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a contemporary, remains. 'He hath,' said John Macky, writing in 1703-4, 'a very erect countenance, and is a stately man for his age; of a fair sanguine complexion' (contrasting with his cousin, the Duke of Somerset).

Dryden introduced Sir Edward Seymour as 'Amiel' into his Absalom and Achitophel :-

'Indulge one labour more, my weary muse,
For Amiel, who can Amiel's praise refuse?
Of ancient race by birth, but nobler yet
In his own worth and without title great:
The Sanhedrin long time as chief he ruled
Their reason guided and their passion cool'd.'

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Another satirist, Elkanah Settle, was pleased to dip his pen in gall, and describe Seymour as Jonas,' in his Absalom Senior :

'Next Jonas stands bull-faced but chicken-soul'd

Who once the silver Sanedrin controul'd,

Their gold-tipped tongue. Gold his great councels Bawd,
Till by succeeding Sanedrins outlaw'd

He was prefer'd to guard the sacred store.'

There Lordly rowling in whole mines of oar

To Diceing Lords, a cully favourite,"
He prostitutes whole cargoes in a night.
Here to the top of his ambition come
Fills all his sayls for youthful Absolom.3
For his religion's as the season calls
Gods in possession, in Reversion Baals.1

1 Referring, of course, to Seymour's appointment as Lord of the Treasury in 1692.

Seymour's enemies declared he was the channel through which gratuities were distributed to court favourites.

3 His contemporary, John Macky, wrote of him in his Characters of great men, 'He hath established his family very well, his second son being a major-general in the army, and a lieutenant in the Band of Pensioners; his third son is created a peer, by the title of Lord Conway, and the fourth is a gentleman of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Denmark.' See Memoirs of the Secret Services of John Macky (1733).

4 The reference is political, for his general reputation was, as Evelyn worded it, that he was not at all sincere, but would be head of a party,

He bears himself a Dove to mortal Race,

And though not man, he can look Heav'n i'th' Face;
Never was Compound of more different stuff—

A heart in Lambskin and a conscience Buff.'

While every Whig historian has delighted to exaggerate the insincerity and immorality of Seymour, it is not too much to say that after taking into account the natural bitterness provoked by party feeling, one is left with the conclusion, that beneath their exaggerations there is a deep layer of truth. His attack on Lord Clarendon was made on personal motives, and to please a corrupt court; and the same is true of his attack on Lord Somers. Moreover, as we have seen, his tirade against standing armies was the immediate result of his son's death following a duel with a soldier; a duel which need not have ended fatally, if it had not been for his son's uncontrollable debauchery. While he declaimed against real or imaginary corruption in others, he himself was not slow to accept service money, or to stay his violence against the court when he had once forced himself into good posts. Of his private character we cannot well judge. Tindal states that he was often reproached by members in the House, for the licentiousness of his morals, which they declared to be a disgrace to the station which he bore in the House.' Burnet calls him 'the most immoral and impious man of his age,' and declares that in all his private dealings, he was the unjustest and blackest man that has lived in our times.' His power in the House of Commons arose solely from his illustrious descent, his eloquence, and his knowledge of the House. 'He was,' says Macaulay, 'so useful an ally, and so mischievous an enemy, that he was frequently courted even by those who most detested

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at any time prevailing in Parliament. Except for his defence of the Duke of York, in 1685, his worst enemies could not accuse him of any defection from his high church principles, although those principles had little influence for good on his character.

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ISABELLA ANNE (INGRAM SHEPHERD), SECOND WIFE OF THE SECOND MARQUESS OF HERTFORD.

From an engraving in the British Museum. (Reynolds pinxt.)

him.' Even Burnet was forced to confess that he knew the House and every man in it so well that, by looking about, he could tell the fate of any question.' This he used as a means of serving the court while he was Speaker, contriving usually to protect the debate when their party was not assembled in strength.

Be all this as it may, his contemporary, John Macky, speaks of him as 'the prudentist man in England; of great experience in the affairs of his country, but extremely carried away by his passions; does not value scandal, and was openly visited by the French ambassador when the people seemed to suspect him in that interest.' Noble, in his continuation of Granger, speaks of him as a man of morose disposition but of great good sense, invincible obstinacy, and incorruptible integrity. Manning venerates him as the promoter of the Habeas Corpus Act, and declares, that he was 'worthy, if not amiable,' in private life, 'true to his two wives, and to his children careful, if not kind; to his tenants and attendants a good, though not a bountiful master.' This is grudging praise, but it is the best and most that can be given to the 'Great Sir Edward,' even more, perhaps, than should be given. The one good that he accomplished was the outcome of his infinite pride; he was able to control the proceedings of a fractious Parliament, where one less arrogant and less despotic in his methods would himself have been controlled.

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