Page "George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax" Paragraph 26

Halifax's speeches have not been preserved, and his political writings on this account have all the greater value.

The Character of a Trimmer ( 1684 or 1685 ) was his most ambitious production, written seemingly as advice to the king and as a manifesto of his own opinions.

In it he discusses the political problems of the time and their 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 France and the humiliation of England, exclaiming indignantly at the sight of the " Roses blasted and discoloured while lilies triumph and grow insolent upon the comparison.

" The whole is a masterly and comprehensive summary of the actual political situation and its exigencies ; while, when he treats such themes as liberty, or discusses the balance to be maintained between freedom and government in the constitution, he rises to the political idealism of Bolingbroke and Burke.

The Character of King Charles II, to be compared with his earlier 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 Mackintosh to be unrivalled as a political pamphlet.

The Lady ’ s New Year ’ s Gift: or Advice to a Daughter, refers to his daughter Elizabeth, afterwards mother of the celebrated 4th Earl of Chesterfield ( 1688 ).

In The Anatomy of an Equivalent ( 1688 ) he treats with keen wit and power of analysis the proposal to grant a " perpetual edict " in favor of the Established Church in return for the repeal of the test and penal laws.

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.

He discusses the 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 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.

His works are edited by Mark N. Brown, The Works of George Savile Marquis of Halifax, 3 vols., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1989.

A paperback collection was edited by J. P. Kenyon for the " Pelican Classics " series in 1969, but it is now out of print.