XVI. 66 СНАР. vour 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 Parliament. . . . . . Let us farther 1734. 66 suppose this anti-minister to have travelled, and "at every Court where he was thinking himself "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 60,000l. from his private fortune, which by this time had far outgrown its original bounds of 2000l. 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 XVI. 1734. flowed against him. The Excise scheme still CHAP. 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 * Duke of Newcastle to Horace Walpole, May 24. 1734. 1735. XVI. 1735. CHAP. 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 arenaat 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 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 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, * 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. 188-208.) 66 XVI. "to preserve a Constitution which is almost de. CHA P. stroyed..... I fear nothing from those I have opposed; I ask nothing from those I have "served."* 66 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.t. Bolingbroke himself, in a letter of 1739, alludes to some persons in opposition, who "think my name, and, "much more, my presence, in England, when I "am there, does them mischief." Writing to the same person, seven years later, he not very *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. Marchmont Papers, vol. ii. p. 179. 1735. XVI. CHAP. consistently indulges in an empty boast, that he did not leave England till his friends had some 1735. schemes in contemplation in which he would not join. It may, perhaps, have some bearing to this subject, that we find Pulteney about the same time, or soon afterwards, much depressed in spirits, and seeming to make advances to the Walpoles. The day before the House rose, some remarkable civilities passed between him and Sir Robert; and proceeding on a journey to the Hague, he sent a message to Horace, who, in consequence, came to see him, and was very cordially received. "I "endeavoured," says Horace, "to be easy and "cheerful, and to make him so; but his constant "complaint was lowness of spirits, and, in my opinion, he is rather dead-hearted than sick in 66 body; and, in other respects, had a stranger "come into the room, he would have thought we "had never been otherwise than good friends.”† Be this as it may, the Parliamentary warfare between them was certainly waged as fiercely as ever in the ensuing sessions. * Marchmont Papers, vol. ii. p. 350. See also some acute observations in the Quarterly Review, No. cviii. p. 386. ↑ Sir R. Walpole to Horace, May 25. Horace to Sir Robert, June 10. 1736. Coxe's Walpole, vol. iii. |