ROBERT HARLEY.* Mu. Roseoz's book has been made possible by

the recent publication of State papers, and it displays the defects and qualities of its origin. On the one hand, it contains informa- tion which was previously inaccessible ; on the other, the character and attainments of the man himself are somewhat obscured by the mass of detaiL This indeed is the worst danger incurred by the modern historian. Where his prede- cessor divined, he knows, and too often he is unable to manage his knowledge. To consult State papers is not difficult ; to subordinate them to the subject which they illustrate is a task of exceeding delicacy, and one not often successfully accomplished. The old-fashioned historian thought it a point of honour to write in a style at once lucid and picturesque. The modern historian is generally content to throw his material into an unshapely mass. Mr. Roscoe, for instance, has collected many facts which have not hitherto been placed within the same covers, but he has not been at the pains to castigate his style, and his book, if it be read with profit, will be read without pleasure.

The Life of Robert Harley was worth writing, and it is surprising that it was not undertaken long since. Yet it is easy to understand this lack of interest, for though, as Swift says, he once governed Europe, he was not a great statesman, and his career was not in any sense as attractive as his character. For he was a man of deep friendships and scant popularity. His ideal of politics was intrigue, but intrigue in which there was no dishonour. From his first entrance into the Commons House in 1689 he devoted himself with characteristic patience to the study of Parliamentary forms and practice. Although his income was but £500 a year, he spent half of it upon clerks, who copied out such papers concerning treaties as pass before the Government. The knowledge thus acquired was vastly increased by his experience of the 'Speaker's chair, and he presently became what we should call in the slang of to-day an expert "Parliamentary hand." His opinions changed with the occasion and with the progress of events, and if he can be said to have cherished a definite principle, it was to preserve a middle course and to show himself all things to all men. At the outset of his career he was a Whig, in full sympathy with the Revolution, and a keen supporter of triennial Parliaments.

But he gradually drifted until he became a member, and ulti- mately the head, of the Tory party. It was, no doubt, a love of peace which alienated him from the Whigs ; nor is it easy in the reign of Anne to disentangle one party from another. Nevertheless, it is curious to find this champion of religious equality and political moderation the leader of the High Tories. His attitude is well summed up in a letter written to him in 1704 by Stanley West, and quoted by Mr. Roscoe

"You have &happier fate," said West, "attending you than any an the present Ministry, or in former either. You are entirely master of two opposite parties. Both think you to be theirs, and confide in you as such, to promote their several different interests. Whatever distinguishing favour you show to either side doth not lessen your esteem in the other party ; 'tis all ascribed to a depth of policy which they cannot comprehend, and which they say is peculiar to yourself, but is not a leaving the party."

It would be hard to describe more accurately the political trimmer; but it must be remembered that Harley, though he loved power, devoted all his opportunities to what he thought the good of his country, and the tact and patience which produced so striking a result must have been great indeed. His political virtues were all negative ; he was neither a far-seeing statesman nor an eloquent speaker. He was in all things the antithesis of Bolingbroke), ones his colleague and afterwards his foe. It was Bolingbroke's ambition to dominate the world by original views and splendid eloquence. To him public opinion was immaterial; if it were not his, then it must be changed until it accorded with his theory of government. Harley, on the other hand, had no theory.. of government; he was content to discover the public view, and, if possible, to accept it. Nothing is more characteristic of his method than Iris constant employment of spies, and no chapter of Mr. Roscoe's book has so deep and fresh an interest as that in which he sets forth Harley's relations with Defoe. Until the pub- lication of the Harley papers, it was unknown that this accom-

plished pamphleteer was the trusted instrument of the Minister. And it is greatly to his credit that the secret was never revealed.

• Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford. By B. S. Roscoe. London : Methuen and Co. [7e. ad.]

Yet for many years Harley employed Defoe as a kind of dipla. matic journalist. When the Union of Scotland with England

was being discussed, Defoe was sent across the Border upon a strange and delicate mission. His instructions, as he under-

stood them, were as follows

"1. To inform myself of the measures taking, or parties form- ing against the Union, and to apply myself to prevent them. 2. In conversation and by all reasonable methods to dispose people's minds to the Union. 3. By writing or discourse, to answer any objections, libels, or reflections on the Union, the English, or the Court. 4. To remove the jealousies and un- easiness of people about secret designs here against the Birk."

This document sets Defoe in a new light. Yet it cannot be denied that the work he accomplished was excellent, and it is

impossible to read his despatches without recognising that his views were statesmanlike and ImperiaL Harley in return saved him from prison and the pillory, and doubtless satisfied his constant and ingenious demands for money. But while Defoe never betrayed his master, Harley was not always for- tunate in his spies. One there was, Greg by name, who found it profitable to act as a counter-spy in behalf of the French ; and though Harley should have been above reproach, he was basely implicated by political opponents in his creature's treason, and forced to resign. This was in 1708. But Harley soon recovered from the blow, and two years later was Prime Minister of England.

From 1710 to 1714 Harley governed England,—a Prime Minister in fact as well as in name. With his usual fear of opposition, he attempted at the outset to form a coalition ; but the Whigs were reluctant to join him, and he was forced, in spits of himself, to rely upon his own party. Through these anxious years he was strengthened by the wise counsels and brilliant advocacy of Swift. Nor was this aid, loyally given and loyally appreciated, his only piece of good fortune. In March, 1711, he was assaulted by a worthless spy named Guiscard, and this accident won for the unemotional Minister an extraordinary popularity. The people acclaimed him a hero, the Queen conferred a peerage upon him, and a fort- night after Guiscard's attempt he was raised to the high office of Lord Treasurer. He used his popularity to make peace with France, to dismiss Marlborough, and to regain the support of the House of Lords by creating twelve new Peers. The step was justified, and proves that Harley, for all his love of slow methods, could on occasion comport himself like a man. No sooner was peace declared than Harley set himself to discharge the National Debt. The method he chose was the South Sea scheme, reckless in its inception and unfortunate in its result. Yet we cannot hold Harley responsible for the ruin brought upon the country ten years after-

wards by greed and speculation; Nor was it the South Sea scheme which put an end to Harley's career. Rather it was the genius of Bolingbroke which involved the Minister in disaster. At last he was forced to face a greater master of intrigue than himself. In 1714, a few

months before the Queen's death, he received his dismissal.

Anne's reasons for dismissing him are obviously false and inaccurate. She charged him with neglecting all business,

with coming to her drunk, and with "behaving himself toward her with bad manners, indecency, and disrepect."

In these charges there was, of course, no word of truth. But Harley's career was finished, and perhaps it was some satis- faction to him that the Queen's death three months later drove his rival Bolingbroke into exile.

For two years Harley was imprisoned in the Tower on a charge of treason which to-day seems frivolous, and when his impeachment failed he retired from public life, never to re-enter it. His remaining years were spent in the com- panionship of devoted and distinguished friends, and in the making of the library which will be ever famous. The verses of Pope, the letters of Swift, are an eternal monument to his amiability, and the manuscripts, now a part of our national collection, are a tribute to his learning and devotion to letters. He was not a distinguished statesman, and perhaps his shrewd sense might have found a more profit- able field than politics ; but though he loved power, "no man ever appeared to value it less after he had obtained it or exert it with more moderation." That is the tribute of Swift, who, with a constancy which is a credit to both, loved him yet better after his fall, and his amiable if ineffectual career is set forth with sound judgment and a mass of documents in Mr. Roscoe's biography.