ral party become discontented
with the policy of their leaders. When the first opportunity arises
they make a public declaration against that policy. In the
Conservative ranks there are to be found some other men, also able and
also discontented, to whom the general policy of Opposition seems
unsatisfactory and feeble. Each of these discontented parties fancies
itself to be truly patriotic, public-spirited, and independent. The
two factions at length unite for the common good of the country; they
tell the world that they are patriots, that they are the only patriots,
and the world for a while believes them. This was the condition of
things when Pulteney in Parliament joined with Sir William Wyndham, the
extreme Jacobite, the Wyndham who is mentioned in Pope's poem about his
Twickenham grotto, the Wyndham with whom Bolingbroke corresponded for
many years, and to whom he addressed one of his most important
political manifestoes. Sir William Wyndham belonged to an old
Somersetshire family. He was a staunch Tory. He had powerful
connections; his first wife was a daughter of the haughty Duke of
Somerset. He entered Parliament and made a considerable figure there.
He had been Secretary at War and afterwards Chancellor of the Exchequer
under the Tories; he had clung to Bolingbroke's fortunes at the time of
Bolingbroke's {289} rupture with Harley. He underwent the common fate
of Tory statesmen on the accession of George the First; he was deprived
of office, was accused of taking part in the Jacobite conspiracy, and
was committed to the Tower. There was, however, no evidence against
him, and he resumed his political career. His eloquence is described
by Speaker Onslow as "strong, full, and without affectation, arising
chiefly from his clearness, propriety, and argumentation; in the method
of which last, by a sort of induction almost peculiar to himself, he
had a force beyond any man I ever heard in public debates." Lord
Hervey, who can be trusted not to overdo the praise of any one, says of
Wyndham that "he was very far from having first-rate parts, but by a
gentleman-like general behavior, a constant attendance in the House of
Commons, a close application to the business of it, and frequent
speaking, he had got a sort of Parliamentary routine, and without being
a bright speaker was a popular one, well heard, and useful to his
party." So far as we now can judge, this seems a very correct estimate
of Wyndham's Parlia