under such a chief. There is one man, however, whose life forms an exception to these remarks, and who did much to waken the country from the lethargy into which it was plunged. I mean, of course, Lord Chatham. He was in almost every respect the reverse of Walpole. Walpole lowered the tone of public men, till it became more like that of merchants than of statesmen: Chatham raised his voice against selfishness and corruption, and his invectives even now make the cheeks tingle with indignation. Walpole acted upon the love of ease, the prudence, and the timidity of mankind: Chatham appealed to their energy, their integrity, and their love of freedom. It must be acknowledged, that Wal pole had some merits which Lord Chatham wanted. He pursued from the beginning one steady and, upon the whole, useful line of statepolicy: Lord Chatham acted from the impulse of the moment; and if he followed his feeling of the day he little cared how inconsistent it might be with his former sentiments. Walpole seemed to aim at what was most expedient, Chatham at what was most striking; and thus the former secured the guarantee of France to the Protestant succession, and the latter attacked her possessions and humbled her name. The one looked to prosperity, the other to glory. Sir Robert Walpole was successful nearly to the end of his life. The cause of his long power is to be found both in the steadiness of his conduct, and his care to unite together a large and respected party in favour of his government. Lord Chatham succeeded in nothing after the ac cession of George III. He had neither sufficient consistency of character to inspire confidence in those who were to act with him, nor did he set a proper value on the importance of party in this country. If Walpole had thought too much of individuals, Lord Chatham consulted them too little. Provided he made up his mind to a measure, he seems to have thought that he could always find men to carry it into effect. His temper made him reject or quarrel with those who were best fitted by integrity and general views to assist him, but who differed with him in the smallest point; and he sought aid from others who flattered, ridiculed, betrayed, and supplanted him. Hence it was that the political character of England was not raised out of the mire into which it had fallen, by the splendid talents, generous virtues, and lofty views of the first William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. CHAP. XIX. GEORGE THE THIRD - BEGINNING OF HIS REIGN. Moreover, I have a maxim, that the extinction of party is the origin of faction. Letter of HORACE WALPOLE to Mr. Montague, Dec. 11. 1760. WHEN George III. came to the throne, little alteration took place in the external government of the country. An act was passed to continue the judges in their offices notwithstanding the demise of the crown, and although it was obvious that such an act diminished in no way the power of George III., but on the contrary, took away one means of influence from the successor, if that successor should act in opposition to the reigning king, yet this measure was represented as a signal addition on the part of the sovereign to the liberties of the subject. The important feature of the new reign was the experiment of a new project of government. Among other disastrous consequences of the want of public spirit in England, was a total neglect of the political education of the young King; and hence he came to be placed in the hands of men who had but recently shaken from their minds their allegiance to the house of Stuart. It occurred to these persons that, in the general blight of political virtue and public confidence, an opportunity was given for raising the household standard of the sovereign, and rallying around his person the old relics of the Jacobite party, with the addition of all, who, in the calculation of chances, might think the favour of the Sovereign as good an interest as the countenance of any minister whatever. form and consolidate this party they studiously spread all the doctrines which place the whole virtue of a monarchy in the supreme sanctity of the royal person. They endeavoured to obtain a certain number of seats in the House of Commons, which, with the help of a proportionate quantity of patronage, might make the To |