ENGLISH PARTY LEADER.

AND

ENGLISH PARTIES.

FROM WALPOLE TO PEEL.

INCLUDING A REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE LAST
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS.

BY

W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS,

THE BIRD-WORLD,"
," "THE MEDITERRANEAN," "WOMEN OF FASHION," ETC.

"Statesmen,

Who know the seasons when to take

Occasion by the hand, and make

The bounds of freedom wider yet."-Tennyson.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE ST., STRAND.

1878.

[All rights reserved.]

Br 2035.49 (1) i A

HARVARD

COLLEGE

JUN 15 1937

LIBRARY

Hayes fund
(2 vol)

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO.,
LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.

PREFACE.

It is, perhaps, hardly too much to say that, to the "general reader," the political history of England during the last century and a half is a "sealed book." He knows, of course, that that eventful period has witnessed many political changes and some great legislative reforms; but of their details, or of the mode in which they have taken place and been carried out, it is safe to assert that he knows little or nothing. The various positions assumed by our two great political parties have never been clearly understood by him; for in our longer histories such topics as these are generally overlaid or obscured by the prominence and fulness given to the narrative of wars and negotiations, social movements and commercial progress. Even in Miss Martineau's "History of the Thirty Years' Peace," the story is told on a scale too large for ordinary readers; and Mr.

vi

PREFACE.

Molesworth's interesting volumes deal only with

limited period.

It is hoped, therefore, that the following attempt to present in a popular form, concisely but comprehensively, the leading events of English political history from the days of Queen Anne to those of Queen Victoria, will be found (in advertising phraseology) to "supply a want." After much consideration, I have cast my materials into the shape of biographies; because biographies have always a living and personal interest for the reader, and are more likely to be acceptable to the public at large than a continuous narrative would be. Moreover, in this way it is easier to bring out the influence which our great statesmen have exercised on contemporary opinion, and to indicate the extent to which the country is indebted to their services. It may be alleged as an objection that the biographical form compels me to go over the same ground when two or three of the statesmen with whom my pages are occupied, have come in contact with each other, that the political life of Pitt, for instance, constantly traverses that of Fox; but this I have endeavoured to meet by the introduction in every such case of additional details.

While I am not without hope that these volumes. will be accepted as a sufficiently succinct political

history for ordinary purposes, I am aware that to the student their chief value will be as a trustworthy outline or introduction. And, therefore, I would wish to add that I have done my best to secure accuracy of statement, and have furnished tolerably copious lists of the authorities I have principally consulted. I may not have been able to suppress my own political bias, and I have certainly ventured to say a good word for that Whig party and those Whig principles which seem to me nowadays unjustly neglected; but I have honestly sought to write without temper or prejudice, and to estimate the merits of Sir Robert Peel as fairly as those of Charles James Fox.

W. H. DAVENPORT ADAMS.