ng, specially arranged by Providence, that one Englishman is a match
for at least any six Spaniards, Frenchmen, or other contemptible
foreigners! Walpole's great intellectual want was the lack of
imagination. If he had possessed more imagination, he would have been
not only a greater orator, but a greater debater. He would have seen
more clearly the effect of an argument on men with minds and
temperaments unlike his own. In this particular instance the appeal to
what he would have considered cool common-sense was utterly damaging to
him. Pulteney pounced on him at once. "From longer forbearance," he
exclaimed, "we have everything to fear; from acting vigorously we have
everything to hope." He admitted that a war with Spain was to be
avoided, if it could be avoided with honor; but, he asked, "will it
ever be the opinion of an English statesman that, in order to avoid
inconvenience, we are to embrace a dishonor? Where is the brave man,"
he demanded, "who in a just cause will submissively lie down under
insults? No!--in such a case he will do all that prudence and
necessity dictate in order to procure satisfaction, and leave the rest
to Providence." Pulteney spoke with undisguised contempt of the
sensitive honor of the Spanish people. "I do not see," he
declared--and this was meant as a keen personal thrust at Walpole--"how
we can comply with the form of Spanish punctilio without sacrificing
some of the essentials of British honor. Let gentlemen but consider
whether our prince's and our country's honor is not as much engaged to
revenge our injuries as the honor of the Spaniards can be to support
their insolence." There never, probably, was a House of Commons so
cool-headed and cautious as not to be stirred out of reason and into
passion by so well-contrived an appeal. The appeal was followed up by
others. "Perhaps," Sir William Wyndham said, "if we lose the character
of being good fighters, we shall at least gain that {157} of being
excellent negotiators." But he would not leave to Walpole the full
benefit of even that doubtful change of character. "The character of a
mere negotiator," he insisted, "had never been affected by England
without her losing considerable, both in her interest at home and her
influence abroad. This truth will appear plainly to any one who
compares the figure this nation made in Europe under Queen Elizabeth
with the figure she made under her successor, King James the First.
The fi