My lord, I shall pause here, and proceed no further in my discourse, till I see if his grace my lord commissioner [Queensberry] will receive any humble proposals for removing misunderstandings among us, and putting an end to our fatal divisions. Upon my honor, I have no other design; and I am content to beg the favor upon my bended knees.

[No answer.]

My Lord Chancellor, I am sorry that I must pursue the thread of my sad and melancholy story. What remains is more afflictive than what I have already said. Allow me then to make this meditation-that if our posterity, after we are all dead and gone, shall find themselves under an ill-made bargain, and shall have recourse of our records for the names of the managers who made that treaty by which they have suffered so much, they will certainly exclaim: "Our nation must have been reduced to the last extremity at the time of this treaty! All our great chieftains, all our noble peers, who once defended the rights and liberties of the nation, must have been killed, and lying dead on the bed of honor, before the nation could ever condescend to such mean and contemptible terms! Where were the great men of the noble families-the Stewarts, Hamiltons, Grahams, Campbells, Johnstons, Murrays, Homes, Kers? Where were the two great officers of the Crown, the Constable and the Marischal of Scotland? Certainly all were extinguished, and now we are slaves forever!"

But the English records; how will they make their posterity reverence the names of those illustrious men who made that treaty and forever brought under those fierce, warlike, and troublesome neighbors, who had struggled so long for independency, shed the best blood of their nation, and reduced a considerable part of their country to become waste and desolate!

I see the English constitution remaining firm-the same two Houses of Parliament; the same taxes, customs, and excise; the same trade in companies, the same municipal laws, while all ours are either subjected to new regulations, or annihilated forever! And for what? Only that we may have the honor to pay their old debts; and may have some few persons present [in Parliament] as witnesses to the validity of the deed, when they are pleased to contract more!

Good God! What? Is this an entire surrender?

My lord, I find my heart so full of grief and indignation, that I must beg pardon not to finish the last part of my discourse: but pause that I may drop a tear as the prelude to so sad a story!"

[This fervent appeal had no effect. The Treaty of Union was ratified by a majority of thirty-three out of two hundred and one members. That it was carried by bribery is now matter of history. Documents have been brought to light showing

that the sum of £20,000 was sent to Queensberry for this purpose by the English Ministers; and the names of those to whom the money was paid are given in full.-EDITOR.J

ON A MOTION FOR HIS REMOVAL

BY

SIR ROBERT WALPOLE

Earl of Orford

SIR ROBERT WALPOLE, EARL OF ORFORD

1676-1745

Walpole was in some respects the most modern of eighteenth century statesmen; it was he who first adopted, in his speeches before Parliament, that easy, colloquial style which now prevails there, and which Englishmen like, because it makes no pretence of addressing anything but the plainest common-sense. He was, as a politician, entirely unprincipled, and yet he had neither the ambition nor the cynicism which are usually associated with such a character; he was constitutionally an indolent man, and a weak one; but he loved the surroundings of public life; he enjoyed the ascendancy which high place and his own exceptional talent gave him over men; and he could not resist the will of his King, who supplied by persistence and obstinacy what was lacking in him in the way of brains and magnanimity. Walpole would more than once have acted a nobler and more far-seeing part than he actually did, had it not been for the sinister influence of George II; but in the end he always yielded to the latter, and thereby rendered his own lot an unhappy one; for his conscience, refusing to be utterly smothered, stirred reproachfully in his breast, and his pride was hurt by the servility and baseness of the rôle which he was too often forced to play. More than once in his career did this outwardly gay and indifferent man of the world confess himself to be the most miserable of men.

He received his early education at Eton School, and at the University of Cambridge; and afterwards "completed" it-as the phrase was-by a tour on the Continent, visiting France and Germany. He entered Parliament in 1701, and a few years later was made member of the council for Prince George; he embraced Whig principles, and was appointed Secretary at War in 1708. He was also treasurer of the navy; and when in 1710, Henry Sacheverell, a clergyman and Tory, who had been an associate of Addison, and was noted for his eloquence as a preacher, criticised the Whig ministry in two sermons preached at Southwark, he was prosecuted at the instance of Godolphin, the aged statesman and financier, assisted by Walpole, and sentenced to three years' suspension. But the Marlboroughs fell that year, and Godolphin with them, and the clergyman was reinstated by a Tory ministry. Before his reinstatement, Walpole had been accused and convicted of bribery, expelled from Parliament, and committed to the Tower; but he was too useful a man to stay there, and in the following year (1713) we find him once more in the House; and his career thenceforth was outwardly a blaze of success; he was twice prime minister, and was created Earl of Orford in 1742. He died three years afterwards.