Continent, and never those of making a land war, unless the conjuncture
be such, that nothing less than the weight of Britain can prevent the
scales of power from being quite overturned. This was the case surely,
when we arrived in the Netherlands (1743) and when we marched into
Germany. The first did some good, and as it was managed, some hurt. It
divided the attention of France, and became a reason the more for
recalling the army of Maillebois. But the fierce memorials, with which
it was accompanied, and which breathed an immediate and direct war
against France, frightened those, whom our arriving should have
encouraged, and gave much advantage to the French in the Seven
Provinces. The last, I mean our march to the Mayn [where the English
encamped in May, 1744] and vast diversion we made by it, has had a full
effect. The Bavarians are reduced to a neutrality, and the French, who
threatened Vienna, to the defence of their own provinces. The defensive
war the Queen of Hungary made on that side, is therefore at an end,
strictly speaking; and your Lordship may think perhaps, that, this being
so the case, wherein alone Great Britain ought to make war on the
Continent, exists, no longer. It is, I own, very provoking to see, that
the French are able at any time to invade their neighbours, to give law
if they succeed, and not to receive it if they fail, but to retire
behind their barrier, and defy from thence the just resentment of the
enemies they have made; and yet we ought to consider very coolly, how
far we suffer this provocation to have any share in determining our
conduct in the present circumstances. I have seen the time, when the
French would have given up the very barrier, that secures them now. We
would not take it then. Can we force it now? I said once, that Bouchain
had cost our nation above six millions; and they who were angry at the
assertion [the Whigs] could not contradict it, since Bouchain was the
sole conquest of 1711, and since the expence of that year's war amounted
to little less. Are we able to purchase at such a rate? or do we hope to
purchase at a cheaper, when my Lord Marlborough and Prince Eugene are no
more?... We shall have a very nice game to play, for if our friends, the
Austrians, would take advantage of too much facility to continue the
war, our enemies, the Spaniards and the French, would certainly take
advantage of too much haste to conclude it. This reflection becomes the
more important, because the war we have with Spain, seems more likely to
be determined in Italy than in America; and somewhere or other it must
be determined to our advantage.... In all events, my dear Lord, and
whatever peace we make, it will become an indispensable point of policy
to be on our guard, after what has happened, against the joint ambition
of the two branches of Bourbon, whom no acquisitions can satisfy, nor
any treaties bind, and who have begun to act in late instances, as the
two branches of Austria did in the last century. The treaty of quadruple
alliance, and a long course of timid unmeaning negociations, unmeaning
relatively to the interest of Great Britain, have encouraged this
spirit. A contrary conduct must check it; and I will venture to say,
that, the peace once made on terms less exorbitant, than some sanguine
persons would expect, this may be done; and that vigor sufficient for
this purpose will be found on the whole less expensive, with prudent
management abroad, and honest economy at home, than the pusillanimity of
that administration, which has made us despised by some of our
neighbours, and distrusted by others, till France had a fair chance for
giving the law to all Europe. But it is more than time that I should put
an end to this political ramble. I mean it for you alone, and I am used
to your indulgence. It is hardly possible, that you should write in
answer to this letter, that is to come to me in France. It seemed to me,
by the little conversation I had with some of your ministers when I was
at London, that their way of thinking was not very distant from mine,
about foreign affairs at least. Great Britain must have a peace, my
Lord. Her ability to carry on this war, as little as it is, is greater,
in my opinion, than that of France. But there are other invincible
reasons against it. I repeat, therefore, we must have a peace as soon as
possible. To have a good one, vigor in your measures, and moderation in
your views, are, I suppose, equally necessary.
II.
THE ARTICLES OF PEACE.
+Source.+--Coxe's _Pelham Administration_. Vol. ii., p. 41, 42. The
Treaty is to be found at length in Tindal's Continuation of Rapin's
_History of England_. Vol. xxi., pp. 357-366.
The following is an abstract of the articles of the definitive treaty,
in which the reader will recognize a general conformity with the
preliminaries.
ARTICLE I. Renewal of peace between all the contracting powers.
ART. II. Restitution of all conquests, and the _status quo ante bellum_,
with the exceptions herein mentioned.
ART. III. Renewal of the treaties of Westphalia, 1648; of Madrid,
between England and Spain, 1667, 1678 and 1679; of Ryswick, 1697; of
Utrecht, 1713; of Baden, 1714; of the triple alliance, 1717; of the
quadruple alliance, 1718; and of the treaty of Vienna, 1738.
ART. IV. Mutual restoration of prisoners, six weeks after the
ratification.
ART. V. Mutual restitution of conquests, and specification of the
cessions assigned by Austria, to Don Philip, according to the
preliminaries.
ART. VI. All the restitutions in Europe, specified in this treaty, to be
made within the term of six weeks after the ratifications, and in
particular all the Low Countries to be restored to the Empress Queen,
and likewise those Barrier Towns, the sovereignty of which belonged to
the House of Austria, to be evacuated, for the admission of the troops
of the States-General.
ART. VII. Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla, to be delivered to Don
Philip, at the time that Nice and Savoy are restored to the King of
Sardinia.
ART. VIII. Measures to be adopted for insuring the restitutions, within
the period appointed.
ART. IX. The King of England engages to send two hostages of rank to
Paris, until Cape Breton, and all his conquests in the West and East
Indies, shall be restored.
ART. X. The revenues and taxes of the conquered countries, to belong to
the powers in possession, until the day of the ratification.
ART. XI. All archives to be restored within two months, or as soon
afterwards as possible.
ART. XII. The king of Sardinia to retain possession of all the
territories, conceded to him by the treaty of Worms, excepting Finalé
and Placentia; namely, the Vigevenasco, part of the Pavesaeno, and the
county of Anghiera.
ART. XIII. The Duke of Modena to be restored to all his dominions.
ART. XIV. Genoa to be reinstated in all her possessions and rights, and
her subjects in the enjoyment of all the funds belonging to them, in the
Austrian and Sardinian banks.
ART. XV. All things in Italy to remain as before the war, with the
exceptions contained in the preceding articles.
ART. XVI. The Assiento Treaty, and the privilege of sending the annual
ship to the Spanish colonies, confirmed for four years, according to the
right possessed before the war.
ART. XVII. Dunkirk to remain fortified on the side of the land, in its
existing condition; and, on that of the sea, to be left on the footing
of antient treaties.
ART. XVIII. Certain claims of money, by the King of England, as elector
of Hanover, on the crown of Spain; the differences concerning the abbey
of St. Hubert, and the boundaries of Hainault; and the courts of justice
recently established in the Low Countries, as also the pretensions of
the elector-palatine, to be amicably adjusted by commissaries.
ART. XIX. Confirmation of the guaranty of the Protestant Succession of
the House of Brunswick, in all its descendants, as fully stipulated in
the fifth article of the quadruple alliance.
ART. XX. All the German territories of the King of England, as elector
of Brunswick-Lunenberg guarantied.
ART. XXI. All the contracting powers, who guarantied the Pragmatic
Sanction of the 19th of April, 1713, now guaranty the entire inheritance
of Charles the Sixth, in favour of his daughter, Maria Theresa, and her
descendants, excepting those cessions previously made by Charles the
Sixth or by Maria Theresa herself, and those included in the present
treaty.
ART. XXII. Silesia and Glataz guarantied to the King of Prussia.
ART. XXIII. All the powers interested in this treaty jointly guaranty
its execution.
ART. XXIV. Exchange of the ratifications to be made at Aix la Chapelle,
by all the contracting powers within a month after the signatures.
III.
A CONTEMPORARY VIEW OF THE PEACE.
+Source.+--_Letters of Mary Lepel, Lady Hervey_, 1821, p. 126.
_May 31st, 1748._
... I am as glad of the peace, sir, as you can be, for without it we
were certainly undone; for which reason I am, I confess, astonished that
the French, who had the whole in their hands, should give it us. There
are four people who have certainly had a narrow escape by it; for one
campaign more, and the Duke of Cumberland, with his little army, would
have been cut to pieces; the Prince of Orange would have been deposed,
and the Duke of Newcastle and Lord Sandwich would, or should have been
called to an account, which I fancy they could not have made up and
balanced to their advantage.
LORD CHESTERFIELD'S ACT FOR THE REFORM OF THE CALENDAR (1751).
I.
HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE BILL.
+Source.+--Anderson's _Origin of Commerce_, 1751. Vol. ii., pp. 283,
284-286.
On Wednesday the twenty-second of May 1751, the ever-famous Act of the
British legislature, of the twenty-fourth year of King George the
Second, received the royal assent, For regulating the Commencement of
the Year, and for correcting the Calendar now in Use,--_i.e._ For
abolishing the old stile, and establishing the new stile, already in use
in most parts of Christendom.
Its preamble sets forth, "That the legal supputation of the year in
England, which begins on the twenty-fifth of March, hath been attended
with divers inconveniences," (strange that this was not rectified long
ago!) "as it differs from other nations, and the legal method of
computation in Scotland, and the common usage throughout the whole
kingdom; and that thereby frequent mistakes in the dates of deeds and
other writings are occasioned, and disputes arise therefrom and that the
Julian Calendar, now in use throughout the British dominions, hath been
discovered to be erroneous, by means whereof, the vernal equinox, which
at the time of the Council of Nice, in the year 325, happened on or
about the twenty-first of March, now happens on the ninth or tenth of
the same month: and the error still increasing, and, if not remedied,
would, in time, occasion the several equinoxes and solstices to fall at
very different times in the civil year from what they formerly did,
which might tend to mislead persons ignorant of such alteration. And as
a method of correcting the calendar, so as that the equinoxes and
solstices may for the future fall on the same nominal days on which they
happened at the time of the said General Council, hath been established,
and is now generally practised by almost all other nations of Europe:
and, as it will be of general convenience to merchants, and other
persons corresponding with other nations and countries and will tend to
prevent mistakes and disputes concerning the dates of letters and
accounts, if the like correction be received and established in his
Majesty's dominions."
"That, throughout all his Majesty's dominions in Europe, Asia, Africa
and America, the said old supputation shall not be used after the last
day of December 1751, and that the first of January following shall be
accounted the first day of the year 1752, and so on, in every year
after: and after the said first of January 1752, the days of the month
shall go on and be reckoned in the same order, and the feast of Easter,
and other moveable feasts depending thereon, shall be ascertained
according to the same method they now are, until the second of September
in 1752, inclusive, and the next day shall be accounted the fourteenth
of September, omitting, for that time only, the eleven intermediate
nominal days: and the following days shall be numbered forward in
numerical order from the said fourteenth of September, as now used in
the present calendar: and all acts and writings which shall be made or
executed upon or after the said first of January 1752, shall bear date
according to the new method of supputation; and the two fixed terms of
St. Hilary and St. Michael in England, and the courts of the great
sessions in the counties palatine and in Wales, and the courts of
general quarter sessions, and general sessions of the peace, and all
other courts and meetings and assemblies of any bodies politic or
corporate, for the election of officers or members, or for officers
entering upon the execution of their respective offices, or for any
other purpose, which by law or usage, &c., are to be held on any fixed
day of any month, or on any day depending on the beginning, or any
certain day of any month, (excepting courts usually holden with fairs or
marts) shall, after the said second of September, be held on the same
nominal days and times whereon they are now to be holden, but computed
according to the new method of numbering, that is, eleven days sooner
than the respective days whereon the same are now kept.
"The years 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300, or any other hundredth year,
except every fourth hundredth, whereof the year 2000 shall be the first,
shall be deemed common years, consisting of three hundred and sixty-five
days; and the years 2000, 2400, 2800 and every other fourth hundredth
years from the year 2000, inclusive, and all other years which by the
present supputation are esteemed to be Bissextile, or leap-years, shall
for the future be esteemed to be Bissextile, or leap-years, consisting
of three hundred and sixty-six days, as is now used with respect to
every fourth year.
"The feast of Easter, and the moveable feasts thereon depending, shall
be no longer observed according to the method of supputation now used,
or the table prefixed to the book of Common Prayer: and the said table,
and also the column of golden numbers, as they are now prefixed to the
respective days of the month in the calendar, shall be left out in all
future editions of the said book: and the new calendar, tables, and
rules, annexed to the act, are to be prefixed in the stead thereof: and,
from and after the said second of September, the fixed feasts,
holy-days, and fasts, of the church of England, and also the several
solemn days of thanksgiving and of fasting and humiliation, enjoined to
be observed by Parliament, shall be observed on the respective nominal
days marked for the celebration of the same in the new calendar; that is
to say, on the respective nominal days, and the feast of Easter, and
other moveable feasts thereon depending, shall be celebrated according
to the said annexed calendar; and the two moveable terms of Easter and
Trinity, and all courts, meetings and assemblies, of any bodies, politic
or corporate, and all markets, fairs, and marts, and courts thereunto
belonging, which, by any law, statute, charter or usage, are to be held
and kept at any moveable time depending upon Easter, or other moveable
feast, shall, after the said second of September, be held and kept on
the same days and times whereon the same shall happen, according to the
falling of Easter by the new calendar.
"The meetings of the Court of Sessions, and terms fixed for the Court of
Exchequer in Scotland; the April meeting of the conservators of the
great Level of the Fens, and the holding and keeping of markets, fairs,
and marts, for the sale of goods or cattle, or for hiring of servants,
or for other purposes, which are fixed to certain nominal days of the
month, or depending on the beginning, or any certain day of any month,
and all courts kept with such fairs or marts; shall, after the said
second of September, be kept upon the same natural days upon which the
same would have been held if this act had not been made; i.e. eleven
days later than the same would happen according to the nominal days of
the new supputation of time, by which the commencement of each month,
and the nominal days thereof, are brought forward eleven days.
"But this act shall not accelerate or anticipate the days for the
opening, inclosing or shutting up of grounds, common or pasture, or the
days and times on which a temporary and distinct property and right in
any such lands or grounds is to commence: but they shall be respectively
opened, and inclosed, or shut up, and shall commence on the same natural
days and times, after the said second of September, as before the making
of this Act: that is, eleven days later than the same would happen
according to the new supputation of time.
"Neither shall this act accelerate or anticipate the times of payment of
rents, annuities, or other monies, which shall become payable in
consequence of any custom, usage, lease, deed, writing, or other
contract or agreement, now subsisting, or which shall be entered into
before the said fourteenth of September, or which shall become payable
by virtue of any act of Parliament. Not to accelerate the payment, or
increase the interest of any money which shall become payable as
aforesaid, or at the time of the delivery of any goods or other things
whatsoever, or the commencement, or determination of any leases or
demises of lands, &c., or other contracts or agreements, annuity, or
rent, or of any grant for a term of years, &c., or the time of attaining
the age of twenty-one years, or any other age requisite by law, usage,
or writing, for the doing any act, or for any other purpose, by any
persons now born, or who shall be born before the said fourteenth of
September; or the time of the determination of any apprenticeship or
other service by indenture, or by articles under seal, or by reason of
any simple contract or hiring; but all these shall commence, cease, and
determine, at and upon the said natural days and times on which they
would have happened if this act had not been made."
II.
LORD CHESTERFIELD'S OWN ACCOUNT.
+Source.+--_Letters of the Earl of Chesterfield._ Edited by Lord Mahon,
1845-53. Vol. ii., pp. 115, 116.
LONDON,
_March 18_, O.S. 1751.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
I acquainted you in a former letter that I had brought in a bill into
the House of Lords, for correcting and reforming our present calendar,
which is the Julian, and for adopting the Gregorian. I will now give you
a more particular account of that affair, from which reflections will
naturally occur to you that I hope may be useful, and which I fear you
have not made. It was notorious, that the Julian calendar was erroneous,
and had overcharged the solar year with eleven days. Pope Gregory XIII.
corrected this error [in 1582]; his reformed calendar was immediately
received by all the Catholic Powers of Europe, and afterwards adopted by
all the Protestant ones, except Russia [which still (1912) adheres to
the old style.--ED.], Sweden and England. It was not, in my opinion,
very honourable for England to remain in a gross and avowed error,
especially in such company; the inconvenience of it was likewise felt by
all those who had foreign correspondences whether political or
mercantile. I determined, therefore, to attempt the reformation; I
consulted the best lawyers, and the most skilful astronomers, and we
cooked up a bill for that purpose. But then my difficulty began; I was
to bring in this bill, which was necessarily composed of law jargon and
astronomical calculations, to both of which I am an utter stranger.
However, it was absolutely necessary to make the House of Lords think
that I knew something of the matter, and also to make them believe that
they knew something of it themselves, which they do not. For my own
part, I could just as soon have talked Celtic or Sclavonian to them as
astronomy, and they would have understood me full as well; so I resolved
to do better than speak to the purpose, and to please instead of
informing them. I gave them, therefore, only an historical account of
calendars, from the Egyptian down to the Gregorian, amusing them now and
then with little episodes; but I was particularly attentive to the
choice of my words, to the harmony and roundness of my periods, to my
eloquence, to my action. This succeeded, and ever will succeed; they
thought I informed, because I pleased them; and many of them said, that
I had made the whole very clear to them, when, God knows, I had not even
attempted it. Lord Macclesfield, who had the greatest share in forming
the bill and who is one of the greatest mathematicians and astronomers
in Europe, spoke afterwards with infinite knowledge, and all the
clearness that so intricate a matter would admit of; but as his words,
his periods and his utterance were not near so good as mine, the
preference was most unanimously, though most unjustly, given to me....
SMOLLETT'S CHARACTER OF THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.[22]
+Source.+--T. Smollett: _Humphrey Clinker_, 1831. Pp. 110, 124, 126.
His eulogium was interrupted by the arrival of the old duke of N----,
who, squeezing into the circle, with a busy face of importance, thrust
his head into every countenance, as if he had been in search of
somebody, to whom he wanted to impart something of great consequence. My
uncle, who had been formerly known to him, bowed as he passed: and the
duke, seeing himself saluted so respectfully by a well-dressed person,
was not slow in returning the courtesy. He even came up, and, taking him
cordially by the hand,--"My dear friend, Mr. A----," said he, "I am
rejoiced to see you. How long have you come from abroad? How did you
leave our good friends the Dutch? The king of Prussia don't think of
another war, ah? He's a great king, a great conqueror--a very great
conqueror! Your Alexanders and Hannibals were nothing at all to him,
Sir! corporals, drummers! dross! mere trash--damn'd trash, heh?" His
grace, being by this time out of breath, my uncle took the opportunity
to tell him he had not been out of England, that his name was Bramble,
and that he had the honour to sit in the last parliament but one of the
late king, as representative for the borough of Dymkymraig. "Odso!"
cried the duke, "I remember you perfectly well, my dear Mr. Bramble. You
was always a good and loyal subject--a staunch friend to administration.
I made your brother an Irish bishop." "Pardon me, my lord," said the
squire, "I once had a brother, but he was a captain in the army."--"Ha!"
said his grace, "he was so--he was indeed! But who was the bishop then?
Bishop Blackberry--sure it was bishop Blackberry. Perhaps some relation
of yours?"--"Very likely, my lord!" replied my uncle; "the blackberry is
the fruit of the bramble: but I believe the bishop is not a berry of our
bush."--"No more he is, no more he is, ha, ha, ha!" exclaimed the duke;
"there you give me a scratch, good Mr. Bramble, ha, ha, ha! Well, I
shall be glad to see you at Lincoln's Inn Fields. You know the way;
times are altered. Though I have lost the power, I retain the
inclination; your very humble servant, good Mr. Blackberry." So saying,
he shoved to another corner of the room. "What a fine old gentleman!"
cried Mr. Barton, "what spirits! what a memory! he never forgets an old
friend."--"He does me too much honour to rank me among the number.
Whilst I sat in parliament I never voted with the ministry but three
times, when my conscience told me they were in the right: however, if he
still keeps levee, I will carry my nephew thither, that he may see, and
learn to avoid the scene; for I think an English gentleman never appears
to such disadvantage as at the levee of a minister. Of his grace I shall
say nothing at present, but that for thirty years he was the constant
and common butt of ridicule and execration. He was generally laughed at
as an ape in politics, whose office and influence served only to render
his folly the more notorious; and the opposition cursed him as the
indefatigable drudge of a first mover, who was justly styled and
stigmatized as the father of corruption: but this ridiculous ape, this
venal drudge, no sooner lost the places he was so ill qualified to fill,
and unfurled the banners of faction, than he was metamorphosed into a
pattern of public virtue; the very people, who reviled him before, now
extolled him to the skies, as a wise experienced statesman, chief pillar
of the protestant succession, and corner-stone of English liberty...."