Conquest of Martinico.--War in Portugal.--Lord Tyrawley.--
Count la Lippe.--The Cock-Lane Ghost.--Pacific disposition
of the new Czar.--His Popular Measures.--Count Schouvalow.--
Meditated War with Denmark by the Czar and the King of Prussia.--
Insurrections in Ireland, quelled by the Earl of Hertford.--Lord
Bute’s Ambition.--The Duke of Newcastle.--His friends.--The
Portuguese War, and the War in Germany.--The Duke of Bedford.--
Fox’s Observation to Walpole.--Lords Mansfield, Hardwicke, and
Lincoln.--Newcastle’s tenacity of Power.--Creation of seven new
Peers.--Private negotiation with the Court of Vienna.--The new
Peers.--Buckingham House purchased by the Queen.--Seclusion of
the King and Queen.--the King’s younger Brothers.
On the 22nd of March arrived news of the conquest of Martinico by
General Monckton[183] and Admiral Rodney:[184] a plan ascribed by
the people to Mr. Pitt, though executed under the auspices of the
Favourite. In truth, the valour of the nation had taken such a bent,
that Lord Bute could not check it: nothing but a peace could chain
it up. If the Earl did favour any part of the war, it was that in
Portugal. Colonel Burgoyne[185] was ordered thither with five thousand
foot and six hundred horse; and there was a plan for regimenting
twenty-five thousand papists in Ireland for the same service; but the
Irish Government did not approve of giving discipline and arms to
such dangerous inmates. For General-in-Chief, it was proposed to send
to Lisbon the Prince of Bevern. He had been suspected of infidelity
by the King of Prussia,[186]--had been disgraced, and his intellects
were not reckoned sound. Lord Tyrawley sent home his aides-de-camp,
affecting to wonder that we expected any invasion of Portugal. This was
imputed to his disgust at not obtaining the command himself; he who
was a brave and old general, and who was perfectly acquainted with the
country.[187] The Prince of Bevern declined the offer; and Count la
Lippe accepted it. He was born in England, had distinguished himself
in every hussar-kind of service, and in his dress and manners copied
Charles XII. of Sweden, though with more politeness. He found the
Portuguese troops in the most deplorable state of cowardice and want of
discipline. The English could not, and did not disguise their contempt
of them. The Spanish army might have marched to Lisbon, had they met
with no obstruction but from the natives. The English troops saved that
country; and Count La Lippe, before he left Portugal, formed a regular
army there.[188]
The facility which the Favourite found of mastering so great and
victorious a kingdom, and of removing the man who had carried the
glory of his country so high, was not the only evidence, that however
enlightened an age may be, knavery and folly need never despair. The
tares they sow will shoot amidst any harvest. Will it be credited
that, while the Romish superstition was crumbling away even in Spain
and Portugal, a set of enthusiastic rogues dared to exhibit in the
very heart of London, a pantomime of imposture, which would hardly
have been swallowed in a paltry village of Castile? The methodists had
endeavoured to establish in Warwickshire, not only the belief, but
the actual existence of ghosts. Being detected, they struck a bold
stroke, and attempted to erect their system in the metropolis itself.
A methodist family, at first out of revenge, endeavoured to fasten on
one Parsons the imputation of having debauched and murdered his wife’s
sister. A young girl was reported to be visited by the deceased, whom
she called Fanny, and with whom she established a correspondence of
question and answer--not by words, but by scratching. A certain number
of scratches signified “yes;” another number, “no.” At first this
farce, which was acted in Cock-lane, in the city, was confined to the
mob of the neighbourhood. As the rumour spread, persons of all ranks
thronged to the house. Two methodist clergymen constantly attended the
child, who lay in bed in a wretched chamber, with only a dim rushlight
at one end. These worthy divines affected to cast an air of most
serious import on the whole transaction, and by their interposition
prompted Fanny and the girl on any dilemma. A servant wench commented
and explained Fanny’s oracle. The father would accept no money from the
various visitants, for which he was promised an adequate recompense
by the chiefs of the sect. When the story had gained a requisite
footing, Fanny had the indiscreet confidence to declare that her body
was not in the vault where it had been interred. Samuel Johnson,
author of the Dictionary, was in the number of the deluded, and with
some others as wise as himself, visited the vault, where, to the
disappointment of their credulity, they found the body.[189] Had the
precaution been taken of conveying it away, the fury of the people
might have been actuated to strange lengths; for so much credit had
the story gained, that Parsons, the accused, fearing a prosecution,
began first. A regular trial[190] instantly unravelled the cheat: the
girl was detected of performing the scratchings herself, and one of
the clergymen proved to be her abettor. Lord Chief Justice Mansfield
tried the cause: the divine had the impudence to present a letter to
him on the bench from the Archbishop of Canterbury,[191] interceding
on his behalf, for Secker had a fellow feeling for hypocritical
enthusiasm. The Chief Justice put the letter into his pocket unopened,
saying it was impossible it could relate to the cause in question.
Yet the punishment of these impostors was very moderate: whereas the
same judge inflicted most severe penalties on one Anett, who published
weekly papers against the book of Genesis. The methodists did not take
shame. They turned informers against profaners of the Sabbath, tried to
establish great rigour on Good Friday and the fast-days, and to revive
the superstition of holidays, when even the late Pope himself, Benedict
XIV.,[192] had struck several out of the calendar. But the ritual of
the Church of Rome was too rich in materials not to be copied by new
zealots. They introduced into their service hymns sung in parts by
children, as very captivating to the multitude; and the Countess of
Huntingdon,[193] the patroness of the rising Church, erected a chapel
at Bath, and at other places of drinking waters, the sick and diseased
being an obvious prey to Reformers. Hogarth exerted his last stroke
of genius on the occasion above mentioned: the print he published on
the Cock-lane Ghost had a mixture of humorous and sublime satire, that
not only surpassed all his other performances, but which would alone
immortalize his unequalled talents.
The expectations conceived of the new Czar were now verified. He
declared to the Empress Queen, to France, and to Sweden, that he
was ready to abandon his conquests for peace, and hoped they were
in the same disposition--not at the same price. France, indeed, had
many losses to regain, few acquisitions to restore--but her hopes
were placed on Spain. Sweden had made no conquests, and must obey
the dictates of so powerful a mediator; but the Empress Queen was
far from being equally tractable. Peter, however, having sacrificed
the first moments to decency, gave the next to the gratification of
his will; and without stipulating for his allies, whose politics and
procrastination were incompatible with his ardour, he not only made
peace with his favourite monarch,[194] but promised the same troops,
which under the late Czarina had almost crushed him. Nor was this a
bare promise, but faithfully executed. Such admiration of a hero was
not likely to content itself with merely becoming his ally. Few men
idolize heroism but they who feel the passion in their own breasts.
Having obliged Sweden to make peace too, the young Czar turned his eye
towards military exploits in a new field, and determined to attempt the
conquest of the duchy of Sleswick from Denmark. Yet if he was dazzled
by the martial talents of the King of Prussia, Peter had a heart
susceptible of the most extensive humanity. One of his first acts on
his accession was to bestow liberty on the Russian nobility. For the
poor he lessened the tax on salt, and for the relief of all, abolished
the Inquisition of the State. All the exiles were recalled, or received
great mitigation of their punishments. There was one man to whom the
Czar, though not so bountiful as he ought to have been, was very
kind. This was Count Schouvalow, the favourite and supposed husband
of the late Czarina. A man, who in twelve years of absolute power had
never made an enemy; and who, had he ambitioned a crown as much as he
deserved one, might have reigned. This upright man told the Czar that
he had in his possession a very large sum of money, which he believed
the Empress, his late mistress, had intended he should take for his own
use, but not having been a specific gift, he thought it his duty to
surrender it to his Majesty. The Emperor said he was in great want of
money, took it, but ordered him to choose two thousand pounds a year
in land wherever he pleased. I knew this amiable person afterwards,
wandering about Europe,[195] possessed of nothing beyond that revenue,
and sighing after a country to which it had been imprudent to return.
The Czar and the King of Prussia wished to engage us in the war with
Denmark; but though the Council was divided on the measure, Denmark was
too intimately connected with us, and as a maritime power, was too near
a neighbour to Scotland. In this exigence the King of Denmark marched
with a considerable force to Hamburgh, and obliged that opulent city to
furnish him with a million of rix-dollars.
In Ireland seemed approaching a scene of a new kind. The jealousy of
commerce had ever swayed England to keep that kingdom in a state of
humiliation and restraint; consequently of poverty. The lowest class
of people in no country less enjoyed the sweets of being; and in no
country sought less to emerge from their state of barbarism. Proud and
slothful, they created a kind of dignity to themselves from inactivity.
To labour no more than noblemen, was a sort of nobility; and ignorance
of a happier fate was happiness. They preserved their ancient poetry
and traditional genealogies; hated the English settled amongst them
as invaders, and necessarily were bigoted to their old superstitions
in opposition to the religion of their masters. In short, they wanted
but luxury, to have all the passions and prejudices of great lords. A
considerable part of the island was plunged in this dismal darkness
and misery. As a spirit of opposition and independence had spread
amongst the Protestant inhabitants, a spirit of improvement had gone
forth too. Manufactures were established, roads and bridges made, and
rivers rendered navigable. Inclosures for cultivation of lands had
followed. Occupation of commons seemed usurpation to a race of lazy
savages; and the first murmurs were carefully blown up to rage by their
priests. A massacre had been the last instance in which the Catholics
of Ireland had had any superiority; and Popish priests are historians
enough to be ignorant of no such era. It was the cause of property to
throw down inclosures; of heaven, to cut the throats of inclosers--and
of France and Spain, to promote the good work. The tumults, however,
began upon the single foot of their grievances. Great insurrections
appeared in Waterford, the chief improvements having been made upon the
Burlington estate. The rabble soon distinguished itself by the name
of _White Boys_; and their instructors, to veil one nonsense under a
greater, taught them to give out that they were subject to the Queen
of the Fairies, whom they called _Sieve Oltugh_, in whose name their
manifestoes were signed. It appeared afterwards on the trials of some
of their chiefs, that this fairy sovereign resided at Versailles.
French officers were discovered among them; and during the Duke of
Bedford’s regency, a rising had actually been made in the same quarter
just as Thurot landed. After many outrages, they proceeded to cruelty,
and buried three persons up to their chins, who had declared they
knew the ringleaders. As their numbers and impunity increased, so did
their insolence. They obliged the town of Lismore to hang out lights,
and forced a justice of peace to fix up a proclamation by which they
regulated the price of provisions, and forbad any cheese to be made
till after Lent, that the poor might have the milk--a proof that the
devotees of the Queen of the Fairies, and of the Virgin Mary, were
equally attached to the observation of the Fast.
For six weeks this insurrection was neglected; and two regiments of
dragoons, that were sent against them, proved unequal to the work. At
last the House of Commons took up the affair, and foot being ordered
out against the seditious, the matter was quashed, though not entirely
suppressed, till the Earl of Hertford[196] was Lord Lieutenant,
who refusing to pardon some of the chiefs, notwithstanding very
considerable intercession, an end was put to the affair--but unless
that country is more civilized and reclaimed from barbarism, or better
guarded before another war breaks out, it will probably be selected
by France and Spain for the first scene of their operations. At the
time of which I have been speaking, France was more earnest to make
a general peace, than to incense us by opening a war within our very
gates,[197] and which might have made it dangerous for the Favourite to
second their views.
He was hotly pushing his schemes to projection; and resolved not only
to make the peace, but to be indisputably first minister when it should
be made. Mr. Pitt was removed, who could have obstructed the first
object; but while the Duke of Newcastle held the Treasury, there was a
division of power, which all the lustre of favour could not entirely
surmount. They who looked forward, bowed to the idol; but they who held
by gratifications to the Treasury, could not but kiss the hand that
dealt the bribe. At first it was designed by disgusts to drive the
Duke to resign. Elliot and Oswald[198] were instructed to treat him
rudely at his own board: but an old minister or an old mistress endure
many shocks before they can be shaken off:[199] nor could all his own
treacheries persuade the Duke of Newcastle that Lord Bute could so soon
forget how instrumental his Grace had been in undermining Mr. Pitt.
He still had a mind to be of the plot, though himself was become the
object of it.
Newcastle’s friends were quicker sighted; and foreseeing that they
must again range under Mr. Pitt, if cast off by the Court, they began
to have doubts and difficulties--and did but hasten their fall, by
daring to resume a right of opinion. The expense of the Portuguese war
administered their first pretence of complaint, and the protection
given to the King of Prussia by the Czar, changed the posture of his
affairs so advantageously, that it had no gross appearance, when the
Dukes of Cumberland, Newcastle, Devonshire, and their faction grew
earnest for the continuance of the war in Germany. The Duke of Bedford,
who was more than half-gained to the Court, but who always added some
contradiction of his own, was averse to both wars, Portuguese and
German; and Fox, who was willing to preserve an interest in the Duke
of Cumberland, had a difficult part to act. He said to me, “The Duke
of Devonshire says it is a Tory measure to abandon the Continent;
for my part I do not know who are Whigs; they bore the partiality of
the Pelhams[200] to the Tories, and Mr. Pitt’s declaration in their
favour, who had complained that they enjoyed none of the favours of
Government.” Lord Mansfield would have preserved Newcastle to the
Court, but Lord Hardwicke pulled the other way. Lord Lincoln[201] was
devoted to Pitt, and wished to unite him and his uncle Newcastle. The
Duke of Devonshire advised the latter to resign; but so great was his
inclination to keep even the dregs of power with the dregs of life, and
so great his fear of being called to account for the waste of money
on the German war, that though the King, as a fresh affront, declared
seven new peers, without acquainting him, he not only overlooked it,
but begged his cousin, Mr. Pelham,[202] might be added to the number,
and got the barony of Pelham bestowed on himself, with reversion to
that relation.
I am forced to detail these intrigues, because the moment was critical,
and because it gave birth to a new party, and to many subsequent
events. The Court was the more stiff, because they had conveyed a
message through Count Virri,[203] the Sardinian minister in England, to
the Bailli de Solar,[204] the Sardinian minister at Paris, desiring to
renew the negotiation where it had been broken off. Lord Bute had gone
farther: he had ordered Sir Joseph Yorke to treat privately with the
Court of Vienna, without the knowledge of the King of Prussia. For some
time the Court of Vienna did not vouchsafe an answer. To the confusion
of the Favourite, the first news he had of any answer to come, was from
the Baron de Knyphausen, the King of Prussia’s minister here.[205]
April 28th, the new peers kissed hands. Lord[206] Wentworth and Sir
William Courtenay,[207] Tories, were made Viscounts. Lord Egmont,[208]
Lord Milton,[209] Lord Brudenel, the Duke of Newcastle, Sir Edward
Hussy Montagu,[210] Mr. Vernon,[211] of Sudbury, and Mr. Lane,[212]
the two latter Tories, were made Barons, and Lady Caroline Fox, a
Baroness. Lord Ligonier’s Irish peerage was entailed on his nephew. Mr.
Vernon,[213] clerk of the Council, and Mr. Olmius,[214] were created
Irish Barons. The Prince of Mecklenburg,[215] brother of the Queen,
was made a Major-General. Lord Bute had often waved her request. She
was advised to apply to the Princess, and the favour was immediately
granted. Soon after, Buckingham House[216] was purchased and bestowed
on her Majesty, St. James’s not seeming a prison strait enough. There
the King and Queen lived in the strictest privacy, attended absolutely
by none but menial servants; and never came to the palace but for the
hours of levies and drawing-rooms. The King’s younger brothers were
kept, till they came of age, in as rigid durance. Prince Henry, the
third, a very lively lad, being asked if he had been confined with the
epidemic cold, replied, “Confined! that I am, without any cold;” and
soon after, when the Garter was bestowed on Prince William and Lord
Bute, Prince Henry said, “I suppose Mr. Mackenzie[217] and I shall have
the green ribands.”