LORD LYTTON'S COMEDY.

Whence then these clamours of a judging crowd? 'Suspicious, griping, insolent, and proud—

Rapacious, cruel, violent, and unjust;

False to his friend, and traitor to his trust!'

139

History, calm and impartial, has answered the question in Sir Robert's favour; and declared that "these clamours" proceeded from the malice and the ignorance of an unscrupulous faction.*

In the late Lord Lytton's play, ('Walpole: or, Every Man has His Price,' a Comedy in rhyme in Three Acts), Walpole is represented as saying of himself: (Act iii. Sc. 5.):

66

I wonder what lies the Historians will tell

When they babble of one Robert Walpole! Well, well,

Let them sneer at his blunders, declaim on his vices,
Cite the rogues whom he purchased, and rail at the prices,
They shall own that all lust for revenge he withstood,
And if lavish of gold, he was sparing of blood;
That when England was threatened by France and by Rome,
He forced Peace from abroad, and encamped her at home;
And the freedom he left, rooted firm in mild laws,

May o'ershadow the faults of deeds done in her cause."

Henry Fielding twice addressed the Minister in verse. His 'Epistle to Sir Robert Walpole' begins as follows :—

* The reader may be reminded that Walpole figures in L. E. L.'s (Miss Landon's) novel of Romance and Reality.'

140

HENRY FIELDING'S EPISTLE.

Would you not wonder, sir, to view
Your bard a greater man than you?

Which that he is, you cannot doubt,
When you have read the sequel out.

You know, great sir, that ancient fellows,
Philosophers, and such folks, tell us,
No great analogy between

Greatness and happiness is seen.

If then, as it might follow straight,
Wretched to be, is to be great;
Forbid it, gods, that you should try
What 'tis to be so great as I!"

BOOK II.

WILLIAM PITT,

EARL OF CHATHAM.

A.D. 1708-1778.

[FOR the earlier portion of Pitt's career, Earl Stanhope's History and Horace Walpole's Letters (as well as his History of the Reign of George II.) are available. For his career as a whole the student will consult the Rev. F. Thackeray's History of the Right Hon. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham; Correspondence of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham; and Lord Macaulay's two celebrated Essays. See also, the Grenville Correspondence, edited by Smith; the Annual Register (from 1758); Massey's History of the Reign of George III.; Lord Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors; Burke's Works; Almon's Anecdotes of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (ed. 1710); W. H. Lecky's History of the Eighteenth Century; Lord E. Fitzmaurice's Life of William, Earl of Shelburne; Lord Waldegrave's Memoirs; etc. etc.]

Born, November 15, 1708
Enters the Army, 1733
M.P. for Old Sarum, 1735
Secretary of State, 1756
Dismissed, April, 1757
Recalled, June, 1757
Resigns Office, 1761

Opposes the Stamp Act, 1766
Earl of Chatham, 1766
Resumes Office, 1766
Resigns, 1768

Last Appearance in the House
of Lords, April 8, 1778
Dies, May 11, 1778

WILLIAM PITT,

EARL OF CHATHAM.

A.D. 1708-1778.

I.

THE disadvantage to a writer is great when he traverses ground previously occupied by Macaulay. He cannot hope to improve upon what Macaulay has said. All he can do is to record a fact, recapitulate an argument, or correct the mistakes into which the brilliant essayist's partialities or prejudices may have led him. He fears to attempt even so little as this; he is conscious of his inferiority; impar congressu Achilli. The second of the great Party-leaders whose careers we have undertaken to sketch is William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, the illustrious father of an illustrious son; but when we come to consider the chief features of his character we feel that they have been indicated by Macaulay with a precision and a picturesque force which cannot be excelled.