CHAP. XI. 1714. 17. generous favour of the Tories in the advanced period of the war. the fervour of the Reformation by the slavish crouching to Henry VIII., and devoted loyalty to Elizabeth; the bloodshed of the Great Rebellion by the transports of the Restoration; and that, after running well-nigh mad on occasion of the Popish plot in the reign of Charles II., the people flew into excesses as great against the other party at the breaking out and detection of the Ryehouse conspiracy. A similar reaction took place after James II. was Reaction of expelled and William III. seated on the throne. The feelings in imminent danger which the civil and religious liberties of the country had run, of being subverted by the arbitrary measures of that sincere and conscientious but headstrong and senseless prince, had produced a general combination of parties, which rendered the monarch powerless, and occasioned his bloodless fall from the throne. But after the deed was accomplished, and the king expelled, the nation began to reflect on what it had done. Divisions, as usual, were consequent on success. A reaction, similar in kind, though inferior in degree, to what took place when the head of Charles I. fell on the scaffold, took place over the whole country. Surrounded by his guards, directed by his priests, preceded by his lawyers, aided by Jefferies, James had been regarded with deserved hatred and dread. Exiled from his country, cast down from his throne, eating the bread of the stranger, he became the object of pity. The loyal and generous feelings revived with additional force on the cessation of the dangers which had for a time restrained their manifestation. These sentiments became peculiarly strong in the rural or country party, which beheld with undisguised indignation their fortunes eclipsed and their influence destroyed by the sycophants and capitalists who crowded govern XI. 1714. the royal antechamber, and participated in the gains of CHAP. the Treasury. It was soon found that the Revolution had removed one set of dangers only to introduce another. Protestantism was secure, but public morality was sinking; the Star Chamber was no longer to be feared, but corruption had become general; nothing was heard of the prerogative, but Parliament had become so obsequious that its submission seemed almost a matter of course, even to a despotic prince. When to this natural reaction against a great and violent change in the ment was added the spontaneous return of a loyal people to that attachment to their sovereign from which they could not be long estranged, and the enormous and seemingly interminable expenses of a protracted and burdensome contest, it is not surprising that the war became daily more unpopular, and Marlborough, who was with justice regarded as its head, the object of general obloquy. Voltaire, who never lost an opportunity of representing human affairs as governed entirely by caprice or which disaccident, would make his readers believe that the whole change was the result of a bedchamber intrigue at the composition court of Queen Anne, and that a fit of passion in Mrs of Com Masham arrested the course of Marlborough's victories, and preserved the tottering throne of Louis XIV. But the considerations which have now been stated, demonstrate that this was very far from being the case; that general causes co-operated with special ones in producing the 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 lustre of Marlborough's victories had not been able to arrest. And this appeared in the most decisive manner in the votes VOL. II. Y 18. tinctly ap pears in the votes and of the House mons. CHAP. XI. 1714. 19. Character of Bolingbroke. When Bolingbroke, whose great abilities, both as a states- 1 by experience. On the contrary, he shared largely in the advantages of a refined education, and his native abilities acquired additional lustre from the brilliant foreign setting in which they never failed to appear. An accomplished classical scholar, profoundly versed in the philosophy, 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 happiest 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 assemblies. His countenance was in the highest degree expressive, his elocution rapid and easy, his memory ready and tenacious, 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 the warmth of convivial conversation, without any inelegance or inaccuracy being perceptible. These brilliant qualities shone forth with peculiar lustre in the ease and abandon of social intercourse with the illustrious literary men who adorned the reign of Queen Anne, and the early part of that of George I. Pope, it is well known, almost idolised him; and the thoughts in the Essay on Man are said to have been in great part suggested by his conversation. CHAP. XI. 1714. Had Bolingbroke's steadiness of principle and consistency of conduct been equal to these shining abilities, 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 his 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 afterwards 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 views 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 mean |