THE STANHOPES.—LAST TWO CENTURIES.
OF the son of the strange adventurer of whom we last spoke, also Philip, but little is known, save that he was a violent Tory, and suspected of being a secret Jacobite. The Bishop of Waterford says of him, " He was, as 1 have often heard, of a morose disposition, of violent passions, and often thought that people behaved ill to him when they did• not in the least intend it." He died January 24th, 1726, leaving four sons, the eldest of whom, Philip Dormer Stanhope, is the one Chesterfield whose name has become a household word —as the author of " Chesterfield's Letters." He was born in Lon- don, September 22nd, 1694. His father seems to have conceived almost an aversion to him from his earliest years. " My father was neither desirous nor able to advise me," he says himself, and as he lost his mother while a child, his education passed into the hands of his grandmother, the Marchioness of Halifax, daughter of William Pierrepont—the "wise William" of Charles L's time—a lady distinguished for her accomplishments and amiable character. Young Stanhope was carefully educated, and at the age of eighteen sent to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he devoted himself to books, and especially the classics, to such an extent that he described himself afterwards as having become a perfect pedant—quoting a Latin author on every possible occasion, and believing in the classics as the key to practical life. From the University he went abroad to the Hague, where he contracted the habit of gambling deeply. From Holland he repaired to Paris, to learn the graces of society. He describes in amusing terms his gaucherie at his introduction into Parisian saloons, and how, having mustered up courage at last to address a fashionable dame with the original remark, " II fait chaud," she rewarded' his courage by formally undertaking his social education on the footing of easy morals then prevalent in French circles, and under her auspices young Stanhope soon forgot any awkwardness or scruples he might have _brought from England. His pedantry, however, remained, but took another form—that of doing every- thing by rule, and endeavouring to acquire the gifts of nature by a course of self-tuition. He resolved to be a great statesman and a great orator, and he got himself up for both parts with such credit- able appearance of success, that not his contemporaries only, but posterity have been puzzled to account for his ultimate failure in one point, and the small results from his success in the other. His great rule was to be guarded in everything he said or did, with the affectation of easy nonchalance and perfect frankness. One of his biographers says truly enough, " he finessed too much." He took so much pains to do everything in the most suitable and unexception- able manner that rivals stepped in before him, and successful'y anticipated him with their rough and ready stupidity. With a strong desire to please every one be met with—high or low—and a just conception of the true character of a gentleman in these respects, be had no real warmth of heart and no real sincerity of character. His virtues were cultivated on such an artificial principle, that even where they were bond fide they produced little of the impression attaching to reality. His eloquence, though finished to perfection, was so carefully studied according to the best models of the ancients, that admirable and admired as it was in the select and polished assembly of English Peers, it never touched the public heart, and laid no solid foundation for a great public reputation. On his return to England from Paris, on the accession of George I., he was elected to the House of Commons, before he had quite com- pleted his legal majority, for the Cornish borough of St. Germans,. under the auspices of his cousin, the first Earl Stanhope. Speaking ardently in favour of the impeachment of the Duke of Ormonde, he received a hint, couched in complimentary terms, from one of the political friends of the latter nobleman, that he had better stay away from Parliament till he had attained his legal majority. So be left the House without voting, and went to Paris again, where he remained till recalled at the instance of his cousin, who had become Secretary of State, and was appointed a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales. He returned with his character completely formed—a proud, haughty, self-willed man, striving always to influence by drawing-room arts, yet conscious of the ability to govern, and hungering morbidly for large excitement. He voted with the Ministry until the difference took place between the King and Prince, when he adhered to the latter, and withstood the utmost solicitations of the Court to abandon him, extending, it is said, to an offer of a dukedom to his father. The Earl (though a Tory, if not a Jacobite,) was very angry, it is said, at his son refusing this offer. The young Lord was sufficiently conciliated, however, to vote with the Ministers on one or two critical occasions, and was rewarded by being appointed in 1723 Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard. He declined the Order of the Bath as below his dignity. But he never succeeded in the popular assembly, being afraid of rude ridicule, and particularly standing in awe of one member distinguished in that way. His father's death in 1726 placed him in the more appropriate sphere of the House of Lords. On the accession of George II. Chesterfield was not placed in any high office, but sent on an embassy to the Hague. It was probably intended thus to shelve him, but the post exactly suited his talents, and he added greatly to his reputation by his management of the mission. While there, in 1729, he joined in a secret intrigue with Lord Townshend to supplant the Duke of Newcastle, and though this failed, and Townshend fell from power in consequence, Sir Robert Walpole was so much impressed with the ability of Chester- field that he endeavoured to gain him by making him High Steward and giving him the Garter.
He returned home in 1732, with impaired health, and then resumed his attendance in Parliament, soon quarrelling with Walpole, voting against him on the Excise Bill, asking his three brothers to do the same in the House of Commons, and being summarily dismissed from his office of High Steward, and violently assailed by the Ministerial papers. For two years he played the part of a leader of Opposition, with great zeal, even, it is said, submitting to be bled by a noble amateur doctor in order to obtain his vote. On the fall of the Minister, however, Chesterfield was not included in the new Ministry, and continued in opposition, speaking very freely, and giving strong personal offence to George II. by an allusion to the battle of Dettingen. In 1744, however, Carteret fell, and " the broad-bottom " party forced their way in, and with them Chesterfield. He was, how- ever, at first only restored to his early embassy to the Hague with a seat in the Cabinet, the King struggling hard but vainly against conceding the latter, or even giving him a personal interview on
leaving for the Hague. As it was, when Chesterfield on parting asked his Majesty's commands, the King replied gruffly, "You have received your instructions, my Lord !" Towards the end of the year 1745, Chesterfield was transferred at his own request, and much to the surprise of his friends, to the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland, then looked upon as an easy sinecure, the viceroy receiv- ing the money and the Secretary for Ireland doing all the work, and manoyeng Ireland through the select " managing " families as they were called, of the Orange connection. But Chesterfield had another idea of the office. He longed for an arena in which he might act the affable sovereign and the impartial governor, and he had found it. There was in him, as in all the class to which the Stanhopes belong, a faint and intermittent, but still real, sense of social justice, and a covered but immoveable will. He appointed an. agreeable and unbusiness-like young man as the Secretary, and told him he was to take his salary but leave the work to the Lord- Lieutenant himself. He threw over the select Orange families, and had the audacity to employ a Roman Catholic as his coachman,. while he kept quiet the Catholic Jacobites by telling them in private that if they remained quiet they should have impartial justice, but if they rose in rebellion he would prove worse to them than Crom- well. He carried out fully this programme, and Ireland remained. under his rule more perfectly tranquil during the crisis of "the '45" than it had been for many years before. Chesterfield's administra- tion was a great success, for his government was firm, conciliatory, and upright, he eschewing all jobs, and clearing the adminis- tration of the jobbers. His theoretical notions of toleration, however, were as narrow as those of the other Whig statesmen_ of that age, and he thought that the best way of converting the Irish was not merely to give them the means of educa- tion, but to enforce the laws which held out a bribe to one member of a Catholic family to become a convert at the expense of the property of his kindred. In October, 1746, he con- sented to exchange the Lord-Lieutenancy for the Secretaryship of State in the English Government, being tempted by an idea that he could manage the King through Lady Yarmouth. He succeeded, indeed, in conciliating the King thoroughly ; but be failed in governing him, as the mistress was allowed no political influence; and the clever, insinuating, and plastic Chesterfield had soon the bard fate to find he was outmanceuvred, and made a nonentity, so far as the patronage of the Government was concerned, by the man he so much despised—the Duke of Newcastle. At last, in January, 1748, he could endure the mortification of his position. no longer, and resigned, retiring to his books, and only occasionally re-appearing in Parliament. He did one great service more, how- ever, to his country, by proposing and carrying, in 1751, the reform of the Calendar, against the most insane opposition out of doors. His retirement from public affairs was rendered permanent by his increasing deafness, and from this time Chesterfield may be said to disappear from the roll of public men. He had gone down to Whites the very evening of his resignation of office, and resumed the deep gambling which he had been able to intermit during the larger excitements of his public career. He also devoted himself now to the education of his illegitimate son, to whom the celebrated letters are addressed. Chesterfield had married a daughter of the Duchess of Kendal (George L's mistress), but had no children by her, and regarded her with indifference, holding matrimony itself in the light of a troublesome incumbrance. He was a man of pleasure, and his idea was to make his son not only a man of pleasure, but a model of a polished gentleman. All he succeeded in producing was a rather learned, heavy man, without an atom of grace or polish, who failed in the House of Commons, and only rose to be Envoy at Dresden. The son married secretly during his father's life, but preceded him to the tomb, leaving him to drag out a dreary and objectless old age. He adopted and tried to feel an interest in the next heir to the Earldom—a descendant of that Arthur Stanhope who was on such excellent terms with Cromwell —but the young man was completely uncongenial to him, and all he could do was to guard as far as possible against the possible effects of his tastes by a curious proviso in his will. The Earl had felt the mischief of gambling from his own experience, and he had always detested " the turf " as ungentlemanlike—so he pro- vided as follows :—" In ease my god-son, Philip Stanhope, shall at any time hereinafter keep, or be concerned in the keeping of any racehorses or pack of bounds, or reside one night at New- market, that infamous seminary of iniquity and M-manners, during the course of the races there, or shall resort to the said races, or shall lose in any one day, at any game or bet whatsoever, the sum of 5001., then, in any of the cases aforesaid, it is my express wish that he, my said god-son, shall forfeit and pay out of my estate the sum of 5,0001. to and for the use of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster:'
He said that this contingent bequest to the Dean and Chapter was occasioned by his having found them so sharp and exacting in some transactions with them respecting the land on which he had built Chesterfield House, that he was sure they would take care to exact any penalty incurred by his heir. Before his death his sight failed him as well as his hearing ; but he retained his mind and memory unimpaired, and when a Mr. Dayrolles called to see him, only half an hour before be died, the old Earl cried out from his bed, in a polite though faint tone, "Give Dayrolles a chair." He died on 24th March, 1773, in the 79th year of his age, and after his death, his son's widow collected all the letters the Earl had ad- dressed to her husband in the strictest confidence, and sold them to the booksellers for 1,5751. They rose at once to the popularity they have scarcely yet lost, and the fame of the old statesman who had passed his life in training himself fur greatness, who succeeded in governing Ireland, and who was, perhaps, of all Peers of his time, the one most competent to govern England, rests on a cor- respondence which he never dreamed of giving to the world. That correspondence has been defined as the "recipe for going to hell gracefully ; " but the letters are full, nevertheless, of a Roche- foucauldian wisdom, of deep knowledge of the world, and the few living thoughts they contain, have, as living thoughts do, survived all the work their author thought important. The Chesterfield's successor, Philip, the fifth Earl, was the father of the present Earl George, sixth of the name— a man chiefly known for his consistent Toryism, and his devotion to the amusement Lord Chesterfield prohibited in his will. The family retains its great properties almost unbroken, but exercises for the hour but little political influence.
The true epoch of the greatness of the Stanhopes is the reigns of the first Hanoverian Sovereigns. Then, besides Philip Dormer, the head of the Chesterfield branch, two other remarkable men built up the fortunes of the younger branches of the Stanhope family. These were James Stanhope, first Earl Stanhope, and William, first Earl of Harrington. The former of these, as we have already said, was son of Alexander, youngest son of the first Earl of Chesterfield. Alexander was appointed, through his nephew's interest, ambassador to Spain during the reign of the imbecile Charles IL, where, and at the Hague, he earned the character of a skilful and honourable representative. His son James was born in Paris in 1673, and after a short time passed at Oxford, where he made such use of his time as to be afterwards known for his classical learning—all the Stanhopes have an instinct for culture,—joined his father in the embassy at Madrid. In 1691, after a tour to Rome and Naples, he entered the army of the Duke of Savoy, and then served at the siege of Namur, under William III.'s own eye, and attracted his especial attention for gallantry. After a brief service in Parliament, as member for Newport and then for Cockermouth, the War of Succession drew him to Spain, in command of the vanguard of the expedition. In this capacity (combined with the diplomatic) he remained, contributing greatly to the earlier victories, till the disastrous defeat of Brihuega left him a prisoner of war till 1712. Meanwhile, not satisfied with his achievements as a soldier and diplomatist, he had (with many other officers of the army) availed himself from time to time of the regular cessation of hostilities during the winter season to attend in his place in Parliament, and had acquired a leading position in the House as a debater and manager of the Whig party. " Your return," wrote Walpole to him, " is the only good effect that I ever hoped from our celebrated peace." He showed his own dislike to the peace by refusing Bolingbroke's offer of a personal introduction to Louis XIV., and his antagonism to the Tories was so marked that they got Shippen appointed to the head of a commission to inquire into Stanhope's accounts during his Spanish services. Instead, however, of the balance turning against him, it proved to be in his favour, and he ironically thanked Shippen in the House for assisting him to get repaid. On the accession of George I. his political position was superior to that of Walpole, and he was appointed one of the principal Secretaries of State, Walpole only becoming Paymaster, Without a seat in the Cabinet. This relative position of the two, however, though it continued in the Court and Cabinet, was in the House of Commons soon changed—Stanhope, eloquent, vigorous, and clear-headed, was too impetuous, dictatorial, and, above all, indiscreet in his language. He boasted of deceiving the foreign ambassadors by telling them the truth ; but the English House of Commons preferred the cautious sagacity of Walpole. In 1716 occurred a political transaction which severed him from Townshend, and soon after from Walpole, and has exposed his memory to some obloquy. This was his journey to Hanover along with the King, and his alleged treachery to Townshend in suffering the intriguing Earl of Sunderland to have access to the King at that city, and in suddenly, in the midst of professions of friendship, ' writing a letter to Townshend announcing his dismissal from the Premiership. The present Earl has defended his ancestor with some vigour from the charge, but with only partial success. Wal- pole, a man singularly free from rancour, never forgave him, and on Townshend's final dismissal the Ministry was reformed. With Stanhope as Premier, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, and life and soul of the Government, the governing power of the family and its cosmopolitan tendencies had at last fair play. While governing England, Stanhope—who on the 2nd July was created Viscount Stanhope of Mahon (in Minorca), and Baron Stanhope of Elvaston, and in April, 1719, Earl Stanhope and Viscount Mahon—kept flying over the Continent as supreme diplomatist. No man so successful ever occupied such a post. He broke up all European leagues hostile to his policy, com- pelled the King of Spain to dismiss Alberoni, and by cementing a firm alliance with the Regent Orleans, reduced the hopes of the Jacobites to zero. All this while he so ruled his party that Walpole and Townshend felt it expedient to sink their personal feud, and re-enter the Ministry under him as Paymaster and President of the Council. In the height of his success he was seized with a sudden dizziness, and died after leas than one day's illness, on 6th February, 1721. His success seems to have been owing first to his genuine mental power, and a certain arrogance of temper often found in successful English statesmen ; secondly, to the excessive prominence of foreign politics which he alone understood; and lastly, to a real contempt for money unusual in that age. Of the landed possessions, says his descendant, " which his representative now enjoys, scarcely one-fifth is derived from him."
He purchased, however, from the heiresses of Lenuard Lord Sussex, the manor of Chevening, in Kent, still the chief seat of his family. His successor Philip, second Earl, devoted his life to science, as did Earl Chary, the third Earl, the husband of Lady Hester Pitt, and the Peer whose eccentricities and democratic opinions fill so curious a chapter in the history of the reign of George III. His son Philip-Henry, the fourth and late Earl, was also distinguished by a character and a line in politics which attracted considerable attention, being a democrat under the guise of an ultra-Tory. His son, also Philip Henry, the fifth Earl, is the accomplished noble who has made the founder illustrious by his history, and whose " War of the Succession " will probably live when the Stanhopes are forgotten. He is the one man of the aristocratic caste who writes like a Peer, brings, that is, to his history the maturity of judgment, the weight of style and thought, which should belong to men trained to affairs from boyhood. Though a Tory in politics his Toryism is rather royalism, a disposition to increase executive power, than that sullen resistance to all change usually defined by that nickname.
William Stanhope, the founder of the Harrington branch of the Stanhopes, was descended from Sir John Stanhope, half-brother of the first Earl of Chesterfield, who had Elvaston, in Derby- shire, as his portion. He was a younger son, but his elder brothers dying, he inherited the paternal estates, and led a career singularly like that of his fortunate cousin, first Earl Stanhope. He was a diplomatist of high merit and a gallant soldier, and his field of action was chiefly Spain. His services forced him upwards, notwithstanding the dislike which Walpole cherished to the name of Stanhope in consequence of his quarrel with the Earl, and at last, after having concluded successfully the treaty of Seville, William Stanhope was raised to the Peerage as Baron Harrington (November 9, 1729), and on the resignation of Lord Townshend succeeded him as Secretary of State. Here his know- ledge of foreign affairs was of great service, as in the case of his cousin the Earl, but unlike him, he was a silent member of Parlia- ment. He attached himself particularly to the fortunes of the Duke of Newcastle, who had first brought him into favour with the King. He was a quiet, sagacious, observing man. The Portuguese Ambassador said of him, " Lord Harrington was not accus- tomed to interrupt those who spoke to him." He made no personal enemies, and he disarmed all political hostility by his conciliatory tact, so that he escaped wonderfully from the libels of the day. His integrity is highly spoken of, and, indeed, Newcastle has the merit of securing disinterested colleagues, since he always appropriated the jobbing to himself. Lord Harrington served in some other posts of Government, and from the end of 1716 to 1751 he was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. He succeeded iu this post his cousin, the Earl of Chesterfield—the exchange of offices being forwarded by the coolness of the King towards Harrington, who had seceded in February, 1746, in order to gratify Newcastle, who, of course, in return only lent him a feeble support. His Irish administration has left no special mark in history, but on February 9th, 1742, he was raised to the Peerage as Viscount Petersham and Earl of Harrington. He died, September 8, 1756. His son and grandson, William and Charles, second and third Earls of Harrington, require no special notice except that the former, who took to a military career, distinguished himself at the battle of Fontenoy. The two succeeding Earls, Charles and Leicester, fourth and fifth Earls, were brothers. The former was known in early life as a leader of fashion and the husband of Miss Foote, the latter as an eccentric man of a shade of politics which it was difficult to define, except, perhaps, by saying that he held every opinion for exactly the opposite reason assigned by other persons, and his political career, neither Whig nor Tory, was repleted by some similar paradoxical ride. His son, the present Earl, is a minor.
Possessed of three Earldoms and great estates, with a history which is for four reigns that of Great Britain, the descendants of Somerset's henchman rank among the greatest families of the land, and their double history is, perhaps, best told in one curious fact. While they have governed Ireland and conquered Spain, distinguished themselves as diplomatists, litte'rateurs, and scholars, and furnished one great Premier, they are still known to the public chiefly by three contributions to social life—the Chesterfield coat, the Petersham hat, and the Stanhope carriage.
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