ever any word happened to fall from him in warmth, which upon fubfequent reflection he himself thought too strong, he was never easy till he had made more than a fufficient atonement for it.

He had a most unfortunate, I will call it a most fatal kind of melancholy in his nature, which often made him both abfent and filent in company, but never morofe or four. At other times he was a chearful and agreeable companion; but, conscious that he was not always fo, he avoid. ed company too much, and was too often alone, giving way to a train of gloomy reflections.

His conftitution, which was never robuft, broke rapidly at the latter end of his life. He had two fevere ftrokes of apo. plexy or palfy, which confiderably affected his body and his mind.

I defire that this may not be looked upon as a full and finished character, writ for the fake of writing it; but as my folemn depofit of the truth to the best of my knowledge. I owed this fmall depofit of juftice, fuch as it is, to the memory of the best man I ever knew, and of the dearest friend I ever had. Chesterfield.

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 posts 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 maintained the juft prerogative of the crown, but without ftretching it to the oppreffion of the people.

He was naturally humane, moderate, and decent; and when, by his former employments, he was obliged to profecute ftate-criminals, he discharged that duty in a very different manner from most of his predeceffors, who were too juftly called the "blood-hounds of the crown.'

He was a chearful and instructive companion, humane in his nature, decent in his manners, unstained with any vice (avarice excepted), a very great magiftrate, but by no means a great minifter.

CASTLE.

Chesterfield.

He had great and clear parts; underftood, loved, and cultivated the belles lettres. He was an agreeable, eloquent fpeaker in parliament, but not without fome little tincture of the pleader.

Men are apt to miflake, or at leaft to feem to millake, their own talents, in hopes, perhaps, of misleading others to allow them that which they are confcious they do not poffefs. Thus Lord Hardwicke valued himself more upon being a great minister of state, which he certainly was not, than upon being a great magiftrate, which he certainly was.

All his notions were clear, but none of them great. Good order and domeftic details were his proper departme..t. The

The Duke of Newcastle will be so often mentioned in the hiftory of these times, and with fo ftrong a biafs 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 firft minifter, he had full time to oblige one half of the nation, and to offend the other.

We were cotemporaries, near relations, and familiar acquaintances; fometimes well, and fometimes ill together, according to the several 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 perfeverance, a court craft, a fervile compliance with the will of his fovereign for the time being; which qualities, with only a common share of common fenfe, will carry a man fooner and more fafely through the dark labyrinths of a court, than the most shining

parts

parts would do, without those meaner talents.

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

I will mention one instance of this difpofition, which, I think, will fet it in the ftrongest light. When I brought the bill. into the house of lords, for correcting and amending the calendar, I gave him pre. vious notice of my intentions: 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 these arguments, but brought in the bill, and it paffed unanimously. From fuch weakneffes it neceffarily follows, that he could have no great ideas, nor elevation of mind.

His manners and addrefs were exceed

ingly illiberal; he had neither the talent nor the defire of pleafing.

In fpeaking in the houfe, he had an inelegant flow of words, but not without fome reafoning, matter, and method.

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 fhare even in the appearances of it.

His levees were his pleasure, and his triumph; he loved to have them crowded, 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 last he came into his levee-room, he accofted, hugged, embraced, and promised every body, with a feeming cordiality, but at the fame time with an illiberal and degrading familiarity.

He was exceedingly difinterefted: 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

In short, he was a Duke of a refpectable family, and with a very great eftate.

§ 128. 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 these ancommon advantages might have been more honourable to himself, but could not be more inftructive to mankind. The eminence of his ftation 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 mistake, 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 minister: he would not at one moment rancorously perfecute, at another bafely cringe to the fa

vourite

vourite of his fovereign. Though deceived perhaps in his youth, he would not, through the courfe 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 pleafures or converfation with jockeys, gamefters, blafphemers, gladiators, or buffoons. He would then have never felt, much lefs would he have fubinitted to, the humilitating neceffity of engaging in the interest 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 juice the purchale and fale of a borough. If it should be the will of Providence to afflict him with a domeftic miffortune, he would fubmit to the ftroke 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 Versailles. It was an honourable office, and was executed with the fame fpirit with which it was accepted. His patrons wanted an ambaffador 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 first rank of the nobility. Junius.

§ 129. Character of Mr. HENRY Fox, af

terwards Lord Holland.

Mr. Henry Fox was a younger brother of the loweft extraction. His father, Sir Stephen Fox, made a confiderable fortune, fomehow 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 elves. 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 industry in bufinefs; great skill in

managing, that is, in corrupting, the house of commons; and a wonderful dexterity in attaching individuals to himself. 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 himfelf many perfonal friends and political dependants."

He was a moft difagreeable fpeaker in parliament, inelegant in his language, hefitating and ungraceful in his elocution, but fkilful 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 domeftic 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 conititution, but defpifed thofe cares as the objects of narrow minds, or the pretences of interested ones: and he lived, as Brutus died, calling virtue only a name.

Chesterfield.

pleafures, and his genius forbad him the iale diffipations of youth; for fo early as at the age of fixteen, he was the martyr of an hereditary gout. He therefore employed the leisure which that tedious and painful diftemper either procured or allow ed him, in acquiring a great fund of premature and useful knowledge. Thus, by the unaccountable relation of caufes and effects, what seemed the greatest misfortune of his life was, perhaps, the principal caufe 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 overbearing; qualities which too often accompany, but always clog, great ones.

He had manners and address; but one might difcern through them too great a consciousness of his own fuperior talents. He was a moft agreeable and lively companion in focial life; and had fuch a verfatility of wit, that he could adapt it to all forts of converfation. He had also a moft happy turn to poetry, but he feldom indulged, and feldom avowed it.

He came young into parliament, and upon that great theatre foon equalled the oldeft 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 stern dignity of action and countenance, that he intimidated those who were the most 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 pursued, he fet out with acting the patriot, and performed 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 Hume Campbell, and Lord Chief Justice

Mansfield.

fecretary of state: in this difficult and delicate fituation, which one would have thought must have reduced either the patriot or the min fter 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 minister, however willing, had dared to do, he ftill 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 acquifitions in North America. So much easier is it to deceive than to undeceive mankind.

His own difinterestedness, and even contempt of money, fmoothed his way to power, and prevented or filenced a great fhare of that envy which commonly, attends it. Moft men think that they have an equal natural right to riches, and equal abilities to make the proper ufe of them; but not very many of them have the impudence to think themselves 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 firft year of the prefent king, must make in his character, especially as to the difinterefted 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. Chefterfield.

§ 131. 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 furprifing extent and precision of political knowledge, and irrefiitible energy of argument, and fuch power of elocution as ftruck his hearers with aftonishment and admiration : it flashed like the lightening of heaven against the minifters and fons of corruption, blafting where it fmote, and withering the nerves of oppofition: but his more fubitantial praife was founded upon

$132. Another Character. The fecretary flood alone, Modern degeneracy had not reached him. Original and unaccommodating, the features of his character had the hardihood of antiquity. His auguft mind over-awed majesty, and one of his fovereigns thought royalty fo impaired in his prefence, that he confpired to remove him, in order to be relieved from his fuperiority. No ftate chicanery, no narrow fyftem of vicious politics, no ide conteft for minifterial victories, funk him to the vulgar level of the great; but overbearing, perfuafive, and impracticable, his object was England, his ambition was fame. Without dividing, he deftroyed party; without corrupting, he made a venal age ananimous. France funk beneath him. With one hand he fmote the house of Bourbon, and wielded in the other the de

mocracy 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 ardour, and enlightened by prophecy.

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

A character fo exalted, fo ftrenuous, fo various, fo authoritative, aftonished a corrupt age, and the treasury trembled at the name of Pitt through all her claffes of vemality. Corruption imagined, indeed, that the had found defeats 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, anfwered and re

fated her.

Nor were his political abilities his only talents: his eloquence was an era in the fenate, peculiar and fpontaneous, familiarly expreffing gigantic fentiments and inftinctive wisdom; not like the torrent of De

mofthenes, or the fplendid conflagration of Tully; it refembled fometimes the thunder, and fometimes the mufic of the spheres. 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 lightened 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, fubvert, or reform; an understanding, a spirit, and an eloquence, to fummon mankind to fociety, or to break the bonds of flavery asunder, and to rule the wilderness of free minds with unbounded authority; something that could eftablish or overwhelm empire, and ftrike a blow in the world that should refound through the universe.

Anonymous.

§ 133. Another Character. Lord Chatham is a great and celebrated country refpectable in every other on the name; a name that keeps the name of this 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 difpofed to blame him: let those 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 seemed to me at that time to be governed too much by general maxims: one or two of these maxims, flowing from an opinion not the most indulgent to our unhappy fpecies, and surely a little too general, led him into measures that were greatly mifchievous to himself; 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 crossly indented and whimfically

dove