A VICTORY FOR THE PATRIOTS.
[Sidenote: 1729--Death of Congreve]
Literature lost some great names in the early part of George the
Second's reign. William Congreve and Richard Steele both died in 1729.
Congreve's works do not belong to the time of which we are writing. He
was not sixty years old when he died, and he had long ceased to take
any active part in literature. Swift deplores, in a letter to an
acquaintance, "the death of our friend Mr. Congreve, whom I loved from
my youth, and who surely, besides his other talents, was a very
agreeable companion." Swift adds that Congreve "had the misfortune to
squander away a very good constitution in his younger days," and "upon
his own account I could not much desire the continuance of his life
under so much pain and so many infirmities." Congreve was beyond
comparison the greatest English comic dramatist of his time. Since the
days of Ben Jonson and until the days of Sheridan there was no one who
could fairly be compared with him. His comedy was not in the least
like the bold, broad, healthy, Aristophanic humor of Ben Jonson; the
two stand better in contrast than in comparison. Jonson drew from the
whole living English world of his time; Congreve drew from the men and
women whom he had seen in society. Congreve took society as he found
it in his earlier days. The men and women with whom he then mixed were
for the most part flippant, insincere, corrupt, and rather proud of
their corruption; and Congreve filled his plays with figures very
lifelike for such a time. He has not drawn many men or women whom one
could admire. Even his heroines, if they are chaste in their lives,
{300} are anything but pure in their conversation, and seem to have no
moral principle beyond that which is represented by what Heine calls an
"anatomical chastity." Angelica, the heroine of "Love for Love," is
evidently meant by Congreve to be all that a charming young
Englishwoman ought to be; and she is charming, fresh, and fascinating
even still. But she occasionally talks in a manner which would be a
little strong for a barrack-room now; and nothing gives her more
genuine delight than to twit her kind, fond old uncle with his wife's
infidelities, to make it clear to him that all the world is acquainted
with the full particulars of his shame, and to sport with his jealous
agonies. Congreve was the first dramatic author who put an English
seaman on the stage; and, after his characteristic fashion, he made his
Ben Legend a selfish, coarse, and ruffianly lout. But if one cannot
admire many of Congreve's characters, on the other hand one cannot help
admiring every sentence they speak. The only fault to be found with
their talk is that it is too witty, too brilliant, for any manner of
real life. Society would have to be all composed of male and female
Congreves to make such conversation possible. There is more strength,
originality, and depth in it than even in the conversation in "The
Rivals" and "The School for Scandal." The same fault has been found
with Sheridan which is to be found with Congreve. We need not make too
much of it. No warning example is called for. There will never be
many dramatists whose dialogue will deserve the censure of critics on
the ground that it is too witty.
[Sidenote: 1729--Death of Steele]
Of Steele we have often had occasion to speak. His fame has been
growing rather than fading with time. At one period he was ranked by
critics as far below the level of Addison; few men now would not set
him on a pedestal as high. He was more natural, more simple, more
fresh than Addison. There is some justice in the remark of Hazlitt
that "Steele seems to have gone into his closet chiefly to set down
what he had observed out-of-doors;" {301} while Addison appears "to
have spent most of his time in his study," spinning out to the utmost
there the hints "which he borrowed from Steele or took from nature."
Every one, however, will cordially say with Hazlitt, "I am far from
wishing to depreciate Addison's talents, but I am anxious to do justice
to Steele." There are not many names in English literature round which
a greater affection clings than that of Steele. Leigh Hunt, in writing
of Congreve, speaks of "the love of the highest aspirations" which he
sometimes displays, and which makes us think of what he might have been
under happier and purer auspices. Leigh Hunt refers in especial to
Congreve's essay in the _Tatler_ on the character of Lady Elizabeth
Hastings, whom Congreve calls Aspasia--"an effusion so full of
enthusiasm for the moral graces, and worded with an appearance of
sincerity so cordial, that we can never read it without thinking it
must have come from Steele." "It is in this essay," Leigh Hunt goes
on, "that he says one of the most elegant and truly loving things that
were ever uttered by an unworldly passion: 'To love her is a liberal
education.'" Leigh Hunt's critical judgment was better than his
information. The words "to love her is a liberal education" are by
Steele, and not by Congreve. They do not appear in the essay by
Congreve on the character of Lady Elizabeth Hastings, but in a
subsequent essay by Steele, in which, after a fashion common enough in
the _Tatler_ and the _Spectator_, one author takes up some figure
created or described by another, and gives it new touches and commends
it afresh to the reader. Steele was doing this with Congreve's picture
of Aspasia, and it was then that he crowned the whole work by the
exquisite and immortal words which Leigh Hunt could never read without
thinking they must have come from the man who was in fact their author.
If literature had its losses in these years, it had also its gains.
Not long before the time at which we have now arrived, English
literature had achieved three great successes. Pope wrote the first
three books of his {302} "Dunciad," Swift published his "Gulliver's
Travels," and Gay set the town wild with his "Beggar's Opera." We are
far from any thought of classifying the "Beggar's Opera" as a work of
art on a level with the "Dunciad" or "Gulliver's Travels," but in its
way it is a masterpiece. It is thoroughly original, fresh, and vivid.
It added one or two distinctly new figures to the humorous drama. It
is clever as a satire and charming as a story. One cannot be surprised
that when it had the attraction of novelty the public raved about it.
To say anything about "Gulliver's Travels" or the "Dunciad," except to
note the historical fact that each was published, would of course be
mere superfluity and waste of words.
In 1731 the first steps were taken in a reform of some importance in
the liberation of our legal procedure. It was arranged that English
should be substituted for Latin in the presentments, indictments,
pleadings, and all other documents used in our courts of law. The
early stages of this most wise and needful reform were met with much
opposition by lawyers and pedants. One main argument employed in favor
of the retention of the old system was that, if the language of our
legal documents were to be changed, no man would be at the pains of
studying Latin any more, and that in a few years no one would be able
to read a word of some of our own most valuable historical records. It
was mildly suggested on the other side that there would always be some
men among us who "either out of curiosity, or for the sake of gain,"
would make it their business to keep up the knowledge of Latin, and
that a very few of such antiquarians would suffice to give the country
all the information drawn from Latin records which it could possibly
require or care to have. We have had some experience since that time,
and it does not appear that the disuse of Latin in our legal documents
has led to its falling into absolute disuse among reading men. There
are still among us, and apparently will always be, persons who, "either
out of curiosity, or for the sake of gain," keep up their knowledge of
Latin. {303} The curiosity to read Virgil and Horace and Cicero and
Caesar, in the tongue which those authors employed, is more keen than
it ever was before. Men indulge themselves freely in it, even without
reference to the sake of gain.
[Sidenote: 1731--Quarrel of Walpole and Townshend]
Meanwhile a change long foreseen by those who were in the inner
political circles was rapidly approaching. The combination between
Walpole and his brother-in-law, Lord Townshend, was about to be broken
up. It had for a long time been a question whether it was to be the
firm of Townshend and Walpole, or Walpole and Townshend; and of late
years the question was becoming settled. If the firm was to endure at
all, it must clearly be Walpole and Townshend. Walpole had been
growing every day in power and influence. The King, as well as the
Queen, treated him openly and privately as the head of the Government.
Townshend saw this, and felt bitterly aggrieved. He had for a long
time been a much more powerful personage socially than Walpole, and he
could not bear with patience the supremacy which Walpole was all too
certainly obtaining. Great part of that supremacy was due to Walpole's
superiority of talents; but something was due also to the fact that the
House of Commons was becoming a much more important assembly than the
House of Lords. The result was inevitable. Townshend for a long time
struggled against it. He tried to intrigue against Walpole; he did his
best to ingratiate himself with the King. He was a man of austere
character and stainless life; but he seems, nevertheless, to have tried
at one time the merest arts of the political intriguer to supplant his
brother-in-law in the favor and confidence of the King. Perhaps he
might have succeeded--it is at least possible--but for the watchful
intelligence of Queen Caroline. She saw through all Townshend's
schemes, and took care that they should not succeed. At last the two
rivals quarrelled. Their quarrel broke out very openly, in the
drawing-room of a lady, and in the presence of several distinguished
{304} persons. From hot words they were going on to a positive
personal struggle, when the spectators at last intervened to "pluck
them asunder," in the words of the King in "Hamlet." They were plucked
asunder, and then there was talk of a duel. The friends of both
succeeded in preventing this scandal, but the brothers-in-law were
never thoroughly reconciled, and after a short time Lord Townshend
resigned his office. He withdrew from public life altogether, and
devoted his remaining years to the enjoyment of the country and the
cultivation of agriculture. It is to his credit that when once he had
given way to the superior influence of Walpole, he did not afterwards
cabal against him, or try to injure him, according to the fashion of
the statesmen of the time. On the contrary, when he was once pressed
to join in an attack on Walpole's ministry, he firmly refused to do
anything of the kind. He said he had resolved to take no further part
in political contests, and he did not mean to break his resolution. He
was particularly determined not to depart from his resolve in this
case, he explained, because his temper was hot, and he was apprehensive
that he might be hurried away by personal resentment to take a course
which in his cooler moments he should have to regret. Nothing in his
public life, perhaps, became him so well as his dignified conduct in
his retirement. His place in history is not strongly marked; in this
history we shall not hear of him any more.
[Sidenote: 1730--Signs of change in foreign policy]
Colonel Stanhope, who had made the Treaty of Seville, and had been
raised to the peerage as Lord Harrington for his services, succeeded
Townshend as Secretary of State. Horace Walpole, the brother of
Robert, was at his own request recalled from Paris. Walpole, the
Prime-minister, had begun to see that it would be necessary for the
future to have something like a good understanding with Austria. The
friendship with France had been a priceless advantage in its time, but
Walpole believed that it had served its turn. It was valuable to
England chiefly because it had enabled the Sovereign to keep {305} the
movements of the Stuart party in check, and Walpole hoped that the
House of Hanover was now secure on the throne, and believed, with too
sanguine a confidence, that no other effort would be made to disturb
it. Moreover, he saw some reason to think that France, no longer
guided by the political intelligence of a man like the Duke of Orleans,
was drawing a little too close in her relationship with Spain. Walpole
was already looking forward to the coming of a time when it might be
necessary for England to strengthen herself against France and Spain,
and he therefore desired to get into a good understanding with the
Emperor and Austria.
Walpole now had the Government entirely to himself. He was not merely
all-powerful in the administration, he actually was the administration.
The King knew him to be indispensable; the Queen put the fullest trust
in him. His only trouble was with the intrigues of Bolingbroke and the
opposition of Pulteney. The latter sometimes affected what would have
been called at the time a "mighty unconcern" about political affairs.
Writing once to Pope, he says, "Mrs. Pulteney is now in labor; if she
does well, and brings me a boy, I shall not care one sixpence how much
longer Sir Robert governs England, or Horace governs France." This was
written while Horace Walpole was still Ambassador at the French Court.
Pulteney, however, was very far from feeling anything like the
philosophical indifference which he expressed in his letter to Pope.
He never ceased to attack everything done by the Ministry, and to
satirize every word said by Walpole. At the same time Pulteney was
complaining bitterly to his friends of the attacks made on him by the
supporters of Walpole. On February 9, 1730, he wrote a letter to
Swift, in which he says that "certain people" had been driven by want
of argument "to that last resort of calling names: villain, traitor,
seditious rascal, and such ingenious appellations have frequently been
bestowed on a couple of friends of yours." "Such usage," he
complacently adds, "has made it {306} necessary to return the same
polite language; and there has been more Billingsgate stuff uttered
from the press within these two months than ever was known before."
Swift himself had previously written to his friend Dr. Sheridan a
letter in which he declared that "Walpole is peevish and disconcerted,
stoops to the vilest offices of hireling scoundrels to write
Billingsgate of the lowest and most prostitute kind, and has none but
beasts and blockheads for his penmen, whom he pays in ready guineas
very liberally." One would have thought that beasts and blockheads
could hardly prove very formidable enemies to Swift and Bolingbroke and
Pulteney.
[Sidenote: 1730--Lord Hervey]
One of the incidents in the controversy carried on by the Ministerial
penmen and the _Craftsman_ was a duel between Pulteney and Lord Hervey.
Pulteney and his friends were apparently under the impression that they
had a right to a monopoly of personal abuse, and they resented any
effusion of the kind from the other side as a breach of their
privilege. Hervey had written a tract called "Sedition and Defamation
displayed, in a Letter to the Author of the _Craftsman_;" and this led
to a new outburst of passion on both sides. Pulteney stigmatized
Hervey, on account of his effeminate appearance, as a thing that was
half man, half woman, and a duel took place in which Hervey was
wounded. Hervey was a remarkable man. His physical frame was as
feeble as that of Voltaire. He suffered from epilepsy and a variety of
other ailments. He had to live mainly on a dietary of ass's milk. His
face was so meagre and so pallid, or rather livid, that he used to
paint and make up like an actress or a fine lady. Pope, who might have
been considerate to the weak of frame, was merciless in his ridicule of
Hervey. He ridiculed him as Sporus, who could neither feel satire nor
sense, and as Lord Fanny. Yet Hervey could appreciate satire and
sense; could write satire and sense. He was a man of very rare
capacity. He had already distinguished himself as a debater in the
House of Commons, and was afterwards to distinguish himself as a {307}
debater in the House of Lords. He wrote pretty verses and clever
pamphlets, and he has left to the world a collection of "Memoirs of the
Reign of George the Second," which will always be read for its
vivacity, its pungency, its bitterness, and its keen, penetrating
good-sense. Hervey succeeded in obtaining the hand of one of the most
beautiful women of the day, the charming Mary Lepell, whose name has
been celebrated in more than one poetical panegyric by Pope, and he
captivated the heart of one of the royal princesses. The historical
reader must strike a sort of balance for himself in getting at an
estimate of Hervey's character. No man has been more bitterly
denounced by his enemies or more warmly praised by his friends.
Affectation, insincerity, prodigality, selfishness, servility to the
great, contempt for the humble, are among the qualities his opponents
ascribe to him. According to his friends, his cynicism was a mere
affectation to hide a sensitive and generous nature; his bitterness
arose from his disappointment at finding so few men or women who came
up to a really high standard of nobleness; his homage of the great was
but the half-disguised mockery of a scornful philosopher. Probably the
picture drawn by the friends is on the whole more near to life than
that painted by the enemies. The world owes him some thanks for a
really interesting book, the very boldness and bitterness of which
enhance to a certain extent its historical value. At this time Hervey
was but little over thirty years of age. He was the son of the first
Earl of Bristol by a second marriage, had been educated at Westminster
School and at Clare Hall, Cambridge; had gone early through the usual
round of Continental travels, and became a friend of George the First's
grandson, now Prince of Wales, at Hanover. This friendship not merely
did not endure, but soon turned into hate. Hervey was an admirer of
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and was admired by her; but her own
assurances, which may be trusted to, declared that there had been
nothing warmer than friendship between them. Lady Mary afterwards
{308} maintained that the relationship between Hervey and her
established the possibility of "a long and steady friendship subsisting
between two persons of different sexes without the least admixture of
love." Hervey was in his day a somewhat free and liberal lover of
women, and it is not surprising that the world should have regarded his
acquaintanceship with Lady Mary as something warmer than mere
friendship. We shall have occasion to refer to Hervey's memoirs of the
reign of George the Second more than once hereafter, and may perhaps
now cite a few words which Hervey himself says in vindication of their
sincerity and their historical accuracy; "No one who did not live in
these times will, I dare say, believe but some of those I describe in
these papers must have had some hard features and deformities
exaggerated and heightened by the malice and ill-nature of the painter
who drew them. Others, perhaps, will say that at least no painter is
obliged to draw every wart or wen or humpback in its full proportions,
and that I might have softened these blemishes where I found them. But
I am determined to report everything just as it is, or at least just as
it appears to me; and those who have a curiosity to see courts and
courtiers dissected, must bear with the dirt they find in laying open
such minds with as little nicety and as much patience as, in a
dissection of their bodies, if they wanted to see that operation, they
must submit to the disgust."
Hervey fought with spirit and effect on the side of Walpole, although
Lady Hervey strongly disliked the Minister and was disliked by him.
Walpole had at one time, it was said, made unsuccessful love to the
beautiful and witty Molly Lepell, and he did not forgive her because of
her scornful rejection of his ponderous attempts at gallantry. Hervey,
nevertheless, took Walpole's side, and proved to be an ally of some
importance. A great struggle was approaching, in which the whole
strength of Walpole's hold on the Sovereign and the country was to be
tested by the severest strain.
{309}
[Sidenote: 1730--The Sinking Fund]
Walpole was, as we have said more than once, the first of the great
financier statesmen of England. He was the first statesman who
properly appreciated the virtue and the value of mere economy in the
disposal of a nation's revenues. He was the first to devise anything
like a solid and symmetrical plan for the fair adjustment of taxation.
Sometimes he had recourse to rather poor and common-place artifices, as
in the case of his proposal to meet a certain financial strain by
borrowing half a million from the Sinking Fund. This proposal he
carried by a large majority, in spite of the most vehement and even
furious opposition on the part of the Patriots. It must be owned that
the Patriots were right enough in the principle of their objection to
this encroachment on the Sinking Fund, although their predictions as to
the ruin it must bring upon the country were preposterous. Borrowing
from a sinking fund is always rather a shabby dodge; but it is a trick
familiar to all statesmen in difficulties, and Walpole did no worse
than many statesmen of later days, who, with the full advantages of a
sound and well-developed financial system, have shown that they were
not able to do any better.
The Patriots seem to have made up their minds to earn their title.
They fought the "Court," or Ministerial, party on a variety of issues.
They supported motions for the reduction of the numbers of the army,
and they declaimed against the whole principle of a standing army with
patriotic passion, which sometimes appeared for the time quite genuine.
They brought illustrations of all kinds, applicable and inapplicable,
from Greek and Roman, from French and Spanish history, even from
Eastern history, to show that a standing army was invariably the
instrument of despotism and the forerunner of doom to the liberties of
a people. The financial policy of the Government gave them frequent
opportunities for using the sword of the partisan behind the fluttering
cloak of the patriot. On both sides of the House there was
considerable confusion of ideas on the subject of political economy
{310} and the incidence of taxation. Walpole was ahead of his own
party as well as of his opponents on such subjects; his followers were
little more enlightened than his antagonists.
[Sidenote: 1732--The American colonies]
In 1732 there was presented to the House of Commons an interesting
report from the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations on "the state
of his Majesty's colonies and plantations in America, with respect to
any laws made, manufactures set up, and trade carried on there, which
may affect the trade, navigation, and manufactures of this kingdom."
From this report we learn that at the time there were three different
systems of government prevailing in the American colonies. Some
provinces were immediately under the administration of the Crown: these
were Nova Scotia, New Hampshire, the Jerseys, New York, Virginia, the
two Carolinas, Bermuda, Bahama Islands, Jamaica, Barbadoes, and the
Leeward Islands. Others were vested in proprietors--Pennsylvania, for
example, and Maryland--and the Bahamas and the two Carolinas had not
long before been in the same condition. There were three Charter
Governments, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, in which the
power was divided between the Crown and the population, where the
people chose their representative assemblies, and the Governor was
dependent upon the Assembly for his annual support, "which," as the
report observed ingenuously, "has so frequently laid the Governor of
such a province under temptations of giving up the prerogative of the
Crown and the interest of Great Britain." The report contains a very
full account of the state of manufactures in all the provinces. New
York, for example, had no manufactures "that deserved mentioning;" the
trade there "consisted chiefly in furs, whalebone, oil, pitch, tar, and
provisions." In Massachusetts "the inhabitants worked up their wool
and flax, and made an ordinary coarse cloth for their own use, but did
not export any." In Pennsylvania the "chief trade lay in the
exportation of provisions and lumber," and there were {311} "no
manufactures established, their clothing and utensils for their houses
being all imported from Great Britain." For the object of the whole
report was not to discover how far the energy of the colonists was
developing the resources of the colonies, in order that the Government
and the people of England might be gratified with a knowledge of the
progress made, and give their best encouragement to further progress.
The inquiry was set on foot in order to find out whether the colonists
were presuming to manufacture for themselves any goods which they ought
by right to buy from English makers, and to recommend steps by which
such audacious enterprises might be rebuked and prevented. This is the
avowed object of the report, and we find governor after governor
assuring the Commissioners earnestly and plaintively that the
population of his province really manufacture nothing, or at all events
nothing that could possibly interfere with the sacred privileges of the
English monopolists. The report significantly recommends the House of
Commons to take into consideration the question "whether it might not
be expedient to give these colonies proper encouragements for turning
their industry to such manufactures and products as might be of service
to Great Britain, and more particularly to the production of all kinds
of naval stores." The proper encouragement given to this sort of
productiveness would imply, of course, proper discouragement given to
anything else. The colonies were to exist merely for the convenience
and benefit of the so-called mother country, a phrase surely of
sardonic impressiveness. Such, however, was the common feeling of that
day in England. It was so with regard to India; it was so with regard
to Ireland. The story of the pelican was reversed. The pelican did
not in this case feed her young with her blood; the young were expected
to give their blood to feed the pelican.
The real strain was to come when Walpole should introduce his famous
and long-expected scheme for a reform in the customs and excise laws.
Walpole's scheme {312} was inspired by two central ideas. One of these
was to diminish the amount of taxation imposed on the land of the
country, and make up the deficiency by indirect taxation; the other was
to reduce the customs duties by substituting as far as possible an
excise duty. Walpole would have desired something like free-trade as
regarded the introduction of food and the raw materials of manufacture.
Let these be got into the country as easily and freely as possible was
his principle, and then let us see afterwards how we can adjust the
excise duties so as to produce the largest amount of revenue with the
smallest injury to the interest of the consumer, and with the minimum
of waste. His design was that the necessaries of life and the raw
materials of manufacture should remain as nearly as possible untaxed,
and that the revenue of the country should be collected from land and
from luxuries. We do not mean to say that the plans which Walpole
presented to the country were faithful in all their details to these
central ideas. One scheme at least which he laid before Parliament was
positively at variance with the main principles which he had long been
trying to establish. But in considering the whole controversy between
him and his opponents, the reader may take it for granted that such
were the principles by which his financial policy was inspired. He had
been moving quietly in this direction for some time. He had removed
the import duties from tea, coffee, and chocolate, and made them
subject to inland or excise duties. In 1732 he revived the salt tax.
The Bill which was introduced on February 9, 1732, to accomplish this
object, met with a strong opposition in both Houses of Parliament.
Walpole's speech in introducing the motion for the revival of the tax
contained a very clear statement of his financial creed. "Where every
man contributes a small share, a great sum may be raised for the public
service without any man's being sensible of what he pays; whereas a
small sum raised upon a few, lies heavy upon each particular man, and
is the more grievous in that it is unjust; for where {313} the benefit
is mutual, the expense ought to be in common." [Sidenote:
1732--Opposition alarm] The general principle is unassailable; but
Walpole seems to us to have been quite wrong in his application of it
to such an impost as the salt tax. "Of all the taxes I ever could
think of," he argued, "there is not one more general, nor one less
felt, than that of the duty upon salt." He described it as a "tax that
every man in the nation contributes to according to his circumstances
and condition in life." This is exactly what every man does not do.
The family of the rich man does not by any means consume more salt than
the family of the poor man in proportion to their respective incomes.
Pulteney knocked Walpole's argument all to pieces in a speech of
remarkable force and ingenuity even for him. There was something
honestly pathetic in his appeal on behalf of the poor man, whom the
duty on salt would touch most nearly. The tax, he said, would be at
least one shilling a head for every man or woman able to work; to a man
with a family it would average four shillings and sixpence a year.
Such a yearly sum "may be looked upon as a trifle by a gentleman of a
large estate and easy circumstances, but a poor man feels sometimes
severely the want of a shilling; many a poor man has for want of a
shilling been obliged to pawn the only whole coat he had to his back,
and has never been able to redeem it again. Even a farthing to a poor
man is a considerable sum; what shifts do the frugal among them make to
save even a farthing!"
Had all Pulteney's speech been animated by this spirit he would have
made out an unanswerable case. The objection to a salt tax in England
then was not so great as in India at a later period; but the principle
of the tax was undoubtedly bad, while the general principle of
Walpole's finance was undoubtedly good. The question, however, was not
argued out by Pulteney or any other speaker on his side upon such a
ground as the hardship to the poor man. The tyranny of an excise
system, of any excise system, its unconstitutional, despotic, and
inquisitorial nature--this was the chief ground of attack. Sir {314}
William Wyndham sounded the alarm which was soon to be followed by a
tremendous echo. He declared the proposed tax "not only destructive to
the trade, but inconsistent with the liberties of this nation." The
very number of the officers who would have to be appointed to collect
this one tax, who would be named by the Crown and scattered all over
the country, would have immense influence on the elections; and this
fact alone would give a power into the hands of the Crown greater than
was consistent with the liberties of the people, and "of the most
dangerous consequence to our happy constitution." The Bill passed the
House of Commons, and was read a first time in the House of Lords on
March 22d. The second reading was moved on March 27th, and a long
debate took place. Not the least interesting fact concerning this
debate was that the leading part in opposition to the Bill was taken by
Lord Carteret, who had returned from his Irish Government, and was
beginning to show himself a pertinacious and a formidable enemy of
Walpole and his administration. Carteret outshone even Pulteney and
Wyndham in wholesale and extravagant denunciation of the measure. He
likened it to the domestic policy of Cardinal Richelieu, by which the
estates of the nobility and gentry were virtually confiscated to the
Crown, and the liberties of the people were lost. It would place it in
the power of a wicked administration to reduce the English people to
the same condition as the people in Turkey; "their only resource will
be in mobs and tumults, and the prevailing party will administer
justice by general massacres and proscriptions." All this may now seem
sheer absurdity; but for the purposes of Carteret and Pulteney it was
by no means absurd. The salt tax was carried through the House of
Lords; but the public out-of-doors were taught to believe that the
Minister's financial policy was merely a series of artifices for the
destruction of popular rights, and for robbing England of her political
liberty.
[Sidenote: 1733--"A very terrible affair"]
Walpole had long had in his mind a measure of a different {315}
nature--a measure to readjust the duties on tobacco and wine. It was
known that he was preparing some bill on the subject, and the
excitement which was beginning to show itself at the time of the salt
tax debates was turned to account by the Opposition to forestall the
popular reception of the expected measure. The cry was got up that the
administration were planning a scheme for a general excise, and the
bare idea of a general excise was then odious and terrible to the
public. Whatever Walpole's final purposes may have been, there was
nothing to alarm any one in the scheme which he was presently to
introduce. Nobody now would think of impugning the soundness of the
economical principles on which his moderate, limited, and tentative
scheme of fiscal reform was founded.
The coming event threw its shadow before it, and the shadow became
marvellously distorted. Pulteney, speaking on February 23, 1733, with
regard to the Sinking Fund proposal, talked of the expected excise
scheme in language of such exaggeration that it is impossible to
believe the orator could have felt anything like the alarm and horror
he expressed. There is "a very terrible affair impending," Pulteney
said, "a monstrous project--yea, more monstrous than has ever yet been
represented. It is such a project as has struck terror into the minds
of most gentlemen within this House, and into the minds of all men
without-doors who have any regard to the happiness or to the
constitution of their country. I mean that monster the excise; that
plan of arbitrary power which is expected to be laid before this House
in the present session of Parliament." Sir John Barnard, one of the
members for the City of London, a man of great respectability,
capacity, and influence, ventured to predict that Walpole's scheme
would "turn out to be his eternal shame and dishonor, and that the more
the project is examined, and the consequences thereof considered, the
more the projector will be hated and despised."
Of all this strong language Walpole took little account. {316} He
meant to propose his scheme, he said, when the proper time should come,
and he did not doubt but that honorable members would find it something
very different from the vague and monstrous project of which they had
been told. In any case he meant to propose it. [Sidenote:
1733--Walpole's scheme] Accordingly, on Wednesday, March 7, 1733,
Walpole moved that the House should on that day week resolve itself
into a committee "to consider of the most proper methods for the better
security and improvement of the duties and revenues already charged
upon and payable from tobacco and wines." On the day appointed,
Wednesday, March 14th, the House went into committee accordingly, and
Walpole expounded his scheme. It was simply a plan to deal with the
duties on wines and tobacco, and Walpole protested that his views and
purposes were confined altogether to these two branches of the revenue,
and that such a thing as a scheme for a general excise had never
entered into his head, "nor, for what I know, into the head of any man
I am acquainted with." There was in the mind of the English people
then a vague horror of all excise laws and excise officers, and the
whole opposition to Walpole's scheme in and out of the House of Commons
was maintained by an appeal to that common feeling. Walpole's
resolutions with regard to the tobacco trade were taken first and
separately. It will soon be seen that the resolutions concerning the
duties on wine were destined never to be discussed at all. What
Walpole proposed to do in regard to tobacco was to make the customs
duty very small and to increase the excise duty; to establish bonded
warehouses for the storing of the tobacco imported into this country
and meant to be exported again or sold here for home consumption; thus
to encourage and facilitate the importation; to get rid of many of the
dishonest practices which injured the fair dealer and defrauded the
revenue; to put a stop to smuggling; to benefit at once the grower, the
manufacturer, the consumer, and the revenue. We need not relate at
great length and in minute detail the history of these resolutions
{317} and of the debates on them in the House of Commons. But it may
be pointed out that, wild and absurd as were the outcries of the
Patriots, there yet was good reason for their apprehension of a growing
scheme to substitute excise for land-tax or poll-tax or customs.
Walpole was, as we know, a firm believer in the advantages of indirect
taxation, and of the introduction, as freely as possible, of all raw
materials for manufacture, and all articles useful for the food of a
nation. He was a free-trader before his time, and he saw that in
certain cases there was immense advantage to the consumer and to the
revenue in allowing articles to be imported under as light a duty as
possible, and then putting an excise duty on their distribution here.
Walpole was perfectly right in all this, but his enemies were none the
less justified in proclaiming that the proposals he was introducing
could not end in a mere readjustment of the tobacco and wine duties.
Walpole's first resolution was carried by 206 votes against 205. The
Government had won a victory, but it was such a victory as Walpole did
not care to win. He had been used of late to bear down all before him,
and he saw with eyes of clear foreboding the ominous significance of
his present majority. He knew well that the Opposition had got the
most telling cry they could possibly have sought or found against him.
He knew that popular tumult would grow from day to day. He knew that
his enemies were unscrupulous, and that they were banded together
against him on many grounds and with many different purposes. Every
section of the nation which had any hostile feeling to the House of
Hanover, to the existing administration, or to the Prime-minister
himself, made common cause against, not his Excise Bill, but him. The
tobacco resolutions were passed, and a bill to put them into execution
was ordered to be prepared. On April 4th the Bill was introduced to
the House of Commons, and a motion was made that it be read a first
time. Much, however, had happened out-of-doors since the day when
Walpole introduced his {318} resolutions. Even at that time there was
a great excitement abroad, which, brought crowds of more or less
tumultuous persons round the entrances of the House of Commons. The
troops had to be kept in readiness for any emergency that might arise.
The least thing feared was that they might have to be employed to keep
the access to the House clear for its members. [Sidenote: 1733--The
Bill abandoned] By the time the first division had taken place, the
tide of popular passion had swollen still higher. As Walpole was
quitting the House a furious rush was made at him, and but that some of
his colleagues surrounded, protected, and bore him off, he would have
been in serious personal danger. But the interval between that event
and the introduction of the Bill had been turned to very practical
account by those who were agitating against him, and the country was
now in a flame of excitement. The _Craftsman_ and the pamphleteers had
done their work well. The most extravagant consequences were described
as certain to follow from the adoption of Walpole's excise scheme. A
minister once allowed to impose his excise duty upon wine and tobacco,
and--thus shrieked the mouths of a hundred pamphleteers and
verse-mongers--he will go on imposing excise on every article of food
and dress and household use. Nothing will be able to resist the
inquisitorial exciseman. It was positively asserted in ballad and in
pamphlet that before long the exciseman would everywhere practise on
the daughters of England the atrociously insulting test which was
attempted on Wat Tyler's daughter, and which brought about Wat Tyler's
insurrection. The memories of Wat Tyler and of Jack Straw were invoked
to arouse popular panic and fury. Strange as it may now seem, these
appeals were successful in their object; they did create a popular
panic, and stir up popular passion and fury to the uttermost height.
Not even Walpole attempted any longer to argue down the monstrous
misrepresentations of his policy. The fury against him and his excise
scheme grew hotter every day, and at one time it was positively thought
that his life {319} was in danger. Tumultuous crowds of people
gathered in and around all the approaches to the House of Commons.
Several members of the House who were known to be in favor of the
Ministerial scheme complained that they had been menaced, insulted, and
even assaulted; and the House had for the security of its own debates,
and the personal safety of its own members, to pass resolutions
declaring that this riotous behavior was destructive of the freedom and
constitution of Parliament, and a high crime and misdemeanor. In the
House itself certain tactics, with which Parliament has been very
familiar at a later period, were tried with some effect. Various
motions for adjournment and other such delay to the progress of the
Bill were made and pressed to a division. It was becoming evident to
every one that the measure was doomed, and the hearts of the leaders of
Opposition rose with each hour that passed, while the spirits of the
Ministerialists fell.
Walpole never lost his head, although he well knew that a certain and a
damaging failure was now awaiting him. He still proclaimed that his
measure could be hurtful to none but smugglers and unfair traders, that
it would be of great benefit to the revenue and the nation, that it
would tend "to make London a free port, and by consequence the market
of the world." He spoke with scorn of the riotous crowds whom some had
declared to be merely respectful petitioners. "Gentlemen may give them
what name they think fit; it may be said that they came hither as
humble suppliants, but I know whom the law calls sturdy beggars." The
Common Council of London, spirited on by a Jacobite Lord Mayor,
petitioned against the excise scheme, and its example was followed by
various municipalities in the kingdom. Walpole acted at last according
to the principle which always governed him at such a crisis. He had
the courage to abandon the ground which he had taken up, and which he
would have been well entitled to maintain if argument could prevail
over misrepresentation and passion. With that {320} cool contempt for
the extravagance and the ignorance of the sentiment which thwarted him,
he abandoned his scheme and let the mob have its way. On Wednesday,
April 11, 1733, it was made known that the Government did not intend to
go any farther with the Bill. Exultation all over the island was
unbounded. Church bells rang, windows were illumined, bonfires blazed,
multitudes shouted everywhere. If England had gained some splendid
victory over a combination of foreign enemies, there could not have
been a greater display of frantic national enthusiasm than that which
broke out when it was found that hostile clamor had prevailed against
the Minister, and that his excise scheme was abandoned.
Frederick the Great has enriched the curiosities of history with an
account which he gives of the abandonment of the Bill. According to
him, George the Second had devised the measure as a means of making
himself absolute sovereign of England. The Excise Bill was intended to
put him in possession of a revenue fixed and assured, a revenue large
enough to allow him to increase his military power to any strength he
pleased. It only needed a word of command and a chief for revolution
to break out. Walpole escaped from Parliament covered with an old
cloak, and shouting with all his might, "Liberty, liberty! no excise!"
Thus disguised, he managed to get to the King in St. James's Palace.
He found the King preparing for the worst, arming himself at all
points, having put on the hat he wore at Malplaquet, and trying the
temper of the sword he carried at Oudenarde. George desired to put
himself at once at the head of his guards, and try conclusions with his
enemies. Walpole had all the trouble in the world to moderate his
sovereign's impetuosity, and at length represented to him, "with the
generous hardihood of an Englishman attached to his master," that it
was only a choice between abandoning the Excise Bill and losing the
crown. Whereupon George at last gave way; the Bill was abandoned, and
the crown preserved.
{321}
[Sidenote: 1733--Romance and reality]
This scene is, of course, a piece of the purest romance. But it is
certain that the passions of the people were so thoroughly aroused that
a man less cool and in the true sense courageous than Walpole might
have provoked a popular outbreak, and no one can say whether the crown
of the Brunswicks might not have gone down in a popular outbreak just
then. Time and education have long since vindicated Walpole's
financial principles; but the passion, the ignorance, and the
partisanship of his own day were too strong, and prevailed against him.
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
{322}
INDEX.
Abernethy, Dr., death, iv. 282.
Act for better securing the Dependency of Ireland, i. 177.
Act of Settlement, i. 4.
Act of Union passed, iii. 327, 330.
Acts of Trade, iii. 82, 84, 86, 105.
Adams, John:
Conduct towards Colonel Preston, iii. 152.
Opposes dominion of England, iii. 85.
Adams, Samuel, protests against Stamp Act, iii. 90.
Addington, Henry, Viscount Sidmouth, Prime Minister, iii. 337.
Addison, Joseph:
M. P. for Malmesbury, i. 52.
Secretary of State; circular letter to English Ministers, ii. 109.
Sketch of, i. 37, 180.
Address (1715), i. 102.
Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, wife of William IV., iv. 97.
Supposed attitude towards Reform, iv. 172.
Agrarian crime, iv. 84, 106.
Agriculture in Scotland (1714), i. 87, 89.
Agriculture in 1721, i. 229.
Aislabie, John:
Chancellor of Exchequer, i. 188, 190.
Committed to Tower, i. 199.
Impeaches Lord Strafford, i. 109, 110.
Treasurer of Navy, i. 105.
Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of, ii. 260, 280.
Akerman, Keeper of Newgate, attitude towards mob, iii. 203.
Albany, Countess of, wife of Charles Stuart, ii. 233.
Alberoni, Giulio:
Policy, i. 159.
Sketch of, i. 158.
Ale-tax in Scotland, i. 249.
Ali Vardi Khan, death of, ii. 265.
Allan, killed in riot (1768), iii. 120.
Allen, Ethan, iii. 179.
Almanza, battle of, ii. 35.
Althorp, Lord (_see_ Spencer, John Charles, Earl).
Amelia, daughter of George III., death of, iii. 341.
Amelia, Princess (_see_ Emily, Princess).
American Colonies:
Discontent in, iii. 147 _seqq._
Grievances, iii. 82.
Proclaim their Independence, iii. 183.
Report on, i. 310.
Sketch of history, iii. 74.
Systems of governing, i. 310.
American Republic acknowledged, iii. 184.
Influence on France, iii. 290, 292.
American War of Independence, iii. 173 _seqq._
American War, Second, iii. 344.
Amherst, Jeffrey, Baron:
Commander-in-Chief, iii. 207.
Commands troops in Canada, ii. 287.
Amhurst, Nicholas (Caleb d'Anvers), edits _Craftsman_, i. 261.
Anaverdi Khan, Nabob of Carnatic, ii. 201.
André, Major, death as spy, iii. 184.
Anglesey, Marquis of, Viceroy of Ireland, attitude towards
Catholic Emancipation, iv. 73, 74.
Anne, Princess of Orange, ii. 38.
Illness, ii. 71, 76.
Marriage, ii. 42.
Anne, Queen:
Character, i. 1, 13.
Death, i. 47.
Declining health, i. 1.
Scheme to reduce expenses, i. 281.
"Annual Register":
Description of mob in London, iii. 205.
Founded by Edmund Burke, iii. 99.
Anti-Irish riots, ii. 45.
"Anti-Jacobin," iv. 33.
Arbuthnot, John:
History of John Bull, i. 97.
Sketch of, ii. 20.
Arcot, Siege of, ii. 263.
Arden, Richard Pepper, iii. 236.
Argyll, John Campbell, Duke of, i. 42.
Commander-in-Chief for Scotland, i. 98, 123.
Sketch of, i. 44.
Speech on Convention, ii. 166.
Aristotle on administration, ii. 246.
Arnold, Benedict, iii. 179.
Treason, iii. 184.
Ashe, Bishop of Clogher, ii. 293.
Ashley, Lord (_see_ Shaftesbury, Earl of).
Association of United Irishmen, iii. 309, 313, 319.
Atterbury, Francis, Bishop of Rochester, i. 48.
Arrested and committed to Tower, i. 212.
Banished, i. 222.
Evidence against, i. 219, 220, 222.
On condition of church, ii. 129.
Opposes Septennial Act, i. 146.
Sketch of, i. 214.
_Auditor_, iii. 15, 55.
Augusta, Princess of Saxe-Gotha, wife of Frederick,
Prince of Wales, ii. 46, 47; iii. 6, 7.
Birth of first child, ii. 104-107.
Regency Bill and, iii. 73.
Augustus, Elector of Saxony, ii. 23.
Augustus II. of Poland, ii. 23.
Aurungzebe, Empire on death of, ii. 257.
Austerlitz, Battle of, iii. 338, 339.
Austria in 1716, i. 154.
Bailly, Mayor of Paris, iii. 298.
Ballot system, iv. 131.
Balmerino, Lord, trial, ii. 228.
Bank of England:
Attacked by rioters, iii. 207.
Charter renewed, iv. 232.
Imitates South Sea Company, i. 189.
Barber, John:
Letter to Swift, i. 48.
On Arbuthnot, ii. 20.
Barnard, Sir John:
Abandons seceders, ii. 174.
On Convention, ii. 162.
On grievances against Spaniards, ii. 154, 157.
On Walpole's Excise scheme, i. 315.
Barré, Colonel, iii. 131, 133, 136.
Barry, Richard, Lord Barrymore, iii. 244.
Supports Young Pretender, ii. 221.
Barry, Sir Charles, designs new Houses of Parliament, iv. 270, 272.
Bartholomew Fair, i. 73.
Barwell, Richard, iii. 260.
Supports Hastings, iii. 260, 261, 264.
Bastile captured, iii. 294.
Bath in 1714, i. 79.
Bathurst, Lord, demands prosecution of rioters, iii. 201.
Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of:
On Lord John Russell, iv. 126.
Philippics against Sir Robert Peel, i. 287.
Beaux and requisites, i. 76.
Bedford, Duke of:
Opposes Pitt, iii. 26.
Patron of Rigby, iii. 37.
Presents petition against Convention, ii. 164.
Bellingham, John, shot Spencer Perceval, iii. 341.
Benares annexed, iii. 258.
Benares, Chait Singh, Rajah of, iii. 269.
Bentham, Jeremy, theories of, iv. 281.
Béranger, "King of Yvetot," iv. 119.
Berkeley, George Bishop:
Character, ii. 296.
Lives in Rhode Island, ii. 295.
Scheme of Settlement in Bermuda, ii. 294.
Sketch of, ii. 292.
Berkeley, Lord, of Stratton, describes duel between Colonel
Chudleigh and Charles Aldworth, i. 58.
Bermuda, Scheme for Settlement in, ii. 294.
Bernard, Francis, Governor of Massachusetts, iii. 106, 148.
Dissolves Massachusetts Legislature, iii. 150.
Recalled, iii. 151.
Berwick, James FitzJames, Duke of:
Sketch of, ii. 34.
Takes Kehl, ii. 24.
Bill for Catholic Relief, iii. 190, 191.
Bill for Princess Anne's dowry, ii. 43.
Bill for strengthening Protestant interest, i. 171, 172.
Bill of Rights, i. 3.
Bill to adjust affairs of South Sea Company, i. 203, 205.
Bill to suspend Habeas Corpus Act, i. 213.
Birmingham, iv. 99.
Bismarck, Prince, Peace policy, ii. 147.
Black Hole of Calcutta, ii. 266, 267; iii. 249.
Blackstone, Speech on Middlesex Election Petition, iii. 131.
Bland-Burges Papers, ii. 217.
Bland-Burges, Sir James, defends Warren Hastings, iii. 277, 278.
Bloomfield, patronized by Duke of Grafton, iii. 35.
Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, Viscount, i. 22, 115.
Advises secession from Commons, ii. 172.
Alliance with Pulteney, i. 260; ii. 17.
At St. Germains, i. 116.
Attitude towards restoration of Stuarts, i. 39, 48, 107.
Character, i. 116; ii. 18, 279.
Correspondence with James Stuart, ii. 18.
Dismissed by James, i. 131.
Dreams of Coalition Ministry, ii. 194.
Flight, i. 103.
Impeached of high treason, i. 108, 110.
Inspires _Craftsman_, i. 290.
Leaves England for France, ii. 17, 18.
Letter to Swift, i. 47.
Name erased from roll of peers, i. 114.
On Duke of Berwick, ii. 34.
On Duke of Shrewsbury, i. 42.
On Wyndham's death, ii. 179.
Petition to Lords, i. 258.
Removed from Secretaryship of State, i. 101.
Returns to England, i. 222, 258.
Scheme of Opposition, i. 287.
Sketch of, i. 26; later life, i. 133; ii. 278, 279.
Style as speaker and writer, i. 27.
Walpole's portrait of, ii. 15, 16.
Bombay, dower of Catherine of Braganza, iii. 248.
Boston:
Evacuated, iii. 182.
Hostile to British, iii. 151.
Invested, iii. 175, 181.
Life in 1765, iii. 77.
Massacre, iii. 151.
Protests against Stamp Act, iii. 90.
Tea thrown into harbor, ii. 43; iii. 160.
Boston, Lord, in hands of mob, iii. 197.
Boston Port Bill, iii. 163; copies circulated, iii. 165.
Boswell, James:
Johnson and, iii. 44.
On Alexander Wedderburn, iii. 158.
Bourbon family:
Aims of, ii. 28.
Compacts, ii. 26.
Bourne, Vincent, at Westminster School, iii. 53.
Braddock, General, defeat and death, ii. 286; iii. 79, 180.
Bradley on reform of Calendar, ii. 275.
Breed Hill battle, iii. 176.
Bremen ceded to Hanover, i. 160, 161.
Brewster, Sir David:
British Association and, iv. 262.
On Newton, i. 273.
Bright, John, doctrine of non-intervention, iv. 62.
Bristol:
Growth of, i. 78.
Reform riot at, iv. 171.
British Admirals of Eighteenth Century, iii. 336.
British Association founded, iv. 262.
British garrison proposed for America, iii. 84, 86.
British sailor (1797), iii. 334.
_Briton_, iii. 51, 55.
"Broad-bottomed Ministry," ii. 245, 246.
Bromley, William, motion on Septennial Act, ii. 10, 12.
"Brothers" Club, i. 74.
Brougham, Henry, Lord Brougham and Vaux:
Advice to Queen Caroline, iv. 5.
Attitude towards electoral reform, iv. 52.
Attitude towards Poor Relief, iv. 223.
Attitude towards West Indian Slavery, iv. 192, 193.
British Association and, iv. 262.
Character, iv. 251.
Defends Queen Caroline, iv. 6, 8.
Evidence in Cobbett's prosecution, iv. 156.
Leader of Opposition, iv. 103.
Lord Chancellor, iv. 124.
Motion on Reform, iv. 104, 110, 111.
Motions against Slavery, iv. 194, 195.
Negotiates with King on creation of new peers, iv. 180.
On Parliamentary Reform, iv. 85.
Oratory, iv. 104, 174.
"Penny Cyclopaedia" and, iv. 262.
Persuades William IV. to dissolve Parliament, iv. 151.
Power as Reformer, iv. 122, 125.
Retires from Ministerial life, iv. 251.
Scheme for national education, iv. 22.
Speech on Catholic Emancipation, iv. 74.
Brunswick family, i. 5.
Buchanan, messenger of Young Pretender, ii. 205.
Buckingham, Earl of, iii. 338.
Buckingham House, i. 66.
Buckingham Palace, iv. 93.
Bunbury, Sir Thomas Charles, marries Lady Sarah Lennox, iii. 10.
Burdett, Sir Francis, resolution on Catholic Emancipation, iv. 73.
Burgoyne at Boston, iii. 175, 182.
Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga, iii. 183.
Burke, Edmund:
Alliance with Fox and North, iii. 226.
Attitude on American Independence, iii. 87.
Attitude towards French Revolution, iii. 285.
Career, iii. 96 _seqq._
Character, iii. 227.
Crusade against French Revolution, iii. 296, 298.
Denunciation of French Revolution, i. 96.
"Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful," iii. 98.
Friend of Goldsmith, iii. 168.
Impeaches Warren Hastings, iii. 281, 285.
Indian policy, iii. 273.
Influence on generation, iii. 96, 100.
Maiden speech, iii. 100.
Marriage, iii. 98.
On Ballot system, iv. 131.
Boston exploit, iii. 161.
Chesterfield's rule in Ireland, ii. 251.
Ministry and Wilkes's riots, iii. 121, 122.
Townshend, iii. 111.
Walpole's opposition to war party, ii. 181.
War with Spain, ii. 184.
Warren Hastings, iii. 258, 259.
Wilkes's reception in London, iii. 116; in Middlesex, iii. 117.
Opinion of George IV., iv. 90.
Oratory, iii. 100.
Passion for justice, iii. 272.
Paymaster-General, iii. 224, 228.
Praises of Pitt, iii. 223.
Private Secretary to Lord Rockingham, iii. 99.
Reproves Charles James Fox, iii. 141.
Speech against American war, iii. 188.
Speech on Middlesex Election Petition, iii. 132.
Vindication of Natural Society, iii. 98.
Burke, William, iii. 99.
Burnet, Bishop, on:
Condition of Church, ii. 129.
Duke of Marlborough, i. 23.
High and Low Church, i. 17.
Queen Anne, i. 2.
Burney, Miss, in Burke's arraignment of Hastings, iii. 286.
Burns, Robert, on William IV. and Mrs. Jordan, iv. 97.
Bury Street, price of lodgings in, in 1714, i. 70.
Bute, Lord:
Bribery under, iii. 28, 30.
Cabals against Pitt, iii. 26.
Character, iii. 7, 28.
Foreign policy, iii. 28, 29.
House besieged, iii. 117.
Influence over Princess of Wales and her son, iii. 8.
Prime Minister, iii. 28.
Proposes cider tax, iii. 30, 32.
Resigns office, iii. 32.
Secretary of State, iii. 8.
Sketch of, iii. 7.
Unpopular, iii. 28, 32.
Buxton, Fowell, West Indian slavery and, iv. 190, 191, 194, 195.
Byng, Admiral:
Fails to relieve Minorca, ii. 297.
Tried and shot, ii. 298.
Byrne, Miles:
Career, iii. 321.
Memoirs, iii. 321.
Byron, Lord:
Assists Greeks, iv. 48.
Death at Missolonghi, iv. 50.
On George IV., iii. 242.
On Grattan, iii. 307.
Scorn of O'Connell's loyalty, iv. 23, 27.
Verses on Castlereagh's death, iv. 37.
Cabot, John and Sebastian, discover Canada, ii. 283.
Calder, Admiral Sir Robert, iii. 336.
Calendar, reform of, ii. 275.
Campbell, John, Baron, on Lord Harcourt, i. 51.
Campeachy logwood question, i. 294, 295; ii. 160.
Camperdown, battle of, iii. 318, 336.
Canada:
French and English colonies in, ii. 283, 284.
Sketch of history, ii. 283 _seqq._
"Canter of Coltbrigg," ii. 213-215.
Canterbury, Archbishop of, attends Queen Caroline, ii. 121.
Canning, George:
Accepts Governor-Generalship of India, iv. 35.
Attitude towards Free Trade and Parliamentary reform, iv. 52, 62.
Character, iv. 60, 65.
Death, iv. 61.
Duel with Lord Castlereagh, iv. 34.
Foreign Secretary, iv. 38.
Funeral in Westminster Abbey, iv. 62.
Monroe doctrine and, iv. 44.
Opponents in House of Lords, iv. 59.
Oratory, iv. 33, 34, 64.
Policy, iv. 34, 38, 41, 42, 43, 52, 55.
Summary of, iv. 62.
Prime Minister, iv. 55, 58.
Resigns office, iv. 7, 31, 34.
Sketch of career, iv. 31 _seqq._, 62.
Supports Queen Caroline, iv. 5, 7.
Sympathy with Greece, iv. 49, 52.
Canning, Stratford, iv. 32.
"Canningites," iv. 65, 72.
Carew, Sir George, builds Chichester House, Dublin, i. 80.
Caricature in political controversy, i. 52.
Caricatures during Hastings's trial, iii. 288.
Caricatures of Napoleon Bonaparte, iii. 333.
Carnwath, Earl of, a prisoner, i. 137, 138.
Caroline, Amelia Elizabeth, Princess of Brunswick, wife of
George IV., iii. 244.
Character, iv. 11.
Demands to be crowned, iv. 8, 10.
Divorce bill, iv. 6; abandoned, iv. 8.
Illness and death, iv. 10, 11.
Italian witnesses against, iv. 7.
Returns to England on accession of George IV., iv. 5, 6.
Caroline, Princess, ii. 38, 71, 79, 105.
Attends on Queen, ii. 118, 124.
Dislikes Walpole, ii. 126.
Caroline, Wilhelmina Dorothea, wife of George II., i. 303.
Action towards Porteous, ii. 62, 66.
Acts as Regent, ii. 49.
Alarmed for King's safety, ii. 71, 72.
Character, i. 276; ii. 77.
Death-bed, ii. 114 _seqq._
Family, ii. 38.
Godmother to her granddaughter, ii. 108.
Hates Prince of Wales, ii. 40, 50, 71, 76, 118.
Lampoons on, ii. 102.
Carteret, John, Earl of Granville:
Attacks Ministry and Convention, ii. 165.
Character, ii. 240, 241; iii. 38.
Death, iii. 38.
Denounces Convention, ii. 163.
Enmity to Walpole, ii. 159, 160, 185.
Foreign Policy, ii. 177, 240, 241.
Hatred of Pulteney, ii. 192.
Knowledge of German, i. 235.
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, i. 239; iii. 38.
Motion on Petition against Convention, ii. 164.
Moves motion for removal of Walpole, ii. 185.
Proclamation against "Drapier's Letters," i. 247.
Proposes address on Prince of Wales's allowance, ii. 89.
Resigns, ii. 244.
Secretary of State, ii. 191.
Sketch of career, i. 233.
Speech on Salt Tax, i. 314.
Cartier, Jacques, ascends St. Lawrence, ii. 283.
Castlereagh, Viscount (Marquis of Londonderry):
Character, iv. 36.
Death, iv. 36.
Duel with Canning, iv. 34.
Policy, iv. 34, 39, 41.
Catalans and Peace of Utrecht, i. 94.
"Catholic" and "Protestant" Ministers, iv. 54.
Catholic Association formed, iv. 21.
Catholic disabilities, iii. 307.
Catholic emancipation question, iv. 52, 67 _seqq._
Catholic Relief Bill passed, iv. 78.
Catholics, feeling against, i. 143.
Catholics, penalty against, i. 216.
Cato Street Conspiracy, iv. 2, 15.
Censorship for stage and press discussed, ii. 96 _seqq._
Chadwick, Sir Edwin, on Poor Law Commission, iv. 225, 227.
Chait Singh, Rajah of Benares, and Warren Hastings, ii. 269.
Chambord, Count de, i. 40.
Charing Cross in 1714, i. 68.
Charles II. of Spain:
Character, i. 61.
Will of, ii. 27.
Charles VI., Emperor, ii. 23.
Death, ii. 182.
Denounces Walpole, ii. 25.
Pragmatic sanction, i. 228.
Charles X. deposed, iv. 98.
Charles XII. of Sweden:
Action in Poland, ii. 23.
Sketch of, i. 160, 162.
Charles River, English fleet in, iii. 173, 182.
Charleston in 1765, iii. 77.
Charleston, tea landed at, iii. 161.
Charlotte, Princess:
Death, iii. 348.
Marries Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, iii. 348.
Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, wife of George
III., iii. 10.
Character and personal appearance, iii. 12, 14.
Death, iii. 348.
Chartists demand vote by ballot, iv. 131.
Chaworth, Mary, Mrs. Musters, iv. 170.
Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of:
Administration in Ireland, ii. 249.
Advice to Prince of Wales, ii. 78.
Attitude on Penal Laws, ii. 249.
Character, ii. 6.
Conduct to Johnson, iii. 44.
Enmity to Walpole, ii. 159, 160, 185.
Irish policy, ii. 7.
Moves address on Accession of George II., ii. 7.
On Bolingbroke, i. 117.
Bute's nationality, iii. 30.
Carteret, i. 235.
Lord Cowper, i. 98.
Recalled from Ireland, ii. 252.
Retires from public life, ii. 274.
Secretary of State, ii. 252.
Sketch of, ii. 4 _seqq._
Speech on Convention, ii. 164.
Speech on Playhouse Bill, ii. 100.
Speech on Reform of Calendar, ii. 275.
Viceroy of Ireland, ii. 246, 247.
Chichester, Sir Arthur, i. 80.
China trade and East India Company, iv. 231.
Chippenham election petition, ii. 189, 190.
Chiswick, Mr., sends Warren Hastings to Calcutta, iii. 247.
Cholmondeley, Earl of, moves address on Convention, ii. 164.
Chudleigh, Colonel, quarrels with Charles Aldworth, i. 58.
Chunar fortress, iii. 270.
Chunda Sahib:
Besieges Trichinopoly, ii. 262.
Captured and put to death, ii. 264.
Invades Carnatic, ii. 261.
Church of England, condition in 1738, ii. 129, 132.
Churchill, Charles:
Character, iii. 52.
Death, iii. 69.
Denunciation of Hogarth, iii. 63.
Flight, iii. 59.
"Rosciad," iii. 54.
Satires, iv. 69.
Wilkes and, iii. 55.
Cider tax proposed, iii. 30.
Claimants to throne (1714), i. 3 _seqq._
Clare Election (1828), iv. 70, 78.
Clarence, Duke of (_see_ William IV.).
Clarendon, Lord, bears tidings of Queen Anne's death to
George, i. 56.
Clarke, Adam, death, iv. 284.
Clarke, George, killed in riot, iii. 129.
Clarkson, Thomas, West Indian Slavery and, iv. 195, 200.
Clavering, General Francis, iii. 260, 261.
Death, iii. 264.
Clement, Pope, interview with Charles Stuart, ii. 202.
Clerk, Lord Justice, i. 130.
Clerkenwell Prison broken open, iii. 203.
Cleveland, Duchess of, i. 23.
Clifton, engagement at, ii. 223.
Clinton at Boston, iii. 175.
Clive, Richard, ii. 254.
Clive, Robert, ii. 253.
Advances against Suraj ud Dowlah, ii. 268.
Captures Arcot, ii. 262.
Character, ii. 255.
Discerns Warren Hastings's talent, iii. 250, 252.
Escapes from Madras, ii. 260.
Forges Admiral Watson's signature, ii. 270.
Governor of Fort St. David, ii. 265.
Marries, ii. 264.
Negotiates with Suraj ud Dowlah, ii. 269.
Protests against Indian Administration, iii. 251.
Returns to England, ii. 264, 273.
Returns to India, iii. 253.
Sketch of career, ii. 256 _seqq._
Clonmel, State trials at, iv. 179.
Clubs in 1714, i. 73.
Coalition Ministry (1783), iii. 225, 229
Fall of, iii. 235, 237.
Cobbett, William:
Death, iv. 282.
Prosecution, iv. 154.
Sketch of career, iv. 155.
Cobden, R., doctrine of non-intervention, iv. 62.
Cochrane, Thomas, Earl of Dundonald, assists Greeks, iv. 48.
"Cocoa Tree" coffee-house, i. 76.
Code Napoléon, iii. 332.
Codrington, Sir Edward, commands at Navarino, iv. 50, 96.
Coffee-houses, i. 75, 76.
Coke's description of Raleigh, iii. 286.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, death, iv. 283.
Colonial Administration System (1765), iii. 80.
Committee of Secrecy, i. 104, 168.
Compton, Sir Spencer, Lord Wilmington, ii. 107, 189.
Character, i. 275.
Death, ii. 240.
Prime Minister, ii. 191.
Speaker of House of Commons, i. 212.
Concord, battle and retreat from, iii. 174.
Congress of Verona and Vienna (_see_ Verona and Vienna Congress).
Congreve, William, sketch of, i. 299.
Coningsby, Lord, i. 105.
Impeaches Oxford, i. 108.
Convention between England and Spain (1739), ii. 161, 168.
Petition against, ii. 163.
Conway, Circular letter to governors of colonies, iii. 105.
Cooke, George, Tory candidate for Middlesex, iii. 117.
Death, iii. 124.
Coote, Major Eyre, ii. 272.
Cope, Sir John, Scottish Commander-in-Chief, ii. 210.
Defeated at Preston Pans, ii. 214, 215.
Copley, Sir John (_see_ Lyndhurst, Baron).
Cork Hill, Dublin, i. 82.
Cork in 1714, i. 83.
Cornwallis, Charles, Marquis:
Commands royal troops in Ireland, iii. 323.
Surrenders at Yorktown, iii. 184.
Corporation Act repealed, iv. 52, 67.
Corstorphine, Dragoons at, ii. 212.
Cottenham, Lord Chancellor, iv. 252.
Court Street Conspiracy, iii. 160.
Covent Garden in 1714, i. 68.
Cowper, Spencer, i. 105.
Cowper, William, Earl, Lord Chancellor:
Condemns South Sea Bill, i. 190.
Evidence against, i. 219.
Opposes taxing Catholics, i. 216.
Sketch of, i. 98.
Coxe, Archdeacon, on:
Division on Prince of Wales's allowance, ii. 88.
Duke of Newcastle, ii. 33.
Crabbe, George:
Account of taking of Newgate, iii. 203.
Death, iv. 282.
_Craftsman_:
Objects of, i. 290, 291.
On Walpole's excise scheme, i. 318.
Picture of Walpole, ii. 14.
"Sedition and defamation displayed," i. 306.
Series of pamphlets, i. 286.
Started, i. 260.
Craggs, Father and Son, i. 197.
Crawford, Earl of, on Princess Anne's dowry, ii. 44.
Croix, Petit de la, Persian Tales, iii. 254.
Croker, John Wilson, ii. 107.
Obstructs Reform Bill, iv. 163.
Cromarty, Lord, trial, ii. 228.
Cromwell, Elizabeth, death, ii. 3.
Cruden, Alexander, dislike to Wilkes, iii. 135.
Culloden, Battle of, ii. 224.
Prisoners, ii. 232.
Cumberland, Ernest Augustus, Duke of:
Orange Association and, iv. 276, 278.
Supports Irish Church, iv. 219.
Unpopularity, iv. 102.
Cumberland, William Augustus, Duke of (Butcher), ii. 38.
Army at Stafford, ii. 217.
Character, ii. 223.
Commands English troops at Lauffeld, ii. 239.
Conduct after Culloden, ii. 226.
Invites Pitt to return to office, iii. 73, 93.
Queen Caroline's advice to, ii. 118.
Curran, John Philpot:
Appeal on behalf of Wolfe Tone, iii. 326.
Description of Ireland, iv. 27.
Curran, Sarah, and Robert Emmet, iii. 329.
"Daily Advertiser," iii. 128.
_Daily Post_, iii. 128.
Dalton, Sir Charles, Gentleman Usher of Black Rod, i. 278.
Dashwood, Francis, Lord Le Despencer, iii. 33, 65.
Chancellor of Exchequer, iii. 48.
Founds brotherhood of Medmenham, iii. 46.
Davy, Sir Humphry, iv. 93.
Dawson, James, supports Young Pretender, ii. 221, 229.
Dawson Street, Dublin, i. 81.
Daylesford Manor, Worcestershire, iii. 245, 247.
D'Espremesnil, Duval, Governor of Madras, ii. 261.
De Launay decapitated, iii. 294.
De Quincey, iii. 44.
Deccan, Nizam of, sends diamond to George III., iii. 281.
Declaration of Rights, Philadelphia, iii. 173.
Declaratory Act, iii. 104, 105.
Defoe, Daniel, "Robinson Crusoe," ii. 1.
Demerara, "Insurrection" of slaves, iv. 193.
Denman, Thomas, Lord Chief Justice:
Defends Queen Caroline, iv. 6, 7, 8.
Denmark, King of:
Character, i. 3.
Treaty with George I., i. 161.
Treaty with George II., ii. 176.
Derby, Edward Geoffrey Smith Stanley, Earl of:
Letter to Peel declining office, iv. 238.
Political principles, iv. 217.
Secretary to Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, iv. 127.
Speech on Emancipation of Slaves, iv. 196.
Speech on Irish State Church, iv. 217, 246.
Derby, Reform riot at, iv. 170.
Derwentwater, Earl of, i. 137.
Executed, i. 142.
Dettingen, battle of, ii. 182.
Devonshire, Duke of, Premier of Coalition Ministry, ii. 298.
D'Iberville on Whigs, i. 18.
Dickens, Charles, iv. 286.
Dinner hour, changes in, iii. 18.
Dinwiddie, Governor of Virginia, ii. 285.
Disarmament of clans, ii. 208, 232.
Disarming Act (1716), result of, ii. 209.
Disraeli (_see_ Beaconsfield, Lord).
Divorce Bill (1820), iv. 6.
Abandoned, iv. 8.
Don Carlos:
Compact to protect (1733), ii. 26.
Heir to Parma and Placentia, ii. 28.
Dorset, Duke of, English ambassador to France, iii. 295.
Drake, Governor, in Fulta Island, iii. 249.
Draper, Sir William, replies to letters of Junius, iii. 129.
Drapier's letters, i. 240, 242.
Drummond, Lord James, supports Young Pretender, ii. 221.
Dublin coffee-houses, i. 82.
Dublin in 1714, i. 80.
Dubois, Abbé, Sketch of, i. 155.
Duddington, Lieutenant, Commands "Gaspee," iii. 152.
Dumouriez and Duke of Wellington, i. 129.
Duncan, Admiral (Lord Camperdown):
Deserted by squadron, iii. 335.
Victory of Camperdown, iii. 318, 336.
Duncannon, Lord, Commissioner of Woods and Forests, iv. 127.
Dundas, Henry, Viscount Melville:
Catholic Relief Bill for Scotland, iii. 195.
Fall of, iii. 338.
Sketch of, iii. 232.
Dundonald, Admiral, last of sea-kings, iii. 336.
Dunleary (_see_ Kingstown).
Dunoyer, dancing-master and spy, ii. 106.
Dupleix, Governor of S. India, ii. 261.
Dreams of French empire in India, ii. 258.
Founds Chandernagor, ii. 258.
Indian policy, iii. 249.
Recalled to France, ii. 262.
Refuses to ratify Convention and pillages Madras, ii. 259.
Duplicity universal, i. 30.
Durham, Earl of, iv. 291.
Efforts for Parliamentary reform, iv. 22.
Lord Privy Seal, iv. 127.
Manners, iv. 121.
Sketch of, iv. 127.
Suggestions on Reform Bill, iv. 129.
Dutch (Batavian) expedition to Ireland, iii. 317.
Dymoke, King's champion, iii. 13.
East India Companies, ii. 254, 260.
East India Company:
Charter renewed, iv. 230, 232.
Clamors for revenge, iii. 163.
Forces tea on America, iii. 161.
Policy, iii. 248 _seqq._
Semi-regal authority, iii. 230.
Edgeworth, Talbot, i. 82.
Edinburgh:
Bill, ii. 66, 68.
City guard, ii. 60.
Condition in 1745, ii. 210.
In 1714, i. 84.
Life in, i. 85.
Edinburgh Castle:
Jacobite plan to capture, i. 129.
Reduction abandoned by Young Pretender, ii. 216.
Edwards, spy in Cato Street conspiracy, iv. 17, 19.
Effingham, Lord, Earl Marshal, iii. 13.
Egremont, Lord, iii. 59, 63.
House besieged, iii. 117.
Wilkes before, iii. 60.
Elcho, Lord, ii. 227.
Eldon, Earl of, Lord Chancellor, iv. 3.
Attitude on Catholic Emancipation, iv. 69.
Attitude towards death penalty for stealing, iv. 21.
Resigns office, iv. 57.
Toryism, iv. 3.
Elizabeth, Electress Palatine of the Rhine, i. 5.
Elizabeth of Parma, wife of Philip V., ii. 28.
Ellis, relations with Nawab Mir Kasim, iii. 251.
Emerson prophesies rise of Orientalism in England, iii. 254.
Emily, Princess:
At her father's death-bed, ii. 304.
Attends on Queen, ii. 117, 122, 123.
Dislikes Walpole, ii. 126.
Emmet, Robert, iii. 313, 314; iv. 206.
Projects for Independence of Ireland, iii. 327.
Emmet, Thomas Addis, iii. 313, 314.
England:
American Colonies and Advantages of union between, iii. 80.
Declares war against Spain, ii. 178.
Politics of Continent, and, i. 154, 225.
Protests against War of Independence, iii. 183, 184.
Recuperates, iii. 187.
Spain and, trade disputes, ii. 150.
English Copper Company and South Sea Company, i. 193.
English Protestant Association, iii. 192, 195.
Meeting in St. George's Fields, iii. 169.
English substituted for Latin in indictments, etc., i. 302.
Entinck, John, Editor of _Monitor_, iii. 51.
Eon, Chevalier d', present to Wilkes, iii. 134.
Erskine, Thomas, Lord:
Defends Lord George Gordon, iii. 210.
On Coronation oath, iv. 54.
Eugene, Prince, of Savoy, ii. 24, 35.
Excise Bill (1733), i. 317.
Abandoned, i. 320.
Excise Reform, i. 311.
Exeter in 1714, i. 79.
Factories Act (1833), iv. 202, 204.
Factory labor and State, iv. 201, 202.
Fairman, Colonel, Orange lodges and, iv. 278.
Falkirk, Hawley defeated at, ii. 223.
"Family compacts," ii. 26; iii. 27.
Famines in Scotland, i. 89.
"Fancy Franchises," iv. 183.
Fane, British Envoy at Florence, ii. 202.
Fashions in 1760, iii. 16.
Ferguson, on Edinburgh City Guard, ii. 60.
Fielding, Henry:
On mob in London, iii. 123.
Satires on Pretender, ii. 219.
Fielding, Sir John, house sacked, iii. 203.
Finch, Lord, presents Bolingbroke's petition to Lords, i. 258.
Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, iii. 309, 314; iv. 206.
Death, iii. 323.
Marriage, iii. 220.
Sketch of career, iii. 312.
Withdraws from Dublin Parliament, iii. 319.
Fitzgerald, Vesey, defeated by O'Connell, iv. 74.
Fitzherbert, Mrs.:
Death, iv. 289.
George IV. and, iii. 242; iv. 88.
Fitzwilliam, Earl, Viceroy of Ireland, iii. 308.
Flaxman, John, iv. 93.
Fleet ditch, i. 72.
Fleet marriages, ii. 279.
Fleming, Sir Michael, and Lord George Gordon, iii. 199.
Fletcher, Andrew, in Edinburgh in 1745, ii. 211.
Fleury, Cardinal, Prime Minister of France, i. 264, 291.
Florida and Carolina, dispute as to boundaries, ii. 160.
Fontenoy, Battle of, ii. 210.
Foote, on Alexander Wedderburn, iii. 158.
Forbes, Duncan, in Edinburgh in 1745, ii. 62.
Foreign aid for America, iii. 183.
Forster, Thomas:
Escapes, i. 142.
In Newgate, i. 137.
Fort Duquesne built, ii. 286.
Fort Duquesne taken, iii. 180.
Fort St. David, Olive at, ii. 260, 263.
Fort Ticonderoga taken, iii. 79.
"Forty-five," Account of Rebellion, ii. 203 _seqq._
Forty-shilling freeholders, iv. 179.
Fowke, charged with conspiracy, iii. 261.
Fox, Charles James, i. 28.
Acquainted with Paris, iii. 293.
Antagonism to Pitt, iii. 225.
As Leader of Opposition, i. 287.
Attitude on Regency, iii. 243.
Attitude towards French Revolution, iii. 296, 299.
Attitude towards Pitt, iii. 339.
Character, iii. 227.
Coalition with North, iii. 225.
Contracted with Pitt, iii. 212
Death, iii. 340; iv. 61.
Early life, iii. 142.
Foreign Secretary and Leader of Commons, iii. 340.
Friend to Ireland, iii. 319; iv. 23.
India Bill, iii. 230 _seqq._
On Henry Grattan, iii. 307.
Parliamentary career, iii. 141, 143.
Praises of Pitt, iii. 223.
Prince of Wales's conduct to, iii. 243.
Resigns office, iii. 225.
Scholarship, iii. 143.
Secretary of State, iii. 224.
Speech on Middlesex Election Petition, iii. 132.
Fox, Henry (_see_ Holland, Lord).
Fox's Martyrs, iii. 237.
France:
Acknowledges independence of America, iii. 183.
Condition before Revolution, iii. 291.
Declares war (1793), iii. 303.
In 1716, i. 154, 155.
Spain and, Alliance between, ii. 25, 26, 182.
Spanish policy, iv. 42.
Francis, Philip:
Character, iii. 260.
Duel with Hastings, iii. 267.
Hostile to Hastings, iii. 280.
Probable author of "Letters of Junius," iii. 39.
Franklin, Benjamin:
At Bar of House, iii. 103, 156.
Gala suit, iii. 156, 184.
Letters of Hutchinson and Oliver and, iii. 153, 155.
On Whitefield's eloquence, ii. 139.
On Wilkes's candidature for Parliament, iii. 116, 132.
Signs Peace in Paris, iii. 184.
Sketch of, iii. 102.
Frazer, Under Secretary of State, iii. 235.
Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales, ii. 38.
Attempts to see his mother, ii. 118.
Banished from King's palaces, ii. 108.
Bids for popularity, ii. 71.
Carries off his wife to London, ii. 106.
Character, ii. 71, 72, 74, 77.
Claims independent allowance, ii. 77.
Conduct on declaration of war, ii. 178.
Death, ii. 276.
Epitaphs, ii. 276.
Income, ii. 87.
Marries Princess Augusta, ii. 47.
Patriots and, ii. 50, 108, 110.
Relations with George II., ii. 39, 50, 76, 91, 104.
Sketch of, ii. 39.
Votes against address on Convention, ii. 169.
Frederick II. of Prussia (the Great), ii. 280.
Account of abandonment of Excise Bill, i. 320.
Description of George I., i. 270.
Occupies Silesia, ii. 182.
Frederick William, King of Prussia, and George II., ii. 45.
Free Trade, movement towards, iv. 93.
Free Trade, Walpole and, i. 317.
Freedom of City, origin of, iv. 256.
French aims in America, ii. 285.
French expeditions to Ireland, iii. 315, 323, 325.
French in Canada, ii. 283.
French Revolution, iii. 284, 293 _seqq._
Condition of France before, iii. 291.
England and, iii. 302, 306.
French Revolution of 1830, iv. 98.
Fuseli, Henry, iv. 93.