lopment in the right
direction, and almost unbroken national prosperity. The foreign policy
of Walpole was, on the whole, no less sound and just than his policy at
home. His first ambition was to keep England out of wars with foreign
Powers. Yet his was not the ambition which some later statesmen,
especially, for example, Mr. Bright, have owned--the ambition to keep
England free of any foreign policy whatever. Such an ambition was not
Walpole's, and such an ambition at Walpole's time it would have been
all but impossible to realize. Walpole knew well that there was no way
of keeping England out of foreign wars at that season of political
growth but by securing for her a commanding influence in Continental
affairs. Such influence he set himself to establish, and he succeeded
in establishing it by friendly and satisfactory alliances with France
and other Powers. Turning back for a moment into the political affairs
of a year or two previous, we may remark that one of the consequences
of the Mississippi scheme, and the reign of Mr. Law in France, had been
the recall of Lord Stair from the French Court, to which he was
accredited as English ambassador. Lord Stair quarrelled with Law when
Law was all-powerful; and in order to propitiate the financial
dictator, it was found convenient to recall Stair from Paris. England
had been well served by him as her ambassador at the French Court. We
have already said something of Lord Stair--his ability, courage, and
dexterity, his winning ways, and his fearless spirit. John Dalrymple,
second Earl of Stair, was one of the remarkable men of his time. He
was a scholar and an orator, a soldier and a diplomatist. He had
fought with conspicuous bravery and skill under William the Third and
under Marlborough. He appears to have combined a daring that looked
like recklessness with a cool calculation which made it prudence. On
Marlborough's fall, Lord Stair fell with him. He was deprived of all
his public offices, and was plunged into a condition of {226} something
like poverty. When George the First came to the throne, Stair was
taken into favor again, and as a special tribute to his diplomatic
capacity was sent to represent England at the Court of France. There
he displayed consummate sagacity, foresight, and firmness. He
contrived to make himself acquainted beforehand with everything the
Jacobites were doing. This, as may be seen by Bolingbroke's
complaints, was easy enough