and-twenty hours. I have raised many of them in one night. It is but refusing to gratify an unreasonable or an insolent demand, and up starts a patriot." The Balance of Power.-This expression occurs in the speech by Sir Robert Walpole in 1741, in which he defended himself against the motion for an address to George II. to remove him from his counsels. Alluding to the pacific policy of his administration, he said, "We were not in honour obliged to take any share in the war which the Emperor brought upon himself in the year 1733, nor were we in interest obliged to take a share in that war, as long as neither side attempted to push its conquests farther than was consistent with the balance of power in Europe, which was a case that did not happen." His Resignation. The immediate cause of the Minister's resignation was the virtual success of Pulteney's motion (p. 108) in January, 1742. His once powerful majority (writes Ewald) had dwindled down to three, and in a few days, when the question of the Chippenham election petition came before the House, even that feeble majority could not be commanded, and Walpole found himself for the first time for twenty years in a minority. He was strongly advised to give up the seals. "I must inform you," he writes to the Duke of Devonshire, "that the panic was so great among what I should call my own friends that they all declared my retiring was become absolutely necessary, as the only means to carry on the public business." His own family also urged him to submit to the verdict of parliamentary fortune, and not to oppose a hostile House of Commons. Had he consulted his own wishes, he would, he said, still have remained at the head of affairs, in spite of his political reverses; but when he found that, in addition to a formidable majority in the House of Commons, and to a strong feeling against him out of doors, his Cabinet declined to serve under him and threatened desertion, he saw that there was no alternative but to tender his resignation. On handing the seals to the King, the Minister knelt down to kiss the royal hand, and it is said that his Majesty was so moved at the departure of his chief adviser, after the many years of faithful service he had rendered the Crown, that he burst into tears. Walpole was raised to the Upper House by the title of the Earl of Orford, and a handsome pension was granted him. Faulty Premiers.-The Duke of Argyll said all First Ministers had been faulty, but that Sir Robert Walpole had the least faults of any minister with whom he had ever been concerned. Inquiring after Robin.-When Walpole resigned, and was raised to the peerage, the old clergyman of Walsingham, who was master of the first school in which Sir Robert was instructed, went to his country seat at Houghton, and told him he had been his first master, and had predicted that he would be a great man. Being asked why he never called upon him while he was in power, he answered, "I knew that you were surrounded with so many petitioners, craving preferment, and that you had done so much for Norfolk people, that I did not wish to intrude. But," he added, in a strain of good-natured simplicity, "I always inquired how Robin went on, and was satisfied with your proceedings." His Opinion of History.-Upon his retirement, in 1742, he went immediately to Houghton; but, accustomed all his life to political excitement, having never been fond of reading, and much of his old company failing, his time must have hung heavy on his hands. It is recorded that his son having one day proposed to read to him, and taking down a book of history, he exclaimed, "Oh, don't read history; that I know must be false: "-the judgment (remarks Earl Russell) of a man better acquainted with pamphleteers than with historians. His Political Axiom.-Sir Robert Walpole is justly blamed (says Coxe) for a want of political decorum, and for deriding public spirit, to which Pope alludes :— "Seen him I have, but in his happier hour He does not think me what he thinks mankind." Although it is not possible to justify him, yet this part of his conduct has been greatly exaggerated. The political axiom generally attributed to him, that "all men have their price," was perverted by leaving out the word "those." Flowery oratory he despised; he ascribed to the interested views of themselves or their relatives the declarations of pretended patriots, of whom he said, "All those men have their price;" and in the event many of them justified his observation.-Coxe's Life." 66 Character of Walpole.-Lord Campbell thus sums up the character of Walpole: "He was probably the most dexterous party-leader we have ever had-equally skilled to win royal favour, to govern the House of Commons, and to influence or be influenced by public opinion. He likewise well understood the material interests of the country, and, as far as was consistent with his own retention of power, he was desirous of pursuing them. But, that he might run no personal risk, he would make no attempt to improve our institutions; he was regardless of distant dangers; he plunged into a war which he admitted to be unjust and impolitic, and, by his utter neglect of literature and literary men-in spite of the example set him by his immediate predecessors, Whig and Tory-he gave to official life in England that aristocratic feeling, and vulgar, business-like tone, which it has ever since retained."-Mr. Massey, in his "History," says: "Every variety of invective which faction, jealousy, and personal hatred could suggest, was heaped upon his head; but the topics principally relied upon, and which could not be disputed, so far from being a reproach, are the very grounds on which his reputation as a wise and faithful minister must ever rest. That he was not scrupulous in the application of public money is undoubted; but the charge of personal peculation, by which the vindictive rage of his enemies sought his life as well as his honour, not only failed, but is discredited by the fact that he died largely in debt. The really vulnerable parts of his character were never attacked. The evil example of his private life; his utter contempt of decorum; the proverbial grossness of his conversation, and the perio dical debaucheries of Houghton, which were the talk of the whole county -all these passed uncensured. The truth is that the habits and manners of Walpole were congenial to the coarseness and depravity of the times." WILLIAM PULTENEY. (1682-1764.) A Powerful Speaker.—Sir Robert Walpole said of his great rival that he feared Pulteney's tongue more than another man's sword; and his character as a debater was thus drawn by Speaker Onslow, who was also a political opponent: "He had the most popular parts for public speaking that I ever knew; animating every subject of popularity with the spirit and fire that the orators of the ancient commonwealths governed the people by; was as classical and eloquent in the speeches he did not prepare, as they were in the most studied compositions; mingling wit and pleasantry, and the application even of little stories, so properly to affect his hearers, that he would overset the best argumentation in the world, and win people over to his side, often against their own convictions, by making ridiculous that truth they were influenced by before, and making some men to be afraid and ashamed of being thought within the meaning of some bitter expression of his, or within the laugh that generally went through the town at any memorable stroke of his wit." A Farcical Illustration.-Pulteney's speech against Walpole's Excise Bill gives us an example of his humour. "I must say," he remarked," that the honourable gentleman has been of late mighty bountiful and liberal in his offers to the public. He has been so gracious as to ask us, 'Will you have a land tax of two shillings in the pound? a land tax of one shilling in the pound? or will you have no land tax at all? Will you have your debts paid? Will you have them soon paid? Tell me but what you want, let me but know how you can be made easy, and it shall be done for you.' These are most generous offers; but there is something so very extraordinary, so farcical in them, that really I can hardly mention them without laughing. It puts me in mind of the story of Sir Epicure Mammon in the Alchymist.' He was gulled of his money by fine promises; he was promised the philosopher's stone, by which he was to get mountains of gold and everything else he could desire; but all ended at last in some little thing for curing the itch." A Horatian Bet.-On February 11th, 1741, Sandys informed Walpole in the House of Commons that he should, on the following Friday, bring an accusation of several articles against him. The minister, who received the intimation with great dignity and composure, immediately rose, thanked him for his notice, and, after requesting a candid and impartial hearing, declared that he would not fail to attend the House, as he was not conscious of any crime to deserve accusation. He laid his hand on his breast, and said, with some emotion "Nil conscire sibi, nulli pallescere culpæ." Pulteney observed that the right honourable gentleman's logic and Latin were equally inaccurate, and declared he had misquoted Horace, who had written nullâ pallescere culpâ. The minister defended his quotation, and, Pulteney repeating his assertion, he offered a wager of a guinea. Pulteney accepted the challenge, and referred the decision of the dispute to the minister's friend, Nicholas Hardinge, clerk of the House, a man distinguished for classical erudition. Hardinge decided against Walpole; the guinea was immediately thrown to Pulteney, who caught it, and holding it up to the House exclaimed, "It is the only money I have received from the Treasury for many years, and it shall be the last."Coxe's "Life of Walpole." The identical guinea may now be seen in the Medal Room of the British Museum, with the following memorandum in the handwriting of Pulteney:-"This guinea I desire may be kept as an heir-loom. It was won of Sir Robert Walpole in the House of Commons, he asserting the verse in Horace to be nulli pallescere culpæ, whereas I laid the wager of a guinea that it was nullâ pallescere culpâ. He sent for the book, and, being convinced that he had lost, gave me this guinea. I told him I could take the money without any blush on my side, but believed it was the only money he ever gave in the House, where the giver and receiver ought not equally to blush. This guinea, I hope, will prove to my posterity the use of knowing Latin, and encourage them in their learning." Keyhole Tactics.-On the 21st January, 1742 (writes Coxe), Pulteney made the celebrated motion for referring to a secret committtee the papers relating to the war, which had been already presented to the House. As this motion involved in it numerous charges against the conduct of the war, stated the necessity of a parliamentary inquiry, and brought on personal invectives against the minister, Sir Robert Walpole took a considerable share in the debate, and was roused to the utmost exertions. The motion was negatived by a majority of only three, in the fullest house known for many years, for 503 members voted. The efforts were so great on both sides that numbers were brought in from the chamber of sickness. Several voted in that condition on the side of opposition; but some who intended to have supported the minister were prevented from appearing at the division. They had been placed in an adjoining apartment, belonging to Lord Walpole as auditor of the Exchequer, which communicated with the house. The adversaries, aware of this fact, filled the keyhole of the door with dirt and saud, which prevented their admission into the house till the division was over. On this occasion, as General Churchill was sitting next to the Prince of Wales, who was in the House of Commons to hear the debate, a member was brought in who had lost the use of his limbs. "So," says the prince, "I see you bring in the lame, the halt, and the blind." "Yes," replied the general, "the lame on our side, and the blind on yours." Disparaging the Peers." When I have turned out Sir Robert Walpole," remarked Pulteney on one occasion, "I will retire into that hospital for invalids, the House of Peers." He afterwards entered the "hospital" as Earl of Bath. Turning the Key on Him.-For his earldom (observes Ewald) Pulteney had but to thank his old enemy. Walpole had prompted the King to offer the leader of the Opposition a coronet, and Pulteney had succumbed to the proposal. Soon after his refusal of office, however, he wished to decline the honour, but Walpole, well aware how public opinion would view the matter, advised the King to insist upon its original acceptance. "I remember," writes Horace Walpole, "my father's action and words when he returned from court and told me what he had done— I have turned the key of the closet on him!' making that motion with his hand." It is said that when Pulteney received the patent of his creation as Earl of Bath he flung the parchment down and trampled upon it. Insignificant Men.-By the fall of Walpole, Lord Bath enjoyed for some days a kind of sovereign power. But he ruined his character, and, from a most glorious eminence, sank down to a degree of contempt. The first time Sir Robert (who was now Earl of Orford) met him in the House of Lords, he threw out this reproach: "My Lord Bath, you and I are now two as insignificant men as any in England."-Dr. King's "Anecdotes." Party Relations.-On the resignation of Sir Robert Walpole in 1742, the formation of an administration was, at his suggestion, offered to Pulteney, on condition that no prosecution should be instituted against the late minister. To this condition Pulteney declined to agree, saying, "Even should my inclination induce me to accede to these terms, yet it might not be in my power to fulfil my engagement, the heads of parties. being like the heads of snakes, which are carried on by their tails." HENRY PELHAM. (1696-1754.) His Intrepidity.-In the debates on the Excise Bill, in March, 1733, Pelham warmly supported that measure, in defiance of party and popular clamour. During this period of agitation he not only defended the Minister (Walpole) in Parliament, but on one occasion evinced his personal attachment by an act of great intrepidity. After the last debate on the bill, as Sir Robert Walpole was passing through the lobby of the House of Commons, accompanied by Mr. Pelham, he was surrounded by a clamorous mob, not of rabble, but of well-dressed persons. When the two friends had nearly reached the steps leading to Alice's coffee-house, some individuals seized Sir Robert's cloak, and, as the collar was tightly fastened, nearly strangled him. At this moment of danger Mr. Pelham attacked the assailants, pushed Sir Robert into the passage leading to the coffee-house, and, drawing his sword, stationed himself at the entrance, exclaiming in a firm and determined tone, "Now, gentlemen, who will be the first to fall?" This spirited defiance overawed the assailants, who quietly dispersed.-Coxe's “ Pelham Administration." The archdeacon adds in a foot-note that the above is a correct version of the occurrence, which was inaccurately given in his "Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole." 66 A Posthumous Malediction.-The principal article of the Ways and Means in 1752 was the land tax, which the Minister (Mr. Pelham) |