ticular, they may share it, if they please, in every bad bar. gain they make for the public; and the worse their bargain, the better their share will be. Then an immense subsidy given to some little prince who deals in soldiers, or an immense arrear stated in favor of these little merchants of human flesh, may be so ordered as to steal enough from the public to replenish the royal coffers, glut the ministers, feed some of their hungry creatures, and bribe a Parliament besides. The establishment of public funds on the credit of these taxes hath been productive of far greater mischiefs than the taxes themselves, not only by increasing the means of corruption and the power of corruption, but the effect it hath had on the spirit of the nation, its manners and morals. Britain will soon be in the state described by Philip II. of his own court: 'They all take money except myself and Sapona.' Britain may ere long be in that very condition in which, and in which alone, her Constitution and her liberty, in consequence, may be destroyed, because the people may, in a state of universal corruption, and will in no other, either suffer others to betray them or betray themselves. How near a progress we had made to this, I determine not. This I say, that it is time for every man who is desirous to preserve the British Constitution, to contribute all he can to prevent the ill effects of that new influence and power which has gained strength in every reign since the Revolution; of those means of corruption that may be employed one time or other on the part of the crown; and of that proneness to corruption on the part of the people that hath been long growing, and still grows."* Independent of these considerations, which were so obvious 16. that they forced themselves on the consideration of Strong principles of free- every thinking person in the country, there were a dom and loyalty in the En- powerful set of feelings, which ere long began to glish character. impel the public mind in the same direction. Notwithstanding the strong love of freedom which has in every age characterized the English people, and which has been * BOLINGBROKE's Dissertation on Parties. Works, iii., 302. evinced for nearly a thousand years by the constant struggles they have made to maintain and extend their liberties, there is no nation in whom the principle of loyalty has taken a stronger root, or in which the precept to "fear God and honor the King" is more thoroughly interwoven with their domestic affections. It is the contest of these opposite principles which has produced such constant struggles in every period of English history; for not only has the strife repeatedly been fierce between them while it lasted, but the temporary triumph of the one has invariably and speedily been followed by a decided reaction in favor of the other. Vehement and energetic in whatever it undertakes, the Anglo-Saxon race rush alternately into the extreme of Republican licentiousness and the enthusiasm of chivalrous loyalty. It was thus that the general and unaccountable submission to their Norman rulers was succeeded by the rebellion of Jack Cade; the fervor of the Reformation by the slavish crouching to Henry VIII., and devoted loyalty to Elizabeth; the bloodshed of the Great Rebellion by the transports of the Restoration; and that, after running wellnigh mad on occasion of the Popish plot in the reign of Charles II., the people flew into excesses as great against the other party on occasion of the Rye-house conspiracy. 17. generous feelings in favor of period of the A similar reaction took place after James II. was expelled and William III. seated on the throne. The imminent danger which the civil and religious liber- Reaction of ties of the country had run of being subverted by the Tories in the arbitrary measures of that sincere and consci- the advanced entious, but headstrong and senseless prince, had war. produced a general combination of parties, which rendered the monarch powerless, and occasioned his bloodless fall from the throne. But after the deed was accomplished, and the king dethroned, the nation began to reflect on what it had done. Divisions, as usual, were consequent on success. A reaction, similar in kind, though inferior in degree, to what took place when the head of Charles I. fell on the scaffold, took place over the whole country. Surrounded by his guards, directed by his priests, preceded by his lawyers, aided by Jefferies, James had been regarded with deserved hatred and dread. Exiled from his country, cast down from his throne, eating the bread of the stranger, he became the object of pity. The loyal and generous feelings revived with additional force on the cessation of the dangers which had for a time restrained their manifestation. These feelings became peculiarly strong in the rural or country party, which beheld, with undisguised indignation, their fortunes eclipsed and their influence destroyed by the sycophants and capitalists who crowded the royal ante-chamber, and participated in the gains of the treasury. It was soon found that the Revolution had removed one set of dangers only to introduce another. Protestantism was secure, but public morality was sinking; the Star Chamber was no longer to be feared, but corruption had become general; nothing was heard of the prerogative, but Parliament had become so obsequious that its submission seemed almost a matter of course, even to a despotic prince. When to this natural reaction against a great and violent change in the government was added the spontaneous return of a loyal people to that attachment to their sovereign from which they could not be long estranged, and the enormous and seemingly interminable expenses of a protracted and burdensome contest, it is not surprising that the war became daily more unpopular, and Marlborough, who was with justice regarded as its head, the object of general obloquy. the votes and the House of Commons. Voltaire, who never lost an opportunity of representing hu18. man affairs as governed entirely by caprice or acWhich distinctly appeared in cident, would make his readers believe that the composition of whole change was the result of a bed-chamber intrigue at the court of Queen Anne, and that a fit of passion in Mrs. Masham arrested the course of Marlborough's victories, and preserved the tottering throne of Louis XIV. But the considerations which have now been stated, demonstrate that this was very far from being the case; that general causes co-operated with special ones in producing the grand result; and that the palace intrigue was not so much the cause as the effect of that general change in the public mind, which had come over the nation in the later years of the war, and which all the luster of Marlborough's victories had not been able to arrest. And this appeared in the most decisive manner in the votes of the House during the progress of the contest. When the war began, it was supported by a large majority in both houses; but as the contest rolled on and its expenses increased, the majority in the lower House gradually dropped off; when Harley and St. John were introduced into the ministry, it assumed that transition character which is seldom of long duration, but which always accompanies a coalition; and when at length the Whigs, with the exception of Marlborough, were entirely turned out, and he was left alone to conduct the war, amid his political enemies, the government was supported by a large majority in the House of Commons. All the violent and ungenerous proceedings against that great general, his dismissal from office, the innumerable vexations to which he was exposed, and the accusations of peculation which were brought against him, were carried by large majorities in the House of Commons; the House of Peers, after it had been swamped by the creation of twelve, ceased to struggle any longer with the declared voice of the public; and, whatever posterity may have thought of it, nothing is more certain than that the peace of Utrecht itself was, despite the cutting strictures of a few indignant patriots, cordially approved of at the time by a great majority in the nation. 19. Character of Bolingbroke, whose great abilities, both as a statesman, an orator, and a writer, rendered him the real head of the party in England that ultimately effected the Bolingbroke. great change in its foreign policy which altered the whole face of Europe, was one of the most remarkable men, even among the brilliant wits of Queen Anne's reign. It could not be said of him, as he said of Marlborough, that he was the perfection of genius aided only by experience. On the contrary, he shared largely in the advantages of a refined education, and his native abilities acquired additional luster from the brilliant foreign setting in which they never failed to appear. An accomplished classical scholar, profoundly versed in the philosophy, history, and poetry of Greece and Rome, he not only made use of the treasures of ancient genius to enrich his thoughts, but brought forward their expressions with the happiest effect, to aid and adorn his eloquence. Nature had been prodigal to him of those gifts, without which the most brilliant genius can seldom produce any lasting effect on popular assemblies. His countenance was in the highest degree expressive, his elocution rapid and easy, his memory ready and tenacious, his imagination vivid and impassioned. Such was the power of extempore composition which he possessed, that on the testimony, even of the most inveterate of his political opponents, you might have printed what fell from him, during 'he warmth of convivial conversation, without any inelegance or inaccuracy being perceptible. These brilliant qualities shone forth with peculiar luster in the ease and abandon of social intercourse with the illustrious literary men who adorned the reign of Queen Anne, and the early part of that of George I. Pope, it is well known, almost idolized him; and the thoughts in the "Essay on Man" are said to have been in great part suggested by his conversation. "Awake, my St. John, leave all meaner things Had Bolingbroke's steadiness of principle and consistency 20. of conduct been equal to these shining abilities, His inconsistencies and faults. he would have been one of the most eminent men that England ever produced. But this, unfortunately, was very far from being the case. In him, more truly than any |