1831.] C 449 ] 



MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE, DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN. 



The Marchmont Papers. Edited by 



$ir George Rose, Bart. 3 vols. 8vo To 



the generality of readers the " March- 

 mont Papers" will convey little or no 

 idea of their contents, or even of the 

 family to whom they belonged So un- 

 familiar has the name become, and so 

 little impression have any of the owners, 

 however respectable, made upon the pub- 

 lie mind, that it will be more desirable, 

 in our brief notices, to tell who the par- 

 ties were, than to analyse at all curi- 

 ously the papers themselves. The first 

 Earl of Marchmont (born in 1641), will 

 be recognized under the name of Sir 

 Patrick Hume, the associate of Argyle 

 in his luckless expedition, on the acces- 

 sion of James II. of England. Sir 

 Patrick was baron of Polwarth, in Ber- 

 wickshirewas a member of the Scot- 

 tish parliament for his native county, in 

 1665 and thrown into prison for some 

 opposition to the tyrannical Lauderdale. 

 On the discovery of the Rye House Plot 

 with the chief plotters, or at least 

 with those who were involved in the 

 charge of plotting, he was closely con- 

 nected he found it safest to escape to 

 the continent. The tale of his conceal- 

 ment in a vault, told by his grand-daugh- 

 ter. Lady Murray, is a well-known nar- 

 rative. On the death of Charles the 

 Second he joined Argyle, and after the 

 miserable failure, returned to poverty 

 and exile in Holland, where he remained 

 till the revolution of 1688. He was a 

 member of the Scotch Convention, that 

 gave the crown of Scotland to William, 

 in addition to that of England, and was 

 himself in a few years, for his services, 

 'made Lord Chancellor of Scotland and 

 Earl of Marchmont. In carrying the 

 act of Union he was one of the most 

 influential agents, and his memory has 

 long laboured under the charge of truck- 

 ing his honour and patriotism for money. 

 Of the sum certainly spent in bringing 

 about the Union, 1000. was received 

 by him ; but Sir George Rose, in his 

 Duality of editor, takes up the cudgels 

 in his defence, and shews plainly enough 

 that the money was due to him, as chan- 

 cellor and a pensioner. It is. neverthe- 

 less, probably still true, that, but for his 

 activity in promoting the views of the 

 court, he would never have been paid 

 the arrears. He died in 1724. To this 

 first earl the papers which fill the third 

 volume of these Selections belong, con- 

 sisting of his own narrative of Argyle's 

 expedition, which has been published 

 before, and his Correspondence with 

 public men, contributing more or less 

 to illustrate the spirit of the times. 

 Alexander, the second Earl of March. 

 M.M. Aew Series VOL. XL No. 64. 



mont, and son of the first (born 1675), 

 was brought up to the Scottish bar was 

 a lord of Session before he was thirty 

 and for some years actively engaged, 

 professionally and politically. In ' the 

 rebellion of 1715 he raised a battalion 

 of foot and two troops of horse ; and 

 was soon after employed diplomatically, 

 arid so continued many years. In 1733, 

 he joined the opposition against Wai- 

 pole on his excise scheme chiefly, like 

 other Scotchmen, in the hope of turning 

 out Lord Islay from the government of 

 Scotland, in which he had contrived to 

 render himself generally unpopular. By 

 this opposition Lord Marchmont gained 

 nothing but the loss of his seat as a re- 

 presentative peer at the next election. 

 He died in 1740. His papers occupy 

 about half the second volume chiefly 

 letters addressed to himself by eminent 

 individuals two or three from that 

 mischievous and busy-body woman, the 

 Duchess of Marlborough. 



Hugh, the third earl, and son of Alex- 

 ander, was born in 1708, and while Lord 

 Polwarth, in the Commons, was an ac- 

 tive opponent of Walpole's measures, 

 and bravely avenged the indignity cast 

 upon his father by Walpole's resent- 

 ment. " You may cry up," said Wai- 

 pole to his son, " Pulteney's, Pitt's, and 

 Lyttleton's speeches, but when I have 

 answered Sir John Barnard and Lord 

 Polwarth, I think I have concluded the 

 debate." His accession to his father's 

 title threw him out of the Commons, 

 and it was some years before he could 

 get returned as a representative peer. 

 The Diary of this Earl of Marchmont 

 by far the most interesting portion of 

 the volumes shews how closely he stu- 

 died public measures, or rather the pub- 

 lic intrigues of the times. The forma- 

 tor of the Broad Bottomed Administra- 

 tion, in 1744, removing all impediments, 

 he soon came into office, and was finally 

 made keeper of the great seal in Scot- 

 land, and continued in parliament till 

 1784. This lord died in 1794, and left 

 his family papers to the late George 

 Rose, father of the editor. The Diary 

 begins in July, 1744, and goes on to the 

 end of that year is resumed the follow- 

 ing year for a few months and again in 

 1747, for about the same period. It is 

 of a gossiping kind, but gossip that con- 

 cerns the leading statesmen of the day, 

 and well calculated to shew that states- 

 men, under the mask of virtue and pub- 

 lic spirit, were generally nothing but 

 traders in politics salaries the prime 

 object. In his correspondence are nu- 

 merous letters of Bolingbroke restless, 

 and impotent to the last. 

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