of it. The persevering statesman followed this up with an interview with his Royal Highness, which he styles "a conference." It took place December 20, 1747. Then he once more reiterated his views of foreign policy, his confidence in Prussia, and his reasons for a peace. Unfortunately, Mr. Walpole's arguments were not more successful in conversation than they had been on paper, but even this did not dishearten this zealous politician.

He now sought to sway the Duke of Newcastle by the reasoning that had failed in other quarters, and although nothing could look more unpromising at first, he succeeded in teasing the Minister into a serious consideration of the subject. The Cabinet at last came into his pacific views, and by their interposition, the preliminaries of peace were signed between Great Britain, France, and the United Provinces on the 30th of April. Mr. Walpole's services were required during the negotiations in consequence of his having pointed out to the Ministry an important omission in the copy of the preliminaries: this incident also gave rise to his publication of a pamphlet* which once more advocated his views of foreign policy, and that with a degree of talent which was acknowledged by many of the leading men of the period.

In 1748, Mr. Horace Walpole, senior, formed an alliance with the family of William, third Duke of Devonshire, whose daughter Rachel was married to

*A Rhapsody on Foreign Politics."

his eldest son; an union from which he derived more satisfaction than from his political exertions.

"My good offices can be of no use anywhere; the freedom which my conscience, and concern for my King and country, lately obliged me to take, and which I have the vanity to think was of some service, will never be forgiven: and therefore, although I was very importunate, and am thought by some of the greatest, to have been very impertinent, to put an end to a war which threatened a general destruction, I cannot repent of what I did, but I am resolved to enjoy the peace with great calm and contentedness, without giving myself, or anybody else, any trouble upon Ministerial conduct, being at last convinced that nobody takes advice until he gives it to himself; and in all stations of life.

"Obsequium amicos, veritas odium parit.'

A very proper sentiment for a diplomatist who found himself shelved.

The neglect he had experienced did not cause him to withdraw from politics. In the session of 1749, he made several speeches; in particular, one, on a message from the King recommending the payment of 100,000l. to the Empress of Austria, being the fourth of a sum granted to her by a treaty entered into the preceding year; which was decidedly against the grant. The opinions he then expressed, he had previously embodied in a pamphlet* which had obtained the approval of many eminent men. Among others Bishop Secker wrote:

"Mr. Walpole has been so kind as to make me two visits since you were in town, and hath put into my hands the papers which you intimated he would, with leave to communicate them to the

*"A Letter to a Friend who desired my thoughts upon signing the Preliminaries."

Bishop of Gloucester; and we have both of us read them with great satisfaction, and a high esteem of the abilities and spirit of the writer, who has shewn the rightest judgment of affairs, supported it with the clearest reason, proposed it, and pursued the proposal with the most steady resolution, and yet the greatest decency and propriety: and (which I could not help taking particular notice of) hath in several places expressed a strong sense of the superintendency of Divine Providence. On the whole I do not think any man living hath deserved so well of his country, in its late situation, as he hath; and I see that his brother deserved much better than I apprehended, though I always both thought better of him and wished better to him than some who voted constantly with him. I hope Mr. Walpole's health will long permit him to continue his attention to the public, and that the directors of the public will attend to his advice."*

Mr.

The good prelate's hopes were not realized. Walpole, like many other good advisers, was most appreciated by those whose appreciation was the least available to him. The Pelham Ministry did not think of him so highly as Bishop Secker, and did not care to attend to his advice, though one or two of its members regarded him as worthy of being consulted on an emergency. Changes were occasionally made in the Ministry, but Walpole never profited by them. The Earl of Harrington was dismissed from the office of Secretary of State; but the Earl of Chesterfield was selected to fill his post. Lord Chesterfield resigned, and the Duke of Bedford succeeded him. The Duke went out and Lord Holderness came in. It seemed as though everybody could enter the Cabinet but Mr. Horace Walpole.

*Coxe. "Memoirs of Lord Walpole." Page 371.

It does not appear that he was much disconcerted at this neglect. He sometimes alluded to his unrewarded services and his want of ambition: nevertheless, he from time to time continues to instruct Mr. Pelham, and the Duke of Newcastle, and finding this tuition not sufficient for his purpose, he obtained the assistance of the Countess of Yarmouth to present another memorial to his Sovereign on the state of Foreign Affairs. As the views advocated by the writer were in direct opposition to those entertained by the King, it may readily be believed that his Majesty preferred his own, and Mr. Walpole's expositions were as entirely disregarded as though they had never been made. He composed long speeches as well as long memorials, and long pamphlets as well as long speeches; but the same fate attended them all. His parliamentary orations were heard with the same "profound silence" that attended his communications to the King, and at last his exhausted patience gave way; in a sudden fit of desperation, he determined never again to express in the House his views of Foreign Affairs.

This determination occurred about the period he discovered that his ministerial protegé, Mr. Pelham, not only neglected his instructions, but was indifferent to his friendship. The Minister began to be cold, reserved, and ultimately inaccessible. It was evident that he would no longer see with the Walpole spectacles, nor take his political lessons out of the Walpole primer. This arose from the

influence of the Duke of Newcastle; although Mr. Pelham was opposed in heart to some of the Duke's opinions, brotherly feeling and considerations for his party, swayed him to such an extent, that he found himself obliged to abandon the policy in which he had been so carefully instructed, and forward that to which he had expressed himself averse. The two friends in consequence became estranged. In a short time after this, Henry Pelham was removed entirely from the scene. In March, 1754, death put an end to his ministry.*

The scholar had always walked at a respectful distance from the master. Nature had not furnished Henry Pelham with the resources of a Walpole, and therefore he was not likely to throw into the shade the fame of his teacher. As a politician he possessed none of the elements of greatness—as a

* The day of Mr. Pelham's death was the day of publication of Bolingbroke's work in five volumes, edited by David Mallett. This coincidence was seized by Garrick to give point to an ode, in which is to be found the following verse :—

"The same sad morn to Church and State

(So for our sins 'twas fixed by fate)
A double shock was given.
Black as the regions of the North,
St. John's fell genius issued forth,

And Pelham's fled to Heaven."

It was in allusion to this edition of his Lordship's works that Dr. Johnson said, “Sir, he (Bolingbroke) was a scoundrel and a coward; a scoundrel for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward because he had no resolution to fire it off himself, but left half a crown to a beggarly Scotchman to draw the trigger after his death.”