CHAP. of his rival. But the fiery and restless spirit of XVI. St. John had long pined at playing an inferior 1735. part at being shut out from the great Parliamentary arena-at 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..... 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, 66 66 I 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, 66 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- CHAP. stroyed. I fear nothing from those I have "opposed; I ask nothing from those I have "served." * 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.+ 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 schemes in contemplation in which he would not join. 1735. 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 66 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 "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. CHAP. XVII. XVII. 1735. WHILE Such was the tranquillity in England, the CHAP. hostilities abroad were dwindling into negotiations. The Emperor, chagrined at his losses, and foreseeing only fresh disasters should he continue to stand alone, made every effort to draw the Dutch and the English into his quarrel. He alleged positive engagements; he pleaded for the balance of power; entreaties, remonstrances, and threats were all tried in turn; he even menaced, unless he received some succours, to withdraw his troops from the Netherlands, and cede that country to the French. It may be observed, that even so early as 1714, Prince Eugene declared to Stanhope that Austria looked upon the Netherlands as only a useless drain, and accepted them rather for the sake of her allies than for her own*; but, in fact, during the whole of that century, these provinces were a constant source of uneasiness, vexation, and embarrassment to the Maritime Powers. Lord CHAP. Chesterfield was, I believe, the first statesman who XVII. formed the plan to revive, as he termed it, the 1785. Duchy of Burgundy; that is, to unite Holland and Belgium, so as to construct a powerful and independent barrier against France. To this idea he alludes in one of his private letters, just after resigning the Seals.* It has since been carried into execution, under very favourable auspices, by the Congress of Vienna. Yet, above a century before, the genius of Marlborough could discern and declare the fatal obstacle which has lately marred and defeated that promising measure; and he writes to Lord Godolphin, from Flanders: "Not only the towns, but the people, of this country "hate the Dutch." + Another hope of the Emperor was founded, as in 1726, on divisions in England. He knew that the King himself, and a section of the Cabinet, headed by Harrington, were inclined to grant him assistance, though not desiring, or not daring, to oppose the ascendency of Walpole; he expected to induce this party to join the Opposition, and thus to overthrow the all-powerful Prime Minister. For this negotiation he availed himself of one Abbé Strickland, an unprincipled adventurer, who had intrigued for the Jacobites and against the Jacobites, and been alternately a spy of the Pretender, and of the English Government. In some of his juggling he had caught for himself the Bishoprick *To Mr. Dayrolles, September 23. 1748. |