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a union between himself and a statesman who was the least hostile of the Whigs to their opponents; and then Harley, had health permitted, might have had some years of tranquil power. Instead, not only did he find himself permanently excluded from office, but he became, as Bolingbroke said with bitter truth, "the object of the derision of the Whigs and of the indignation of the Tories." He tried, in an age of extreme political passions, to be tolerant and moderate, but his good intentions involved him in intrigues and political manœuvres, on which it has been his misfortune that history has dwelt to the exclusion of any appreciation of the sterling qualities which he certainly possessed, and of the difficulties of a career which was a perpetual dilemma; for he had not attained the capacity of the modern statesman, to deny some principles in order to obtain the effectuating of others. As has been well said of an incomparably greater man, "Nature had endowed him with a power of keeping his own counsel, that was sometimes to pass for dissimulation." This capacity, as well as his moderation, made men throughout his life doubtful of his good faith. His policy in the last years of office seemed to his contemporaries a confirmation of all the suspicions which had gathered round his career, and so gave him a reputation with posterity more evil than was deserved.

Jealousy and fear of the Nonconformists-increasing as they were in wealth and influence-was the strongest idea in the Tory mind at the end of the reign of Queen Anne, and as the Church of England was as yet far too powerful to permit, for many years, the admittance of Nonconformists to all the privileges of citizenship, inevitable as in time that change might be, it was certain that for Harley even to temporise on this question made it impossible for him to continue as leader of the Tories. It is probable that Harley perceived the critical point in his political career at which he had arrived, but his failure to take the bold and, indeed, the only safe action, as we now see it was, resulted in his loss alike of his high office and, what was worse, of his political honour. And yet, whether he intended it or not, at this time and by action unfortunate for his reputation, he was doing England a service. He prevented Bolingbroke and the extreme Tories from carrying out schemes which, whether they were treasonable or not, would have greatly disturbed the tranquillity of the country. He so temporised with his colleagues and with the Pretender, that these plans were deferred, and the Elector succeeded peacefully to the throne. If Harley could have passed safely through the crisis of a new succession, it is not impossible that his close and friendly intercourse with Halifax would have resulted in

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a union between himself and a statesman who was the least hostile of the Whigs to their opponents; and then Harley, had health permitted, might have had some years of tranquil power. Instead, not only did he find himself permanently excluded from office, but he became, as Bolingbroke said with bitter truth, "the object of the derision of the Whigs and of the indignation of the Tories." He tried, in an age of extreme political passions, to be tolerant and moderate, but his good intentions involved him in intrigues and political manoeuvres, on which it has been his misfortune that history has dwelt to the exclusion of any appreciation of the sterling qualities which he certainly possessed, and of the difficulties of a career which was a perpetual dilemma; for he had not attained the capacity of the modern statesman, to deny some principles in order to obtain the effectuating of others. As has been well said of an incomparably greater man, "Nature had endowed him with a power of keeping his own counsel, that was sometimes to pass for dissimulation." This capacity, as well as his moderation, made men throughout his life doubtful of his good faith. His policy in the last years of office seemed to his contemporaries a confirmation of all the suspicions which had gathered round his career, and so gave him a reputation with posterity more evil than was deserved.

CHAPTER IX

THE BOOK-COLLECTOR. THE FRIEND OF MEN OF LETTERS

HARLEY'S TASTE FOR COLLECTING BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS— A FASHION OF THE AGE-HARLEY AS A SCHOLAR-HUMPHREY WANLEY-ADDITION OF THE D'EWES COLLECTION TO THE LIBRARY-ENLARGED BY EDWARD, Earl of Oxford-ITS DISPERSAL-THE MANUSCRIPTS PURCHASED FOR THE NATIONHARLEY'S FRIENDSHIP WITH MEN OF LEtters-Swift, Prior, ARBUTHNOT, GAY-THE BROTHERS' CLUB-THE SCRIBLERUS CLUB-POLITICS AND LETTERS IN THE AGE OF ANNE.

OME knowledge of the manner in which an

SOM

eminent man occupies his hours of leisure helps to elucidate character, and sometimes throws light on motives. When we think of Burke sauntering thoughtfully and observantly over his farm at Beaconsfield, we more readily understand him; and when we recall the hot, mad midnight hours which Charles Fox so keenly enjoyed round the gambling tables in St. James' Street, we realise more clearly the nature of the ardent politician who gloried in debate. Nor shall we have completed a study of Robert Harley if we consider him only as a statesman; we must picture him carefully purchasing and laboriously perusing his

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manuscripts. There is another reason, too, why his pastime interests this generation-it helped to create the national collection which now exists at the British Museum, which gives to his name a celebrity besides that which belongs to him as one of the first party leaders of the eighteenth century.

To the collecting of rare books and manuscripts Harley brought the same perseverance, the same choice of competent assistants, as to his political business; and in his taste for topographical and antiquarian works is visible the early ardour for documentary research that enabled him to become a high authority on parliamentary history and precedents. Among his books Harley found recreation, and while Godolphin passed his leisure in watching his horses on Newmarket Heath, his successor was creating the collection of which the manuscripts were hereafter to become the property of the English people. In this pursuit Harley was not singular, since in his day it was a fashion of the aristocracy and higher clergy. At Althorp the Earl of Sunderland, Harley's most bitter political antagonist, brought together a costly library; and students even complained that the Quality, for their pleasure, purchased literary and antiquarian rarities at a price beyond the means of poor men who needed them for the purpose of their work. It was a characteristic feature of a society which,