THIS distinguished statesman was the eighteenth male heir of his family in lineal descent. His ancestors traced up to the time of the Norman Conquest. They took their name from the small town of Walpole, in Norfolk, on the confines of Lincolnshire, where they had a residence, until one of them exchanged the family seat for Houghton, in the same county. Sir Edward Walpole, the grandfather of our premier, was returned by the borough of Lynn-Regis to the Convention Parliament of April, 1660, which voted the restoration of Charles II. For the loyal zeal he displayed, this Sir Edward received the Order of the Bath. He was an eloquent speaker, and had great weight and personal influence in parliament. He was also noted as a thorough man of business in town, and as a joyous and hospitable host in the country. Robert, the eldest son and heir of this Sir Edward, became a warm Whig, and was actively engaged with those who brought about the Revo

lution of 1688. He sat in parliament for Castle Rising, in Norfolk, from the first of William and Mary until his death in the year 1700. He, too, was a good man of business, and, though of very convivial habits, he greatly improved the family estate by living much in the country, and attending to agriculture and to all his own affairs. His farms were the best managed in the county which has since become the best English school for farmers. He had nineteen children by one wife-Mary, only daughter and heiress of Sir Jeffery Burwell, of Rougham, in Suffolk. The great Sir Robert was his third son and fifth child. He was born at Houghton on the 26th of August, 1676. He was educated at a private school at Massingham, and afterwards on the foundation at Eton, and at King's College, Cambridge. At college he attracted notice by his natural talent and vivacity, and still more-by his determined Whiggism. Being seized by a malignant small-pox, he was attended by Dr. Brady, the famous historical advocate of Toryism. "We must take care to save this young man," said the doctor, "or we shall be accused of having purposely neglected him because he is so violent a Whig!". And when, contrary to all expectation, the young man recovered from the frightful disease, Brady said, "His singular escape seems to me a sure indication that he is reserved for important purposes." Although naturally averse to the study of languages, he applied himself with sufficient diligence to become a fair classical scholar; and he contracted a taste for Horace, and acquired a familiar acquaintance with his works, which lasted for life. On other subjects and studies more immediately connected with the affairs of actual life, he showed great powers of application. His mind was solid rather than brilliant; but he had a keen faculty of observation, and this he improved by practice in society. There was a Saxon heartiness in his manner which attracted friends, and when he himself contracted an affection for a man it was generally steady and lasting. This was proved in the days of his greatness by his college companions, Doctor Hare and Doctor Bland, whom he promoted in

the church, the first to be Bishop of Chichester, the second to be Provost of Eton College and Dean of Durham. Walpole himself was destined for the church, but his views were altered by the death of his eldest surviving brother, which left him heir to the family estate. With that confidence in his own powers, without which greatness is rarely achieved, he used to say in after-life, when he was prime minister, that if his brother had not died he would have been Archbishop of Canterbury.

He became heir to the estates in 1698. He immediately gave up his scholarship at King's College, and very shortly withdrew from the University altogether, to reside with his father in Norfolk. There, he was noted as a keen sportsman, good shot, bold rider, jovial companion, and knowing farmer, skilled in soils, subsoils. and manures, in the breed of horses, oxen, and sheep, in the price of markets, and in all those things which concern rural economy. His father, like the good man of business that he was, felt that a landed proprietor ought to know all these matters, and was very anxious that his son should attend the markets as regularly as any farmer in the country. This was not, and never has been, the usual training of statesmen and prime ninisters; but many a statesman would have been the better for it, and Walpole would not have been the prime minister that he proved himself if he had been without it. Age had not altered his father's convivial habits. The old gentleman still drank like a Squire, and insisted that his son should drink two glasses for his one, inasmuch as he was younger and stronger, and could discreetly carry more wine under his belt, and it was unseemly that the son should be quite sober while the father was drunk, This was a vital part of the moral philosophy of Houghton, Sir Robert took his wine rather freely all the days of his life, without injuring his robust constitution; but the family philosophy, or the effects of it, were lost upon his sons. The heartless, effeminate Horace Walpole neither drank nor did anything else like his bluff father; and if he got rid of, or

was constitutionally disqualified for, some of the family vices, he also slipped off all the family, manly virtues.

On the 30th of July, 1700, Walpole married, in Knightsbridge Chapel, Catherine, daughter of Sir John Shorter, Lord Mayor of London, a young lady of great beauty and many accomplishments. On the 28th of November of the same year his jovial old father died, and left him in possession of the family estate, which was then better than 2000l. per annum. He immediately entered parliament as member for Castle Rising. So soon as he took his seat he engaged actively in business, and joined the Whigs in promoting the Protestant succession and thwarting the designs of the Jacobites. His first attempt at parliamentary oratory does not appear to have been very successful or brilliant; but he soon commanded attention and respect as an able man of business, an acute politician, and a good practical debater. The great leaders of the Whig party felt his value; and in March, 1705, when their influence had risen in parliament and in the cabinet, Walpole was appointed one of the council to Queen Anne's consort, Prince George of Denmark, then Lord High Admiral. Taking the lead in that council, he showed so much prudence, firmness, and industry under circumstances of peculiar difficulty, that he won the confidence and esteem of the great Duke of Marlborough and Lord Godolphin. Every session he assumed a higher position in parlia ment; and in 1708, on his promotion to the office of Secretary at War, the management of the House of Commons was entrusted to him by his party. His able management of the war-office, his energy and promptitude, contributed greatly to the successful campaigns of Marlborough in the Low Countries. In 1710 he was appointed one of the managers of the impeachment of the notorious Doctor Sacheverel. He had strongly and wisely opposed that proceeding in private, foreseeing that persecution would only give importance to an insignificant and very ridiculous priest; but he was compelled to give way to his elders and superiors, and when the impeachment had been determined upon, the duty of