The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 25, IFt39.

shed the blood of the people of England unless the
people themselves were prepared to take and defend
their liberties. He was willing to lay his head upon the
block if he could not prove to them that the middle and
upper'classes were at this very moment robbing the peop!e
of this country of upwards of 200 millions of money. The 1.
nation has been robbed by the landowner of original and
improveable value of the land which ought to belong to
the nation, property which the people earned by the
sweat of their brow. It was nothing short of damnable
robbery for a landlord to deprive a man of his property
'n houses merely because those people died. They were
wholesale robbers, and yet they had the audacity to say
the people ware seditious, merely because they attempted
to obtain their own. They must support this mo‘ e-
ment altogether, or abandon the movement altogether.
He never counselled the people to violate the law so
long as they had a hope of obtaining; their rights by
lawful means. Before six months from the present
time the present movement must be abandoned altoge-
ther or their leaders would be assassinated, and the peo-
ple would be reduced to the condition of helots and
slaves. There were men who were thirsting for their
blood, and he was determined the people should not
die unavenged. They would never get anything
unless they helped themselves to it, and unless they
were prepared to carry out their measures by other
means than they were now using. The people must
elect men to represent them from amongst themselves.
They must have three hundred men put in nomination
at the nest election, to meet either in Manchester or in
Birmingham, with 50,000 good men and true to be
present at their deliberations, and to imbibe wisdom
from their lips, in order that they might be prepared
to take their places. When they had done all this, then
he would turn over to the next chapter, and till then, he
could not dare to tell them what to do.—(Loud cheers.)
He promised, howev7, that in six months after this,
they would have hao a reign of prosperity in which
men would enjoy the rights and privileges of Er.glish-
, men.—(Cheers.)
Tho CHAIRMAN put the address, which was carried
with enthusiasm.

Messrs. Collins, Potwell, and other Delegates, then
addressed the meeting . A i;ciolution was passed,
changing the name of tlle Birmingham Chartist Com-
mittee to that of the R tcli,cal and Constitutional Com-
mittee. Thanks were iNted to the Chairman and the
meeting separated in Mod order, after giving three
heers for the Queen alid the Convention.

LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S LETTER

[The following notice has been prepared for some
but, for various reasons, postponed till now.]
In our former notice we showed, by the state-
ments made by the Whig Ministers, when they
proposed the Reform Bill, that it had completely
failed, both as a substitute of representation for
nomination, and as a means of inspiring the peo.
pie with contentment and respect for the Legisla-
ture. There is another point in which it is also
an arithmetical failure. Lord John Russell, on
March Ist, 1831, said " that it was his opinion that
the Reform Bill would add to the constituency
about half a million of persons ;" it was proved by
Mr. Hume, on last March 21st, when he made his
motion relative to Household Suffrage, that the in-
crease of the constituency in 18:35 and 1836, as
compared to 1831, was just 143,360, or the fourth
part of what Lord John Russell anticipated ;
though the 501. tenants-at will were added, and
the freemen retained contrary to the wish of the
Reform Ministers. Just so far as the Reform Act
substituted Manchester for Old Sarum, the Tower
Hamlets for Gatton, and gave satisfaction to the
101. householders in . the great hives of our na-
tional industry, it was successful ; but just so far as
it kept up a: number of small boroughs, giving
them as many representatives as the large towns.
and excluded all below the 101. householders from
the franchise, and so increased the dissatisfaction
of the excluded classes, it was a most mischievous
failure. Lord John Russell entertains a different
opinion, and in his certainly ingenious arguments
against the extension of the Suffrage, by a uniform
scheme, expresses himself thus:—
" Let us suppose, for instance, as the exact num-
bers are not of importance, that two members were
allotted to every fifty thousand of the population.
" The first difficulty that occurs is, that the metro-
polis would send upwards of fifty members. Nor could
this number be diminished by any allegation that the
inhabitants of London were inferior to those of any part
of the country in wealth or intelligence. Yet the
representation of the capital, although exceedingly
just in the moderate proportions in which the Reform
Bill sanctioned it, could not have been carried to the
supposed extent without obvious disadvantages.

" It must strike every observer, even if the ground
had been clear, that in a country where there exists
every variety of interest, every diversity of profe,sion,
where wealth is not confined to one class—the landed,
manufacturing, or commercial—where ingenuity has
done its utmost—ard civilization is so extremely arti-
ficial; that it is nearly, if not altogether, impossible
by one uniform plan, to give an adequate represen-
tation of the nation at large. What more different
than Dover, Canterbury, and the country between
them? 'Would they be satisfied to form one depart-
ment ?

" It was another and still more obvious objection to
such a plan, that all the towns in the country, exc -pt
the largest, would have been diluted into the country
around them. If inequality was to be remedied, North-
ampton, Warwick, Southampton, Chichester, &c.,
would have lost their distinctive character, and the
minority (of voters) of such towns would have been
converted into a majority by the aid of the country
gentlemen and farmers of the neighbourhood. if
equality was to be the rule, if Dartmouth and Rich-
mond were not to return members alone, stk neither on
such principles could Dorsetshire or Lincolnshire sub-
mit to be outweighed by towns of 10,000 or 12,000 in-
habitants ; if numbers alone were to be considered,
why should Devonshire, with 450,000 people, have no
more representatives than Halifax and Wigan with
50,000 ? Yet had this equal division been adopted,
Bridport, enclosed in a part of Dorsetshire, would pro-
bably have sent a Tory country gentlemen in the place
of Mr. Warburton, and the department of Lincoln
would have replaced Sir Edward Bulwer by one who
would have harmonized better with the Tory part of
his constituents.

That
tßtuhtelet
aunstsask u
da ftuhret h ewris question.hes, ih the
in
tWe
re.hsatts
paa:veti,ll::
roepqii.uiliosiitise,s
tylioeu
isnetcZerniene a
anti
and fullrethstewtvaitritouneofothteheenait::
?nay be fairly, freely, represented.
"To many a man this mayy seem a very easy task.
He would cut the country into squares, or circles or
givingoblongs, givin a certain amount of population t:o each
as
portion, and fixing the franchise his taste or philo-
sophy might direct. The task would not be accom-
plished. It will be granted to me, I trust, that the
knowledge and the intelligence of
those most remark-
able for knowledge and intelligence ought to be repre-
sented. But it may very well happen, that, while your
division into districts secures representation to landed
proprietors, to wealthy manufacturers, to eminent
merchants, to busy and active popular leaders, it will
exclude the eminent barrister who has given his time
and labour to reach the eminence of his profession—
the political economist who has neither riches to buy
votes, nor eloquence to attract them—the gallant officer
who is better known to his country's enemies than to the
Club or Committee who furnish candidates for parties
and districts. This would be more particularly the
case in time of strong popular excitement, when nothing
but wealth, local influence, or long-established political
character, could weather the storm. The consequences
would be serious. The House of Commons, though
composed of able and stirring men, would not obtain
the respect of the more intelligent part of the country.
" Men would look in vain for several of' those lead-
ing counsel in our courts of law, those distinguished
admirals, those gallant generals, those able writers,
whose name has given a lustre to the House of Com-
mon:, and made the eyes of all turn towards it as the
depository of what was able, and eminent, and distin-
guished in law no less than in politics—alike in war, in
letters, and in commerce."
Such are the objections which Lord John Russell
makes to having the people fairly represented,
which mainly turn on the fact that the people would
not elect those classes and individuals whom Lord
John Russell would prefer. While he pretends to
advocate a representation of the people, he dictates
what classes, and of course within a certain circle,
what individuals shall represent them. He objects
to allowing them to elect the men they prefer, but
insists on a narrow scheme which shall give,
against the will of the peoples or Isis argument has
no foundation, eminent barristers, profound poli-
tical economists, and gallant officers„ to the House
of Commons. But the proper place for the barrister
to acquire influence is a Court of Law, the poli-
tical economist must be content with influencing
the public by his writings, and if the soldier obtain
applause and honour for his valour he is duly re-
warded. Lord John Russell, however, is anxious
to give them a seat in the House of Com-
mons. He wishes to drag them out of their
sphere, though rarely have such men acquired any
hunour in Parliament, and reflect a part of their
celebrity on the House of Commons. As a body
of legislators it has not much virtue of its own,
and Lord John insists on retaining select bodies
of electors, who may gild their base metal with the
extraneous splendour of civil and warlike talents.
Being sensible that law-making is not of itself suf.'.
ficient to command the respect of mankind, he is
anxious to blend it with the courage which saves,
and the wisdom which teaches nations.

Lord John says that, " in the representation of •
the people, it is sought that the wants and the
wishes, the interests and the opinions, the intelli-
gence and the virtues of the nation may be fairly,
freely, and fully represented." But the latter
terms of this proposition are by no means coequal
with the former. A just and full representation
of the people must represent their vices and their
stupidity, as well as their virtue and intelligence.
We have now the stupidity of our country gentle-
men, their grasping avarice, and the grasping ava-
rice of all the middle classes, a deadly vice,
more than adequately represented. Vice and
virtue, intelligence and stupidity, are all
comparative and relative terms, and when any pie-
sumptuous legislator departs from the plain prin-
ciple os representing the whole people, and merely
the people, and nothing but the people, leaving it
to them to settle what are their wants and interests,
what are vice and virtue, stupidity and intelligence,
he is certain to substitute his own peculiar and
class notions, as is obviously the case with Lord
John Russell, for what the whole regard as their
interests, wants, and wishes ; and place in Parlia-
ment not the man known to the electors and pre-
ferred by them, but gallant officers, who have per-
haps been only forging chains for them ; learned
barristers, who have p_rverted the law to oppress
them ; and profound political economists, who have
reduced the vicious practices of the others to
theory, and called it a natural science. By the
limitations in the latter part of his proposition,
Lord John Russell denies some part of the people
a due representation of their interests, wishes, and
opinions. He has obviously an incorrect opinion of
representation, which is intended theoretically to
be a perfect miniature of the entire people, includ-
ing the passions, the vices, and the stupidity of all,
as well as their restraints, their virtues, and their
intelligence.
Theory says that all the Members of the same
community have a common interest. Lord John
proceeds on the supposition that they have different
interests, and he frames his plan of representation
on the principle of nicely balancing those interests,
and giving to each class its fair share of representa-
tion. Of the justice of his measurement, of the
exactness of his distribution of political power, we
shall speak hereafter ; we observe now that this
principle assumes in himself, or in some other
man, the existence of a higher authority than
that of the whole nation, to decide between
the various claims of the different classes. It
does not allow them all to come together and
settle their differences—if they have any— but,
like a judge, Lord John Russell, without even
hearing the parties, settles it for them. Acknow
ledging the fact that different classes have different
interests, and making that fact the basis of his sys-
tem, he does not ask the opinion of the working
classes and the poor, but lie hands their interests
over to the law-making mercy of their opponents.
While his system for its continual nice adjustment
would require a continual redistribution of electoral
and representative power—for the different parts
and great interests of the community change con-

tinually in relative wealth and intelligence—it
perpetuates those distinctions and those animosities
between different classes, it is most desirable by a
homogenous and equal representation of the
people, as men, and not as nobles, priests, land-
lords, merchants, capitalists, ten-pound househol-
ders, and labourers, to stifle and extinguish. Be-
_ _

cause Lord John Russell's arguments imply that
the whole people are not to be represented, but
some limitation of them, supposed to be the vir-
tuous and intelligent part, and because they imply
an authority superior to the whole nation, capable
of balancing and adjusting the various claims of
each, and without asking the opinion and the con-
sent of all, we are forced to come to the conclu-

sion that Lord John Russell has formed a most
inadequate, imperfect, and unfaithful view of the
theory of representation.

To place his opinion on this point completely
before the reader we must quote another part of his
pamphlet, by which it will be seen in what classes
he supposes virtue and intelligence to cohere. At
page 34 he says—

.
" The Reform Act was carried under the auspices of
Lord Grey, assisted by statesmen long used to power,
and able to weigh their proceedings. That weight of
authority carried along ,ith it a large proportion of
the House of Lords, and the dispassionate Reformers
throughout the country. But for a new Reform Bill
oppo,ed by a majority in the House of Commons, and
five-sixths of the House of Lords, no such authority
could be invoked. It would be menace, and the mul-
titude ; unknown leaders dictating to intelligence
and property; an attempt at reform, but sure to end in
confusion."
_ • .. .

The swinish multitude, as the Times calls the
people, are the objects of Lord John Russell's
dread and aversion, as they are the horror of the
Tories, and the small class represented by states-
men, long used to power, are, in his opinion, those
who are to dictate to the multitude. In fact, Lord
John Russell advoCates a system of representation
of the whole people—which shall be guided, go-
verned, and controuled by statesmen long used to
power, such as he is, and from which the multitude,
or the masses, are to be contemptuously and scorn-
fully excluded. This is genuine, mischievous, mis-
trustful Toryism, which, beginning in contempt, is
prosecuted by injustice, and ends in social destruc-
tion. That there may be no mistake about the
class which is to give laws to all the rest, Lord
John Russell thus describes the assembly of the
Aristocracy, of which, apparently, his ambition is
that he may yet be a. member :
" The House of Lords has very little resemblance to

the American Senate—hut it has two circumstances in
common with it, and which are in some degree cause
and effect. Its Members have greater permanence than
the Commons, and it attracts within its sphere many of
the ablest men in ,the nation ; in law the office of
Chancellor makes this inevitable—in war, a Peerage
or Westminster Abbey,' was the aspiration of a great
Commander. Look at the Lords' debates of the pre-
sent day—the Duke of Wellington, Lord Brougham,
Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Cottenham, Lord Denman,
Lord Abinger, Lord Ripon, Lord Vharnclifre, Lord
Fitrgerald, all had seats in the House of Commons, and
have esteemed it an honour to be transferred from
thence to the House of Lords.
" Now it is a principle not to be neglected, that, con-
stitute these assembles as you may, the display of great
talent in debate, the authority of a great name, the
lustre of arms, and the weight of long experience,
bring with them in calm and quiet times that power of
.
opinion which, according to an Italian author, is the
queen of the world.' Let us examine of what elements
some parts of this opinion consist. In a country such
as England now is, there are thousands of men who do
not call themselves politicians, but who nevertheless are
acute political observers. One may be employed all
the morning in literary history, another planning a new
railway, a third writing to his mercantile correspon-
dents at New York, a fourth arguing a cause in a court
of law. Yet to all these men the newspaper has its
ottractions—the last debate has been a matter of in.
terest, and it is not because his business lies elsewhere
that the man of speculative or practical ability is the
less qualified to judge of those who discuss and decide
on the interest of the nation. To these men, as well as
to the people in general, an appeal lies. We can no lon-
ger have an awful senate, even if we desired it. 'l'he re-
porters in the gallery unveil the mystery of Govern-
ment, and the House of Commons must rel 3 upon its
own qualities for maintaining public respect. It; then,
it were found that the whole tone of debate was un-
worthy of the occasion, that the talent out of the
House despised the talent within the House ; that men
of wit and men of business saw among them the most
eminent men of the nation unable or unwilling to sit
in the House of Commons, neither its popular title,
nor its well-won privileges, nor its mighty authority,
would prevent it from sinking in public estimation.—
But if you add to this, that it would have to contend
in the presence, and perhaps in rivalry, with the House
of Lords, which, aocording to Mr. Roebuck—no par-
tial witness—has a moral influence in the country, you
would expose the House of Commons to a gradual pro-
cess of sinking, from which it could only rescue itself
by some desperate struggles, in the course of which its
natural strength and vigour might more easily enable it
to pull under water its more favoured companions
than to keep itself buoyant on the stream. For these
reasons, among others, a division into departments
seemed to me liable to the greatest possible objec-
tions.'"

But if this assembly be so virtuous and so wise,
and if a popular House of Commons, the exact
image of the people, would only destroy it, what
use is there in a House of Commons at all ? Why
not suffer that concentration of virtue and intelli-
gence, called the House of Lords, to make the
laws ? and why controul and thwart its wise and
virtuous will by such less wise, and less intelligent,
and less virtuous persons, as the chosen representa-
tives of the lower classes ? Every one of the argu-
ments which Lord John Russell applies against ex-
tending the suffrage, and so making the House a
perfect mirror of all, applies equally to the present
House of Commons and the present system of repre-
sentation, which is based on a comparative multitude,
tainted with all the vices of the multitude, controul-

in; the virtues and intelligence of a select few, in
whose hands, according to him, the Government
ought to be placed. He does not indeed, .at pre-
sent, extend his argument so far, because lie is now
a member of the multitude. In Speaking of those
who require the Reform Act to be reformed, Lord
John says, overlooking the facts we have adverted
to :--

.‘ The only proof that has yet been given of such
necessity, is the loudness of complaint. . • •
" A third class of the discontented, and a very nu-
merous one, consists of those who expected from Reform
what Reform could not accomplish. I am no believer
in the doctrine—
' How small, of all the ills that men endure,
The part that kings or laws can cause or cure.'
I think, on the contrary, that many social and moral
evils are to be attributed to the institutions of Govern-
ment, and the laws by which a community is ruled. But
laws and institutions must act gradually and generally,
in order to be beneficial.

" Of the working classes who have declared their
adherence to what is called the People's Charter, but
few care for Universal Suffrage, Vote by Ballet, or
Annual Parliaments. The greater part feel the hard-
ship of their social condition ; they complain of their
hard toil and insufficient wages, and imagine that Mr.
Oastler or Mr. Fielden will lead them to a happy valley,
where their labour will be light, and their wages high.
They know not the general laws by which • profit and
wages are regulated. They conceive that the tyranny
of the rich is the cause of their depressed condition.
Lord John Russell admits that laws cause social
and moral evils ; he cannot deny that the present
condition of the working classes is full of moral and
social evils, and they seek for a change. The sys-
tem of Government is a means of- getting rid of
these moral and social evils, and according to him
they are right in principle, though he saya
they are wrong in its application, and that
" they know not the general laws by which profit
and wages are regulated. " They conceive," he
says, and he implies erroneously, " that the tyranny
of the rich is the cause of their depressed condi-
tion." Such, however, being their condition, and
such being their and his opinion of the influence of
laws over the moral and social condition of man,
when they ask for the means of help, Lord John
Russell, self-satisfied, denies them any share in the
law-making power. They may be wrong in attri-
buting their depressed condition to some particular
laws, sharing the general ignorance as to the effect
of laws ; but they complain of the tyranny of one
class, and Lord John Russell, abhorring a multi-
tude, says the power of legislation shall remain
exclusively in the hands of those the unrepre-
sented call their tyrants.
He must be extremely ignorant, if he be
not aware that there is a great contest going
on ,in society between labour and capital, be-
tween industry and legal property, and while
that is the case, admitting, as he admits, that
laws may affect the moral and social condition
of the people, he denies all representation to labour.
According to his own description of what is sought
as a representative system, the present is incom-
plete, for the wants, wishes, opinions, virtues, and
intelligence of the labouring classes have no voice
in it. Stopping far short of a representation of
the whole people, he so improvidently and 'un-
justly distributes electoral power, as to exc:ude
four-fifths of the people, and these four-fifths
are all of one class and condition, and
so peculiarly situated that they have an
existing quarrel with the classes represented, and
have opinions, wishes, and interests opposed to
theirs.

The represented classes are moreover the armed
classes. Disposing of all the public taxes, the
army is theirs, and is disciplined and officered
to do their bidding. They are allowed to carry
arms unquestioned ; they are invited to carry them ;
the yeomanry, the magistrates, all the members of
the Executive are selected from them ; the unrepre-
sented classes are not allowed to carry arms, at least
attempts are made to prevent them carrying arms ;
they have no controul over the army, they enter not
into the yeomanry, they are excluded from the ma-
gistracy, and Lord John Russell, as the organ of
the Government which is constituted for the benefit
of the fifth part of society, writes pamphlets against
their demands, and thunders forth proclamations
against their attempts to help themselves. All that is
bad, because it is unjust, and there is no more reason
to he surprised at the present extensive and
alarming discontent of the working classes than at
the repeated insurrections of the cruelly oppressed
negroes. Never was it incite clearly established
than by Lord John Russell's Letter that the
Legislature and Goverment of this country are
altogether intended to benefit the fifth part of the
community at the expense of the other four-fifths.
It is impossible, from the growing humanity and
good sense of the middle and upper classes, and
from the rapidly increasing knowledge and intelli-
gence of the lower classes, that such a system
can last, and he who opposes its imptovement,
like Lord John Russell, hastens its destruction.
His Letter proves him to be a far more ignorant and
short-sighted statesman than we had supposed.
Judging him by his pamphlet only—alas ! how
different from many of his acts, and how alien
from the conduct which once won him our hearts,
and gave him power over our minds—he appears to
be as shallow, and as ignorant, and as wilful, as
Peel, without using Peel's tricks to conceal his
imperfections.

EVEN X N G EDITION

many an acceptable offer frorn suitors of the highest
rank ; and even in old age, when chilled at heart, and
soured with the world, she still preserved her cerrespons
dence with Marlborough, during the happy days of
courtship with the greatest care—a refined trait of sen-
sibility which reminds us of the rough, profligate Sergeant
Bothwell, in whose pocket-book, after his death, were
found the love letters of the " gentle Alice," of whom
he had been passionately fond, while yet he had a heart
to bestow. The young couple, despite the remonstrances
of Churchill's parents, who objected to their son's tortn-
ing a union so far below their expectations, were secretly
married in the year 1678. " The ceremony," says our
authoress," took place in the presence of Mary, Duchess
of York, who bestowed presents of considerable value
on the bride, and some months afterwards the marriage
was avowed." For many years after her marriage, Mrs.
Churchill continued attached to the sersice of the
Duchess of York, where she formed that close intimacy
with the Princess, afterwards. Queen Anne, which was
destined to exercise such an influence over the fortunes
of her husband, who was soon raised to the peerage by
the title of Baron Churchill, of Eyetuouth in Scotland.
We subjoin Mrs. Thompson's sketch of Anne.
" From childhood, Anne had been accustomed to the
society of her future favourite. A slight difference of age,
Lady Churchill being the elder of the two, aided, rattier
than impeded, the happy intimacy of girlhood. Already
at an early age, Anne had been addressed in secret, with
professions of attachment by the young Earl of Mul-
grave, afterwards Marquis of Normanby, one of the most
accomplished and amiable noblemen of his time. But
these proposals were checked as soon as they were dis-
covered, yet not before Anne had imbibed a partiality fur
the young man, which continued in the form of a kindly
regard, until politics brcke the charm which the recollection
of an early attachment had created. The Princess was
pious, generous, and affectionate, but obstinate, and not
devoid of duplicity when it suited her purpose. Her na;
tore was a strange compound of warm affections and et
repelling coldness. As in all weak minds, her friendsbiet;
were called into being by the gratification of her selfish in'
clinations. With those defects, however, which proceeded
from deficient cultivation, Aimee as a lady of ele;
vated rank, and afterwards as a ruler, passesse°
some admirable qualities. Her sense of duty supplied tbe
place of strong sensibility. She was a kind mistress; es
a wife incomparable ; though lavish to her favourites, WI
to be led ley them into what she disapproved; just see-
economical, eracimes in her manners, and desirous of 130.
pularity. Her nature was placid, her temperament Oleg-
matie. In the early part of her life, she.was, like the Pt
arts generally, well bred, until indecorous familiarity *Tit"
her inferiors, broke down the effects of early habit. in per
son Anne Was comely, awl of that ample conformation se
s*
stature well adapted for royalty. Her figure, before it beagle
matronly, was esteemed graceful ; her face was agreeable,
though, from a weakness in her eyes, her countenance 01
contracted somewhat of a scowl: But this may have trek
the effects of years and of care, when the complexion als.°,
participated in the coarseness of the person, induced, as
1.
was said by the use of cordials, to which the Prince, her he%
band, incessantly invited his consort. To convlete the WWI
of Anne, the beauty of her hands, and the sweetness of her
voice in speaking and reading must not be forgotten;
were universally allowed, whilst her graceful delivery
addressing the House of Parliament, met with incessid"
applause. It is remarkable that with such respect' .1/1:
Anne treated by her subjects, that the Peers in her pi„-'
sence waived the privilege of wearing hats in -Parliaraeut'
to shoe that they arc hereditary legislators."
't of
As a contrast to the above, we give the portray
the Duchess of Marlborough—the only woman vlb,fil
Anne seems to have loved with anything like real Ors.
Lion. Her attachment to Mrs. Masham was quite °.lll,
different character, having its origin in exquisite selfi'
ness on both sides
" Beautiful, according to the opinion of her conteoP;
rarice, the Duchess's beauty appears to have been ei° to
mending as well as interesting. Her figure is asserted o$
have been peculiarly fine, and her countenance was estre.
by a profusion of fair hair, which she is said to have P„„a
served, without its changing colour, even at an advae‘ie
age, by the use of honey-water. everal years after *ly
hsd become a grandmother, the fressness of her Wee,
complexion, and her unfaded attractions, caused her, ey r.
in the midst of four daughters, each distinguished by 1)%0
sonal charms, to be deemed pre-eminent even among th't,
celebrated and high-bred belles. But the secret of 13;
extraordinary influence which she acquired over every
her
with whom she came in contact, originated not in her
attributes of beauty and of grace. Mrs. Jennings, that
mother, had cultivated in her daughter • every art the
could charm. That of conversation in particu
Duchess is said to have excelled in. Shrewd, be
fearless, so beautiful that all she said was sure, -in favour
proved by the one sex ;so much in fashion "
°disapproved
that nothing she did could possibly
be
out any ex-
by the other. Sarah might readily, svitbo
ati
„ in re-
traordinary cultivation of intellect, figure gr- Youth-
fulCa
artee, and dogmatize with the security atsbe
at this time
0,
beauty. It appears that thought
had never even dreamed of politics, nor
applauded
it;
cultivating that vigorous intellect, so much . u ban
after times by the great ones of the earth. Educate)
larc'astic,
contributed little to extend the sphere of her ingutrea
mind. She knew no language but her own, and never
the industry nor ambition to learn French. Such vias!be
:
ties of habit, and afterwards by something almost 110
b
friend to whom the Princess Anne was early bound bY t_ r
ardent than common friendship ; and exactly was alf
adapted, from her independent, uncompromising spiris,i'Ae.
magnanimous and half insolent, to attain a complete "
minion over every faculty of Anne's shallow mind." Of
In the memorable year 1688, when the conduct
James the Second—so long the friend and patron IN
the Churchills—had alienated the affections of his sub-
jects, " the first sea-officer that went over to the Prince
of Orange was the brother of Baron Churchill, Cap-
tain Churchill, who joined the Dutch fleet with his
ship." Lady Churchill was equally active in her ender
'yours to persuade the Princess Anne to desert her uri;
happy father, James ; and in this—the first action 0,1
her life in which she directly took a share in public er;
fairs—she succeeded to her heart's content.
the subsequent reign of William the Third, she sitoore
in and sympathised with, all the insults which sole
heaped by the reigning family on Anne ; was 'lesion;
confidential adviser on every public and private occ3frifr
and when at length, by the death of William, Of lotie
cess came to the Throne, ruled her with almost °e'
be
sway : s
" The Queen had, as a Monarch, one great fail; for'
allowed too great familiarities in those around he r'i-otiOn*
bore to rebuke insolence, or even to check presulgoit/
No one was so likely to presume upon this want of of iote
a Lady Marlborough. Her haughtiness soon grQaee°2
downright contumacy. Even while holding the' in the
fan and gloves, or presenting them to hermajeettd ieitb
capacity of an attendant, she turned away her Quel,
contempt directly afterwards, as if the poor harrale7 Ana"
inspired her with disgust. For the first ten years °De"
reign, however, Lady Marlborough ruled parson,. Apse
At length the day of her dismissal from Coarstio'd to
drew nigh. The Duchess of Marlborough --reds see,'
this dignity, against her inclination, at the Quiciushantis
cial request, as a tribute of gratitude for ber.,hile Anne,
victories—was devoted to Whig principles, "tu freedeP.
was always in her heart a Tory. This WI tong time
disputes between the two friends, which for rupture
were prevented from breaking out into °Pept. b, the in"
the force of early impressions ; but at length' Ipartr"
trigues of' Harley and some others of the Tory Courf'
the celebrated Mrs. Masham was introduce" shet
and soon gained unbounded influence over. _me tioe
mind of Anne. The Duchess struggled for sy, oe tbei
against the power of this rival, but finding it dad' Y retire'
increase, was compelled to succumb, °_,:ed at
with her husband into private life. She °,l or°
good old age in the year 1744, so completel
down with disappointment, and so soured with srfroi°
• ed
as actually to bless the stroke that dismiss . ,e her
v;ale
ri
existence. Her end holds out an ialPres.Tpessesse"
ing to the ambitious, and the unduly worldly.
politic
as she was, for years, of vast social and Pelealth,
ence ; distinguished by rank, talent, beautY; jaess;
all that is generally supposed to constitute pane, and
the one dearly cherished friend of her Stlyeer4e
the wife of the greatest hero of the age--t passe
of' Marlborough, despite these rare advantages:Jen lid,
on the whole, an anxious, feverish—we mad that peace,
a miserable—life ; and has left it on record
tbrinian'
and sunshine of mind were, even in her int's_,,ile
days, almost unknown to her. Mrs. Thobnfr
ste=p
moir of this female Wolsey—for such i
she may
ambition, if not in her magnificent habits' toity ' 1(.1
styled—is penned in a spirit of laudable ifflePsaersech ;an
easy and flowing in style ; not devoid of r
skilful in its delineation of character.