William Godwin - 1784 - Instructions to a Statesman.pdf - William Godwin [1756-1836] - Kabel_B

I N S T R U C T I O N S

TO A

S T A T E S M A N.

HUMBLY INSCRIBED TO

T H E R I G H T H O N O U R A B L E

GEORGE EARL TEMPLE.

----------------

LO N D O N:

Printed for J. MURRAY, Fleet-Street; J. DEBRETT, Piccadilly; and J. SEWELL, Cornhill.

M.DCC.LXXXIV.

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

GEORGE EARL TEMPLE.

MY LORD,

THE following papers fell into my hands by one of those unaccountable accidents, so frequent in

human life, but which in the relation appear almost incredible. I will not however trouble your

lordship with the story. If they be worthy of the press, it is of no great consequence to the public

how they found their way thither. If they afford your lordship a moment's amusement, amidst the

weightier cares incident to your rank and fortune, I have obtained my end.

A 2

D E D I C A T I O N.

I have endeavoured in vain to investigate who was their author, and to whom they were addressed.

It should seem, from the internal evidence of the composition, that they were written by a person,

who was originally of a low rank or a menial station, but who was distinguished by his lord for

those abilities and talents, he imagined he discovered in him. I have learned, by a kind of vague

tradition, upon which I can place little dependence, that the noble pupil was the owner of a

magnificent chateau not a hundred miles from your lordship's admired seat in the county of

Buckingham. It is said that this nobleman, amidst a thousand curiosities with which his gardens

abounded, had the unac-

D E D I C AT I O N.

-countable whim of placing a kind of artificial hermit in one of its wildest and most solitary

recesses. This hermit it seems was celebrated through the whole neighbourhood, for his ingenuity in

the carving of tobacco-stoppers, and a variety of other accomplishments. Some of the peasants even

mistook him for a conjuror. If I might be allowed in the conjectural licence of an editor, I should be

inclined to ascribe the following composition to this celebrated and ingenious solitaire.

Since however this valuable tract remains without an owner, I thought it could not be so properly

addressed to any man as your lordship. I would not however

D E D I C A T I O N.

be misunderstood. I do not imagine that the claim this performance has upon the public attention,

consists in the value and excellence of it's precepts. On the contrary, I consider it as the darkest and

most tremendous scheme for the establishment of despotism that ever was contrived. If the public

enter into my sentiments upon the subject, they will consider it as effectually superseding

Machiavel's celebrated treatise of The Prince, and exhibiting a more deep-laid and desperate system

of tyranny. For my part, I esteem these great and destructive vices of so odious a nature, that they

need only be exposed to the general view in order to the being scouted by all. And if, which indeed

I cannot possibly

D E D I C AT I O N.

vii

believe, there has been any noble lord in this kingdom mean enough to have studied under such a

preceptor, I would willingly shame him out of his principles, and hold up to him a glass which shall

convince him how worthy he is of universal contempt and abhorrence.

The true reason, my lord, for which I have presumed to prefix your name to these sheets is, that the

contrast between the precepts they contain, and the ingenuous and manly character that is

universally attributed to your lordship, may place them more strongly in the light they deserve. And

yet I doubt not there will be some readers perverse enough to imagine that you are the true object of

the

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D E D I C A T I O N.

composition. They will find out some of those ingenious coincidences, by which The Rape of the

Lock, was converted into a political poem, and the Telemaque of the amiable Fenelon into a satire

against the government under which he lived. I might easily appeal, against these treacherous

commentators, to the knowledge of all men respecting every corner of your lordship's gardens at

Stowe. I might boldly defy any man to say, that they now contain, or ever did contain, one of these

artificial hermits. But I will take up your lordship's defence upon a broader footing. I will

demonstrate how contrary the character of your ancestors and your own have always been to the

spirit and

D E D I C A T I O N.

temper here inculcated. If this runs me a little into the beaten style of dedication, even the modestly

of your lordship will excuse me, when I have so valuable a reason for adopting it.

I shall confine myself, my lord, in the few thoughts I mean to suggest upon this head, to your two

more immediate ancestors, men distinguished above the common rate, by their virtues or their

abilities. Richard earl Temple, your lordship 's immediate predecessor, as the representative of your

illustrious house, will be long remembered by posterity under the very respectable title of the friend

of the earl of Chatham. But though his friend, my lord, we well know

D E D I C A T I O N.

that he did not implicitly follow the sentiments of a man, who was assuredly the first star in the

political hemisphere, and whose talents would have excused, if any thing could have excused, an

unsuspecting credulity. The character of lord Chatham was never, but in one instance, tarnished. He

did not sufficiently dread the omnipotence of the favourite. He fondly imagined that before a

character so brilliant, and success so imposing as his had been, no little system of favouritism could

keep its ground. Twice, my lord, he was upon the brink of the precipice, and once he fell. When he

trembled on the verge, who was it that held him back? It was Richard earl Temple. Twice he came,

D E D I C A T I O N.

his guardian angel, and snatched him from his fate. Lord Chatham indeed was formed to champ the

bit, and spurn indignant at every restraint. He knew the superiority of his abilities, he recollected

that he had twice submitted to the honest counsels of his friend, and he disdained to listen any

longer to a coolness, that assimilated but ill to the adventurousness of his spirit; and to a hesitation,

that wore in his apprehension the guise of timidity. What then did Richard earl Temple do? There

he fixed his standard, and there he pitched his tent. Not a step farther would he follow a leader,

whom to follow had been the boast of his life. He erected a fortress that might one day prove the

safeguard of his misguided and unsuspecting friend.

b 2

xii

D E D I C A T I O N.

And yet, my lord, the character of Richard earl Temple, was not that of causeless suspicion. He

proved himself, in a thousand instances, honest, trusting, and sincere. He was not, like some men,

that you and I know, dark, dispassionate, and impenetrable. On the contrary, no man mistook him,

no man ever charged him with a double conduct or a wrinkled heart. His countenance was open,

and his spirit was clear. He was a man of passions, my lord. He acted in every momentous concern,

more from the dictates of his heart, than his head. But this is the key to his conduct; He kept a

watchful eye upon that bane of every patriot minister, secret influence . If there were one feature in

his political

D E D I C A T I O N.

xiii

history more conspicuous than the rest, if I were called to point out the line of discrimination

between his character and that of his contemporaries upon the public stage, it would be the hatred

of secret influence .

Such, my lord, was one of your immediate ancestors, whose name, to this day, every honest Briton

repeats with veneration. I will turn to another person, still more nearly related to you, and who will

make an equal figure in the history of the age in which he lived, Mr. George Grenville. His

character has been represented to us by a writer of no mean discernment as that of "shrewd and

inflexible." He was a man of indefatigable in-

xiv

D E D I CA T I O N.

-dustry and application. He possessed a found understanding, and he trusted it. This is a respectable

description. Integrity and independency however mistaken, are entitled to praise. What was it, my

lord, that he considered as the ruin of his reputation? What was it, that defeated all the views of an

honed ambition, and deprived his country of the services, which his abilities, under proper

direction, were qualified to render it? My lord, it was secret influence . It was in vain for ministers to

be able to construct their plans with the highest wisdom, and the most unwearied diligence; it was

in vain that they came forward like men, and risqued their places, their characters, their all, upon

measures, how

D E D I C A T I O N.

-ever arduous, that they thought necessary for the salvation of their country. They were defeated, by

what, my lord? By abilities greater than their own? By a penetration that discovered blots in their

wisest measures? By an opposition bold and adventurous as themselves? No: but, by the lords of

the bed chamber ; by a "band of Janiffaries who surrounded the person of the prince, and were ready

to strangle the minister upon the nod of a moment."

With these illustrious examples ever rushing upon your memory, no man can doubt that your

lordship has inherited that detestation of influence , by which your ancestors were so honourably

distin-

xvi

D E D I C A T I O N.

-guished. My lord, having considered the high expectations, which the virtues of your immediate

progenitors had taught us to form upon the heir of them both, we will recollect for a moment the

promises that your first outset in life had made to your country.

One of your lordship's first actions upon record, consists in the high professions you made at the

county meeting of Buckingham, in that ever-venerable aera of oeconomy and reform, the spring

of1780. My lord, there are certain offices of sinecure, not dependent upon the caprice of a minister,

which this country has reserved to reward those illustrious statesmen, who have spent their lives,

D E D I C A T I O N.

xvii

and worn out their constitutions in her service. No man will wonder, when he recollects from whom

your lordship has the honour to be descended, that one of these offices is in your possession. This,

my lord, was the subject of your generous and disinterested professions. You told your countrymen,

that with this office you were ready to part. If a reformation so extensive were thought necessary,

you were determined, not merely to be no obstacle to the design, but to be a volunteer in the service.

You came forward in the eye of the world, with your patent in your hand. You were ready to

sacrifice that parchment, the precious instrument of personal wealth and private benevolence, at the

shrine of patriotism.

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D E D I C A T I O N.

Here then, my lord, you stood pledged to your country. What were we not to expect from the first

patriot of modern story? Your lordship will readily imagine that our expectations were boundless

and indefinite. "Glorious and immortal man!" we cried, "go on in this untrodden path. We will no

longer look with drooping and cheerless anxiety upon the misfortunes of Britain, we have a

resource for them all. The patriot of Stowe is capable of every thing. He does not resemble the

vulgar herd of mortals, he does not form his conduct upon precedent, nor defend it by example.

Virtue of the first impression was never yet separated from genius."

D E D I C A T I O N.

xix

"We will trust then in the expedients of his inexhaustible mind. We will look up to him as our

assured deliverer. --We are well acquainted with the wealth of the proprietor of Stowe. Thanks,

eternal thanks to heaven, who has bestowed it with so liberal a hand! We consider it as a deposit for

the public good. We count his acres, and we calculate his income, for we know that it is, in the best

sense of the word, our own."

My lord, there are the prejudices, which Englishmen have formed in your favour. They cannot

refuse to bull a man, descended from so illustrious progenitors. They cannot suspect any-

D E D I C A T I O N.

-thing dark and dishonourable in the generous donor of 2700 l . a year. Let then the commentators

against whom I am providing, abjure the name of Briton, or let them pay the veneration that is due

to a character, in every view of the subject, so exalted as that of your lordship.

I have the honour to be,

MY LORD,

with the most unfeigned respect,

your lordship's

most obedient,

most devoted servant.

I N S T R U C T I O N S

T O A

S TAT E S M A N.

MY LORD,

I HAVE long considered as the greatest happiness of my life, the having so promising a pupil as

William Godwin - 1784 - Instructions to a Statesman.pdf

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