peal of the Septennial Act, a question well fitted to embarrass the Minister and please the mob, and which would have been urged at an earlier period had it not threatened a breach between the Tories and the Whigs in opposition. Many of the latter - Pulteney above all—had supported the Septennial Act in 1716, and were unwilling to incur the charge of inconsistency by now demanding its repeal. The skill of Bolingbroke, however, discerned the value of this topic as an engine of faction, and surmounted every obstacle to its immediate application: he urged Sir William Wyndham and his party to persist; he used his own influence and theirs over Pulteney, and at length prevailed. In fact, though Bolingbroke seldom comes before the historian at this period though his persuasive voice was hushed in the senate though his powerful pen was veiled beneath another - yet his was the hand, mighty though unseen, which directed all the secret springs of Opposition, and moved the political puppets to his will. Nor let us condemn them. eloquent his language, that it almost wins us to his sentiments. When he thunders against "all standing armies for "whatsoever purpose instituted, or in whatsoever habit "clothed those casuists in red, who, having swords by "their sides, are able at once to cut those Gordian knots "which others must untie by degrees"* who would still

name

So

remember the necessity of national defence? Or who would suspect the many frailties of one who declares "no life "should admit the abuse of pleasures; the least are consis"tent with a constant discharge of our public duty, the great"est arise from it!"**

The attack on the Septennial Act took place on the 13th of March, being moved by Mr. Bromley, son of the Secretary of State under Queen Anne, and seconded by Sir John St. Aubyn. The Whigs, in general, shrunk from speaking on this question, and even Pulteney was short and embarrassed. But the harangue of Wyndham was applauded, and

*Oldcastle's Remarks on the History of England, Letter viii. ** On the Spirit of Patriotism.

not undeservedly, as a masterpiece of eloquence and energy, and could only be rivalled by the splendid reply of Walpole which concluded the debate. I shall not weary the reader with any quotation of arguments which he may still so often hear re-echoed from the hustings or the House; I shall merely observe, that a large minority (184 against 247) supported the repeal of the Act, and that Walpole, stung by the many taunts and insinuations thrown out against him, retorted in his speech with infinite spirit and readiness; and denounced Bolingbroke, in no very covert terms, as the real head of the faction leagued against him. "When gentle"men talk so much of wicked Ministers - domineering Mi"nisters MiMinisters pluming themselves in defiances "nisters abandoned by all sense of virtue or honour - other "gentlemen may I am sure, with equal right, and I think "more justly, speak of anti-Ministers and mock-patriots, "who never had either virtue or honour, and are actuated "only by motives of envy and resentment. ... Let me, too, 66 suppose an anti-Minister who thinks himself a person of so "great and extensive parts, and so many eminent qualifica"tions, that he looks upon himself as the only person in the "kingdom capable to conduct the public affairs, and there"fore christening every other gentleman who has the honour "to be employed by the name of Blunderer! Suppose this "fine gentleman lucky enough to have gained over to his "party some persons really of fine parts, of ancient families, "of great fortunes; and others of desperate views, arising "from disappointed and malicious hearts; all these gentle"men, with respect to their political behaviour, moved by "him, and by him solely, all they say, either in private or "public, being only a repetition of the words he has put "into their mouths, and a spitting out that venom which he "has infused into them; and yet we may suppose this leader "not really liked by any, even of those who so blindly fol"low him, and hated by all the rest of mankind. We will "suppose this anti-Minister to be in a country where he re"ally ought not to be, and where he could not have been

"but by the effect of too much goodness and mercy, yet en"deavouring with all his might and all his art, to destroy the "fountain from whence that mercy flowed. In that country, "suppose him continually contracting friendships and fami'liarities with the ambassadors of those Princes who, at the "time, happen to be most at enmity with his own: and if, at "any time, it should happen to be for the interest of any of "those foreign Ministers to have a secret revealed to them, "which might be highly prejudicial to his native country, แ 'suppose this foreign Minister applying to him, and he an"swering, I will get it you; tell me but what you want I "will endeavour to procure it for you; upon this he puts a "speech or two in the mouth of some of his creatures, or "new converts, and what he wants is moved for in Parlia"ment..... Let us further suppose this anti-Minister to have "travelled, and at every Court where he was thinking him"self the greatest Minister, and making it his trade to reveal "the secrets of every Court where he had before been, void "of all faith or honour, and betraying every master he ever "served!" How must Pulteney and Wyndham have quailed before this terrible invective! How must it have wrung the haughty soul of St. John!

These Parliamentary skirmishes were the precursors of the great Electoral battle. It was fought, in little more than a month afterwards, with the utmost acrimony on both sides. Sir Robert himself made great exertions, and is said, on very good authority (his friend Mr. Etough's), to have spent no less than 60,000 7. from his private fortune, which by this time had far outgrown its original bounds of 2000 l. a year. Still more active, if possible, were the Opposition; they felt sanguine of a majority in their favour, while Walpole, on the other hand, expected his former numbers. Neither party succeeded altogether to their wish; a majority was obtained for the Minister, but by no means so large as at the last election. He still maintained his popularity in many places, his influence in many others; but the tide was every where upon the ebb, and in several counties flowed

against him. The Excise scheme still rankled in many minds; the standing army, or the Septennial Act, served likewise for a popular cry; and the peace of England, while all was war upon the Continent, instead of being hailed with praise, was branded as "tame tranquillity;" as an infamous dereliction of our old allies. In Scotland, Walpole's chief manager, Lord Isla, had become disliked, and several, even of the Whigs, joined in a complaint of undue influence in the election of the Sixteen Peers. "On the whole," writes Newcastle, "our Parliament is, I think, a good one; but "by no means such a one as the Queen and Sir Robert "imagine. It will require great care, attention, and "management, to set out right, and to keep people in good "humour."*

Yet when the new Parliament met, in January, 1735, it appeared that the majority, though smaller, was quite as sure and steady as before; and the Opposition, after a few trials, lost hope and courage, and for a while again flagged in their exertions. The chief sign of their despondency, at this period, was the resolution of Bolingbroke to withdraw from England a resolution which Mr. Coxe, without any proof, and, as I think, without any probability, ascribes to the philippic of Walpole.** The speech of the Minister, be it observed, was delivered a year before the departure of his rival. But the fiery and restless spirit of St. John had long pined at playing an inferior part

at being shut out from the great Parliamentary arena- - at merely writing where he should have spoken, and advising what he ought to have achieved. Till lately he had been buoyed up with visions of victory, and was willing to labour and to bear; but now the result of the General Election dashed his hopes from the people, while the retirement of Lady Suffolk, at nearly the same moment, destroyed his expectations from the Court. Under these circumstances, veiling his mortification under the name of philosophy, he

* Duke of Newcastle to Horace Walpole, May 24. 1734. ** Memoirs, p. 426.

sought the delicious retreat of Chanteloup, in Touraine*, and the enjoyment of literary leisure. "My part is over,' said he, "and he who remains on the stage after his part is 66 over deserves to be hissed off..... I thought it my duty not "to decline the service of my party till the party itself either "succeeded or despaired of success. It is a satisfaction to "me, that I have fulfilled this duty, and had my share in the "last struggle that will be made, perhaps, to preserve a "Constitution which is almost destroyed..... I fear nothing "from those I have opposed; I ask nothing from those I "have served."**

Yet although the motives I have mentioned for Bolingbroke's departure seem fully sufficient to account for it, there is reason to suspect that they were not the only ones. We have vague hints of some disagreement between him and Pulteney, who, it is said, advised him to withdraw for the good of their party. It is not improbable that the cabals with foreign Ministers, in which Bolingbroke had engaged, and to which Walpole had alluded, may have been pushed so far as, at length, to disgust the Whigs in opposition, and turn them from their plotting leader. A letter, soon afterwards, from Swift to Pope, might have thrown great light on these suspicions; but it has been suppressed in the correspondence, and is only known to us by Pope's reply.*** Bolingbroke himself, in a letter of 1739, alludes to some persons in opposition, who "think my name, and, much

Chanteloup was built by Aubigny, the favourite of Princess Orsini, under her directions, and with a view to her future residence. (St. Simon, Mem. vol. x. p. 97. ed. 1829.) Delille calls it in Les Jardins,

"Chanteloup, fier encore de l'exil de son maître!" which might have been applied to Bolingbroke more justly than to Choiseul. Bolingbroke had also another smaller Château near Fontainebleau, of which a most spirited description is given by the accomplished and high-minded author of Tremaine. (De Vere, vol. iii. p. 188208.)

** To Sir William Wyndham, November 29. 1735. January 5. and February 20. 1736.

*** Pope to Swift, August 17. 1736. The close connection of Bolingbroke and the other opposition chiefs at this time with Frederick Prince of Wales, and their great hopes from him, seem incompatible with any Jacobite design.