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HALIFAX, GEORGE SAVILE, 1ST MARQUESS ...
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See also:HALIFAX, See also:GEORGE See also:SAVILE, 1ST See also:MARQUESS OF (1633-1695) , See also:English statesman and writer, See also:great-See also:grandson of See also:Sir George Savile of Lupset and See also:Thornhill in See also:Yorkshire (created See also:baronet in 1611), was the eldest son of Sir See also: (Nov. 1667-Sep. 1668), p. io6.
2 Lords' See also:Journals, 12, p. 567 ; Savile See also:Correspondence, ed. by W. D. See also:
disarming " popish recusants," and supported one by Lord See also:Carlisle for restricting the marriages in the royal See also:family to Protestants; but he opposed the See also:bill introduced by Lord See also:Danby (see See also:LEEDS, 1ST DUKE OF) in 1675, which imposed a test See also:oath on officials and members of parliament, speaking " with that quickness, learning and elegance that are inseparable from all his discourses," and ridiculing the multiplication of oaths, since " no See also:man would ever See also:sleep with open doors . . . should all the See also:town be sworn not to rob." He was now on See also:bad terms with Danby, and a witty sally at that See also:minister's expense caused his dismissal from the See also:council in January 1676. In 1678 he took an active part in the investigation of the "Popish See also:Plot," to which he appears to have given excessive See also:credence, but opposed the bill which was passed on the 3oth of See also:October 1678, to exclude Roman Catholics from the House of Lords.
In 1679, as a consequence of the fall of Danby, he became a member of the newly constituted privy council. With See also: In 168o he voted against the See also:execution of Lord See also:Stafford.
Meanwhile (1679) his whole policy had been successfully directed towards uniting all parties with the See also:object of frustrating Shaftesbury's plans. Communications were opened with the See also:prince of See also:Orange, and the illness of the king was made the occasion for summoning James from See also:Brussels. Monmouth was compelled to retire to See also: He retired to Rufford again in January 1681, but was present at the See also:Oxford parliament, and in May returned suddenly to public life and held for a year the chief See also:control of affairs. The See also:arrest of Shaftesbury on the 2nd of See also:July was attributed to his influence, but in See also:general, during the See also:period of Tory reaction, he seems to have urged a policy of conciliation and moderation upon the king. He opposed James's return from Scotland and, about this time (See also:Sept.), made a characteristic but futile attempt
1 Foxcroft i. 16o, where See also:Hallam is quoted to this effect.to persuade the duke to attend the services of the See also: In January 1684 he was one of the commissioners " who supervise all things concerning the See also:city and have turned out those persons who are whiggishly inclined " (N. See also:Luttrell's See also:Diary, i. 295). He made See also:honourable but vain endeavours to See also:save Algernon See also:Sidney and Lord See also:Russell. " My Lord Halifax," declared See also:Tillotson in his See also:evidence before the later inquiry, " showed a very compassionate concern for my Lord Russell and all the readiness to serve them that could be wished." 2 The See also:Rye-House Plot, in which it was sought to implicate them, was a disastrous See also:blow to his policy, and in See also:order to counteract its consequences he entered into somewhat perilous negotiations with Monmouth, and endeavoured to effect his reconciliation with the king. On the 12th of See also:February 1684, he procured the See also:release of his old antagonist, Lord Danby. Shortly afterwards his influence at the court revived. Charles was no longer in See also:receipt of his French See also:pension and was beginning to See also:tire of James and See also:Rochester. The latter, instead of becoming lord treasurer, was, according to the See also:epigram of Halifax which has become proverbial, " kicked upstairs," to the office of lord See also:president of the council. Halifax now worked to establish intimate relations between Charles and the prince of Orange and opposed the See also:abrogation of the recusancy laws. In a debate in the See also:cabinet of See also:November 1684, on the question of the See also: He showed no compliance, like other Lords, with James's Roman Catholic preferences. He was opposed to the See also:parliamentary grant to the king of a See also:revenue for life; he promoted the treaty of alliance with the Dutch in See also:August 1685; he expostulated with the king on the subject of the illegal commissions in the See also:army given to Roman Catholics; and finally, on his See also:firm refusal to support the See also:repeal of the Test and Habeas Corpus Acts, he was dismissed, and his name was struck out of the See also:list of the privy council (Oct. 1685). He corresponded with the prince of Orange, conferred with Dykveldt, the latter's envoy, but held aloof from plans which aimed at the prince's See also:personal interference in English affairs. In 1687 he published the famous See also:Letter to a See also:Dissenter, in which he warns the Nonconformists against being beguiled by the " See also:Indulgence " into joining the court party, sets in a clear See also:light the fatal results of such a step, and reminds them that under their next See also:sovereign their grievances would in 2 Hist. See also:MSS. See also:Comm. House of Lords MSS. 1689-169o, p. 287. all See also:probability be satisfied by the law. The See also:tract, which has received general and unqualified admiration, must be classed amongst the few known writings which have actually and immediately altered the course of See also:history. Copies to the number of 20,000 were circulated through the See also:kingdom, and a great party was convinced of the See also:wisdom of remaining faithful to the national traditions and liberties. He took the popular See also:side on the occasion of the trial of the bishops in See also:June 1688, visited them in the See also:Tower, and led the cheers with which the See also:verdict of " not guilty " was received in court; but the same See also:month he refrained from See also:signing the invitation to William, and publicly repudiated any share in the prince's plans. On the contrary he attended the court and refused any credence to the See also:report that the prince See also:born to James was supposititious. After the landing of William he was present at the council called by James on the 27th of November. He urged the king to grant large concessions, but his speech, in contrast to the harsh and overbearing attitude of the Hydes, was " the most See also:tender and obliging . . . that ever was heard." He accepted the mission with See also:Nottingham and See also:Godolphin to treat with William at See also:Hungerford, and succeeded in obtaining moderate terms from the prince. The negotiations, however, were abortive, for James had from the first resolved on See also:flight. In the crisis which ensued, when the country was See also:left without a government, Halifax took the See also:lead. He presided over the council of Lords which assembled and took immediate See also:measures to maintain public order. On the return of James to See also:London on the 16th of November, after his See also:capture at See also:Faversham, Halifax repaired to William's See also:camp and hence-forth attached himself unremittingly to his cause. On the 17th he carried with Lords See also:Delamere and See also:Shrewsbury a See also:message from William to the. king advising his departure from London, and, after the king's second flight, directed the proceedings of the executive. On the See also:meeting of the convention on the 22nd of January 1689, he was formally elected See also:speaker of the House of Lords. He voted against the motion for a regency (See also:Jan. 20), which was only defeated by two votes. The moderate and comprehensive character of the See also:settlement at the revolution plainly shows his guiding hand, and it was finally through his persuasion that the Lords yielded to the Commons and agreed to the See also:compromise whereby William and See also:Mary were declared See also:joint sovereigns. On the 13th of February in the Banqueting House at See also:Whitehall, he tendered the See also:crown to them in the name of the nation, and conducted the See also:proclamation of their accession in the city. At the opening of the new reign he had considerable influence, was made lord privy seal, while Danby his See also:rival was obliged to content himself with the presidency of the council, and See also:con-trolled the appointments to the new cabinet which were made on a " trimming " or comprehensive basis. His views on religious See also:toleration were as wide as those of the new king. He championed the claims of the Nonconformists as against the high or rigid' Church party, and he was bitterly disappointed at the See also:miscarriage of the Comprehension Bill. He thoroughly approved also at first of William's See also:foreign policy; but, having excited the hostility of both the Whig and Tory parties, he now became exposed to a See also:series of attacks in parliament which finally drove him from power. He was severely censured, as it seems quite unjustly, for the disorder in See also:Ireland, and an attempt was made to impeach him for his conduct with regard to the sentences on the Whig leaders. The inquiry resulted in his favour; but notwithstanding, and in spite of the king's continued support, he determined to retire. He had already resigned the speakership of the House of Lords, and he now (Feb. 8, 169o) quitted his See also:place in the cabinet. He still nominally retained his seat in the privy council, but in parliament he became a bitter critic of the administration; and the rivalry of Halifax (the See also:Black Marquess) with Danby, now marquess of See also:Carmarthen (the See also: To them he appeared weak, inconstant, untrustworthy. They could not see what to us now is See also:plain and clear, that Halifax was as consistent in his principles as the most rabid Whig or Tory. But the principle which chiefly influenced his political See also:action, that of compromise, differed essentially from those of both parties, and his attitude with regard to the Whigs or Tories was thus by See also:necessity continually changing. Measures, too, which in certain circumstances appeared to him advisable, when the political See also:scene had changed became unwise or dangerous. Thus the regency scheme, which Halifax had supported while Charles still reigned, was opposed by him with perfect consistency at the revolution. He readily accepted for himself the character of a " trimmer," desiring, he said, to keep the See also:boat steady, while others attempted to weigh it down perilously on one side or the other; and he concluded his tract with these assertions: " that our See also:climate is a Trimmer between that part of the See also:world where men are roasted and the other where they are frozen; that our Church is a Trimmer between the frenzy of fanatic visions and the lethargic See also:ignorance of Popish dreams; that our laws are Trimmers between the excesses of unbounded power and the extravagance of See also:liberty not enough restrained; that true virtue See also:bath ever been thought a Trimmer, and to have its dwelling in the See also:middle between two extremes; that even See also:God Almighty Himself is divided between His two great attributes, His See also:Mercy and His See also:Justice. In such See also:company, our Trimmer is not ashamed of his name. ..."1 His powerful mind enabled him to regard the various political problems of his time from a height and from a point of view similar to that from which distance from the events enables us to consider them at the present day; and the superiority of his See also:vision appears sufficiently from the fact that his opinions and judgments on the political questions of his time are those which for the most part have ultimately triumphed and found general See also:acceptance. His attitude of mind was curiously See also:modern.2 See also:Reading, See also:writing and See also:arithmetic, he thinks, should be taught to all and at the expense of the state. His opinions again on the constitutional relations of the colonies to the See also:mother country, already cited, were completely opposed to those of his own period. For that view of his character which while allowing him the merit of a brilliant political theorist denies him the qualities of a man of action and of a See also:practical politician, there is no solid basis. The truth is that while his political ideas are founded upon great moral or philosophical generalizations, often vividly Character of a Trimmer, conclusion. 2 Saviliana quoted by Foxcroft i. 115.
recalling and sometimes anticipating the broad conceptions of See also:Burke, they are at the same time imbued with precisely those practical qualities which have ever been characteristic of English statesmenship, and were always capable of application to actual conditions. He was no See also:star-gazing philosopher, with thoughts See also:superior to the contemplation of mundane affairs. He had no See also:taste for abstract political See also:dogma. He seems to venture no further than to think that "men should live in some competent state of freedom," and that the limited monarchical and aristocratic government was the best adapted for his country. " Circumstances," he writes in the Rough Draft of a New See also:Model at See also:Sea, " must come in and are to be made a part of the See also:matter of which we are to judge; See also:positive decisions are always dangerous, more especially in politics."' Nor was he the See also:mere See also:literary student buried in books and in contemplative ease. He had none of the " indecisiveness which commonly renders literary men of no use in the world " (Sir See also: He returned to public life to defeat the Exclusion Bill. At the revolution it was Halifax who seized the reins of government, flung away by James, and maintained public See also:security. His subsequent failure in collaborating with William is, it is true, disappointing. But the cause was one that has not perhaps received sufficient See also:attention. Party government had come to the See also:birth during the struggles over the Exclusion Bill, and there had been unconsciously introduced into politics a novel See also:element of which the nature and importance were not understood or suspected. Halifax had consistently ignored and neglected party; and it now had its revenge. Detested by the Whigs and by the Tories alike, and defended by neither, the favour alone of the king and his own transcendent abilities proved insufficient to withstand the constant and violent attacks made upon him in parliament, and he yielded to the superior force. He seems indeed himself to have been at last convinced of the necessity in English political life of party government, for though in his Cautions to See also:electors he warns them against men " tied to a party," yet in his last words he declares " If there are two parties a man ought to adhere to that which he disliked least though in the whole he doth not approve it; for whilst he doth not list himself in one or the other party, he is looked upon as such a straggler that he is fallen upon by both. . . . Happy those that are convinced so as to be of the general opinions " (Political Thoughts and Reflections of Parties). The private character of Lord Halifax was in See also:harmony with the greatness of his public career. He was by no means the " voluptuary " described by See also:Macaulay. He was on the contrary free from self-indulgence; his manner of life was decent and frugal, and his See also:dress proverbially See also:simple. He was an affectionate See also:father and See also:husband. " His See also:heart," says Burnet (i. 492-493, ed. 1833), " was much set on raising his family "—his last concern even while on his deathbed was the remarriage of his son Lord Eland to perpetuate his name; and this is probably the cause of his acceptance of so many titles for which he himself affected a philosophical indifference. He was estimable in his social relations and habits. He showed throughout his career an honourable See also:independence, and was never seen to See also:worship the rising See also:sun. In a period when even great men stooped to accept bribes, Halifax was known to be incorruptible; at a time when animosities were especially bitter, he was too great a man to See also:harbour resentments. " Not only from policy," says Reresby (Hem. p. 231), " (which teaches. that we ought to let no man be our enemy when we can help it), but from his disposition I never saw any man more ready to forgive than himself." Few were insensible to his personal See also:charm and gaiety. He excelled especially in See also:quick repartee, in " exquisite nonsense," and in spontaneous humour. When quite a See also:young man, just entering upon political life he is described by See also:Evelyn as " a witty See also:gentle-man, if not a little too prompt and daring." The latter characteristic was not moderated by time but remained through life. He was incapable of controlling his spirit of raillery, from jests on Siamese missionaries to sarcasms at the expense of the See also:heir to the See also:throne and ridicule of hereditary See also:monarchy, and his brilliant parodoxes, his pungent and often profane epigrams were received by graver persons as his real opinions and as evidences of See also:atheism. This latter See also:charge he repudiated, assuring Burnet that he was " a See also:Christian in submission," but that he could not See also:digest See also:iron like an See also:ostrich nor See also:swallow all that the divines sought to impose upon the world.
The speeches of Halifax have not been preserved, and his political writings on this account have all the greater value. The Character of a Trimmer (1684 or 1685), the authorship of which, See also:long doubtful, is now established,' was his most ambitious See also:production, written seemingly as See also:advice to the king and as a manifesto of his own opinions. In it he discusses the political problems of the time and their See also:solution on broad principles. He supports the Test Act and, while opposing the Indulgence, is not hostile to the repeal of the penal laws against the Roman Catholics by parliament. Turning to foreign affairs he contemplates with consternation the growing power of See also:France and the humiliation of England, exclaiming indignantly at the sight of the " See also:Roses blasted and discoloured while lilies See also:triumph and grow insolent upon the comparison." The whole is a masterly and comprehensive See also:summary of the actual political situation and its exigencies; while, when he treats such themes as liberty, or discusses the See also:balance to be maintained between freedom and government in the constitution, he rises to the political See also:idealism of See also:Bolingbroke and Burke. The Character of King Charles II. (printed 1750), to be compared with his earlier See also:sketch of the king in the Character of a Trimmer, is perhaps from the literary point of view the most admirable of his writings. The famous Letter to a Dissenter (1687) was thought by Sir James See also:Mackintosh to be unrivalled as a political pamphlet. The Lady's New Year's See also:Gift: or Advice to a Daughter, refers to his daughter See also: See also:Maxims of State appeared about 1692. The Rough Draft of a New Model at Sea (c. 1694), though apparently only a fragment, is one of the most interesting and characteristic of his writings. It opens with the question: "`What shall we do to be saved in this world?' There is no other See also:answer but this, ` Look to your See also:moat.' The first See also:article of an Englishman's political creed must be that he believeth in the sea." He discusses the See also:naval establishment, not from the naval point of view alone, but from the general aspect of the constitution of which it is a detail, and is thus led on to consider the nature of the constitution itself, and to show that it is not an artificial structure but a growth and product of the natural character. We may also mention Some Cautions to the electors of the parliament (1694), and Political, Moral and See also:Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections (n.d.), a collection of aphorisms in the See also:style of the maxims of La Rochefoucauld, inferior in style—but greatly excelling the French author in breadth of view and in moderation. (For other writings attributed to Halifax, see Foxcroft, Life of Sir G. Smile, ii. 529 sqq.). Halifax was twice married, first in 1656 to the Lady Dorothy Spencer—daughter of the 1st earl of Sunderland and of Dorothy Sidney, " Sacharissa "—who died in 1670, leaving a family; and secondly, in 1672, to Gertrude, daughter of William See also:Pierrepont of Thoresby, who survived him, and by whom he had one daughter, Elizabeth, Lady Chesterfield, who seems to have inherited a considerable portion of her father's intellectual abilities. On the See also:death of his son William, 2nd marquess of Halifax, in August 1700 without male issue, the peerage became See also:extinct, and the baronetcy passed to the Saviles of Lupset, the whole Foxcroft, ii. 273 et seq., and Hist. MSS. Comm. MSS. of F. W. Leyborne-See also:Popham, p. 264. male See also:line of the Savile family ending in the See also:person of Sir George Savile, 8th baronet, in 1784. Henry Savile, See also:British envoy at See also:Versailles, who died unmarried in 1687, was a younger brother of the first marquess. Halifax has been generally supposed to have been the father of the illegitimate Henry See also:Carey, the poet, but this is doubtful. See Life and Letters of Sir George Savile, zst See also:Marquis of Halifax (2 vols., 1898), by See also:Miss H. C. Foxcroft, who has collected and made excellent use of all the material available at that date, including hitherto unexplored Savile MSS., at See also:Devonshire House, in the Spencer Archives, in the Longleat and other collections, and who has edited the works of Halifax and printed a memorandum of conversations with King William of 1688–169o, left in MS. by Halifax. Macaulay, in his History of England, misjudged Halifax on some points, but nevertheless understood and did justice to the greatness of his statesmanship, and pronounced on him a well-merited and eloquent eulogy (iv. 545). Contemporary characters of Halifax which must be accepted with caution are Burnet's in the History of His Own Times (ed. 1833, vol. i. pp. 491-493, and iv. 268), that by the author of " Savilianal," identified as William Mompesson, and " Sacellum Apollinare," a See also:panegyric in See also:verse by Elkanah See also:Settle (1695). (P. C. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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