_Remarkable Instance of Suicide..... Affairs of the
Continent..... Meeting of the Parliament..... Address to the
King touching the Spanish Depredations..... The Excise
Scheme proposed by Sir Robert Walpole..... Opposition to the
Scheme..... Bill for a Dower to the Princess Royal----Debate
in the House of Lords concerning the Estates of the late
Directors of the South-Sea Company..... Double Election of a
King in Poland..... The Kings of France, Spain, and
Sardinia, join against the Emperor..... The Prince of Orange
arrives in England..... Altercation in the House of
Commons..... Debate about the Removal of the Duke of Bolton
and Lord Viscount Cobham from their respective
Regiments..... Motion for the Repeal of the Septennial
Act..... Conclusion of a remarkable Speech by Sir W.
Wyndham...... Message from the King for Powers to augment
the Forces in the Intervals between the two Parliaments.....
Opposition in the House of Peers..... Parliament
dissolved..... Dantzic besieged by the Russians.....
Philipsburgh taken by the French..... Don Carlos takes
possession of Naples..... Battle of Parma..... The
Imperialists are again worsted at Gustalla..... An Edict in
France, compelling the British Subjects in that Kingdom to
enlist in the French Army..... New Parliament in Great
Britain..... Debate on a Subsidy to Denmark..... Petition of
some Scottish Noblemen to the House of Peers..... Bill
explaining an Act of the Scottish Parliament touching
wrongous Imprisonment..... Misunderstanding between the
Courts of Spain and Portugal..... Sir John Norris sails with
a strong Squadron to Lisbon..... Preliminaries signed by the
Emperor and the King of France..... Proceedings in
Parliament..... Bill for preventing the Retail of Spiritous
Liquors..... Another for the Relief of Quakers in the
Article of Tithes..... Mortmain Act..... Remarkable Riot at
Edinburgh..... Rupture between the Czarina and the Ottoman
Porte..... The Session of Parliament opened by
Commission..... Motion in both Houses for a Settlement on
the Prince of Wales..... Fierce Debate on this Subject.....
Scheme by Sir John Barnard for reducing the Interest of the
National Debt..... Bill against the City of Edinburgh.....
Play-house Bill._
{1732}
REMARKABLE INSTANCE OF SUICIDE.
The most remarkable incident that distinguished this year in England was
a very uncommon instance of suicide; an act of despair so frequent
among the English, that in other countries it is objected to them as
a national reproach. Though it may be generally termed the effect of
lunacy proceeding from natural causes operating on the human body,
in some few instances it seems to have been the result of cool
deliberation. Richard Smith, a bookbinder, and prisoner for debt within
the liberties of the king’s bench, persuaded his wife to follow his
example in making away with herself, after they had murdered their
little infant. This wretched pair were, in the month of April, found
hanging in their bed-chamber, at about a yard’s distance from each
other; and in a separate apartment the child lay dead in a cradle. They
left two papers enclosed in a short letter to their landlord, whose
kindness they implored in favour of their dog and cat. They even left
money to pay the porter who should carry the enclosed papers to the
person for whom they were addressed. In one of these the husband thanked
that person for the marks of friendship he had received at his hands;
and complained of the ill offices he had undergone from a different
quarter. The other paper, subscribed by the husband and wife, contained
the reasons which induced them to act such a tragedy on themselves and
their offspring. This letter was altogether surprising for the calm
resolution, the good humour, and the propriety with which it was
written. They declared, that they withdrew themselves from poverty and
rags--evils that, through a train of unlucky accidents, were become
inevitable. They appealed to their neighbours for the industry with
which they had endeavoured to earn a livelihood. They justified the
murder of their child, by saying, it was less cruelty to take her with
them, than to leave her friendless in the world, exposed to ignorance
and misery. They professed their belief and confidence in Almighty God,
the fountain of goodness and beneficence, who could not possibly take
delight in the misery of his creatures; they therefore resigned up their
lives to him without any terrible apprehensions; submitting themselves
to those ways which, in his goodness, he should appoint after death.
These unfortunate suicides had been always industrious and frugal,
invincibly honest, and remarkable for conjugal affection.
AFFAIRS OF THE CONTINENT.
Trustees having been appointed by charter to superintend a new
settlement in Georgia, situated to the southward of Carolina in America,
Mr. Oglethorpe, as general and governor of the province, embarked at
Gravesend, with a number of poor families, to plant that colony. The
king of Spain having equipped a very powerful armament, the fleet sailed
on the fourth of June from the road of Alicant, under the command of
the count de Montemar, and arrived on the coast of Barbary in the
neighbourhood of Oran, where a considerable body of troops was landed
without much opposition. Next day, however, they were attacked by a
numerous army of Moors, over whom they obtained a complete victory. The
bey or governor of Oran immediately retired with his garrison, and the
Spaniards took possession of the place, from which they had been driven
in the year one thousand seven hundred and eight. The strong fort
of Mazalaquivir was likewise surrendered to the victors at the first
summons; so that this expedition answered all the views with which it
had been projected. Victor Amadasus, the abdicated king of Sardinia,
having, at the instigation of his wife, engaged in some intrigues in
order to reascend the throne, his son, the reigning king, ordered his
person to be seized at Montcalier, and conveyed to Rivoli, under a
strong escort. His wife, the marchioness de Spigno, was conducted to
Seva. The old king’s confessor, his physician, and eight-and-forty
persons of distinction, were imprisoned. The citadel of Turin was
secured with a strong garrison; and new instructions were given to the
governor and senate of Chamberri. The dispute which had long subsisted
between the king of Prussia and the young prince of Orange, touching the
succession to the estates possessed by king William III. as head of the
house of Orange, was at last accommodated by a formal treaty signed at
Berlin and Dieren. The Dutch were greatly alarmed about this time with
an apprehension of being overwhelmed by an inundation, occasioned by
worms, which were said to have consumed the piles and timber-work that
supported their dykes. They prayed and fasted with uncommon zeal, in
terror of this calamity, which they did not know how to avert in any
other manner. At length they were delivered from their fears by a hard
frost, which effectually destroyed those dangerous animals. About this
time, Mr. Dieden, plenipotentiary from the elector of Hanover, received,
in the name of his master, the investiture of Bremen and Verden from the
hands of the emperor.
MEETING OF THE PARLIAMENT.
The history of England at this period cannot be very interesting, as
it chiefly consists in an annual revolution of debates in
parliament,--debates, in which the same arguments perpetually recur on
the same subjects. When the session was opened on the sixteenth day of
January, the king declared that the situation of affairs, both at home
and abroad, rendered it unnecessary for him to lay before the two houses
any other reasons for calling them together, but the ordinary dispatch
of the public business, and his desire of receiving their advice in such
affairs as should require the care and consideration of parliament. The
motion made in the house of commons for an address of thanks, implied,
that they should express their satisfaction at the present situation of
affairs both at home and abroad. The motion was carried, notwithstanding
the opposition of those who observed, that the nation had very little
reason to be pleased with the present posture of affairs; that the
French were employed in fortifying and restoring the harbour of Dunkirk,
contrary to the faith of the most solemn treaties; that the British
merchants had received no redress for the depredations committed by the
Spaniards; that the commerce of England daily decreased; that no sort of
trade throve but the traffic of Change-alley, where the most abominable
frauds were practised; and that every session of parliament opened a new
scene of villany and imposition.
ADDRESS TO THE KING.
The pension-bill was once more revived, and lost again in the house of
peers. All the reasons formerly advanced against a standing army were
now repeated; and a reduction of the number insisted upon with such
warmth, that the ministerial party were obliged to have recourse to the
old phantom of the pretender. Sir Archer Croft said, a continuation
of the same number of forces was the more necessary, because, to his
knowledge, popery was increasing very fast in the country; for in one
parish which he knew, there were seven popish priests; and that the
danger from the pretender was the more to be feared, because they did
not know but he was then breeding his son a protestant. Sir Robert
Walpole observed, that a reduction of the army was the chief thing
wished for and desired by all the Jacobites in the kingdom; that no
reduction had ever been made but what gave fresh hopes to that party,
and encouraged them to raise tumults against the government; and he did
not doubt but that, if they should resolve to reduce any part of the
army, there would be post-horses employed that very night to carry the
good news beyond sea to the pretender. His brother Horatio added, that
the number of troops then proposed was absolutely necessary to support
his majesty’s government, and would be necessary as long as the nation
enjoyed the happiness of having the present illustrious family on
the throne. The futility, the self-contradiction, and the ridiculous
absurdity of these suggestions, were properly exposed; nevertheless, the
army was voted without any reduction. Sir Wilfred Lawson having made a
motion for an address to the king, to know what satisfaction had been
made by Spain for the depredations committed on the British merchants,
it was, after a violent debate, approved and the address presented. The
king in answer to this remonstrance gave them to understand, that the
commissaries of the two crowns had been so long delayed by unforeseen
accidents, that the conferences were not opened till the latter end of
the preceding February; and that as the courts of London and Madrid
had agreed that the term of three years stipulated for finishing the
commission should be computed from their first meeting, a perfect
account of their proceedings could not as yet be laid before the house
of commons. A bill had been long depending for granting encouragement
to the sugar colonies in the West Indies; but, as it was founded upon
a prohibition that would have put a stop to all commerce between the
French islands and the British settlements in North America, it met
with a very warm opposition from those who had the prosperity of those
northern colonies at heart. But the bill being patronised and supported
by the court interest, surmounted all objections, and afterwards passed
into a law. While the commons deliberated upon the supply, sir Robert
Walpole moved, that five hundred thousand pounds should be issued out
of the sinking fund for the service of the ensuing year. Sir William
Wyndham, Mr. Pulteney, and sir John Barnard, expatiated upon the
iniquity of pillaging a sacred deposit, solemnly appropriated to
the discharge of the national debt. They might have demonstrated
the egregious folly of a measure, by which the public, for a little
temporary ease, lost the advantage of the accumulating interest which
would have arisen from the sinking fund, if properly managed and
reserved. All objections vanished before the powers of ministerial
influence, which nothing now could check but the immediate danger of
popular commotion. Such hazardous interposition actually defeated a
scheme which had been adopted by the minister, and even before its
appearance alarmed all the trading part of the nation.
THE EXCISE SCHEME PROPOSED.
The house having resolved itself into a committee, to deliberate upon
the most proper methods for the better security and improvement of
the duties and revenues charged upon tobacco and wines, all the papers
relating to these duties were submitted to the perusal of the members;
the commissioners of the customs and excise were ordered to attend the
house, the avenues of which were crowded with multitudes of people;
and the members in the opposition waited impatiently for a proposal, in
which they thought the liberties of their country so deeply interested.
In a word, there had been a call of the house on the preceding day. The
session was frequent and full; and both sides appeared ready and eager
for the contest when sir Robert Walpole broached his design. He took
notice of the arts which had been used to prejudice the people against
his plan before it was known. He affirmed that the clamours occasioned
by these prejudices had originally risen from smugglers and fradulent
dealers, who had enriched themselves by cheating the public; and that
these had been strenuously assisted and supported by another set of
men, fond of every opportunity to stir up the people of Great Britain to
mutiny and sedition. He expatiated on the frauds that were committed in
that branch of the revenue arising from the duties on tobacco; upon the
hardships to which the American planters were subjected by the heavy
duties payable on importation, as well as by the ill usage they had met
with from their factors and correspondents in England, who, from being
their servants, were now become their masters; upon the injury done to
the fair trader; and the loss sustained by the public with respect to
the revenue. He asserted that the scheme he was about to propose would
remove all these inconveniencies, prevent numberless frauds, perjuries,
and false entries, and add two or three hundred thousand pounds per
annum to the public revenue. He entered into a long detail of frauds
practised by the knavish dealers in those commodities; he recited
the several acts of parliament that related to the duties on wine and
tobacco; he declared he had no intention to promote a general excise; he
endeavoured to obviate some objections that might be made to his plan,
the nature of which he at length explained. He proposed to join the laws
of excise to those of the customs; that the further subsidy of three
farthings per pound charged upon imported tobacco, should be still
levied at the custom-house, and payable to his majesty’s civil list as
heretofore; that then the tobacco should be lodged in warehouses, to be
appointed for that purpose by the commissioners of the excise; that
the keeper of each warehouse, appointed likewise hy the commissioners,
should have one lock and key, and the merchant-importer have another;
and that the tobacco should be thus secured until the merchant should
find vent for it, either by exportation or home consumption; that the
part designed for exportation should be weighed at the customhouse,
discharged of the three farthings per pound which had been paid at its
first importation, and then exported without further trouble; that
the portion destined for home consumption should, in presence of the
warehouse-keeper, be delivered to the purchaser, upon his paying
the inland duty of fourpence per pound weight, to the proper officer
appointed to receive it; by which means the merchant would be eased of
the inconvenience of paying the duty upon importation, or of granting
bonds and finding sureties for the payment, before he had found a market
for the commodity; that all penalties and forfeitures, so far as they
formerly belonged to the crown, should for the future be applied to the
use of the public; that appeals in this, as well as in all other cases
relating to the excise, should be heard and determined by two or three
of the judges, to be named by his majesty; and in the country, by the
judge of assize upon the next circuit, who should hear and determine
such appeals in the most summary manner, without the formality of
proceedings in courts of law or equity.
Such was the substance of the famous excise scheme, in favour of which
sir Robert Walpole moved that tha duties and subsidies on tobacco
should, from and after the twenty-fourth day of June, cease and
determine. The debate which ensued was managed and maintained by all
the able speakers on both sides of the question. Sir Robert Walpole was
answered by Mr. Perry, member for the city of London. Sir Paul Methuen
joined in the opposition. Sir John Barnard, another representative of
London, distinguished himself in the same cause.
He was supported by Mr. Pulteney, sir William Wyndham, and other
patriots. The scheme was espoused by sir Philip Yorke, appointed
lord-chief-justice of the king’s-bench, and ennobled in the course of
the ensuing year. Sir Joseph Jekyll approved of the project, which was
likewise strenuously defended by lord Hervey, sir Thomas Robinson, sir
William Yonge, Mr. Pelham, and Mr. Wilmington, which last excelled all
his contemporaries of the ministry in talents and address. Those who
argued against the scheme, accused the minister of having misrepresented
the frauds and made false calculations. With respect to the supposed
hardships under which the planters were said to labour, they affirmed
that no planter had ever dreamed of complaining, until instigated
by letters and applications from London: that this scheme, far from
relieving the planters, would expose the factors to such grievous
oppression, that they would not be able to continue the trade,
consequently the planters would be entirely ruined; and, after all, it
would not prevent those frauds against which it was said to be provided:
that from the examination of the commissioners of the customs, it
appeared that those frauds did not exceed forty thousand pounds per
annum, and might in a great measure be abolished, by a due execution of
the laws in being; consequently this scheme was unnecessary, would
be ineffectual in augmenting the revenue, destructive to trade, and
dangerous to the liberties of the subject, as it tended to promote a
general excise, which was in all countries considered as a grievous
oppression. They suggested that it would produce an additional swarm
of excise officers and warehouse-keepers, appointed and paid by the
treasury, so as to multiply the dependents on the crown, and enable it
still further to influence the freedom of elections: that the traders
would become slaves to excisemen and warehouse-keepers, as they would be
debarred all access to their commodities, except at certain hours, when
attended by those officers: that the merchant, for every quantity of
tobacco he could sell, would be obliged to make a journey, or send
a messenger to the office for a permit, which could not be obtained
without trouble, expense, and delay: and that should a law be enacted in
consequence of this motion, it would in all probability be some time or
other used as a precedent for introducing excise laws into every branch
of the revenue; in which case the liberty of Great Britain would be no
more. In the course of this debate, sir Robert Walpole took notice of
the multitudes which had beset all the approaches to the house. He said
it would be an easy task for a designing seditious person to raise a
tumult and disorder among them: that gentlemen might give them what name
they should think fit, and affirm they were come as humble suppliants;
but he knew whom the law called sturdy beggars: and those who brought
them to that place could not be certain but that they might behave in
the same manner. This insinuation was resented by sir John Barnard, who
observed that merchants of character had a right to come down to the
court of requests, and lobby of the house of commons, in order to
solicit their friends and acquaintance against any scheme or project
which they might think prejudicial to their commerce: that when he came
into the house, he saw none but such as deserved the appellation of
sturdy beggars as little as the honourable gentleman himself, or any
gentleman whatever.
{1733}
After a warm dispute, the motion was carried by a majority of sixty-one
voices. Several resolutions were founded on the proposal: and to these
the house agreed, though not without another violent contest. The
resolutions produced a bill, against which petitions were preferred
by the lord-mayor, aldermen, and common-council of London, the city of
Coventry and Nottingham. A motion was made that counsel should be heard
for the city of London; but it was rejected by the majority, and
the petitions were ordered to lie upon the table. Had the minister
encountered no opposition but that which appeared within doors, his
project would have certainly been carried into execution; but the whole
nation was alarmed, and clamoured loudly against the excise-bill. The
populace still crowded around Westminster-hall, blocking up all the
avenues to the house of commons. They even insulted the persons of those
members who had voted for the ministry on this occasion; and sir Robert
Walpole began to be in fear of his life. He therefore thought proper to
drop the design, by moving that the second reading of the bill might be
postponed till the twelfth day of June. Then complaint being made of the
insolence of the populace, who had maltreated several members, divers
resolutions were taken against those tumultuous crowds and their
abettors; these resolves were communicated to the lord-mayor of London,
the sheriff of Middlesex, and the high-bailiff of Westminster. Some
individuals were apprehended in the court of requests, as having
fomented the disturbances; but they were soon released. The miscarriage
of the bill was celebrated with public rejoicings in London and
Westminster, and the minister was burned in effigy by the populace.
After the miscarriage of the excise scheme, the house unanimously
resolved to inquire into the frauds and abuses in the customs; and a
committee of twenty-one persons was chosen by ballot for this purpose.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
BILL FOR A DOWER TO THE PRINCESS ROYAL.
The subsequent debates of this session were occasioned by a bill
to prevent the infamous practice of stock-jobbing, which with great
difficulty made its way to the house of lords, who proposed some
amendments, in consequence of which it was laid aside; and succeeded
by another bill establishing a lottery, to raise five hundred thousand
pounds for the relief of those who had suffered by the charitable
corporation. After having undergone some alteration, it passed through
both houses and obtained the royal assent. The king, by message to
parliament, had signified his intention to give the princess royal in
marriage to the prince of Orange, promising himself their concurrence
and assistance, that he might be enabled to bestow such a portion with
his eldest daughter as should be suitable to the occasion. The commons
immediately resolved, that but of the monies arising from the sale
of lands in the island of St. Christopher’s, his majesty should be
empowered to apply fourscore thousand pounds as a marriage dower for his
daughter; and a clause for this purpose was inserted in the bill, for
enabling his majesty to apply five hundred thousand pounds out of the
sinking fund for the service of the current year.
The opposition in the house of lords was still more animated, though
ineffectual. The debates chiefly turned upon the pension bill, the
number of land forces, and a motion made by lord Bathurst for an account
of the produce of the forfeited estates which had belonged to the
directors of the South-Sea company. The trustees for these estates
had charged themselves with a great sum of money, and the lords in the
opposition thought they had a right to know how it had been disposed.
The ministry had reasons to stifle this inquiry, and therefore opposed
it with all their vigour. Nevertheless, the motion was carried after a
warm dispute, and the directors of the South-Sea company were ordered
to lay the accounts before the house. From this it appeared that
the large sums of money arising from the forfeited estates had been
distributed among the proprietors, by way of dividend, even before
recourse was had to parliament for directions in what manner that
produce should be applied: lord Bathurst, therefore, moved for a
resolution of the house that the disposal of this money, by way of
dividend, without any order or direction of a general court for that
purpose, was a violation of the act of parliament made for the disposal
thereof, and a manifest injustice done to the proprietors of that stock.
The duke of Newcastle, in order to gain time, moved, that as the account
was confused, and almost unintelligible, the present directors of the
company might be ordered to lay before the house a further and more
distinct account of the manner in which the money had been disposed. A
violent contest ensued, in the course of which the house divided, and
of fifty-seven peers who voted for the delay, forty-six were such as
enjoyed preferment in the church, commissions in the army, or civil
employments under the government. At length lord Bathurst waived his
motion for that time; then the house ordered that the present and former
directors of the South-Sea company, together with the late inspectors
of their accounts, should attend and be examined. They were accordingly
interrogated, and gave so little satisfaction, that lord Bathurst moved
for a committee of inquiry; but the question being put, was carried in
the negative: yet a very strong protest was entered by the lords in the
opposition. The next subject of altercation was the bill for misapplying
part of the produce of the sinking fund. It was attacked with all the
force of argument, wit, and declamation, by the earl of Strafford, lords
Bathurst and Carteret, and particularly by the earl of Chesterfield, who
had by this time resigned his staff of lord-steward of the household,
and renounced all connexion with the ministry. Lord Bathurst moved for
a resolution, importing that, in the opinion of the house, the sinking
fund ought for the future to be applied, in time of peace and public
tranquillity, to the redemption of those taxes which were most
prejudicial to the trade, most burdensome on the manufactures, and most
oppressive on the poor of the nation. This motion was overruled, and the
bill adopted by the majority. On the eleventh of June, the king gave
the royal assent to the bills that were prepared, and closed the session
with a speech, in which he took notice of the wicked endeavours that had
been lately used to inflame the minds of the people by the most unjust
misrepresentations.
DOUBLE ELECTION OF A KING OF POLAND.
Europe was now reinvolved in fresh troubles by a vacancy on the throne
of Poland. Augustus died at Warsaw in the end of January, and the
neighbouring powers were immediately in commotion. The elector of
Saxony, son to the late king, and Stanislaus, whose daughter was married
to the French monarch, declared themselves candidates for the Polish
throne. The emperor, the czarina, and the king of Prussia, espoused the
interests of the Saxon: the king of France supported the pretensions of
his father-in-law. The foreign ministers at Warsaw forthwith began to
form intrigues among the electors: the marquis de Monti, ambassador from
France, exerted himself so successfully, that he soon gained over the
primate, and a majority of the catholic dietines, to the interests
of Stanislaus; while the Imperial and Russian troops hovered on the
frontiers of Poland. The French king no sooner understood that a body of
the emperor’s forces was encamped at Silesia, than he ordered the duke
of Berwick to assemble an army on the Rhine, and take measures for
entering Germany in case the Imperialists should march into Poland. A
French fleet set sail for Dantzic, while Stanislaus travelled through
Germany in disguise to Poland, and concealed himself in the house of
the French ambassador at Warsaw. As the day of election approached, the
Imperial, Russian, and Prussian ministers delivered in their several
declarations, by way of protest, against the contingent election of
Stanislaus, as a person proscribed, disqualified, depending upon a
foreign power, and connected with the Turks and other infidels. The
Russian general Lasci entered Poland at the head of fifty thousand
men: the diet of the election was opened with the usual ceremony on
the twenty-fifth day of August. Prince Viesazowski, chief of the Saxon
interest, retired to the other side of the Vistula, with three
thousand men, including some of the nobility who adhered to that party.
Nevertheless, the primate proceeded to the election: Stanislaus was
unanimously chosen king; and appeared in the electoral field, where he
was received with loud acclamations. The opposite party soon increased
to ten thousand men; protested against the election, and joined the
Russian army, which advanced by speedy marches. King Stanislaus finding
himself unable to cope with such adversaries, retired with the primate
and French ambassador to Dantzic, leaving the palatine of Kiow at
Warsaw. This general attacked the Saxon palace, which was surrendered
upon terms: then the soldiers and inhabitants plundered the houses
belonging to the grandees who had declared for Augustus, as well as
the hotel of the Russian minister. In the meantime, the Poles, who had
joined the Muscovites, finding it impracticable to pass the Vistula
before the expiration of the time fixed for the session of the diet,
erected a kelo at Cracow, where the elector of Saxony was chosen and
proclaimed by the bishop of Cracow, king of Poland, under the name of
Augustus III., on the sixth day of October. They afterwards passed
the river, and the palatine of Kiow retiring towards Cracow, they took
possession of Warsaw, where in their turn they plundered the palaces and
houses belonging to the opposite party.
CONFEDERACY AGAINST THE EMPEROR.
During these transactions, the French king concluded a treaty with Spain
and Sardinia, by which those powers agreed to declare war against the
emperor. Manifestoes were published reciprocally by all the contracting
powers. The duke of Berwick passed the Rhine in October, and undertook
the seige of fort Kehl, which in a few days was surrendered on
capitulation: then he repassed the river and returned to Versailles. The
king of Sardinia having declared war against the emperor, joined a
body of French forces commanded by mareschal de Villars, and drove the
Imperialists out of the Milanese. His Imperial majesty, dreading
the effects of such a powerful confederacy against him, offered to
compromise all differences with the crown of Spain, under the mediation
of the king of Great Britain; and Mr. Keene, the British minister at
Madrid, proposed an accommodation. Philip expressed his acknowledgments
to the king of England, declaring, however, that the emperor’s advances
were too late, and that his own resolutions were already taken.
Nevertheless, he sent orders to the count de Montijo, his ambassador at
London, to communicate to his Britannic majesty the motives which had
induced him to take these resolutions. In the meantime he detached a
powerful armament to Italy, where they invested the Imperial fortress
of Aula, the garrison of which was obliged to surrender themselves
prisoners of war. The republic of Venice declared she would take no
share in the disputes of Italy; the states-general signed a neutrality
with the French king for the Austrian Netherlands, without consulting
the emperor or the king of Great Britain; and the English councils
seemed to be altogether pacific.
ARRIVAL OF THE PRINCE OF ORANGE.
In November the prince of Orange arrived at Greenwich, in order to
espouse the princess royal; but the marriage was postponed on account of
his being taken ill: and he repaired to Bath, in Somersetshire, to drink
the water for the recovery of his strength. Henrietta, the young
duchess of Marlborough, dying about this time, the title devolved to her
sister’s son, the earl of Sunderland. Lord King resigning his office
of chancellor, it was conferred upon Mr. Talbot, solicitor-general,
together with the title of baron; a promotion that reflected honour
upon those by whom it was advised. He possessed the spirit of a Roman
senator, the elegance of an Atticus, and the integrity of a Cato. At the
meeting of the parliament in January, the king told them, in his speech,
that though he was no way engaged in the war which had begun to rage in
Europe, except by the good offices he had employed among the contending
powers, he could not sit regardless of the present events, or be
unconcerned for the consequences of a war undertaken and supported by
such a powerful alliance. He said, he had thought proper to take time to
examine the facts alleged on both sides, and to wait the result of the
councils of those powers that were more immediately interested in the
consequences of the rupture. He declared he would concert with his
allies, more particularly with the states-general of the United
Provinces, such measures as should be thought most advisable for their
common safety, and for restoring the peace of Europe. In the meantime,
he expressed his hope that they would make such provision as should
secure his kingdom, rights, and possessions from all dangers and
insults, and maintain the respect due to the British nation. He said,
that whatever part it might in the end be most reasonable for him to
act, it would in all views be necessary, when all Europe was preparing
for arms, to put his kingdom in a posture of defence. The motion for an
address of thanks produced as usual a debate in both houses, which, it
must be owned, appears to have proceeded from a spirit of cavilling,
rather than from any reasonable cause of objection.
ALTERCATION IN THE COMMONS.
The house of commons resolved to address his majesty for a copy of the
treaty of Vienna. Sir John Rushout moved for another, desiring that
the letters and instructions relating to the execution of the treaty
of Seville, should be submitted to the inspection of the commons; but,
after a hard struggle, it was over-ruled. The next motion was made by
Mr. Sandys, a gentleman who had for some time appeared strenuous in
the opposition, and wrangled with great perseverance. He proposed that
the house should examine the instructions which had been given to
the British minister in Poland, some years before the death of king
Augustus, that they might be the better able to judge of the causes
which produced this new rupture among the powers of Europe. The motion
being opposed by all the court members, a contest ensued, in the course
of which Mr. Pulteney compared the ministry to an empyric, and the
constitution of England to his patient. This pretender in physic, said
he, being consulted, tells the distempered person there were but two or
three ways of treating his disease; and he was afraid that none of
them would succeed. A vomit might throw him into convulsions that would
occasion immediate death; a purge might bring on a diarrhoea that would
carry him off in a short time; and he had been already bled so much,
and so often, that he could bear it no longer. The unfortunate patient,
shocked at this declaration, replies, “Sir, you have always pretended
to be a regular doctor; but now I find you are an arrant quack. I had an
excellent constitution when I first fell into your hands, but you have
quite destroyed it; and now I find I have no other chance for saving
my life, but by calling for the help of some regular physician.” In the
debate, the members on both sides seemed to wander from the question,
and indulge themselves in ludicrous personalities. Mr. H. Walpole took
occasion to say, that the opposition treated the ministry as he himself
was treated by some of his acquaintances with respect to his dress. “If
I am in plain clothes,” said he, “then they call me a slovenly dirty
fellow; and if by chance I wear a laced suit, they cry, What, shall such
an awkward fellow wear fine clothes?” He continued to sport in this kind
of idle buffoonery. He compared the present administration to a ship
at sea. As long as the wind was fair, and proper for carrying us to our
designed port, the word was, “Steady! steady!” but when the wind began
to shift and change, the word was necessarily altered to “Thus, thus,
and no nearer.” The motion was overpowered by the majority; and this
was the fate of several other proposals made by the members in the
opposition. Sir John Barnard presented a petition from the druggists,
and other dealers in tea, complaining of the insults and oppression to
which they were subjected by the excise laws, and imploring relief. Sir
John and Mr. Perry, another of the city members, explained the grievous
hardships which those traders sustained, and moved that the petition
might be referred to the consideration of the whole house. They were
opposed by Mr. Winnington, sir W. Yonge, and other partisans of the
ministry; and these skirmishes brought on a general engagement of the
two parties, in which every weapon of satire, argument, reason, and
truth, was wielded against that odious, arbitrary, and oppressive method
of collecting the public revenue. Nevertheless, the motion in favour
of the sufferers was rejected. When the commons deliberated upon the
supply, Mr. Andrews, deputy-paymaster of the army, moved for an addition
of eighteen hundred men to the number of land forces which had been
continued since the preceding year. The members in the opposition
disputed this small augmentation with too much heat and eagerness.
It must be acknowledged, they were by this time irritated into such
personal animosity against the minister, that they resolved to oppose
all his measures, whether they might or might not be necessary for the
safety and advantage of the kingdom. Nor indeed were they altogether
blameable for acting on this maxim, if their sole aim was to remove from
the confidence and councils of their sovereign, a man whose conduct they
thought prejudicial to the interests and liberties of their country.
They could not, however, prevent the augmentation proposed; but they
resolved, if they could not wholly stop the career of the ministry, to
throw in such a number of rubs as should at least retard their progress.
The duke of Bolton and lord Cobham had been deprived of the regiments
they commanded, because they refused to concur in every project of the
administration. It was in consequence of their dismission, that lord
Morpeth moved for a bill to prevent any commissioned officer, not above
the rank of a colonel, from being removed, unless by a court-martial,
or by address of either house of parliament. Such an attack on the
prerogative might have succeeded in the latter part of the reign of the
first Charles; but at this juncture could not fail to miscarry; yet it
was sustained with great vigour and address. When the proposal was set
aside by the majority, Mr. Sandys moved for an address to the king,
desiring to know who advised his majesty to remove the duke of Bolton
and lord Cob-ham from their respective regiments. He was seconded by Mr.
Pulteney and sir William Wyndham; but the ministry foreseeing another
tedious dispute, called for the question, and the motion was carried in
the negative. The next source of contention was a bill for securing the
freedom of parliament, by limiting the number of officers in the house
of commons. It was read a first and second time; but when a motion was
made for its being committed, it met with a powerful opposition, and
produced a warm debate that issued in a question which, like the former,
passed in the negative. A clergyman having insinuated in conversation
that sir William Milner, baronet, member for York, received a pension
from the ministry, the house took cognizance of this report; the
clergyman acknowledged at the bar that he might have dropped such a hint
from hearsay. The accused member protested, upon his honour, that he
never did nor ever would receive place, pension, gratuity, or reward
from the court, either directly or indirectly, for voting in parliament,
or upon any other account whatever. The accusation was voted false and
scandalous, and the accuser taken into custody; but in a few days he
was discharged upon his humble petition, and his begging pardon of the
member whom he had calumniated. The duty upon salt was prolonged for
eight years; and a bill passed against stock-jobbing.
MOTION FOR THE REPEAL OF THE SEPTENNIAL ACT.
But the subject which of all others employed the eloquence and abilities
on both sides to the most vigorous exertion, was a motion made by Mr.
Bromley, who proposed that a bill should be brought in for repealing
the septenntal act, and for the more frequent meeting and calling of
parliaments. The arguments for and against septennial parliaments have
already been stated. The ministry now insisted upon the increase of
papists and Jacobites, which rendered it dangerous to weaken the
hands of the government; they challenged the opposition to produce one
instance in which the least encroachment had been made on the liberties
of the people since the septennial act took place; and they defied
the most ingenious malice to prove that his present majesty had ever
endeavoured to extend any branch of the prerogative beyond its legal
bounds. Sir John Hinde Cotton affirmed, that in many parts of England
the papists had already begun to use all their influence in favour of
those candidates who were recommended by the ministers as members in the
ensuing parliament. With respect to his majesty’s conduct, he said he
would not answer one word; but as to the grievances introduced since the
law was enacted for septennial parliaments, he thought himself more at
liberty to declare his sentiments. He asserted, that the septennial law
itself was an encroachment on the rights of the people; a law passed by
a parliament that made itself septennial. He observed, that the laws of
treason with regard to trials were altered since that period; that in
former times a man was tried by a jury of his neighbours, within the
county where the crimes alleged against him were said to be committed;
but by an act of a septennial parliament he might be removed and tried
in any place where the crown, or rather the ministry, could find a
jury proper for their purpose; where the prisoner could not bring any
witnesses in his justification, without an expense which perhaps his
circumstances would not bear. He asked, if the riot act was not an
encroachment on the rights of the people? An act by which a little dirty
justice of the peace, the meanest and vilest tool a minister can
use, who, perhaps subsists by his being in the commission, and may be
deprived of that subsistence at the pleasure of his patron, had it in
his power to put twenty or thirty of the best subjects in England
to immediate death, without any trial or form but that of reading
a proclamation. “Was not the fatal South-Sea scheme,” said he,
“established by the act of a septennial parliament? And can any man ask,
whether that law was attended with any inconvenience; to the glorious
catalogue I might have added the late excise bill, if it had passed into
a law; but, thank heaven, the septennial parliament was near expiring
before that famous measure was introduced.”
CONCLUSION OF A REMARKABLE SPEECH BY SIR W. WYNDHAM.
Sir William Wyndham concluded an excellent speech, that spoke him the
unrivalled orator, the uncorrupted Briton, and the unshaken patriot, in
words to this effect:--“Let us suppose a man abandoned to all notions of
virtue and honour, of no great family, and but a mean fortune, raised to
be chief minister of state, by the concurrence of many whimsical events;
afraid or unwilling to trust any but creatures of his own making; lost
to all sense of shame and reputation; ignorant of his country’s true
interest; pursuing no aim but that of aggrandizing himself and his
favourites; in foreign affairs trusting none but those who, from the
nature of their education, cannot possibly be qualified for the service
of their country, or give weight and credit to their negotiations. Let
us suppose the true interest of the nation by such means neglected,
or misunderstood, her honour tarnished, her importance lost, her trade
insulted, her merchants plundered, and her sailors murdered; and
all these circumstances overlooked, lest his administration should be
endangered. Suppose him next possessed of immense wealth, the plunder
of the nation, with a parliament chiefly composed of members whose seats
are purchased, and whose votes are bought at the expense of the public
treasure. In such a parliament suppose all attempts made to inquire into
his conduct, or to relieve the nation from the distress which has
been entailed upon it by his administration. Suppose him screened by
a corrupt majority of his creatures, whom he retains in daily pay, or
engages in his particular interest, by distributing among them those
posts and places which ought never to be bestowed upon any but for the
good of the public. Let him plume himself upon his scandalous victory,
because he has obtained a parliament like a packed jury ready to acquit
him at all adventures. Let us suppose him domineering with insolence
over all the men of ancient families, over all the men of sense, figure,
or fortune in the nation; as he has no virtue of his own, ridiculing it
in others, and endeavouring to destroy and corrupt it in all. With such
a minister, and such a parliament, let us suppose a case which I hope
will never happen: a prince upon the throne, uninformed, ignorant, and
unacquainted with the inclinations and true interest of his people,
weak, capricious, transported with unbounded ambition, and possessed
with insatiable avarice. I hope such a case will never occur; but, as
it possibly may, could any greater curse happen to a nation than such
a prince on the throne, advised, and solely advised by such a minister,
and that minister supported by such a parliament? The nature of mankind
cannot be altered by human laws; the existence of such a prince or such
a minister we cannot prevent by act of parliament; but the existence of
such a parliament I think we may prevent; as it is much more likely to
exist, and may do more mischief, while the septennial law remains in
force than if it were repealed; therefore, I am heartily for its being
repealed.” Notwithstanding the most warm, the most nervous, the most
pathetic remonstrances in favour of the motion, the question was put,
and it was suppressed by mere dint of number.
{1734}
The triumph of the ministry was still more complete in the success of a
message delivered from the crown in the latter end of the session, when
a great many members of the other party had retired to their respective
habitations in the country. Sir Robert Wal-pole delivered this
commission to the house, importing that his majesty might be enabled
to augment his forces, if occasion should require such an augmentation,
between the dissolution of this parliament and the election of another.
Such an important point, that was said to strike at the foundation of
our liberties, was not tamely yielded; but, on the contrary,
contested with uncommon ardour. The motion for taking the message into
consideration was carried in the affirmative; and an address presented
to the king, signifying their compliance with his desire. In consequence
of a subsequent message, they prepared and passed a bill, enabling his
majesty to settle an annuity of five thousand pounds for life on the
princess royal, as a mark of his paternal favour and affection.
PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED.
The opposition in the house of peers kept pace with that in the house of
commons, and was supported with equal abilities, under the auspices of
the lords Bathurst and Carteret, the earls of Chesterfield and Abingdon.
The duke of Marlborough made a motion for a bill to regulate the army,
equivalent to that which had been rejected in the lower house; and it
met with the same fate after a warm dispute. Then lord Carteret moved
for an address to the king, that he would be graciously pleased to
acquaint the house who advised his majesty to remove the duke of Bolton
and lord viscount Cobham from their respective regiments, and what
crimes were laid to their charge. This proposal was likewise rejected,
at the end of a debate in which the duke of Argyle observed, that two
lords had been removed, but only one soldier lost his commission. Such a
great majority of the Scottish representatives had always voted for
the ministry since the accession of the late king, and so many of these
enjoyed places and preferments in the gift of the crown, that several
attempts were made by the lords in the opposition to prevent for the
future the ministerial influence from extending itself to the elections
of North Britain. Accordingly, two motions for this purpose were made
by the earl of Marchmont and the duke of Bedford; and sustained by the
earls of Chesterfield, Winchelsea, and Stair, lords Willoughby de Broke,
Bathurst, and Carteret. They were opposed by the dukes of Newcastle and
Argyle, the earl of Cholmondeley, earl Paulet, lord Hervey, now called
up by a writ to the house of peers, and lord Talbot. The question being
put on both, they were of course defeated; and the earl of Stair was
deprived of his regiment of dragoons, after having performed the most
signal services to the royal family, and exhausted his fortune in
supporting the interest and dignity of the crown. Strenuous protests
were entered against the decision of the majority concerning the king’s
message, demanding a power to augment his forces during the recess of
parliament; as also against a bill for enabling his majesty to apply the
sum of one million two hundred thousand pounds out of the sinking fund
for the service of the current year. The business of the session being
despatched, the king repaired to the house of lords on the sixteenth day
of April, and having passed all the bills that were ready for the royal
assent, took leave of this parliament, with the warmest acknowledgment
of their zeal, duty, and affection. It was at first prorogued, then
dissolved, and another convoked by the same proclamation. On the
fourteenth day of March, the nuptials of the prince of Orange and the
princess royal were solemnized with great magnificence; and this match
was attended with addresses of congratulation to his majesty from
different parts of the kingdom.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
DANTZIC BESIEGED BY THE RUSSIANS.
The powers at war upon the continent acted with surprising vigour.
The Russian and Saxon army invested the city of Dantzic, in hopes
of securing the person of king Stanislaus. The town was strong, the
garrison numerous, and animated by the examples of the French and Poles,
made a very obstinate defence. For some time they were supplied by
sea with recruits, arms, and ammunition. On the eleventh day of May a
reinforcement of fifteen hundred men was landed from two French ships of
war and some transports, under fort Wechselmunde, which was so much
in want of provisions, that they were not admitted; they therefore
re-embarked, and sailed back to Copenhagen. But afterwards a larger
number was landed in the same place, and attacked the Russian
intrenchments, in order to force their way into the city. They were
repulsed in this attempt, but retired in good order. At length the
Russian fleet arrived, under the command of Admiral Gordon, and now the
siege was carried on with great fury. Fort Wechselmunde was surrendered;
the French troops capitulated, and were embarked in the Russian ships,
to be conveyed to some port in the Baltic. Stanislaus escaped in the
disguise of a peasant to Marienwarder in the Prussian territories. The
city of Dantzic submitted to the dominion of Augustus III., king of
Poland, and was obliged to defray the expense of the war to the Russian
general count de Munich, who had assumed the command after the siege was
begun. The Polish lords at Dantzic signed an act of submission to king
Augustus, who, on the tenth day of July, arrived at the convent of
Oliva. There a council was held in his presence. The recusant noblemen
took the oath which he proposed. Then a general amnesty was proclaimed;
and the king set out on his return to Dresden.
PHILIPSBURGH TAKEN BY THE FRENCH.
On the Rhine the French arms bore down all resistance. The count de
Belleisle besieged and took Traerbach. The duke of Berwick, at the head
of sixty thousand men, invested Philipsburgh, while prince Eugene was
obliged to remain on the defensive, in the strong camp at Heilbron,
waiting for the troops of the empire. On the twelfth day of June, the
duke of Berwick, in visiting the trenches, was killed by a cannon-ball,
and the command devolved upon the marquis d’Asfeldt who carried on the
operations of the siege with equal vigour and capacity. Prince Eugene
being joined by the different reinforcements he expected, marched
towards the French lines; but found them so strong that he would not
hazard an attack; and such precautions taken, that with all his military
talents he could not relieve the besieged. At length general Watgenau,
the governor, capitulated, after having made a noble defence, and
obtained the most honourable conditions. Prince Eugene retired to
Heidelberg; and the campaign ended about the beginning of October. The
Imperial arms were not more successful in Italy. The infant Don Carlos
had received so many invitations from the Neapolitan nobility, that
he resolved to take possession of that kingdom. He began his march in
February, at the head of the Spanish forces; published a manifesto,
declaring he was sent by his father to relieve the kingdom of Naples
from the oppression under which it groaned; and entered the capital
amidst the acclamations of the people; while the count de Visconti,
the German viceroy, finding himself unable to cope with the invaders,
thought proper to retire, after having thrown succours into Gaeta and
Capua. When he arrived at Nocera, he began to assemble the militia, with
intent to form a camp at Barletta. The count de Montemar marched with
a body of forces against this general, and obtained over him a complete
victory at Bitonto in Apuglia, on the twenty-fifth of May, when the
Imperialists were entirely routed, and a great number of principal
officers taken prisoners. Don Carlos being proclaimed, and acknowledged
king of Naples, created the count de Montemar duke of Bitonto; reduced
Gaeta, and all other parts of the kingdom which were garrisoned with
Imperial troops; and resolved to subdue the island of Sicily. About
twenty thousand troops being destined for this expedition, were landed
in the road of Solanto in August, under the command of the new duke of
Bitonto, who being favoured by the natives, proceeded in his conquests
with great rapidity. The people acknowledged Don Carlos as their
sovereign, and took arms in support of his government; so that the
Imperial troops were driven before them, and the Spaniards possessed the
whole kingdom, except Messina, Syracuse, and Trepani, when the infant
determined to visit the island in person.
BATTLE OF PARMA.
While Don Carlos was thus employed in the conquest of Naples and Sicily,
the Imperialists were hard pressed in Lombardy by the united forces
of France and Piedmont, commanded by the king of Sardinia and the old
mareschal duke de Villars. In the month of January they undertook the
siege of Tortona, which they reduced; while the troops of the emperor
began to pour in great numbers into the Mantuan. In the beginning of
May, count Merci, who commanded them, passed the Po in the face of the
allies, notwithstanding all the skill of Villars, obliged him to retreat
from the banks of that river, and took the castle of Colorno. The old
French general being taken ill, quitted the army, and retired to Turin,
where in a little time he died; and the king of Sardinia retiring to the
same place, the command of the allied forces devolved upon the
mareschal de Coigny. The confederates were posted at Sanguina, and the
Imperialists at Sorbola, when the count de Merci made a motion to
San Prospero, as if he intended either to attack the enemy, or
take possession of Parma. The mareschal de Coigny forthwith made a
disposition for an engagement; and, on the twenty-ninth day of June, the
Imperial general having passed the Parma, began the attack with great
impetuosity. He charged in person at the head of his troops, and
was killed soon after the battle began. Nevertheless, the prince
of Wirtem-berg assuming the command, both armies fought with great
obstinacy from eleven in the forenoon till four in the afternoon, when
the Imperialists retired towards Monte Cirugalo, leaving five thousand
men dead on the field of battle, and among these many officers of
distinction. The loss of the allies was very considerable, and they
reaped no solid fruits from their victory.
THE IMPERIALISTS ARE AGAIN WORSTED.
The Imperial forces retreated to Reggio, and from thence moved to the
plains of Carpi, on the right of the Secchia, where they received some
reinforcements; then general count Konigsegg arriving in the camp, took
upon himself the command of the army. His first step was to take post at
Quingentolo, by which motion he secured Mirandola, that was threatened
with a siege. On the fifteenth of February he forded the river Secchia,
and surprised the quarters of mareschal de Broglio, who escaped in his
shirt with great difficulty. The French retired with such precipitation,
that they left all their baggage behind, and above two thousand were
taken prisoners. They posted themselves under Gustalla, where, on
the nineteenth day of the month, they were vigorously attacked by the
Imperialists, and a general engagement ensued. Konigsegg made several
desperate efforts to break the French cavalry, upon which, however,
he could make no impression. The infantry on both sides fought with
uncommon ardour for six hours, and the field was covered with carnage.
At length the Imperial general retreated to Lazara, after having lost
above five thousand men, including the prince of Wirtemberg,
the generals Valpareze and Colminero, with many other officers of
distinction; nor was the damage sustained by the French greatly inferior
to that of the Germans, who repassed the Po, and took post on the banks
of the Oglio. The allies crossed the same river, and the marquis de
Maillibois was sent with a detachment to attack Mirandola; but the
Imperialists marching to the relief of the place, compelled him to
abandon the enterprise; then he rejoined his army, which retired under
the walls of Cremona, to wait for succours from Don Carlos. So little
respect did the French court pay to the British nation at this juncture,
that in the month of November, an edict was published at Paris,
commanding all the British subjects in France, who were not actually in
employment, from the age of eighteen to fifty, to quit the kingdom in
fifteen days, or enlist in some of the Irish regiments, on pain of being
treated as vagabonds, and sent to the galleys. This edict was executed
with the utmost rigour. The prisons of Paris were crowded with the
subjects of Great Britain, who were surprised and cut off from all
communication with their friends, and must have perished by cold
and hunger, had not they been relieved by the active charity of the
Jansenists. The earl of Waldegrave, who then resided at Paris,
as ambassador from the king of Great Britain, made such vigorous
remonstrances to the French ministry upon this unheard of outrage
against a nation with which they had been so long in alliance, that
they thought proper to set the prisoners at liberty, and publish another
edict, by which the meaning of the former was explained away.
NEW PARLIAMENT IN GREAT BRITAIN.
While these transactions occurred on the continent, the king of Great
Britain augmented his land-forces; and warm contests were maintained
through the whole united kingdom in electing representatives for the
new parliament. But in all these struggles the ministerial power
predominated; and the new members appeared with the old complexion. The
two houses assembled on the fourteenth day of January, and Mr. Onslow
was re-elected speaker. The leaders of both parties in all debates, were
the self-same persons who had conducted those of the former parliament;
and the same measure were pursued in the same manner. The king in his
speech at the opening of the session, gave them to understand, that
he had concerted with the states-general of the United Provinces such
measures as were thought most advisable for their common safety, and for
restoring the peace of Europe; that they had considered on one side the
pressing applications made by the Imperial court both in England and
Holland, for obtaining succours against the powers at war with the house
of Austria; and, on the other side, the repeated professions made by
the allies of their sincere disposition to put an end to the
present troubles upon honourable and solid terms; that he and the
states-general had concurred in a resolution to employ their joint and
earnest instances to bring matters to a speedy and happy accommodation;
that their good offices were at length accepted; and in a short time a
plan would be offered to the consideration of all parties engaged in the
war, as a basis for a general negotiation of peace. He told them he
had used the power vested in him by the last parliament with great
moderation; and concluded a treaty with the crown of Denmark of great
importance in the present conjuncture. He observed, that whilst many
of the principal powers of Europe were actually engaged in a war, Great
Britain must be more or less affected with the consequences; and as the
best concerted measures are liable to uncertainty, the nation ought to
be prepared against all events. He therefore expressed his hope, that
his good subjects would not repine at the necessary means of procuring
the blessings of peace and universal tranquillity, or of putting him in
a condition to act that part which it might be necessary and incumbent
upon him to take. The address of thanks produced a dispute as usual,
which ended with an acquiescence in the motion The house, in a grand
committee on the supply, resolved, That thirty thousand seamen should be
employed for the service of the ensuing year; and that the land-forces
should be augmented to the number of twenty-five thousand seven hundred
and forty-four effective men. But these resolutions were not taken
without dispute and division. The minister’s opponents not only
reproduced all the reasons which had been formerly advanced against a
standing army, but they opposed this augmentation with extraordinary
ardour, as a huge stride towards the establishment of arbitrary power.
They refuted those fears of eternal broils on which the ministry
pretended to ground the necessity of such an augmentation; and they
exposed the weak conduct of the administration, in having contributed to
destroy the balance of power, by assisting Spain against the emperor in
Italy, so as to aggrandize the house of Bourbon.
DEBATE ON A SUBSIDY TO DENMARK.
Sir William Wyndham moved, that the estimate of the navy for the ensuing
year might be referred to a select committee. He expressed his surprise,
that notwithstanding the vast sums which had been yearly raised, and the
long continuance of the peace, the people had not been quite delivered
of any one tax incurred in the preceding war. He said, he could not
comprehend how it was possible to find pretences for exposing the nation
to such exorbitant charges; and he took notice of some unconsionable
articles in the accounts of the navy-debt that lay upon the table.
He was seconded by Mr. Sandys, and supported by sir J. Jekyll and Mr.
Pulteney; but after some debate, the motion was carried in the negative.
When the new treaty with Denmark fell under consideration in a grand
committee, Mr. H. Walpole moved, that the sum of fifty-six thousand two
hundred and fifty pounds, should be granted to his majesty as a subsidy
to the Dane, pursuant to the said treaty, for the service of the ensuing
year. The demand did not meet with immediate compliance. All the leaders
in the opposition exclaimed against the subsidy as unnecessary and
unreasonable. They observed, that as the English had no particular
interest of their own for inducing them to engage in the present war,
but only the danger to which the balance of power might be exposed by
that event; and as all the powers of Europe were as much, if not more,
interested than the English in the preservation of that balance,
should it ever be really endangered, they would certainly engage in
its defence, without receiving any valuable consideration from Great
Britain; but should the English be always the first to take the alarm
upon any rupture, and offer bribes and pensions to all the princes in
Europe, the whole charge of preserving that balance would fall upon
Great Britain; every state would expect a gratification from her,
for doing that which it would otherwise be obliged to do for its own
preservation; even the Dutch might at last refuse to assist in trimming
this balance, unless Britain should submit to make the grand pensionary
of Holland a pensionary of England, and take a number of their forces
into English pay. The debate having had its free course, the question
was put, and the motion approved by the majority. The ministry allowed
a bill to be brought in for limiting the number of officers in the house
of commons; but at the second reading it was rejected upon a division,
after a learned debate, in which it appeared that the opposition had
gained a valuable auxiliary in the person of lord Pol-worth, son to the
earl of Marchmont, a nobleman of elegant parts, keen penetration,
and uncommon vivacity, who spoke with all the fluency and fervour of
elocution.
PETITION OF SOME SCOTTISH NOBLEMEN.
The minority in the house of lords were not less vigilant and resolute
in detecting and opposing every measure which they thought would redound
to the prejudice of their country. But the most remarkable object that
employed their attention during this session, was a very extraordinary
petition subscribed by the dukes of Hamilton, Queensberry, and Montrose,
the earls of Dundonald, Marchmont, and Stair, representing that undue
influence had been used for carrying on the election of the sixteen
peers of Scotland. The duke of Bedford, who delivered their petition to
the house, proposed a day for taking it into consideration; and to
this they agreed. It was afterwards moved, that the consideration of it
should be adjourned to a short day, before which the petitioners should
be ordered to declare whether they intended to controvert the last
election of all the sixteen peers, or the election of any, and which of
them. This affair was of such an unprecedented nature, that the house
seemed to be divided in opinion about the manner in which they ought to
proceed. The partisans of the ministry would have willingly stifled
the inquiry in the beginning; but the petitioners were so strenuously
supported in their claim to some notice, by the earls of Chesterfield,
Abingdon, and Strafford, the lords Bathurst and Carteret, that they
could not dismiss it at once with any regard to decorum. The order of
the house, according to the motion explained above, being communicated
by the lord-chancellor to the petitioners, they waited on him with
a declaration, importing, that they did not intend to controvert the
election or return of the sixteen peers for Scotland; but they thought
it their duty to lay before their lordships the evidence of such
facts and undue methods as appeared to them to be dangerous to the
constitution; and might in future elections equally affect the right of
the present sixteen peers, as that of the other peers of Scotland, if
not prevented by a proper remedy. This declaration being repeated to the
house, the duke of Devonshire made a motion, that the petitioners might
be ordered to lay before the house in writing, instances of those undue
methods and illegal practices upon which they intended to proceed, and
the names of the persons they suspected to be guilty. He was warmly
opposed by the country party; and a long debate ensued, after which the
question was carried in favour of the motion, and the order signified
to the petitioners. Next day their answer was read to the house to this
effect: That as they had no intention to state themselves accusers, they
could not take upon them to name particular persons who might have
been concerned in those illegal practices; but who they were would
undoubtedly appear to their lordships upon their taking the proper
examinations: nevertheless, they did humbly acquaint their lordships,
that the petition was laid before them upon information that the list of
the sixteen peers for Scotland had been framed previous to the election,
by persons in high trust under the crown; that this list was shown to
peers, as a list approved by the crown; and was called the king’s list,
from which there was to be no variation, unless to make way for one or
two particular peers, on condition they should conform to measures;
that peers were solicited to vote for this list, without the liberty of
making any alteration; that endeavours were used to engage peers to vote
for this list by promise of pensions, and offices civil and military to
themselves and relations, as well as by offers of money: that sums were
given for this purpose; that pensions, offices, and releases of debts
owing to the crown, were actually granted to peers who concurred
in voting for this list, and to their relations; that on the day of
election a battalion of his majesty’s troops were drawn up in the
Abbey-court of Edinburgh, contrary to custom, and without any apparent
cause but that of over-awing the electors. This answer gave rise to
another violent dispute; but the majority voted it unsatisfactory, and
the petition was rejected, though the resolution was clogged with a
vigorous protest.
{1735}
Notwithstanding this discouragement, the earl of Abingdon moved, that
although the petition was dismissed, an inquiry might be set on foot
touching an affair of such consequence to the liberties of the kingdom.
The earl of Hay declaring his belief that no such illegal methods had
been practised, the other produced a pamphlet, intituled, The Protests
of a great Number of Noble Lords, entered by them at the last Election
of Peers for Scotland. Exceptions being taken to a pamphlet, as an
object unworthy of their notice, lord Bathurst exhibited an authentic
copy of those protests, extracted from the journal of that election,
signed by the two principal clerks, and witnessed by two gentlemen
then attending in the lobby. These were accordingly read, and plainly
demonstrated the truth of the allegations contained in the petition.
Nothing could be more scandalous, arrogant, and shamefully flagrant,
than the conduct and deportment of those who acted the part of
understrappers to the ministry on this occasion. But all this
demonstration, adorned and enforced by the charms and energy of
eloquence, was like preaching in a desert. A motion was made for
adjourning, and carried in the affirmative: a protest was entered, and
the whole affair consigned to oblivion. Divers other motions were
made successively by the lords in the opposition, and rejected by
the invincible power of a majority. The uninterrupted success of the
ministry did not, however, prevent them from renewing the struggle as
often as an opportunity offered. They disputed the continuation of the
salt-tax, and the bill for enabling the king to apply the sum of one
million out of the sinking fund for the service of the current year,
though success did not attend their endeavours. They supported with all
their might a bill sent up from the commons, explaining and amending an
act of the Scottish parliament, for preventing wrongous imprisonment,
and against undue delays in trials. This was all the natives of Scotland
had in lieu of the _habeas-corpus_ act; though it did not screen them
from oppression. Yet the earl of Hay undertook to prove they were on a
footing with their neighbours of England in this respect; and the bill
was thrown out on a division. The session was closed on the fifteenth
of May, when the king in his speech to both houses declared that the
plan of pacification, concerted between him and the states-general, had
not produced the desired effect. He thanked the commons for the supplies
they had granted with such cheerfulness and despatch. He signified
his intention to visit his German dominions; and told them he should
constitute the queen regent of the realm in his absence. Immediately
after the prorogation his majesty embarked for Holland, in his way to
Hanover.
MISUNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE COURTS OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
By this time the good understanding between the courts of Madrid and
Lisbon was destroyed by a remarkable incident. The Portuguese ambassador
at Madrid having allowed his servants to rescue a criminal from the
officers of justice, all the servants concerned in that rescue were
dragged from his house to prison, by the Spanish king’s order, with
circumstances of rigour and disgrace. His Portuguese majesty being
informed of this outrage, ordered reprisals to be made upon the servants
of the Spanish ambassador in Lisbon. The two ministers withdrew abruptly
to their respective courts. The two monarchs expressed their mutual
resentment. The king of Spain assembled a body of troops on the
frontiers of Portugal; and his Portuguese majesty had recourse to the
assistance of king George. Don Marcos Antonio d’Alzeveda was despatched
to London with the character of envoy-extraordinary; and succeeded in
his commission according to his wish. In a little time after the king’s
departure from England, sir John Norris sailed from Spithead with
a powerful squadron, in order to protect the Portuguese against the
Spaniards; and on the ninth day of June arrived at Lisbon, where he was
welcomed as a deliverer. Mr. Keene, the British envoy at the court of
Spain, had communicated to his catholic majesty the resolution of his
master to send a powerful squadron to Lisbon, with orders to guard that
coast from insults, and secure the Brazil fleet, in which the merchants
of Great Britain were deeply interested. Don Joseph Patinho, minister
of his catholic majesty, delivered a memorial to Mr. Keene, representing
that such an expedition would affect the commerce of Spain, by
intimidating foreign merchants from embarking their merchandise in the
flota. But, in all probability, it prevented a rupture between the
two crowns, and disposed the king of Spain to listen to terms of
accommodation.
PRELIMINARIES SIGNED BY THE EMPEROR AND THE KING OF FRANCE.
The powers in alliance against the house of Austria having rejected
the plan of pacification concerted by the king of Great Britain and
the states-general, Mr. Wal-pole, ambassador at the Hague, presented a
memorial to their high mightinesses, desiring they would, without loss
of time, put themselves in a posture of defence by an augmentation of
their forces by sea and land; that they might take such vigorous steps
in concert with Great Britain, as the future conjuncture of affairs
might require. But before they would subject themselves to such expense,
they resolved to make further trial of their influence with the powers
in alliance against the emperor; and conferences were renewed with the
ministers of those allies. The affairs of Poland became more and more
unfavourable to the interest of Stanislaus; for though a great number of
the Polish nobility engaged in a confederacy to support his claim, and
made repeated efforts in his behalf, the palatine of Kiow submitted to
Augustus; and even his brother the primate, after having sustained a
long imprisonment, and many extraordinary hardships, was obliged to
acknowledge that prince his sovereign. In Italy, the arms of the allies
still continued to prosper. Don Carlos landed in Sicily, and reduced
the whole island almost without opposition; while the Imperialists were
forced to abandon all the territories they possessed in Italy, except
the Mantuan. The emperor being equally unable to cope with the French
armies on the Rhine, implored succours of the czarina, who sent thirty
thousand men to his assistance. This vigorous interposition, and the
success of Augustus in Poland, disposed the court of Versailles to a
pacification. A secret negotiation was begun between France and
the house of Austria; and the preliminaries were signed without the
concurrence or knowledge of Spain, Sardinia, and the maritime powers.
In these articles it was stipulated that France should restore all the
conquests she had made in Germany; that the reversion of the dukedom of
Tuscany should be vested in the duke of Lorraine; that Lorraine should
be allotted to king Stanislaus, and after his death be united to the
crown of France; that the emperor should possess the Milanese, the
Mantuan, and Parma; that the king of Sardinia should enjoy Vigevano
and Novara; that Don Carlos should be acknowledged king of Naples and
Sicily, and retain the island of Elba, with all the Spanish territories
on the coast of Tuscany; and that France should guarantee the pragmatic
sanction.
PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT.
The king of Great Britain returned from Hanover to England in the month
of November; and on the fifteenth day of January opened the session of
parliament. On this occasion he congratulated them on the near prospect
of a general peace in Europe in consequence of the preliminary articles
which the emperor and the king of France had agreed; and of which he had
expressed his approbation, as they did not differ in any essential
point from the plan of pacification which he and the states-general
had offered to the belligerent powers. He told them that he had already
ordered a considerable reduction to be made in his forces both by
sea and land; but at the same time observed it would be necessary to
continue some extraordinary expense, until a more perfect reconciliation
should be established among the several powers of Europe. An address of
thanks was unanimously voted, presented, and graciously received. After
the house had received several petitions from different counties and
gentlemen, complaining of undue influence in elections for members of
parliament, it proceeded to consider of the supply, and sir Charles
Wager moving that fifteen thousand seaman should be employed for
the service of the ensuing year, the proposal was approved without
opposition. But this was not the case with a motion made by Mr.
Pulteney, “That the ordinary estimates of the navy should be referred to
a select committee.” The ministry discouraged all such prying measures:
a debate was produced, the house divided, and the motion was rejected.
Such was the fate of s motion for raising the supplies within the year,
made by Mr. Sandys, and supported by sir John Barnard, Mr. Willimot, and
other patriots, who demonstrated that this was a speedy and practicable
expedient for discharging the national debt, lowering the interest
of money, reducing the price of labour, and encouraging a spirit of
commerce.
BILL FOR THE RELIEF OF QUAKERS IN THE ARTICLE OF TITHES.
The bill for limiting the number of officers in the house of commons
was again revived. The king was empowered to borrow six hundred thousand
pounds, chargeable on the sinking fund, for the service of the ensuing
year, though this power was not easily granted; and the house resolved
to lay a duty of twenty shillings per gallon on all spirituous liquors,
after it had appeared to the committee appointed for that purpose, that
those spirits were pernicious to the health and morals of the people.
To this resolution was added another, which amounted to a total
prohibition, namely, that fifty pounds should be yearly paid to his
majesty for a license to be annually taken out by every person who
should vend, barter, or utter any such spirituous liquors. Mr. Walter
Plummer, in a well concerted speech, moved for the repeal of some
clauses in the Test act: these he represented as a species of
persecution, in which protestant dissenters were confounded with the
Roman catholics and enemies to the establishment. He was sustained by
lord Polworth and Mr. Heathcote; but sir Robert Walpole was joined by
Mr. Shippen against the motion, as dangerous to the established church;
and the question being put, it was carried in the negative.
{1736}
When sir Joseph Jekyll presented to the house, according to order,
a bill founded on the resolutions they had taken against spirituous
liquors, sir Robert Walpole acquainted them, by his majesty’s command,
that as the alterations proposed to be made by that bill in the duties
charged upon all spirituous liquors might, in a great degree, affect
some part of the civil list revenues, his majesty, for the sake of
remedying so great an evil as was intended by that bill to be prevented,
did consent to accept any other revenue of equal value, to be settled
and appropriated in lieu of his interest in the said duties. The bill
was read a second time, and consigned to a committee of the whole house;
but that for limiting the number of officers in the house of commons was
thrown out at the second reading. Petitions against the bill touching
the retail of spirituous liquors, were presented by the traders to
the British sugar colonies, by the merchants of Bristol and Liverpool,
representing the hardships to which they would be exposed by a law which
amounted to a prohibition of rum and spirits distilled from molasses. In
consequence of these remonstrances, a mitigating clause was inserted,
in favour of the composition known by the name of punch, and distillers
were permitted to exercise any other employment. The sum of seventy
thousand pounds was voted for making good the deficiencies that might
happen in the civil list by this bill, which at length passed through
the house, though not without reiterated disputes and warm altercation.
Violent opposition was likewise made to a bill for the relief the people
called quakers, who offered a petition, representing, that though from
motives of conscience they refused the payment of tithes, church-rates,
oblations, and ecclesiastical dues, they were exposed to grievous
sufferings by prosecution in the exchequer, ecclesiastical, and other
courts, to the imprisonment of their persons, and the ruin of them and
their families. A bill being prepared for their relief, was read and
printed; then petitions were preferred against it by the clergy of
Middlesex, and of many other parts of the kingdom. Counsel was heard
in behalf of those petitioners, and several alterations proposed in the
bill, which after long and repeated debates surmounted all opposition,
and was sent up to the lords.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
MORTMAIN ACT.
In the month of February the king had sent two members of the
privy-council to the prince of Wales, with a message, proposing a
marriage between his royal highness and the princess of Saxe-gotha. The
proposal being agreeable to the prince, the marriage was celebrated on
the twenty-seventh day of April. Upon this occasion Mr. Pulteney moved
for an address of congratulation to his majesty, and was supported by
Mr. George Lyttleton and Mr. William Pitt, who seized this opportunity
of pronouncing elegant panegyrics on the prince of Wales and’ his
amiable consort. These two young members soon distinguished themselves
in the house by their eloquence and superior talents. The attention
of the house was afterwards converted to a bill for the preventing of
smuggling; and another for explaining the act for the more effectual
preventing bribery and corruption in the election of members to serve in
parliament. Both made their way through the lower house, and were sent
up to the lords for their concurrence. The number of land forces voted
for the service of the current year was reduced to seventeen thousand
seven hundred and four effective men. The supplies were raised by the
malt-tax and land-tax at two shillings in the pound, additional duties
on mum, cider, and perry, stamped vellum, parchment, and paper; and by
an act empowering his majesty to borrow six hundred thousand pounds
of the sinking fund. In this session the parliament repealed the old
statutes of England and Scotland against conjuration, witchcraft, and
dealing with evil spirit’s. The commons likewise prepared a bill to
restrain the disposition of lands in mortmain, whereby they became
unalienable. Against this measure petitions were presented by the two
universities, the colleges of Eton, Winchester, and Westminster, and
divers hospitals that subsisted by charitable donations. In favour
of the universities and colleges a particular exempting clause was
inserted. Several other amendments were made in the bill, which passed
through both houses, and obtained the royal assent. Among the acts
passed in this session, was one for naturalizing her royal highness the
princess of Wales; and another for building a bridge across the Thames
from New Palace-yard, in the city of Westminster, to the opposite shore
in the county of Surrey. The points chiefly debated in the house of
lords were the address of thanks for his majesty’s speech, the mortmain
bill, the Quakers’ bill, which was thrown out, and that for the
prevention of smuggling, which did not pass without division and
protest. On the twentieth day of May the king closed the session with a
speech, in which he told both houses that a farther convention, touching
the execution of the preliminaries, had been made and communicated to
him by the emperor and most christian king, and that negotiations were
carrying on by the several powers engaged in the late war, in order to
settle a general pacification. He expressed great concern at seeing such
seeds of dissatisfaction sown among his people; he protested it was his
desire, and should be his care, to preserve the present constitution
in church and state, as by law established; he recommended harmony
and mutual affection among all protestants of the nation, as the great
security of that happy establishment; and signified his intention to
visit his German dominions. Accordingly, the parliament was no sooner
prorogued than he set out for Hanover, after having appointed the queen
regent in his absence.
REMARKABLE RIOT AT EDINBURGH.
Such a degree of licentiousness prevailed over the whole nation, that
the kingdom was filled with tumult and riots, which might have been
prevented by proper regulations of the civil government in a due
execution of the laws. The most remarkable of these disturbances
happened at Edinburgh, on the seventh day of September. John Porteous,
who commanded the guard paid by that city, a man of brutal disposition
and abandoned morals, had, at the execution of a smuggler, been provoked
by some insults from the populace to order his men, without using the
previous formalities of the law, to fire with shot among the crowd;
by which precipitate order several innocent persons lost their lives.
Porteous was tried for murder, convicted, and received sentence of
death; but the queen, as guardian of the realm, thought proper to
indulge him with a reprieve. The common people of Edinburgh resented
this lenity shown to a criminal, who was the object of their
detestation. They remembered that pardons had been granted to divers
military delinquents in that country, who had been condemned by legal
trial. They seemed to think those were encouragements to oppression;
they were fired by a national jealousy; they were stimulated by the
relations and friends of those who had been murdered; and they resolved
to wreak their vengeance on the author of that tragedy, by depriving him
of life on the very day which the judges had fixed for his execution.
Thus determined, they assembled in different bodies about ten o’clock at
night. They blocked up the gates of the city, to prevent the admission
of the troops that were quartered in the suburbs. They surprised and
disarmed the town guards; they broke open the prison doors; dragged
Porteous from thence to the place of execution; and, leaving him
hanging by the neck on a dyer’s pole, quietly dispersed to their
several habitations. This exploit was performed with such conduct and
deliberation as seemed to be the result of a plan formed by some persons
of consequence; it, therefore, became the object of a very severe
inquiry.
RUPTURE BETWEEN THE CZARINA AND THE OTTOMAN PORTE.
During this summer a rupture happened between the Turks and the
Russians, which last reduced the city of Azoph on the Black Sea, and
overrun the greatest part of Crim Tartary. The czarina declared war
against the Ottoman Porte, because the Tartars of the Crimea had
made incursions upon her frontiers; and, when she complained of these
disorders to the vizier, she received no satisfaction; besides, a large
body of Tartars had, by order of that minister, marched through the
Russian provinces in despite of the empress, and committed terrible
havoc in their route. The emperor was obliged to engage as a party in
this war, by a treaty offensive and defensive, which he had many years
before concluded with the czarina. Yet, before he declared himself, he
joined the maritime powers in offering his mediation to the sultan,
who was very well disposed to peace; but the czarina insisted upon her
retaining Azoph, which her forces had reduced; and this preliminary
article being rejected, as dishonourable to the Ottoman empire, the
court of Vienna began to make preparations for war. By this time all
the belligerent powers in Italy had agreed to the preliminaries of
peace concluded between the emperor and France. The duke of Lorraine had
espoused the emperor’s eldest daughter, the archduchess Maria Theresa,
and ceded Lorraine to France, even before he succeeded to Tuscany. Don
Carlos was crowned king of Sicily; Stanislaus abdicated the crown of
Poland; and Augustus was universally acknowledged sovereign of that
kingdom. The preliminaries were approved and accepted by the diet of
the empire; the king of Spain sent orders for his troops to evacuate
Tuscany; and the provinces in Italy yielded to the house of Austria.
Prince Eugene, who had managed the interest of the emperor on this
occasion, did not live to see the happy fruits of this negotiation. He
died at Vienna, in April, at the age of seventy-three, leaving behind
him the character of an invincible hero and consummate politician. He
was not long survived by count Staremberg, another Imperial general who
ranked next to the prince in military reputation. About the same time
Great Britain sustained a national loss in the death of lord chancellor
Talbot, who, by his worth, probity, and acquired accomplishments,
had dignified the great office to which he had been raised. He died
universally lamented, in the month of February, at the age of fifty-two,
and was succeeded on the bench by lord Hardwicke.
THE SESSION OF PARLIAMENT OPENED
The king being indisposed, in consequence of having been fatigued by a
very tempestuous passage from Holland, the parliament was prorogued from
the twenty-first day of January to the first of February, and then the
session was opened by commission. The lord chancellor, as one of the
peers authorised by this commission, made a speech in his majesty’s name
to both houses. With respect to foreign affairs, he told them that the
respective acts of cession being exchanged, and orders given for the
evacuation and possession of the several countries and places by the
powers concerned, according to the allotment and disposition of the
preliminary articles, the great work of re-establishing the general
tranquillity was far advanced; that, however, common prudence called
upon them to be very attentive to the final conclusion of the new
settlement. He said his majesty could not without surprise and concern
observe the many contrivances and attempts carried on, in various
shapes, and in different parts of the nation, tumultuously to resist
and obstruct the execution of the laws, and to violate the peace of
the kingdom. He observed, that the consideration of the height to which
those audacious practices might rise, if not timely suppressed, afforded
a melancholy prospect, and required particular attention, lest they
should affect private persons in the quiet enjoyment of their property,
as well as the general peace and good order of the whole. After the
commons had agreed to an address, and heard counsel on some controverted
elections, they proceeded to take the supply into consideration. They
voted ten thousand men for the sea-service. They continued for the
land-service the same number they had maintained in times of
tranquillity, amounting to seventeen thousand seven hundred and four;
but this measure was not adopted without opposition; the money was
raised by the land and malt-taxes, reinforced with one million granted
out of the sinking fund.
MOTION IN BOTH HOUSES FOR A SETTLEMENT ON THE PRINCE OF WALES.
The chief subject of contention that presented itself in the course of
this session, was a motion which Mr. Pulteney made for an address to his
majesty, that he would be pleased to settle one hundred thousand pounds
a year upon the prince of Wales. He represented that such provision was
conformable to the practice of ancient times; that what he proposed had
been enjoyed by his present majesty in the life-time of his father;
and that a settlement of this nature was reasonable and necessary to
ascertain the independency of the apparent heir to the crown. The motion
was vigorously opposed by sir Robert Walpole, as an encroachment on the
prerogative; as an officious intermeddling in the king’s family affairs;
and as an effort to set his majesty and the prince at variance. But a
misunderstanding, it seems, had already happened in the royal family.
The minister, in the midst of his harangue, told the house by his
majesty’s command, that on the preceding day the king had sent a message
to the prince by several noblemen of the first quality, importing, that
his majesty had given orders for settling a jointure upon the princess
of Wales, suitable to her high rank and dignity, which he would in a
proper time lay before parliament, in order to be rendered more certain
and effectual; that, although his royal highness had not thought fit,
by any application to his majesty, to desire that his allowance of fifty
thousand pounds might be rendered less precarious, the king, to
prevent the bad consequences which he apprehended might follow from the
undutiful measures which his majesty was informed the prince had been
advised to pursue, would grant to his royal highness, for his majesty’s
life, the said fifty thousand pounds per annum, to be issued out of the
civil list revenues, over and above the prince’s revenues arising
from the duchy of Cornwall, which his majesty thought a very competent
allowance, considering his own numerous issue, and the great expense
which did and must necessarily attend an honourable provision for the
whole royal family; that the prince, by a verbal answer, desired their
lordships to lay him with all humility at his majesty’s feet; to assure
him that he did, and ever should, retain the utmost duty for his royal
person; that he was very thankful for any instance of his majesty’s
goodness to him or to the princess, and particularly for his majesty’s
gracious intention of settling a jointure upon her royal highness;
but that, as to the message, the affair was now out of his hands,
and therefore he could give no answer to it; that his royal highness
afterwards used many dutiful expressions towards his majesty; adding,
“Indeed, my lords, it is in other hands, and I am sorry for it;”
or words to that effect. Sir Robert Walpole then endeavoured to
demonstrate, that the annual sum of fifty thousand pounds was as much
as the king could afford to allow for the prince’s maintenance; and he
expatiated upon the bad consequences that might ensue, if the son should
be rendered altogether independent of the father.
These suggestions did not pass unanswered. Sir Robert Walpole had
asserted, that the parliament had no right to interfere in the creation
or maintenance of a prince of Wales; and that in the case of Richard
II., who, upon the death of his father, the Black Prince, was created
prince of Wales, in consequence of an address or petition from
parliament, that measure was in all probability directed by the king
himself. In answer to this assertion, it was observed, that probably the
king would not have been so forward in creating his grandson prince of
Wales, if he had not been forced into this step by his parliament; for
Edward in his old age fell into a sort of love dotage, and gave himself
entirely up to the management of his mistress, Alice Pierce, and his
second son, the duke of Lancaster; a circumstance that raised a most
reasonable jealousy in the Black Prince, at that time on his death-bed,
who could not but be anxious about the safety and right of his only son,
whom he found he was soon to leave a child in the hands of a doating
grandfather and an ambitious aspiring uncle. The supporters of the
motion observed, that the allowance of fifty thousand pounds was not
sufficient to defray the prince’s yearly expense, without alloting
one shilling for acts of charity and munificence; and that the several
deductions for land taxes and fees reduced it to forty-three thousand
pounds. They affirmed, that his whole income, including the revenues of
the duchy of Cornwall, did not exceed fifty-two thousand pounds a-year,
though, by his majesty’s own regulation, the expense of the prince’s
household amounted to sixty-three thousand. They proved that the produce
of the civil list exceeded nine hundred thousand pounds, a sum above
one hundred thousand pounds a-year more than was enjoyed by his late
majesty; and that, in the first year of the late king, the whole expense
of his household and civil government did not much exceed four hundred
and fifty thousand pounds a-year. They observed, that the parliament
added one hundred and forty thousand pounds annually for acts of charity
and bounty, together with the article of secret-service money; and
allowed one hundred thousand pounds for the maintenance of the prince
of Wales; that the article of secret-service money had prodigiously
increased in the late reign; by an account which happened to be laid
before the parliament, it appeared that vast sums of money had been
given for purposes which nobody understood, and to persons whom nobody
knew. In the beginning of the following session several members proposed
that this extraordinary account should be taken into consideration; but
the inquiry was warded off by the other party, who declared that the
parliament could not examine any account which had been presented to a
former session. The debate was fierce and long; and ended in a division,
by which the motion was rejected. A motion of the same nature was made
by lord Carteret in the house of peers, and gave rise to a very keen
dispute, maintained by the same arguments, and issuing in the same
termination.
SCHEME FOR REDUCING THE INTEREST OF THE NATIONAL DEBT.
The next remarkable contest was occasioned by a motion of sir Robert
Walpole, who proposed the sum of one million should be granted to his
majesty, towards redeeming the like sum of the increased capital of
the South-Sea company, commonly called the South-Sea annuities. Several
members argued for the expediency of applying this sum to the payment of
the debt due to the Bank, as part of that incumbrance was saddled with
an interest of six per cent., whereas the interest paid for the other
sums that constituted the public debt did not exceed four per cent. Many
plausible arguments were offered on both sides of the question; and
at length the motion was carried in the affirmative. The house having
resolved itself into a committee to consider of the national debt, sir
John Barnard made a motion, for enabling his majesty to raise money
either by the sale of annuities, or by borrowing at an interest not
exceeding three per cent., to be applied towards redeeming the South-Sea
annuities; and that such of the said annuitants as should be inclined to
subscribe their respective annuities, should be preferred to all others.
He said, that even those public securities which bore an interest of
three per cent, only, were sold at a premium in ‘Change-alley: he was
therefore persuaded, that all those who were willing to give a premium
for a three per cent, security, would gladly lend their money to the
government at the same interest, should books of subscription be opened
for that purpose, with an assurance that no part of the principal should
be paid off for fourteen years. He expatiated on the national advantages
that would accrue from a reduction of interest. From easy and obvious
calculations he inferred, that in a very little time the interest upon
all the South-Sea annuities would be reduced from four to three per
cent., without any danger to public credit, or breach of public faith;
that then the produce of the sinking fund would amount to fourteen
hundred thousand pounds per annum, to be applied only towards redeeming
the capital of the several trading companies; he proved that this
measure would bring every one of them so much within the power of
parliament, that they would be glad to accept of three per cent,
interest on any reasonable terms; in which case the sinking-fund would
rise to one million six hundred thousand pounds per annum. Then the
parliament might venture to annihilate one half of it, by freeing the
people from the taxes upon coals, candles, soap, leather, and other such
impositions as lay heavy upon the poor labourers and manufacturers;
the remaining part of the sinking-fund might be applied towards the
discharge of those annuities and public debts which bore an interest of
three per cent, only, and afterwards towards diminishing the capitals of
the several trading companies till the term of fourteen years should
be expired; then the sinking-fund would again amount to above a million
yearly, which would be sufficient for paying them off, and freeing the
nation entirely from all its incumbrances. This salutary scheme was
violently opposed by alderman Heathcote, and other partisans of the
ministry; yet all their objections were refuted; and, in order to
defeat the project, they were obliged to have recourse to artifice.
Mr. Winnington moved, that all the public creditors, as well as
the South-Sea annuitants, should be comprehended. Sir John Barnard
demonstrated that it might be easy for the government to borrow money
at three per cent, sufficient for paying off such of the proprietors of
four-and-twenty millions as were not willing to accept of that interest;
but it would be extremely difficult to borrow enough to satisfy the
proprietors of four-and-forty millions, who might choose to have their
principal rather than such an interest. Nevertheless, resolutions were
founded on this and other alterations of the original scheme; and a bill
was immediately prepared. It produced many other debates, and was at
last postponed by dint of ministerial influence. The same venerable
patriot, who projected this scheme, moved that, as soon as the interest
of all the national redeemable debt should be reduced to three per
cent., the house would take off some of the heavy taxes which oppressed
the poor and the manufacturers: but this motion was rejected by the
majority.
{1737}
BILL AGAINST THE CITY OF EDINBURGH.
The last disputes of this session were excited by a bill sent down
from the lords for punishing the magistrates and city of Edinburgh, on
account of the murder of John Porteous. In the beginning of the session,
lord Carteret recapitulated the several tumults and riots which had
lately happened in different parts of the kingdom. He particularly
insisted upon the atrocious murder of captain Porteous, as a flagrant
insult upon the government, and a violation of the public peace, so much
the more dangerous, as it seemed to have been concerted and executed
with deliberation and decency. He suspected that some citizens
of Edinburgh had been concerned in the murder; not only from this
circumstance, but likewise because, notwithstanding the reward of two
hundred pounds which had been offered by proclamation for the discovery
of any person who acted in that tragedy, not one individual had as yet
been detected. He seemed to think that the magistrates had encouraged
the riot, and that the city had forfeited its charter; and he proposed
a minute inquiry into the particulars of the affair. He was seconded
by the duke of Newcastle and the earl of Hay; though the last nobleman
differed in opinion with him in respect to the charter of the city,
which, he said, could not be justly forfeited by the fault of the
magistracy. The lords resolved, That the magistrates and other persons
from whom they might obtain the necessary information concerning
this riot, should be ordered to attend; and that an address should
be presented to his majesty, desiring that the different accounts and
papers relating to the murder of captain Porteous, might be submitted
to the perusal of the house. These documents being accordingly examined,
and all the witnesses arrived, including three Scottish judges, a debate
arose about the manner in which these last should be interrogated,
whether at the bar, at the table, or on the woolsacks. Some Scottish
lords asserted, that they had a right to be seated next to the judges of
England; but after a long debate this claim was rejected, and the judges
of Scotland appeared at the bar in their robes. A bill was brought in
to disable Alexander Wilson, esquire, lord-provost of Edinburgh, from
enjoying any office or place of magistracy in the city of Edinburgh, or
elsewhere in Great Britain; for imprisoning the said Alexander Wilson;
for abolishing the guard of that city; and for taking away the gates of
the Netherbow-port, so as to open a communication between the city
and the suburbs, in which the king’s troops are quartered. The duke
of Argyle, in arguing against this bill, said he could not think of a
proceeding more harsh or unprecedented than the present, as he believed
there was no instance of the whole weight of parliamentary indignation,
for such he called a proceeding by a bill _ex post facto_, falling upon
any single person, far less upon any community, for crimes that were
within the reach of the inferior courts of justice; for this reason
he observed, that if the lord-provost and citizens of Edinburgh should
suffer in the terms of the present bill, they would suffer by a cruel,
unjust, and fantastical proceeding; a proceeding of which the worst use
might be made, if ever the nation should have the misfortune to fall
under a partial self-interested administration. He told them he sat
in the parliament of Scotland when that part of the treaty of Union
relating to the privileges of the royal burghs, was settled on the
same footing as religion; that is, they were made unalterable by any
subsequent parliament of Great Britain. Notwithstanding the eloquence
and warmth of his remonstrance, the bill was sent down to the house of
commons, where it produced a violent contest. The commons set on foot
a severe scrutiny into the particular circumstances that preceded and
attended the murder of Porteous; from the examination of the witnesses,
it appeared that no freeman or citizen of Edinburgh was concerned in
the riot, which was chiefly composed of country people, excited by
the relations of some unhappy persons whom Porteous and his men had
slain at the execution of the smuggler; and these were assisted by
‘prentice-boys and the lowest class of vagabonds that happened to be
at Edinburgh; that the lord-provost had taken all the precautions to
prevent mischief that his reflection suggested; that he even exposed his
person to the rage of the multitude, in his endeavour to disperse them;
and that, if he had done amiss, he erred from want of judgment rather
than from want of inclination to protect the unhappy Porteous. It
likewise appeared that Mr. Lindsay, member for the city of Edinburgh,
had gone in person to general Moyle, commander of the forces in North
Britain, informed him of the riot, implored his immediate assistance,
and promised to conduct his troops into the city; and that his suit
was rejected, because he could not produce a written order from the
magistracy, which he neither could have obtained in such confusion,
nor ventured to carry about his person through the midst of an enraged
populace. The Scottish members exerted themselves with uncommon vivacity
in defence of their capital. They were joined by sir John Barnard, lord
Cornbury, Mr. Shippen, and Mr. Oglethorpe. Lord Polworth declared, that
if any gentleman would show where one argument in the charge against the
lord-provost and the city of Edinburgh had been proved, he would that
instant give his vote for the commitment of the bill. He said, if
gentlemen would lay their hands upon their hearts, and ask themselves,
whether they would have voted in this manner had the case of Edinburgh
been that of the cities of Bristol, York, or Norwich, he was persuaded
they would have required that every tittle of the charge against them
should have been fully and undeniably proved. Some amendments and
mitigations being inserted in the bill, it passed the house, was sent
back to the lords, who agreed to the alterations, and then received the
royal assent.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
PLAY-HOUSE BILL.
The next effort of the minister was obliquely levelled at the liberty of
the press, which it was much for his interest to abridge. The errors of
his conduct, the mystery of that corruption which he had so successfully
reduced to a system, and all the blemishes of his administration, had
been exposed and ridiculed, not only in political periodical writings
produced by the most eminent hands, but likewise in a succession of
theatrical pieces, which met with uncommon success among the people. He
either wanted judgment to distinguish men of genius, or could find
none that would engage in his service; he therefore employed a set of
wretched authors, void of understanding and ingenuity. They undertook
the defence of his ministry, and answered the animadversions of his
antagonists. The match was so extremely unequal, that, instead of
justifying his conduct, they exposed it to additional ridicule and
contempt; and he saw himself in danger of being despised by the whole
nation. He resolved to seize the first opportunity to choke those canals
through which the torrent of censure had flowed upon his character.
The manager of a play-house communicated to him a manuscript farce,
intituled, The Golden Rump, which was fraught with treason and abuse
upon the government, and had been presented to the stage for exhibition.
This performance was produced in the house of commons. The minister
descanted upon the insolence, the malice, the immorality, and the
seditious calumny which had been of late propagated in theatrical
pieces. A bill was brought in to limit the number of playhouses; to
subject all dramatic writings to the inspection of the lord chamberlain;
and to compel them to take out a license for every production before it
could appear on the stage. Notwithstanding a vigorous opposition,
this bill passed through both houses with extraordinary despatch, and
obtained the royal sanction. In this debate the earl of Chesterfield
distinguished himself by an excellent speech, that will ever endear his
character to all the friends of genius and literature, to all those who
are warmed with zeal for the liberties of their country. “Our stage,”
said he, “ought certainly to be kept in due bounds; but for this
purpose, our laws as they stand at present are sufficient. If our
stage-players at any time exceed those bounds, they ought to be
prosecuted; they may be punished. We have precedents, we have examples
of persons punished for things less criminal than some pieces which have
been lately represented; a new law must, therefore unnecessary; and in
the present case it cannot be unnecessary without being dangerous. Every
unnecessary restraint is a fetter upon the legs, is a shackle upon the
hands, of liberty. One of the greatest blessings we enjoy, one of the
greatest blessings a people can enjoy, is liberty. But every good in
this life has its allay of evil. Licentiousness is the allay of liberty.
It is an ebullition, an excrescence; it is a speck upon the eye of
the political body, which I can never touch but with a gentle, with a
trembling hand; lest I destroy the body, lest I injure the eye, upon
which it is apt to appear. If the stage becomes at any time licentious,
if a play appears to be a libel upon the government, or upon any
particular man, the king’s courts are open; the law is sufficient to
punish the offender. If poets and players are to be restrained, let them
be restrained as other subjects are, by the known laws of their country;
if they offend, let them be tried as every Englishman ought to be, by
God and their country. Do not let us subject them to the arbitrary will
and pleasure of any one man. A power lodged in the hands of a single man
to judge and determine without limitation, control, or appeal, is a sort
of power unknown to our laws, inconsistent with our constitution. It is
a higher, a more absolute power than we trust even to the king himself;
and, therefore, I must think we ought not to vest any such power in his
majesty’s lord-chamberlain.” His arguments had no effect, though the
house admired his elocution; and the play-house bill passed into a law.
On the twenty-first day of June the king made a short speech to both
houses, and the lord chancellor prorogued the parliament.