whereas at Hanover all these things were in the utmost perfection. . . . In truth he hated the English, looked upon them all as king killers and republicans, grudged them their riches as well as their liberty, thought them all overpaid, and said to Lady Sundon one day as she was waiting at dinner, just after he had returned from Germany, that he was forced to distribute his favors here very differently from the manner in which he bestowed them at Hanover; that there he rewarded people for doing their duty and serving him well, but that here he was obliged to enrich people for being rascals, and buy them not to cut his throat. The rise of Sir Robert Walpole, on the settlement of the South Sea panic, the large part he took in the government between 1720 and 1742, his interest in the secret service or bribery fund, the opposition to him, and his final fall from office, lightened as this was by his appointment to a peerage, will appear from the following group of contemporary letters, extending over the whole twenty years of his ministry. 347. William Dear Cousin: Pultney to Daniel Pultney (Lon I am perfectly ashamed to write to you, having received so many letters from you without answering one of them; but I don, Novem- hope you will forgive me when I assure you that I have done ber 20, 1720) nothing, nor thought of nothing, for these last two months, but South Sea stock, and yet I am not myself any great sufferer by it; but so many of my acquaintances are ruined and undone that I am under as much anxiety and uneasiness of mind as if I was so myself. 'T is ridiculous to tell you what a summe I might once have been master of; but since I had not discretion enough to secure that, 't is still some comfort to me to have putt my affairs in such a way that lett what will happen I can be no loser by it. The king's coming, which everybody thought would have in some measure revived the stock, has from abundance of simple stories that have been artfully dispersed rather depressed it, and within this week the stock has been sold at 120£. It has been reported that Mr. Walpole, who has the greatest influence of any one over the directors of the bank, has all this while prevented their complying with the bargain they made with the South Sea Company, and that he has it now in his power to ruin the South Sea scheme and the authors of it at once, in revenge for the trick they formerly served him. To tell you the plain truth, I do not think there is any very cordial affection between the ministers and him; but it is so much the interest of both of them to relieve mankind from this generall calamity, that I am persuaded they must co-operate in all measures for doing of it, and upon their meeting yesterday, when Mr. Walpole proposed some things for the South Sea, which was agreed to by the ministers, the stock gott up to 200£. My Lord: 348. Sir Rob to Lord service fund I have nothing to trouble your lordship with this post, hav- ert Walpole ing no particulars from Scotland since my last, but general Townshend, accounts that every thing is like to go on very well, and 't is Secretary of now hoped that the malt tax will be levied and collected State (London, Septemwithout any further dispute. The occasion of my troubling ber 7, 1725) you now is to transmit to your lordship the three enclosed warrants and receipts for money to be issued out of the secret The secret service, which will be wanted at Michaelmas, or at least no more of it shall be issued than shall be absolutely necessary. The unexpected sums that have been paid since his Majesty's departure, which your lordship is acquainted with, make it necessary to send over these warrants, that it may be in my power to answer some payments that become due at Michaelmas, and to be able to answer any unforeseen services; but I hope the whole will not be wanted before the king's return. Be pleased, my lord, to present them to his Majesty to be signed; the dates are left blank, to be filled up at the times that the money shall be wanted. His Majesty will remember that the receipts are to be signed at the top, with G. R. at bottom. You will observe that I am preparing to get my 349. Lord Bolingbroke to Sir Wil liam Wynd ham (July 25, 1740) Walpole's influence to prevent a war with Spain 350. Sir Rob to the duke of Devon shire (London, February 2, 1742) business dispatched with an eye to some October hunting, or I agree that if any private job was to be done, or connived att, against the national interest, and in favour of some other to which the prince on the throne might be supposed affectionate, Sir Robert would not fail to make his court. This we have seen. But how can it be supposed, in the present case, that the prince on the throne should think it his interest to favour Spain att the expense of Great Britain, unless Sir Robert has persuaded him that it is so? But then the question returns, how has he persuaded him? He may think that Philip II is on the throne of Spain; that an invincible armada will invade his kingdom; that the pretender is actually in it; and that a formidable party, composed of all Sir Robert's enemys, is ready to take arms against the establishment. But his minister knows, I believe, that Philip V is on the throne of Spain; he must have heard something, even from Wager, of the weakness of the maritime forces of Spain; his brother may have informed him that the pretender is att Rome; and as he is well enough apprized of the state of things att home, he must know that the Jacobite party in Britain is an unorganized lump of inert matter, without a principle of life or action in it; capable of mobility, perhaps, but more capable of divisibility, and utterly void of all power of spontaneous motion. . . I was unwilling to miss this opportunity of the messenger that ert Walpole carries back the Irish bills, to give your grace an account by a safe conveyance of what will immediately happen within the space of three or four days. It is determined that the king shall tomorrow, when he passes the malt act, direct the two houses to adjourn themselves for a fortnight to give time for settling a new administration. I shall go up immediately to the House of Peers with the title of earl of Orford. Lord Wilmington will be put at the head of the treasury; but what further steps will be taken are yet by no means settled among themselves. office To give your grace a short view of this great revolution, I Announces must inform you that the panick was so great among what I his fall from should call my own friends that they all declared my retiring was become absolutely necessary, as the only means to carry on the publick businesse, and this to be attended with honour and security, &c. This was fixed with the d. of N- —, Lord Ch-r, Lord Ca-tt, and Mr. Pultney, but the king has declared Lord Wil-n my successor. I will conclude with acquainting you that the king has behaved towards me with more grace and steadinesse than can ever be enough acknowledged, and never yielded at all to the change till I made it my desire. Dear Sir: 351. The I was with Sir Robert Walpole this morning. He has de- marquis of Hartington sired me to write to you, to beg of you not to determine your- to the duke self in any way till he has spoke to you. He seems to bear his of Devonshire (Lonchange of fortune with great spirit. I own for my part I never don, Februsaw a more melancholy scene than his levee was this morning. ary 4, 1742) It was the fullest that ever was, I believe, and the greatest concern in everybody's looks. I hope you will let me hear from you as soon as possible. Our situation will be, I am afraid, a very confused one; and I shall be desirous of acting as I thought would be most agreeable to you, and I flatter myself that I shall have your approbation, when I told Sir Robert today, upon his saying that he hoped I would stand by the government, which he himself would endeavour to support, that he might depend upon it that I would do everything that I could do to support him and the measures that he should advise. But I hope now he will be above the reach of all his enemys, tho' the Jac-tes and people of that complexion were very warm yesterday in the House of Commons, and declar'd that they did not yet despair of having his life; but Sir Robert told me that he had wrote you a full account when the bills went, that it will be unnecessary for me to say anything more on this subject. They say, and I had it from his son, that when he took leave of the king, and kneeled down, the king burst into a flood of tears, and express'd great concern at parting with him. 352. A contemporary description of Walpole His private life His parliamentary skill Lord Chesterfield has devoted one of his keen character sketches to Walpole, whom he describes as follows: I much question whether an impartial character of Sir Robert Walpole will or can be transmitted to posterity; for he governed this kingdom so long that the various passions of mankind mingled, and in a manner incorporated themselves, with everything that was said or written concerning him. Never was man more flattered nor more abused; and his long power was probably the chief cause of both. I was much acquainted with him both in his public and his private life. I mean to do impartial justice to his character; and therefore my picture of him will, perhaps, be more like him than it will be like any of the other pictures drawn of him. In private life he was good-natured, cheerful, social; inelegant in his manners, loose in his morals. He had a coarse, strong wit, which he was too free of for a man in his station, as it is always inconsistent with dignity. He was very able as a minister, but without a certain elevation of mind necessary for great good or great mischief. Profuse and appetent, his ambition was subservient to his desire of making a great fortune. He had more of the Mazarin than of the Richelieu. He would do mean things for profit, and never thought of doing great ones for glory. He was both the best parliament-man and the ablest manager of parliament that I believe ever lived. An artful rather than an eloquent speaker, he saw as by intuition the disposition of the House, and pressed or receded accordingly. So clear in stating the most intricate matters, especially in the finances, that, whilst he was speaking, the most ignorant thought that they understood what they really did not. Money, not prerogative, was the chief engine of his administration; and he employed it with a success which in a manner disgraced humanity. He was not, it is true, the inventor of that shameful method of governing, which had been gaining ground insensibly ever since Charles II, but with uncommon skill and unbounded profusion he brought it to that perfection which at this time dishonours and distresses this country, and which |