little selfishness and vulgar ambition of all the statesmen either in or out of place during his reign, and the mismanagement of public affairs, would be extremely interesting, did we not recollect that Mr. Coxe is rather an apologist than a biographer, that he passes over in silence any defects or errors in the policy of his hero, that he feels no reluctance at representing both the friends and the enemies of the Walpoles either as weak or depraved, and that he manifests not the least disposition to reprobate venality or reward merit; except the merit of the Walpoles. Mr. Coxe, however, is not so lenient to authors as to statesmen. In relating the King's attachment to Lord Bath, whom he was obliged to dismiss from office after forty-eight hours, and whom he ordered to write an account of the transaction, Mr. Coxe speaks freely of the "anonymous author of the Anecdotes of the Life of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham," and justly condemns him for slighting the word of the late Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Douglas, by asserting that Lord Bath's account of the Granville administration was fide indignus.

"I think it a duty I owe to the public, in mentioning this wretched compilation, to declare, that, from the access I have had to the papers and documents of the times, I find the Life of the Earl of Chatham superficial and inaccurate, principally drawn from newspapers and party pamphlets, and interspersed, perhaps, with a few anecdotes communicated in desultory conversations by Earl Temple. In affecting to give a volume of important state papers, the editor has raked together a collection of speeches, memorials, and letters, the greater part of which are derived from periodical publications.

"It becomes a matter of extreme regret that the life of so great a statesman and orator has not been delineated by a more faithful and able hand." VOL. II. P. 137.

We think there is much truth in the King's remark, that the Duke of Newcastle "was not fit for a chamberlain to a petty court in Germany." We observe, however, that our author takes some pains to persuade his readers that Mr. Walpole was the first to recommend Mr. Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham, to office, and produces a long memorial purporting to be addressed to George II. to that effect. Yet Mr. Walpole, in a letter to Mr. Yorke, complained of the presumption of the young man, and observed," the time is come that green years can dictate to grey hairs; infants are now politicians, and crush hydras in their cradles. Even experimental know

ledge and wisdom belong to the young, and not the old, men of this age." On this Mr. Coxe takes occasion to remark, that,

"The strong expressions in this letter will remind the reader of Mr. Walpole's speech in the House of Commons, and the celebrated retort of Mr. Pitt, which is given in Chandler's Debates on a bill for the encouragement and increase of seamen in 1740, and echoed by Smollett and his copyists. Yet this celebrated retort of Mr. Pitt existed only in Johnson's imagination, who penned these debates; and is one of the instances which realise his assertion, that he took care the whig dogs should not have the better of it.' An anecdote, communicated by the late Lord Sydney, from the authority of his father, who was present, will exhibit the slender foundation on which Mr. Pitt's supposed philippic was formed. I give it in his lordship's own words: In a debate, in which Mr. Pitt, • Mr. Lyttleton, and perhaps some of the Grenvilles, who were then all young men, had violently attacked Mr. Horace Walpole, he, in reply, "lamented that, having been so long in business, he found that such young men were so much better informed in political matters than himself; he had, however, one consolation, which was, that he had a son not twenty years old, and ' he had the satisfaction to hope that he was as much wiser than them, as they were than his father." Mr. Pitt got up with great warmth, beginning with these words: "With the greatest reverence to the grey hairs of the honourable gentleman!” Mr. Walpole pulled off his wig, and showed his head covered with grey hair; which occasioned a general laughter, in which Mr. Pitt 'joined, and all warmth immediately subsided." VOL. II. P. 184. ̄`*

Without detaining our readers with dry details of court and parliamentary cabals, and of Mr. Walpole's honest zeal to be useful to his king and country even when retired from office, we shall extract our author's contrasted character of Mr. Fox, first Lord Holland, and Mr. Pitt, first Earl of Chatham. The reader may again contrast these characters with those of their two younger sons.

"The persons [after the death of Mr. Pelham, in March, 1754] who now aspired to the management of the House of Commons, were Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt, whose parliamentary abilities had for some time divided the suffrages of the nation, who had long fostered reciprocal jealousy, and who now became public rivals for power. Both these rival statesmen were younger brothers, nearly of the same age; both were educated at Eton, both distinguished for classical knowledge, both commenced their parliamentary career at the same period, and both raised themselves to eminence by their superior talents; yet no two characters were ever more contrasted.

"Mr. Fox inherited a strong and vigorous constitution, was profuse and dissipated in his youth, and, after squandering his private patrimony, went abroad to extricate himself from his embarrass

ments. On his return he obtained a seat in Parliament, and warmly attached himself to Sir Robert Walpole, whom he idolised, and to whose patronage he was indebted for the place of surveyor-general of the board of works. In 1743 he was appointed one of the lords of . the Treasury, and in 1746 secretary at war, which office be now filled. His marriage, in 1744, with Lady Caroline Lennox, daughter of the Duke of Richmond, though at first displeasing to the family, yet finally strengthened his political connexions. He was equally a man of pleasure and business, formed for social and convivial intercourse; of an unruffled temper and frank disposition. No statesman acquired more adherents, not merely from political motives, but swayed by his agreeable manners, and attached to him from personal friendship, which he fully merited by his zeal in promoting their interests. He is justly characterised, even by Lord Chesterfield, as having no fixed principles of religion or morality, and as too unwary in ridiculing and exposing them.' As a parliamentary orator, fe was occasionally hesitating and perplexed; but, when warmed with his subject, he spoke with an animation and rapidity which appeared more striking from his former hesitation. His speeches were not crowded with flowers of rhetoric, or distinguished by brilliancy of diction; but were replete with sterling sense and sound argument. He was quick in reply, keen in repartee, and skilful in discerning the temper of the house. He wrote without effort or affectation, his public dispatches were manly and perspicuous, and his private letters easy and animated. Though of an ambitious spirit, he regarded money as a principal object, and power only as a secondary concern.

"Mr. Pitt, at an early period of his life, suffered extremely from the attacks of an hereditary gout; hence, though fond of active diversions, and attached to the sports of the field, he employed the leisure of frequent confinement in improving the advantages of his education, and in laying the foundation of extensive and useful knowledge, which he increased during his travels by an assiduous attention to foreign history and foreign manners. He is generally represented as of a haughty, unbending, and imperious temper, and too proudly conscious of his own superior talents; but they who thus characterise him, are ill acquainted with his real disposition. The repeated attacks of a painful disorder did not sour his temper, but rendered him more susceptible of the comforts of domestic, and the pleasures of social life. He was an agreeable and lively companion, possessed great versatility of wit, adapted to all characters and all occasions; excelled in epigrammatic turns, and light pieces of poetry, and even condescended to join in songs of mirth and festivity.

"On his return to England, he obtained a cornetcy of horse, which, with a small annuity from his family, was his only provision until he received a legacy of 10,000l. from the Duchess of Marlborough. From family connexions and early habits, he formed strict intimacy with his school-fellows, Mr. Lyttleton and the Grenvilles; attached himself to Lord Cobham, and became a partisan of Leicester House. In 1736, he came into Parliament for the borough of Old Sarum, and instantly commenced his opposition

to the administration of Sir Robert Walpole. His bitter invectives drew on him the resentment of the minister, and he was deprived of his cornetcy; but was recompensed by his own party with the appointment of groom of the bed-chamber to the Prince of Wales. He continued in opposition until the arrangement of the Broad Bottom ministry, when all the friends of Lord Cobham were gratified with places, except Mr. Pitt, who received the promise of some future employment when the King's antipathy could be removed. The attempt to introduce him into the office of secretary at war occasioned the temporary resignation of the Pelhams, which terminating in their re-establishment, Mr. Pitt was successively promoted to the posts of vice-treasurer of Ireland and paymaster of the forces.

"It is difficult to describe the precise characteristics of his parliamentary eloquence; his speeches were not so remarkable for methodical arrangement and logical precision, as for boldness of language, grandeur of sentiment, and the graces of metaphorical and classical allusion. They were not, however, distinguished by a continued glow of animated language, but illuminated with sudden flashes of wit and eloquence, which have been compared to the transient and dazzling splendour of lightning. His invectives,' to use the words of a contemporary statesman, were terrible, and uttered with such energy of diction, and stern dignity of action and countenance, that he intimidated those who were the most willing and the best ⚫ able to encounter him. Their arms fell out of their hands, and they shrunk under the ascendant of his sublime genius *.'

6

"Among his eminent qualifications as an orator, that of turning his vindication into an attack, and from the defender becoming the accuser, was not the least conspicuous. Another excellence, not generally attributed to him, he also displayed in an eminent degree-the art of explaining what he had uttered with too much warmth, and of soothing the person whom he wished to conciliate. Mr. Pitt possessed great elevation of mind, and his ruling passion was the love of power; he was distinguished for his disinterestedness and contempt of money, which, being attended with a total want of economy, often involved him in pecuniary distresses. Although this sketch is generally confined to the public character of this great statesman, yet it would be unjust to omit one amiable trait of his domestic life. Though deeply immersed in the most im portant affairs of state, he never forgot the duties of a father, but always paid the most unremitted attention to the education and morals of his children."

VOL. II. P. 318..

Any parallel between the character of these two fathers and their sons is unnecessary; the analogies even in this

"Lord Chesterfield's character of Mr. Pitt. 'The character, and genius of Mr. Pitt's oratory are likewise well defined by a contemporary prelate (Bishop Newton), who frequently heard him in both Houses, and compared him to Pericles, who lightened, thundered, and confounded Greece."

picture, which is executed with colours rather strong than brilliant, are sufficiently evident. We must observe, however, en passant, one singular trait which appears to apply very generally to all the whigs, notwithstanding their boasted independence, love of liberty, and political justice; we mean, that of their obtaining power through the corrupt influence of prostitutes, ycleped mistresses! To one of these relics of barbarous life, Amelia Sophia de Walmoden, called Countess of Yarmouth, did the first Lord Holland owe his place, power, and titles. It is also remarkable, too, that he should have courted the patronage of Sir R. Walpole, a man who was convicted, if not of peculation, at least of gross corruption. Thus, the first Lord Holland raised himself with his talents, by licentiousness, and intrigue the first Earl of Chatham with his talents, by inflexible, moral, and political rectitude.

Mr. Coxe deserves our thanks for contrasting, in a note, the following opinions on the character of Bolingbroke, as they show what verbiage men will write, and call it history. Smollett's comparison to "a sainted shrine," we have no doubt is ironical, as it is perfectly applicable to the most depraved characters. Neither does Belsham's bombast, with all its "lofty fancies of science," (mere nonsense) "rosy bowers of pleasure," "gorgeous palaces of ambition," "subdued lustre," &c. soar quite so high as to attri bute to him any moral virtue.

"It is remarkable" (observes our author) "that the political visions of Bolingbroke are held in equal estimation by the High Tories and by the most violent among the Modern Reformers:

"His character is thus delineated by Smollett: That nobleman, seemingly sequestered from the tumults of a public life, resided at Battersea, where he was visited, like a sainted shrine, by all the ⚫ distinguished votaries of wit, eloquence, and political ambition.' Vol. III. P. 220.

"Mr. William Belsham says, At this period Lord Bolingbroke resided at the rustic mansion of Dawley in Middlesex; and was visited in this beautiful and sequestered retreat, to make use of the expression of a cotemporary historian, " as a sainted shrine, by all the distinguished votaries of wit, eloquence, and political ambition." Matured and mellowed by experience, réflexion, and age, this all-accomplished nobleman, framed in the prodigality of nature, and no less conspicuous in the lofty fancies of science, than the rosy bowers of pleasure or the gorgeous palaces of ambition, shone forth in the evening of life with a mild and subdued, but rich and resplendent lustre. And in his political writings he • exhibited to an admiring world that IDEA of a PATRIOT KING which ⚫ the heir of the British monarchy was supposed ambitious to form