to follow him implicitly in his votes in the House of Commons.  Upon this subject he writes thus to Conway, who had not told him beforehand of a speech he made on the Qualification Bill, in consequence of which Walpole was absent from the House of Commons upon that occasion—­“I don’t suspect you of any reserve to me; I only mention it now for an occasion Of telling you, that I don’t like to have any body think that I would not do whatever you do.  I am of no consequence; but, at least, it would give me some to act invariably with you, and that I shall most certainly be ever ready to do.” (29) Upon another occasion he writes again in a similar strain:-"My only reason for writing is, to repeat to you, that whatever you do, I shall act with you.  I resent any thing done to you as to myself.  My fortunes shall never be separated from yours, except that, some day or other, I hope yours will be great, and I am content with mine.” (30)

Upon one political point Horace Walpole appears to have entertained from the first the most just views, and even at a time when such were not sanctioned by the general opinion of the nation.  From its very commencement, he objected to that disastrous contest the American war, which, commenced in ignorant and presumptuous folly, was prolonged to gratify the wicked obstinacy of individuals, and ended, as Walpole had foretold it would, in the discomfiture of its authors, and the national disgrace and degradation, after a profuse and useless waste of blood and treasure.  Nor must his sentiments upon the Slave Trade be forgotten-sentiments which he held, too, in an age when, far different from the present one, the Assiento Treaty, and other horrors of the same kind, were deemed, not only justifiable, but praiseworthy.  “We have been sitting,” he writes, on the 25th of February 1750, “this fortnight on the African Company.  We, the British Senate, that temple of Liberty, and bulwark of Protestant Christianity, have, this fortnight, been considering methods to make more effectual that horrid traffic of selling negroes.  It has appeared to us, that six-and-forty thousand of these wretches are sold every year to our plantations alone!  It chills one’s blood-I would not have to say I voted for it, for the continent of America!  The destruction of the miserable inhabitants by the Spaniards was but a momentary misfortune that flowed from the discovery of the New World, compared to this lasting havoc which it brought upon Africa.  We reproach Spain, and yet do not even pretend the nonsense of butchering the poor creatures for the good of their souls.” (31)

One of the most favourite pursuits of Walpole was the building and decoration of his Gothic villa of Strawberry Hill.  It is situated at the end of the village of Twickenham, towards Teddington, on a slope, which gives it a fine view of the reach of the Thames and the opposite wooded hill of Richmond Park.  He bought it in 1747, of Mrs. Chenevix, the proprietress of a celebrated toy-shop.  He thus describes it in a letter of that year to Mr. Conway.  “You perceive by my date that I am got into a new camp, and have left my tub at Windsor.  It is a little plaything-house that I got out of Mrs. Chenevix’s shop, and is the prettiest bauble you ever saw.  It is set in enamelled meadows, with filigree hedges:-