1715. BURNET. 19 ness till the 9th of January. The speaker, on closing the session, addressed George I. in a strain as false and fulsome as ever speaker or chancellor, Turner or Clarendon, addressed Charles II. "Under your majesty's auspicious reign," says he, "your commons with pleasure behold the glories of the Plantagenets, your majesty's royal ancestors, revive!" Let it be remembered that his majesty, now about twelve months in England, had done nothing but lend himself to the views and vengeance of one party, and thereby precipitate the affection of another. Death, during the sitting of parliament, deprived the whig party of three personages, who may be called historic. The historian bishop Burnet died on the 17th of March, in the seventy-second year of his age. Of Burnet's History of his own Times, little need be said to the reader of these pages. It is assuredly a work of much interest and instruction, respecting the transactions and chief personages of a long and memorable period, perhaps second only to that of Clarendon, even with its great and various inferiorities; but it is a safe guide to those only upon whom egregious conceit will not pass for authenticity and authority, reckless imputation for honest frankness, perfidious laxity of style and statement for carelessness and credulity. It seems to be an article of the whig profession of party faith, even at this day, to uphold the credit of bishop Burnet; and the apocryphal or spurious character of him, "drawn" as his son tells us, "by so elegant a hand as that of the late marquis of Halifax *" is still cited as testimony in his favour.t * Burnet, vi. 335. "The copy," says the son of the bishop, and original editor of his history, "from which this is printed, was taken from one given to the bishop in the marquis of Halifax's own hand-writing, which was in the editor's hands, but is at present mislaid." This mislaid original has never turned up. If any † See History of Europe, &c., by lord John Russell, ii. 60. doubt remained about the value of this piece of fulsome eulogy, under the name of "character," after the publication of lord Dartmouth's note in the Oxford edition., vi. 337., it is wholly removed by the Halifax MS. (cited in Vols VII. and VII. of this continuation) in which the marquis records his own and king William's contempt of the character and conduct of the bishop. It is strange that "the editor" (see last note), who thinks it ne Thomas marquis of Wharton, lord privy seal, died on the 12th of April. If whiggism were synonymous with patriotism, lord Wharton would have been the first patriot of the age in which he lived. He was thoroughly and instinctively imbued and associated with the spirit of whiggism, and he brought to its service in parliament adroitness and vigour, if not wit and eloquence, with a peculiar happiness in hitting a weak point or laying bare a secret motive—out of parliament the art to gain and sway partizans by a certain frankness of tone not wholly assumed. With all this he was little fettered by any scruples of truth or justice in pursuing his party ends. There is reason to suppose he was a disciple of that school of state-craft which is associated with the name of Machiavelli. * He was distinguished for libertinism of life and conversation, both religious and moral, learned by him, it is said, in the court and company of Charles II., and inherited from him with his wit and talents by his deplorably eccentric son. Charles Montague earl of Halifax, flattered doubtless, but also esteemed and loved in his life, and lamented in his death, expired on the 19th of May, in the fiftyfourth year of his age. Of his parliamentary speeches there are no remains deserving the name, but he who rose to the first rank in the state "by his abilities and eloquence in the house of commons," † must have been an orator. A minister of state who gives to the muses the short and few intervals of leisure left to him by the calls of ambition and his place, could produce only what cessary to give a voucher for the authenticity of a letter of archbishop Tillotson, printed from a copy (Burnet, vi. 325.), should think nothing more than his mere word necessary with reference to the "character." * It would appear from a letter of bishop Warburton, in Farnworth's English edition of the works of Machiavelli, that lord Wharton was the author of the pretended "letter of Machiavelli to Buondelmonte." It seems to be the common notion that Machiavelli inculcates the maxims and practices of Cæsar Borgia, and other tyrants: he merely exposes them The anatomist who dissects a tiger, and shows how well the tiger's jaws and muscles are suited to his instincts, does not inculcate his ferocity. A man devoted to his country and its liberty, a virtuous citizen, and faithful servant of the Florentine republic, would hardly sit down to compose institutes of tyranny and state crime. +Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, art. Halifax 1715. HALIFAX. 21 are called " occasional pieces," and ought in no case to be too severely judged; and those of lord Halifax, whether verse or prose, if wanting in vigour and elevation, are redeemed by wit, sense, and taste. Minds of a high order are the first to call in and profit by the lights of others, and the share which Newton and Locke had in the counsels of lord Halifax, has been turned against his capacity as a statesman, when in fact it is proof of his superiority.* His liberal patronage of letters and the arts subjected him to fulsome dedications, but his patronage and taste were not the less liberal. The dedicating race of the next generation as unscrupulously decried one from whom they had nothing to hope, and the splenetic effusion of Pope falsifies not only his character but a matter of fact. † The extreme severity of the measures pursued by the government towards the tory party, instead of discouraging them, had the effect of inflaming them into open resistance. Their hatred of the whigs only wanted some *The right_reverend author of a tory poem, entitled "Faction Displayed," calls him Bathillo decked with borrowed bays, Renowned for others' projects others' lays." "Dryden alone (says Pope), what wonder! came not nigh- Now, in point of fact, Dryden did not "escape his judging eye,”— but when Pope satirised Halifax, under the name of Bufo, he was, perhaps, labouring under one of those fits of resentment which so frequently committed him to the most faithless libels. A story is told in Spence's Anecdotes, about Garth having suggested to Pope, that lord Halifax, who had just found fault with some lines in the translation of the Iliad, was a superficial critic, and that if Pope would bring the lines back in a short time unaltered, his lordship, presuming that Pope had in the meanwhile acted on his advice, would approve of them and the event, according to Pope, justified the prediction. This was not to be forgiven. Halifax offered Pope a pension, which, without being exactly refused, was never granted, so ungraciously was the offer received. This, too, may have inflamed the poet. Yet, on many occasions, notwithstanding his ill-will, Pope bore ample testimony to his lordship's character. Upon the occasion of his death he says, The love of arts lies cold and dead In Halifax's urn; And not a muse of all he fed Has yet the grace to mourn. And twenty years afterwards, in the Epilogue to the Satires, he celebrated his attachment to the memory of that excellent man, of whom, elsewhere, he observes, "The earl of Halifax was one of the first to favour me; of whom it is hard to say, whether the advancement of the polite arts is more owing to his generosity or his example." Thus setting Pope against Pope, we find the balance largely in favour of the traduced patron. such excuse as the suspension of the habeas corpus act, an alternative frequently adopted in this reign *, to change their gall, hitherto discharged in venomous libels and pasquinades, into active hostility. + The partizans of the pretender, taking advantage of the excitement into which the nation was thrown by the arrests of so many distinguished individuals, resolved to make a de *Addison defended the suspension of the habeas corpus act in the Freeholder, on the ground that it enabled his majesty to seize the persons of disaffected lords and commoners, thus mercifully interposing between them and their evil intentions, and securing the peace of the kingdom. As to the right of suspending it, he thought nothing could be clearer. “It is an absurdity," he observes, "to imagine that those who have the authority of making laws, cannot suspend any particular law, when they think it expedient for the public." Nor was he at a loss for precedents. "The habeas corpus act," he adds, "was made but about five and thirty years ago, and since that time has been suspended four times before his present majesty's accession to the throne: twice under the reign of king William and queen Mary; once under the reign of king William ; and once under the reign of queen Anne." When such bold measures are required, either for the maintenance of order, or the ascendency of party, there are always plausible reasons to be urged for embracing them. In this instance, the motives that actuated the administration were mixedpartly the preservation of tranquillity, partly the revenge of the whigs. His majesty appears to have kept aloof, as well as he could, from the perils by which he was surrounded, leaving every thing to his ministers, who fought the battle in his name. He was too dull, and, perhaps, too honest to enter zealously into the intrigues of the government; and we are told by lady M. W. Montagu, that his views were so low and narrow as to make him regard his accession to the throne in some sort as an act of usurpation, which was always uneasy to him. See lord Wharncliffe's edition of lady M. W. Montagu's works, i. 107. The Examiner, a tory paper set up in the previous reign, may be cited as an exemplar of the disgraceful spirit in which the political controversies of that day were conducted. It assailed the whigs in the grossest language, accused them of the worst crimes, and even consigned their dead patriots and churchmen to eternal torments. "There is something dreadful," says Addison, "even in repeating these execrable pieces of wit, which no man who really believes in another life can peruse without fear and trembling." -Freeholder, No. 19. But Bolingbroke, who was not so scrupulous about christianity as Addison, and who had no great reason to be grateful to either party, is of opinion that the one was just as bad as the other. According to him, jealousy of power produced those appearances of jacobitism in some of the tories, and the reality of it in others, which the whigs took advantage of, and imputed to the whole. The whigs magnified the monster, that they might have the greater merit in overcoming it, and accused their opponents of principles they did not entertain in order to make an excuse for taking revenge upon them for old resentments. Lord Bolingbroke's account of these parties will be found in his Letters on Patriotism, edited by Mallet. The duchess of Marlborough, who had, at all events, excellent opportunities of forming an accurate opinion, whatever ill-will may have been engendered in her mind by the position in which she was finally left by friends and foes, takes exactly the same view of both parties, in her celebrated auto biographical Defence of her Conduct. Shortly after the publication of that book, she met a lady of distinction, who remarked that she thought the duchess had been too severe, both on the ministers and the opposition. "Not at all," replied the inflexible Sarah, "I have always said that the whigs were rogues, and the tories fools." 1715. BATTLE OF DUNBLANE. 23 monstration simultaneously at both sides of the Tweed. The earl of Mar, at the head of 10,000 men, proclaimed the pretender at Castletown, in Scotland, in the month of September, under the style and title of James III.; and, at nearly the same time, the earl of Derwentwater and Mr. Forster appeared in considerable force in Northumberland, with the intention of surprising the town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where they hoped to obtain reinforcements and supplies. But the inhabitants, chiefly dissenters, formed themselves into town guards for the defence of the place, and the rebel bands, disappointed in their calculations, retired hastily to Kelso, where they were joined by a body of Highlanders. This addition to their strength inspired them with renewed confidence, and, again crossing the border, they made a rapid and victorious progress southward, proclaiming the pretender at Warkworth, Penrith, Lancaster, and other places, until they reached the town of Preston. Here they were met by the king's forces, who invested the town, and compelled them to surrender. The progress of the earl of Mar was quite as disastrous in its final results. By a remarkable coincidence, he gave battle to the duke of Argyle, at Sheriff-moor, near Dunblane, in Scotland, on the very same day, November 12th, that his friends were overthrown at Preston. The duke of Argyle having received information of the earl of Mar's intention to cross the Forth, for the purpose of joining the insurgents in England, anticipated his advance by securing the passes of the river, and taking up his position with 4000 on the heights of Dunblane. The earl of Mar, whose force consisted of about 8000, newly raised, and ill supplied with arms and horses, opened the attack, in the first shock of which the valiant Clanronald, who commanded the right wing, was slain. This unpropitious accident might have at once determined the fortunes of the day, but for the devotion and presence of mind of Glengarry, who, waving his bonnet at the head of the troops, shouted "Revenge!" three or four times. Thus incited, the Highlanders |