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seems to us, the historian enters into an ingenious explanation of a fact which has not been proved! The only evidence in support of this oft-repeated charge of corruption—a charge which everybody can bring is the calumnious writings of Bolingbroke and his army of pamphleteers. We deny that it was necessary for Walpole to resort to bribery. He was one of the strongest Ministers the country has ever seen. During the first years of his Government the Opposition was contemptibly weak; and when it grew strong, he could rely on the support of the Crown and of the commercial and manufacturing classes. Moreover, for many years he was the one independent statesman whom the nation could not afford to get rid of. Crown and people trusted in his financial ability, his political sagacity, his administrative skill, as they could not trust in the unsteady genius of Carteret, or the sparkling declamation of Pulteney. The twenty years that followed his fall did but justify this estimate of the great Minister. It was only when a generation arose that did not understand the value of his services, a generation that was blinded by the dust which the Opposition threw so vigorously into the air, that Walpole's power gave way. We hold, then, that he had no need--and we are sure he was too good an economist-to govern by means of extensive corruption.*

The Committee of Inquiry, appointed by unscrupulous enemies for the single purpose of heaping up accusations

* His saying that "all these men (i.e., a particular knot of politicians) have their price," has been converted into the sweeping statement that "all men have their price."

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THE COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY.

against the dethroned Minister, utterly failed to substantiate this scandal. So much is admitted by Lord Stanhope, who treats Walpole's memory with a halting generosity. "If," he says, "his acts of bribery and corruption had been of such common and daily occurrence as his enemies had urged-nay, even if they approached in any degree to the representations of them-it is impossible that a band of determined enemies, armed with all ordinary power, should have failed to bring to light a considerable number. Instead of these the Report could only allege that during one election at Weymouth, a place had been promised to the mayor and a living to his brother; and that some revenue officers who refused to vote for the ministerial candidate had been dismissed. It denounces a certain contract as fraudulent, because the contractors had gained 14 per cent., forgetting that large profit in one case is often required to counterbalance total loss in another. It then proceeds to express some loose suspicions as to the application of the sum for secret and special services . . . On the whole, this Report of the Committee from which so much had been expected, instead of exciting indignation against the Minister, rather drew ridicule upon themselves, and as we are told by a contemporary, was received by the public with contempt."

For our part, we have been unable to find any satisfactory evidence that Walpole often expended the public money in the purchase of hostile votes or the reward of venal supporters. The calumnies of Smollett or of the 'Craftsman,' too hastily taken up and repeated as if they

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were proofs, must be dismissed as worthless by impartial minds. Undoubtedly, by his Government, as by all governments, resource was occasionally had to the tactics by which the wavering are confirmed and the faithful encouraged. It cannot be denied that he dealt to some extent in the purchase of small boroughs. But we repeat that no evidence exists to justify the charge of wholesale corruption so constantly brought against Walpole's administration.

A GRACEFUL Writer comments very forcibly on the phenomenon-unparalleled before or since of Walpole's long lease of power. “He had it all his own way" says Mrs. Oliphant, "for twenty years. From being unanimous his Cabinet became dutiful, his colleagues yielded to his sway, or, as we have seen, were cast aside by his irresist ible influence. Even his failures did not affect him as other men's failures affected them. The whole country rose against his Excise Bill, yet he stood erect and firm, and the next day was strong and supreme as ever. Though English society was honeycombed by Jacobite plots; though it was still possible that such a man as Bishop Atterbury should be cut short in the midst of his career, impeached, and exiled as a traitor; though Dean Swift by his 'Drapier's Letters,' would lash Ireland into furious outcry against the project of a copper coinage; and though in Edinburgh the Porteous Mob set law and order at bold defiance; yet Walpole remained unshaken, ruling so wisely and so well that Great Britain was undisturbed by domestic rebellion or foreign enmity." A strong and wise rule, powerful to resist, yet knowing when to yield; a consistent home policy, in which everything gave way to the interest of the nation; while the as yet undeveloped doctrine of non-intervention abroad was pushed as far as was compatible with the temper of the time; a practical tolerance, in complete

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yet silent contradiction to many intolerant and unchristian laws, which the Minister, while eluding them, was too judicious to awaken into life by any agitation for their repeal: such was the reign of Robert Walpole.

But the reign was not wholly without danger of interruption. An occasional shadow secured him from that fatality of unbroken prosperity which Herodotus has indicated in his story of Polycrates of Samos and King Amasis. At the accession of George the 2nd it was generally supposed that the all-powerful Minister would be overthrown. With the new sovereign he was reported to be no favourite; in truth, the word "rogue had been applied to him by royal lips. When the news of the death of George the 1st, which took place at Osnabrück (June 10th, 1727), reached London, Walpole hastened to convey it to the heir-apparent. On arriving at Richmond Palace he found that the Prince, according to wont, had retired to enjoy an afternoon slumber. At the Minister's request he was awakened, and starting up, he entered the presence-chamber, half dressed. Sir Robert knelt aud kissed his hand. At first the King would not believe the Minister's information, nor was he convinced until the ambassador's despatch was shown him. The question was then put, whom would his Majesty appoint to prepare the necessary declaration to the Privy Council? To Walpole's disappointment, for he expected that the choice would have fallen upon himself, the King named Sir Spencer Compton. Whereupon the baffled Minister withdrew.

Sir Spencer Compton, a son of the Earl of North