Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/407

Rh HALIFAX 387 He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father, and, having taken an active part in the Restoration, he was i&quot; IGoT created Baron Savile and Viscount Halifax. Sub sequently his political conduct gave deep offence to the king, but although, on his being mentioned in 1672 for a seat in the privy council, Charles at first &quot;kicked at the name,&quot; the necessities of the political situation induced him to yield to the solicitations of his advisers, whose arguments for the admission of Halifax were based upon &quot;his family, his abilities, his state and credit, as well as talent to ridicule and unravel whatever he was spited at.&quot; Already he was known as one of the most brilliant orators in the House of Lords, and although his political opinions seemed to be shifting and uncertain, the fascination of his manner aided liis formidable talents in gradually securing him the perma nent favour, of the king. In June 1672 he was sent to negotiate terms of peace with France, but he was kept in ignorance of the agreement between Charles and Louis in regard to the establishment of popery in England. He strenuously opposed the Test Bill introduced by Lord Danby in 1675, but continued to sit at the council board till the following year when, having provoked Lord Danby by a witticism in reference to his mild manner of refusing a bribe, the latter procured his dismissal. In 1679 he was, however, created an earl, and having become a member of the new council after the fall of Danby, he differed from the earl of Shaftesbury and his other colleagues in reference to the Exclusion Bill, and by an extraordinary manifestation of nearly all the resources of oratory was instrumental in causing its rejection by the Lords. On this account an address was presented by the Commons praying his &quot; dismissal from the king s person and councils for ever ;&quot; but the king, whose confidence he had now completely won, retained him in the council, and in 1682 lie was created a marquis and became lord privy seal. Although, however, chiefly instrumental in securing the duke of York s succession, his proposed limitations of James s authority when the crown should devolve upon him, as well as his subsequent leaning to Whig principles, awakened the duke s settled hostility, and this was further deepened by his exposure of the malversation of the earl of Rochester. After the accession of James he was accordingly removed from the office of privy seal to that of president of the council, a less important position; and when in 1685 he refused to give his vote for the repeal either of the Test Act or of the Habeas Corpus Act, he was dismissed from the cabinet. But though made privy to the negotiations entered into with the prince of Orange, Halifax, notwith standing his political humiliation, was opposed to armed inter vention, and endeavoured to obtain such concessions from the king as would render this unnecessary. Even after the landing of the prince he consented to act as one of the three commissioners appointed to treat with him, and it was only the cowardly and traitorous flight of James that induced him fina-lly to abandon his cause and to take measures for raising William to the throne. In the Con vention Parliament he was chosen speaker of the Lords, and strongly opposed the motion for a regency. On the accession of William he was made lord privy seal, but the disasters of the Irish campaign gave such a plausible colour to the arguments of his opponents against his competency, and to their insinuations regarding his political honesty, that, though still retaining the office of privy seal, he in October 1689 ceased to take part in the councils of the king. ^He succeeded before the committee of the House of Lords in clearing himself from all guilt in connexion with the murder of Russell and Sidney, but shortly afterwards re signed his office. Irritated doubtless by the bitter animosity of the Whigs and by the coldness of William, he now at first joined himself to the opposition, and even went so far as to hold communications with St Germains; but either because his anger had cooled, or because he had become con vinced of the hopelessness of the fortunes of the Stuarts, he gradually veered back to the support of the Government. He died somewhat suddenly, 20th April 1695. He was suc ceeded by his son William, with whose death in 1699 the title became extinct in his family. A daughter by his second marriage was the mother of the fourth and celebrated earl of Chesterfield ; and from his natural son, Henry Carey the dramatist, was descended the celebrated Edmund Kean. Halifax is portrayed in Dryden s Absalom and Achitophel as &quot; Jotliam of piercing wit and pregnant thought, Endued by nature and by learning taught To move assemblies.&quot; Of his speeches not the smallest fragment remains, but it is admitted that his highest efforts far excelled in effect even those of Shaftesbury, who was his only rival. &quot; Old men,&quot; says Macaulay, &quot;who lived to admire the eloquence of Pulteney in its meridian and that of Pitt in its splendid dawn, still murmured that they had heard nothing like the great speeches of Lord Halifax on the Exclusion Bill.&quot; The key to the greater part of his political conduct is to be found in the pamphlet On the Character of a Trimmer, of which he was undoubtedly the author. He was a trimmer, but a trimmer in the best sense of the term ; for though not insensible to worldly advantages, and, notwithstanding his philosophical professions, a lover of pomp and external honours, he was remarkably uncon laminated by the political corruption then almost universally prevalent, and was so emancipated both from party prejudice and selfish ambition as to be able generally to guide his political course by a regard to the best interests of the nation. His sudden changes from one side in politics to another, so far from indicating a loose political morality, were in reality due to the very opposite reason ; for in times so unsettled violent and dangerous oscillations were apt to result from a tendency to extremes in both parties. But though his peculiar mental constitution enabled him to play a more important and beneficent part in the politics of his time than any of his contemporaries, it unfitted him for achieving suc cess as a minister of the crown, and rendered his political career a seeming failure. His bent was philosophical rather than practical, and, notwithstanding his great prudence and judgment in several important emergencies, he was apt to be timid and indecisive when the chief burden of responsi bility rested upon himself. His writings are neither large nor numerous ; but their pure, polished, and nervous English, acute reasoning, mature if somewhat worldly wisdom, apt and varied illustration, and clever and genial wit, fairly entitle them to a place among English classics. Privately he was, according to Burnet, &quot; a man of a great and ready wit, full of life and very pleasant, much given to satire.&quot; He had the reputation of holding atheistical opinions, but on his deathbed &quot;professed himself a sincere Christian.&quot; He was the author of The Anatomy of an Equivalent, printed in the collection of State Tracts, vol. ii. ; A Letter to a Dissenter ; an Essay upon Taxes ; Advice to a Daughter ; The Character of a Trimmer, published anonymously ; Maxims of State applicalle to all Times ; Character of i shop Burnet A Seasonable Address to loth Houses of Parliament ; Cautions for Choice of Parliament Men ; A Rough Draught of a New Model at Sea ; Observations upon the Reigns of Edioards I., II. , III. , and Richard II. and A Character of King Charles the Second, and Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections, first published in 1750. His Miscellanies, consisting of seven of the above pamphlets, appeared in 1700. A notice by the Hon. Hugh F. Elliot of a &quot; New Manuscript of George Savile, first marquis of Halifax, will be found in Macmillan s Magazine for October 1877. He also left Memoirs of his Life, which were destroyed. See besides the histories of Hume, Fox, Lingard, and Maeanlay ; Birch s Lives ; Burnet s History of his Own Times; Chesterfield s Memoirs ; &quot;Walpole s Royal and Noble Authors; Courtenay s Life of Sir William Temple ; and Seward s Anecdotes, vol. ii.