Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/391

Rh principal cause. France had the wonderful good fortune to have three sovereigns in succession, who were exactly calculated to raise their throne and country to the utmost pitch of grandeur, while the weak and bigoted house of Stuart, in the person of four sovereigns of that name, by their thirst and love of absolute power and their incapacity, kept us occupied at home, and laid the foundation of that liberty which will yet, I hope, stand many struggles, and by this means procured us what was more worth than all the French conquests and more adapted to our national character. Lewis XIII. had sense enough to stand by Cardinal Richelieu, though he disliked him. Charles I. abandoned and betrayed Lord Strafford—in every respect Richelieu's pendant—though he liked him. Lord Strafford's letters deserve to be read with a view to England and to Ireland. The Irish State Papers indeed will be found to contain the best information regarding the Court and country of England: the reason is simple, that Ireland being the dependent country, and not the seat of Government, everything was necessarily committed to writing. It will be seen in this interesting correspondence how ready Strafford was, from the love of power, to sacrifice both the religion and liberty of his country, while the little party about the Queen thwarted his every design, sometimes finding that he did not go fast enough, at other times using the sure argument against all able men, that he was too deep to be trusted. The fact is that all Courts and Princes have a dread of talents, and they consider ability and roguery as synonymous. It is a wonderful blessing that while almost all Princes make the extension of their Power the great object of their lives, the narrowness, jealousy and incapacity which for the most part characterises them, deprives them of the only means of accomplishing their object: an honest and capable Minister. Whenever they are driven by opposition or by difficulty to take one, from that moment they become his bitterest enemy, and are indefatigable till they get quit of him, and in many cases sacrifice him. They never want for instruments. Activity is a cheap commodity;