public men and the practice of the constitution have undergone during the last hundred years.

When he quitted office, a charge of a different complexion, though connected with pecuniary malversation, was made against the veteran statesman. A sum of between 17,000l. and 18,0007. had been received by him upon two Treasury orders, two days before he resigned, in February, 1741-2; and to raise the money before the Exchequer forms could be gone through, they were pawned with the officer of the Bank. Now, Walpole never would give a detailed explanation of this transaction, but began to draw up a vindication of himself, alleging that the money was taken, with the King's approbation, for the public service. This paper is extant, but unfinished; and it consists of a clear and distinct statement of the course of the Exchequer in issuing money, from which the inference is, that no one can appropriate any sum to himself in defiance of, or escape from, so many guards and checks. This, however, is a lame defence, when the receipt of the money by him is admitted. The reason offered for his desisting from the completion of the paper is, that he must either leave it incomplete, or betray the secret service of the Crown. And it may be admitted that, except the suspicion arising from the date of the transaction, there is nothing in it more than an ordinary dealing with secret service money.

The general charge of peculation grounded on the comparison of his expenditure with his means, appears more difficult to meet. With a fortune originally of about 2,000l. a-year, and which never rose to more than double that amount, he lived with a profusion amounting to extravagance; insomuch that one of his yearly meetings at Houghton, "the Congress" as it was called, in autumn, and which lasted six or eight weeks, and was attended by all his supporters in either House and by their friends, cost him 3,000l. a-year. His buildings and purchases were estimated at 200,000l., and to this must be added 40,000l. for pictures. Now, it is true that for many years he had his own official income of 3,000l., with 2,000l. more of a sinecure, and his family had between 3,000l. and 4,000l. more, in places of the like description. Still, if the 2,000l., granted in reversion only, did not fall in till 1737.

*

expensive style of his living be considered, and that his income was at the very outside only 12,000l. clear, including the places of his sons, it is quite impossible to understand how above 200,000l., or nearly twice the average value of his whole private property, could have been accumulated by savings. His incumbrances were only paid off by his wife's fortune. His gains upon the fortunate sale of his South Sea stock, just before the fall, could hardly account for the sum accumulated, although he states, in a letter to one of his friends, that he got a thousand per cent. on what he purchased. On the whole, we must be content to admit that some cloud hangs over this part of his history; and that the generally prevailing attacks against him in this quarter have not been very successfully repulsed.

It has been much more universally believed, that he carried on the Government with a profuse application of the influence derived from patronage; and that the most open bribery entered largely into his plan of parliamentary management. That in those days the men were far less pure who filled the highest places in the State, and that parliamentary as well as ministerial virtue was pitched upon a lower scale than it happily has been, since a prying and fearless press and a watchful public scrutinized the conduct of all persons in any situation of trust, may be at once admitted. It is a truth which has been repeatedly asserted in these pages; and if any conclusive proof of it were required, it is what we have in the universally known fact, that the combinations of political party now proceed so much more upon principle than upon personal connexions; or that when they are framed upon the latter, the pretext of principle is always used to cloak over arrangements which the improved character of the times will no longer suffer to meet the light. It may be further granted, that the period of Walpole's power was one likely to introduce extraordinary forces into the political system, since the stake was not always a ministry alone, but oftentimes also a crown. When such is the game, measures are readily resorted to, which in the ordinary conflicts or matches of politicians, would be reluctantly if at all adopted. That it was usual in those days for men out of office who had voted with the Govern

ment during the session, and had obtained no promotion, nor any other favours, to receive sums of money-whether as a token of ministerial gratitude, or as a reimbursement of their expenses in attending parliament-has been so often asserted, and in some instances with such detailed particulars, that it seems to pass for one of the usual modes of House of Commons' management-pretty much like the shares (technically called slices) of loans distributed among persons in certain offices. But we may safely assert, that Sir Robert Walpole's reputation for having carried on the Government with unprecedented corruption rests on no better ground than his open and honest way of avowing the more accustomed exercise of patronage, and his reflections, rather merry than well considered, on the nature of political men-which gave rise to the notion, that he held statesmen as more venal than others had believed them to be. His famous saying, that "all men have their price," can prove nothing unless "price" be defined; and, if a large and liberal sense is given to the word, the proposition more resembles a truism than a sneer, or an ebullition of official misanthropy. But it has been positively affirmed that the remark never was made; for it is said that an important word is omitted which wholly changes the sense; and that Walpole only said, in reference to certain factious or profligate adversaries, and their adherents resembling themselves, "all these men have their price." His general tone of sarcasm, when speaking of patriotism and political gratitude, and others of the more fleeting virtues, is well known. Patriots," he said, are easily raised I have myself made many a one. 'Tis but to refuse an unreasonable demand, and up springs a patriot." So the gratitude of political men he defined to be " a lively sense of favours to come." The opinion of

แ

* Some notion of the free use made in those days of the current coin as a political agent, may be gathered from the fact which Shippen himself related to the celebrated Dr. Middleton. The Prince of Wales, to testify his satisfaction with a speech which the sturdy old Jacobite had made, sent him 10007. by General Churchill, Groom of his Bedchamber. Shippen refused it. That Walpole himself had known of similar attempts made on Shippen's virtue by the Hanoverian party, is pretty evident from bis well-known saying respecting that honest man-"I won't say who is corrupt, but who is not corruptible I will say, and that is Mr. Shippen."

† Coxe's Life of Walpole, vol. i. p. 757.

mankind which such speeches as these imported made Pope

say,

"Would he oblige me? Let me only find

He does not think me what he thinks mankind."

But if it is certain that his low estimate of public virtue, always openly, perhaps too openly, expressed, tended to lower men's estimate of his own, by making them suppose that he was likely to act upon his notions of those he had to deal with, it is at least equally clear, that the question more fit to be asked before we condemn him of exaggerated misanthropy, is,-Whether or not he very greatly erred in the mean opinion of others which he had formed? No one who has been long the dispenser of patronage among large bodies of his fellow-citizens can fail to see infinitely more numerous instances of sordid, selfish, greedy, ungrateful conduct, than of the virtues to which such hateful qualities stand opposed. Daily examples come before him of the most unfeeling acrimony towards competitors,the most far-fetched squeamish jealousy of all conflicting claims-unblushing falsehood in both its branches, boasting and detraction-grasping selfishness in both kinds, greedy pursuit of men's own bread, and cold calculating upon others' blood-the fury of disappointment when that has not been done which it was impossible to do-swift oblivion of all that has been granted-unreasonable expectation of more, only because much has been given—not seldom favours repaid with hatred and ill treatment, as if by this unnatural course the account might be settled between gratitude and pride-such are the secrets of the human heart which power soon discloses to its possessor: add to these, that which, however, deceives no one-the never-ceasing hypocrisy of declaring, that whatever is most eagerly sought is only coveted as affording the means of serving the country, and will only be taken at the sacrifice of individual interest to the sense of public duty. And I desire to be understood here as speaking from my own official experience. It is not believed that in our own times men are at all worse than they were a century ago. Why then should we suppose that one who had been Prime Minister for twenty years, and in office five or six more, had arrived

at his notion of human nature from a misanthropical disposition rather than from his personal experience, a much larger one than I possessed?

But still more unjust is the inference which is drawn even from a supposition of exaggerated misanthropy, that because he thought less favourably of men than they deserved-therefore he had ministered to their corruptions, and availed himself of their frailties. A far more rigorous test was applied to his conduct than any other minister's ever underwent. His whole proceedings were unsparingly attacked towards the close of his reign, by a motion personally directed against him, supported with the most acrimonious zeal, and preceded by the minutest inquiry into all his weak points. In the House, while he was present to meet the charge of corruption, none was made; after he had ceased to rule, and had left the Commons, a committee sat for weeks to investigate his conduct. The result of the inquiry was the charge already adverted to; and a futile statement of his having offered a place to the mayor of a borough, and a living to that magistrate's brother, in order to influence an election. In the great debate on Sandys's motion, a proud testimony to his pure administration of one most important branch of the public service was borne by Sir C. Wager, the First Lord of the Admiralty, who declared that, during the nine years in which he had presided over the Navy, Sir Robert had never once recommended any one for promotion; adding, that had he done so, he, the Admiral, would have thrown up his employments. It may well be doubted if all the successors, either at the Treasury or the Admiralty, have been equally pure in their high offices. Undue interference with men's parliamentary conduct, by removing those who had voted against him, was of course charged upon him and hardly denied; but it is a proceeding for which ministers are as often praised as blamed; it is accounted the use of legitimate influence to support the government. He loudly denied that ever a threat had been employed by him to deter men from voting according to their conscientious opinions; and when all were challenged to convict him of such a course, none stood forward to accuse.

Having cleared away the ground from the entanglements