I. 1713. CHAP. "of amity to serve above one object at a time.” * Can it be necessary to waste many words upon the mind of a woman who could give as a reasona lady's reason!-for dismissing a cabinet minister, that he had appeared before her in a tie-wig instead of a full-bottom?t Is it not evident that in such a case we must study the advisers and not the character of a sovereign-that we must look to the setting rather than to the stone? Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, and at this time Lord Treasurer and Prime Minister, is one of the most remarkable examples in history, how it is possible to attain both popularity and power without either genius or virtue. Born in 1661, and bred in Presbyterian principles, which, however, he was not slow in forsaking, he entered parliament soon after the accession of King William, and was, during four years, Speaker of the House of Commons. On quitting the Chair, in 1704, he was made Secretary of State, through the recommendation of Marlborough. He was, however, an object of suspicion to his other colleagues. "His humour," says Lord Chancellor Cowper at the time, "is never to deal clearly or "openly, but always with reserve, if not dissimu Memoirs relating to the Change, Works, vol. iii. p. 227. In his Journal to Stella, he describes Her Majesty's manner at a drawing-room: "She looked at us round with her fan in her "mouth, and once a minute said about three words to some that "were nearest her, and then she was told dinner was ready, and "went out." August 8.1711. + Scott's Life of Swift, p. 165. I. 1713. "lation, and to love tricks when not necessary, CHA P. "but from an inward satisfaction in applauding "his own cunning."* He had hitherto, in a great measure, skilfully trimmed between the Tories and the Whigs, and secured a great number of adherents from both. But, almost immediately after his junction with the latter, he began to cabal against them; obtained private interviews with the Queen, through the means of Mrs. Masham ; gradually worked himself into her Majesty's confidence, and filled her with distrust of her responsible advisers. His letters at that period to Marlborough and Godolphin prove that he knew how to combine the most subtle schemes of malice with the most ardent professions of friendship. His plotting being at length partly brought to light, he was compelled to resign in February, 1708. But he immediately put himself at the head of the Tories; and, retaining his back-stairs influence at court, and his early friends amongst the Dissenters, he, in little more than two years, undermined and overthrew the great Whig administration. He became chief of that which succeeded, obtained not only the Treasurer's staff, but the Earldom of Oxford, and, next to Mrs. Masham herself, was now the most important subject of the realm. He seems to have possessed in perfection * Private Diary, Jan. 6. 1706. Lord Cowper's Diary was printed, but not published, by the Roxburgh Club, in 1833, and I have received a copy by the kindness of the Rev. E. C. Hawtrey. It had been seen by Coxe in MS. D CHA P. a low sort of management, and all the baser arts of I. party, which enabled him to cajole and keep 1713. together his followers, and to sow divisions amongst his enemies. He spared neither pains nor promises to secure adherents. He affected upon every question a tone of forbearance and candour. But he was one of those inferior spirits who mistake cunning for wisdom. His slender and pliant intellect was well fitted to crawl up to the heights of power through all the crooked mazes and dirty by-paths of intrigue; but having once attained the pinnacle, its smallness and meanness were exposed to all the world. From the moment of his triumph, the expert party leader was turned into the most dilatory and helpless of ministers. His best friends were reduced to complain that no business could be done with him. "Lord Treasurer," says Swift, "is the greatest procrastinator in the world. "He only says 'poh! poh! all will be well.' He "told Mr. Lewis it should be determined to night, " and so he will say a hundred nights."* Even his taste for literature was numbered amongst his faults; for in him (if I may borrow a phrase from Tillotson) it was only a specious and ingenious sort of idleness. In personal intercourse he was * Journal to Stella, Nov. 2. 1711; Dec. 19. 1711; and April 15. 1712. Another Tory, Lockhart, says of him :—“He was, "indeed, very civil to all who addressed him, but he generally "either spoke so low in their ear, or so mysteriously, that few "knew what to make of his replies, and it would appear he took "a secret pleasure in making people hang on, and disappointing "them." Comment. p. 370. I. 1713. mild, courteous, and conciliatory; but in public CHA P. affairs, whenever he could temporise no longer, and was driven to some decision, he had a bias to prerogative and arbitrary measures, as being most easy and convenient to himself. * With all his indolence in business, he was so jealous of its possession as to claim from his colleagues a larger share of it than even the greatest genius and activity could have satisfactorily transacted. Such was the new Prime Minister of England. His principal colleague, Henry St. John, was born in 1678. He was an only son by his father's first marriage, the heir to a good estate in Wiltshire, and sprung from a younger branch of the Lords St. John of Bletsoe-one of the most ancient and illustrious houses in the kingdom. His early education was directed by a puritanical mother, whose imprudent zeal compelled him painfully to peruse huge tomes of controversial divinity when far too young to understand their value, and thus, perhaps, implanted in his mind the first seeds of his aversion to the truths of Revelation. "I resolve," he says himself, writing to Swift in 1721, "to make my "letter at least as long as one of your sermons; " and, if you do not mend, my next shall be as long as one of Dr. Manton's, who taught my youth to yawn, and prepared me to be a High 66 66 • "Doubtless," says Blackstone, "all arbitrary measures, well "executed, are the most convenient." Comment. vol. 4. p. 350. ed. 1825. From thence, how often are indolent men the greatest tyrants! CHAP." Churchman, that I might never hear him read, I. "nor read him more." It is, in fact, not a little 1713. remarkable, that the two great champions of High Church at this time-Oxford and Bolingbrokeshould both have been bred up amongst the Dissenters. Manton, whom Bolingbroke thus alludes to, was a non-conforming and most voluminous divine, very worthy, but a little tedious, who, being impressed with some fanciful idea as to the analogy of numbers, wrote 119 sermons upon the 119th Psalm! Young St. John pursued his studies at Eton and Oxford, and at the dissolution of Parliament, in 1700, was elected Member for Wotton Basset. He entered public life endowed with every gift of nature, of fortune, and of education, except the most important of all-fixed principle. A handsome person, a strong constitution, a most engaging, yet most dignified, manner, were his external recommendations; and were supported by a rich fund of reading, deep powers of thought, and boundless ambition. He looked through the characters of others with a keen and searching eye. His eloquence, both commanding and rewarding the attention of his hearers, was ready, full, and gushing; according to his own beautiful illustration, it flowed like a stream that is fed by an abundant spring, and did not merely spout forth, like a frothy water on some gaudy day.* His genius was vast and lofty, yet able to contract itself at will— * See the letter on the Spirit of Patriotism. |