Introduction to an earlier _ARS_ issue (Series I, No. 2), his is
"probably the best and clearest treatment of the subject in the first
half of the eighteenth century." It may be regretted that political
and economic concerns occupied so much of his later life, leaving him
no time for further literary essays.

In the present facsimile edition, for reasons of space, only the
Introduction and the main body of the _Essay_ are reproduced. Although
Morris once remarked to David Hume that he wrote all his books "for
the sake of the Dedications" (_Letters of David Hume_ ed. Greig, I,
380), modern readers need not regret too much the omission of the
fulsome 32 page dedication to Walpole (The Earl of Orford). Morris
insists at the beginning that the book was inspired by a fervent
desire of "attempting a Composition, independent of Politics, which
might furnish an occasional Amusement" to his patron. The praise which
follows, in which Walpole is said to lead "the _Empire_ of _Letters_,"
is so excessive as to produce only smiles in twentieth century
readers. Walpole is praised for not curbing the press while
necessarily curbing the theatre, his aid to commerce and industry,
indeed almost every act of his administration, is lauded to the skies.
The Church of England, in which "the _Exercise_ of _Reason_ in the
solemn Worship of God, is the sacred _Right_, and indispensible
_Duty_, of Man," receives its share of eulogy. In every connection the
Tories are violently attacked.

The Dedication ends in a peroration of praise for Walpole's public
achievements which "shall adorn the History of _Britain_," and for his
"_Private Virtues_ and all the _softer Features_" of his mind. His
home of retirement is referred to in the lines of Milton: