11th February, 1741, Sir Robert Walpole closed his long and prosperous ministry, and resigned; and on the 12th July, much against his inclination, Lord Hervey was dismissed and replaced by Lord Gower. He was very ill at the time of Walpole's fall, yet, "though there was a short interval between his dismissal and his death, he distinguished himself by exertions within Parliament and in the press equal, if not superior, to any he had ever made." Of his private life after the change of ministry we are told, there are no traces; but his political is distinguished by his zeal in the new opposition. In March, 1743, he spoke with great applause against the Hanoverians, and he wrote also two able pamphlets, one of which, "On the present Position of Foreign and Domestic Affairs," the editor says, "even after this lapse of time may still be read with interest." These were his last efforts. In the summer of 1743 he appears to have been suffering from illness, and his last letter, dated June 18, is written with feebleness and tremor of hand. He died on the 8th August of that year, and his death is thus recorded in the London Magazine:* "Died. The Right Honourable John Lord Hervey, late Lord Privy Seal, and eldest son of the Earl of Bristol: a famous speaker in Parliament under the late administration, and in the Opposition to the present.' His father Lord Bristol survived till the 20th January, 1751, and Lady Hervey to the 2nd September, 1768. Lord Hervey thus speaks of these Memoirs, now, after their repose, disclosed to us : "I look upon these papers rather as fragments that might be wove into a history, than a history in themselves, so I generally put down such little particulars as can come to the knowledge of few historians; whilst I omit several which may be learned from every Gazette, and cannot fail to be inserted in the writings of every author who will treat of these times. I am very sensible too what mere trifles several things are in themselves which I have related; but as I know that I myself have had a pleasure in looking at William Rufus's rusty stirrup, and the relics of a half worm-eaten chair in which Queen Mary sat when she was married in the cathedral of Winchester to King Philip of Spain, it is for the sake of those who, like me, have an unaccountable pleasure in such trifling particulars relating to anti He goes on to say, "Let Machiavels give rules for the conduct of princes, and let Tacituses refine upon them; let the one embellish their writings with teaching, and the other with commenting on these great personages; let these make people imagine that lettered theory can be reduced to common practice, and let these pretend to account for accidental steps by premeditated policy; whilst I content myself with only relating facts just as I see them, without pretending to impute the effects of chance to design, quity that I take the trouble of putting many of the immaterial incidents I have described into black and white, and am very ready to give up the dignity of my character as an historian to the censures of those who may be pleased on this account to reflect upon it: let them enjoy their great reflections on great events unenvied, and seek them elsewhere; and let those only hope for any satisfaction or amusement in my writings who look with more indifferent eyes on the surface of those splendid trifles, and pry less metaphysically into the bottom of them, for it is to those only I write who prefer nature to gilding, truth to refinement, and have more pleasure in looking upon these great actors dressing and undressing than when they are representing their parts upon the public stage." or to account for the great actions of great people always by great causes; since the highest rank of people have as many and the same passions as the lowest ; and since the lowest have five senses, and none of the highest that I know of have six. I look upon the world, and every incident in it, to be produced as much from the same manner of thinking, as I do the operations of kitchen-jacks and the finest repeating watches from the same laws of motion and the same rules of mechanism * In the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. XIII. p. 443, instead of the latter clause, we find this :-" He distinguished himself with great zeal in the late debates against hiring auxiliaries and against the Gin Act." -the only difference is, a little coarser or finer wheels. The intrigues of courts and private families are still the same game, and played with the same cards, the disparity in the skill of the gamesters in each equally great; there are excellently good and execrably bad, and the only difference is their playing more or less deep, whilst the cutting and shuffling, the dealing and the playing, is still the same, whether the stakes be halfpence or millions."'* We now proceed to select a few of the more leading characters described; although had we had room we should also have added some less known, and not sketched by another pen. No more eminent person or of greater importance appeared at that time than the one now before us : "Mr. Pulteney he knew was a man of parts, but not to be depended upon one capable of serving a minister, but more capable of hurting him, from desiring only to serve himself. He was a man of most inflexible pride, immeasurable ambition, and so impatient of any superiority that he grudged the power of doing good even to his benefactor, and envied the favour of the court to one who called him in to share it. He had as much lively ready wit as ever man was master of; and was, before politics soured his temper and engrossed his thoughts, the most agreeable and coveted companion of his time. He was naturally lazy, and continued so till he was out of employment: his resentment and eagerness to annoy first taught him application, application gave him knowledge, but knowledge did not give him judgment, nor experience prudence. He was changeable in his wishes, vehement in the pursuit of them, and dissatisfied in the possession. He had strong passions, was seldom sincere, but when they ruled him; cool and unsteady in his friendships, warm and immoveable in his hate; naturally not generous, and made less so by the influence See also Lord Hervey's Introduction to his Memoirs, vol. i. p. 1 to 4. In one place of his Memoirs (vol. i. p. 389) he says, "There is one thing I cannot help remarking here, very different from the common style of memoir-writers, and that is, the difficulty and sometimes the impossibility of coming at truth, even for those who have, to all appearance, the best information ;" and then he gives an example of the contradictory statement given him on the same subject by the Queen and by Sir R. Walpole.-Rev. † On Parliamentary oratory these are the observations, by one who was himself an orator, occasioned by a speech of Mr. Pulteney's. "There was a languor in it that one almost always perceives in those speeches that have been so long preparing and compiling. Men of great talents and quick parts, who have a knowledge and readiness, a natural eloquence, a lively imagination, and a command of words, always in my opinion, which is founded on my observation, speak best upon the least preparation, supposing them masters of their subject; for, besides their thinking with less vivacity and emotion on subjects they have often thought of, their growing tired of them and having their fancy palled by them, in these cases of preparation their memory works more than their invention, and they are hunting the cold scent of the one, instead of pursuing the warm scent of the other; and, as most orators warm others in the degree or in proportion to the degree in which they are warmed themselves, so they never can affect their audience so much with things they have thought of till they are unaffected with them themselves as they will with those which they utter at the time that they are most affected with them themselves, which is generally in the first conception of them. And it is from this cause that all good speakers, in my humble opinion, speak better on a reply than at any other time, though Sir R. Walpole on this occasion even in replying lost those advantages I have mentioned, for, as he knew beforehand all the arguments to which he was to answer this day, so his answer was as much prepared and thought of as those things to which he was to answer, and, to my ear at least, there was the same languor, and that same want of the vis vivida, which appeared in the performance of Mr. Pulteney, and which I have often heard both of them speak without wanting, and possess superior I think to any two men I ever heard, and at least equal I believe to any two men that ever had the gift of speech." Of his father, Sir R. Walpole's eloquence, Horace Walpole says, "It was made for use, and he never could shine but when it was necessary he should. He wanted art when he had no occasion for it, and never pleased but when he did more than please." And he adds, "How little he shone in formal ornamental eloquence, appeared from his speech at Sacheverell's trial, which was the only written one, and perhaps the worst, he ever made." See Horace Walpole's Memoirs of George the Second, vol i. p. 233.-REV. of a wife whose person he loved, but whose understanding and conduct neither had nor deserved his good opinion, and whose temper both he and every other body abhorred-a weak woman with all the faults of a bad man; of low birth, a lower mind, and the lowest manners, and without any one good, agreeable, or amiable quality but beauty.* It was very remark. able in Mr. Pulteney that he never liked the people with whom he acted chiefly in his public character, nor loved those with whom he passed his idler hours. Sir Robert Walpole, with whom he was first leagued, he has often declared, both in public and in private, in conversation and in print, he never esteemed: and Lord Bolingbroke, with whom he was afterwards engaged, neither he nor any other body could esteem. Lord Chesterfield and Mr. George Berkeley, with whom he lived in the most seeming intimacy, he mortally hated; but continued that seeming intimacy long after he did so, merely from refinement of pride, and an affectation of being blind to what nobody else could help seeing. They had both made love to his wife, and though I firmly believe both unsuccessfully, yet many were of a contrary opinion; for her folly, her vanity, her coquetry, had given her husband the same jealousy and the world the same suspicion, as if she had gone all those lengths in private which her public conduct, without one's being very credulous, would naturally have led one to believe. Between Mr. Pulteney and Sir William Wyndham (the head of the Hanover Tories and his colleague in all public affairs) there was such a serious rivalry for reputation in oratory, interest with particulars, knowledge in business, popularity in the country, weight in Parliament, and the numbers of their followers, that the superior enmity they bore to men in power alone hindered that which they felt to one another from eclating. Lord Hervey lived in friendship and intimacy with him many years, but the manner in which Mr. Pulteney broke with him shewed that his attachment there was not much deeper rooted in his heart than that artificial kindness he wore towards those who deserved no real affection at his hands. Those who though that Mr. Pulteney was never good humoured, pleasing, honourable, friendly, and benevolent, knew him not early; those who never thought him otherwise, knew him not long for no two men ever differed more from one another in temper, conduct, and character, than he from himself in the compass of a few years." &c. : Lord Bolingbroke has sat for his portrait to many eminent painters; among others to Chesterfield, Walpole, and Coxe; in some the features are a little fainter than others, but the general resemblance is the same: all have preserved "the pride in the heart," though some have softened “the defiance in the eye." "As to Lord Bolingbroke's general character, it was so mixed, that he certainly had some qualifications that the greatest men might be proud of, and many which the worst would be ashamed of. He had fine talents, a natural eloquence, great quickness, a happy memory, and very extensive knowledge. But he was vain, much beyond the general run of mankind, timid, false, injudicious, and ungrateful, elate and insolent in power, dejected and servile in disgrace. Few people ever believed him without being deceived, or trusted him without being betrayed. He was one to whom prosperity was no advantage, and adversity no instruction. He had brought his affairs to that pass that he was almost as much distressed in his private fortune as desperate in his political views, and was upon such a foot in the world that no king would employ him, no party support him, and few particulars defend him. His enmity was the contempt of those he attacked, and his friendship a weight and reproach to those he adhered to. Those who were most partial to him could not but allow that he was ambitious without fortitude, and enterprising without resolution; that he was fawning without insinuation, and insincere without art; that he had admirers without friendship, and followers without attachment, parts without probity, knowledge without conduct, and ex "Pul * Anna Maria Gumley.-Pope has given her a niche in his Satiric Fables as teney's wife;" and Sir C. H. Williams says, "Pulteney, in becoming Lord Bath, trucked the fairest fame For a right honourable name And afterwards he calls her "Bath's ennobled doxy," &c.--REV. GENT. MAG. VOL. XXX. REV C This was perience without judgment. certainly his character and situation; but, since it is the opinion of the wise, the speculative, and the learned, that most men are born with the same propensities, actuated by the same passions, and conducted by the same original principles, and differing only in the manner of pursuing the same ends, I shall not so far chime in with the bulk of Lord Bolingbroke's contemporaries as to pronounce he had more failings than any man ever had; but it is impossible to see all that is written, and hear all that is said of him, and not allow that, if he had not a worse heart than the rest of mankind, at least he must have had much worse luck," &c. As this illustrious and unhappy man disappears behind the clouds of misfortune which he had raised by the violence of his passions and the unguardedness of his temper, his more prosperous rival appears shining in the beams of royal favour. "It will not be necessary to say much on the character of Sir Robert Walpole; the following work will demonstrate his abilities in business and his dexterity in Courts and Parliaments to have been much superior to his contemporaries. He had a strength of parts equal to any advancement, a spirit to struggle with any difficulties, a steadiness of temper immoveable by any disappointments. He had great skill in figures, the nature of the funds, and the revenue; his first application was to this branch of knowledge; but as he afterwards rose to the highest posts of power, and continued longer there than any first minister in this country since Lord Burghley ever did, he grew, of course, conversant with all the other parts of government, and very soon equally able in transacting them : the weight of the whole administration lay on him; every project was of his forming, conducting, and executing from the time of making the Treaty of Hanover, all the foreign as well as domestic affairs passed through his hands and, considering the little assistance he received from subalterns, it is incredible what a variety and quantity of business he dispatched; but, as he had infinite application and long experience, so he had great method and a prodigious memory, with a mind and spirit that were indefatigable and without every one of these natural as well as acquired advantages it would indeed have been impossible for him to go through half what he undertook. No man ever was blessed with a clearer head, a truer or quicker judgment, or a deeper insight into mankind; he knew the strength and weakness of every body he had to deal with, and how to make his advantage of both; he had more warmth of affection and friendship for some particular people than one could have believed it possible for any one who had been so long raking in the dirt of mankind to be capable of feeling for so worthless a species of animals. One should naturally have imagined that the contempt and distrust he must have had for the species in gross would have given warding off future evils which might or might not happen; or the scheming of remote advantages, subject to so many intervening crosses; but always applied himself to the present occurrence, studying and generally hitting upon the properest method to improve what was favourable, and the best expedient to extricate himself out of what was difficult. There never was any minister to whom access was so easy and so frequent, nor whose answers were more explicit. He knew how to oblige when he bestowed, and not to shock when he denied; to govern without op pressing, and conquer without triumph. He pursued his ambition without curbing his pleasures, and his pleasures without neglecting his business; he did the latter with ease, and indulged himself in the other without giving scandal or offence.* In private life, and to all who had any dependence upon him, he was kind and indulgent; he was generous without ostentation, and an economist without penuriousness; not insolent in success, nor irresolute in distress; faithful to his friends, and not inveterate to his foes," &c. The character of Lord Chesterfield is considered, and justly, not to be drawn, either in person or in mind, by Lord Hervey in these Memoirs, so forcibly as by others of his contemporaries, to whose more faithful resemblance the reader should refer; and we must remark that the noble author seldom errs on the side of panegyric. "When first the King came to the crown, Lord Chesterfield was thought to have interest. The accident of his being in waiting at that time as lord of his bedchamber gave him that appearance of interest to those who judge of courts by appearances; and his having been long a declared enemy of Sir Robert Walpole's made the speculative part of the world conclude it. Lord Chesterfield was allowed by everybody to have more conversable entertaining table-wit than any man of his time; his propensity to ridicule, in which he indulged himself with infinite humour and no distinction, and with inexhaustible spirits and no discre tion, made him sought and feared, liked and not loved, by most of his acquaintance. No sex, no relation, no rank, no power, no profession, no friendship, no obligation, was a shield from those pointed, glittering weapons that seemed to shine only to a stander-by, but cut deep in those they touched. All his acquaintances were indifferently the objects of his satire, and served promiscuously to feed that voracious appetite for abuse that made him fall on everything that came in his way, and treat every one of his companions in rotation at the expense of the rest. I remember two lines in a satire of Boileau's that fit him exactly : Mais c'est un petit fou qui se croit tout permis, And as his lordship, for want of principle, a Polyphemus. One Ben Ashurst, who said few good things, though admired for many, told Lord Chesterfield once, that he was like a stunted giant,-which was a humourous idea, and really apposite. Such a thing would disconcert Lord Chesterfield as much as it would have done anybody who had neither his wit nor his assurance on other occasions; for though he could attack vigorously, he could defend but weakly, his quickness never showing itself in reply any more than his understanding in argument. Part of the character which Bishop Burnet gives of his grandfather, the Marquis of Halifax, seems to be a prophetic description of Lord Chesterfield,-at least he has an hereditary title to it :-The liveliness *The note of the Editor says, this is not exact. In the 4th line quoted from Pope there is a sad misprint of incumbent for uncumber'd. Seen him, uncumber'd with the venal tribe.-REV. |