432 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 210. 



in discussing probabilities, to distinguish 1 850 from 

 1700. But, even putting out of view the purity 

 of Newton's private life, and of the lives of his 

 most intimate friends, there is that in the weaker 

 part of his character which is of itself almost con- 

 clusive. Kight or wrong, Newton never faced 

 opinion. As soon as he found that publication 

 involved opposition, from that time forward he 

 published only with the utmost reluctance, and 

 under the strongest persuasions ; except when, 

 as in the case of some of his theological writings, 

 he confided the manuscript to a friend, to be 

 anonymously published abroad. The Principia 

 •was extorted from him by the Royal Society ; the 

 first publication on fluxions was under the name 

 of Wallis ; the Optics were delayed until the 

 death of Hooke ; the first appearance against 

 Leibnitz was anonymous ; the second originated 

 in a hint from the King. This morbid fear, which 

 is often represented as modesty, would have made 

 him, had he acted a part with regard to his niece 

 which he could not avow, conduct it with the 

 utmost reserve. The philosopher who would 

 Lave let the theory of gravitation die in silence 

 rather than encounter the opposition which a dis- 

 covery almost always creates, would not have 

 allowed his name to be connected with the an- 

 nuity which was the price of his niece's honour, 

 or which carried all the appearance of it, even 

 supposing him base enough to have connived at 

 the purchase. And in such a case, Halifax would 

 have taken care to respect the secrecy which he 

 would have known to have been essential to New- 

 ton's comfort : he would not have published to the 

 world that his mistress was Newton's niece, and 

 that Newton was a party to a settlement upon 

 her. There seems to me, about the codicil as it 

 stands, a declaration that the connexion with 

 Newton's niece was such as, if people knew all, 

 Newton might have sanctioned. And the sup- 

 position of a private marriage, generally under- 

 stood among the friends of the parties, seems to 

 me to make all the circumstances take an air of 

 likelihood which no other hypothesis will give 

 them : and this is all my conclusion. 



If there were a marriage, the most probable 

 reason for the concealment was, that it was con- 

 tracted at a time when the birth and station of 

 Mrs. Barton would have rendered her production 

 at court as the wife of Montague an impediment 

 to his career. He was raised to the peerage in 

 1700, and as the connexion was of long standing 

 in 1706, it may well be supposed that it com- 

 menced at the time when (in his own opinion at 

 least) his prospects of such elevation might have 

 been compromised by a decided misalliance. The 

 lower the tone of morals, the greater the ridicule 

 which attaches to unequal marriages. Montague, 

 though of noble family, was the younger son of a 

 younger son, and not rich : it was common among 



the Tories to sneer at him as a parvenu. He had 

 made his first appearance in the great world as 

 the husband of a countess-dowager, and it may be 

 that the parvenu was weak enough to shrink from 

 producing, as his second wife, a woman of very 

 much lower rank, the granddaughter of a country 

 clergyman, and the daughter of a man of no pre- 

 tension to station. That Mr. Macaulay has not 

 underrated the position of the country clergy, is 

 known to all who have dipped into the writings of 

 the seventeenth century. It is not, however, 

 necessary to explain why the supposed marriage 

 should have been private. As the world is con- 

 stituted, no rules of inference can be laid down in 

 reference to the irregular relations of the sexes. 



With reference to the insinuation that Newton 

 owed his official position rather to his niece than 

 to his ability, it can be completely shown that, on 

 the worst possible supposition, the office in the 

 Mint could have had nothing to do with Mrs. C. 

 Barton. Newton was appointed to the lower 

 office (the Wardenship) in March, 1695-96, when 

 the young lady was not sixteen years old, and 

 before she could have been a resident under her 

 uncle's roof. The state of the coinage had caused 

 much uneasiness; it was one of the difficulties, 

 and its restoration was one of the successes, of the 

 day. The best scientific advice was taken : Locke, 

 Newton, and Halley were consulted, and all were 

 placed in office nearly at the same time ; Newton 

 in the London Mint, Halley in the Chester Mint, 

 Locke in the Council of Trade. Neither Locke 

 nor Halley had any nieces. Before Newton's ap- 

 pointment there was some negociation of a public 

 character : the "Wardenship was not vacant, and 

 the government seems to have tried to induce 

 Newton to take something subordinate. March 14, 

 Newton wrote to Halley, in reference to a current 

 rumour, — "I neither put in for any place in the 

 Mint, nor would meddle with Mr. Hoar's [the 

 comptroller's] place, were it offered me." On the 

 19th, Montague informs Newton that he is to have 

 the Wardenship, vacant by the removal of Mr. 

 Overton to the Customs. Four years afterwards, 

 when the great operation on the coinage, by many 

 declared impracticable, had completely succeeded, 

 Newton, a principal adviser and the principal ad- 

 ministrator, obtained the Mastership in the course 

 of promotion. Montague was raised to the peerage 

 in the following year, and mainly, as the patent 

 states, for the same service. So that, though 

 Montague was the patron as to the. Wardenship, yet 

 scientific assistance was then so sorely needed, that 

 no hypothesis relative to any niece would be ne- 

 cessary to explain the phenomenon of Newton's 

 appointment : while, as to the Mastership, it may 

 almost be said that Montague was more indebted 

 to Newton for his peerage, than Newton to Mon- 

 tague for that promotion which any minister must, 

 under the circumstances, have granted. 



