AN INSOUCIANT STATESMAN.

169

themselves absolutely into all measures of Government to secure the Government itself; and that temporary no strength of Pelham had my Lord Granville contrived to fix to him; and people will be glad to ascribe to the merit and virtue of the Ministry, what they would be ashamed to own, but was really the effect of their own apprehensions. It was a good idea of somebody, when no man would accept a place under the new system, that Granville and Bath were met going about the streets, calling odd man! as the hackney chairmen do when they want a partner. This little faction of Lord Granville goes by the name of the Grandvillains You will wonder at not having it notified to you by Lord Granville himself, as is customary for new Secretaries of State: when they mentioned to him writing to Italy, he said-'To Italy! no; before the courier can get thither, I shall be out again.' absolutely makes one laugh: as serious as the consequences might be, it is impossible to hate a politician of such jovial good humour." But it is equally impossible to doubt that Pelham, though of inferior parts, was a safer and more capable minister than this good-humoured, jovial, accomplished, but unsteady

earl.*

It

The downfall of the Three-Days' Ministry was very grievous to many disappointed place-hunters, among others to Hanbury Williams, who poured out his insults upon Pitt. Here is a specimen :—

"Did not the band

Their King withstand;

And bring him low

As King could go

PITT's official career as Paymaster of the Forces was marked by a contempt of gain, unfortunately very rare among the politicians of his time. The emoluments of the office were principally derived from certain perquisites, such as the interest of a large sum of money which the Paymaster was allowed to hold in his hands, and an allowance on the subsidies granted by Parliament to foreign Powers. These he absolutely refused to accept. He would take nothing but the moderate salary attached to the post. Such conduct showed that he was proof against all sordid temptations, if not exempt from the "last infirmity of noble minds." But, in truth, it would be unfair to judge his conduct in accepting a place from Pelham, by the moral standard we now apply to English statesmen. The distinctions of Party were still obscure. The principles which should govern ministerial policy were still undefined, and it was considered no disgrace to support, when in office, the measures which had been denounced when the speaker was in opposition. We nowadays profess to embody our political doctrine in the maxim, "Measures not Men," though our actions frequently ill-accord with our profession; but in the Hanoverian reign the politician's watchword was "Men not Measures.' It is to the honour of Pitt that, on the whole, he rose superior to his contemporaries in the motives

172

THE PELHAM ADMINISTRATION.

which guided his political conduct; and that he consistently adhered to a course actuated by a steadfast regard for the national interests; though apt, on minor points, to yield to passing impulses and personal considerations.

For eight years peace reigned in the English Cabinet, which Pelham guided with a prudence and a skill not always acknowledged by historians. The Opposition dwindled into the shadow of a shade; the death of Prince Frederick of Wales in 1756 depriving it of its last feeble prop. The country daily increased in prosperity and contentment; and even in the Scottish Highlands the influence of law and order was making itself felt. Had Pelham lived, this halycon condition of affairs might have lasted still longer. As an administrator he displayed great ability, but much of the success of his Government was due to the eagerness with which, unlike Walpole, he endeavoured to secure the co-operation of the ablest. He gave reason to none to attach themselves to the Opposition. And he had no cause to fear that any of them would supplant him. He knew that their mutual jealousies constituted a sufficient safeguard. Thus, Harry Fox and Murray and Pitt, though differing widely in feelings and sentiments, readily acted under his supremacy, while neither would have yielded to the dictation of the others.

William Murray, afterwards Earl of Mansfield, was scarcely inferior, perhaps, to Pitt himself in intellectual power; but he had none of his enthusiasm, energy, courage, and resolution. A similar distinction was to be seen in their oratory. Murray excelled in lucidity

LORD MANSFIELD.

173

of statement and force of argument; but he was incapable of those bursts of glowing eloquence with which his great rival awed or charmed the House of Commons.* His oratory resembled a full and tranquil river, which rolls onward with even current, always transparent, and never chafed by rock or tempest; Pitt's was like a mighty torrent, which was sometimes turbid and obscure, sometimes spent itself in wayward digressions, but when it poured forth in all its strength was irresistible. Horace Walpole, on hearing the two orators some years before, had remarked, "In all appearance they will be great rivals ;" and Murray would probably have run his competitor close in the race for power had he not, with characteristic caution, abandoned the political for the judicial career, and became Chief Justice instead of First Lord of the Treasury. The change was one for which England had reason to be grateful; since in Lord Mansfield we must recognise the founder of our commercial law.

Murray was born in the ancient palace of Scone, near Perth, on on the 2nd of March, 1705. He was the eleventh child of the fifth Viscount Stourmont, a Scotch nobleman of ancient blood, but small estate. In 1718 he was sent to Westminster School, then under the mastership of Atterbury, and in 1723 he entered Christ

His eloquence was of an argumentative metaphysical cast," says Lord Shelburne," and his great art always appeared to me to be to watch his opportunity to introduce a proposition unperceived, when his cause was ever so bad, afterwards found a true argument upon it, of which nobody could be more capable, and then give way to his imagination in which he was by no means wanting, nor in scholarship, particularly classical learning, thanks to Westminster."-(Life, by Lord E. Fitzmaurice, i. 88).