GEORGE I., AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.
[Sidenote: Accession of George I.]
Queen Anne died in 1714, soon after the famous treaty of Utrecht was
made, and by which the war of the Spanish Succession was closed. She
was succeeded by George I., Elector of Hanover. He was grandson of
Elizabeth, only daughter of James I., who had married Frederic, the
King of Bohemia. He was fifty-four years of age when he ascended the
English throne, and imperfectly understood the language of the nation
whom he was called upon to govern.
George I. was not a sovereign who materially affected the interests or
destiny of England; nor was he one of those interesting characters
that historians love to delineate. It is generally admitted that he
was respectable, prudent, judicious, and moral; amiable in his temper,
sincere in his intercourse, and simple in his habits,--qualities which
command respect, but not those which dazzle the people. It is supposed
that he tolerably understood the English Constitution, and was willing
to be fettered by the restraints which the parliaments imposed. He
supported the Whigs,--the dominant party of the time,--and sympathized
with liberal principles, so far as a monarch can be supposed to
advance the interests of the people, and the power of a class ever
hostile to the prerogatives of royalty. He acquiesced in the rule of
his ministers--just what was expected of him, and just what was wanted
of him; and became--what every King of England, when popular, has
since been--the gilded puppet of a powerful aristocracy. His social
and constitutional influence was not, indeed, annihilated; he had the
choice of ministers, and collected around his throne the great and
proud, who looked to him as the fountain of all honor and dignity.
But, still, from the accession of the house of Hanover the political
history of England is a history of the acts of parliaments, and of
those ministers who represented the dominant parties of the nation.
Few nobles were as great as some under the Tudor and Stuart princes;
but the power of the aristocracy, as a class, was increased. From the
time of George I. to Queen Victoria, the ascendency of the parliaments
has been most marked composed chiefly of nobles, great landed
proprietors, and gigantic commercial monopolists. The people have not
been, indeed, unheard or unrepresented; but, literally speaking, have
had but a feeble influence, compared with the aristocracy. Parliaments
and ministers, therefore, may be not unjustly said to be the
representatives of the aristocracy--of the wise, the mighty, and the
noble.
When power passes from kings to nobles, then the acts of nobles
constitute the genius of political history, as fully as the acts of
kings constitute history when kings are absolute, and the acts of the
people constitute history where the people are all-powerful.
[Sidenote: Sir Robert Walpole.]
A notice, therefore, of that great minister who headed the Whig party
of aristocrats, and who, as their organ, swayed the councils of
England for nearly forty years, demands our attention. His political
career commenced during the reign of Anne, and continued during the
reign of George I., and part of the reign of George II. George I., as
a man or as a king, dwindled into insignificance, when compared with
his prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole. And he is great, chiefly, as
the representative of the Whigs; that is, of the dominant party of
rich and great men who sat in parliament; a party of politicians who
professed more liberal principles than the Tories, but who were
equally aristocratic in the social sympathies, and powerful from
aristocratic connections. What did the great Dukes of Devonshire or
Bedford care for the poor people, who, politically, composed no part
of the nation? But they were Whigs, and King George himself was a
Whig.
Sir Robert belonged to an ancient, wealthy, and honorable family; was
born 1676, and received his first degree at King's College, Cambridge,
in 1700. He entered parliament almost immediately after, became an
active member, sat on several committees, and soon distinguished
himself for his industry and ability. He was not eloquent, but
acquired considerable skill as a debater. In 1705, Lord Godolphin, the
prime minister of Anne, made him one of the council to Prince George
of Denmark; in 1706, Marlborough selected him as secretary of war; in
1709, he was made treasurer of the navy; and in 1710, he was the
acknowledged leader of the House of Commons. He lost office, however,
when the Whigs lost power, in 1710; was subjected to cruel political
persecution, and even impeached, and imprisoned in the Tower. This
period is memorable for the intense bitterness and severe conflicts
between the Whigs and Tories; not so much on account of difference of
opinion on great political principles, as the struggle for the
possession of place and power.
On the accession of George I., Walpole became paymaster of the forces,
one of the most lucrative offices in the kingdom. Townshend was made
secretary of state. The other great official dignitaries were the
Lords Cowper, Marlborough, Wharton, Sunderland, Devonshire, Oxford, and
Somerset; but Townshend and Walpole were the most influential. They
impeached their great political enemies, Ormond and Bolingbroke, the
most distinguished leaders of the Tory party. Bolingbroke, in genius
and learning, had no equal in parliament, and was a rival of Walpole
at Eton.
[Sidenote: The Pretender.]
The first event of importance, under the new ministry, was the
invasion of Great Britain by the Pretender--the Prince James Frederic
Edward Stuart, only son of James II. His early days were spent at St.
Germain's, the palace which the dethroned monarch enjoyed by the
hospitality of Louis XIV. He was educated under influences entirely
unfavorable to the recovery of his natural inheritance, and was a
devotee to the pope and the interests of absolutism. But he had his
adherents, who were called _Jacobites_, and who were chiefly to be
found in the Highlands of Scotland. In 1705, an unsuccessful effort
had been made to regain the throne of his father, but the disasters
attending it prevented him from milking any renewed effort until the
death of Anne.
When she died, many discontented Tories fanned the spirit of
rebellion; and Bishop Atterbury, a distinguished divine, advocated the
claims of the Pretender. Scotland was ripe for revolt. Alarming riots
took place in England. William III. was burned in effigy at
Smithfield. The Oxford students pulled down a Presbyterian
meeting-house, and the sprig of oak was publicly displayed on the 29th
of May. The Earl of Mar hurried into Scotland to fan the spirit of
insurrection; while the gifted, brilliant, and banished Bolingbroke
joined the standard of the chevalier. The venerable and popular Duke
of Ormond also assisted him with his counsels.
[Sidenote: Invasion of Scotland.]
Advised by these great nobles, assisted by the King of France, and
flattered by the Jacobite faction, the Pretender made preparations to
recover his rights. His prospects were apparently better than were
those of William, when he landed in England. The Earl of Mar was at
the head of ten thousand men; but the chevalier was no general, and
was unequal to his circumstances. When he landed in Scotland, he
surrendered himself to melancholy and inaction. His sadness and
pusillanimity dispirited his devoted band of followers. He retreated
before inferior forces, and finally fled from the country which he had
invaded. The French king was obliged to desert his cause, and the
Pretender retreated to Italy, and died at the advanced age of
seventy-nine, after witnessing the defeat of his son, Charles Edward,
whose romantic career and misfortunes cannot now be mentioned. By the
flight of the Pretender from Scotland, in 1715, the insurrection was
easily suppressed, and the country was not molested by the intrigues
of the Stuart princes for thirty years.
The year which followed the invasion of Scotland was signalized by the
passage of a great bill in parliament, which is one of the most
important events in parliamentary history. In 1716, the famous
Septennial Act, which prolonged parliament from three to seven years,
was passed. So many evils, practically, resulted from frequent
elections, that the Whigs resolved to make a change; and the change
contributed greatly to the tranquillity of the country, and the
establishment of the House of Brunswick. The duration of the English
parliament has ever since, constitutionally, been extended to seven
years, but the average duration of parliaments has been six years--the
term of office of the senators of the United States.
After the passage of the Septennial Act, the efforts of Walpole were
directed to a reduction of the national debt. He was then secretary of
the treasury. But before he could complete his financial reforms, he
was driven from office by the cabals of his colleagues, and the
influence of the king's German favorites and mistresses. The Earl of
Sunderland, who had married a daughter of the Duke of Marlborough, was
at the head of the cabal party, and was much endeared to the Whigs by
his steady attachment to their principles. He had expected, and
probably deserved, to be placed at the head of the administration.
When disappointed, he bent all his energies to undermine Townsend and
Walpole, and succeeded for a while. But Walpole's opposition to the
new administration was so powerful, that it did not last long.
Sunderland had persuaded the king to renounce his constitutional
prerogative of creating peers; and a bill, called the _Peerage Bill_,
was proposed, which limited the House of Lords to its actual existing
number, the tendency of which was to increase the power and rank of
the existing peers, and to raise an eternal bar to the aspirations of
all commoners to the peerage, and thus widen the gulf between the
aristocracy and the people. Walpole presented these consequences so
forcibly, and showed so clearly that the proposed bill would diminish
the consequence of the landed gentry, and prove a grave to honorable
merit, that the Commons were alarmed, and rejected the bill by a large
and triumphant majority of two hundred and sixty-nine to one hundred
and seventy-seven.
The defeat of this bill, and the great financial embarrassments of the
country, led to the restoration of Walpole to office. His genius was
eminently financial, and his talents were precisely those which have
ever since been required of a minister--those which characterized Sir
Robert Peel and William Pitt. The great problem of any government is,
how to raise money for its great necessities; and the more complicated
the relations of society are, the more difficult becomes the problem.
[Sidenote: The South Sea Bubble.]
At that period, the English nation were intoxicated and led astray by
one of those great commercial delusions which so often take place in
all civilized countries. No mania ever was more marked, more
universal, and more fatal than that of the South Sea Company. The
bubble had turned the heads of politicians, merchants, and farmers;
all classes, who had money to invest, took stock in the South Sea
Company. The delusion, however, passed away; England was left on the
brink of bankruptcy, and a master financier was demanded by the
nation, to extricate it from the effects of folly and madness. All
eyes looked to Sir Robert Walpole, and he did all that financial skill
could do, to repair the evils which speculation and gambling had
caused.
The desire for sudden wealth is one of the most common passions of our
nature, and has given rise to more delusions than religious
fanaticism, or passion for military glory. The South Sea bubble was
kindred to that of John Law, who was the author of the Mississippi
Scheme, which nearly ruined France in the reign of Louis XV., and
which was encouraged by the Duke of Orleans, as a means of paying off
the national debt.
[Sidenote: The South Sea Company.]
The wars of England had created a national debt, under the
administration of Godolphin and Marlborough; but which was not so
large but that hopes were entertained of redeeming it. Walpole
proposed to pay it off by a sinking fund; but this idea, not very
popular, was abandoned. It was then the custom for government to
borrow of corporations, rather than of bankers, because the science of
brokerage was not then understood, and because no individuals were
sufficiently rich to aid materially an embarrassed administration. As
a remuneration, companies were indulged with certain commercial
advantages. As these advantages enabled companies to become rich, the
nation always found it easy to borrow. During the war of the Spanish
Succession, the prime minister, Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford, in
order to raise money, projected the South Sea Company. This was in
1710, and the public debt was ten million pounds sterling, thought at
that time to be insupportable. The interest on that debt was six per
cent. In order to liquidate the debt, Oxford made the duties on wines,
tobacco, India goods, silks, and a few other articles, permanent. And,
to allure the public creditor, great advantages were given to the new
company, and money was borrowed of it at five per cent. This gain of
one per cent., by money borrowed from the company, was to constitute a
sinking fund to pay the debt.
But the necessities of the nation increased so rapidly, that a leading
politician of the day, Sir John Blount, proposed that the South Sea
Company should become the sole national creditor, and should loan to
the government new sums, at an interest of four per cent. New
monopolies were to be given to the company; and it, on the other hand,
offered to give a bonus of three million pounds to the government. The
Bank of England, jealous of the proposal, offered five millions. The
directors of the company then bid seven millions for a charter, nearly
enough to pay off the whole redeemable debt of the nation; which,
however, could not be redeemed, so long as there were, in addition,
irredeemable annuities to the amount of eight hundred thousand pounds
yearly. It became, therefore, an object of the government to get rid,
in the first place, of these irredeemable annuities; and this could be
effected, if the national creditor could be induced to accept of
shares in the South Sea Company, instead of his irredeemable
annuities, or, as they are now variously called, consols, stocks, and
national funds. The capital was not desired; only the interest on
capital. So many monopolies and advantages were granted to the
company, that the stock rose, and the national creditor was willing to
part with his annuities for stock in the company. The offer was,
therefore, accepted, and the government got rid of irredeemable
annuities, and obtained seven millions besides, but became debtor to
the company. A company which could apparently afford to pay so large a
bonus to government for its charter, and loan such large sums as the
nation needed, in addition, at four per cent., was supposed to be
making most enormous profits. Its stock rose rapidly in value. The
national creditor hastened to get rid of irredeemable annuities--a
national stock which paid five per cent.--in order to buy shares which
might pay ten per cent.
[Sidenote: Opposition of Walpole.]
Walpole, then paymaster of the forces, opposed the scheme of Blount
with all his might, showed that the acceptance of the company's
proposal would countenance stockjobbing, would divert industry from
its customary channels, and would hold out a dangerous lure to the
unsuspecting to part with real for imaginary property. He showed the
misery and confusion which existed in France from the adoption of
similar measures, and proved that the whole success of the scheme must
depend on the rise of the company's stock; that, if there were no
rise, the company could not afford the bonus, and would fail, and the
obligation of the nation remain as before. But his reasonings were of
no avail. All classes were infatuated. All people speculated in the
South Sea stock. And, for a while, all people rejoiced; for, as long
as the stock continued to rise, all people were gainers.
And the stock rose rapidly. It soon reached three hundred per cent.
above the original par value, and this in consequence of the promise
of great dividends. All hastened to buy such lucrative property. The
public creditor willingly gave up three hundred pounds of irredeemable
stock for one hundred pounds of the company's stock.
[Sidenote: Mania for Speculation.]
And this would have been well, had there been a moral certainty of the
stockholder receiving a dividend of twenty per cent. But there was not
this certainty, nor even a chance of it. Still, in consequence of the
great dividends promised, even as high as fifty per cent., the stock
gradually rose to one thousand per cent. Such was the general mania.
And such was the extent of it, that thirty-seven millions of pounds
sterling were subscribed on the company's books.
And the rage for speculation extended to all other kinds of property;
and all sorts of companies were formed, some of the shares of which
were at a premium of two thousand per cent. There were companies
formed for fisheries, companies for making salt, for making oil, for
smelting metals, for improving the breed of horses, for the planting
of madder, for building ships against pirates, for the importation of
jackasses, for fattening hogs, for wheels of perpetual motion, for
insuring masters against losses from servants. There was one company
for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but no one knew for
what. The subscriber, by paying two guineas as a deposit, was to have
one hundred pounds per annum for every hundred subscribed. It was
declared, that, in a month, the particulars were to be laid open, and
the remainder of the subscription money was then to be paid.
Notwithstanding this barefaced, swindling scheme, two thousand pounds
were received one morning as a deposit. The next day, the proprietor
was not to be found.
Now, in order to stop these absurd speculations, and yet to monopolize
all the gambling in the kingdom, the directors of the South Sea
Company obtained an act from parliament, empowering them to prosecute
all the various bubble companies that were projected. In a few days,
all these bubbles burst. None were found to be buyers. Stock fell to
nothing.
[Sidenote: Bursting of the South Sea Bubble.]
But the South Sea Company made a blunder. The moral effect of the
bursting of so many bubbles was to open the eyes of the nation to the
greatest bubble of all. The credit of the South Sea Company declined.
Stocks fell from one thousand per cent to two hundred in a few days.
All wanted to sell, nobody to buy. Bankers and merchants failed, and
nobles and country gentlemen became impoverished.
In this general distress, Walpole was summoned to power, in older to
extricate the nation, on the eve of bankruptcy. He proposed a plan,
which was adopted, and which saved the credit of the nation. He
ingrafted nine millions of the South Sea stock into the Bank of
England, and nine millions more into the East India Company; and
government gave up the seven millions of bonus which the company had
promised.
By this assistance, the company was able to fulfil its engagements,
although all who purchased stock when it had arisen beyond one hundred
per cent. of its original value, lost money. It is strange that the
stock, after all, remained at a premium of one hundred per cent.; of
course, the original proprietors gained one hundred per cent., and
those who paid one hundred per cent. premium lost nothing. But these
constituted a small fraction of the people who had speculated, and who
paid from one hundred to nine hundred per cent. premium. Government,
too, gained by reducing interest on irredeemable bonds from five to
four per cent., although it lost the promised bonus of seven millions.
The South Sea bubble did not destroy the rage for speculation,
although it taught many useful truths--that national prosperity is not
advanced by stockjobbing; that financiers, however great their genius,
generally overreach themselves; that great dividends are connected
with great risk; that circumstances beyond human control will defeat
the best-laid plan; that it is better to repose upon the operation of
the ordinary laws of trade; and that nothing but strict integrity and
industry will succeed in the end. From the time of Sir Robert Walpole,
money has seldom been worth, in England, over five per cent., and
larger dividends on vested property have generally been succeeded by
heavy losses, however plausible the promises and clear the statements
of stockjobbers and speculators.
[Sidenote: Enlightened Policy of Walpole.]
After the explosion of the South Sea Company, Walpole became possessed
of almost unlimited power. And one of the first objects to which he
directed attention, after settling the finances, was the removal of
petty restrictions on commerce. He abolished the export duties on one
hundred and six articles of British manufacture, and allowed
thirty-eight articles of raw material to be imported duty free. This
regulation was made to facilitate trade with the colonies, and prevent
them from manufacturing; and this regulation accomplished the end
desired. Both England and the colonies were enriched. It was doubtless
the true policy of British statesmen then, as now, to advance the
commercial, manufacturing, and agricultural interests of Great
Britain, rather than meddle with foreign wars, or seek glory on the
field of battle. The principles of Sir Robert Walpole were essentially
pacific; and under his administration, England made a great advance in
substantial prosperity. In this policy he surpassed all the statesmen
who preceded or succeeded him, and this constituted his glory and
originality.
But liberal and enlightened as was the general course of Walpole, he
still made blunders, and showed occasional illiberality. He caused a
fine of one hundred thousand pounds to be inflicted on the Catholics,
on the plea that they were a disaffected body. He persecuted Bishop
Atterbury, and permitted Bolingbroke, with his restless spirit of
intrigue, to return to his country, and to be reinstated in his
property and titles. He flattered the Duchess of Kendall, the mistress
of the king, and stooped to all the arts of corruption and bribery.
There never was a period of greater political corruption than during
the administration of this minister. Sycophancy, meanness, and
hypocrisy were resorted to by the statesmen of the age, who generally
sought their own interests rather than the welfare of the nation.
There were, however, exceptions. Townsend, the great rival and
coadjutor of Walpole, retired from office with an unsullied fame for
integrity and disinterestedness; and Walpole, while he bribed others,
did not enrich himself.
King George I. died on the 11th of June, 1727, suddenly, by apoplexy,
and was succeeded by his son George II., a man who resembled his
father in disposition and character, and was superior to him in
knowledge of the English constitution, though both were inclined to
steer the British bark by the Hanoverian rudder. Like his father, he
was reserved, phlegmatic, cautious, sincere, fond of business,
economical, and attached to Whig principles. He was fortunate in his
wife, Queen Caroline, one of the most excellent women of the age,
learned, religious, charitable, and sensible; the patroness of divines
and scholars; fond of discussion on metaphysical subjects, and a
correspondent of the distinguished Leibnitz.
The new king disliked Walpole, but could not do without him, and
therefore continued him in office. Indeed, the king had the sense to
perceive that England was to be governed only by the man in whom the
nation had confidence.
[Sidenote: East India Company.]
In 1730, Walpole rechartered the East India Company, the most gigantic
monopoly in the history of nations. As early as 1599, an association
had been formed in England for trade to the East Indies. This
association was made in consequence of the Dutch and Portuguese
settlements and enterprises, which aroused the commercial jealousy of
England. The capital was sixty-eight thousand pounds. In 1600, Queen
Elizabeth gave the company a royal charter. By this charter, the
company obtained the right of purchasing land, without limit, in
India, and the monopoly of the trade for fifteen years. But the
company contended with many obstacles. The first voyage was made by
four ships and one pinnace, having on board twenty-eight thousand
pounds in bullion, and seven thousand pounds in merchandise, such as
tin, cutlery, and glass.
During the civil wars, the company's affairs were embarrassed, owing
to the unsettled state of England. On the accession of Charles II.,
the company obtained a new charter, which not only confirmed the old
privileges, but gave it the power of making peace and war with the
native princes of India. The capital stock was increased to one
million five hundred thousand pounds.
Much opposition was made by Bolingbroke and the Tories to the
recharter of this institution; but the ministry carried their point,
and a new charter was granted on the condition of the company paying
to government two hundred thousand pounds, and reducing the interest
of the government debts one per cent. per annum. By this time, the
company, although it had not greatly enlarged its jurisdiction in
India, had accumulated great wealth. Its powers and possessions will
be more fully treated when the victories of Clive shall be presented.
About this time, the Duke of Newcastle came into the cabinet whose
future administration will form the subject of a separate chapter.
[Sidenote: Resignation of Townsend.]
In 1730 also occurred the disagreement between Walpole and Lord
Townsend, which ended in the resignation of the latter, a man whose
impetuous and frank temper ill fitted him to work with so cautious and
non-committal a statesman as his powerful rival. He passed the evening
of his days in rural pursuits and agricultural experiments, keeping
open house, devoting himself to his family and friends, never
hankering after the power he had lost, never even revisiting London,
and finding his richest solace in literature and simple agricultural
pleasures--the pattern of a lofty and cultivated nobleman.
The resignation of Townsend enabled Walpole to take more part in
foreign negotiations; and he exerted his talents, like Fleury in
France, to preserve the peace of Europe. The peace policy of Walpole
entitles him to the gratitude of his country. More than any other man
of his age, he apprehended the true glory and interests of nations.
Had Walpole paid as much attention to the intellectual improvement of
his countrymen, as he did to the refinements of material life and to
physical progress, he would have merited still higher praises. But he
despised learning, and neglected literary men. And they turned against
him and his administration, and, by their sarcasm and invective, did
much to undermine his power. Pope, Swift, and Gay might have lent him
powerful aid by their satirical pen; but he passed them by with
contemptuous indifference, and they gave to Bolingbroke what they
withheld from Walpole.
Next to the pacific policy of the minister, the most noticeable
peculiarity of his administration was his zeal to improve the
finances. He opposed speculations, and sought a permanent revenue from
fixed principles. He regarded the national debt as a great burden, and
strove to abolish it; and, when that was found to be impracticable,
sought to prevent its further accumulation. He was not, indeed, always
true to his policy; but he pursued it on the whole, consistently. He
favored the agricultural interests, and was inclined to raise the
necessary revenue by a tax on articles used, rather than by direct
taxation on property or income, or articles imported. Hence he is the
father of the excise scheme--a scheme still adopted in England, but
which would be intolerable in this country. In this scheme, his grand
object was to ease the landed proprietor, and to prevent smuggling, by
making smuggling no object. But the opposition to the Excise Bill was
so great that Sir Robert abandoned it; and this relinquishment of his
favorite scheme is one of the most striking peculiarities of his
administration. He never pushed matters to extremity. He ever yielded
to popular clamor. He perceived that an armed force would be necessary
in order to collect the excise, and preferred to yield his cherished
measures to run the danger of incurring greater evils than financial
embarrassments. His spirit of conciliation, often exercised in the
plenitude of power, prolonged his reign. This policy was the result of
immense experience and practical knowledge of human nature, of which
he was a great master.
[Sidenote: Unpopularity of Walpole.]
But Sir Robert was not allowed to pursue to the end his pacific, any
more than his financial policy. The clamors of interested merchants,
the violence of party spirit, and the dreams of heroic grandeur on the
part of politicians, overcame the repugnance of the minister, and
plunged England in a disastrous Spanish war; and a war soon succeeded
by that of the Austrian Succession, in which Maria Theresa was the
injured, and Frederic the Great the offending party. But this war,
which was carried on chiefly during the subsequent administration,
will be hereafter alluded to.
Although Walpole was opposed by some of the ablest men in England--by
Pulteney, Sir William Windham, and the Lords Chesterfield, Carteret,
and Bolingbroke, his power was almost absolute from 1730 to 1740. His
most powerful assistance was derived from Mr. Yorke, afterwards the
Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, one of the greatest lawyers that England
has produced.
[Sidenote: Decline of his Power.]
In 1740, his power began to decline, and rapidly waned. He lost a
powerful friend and protector by the death of Queen Caroline, whose
intercessions with the king were ever listened to with respectful
consideration. But he had almost insurmountable obstacles to contend
with--the distrust of the king, the bitter hatred of the Prince of
Wales, the violent opposition of the leading statesmen in parliament,
and universal envy. Moreover, he had grown careless and secure. He
fancied that no one could rule England but himself. But hatred,
opposition, envy, and unsuccessful military operations, forced him
from his place. No shipwrecked pilot ever clung to the rudder of a
sinking ship with more desperate tenacity than did this once powerful
minister to the helm of state. And he did not relinquish it until he
was driven from it by the desertion of all his friends, and the
general clamor of the people. The king, however, appreciated the value
of his services, and created him Earl of Orford, a dignity which had
been offered him before, but which, with self-controlling policy, he
had unhesitatingly declined. Like Sir Robert Peel in later times, he
did not wish to be buried in the House of Lords.
His retirement (1742) amid the beeches and oaks of his country seat
was irksome and insipid. He had no taste for history, or science, or
elegant literature, or quiet pleasures. His tumultuous public life had
engendered other tastes. "I wish," said he to a friend, "I took as
much delight in reading as you do. It would alleviate my tedious
hours." But the fallen minister, though uneasy and restless, was not
bitter or severe. He retained his good humor to the last, and to the
last discharged all the rites of an elegant hospitality. Said his
enemy, Pope,--
"Seen him I have, but in his happier hour
Of social pleasure--ill exchanged for power;
Seen him, uncumbered by the venal tribe,
Smile without art, and win without a bribe."
He had the habit of "laughing the heart's laugh," which it is only in
the power of noble natures to exercise. His manners were winning, his
conversation frank, and his ordinary intercourse divested of vanity
and pomp. He had many warm personal friends, and did not enrich
himself, as Marlborough did, while he enriched those who served him.
He kept a public table at Houghton, to which all gentlemen in the
country had free access. He was fond of hunting and country sports,
and had more taste for pictures than for books. He was not what would
be called a man of genius or erudition, but had a sound judgment,
great sagacity, wonderful self-command, and undoubted patriotism. As a
wise and successful ruler, he will long be held in respect, though he
will never secure veneration.
It was during the latter years of the administration of Walpole that
England was electrified by the preaching of Whitefield and Wesley, and
the sect of the Methodists arose, which has exercised a powerful
influence on the morals, religion, and social life of England.
[Sidenote: John Wesley.]
John Wesley, who may rank with Augustine, Pelagius, Calvin, Arminius,
or Jansen, as the founder of a sect, was demanded by the age in which
he lived. Never, since the Reformation, was the state of religion so
cold in England. The Established Church had triumphed over all her
enemies. Puritanism had ceased to become offensive, and had even
become respectable. The age of fox-hunting parsons had commenced, and
the clergy were the dependants of great families, easy in their
manners, and fond of the pleasures of the table. They were not
expected to be very great scholars, or very grave companions. If they
read the service with propriety, did not scandalize their cause by
gross indulgences, and did not meddle with the two exciting subjects
of all ages,--politics and religion,--they were sure of peace and
plenty. But their churches were comparatively deserted, and infidel
opinions had been long undermining respect for the institutions and
ministers of religion. Swearing and drunkenness were fashionable vices
among the higher classes, while low pleasures and lamentable ignorance
characterized the people. The dissenting sects were more religious,
but were formal and cold. Their ministers preached, too often, a mere
technical divinity, or a lax system of ethics. The Independents were
inclined to a frigid Arminianism, and the Presbyterians were passing
through the change from ultra Calvinism to Arianism and Socinianism.
The reformation was not destined to come from Dissenters, but from the
bosom of the Established Church, a reformation which bore the same
relation to Protestantism as that effected by St. Francis bore to
Roman Catholicism in the thirteenth century; a reformation among the
poorer classes, who did not wish to be separated from the Church
Establishment.
[Sidenote: Early Life of Wesley.]
John Wesley belonged to a good family, his father being a respectable
clergyman in a market town. He was born in 1703, was educated at
Oxford, and for the church. At the age of twenty, he received orders
from the Bishop of Oxford, and was, shortly after, chosen fellow of
Lincoln College, and then Greek lecturer.
While at Oxford, he and his brother Charles, who was also a fellow and
a fine scholar, excited the ridicule of the University for the
strictness of their lives, and their methodical way of living, which
caused their companions to give them the name of _Methodists_. Two
other young men joined them--James Hervey, author of the Meditations,
and George Whitefield. The fraternity at length numbered fifteen young
men, the members of which met frequently for religious purposes,
visited prisons and the sick, fasted zealously on Wednesdays and
Fridays, and bound themselves by rules, which, in many respects,
resembled those which Ignatius Loyola imposed on his followers. The
Imitation of Christ, by A Kempis, and Taylor's Holy Living, were their
grand text-books, both of which were studied for their devotional
spirit. But the Holy Living was the favorite book of Wesley, who did
not fully approve of the rigid asceticism of the venerable mystic of
the Middle Ages. The writings of William Law, also, had great
influence on the mind of Wesley; but his religious views were not
matured until after his return from Georgia, where he had labored as a
missionary, under the auspices of Oglethorpe. The Moravians, whom he
met with both in America and Germany, completed the work which Taylor
had begun; and from their beautiful establishments he also learned
many principles of that wonderful system of government which he so
successfully introduced among his followers.
Wesley continued his labors with earnestness; but these were also
attended with some extravagances, which Dr. Potter, the worthy Bishop
of London, and other Churchmen, could not understand. And though he
preached with great popular acceptance, and gained wonderful eclat,
though he was much noticed in society and even dined with the king at
Hampton Court, and with the Prince of Wales at St. James's, still the
churches were gradually shut against him. When Whitefield returned
from Georgia, having succeeded Wesley as a missionary in that colony,
and finding so much opposition from the dignitaries of the Church,
although neither he nor Wesley had seceded from the Church; and, above
all, excited by the popular favor he received,--for the churches would
not hold half who flocked to hear him preach,--he resolved to address
the people in the open air. The excitement he produced was
unparalleled. Near Bristol, he sometimes assembled as many as twenty
thousand. But they were chiefly the colliers, drawn forth from their
subterranean working places. But his eloquence had equal fascination
for the people of London and the vicinity. In Moorfields, on
Kennington Common, and on Blackheath, he sometimes drew a crowd of
forty thousand people, all of whom could hear his voice. He could draw
tears from Hume, and money from Dr. Franklin. He could convulse a
congregation with terror, and then inspire them with the brightest
hopes. He was a greater artist than Bossuet or Bourdaloue. He never
lost his self-possession, or hesitated for appropriate language. But
his great power was in his thorough earnestness, and almost inspired
enthusiasm. No one doubted his sincerity, and all were impressed with
the spirituality and reality of the great truths which he presented.
And wonderful results followed from his preaching, and from that of
his brethren. A great religious revival spread over England,
especially among the middle and lower classes, the effects of which
last to this day.
[Sidenote: Whitefield.]
Whitefield was not so learned, or intellectual as Wesley. He was not
so great a genius. But he had more eloquence, and more warmth of
disposition. Wesley was a system maker, a metaphysician, a logician.
He was also profoundly versed in the knowledge of human nature, and
curiously adapted his system to the wants and circumstances of that
class of people over whom he had the greatest power. Both Wesley and
Whitefield were demanded by their times, and only such men as they
were could have succeeded. They were reproached for their
extravagances, and for a zeal which was confounded with fanaticism;
but, had they been more proper, more prudent, more yielding to the
prejudices of the great, they would not have effected so much good for
their country. So with Luther. Had he possessed a severer taste, had
he been more of a gentleman, or more of a philosopher, or even more
humble, he would not so signally have succeeded. Germany, and the
circumstances of the age, required a rough, practical, bold, impetuous
reformer to lead a movement against dignitaries and venerable
corruptions. England, in the eighteenth century, needed a man to
arouse the common people to a sense of their spiritual condition; a
man who would not be trammelled by his church; who would not be
governed by the principles of expediency; who would trust in God, and
labor under peculiar discouragement and self-denial.
[Sidenote: Institution of Wesley.]
Wesley was like Luther in another respect. He quarrelled with those
who would not conform to all his views, whether they had been friends
or foes. He had been attracted by the Moravians. Their simplicity,
fervor, and sedateness had won his regard. But when the Moravians
maintained that there was delusion in those ravings which Wesley
considered as the work of grace, when they asserted that sin would
remain with even regenerated man until death, and that it was in vain
to expect the purification of the soul by works of self-denial, Wesley
opposed them, and slandered them. He also entered the lists against
his friend and fellow-laborer, Whitefield. The latter did not agree
with him respecting perfection, nor election, nor predestination; and,
when this disagreement had become fixed, an alienation took place,
succeeded by actual bitterness and hostility. Wesley, however, in his
latter days, manifested greater charity and liberality, and was a
model of patience and gentleness. He became finally reconciled to
Whitefield, and the union continued until the death of the latter, at
Newburyport, in 1770.
The greatness of Wesley consisted in devising that wonderful church
polity which still governs the powerful and numerous sect which he
founded. It is from the system of the Methodists, rather than from
their theological opinions, that their society spread so rapidly over
Great Britain and America, and which numbered at his death,
seventy-one thousand persons in England, and forty-eight thousand in
this country.
And yet his institution was not wholly a matter of calculation, but
was gradually developed as circumstances arose. When contributions
were made towards building a meeting-house in Bristol, it was observed
that most of the brethren were poor, and could afford but little. Then
said one of the number, "Put eleven of the poorest with me, and if
they give any thing, it is well. I will call on each of them weekly,
and if they give nothing, I will give for them as well as for myself."
This suggested the idea of a system of supervision. In the course of
the weekly calls, the persons who had undertaken for a class
discovered some irregularities among those for whose contributions
they were responsible, and reported them to Wesley. He saw, at once,
the advantage to be derived from such an arrangement. It was what he
had long desired. He called together the leaders, and desired that
each should make a particular inquiry into the behavior of all under
their respective supervision. They did so. The custom was embraced by
the whole body, and became fundamental. But it was soon found to be
inconvenient to visit each person separately in his own house weekly,
and then it was determined that all the members of the class should
assemble together weekly, when quarrels could be made up, and where
they might be mutually profited by each other's prayers and
exhortations. Thus the system of classes and class-leaders arose,
which bears the same relation to the society at large that town
meetings do to the state or general government in the American
democracy--which, as it is known, constitute the genius of our
political institutions.
[Sidenote: Itinerancy.]
Itinerancy also forms another great feature of Methodism; and this
resulted from accident. But it is the prerogative and peculiarity of
genius to take advantage of accidents and circumstances. It cannot
create them. Wesley had no church; but, being an ordained clergyman of
the Establishment, and a fellow of a college beside, he had the right
to preach in any pulpit, and in any diocese. But the pulpits were
closed against him, in consequence of his peculiarities; so he
preached wherever he could collect a congregation. Itinerancy and
popularity gave him notoriety, and flattered ambition, of which he was
not wholly divested. He and his brethren wandered into every section
of England, from the Northumbrian moorlands to the innermost depths of
the Cornish mines, in the most tumultuous cities and in the most
unfrequented hamlets.
[Sidenote: Great Influence and Power of Wesley.]
As he was the father of the sect, all appointments were made by him,
and, as he deserved respect and influence, the same became unbounded.
When power was vested to an unlimited extent in his hands, and when
the society had become numerous and scattered over a great extent of
territory, he divided England into circuits, and each circuit had a
certain number of ministers appointed to it. But he held out no
worldly rewards as lures. The conditions which he imposed were hard.
The clergy were to labor with patience and assiduity on a mean
pittance, with no hope of wealth or ease. Rewards were to be given
them by no earthly judge. The only recompense for toil and hunger was
that of the original apostles--the approval of their consciences and
the favor of Heaven.
To prevent the overbearing intolerance and despotism of the people,
the chapels were not owned by the congregation nor even vested in
trustees, but placed at the absolute disposal of Mr. Wesley and the
conference.
If the rule of Wesley was not in accordance with democratic
principles, still its perpetuation in the most zealous of democratic
communities, and its escape, thus far, from the ordinary fate of all
human institutions,--that of corruption and decay,--shows its
remarkable wisdom, and also the great virtue of those who have
administered the affairs of the society. It effected, especially in
England,--what the Established Church and the various form of
Dissenters could not do,--the religious renovation of the lower
classes; it met their wants; it stimulated their enthusiasm. And while
Methodism promoted union and piety among the people, especially those
who were ignorant and poor, it did not undermine their loyalty or
attachment to the political institutions of the country. Other
Dissenters were often hostile to the government, and have been
impatient under the evils which have afflicted England; but the
Methodists, taught subordination to superiors and rulers, and have
ever been patient, peaceful, and quiet.
* * * * *
REFERENCES.--Lord Mahon's History should be particularly
read; also Coxe's Memoirs of Walpole. Consult Smollett's and
Tindall's History of England, and Belsham's History of
George II. Smyth's Lectures are very valuable on this period
of English history. See, also, Bolingbroke's State of
Parties; Burke's Appeal from the Old to the New Whigs; Lord
Chesterfield's Characters; and Cobbett's Parliamentary
Debates. Reminiscences by Horace Walpole. For additional
information respecting the South Sea scheme, see Anderson's
and Macpherson's Histories of Commerce, and Smyth's
Lectures. The lives of the Pretenders have been well written
by Ray and Jesse. Tytler's History of Scotland should be
consulted; and Waverley may be read with profit. The rise of
the Methodists, the great event of the reign of George I.,
has been generally neglected. Lord Mahon has, however,
written a valuable chapter. See also Wesley's Letters and
Diary, and Lives, by Southey and Moore.