vernor of a province, whose abilities vast field of enterprise, and engaged were inadequate to the trust reposed him in schemes so complicated as in them. Though destitute of that well as arduous, that feeling his powbewitching affability of manner which er to be unequal to the execution of gained Francis the hearts of all who these, he had often recourse to low approached his person, he was no artifices, unbecoming his superior stranger to the virtues which secure talents; and sometimes ventured on fidelity and attachment. He placed such deviations from integrity, as unbounded confidence in his gene- were dishonourable in a great prince. rals; he rewarded their services with His insidious and fraudulent policy munificence; he neither envied their appeared more conspicuous, and was fame, nor discovered any jealousy of rendered more odious, by a comparitheir power. Almost all the generals son with the open and undesigning who conducted his armies, may be character of his contemporaries, Franplaced on a level with those illustri- cis I. and Henry VIII. This differous personages who have attained the ence, though occasioned chiefly by highest eminence of military glory: the diversity of their tempers, must and his advantages over his rivals are be ascribed in some degree to such to be ascribed so manifestly to the su- an opposition in the principles of their perior abilities of the commanders political conduct, as affords some exwhom he set in opposition to them, cuse for this defect in Charles's behathat this might seem to detract, in viour, though it cannot serve as a some degree, from his own merit, if justification of it. Francis and Henthe talent of discovering and employ-ry seldom acted but from the impulse ing such instruments were not the of their passions, and rushed headmost undoubted proof of his capacity long towards the object in view.— for government. Charles's measures being the result There were, nevertheless, defects of cool reflection, were disposed into in his political character, which must a regular system, and carried on upconsiderably abate the admiration due on a concerted plan. Persons who to his extraordinary talents. Charles's act in the former manner naturally ambition was insatiable; and though pursue the end in view, without asthere seems to be no foundation for suming any disguise, or displaying an opinion prevalent in his own age, much address. Such as hold the latthat he had formed the chimerical ter course, are apt, in forming, as well project of establishing an universal as in executing their designs, to emmonarchy in Europe, it is certain, ploy such refinements, as always lead that his desire of being distinguished to artifice in conduct, and often deas a conqueror involved him in conti- generate into deceit. Robertson. nual wars, which exhausted and oppressed his subjects, and left him little leisure for giving attention to the interior police and improvement of his kingdoms, the great objects of every prince who makes the happi- Lord Townshend, by very long exness of his people the end of his go- perience, and unwearied application, vernment. Charles, at a very early was certainly an able man of busiperiod of life, having added the ness: which was his only passion. His imperial crown to the kingdoms of parts were neither above nor below it; Spain, and to the hereditary domi- they were rather slow, a defect of nions of the houses of Austria and the safer side. He required time to Burgundy; this opened to him such a form his opinion; but when form $ 80. Character of Lord The ex ed, he adhered to it with invincible he had a personal interest. firmness, not to say obstinacy, whe- periment failed, as he might easily, ther right or wrong, and was impa- and ought to have foreseen. He retient of contradiction. tired to his seat in the country, and, He was a most ungraceful and con- in a few years, died of an apoplexy. fused speaker in the house of lords, Having thus mentioned the slight inelegant in his language, perplexed defects, as well as the many valuable in his arguments, but always near parts of his character, I must declare, the stress of the question. that I owed the former to truth, and His manners were coarse, rustic, the latter to gratitude and friendship and seemingly brutal; but his nature as well as to truth, since, for some was by no means so; for he was a years before he retired from business, kind husband to both his wives, a we lived in the strictest intimacy that most indulgent father to all his chil- the difference of our age and situadren, and a benevolent master to his tions could admit, during which time servants; sure tests of real good-na- he gave me many unasked and uneture, for no man can long together quivocal proofs of his friendship. simulate or dissimulate at home. Chesterfield. He was a warm friend, and a warm enemy; defects, if defects they are, inseparable in human nature, and often accompanying the most generous minds. 81. Character of Mr. POPE. Pope in conversation was below himself; he was seldom easy and naNever minister had cleaner hands tural, and seemed afraid that the man than he had. Mere domestic eco- should degrade the poet, which made nomy was his only care as to money; him always attempt wit and humour, for he did not add one acre to his es- often unsuccessfully, and too often tate, and left his younger children very unseasonably. I have been with him moderately provided for, though he a week at a time at his house at had been in considerable and lucra- Twickenham, where I necessarily tive employments near thirty years. saw his mind in its undress, when he was both an agreeable and instructive companion. As he only loved power for the sake of power, in order to preserve it, he was obliged to have a most unwar- His moral character has been rantable complaisance for the inter- warmly attacked, and but weakly deests and even dictates of the electo- fended; the natural consequence of rate, which was the only way by which his shining turn to satire, of which a British minister could hold either many felt, and all feared the smart. favour or power during the reigns of It must be owned that he was the King George the First and Second. most irritable of all the genus irritaThe coarseness and imperiousness bile vatum, offended with trifles, and of his manners made him disagree- never forgetting or forgiving them; able to queen Caroline. but in this I really think that the poLord Townshend was not of a et was more in fault than the man. temper to act a second part, after hav- He was as great an instance as any ing acted a first, as he did during the he quotes, of the contrarieties and reign of king George the First. He inconsistencies of human nature; resolved, therefore, to make one con- for, notwithstanding the malignancy vulsive struggle to revive his expiring of his satires, and some blameable power, or, if that did not succeed, to passages of his life, he was charitable retire from business. He tried the to his power, active in doing good experiment upon the king, with whom offices, and piously attentive to an old bedridden mother, who died but a lit- stronger ambition. The former imtle time before him. His poor, crazy, paired both his constitution and his deformed body was a mere Pando- character: but the latter destroyed ra's box, containing all the physical both his fortune and his reputation. ills that ever afflicted humanity. This, He engaged young, and distinperhaps, whetted the edge of his sa-guished himself in business. His tire, and may in some degree excuse penetration was almost intuition, and it. he adorned whatever subject he either I will say nothing of his works, spoke or wrote upon, by the most they speak sufficiently for themselves; splendid eloquence; not a studied or they will live as long as letters and laboured eloquence, but by such a taste shall remain in this country, and flowing happiness of diction, which be more and more admired as envy (from care, perhaps, at first) was beand resentment shall subside. But I come so habitual to him, that even will venture this piece of classical his most familiar conversations, if takblasphemy, which is, that however he en down in writing, would have borne may be supposed to be obliged to the press, without the least correcHorace, Horace is more obliged to tion, either as to method or style. him. Chesterfield. He had noble and generous sentiments, rather than fixed reflected principles of good-nature and friend § 82. Character of Lord BOLING- ship; but they were more violent BROKE. than lasting, and suddenly and often varied to their opposite extremes, It is impossible to find lights and with regard even to the same persons. shades strong enough to paint the He received the common attention of character of lord Bolingbroke, who civility as obligations, which he rewas a most mortifying instance of the turned with interest; and resented violence of human passions, and of with passion the little inadvertencies the most improved and exalted hu- of human nature, which he repaid man reason. His virtues and his with interest too. Even a difference vices, his reason and his passions, did of opinion upon a philosophical subnot blend themselves by a gradation ject, would provoke and prove him of tints, but formed a shining and no practical philosopher at least. sudden contrast. Notwithstanding the dissipation of Here the darkest, there the most his youth, and the tumultuous agitasplendid colours, and both rendered tion of his middle age, he had an inmore striking from their proximity. finite fund of various and almost uniImpetuosity, excess, and almost ex-versal knowledge, which, from the travagancy, characterized not only clearest and quickest conception, and his passions, but even his senses. the happiest memory that ever man His youth was distinguished by all was blessed with, he always carried the tumult and storm of pleasures, in about him. It was his pocket-money, which he licentiously triumphed, dis- and he never had occasion to draw daining all decorum. His fine ima- upon a book for any sun. He excelgination was often heated and ex-led more particularly in history, as hausted, with his body, in celebrat- his historical works plainly prove. ing and deifying the prostitute of The relative, political, and commerthe night; and his convivial joys cial interests of every country in Euwere pushed to all the extravagancy rope, particularly of his own, were of frantic bacchanals. These pas-better known to him than perhaps to sions were never interrupted but by alany man in it; but how steadily he pursued the latter in his public con- Resentment made him engage in buduct, his enemies of all parties and siness. He had thought himself denominations tell with pleasure. slighted by Sir Robert Walpole, to During his long exile in France, whom he publicly avowed not only he applied himself to study with his revenge, but utter destruction. He characteristical ardour; and there he had lively and shining parts, a surformed, and chiefly executed the plan prising quickness of wit, and a happy of his great philosophical work. The turn to the most amusing and entercommon bounds of human know-taining kinds of poetry, as epigrams, ledge were too narrow for his warm ballads, odes, &c. ; in all which he and aspiring imagination; he must had an uncommon facility. His comgo extra flammantia mania mundi, positions in that way were sometimes and explore the unknown and un- satirical, often licentious, but always knowable regions of metaphysics, full of wit. which open an unbounded field for He had a quick and clear concepthe excursions of an ardent imagi- tion of business; could equally denation; where endless conjectures tect and practise sophistry. He could supply the defects of unattainable state and explain the most intricate knowledge, and too often usurp both matters, even in figures, with the utits name and its influence. most perspicuity. His parts were He had a very handsome person, rather above business; and the with a most engaging address in his warmth of his imagination, joined to air and manners; he had all the dig- the impetuosity and restlessness of nity and good-breeding which a man his temper, made him incapable of of quality should or can have, and conducting it long together with which so few, in this country at least, prudence and steadiness. really have. He was a most complete orator He professed himself a deist, be- and debater in the house of comlieving in a general Providence, but mons; eloquent, entertaining, perdoubting of, though by no means re-suasive, strong, and pathetic, as jecting, (as is commonly supposed) occasion required; for he had arguthe immortality of the soul, and a ments, wit, and tears, at his comfuture state. mand. His breast was the seat of He died of a cruel and shocking all those passions which degrade our distemper, a cancer in his face, which nature and disturb our reason. There he endured with firmness. A week they raged in perpetual conflict; but before he died, I took my last leave avarice, the meanest of them all, geof him with grief; and he returned nerally triumphed, ruled absolutely, me his last farewell with tenderness, and in many instances, which I forand said, "God, who placed me here, bear to mention, most scandalously. will do what he pleases with me His sudden passion was outragehereafter; and he knows best what ous, but supported by great personal to do. May he bless you!" courage. Nothing exceeded his amUpon the whole of this extraordina-bition, but his avarice; they often ry character, what can we say, but, accompany, and are frequently and alas! poor human nature! reciprocally the causes and the effects Chesterfield. of each other; but the latter is always a clog upon the former. He $83. Character of Mr. PULTENEY. affected good-nature and compassion; and perhaps his heart might feel Mr. Pulteney was formed by na- the misfortunes and distresses of his ture for social and convivial pleasures. fellow-creatures, but his hand was seldom or never stretched out to re-solemnly protest, that I have drawn lieve them. Though he was an able it conscientiously, and to the best of actor of truth and sincerity, he could my knowledge, from a very long acoccasionally lay them aside, to serve quaintance with, and observation of the purposes of ambition or avarice. the original. Nay, I have rather softHe was once in the greatest point ened than heightened the colouring. of view that ever I saw any subject in. Chesterfield. When the opposition, of which he was the leader in the house of com WALPOLE. mons, prevailed at last against Sir 84. Character of Sir ROBERT Robert Walpole, he became the arbiter between the crown and the people: the former imploring his protec- I much question whether an imtion, the latter his support. In that partial character of Sir Robert Walcritical moment his various jarring pole will or can be transmitted to passions were in the highest ferment, posterity; for he governed this kingand for a while suspended his ruling dom so long, that the various pasone. Sense of shame made him he- sions of mankind mingled, and in a sitate at turning courtier on a sudden, manner incorporated themselves with after having acted the patriot so long, every thing that was said or written and with so much applause; and his concerning him. Never was a man pride made him declare, that he would more flattered, nor more abused ; and accept of no place; vainly imagining, his long power was probably the that he could by such a simulated and chief cause of both. I was much actemporary self-denial, preserve his quainted with him, both in his pubpopularity with the public, and his lic and his private life. I mean to do power at court. He was mistaken impartial justice to his character; in both. The king hated him almost and therefore my picture of him will, as much for what he might have done, perhaps, be more like him than it as for what he had done; and a motley will be like any of the other pictures ministry was formed, which by no drawn of him. means desired his company. The In private life he was good-natured, nation looked upon him as a desert- cheerful, social; inelegant in his er, and he shrunk into insignificancy manners, loose in his morals. He and an earldom. had a coarse, strong wit, which he He made several attempts after- was too free of for a man in his stawards to retrieve the opportunity he tion, as it is always inconsistent with had lost, but in vain; his situation dignity. He was very able as a miwould not allow it. He was fixed nister, but without a certain elevain the house of lords, that hospital tion of mind necessary for great good of incurables; and his retreat to po- or for great mischief. Profuse and pularity was cut off; for the confi- appetent, his ambition was subserdence of the public, when once great, vient to his desire of making a great and once lost, is never to be regained. fortune. He had more of the MazaHe lived afterwards in retirement, rin than of the Richelieu. He would with the wretched comfort of Horace's do mean things for profit, and never miser: thought of doing great ones for glory. He was both the best parliamentman, and the ablest manager of parI may, perhaps, be suspected to liament, that, I believe, ever lived. have given too strong colouring to An artful, rather than an eloquent some features of this portrait; but I speaker; he saw, as by intuition, the Populus me sibilat, &c. |