Sir John St. Aubin, (Member for Cornwall,) was one of that phalanx of ability and energy, that regularly withstood the insidious encroachments, and undermining influence of Walpole’s administration. Their motives for this were no doubt various; but the knowledge, the soundness of understanding, the firmness and perseverance displayed in pursuit of their object, cannot be too much admired, and have never been surpassed. The great questions which had occupied men’s minds from the time of the revolution, and which still continued to agitate them as much as ever, the interest in them being kept alive by the doubtful issue of the contest, had given them a manly tone, a solidity and fervour which could hardly be produced in any other circumstances. I may say that men’s minds were never so truly English as they were at this period. Even the leaven of Jacobitism, which was mingled up with the sentiments of many of the party, must have contributed to add a zest, a poignancy, a bitterness of indignation to their opposition to that overbearing influence, and despotic sway, for the undue exercise of which they had seen a family, to which they were strongly attached, driven from the throne. The principles of liberty assented to by both parties, also gave a freedom and animation to the debates of this period, and an advantage in attacking any unconstitutional or unpopular measure, which nothing but the great abilities of the minister, aided by the general confidence in the government, could have resisted so long as they did. The following speech of Sir J. St. Aubin, has been often referred to, and it is one of the most elegant and able compositions to be found in the records of the house of commons.
Sir Watkin Williams Wynne was member for Denbighshire. It cannot be denied that the following speech is a real and close examination of the question.
Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Barnard was originally a merchant, and was chosen to represent the city of London in parliament, in consequence of the abilities he displayed on being appointed by the body of wine merchants to state before the house of lords their objections to a bill then pending. He continued to represent the city forty years, and so much to the satisfaction of his constituents, that they erected a statue to him in the exchange. He was knighted by George II. He was born 1685, and died 1764.
George (Lord) Lyttleton, (The eldest son of Sir T. Lyttleton,) was born 1709, and died 1773. He distinguished himself both as a speaker and a writer. He appears (as far as I can understand,) to have been one of those men, who gain a high reputation, not so much by deserving, as by desiring it; who are constantly going out of their way in search of fame, and therefore can scarcely miss it; who are led to seize on the shewy and superficial parts of science by an instinct of vanity, as the surest means of attracting vulgar applause; who by aiming at what is beyond them, do at least all that they are capable of; whose anxiety to distinguish themselves from others, serves them in the place of genius; and who obtain the good opinion of the public merely by shewing their deference to it. This character, it must be confessed, however, is generally united with sensibility and an elegant turn of mind, and is therefore entitled to some credit: for next to the possession of real excellence, I think we ought to respect the admiration of it, and the wish to possess it, or whatever in our power comes the nearest to it.
I must confess that the following Speech on abolishing certain feudal jurisdictions in Scotland is one of the most elegant and ingenious in this collection.
William Pitt, (afterwards Earl of Chatham,) was born at Boconnock, in Cornwall, in 1708, and died in 1778. He was originally an officer in the army, but was chosen member for Old Sarum in 1735. His history is too well-known to need repeating here. I shall say something of his talents as a speaker hereafter.
Philip Yorke, (afterwards Earl of Hardwicke,) was born 1690, died 1764. He was brought into parliament for Lewes in Sussex in 1718. In 1736, he was made lord chancellor, which situation he held for twenty years. He is said to have been a great lawyer. If so, a great lawyer may be a very little man. There is in his speech a petiteness, an insignificant subtlety, an affected originality, a trifling formality, which any one, not accustomed to the laborious fooleries and idle distinctions of the law, would be ashamed of. All those of his speeches that I have read are in the same minute stile of special-pleading, accompanied with the same apologies for the surprize which must be occasioned by his microscopical discoveries and methodical singularities.
John Campbell, (Second Duke of Argyle,) was born 1671, and entered young into the army. He served under the duke of Marlborough: he also distinguished himself as a statesman, and was an active promoter of the union, for which he incurred great odium among his own countrymen. In 1712, he was appointed commander in chief in Scotland, and in 1715, he routed the earl of Mar’s army at Dumblain, and forced the pretender to quit the kingdom. Notwithstanding his eminent services to the state, he was deprived of several high offices which he held, for his opposition to Sir Robert Walpole. He died in 1743. There is a noble monument erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey. His speeches are characterized by a rough, plain, manly spirit of good sense, and a zealous attachment to the welfare of his country.
Honourable Edward Coke.—The following speech contains some reflections that are not inapplicable to the present times. It is curious to observe how exact a picture the author has exhibited of the present state of Europe, how literally his fears have been verified, and yet how utterly unfounded and chimerical they were at the time. One might be tempted to suppose, in reading the dreams of these forward and self-pleasing prognosticators, that the scheme of universal empire, with which the rulers of France have been so often complimented, had familiarized her imagination to the design, and engendered those high thoughts of ambition and vanity which have at length rendered her power, not a glittering phantom, an idle bugbear, a handle for crooked policy, for low manœuvres, and petty, vexatious, endless hostility, the plaything of orators and statesmen, but a tremendous and overwhelming reality, that like a vast incubus overlays the continent of Europe, and benumbs its lethargic energies.
Sir Dudley Ryder.—To those who have to wade through the crude, undigested mass of the records of parliament, there is such a tedious monotony, such a dreary vacuity of thought, such an eternal self-complacent repetition of the same worn-out topics, which seem to descend like an inheritance from one generation to another, that it is some relief to escape now and then from the dull jargon of political controversy. I have given the following speech, though it is sufficiently dry and uninteresting in itself, because it a little varies the prospect, and contains something that looks like ingenuity and argument.