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The Works of the Right Honourable Sir Chas. Hanbury Williams

... From the Originals in the Possession of His Grandson The Right Hon. The Earl of Essex and Others: With Notes by Horace Walpole ... In Three Volumes, with Portraits

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[BUT Orford's self I've seen, whilst I have read]
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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 III. 


206

[BUT Orford's self I've seen, whilst I have read]

[_]

The following Character of Sir Robert Walpole was drawn from the Life by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, Knight of the Bath, in an Epistle to the Right Honourable Henry Fox.

BUT Orford's self I've seen, whilst I have read,
Laugh the heart's laugh, and nod th' approving head.
Pardon, great Shade! if, duteous, on thy hearse
I hang my grateful tributary verse:
If I, who followed through thy various day,
Thy glorious zenith, and thy bright decay,
Now strew thy tomb with flowers, and o'er thy urn,
With England, Liberty, and Envy, mourn.
His soul was great and dar'd not but do well,
His noble pride still urg'd him to excel;

207

Above the search of gold, if in his heart
Ambition govern'd, Av'rice had no part.
A genius to explore untrodden ways,
Where prudence sees no track nor ever strays;
Which books and schools, in vain attempt to teach,
And which laborious art can never reach.
Falsehood and flattery, and the tricks of Court,
He left to Statesmen of a meaner sort;
Their cloaks and smiles were offer'd him in vain,
His acts were justice, which he dar'd maintain,
His words were truth, and held them in disdain.
Open to friends, and e'en to foes sincere,
Alike remote from jealousy and fear;
Tho' Envy's howl, tho' Faction's hiss, he heard,
Tho' senates frown'd, tho' death itself appear'd;
Calmly he view'd them, conscious that his ends
Were right, and Truth and Innocence his friends.
Thus was he form'd to govern and to please;
Familiar greatness, dignity with ease,
Compos'd his frame; admir'd in every state,
In private amiable, in public great,

208

Gentle in power, but daring in disgrace,
His love was liberty, his wish was peace.
Such was the man that smil'd upon my lays:
And what can heighten thought, or genius raise,
Like praise from him whom all mankind must praise;
Whose knowledge, courage, temper, all surpris'd,
Whom many lov'd, few hated, none despis'd.