Ministry, and Walpole strove to keep him in, till Lord Chatham, in consequence of his increasing unpopularity, would be obliged to go out. Walpole finally retired from Parliament at the general elec tion in the beginning of 1768, to which event he thus alludes: "The comfort I feel in sitting peaceably here, instead of being at Lynn in the high fever of a contested election, which, at least, would end in my being carried about that large town like the figure of a pope at a bonfire, is very great. I do not think, when this function is over, that I shall repent my resolution. What could I see by sons and grandsons playing over the same knaveries that I have seen their fathers and grandfathers act. Could I hear oratory beyond my Lord Chatham's? Will there ever be parts equal to Charles Townshend's ?"* * 66 Walpole Letters." Vol. v. p. 196. CHAPTER XI. HORACE WALPOLE, EARL OF ORFORD. THOUGH Mr. Bentley had been so useful to Walpole during the construction of "Strawberry Hill,” he had not the good fortune to retain his friendship many years. In 1761 he brought out a play founded on Fontaine's "Trois Souhaits," called "The Wishes, or Harlequin's Mouth opened," in which, in imitation of the Italian comedy, Harlequin, Pantaloon, and Columbine, are speaking, instead of pantomimic characters. Walpole went to see it on the first night of performance, and indulges in a good deal of pleasantry at the expense of his friend, and his friend's wife, while describing the unfavourable manner in which it He subsequently refers to the same writer's poetical epistle to Lord Melcomb, was received. * "Walpole Letters." Vol. iv. pp. 147, 161. in similar terms. Mr. Bentley obtained an inferior Government appointment under the administration of Lord Bute, and a pension of five hundred pounds a-year, which possibly originated his satirical poem against Wilkes, entitled "Patriotism," and also may account for Walpole's unfriendly feelings. He also wrote two other dramas, "Philodamas," and "The Prophet:" his success was not very encouraging in either. He possessed an accomplished mind, but was unsteady and imprudent. He died in 1782. In the preceding chapter that event has been related which closed Walpole's political life. Though he had retired from Parliament, he took a lively interest in public affairs, and thus writes to Sir David Dalrymple, 1st of January, 1770 : "The curse of modern times is, that almost everything creates controversy, and that men who are willing to instruct and amuse the world, have to dread malevolence and interested censure, instead of receiving thanks. If your part of our country is at all free from that odious spirit, you are to be envied. In our region we are given up to every venomous mischievous passion, and as we behold all the public vices that raged in and destroyed the remains of the Roman Commonwealth, so I wish we do not experience some of the horrors that brought on the same revolution. When we see men who call themselves patriots and friends of liberty, attacking the House of Commons, to what, Sir, can you and I, who are really friends of liberty, impute such pursuits, but to interested and disappointed ambition! When we see, on one hand, the prerogative of the Crown excited against Parliament, and on the other, the King and Royal Family traduced and insulted in the most shameless manner, can we believe that such a faction is animated by honesty or love of the constitution. When, as you very sensibly observe, the authors of grievances are the loudest to complain of them; and when those authors and their capital enemies shake hands, embrace, and join in a common cause, which set can we believe the most or least sincere? And when every set of men have acted every part, to whom shall the wellmeaning look up. What can the latter do, but sit with folded arms and pray for miracles? Yes, Sir, they may weep over a prospect of ruin too probably approaching, and regret a glorious country nodding to its fall, when victory, wealth, and daily universal improvements, might make it the admiration and envy of the world."* Walpole then breaks out into a rhapsody which he possibly thought was a little too extravagant, for he desires his correspondent not to allow this letter to pass out of his hands; and reiterates his desire to be allowed to enjoy the remnant of his days in quiet. But quietude to so restless a spirit was a strange desire. He who had been everything by turns, but nothing long, "in one revolving moon,"-printer, publisher, author, connoisseur, architect, builder, politician, and fine gentleman, was not likely to turn his gothic castle into a hermitage, and dispose of its innumerable treasures in favour of a string of beads and a horse-hair shirt. Nevertheless, he knew intervals of solitary meditation; he had been a sufficient antiquary as regards the past, let us hope that he was a sufficient Christian as regards the future. Walpole affected something of a philosophic old age, but this was only one of his occasional affectations, of which he had always a good stock on hand. Writing in the summer of 1770, he says: "I shall never pass a triste old age in turning the Psalms into VOL. II. * 16 "Walpole Letters." Vol. v. p. 267. 2 M : Latin or English verse. My plan is to pass away calmly: cheerfully if I can sometimes to amuse myself with the rising generation, but to take care not to fatigue them, nor weary them with old stories, which will not interest them; as their adventures do not interest me. Age would indulge prejudices, if it did not sometimes polish itself against younger acquaintance; but it must be the work of folly if one hopes to contract friendship with them, or desires it, or thinks one can become the same follies, or expects they should do more than bear one for one's good humour."* Walpole's plan, though not novel, was very good. Every one wishes to pass away calmly; but the calm he waits for rarely attends him. His ideas respecting his conduct to the rising generation no doubt are judicious, and his reflections on the incompatibility of age and youth have all the force of an apothegm. The whole, however, forms a contrast to various lively demonstrations, which, not long ago, he appeared so pleased to chronicle. Walpole was, in truth, a sort of moral chameleon that shifted its hues with the varying circumstances under which it was seen. What was the gayest couleur de rose ever beheld by a fine gentleman, in the next moment became the most sombre hue ever assumed by a philosopher. An event took place in the spring of the year 1771 which caused a good deal of speculation and conjecture for a considerable time afterwards: this was a burglary in Walpole's house, in Arlington street, of an unusual character; for although all his cabinets and drawers were broken open, and their contents scattered in every direction, not a single thing was "Walpole Letters." Vol. v. p. 272. |