alpole's _George the Second_ is a
Book of far more worth than is commonly ascribed to it; almost the
one original English Book yet written on those times,--which, by the
accident of Pitt, are still memorable to us. But for Walpole,--burning
like a small steady light there, shining faithfully, if stingily, on the
evil and the good,--that sordid muddle of the Pelham Parliaments, which
chanced to be the element of things now recognizable enough as great,
would be forever unintelligible. He is unusually accurate, punctual,
lucid; an irrefragable authority on English points. And if, in regard to
Foreign, he cannot be called an understanding witness, he has read
the best Documents accessible, has conversed with select Ambassadors
(Mitchell and the like, as we can guess); and has informed himself to
a degree far beyond most of his contemporaries. In regard to Pitt's
Speeches, in particular, his brief jottings, done rapidly while the
matter was still shining to him, are the only Reports that have the
least human resemblance. We may thank Walpole that Pitt is not dumb to
us, as well as dark. Very curious little scratchings and etchings, those
of Walpole; frugal, swift, but punctual and exact; hasty pen-and-ink
outlines; at first view, all barren; bald as an invoice, seemingly; but
which yield you, after long study there and elsewhere, a conceivable
notion of what and how excellent these Pitt Speeches may have been.
Airy, winged, like arrow-flights of Phoebus Apollo; very superlative
Speeches indeed. Walpole's Book is carefully printed,--few errors in
it like that 'Chapeau' for CHASOT," which readers remember:--"but, in
respect to editing, may be characterized as still wanting an Editor. A
Book UNedited; little but lazy ignorance of a very hopeless type,
thick contented darkness, traceable throughout in the marginal part. No
attempt at an Index, or at any of the natural helps to a reader now at
such distance from it. Nay, till you have at least marked, on the top of
each page, what Month and Year it actually is, the Book cannot be read
at all,--except by an idle creature, doing worse than nothing under the
name of reading!"

4. PITT'S SPEECHES, FORESHADOWING WHAT. "It is a kind of epoch in your
studies of modern English History when you get to understand of Pitt's
Speeches, that they are not Parliamentary Eloquences, but things which
with his whole soul he means, and is intent to DO. This surprising
circumstance, when at last bec