men among us who "either out of curiosity, or for the sake of gain,"
would make it their business to keep up the knowledge of Latin, and
that a very few of such antiquarians would suffice to give the country
all the information drawn from Latin records which it could possibly
require or care to have. We have had some experience since that time,
and it does not appear that the disuse of Latin in our legal documents
has led to its falling into absolute disuse among reading men. There
are still among us, and apparently will always be, persons who, "either
out of curiosity, or for the sake of gain," keep up their knowledge of
Latin. {303} The curiosity to read Virgil and Horace and Cicero and
Caesar, in the tongue which those authors employed, is more keen than
it ever was before. Men indulge themselves freely in it, even without
reference to the sake of gain.

[Sidenote: 1731--Quarrel of Walpole and Townshend]

Meanwhile a change long foreseen by those who were in the inner
political circles was rapidly approaching. The combination between
Walpole and his brother-in-law, Lord Townshend, was about to be broken
up. It had for a long time been a question whether it was to be the
firm of Townshend and Walpole, or Walpole and Townshend; and of late
years the question was becoming settled. If the firm was to endure at
all, it must clearly be Walpole and Townshend. Walpole had been
growing every day in power and influence. The King, as well as the
Queen, treated him openly and privately as the head of the Government.
Townshend saw this, and felt bitterly aggrieved. He had for a long
time been a much more powerful personage socially than Walpole, and he
could not bear with patience the supremacy which Walpole was all too
certainly obtaining. Great part of that supremacy was due to Walpole's
superiority of talents; but something was due also to the fact that the
House of Commons was becoming a much more important assembly than the
House of Lords. The result was inevitable. Townshend for a long time
struggled against it. He tried to intrigue against Walpole; he did his
best to ingratiate himself with the King. He was a man of austere
character and stainless life; but he seems, nevertheless, to have tried
at one time the merest arts of the political intriguer to supplant his
brother-in-law in the favor and confidence of the King. Perhaps he
might have succeeded--it is at least possible--but for the watchful
intelli