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    Jan . 7 , I 860 . ] The Lea far and Saturday Analyst , 17

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    * X > i « rie * and Corretpondonco of the Jit . ECon . G « or

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    GEORGE ROSE AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES . * npIME was when the publication of George Rose ' s " Wate and JL confidential" papers would have set the curiosity of all the-West End clubs * and not a few of the best houses in town and country tingling . Never was there a more interesting' period in our annals than tfoit in which he lived ; and in that period 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 official confidants j particularly keen , shrewd , and reliable ; and there are abundant proofs in the volume before us , that , having once got into the way of being talked to and consulted ( two very different things ) by leading personages , he was fidgetty and fretful when anything , of 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 of 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 as during the interim when he chose to decline power , the utmost 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 woiild 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 for the acquisition and arrangement of details respecting revenue , expenditure , and trade , rendered him invaluable as 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 iii the inyesitigatiou of probable consequences before finally deciding on his course ; and no one ever showed in debate a more perfect mastery over minute and complicated 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 talcing schemes of commerce and taxation which the minister and his indefatigable subordinate talked overj as they . sat together ; in Downing Street far into the night P - .-. " From Christmas 1783 , " writes Mr . Rose , " to the time of his 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 Cuffnells , in the year . " He bears the amplest testimony to the gentleness and forbearance in consultation which uniformly marked Chatham ' s proud but uninipetuous eon ; and intimates with pardonable vanity how his advice sometimes , 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 and pliant follower in financial matters , widened into a practice of thinking aloud when closeted with him , about all other political affairs . In ' the most delicate negotiations with rivals and opponents , unreasonable followers * and a sovereign oftentimes incapable of being reasoned wjth 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 of the opinions entertained by those around him , and before whom ho frequently went through an undress rehearsal of his most important resolutions , utterances , and acts . How many things were said and done by the obsequious secretary , on slight hints dropped in confidence by the Premier , who now can tell ? The diaries and correspondence , undiscerningly edited by . the Rev . Loveson Harcourt , are confessedly not given in full" : and there is evidence more than enough in the editorial part of the volumes lately published , to make the 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 a coae of something like infallibility in favour of Mr . Pitt , of patriotic wisdom on behalf of his party in general , and of 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 accomplish this anti-historical purposed , much time and space ., in devoted , to dreary and virulent invectives against those who * differed fron \ Mr . Pitt , or resisted the crazy bigotry and selfishness of the king during

    their day and generation ; or 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 share of the Rev . reviler ' s vituperation ; while Mr .-Addington , the Duke of Cumberland , and Bishop Tomlin are , for the sake of contrast , we presume , etched in with the lightest chalk . With a curious fatuity of blundering , however , the weightiest accusations laid | agairist 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 . Thus , after labouring with tiresome malignity to fix upon Mr . Fox the " ferocity of a Jacobin , " and the profligate and paricidal wish to see liis 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 strange and scandalous to relate , weare furnished with explicit proof that the most conscientious of tnonarchs did not scruple , in 1804 , to make known liis determination to keep Fox out of the Cabinet * " even at } the hazard 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 fairly worn out by the unshared burthen of responsibility which despotism thus cast upon him . . Equally blind and blundering * are the efforts of the Rev . Editor of Mr . llose ' s Papers to vindicate the memory of Mr . Pitt on the two most important 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 brought to entertain the notion . Writing confidentially to the Marquis of Stafford , then President of the Council , in November , 1792 , he says : " Perhaps some opening may arise which may ensible us to contribute to the termination of the . war between different powers in Europe , leaving France ( which I helieve is the best way ) to arrange its own internal affairs 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 had begun to be felt by the nation , he hastened to send Lord Malmesbtiry 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 . Harcourt persists in praising him for having been the soul of the anti-Gallican crusade ; and he quote * 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 comes of having undertaken to blacken the character of Fox , and to write down his biographer , whom he vituperates with the spitefulness of an unlady-like scold . And so with regard to the Catholic question , on account or which Mr . Pitt is said to have abdicated the premiership in 1801 . Belrin , the literary executor ( we had almost written executioner ) of Mr . Rose , and the act was one of patriotic single-heartednesB , 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 bo , that when Mr . Pitt offered to retire in 1801 , unless the king promised not to intrigue against the measures of the Cabinet , he did not anticipate the possibility of any successor , ad interim , being able to supplant him . He recommended Mr . Addington to till his place , confiding m his friendship , and convinced of his' incapacity to be anything more than whatlhat worthy ostentatiously called himself , " alooum tenens . Piqued by tlie neglect of his protege * , and stung by his perfidy and insolence , the self-outwitted statesman resolved to brush away the puppet he had set up ; and , in his eagerness to make sure of his old post of power once more , he waB ready to conlesce with Mr . Fox , and to quiet the irrational qualms of the royal conscience , ly pledging : Himself never to bring forward Catholic Emancipation during ins Majesty ' s life . All the casuistry of the Bishop of I £ » coln and of Mr , Rose ( abler apologists than the wrong-headed Mr . Harcourt ) cannot efface the blot thus left on his memory . Ah a constitutional minister , no dereliction of duty could be more * plain : an a niau of cou-Bistenoy and spirit , no forgetfnlncss of self-respect could bo inore palpable . Sooner than imitate the evil example thus set , LordCfrenville purrondered the premiership in 1807 j and twenty , yearsi Inter , Mr . Canning hazarded the loan of the tfamo darling object of » ' » bition , by refusing to give any such nesurance to George ly . nwx mr . Pitt held out , George III . would have found it convenient lp gxyo way ; and though he might not have pruned , n 0 ^ p \ f , ^ " X reina of administration fur the second time , ho might Imvo been able

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 7, 1860, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2328/page/17/