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Jan. 7, I860] TheLeader andSaturday Anal...
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GEORGE ROSE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.* TIM...
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j " • _ _ _ ^ _ ^ — ¦» — * jQiavia9 and ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Jan. 7, I860] Theleader Andsaturday Anal...
Jan . 7 , I 860 ] TheLeader andSaturday Analyst . 17
George Rose And His Contemporaries.* Tim...
GEORGE ROSE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES . * TIME was when the publication of George Hose ' s " privateand confidential" papers would have set the curiosity of ajl the AVest End clubs , and not a few of the best houses in town and country tineling . Never was there a more interestingf period . in our annals than that in which he lived ; and in that beribd few men ^ enjoyed greater opportunities of learning accurately from day to- day how things went on at Court and Cabinet , and of observing closely the feelings and the motives by which many of the leading actors on the public stage were influenced . He must be a very dull , a very idle , or a very forgetful man , who , haying filled for many years important posts in government under different administrations , could tell us nothing- of the history of his time we did not know before . Mr . Rose was certainly very far from being either stupid or careless ?; on the contrary , he was esteemed by his private and officialcontiabun
dants ; particularly keen , shrewd , and reliable ; and there are - dant proofs in the volume before us , that , having once got into the wav of being tallied to and consulted ( two very different things ) by leading personages , he was fidgetty and fretful when anything ol moment seemed to be going on without his knowledge . During the whole of Mr . Pitt ' s first administration , he was Financial Secretary to the Treasury ; and , during the shorter and sadder period of the great minister ' s tenure of power , from 1804 to 1806 , he filled the offices of Paymaster of the Forces and Vice President of the Board ^ Trade ; and , having contrived early to ingratiate himself with his habitually shy , reserved , and incommunicative patron , he appears to have enjoyed , throughout the whole of Mr . Pitt ' s official life , as well decline the tmost
as during the interim when he chose to power , u confidence of that remarkable man . Overwork and physical languor contributed to confirm Mr . Pitt ' s disrelish for society and pleasure . He had few intimacies and fewer amusements ; disliked receiving letters , and seldom answered them ; yearned for the repose which the instincts of nature continually warned him was indispensable if he would keep hold of life , but was oftentimes unable to win the blessing that he wooed . We can easily imagine how dear to such a man must have been the spaniel-like devotion of an adherent like George Rose . Methodical attention to business , and a great aptitude lor the acquisition and arrangement of details respecting revenue , expenditure , and trade , rendered , him' invaluable us a constant referee to the statesman whose ' mind was full of noble
conceptions and large ideas , but who had neither the leisure , the strength , nor perhaps the disposition to work them out for himself through all their varied results . No one was , indeed , " more patient in the investigation of probable consequences before finally deciding on his course ; and no one ever showed in debate a in ore , perfect mastery over minute and coinplicated details . But for the collection , the sifting , and the arrangement of materials ' , the attachment and confidence of one who knew as much or more about them than himself was indispensable . Nor was this all . It has been wisely said that to judge of an artist , it would be better worth knowing all he has rubbed out than all he has allowed to stand . What would we not give to have a list of the plausible projects and taking schemes of commerce and taxation which the minister * and his indefatigable subordinate ? talked over , as they sat together in Downing Street far into the night ?
44 From Christinas 1783 , " writes Mr . Rose , " to the time of Ins dissolution , I was in constant habits of the warmest affection and friendship , as well as of business with him . Hardly three days passed without my seeing him throughout that period , except during the live or six weeks in the summer , and the three weeks at Christmas ? , which I used to spend at Cuffticlls , in the year . "" He bears the amplest testimony to the gentleness and forbearance in consultation which uniformly marked Chatham ' s proud butunimpetuous son ; and . intimates with pardonable vanity how liis advice sometiniea prevailed , to the great benefit , of course , of the candid Premier , and the unconscious nation at large . We see moreover pretty clearly how the habit of consulting continually the same dexterous of
and pliant follower in financial matters , widened into , a practice thinking aloud when closeted with him , about all other political afFuirs . In the most delicate negotiations with rivals and opponents , unreasonable followers , and a sovereign oftentimes incapable of being- reasoned with at all , Pitt was accustomed to unbosom himself without ! reserve to his supple and suggestive henchman , through whom , as may be easily imagined , he learned much pf the opinions entertained by those around him , and before whom lie frequently went through an undress rehearsal of his most im * portant resolutions , utterances , and acts . How many things were said and done by the obsequious seci'ctury , on slight hints dropped in confidence by the Premier , who now con tell P ' The diaries and correspondence , undiscerningly edited by the Rev . Leveson Hnrcpurt ,
are confessedly not given in full : and there is evidence more than enough in the editorial part of the volumes lately published , to make tlic most superficial reader doubt the wisdom of the selections made . A foregone conclusion , and that a very foolish one , is betrayed throughout the work , namely , to make out n case pf something like infallibility in favour of Mr . Pitt , of patriotic wisdom pn behalf of liis party jn general , and pf crafty little George Rose in particular : and finally , of dignity , benevolence , generosity , and goodness of all kinds , on the part of George III , In the attempt to accpmplish tins anti-historical purpose , much time and space is devoted to dreary and virulent invectives against those who differed from Mr , Pitt , or resisted the crazy bigotry and selfishness of the king' during 1
their day and generation ; ov who have , as writers , dealt with the transactions in which they bore a part . Page after page is laden with dull abuse of Mr . Fox , Lord Holland , -Lord Brougham , and Lord John Russell . Mr , Canning and Lord Grenville come in for their shave of the Rev . reviler's vituperation ; while Mr . Adding - ton ,. the Duke of Cumberland , and Bishop Tpmlin are , for the sake of contrasts we presume , etched in \ yith the lightest chalk . With a curious fatuity of blundering , however , the weightiest accusations laid gagainst the distinguished objects of Mr . Harcourt ' s aversion , are confuted by the testimony of the objects of his praise ; while the latter are , in more instances than one , called to bear witness to the unreality of the virtue , and magnanimity ascribed to them . Thusafter labouring with tiresome malignity to fix upon Mr . Fox
, the '' ferocity of a Jacobin , " the profligate and paricidal wish , to see his country ruined to avenge his personal wrongs , we have the earnest pleading of his great rival with the implacable monarch , that he might be allowed to form a coalition with him : and we have the faultless and faithful George Rose actively aiding and abetting the design : still more strangeandscandalous to relate , weare furnished with explicit proof that the most conscientious of monarchs did not scruple , in 1804 , to make known his determination to keep Fox out of the Cabinet , ; " even at the J \ azard of a civil war ; while he found it perfectly compatible with that matchless conscience of his to take him for his Minister , just two years afterwards , Pitt ' s strength and spirit having been in the interval tairly worn out by the unshared burthen of responsibility which
despotism thus cast upon him . T- ,. Y Equally blind and blundering are the efforts of the Rev . Editor of Mr . ltoseVPapers to vindicate the memory of Mr . Pitt on the two most iinportanfe acts of his life that have formed , the subject of controversy . From his own letters , as well as from correlative testimony difficult to disregard , it does appear to us most clear that the Minister was reluctantly drawn into the war against the French Republic in 1793 ; that he soon sickened of the havoc and loss which it entailed ; and that he eagerly sought for opportunities to bring it to a close , before either the Court or aristocracy could be broug-ht to entertain the notion . Writing confidentially to the Marquis of Stafford , then President of the Cduncil , in November . 1792 , he says : " Perhaps some opening may arise wbicli may enable us to the between different
contribute to the termination of war powers in . Europe * leaving France ( which I believe , is the best way ) to arrange its own internal affuirs as it can / ' What better doctrine do ' -we advocate at the present day in Continental concerns ? Pitt was , indeed , unable to resist the royal thirst for vengeance on the regicides , and the more calculating resolution of our privileged and jobbing classes to draw a cordon of fire between this country and its republican neighbour . But when the war had lasted hardly three years , and long before its direst Consequences luid begun to be felt by the nation , he hastened to send Lord Malmesbury to treat for peace at Lille . And what is the language we find George III . using in conversation with the son of Mr . Rose , when out hunting near Windsor ? Not that he wished a stop might be put to the
effusion of blood , but that he was rejoiced to learn the negotiation was not in Mr . Pitt ' s hands , as he would have been sure to concede everything at first—a priceless tribute to the Minister ^ wisdom and virtue : yet Mr . Harcoui-t persista in praising him for having been the soul of the anti-Gallican crusade ; and he quotes platitudes of Sir Archibald Alison on the subject against the confession of the illustrious Minister himself , and the equally significant testimony borne by th « King . But all this perversion copies of having undertaken to blacken the character of Fox , and to write down his biographer , whom he vituperates with the fipitefiilness of an unJady-like scold . . And so with regard to the Catholic question , on account of which Mr . Pitt is said to have abdicated the premiership in 1801 . Belrin ,
the literary executor ( we had almost written executioner ) of Mr . Rote , and the act was one of patriotic single-heartedness , proving his attachment to the principle of religious liberty , while his resumption of power in 1804 , on the express condition that the . Catholic claims should be discountenanced in every possible way , was an act of , generous and commendable self-devotion in a loyal subject to a religious and gracious prince . The truth appears to be , that when Mr . Pitt pffored to retire in 1801 , unless the king promised hot to intrigue against the measures of tlje Cabinet , he did not anticipate the possibility of any successor , ad iiiterim , being able to supplant him ; He recommended Mr . Addingtou to fill his place ,. confiding in his friendship , and convinced of his incapacity to be anything more than what that worthy ostentatiously called himself , ' qlontim tenens . " Piqued by the neglect of his protege " , « nd stung by his perfidy and insolence , the self-outwitted statesman resolved to brush away the pupput he had set up : and , in his eagerness to make sure pf bis
old post of power once more , he was ready to coalesce with Mr . Jfcox , an , d to quiet the irrational , qualms of the royal conscience , by pledging himself never to bring forward Catholic Emancipation during Ins Majesty ' s life . All the casuistry of the Bishop of Lincoln and of Mr . Rose ( abler apologists than the wrong-headed Mr . Harcourt ) cannot efface the blot thu . s left on his memory . As a constitutional minister , np aereliction of duty could be more plain : as a man of ooii-Bistenoy and spirit , no forgetfulness of self-respect could be more palpable . Sooner than imitate the evil example thus set , Lord Grenvrlle surrendered the premiership in 1807 ; and twenty years Inter , Mr . Canning hazarded the loss of the same darling object of ambition ,, by refusing 1 to give aiiy such assurance to George IV . Had Mr . Pitt held out , George III . would have found it convenient to give way ; and though ho might not have grasped , perhaps , ho sopn the reins of administration for the second lime , ho might have been aWo
J " • _ _ _ ^ _ ^ — ¦» — * Jqiavia9 And ...
j " _ _ _ ^ _ ^ — ¦» — * jQiavia 9 and Correspondence of the Jif > Mon . George Jlose , containing Original Letters oftho most dintinyutehed Statesmen of Ms day . Edited by ( he It « v . Lovcflon Harcourt . 2 vols . BontJcy .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 7, 1860, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07011860/page/17/
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