WALPOLE. 



and a group of Jacobites. For felf-defence, when argu- 

 ment, which derived every poffible advantage from his elo- 

 quence, failed, he had recourfe to the more powerful in- 

 fluence of corruption ; and this latter mode of conviction 

 which he not only praftifed from neceffity, but fyftemati- 

 cally vindicated and recommended, gave a diftinguifhing 

 charafter to his adminiftration, and entailed reproach on his 

 memory. In order to fecure the favour of the court, he 

 augmented the civil lift, and obtained for queen Caroline a 

 jointure of 100,000/. Soon after, it/s. in 1 730, the differences 

 with the court of Spain were terminated by the treaty of 

 Seville in 1 729, but Townlhend, difgufted by the fuperiority 

 which his kinfman Walpole was affuming, refigned his office 

 of fecretarv of ftate, and withdrevs- from public bufinefs with 

 dignity and honour. In the year 1733, Walpole propofed 

 two meafures of finance, which occafioned much oppofition 

 and clamour ; one was the alienation of the finking fund, 

 and the other the introduftion of the excife ; but notwith- 

 /landing the did'atisfaftion produced by thefe meafures, and 

 by his difappointing expeftations which he had encouraged 

 the Diffenters to indulge with regard to the repeal of the 

 Teil Aft, the minifter maintained his ground ; and fuc- 

 ceeded in his endeavours for preferving peace with foreign 

 nations. The difagreement between Frederick prince of 

 Wales and his father was the fource of much uneafinefs 

 and trouble, and thcfe were aggravated by the death of 

 queen Caroline, who had been long attached to him, and 

 fupported his interell with his royal mafter. Differences 

 that occurred between this country and Spain, on account 

 of the commerce in South America, was the occafion of 

 additional anxiety ; and though he much wilhed for the con- 

 tinuance of peace, the difcontented party prevailed, and in 

 1739 war was declared againft Spain. With a mind thus agi- 

 tated, and contending with a powerful oppofition, he fought 

 leave to refign, but the king would not confent. At length, 

 I'iz. in 1 740, a motion was made in the houfe of commons 

 for his removal from the king's prefence and councils ; but 

 though it was then negatived, the clamour againft him in- 

 creafed ; and lofing the fupport of the houfe, he was created 

 earl of Orford in February 1 742, and refigned. He fuc- 

 ceeded, however, by his influence, in forming a Whig minif- 

 try, at the head of which was Pulteney. His conduft dur- 

 ing his adminiftration became the fubjeft of parliamentary 

 inquiry, but his enemies could not prevail againft him ; and 

 he fo far retained his majefty's regard and confidence, as to 

 be confulted by him, and to advife Pelham to be placed at 

 the head of the treafury. Having long been afflifted with 

 calculous complaints, which were aggravated by a journey 

 from Norfolk to London, by command of the king in No- 

 vember 1 744, he was obliged to recur for temporary relief 

 to large dofes of opium ; but after a difplay of extraordi- 

 nary fortitude and refignation during the progrefs of his 

 fevere diforder, it terminated in his death, on March i8th, 

 1745, in the 69th year of his age. As to his political cha- 

 rafter, one of his biographers fays, " that the defire of pre- 

 ferving peace abroad, and avoiding all fubjefts of conten- 

 tion at home, and promoting gradual improvements in the 

 trade and finances of the country, and purfuing ufeful ra- 

 ther than fplendid objects, joined with a fincere zeal for the 

 Froteftant fucccffion, were the leading principles of his go- 

 vernment ; and the means which he employed were pru- 

 dence, moderation, vigilance, and, it mull be allowed, 

 corruption, though it may well be doubted whether he left 

 pubhc men more corrupt than he found them." As a man 

 of bufinefs, he was methodical and dihgent ; and, accord- 

 to lord Chefterfield, " an artful rather than an eloquent 

 fpeaker ;" and more a man of found fenfe and quick dif- 



cernment than of genius. In private life, he is faid to have 

 been good-humoured, eafy and agreeable in his temper, 

 frankly familiar in his manner, and of courfe much cfteemed 

 by his friends and conciliatory to his enemies. His man- 

 ners, however, were inelegant, his mirth coarfe, his converfa- 

 tion and morals hcentious, acceffible to flattery, and the eafy 

 dupe of women. In his domeftic relation, he was kind and 

 benevolent ; but Re neither loved nor patronized literature. 

 Coxe's Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole. Gen. Biog. 



Walpole, Horace, lord Orford, the youngeit fon of 

 the preceding nobleman, was born in 1718, and educated 

 firll at Eton and afterwards at King's college, Cambridge, 

 where he wrote " Verfes in Memory of King Henry VI." 

 dated in 1738. Having been nominated on leaving the 

 univerfity to fome patent finecure places, he commenced his 

 tour to the continent in 1739, in which he was accompanied 

 by Gray, from whom he parted, as he candidly acknow- 

 ledges, by his own fault, and to whom in 1 744 he was re- 

 conciled. His moft intimate friend, however, was his na- 

 tural coufin, general Seymour Conway, to whom he was 

 attached from his youth, and with whom he correfponded 

 from 1740 to 1795, '^^ y^^ °^ ^^'^ general's death. His 

 firft appearance in parliament was in 1741, as a reprefenta- 

 tive for Callington. But more attached to literature and the 

 arts than to the occupations of public life, and unambitious 

 of obtaining any emoluments befides thofe which his places 

 afforded him, or any rank and ftation connefted with politi- 

 cal purfuits, he rather chofe to retire from the world than 

 to take an aftive part in parliamentary bufinefs. On all 

 occafions, however, he manifefted his fteady adherence to 

 thofe Whig principles which he had imbibed from his youth, 

 and his conduft as a member of the legiflature was always 

 pure and independent. Having, in 1748, purchafed a fmall 

 houfe at Twickenham, called Strawberry-hill, he devoted 

 his time and attention to the improvement of it in the Go- 

 thic ftyle of architefture ; and to the furnifiiingof it with fuch 

 a colleftion of books, pidures, and other fpecimens of the 

 fine arts, as made it a very deCrable place of refort in the 

 vicinity of the metropolis, and he gratified the public cu- 

 riofity and tafte by appropriating three hours a day in the 

 fummer months for the accommodation of vifitors. In this 

 Angular and interefting manfion, he amufed himfelf with the 

 cultivation and exercife of his literary talents by contribut- 

 ing fome papers to a periodical pubhcation, entitled " The 

 World ;" by his " Catalogue of Royal Noble Authors," 

 printed by his own prefs ; and by a collection of his " Fu- 

 gitive Pieces;" by his " Anecdotes of Painting in Eng- 

 land," publifhed in 1761, in 2 vols. 4to., to which he after- 

 wards added two more volumes ; by apolitical pamphlet on 

 general Conway's difmifiion from the army for his vote in 

 parliament on general Warrants, which appeared in 1764; 

 and tale of the " Caftle of Otranto," publilhed in 1765. 

 During his vifit at Paris in 1765, he provoked the refent- 

 ment of the irritable Rouffeau, by addrefling to him a let- 

 ter in the name of the king of Pruffia, expofing his vanitv 

 and felf-conceit. This letter was afterwards printed, and led 

 Rouffeau to fufpeft, that this was part of a concerted plan 

 to ruin his reputation, and that Hume and the French philo- 

 fophers had contrived it for tliis purpofe. Walpole was juftly 

 cenfured for the part he took in this bufinefs ; nor could his 

 beft friends vindicate him for the contemptuous treatment 

 with which he treated thofe who were authors by profeffion. 

 In 1767 Walpole withdrew from pubhc bufinefs, and de- 

 clined a return for the borough of Lynn in the enfuing 

 parliament. Soon afterwards he publifiied his " Hiftoric 

 Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard III." In 

 1766, he printed at his own prefs his tragedy of the " Myi- 



tcrious 



