military preparations. Twelve ships of war and eight thousand six
hundred men were speedily assembled there, and an instant alarm was
excited throughout Europe as to the destination of this not very
formidable force. The Emperor, whose treacherous conduct justly
rendered him suspicious, imagined the blow destined for his Italian
territories; the English anticipated a fresh movement in favour of
the Pretender; but Alberoni, an astute Italian, who was on the point
of receiving the cardinal's hat from the Pope led Charles (VI.) to
believe that the armament was directed against the Infidels in the
Levant. The Pope, therefore, hastened the favour of the Roman purple,
and then Alberoni no longer concealed the real destination of his
troops. The Marquis de Lede was ordered to set out with the squadron
for the Italian shores; but when Naples was trembling in apprehension
of a visit, the fleet drew up, on the 20th of August, in the bay of
Cagliari, the capital of the island of Sardinia. That a force which
might have taken Naples should content itself with an attack on the
barren, rocky, and swampy Sardinia, surprised many; but Alberoni knew
very well that, though he could take, he had not yet an army sufficient
to hold Naples, and he was satisfied to strike a blow which should
alarm Europe, whilst it gratified the impatience of the Spanish monarch
for revenge. There was, moreover, an ulterior object. It had lately
been proposed by England and Holland to the Emperor, in order to induce
him to come into the Triple Alliance and convert it into a quadruple
one, to obtain an exchange of this island for Sicily with the Duke of
Savoy. It was, therefore, an object to prevent this arrangement by
first seizing Sardinia. The Spanish general summoned the governor of
Cagliari to surrender; but he stood out, and the Spaniards had to wait
for the complete arrival of their ships before they could land and
invest the place. The governor was ere long compelled to capitulate;
but the Aragonese and the Catalans, who had followed the Austrians
from the embittered contest in their own country, defended the island
with furious tenacity, and it was not till November, and after
severe losses through fighting and malaria, that the Spaniards made
themselves masters of the island. The Powers of the Triple Alliance
then intervened with the proposal that Austria should renounce all
claim on the Spanish monarchy, and Spain all claim on Italy. Enraged at
this proposal, Alberoni embarked on extensive military preparations,
and put in practice the most extensive diplomatic schemes to paralyse
his enemies abroad. He won the goodwill of Victor Amadeus by holding
out the promise of the Milanese in exchange for Sicily; he encouraged
the Turks to continue the war against the Emperor, and entered into
negotiations with Ragotsky to renew the insurrection in Hungary; he
adopted the views of Gortz for uniting the Czar and Charles of Sweden
in peace, so that he might be able to turn their united power against
the Emperor, and still more against the Electorate of Hanover, thus
diverting the attention and the energies of George of England. Still
further to occupy England, which he dreaded more than all the rest, he
opened a direct correspondence with the Pretender, who was now driven
across the Alps by the Triple Alliance, and promised him aid in a new
expedition against Britain under the direction of the Duke of Ormonde,
or of James himself. In France the same skilful pressure was directed
against all the tender places of the body politic. He endeavoured to
rouse anew the insurrection of the Cevennes and the discontents of
Brittany. The Jesuits, the Protestants, the Duke and Duchess of Maine,
were all called into action, and the demands for the assembling of the
States-General, for the instant reformation of abuses, for reduction of
the national debts, and for other reforms, were the cries by which the
Government was attempted to be embarrassed.
These preparations on the part of Spain were in one particular
favourable to the King of England--they rendered the Emperor much
more conceding. The English envoy at that Court--rather singularly a
Swiss of the canton of Bern--the General de St. Saphorin, had found
Stahremberg, the Emperor's Minister, very high, and disinclined to
listen to the proposals of the King of England regarding Bremen and
Verden; but the news of the Spanish armament, and still more of its
having sailed from Cadiz to Barcelona, produced a wonderful change.
The Imperial Court not only consented to the demands of England, but
accepted its mediation with the Turks, by which a considerable force
was liberated for the service in Italy. The Emperor acceded to the
alliance proposed between England, France, and Germany in order to
drive Spain to terms, and which afterwards, when joined by the Dutch,
was called the Quadruple Alliance. In France, however, all obstacles to
this Treaty were not yet overcome. There was a strong party, headed by
the Marshal d'Huxelles, chief of the Council for Foreign Affairs, which
strongly opposed this plan of coercing the grandson of Louis XIV. To
overcome these obstacles Stanhope went over to Paris, and had several
conferences with King Philip; and, supported by Lord Stair and Nancré,
all difficulties were removed, and the Alliance was signed in the
succeeding August.
By this treaty Parma and Tuscany were ceded in reversion to the
infant Don Carlos; Sicily was to be made over to the Emperor, and, in
exchange for it, Sardinia was to be given to Victor Amadeus of Savoy.
As Sardinia was an island of so much less extent and value than Sicily,
the succession to the Crown of Spain was guaranteed to the House of
Savoy should Philip of Spain leave no issue. Three months were allowed
for the King of Spain and the Duke of Savoy to come in, and after that,
in case of their non-compliance, force was to be used to effect it.
It was to avert such a result that Stanhope (now Secretary for the
Southern Department, which included Foreign Affairs) made a journey to
Spain, where he failed to make the slightest impression on Alberoni.
Before setting out, however, Admiral Byng had been despatched to the
Mediterranean with twenty-one ships of the line, and peremptory orders
to attack the Spanish fleet whenever he should find it engaged in any
hostile attempt against Sicily, Naples, or any other of the Emperor's
possessions in the Mediterranean.
Byng went in pursuit of the Spanish fleet, which was assisting in the
conquest of Sicily, and came in sight of twenty-seven sail of the
line, with fire-ships, ketches, bombs, and seven galleys, drawn up in
line of battle between him and Cape Passaro. So soon as they were clear
of the straits, a council was held to determine whether they should
fight or retreat. They came to no resolution, but continued to linger
about in indecision till Byng was down upon them. Whereupon he utterly
destroyed them (August 11, 1718).
Alberoni, though defeated at sea, was more successful in Sicily, and he
continued his cabals against England in nearly every Court of Europe
with only the more assiduity. He was zealously at work in France,
England itself, Holland, Piedmont, and Sweden. By his ambassador at the
Hague he endeavoured to keep the Dutch out of the Quadruple Alliance
by exciting their commercial jealousy; but he was ably opposed by our
minister there, the Earl of Cadogan. In Piedmont he endeavoured to
deter Victor Amadeus from entering into this alliance by assuring him
that he was only endeavouring to secure Sicily to keep it out of the
hands of the Austrians, and reserve it for him; while, on the other
hand, he threatened him with thirty thousand bayonets if he dared to
accede to the Quadruple Treaty. The Allies, however, threatened still
greater dangers, and the Duke at last consented to accept Sardinia in
lieu of Sicily, and that island remains attached to the kingdom of
Italy to the present time.
[Illustration: SEA FIGHT OFF CAPE PASSARO. (_See p._ 41.)]
Foiled in these quarters, Alberoni appeared more successful in the
North. A negotiation had been opened between the two potentates, so
long at bitter variance, the Czar and Charles XII. of Sweden. They were
induced to meet in the island of Åland, and to agree that the Czar
should retain Livonia, and other Swedish territories south of Finland
which he had torn from Sweden, but, in compensation, Charles was to
be allowed to reconquer Bremen and Verden from George of Hanover and
England, and Norway from Denmark; and the two monarchs were to unite
their arms for the restoration of Stanislaus to the throne of Poland,
and of the Pretender to that of Great Britain. The success of these
arrangements appeared to Alberoni so certain that he boasted that the
Northern tempest would burst ere long over England with annihilating
fury; but even here he was doomed to disappointment. Charles XII.
delighted in nothing so much as in wild and romantic enterprise. Such
was that of the conquest of Norway; and he was led by his imagination
to commence it without delay. With his characteristic madness, he
divided his army into two parts, with one of which he took the way by
the coast of Norway, and the other he sent over the mountains at the
very beginning of winter. There that division perished in the snow amid
the most incredible horrors; and he himself, whilst carrying on the
siege of Frederickshall, was killed on the 11th of December, as appears
probable, by the treacherous shot of a French engineer in his service.
Almost simultaneously the Duke of Maine's conspiracy against the French
Government was detected, and he and his wife, together with the Spanish
Ambassador, were apprehended. There was nothing for it on the part of
the Regent but to proclaim war against Spain--a measure which England
had long been urging on him. The English declaration appeared on the
28th of December, 1718, and the French on the 9th of January, 1719.
In the session of 1719 Stanhope and his colleagues tried to undo the
arbitrary measures of 1711 and 1714--the Occasional Conformity Bill
and the Schism Bill. Stanhope would have made a strenuous effort to
abolish not only these laws, but the Test Act itself; but Sunderland,
though equally liberal, was more prudent, and showed that, to attempt
too much was to ruin all; and when they came to introduce their greatly
modified measure--that of annulling only some of the less prominent
clauses of the Test Act under the name of a Bill for strengthening the
Protestant interest--they found so much opposition that Sunderland's
discernment was fully justified. Not only the two archbishops and some
of the bishops opposed the measure, but the great Whigs, the Duke
of Devonshire and Earl Cowper. Cowper, though he expressed himself
willing to abolish the Schism Bill, stood stoutly for the Test and
Corporation Acts as the very bulwarks of our constitution in Church
and State; whilst the Earl of Islay declared even this moderate
measure a violation of the union with Scotland. On the other hand,
the Bishops Hoadley, Willis, Gibson, and Kennett supported the Bill,
which, however, was not carried without considerable mutilation; and
had Stanhope introduced such a measure as he proposed, including even
considerable relief to Catholics, the whole would have been lost.
Parliament was prorogued on the 18th of April, and the king soon after
set out for his German dominions, taking Stanhope along with him,
and his mistress, the Duchess of Kendal. In appointing the Regency
to administer affairs in the king's absence, the Prince of Wales was
entirely passed over, to his great indignation; nor were he and the
Princess allowed to hold levees, that duty being assigned to the young
princesses, to the great scandal of the public, and further exposure
of the discord raging in the Royal family. Even during the session
the ministers had brought in a Bill to "settle and limit the Peerage
in such a manner that the number of English peers should not be
enlarged beyond six of the present number (178), which, upon failure
of male issue, might be supplied by new creations; that, instead of
the sixteen elective peers of Scotland, twenty-five should be made
hereditary on the part of that kingdom; and that this number, upon
failure of heirs male, should be supplied from the other members of the
Scottish Peerage." Both the king and ministers flattered themselves
that they should carry this Bill, and thus fetter the Prince of
Wales when he came to the throne. The king was desirous to do this
out of sheer jealousy and hatred of his own son, and the ministers,
Sunderland in particular, out of dread of his vengeance in that case;
for, if he created a dozen peers at a time, as Anne had done, he
could easily swamp the Whigs and put the present ministers in peril
of impeachment. But though the Whigs had been clamorous against the
act of Anne, some of them now, Cowper and Townshend at their head, as
vehemently denounced this measure as a gross infringement of the royal
prerogative. The debate became very bitter, and many friendships were
broken up by it, amongst others that of Addison and Steele, who took
different sides; but the Bill was finally dropped, through the vigorous
opposition offered to it by Walpole.
Scarcely had Parliament ceased to sit, and the king was gone to spend
the summer months in Germany, when the vigilance of the Ministry was
demanded to ward off a fresh invasion. Alberoni, defeated in his
schemes on France, and his hopes of the invasion of England by Charles
XII. crushed by that monarch's death, determined now to make a grand
effort to support the Pretender himself. For this purpose, he invited
him to Spain, and at the same time began the equipment of a formidable
fleet to carry over a Spanish force, under the command of the Duke
of Ormonde, to the shores of Britain. The Pretender was not intended
to accompany the expedition, but to be in readiness to follow on the
first news of its successful landing. But it was no more destined to
reach these shores than the Grand Armada. It has always been the fate
of invading squadrons to encounter providential tempests in coming
hitherward, and the usual hurricane was ready to burst. Scarcely,
indeed, had the fleet lost sight of Cape Finisterre before the storm
swooped down upon it. For twelve days the terrible Bay of Biscay was
swept by a frightful wind, which drove the vessels in all directions,
and rendered it impossible to manage them. Fortunate would it have
been if every vessel had failed to reach the shores at which they
aimed; but two vessels, on board of which were the Earls Marshal and
Seaforth, and the Marquis of Tullibardine, accompanied by about three
hundred Spanish soldiers, reached Scotland, and landed, on the 16th of
April, at Kintail, in Ross-shire. In the hope that Ormonde would still
reach England, this small force lay quiet for some time, and so little
did they excite notice, that the Government imagined that they had
re-embarked. Their presence there, however, had the mischievous effect
of exciting some few of the Highlanders to join them. They seized Donan
Castle, and thus attracted the attention of the English. Some vessels
of war arrived upon the coast. The castle was speedily retaken, and
Lord Carpenter, the commander of the forces in Scotland, sent some
troops from Inverness against them. General Wightman, the officer
thus despatched, was attended by about a thousand men, and found the
enemy, now swollen to about two thousand, strongly posted at Glenshiel.
He immediately attacked them, and the miscellaneous force speedily
dispersed. The Highlanders, who knew the country, rapidly disappeared
amongst the hills, and the Spaniards had no other resource than to lay
down their arms.
Alberoni now found himself in turn attacked by France. Whilst busying
himself to repair a few of the shattered ships which had escaped from
the tempest, in order to harass the coast of Brittany in conjunction
with the malcontents there, he beheld an army of thirty thousand French
menacing the Pyrenean frontier. War having begun, the Spaniards were
utterly defeated by the French in Spain and by the Austrians in Sicily,
thanks to the zealous co-operation of the British fleet under Admiral
Byng. At length Philip was compelled to dismiss Alberoni.
The King of Spain hoped, by the dismissal of Alberoni, to obtain more
advantageous terms of peace from France and England; but they still
stood firmly to the conditions of the Quadruple Alliance. On the 19th
of January, 1720, the plenipotentiaries of England, France, and Holland
signed an engagement at Paris not to admit of any conditions of peace
from Spain contrary to those of the alliance. Stanhope despatched his
secretary, Schaub, to Madrid, to endeavour to bring over the queen to
this agreement, and Dubois sent instructions to the Marquis Scotti,
Father d'Aubenton, and others in the French interest to press the same
point. She stood out firmly for some time, but eventually gave way,
and the mind of the king was soon influenced by her. Some difficulties
which could not be overcome were referred to a congress to be held
at Cambray. On the 26th of January Philip announced his accession
to the Quadruple Alliance, declaring that he gave up his rights and
possessions to secure the peace of Europe. He renewed his renunciation
of the French Crown, and promised to evacuate Sicily and Sardinia
within six months, which he faithfully performed.
By the firmness of the Allies a peace which continued twelve years was
given to Europe, and the storm which Alberoni had so fondly expected
out of the North was as completely dissipated. The new Queen of Sweden
had consented to yield absolutely to George I., as King of Hanover,
the disputed possession of Bremen and Verden. Poland was induced to
acknowledge Augustus of Saxony as king, and Prussia to be satisfied
with the acquisition of Stettin and some other Swedish territory.
But the Czar and the King of Denmark, seeing Sweden deprived of its
military monarch, and exhausted by his wild campaigns, contemplated the
actual dismemberment of Sweden. The Queen of Sweden threw herself for
protection on the good offices of the King of England, and both England
and France agreed to compel the Czar and the King of Denmark to desist
from their attacks on Sweden if they would not listen to friendly
mediation. Lord Carteret, a promising young statesman, was sent as
ambassador to Stockholm, and Sir John Norris, with eleven sail of the
line, was ordered to the Baltic. Russia and Denmark, however, continued
to disregard the pacific overtures of England, trusting to there being
no war with that Power. They ravaged the whole coast of Sweden, burning
above a thousand villages, and the town of Nyköping, the third place in
the kingdom. Seeing this, Lord Stanhope, who was still at Hanover with
the king, sent orders to Admiral Norris to pay no regard to the fact of
there being no declaration of war, but to treat the Russian and Danish
fleet as Byng had treated the Spanish one. Norris accordingly joined
his squadron to the Swedish fleet at Carlscrona, and went in pursuit
of the fleet of the Czar. Peter, seeing that the English were now in
earnest, recalled his fleet with precipitation, and thereby, no doubt,
saved it from complete destruction; but he still continued to refuse to
make peace, and determined on the first opportunity to have a further
slice of Swedish territory. Denmark, which was extremely poor, agreed
to accept a sum of money in lieu of Marstrand, which it had seized; and
thus all Europe, except the Czar, was brought to a condition of peace.
George had arrived in England from his German States on the 11th of
November of the preceding year, 1719, and opened Parliament on the
23rd. In his speech he laid stress on the success of his Government
in promoting the evacuation of Sicily and Sardinia by Spain, in
protecting Sweden, and laying the foundation of a union amongst the
great Protestant Powers of Europe. He then recurred to the subject
of the Bill for limiting the peerage, which had been rejected in the
previous Session. George was animated by the vehement desire to curtail
the prerogative of his son, and said that the Bill was necessary to
secure that part of the Constitution which was most liable to abuse.
Lord Cowper declared, on the other hand, that besides the reasons which
had induced him to oppose the measure before, another was now added
in the earnestness with which it was recommended. But Cowper was not
supported with any zeal by the rest of the House, and the Bill passed
on the 30th of November, and was sent down to the House of Commons
on the 1st of December. There it was destined to meet with a very
different reception. During the recess Walpole had endeavoured to rouse
a resistance to it in both Houses. He had convened a meeting of the
Opposition Whigs at Devonshire House, and called upon them to oppose
the measure; but he found that some of the Whig peers were favourable
to it, from the perception that it would increase the importance of
their order; others declared that it would be inconsistent in them to
oppose a principle which they had so strenuously maintained against a
Tory Ministry--that of discountenancing the sudden creation of peers
for party purposes; and others, though hostile to the Bill, declared
that they should only expose themselves to defeat by resisting it. But
Walpole persisted in his opposition, and declared that, if his party
deserted him, he would contend against the Bill single-handed. He
asserted that it would meet with strong resistance from the country
gentlemen who hoped some time or other to reach the peerage--a hope
which the Bill, if carried, would extinguish for ever.
By these endeavours Walpole managed to array a considerable body of the
Commons against it. It was introduced on the 8th of December, and Sir
John Pakington, Sir Richard Steele, Smith, Methuen, and others joined
him in attacking it. Steele made a very powerful speech against it, but
the grand assault was that of Walpole. He put out all his strength,
and delivered a harangue such as he had never achieved till that day.
He did not spare the motives of the king, though handling them with
much tact, and was unsparingly severe on the Scottish clauses, and
on the notorious subserviency of the Scottish representative peers.
He declared that the sixteen elective Scottish peers were already a
dead weight on the country; and he asked what they would be when made
twenty-five, and hereditary? He declared that such a Bill would make
the lords masters of the king, and shut up the door of honour to the
rest of the nation. Amongst the Romans, he said, the way to the Temple
of Fame was through the Temple of Virtue; but if this Bill passed, such
would never be the case in this country. There would be no arriving at
honours but through the winding-sheet of an old, decrepit lord, or the
tomb of an extinct noble family. Craggs, Lechmere, Aislabie, Hampton,
and other Ministerial Whigs supported the Bill; but, in the words of
Speaker Onslow, the declamation of Walpole had borne down everything
before it, and the measure was defeated by a majority of two hundred
and sixty-nine to one hundred and seventy-seven.
In our time this defeat would, as a matter of course, have turned out
the Ministry, but in that day it had no such effect. They continued to
hold office, and to command undiminished majorities on other questions.
Still more singular was its effect, for it induced them to offer
office to their triumphant opponent Walpole, who not only accepted
a subordinate post amongst them--the Paymaster of the Forces--but
consented to support the very clauses regarding the Scottish peers
which he had so firmly denounced, should they be inclined to bring
forward the Bill a third time.
[Illustration: THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. (_After the Picture by E. M. Ward,
R.A., in the National Gallery, London._)]
The spring of 1720 was a period of remarkable national prosperity.
But "the grand money schemes projected of late," which appeared to
the Jacobite Atterbury and others calculated to cement the royal
peace and strengthen the foundation of the Government and nation, were
destined to produce a very different effect. For the South Sea Bubble
was about to burst. In 1711, Harley, being at his wits' end to maintain
the public credit, established a fund to provide for the National Debt,
which amounted to ten millions of pounds. To defray the interest he
made permanent the duties on wine, vinegar, and tobacco, etc. To induce
the purchase of the Government stock, he gave to the shareholders
the exclusive privilege of trading to the Spanish settlements in
South America, and procured them an Act of Parliament and a royal
charter, under the name of the South Sea Company. The idea, hollow and
groundless as it was, seized on the imagination of the most staid and
experienced traders. All the dreams of boundless gold which haunted the
heads of the followers of Drake and Raleigh were revived. The mania
spread through the nation, and was industriously encouraged by the
partisans of Harley. But this stupendous dream of wealth was based on
the promises of Ministers, who at the Peace of Utrecht were to secure
from the Government of Spain this right to trade to its colonies. The
right was never granted by that haughty and jealous Power, further than
for the settlement of some few factories, and the sending of one small
ship annually of less than five hundred tons. This, and the Assiento,
or privilege of supplying those colonies with African slaves, were the
sole advantages obtained, and these were soon disturbed by the war with
Spain, which broke out under Alberoni. The South Sea Company, however,
from its general resources, remained a flourishing corporation, and was
deemed the rival of the Bank of England.
It was at the close of 1719, when George I. returned from Hanover, that
this Company proposed to Ministers to consolidate all the funds into
one. It was strange that both Ministers and merchants could be deluded
by the hope of enriching themselves by a share of the trade with the
Spanish South American provinces, when Spain herself, in full enjoyment
of them, was sunk into indigence and weakness, and presented the most
determined resistance to the unfettered intercourse of any other nation
with them. Yet Sir John Blunt, a leading director of the South Sea
Company, persuaded the Ministers that by granting the Company power to
deal with the public funds, and especially to buy up the unredeemable
annuities which had been granted in the two preceding reigns, chiefly
on terms of ninety-nine years, and which now amounted to about eight
hundred thousand pounds a year, they could, in twenty-six years, pay
off the entire National Debt. But, to enable them to do this, they
must be empowered to reduce all the different public securities to
one aggregate fund in their hands, to convert both redeemable and
unredeemable debts into stock by such arrangements as they could make
with the holders, and to have certain commercial privileges vested in
them. Ministers accepted the proposals with great alacrity. Aislabie
introduced the scheme to Parliament in the month of February, 1720,
declaring that, if it was accepted by the House, the prosperity of
the nation would be amazingly enhanced, and all its debts liquidated
in a very few years. Craggs seconded the proposal in most sanguine
terms, expressing his conviction that every member of the House must be
ready to adopt so advantageous an offer. Ministers had already closed
with the proposals of the Company, and they were themselves greatly
disconcerted by the suggestion of Mr. Thomas Brodrick, the member for
Stockbridge, who expressed his entire accordance with Ministers, but
thought that the nation should endeavour to obtain the best terms for
itself by opening the competition to every other company or association
of men as well as that in question. Ministers were confounded by this
proposal, and Aislabie endeavoured to get out of it by declaring
that to do this would be like putting the nation up to auction, and
that such things should be done with spirit. But Jekyll interposed,
saying it was this spirit which had ruined the nation, and it was
now requisite to consider seriously what was best for the public. A
violent debate ensued, in which Walpole eloquently recommended open
competition, and was sharply replied to by Lechmere. The question
was carried in favour of competition; and then the Bank of England,
which before had coolly declined to enter into the proposals, suddenly
appeared in a new temper, and made liberal offers for the privilege of
thus farming the public debts. But the South Sea Company was not to be
outdone; it offered seven millions and a half, and the Bank gave way in
despair.
Walpole, however, continued to oppose the South Sea Bill in the
Commons, declaring that the terms were too extravagant ever to be
fulfilled; that the experiment could result in nothing but a fearful
increase of the costs of stockjobbing, and final confusion and ruin.
He insisted that, before the proposals of the Company were accepted,
the rise of their stock should be limited, and every means taken to
prevent the fever of infatuation that would ensue from the promise of
dividends out of funds which could never be realised. He proposed for
this purpose the introduction of a clause fixing the number of years'
purchase to be granted to the annuitants of the South Sea Company; but
to this it was objected that it was the interest of the Company to take
up the annuities; and, as the annuitants had the power of coming in or
not, as they pleased, the Company would, of course, offer advantageous
terms, and, therefore, the whole affair might be safely left to private
adjustment. Aislabie added that the South Sea Company would not submit
to be controlled in an undertaking they were to pay so dear for. The
Bill passed both Houses.
The South Sea Company had immediately on the passing of the Bill
proposed a subscription of one million, and this was so eagerly seized
on that, instead of one, two millions were subscribed. To stimulate
this already too feverish spirit in the public, the Company adopted
the most false and unjustifiable means. They had eight millions and a
half to pay over to Government as a _douceur_ for granting them the
management of the Funds; and, therefore, to bring this in rapidly, they
propagated the most lying rumours. It was industriously circulated that
Lord Stanhope had received overtures at Paris to exchange Gibraltar and
Port Mahon for invaluable gold lands in Peru! The South Sea trade was
vaunted as a source of boundless wealth in itself. In August the stock
had risen from the one hundred and thirty of the last winter to one
thousand! Men sold houses and land to become shareholders; merchants of
eminence neglected their affairs and crippled their resources to reap
imaginary profits. The Company flattered the delusion to the utmost.
They opened a third, and even a fourth subscription, larger than the
former, and passed a resolution that from next Christmas their yearly
dividend should not be less than fifty per cent.! In labouring to
increase the public delusion they seem to have caught the contagion
themselves, for they began to act, not like men who were blowing a
bubble which they knew must speedily burst, but like persons who had
mounted permanently into the very highest seat of prosperous power.
They assumed the most arrogant and overbearing manner, even towards men
of the highest station and influence. "We have made them kings," said a
member of Parliament, "and they deal with everybody as such."
The spirit of gambling thus set going by Government itself soon
surpassed all bounds, and burst forth in a thousand shapes. It was
well known that the king, his mistresses, his courtiers, his son and
heir apparent, were all dabbling busily in the muddy waters of this
huge pool of trickery and corruption. A thousand other schemes were
invented and made public to draw in fresh gudgeons, and the Prince
of Wales allowed his name to stand as governor of a Welsh Copper
Company. All ranks and classes rushed to Change Alley--dukes, lords,
country squires, bishops, clergy (both Established and Dissenting),
were mixed up with stockjobbers and brokers in eager traffic. Ladies
of all ranks mingled in the throng, struggling through the press and
straining their voices to be heard amid the hubbub. There and all over
the kingdom were advertised and hawked about the following and other
schemes:--Wrecks to be fished for on the Irish coast; plans for making
of oil from sunflower seeds; for extracting of silver from lead; for
the transmuting of quicksilver into a malleable and fine metal; for
importing a number of large jackasses from Spain; for a wheel for
perpetual motion; and, finally, for an undertaking which shall in due
time be revealed!
The South Sea Company, with a folly of which extreme greed only is
capable, endeavoured to put down these rival schemes and obtained an
order from the Lords Justices and writs of _scire facias_ against
several of these new bubbles. It was like raising a wind to blow away
the bubbles, forgetting that their own was a bubble too, and would
go with them. The moment that the people began to distrust one they
distrusted all. The panic became as great as the mania had been. The
South Sea stock dropped in less than a month from one thousand to
below six hundred. There was a simultaneous rush to sell out, and
the shares must have sunk instantly to _nil_ but for the gigantic
exertions of the Company to raise money and buy in. The relief,
however, was but temporary. The bankers and pawnbrokers who had
advanced money on scrip broke and fled; merchants, goldsmiths, and
speculators rushed away after them. Walpole was summoned in haste from
Haughton to devise some means of staying the panic. He endeavoured
to get the Bank of England to circulate three millions of South Sea
bonds for a year; but the Bank, seeing that the case was desperate,
declined it. This was decisive. The rage and despair of the swarming
dupes were indescribable. They heaped execrations not only on the
South Sea Company, but on Ministers, the king, his mistresses, and
the Royal Family, who had all been deep in the affair, and who had
taken good care of themselves. George landed at Margate on the 9th of
November, soon after which the South Sea stock fell to one hundred and
thirty-five. On the 8th of December Parliament met, and promptly began
to investigate the scandal.
In the House of Lords on the 24th of January, 1721, five directors who
had been called before them were arrested and their papers seized. By
what had been drawn from them, it appeared that large sums had been
given to people in high places to procure the passing of the South
Sea Bill. Lord Stanhope rose and expressed his indignation at such
practices, and moved that any transfer of stock for the use of any
person in the Administration without a proper consideration was a
notorious and dangerous corruption. The motion was seconded by Lord
Townshend, and carried unanimously. The examination being continued on
the 4th of February, Sir John Blunt refused to answer their lordships,
on the plea that he had already given his evidence before the Secret
Committee. A vehement debate arose out of this difficulty, during which
the Duke of Wharton, a most profligate young nobleman, and president of
the Hell-fire Club, made a fierce attack on Stanhope, accused him of
fomenting the dissensions between the king and his son, and compared
him to Sejanus, who had sown animosities in the family of Tiberius,
and rendered his reign hateful to the Romans. Stanhope, in replying to
this philippic, was so transported by his rage, that the blood gushed
from his nostrils. He was carried from the House, and soon afterwards
expired.
Lord Townshend succeeded Stanhope as Secretary of State. Aislabie, who
had been deep in the iniquities of the South Sea affair, was compelled
to resign his post as Chancellor of the Exchequer, to which Walpole
succeeded. Meanwhile the Secret Committee appointed by the Commons
continued its labours indefatigably. They sat nearly every day from
nine in the morning till eleven at night, and on the 16th of February,
1721, they presented their first report to the House. This revealed a
vast amount of Ministerial corruption.
On the very day that this report was being read in the House died
one of the accused, James Craggs, Secretary of State. His complaint
was smallpox; but the state of mind induced by this exposure is
supposed to have rendered the malady fatal. His father, who was
Postmaster-General, was so shamefully involved in the same dishonest
proceedings, that he took poison.
Charles Stanhope, though clearly guilty, escaped, after examination
in the House, by a majority of three, out of respect for the memory
of his deceased relative, the upright Lord Stanhope. Aislabie's case
came next, and was so palpably bad that he was committed to the Tower
and expelled the House, amid the ringing of bells, bonfires, and other
signs of rejoicing in the City of London. The bulk of his property,
moreover, was seized. This was some compensation to the public,
which had murmured loudly at the acquittal of Stanhope. Sunderland's
case was the next, and he escaped by the evidence against him being
chiefly second-hand. He was acquitted by a majority of two hundred and
thirty-three against one hundred and seventy-two. As to the king's
mistresses, their sins were passed over out of a too conceding loyalty;
but no favour was shown to the directors, though some of them were
found to be much poorer when the scheme broke up than they were when it
began. Amongst them was Mr. Gibbon, the grandfather of the historian,
who afterwards exposed the injustice of many of these proceedings,
though at the time they were considered as only too merited. The
directors were disabled from ever again holding any place, or sitting
in Parliament; and their estates, amounting to upwards of two millions,
were confiscated for the relief of the sufferers by the scheme.
On the death of Stanhope, Sir Robert Walpole was left without a rival,
and he received his commission of First Lord of the Treasury on the 2nd
of April, and from this period down to 1742 he continued to direct the
government of Great Britain. His chief anxiety now was to restore the
public credit. He drew up, as Chairman of the Committee of the Commons,
a report of all that had been lost in the late excitements, and of the
measures that had been adopted to remedy the costs incurred. Amongst
these were the resolutions of the House respecting the seven and a half
millions the directors of the South Sea Company had agreed to pay to
Government; more than five had been remitted, and we may add that on
the clamorous complaints of the Company the remainder was afterwards
remitted too. The forfeited estates had been made to clear off a large
amount of encumbrance, the credit of the Company's bonds had been
maintained, and thirty-three per cent. of the capital paid to the
proprietors. Such were the measures adopted by the Commons, and these
being stated in the report to the king, a Bill was brought in embodying
them all. Many of the proprietors, however, were not satisfied. They
were very willing to forget their own folly and greediness, and charge
the blame on the Government. On the second reading of Walpole's Bill
they thronged the lobby of the House of Commons. The next day the Bill
was carried, and gradually produced quiet; but Walpole himself did not
escape without severe animadversions. He was accused of having framed
his measures in collusion with the Bank, and with a clear eye to his
own interest; but he had been strenuously vindicated from the charge,
and on the whole the vigour and boldness with which he encountered the
storm and quelled it deserve the highest praise, and may well cover a
certain amount of self-interest, from which few Ministers are free.
[Illustration: GEORGE I.]
The discontents occasioned by the South Sea scheme and its issue
had caused the Jacobites to conceive fresh hopes of success, and
their spirits were still more elevated by the birth of a son to the
Pretender. The business of this faction was conducted in England
by a junto or council, amongst the chief members of which were the
Earls of Arran and Orrery, Lords North and Gower, and the Bishop of
Rochester. Lord Oxford had been invited to put himself at the head
of this council of five, but everything of a decided nature was out
of his character. He continued to correspond with the leaders of the
faction, but he declined putting himself too forward. In fact, his
habitual irresolution was now doubled by advancing infirmities, and
he died three years afterwards. Though several of the junto were men
of parliamentary, and North of military experience, Atterbury was the
undoubted head of it. The period of confusion created by the South Sea
agitation was first pitched on for a new attempt, then that of the
general election, which had taken place in March, and, finally, it was
deferred till the king should have gone to Hanover, according to his
custom, in the summer.
In preparation for this movement James the Pretender was to sail
secretly to Spain, in readiness to cross to England; and he had already
quitted his house in Rome and removed to a villa, the more unobserved
to steal away at the appointed moment. Ormonde also had left Madrid
and gone to a country seat half way to Bilbao, when the secret of the
impending expedition was suddenly revealed by the French Government to
that of England. The conspirators had been mad enough to apply to the
Regent for five thousand troops, trusting that, notwithstanding his
peaceful relations with Britain, he would secretly enjoy creating it
some embarrassment. But in this, as in all other views, they proved
more sanguine than profound. Sir Luke Schaub, the British Ambassador,
was immediately informed of it on condition, it was said, that no one
should die for it.
Walpole was instantly on the alert on this startling discovery. He
prevailed on the king to put off his journey to Germany. Troops were
drawn round London and a camp was formed in Hyde Park. The king took
up his residence at Kensington, in the midst of the soldiers, and the
Prince of Wales retired to Richmond. General Macartney was dispatched
for still more troops from Ireland; some suspected persons were
arrested in Scotland; the States of Holland were solicited to have
ships and soldiers in readiness; an order was obtained from the Court
of Madrid to forbid the embarkation of Ormonde; and General Churchill
was dispatched to Paris to make all secure with the Regent. Atterbury
was arrested on the 24th of August.
Parliament opened its first sitting on the 9th of October. The rumour
of invasion, of course, gave the tone to the king's speech. He recited
the leading facts of the conspiracy, and observed that he should the
less wonder at them had he in any one instance, since his accession to
the throne of his ancestors, invaded the liberty or property of his
subjects.
The very first act was to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act for a year.
To punish the Catholics and Non-jurors, who were all regarded as
implicated in this conspiracy, Walpole proposed to raise one hundred
thousand pounds by a tax on their estates. A Bill of Pains and
Penalties was passed against Atterbury, and he was compelled to go
into banishment. On the 18th of June Atterbury was put on board a
man-of-war and conducted to Calais. As he landed there, he was told
that Bolingbroke had received the king's pardon, and was just quitting
Calais for England; and the Bishop said, with a smile, "Then I am
exchanged."
This Act, however, merely gave Bolingbroke the right to come back and
live in security in England. His ambition could only be satisfied by
the restoration of his estates and honours. Unfortunately for him, when
he arrived in England, the king had sailed for Hanover, attended by
Townshend and Carteret, and his great patroness, the Duchess of Kendal.
He waited, therefore, on Walpole, who promptly rejected his offers.
Mortified at this repulse, Bolingbroke returned to Paris, where a field
of action had opened in which he was well calculated to figure.
The restless Englishman, much more like a Frenchman in temperament and
character than a native of England, had married Madame de Villette,
a niece of Louis XIV.'s last mistress, Madame de Maintenon, a lady
rich and well-trained in all the Court life of Paris. By this means
Bolingbroke was brought into close connection with that Court. The
notorious Cardinal Dubois had died in August, 1723, and in less than
four months died also the Duke of Orleans, the Regent. Louis XV. being
nominally of age, no other Regent was appointed; but the Duke of
Bourbon, a man of better character but of less ability than the Regent,
Orleans, was Prime Minister. He was greatly under the influence of his
bold and ambitious mistress Madame de Prie; and Bolingbroke, who was
high in the favour of both Minister and mistress, flattered himself
that, with the aid of his courtier wife, he could govern both them and
France.
Bolingbroke was well aware that a violent strife for power was going on
in the British Cabinet. Lord Carteret, the new Secretary of State, and
afterwards Earl Granville, was labouring hard to undermine both Walpole
and Townshend. He was a very accomplished man and a great linguist,
familiar with nearly all the Continental languages, including German,
which, strangely enough, the English courtiers neglected, though they
had a German monarch on the throne who could not speak English. German
then was regarded as a language rude and even vulgar--a tongue, as
Voltaire afterwards said, "only fit for horses." But Carteret, by being
master of it, could converse freely with the king, whilst Walpole,
ignorant, too, of French, could hold communication with him only in
Latin, which, from the wide difference between the English and foreign
pronunciation of it, could not have been a very favourable medium.
Carteret had ingratiated himself so much with the king by conversing
in German, and flattering George's German tastes and politics, that he
had succeeded to the influence which Stanhope had formerly possessed.
He had also secured the same influence in the Court of Paris. He had
by that means confirmed the appointment of Sir Luke Schaub at that
Court, and thus kept open the most favourable communication with the
Abbé Dubois. The Courts of England and France continued during Dubois'
life in close connection, and through the influence of George and his
Ministers, Dubois obtained first the Archbishop's mitre, and then the
Cardinal's hat.
The struggle for ascendency proceeding, Walpole and his party secured
the interest of the Duchess of Kendal, who always took care to side
with that which she thought the stronger. Carteret and his party,
on the other hand, secured the interest of the other mistress, the
Countess of Darlington, and her sister, Madame de Platen. Whilst
affairs were in this position, the two Secretaries of State, Townshend
and Carteret, accompanied the king to Hanover. There came upon the
_tapis_ the question of a marriage between the Count St. Florentin,
the son of La Vrillière, the Secretary of State for France, and a
daughter of Madame de Platen. Madame de Platen, however, demanded
that La Vrillière should be made a duke, so that in due course of
time her daughter would be a duchess. George I. warmly seconded this
demand; and, had Bolingbroke used his influence, there was little
doubt that it would have been accomplished. But the French nobility
raised a huge outcry against this honour being conferred on the family
of La Vrillière, which they deemed too obscure for such a dignity.
Bolingbroke, however, was seeking his own objects through the other
mistress, the Duchess of Kendal; and, notwithstanding the repulse
which he had received from Walpole, he still calculated that his power
would prevail, and he therefore smothered his personal vexation, and
remained on the side of the Duchess of Kendal and Walpole, leaving
Carteret and his allies, the Platens, to fight their own battle.
In the midst of these cabals died the Regent, and Townshend, acting
with Walpole, sent over Walpole's brother Horace to watch their
interests at Paris. Carteret, on the other hand, ordered Sir Luke
Schaub to make every exertion for the grant of the dukedom. On the
arrival of Horace Walpole, Bolingbroke, obeying the impulses of the
courtier and not of the man, immediately waited on him, and placed all
his influence at the French Court at his service; but Walpole, who had
an invincible repugnance to Bolingbroke, whilst he availed himself of
the advantages offered by Bolingbroke, still kept him at a great and
stately distance. Undeterred by this conduct, however, Bolingbroke
swallowed his mortification, and continued to keep his eye and his hope
on the Walpole Ministry. Unassisted by Bolingbroke, the dukedom could
not be obtained; but George reconciled Madame Platen to the match by
giving her daughter a portion of ten thousand pounds. Horace Walpole,
at the same time, succeeded in getting Schaub recalled, and himself
installed in his office of Ambassador at Paris--a decided victory
over Carteret; indeed, so decided, that Carteret was removed from the
Secretaryship to the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland.
The domestic serenity of the realm was, however, greatly disturbed
at this moment by Dean Swift, who seized on the occasion to avenge
himself on the Whig Ministry for the defeat and punishment of his
party, and especially of his particular friends and patrons, Oxford
and Bolingbroke. There had long been a great deficiency of copper coin
in Ireland. The Government undertook to remove this pressing want of
so useful a medium, and they set about it in an honest and honourable
manner as regarded the quality of the coin. Tenders were issued, and
various offers received for the coining of farthings and halfpence
to the value of a hundred and eight thousand pounds. The proposal of
Mr. William Wood, an iron and copper founder, of Wolverhampton, was
accepted; but the quality of the coin, both as to weight and fineness,
was determined by the advice of Sir Isaac Newton, then Master of the
Mint, and Wood was bound under heavy penalties to furnish it according
to this stipulation. Every care was used by the Ministers and the
Solicitor- and Attorney-General to insure the supply of a much better
copper coinage than Ireland had ever possessed before.
There were some circumstances, however, which came out that created
considerable suspicion and displeasure in Ireland. Wood had given a
bribe to the king's mistress, the Duchess of Kendal, to procure him
the contract, and the Government had ordered the coinage without
paying the Irish Privy Council and Lord-Lieutenant the compliment of
consulting them on this occasion. Swift saw these errors, and seized
on them for his own purposes. He did not stop to inquire whether,
after all, the proposed coinage would not, in any circumstances, be
much better than the present distressing scarcity of copper money, and
whether the farthings and halfpence might not turn out as good, though
they were contracted for. It was enough for him that there was a cause
of discontent which he could fan into a flame against the British
Government. He threw all his spiteful soul into it, and his "Drapier's
Letters" inflamed the public mind to such a degree that Walpole was
compelled to cancel the patent.
The tumult in Ireland was succeeded by one in Scotland. The people
of that country, though they were, by the provisions of the Act of
Union, to bear their proportion of the malt tax, had always refused
compliance, and in 1713 had issued a violent resolution against it.
They had never yet complied with the law, and Walpole, seeing the
sturdy nature of the opposition, was willing to give up the point
quietly. But during the Parliamentary Session of this year, Mr.
Brodrick proposed that a duty of sixpence on every barrel of ale should
be paid in lieu of it. Walpole was reluctant to go into the question,
but the House was bent on it, and he therefore complied so far as to
consent to a duty of threepence per barrel, or half the amount. There
were promptly riots in Glasgow, and at Edinburgh the brewers refused
to brew. Walpole sent down the Earl of Islay, the brother of the Duke
of Argyll, and a zealous adherent of his own, to pacify the country.
Islay behaved with equal prudence and firmness. He found the powerful
combination of brewers essaying to make a stand against and then
attempting to make terms with him. But he let them know that nothing
but unconditional surrender to the laws would be accepted, and they at
length held a meeting, where the chairman put the question, "To brew,
or not to brew?" The members were to vote _seriatim_; but neither the
man on his right nor the one on his left would venture to begin. In
the long pause that ensued, one Gray declared that he thought there
was nothing for them to do but to return to their trades; that he
would not be bound by the majority, but would vote independently, and
he voted to brew. The meeting broke up, and that night a number of
breweries were set to work, and the next day, at noon, about forty
brew-houses were in full action in Edinburgh, and ten in Leith.
One of the first acts of the Parliament, which met on November 12th,
was to punish the peculations and abuses of the Lord Chancellor,
Parker, Earl of Macclesfield. The Court of Chancery, in former ages
a sink of corruption, was at this time in its worst condition. The
offices of Masters were regularly sold, and the Masters as regularly
took care to recoup themselves by all manner of peculation. The estates
of widows and orphans and the money of suitors were unscrupulously
plundered. There was a loud outcry against these robberies, and
especially against the Lord Chancellor, for his not only tolerating
but partaking in them. He endeavoured to escape the storm of public
indignation by resigning in January, but this did not avail him. He
was impeached by Sir George Oxenden in the Commons, and tried in the
Lords, and fined thirty thousand pounds. A motion for disabling him
from ever again sitting in Parliament or holding any office was lost
only by a very few votes. The king struck his name out of the list of
Privy Councillors, and in 1725 Sir Peter King was made Chancellor in
his stead, with the title of baron.
Bolingbroke, now restored to his estates, though the attainder still
deprived him of his seat in the House of Lords, endeavoured to create
a new species of opposition in Parliament. He retained his influence
with the Duchess of Kendal, and cultivated that of the ultra-Tories.
Still more, he soon discovered that William Pulteney, the most eloquent
man in the House, had grown disgusted with Walpole, who could never
bear any man of pre-eminent ability near the throne except himself.
Pulteney had been one of the steadiest friends of the late queen's
Government, and of the Protestant succession. Under George he had been
made Secretary at War. He had adhered to Walpole when he was sent to
the Tower for corruption, and in the great schism of 1717. Yet Walpole
had carefully excluded him from any high post in the Cabinet, and had
endeavoured to veil his jealousy of him by offering to procure him a
peerage, by which he would have removed him from the active sphere
of the House of Commons. Pulteney saw the object, and rejected the
specious favour. Instead of conferring on Pulteney some office worthy
of his talents, Walpole then put him into that of Cofferer of the
Household. In the state of indignation which this paltry appointment
raised in him Bolingbroke soon induced Pulteney to put himself at the
head of a large body of Oppositionists, under the title of "Patriots."
In this character he made some smart attacks on Walpole and his heavy
drafts on the Civil List for his friends, for which he was dismissed,
and joined Bolingbroke in a bold attempt to write down the Minister.
Between them the celebrated paper _The Craftsman_ was planned and
established, and they became the bitterest and most persevering
assailants of Walpole.
[Illustration: BARTHOLOMEW FAIR, LONDON, IN 1721. (_From a Painting on
a Fan._)]
Soon after the close of the Session in June, the king proceeded to
Hanover, accompanied, as usual, by Townshend and the Duchess of Kendal.
The state of his foreign relations demanded the utmost attention,
and very soon underwent the most extraordinary changes. These were
precipitated by the Duke of Bourbon, and were caused by the state of
the French succession. The young king might have children, and the
only reason why he might not have legitimate issue soon was that he
was affianced to the Infanta, Mary Ann, Philip's daughter, then a mere
child. Should he not have children, the young Duke of Orleans, the son
of the late Regent, would succeed him. To prevent this contingency,
the Duke of Bourbon, who had a violent hatred of Orleans, prevailed
on Louis to dismiss the Infanta, and choose as queen some princess of
mature age. He turned his eye for this purpose on the Princess Anne of
England, but George declined the alliance, because the Queen of France
was bound to become Catholic. The Princess Mary Leczinska was next
fixed upon, daughter of the exiled Stanislaus of Poland, and the Duke
of Bourbon then sent the Infanta back to Spain.
This insult roused the fiery blood of Spain. The king and queen were
excited to paroxysms of rage. They told Mr. William Stanhope that,
in future, they would put confidence in no prince except his master,
nor admit any one else to mediate for them in their negotiations. But
George refused to break with France on their account, and ventured to
remind Philip that he himself stood greatly in need of the alliance
with France. Blinded, however, by their wounded pride, the King and
Queen of Spain now turned their anger against England. They recalled
their plenipotentiaries from the Congress of Cambray, which was sitting
to settle the affairs of Europe, and professed their readiness to
abandon all their hostility to the Emperor of Germany, and to concede
all that they had so long demanded from him, on condition that he
entered into a close alliance with them against France and England.
They sent back to France the widow of the late Don Louis, and also
Mademoiselle Beaujolais, another daughter of the late Regent Orleans,
who had been contracted to Don Carlos.
The Emperor of Germany was delighted at the Spanish offer. He had
always felt himself aggrieved by the conditions of the Quadruple
Alliance. He was afraid of France, and hated George of England for his
German policy. He had, moreover, embroiled himself with both England
and Holland, by establishing at Ostend an East India Company, which
was declared to be in violation of the Treaty of Westphalia, and was,
at all events, regarded with particular jealousy by both England and
Holland. This being the case, Ripperda, the envoy of Spain, a Dutch
adventurer, who had been the tool of Alberoni, completed with ease a
treaty with the Emperor at Vienna, which was signed on the 30th of
April, 1725.
By this treaty almost everything was given up which had kept Spain
and Austria in war and conflict for many years, and by themselves
and their allies had steeped Europe in blood. The King of Spain
agreed to sanction the Ostend Company, to yield the long-contested
point regarding the exclusive mastership of the Golden Fleece. He
surrendered the right to garrison with Spanish troops the fortresses
of Tuscany. He acknowledged the Emperor's right to Naples, Sicily, the
Milanese, and Netherlands, and guaranteed what was termed the Pragmatic
Sanction; that is, the succession of the hereditary states of Austria
in the female line. This was a concession of immense importance to
the Emperor, who had only daughters, and whose claim to the Flemish
and Italian dominions might thus have been contested by Philip on the
Emperor's death. Thus, before the emotions of a family quarrel, fell
at once all the mighty questions which had rent and desolated Europe
for a quarter of a century! Both the sovereigns engaged to afford
mutual support should either be attacked. Charles agreed to bring into
the field twenty thousand foot and ten thousand horse, Philip twenty
thousand troops and fifteen ships of war.
The world looked on in astonishment--diplomatists in dread of more
secret and momentous compacts, and that not without cause. In the
heat of this hastily-formed alliance, it was proposed to marry the
young Archduchess, the heiress of the Austrian States, to one of the
Infants of Spain--a contract, if carried out, which would probably have
overthrown all that had been done at such cost of life and wealth for
the establishment of the balance of power. This dangerous project was
frustrated by other events, but serious engagements were entered into
for compelling England to surrender Gibraltar and Minorca to Spain, and
for placing the Pretender on the throne of Great Britain.
But during these transactions France and England had not been idle.
A new alliance had been signed at Hanover between England, France,
and Prussia, to which soon after were added Denmark and Holland. The
real objects of this treaty were to counterbalance that between Spain,
Austria, and Russia, to compel the dissolution of the Ostend Company,
and to prevent the menaced assistance to the Pretender. This was the
celebrated Treaty of Hanover.
The confederacy of Spain, Austria, and Sweden against England greatly
encouraged the Pretender and his party. His agents were active on
almost every coast in Europe, under the able direction of Atterbury.
But there were two new allies whom James acquired at this time who did
him little service; these were Lord North and the Duke of Wharton.
They went over to the Continent, and not only openly avowed themselves
as friends of the Pretender, but renounced Protestantism and embraced
Popery. Lord North, however, found himself so little trusted at the
Pretender's Court, notwithstanding his apostasy, that he went to Spain,
entered its service, and there continued till his death, in 1734.
Wharton also arrived at Madrid, where he fell in with a congenial
spirit. This was Ripperda, the renegade Dutchman, now created a Duke
and made Prime Minister of Spain. He had lately returned from a mission
to Vienna, and was as full of foolish boastings as Wharton himself.
He told the officers of the garrison at Barcelona on landing, that
the Emperor would bring one hundred and fifty thousand men into the
field; that Prince Eugene had engaged for as many more within six
months of the commencement of a war; that in that case France would
be pillaged on all sides, the King of Prussia, whom he was pleased to
call the Grand Grenadier, would be chased from his country in a single
campaign, and King George out of both Hanover by the Emperor, and Great
Britain by the Pretender; that so long as he was in authority there
should never be peace between France and Spain. Yet to Mr. Stanhope he
declared that though he had talked both in Vienna and Spain in favour
of the Pretender, he was, nevertheless, as sincerely attached to the
interests of his Britannic Majesty as one of his own subjects; that
he would prove this on the first opportunity, and that he only talked
as he did to please their Catholic majesties, and to avoid being
suspected as a traitor, and falling into the hands of the Inquisition,
which he knew kept a sharp eye on him as a recent convert.
The folly of Ripperda, however, had ruined his credit with his own
sovereigns and the nation even more than with foreign Powers. His
swaggering and inflated language, in which he imagined that he was
enacting Alberoni, had destroyed all faith in him. But his final
blow came from his own false representations to each other of the
preparations for war made by Austria and Spain. Count Königseck was
most indignant when he discovered the miserable resources of the
Spanish monarchy in comparison with the pompous descriptions made
of them by Ripperda at Vienna; and the Spanish Court was equally
disappointed by a discovery of the real military status of Austria.
Ripperda was suddenly and ignominiously dismissed on the 14th of May.
A revolution of a similar character took place in France within a month
of the fall of Ripperda in Spain. The Duke of Bourbon had exhibited
a gross incapacity for governing France under the young king. He was
replaced by Cardinal Fleury, whose pacific designs harmonised with
those of Walpole. Thus Fleury's accession to power only strengthened
the English alliance with France. As for Spain, notwithstanding the
fall of Ripperda, Philip continued the same course of policy--clinging
firmly to the Emperor, and employing Palm, the envoy of the Emperor
in London, through bribery to the Duchess of Kendal and the king's
Hanoverian Ministers, Bothmar and the rest, who were averse from the
Treaty of Hanover, as in their estimation too exclusively calculated
for British interests. They even produced a strong feeling of this
kind in the mind of George, and they managed to detach the King of
Prussia from the British alliance. On the other hand, Sweden was won
over, by British gold and diplomacy, from Russian interests. The Dutch
also, with their usual slowness, came into the Hanover Treaty. Several
British fleets were at sea during the summer, watching the different
points of possible attack. One under Admiral Wager sailed to the Baltic
to overawe the Russians, which it did effectually. Admiral Jennings,
with another squadron, having on board some land troops, scoured the
coasts of Spain, kept the Spaniards in constant alarm, and returned
home safe before winter. A third fleet, under Admiral Hosier, was not
so fortunate. He was ordered to sail to the West Indies, and the
shores of the Spanish Main, to obstruct or capture the galleons; but
he was attacked off Porto Bello by the yellow fever, and lost a great
number of his men.
Parliament met on the 17th of January, 1727. The Royal Speech breathed
a decidedly warlike tone. The king informed Parliament that he had
received information, on which he could rely, that a secret article of
the treaty between Spain and the Emperor bound those parties to place
the Pretender on the throne of Great Britain, and that the surrender
of Gibraltar and Port Mahon was the price to be paid for this service.
He asked whether the public would not regard with indignation the
imposition of a Popish Pretender on the nation at such a cost. He added
that the King of Spain had ordered his Ambassador to quit the kingdom,
leaving behind him a formal demand for the surrender of the above-named
places. There was a great ferment in the House. Palm, the Emperor's
envoy, wrote to his Imperial master, advising him to disavow any such
secret agreement in the treaty at Vienna, and thus allay the excitement
in England. But Charles, who owed his throne to the victories of
Marlborough, and whose claims on Spain had been prosecuted by Britain
at serious cost of men and money, performed this disavowal with as much
arrogance as stupidity. He was not contented to say that the King of
England was mistaken, but he declared that his speech was false. This
gross insult to the head of the nation roused the indignation of all
parties, even of the Opposition; and Wyndham, Pulteney, and Shippen
denounced it as loudly as any, and supported a motion of Walpole,
declaring it an insolent affront. Palm was ordered to quit the kingdom
immediately.
With Spain the prospect of war became every day more imminent. Stanhope
quitted that country, and the Spanish Government ordered the seizure
of the _Prince Frederick_, a ship belonging to the South Sea Company.
Twenty thousand men were assembled and sent against Gibraltar. All
attempts on the great fortress were as useless as former ones had been.
The English regarded the attack with even an air of indifference,
whilst their guns, sickness, and desertion, were fast cutting off the
besiegers. In four months the investing army, being reduced to half its
number, drew off with this empty but destructive result.
This and other events at length convinced the stupid and ungrateful
Emperor that the war was hopeless. Russia had as good as deserted him;
Prussia, so lately won over, was again wavering; Sweden and Holland
had joined the allies; and Spain, so far from helping him, could not
drive the enemy from a corner of its own territory. He therefore
listened to terms of peace which were offered by the allies through the
pacific medium of Fleury, and the preliminaries were signed at Paris
by the Austrian Ambassador on the 31st of May with England, France,
and Holland. The Emperor agreed to suspend for seven years the charter
of the Ostend Company; to confirm all treaties previous to 1725; and
to refer any other objects of dispute to a general congress. Several
articles were introduced regarding Spain. The English consented to
withdraw the fleet of Admiral Hosier from blockading Porto Bello, so
that the galleons could return home; the siege of Gibraltar was to be
discontinued, and the _Prince Frederick_ to be restored. These articles
were signed by the Spanish Ambassador at Paris, but Philip himself
never ratified them, and England and Spain continued in a dubious state
of neither peace nor war.
[Illustration: FIVE-SHILLING PIECE OF THE SOUTH SEA COMPANY.]
[Illustration: FIVE-GUINEA PIECE OF GEORGE I.]
Whilst Walpole was thus labouring to secure the peace of Europe,
Bolingbroke was as industriously at work to undermine him. He had
cultivated his intimacy with the Duchess of Kendal still more
diligently, and by liberal bribes, and more liberal promises if he
succeeded in once more regaining power, he had brought her to exert her
influence with the king in his favour. This most sordid and rapacious
of mistresses, who looked on England only as a country to be managed
for her benefit, ventured at length to put into the king's hand a
memorial drawn up for her by Bolingbroke, demonstrating that the
country must be absolutely ruined if Walpole continued in office. The
stratagem was too palpable. Whilst she talked only, her suggestions
might pass for her own, but the style of the document must have at once
caused the king's suspicion of its true source. He put the paper into
Walpole's hand. Walpole, after interrogating the two Turks, who were
always in attendance on the king, and on their denying all knowledge of
the means by which the missive reached the royal person, went directly
to the Duchess and charged her with the fact. She did not deny it.
Walpole advised the king to admit Bolingbroke to the audience which
he solicited in the memorial, trusting that the king's dislike of him
would prevail in the interview. The result appeared to be of that kind;
nevertheless, Walpole was far from being secure in his own mind. He
knew that the mistress would be continually returning to the charge
in favour of her friend and paymaster, though she enjoyed a pension
from Government of seven thousand five hundred pounds; and he even
contemplated retiring with a peerage, but was dissuaded from this by
the Princess of Wales and the Duke of Devonshire. On the other hand,
Bolingbroke was in the highest expectation of his speedy restoration
not only to rank but to office.
The deaths of monarchs, however, were peculiarly fatal to this
ambitious man; that of Queen Anne had precipitated him from power,
and rescued his country from the ruin he prepared for it; that of
George now came as opportunely to prevent the national calamity of his
ministry. George set out for Hanover on the 3rd of June, accompanied,
as usual, by Townshend and the Duchess of Kendal. Just before his
departure the youthful Horace Walpole saw him for the first and last
time. When the king was come down to supper, Lady Walsingham took
Walpole into the Duchess's ante-room, where George and his favourite
were alone. Walpole knelt and kissed the king's hand. George appeared
in his usual health.
In his impatience to reach his beloved Hanover, the king had
out-travelled his Minister and the mistress, and reached Delden on
the 8th late at night. The next morning he proceeded again so early
as four o'clock, and was pressing onward, when in the forenoon he
was seized with a fit of apoplexy in his coach, and on arriving at
Ippenburen he was observed to be quite comatose--his eyes fixed, his
hands motionless, and his tongue hanging from his mouth. His attendants
wished to remain at Ippenburen to procure medical assistance; but
this seemed to rouse him, and he managed to articulate, "Osnabrück!
Osnabrück!" The only chance for his life, if there was any, depended
on instant surgical aid; they went in obedience to his command, and on
arriving at Osnabrück he was found quite dead on the 9th of June, 1727.