Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/276

 ness and formality with which his nature is fraught. His adust complexion disposeth him to rigour and severity, which his admirers palliate with the name of zeal. No man had ever a sincerer countenance, or more truly representing his mind and manners. He hath some knowledge in the law, very amply sufficient to defend his property at least: a facility of utterance descended to him from his father, and improved by a few sprinklings of literature, hath brought himself, and some few admirers, into an opinion of his eloquence. He is every way inferior to his brother Guernsey, but chiefly in those talents which he most values and pretends to; over whom, nevertheless, he preserveth an ascendant. His great ambition was to be the head of those who were called the Church-party; and, indeed, his grave solemn deportment and countenance, seconded by abundance of professions for their service, had given many of them an opinion of his veracity, which he interpreted as their sense of his judgment and wisdom; and this mistake lasted till the time of his defection, of which it was partly the cause; but then it plainly appeared, that he had not credit to bring over one single proselyte, to keep himself in countenance.

The following character is also by the same hand, and an instance equally strong, of the same party blindness.

Sir Robert Walpole was a person much caressed by the opposers of Queen Anne and her ministry, having been first drawn into their party by his indifference to any principles, and afterwards kept steady by the loss of his place [of fecretary at war.] His bold forward countenance, altogether a stranger to that infirmity which makes men bashful, joined to a readiness of speaking in public, hath justly intitled him, among those of his faction, to be a sort of leader of the second form. The reader must excuse me for being so particular about one, who is otherwise altogether obscure.

It is not foreign to the plan of this article to insert the following description of the court and person of Q. Elizabeth, from the journey into England, of Paul Hentzer, in 1598.

''Minds of a much deeper turn than the author of this itinerary seems to have been, may find matter of agreeable reflection in his account of England. as it appeared under Q. Elizabeth. That great princess had as much state and magnificence in her court, as wisdom and steadiness in her government. She knew that it was necessary to strike the imagination as well as to pursue the real interest of her people. Thus she threw a veil over the foibles of her personal character, and prevented the weak vanity of an old coquette from eclipsing the virtues of a great Queen. Our traveller is a very minute painter; but even minute things, where they concern great characters, seem to quit their nature, and become things of consequence; besides that they bring us nearer to the times and persons they describe. It will be equally agreeable in his character of the English, to trace the difference which increase of riches, refinement, and even time itself,''