From Temple Bar. IT has been the fashion to sneer at Wraxall. The omniscient Lord Macaulay, and the equally omniscient Mr. Croker, though differing with, and snarling at, each other on every imaginable subject, agreed in depreciating his "Me. moirs." Macaulay was the most brilliant writer of his time, but not the most correct. Lord Melbourne, a man of great erudition and exquisite judgment, said of him, "I wish I were as cock-sure of any thing as Tom Macaulay is of everything." Macaulay writes, "that he would not be lieve Wraxall's unsupported testimony even when he relates what he saw and heard." Certain great people, especially Macaulay's friend Lord Lansdowne, on account of the aspersions on Lord Shelburne, were violent against the book. At Holland House the character of Fox, as portrayed by Wraxall, gave great offence. and the Duke of York to put down the done to Wraxall. A new trial must be We begin our extracts from Wraxall It would indeed be difficult for history to produce an instance of any prince who has united and displayed on the throne, during near half a century, so many personal and pri vate virtues. In the flower of youth, unmarried, endowed with a vigorous constitution, and surrounded with temptations to pleasure | turned; in October of the same year, at the or indulgence of every kind, when he suc- time of his being carried prisoner from Verceeded to the crown, he never yielded to these sailles to Paris; or on the 10th of August, seductions. Not less affectionately attached 1792, when he abandoned the Tuileries to to the Queen than Charles I. was to his con- seek refuge in the National Assembly, — we sort Henrietta Maria, he remained neverthe-shall perceive the leading cause of the preserless altogether exempt from the uxoriousness vation of England, and of the destruction of which characterized his unfortunate prede-France. cessor, and which operated so fatally in the course of his reign. The king's great conquest over himself was the abandonment of his intention to marry Lady Sarah Lennox, to whom he was at one time very much attached. He used frequently to r de by the grounds of Holland House, and Lady Sarah, as Thackeray wrote, "made hay at him" as he passed with great effect. He never forgot her. During the marriage service, when allusion was made to "Abraham and Sarah," the king was evidently troubled. There was a celebrated actress, Mrs. Pope, who resembled Lady Sarah. In after years, when the king was at the theatre, he muttered in the presence of the queen and princesses, "She is like Lady Sarah still." Wraxall writes: He received during the course of his reign innumerable anonymous letters threatening his life, all of which he treated with uniform in The king was not afraid of a mob. During the riots of 1768 he wrote to his minister, Lord Weymouth, "Bloodshed is not what I delight in; but it seems to me to be the only way of restoring obedience to the laws." London was undoubtedly saved from destruction by the courage of the king and his attorney-general, Wedderburn, when the Gordon rioters were burning and destroying with impunity. A council was called, but no minister would sign an order for the troops to act. Wedderburn was called in and gave his unhesitating opinion that the troops might act without waiting for forms. "Is that your declaration of the law as attorneygeneral?" said the king. Wedderburn "Then so answered in the affirmative. Wraxall writes: difference. A nobleman, who, I lament, is now no more, and who during many years was frequently about his person, as well as much in his confidence, the late Earl of Sandwich, assured me that he had seen several of them, which His Majesty showed him, particularly when at Weymouth. While residing there during successive seasons he was warned, in the ambiguous manner already mentioned, not to ride out on particular days on certain roads if he valued his safety; but the King never failed to mount his horse, and to take the very road indicated in the letter. Speaking on the subject to that nobleman, he said: "I very The King seemed to have a tendency to be well know that any man who chooses to sacri- come corpulent-if he had not expressed it fice his own life may, whenever he pleases, by habitual and unremitting temperance. Contake away mine, riding out, as I do continually, versing with William, Duke of Cumberland, with a single equerry and a footman. I only his uncle, not long before that prince's death, hope that whoever may attempt it, will not do in 1764, His Majesty observed, that it was with it in a barbarous or brutal manner." When concern he remarked the Duke's augmenting we reflect on his conduct under these circum- corpulency. "I lament it not less, sir," restances, as well as during the tumults of March, plied he, "but it is constitutional; and I am 1769, and the riots of June, 1780; and if we much mistaken if your Majesty will not become contrast it with the weak or pusillanimous de- as large as myself before you attain to my age." portment of Louis XVI. in July, 1789, when "It arises from your not using sufficient exerthe French monarchy was virtually over-cise," answered the King. "I use, neverthe Lord North was a great favorite in the House of Commons. Wraxall states that his natural affability rendered him so ac cessible, and the communicativeness of his temper inclined him so much to con less," said the Duke, "constant and severe not excepting Lord Godolphin, Mr. Pelham, exercise of every kind. But there is another or the Marquis of Rockingham. The two effort requisite in order to express this ten- former individuals were justly accused of a dency, which is much more difficult to prac passion for play, which accompanied them tise, and without which no exercise, however through life, a vice from which Lord North violent, will suffice. I mean- great renuncia- was wholly exempt. Burnet, who recounts tion and temperance. Nothing else can pre- the fact relative to the Lord Treasurer Godolvent your Majesty from growing to my size." phin, says: "He loved gaming the most of The King made little reply; but the Duke's any man of business I ever knew; and gave words sunk deep, and produced a lasting im- one reason for it-because it delivered him pression on his mind. From that day he from the obligation to talk much." formed the resolution, as he assured Lord Mansfield, of checking his constitutional inclination to corpulency, by unremitting restraint upon his appetite: a determination which he carried into complete effect, in defiance of every temptation. The character of Lord North as de-versation, that every member of the scribed by Wraxall is confirmed by all the memoirs of the time which have since been given to the world. He was a strange mixture of laziness and ambition; half asleep, half awake, he seemed to forget that the destinies of England were confided to his care. He was forced into the American war by the king and the people, for no war was so popular at first. He was utterly unfitted for a war minister. In Council he was always of the advice of the person who spoke last, and did not even act upon that. Wedderburn, his confidential adviser, endeavored in vain to make him act with more decision. A war minister ought to be terribly in earnest. Lord North was more than half-hearted in the cause. In his own home, Wraxall says, he was as lively and playful as a boy, yet never without dig. nity; diffusing gaiety and good-humor around him. House found a facility in becoming known to him. He had two defects: he was very blind and much inclined to sleep. He was frequently seen with his handkerchief over his face quietly taking a nap. It can hardly obtain belief [says Wraxall] that in a full House of Commons he took off on the point of his sword the wig of Mr. Welbore Ellis, and carried it a considerable way across the floor, without ever suspecting or perceiving it. The fact happened in this manner: Mr. Ellis, who was then Treasurer of the Navy, and well advanced towards his seventieth year, always sat at the lowest corner of the Treasury Bench, a few feet removed from Lord North. The latter having occasion to go down the House, previously laid his hand on his sword, holding the chafe of the scabbard forward, nearly in a horizontal position. Mr. Ellis stooping at the same time that the First Minister rose, the point of the scabbard came exactly in contact with the Treasurer of the Navy's wig, which it completely took off and bore away. The accident, however ludicrous, was wholly unseen by Lord North, who received the first intimation of it from the involuntary bursts of laughter that it occasioned in every quarter of the House. Mr. Ellis, however, without altering a muscle of his countenance, and preserving the most perfect gravity in the midst of the general convulsion, having received back his wig, re-adjusted it to his head, and waited patiently till the House had recovered from the effect of so extraor dinary, as well as ridiculous, an occurrence. Seen him I have, but in the social hour Of private converse, ill exchanged for power. As a man, considered in every private relation, even in his very weaknesses, Lord North was most amiable. Under that point of view, his character will rise cn a comparison with any In private life Lord North was amiabil First Minister of Great Britain who existed ity itself. He had a stupid groom who during the course of the eighteenth century; was called by his daughters the "man who puts papa in a passion," but he never thought of discharging him. His two daughters, Lady Glenbervie and Lady Charlotte Lindsay, inherited the qualities of their father. There is a letter of Lady Glenbervie's in the Auckland Correspondence describing the intrigue between Mrs. Fawkener and Lord John Townshend, which is as witty as any of Horace Walpole's. Once a discussion took place as to what word would be useful if one was limited to the use of one word. Most of the company were for " yes; "Lady Charlotte Lindsay declared for "no," because though yes never meant no, no very often meant yes. When the great reformer of our highways first commenced his operations, Lady Charlotte apologized for her late arrival at a dinner-party, say. ing she had been delayed by the "Macadamnable state of the roads." Wraxall describes Lord North asleep in the gallery of the House: Lord North having seated himself by me, made various efforts to keep himself awake; but to accomplish it exceeded his power. As the discussion had already taken a very personal turn, severe sarcasms, as well as re a member, but as he has now concluded his argument, I will resume mine." On one occasion in the House, Lord North completely lost his temper and stigmatized the speech of Colonel Barré, who had made a violent attack upon him, as "insolent and brutal." Of course Lord North had to apologize, but meeting Colonel Barré a few years afterwards he said to him, "Colonel, notwithstanding all that may have passed formerly in Parliament when we were on different sides, I am persuaded there are no two men in the kingdom who would now be more happy to see one another." They were both at that time totally deprived of sight, and led about by their attendants. This interview took place on the Pantiles at Tunbridge Wells. Lord North delighted in the Pantiles, so did Lord Macaulay. How Macaulay, if he had lived to hear of it, would have stormed against the wiseacres of Tunbridge Wells, who have changed the name of the dear old Pantiles to that of the "Parade." Wraxall's character of Fox seems very fairly drawn: ceived the extraordinary talents which Nature Of his three sons, Lord Holland early perhad conferred on the second; and in the fond anticipation of that son's future political elevation, exhausted on his education every effort which might expand or mature his open proaches, being levelled from the Treasury Bench, against the unnatural Coalition just formed; particularly by Mr. Dundas, who stigmatized it with the strongest epithets of contumelious reprobation; he requested me to awaken him as often as any such expressions should be used by Ministers. I did so, manying capacity. But he adopted a vicious and times; but, when he had listened for a few dangerous principle in ordering that the boy minutes, he as often involuntarily relapsed into for almost any acts in his power to commit — should neither be contradicted nor punished, repose. At the end of about an hour and of puerile misconduct or indiscretion. "Let half, during the greater portion of which time he seemed scarcely sensible to any circum- nothing be done to break his spirit," said Lord stance that passed, he began to rouse himself. Holland; "the world will effect that business By degrees he recovered his perception; and soon enough." having heard from my mouth some of the most Lord Holland's conduct seems to have interesting or acrimonious passages that had been injudicious in the extreme; he is taken place while he was asleep, he went down again into the body of the House, placed him- even said to have given the boy money self by Fox on the floor, and made one of the to squander at the gambling-table. Faro most able, brilliant, as well as entertaining was Fox's favorite game; his friend Hare speeches that I ever heard him pronounce laughs at his devotion to the king of within those walls. No man who listened to Egypt. He was a most unsuccessful it could have imagined that he had lost a sin-gamester. gle sentence of the preceding debate, or that his faculties had been clouded by fatigue and want of rest. Fox was not one of those dupes who never understand the principles of any game. On the contrary, he played admirably both at A curious incident took place during whist and at picquet; with such skill indeed, Lord North's speech. A dog that had that by the general admission of Brookes's hidden under the table of the House of Club, he might have made four thousand Commons ran directly across the floor, pounds a year, as they calculated, at those setting up at the same time a violent howl. games, if he would have confined himself to But his misfortune arose from Of course there were roars of laughter at playing them. this intervention of the member for Bark-faro. After eating and drinking plentifully, playing at games of chance, particularly at shire. But Lord North preserved all his he sat down to the faro table, and inevitably gravity, and, addressing the chair, said, rose a loser. Once, indeed, and only once, he Sir, I have been interrupted by a new won about eight thousand pounds in the course of a single evening. Part of the money he paid away to his creditors, and the remainder he lost again almost immediately in the same manner. The late Mr. Boothby, so well known during many years in the first walks of fashion and dissipation, himself an irreclaimable gamester, and an intimate friend of Fox, yet appreciated him with much severity, though with equal truth. "Charles," observed he, "is unquestionably a man of first-rate talents, but so deficient in judgment as never to have succeeded in any object during his whole life. He loved only three things-women, play, and politics. Yet at no period did he ever form a creditable connection with a woman. He lost his whole fortune at the gaming-table; and with the exception of about eleven months of his life, he has remained always in Opposition." His enunciation [says Wraxall] was vehement, rapid, and never checked by any embarrassment; for his ideas outran his powers of utterance, and he drew from an exhaustless source. But his Irish accent, which was as strong as if he had never quitted the banks of the Shannon, diminished to the ear the enchanting effect of his eloquence on the mind. In brilliancy of wit, Lord North alone could compete with Burke: for Sheridan had not then appeared. Burke extracted all his images from classic authorities: a fact of which, among a hundred others, he displayed a beautiful exemplification, when he said of Wilkes, borne along in triumph by the mob, that he resembled Pindar elevated on the wings of poetical inspiration, valled. Mr. Rogers was present at the last Burke's felicity of quotation was unri lecture delivered by Sir Joshua Reynolds at the Royal Academy. Sir Joshua concluded it by saying, with great emotion, "And I should desire that the last words I should pronounce in this Academy, and The angel ended, and in Adam's ear to hear. Fox's treatment of Rodney as described a pun of admirable delicacy, and the closest in these volumes must be admitted, even application. by his friends, to be a great stain on his character. Rodney had just gained the glorious battle of the twelfth of April, when he broke the French line and cap tured the French commander, the Count de Grasse, and his famous ship the "Ville de Paris." It was a battle which combined, as Lord Loughborough said, all "the pomp, pride, and circumstance of war." The sea was calm; it began with the rising sun, and continued to its going down. As Rodney was sailing into action he passed the French ship "Glorieux," lying a wreck on the waters, but with her colors still flying. "Now," said Rodney, "will be the contest for the body of Patroclus." It can hardly be credited that, through the influence of Fox, Rodney had been superseded in his command by a gambling admiral Pigot-to whom Fox, it is said, was under considerable pecuniary liabilities. When the news of the victory arrived, the public feeling was entirely in favor of Rodney's keeping his command, but Pigot was sent off in a fast-sailing ship. The new administration took credit for the victory, and attributed it to Lord Keppel, the first lord of the admiralty, although the fleet had been sent out by the much abused Lord Sandwich. Lord North made an admirable allusion to this claim when he said, "I would say to the naval Alexander: True, you have conquered, but you have conquered with Philip's troops." Sheridan once said that it would not be believed by posterity that Burke during his lifetime was not considered a first-rate speaker, not even a second-rate one. His accent, his wild rhapsodies, his screams of passion, weakened his influence in the House of Commons. Was there ever a more charming compliment paid to man! Burke's speaking is well reported by Wraxall. What can be finer than his description of Pitt, who had to give way in his quarrel with the East India Company? Pitt was humiliated, and was stated by his enemies to be clothed in "sackcloth and ashes." On Pitt's retreat from his intended measure, Burke said, "Even when engaged in so humiliating an act, he performs it with an air of pride, he scatters his ashes with dignity and wears his sackcloth as if it were a robe of purple." This fine portrait, writes Wraxall, sketched with such ability, bore the closest resemblance to the original. There were some lines in the "Rolliad " alluding to Pitt's manner in the House, ending with In solemn dignity and sullen state, The difficulties which his friends had with Burke, are thus described by Wrax. all: |