He considered the friendship of the honourable gentleman as the greatest blessing, as well as the greatest honour, that had ever happened to him in life." About the same time, General Conway on another subject, gave utterance to a nearly similar expression of sentiment by saying, "that he had an esteem for the honourable gentleman (Mr. Burke) perhaps superior to any he felt for any other man whatever."

These testimonies to his sterling qualities of character are strong, yet fall short of others found in his correspondence from almost every quarter. His gratuitous labours in effecting the exchange of Laurens and Burgoyne, cost him nearly a dozen long letters, a motion in Parliament, and considerable exertion otherwise; yet neither were his personal friends, and one as we know was wholly unknown. From Crabbe, struggling on to the clerical profession by means of his influence and aid, two grateful letters were received; a long one from Sir Joshua Reynolds then travelling in Holland, on Dutch pictures; while Bristol, India transactions, Roman Catholics, and some more private affairs, gave unceasing employment to his pen to discuss, and his wisdom to advise.

CHAPTER VIII.

Appointed Paymaster General-Reasons for not being in the CabinetLetters to Lord Charlemont-Lord Shelburne-Coalition-Reports of the Select Committee on Bengal-Communication on the Arts to Barry -India Bill-Mr. Pitt-Mr. Burke elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow-Scotsmen-Character of his Epitaph on Sir G. Saville-Reception in the New Parliament-General Haviland and family-Jeu d'Esprit of Dean Marlay-Letter to Miss ShackletonAnecdotes.

THUS had terminated the most severe, and on one side, ably fought political contest in our history, and with it vir tually the war in which it originated. But the conclusion did not leave Mr. Burke, as it found him, virtually if not nominally, leader of the party.

Mr. Fox, his political pupil and friend, who had been for some time treading closely on his heels in Parliament, and who had now advanced to an equality in the conduct of business there, added to great popularity out of doors, finally took the lead. For this there were some obvious reasons.

Inferior to his tutor as a great and commanding orator, and what ought to be of more consequence to the countryas a sound and effective statesman, he frequently excelled him and others in vigour of debate. He possessed peculiar tact beyond all his contemporaries and all his predecessors without exception, chiefly from manners, for being at the head of a political party. He enjoyed all the weight which birth and connexion, and these were then essential objects among the Whigs of England, could give. His acquaintance with the great was necessarily extensive, and his friendships nearly as general; with the young by community of pursuits and pleasure; with the old and staid by community of talent. His fortune originally considerable had been squandered; his temper was easy; his thirst for popularity excessive as he admitted in a letter to Burke-" amidst all the acclamations which are at this moment dinning in my ears, and for which you know I have as much taste as any man;” his manners were adapted to gain it, and his sacrifices to ensure it. His very faults and weaknesses were with his acquaintance more matter of jest or of apology than of censure. Some of his doctrines were more to the taste of the people who placed confidence in his sincerity; and with scarcely a shilling he could call his own, they were pleased to think him in spirit independent.

There

In most of these points he had the advantage over his coadjutor who had suffered some loss of weight by his rejec tion at Bristol; by his disregard of the popular voice when he thought it ill-directed; by a more uncompromising temper; by being supposed a dependant of Lord Rockingham; and among a certain class by being a native of Ireland. was unquestionably a jealousy through life of the merits and influence of Burke even among many who advocated the same cause, which nothing but very uncommon powers and extraordinary labours enabled him to surmount, and of which he frequently complained. Under all these disadvantages he had kept the effective lead in the Commons for ten years; and had Lord North quitted office three years sooner would have filled a higher political station; the common opinion early expressed at the table of Lord Rockingham being, "that he was the only man who could save the empire from dismemberment." Even just before that Minister's resignation, he himself remarks he had obtained a considerable share of public confidence notwithstanding the jealousy and obloquy which had

I

assailed him during much of his career. "I do not say saved my country-I am sure I did my country much service. There were few indeed that did not at that time acknowledge it." That Mr. Fox should now prevail with Westminster at his back, with unbounded popularity in the nation, and with the advantage of that aristocratic feeling in his favour common in this country, forms no cause for surprise. Mr. Burke, who considered humility in the estimate of ourselves a species of moral duty, submitted to the sense or the necessities of his party without a murmur. A vain man would have resented this; a weak one complained of it; an ambitious or selfish one probably taken advantage of it on the first opportunity to quit the connexion for ever, and throw the weight of his name and talents into the opposite scale. No feeling of discontent is known to have escaped from him.

In the division of the spoil of office, his share was a seat in the Privy Council and the Paymaster-Generalship of the Forces; then the most lucrative office in the State and remarkable for having been held by Lords Chatham, Holland, North, and Charles Townshend, previous to their becoming first Ministers. Considerable surprise was expressed at his not being included in the Cabinet. One reason assigned for this was his desire to purge the office in question, not usually a Cabinet office, of its acknowledged impurities, though the real one perhaps was the necessities of his party which required Cabinet offices for men of greater family and Parliamentary interest though of far inferior talents; and also possibly for thegratification of Lord Shelburne and his friends who enjoyed a much larger share of the royal favour. It is also true that he drove no bargain on the subject for himself, expressing to his friends his willingness to serve his country not where ambition might dictate, but where the general interests of government required. His moderation will be still more esteemed when it is known that the chief arrangements for the new Administration were committed to his direction by the Marquis of Rockingham. To this he alluded three months afterwards on the discussions produced by the ele vation of the Earl of Shelburne to the head of the Treasury.

After all, it may be doubted whether this moderation, forbearance, disinterestedness, or by whatever other name it may be designated, was not misplaced. Those who affect humility in political consequence will commonly be taken at

their word by their associates; and an attentive examiner will find that Mr. Burke made this mistake throughout his public life. The pride of the Whig aristocracy indeed had scarcely begun as it has been well said, to thaw during the most active part of his career; and he was therefore perhaps constrained to give way to the more potent influence of birth and family influence. But Whiggism was, and no doubt deserved to be, injured by such exclusive arrangements. On the present occasion, he ought beyond doubt, to have been in the Cabinet, and had he insisted upon it a seat could not well and would not have been refused. The omission certainly hurt his political reputation among many who could not know or appreciate the generosity of the sacrifice he made; and even at the present day it is urged as a reproach, that though infinitely superior in talents to any member of the Cabinet excepting Mr. Fox, he was forced to accept of an inferior office in administration. His exclusion from the Cabinet remains a permanent stigma on the Whig party.

Party however unlike literature, is seldom a Republic. It is Monarchy in miniature, where each must keep an appointed station for the benefit of all; and where other circumstances such as rank, property, or weight in the country, independent of talents, must combine to constitute a leader suitable to the views of the dispensers of office. But were a man in this country, of great capacity and attainments though of little influence or fortune, such for instance as Mr. Burke, deliberately to choose his side in politics as he would a profession-that is for the advantages it is likely to bring-he would probably not be a Whig. That numerous and powerful body is, or was, believed to be too tenacious of official consequence to part with it to talents alone-and too prone to consider great family connexion, rather than abilities of humbler birth, as of right entitled to the first offices of the state. They are, or were, willing to grant emolument but not power to any other than lawyers, who do not materially interfere with their views on the chief departments of government. This opinion notwithstanding the rather ostentatious profession of popular principles, is believed to have made them sometimes unpopular in the great market of public talent, and to have driven many useful allies into the ranks of the Tories.

His Majesty with no attempt at concealment received his

new servants unwillingly, nor is it great matter for surprise. It is hard for any man and most of all perhaps for a king, to receive into his confidence and councils those who for nearly twenty years together have thwarted his most favourite prejudices or notions. So strong was his aversion to the Rockinghams, that Lord Shelburne, leader of another branch of Opposition, was offered the Treasury in preference to the Marquis, but feeling the want of sufficient weight and connexion in Parliament, he prudently declined the honour. The King however made him the channel of communication with Lord Rockingham, who in consequence insisted before he accepted of office, upon certain stipulations, which were-to concede independence to America, to introduce a system of economy into all the departments of the State, and to carry some popular bills through Parliament.

The ministerial labours of the Paymaster-General were more considerable than those of any member of the Cabinet. His Reform Bill though much mutilated, passed both Houses, as he found what most reformers in time discover, that it is easier to propose public correctives when out of office than to carry them into effect when in. Many good reasons indeed were assigned for the alterations; and as the measure ultimately stood, no similar purgation of ministerial influence is known in our history, thirty-six offices eligible to be held by Members of Parliament being at once abolished. He also declared his readiness whenever the sense of the House would go with him, to adopt every part of the plan he had first proposed.

The bill to regulate his own office was deemed a species of feat in ingenuity, labour, and knowledge of business. The system had become so complicated and the abuses so ancient, that a universal feeling prevailed among preceding Paymasters down to the lowest clerks in the establishment, of the hopelessness of the one being simplified or the other amended. He nevertheless succeeded in his object chiefly by the assistance of Messrs. Powel and Bembridge, surrendering to the public the interest and other advantages accruing from the enormous sum of 1,000,000/. which was not unfrequently the amount of the Paymaster's balance in hand. His disinterestedness did not stop there. As treasurer of Chelsea Hospital he became entitled to the profits of clothing the pensioners, amounting to 70071. per annum, and by a new agreement with the contractor managed to