ave known. Other English statesmen of the day did know of
it--at least, had heard that such a thing was in existence, and were or
might have been forewarned against it. Professor Seely puts it beyond
doubt that the family compact was talked of and written of by English
diplomatists at the time, was believed in by some, treated sceptically
by others. The Duke of Newcastle actually called it by the very name
which history formally gives to the arrangement made many years after
and denounced by Burke. He speaks of "the offensive and defensive
alliance between France and Spain, called the _pacte de famille_." Is
it likely, is it credible, that Walpole had never heard of the
existence of a compact which was known to the Duke of Newcastle?
Archdeacon Coxe, in his "Life of Walpole," contends that Newcastle was
not by any means the merely absurd sort of person whom most historians
and biographers delight to paint him. "He had a quick comprehension
and was a ready debater," Coxe says, although without grace or style.
"He wrote with uncommon facility and great variety of expression, and
in his most confidential letters, written so quickly as to be almost
illegible, there is scarcely a single alteration or erasure." But
certainly Newcastle was not a man likely to keep to himself the
knowledge of such a fact as the family compact, or even the knowledge
that some people believed in the existence of such an arrangement. For
ourselves, we are quite prepared to assume that Walpole had heard of
the family compact, but that it did not disturb his calculations or
disarrange his policy. From some of his own letters written at the
time it is evident that he did not put any faith in the abiding nature
of family compacts between sovereigns. More than once he takes
occasion to point out that where political interests interfered family
arrangements went to the wall. As to the general rule Walpole was
quite right. We have seen the fact illustrated over and over again
even in our {34} own days. But Walpole appears to have overlooked the
important peculiarity of this family compact; it was an engagement in
which the political interests and the domestic interests of the
families were at last inextricably intertwined; it was a reciprocal
agreement for the protection of common interests and the attainment of
common objects. Such a compact might be trusted to hold good even
among Bourbon princes. On the whole, we are inclined to come to t