(466) A splendid edition of Lord Bolingbroke's Works, in five volumes, quarto, having been published on the very day of Mr. Pelham's death, Garrick wrote an ode on the occasion, which contains the following stanza:-
"The same sad morn, to Church and State
(So for our sins 'twas fix'd 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 upon the appearance of this edition of Lord Bolingbroke's works, edited by David Mallet, that Dr. Johnson pronounced this memorable sentence upon both author and editor:—"Sir, he 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."-E.
198 Letter 93 To Sir Horace Mann. Arlington Street, March 7, 1754.
You will little have expected, my dear Sir, the great event that happened yesterday. Mr. Pelham(467) is dead! all that calm, that supineness, of which I have lately talked to you so much, is at an end! there is no heir to such luck as his. The whole people of England can never agree a second time upon the same person for the residence of infallibility; and though so many have found their interest in making Mr. Pelham the fermier-general for their Venality, yet almost all have found too, that it lowered their prices to have but one purchaser. He could not have died at a more critical time: all the elections were settled, all bargains made, and much money advanced: and by the way, though there never was so little a party, or so little to be made by a seat in Parliament, either with regard to profit or fame, there never was such established bribery, or so profuse. And as every thing was settled by his life, so every thing is thrown into confusion by his death: the difficulty Of naming, or of who should name the successor, is almost insurmountable—for you are not such a transmontane as to imagine that the, person who must sign the warrant will have the filling it up. The three apparent candidates are Fox, Pitt, and Murray; all three -with such encumbrances on their hopes as make them very desperate. The Chancellor hates Fox; the Duke of Newcastle does not (I don't say, love him, but to speak in the proper phrase, does not) pretend to love him: the Scotch abominate him, and they and the Jacobites make use of his connexion with the Duke to represent him as formidable: the Princess cannot approve him for the same reason: the law, as in duty bound to the Chancellor and to Murray, and to themselves, whom he always attacks, must dislike him. He has his parts and the Whigs, and the seeming right of succession. Pitt has no health, no party, and has, what in this case is allowed to operate, the King's negative. Murray is a Scotchman, and it has been suspected, of the worst dye: add a little of the Chancellor's jealousy—all three are obnoxious to the probability of the other two being disobliged by a preference. There is no doubt but the Chancellor and the Duke of Newcastle will endeavour to secure their own power, by giving an exclusion to Fox: each of them has even been talked of for Lord Treasurer; I say talked of, though Mr. Pelham died but yesterday; but you can't imagine how much a million of people can talk in a day on such a subject! It was even much imagined yesterday, that Sir George Lee would be the Hulla, to wed the post, till things are ripe for divorcing him again: he is an unexceptionable man, sensible, of good character, the ostensible favourite of the Princess, and obnoxious to no set of men: for though he changed ridiculously quick on the Prince's death, yet as every body changed with him, it offended nobody; and what is a better reason for promoting him now, it would offend nobody to turn him out again.
In this buzz is all the world at present: as the plot thickens or opens, you shall hear more. In the mean time you will not dislike to know a little of the circumstances of this death. Mr. Pelham was not sixty-one; his florid, healthy constitution promised long life, and his uninterrupted good fortune as long power; yet the one hastened his end, and the other was enjoyed in its full tranquillity but three poor years! i should not say, enjoyed, for such was his peevishness and suspicions, that the lightest trifles could poison all that stream of happiness! he was careless of his health, most intemperate in eating, and used no exercise. All this had naturally thrown him into a most scorbutic habit, for which last summer he went to Scarborough, but stayed there only a month, which would not have cleansed a scorbutic kitten. The sea-air increased his appetite, and his flatterers pampered it at their seats on the road. He returned more distempered, and fell into a succession of boils, fevers, and St. Anthony's fire—indeed, I think, into such a carbuncular state of blood as carried off my brother. He had recovered enough to come to the House of Commons; and last Friday walked in the Park till he put himself into an immense sweat; in that sweat he stood at a window to look at horses, ate immoderately at dinner, relapsed at six that evening, and died yesterday morning (Wednesday) a quarter before six. His will was to be opened to-day; he is certainly dead far from rich.(468) There arc great lamentations, some joy, some disappointments, and much expectation. As a person who loves to write history, better than to act in it, you will easily believe that I confine my sensations on the occasion chiefly to observation-at least, my care that posterity may know all about it prevents my indulging any immoderate (grief; consequently I am as well as can be expected, and ever yours, etc.
(467) Henry Pelham, chancellor of the exchequer, and first commissioner of the treasury; only brother of Thomas Duke of Newcastle.
(468) Walpole, almost the only author who has treated the memory of Mr. Pelham with disrespect, mentions to his honour, that he "lived without abusing his power, and died poor." See Memoires, vol. i. p. 332. By this expression, says Coxe, the reader will be reminded of a curious coincidence in the concluding lines of the eulogium inscribed on the base of Mr. Pitt's statue, by his friend and pupil, the Right Honourable George Canning, "Dispensing, for more than twenty years, the favours of the crown, he lived without ostentation, and he died poor."-E.
200 Letter 94 To Richard Bentley, Esq. Arlington Street, March 14, 1754.
In the confusion of things, I last week hazarded a free letter to you by the common post. The confusion is by no means ceased. However, as some circumstances may have rendered a desire of intelligence necessary, I send this by the coach, with the last volume of Sir Charles Grandison, for its chaperon.