Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/571

 10 s. VIL JUNE is, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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it may now likewise be denied : however, let u suppose this distressed minister applying to one < those men who has a price, and is a member of th House. "

Wyndham then went into details as to th amount of possible bribes, and put the poin already quoted containing the words " " he be one of those men that has a price."

The use of the phrase " Let us suppose at the outset did not, of course, preven Wyndham's hearers in the House, and th readers of his speech outside, from knowing that it was Walpole 1 s picture he was attempt ing to draw. " It was not indeed a tru< portrait of Walpole," as Mr. Justin McCarthy has observed in his ' History of the Foui Georges ' ; " but it was a perfect photograph of what his enemies declared and even believed Walpole to be " (chap. xxi.). And Walpole used the same fashion of speech in reply, for he observed, " Let me too suppose" and in his supposition he painted Boling broke with a brush dipped in vitriol. It was a mere oratorical formula on both sides and Wyndham was as directly hitting Wai pole because of his alleged belief " that very man has his price," as Walpole was assailing Bolingbroke in his denunciation of " a wretch who is a disgrace to human nature."

Upon the specific allegation with which I am now dealing, Walpole defendec members from the imputation of being bribed but added :

" I will allow, Sir, that with respect to bribery, the price must be higher or lower, generally in proportion to the virtue of the man who is to be bribed ; but it must likewise be granted, that the humour he happens to be in at the time, the spirit he happens to be endowed with, adds a good deal to his virtue" ('Parliamentary History,' vol. ix. p. 475)

scarcely a very indignant repudiation of so serious and sweeping a charge as Wyndham had brought.

Unhappily, none of the London news- papers of the time, whether daily or weekly, gave a single line about the debate, whether as report or comment, though Bolingbroke's organ The Country Journal ; or, the Crafts- man, for 16 March, had a reference to " one Robert Fund, commonly called Rob. -Fund, who keeps a publick House in Westminster," which seems to be a burlesque attack on the Prime Minister's speech in this particular debate. But The Daily Journal and The Daily Courant, The Weekly Journal, The London Journal, and The Grub Street Journal were alike silent. Yet, in the con- sideration of questions of this kind, the nearest contemporary references are of

special value ; and I take one such from a letter of 12 October, 1766, written by George Grenville (who not long before had been Prime Minister) to the Earl of Buckingham- shire. In this it was said :

"Your honorable conduct has convinced them [the Ministry] of the falsehood of that opinion which has been so industriously propagated of late, that everybody is willing to treat with them, which is but a copy of the famous expression of Sir Robert Walpole's, that 'He knew every man's price.'"- Historical MSS. Commission, ' Report on the Manu- scripts of the Marquess of Lothian,' p. 272.

What is the earliest or contemporary authority for the modified version of the phrase which defenders of Walpole now put forward ? Mr. Justin McCarthy, in 4 The History of the Four Georges,' takes it for granted that " posterity has fallen into a mistake " in accepting the traditional version ; and Mr. John Morley, in his k Walpole ' in the " Twelve English States- men " Series, is even more emphatic, for he says :

"Walpole has no doubt suffered much in the opinion of posterity, as the supposed author of the shallow and cynical apophthegm, that 'every man ha* his price. People who know nothing else about Walpole, believe and repeat this about him. Yet the story is a pure piece of misrepresentation. He never delivered himself of that famous slander on mankind. One day, mocking the flowery and declamatory professions of some of the patriots in opposition, he insisted on finding self-interest or family interest at the bottom of their fine things. AH these men,' he said, 'have their price.' - }hap. vi.

This is most circumstantial and precise,

aut where is the evidence ? Until some-

hing more tangible is forthcoming than

Horace Walpole's filial repudiation half a

entury after date, or Coxe's opinion as a

Diographer somewhat later, the original

3hrase cannot be brushed aside as merely a

jartisan invention.

ALFBED F. ROBBINS.

Sir Robert Walpole's remark to Mr. L,eveson, as quoted by Mr. Latham, was ecorded by Dr. King, who adds that Sir Robert lived long enough to know that my jord Gower had his price as well as the rest King's ' Anecdotes,' p. 44).

The saying was quoted in a different form >y Richardson the painter, namely, " There ,vas not one, patriot howsoever he might eem, of whom he did not know the price." ' Richardsoniana,' 1776, p. 178).

CONSTANCE RUSSELL.

Swallowfield Park, Reading.

I can assist you to some extent, per- aps, as I have a complete set of The Bee. 'he passage quoted by MB. KEBSLAKE