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 ac-
complished classical scholar, profoundly versed in the philoso-
phy, 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 hap-
piest 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 as-
semblies. His countenance was in the highest degree express-
ive, his elocution rapid and easy, his memory ready and te-
nacious, 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 adorn-
ed 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
To low ambition and the pride of kings;
Let us, since life can little more supply,
Than just to look about us and to die,
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man,
A mighty maze! but not without a plan;

His inconsisten

Laugh where we must, be candid where we can,
But vindicate the ways of God to man."

Had Bolingbroke's steadiness of principle and consistency 20. of conduct been equal to these shining abilities, cies 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

other man, might be seen the truth of the words of Scripture, "unstable as water, thou shalt not excel." Inconsistency and want of rectitude were the bane at once of his political conduct and literary compositions. He was so changeable in his partialities, so variable in his declamations, that there is hardly an eminent man, and certainly not a political party of his time, that he has not alternately praised to the skies, and loaded with vituperation. It is scarcely possible to say what his principles were, for at different periods of his life he espoused those of all men. His only steady aversion seemed to have been to Christianity; and Voltaire acquired almost all the arguments which he afterward wielded with so much effect against religion from his conversation and knowledge. Yet he was not an atheist. Pope's "Essay on Man," and many other passages in his own writings, demonstrate that he had exalted but vague and dreamy ideas of natural religion. Horace Walpole said of him, "With the most agreeable talents in the world, and with great parts, he was neither happy nor successful. He wrote against the king who had forgiven him, against Sir Robert Walpole who did forgive him, against the Pretender and the clergy who never will forgive him. He is one of our best writers, though his attacks on all governments and all religions (neither of which he cared directly to own) have necessarily involved his style in a want of perspicuity. One must know the man before we can often guess his meaning."* This inconsistency tainted his private and moral, as well as public and political character. He was ambitious, and unscrupulous as to the means of elevation; vehement in hatred; variable in principle. Capable of profound dissimulation, he occasionally exercised it, and effectually deceived the most penetrating of his opponents. But, in general, the liveliness of his imagination and quickness of his temper caused him to give vent to the desire or feeling of the moment with an ardor which admitted neither of concealment nor moderation. And hence the otherwise inexplicable incon

*Royal and Noble Authors, 74.

sistencies and contradictions both of his public life and private thoughts.

Harley, afterward created Earl of Oxford, brought to the

Harley, earl of

21. support of the same party talents of a much infeCharacter of rior, but still very serviceable kind. He had not Oxford. the brilliancy of St. John's imagination, his vast stores of erudition, or his power of ready and extempore eloquence; but he was more prudent and sagacious, had more worldly wisdom, and incomparably more of a statesman's tact than his brilliant coadjutor. His wisdom and discretion, like that of Sir Robert Peel in the reconstruction of the same party after its discomfiture by the Revolution of 1832, brought the Tories up from a small minority in the commencement of the War of the Succession, to a decided majority before its close, in the Commons, Lords, and queen's council. He was no common man who, in the face of a large Whig majority at the commencement of the struggle, and despite the luster of Marlborough's victories, could so take advantage of the mutations of fortune, the changes of public opinion, and the still more variable gales of court favor, as, under such circumstances, to accomplish such a success.

22.

Swift and the
Tory writers

It was not, however, either in Parliament or the cabinet that the main strength of the party which overthrew Marlborough, and brought about the peace in the press. of Utrecht, was found. It was the vast ability and sarcastic powers of their allies in the press which chiefly produced the result. The Tories were supported by a band of writers who, in the war of pamphlets by which the contests of parties out of Parliament at that period were carried on, never have been exceeded as regards the versatility of their powers, and thorough knowledge they possessed of the means of rousing and inflaming the general mind. SWIFT was the most powerful of that determined band; and never did intellectual gladiator bring to the deadly strife of envenomed rapiers qualities more admirably adapted for success. Able, penetrating, and sagacious; possessed

of great powers of argument; greater still of sarcasm; thoroughly acquainted with human nature, and unfettered by any of the delicacies which, in men of more refined minds, often prevent the stirring of its passions, he knew how to excite the public mind by awakening their jealousy in regard to matters which came home to every understanding. Disregarding all remote considerations adapted only for the thoughtful, drawn from the balance of power, matters of foreign policy, or the ultimate danger of England, he at once fastened on Marlborough the damning charge of pecuniary cupidity; held forth the continuance of the war as entirely owing to his sordid thirst of gain; and all the wealth which flowed into the coffers of the great commander as wrung from the labors of hardwrought Englishmen. Concealing and perverting what he knew was the truth of ancient history, he represented the Roman consul as rewarded for his victories by a triumph which cost less than a thousand pounds, and Marlborough enjoying five hundred thousand as the fruit of his laurels. He forgot to add, that such were the means of amassing a fortune which victory gave to the Roman proconsuls, that Cæsar, before obtaining the province of Gaul, was enabled, on its prospect, to contract £2,500,000 of debt. It may be conceived what effect such misrepresentations had upon a people already groaning under new taxes, terrified at the growth of the national debt, and inflamed with that envy which the rapid rise, even of the most exalted merit, scarce ever fails to produce in the great majority of men. The Whigs had able writers, too, on their side, but they were no match for their adversaries in the power of producing a present effect on the multitude, whatever they might be on the cultivated in future ages; and the elegant papers of Addison and Steele, in the Spectator and Freeholder, were but a poor set-off to the coarse invectives and withering sarcasms of Swift.

Bolingbroke and Harley were Tory and monarchical in their ideas they belonged to the High-Church party in religion; and in secret, they dreamed of the restoration of the ex

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