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meftic details were his proper department. The great and fhining parts of government, though not above his parts to conceive, were above his timidity to undertake.

By great and lucrative employments, during the course of thirty years, and by ftill greater parfimony, he acquired an immenfe fortune, and established his numerous family in advantageous pofts and profitable alliances.

Though he had been folicitor and attorney-general, he was by no means what is called a prerogative lawyer. He loved the conftitution, and maintain ed the juft prerogative of the crown, but without stretching it to the oppref. fion of the people.

He was naturally humane, moderate, and decent; and when, by his former employments, he was obliged to profe. cute ftate-criminals, he discharged that duty in a very different manner from moft of his predeceffors, who were too justly called the blood-hounds of the

"crown."

He was a chearful and inftructive companion, humane in his nature, de. cent in his manners, unftained with any vice (avarice excepted), a very great magiftrate, but by no means a great minifter. Chesterfield.

$71. Character of the Duke of New

CASTLE.

The Duke of Newcastle will be fo often mentioned in the hiftory of these times, and with so strong a bias either for or against him, that I refolved, for the fake of truth, to draw his character with my ufual impartiality: for as he had been a minifter for above forty years together, and in the last ten years of that period first minifter, he had full time to oblige one half of the nation, and to of fend the other.

We were cotemporaries, near relations, and familiar acquaintances; fometimes well and fometimes ill together, according to the feveral variations of political affairs, which know no relations, friends, or acquaintances.

The public opinion put him below his level for though he had no fuperior parts, or eminent talents, he had a most indefatigable induftry, a perfeve

rance, a court craft, a fervile compliance with the will of his fovereign for the time being; which qualities, with only a common fhare of common-sense, will carry a man fooner and more fafely through the dark labyrinths of a court, than the most fhining parts would do, without thofe meaner talents.

He was good-natured to a degree of weakness, even to tears, upon the flighteft occafions. Exceedingly timorous, both perfonally and politically, dreading the leaft innovation, and keeping, with a fcrupulous timidity, in the beaten track of business, as having the fafeft bottom.

I will mention one inftance of this difpofition, which, I think, will fet it in the ftrongeft light. When I brought the bill into the house of lords, for correcting and amending the calendar, I gave him previous notice of my inten tions: he was alarmed at fo bold an undertaking, and conjured me not to ftir matters that had been long quiet; adding, that he did not love new-fangled things. I did not, however, yield to the cogency of thefe arguments, but brought in the bill, and it paffed unanimously. From fuch weakneffes it neceffarily fol lows, that he could have no great ideas, nor elevation of mind.

was, the agitation, the bustle, and the His ruling, or rather his only, paffion hurry of bufinefs, to which he had been accuftomed above forty years; but he was as dilatory in dispatching it, as he was eager to engage in it. He was always in a hurry, never walked, but always run, infomuch that I have fometimes told him, that by his fleetness one fhould rather take him for the courier than the author of the letters.

He was as jealous of his power as an impotent lover of his miftrefs, without activity of mind enough to enjoy or exert it, but could not bear a fare even in the appearances of it.

His levees were his pleasure, and his triumph; he loved to have them crouded, and confequently they were fo: there he made people of bufinefs wait two or three hours in the anti-chamber, while he trifled away that time with fome infignificant favourites in his clofet. When at laft he came into his levee-room, he

accofted,

accofted, hugged, embraced, and promifed every body, with a feeming cordiality, but at the fame time with an illiberal and degrading familiarity.

He was exceedingly difinterested: very profufe of his own fortune, and abhorring all thofe means, too often ufed by perfons in his station, either to gratify their avarice, or to fupply their prodigality; for he retired from bufinefs in the year 1762, above four hundred thoufands pounds poorer than when he firft engaged in it.

Upon the whole, he was a compound of most human weakneffes,but untainted with any vice or crime. Chesterfield.

$72. Character of the Duke of BEDFORD.

The Duke of Bedford was more confiderable for his rank and immenfe fortune, than for either his parts or his

virtues.

He had rather more than a common fhare of common-fense, but with a head fo wrong-turned, and fo invincibly obftinate, that the fhare of parts which he had was of little ufe to him, and very troublesome to others.

He was paffionate, though obftinate; and, though both, was always governed by fome low dependants, who had art enough to make him believe that he governed them.

His manners and addrefs were exceedingly illiberal; he had neither the talent nor the defire of pleasing.

In fpeaking in the house, he had an inelegant flow of words, but not with out fome reasoning, matter, and me.thod,

He had no amiable qualities; but he had no vicious nor criminal ones: he was much below fhining, but above contempt in any character.

In fhort, he was a duke of a respectable family, and with a very great eftate.

Ibid.

$73. Another Character. The Duke of Bedford is indeed a very confiderable man. The highest rank, a fplendid fortune, and a name glorious till it was his, were fufficient to have fupported him with meaner abilities than he poffeffed. The ufe he made of

thefe uncommon advantages might have been more honourable to himself, but could not be more inftructive to mankind. The eminence of his station gave him a commanding profpect of his duty. The road which led to honour was open to his view. He could not lofe it by miftake; and he had no temptation to depart from it by defign.

An independent, virtuous Duke of Bedford would never proftitute his dignity in parliament by an indecent violence, either in oppreffing or defending a minifter: he would not at one moment rancorously perfecute, at another bafely cringe to the favourite of his fovereign. Tho' deceived perhaps in his youth, he would not, thro' the course of a long life, have invariably chofen his friends from among the most profligate of mankind: his own honour would have forbidden him from mixing his private pleasures or converfation with jockeys, gamefters, blafphemers, gladiators, or buffoons. He would then have never felt, much lefs would he have fubmitted to, the humiliating neceffity of engaging in the intereft and intrigues of his dependants; of fupplying their vices, or relieving their beggary, at the expence of his country. He would not have betrayed fuch ignorance, or fuch contempt of the conftitution, as openly to avow in a court of juftice the purchase and fale of a borough. If it should be the will of Providence to afflict him with a domeftic misfortune, he would submit to the stroke with feeling, but not without dignity; and not look for, or find, an immediate confolation for the lofs of an only fon in confultations and empty bargains for a place at court, nor in the mifery of ballotting at the India-house.

The Duke's history began to be important at that aufpicious period, at which he was deputed to the court of Verfailles. It was an honourable office, and was executed with the fame fpirit with which it was accepted. His patrons wanted an ambassador who would fubmit to make conceffions :—their bufinefs required a man who had as little feeling for his own dignity, as for the welfare of his country; and they found him in the firft rank of the nobility.

Junius.

§ 74. Character of Mr. HENRY FOX, afterwards Lord HOLLAND.

Mr. Henry Fox was a younger brother of the lowest extraction. His father, Sir Stephen Fox, made a confiderable fortune, fome how or other, and left him a fair younger brother's portion, which he foon fpent in the common vices of youth, gaming included: this obliged him to travel for fome time.

When he returned, though by education a Jacobite, he attached himself to Sir Robert Walpole, and was one of his ableft eleves. He had no fixed principles either of religion or morality, and was too unwary in ridiculing and expofing

them.

He had very great abilities and indefatigable induftry in bufinefs; great kill in managing, that is, in corrupting, the house of commons; and a wonderful dexterity in attaching individuals to himfelf. He promoted, encouraged, and practifed their vices; he gratified their avarice, or fupplied their profufion. He wifely and punctually performed whatever he promised, and moft liberally rewarded their attachment and dependence. By thefe, and all other means that can be imagined, he made himself many perfonal friends and political dependants.

He was a moft difagreeable speaker in parliament, inelegant in his language, hefitating and ungraceful in his elocution, but skilful in difcerning the temper of the houfe, and in knowing when and how to prefs, or to yield.

A conftant, good-humour and feeming franknefs made him a welcome companion in focial life, and in all do. meftic relations he was good-natured. As he advanced in life, his ambition became fubfervient to his avarice. His early profufion and diffipation had made him feel the many inconveniencies of want, and, as it often happens, carried him to the contrary and worse extreme of corruption and rapine. Rem, quocunque modo rem, became his maxim, which he obferved (I will not fay religioufly and fcrupulously, but) invariably and fhamefully.

He had not the leaft notion of, or regard for, the public good or the con

ftitution, but defpifed thofe cares as the objects of narrow minds, or the pre

tences of interested ones: and he lived, as Brutus died, calling virtue only a name. Chesterfield.

$75. Character of Mr. PITT. Mr. Pitt owed his rife to the most confiderable pofts and power in this kingdom fingly to his own abilities; in him they fupplied the want of birth and fortune, which latter in others too often fupply the want of the former. He was a younger brother of a very new family, and his fortune only an annuity of one hundred pounds a year.

The army was his original deftination, and a cornetcy of horse his first and only commiffion in it. Thus, unaffifted by favour or fortune, he had no powerful protector to introduce him into business, and (if I may use that expreffion) to do the honours of his parts; but their own ftrength was fully fufficient.

His conftitution refufed him the ufual pleafures, and his genius forbad him the idle diffipations of youth; for fo early as at the age of fixteen, he was the martyr of an hereditary gout. He therefore employed the leifure which that tedious and painful diftemper either procured or allowed him, in acquiring a great fund of premature and useful knowledge. Thus, by the unaccountable relation of caufes and effects, what feemed the greatest misfortune of his life was, perhaps, the principal cause of its fplendor.

His private life was ftained by no vices, nor fullied by any meannefs. All his fentiments were liberal and elevated. His ruling paffion was an unbounded ambition, which, when fupported by great abilities, and crowned by great fuccefs, make what the world calls

a great man." He was haughty, imperious, impatient of contradiction, and over-bearing; qualities which too often accompany, but always clog great

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He came young into parliament, and upon that great theatre foon equalled the oldest and the ableft actors. His eloquence was of every kind, and he excelled in the argumentative as well as in the declamatory way; but his invectives were terrible, and uttered with fuch energy of diction, and ftern dignity of action and countenance, that he intimidated those who were the moft willing and the best able to encounter him*; their arms fell out of their hands, and they fhrunk under the afcendant which his genius gained over theirs.

In that affembly, where the public good is fo much talked of, and private intereft fingly purfued, he fet out with acting the patriot, and peformed that part fo nobly, that he was adopted by the public as their chief, or rather only unfufpected, champion.

The weight of his popularity, and his univerfally acknowledged abilities, obtruded him upon King George II. to whom he was perfonally obnoxious. He was made fecretary of state: in this difficult and delicate fituation, which one would have thought must have reduced either the patriot or the minifter to a decifive option, he managed with fuch ability, that while he ferved the king more effectually, in his moft unwarrantable electoral views, than any former minifter, however willing, had dared to do, he still preferved all his credit and popularity with the public; whom he affured and convinced, that the protection and defence of Hanover, with an army of feventy-five thousand men in British pay, was the only poffible method of fecuring our poffeffions or ac.. quifitions in North America. So much eafier is it to deceive than to undeceive mankind.

His own difintereftedness, and even contempt of money, smoothed his way to power, and prevented or filenced a great share of that envy which commonly attends it. Moft men think

Home Campbell, and Lord Chief Juftice

Mansfield.

that they have an equal natural right to riches, and equal abilities to make the proper use of them; but not very many of them have the impudence to think them felves qualified for power.

Upon the whole, he will make a great and fhining figure in the annals of this country, notwithstanding the blot which his acceptance of three thousand pounds per annum penfion for three lives, on his voluntary refignation of the feals in the first year of the prefent king, muft make in his character, efpecially as to the difinterested part of it. However, it must be acknowledged, that he had thofe qualities which none but a great man can have, with a mixture of thofe failings which are the common lot of wretched and imperfect human nature. Chesterfield.

$76. Another Character.

Mr. Pitt had been originally defigned for the army, in which he actually bore a commiffion; but fate referved him for a more important ftation. In point of fortune he was barely qualified to be elected member of parliament, when he obtained a feat in the houfe of commons, where he foon outfhone all his compatriots. He difplayed a furprising extent and precifion of political knowledge, and irrefiftible energy of argument, and fuch power of elocution as ftruck his hearers with aftonishment and admiration: it flashed like the lightning of heaven against the minifters and fons of corruption, blafting where it fmote, and withering the nerves of oppofition but his more fubstantial praife was founded upon his difinterefted integrity, his incorruptible heart, his unconquerable fpirit of independence, and his invariable attachment to the intereft and liberty of his country.

Smollet.

$77. Another Character.

The fecretary ftood alone. Modern degeneracy had not reached him. Ori. ginal and unaccommodating, the features of his character had the hardihood of antiquity. His auguft mind over-awed majefty, and one of his lovereigns thought royalty fo impaired in his prefence, that he confpired to reOo

move

move him, in order to be relieved from his fuperiority. No ftate chicanery, no narrow fyitem of vicious politics, no idle conteft for minifterial victories funk him to the vulgar level of the great; but over bearing, perfuafive, and impracticable, his object was England, his ambition was fame. Without dividing, he deftroyed party; without corrupt ing, he made a venal age unanimous. France funk beneath him. With one hand he fmote the houfe of Bourbon, and wielded in the other the democracy of England. The fight of his mind was infinite; and his fchemes were to affect, not England, not the prefent age only, but Europe and pofterity. Wonderful were the means by which these schemes were accomplished; always feafonable, always adequate, the fuggeftions of an understanding animated by ardor, and enlightened by prophecy.

The ordinary feelings which make life amiable and indolent were unknown to him. No domeftic difficulties, no domestic weakness reached him; but aloof from the fordid occurrences of life, and unfullied by its intercourfe, he came occafionally into our fyftem, to counfel and to decide.

A character fo exalted, fo ftrenuous, fo various, fo authoritative, aftonifhed a corrupt age, and the treafury trembled at the name of Pitt through all her claffes of venality. Corruption ima gined, indeed, that the had found defects in this ftatefman, and talked much of the inconfiftency of his glory, and much of the ruin of his victories; but the history of his country, and the calamities of the enemy, answered and refuted her.

Nor were his political abilities his only talents his eloquence was an æra in the fenate, peculiar and fpontaneous, familiarly exprefling gigantic fenti. ments and inftinctive wildom; not like the torrent of Demofthenes, or the fplendid conflagration of Tully; it refembled fometimes the thunder, and fometimes the music of the fpheres. Like Murray, he did not conduct the understanding through the painful fubtilty of argumentation; nor was he, like Townfhend, for ever on the rack of exertion; but rather lightned upon the fubject,

and reached the point by the flashings of the mind, which, like thofe of his eye, were felt, but could not be followed.

Upon the whole, there was in this man fomething that could create, subvert, or reform; an understanding, a fpirit, and an eloquence, to fummon mankind to fociety, or to break the bonds of flavery afunder, and to rule the wilderness of free minds with unbounded authority; fomething that could establish or overwhelm empire, and ftrike a blow in the world that should refound through the univerfe.

Anonymous.

$78. Another Character. Lord Chatham is a great and celebrated name; a name that keeps the name of this country refpectable in every other on the globe. It may be truly called,

Clarum et venerabile nomen Gentibus, et multum noftræ quod proderat urbi. The venerable age of this great man, his merited rank, his fuperior eloquence, his fplendid qualities, his eminent fervices, the vaft fpace he fills in the eye of mankind, and, more than all the reft, his fall from power, which, like death, canonizes and fanctifies a great character, will not fuffer me to cenfure any part of his conduct. I am afraid to flatter him; I am fure I am not dif pofed to blame him: let thofe who have betrayed him by their adulation, infult him with their malevolence. But what I do not prefume to cenfure, I may have leave to lament.

For a wife man, he feemed to me at that time to be governed too much by general maxims: one or two of thefe maxims, flowing from an opinion not the most indulgent to our unhappy fpecies, and furely a little too general, led him into measures that were greatly mifchievous to himfelf; and for that reafon, among others, perhaps fatal to his country; meafures, the effects of which I am afraid are for ever incurable. He made an adminiftration fo checkered and fpeckled; he put together a piece of joinery fo crofsly indented and whimfically dove-tailed; a cabinet fo variously inlaid; fuch a piece of diverfified mofaic, fuch a teffelated pavement

without

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