The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1849-03-03
Charncser Of HALIFAX.

Among the statesmen Of that age Halifax
was in genius the first. His intellect was
fertile, subtle and capacious. His pol
ished. luminous, and animated elo9uence,
set off by the silver tones of his voice, was
the delight Of the House of Lords. His
conversation overlooked with thought, fancy,
and wit. His political tracts well deserve
to be studied for their literary merit, and
fully entitle him to a place among English
classics. To the weigh: derived from
talents so great and various, he united all
the influence which belongs to rank and
ample possessions. Yet he was less sue.
cessful in politics than many who enjoy
smaller advantages. Indeed, those intellec.
tual peculiarities which make his writings
valuable, frequently impeded him in the
contests OF active life. For he always saw
passing events. not in the point of view in
which they commonly appear to one who
bears part in them, but in the point Of
view in which, after the lapse Of many years,
they appear to the philosophic historian
With such a turn Of mind, he could not
long continue to act cordially with any
body ofmen. All the prejudices, all the
exaggerations, Of both the great parties in
the state, moved his scorn. He despised
the mean arts and unreasonable clamors
Of demagogues. He despised still more the
Tory doctrines Of divine right and passive
obedience. He sneered impartally at the
blgotry Of the Churchman and at the bigotry
OF the Puritan. he was equally unable 10
comprehend how any man should object to
saints days and surplices, and how any
man should persecute any other man for
Directing to them. In temper he was what,
in our own time, is called Conservative.
In theory he was Republican. Even
when his dread Of anarchy and his dsdain
for vulgar decisions led him to side for a
time with the defenders Of arbitrary power,
his intellect was always with Locke and
Milton. Indeed. his jests upon hereditary
monarchy were sometimes such as would
bave better become member of the Calls
Head Club than a Privy Councillor of the
Stuarts. In religion he was so far from
being a zealot, that he was called by the
uncharitable an Atheist but this imputation
he vehemently repelled; and in truth,
though he sometimes gave scandal by the
way in which he exerted his rare powers
both Of augmentation and OF ridicule on
serious subjects, he seems to have been by
no means unsusceptible Of religious impress
sions. He was the chief of those politi.
clans whom the two great parties contemp-
tuously called Trimrners. Instead of
quarrelling with his nickname, he assumed
it as title Of honor, and indicated with
great vivacity, the dignity Of the appella-
ton. Everything good, he said, trims be-
tween extremes. The temperate zone trims
between the climate in which men are
roasted and the climate in which they are
frozen. The English Church trims be.
tween the Anabaptst madness and the
Papist lethargy. The English constitution
trims between Turkish despotism and Po
lish anarchy. Virtue is nothing but mo-
deration between propensities, any one
virtue. IL INDUCED to excess, becomes vice,
perfection of the Supreme Being consists
in the exact equilibrium Of attributes, none
Of which could preponderate without dis.
turbiDy the whole moral and physical order
Of the world. Thus Halifax was a trimmer
on principle. He was also n trimmer BY
the constitution both of his head and of his
heart. His understanding was keen, skep
teal, inexhaustble fertile in distinctions
and objections his taste refined; his sense
Of the ludcrous exquisite; his temper placid
and forgiving, but fastidious and by no
means prone to either malevolence or to
enthusiastic admiration. Such a man
could not long be constant to any band of
political allies. He must not, however, be
COMPOUNDED with the vulgar crowd of rene.
gades. For though, like them, he passed
from side to side, his transition was always
in the direction opposite to theirs. He had
nothing in common with those who fly
from extreme to extreme, and who regard
the party which they have deserted with an
animosity far exceeding that Of consistent
enemies. His place was between the hos.
tile divisions OF the community, and he
never wandered far beyond the frontier oil
either. The party to which he at any mo. |
ment belonged was the party which at that
moment he liked least, because il was the
party of which at that moment he had the |
nearest view. He was, therefore, always
severe upon his violent associates, and was
always in friendly relations with his moder-
ate opponents. Every faction in the day
Of its insolent and vindictive triumph in.
CURED bis censure; and every faction, when
and persecuied. found in him
protector. To his lasting honor it must be
mentioned that he attempted to save those
victims whose fate has left the deepest stain
both on the Wing and on the Tory name. i
He had greatly distinguished himself in CD. |,
, osition, and had thus drawn on himsel
be royal displeasure, which was indeed SO
trong, that he was not admitted into the
ouncil Of thirty without much difficulty