Franklin's wish to preserve the connection between America and Britain, I possess stronger evidence than any he has adduced. His narrative of the circumstances attending, and the mode in which Franklin received Wedderburn's severe and cutting philippic, on the examination before the Privy Council, is inestimable; simplicity and sagacity appear to have been the two distinguishing traits of Franklin's character.

"

Dec. 16. Began Warburton's Letters to Hurd, and read them with much eagerness. A rich repast, replete with bold and original thoughts, acute criticism, profound reflections, daring paradoxes, boastful exultations, ingenious and frank avowals, fervent demonstrations of friendly regard, strains of manly and indignant eloquence, strokes of true and genuine humour, coarse and contemptuous invectives on his enemies, and traits, which evince throughout his eager and jealous desire of literary dominion: bringing out in high relief the lineaments of character admirably and forcibly depicted by Parr in his preface and dedication, as Hurd's deferential and adulatory letters, occasionally inserted, do his. Warburton's and Hurd's, different and opposite as their characters are in many respects, seem formed by nature to have been dovetailed to each other; incorporated they might have formed one capital whole. The lights thrown by these letters on the literary history of the period, are above measure interesting. Parr must be infinitely delighted with the perusal of them.

Dec. 17. Finished the perusal of Warburton's Letters. The gradual decay of mind evinced in the later letters, exhibits a most afflicting spectacle; we watch, as we go along, expiring genius. Warburton (Lett. 3.) considers Petronius's curiosa felicitas, as consisting in using the simplest language with dignity, and the most adorned with ease. He is confident that nothing but the light (Lett. 17) derived from Prophecy can support Christianity in its present circumstances. Berkeley, (Lett. 20) he calls. a great man, and the only visionary whom he knew as great. Enthusiasm (Lett. xl) he defines-"such an irregularity of mind as makes us give a stronger assent to the conclusions than the evidences shall warrant." His plan of attacking his own work, preparatory to a defence of it, against threatened attacks (Lett xlvii) is curious and instructive. Nothing can be more felicitous than his badinage on a grand tour round St. James's Park, (Lett. lx). In letter 84, he imparts to Hurd the cause of the origin (which the latter afterwards adopted in his Dialogues) of Protestant divines preaching the duties of divine right and non-resistance, in opposition to the Papal assumed power of deposition. Speaking of the Divine Legation, he solemnly affirms (Lett. 95) that he shall never wittingly advance one falsehood, or conceal, or disguise one truth.' If this be believed, he must have had vast powers of self-preservation, and his temperament favours this belief. Fit and right-(he remarks, (Lett. 45) in politics are two things, though in morals but one.'-Hurd (Lett. 150) appears to have been taken in by the morality of the New Heloise, on its first appearance, and Warburton in the next follows; but seems well acquainted with the character of Rousseau, so far as it had then (1761) developed itself. In Let. 183, he delivers this maxim, " In your commerce with the great, if you would have it turn to your advantage, endeavour, when the person is of great ability, to make him satisfied with you: when, of none, with himself." He seems (Lett. 231) to have received the fatal disclosure, in which Gil Blas so failed with the Archbishop of Grenada, with great composure and complacency, and to have yielded without a struggle. Warburton's abuses of his enemies are horrid. Hume is consigned to the

Pillory in his first curious notice of him, (Lett. 6, 1749,) and afterwards, (Lett. 100, 1757,) he is described as possessing a more wicked heart than he ever met with. Johnson's remarks (he says), on his Commentaries on Shakspeare (Lett. 175,) are full of insolence and malignant reflections, which, had they not in them as much folly as malignity, he would have reason to be offended with.' Priestley, (Lett. 220) is that wretched fellow. The gloomy and malignant Jortin, (Lett. 227, dies of eating his own heart. Evanson, (235) is a convicted innovator. Walpole, an insufferable coxcomb. Spence, a poor creature and dunces and blockheads thunder through his epistles without number. Yet it is impossible not, on the whole, to admire Warburton's heart as well as genius, as they are poured forth in these artless but vigorous effusions. Hurd's character as a man, whatever he might hope from the association with his illustrious friend, must be greatly sunk by their publication.

Dec. 31. Douce affirms, in his Illustrations of Shakspeare, that Cupid's blindness is not warranted by the authority of any ancient* classical author, and that Chaucer is the first English writer who has noticed it.

HISTORICAL CHARACTERS. BY SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. Characters of the Members of the Cabinet, in the Reign of James the Second. As Sir James Mackintosh's History of the Revolution is at present only to be obtained by the purchase of a volume which is large and expensive, it has been considered advisable to extract from it one of its most finished and attractive parts-the Historical Characters. These portraits are drawn with knowledge and discrimination; and the skill and elegance with which they are designed, will place them in no inferior situation, beside those of Clarendon and Hume. It is, however, to be hoped that the late work of this eloquent and enlightened writer, will be given to the public in a cheaper and more commodious form, separate from the very imperfect biography which accompanies it; and from the continuation, which proceeds from the pen of a person, whose political opinions are not at all in accordance with the sentiments entertained by the Historian.

EARL OF SUNDERLAND.

Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, who soon acquired the chief ascendancy in this administration, entered on public life with all the external advantages of birth and fortune. His father fell in the Royal army at the battle of Newbury, with those melancholy forebodings of danger from the victory of his own party, which filled the breasts of the more generous Royalists, and which on the same occasion saddened the dying moments of Lord Falkland. His mother was Lady Dorothy Sydney, celebrated by Waller under the name of Sacharissa. He was early employed in diplomatic missions, where he acquired the political knowledge, insinuating address, and polished manners, which are learnt in that school, together with the subtlety, dissimulation, flexibility of principle, indifference on questions of constitutional policy, and impatience of the re

Consult Chartarii Imagines Deorum qui ab Antiquis celebantur,' p. 331, 4to. If Mr. Douce means by blindness, Cupid's eyes being bandaged, he is certainly in error. If Cupid's blindness is not authorised by the ancients, when is it first mentioned? for Petrarch, in one of his Latin Poems, alludes to it,

Non oculis captum, Pharetrâ sed enim, atque sagittis,
Armatum.-ED.

straints of popular government, which have been sometimes contracted by English Ambassadors in the course of a long intercourse with the ministers of absolute Princes. A faint and superficial preference of the general principles of civil liberty, was blended in a manner not altogether unusual with his diplomatic vices. He seems to have gained the support of the Duchess of Portsmouth to the administration formed by the advice of Sir William Temple, and to have then gained the confidence of that incomparable person, who possessed all the honest arts of a negotiator. He gave an early earnest of the inconstancy of an over-refined character, by fluctuating between the exclusion of the Duke of York, and the limitation of the Royal prerogative. He was removed from the administration for his vote on the bill of exclusion. The love of office soon prevailed over his feeble spirit of independence, and he made his peace with the Court, by the medium of the Duke of York, who had long been well disposed to him; and of the Duchess of Portsmouth, who found no difficulty in reconciling the King to a polished as well as a pliant courtier, an accomplished negotiator, and a minister more versed in foreign affairs than any of his colleagues. Negligence and profusion bound him to office by stronger though coarser ties than those of ambition. He lived in an age when a delicate purity in pecuniary matters had not begun to have a general influence on statesmen; and when a sense of personal honour, growing out of long habits of co-operation and friendship, had not yet contributed to secure them against political inconstancy. He was one of the most distinguished of a species of men who perform a part more important than noble in great events; who by powerful talents, captivating manners, and accommodating opinions, by a quick discernment of critical moments in the rise and fall of parties, by not deserting a cause till the instant before it is universally discovered to be desperate, and by a command of expedients and connections which render them valuable to every new possessor of power, find means to cling to office, or to recover it, and who, though they are the natural offspring of quiet and refinement, often creep through stormy revolutions without being crushed. Like the best and most prudent of his class, he appears not to have betrayed the secrets of the friends whom he abandoned, and never to have complied with more evil than was necessary to keep his power. His temper was without rancour; he must be acquitted of prompting, or even preferring the cruel acts which were perpetrated under his administration: deep designs and premeditated treachery were irreconcileable both with his indolence and his impetuosity; and there is some reason to believe that, in the midst of total indifference about religious opinions, he retained to the end some degree of that preference for civil liberty which he might have derived from the example of his ancestors, and the sentiments of some of his early connections.*

EARL OF ROCHESTER.

Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, the younger son of the Earl of Clarendon, was Lord Sunderland's most formidable competitor for the chief direction of public affairs. He owed this importance rather to his position and connections than to his abilities, which however were by no means contemptible. He was the undisputed leader of the Tory party, to whose

* On the fall of Sunderland, see continuation of Mackintosh, p. 450.

66

highest principles in Church and State, he showed a constant and probably a conscientious attachment. He had adhered to James in every variety of fortune, and was the uncle of the Princesses Mary and Anne, who seemed likely in succession to inherit the crown. He was a fluent speaker, and appears to have possessed some part of his father's talents as a writer. He was deemed sincere and upright, and his private life was not stained by any vice, except violent paroxysms of anger, and an excessive indulgence in wine, then scarcely deemed a fault. "His infirmities," says one of the most zealous adhérents of his party, were passion, in which he would swear like a Cutter, and the indulging himself in wine; but his party was that of the Church of England, of whom he had the honour for many years to be accounted the head."* The impetuosity of his temper concurred with his opinions on government, in prompting him to rigorous measures. He disdained the forms and details of business, and it was his maxim to prefer only Tories, without regard to their qualifications for office. "Do you not think," said he to Lord Keeper Guildford, "that I could understand any business in a month?" "Yes, my Lord," answered the Lord Keeper, "but I believe you would understand it better in two months." Even his personal defects and unreasonable maxims, were calculated to attach adherents to him as a chief, and he was well qualified to be the leader of a party ready to support all the pretensions of any king who spared the Protestant establishments.

MARQUIS OF HALIFAX.

Sir George Saville, created Marquis of Halifax by Charles the Second, claims the attention of the historian rather by his brilliant genius, by the singularity of his character, and by the great part which he acted in the events which preceded and followed, than by his political importance, during the short period in which he held office under James. In his youth, he appears to have combined the opinions of a republican† with the most refined talents of a polished courtier. The fragments of his writings which remain, show such poignant and easy wit, such lively sense, so much insight into character, and so delicate an observation of manners, as could hardly have been surpassed by any of his contemporaries at Versailles. His political speculations being soon found incapable of being reduced to practice, melted away in the sunshine of royal favour. The disappointment of visionary hopes led him to despair of great improvements, to despise the moderate services which an individual may render to the com. munity, and to turn with disgust from public principles to the indulgence of his own vanity and ambition.

The dread of his powers of ridicule contributed to force him into office, and the attractions of his lively and somewhat libertine conversation, were among the means by which he maintained his ground with Charles the Second, of whom it was said by Dryden, "that whatever his favourites of State might be, yet those of his affections were men of wit." Though we have no remains of his speeches, we cannot doubt the eloquence of him who, on the bill of exclusion, fought the battle of the court against so great

North, p. 230.

"I have long looked on Lord Halifax, and Lord Essex, as men who did not love monarchy, such as it is in England."Duke of York, letter to Legge.

See Dedication to K. Arthur.

an orator as Shaftesbury.* Of these various means of advancement, he availed himself for a time with little scruple and with some success. But he never obtained an importance which bore any proportion to his great abilities, a failure which in the time of Charles the Second may be in part ascribed to the remains of his opinions, but which from its subsequent recurrence, must be still more imputed to the defects of his character. He had a stronger passion for praise than power, and loved the display of talent more than the possession of authority. The unbridled exercise of wit exposed him to lasting animosities, and threw a shade of levity over his character. He was too acute in discovering difficulties, too ingenious in devising objections. He had too keen a perception of human weakness and folly, not to find many pretexts and temptations for changing his measures and deserting his connections. The subtlety of his genius tempted him to projects too refined to be understood or supported by numerous bodies of men. His appetite for praise, when sated by the admiration of his friends, was too apt to seek a new and more stimulating gratification in the applauses of his opponents. His weaknesses and even his talents contributed to betray him into inconstancy; which, if not the worst quality of a statesman, is the most fatal to his permanent importance. For one short period indeed, the circumstances of his situation suited the peculiarities of his genius. In the last years of Charles, his refined policy found full scope in the art of balancing factions,-of occasionally leaning to the vanquished, and always tempering the triumph of the victorious party,by which that monarch then consulted the repose of his declining years. Perhaps he satisfied himself with the reflection that his compliance with all the evil which was then done, was necessary to enable him to save his country from the arbitrary and bigotted faction which was eager to rule it. We know, from the evidence of the excellent Tillotson,† that Lord Halifax showed a compassionate concern for Lord Russell, and all the readiness to save him that could be wished; and that Lord Russell desired Tillotson to give thanks to Lord Halifax for his humanity and kindness: and there is some reason to think that his intercession might have been successful, if the delicate honour of Lord Russell had not refused to second their exertions by softening his language on the lawfulness of resistance-a shade more than scrupulous sincerity would warrant. He seems unintentionally to have contributed to the death of Sidney,§ by procuring a sort of confession from Monmouth, in order to reconcile him to his father, and to balance the influence of the Duke of York, by Charles's partiality for his The compliances and refinements of that period pursued him with perhaps too just a retribution during the remainder of his life. James

son.

"Jotham of piercing wit, and pregnant thought, Endued by nature, and by learning taught

To move assemblies, who but only tried

The worse awhile, then chose the better side,

Nor chose alone, but turned the balance too."-Absolom and Achitophel.

See character of Halifax by the continuator of Mackintosh, p. 513.

+ The Duchess of Portsmouth said to Lord Montagu, "that, if others had been as earnest as my Lord Halifax with the King, Lord Russell might have been saved.". Fox's MSS.; other allusions in the MSS. which I ascribe to Lord Halifax, show that his whole fault was a continuance in office after the failure of his efforts to save Lord Russell.

Vide Lord J. Russell's Life of Lord Russell, p. 215.

§ See evidence of Mr. Hampden and Sir Francis Forbes, in Lords' Journals, 20 Dec. 1689.