Mine, as a foe professed to false pretence, P. So proud, I am no slave; The spirit and animation of this poem are the measure of the ardent hopes of a still united Opposition. Popular exasperation against Walpole, increasing through the year 1738, culminated in the Convention by which he sought to settle the national dispute with Spain; and his adversaries taking advantage of the general sentiment prepared, in February, 1739, for a grand attack. The Minister anticipated them by making his brother Horace move an amendment to their motion, thanking the King for the Convention. After a hot debate the amendment was carried by a small majority. Thereupon the Opposition carried out a scheme which had long been a. favourite with Bolingbroke. Wyndham rose in his place, and declaring that he could no longer share the responsibility for the acts of such an assembly, left the House, followed by the majority of the anti-Ministerial party. Outside the House the Opposition continued to plot the downfall of Walpole. Pope's villa was chosen as the scene of their counsels. He has himself described the gathering in his "Egerian grot, Where nobly pensive St. John sate and thought; And the bright flame was shot from Marchmont's soul." The Prince and Princess of Wales (the latter, we may suppose, in the character of Egeria'), attended these meetings and freely delivered their opinions. But they were no longer at the head of a united party. The secession from Parlia VOL. V. Y ment had plainly revealed the dissensions in the various sections of the Opposition, and the correspondence between Pope and Lyttelton faithfully reflects the despondency which had in consequence fallen upon the leaders. One party among the anti-Walpolian Whigs, headed by Pulteney and Carteret, had, as has been already said, all along disapproved of setting up the Prince against his father. Another section, including Lyttelton and all the younger members of the Opposition, were for carrying this policy still further, and were prepared to urge the separation of Hanover from England. Others, like Lord Cornbury, disgusted with the factiousness of the party, had refused to leave the House of Commons; while Shippen, the leader of the Jacobites, openly professed his indifference as to the issue of a struggle which involved nothing but a change of Ministry. A letter from the enthusiastic Lyttelton to Pope speaks the sentiments of those who were animated with the idea of a 'Patriot King. After exhorting the poet to use his great influence over the mind of the Prince, Lyttelton continues: "If the sacred fire, which by you and other honest men has been kindled in his mind, can be preserved, we may yet be safe. But if it go out it is a presage of ruin and we must be lost. For the age is far too corrupted to reform itself; it must be done by those upon or near the throne or not at all. They must restore what we ourselves have given up; they must save us from our own vices and follies; they must bring back the taste of honesty, and the sense of honour, which the fashion of knavery has almost destroyed."1 Pope, in his reply, informs Lyttelton of the line of policy which, after one of the Grotto conferences, Sir William Wyndham is disposed to adopt: "He is fully persuaded that the part taken by his R. H. opens an opportunity of rectifying these errors by retrieving and preventing these mischiefs; but he thinks his R. H. should exert his whole influence first to prepare, and then to back the new measure: who the Letter from Lyttelton to Pope of October 25, 1789. moment it takes place will be the head of the party, and those two persons [i.e., Pulteney and Carteret] cease so to be at that instant. "That it is proper to continue to live with them, however, in all the same terms of friendly intercourse, and with the same appearance of intimacy, may so strengthen the plea to it by showing how extremely they have been trusted, deferred to, and comply'd with. "That all persons (many of which there certainly are) as may be determined to join in the pursuit of the original measures of the Opposition, should be determined by all sorts of private application (whether Whigs or Tories), but by no means apply'd to in the collective body, or too generally, but in separate conversations and arguments. "That upon every important occasion the things resolv'd upon shall be pushed by the persons in this secret, how much soever the others may hang off, which will reduce these to the dilemma of joyning with the Court or of following their friends with no good grace.”1 The over-cleverness of these schemes, so characteristic of all Bolingbroke's strategy, met with no success, and accordingly, though Walpole's unpopularity increased daily, and the day of his downfall approached, the utterances of the Prince of Wales' followers breathe nothing but anger and disappointment. Their feelings are reflected in the curious fragment by Pope entitled '1740,' where all sections, and almost every member, of the Opposition, are impartially abused. The pertinacity with which the school of Bolingbroke clung to their favourite idea is illustrated in a very interesting manner by the concluding lines of this poem: "Alas! on one alone our all relies, Let him be honest, and he must be wise; A [king's] true glory his integrity; Rich with his [Britain] in his [Britain] strong, His public virtue make his title good. 1 Letter from Pope to Lyttelton, No. 7, Vol. IX., p. 179. It is worth observing that Pope's love of ambiguity appears very strongly in the last couplet but one of these verses, which may evidently be construed as referring either to the Prince of Wales or the Pretender. CHAPTER XV. THE CLOSING YEARS OF POPE'S LIFE. Assists Dodsley, Savage, and Johnson-Attack of Crousaz on the 'Essay on Man-Warburton-The New Dunciad'-Quarrel with CibberRalph Allen-Martha Blount and the Allens-Pope's Will-Last Illness and Death-Bolingbroke's attack on Pope's memory-Character of Atossa. 1739-1744. Ir must not be forgotten that Pope's character shows another side from that of inordinate self-love. While he was descending to petty frauds for the exaltation of his reputation, and was loudly proclaiming his own virtue in his satires upon the age, he was frequently engaged in those acts of unostentatious charity which obviously made up a considerable portion of his life. Many of these deeds of kindness were on behalf of men engaged in a struggle for success in or through literature. Thus when Dodsley first started as a publisher, Pope, who had been pleased with his poem The Toyshop,' gave him liberal assistance. Richard Savage had in earlier years rendered him some small services in procuring him information concerning the dunces with whom he was at war, and in fathering documents to which he did not care to set his own name. The poet in return had done all that he could to place his assistant in a position of ease and independence. This was no very agreeable task. Savage had unquestionable genius, but, like Pope and many other men of strong imagination, his vanity prevented him from believing that he could ever do wrong. He was at once arrogant and servile; a beggar and a would-be man of fashion; he accepted charity willingly, but thought himself entitled to rail at his benefactors whenever they crossed his |