CHARACTERS OF THE PRINCIPAL PERSONS CONCERNED IN THE MINISTRY.

The supreme direction of affairs was not yet engrossed by a single minister. Lord Townshend had the reputation of conducting the external transactions relating to treaties and negotiations. He is said to have understood that province, though he did not always follow the dictates of his own understanding. He possessed an extensive fund of knowledge; and was well acquainted with the functions of his office. The duke of Newcastle, his colleague, was not remarkable for any of these qualifications; he owed his promotion to his uncommon zeal for the illustrious house of Hanover, and to the strength of his interest in parliament, rather than to his judgment, precision, or any other intellectual merit. Lord Carteret, who may be counted an auxiliary, though not immediately concerned in the administration, had distinguished himself in the character of envoy at several courts in Europe. He had attained an intimate knowledge of all the different interests and connexions subsisting among the powers of the continent; and he infinitely surpassed all the ministers in learning and capacity. He was indeed the only man of genius employed under this government. He spoke with ease and propriety, his conceptions were just and lively; his inferences bold; his counsels vigorous and warm. Yet he depreciated his talents, by acting in a subordinate character to those whom he despised; and seemed to look upon the pernicious measures of a bad ministry with silent contempt, rather than with avowed detestation. The interior government of Great Britain was chiefly managed by sir Robert Walpole, a man of extraordinary talents, who had from low beginnings raised himself to the head of the treasury. Having obtained a seat in the lower house, he declared himself one of the most forward partisans of the whig faction. He was endued with a species of eloquence, which, though neither nervous nor elegant, flowed with great facility, and was so plausible on all subjects, that even when he misrepresented the truth, whether from ignorance or design, he seldom failed to persuade that part of his audience for whose hearing his harangue was chiefly intended. He was well acquainted with the nature of the public funds, and understood the whole mystery of stock-jobbing. This knowledge produced a connexion between him and the money-corporations, which served to enhance his importance. He perceived the bulk of mankind were actuated by a sordid thirst of lucre; he had sagacity enough to convert the degeneracy of the times to his own advantage; and on this, and this alone, he founded the whole superstructure of his subsequent administration. In the late reign he had by dint of speaking decisively to every question, by boldly impeaching the conduct of the tory ministers, by his activity in elections, and engaging as a projector in the schemes of the monied interest, become a leading member in the house of commons. By his sufferings under the tory parliament, he attained the rank of a martyr to his party. His interest, his reputation, and his presumption daily increased; he opposed Sunderland as his rival in power, and headed a dangerous defection from the ministry, which evinced the greatness of his influence and authority. He had the glory of being principally concerned in effecting a reconciliation between the late king and the prince of Wales; then he was re-associated in the administration with additional credit; and, from the death of the earls of Sunderland and Stanhope, he had been making long strides towards the office of prime minister. He knew the maxims he had adopted would subject him to the hatred, the ridicule, and reproach of some individuals, who had not yet resigned all sentiments of patriotism, nor all views of opposition; but the number of these was inconsiderable, when compared to that which constituted the body of the community; and he would not suffer the consideration of such antagonists to come in competition with his schemes of power, affluence, and authority. Nevertheless, low as he had humbled anti-ministerial association, it required all his artifice to elude, all his patience and natural phlegm to bear, the powerful arguments that were urged, and the keen satire that was exercised against his measures and management, by a few members in the opposition. Sir William Wyndham possessed all the energy of elocution; Mr. Shippen was calm, intrepid, shrewd and sarcastic; Mr. Pulteney inherited from nature a good understanding, which he had studiously cultivated. He was one of the most learned members in the house of commons, extremely well qualified to judge of literary productions; well read in history and politics; deeply skilled in the British constitution, the detail of government, and the nature of the finances. He spoke with freedom, fluency, and uncommon warmth of declamation, which was said to be the effect of personal animosity to sir Robert Walpole, with whom he had been formerly connected.