1754. DEATH OF PELHAM. 31 "now, thank God, as well as ever I was in my life."* Yet on the 3rd of March he again fell sick, and on the morning of the 6th he was a corpse. The death of Pelham dissolved the frail and yet effectual tie that had bound together so many restless and jarring spirits. "Now I shall have no more peace!". exclaimed the old King when he heard the newst-and the events of the next few years fully confirmed His Majesty's prediction. *Coxe's Pelham, vol. ii. p. 495. See also H. Walpole's letter to Sir H. Mann, March 7. 1754. † Coxe's Pelham, vol. ii. p. 302. CHAPTER XXXII. AT the tidings of his brother's death- - a death so sudden and unlooked for-the mind of Newcastle was stirred with the contending emotions of grief, fear, and ambition. The grief soon passed away-but the fear and the ambition ong struggled for the mastery. Impelled by the latter, he determined to place himself at the head of the Treasury, and to select for his Chancellor of the Exchequer Henry Legge, son of the Earl of Dartmouth, a good inoffensive man of business, with a taste for quiet humour.* But the lead of the House of Commons was not in like manner to be granted by Court-favour, or enjoyed by unambitious mediocrity. At that time only three men appeared entitled by talent or reputation to claim the prize, Pitt, Fox, and Murray. The character of Pitt I have elsewhere fully portrayed.† I need only add that his conduct in office as Paymaster of the Forces had deserved and obtained the public admiration by its rare disinterestedness. Until his time it was usual for the Paymaster to retain the floating balance-not less than 100,0007.-at his own disposal, and to convert the yearly interest accruing from it to his own profit. Pitt, on the contrary, placed the balance in the Bank of England for the public service, and declined to receive one farthing beyond his legal salary. In like manner it had been customary for foreign Princes, who formed Subsidiary Treaties with England, to remit a small per-centage, commonly one half per cent., as a fee to the Paymaster. These emoluments also Pitt steadily refused. "As Parliament," said he, “has granted *This taste is certainly not apparent in any speeches or published letters of Legge. But I observe that Horace Walpole, though no friend of his, terms him the "epigrammatic Chancellor of the Exchequer," and talks of his "arch gravity." (Memoirs, vol. i. p. 336.) Vol. ii. p. 10-20. 1754. HENRY FOX (LORD HOLLAND). 33 "the whole sums for such uses, I have no right to any part of the money." 66 Henry Fox was younger son of Sir Stephen Fox, and brother of the first Earl of Ilchester. The year 1705 is assigned for his birth; and his education, as Lord Chesterfield tells us, was conducted on Jacobite principles. Of his youth, nothing is recorded beyond wild and reckless dissipation. His fortune, never a large one, was greatly impaired if not altogether lavished in gambling, which rendered needful for some time his absence abroad. On his return he attached himself to Sir Robert Walpole, and obtained the place of Surveyor at the Board of Works. In 1743 he became a Lord of the Treasury, and in 1746 Secretary at War. His abilities both for business and debate were gradually, and therefore, perhaps, the more surely, formed. For both he could have found no better master than Walpole. But Sir Robert's school was the very worst for a man of such loose principles as Fox; and Sir Robert, who was always jesting at the young patriots," and speaking of himself "as no saint, no Spartan, no reformer," while yet really studious of the public welfare and glory, gave too much encouragement by his language and his laughter to those who had only their own profit in view. A contemporary of Fox, and a most clear-sighted one, thus speaks of him: “He "had not the least notion of or regard for the public "good or the constitution, but despised those cares as "the objects of narrow minds.” By an accomplished writer of our own times, connected in personal friendship and in public principles with Fox's grandson, Fox is termed "a political adventurer," § and such in truth appears to have been his real character. On the other hand, he was affectionate in his domestic relations, while constant good humour and seeming frankness made him a welcome companion in social life. To the public he inspired no confidence; but by degrees he attached to himself a considerable band of followers in Parliament, 66 *Life of the Earl of Chatham, vol. i. p. 101. ed. 1792. + Coxe's Life of Lord Walpole of Wolterton, p. 409. Lord Chesterfield's Characters. Edinburgh Review, No. cxlviii. p. 562. By the Right Hon. T. B. Macaulay, and since published in his collected Essays. - and came to be regarded, especially by the remains of the Walpole squadron, as the natural and legitimate heir of Pelham in the Ministry. This prospect, however, so far as it depended on party favour, he had a little impaired by his impatience during Pelham's lifetime-appearing eager to snatch at the succession, instead of waiting coolly till it dropped into his hands. We shall find, however, as we proceed, that, though not unambitious of power, profit and emolument were his favourite, his ruling objects a disposition which, in his case, might admit of some excuse from his tenderness to his young and ill-provided family. In business he was clear, manly, and decisive. For oratory he had few natural advantages, either of person or of manner. His figure was heavy and thickset, his countenance dark and lowering-insomuch as to be sometimes taunted with it in debate. Thus, on one occasion, Pitt most unwarrantably, though, it must be owned, after strong provocation, exclaimed, in allusion to Fox's looks, that he for his own part "should be ashamed to hide his head as if he had "murdered somebody under a hedge." The elocution of Fox is described by Chesterfield as hesitating and ungraceful-defects from which even that great orator, his son, was by no means free. But, in both, though of course far most in the latter, these defects were overborne by sense, by wit, by discernment, by great aptness of illustration, by great readiness of retort. "His best speeches," says Lord Waldegrave of Henry Fox, “are "neither long nor premeditated; quick and concise re"plication is his peculiar excellence."† On the whole, looking to all the circumstances of the time, he might have filled a great part in the history of his country had his character borne any proportion to his talents. William Murray is best known by his well-won title as Earl of Mansfield. The exact date of his birth does not seem to be recorded; yet he was of noble lineage, the fourth son of the fifth Lord Stormont in Scotland. The bias of his family had been strongly Jacobite, and one of his brothers was, as Earl of Dunbar, Secretary *Lord Orford's Memoirs. vol. ii. p. 159. 1754. WILLIAM MURRAY (LORD MANSField). 35 of State to the Pretender. Thus in the course of Mansfield's own brilliant career—amidst the envious pack which is ever yelping at the heels of genius - he was frequently suspected, and still more frequently accused, of a disloyal feeling to the House of Hanover. Neither by word or deed, however, did he give any ground for such an imputation. - His education at Westminster School and Christ Church College had made him an accomplished scholar. It was his habit to translate many of Cicero's Orations into English, and after an interval back again into Latin.* On leaving Oxford he applied himself to the study of the law, and in 1731 was called to the Bar. For several years he languished without practice. Nor did he prosper in another suit which he addressed at this time to a wealthy heiress. But at length a case of appeal before the House of Lords, and a speech delivered by him on that occasion †, brought him all at once into light. Business upon this opening rapidly poured in, so that in after life he was heard to say that he never had known any interval between the total want of employment and the receipt of 3,000l. a year. An opportunity also presented itself at the outbreak of the war with Spain of displaying his powers of political oratory at the Bar of the House of Commons; and a few years later the fall of Walpole paved the way for his appointment as Solicitor General. From this period until his death a period of half a century - he enjoyed the highest reputation as a lawyer. As a speaker in the House of Commons he soon rose into distinction. He could not indeed wield the thunderbolts of Pitt, nor thread the mazes of argument in reply with all the readi * Character in Seward's Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 386. ed. 1804. Of that character Mr. Charles Butler in his Reminiscences (vol. i. p. 125.) has declared himself the author. It was to this that Pope alluded: "Graced as thou art with all the power of words, The second line was much criticised as an instance of the bathos, and the whole couplet was parodied as follows by Colley Cibber: "Persuasion tips his tongue whene'er he talks, "And he has chambers in the King's Bench Walks!" See the second volume of this History, p. 267. |