Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/438

424 parliamentary campaign had been conducted at home. The opposition talked loudly of the lamentable and calamitous situation of England, because she was wise enough to keep out of the war. Their motions were all guided by the secret hand of Bolingbroke, whose restless and rancorous mind could not brook that partial obscurity to which he was doomed by the immovable spirit of Walpole. Instead of shining in the front of the house of peers as a brilliant orator, or holding the proud position of England's minister, he was obliged to shed his rancour through his quill in the pages of the "Craftsman," or in pamphlets, and to envenom the minds of the chief oppositionists, and arm them with specious oratory against England was it that it was saved from the misguidance of the showy but by no means profound sophist, who had once done his utmost to surrender her to the worst men and the worst principles that ever cursed its soil. Even the corruption of Walpole was infinitely preferable to the atheistic heartlessness of Bolingbroke.

Directed by Bolingbroke, the opposition revived the clamour about the excise, and turned the public resentment against Walpole for the dismissal of the duke of Bolton and lord Cobham from their regiments. They made a motion in the commons for a measure to prevent officers not above the rank of colonels being removed unless by a court-martial, or by address of either house of parliament. They dared not, however, press the motion to a division, though it was strongly advocated by Pulteney. They introduced through the young duke of Marlborough a bill for the same purpose into the lords, but could not carry it; the duke of Argyll remarking on the duke of Bolton's inexperience, that it was true two lords had been removed, but only one soldier.

But the grand attack was on the septennial act. This was a delicate subject for the whigs in opposition, for they, and Pulteney especially, had, in 1716, supported this act with many specious arguments. Bolingbroke, however, urged them on to the assault, and Pulteney was not ashamed on this occasion to unsay all that he had said before, but with evident embarrassment and little effect. The whigs to serve their own purposes had abandoned the triennial act, their own constitutional work, and all they had to say now in favour of such a measure had lost its value.

The attack on the Septennial Act was introduced by Mr. Bromley, son of the secretary of state under queen Anne, with a motion for its repeal, seconded by Sir John St. Aubyn. It was a trying time for the whigs, who, many of them, kept a wise silence. But Wyndham led the way again with amazing eloquence, and discharged a philippic against Walpole of such ruthless and scathing vigour, as must have annihilated a less adamantine man. He described him, hypothetically, as the most eminently accomplished of political scoundrels. The attack and the reply of these two combatants deserve notice, for they contain a large and a free transcript of the qualities of Walpole and of Bolingbroke:—

"Let us suppose," said Wyndham, "a man abandoned to all notions of virtue and honour; of no great family, and but of a mean fortune, raised to be chief minister of state by the concurrence of many whimsical events; afraid or unwilling to trust any but creatures of his own making, lost to all sense of shame and reputation, ignorant of his country's true interest, pursuing no aim but that of aggrandising himself and his favourites; in foreign affairs trusting none but those who, from the nature of their education, cannot possibly be qualified for the service of their country, or give weight and credit to their negotiations; let us suppose the true interest of the nation by such means neglected, or misunderstood, her honour tarnished, her importance lost, her trade insulted, her merchants plundered, and her sailors murdered; and all these circumstances overlooked, lest this administration should be endangered. Suppose him next possessed of immense wealth, the plunder of the nation, with a parliament chiefly composed of members whose seats are purchased, and whose votes are bought at the expense of public treasure. In such a parliament suppose attempts made to inquire into his conduct, or to relieve the nation from the distress which has been entailed upon it by his administration. Suppose him screened by a corrupt majority of his creatures, whom he retains in daily pay, or engages in his particular interest by distributing among them those posts and places which ought never to be bestowed upon any but for the good of the public. Let him plume himself upon his scandalous victory because he has obtained a parliament like a packed jury, ready to acquit him at all adventures. Let us suppose him domineering with insolence over all the men of ancient families, over all the men of sense, figure, or fortune in the nation; as he has no virtue of his own, ridiculing it in others, and endeavouring to destroy or corrupt it in all. With such a minister and such a parliament, let us suppose a case which I hope will never happen—a prince upon the throne, uninformed, ignorant, and unacquainted with the inclinations and true interests of his people; weak, capricious, transported with unbounded ambition, and possessed with insatiable avarice. I hope such a case will never occur; but, as it possibly may, could any greater curse happen to a nation than such a prince on the throne, advised, and solely advised, by such a minister, and that minister supported by such a parliament? The nature of mankind cannot be altered by human laws; the existence of such a prince or such a minister we cannot prevent by act of parliament; but the existence of such a parliament I think we may prevent, as it is much more likely to exist, and may do more mischief, while the septennial law remains in force, than if it were repealed; therefore, I am heartily for its being repealed."

By those who have considered the extent to which Walpole carried the system of corrupting the representatives of the people, and thus ruling at his own will, and not by the sanction of the public opinion and feeling, this severe portrait of him can scarcely be considered as exaggerated. Walpole, no doubt, felt it deeply, but feeling, too, whence the attack really came, from the armoury of Bolingbroke, he passed Wyndham lightly over, and emptied the burning vial of his indignation on the concealed foe, in a not less vigorous and graphic strain. Bolingbroke richly deserved the infliction. "When gentlemen," said Walpole, "talk of ministers abandoned to all sense of virtue and honour, other gentlemen may, I am sure, with equal justice, and, I think, more justly, speak of anti-ministers and mock patriots, who never had either virtue or honour, but in the whole course of their opposition are actuated only by motives of envy