HISTORICAL PORTRAITS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 99, 8 April 1911, Page 2 (Supplement)

HISTORICAL PORTRAITS.

-KETCHFS IN THE TIME OF PITT.

The following sketches of well-known public men and politicians in the ’ime of William Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham. are taken from Lord Rosebery's recently published work "Chatham. which is but another example of '.lie distinguished author’s great literary ability. That these incidental thiirnb-naii portraits are of the nature of literary gems will be readily acknowledged. though the critics allege that the title of the book, "Chatham,” i-; some.hing of a misnomer since it is not a complete life of Pitt, closing :».« it doe* with the year 17315, whereas I’itt Aid not become Earl of Chatham I.util 17GG. STR ROBERT WALPOLE. Newcastle had laid on the table of the House a message from the King, announcing the landing of the Pretender, and then parsed on to other ncw>"Ti.cn Walpole rose, and broke his long silence. With dignly and emotion he confessed that ha had vowed to retrain from speech in that House, but that abstinence now would be a crime. He had heard the King’s message, and hail o’ served wf h amazement that that House was to be so wanting in respect x* to leave it unanswered. Was our language *0 barren as to be unable to finds word* to the King at such a crisis, a time of distraofon and confusion a time when toe greatest power in Europe is setring up a Pretender to his throne.’ .... *My lords, the danger is common, and an invasion equally involves all our happiness, all our hopes, and alt our fortunes.’ ”

“In these passionate words the wary and unemotional Walpole allowed his apprehension to overflow. He saw the work of his life, the keeping out of the Stuart*, compromised and endangered by the unpopularity of the throne, and ‘.he blunders of jobbing mediocrity. Tlie House was deeply morel. Newcastle, with obvious mortification. acknowledged his lapse, anil the Chancellor hurriedly drafted an address. Even the Prince of 11'3108, whose hatred of Walpole was perhaps the deepe*? feeling ot which hi* shallow nature was capable, was so stirred that lie rose and sn.x»k hands with the veteran Minister. It was a dramatic occasion. worthy of being .he last public appearance of Wal’olo. The hard-bit’en old statesman who had been bait**! for nearly a quarter of a century and had always given his opponent* as good as be got. disappeared from the sage with a burst of passionate patriotism. "At last, though torturer! with the •yone. lie consented to return to London at the urgent solicitation of his Sovereign, then engaged in a desperate struggle to retain Carters. as Secretary of State. Walpo'e set out on the 19th November, and in four slow day* <f an agony which wrung even h? practiced nerves of Ranby, the surgeon, he reached London.

"Up remained in London to die. For four months he lingered under the hands of th* surgeons, sometimes under cpinm, sometimes suffering tortures with equanimi y and good humour. But even *0 his shrewd and cynical commonsense did not desert him. Consulted by the Duke of Cumberland as to a marriage projected for him by the King, but repugnant to the Duke, the dying statesman advised him to consent ':o the marriage on condition of an ample and immediate establishment. 'Believe me,’ he added, ‘the marriage will not be pressed ’ Walpole’s knowledge of mankind left him only with his death. “His constancy. his courage. Tits temper his. unfailing resource, his love •n* peace, hi* gifts of management and debate, his long reign of prosperity, will always maintain Walpole in the highest rank of English statesmen. GEORGE IT. "As 8 soldier he had the unaffected ct;ur--ige of the princes of his race. George, red and angry, fighting on fori; at thy battle of Dettingen, is a figure that is memorable and congenial to his British subjects. "As a Lovelace he live* to this dav. fcr his portrai t! are generally in the posture of a coxcomb, with his face in outline wearing an irresistible smile, only comical to the beholder now, but with which he goes smirking into the uernitK**. It is not necessary to dwell on tbi” part of hi* character, after all, a shallow part, for the one woman whon- he lover! was his wife. It was. Lowever. a necessary part, vital to his conception of an ideal monarch.

We nui-ft admit, then, that ho was Turn r.nd bred a coxcomb, like his son. That he was a fond father no one will allege. His pleasures were coarse and •Tull. Even hero one strange exception must. b» made. His letters to women, in the opinion of hostile critics, were lender and oven exquisite. How ho came to write them we cannot know, for his character could not make mm < rpect a grace of this kind. “Hi< foible, we are told, was avarice. We do not know that he was mean in his personal expenditure. AValdegrnve. r.ga-e. who was fair, and know him T» t j:• than most men, declared that lie was always just and sometimes cl.writable, though rarelv generous.’ He .irimed himself, we are told, with counting his guineas in private. But tlic real ground for he charge of avarice j>i the eves of the British subjects was that ho accnmnlatid a great ••e'-.iro in Hanover. If tha* lie avarti’o, it was the avarice of the kings who mad- Briis-iri. the famous Frederick onl his father. Parsimony in such mnv well le* a virtue; and silkier ts mar even prefer to bo ruled by tl.o-o vho poss-s; it rather than by run es who rear vast ami idle palaces l-ke the Bourbon* of Spain and Naples, rr live wit 1 ! unbridled extravagance like < er>rge IV. Bit kings rarely hit th» right mean if they are generous tiiey_ are 'aped profuse, if they are careful thev are railed mean. ‘The rex! crime of George 11. in the. ry es of bis British sii’.joc •; was almost in rhe cn’egory of virtues, for it was 1-kt- devotion to Hanover. Innocent and natural as it was in him. it seems won-d-rf-sl o in that our tat'ers should hay.i' ' n.liir--4 it. But Hanover was the Fi'-g’- boric* ami fatherland: all Ins plea-ant ns-ocations were with Han-‘•t>-r; there he wa> ab-o!u o Sovereign, and cr-idd lead without critie-’-sm the ii'e that he enjoy'd. He <oi:M not l-.'-Ip bc : nt» a Hanoverian anv more than William HI could help being n Hollander. The English chose their Dutch and Hanoverian S'-.v'rt >*m« will their eves op. n. and l .id rigid to cmnp’nin if uhn- rh.v desired and ■>! rain- d was somewhat bit’ 'r in digestmn. Neither William n >r the fi-st '.r.o G *orgc- . ver met* >’. !•'I to like England or the English Bur all these thro • k ng- aceurati ly under • oo<l their position. They knew that they «e:c not from affer’ivi rr for *i--ii- ipt.n’i'as. certa’r.’y not for th* ir .at’ran’io’is Th ’v were taken a* ne • s-jt:c;: almnC odious necessities; to keep out a Ro-n-tnirt dvnr»-i v uhi-b rc-iro«ontr*l something t<» the people that was more ■d otu st l! *'