CHAP. would be all or nothing. He could be kind to a XIII. dependant, or generous to an enemy; not fair to a 1725. colleague. He could forgive great faults, but

never great talents. We have already seen his conduct to Stanhope, to Sunderland, and to Car teret; we shall hereafter see it to Townshend and to Chesterfield; and it may truly be said that the opposition under which he fell at last, was one raised and fostered by his own inordinate ambition.

With this feeling Walpole, instead of proposing any office to Pulteney, tendered him a peerage, wishing to withdraw him from a House where his talents and influence were already feared. This offer Pulteney, as might have been expected, indignantly declined. He still continued, however, to expect a junction with Walpole, and two years afterwards consented to take (no doubt as a step to a higher) the very subordinate post of Cofferer of the Household. But finding himself disappointed, he silently brooded over his wrongs, and watched a favourable opportunity to attack the Minister in Parliament. Such an opening occurred in the Session of 1725, on a motion for discharging the debts of the Civil List, when Pulteney expressed his wonder how so great a debt could be contracted in three years' time, but added, that he was not surprised some persons were so eager to have the deficiencies of the Civil List made good, since they and their friends had so great a share in it. After one or two such sallies, he was dis

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missed from his place as Cofferer; he then openly CHAP. joined opposition and leagued himself with Bolingbroke. In conjunction between them was planned 1725. and penned that celebrated paper, the Craftsman, which first appeared in the ensuing year, and which proved one of the bitterest and most formidable assailants of the minister.

The eloquence of Pulteney was of that kind most valued in English Parliaments-ready, clear, and pointed, and always adapted to the temper of the moment. He was often heard to say, that hardly any man ever became a great orator, who began by making a set speech. A most competent judge, and not his friend, Speaker Onslow, assures us that he knew how "to animate every subject of "popularity with the spirit and fire, that the "orators of the ancient commonwealths governed "the people by; was as classical and as elegant "in the speeches he did not prepare, as they "were in their most studied compositions, mingling "wit and pleasantry, and the application even of "little stories so properly, to affect his hearers, "that he would overset the best argumentation "in the world, and win people to his side, often against their own convictions." The same quickness of wit sparkled in his conversation, and in

• An accomplished acquaintance said of him, "Whenever Lord "Bath desists from Greek and punning, I take it to be just as "bad a symptom as if he lost his appetite." This was only a few months before his death. See the Memoirs of Mrs. Carter by the Rev. M. Pennington, vol. i. p. 394.

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CHAP. his writings, nor only in prose, for he had a natural and happy vein for the lighter sort of poetry. But 1725. this very vivacity too often unsettled his judgment, and defeated his designs. "His parts," says Lord Chesterfield, "were rather above business; and "the warmth of his imagination, joined to the impetuosity and restlessness of his temper, made "him incapable of conducting it long together "with prudence." From the same temper, he has been accused of indiscretion; and he sometimes (as is often seen) attempted to prove that he could keep new secrets, by revealing old ones, that is, by boasting of the instances in which he had been already trusted. If we compare him to Chatham, we shall not find the same lofty and commanding spirit; if to Walpole, we shall miss a steady and sagacious application. Unlike both of these, the base passion of avarice had sprung up in his bosom, and grew so high, as sometimes to stifle that nobler plant, ambition. His private character, however, was respectable; his public, uncorrupt. No stain of treachery, of ingratitude, or of intrigues against the Protestant succession, rests upon his memory. He could win popularity, but not employ it either for the benefit of those who gave it or for his own. The idol of the nation, as William Pulteney, became their scorn as Earl of Bath; he tried often, but in vain, to recover his lost ground; and he passed his old age in that greatest of all curses that can befall the

human mind to find its aspirations higher than CHAP. its powers.

Another result of this Session, which must not be omitted, was the passing of the "City Act." The object was to curb the Common Council of London, and restrain that opposition which they frequently manifested against every government; the means were to vest in the Mayor and Court of Aldermen, a negative on their proceedings. The bill was not carried without a violent outcry in London, and a strong opposition in the House of Lords; and the negative it granted was so unpopular, that it appears to have remained dormant and disused for nearly fourteen years.

Immediately at the close of the Session, in June 1725, the King revived the order of the Bath, which had been dropped since the coronation of Charles the Second. The number of knights was now fixed at thirty-eight, amongst whom neither Walpole nor his son were forgotten. Next year, Sir Robert had the further distinction of being installed Knight of the Garter, being the only commoner in modern times, except Admiral Montagu, who ever enjoyed that honour. I have been assured that the Garter was in like manner warmly pressed upon Mr. Pitt by George the Third, but respectfully declined by the minister, and that the

* Duke of Wharton to James, May 1. 1725. Appendix. Coxe's Pelham, vol. i. p. 221.

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CHAP. King then insisted on transferring it to his brother Lord Chatham.

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1725.

It was with great difficulty that, in the foregoing year, the remonstrances of Townshend had withheld the King from returning to Hanover; but scarcely had this Session ended, than he began his journey, accompanied as usual by Townshend and the Duchess of Kendal. The state of his foreign relations was now again becoming critical, and needed his utmost attention. Philip the Fifth at this time, was once more King of Spain; he had, early in 1724, under the influence of a hypochondriac melancholy, resigned in favour of his son, Don Luis, and retired to St. Ildefonso; but the young Prince dying after a reign of only seven months, Philip was induced, by the ambition of his Queen, to re-ascend the throne. His differences with the Emperor were not yet finally adjusted. We have seen that the treaties at the fall of Alberoni being concluded in haste for the cessation of hostilities, could not at once wholly reconcile so many jarring and complicated interests, and reserved some points (amongst others Gibraltar) for a future Congress at Cambray. That Congress, from various petty difficulties and delays, did not meet till January, 1724, and even then its proceedings were languid and without result. In fact, the Spanish Court had begun to think that a private and separate

* Lord Townshend to the King, April, 1724. Coxe's Walpole. + See vol. i. p. 527.