the contest. At length his followers became dispirited and refractory, while some of his colleagues were more than suspected of treachery; a panic, as he himself states, took place among his supporters, and even his brother, his three sons, and all his trustiest friends, combined in most earnestly urging him to resign. Moved by their entreaties, though with extreme reluctance, on the 31st of January, 1742, he formed the resolution to retire, and a few days later resigned all his places, and was created Earl of Orford, with an additional patent of £4000 a year. A furious popular outcry was made for vengeance on the fallen minister, and his enemies carried by a small majority in the house of commons a motion to appoint a secret committee to investigate his conduct. But though the majority of its members were hostile to Walpole, they were compelled to acknowledge that they had failed to make good their charges against him. They therefore called for new powers, and a bill was introduced to indemnify witnesses, or, as it has been justly said, "to reward all who might give evidence, true or false, against the earl of Orford." But this measure was rejected in the upper house by a large majority, and the enemies of the once powerful minister were compelled to desist from their attempts to disturb his retirement. He survived his downfall only three years, and died after a painful illness, 18th March, 1745, in the sixty-ninth year of his age.
Walpole was a great minister rather than a great man. His talents were eminently practical, and he had a rare capacity for the management of public affairs. He was "an excellent parliamentary debater, an excellent parliamentary tactician, and an excellent man of business." He had no pretensions to be a profound scholar or even a well-informed man. His education had been very much neglected; "and in general," says his son, "he loved neither reading nor writing," and his literature, it has been said, consisted of a scrap or two of Horace and an anecdote or two from the end of the dictionary. He was very imperfectly acquainted with the history even of his own country. He knew nothing of French, and as George I. knew no English, the king and his minister were obliged to discuss state affairs in very bad Latin. But he possessed a thorough knowledge of mankind, and especially of England, and of the house of commons. He was a powerful and dexterous debater rather than a brilliant orator; his speeches were usually plain, luminous, manly, and persuasive, though on some occasions they became impassioned and eloquent. He was felicitous in reply, and catching as it were by intuition the disposition of the house, knew exactly when to press and when to recede. He was very industrious and methodical in the transaction of affairs, and though no public man of his time did so much business, he was, says Lord Chesterfield, never seen in a hurry, and Lord Hervey describes him as "doing everything with the same ease and tranquillity as if he was doing nothing."
Walpole was violently assailed during his lifetime as the great patron and parent of parliamentary corruption, who trusted to systematic bribery for the management of the house of commons—and these charges have been repeated since by party writers. There can be no doubt that he practised corruption on a large scale, but the charges against him have been greatly exaggerated, and there is some excuse for him in the low state of political morality in his age. He understood the true interests of his country better than any of his contemporaries, and strove to promote prosperity at home and maintain peace abroad; but as the case of the Spanish war shows, he did not scruple to forego his love of peace, and to sacrifice the interests of his country for the sake of power. His ambition, however, did not harden his heart or sour his temper, he preserved to the last his amiable generous disposition, frank cordial manners, and affable and gay deportment. But his conversation and habits were coarse and sensual, and his morals gave just offence even in that loose age. After the death of his first wife he married his mistress. Miss Skerrit, who, before their marriage, had borne him a daughter, for whom on quitting office he obtained a patent of rank. By his first wife he had three sons and two daughters.—J. T.
* WALPOLE, Spencer Horatio, is the second son of Thomas Walpole, Esq., of Stagbury, Surrey (nephew of Horatio, first earl of Orford, and ambassador to the court of Munich), and was born in 1806. He was educated at Eton, and at Trinity college, Cambridge, where he gained the first English declamation prize, and the prize for the best essay on the character and conduct of William III. He was called to the bar in 1831, by the Society of Lincoln's inn, of which he is a bencher, and obtained the rank of queen's counsel in 1846. In the same year he entered parliament as member for the burgh of Midhurst, in which his relative, the earl of Egmont, has great influence. His clear, calm, and weighty oratory, and ample stores of knowledge, together with his sound judgment and moderation, soon gained him the ear of the house, and a prominent place in the conservative councils; and on the accession of Lord Derby to office in March, 1852, Mr. Walpole was induced to relinquish his extensive practice at the chancery bar, and to accept the office of secretary of state for the home department. He went out of office with his party in the following December, but returned with them to power and to his former post, in March, 1858. He relinquished office, however, in February, 1859, in consequence of his dissatisfaction with the reform bill brought forward by the government, and which led to their downfall a few months later. Mr. Walpole discharged the duties of church estates commissioner from 1856 to 1858, and in the former year was elected member for the university of Cambridge. He is now chairman of the Great Western railway. Mr. Walpole takes a prominent part in the business of the house of commons, and his candour, freedom from faction, and amiable disposition, together with his ability and learning, have gained him great and deserved weight in that assembly.—J. T.
WALSH, William, an English critic and poet, was born about 1663 at Abberley, Worcestershire, and was educated at Wadham college, Oxford. He came to London, where he gained the reputation of a critic and scholar, became a man of fashion, represented Richmond, Yorkshire, in parliament, and was gentleman of the horse to Queen Anne. He was highly esteemed by Dryden and Pope, both of whom write eulogistically of his powers. Walsh was author of "A Dialogue concerning Women;" "Letters and Poems," published in Dryden's Miscellany; and other works.—F.
WALSINGHAM, Thomas of, an English chronicler of the fifteenth century, was born at Walsingham in Norfolk, and became a monk of the order of St. Benedict in St. Alban's abbey. It has been conjectured that he was appointed historiographer to King Henry VI. about 1440. Like many other monks of his time, he wrote in praise of Henry V., who strove to burn heresy out of the land. His chronicle, entitled "Historia brevis," extends from 1273 to 1422, and derives its chief value from what the author writes of his own time—particulars often of a trivial character, as when he narrates that on the coronation day of Henry V. a heavy snow storm fell, which was regarded as a happy omen that all vices would fall down, and the new reign would be a spring of virtues. He also wrote "Ypodigma Neustriæ, vel Normannica ab irruptione Normannorum usque ad annum sextum regni Henrici V." The two works were published at London in 1574, at the expense of Archbishop Parker. They were reprinted at Frankfort in 1603, in a volume of collected historical writings, entitled Anglica, Normannica, Hibernica, Cambrica a Veteribus scripta, ex bibliotheca Camdeni.—R. H.
WALSYNGHAM, Sir Francis, secretary of state in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and a celebrated master of the statecraft which was in fashion in those days. He was of an ancient Norfolk family, a younger branch of which had settled in Kent. He was born about 1536, being the third and youngest son of William Walsyngham of Scadbury, in the parish of Chiselhurst, by Joyce, daughter of Edmund Denny of Cheshunt, Herts. He was educated privately at home; then sent to King's college, Cambridge; and, being a stanch protestant, he passed the years of Queen Mary's reign on the continent, where he acquired an extensive knowledge of languages, and sharpened his faculty of observing men and things. Returning to England, he obtained the favour of Mr. Secretary Cecil, and in 1566 his name occurs in a Memorial of things fit to be considered by Parliament, as one who is "to be of the house." His great qualities as a detective and secret agent were appreciated and employed by Cecil and Throckmorton, both at home and abroad. In 1570 he was sent on a mission to France, from which he returned in October of the same year. He was again sent to Paris, and assisted in the negotiations for the marriage of the queen with the duke of Anjou. The massacre of St. Bartholomew on the 24th of August, 1572, drove him home. In a letter of the time, dated London, November 12, 1572, it is written—"Seing ther is no man with a good conscience can live ther, my Lord Ambassador Mr. Walsyngham shall retourn, and Mr. Carie, in
