MR. WALTON TO THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.

[Coxe's Collections, vol. lii.]

(Extract.)

Florence, le 30 Juin, 1736.

Je n'ai pas eu un journal suivi d'Albano....Je sais seulement que Hay, dit Lord Inverness, est revenu à Albano de son voyage de Naples, et que dans peu il doit retourner à Avignon. Le Prétendant, pendant cette villeggiature, a été plus qu'ordinaire. ment mélancolique et sombre, et sa santé devient de jour en jour plus faible.

Depuis les vexations souffertes par les Espagnols, il est entré un tel enthousiasme dans l'esprit du menu peuple habitant l'Etat Ecclésiastique que presque tous sont devenus partisans de l'Empereur. Un vigneron demeurant hors de la Porte Latine de Rome, sur son lit de mort, a institué par testament l'Empereur son héritier universel, lui laissant sa vigne et habitation y annexée, deux sacs de blé, quatre scudi en espèces, et ses meubles, proportionnés à la condition du testateur. Le Comte de Harrach, pour seconder l'affec tion du peuple pour son maître, a envoyé prendre inventaire de l'héritage, ayant donné part à l'Empereur de cette étrange aventure!

The three following letters of Bolingbroke to Lord Harcourt are amongst the papers at Nuneham, and have been communicated to me by the kindness of George G. Harcourt, Esq., M. P.

LORD BOLINGBROKE TO LORD CHANCELLOR HARCOURT.

Kensington, July 19, 1714.

MY LORD, THIS messenger comes to you by the Queen's command. Her Majesty desires you to be in town on Wednesday, as early as conveniently you can. Besides the Irish dispute, which some consideration must be had upon Thursday morning, there are too many other affairs of consequence now on foot to dispense with your Lordship's absence. I beg your Lordship's answer by the messenger, who has orders to return with all possible speed, and am, my Lord, &c.

P. S.-Pray, my Lord, be punctual, and bring back with you a more sanguine disposi tion than you left town with; at least, don't fancy that the Queen and all the rest of us are to be the slaves of him* who was raised by the favour of the former, and the friendship of the latter.

LORD BOLINGBROKE TO LORD HARCOURT.

London, July 26, 1723.

MY LORD,

I THINK it a case of conscience to interrupt your Lordship in the enjoyment of the pleasures of the country, which you love so well, and can follow so little. But a return of my fever, which Dr. Mead hopes he has stopped by the bark, makes me in haste to be going for Aix, where he thinks I may promise myself to find a radical cure for this ill habit of body.

There are some other reasons which are fortified to my apprehension since your Lordship left us, that inclined me to go away about Thursday or Friday sevennight, which time is later than that your Lordship set for your return. If, by any accident, your return should be deferred, I must beg leave to wait on you in the country, or desire you to give me a meeting, where it may be least inconvenient to your Lordship, on the road, for I cannot think of leaving England without embracing the person, to whom I owe the obligation of having seen it once more. I will not descend into any particulars at present, but I cannot help saying that I see some clouds rise which it is certainly

Lord Oxford.

am, and

much more easy to hinder from gathering than to dispel when gathered. I shall be in all circumstances of life, and in all the countries of the world, my Lord, Your most faithful and obedient servant, BOLINGBROKE.

LORD BOLINGBROKE TO LORD HARCOURT.

Mr LORD,

Dawley Farm, March 22, 1725.

WHILST I am here troubling myself very little about anything beyond the extent of my farm, I am the subject of some conversations in town, which one would not have expected. I will mention one of these to your Lordship. Arthur Moore has, in two several companies, answered persons who were inquisitive, whether my attainder would be repealed in this session, by saying that it could not be imagined the Government would do anything in my favour, whilst I was caballing against it with Mr. Pulteney. If this report was to be thrown into the world, Arthur Moore might, with a better grace, have left it to be propagated by some other emissary: and if it be designed as an excuse for leaving me in my present condition, than which none more cruel can be invented, I do assure your Lordship that the excuse shall not stand good.

I have very much esteem for Mr. Pulteney. I have met with great civility from him, and shall, on all occasions, behave myself towards him like a man who is obliged to him. But, my Lord, I have had no private correspondence, or even conversation with him, and whenever I appeal to the King, and beg leave to plead my cause before him, I will take care that his ministers shall not have the least pretence of objection to make to me in any part of my conduct. I will only say upon this occasion, that if I had caballed against them, there would have been other things said than were said, and another turn of opposition given. I dare say your Lordship acquits me upon this head, but I do not know whether you will so easily forgive me the length of this letter upon so trifling a subject.

Do, in this matter, what you think proper; perhaps you will mention it to my Lord Privy Seal, as I shall, when I have the honour of seeing him.

My return to London will depend on the arguing my plea in Chancery, and that cannot be long delayed.

Lord Trevor.

I am faithfully, &c. &c.
BOLINGBROKE

WHIGS AND TORIES OF 1712 AND 1832.

"ON examination, it will be found that, in nearly all particulars, a modern Tory resembles a Whig of Queen Anne's reign, and a Tory of Queen Anne's reign a modern Whig." (History, p. 5.)-Some instances of this curious counterchange may not, perhaps, be unwelcome to the reader.

First, as to the Tories. The Tories of Queen Anne's reign pursued a most unceasing opposition to a just and glorious war against France. They treated the great general of the age as their peculiar adversary. To our recent enemies, the French, their policy was supple and crouching. They had an indifference, or even an aversion, to our old allies the Dutch. They had a political leaning towards the Roman Catholics at home. They were supported by the Roman Catholics in their elections. They had a love of triennial parliaments in preference to septennial. They attempted to abolish the protecting duties and restrictions of commerce. They wished to favour our trade with France at the expense of our trade with Portugal. They were supported by a faction, whose war cry was "Repeal of the Union," in a sister kingdom. To serve a temporary purpose in the House of Lords, they had recourse (for the first time in our annals) to a large and overwhelming creation of peers. Like the Whigs in May, 1831, they chose the moment of the highest popular passion and excitement to dissolve the House of Commons, hoping to avail themselves of a short-lived cry for the purpose of permanent delusion.

The Whigs of Queen Anne's time, on the other hand, supported that splendid war which led to such victories as Ramillies and Blenheim. They had for a leader the great man who gained those victories. They advocated the old principles of trade. They prolonged the duration of parliament. They took their stand on the principles of the Revolution of 1688. They raised the cry of "No Popery." They loudly inveighed against the subserviency to France-the desertion of our old allies-the outrage wrought upon the peers the deceptions practised upon the sovereign-and the other measures of the Tory administration.

Such were the Tories and such were the Whigs of Queen Anne. Can it be doubted that, at the accession of William the Fourth, Harley and St. John would have been called Whigs-Somers and Stanhope Tories? Would not the October Club have loudly cheered the measures of Lord Grey, and the Kit-Cat have found itself renewed in the Carlton? On the preceding passage a reviewer has truly observed :—

"There is another remarkable coincidence between the position of the Tories in 1713 and the Whigs in 1836. It is that, in both, there is the same union with another party, (namely, the Jacobite in 1713, and the Radical in 1836,) that party acting for the time subordinately to them, and suffering them to take the lead, yet preserving a distinct cha racter, possessing a powerful influence in the country, and intent upon carrying out their objects to a much greater extent.”—(Quarterly Review, No. cxiv. p. 335.)

[See also the Author's History of the War of the Succession in Spain, p. 349, chap. ix.]

END OF VOL. I.