-five. He had been struck with palsy some months before, and
then for the first time withdrew from public life. Walpole observes,
that his life had been a proof that, "even in a free country, great
abilities are not necessary to govern it." Industry, perseverance, and
intrigue, gave him that duration of power "which shining talents, and
the favour of the crown, could not secure to Lord Granville, nor the
first rank in eloquence, or the most brilliant services, to Lord
Chatham. Rashness overset Lord Granville's parts, and presumptuous
impracticability Lord Chatham; while adventitious cunning repaired
Newcastle's folly." Such is the explanation of one of the most curious
phenomena of the time, by one of its most ingenious lookers-on. But
the explanation is not sufficient. It is impossible to conceive, how
mere cunning could have sustained any man for a quarter of a century
in the highest ministerial rank; while that rank was contested from
day to day by men of every order of ability. Since the days of
Bolingbroke, there have been no examples of ministerial talent, equal
to those exhibited, in both Houses, in the day of the Duke of
Newcastle. Chatham was as ambitious as any man that ever lived, and
full of the faculties that make ambition successful. The Butes, the
Bedfords, the Hollands, the Shelburnes, exhibited every shape and
shade of cabinet dexterity, of court cabal, of popular influence, and
of political knowledge and reckless intrigue. Yet the Duke of
Newcastle, with remarkable personal disadvantages--a ridiculous
manner, an ungainly address, speech without the slightest pretension
to eloquence, and the character of extreme ignorance on general
subjects--preserved his power almost to the extreme verge of life; and
to the last was regarded as playing a most important part in the
counsels of the country. Unless we believe in magic, we must believe
that this man, with all his oddity of manner, possessed some
remarkable faculty, by which he saw his way clearly through
difficulties impervious to more showy minds. He must have deeply
discovered the means of attaching the monarch, of acting upon the
legislature, and of controlling the captiousness of the people. He
must have had practical qualities of a remarkable kind; and his is not
the first instance, in which such qualities, in the struggles of
government, bear away the prize. Thus, in later times, we have seen
Lord Liverpool minister for eleven years, and holding powe