INTRODUCTION. THE era of the Georges in England may be compared to the era of the Antonines at Rome. It was a period combining happiness and glory a period of kind rulers and a prosperous people. While improvement was advancing at home with gigantic strides, while great wars were waged abroad, the domestic repose and enjoyment of the nation were scarce for a moment ever broken through. The current was strong and rapid, but the surface remained smooth and unruffled. Lives were seldom lost, either by popular breaches of the law or by its rigorous execution. The population augmented fast, but wealth augmented faster still: comforts became more largely diffused, and knowledge more generally cultivated. Unlike the era of the Antonines, this prosperity did not depend "on the character of a single man.' "* Its foundations were laid on ancient and free institutions, * See the remarks of Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. iii. vol. i. p. 127. ed. 1820. Mahon, History. I. 1 which, good from the first, were still gradually improving, and which alone, amongst all others since the origin of civil society, have completely solved the great problem how to combine the greatest security to property with the greatest freedom of action. It is true, however, that this golden period by no means affords us unmixed cause for self-congratulation, and contains no small alloy of human frailties and of human passions. Some of the quiet I have mentioned may be imputed to corruption, as much as some of the troubles to faction. Our pride as legislators may sink when we discover that our constitutional pre-eminence has arisen still more from happy accident than from skilful design. We may likewise blush to think that even those years which, on looking back, are universally admitted as most prosperous, and those actions now considered irreproachable, were not free at the time from most loud and angry complaints. How ungratefully have we murmured against Providence at the very moment when most enjoying its bounty! How much has prosperity been felt, but how little acknowledged! How sure a road to popularity has it always been to tell us, that we are the most wretched and ill-used people upon the face of the earth! To such an extent, in fact, have these outcries proceeded, that a very acute observer has founded a new theory upon them; and, far from viewing them as INTROD. FROM THE PEACE OF UTRECHT. 3 evidence of suffering, considers them as one of the proofs and tokens of good government.* --- this -- of In attempting to unfold, at least for a small period, mingled mass of national wisdom and national folly, unparalleled prosperity and of stunning complaints, — I venture to promise the reader, on my part, honesty of purpose. I feel that unjustly to lower the fame of a political adversary, or unjustly to raise the fame of an ancestor – to state any fact without sufficient authority, or to draw any character without thorough conviction, implies not merely literary failure, but moral guilt. Of any such unfair intention I hope the reader may acquit me I am sure I can acquit myself. The published works which I shall quote I need not enumerate. The MSS. which I have consulted for this volume are the following:- The Stanhope Papers, at Chevening; the Stuart Papers, which were transmitted to the late King from Rome, and to which I obtained access by the gracious indulgence of his present Majesty; the very important collection of the Earl of Hardwicke, which he has laid open to "J'ai toujours trouvé que le meilleur gouvernement est celui contre "lequel on crie le plus fort sur les lieux mêmes; et il suffit de citer l'Angle"terre et les Etats Unis d'Amérique; car cela prouve que l'on a l'œil sur 66 ceux qui dirigent les affaires, et qu'on peut impunément censurer leurs 66 mesures." (Simond, Voyage d'Italie, tom. ii. p. 286.) A still more celebrated Genevese, M. de Sismondi, makes a similar observation in his recent essay, Sur l'Elément Aristocratique. |