Note 199 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
This allusion is manifestly borrowed from Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, who, in an epistle written in 1745, but not printed till many years afterwards, thus draws the character of Mr. Pelham, and contrasts him with Sir Robert Walpole. Apostrophizing the Goddess of Prudence, he says—
Turn to your altars, on your votaries shine, See Pelham ever kneeling at thy shrine; By you at first by slow degrees he rose, To you the zenith of his power he owes; You taught him in your middle course to steer, Impartial, moderate, candid to appear; Fearful of enmity, to friendship cold, Cautiously frank, and timorously bold, And so observant, never to offend A foe, he quite forgets to fix a friend. Long versed in politics, but poor in parts, The courtier’s tricks, but not the statesman’s arts; His smile obedient to his purpose still, Some dirty compromise his utmost skill; In vain his own penurious soil he till’d; In vain he glean’d from Walpole’s plenteous field; In vain th’ exchequer robes about him flow, The mantle does not make the prophet now.—E.