CHAPTER III.

THE REIGN OF GEORGE II.

Accession of George II.--Characters of the King and Queen--Adroit

Tactics of Walpole--Rise and Fall of Compton--Attitude of

the Opposition--Congress of Soissons--Causes of Dispute

with Spain--Stanhope's successful Negotiations with King

Philip--Retirement of Townshend--Walpole Supreme--Peace

Abroad and at Home--Walpole's System of Wholesale Bribery

and Corruption--The Public Prisons--Duel between Pulteney

and Lord Hervey--The Excise Scheme--Great Outcry--Withdrawal

of the Bill--Walpole's Vengeance--Attack on the Septennial

Act--Wyndham's Speech--Depression of the Opposition--Definitive

Peace of Vienna--Gin Act--The Porteous Riots--The Prince of

Wales and the Opposition--Application for an Increase of his

Allowance--Birth of George III.--Death of Queen Caroline--Attempt

to Reduce the Army--Disputes with Spain--"Jenkins' Ear"--Walpole's

Negotiations--Secession of the Opposition--Further

Difficulties with Spain--Declaration of War--Privateers and

Reprisals--Vernon's Victory--Frederick invades Silesia--Assistance

of England--Parliament Meets--Sandys' Motion--Walpole's

Defence--Disasters of Maria Theresa--She throws herself on the

Magyars--Misfortunes of the English Fleets--Vernon Repulsed from

Carthagena--Power slips from the Hands of Walpole--His Last

Battles--The Chippenham Election Petition--His Fall.

George II. was born in 1683, and was, consequently, in his forty-fourth

year when he ascended the throne. In 1705 he married the Princess

Caroline Wilhelmina of Anspach, who was born in the year before

himself, by whom he had now four children--Frederick Prince of Wales,

born in 1707, William Duke of Cumberland, born in 1721, and two

daughters.

George had, if anything, a narrower intellect than his father, but

spoke English fluently, though with a foreign accent--a great advantage

over his predecessor. He was small of stature, and subject to fits of

violent passion, neither of which qualities was conducive to royal

dignity. Nor did the attributes of his mind supply any gain calculated

to remedy these defects. He was possessed of courage, which he had

proved at the battle of Oudenarde, and displayed again at Dettingen,

and he was praised for justice. Perhaps it was a love of order and

etiquette rather than justice which distinguished him. For his sort of

military precision and love of soldiers he was nicknamed the "Little

Captain" by the Jacobites. But the worst trait of his disposition was

his avarice. He admitted, says Lord Chesterfield, that he was much

more affected by little things than great ones--the certain mark of a

little mind; he therefore troubled himself very little about religion,

but took it as he found it, without doubt, objection, or inquiry. He

hated and despised all literature and intellectual pursuit, arts and

sciences, and the professors of them.

As for the queen, she was a far superior person. She had been well

brought up on the second marriage of her mother after the death of

her father, by the Queen of Prussia, Sophia Charlotte, the sister of

George I. She had been handsome till she grew corpulent and suffered

from the smallpox, and still she was much admired for her impressive

countenance, her fine voice, penetrating eye, and the grace and

sweetness of her manner. She was still more admired for the striking

contrast which she presented to her husband in her love of literature

and literary men, extending her interest and inquiries into philosophy,

theology, and metaphysics. Those who are disposed to ridicule her

pretence to such knowledge admit that she was equally distinguished by

prudence and good sense. She combined in her manners royal dignity

and unassuming grace, and was more popular with the nation than any

one of the Hanover family had ever yet been. She delighted to engage

theologians in discussing knotty points of doctrine, and in perplexing

them with questions on the various articles of faith in different

churches, and corresponded with them on these subjects through her

bedchamber woman, Mrs. Clayton, afterwards Lady Sundon. But the best

proofs of Queen Caroline's superiority were shown in her pure moral

character, which was free from the slightest stain, and in her quick

discernment and substantial promotion of the most able men in the

Church.

For a moment Walpole appeared about to fall from his altitude, and

the Jacobite faction was in ecstasies. The dispatch of Townshend,

announcing the king's death in Germany, arrived in London on the 14th

of June, and was soon followed by himself. Walpole instantly hastened

to the palace of Richmond, where the Prince of Wales resided, and

was told that the prince was taking his usual afternoon _siesta_.

He desired that he might be awoke, in consequence of important

intelligence. George, suddenly aroused, rushed forth half dressed to

learn the urgent business, when Walpole knelt down and kissed his hand,

informing him of his father's decease, and that he was king. George

was at first incredulous, but Walpole produced Townshend's dispatch,

and inquired whom his majesty would be pleased to appoint to draw up

the necessary declaration to the Privy Council, trusting that it would

be himself. To his consternation and chagrin the king said abruptly,

"Compton;" and Walpole withdrew in deep vexation, imagining his own

reign was at an end.

He waited on Sir Spencer Compton with the royal command. This gentleman

was confounded at the proposal to draw up the declaration to the

Privy Council, and begged Walpole to do it for him. Walpole instantly

recovered his spirits. He saw that such a man could never be his

rival, and he advised his colleagues, if they went out of office, not

to engage in any violent opposition, as they would soon be wanted

again. He knew, too, that he had the queen in his favour, who was too

clear-headed not to see that Walpole was alone the man for the time.

To complete his favour with her he offered to procure her a jointure

from Parliament of one hundred thousand pounds a year, whilst the

impolitic Compton had proposed only sixty thousand pounds. The queen

did not oppose the king's attempt to change the Ministry, but she

impressed him with the danger of disturbing an already powerful and

prosperous Cabinet, and she made him aware of the fact that Compton had

been compelled to get Walpole to draw up the Declaration. Besides the

liberal jointure which he promised she added that he intended to add

one hundred thousand pounds to the Civil List. Horace Walpole, arriving

from Paris, threw his whole weight into the scale, representing

difficulties which must beset foreign negotiations in new hands.

These combined circumstances told strongly on George; but the finish

was put to Compton's government by his feeling overwhelmed by his

own incompetence, and resigning the charge. The king had, therefore,

nothing for it but to reappoint the old Ministry again. Some slight

modifications took place. Lord Berkeley, who had joined the opposition

of Carteret and Roxburgh, was replaced by Lord Torrington, and Compton

received the title of Lord Wilmington, the Order of the Garter, and the

Presidency of the Council. The coronation took place on the 11th of

October, 1727.

The Hanoverian dynasty and the Walpole Ministry made rapid strides in

popularity, and carried all before them. The new Parliament met in

January, 1728, and Walpole's party had in the House four hundred and

twenty-seven members, all staunch in his support. So strong was the

party in power, that several measures were carried which at other times

would have raised discontent. It was proposed by Horace Walpole that

two hundred and thirty thousand pounds should be voted for maintaining

twelve thousand Hessians in the king's service. The Duke of Brunswick

was, by treaty, to be paid twenty-five thousand pounds a year for four

years for the maintenance of five thousand more troops.

These things did not pass without remark by the Opposition. Pulteney

and Bolingbroke discussed them with much vigour and acrimony in The

Craftsman. It was asserted in the House that the public burthens had

increased instead of diminished since 1716; but Walpole contended that

there had been a reduction of debt to the amount of two million five

hundred thousand pounds; and his statement was supported by a large

majority, and it was laid before the king. The Opposition then demanded

an explanation of the expenditure of two hundred and fifty thousand

pounds for secret service money. It was well understood that Walpole

had used the greater part of it in buying up that triumphant majority

which enabled him to carry the most obnoxious measures. The demands

of the Opposition were so vehement, and the abuse was so glaring, that

even Walpole was embarrassed how to get rid of the question. He could

only recur to the old plea, that the money had been spent on services

highly advantageous to the State, but which could not properly be made

public. Suddenly events lifted him out of his difficulty. News arrived

that the King of Spain, who declined to ratify the preliminaries of

peace entered into at Vienna, on hearing of the death of George I.,

hoping for a revolution, had now given way, and had issued what was

called the Act of Pardo, ratifying the preliminaries, and referring

all remaining difficulties to be settled at a congress to be held at

Soissons.

At the Congress, which began in June, William Stanhope, Horace Walpole,

and Poyntz represented England. At Paris Lord Waldegrave supplied the

place of Horace Walpole; and at the Hague the Earl of Chesterfield ably

managed the national interests. At the Congress there was a frequent

exchange of memorials and counter-memorials, but no real business was

done. The only things which grew apparent were that France and Spain

were becoming more reconciled, and that the league between Spain and

the Emperor was fast dissolving.

The great difficulties of the Government at this time were the

settlement of the questions with Spain of the right to cut logwood in

the bay of Campeachy, and the retention of Gibraltar. The Spaniards

had frequently resisted the cutting of logwood in the Bay of Campeachy

by the English; and in 1717 the Marquis of Monteleone had presented a

memorial against it; but the Board of Trade contended that the practice

was of old standing, and amounted to a right. This representation

was now laid before the House of Commons, and was backed by many

petitions from the merchants of London and other places, complaining

of the interruptions to their trade to the South American and West

Indian colonies, which had been carried on by connivance rather than

by actual permission of Spain. There was a great fermentation in the

public mind on these subjects, and the Minister was accused of tamely

submitting to national injuries. The nation seemed ready to rush into

a war with Spain, and perhaps all the more so that the king, in his

opening speech, had observed that "an actual war was preferable to such

a doubtful peace, but that the exchange was very easy to be made at any

time."

The point, however, which excited the most indignation was that

regarding Gibraltar. There was a strong feeling in the public mind

that the Government was willing to give up this fortress to Spain.

The Spanish Government was extremely urgent on the subject, declaring

that there could be no peace, no truce with England, until it was

surrendered. It was recollected by the English public that Stanhope

had actually offered to give it up, and it was not known whether any

equivalent except the signing of the Quadruple Alliance had been

demanded. The Opposition in the House of Lords moved, "That effectual

care be taken in any treaty that the King of Spain do renounce all

claims to Gibraltar and Minorca in plain and strong terms." The

Ministers, however, carried a more moderate resolution--"That the House

relies on his Majesty for preserving his undoubted right to Gibraltar

and Minorca." A similar discussion with a similar result took place in

the Commons. The Government saw plainly that nothing would induce the

British people to relinquish this important station.

No sooner, therefore, had the Parliament closed and the king set out to

Hanover, than Ministers sent off William Stanhope to Madrid to procure

a treaty of peace without any mention of Gibraltar. On arriving at

Madrid he found that the Court had removed to Seville, in Andalusia.

This had been done by the influence of the queen, in order to draw

Philip from the Council of Castile, which was doing all it could to

prevail on him again to abdicate. Stanhope followed the Court to

Seville, and laboured with such effect that he obtained the signing of

a treaty of defensive alliance between England, Spain, and France, to

which Holland afterwards acceded (November 9, 1729). By this treaty

Spain revoked all the privileges granted to Austria by the treaties of

Vienna, and re-established the British trade with her American colonies

on its former footing, restored all captures, and made compensation

for losses. The Assiento was confirmed to the South Sea Company.

Commissioners were appointed to adjust all claims of Spaniards for

ships taken in 1718, and to settle the limits of the American trade.

The succession of Don Carlos to Parma and Tuscany was recognised, with

the right to garrison the ports of Leghorn, Porto Ferrajo, Parma,

and Placentia with six thousand Spanish troops. Not a word was said

of Gibraltar--a silence amounting to a renunciation of its demand

by Spain; and that Philip regarded it as such was evidenced by his

beginning to construct the strong lines of San Roque, and thus to cut

off all communication with the obnoxious fortress by land.

William Stanhope was rewarded for his accomplishment of this treaty

with the title of Lord Harrington, and was soon after made Secretary

of State. But whilst the English were delighted by the completion of

the treaty, the Emperor was enraged by it, and his mortification was

doubled by the fact that, when he sought to raise four hundred thousand

pounds by a loan in London to supply the want of his Spanish subsidies,

the Ministry brought in and rapidly passed a Bill prohibiting loans to

foreign Powers, except by a licence from the king under the Privy Seal.

The Opposition raised a loud outcry, calling it "a Bill of Terrors," an

"eternal yoke on our fellow-subjects," and a "magnificent boon to the

Dutch." But Walpole very justly answered, "Shall British merchants be

permitted to lend their money against the British nation? Shall they

arm an enemy with strength and assist him with supplies?"

In the midst of this prosperous career the two brothers-in-law, the

Ministers, began to differ in their views, and Lord Townshend was

soon driven by the overbearing conduct of Walpole to resign. Lady

Townshend, the sister of Walpole, and even Queen Caroline, exerted

their influence for some time to put an end to these feuds; but Lady

Townshend soon died, and the queen, finding the breach inevitable, took

the side of Walpole as the more indispensable servant of the Crown.

There were serious topics on which Townshend and Walpole differed,

both domestic and foreign. Townshend did not approve of the length

to which matters were carried against the Emperor, and he was weary

of the timid temper of the Duke of Newcastle, and strongly urged his

dismissal, and the employment of Lord Chesterfield in his place; but a

Pension Bill brought the quarrel to a crisis. The object of the Bill,

which was warmly supported by the Opposition, was to prevent any man

holding a pension, or who had any office held in trust for him, from

sitting in Parliament. The king privately styled it "a villainous Bill,

which ought to be torn to pieces in every particular." Both Walpole

and Townshend were of the same opinion; but Townshend was for openly

opposing it, Walpole for letting it pass the Commons, and be thrown

out in the Lords. Townshend, to whom the odium of rejecting it was

thus carried in the Lords, protested against this disingenuous conduct

on the part of Walpole, and assured him that the trick would soon be

fully observed, and bring more unpopularity on him in the end than a

manly, open opposition--which it did.

The temper of Townshend was warm, though his nature was upright; and in

this mood, a discussion taking place on foreign affairs at the house of

Colonel Selwyn, the dispute became so heated that Walpole declared that

he did not believe what Townshend was saying. The indignant Townshend

seized Walpole by the collar, and they both grasped their swords. Mrs.

Selwyn shrieked for assistance, and the incensed relatives were parted;

but they never could be reconciled, and, after making another effort

to obtain the dismissal of Newcastle, and to maintain his own position

against the overbearing Walpole, Townshend resigned on the 16th of

May. He retired to Reynham, and passed the remainder of his life in

rural pursuits. One of the greatest benefits which he conferred on this

country he conferred after his retirement--that of introducing the

turnip from Germany.

On the retirement of Townshend, Walpole reigned supreme and without a

rival in the Cabinet. Henry Pelham was made Secretary at War; Compton

Earl of Wilmington Privy Seal. He left foreign affairs chiefly to

Stanhope, now Lord Harrington, and to the Duke of Newcastle, impressing

on them by all means to avoid quarrels with foreign Powers, and

maintain the blessings of peace. With all the faults of Walpole, this

was the praise of his political system, which system, on the meeting

of Parliament in the spring of 1731, was violently attacked by Wyndham

and Pulteney, on the plea that we were making ruinous treaties, and

sacrificing British interests, in order to benefit Hanover, the eternal

millstone round the neck of England. Pulteney and Bolingbroke carried

the same attack into the pages of _The Craftsman_, but they failed to

move Walpole, or to shake his power.

The cause of the Pretender sank in proportion to the peace throughout

Europe and the prosperity at home. From 1728 to 1740 it was at a very

low ebb, and lost the few marked men who had moved in it. Three of the

chief leaders died about this time--Mar, Wharton, and Atterbury. So

low was the Jacobite interest now fallen, that Sir Robert Walpole said

that, if ever the Stuarts came again, it must be through the lowest

people, for the chiefs were all dead or discouraged.

[Illustration: WALPOLE'S QUARREL WITH TOWNSHEND. (_See p._ 60.)]

Such was the peace abroad and the prosperity of the country at this

time, that there occur few events worthy of record. Of those which

took place in 1731, the most remarkable was an Act abolishing the use

of Latin in all proceedings of the Courts of Justice, and the next the

renewal of the charter of the East India Company. If the country was

peaceful and prosperous, however, it was neither free from corruption

nor from the need of extensive reform. The very system of Walpole which

produced such a show of prosperity that an old Scottish Secretary of

State asked the Minister what he had done to make the Almighty so much

his friend, was built on the most wholesale bribery and corruption. It

was, in fact, a purchased domestic peace. In social life the example

of the Government produced the like dishonesty. There was a fearful

revelation of the proceedings of a charitable corporation for lending

small sums of money to the industrious poor at legal interest; and

Sir Robert Sutton, the late Ambassador at Paris, was found so deeply

implicated in the frauds and extortions practised on those they were

employed to benefit, that he was expelled from the House. There was

also an inquiry into the state of the public prisons of London, which

opened up a most amazing scene of horrors. It was found to be a common

practice of the warders to connive at the escape of rich prisoners for

a sufficient bribe, and to inflict the most oppressive cruelties on

those who were too poor to pay heavy fees.

The year 1732 was distinguished by little of importance. The

Opposition, led on by Pulteney, attacked the Treaty of Vienna,

concluded on March 16th, 1731, by which the Pragmatic Sanction had

been approved of, and which, they contended, might lead us into a

Continental war some day, or into a breach of the public faith, of

which, they asserted, this Ministry had perpetrated too many already.

They assailed the standing army, but were answered that there was yet a

Pretender, and many men capable of plotting and caballing against the

Crown. The King was so incensed at Pulteney for his strictures on the

army, that he struck his name out of the list of Privy Councillors, and

ordered that all commissions of the peace which he held in different

counties should be revoked. Amongst the staunchest supporters of the

Government was Lord Hervey, a young man of ability who is now best

remembered because, having offended Pope, he was, according to custom,

pilloried by the contentious poet, as Sporus in the Epistle to Dr.

Arbuthnot. Pope nicknamed him Lord Fanny, in derision of his dainty and

effeminate manners. Hervey contended that the writers who attacked

Government ought to be put down by force, and in his own person he

attempted to put this in practice; for Pulteney being suspected by him

of having written a scarifying article on him in _The Craftsman_, he

challenged him, and both combatants were wounded. Plumer very justly

contended that scribblers ought to be left to other scribblers.

In the Parliamentary session of 1733 Walpole produced another scheme

for increasing the revenue and lessening the burdens upon land, which

was an extension of the Excise. The Excise duties were first levied

under the Commonwealth; they had now reached three millions two hundred

thousand pounds annually. It was whilst the public were feeling the

gradual increase of this item of taxation very sensibly, that they

were alarmed by the news, which the Opposition sounded abroad with

all diligence, that Ministers were about immediately to bring fresh

articles under the operation of this tax, which was levied on articles

of popular consumption. "A general crisis is coming!" was the cry. "A

tax on all articles of consumption! a burthen to grind the country to

powder! a plot to overthrow the Constitution and establish in its place

a baleful tyranny!" The Opposition had now got a most popular subject

of attack on the Ministry, and it prosecuted it vigorously.

Sir Robert Walpole was not a man, with his huge standing majority, to

be readily frightened from his purpose. On the 14th of March, 1733, he

brought forward his project in a speech in which he put forth all his

ability, and that under a well-maintained air of moderation. He took

advantage of the alarm that the tax was to be general, by representing

the falsity of that declaration, and the very slight and limited nature

of his real proposal. Adverting to what he called the common slander of

his having intended to propose a general excise, he said: "I do most

unequivocally assert that no such scheme ever entered my head, or, for

what I know, the head of any man I am acquainted with. My thoughts have

been confined solely to the duties on wine and tobacco; and it was

the frequent advices I had of the shameful frauds committed in these

two branches that turned my attention to a remedy for this growing

evil. I shall for the present confine myself to the tobacco trade."

He then detailed the various frauds on the revenue in tobacco, which

he stated were of such extent and frequency, that the gross average

produce of the tax was seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds, but

the nett average only a hundred and sixty thousand pounds. The remedy

which he proposed was to transfer this revenue from the Customs to the

Excise. That the same might afterwards be applied to wine, a system of

warehousing for re-exportation or placing in bond was proposed, which,

he said, "would tend to make London a free port, and, by consequence,

the market of the world." He held out the expectation that the success

of this plan would render the land tax unnecessary, and thus enable the

Government to dispense with it entirely.

Walpole ridiculed the notion which had gone abroad that the revenue

officers would be increased into quite a standing army, and would

endanger the common liberty by their being empowered to enter private

dwellings to search for concealed excisable articles. He said the

increase would be only a hundred and twenty-six persons and that the

Customs now possessed more searching power than he proposed to give to

the Excise.

Whilst the debate was proceeding, great crowds gathered round the

House, and became even more numerous and more agitated. Walpole,

irritated by the persuasion that these throngs were collected by

the arts of the Opposition, threw out a remark which he afterwards

deeply repented. He said gentlemen might call themselves what they

liked, but he knew whom the law called "Sturdy Beggars." This phrase,

carried out of doors, highly incensed the crowd, who considered that

it was meant to cast contempt on the people at large. At two o'clock

in the morning, and after thirteen hours' debate, on division there

appeared two hundred and sixty-six for the measure, and two hundred and

five against. The great increase of the minority struck Walpole with

surprise and alarm.

When the resolutions of the Committee were reported two days

afterwards, the debate was renewed with all its vehemence, and

Pulteney unveiled another view of the case, which had much real truth

and warning in it. "It is well known," he said, "that every one of

the public officers have already so many boroughs or corporations

which they look on as their properties. There are some boroughs which

are called Treasury boroughs; there are others which may be called

Admiralty boroughs; in short, it may be said that nearly all the towns

upon the sea-coast are already seized upon, and in a manner taken

prisoners by the officers of the Crown. In most of them they have

so great an influence that none can be chosen members of Parliament

but such as they are pleased to recommend. But, as the Customs are

confined to our seaports, as they cannot travel far from the coast,

therefore this scheme seems to be contrived in order to extend the laws

of Excise, and thereby to extend the influence of the Crown over all

the inland towns and corporations of England."

Despite these representations, however, the resolutions were confirmed

by the same majority as before. Other debates succeeded on the second

reading of the Bill, but the majority on these gradually sank from

sixty to sixteen. As the storm grew instead of abated, the queen

demanded of Lord Scarborough what he thought of it, and he replied,

"The Bill must be relinquished. I will answer for my regiment against

the Pretender, but not against the opposers of the Excise." "Then,"

said the queen, "we must drop it." Sir Robert summoned his majority,

and requested their opinion, and they proposed to go on, observing that

all taxes were obnoxious, and that it would not do to be daunted by a

mob. But Walpole felt that he must yield. He declared that he was not

disposed to enforce it at the point of the bayonet, and on the 11th of

April, on the order of the day for the second reading, he moved that

the measure should be postponed for two months. Thus the whole affair

dropped. The usually triumphant Minister found himself defeated by

popular opinion. The Opposition were hardly satisfied to allow this

obnoxious Bill thus to slip quietly away; but out-of-doors there was

rejoicing enough to satisfy them.

The depth of Walpole's mortification, however, was shown by the

vengeance he took on those who had opposed him. This fell with peculiar

weight on Lord Chesterfield. Chesterfield had acquired a great

reputation by his able management of affairs at the Hague. Since his

return he had become Lord Steward of the Household, and a frequent and

much admired debater in the House. But Chesterfield was too ambitious

himself to stoop patiently to the domineering temper of Walpole. He was

said to have thrown out some keen sarcasms at Walpole's Excise Bill,

and his three brothers in the Commons voted against it. Only two days

after the abandonment of the Bill, as Chesterfield was ascending the

staircase at St. James's, he was stopped by an attendant, and summoned

home to surrender the White Staff. The same punishment was dealt out

to a number of noblemen who acted in concert with him. Lord Clinton,

a Lord of the Bedchamber, the Earl of Burlington, Captain of the Band

of Pensioners, were dismissed, as well as the Duke of Montrose, and

the Earls of Marchmont and Stair from offices held in Scotland. The

Duke of Bolton and Lord Cobham were, by a most unjustifiable stretch of

authority, deprived of their regiments.

In 1734 England was the witness of war raging in different parts of

Europe without having any concern in it, generally known as the War

of the Polish Succession. A sharp Parliamentary campaign had been

conducted at home. The Opposition talked loudly of the lamentable and

calamitous situation of England, because she was wise enough to keep

out of the war. Their motions were all guided by the secret hand of

Bolingbroke, whose restless and rancorous mind could not brook that

partial obscurity to which he was doomed by the immovable spirit of

Walpole. But the grand attack was on the Septennial Act. This was a

delicate subject for the Whigs in Opposition, for they, and Pulteney

especially, had, in 1716, supported this Act with many specious

arguments. But Wyndham led the way again with amazing eloquence, and

discharged a philippic against Walpole of such ruthless and scathing

vigour, as must have annihilated a less adamantine man.

"Let us suppose," said Wyndham, "a man abandoned to all notions of

virtue and honour; of no great family, and but of a mean fortune,

raised to be chief Minister of State by the concurrence of many

whimsical events; afraid or unwilling to trust any but creatures of

his own making, lost to all sense of shame and reputation, ignorant of

his country's true interest, pursuing no aim but that of aggrandising

himself and his favourites; in foreign affairs trusting none but

those who, from the nature of their education, cannot possibly be

qualified for the service of their country, or give weight and credit

to their negotiations; let us suppose the true interest of the nation

by such means neglected, or misunderstood, her honour tarnished, her

importance lost, her trade insulted, her merchants plundered, and

her sailors murdered; and all these circumstances overlooked, lest

his administration should be endangered. Suppose him next possessed

of immense wealth, the plunder of the nation, with a Parliament

chiefly composed of members whose seats are purchased, and whose votes

are bought at the expense of public treasure. In such a Parliament

suppose attempts made to inquire into his conduct, or to relieve

the nation from the distress which has been entailed upon it by his

administration. Suppose him screened by a corrupt majority of his

creatures, whom he retains in daily pay, or engages in his particular

interest by distributing among them those posts and places which

ought never to be bestowed upon any but for the good of the public.

Let him plume himself upon his scandalous victory because he has

obtained a Parliament like a packed jury, ready to acquit him at all

adventures. Let us suppose him domineering with insolence over all

the men of ancient families, over all the men of sense, figure, or

fortune in the nation; as he has no virtue of his own, ridiculing it

in others, and endeavouring to destroy or corrupt it in all. With such

a Minister and such a Parliament, let us suppose a case which I hope

will never happen--a prince upon the throne, uninformed, ignorant, and

unacquainted with the inclinations and true interests of his people;

weak, capricious, transported with unbounded ambition, and possessed

with insatiable avarice. I hope such a case will never occur; but,

as it possibly may, could any greater curse happen to a nation than

such a prince on the throne, advised, and solely advised, by such a

Minister, and that Minister supported by such a Parliament?" By those

who have considered the extent to which Walpole carried the system of

corrupting the representatives of the people, and thus ruling at his

own will, and not by the sanction of the public opinion and feeling,

this severe portrait of him can scarcely be considered as exaggerated.

Walpole, no doubt, felt it deeply, but feeling, too, whence the attack

really came--namely, from the armoury of Bolingbroke--he passed Wyndham

lightly over, and emptied the burning vial of his indignation on the

concealed foe, in a not less vigorous and graphic strain.

On the 16th of April Parliament was dissolved and the elections were

conducted with immense party heat. Each side did all in its power, by

fair means and foul, to increase its adherents. Sir Robert used the

persuasives for which he became so famous, that he boasted "every man

had his price," and if we are to believe the journals of the day, the

Opposition were not at all behind him, as far as their ability went.

They made ample use, too, of the Septennial Act, the Riot Act, the

Excise scheme, and the unrecompensed commercial claims on Spain. They

declared the neutrality preserved under such circumstances disgraceful

to the country, though they would have been the first to have denounced

Ministers had they gone to war. They gained several seats, but when

the Parliament met in January, 1735, it was soon discovered that,

though less, the majority was as steady as ever, and the Opposition

having tried their strength against it for a few times, became greatly

depressed for a while. Bolingbroke quitted the country, and settled

himself at Chanteloup, in Lorraine.

[Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. S. Hildesheimer & Co., Ltd._

GREENWICH HOSPITAL

FROM THE PICTURE BY T. R. HARDY.]

[Illustration: SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.]

Whilst these affairs had been taking place in England, the Emperor had

been finding himself less and less able to contend against France and

Spain. He had in vain exerted himself to engage the Dutch and English

in his quarrel. He called upon them as bound by the faith of treaties;

he represented the balance of power for which both Holland and England

had made such sacrifices, as more in danger than ever; but none of

these pleas moving Walpole or the Dutch, he threatened to withdraw his

troops from the Netherlands, and make over that country to France. The

threat of the Emperor did not move Walpole; he knew too well that it

was but a threat. The Emperor, therefore, was now compelled to come

to terms. A treaty was to be entered into under the mediation of the

maritime Powers. As Fleury and Walpole, too, were bent on peace, they

submitted to all the delays and punctilios of the diplomatists, and

finally were rewarded by a peace being concluded between the different

parties on these terms:--Don Carlos was to retain Naples and Sicily,

but he was to resign the possession of Parma and the reversion of

Tuscany; of the claimants to the Polish Crown, Augustus was to remain

King of Poland, and Stanislaus was to receive, as an equivalent, the

Duchy of Lorraine, which, after his decease, was to devolve to the

Crown of France. This was an aim which France had had in view for

ages, but which neither the genius of Richelieu nor of Mazarin could

accomplish. It was rendered comparatively easy now, as the young Duke

of Lorraine was about to marry the Empress's only child, the Princess

Maria Theresa, and thus to succeed through her to the Empire. Yet

the Duke ceded his patrimonial territory with extreme regret, and

not till he had received in return the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and a

pension from France. The regnant Grand Duke of Tuscany, the last of

the Medicis, was on the verge of death, and his decease took place in

less than two years, when the Duke of Lorraine was put in possession.

France and Sardinia gave their guarantee to the Pragmatic Sanction, and

Sardinia obtained, in consequence, Novara, Tortona, and some adjoining

districts. England appears to have looked on with strange apathy at

this aggrandisement of France by the acquisition of Lorraine, but

it was impossible to prevent it, except by a great war, and Walpole

was not disposed for even a little one. This treaty is known as the

Definitive Peace of Vienna (Nov. 8, 1738).

As harmony was restored on the Continent, so harmony characterised, to

a wonderful degree, the opening of the British Parliament in January,

1736. The king felicitated the country on the happy turn which affairs

had taken on the Continent, and said "that he trusted the same peace

and goodwill would manifest themselves in the domestic affairs of the

realm." All appeared likely to realise this wish. A congratulatory

address was carried without a division, and without a syllable of

dissent. But the peace was hollow--the calm only preceded a storm.

The first debate arose on the subject of drunkenness and gin.

Drunkenness had of late years appeared to grow rapidly, and to assume

more horrible features from the increasing use of gin. Sir Joseph

Jekyll proposed in committee that a heavy tax should be laid on this

pernicious liquor, which should put it out of the reach of the working

classes--namely, a duty of twenty shillings per gallon on all sold

retail, and fifty pounds yearly for the licence to every retailer.

This benevolent man had not arrived at the truth, that to tax a crime

is only to stop up one vent of it, and to occasion its bursting out in

half a dozen other places. Sir Robert Walpole saw this clearly, and

though he would not oppose the Bill for this purpose, he predicted

that Parliament would soon be called upon to modify its provisions.

The small duties heretofore levied on this article had brought in

about seventy thousand pounds annually, and, as the Excise had been

made over to the Crown, this sum went to the Civil List. Walpole

demanded, therefore, that whatever deficiency of this sum should be

produced by the new regulations should be made up to the Civil List.

The whole measure excited great clamour out of doors. It was regarded

as an invidious attempt to abridge the comforts of the people, whilst

those of the wealthy remained untouched. The clause proposed by Walpole

to protect the revenue was assailed with much fury both in and out of

the House. It was said that the Minister was quite indifferent to the

morals of the people on the one hand, or to their enjoyment on the

other, so that the revenue did not suffer.

The session of Parliament closing on the 26th of May, George took

his annual trip to Hanover, leaving, as usual, the queen to act as

Regent. She found her duties this year by no means light. Everyone

is acquainted with the Porteous Riots, as they are described by the

inimitable pen of Sir Walter Scott in "The Heart of Midlothian." The

simple historic facts are these:--Two noted smugglers from Fife, Wilson

and Robertson, were condemned to death for a robbery, and were confined

in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh. They made a determined effort to effect

their escape before the day of execution. Wilson, who would go first,

being a man of a corpulent though very powerful build, wedged himself

fast in the window, and could neither get out nor draw back again.

He was found thus in the morning, and the two prisoners were again

secured. Wilson lamented that by his own eagerness he had prevented

Robertson from going first, who, from his slenderer person, could

easily have escaped. Before execution it was the custom at that period

in Scotland to conduct the prisoners about to suffer, under a strong

guard, to church. This being done in the case of these two men, just as

the service was concluded, Wilson suddenly laid hold of two of the four

soldiers who guarded them, called out to Robertson to run for his life,

and detained the third soldier by seizing him by the collar with his

teeth. He escaped, and was never seen in Edinburgh again. This daring

scheme, so cleverly executed, raised the admiration of the bravery

and magnanimity of Wilson to the highest pitch. At his execution

the soldiers were attacked with stones. Porteous, who commanded the

guard, fired upon the mob. For this he was condemned to death, but was

reprieved by Queen Caroline after full inquiry. The people in fury

attacked the Tolbooth, the magistrates and the commander of the troops

were afraid to act, the prison was broken open, and Porteous hanged

on a barber's pole. All attempts to discover the perpetrators of the

outrage failed.

But the more the mystery, the greater was the rage of the English

Government. On the opening of the Session of Parliament for 1737,

a Bill was brought in of a most frantic and unwise character:--"To

abolish the charter of the City of Edinburgh, to rase the city

gates, disband the City Guard, and declare Mr. Wilson, the Provost,

incapable of again holding any public office." Nothing so furious

and unstatesmanlike could ever have been imagined possible in the

eighteenth century. Witnesses were called to the bar of both Houses,

and amongst them three Scottish judges, in their robes, were subjected

to a sharp cross-examination. Nothing, however, could be elicited

except some degree of carelessness on the part of the city magistrates.

The Scottish nation, with its usual spirit, highly resented the menaces

of this impolitic Bill. The Duke of Argyll in the Lords, and various

members of the Commons, denounced it as equally insulting and unjust.

They were zealously supported by many English members, especially by

Wyndham and Sir John Barnard, and the Bill gradually shrank into an

Act disabling Mr. Provost Wilson from holding any office in future,

and fining the city two thousand pounds for the benefit of the widow

of Captain Porteous; and, alluding to her original station, it was

jocosely said, therefore, that all this terrible menace ended in making

the fortune of an old cookmaid.

The attention of the public was now again drawn to those unnatural

feuds which disturbed the Royal Family. The exhibition of domestic

discord and hatred in the House of Hanover had, from its first

ascension of the throne, been most odious and revolting. The quarrels

of the king and his son, like those of the first two Georges, had

begun in Hanover, and had been imported along with them only to assume

greater malignancy in foreign and richer soil. The Prince of Wales,

whilst still in Germany, had formed a strong attachment to the Princess

Royal of Prussia. George forbade the connection. The prince was

instantly summoned to England, where he duly arrived in 1728.

The prince found in the Opposition in England the most unfortunate

fosterers of his unfilial temper. Pulteney, Wyndham, Chesterfield,

Carteret, Cobham, and, worst of all, Bolingbroke, became his

associates, and the frequenters of his house. Fast ripening into a

pattern of unfilial popularity under such influences, possessing some

accomplishments, and a desire to stand well with the people, he married

in April, 1736, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, a princess of so much beauty

and good sense, as might have reclaimed many a nature; who seems to

have at least won the heart of her husband from his former romantic

passion. It was an ominous circumstance, however, that the address

of congratulation on this occasion was moved, not by the king's own

Ministers, but by the king's own Opposition. Pulteney was the mover,

and it was supported by two young men who that evening made their first

speeches, and in them burst suddenly forth with that splendour which

was destined to grow transcendent through many years. They were Pitt,

afterwards Lord Chatham, and Lord Lyttelton.

Scarcely was the Prince married, when he began to complain of his

limited income. His father, as Prince of Wales, had been allowed one

hundred thousand pounds from the Civil List, which then was only seven

hundred thousand pounds, but he now received only fifty thousand pounds

from a Civil List of eight hundred thousand pounds. Bolingbroke, two

years before, on leaving England, told the prince, as his parting

advice, to apply to Parliament, without any regard to the king, for a

permanent income of one hundred thousand pounds a year. Under these

circumstances, Walpole persuaded the king to send a message to the

prince, offering to settle a large jointure on the princess, and to

make the prince's own income independent of his father. Here the prince

ought to have yielded; if he had been either politic or well-disposed,

he would have done so. The king was at this time very ill, and his

physicians declared that if he did not alter soon, he could not live

a twelvemonth. This circumstance of itself would have touched any

young man of the least natural feeling, to say nothing of policy; for,

if the king died, there was an end of the question--the prince would

be king himself. But he was now in such a temper that he would not

listen to the royal proposal; and the next day, the 22nd of February,

1737, Pulteney made his motion in the House of Commons for an address

beseeching the king to settle upon the prince a hundred thousand pounds

a year, and promising that the House would enable him effectually to

do so. What was still stranger, it was seconded by Sir John Barnard.

The Commons were not willing to run counter to a prince apparently on

the point of ascending the throne, and Walpole would have found himself

in a minority had Wyndham, as he hoped, brought the Tories to vote for

the prince. But forty-five Jacobites, who could not bring themselves

to vote for an heir of the House of Hanover, though they would by

that have done a serious mischief to the Hanoverian usurper, as they

styled him, rose in a body and quitted the House. On the division,

the Ministerial party amounted to two hundred and thirty-four, the

Opposition to only two hundred and four--being a majority for Ministers

of exactly thirty. The next day the same motion was made in the Lords

by Carteret, but was rejected by a large majority--one hundred and

three to forty.

This decided repulse ought to have shown the prince the violence that

he was doing to the public sense of decency, and the mischief to his

own character; but the disappointment only the more embittered him and

increased his miserable obstinacy. Time had no effect in abating his

unnatural resentment. Though this parliamentary decision took place

in February, he continued so much in the same temper, that the very

last day of the following May, his wife being seized with symptoms of

labour, he suddenly determined to remove her from Hampton Court, where

all the Royal Family then were, and hurry her off to London.

Fortunately, the princess was safely delivered at St. James's (June

4), though the house was unprepared for such an emergency--the rooms

and beds being unaired, and there being no adequate suite of servants.

The moment that the king heard of this extraordinary conduct of the

prince, he despatched Walpole and Lord Harrington to attend the birth,

but they were too late. After that the king repulsed all the prince's

advances towards a reconciliation. Frederick betook himself to Norfolk

House, St. James's Square, and there all the opponents of his father's

Government collected around him. The prince was now the head and centre

of the Opposition himself.

This open breach of the Royal Family was quickly followed by the death

of the queen. Besides the misery of seeing her son and husband so

awfully at variance, she had long been struggling with a complaint

which, out of false delicacy, she had carefully concealed. "The queen's

great secret," says Horace Walpole, "was her own rupture, which, till

her last illness, nobody knew but the king, her German nurse, Mrs.

Mailborne, and one other person, Lady Sundon."

She continued till nearly the last to hide from the surgeons the real

cause of her sufferings, and was treated by the medical men for gout in

the stomach. When the secret was at length disclosed, it was too late;

though one of the surgeons declared that, if they had been informed two

days earlier, they could have saved her.

Admirable as was the character of Caroline, she has been accused

of retaining her resentment against her son to the last. Pope and

Chesterfield affirm that she died refusing to see or forgive her

son; but Ford, though he says she would not see him, states that she

"heartily forgave him"; and Horace Walpole says she not only forgave

him, but would have seen him, but that she feared to irritate her

husband. To Sir Robert Walpole she expressed her earnest hope that he

would continue to serve the king as faithfully as he had done, and,

curiously enough, recommended the king to him, not him to the king. She

died on the 20th of November, perhaps more lamented by Walpole than by

her own husband (though, as Lord Hervey tells us, George was bitterly

affected), for Walpole well knew how much her strong sense and superior

feeling had tended to keep the king right, which he could not hope for

when she was gone. The king appeared to lament her loss considerably

for a time, that is, till consoled by his mistress, the Countess of

Walmoden, whom he had kept for a long time at Hanover, and now soon

brought over to England. He sent for her picture when she was dead,

shut himself up with it some hours, and declared, on reappearing, that

he never knew the woman worthy to buckle her shoe.

On the opening of Parliament, in January, 1738, a desperate effort

was made by the Opposition at once to reduce the army and to kindle

a war with Spain. Walpole proposed to place the army on a footing of

seventeen thousand men. The "Patriots," as they were called, voted to

reduce the number to twelve thousand. Walpole, exasperated at their

factious conduct, launched an indignant sarcasm at them, which produced

so much effect that they did not venture to divide on the motion. "No

man of common sense," said Walpole, "will now profess himself openly a

Jacobite; by so doing he not only may injure his private fortune, but

must render himself less able to do any effectual service to the cause

he has embraced; therefore there are but few such men in the kingdom.

Your right Jacobite, sir, disguises his true sentiments. He roars

out for revolutionary principles; he pretends to be a great friend to

liberty and a great admirer of our ancient Constitution; and under this

pretence there are numbers who every day endeavour to sow discontent

among the people."

[Illustration: THE PORTEOUS MOB. (_See p._ 67.) [_After the Painting by

James Drummond, R.S.A._]]

Defeated in this object, the Patriots united all their force to embroil

us with Spain. There were many causes in our commercial relations with

Spain which led to violent discontent amongst our merchants. They

found the trade with the Spanish settlements in America exceedingly

profitable, but they had no right, beyond a very limited extent, to

trade there. The Spaniards, though they winked at many encroachments,

repressed others which exceeded these with considerable vigour. Their

Coastguard insisted on boarding and searching our vessels which

intruded into their waters, to discover whether they were bringing

merchandise or were prepared to carry away colonial produce. By the

treaty of 1670 Spain had recognised the British colonies in North

America, and England had agreed that her ships should not enter the

ports of the Spanish colonies except from stress of weather, or with an

especial licence from the Spanish Government to trade. By the treaty

of 1729 we had agreed to the old regulations regarding trading to

the Spanish Main, namely, that we should have the Assiento, or right

of supplying these colonies with slaves, and that, besides this, we

should only send one ship annually to the Spanish West Indies and South

America. As fast as that authorised ship discharged its cargo in a

Spanish port, she received fresh supplies of goods over her larboard

side from other vessels which had followed in her wake, and thus poured

unlimited quantities of English goods into the place. Other English

traders did not approach too near the Spanish coasts, but were met in

certain latitudes by South American smugglers, who there received their

goods and carried them into port. In short, such a system of contraband

trade was carried on in these waters by our merchants, that English

goods in abundance found their way all over the Spanish American

regions, and the great annual fair for goods imported from or by Spain

dwindled into insignificance.

It was no wonder that Spain, feeling the serious effects of this

state of things, should resist it; and when she did so, and exerted

an unusual degree of vigilance, then the most terrible outcries were

raised, and wonderful stories were circulated of Spanish cruelties to

our people beyond the Atlantic. At this time the Opposition got hold

of one of these, and made the House of Commons and the nation resound

with it. It was, that one Captain Robert Jenkins, who had been master

of a sloop trading from Jamaica, had been boarded and searched by a

Coastguard, and treated in a most barbarous manner, though they could

detect no proof of smuggling in his vessel. He said that the Spanish

captain had cut off one of his ears, bidding him carry it to his king,

and tell his Majesty that if he were present he would treat him in the

same manner. This story was now seven years old, but it was not the

less warmly received on that account. It excited the utmost horror, and

Jenkins was ordered to appear at the bar of the House of Commons on the

16th of March, to give an account of the outrage himself; and it would

appear that both he and other witnesses were examined the same day.

Jenkins carried his ear about with him wrapped in cotton, to show to

those to whom he related the fact, and the indignation was intense. He

was asked by a member how he felt when he found himself in the hands

of such barbarians, and he replied, "I recommended my soul to God, and

my cause to my country." The worthy skipper had probably been crammed

with this dramatic sentiment by some of his clever Parliamentary

introducers; but its effect was all the same as if it had been a

genuine and involuntary expression of his own mind. Researches made at

the Admiralty in 1889 proved that he really had lost an ear.

And, in truth, everything now seemed to run counter to Walpole, and to

tend towards war. His colleague, the Duke of Newcastle, who had been

one of the most obsequious of subordinates both under Stanhope and

Walpole, now thought he should serve himself decidedly by advocating

war. The king was naturally of a martial turn; he had won some military

repute in his youth, and he was no longer under the exceedingly

sensible guidance of the queen. Newcastle, therefore, probably in the

hope of supplanting Walpole, fostered this spirit in the king, and took

advantage of it to recommend warlike measures in the Cabinet, and to

send despatches to the British ambassadors in Spain, which but for the

energy and wisdom of Walpole might have done irreparable mischief, and

which rendered the negotiations extremely difficult. Lord Chancellor

Hardwicke and Lord Harrington arrayed themselves on the same side, and

blew the war-note in the House of Lords with unrestrained zeal. There

was a time when Walpole would have had these antagonistic colleagues

dismissed; but both he and they saw too well that there was such a

strong war spirit in both king and people, that no such thing was

possible. He therefore pursued his efforts with the Court of Spain for

peaceable conclusions, at the same time that he fell in so far with

the belligerent spirit as to make active preparations as if for an

encounter. This, however, was his last and most powerful argument for

peace--an argument meant to tell on the fears, as he could not reach a

spirit of conciliation in the Spaniards.

He despatched a squadron of ten ships of the line to the Mediterranean,

under Admiral Haddock; another strong squadron sailed for the West

Indies; letters of marque and reprisal were issued to the merchants;

and troops and stores were forwarded to Georgia, which the Spaniards

had threatened to invade. He gave directions to all merchants in

Spanish ports to register their goods with a public notary in case of a

rupture. These measures produced a rapid change of tone at the Spanish

Court. On comparing the demands on both sides for damages sustained in

commerce, there appeared a balance in favour of England of two hundred

thousand pounds. Against this, the Spaniards demanded sixty thousand

pounds in compensation for the ships taken by Admiral Byng in 1718--a

claim which Stanhope would never allow, but which had been recognised

in the Treaty of Seville, and was now, therefore, acknowledged. This

reduced the sum to a hundred and forty thousand pounds, which the

Spanish Court proposed should be paid by assignments on the American

revenues. This, the Ministers were well aware, might involve the most

endless delays and uncertainties, and they certainly showed a most

conceding spirit by allowing a deduction of forty-five thousand pounds

for prompt payment at Madrid. The sum was now reduced to ninety-five

thousand pounds; and this being agreed to, a convention was signed on

the 14th of January, 1739.

In this Convention no mention was made of the right of search, and

various other matters were reserved for the consideration of the

plenipotentiaries. When the Convention was announced to Parliament by

the king in his opening speech, there arose a general denunciation of

it both in and out of Parliament. The right of search was declared

to be purposely sacrificed; the limits of Georgia were undefined;

and the Spanish captains in the West Indies were unpunished for all

their cruelties. That sixty thousand pounds should be allowed for

compensation for ships taken by Admiral Byng in 1718 was very justly

declared taxing us for our victories. In fact, Walpole, in this treaty,

seemed ready to give up everything to Spain, knowing, probably, how

hopeless it was to extract money from that country, and glad of an

excuse of any set-off against our claims as to the easiest way of

settling them. But all did not avail him. The more conceding he was to

the Spaniards the more immovable they became, whilst the public at home

were enraged at the tameness displayed by Ministers. Ministers found

their majority continually on the wane. On the division in the Commons

it had dwindled to twenty-eight, namely, two hundred and sixty votes

against two hundred and thirty-two.

But that there should be a majority at all on such a question brought

the Opposition to try an experiment which they had been for some

time planning. This was the absurd scheme of seceding in a body from

the House of Commons, on the plea that a paid and standing majority

rendered all reason and argument nugatory. In the course of his

farewell speech, Wyndham made use of such violent language, that Mr.

Pelham jumped up to move the commitment of the honourable member to

the Tower; but Walpole was too well aware that such a proceeding would

only have served the ends of the Opposition, rendering them martyrs to

their country's cause, and raising a vivid interest in their behalf. He

therefore stopped him, and said that the measures which that gentleman

and his friends might pursue gave him no uneasiness; on the contrary,

the House was much obliged to them for pulling off the mask. Relieved

of their presence, he now carried his measures in unopposed quiet.

Parliament, having so smoothly transacted its business, was prorogued

on the 14th of June, and Walpole then addressed himself to the

settlement of the Spanish difference. But here he found a spirit of

resistance which had undoubtedly grown from the invectives of the

Opposition. The outcries against the Spanish captains, the right of

search, and the payment of compensation for the ships taken by Byng,

had given great offence to the proud Spaniards. They were encouraged,

also, by the earnest manner in which Walpole had argued for peace.

They now assumed a high tone. They complained of the continuance of

the British fleet in the Mediterranean. They demanded the payment of

the sixty-eight thousand pounds which they said was due from the South

Sea Company, though it had been stipulated in the Convention that it

should not come into consideration.

Here all further progress became impossible. The Spaniards having

reduced their debt to less than one half the original sum, were

fighting stoutly to reduce it to nothing. There appeared no chance

but for arms to decide it. Cardinal Fleury, with his usual pacific

disposition, made an effort to avert the war by guaranteeing to

undertake the payment of the ninety-five thousand pounds by Spain,

provided that the British fleet was withdrawn from the Mediterranean.

But English spirit, even in Walpole, had now reached its limit of

patience. The king and the nation were equally in a mood for war.

Walpole, therefore, ceased to listen any longer to the Spanish

objections, but took his stand on the true British ground of resistance

to the right of search, and on that of an acknowledgment of all

British rights and claims in North America. Instead of withdrawing the

Mediterranean fleet, he ordered its reinforcement, sent Sir Chaloner

Ogle with fresh ships to the West Indies, and Sir John Norris was

ordered to put to sea with a third squadron. The above demands being

peremptorily made from the Court of Madrid, and being rejected, war

was proclaimed in London on the 19th of October. Walpole, who had

reluctantly resorted to this master evil, as he heard the rejoicings,

exclaimed, "They may ring the bells now, but they will soon be wringing

their hands!" The first symptoms of the consequences which the war was

likely to produce were seen in the new hopes which it awoke in the

ranks of the Jacobites. Large numbers of them met at Edinburgh, and

drew up a bond of association, pledging one another to take arms and

venture life and fortune for the restoration of the Stuart. On the

other hand, those nations on which England calculated for aid hung back

and remained neutral. The Dutch were bound to furnish certain troops

in case of war, and, before the declaration of it, Horace Walpole was

despatched by his brother to demand their production; but they pleaded

the menaces of France, which threatened them with invasion by fifty

thousand men if they assisted the English, and which held out to them

the prospect of their obtaining that trade to the Spanish colonies

which England had enjoyed. As for France herself, she assumed an air

rather ominous of war than of peace, and thus Britain was left alone in

the contest.

The war was scarcely begun when it was discovered that we had

proclaimed hostilities much before we were prepared to carry them out.

Our ships were badly manned, and therefore slow to put to sea, and the

more alert Spaniards were busy picking up our merchant vessels. Not

they only, but the French, Dutch, and other nations who had hoisted

Spanish colours, were making wide devastation amongst our trading

vessels. Walpole was compelled to issue letters of marque and licences

to swarms of privateers, which issued forth to make reprisals. The

Lords of the Admiralty, on the 1st of February, 1740, had ordered an

embargo on all shipping except coasters, so as at once to keep them

out of reach of the enemy, and to induce seamen to enter the navy; but

on the 28th of March a petition from merchants and owners of shipping

was presented, complaining of the hardships and the destruction of

trade by it. The Lords of the Admiralty contended that such had been

the complaints of injuries done at sea to our traders, that they had

been compelled to impose the embargo in the absence of sufficient hands

for men-of-war. They now took the embargo off foreign ships, and gave

notice to English owners that they would take it off altogether, on

condition that the owners and masters of vessels would enter into an

engagement to furnish a certain number of men to the navy in proportion

to the number of hands in each trader. This also was denounced as a

most oppressive measure, and the Opposition represented it as intended

to make the mercantile community sick of the war. Driven, however, to

extremities, Ministers would not listen to these arguments; a motion

was carried sanctioning this plan, and then the merchants came into it.

Such were the difficulties which Ministers had to contend with for

commencing the war at sea. In one particular, however, there was more

liberality; money was ungrudgingly voted; the land-tax was raised

from two to four shillings in the pound, and the Sinking Fund was so

freely resorted to, that the supplies altogether amounted to upwards

of four millions. During these discussions, news came on the 13th of

March, that on the 21st of November, 1739, Admiral Vernon had taken

Porto Bello from the Spaniards. This was good news for the Opposition,

for Vernon was one of their party, and a personal enemy of Walpole.

There were great rejoicings and the Lords sent down an address of

congratulation to the king, for the concurrence of the Commons. Yet

in this they could not avoid making a party matter of it, the address

stating that this glorious action had been performed with only six

ships, and thus to mark the contrast with the doings of Admiral Hosier

in those seas, and so to blacken his memory. The address was carried in

a thin House, but only by thirty-six against thirty-one, so that along

with the news went the comment to Vernon, that the Ministry begrudged

him his glory. Parliament was prorogued on the 29th of April, 1740, and

the king set off on his summer visit to Hanover.

[Illustration: GREAT SEAL OF GEORGE II.]

The turn of affairs on the Continent justified Walpole's gravest

apprehensions. France was discovered to have made a compact with

Spain, and once having taken this step, she displayed her usual

activity in every Court of Europe, to induce the allies to break

with England and prevent her from making new leagues. Walpole did

his best to counteract these French influences. He managed to secure

the Russian Court, before in connection with France, and subsidised

Sweden, Denmark, Hesse-Cassel, and some other of the German States.

But at this crisis (1740) died the savage old Frederick William of

Prussia, and his son Frederick now commenced that extraordinary

military career which obtained him the name of the Great. Temptingly

adjoining his own territory, the young king beheld that of an equally

young female sovereign, Maria Theresa of Austria, and he determined

to extend his kingdom at her expense. The mystery of Frederick's

movements was dissipated by his crossing, on the 23rd of December, the

Austrian frontiers into Silesia. It was seen that it was the favourable

opportunity of overpowering a weak neighbour which had tempted the

Prussian to break his engagement, and to endeavour to make himself

master of the domains of a defenceless young princess. But Frederick

brought out some antiquated claims on the province Of Silesia, and on

these he justified his breach of treaties. Maria Theresa applied, in

her alarm, to the Powers who had concurred in the Pragmatic Sanction,

but all except George II. fell away instantly from her. They believed

her incapable of defending her territories, and hoped to come in for a

share of the spoil. The Elector of Bavaria joined Prussia; Saxony did

the same; France was eager for the promised half of the winnings; and

Spain and Sardinia assured Frederick of their secret support. George

II., confounded by this universal defection, advised Maria Theresa to

compromise the affair with Prussia by giving up half Silesia, or the

whole, if necessary; but the high-spirited queen rejected the proposal

with scorn, and called on George to furnish the troops guaranteed by

England under the Pragmatic Sanction. George could, however, only

assemble some few soldiers on the Hanoverian frontier, but this obliged

Frederick to appropriate a considerable section of his army to guard

against any attack from Hanover.

The king, in his speech on opening Parliament, mentioned the fleets

which we had dispatched to the West Indies and South America, and his

determination to continue those armaments so as to bring Spain to

reason. He professed to rely with confidence on our allies, although

we had scarcely one left, whilst in the same breath he admitted the

no longer doubtful hostility of France at the very moment that our

only ally--namely, Austria--was calling on us for assistance, instead

of being able to yield us any, should we need it. On the proposal of

the address, the Opposition proceeded to condemn the whole management

of the war. The Duke of Argyll led the way, and was followed by

Chesterfield, Carteret, Bathurst, and others, in a strain of extreme

virulence against Walpole, calling him a Minister who for almost twenty

years had been demonstrating that he had neither wisdom nor conduct.

In the Commons Wyndham was no longer living to carry on the Opposition

warfare, but Pitt and Lyttelton more than supplied his place.

The storm grew every day more violent, and on the 11th of February,

1741, Sandys, who had acquired the name of "the Motion Maker,"

announced that he intended to make a motion for a direct condemnation

of the Minister, and for his removal from office. On the following

Friday Sandys made his threatened motion of condemnation. The

surprise of the debate occurred when Shippen--"the thorough Shippen,"

as he was called--said that he would not join in the ruin of the

assailed Minister. He declared that he never followed any dictates of

self-interest, and cared little who was in or out, unless he could see

a prospect of different measures; but that he regarded this movement

only as the attempt to turn out one Administration in order to bring

another in. He would therefore have no concern in it, and with that he

withdrew, followed by thirty-four of his party. All Prince Frederick's

servants and party also, except Lyttelton, Pitt, and Granville, left

the House; so that, though there were more than five hundred members

present at the commencement of the debate, when the question came to be

put there were not above four hundred.

It is said that Sir Robert had, some time before, addressed a letter

to the Pretender with the object of softening the asperity of his

partisans in England, and that this had so raised the hopes of James,

that Walpole was actually intending to come round, that he had

ordered his followers to avoid anything which should shake his power.

Whatever the cause, the fact was striking, and the Opposition having

concluded its onslaught upon him, he rose to make his reply. It was an

occasion which demanded the utmost exertion of his powers, and he put

them forth. Walpole's speech on this day has justly been deemed his

masterpiece. It was four o'clock in the morning when he concluded his

masterly defence, and the motion was instantly rejected by two hundred

and ninety votes against one hundred and six. The immediate effect

of the attack appeared to be to strengthen the Minister, and that

considerably; his _levée_ the next morning was more crowded than had

ever been known, and he seemed to sway the Cabinet with uncontrolled

power. But thinking men predicted that the blow would tell in the end,

when the momentary enthusiasm had gone off; and Walpole himself seemed

to be of the same opinion. The attack, in truth, was but the first

outbreak of the storm which, kept up by the implacable spirit of a

powerful Opposition, was sure to bear him down at last.

Whilst this powerful confederacy was putting forth all its strength

to drive from the seat of supremacy the man who had so long guided

the fortunes of England, another confederacy was knitting together

its selfish members to rend in pieces and share amongst them the

empire of the young Queen of Austria. Frederick was willing enough to

make a league with France, but he was cautious enough not to make it

too soon. He wanted to know whether he could keep England out of the

campaign, in which case he could deal easily with Austria himself.

Walpole's attempts to prevent the war from becoming European, however,

failed, and the treaty being signed with the Prussian king, Marshal

Maillebois marched an army across the Rhine, and Belleisle and Broglie

went with another. Maillebois pursued his course direct for Hanover,

where George was drilling and preparing a number of troops, but in

no degree capable of making head against the French. Panic-stricken

at their approach, he made haste to come to terms, and agreed to a

year's neutrality for Hanover, leaving Maria Theresa to her fate, and,

moreover, engaging not to vote for the election of her husband, the

Duke of Lorraine, to be Emperor. The news of this conduct of the King

of England in the person of the Elector of Hanover, was received in

Great Britain with the utmost indignation. Belleisle and De Broglie

had, during this time, joined their forces to those of the old Elector

of Bavaria, the constant enemy of Austria and the friend of France, and

had marched into Austria. He took Linz, on the Danube, and commenced

his march on Vienna. As this allied army approached Vienna, Maria

Theresa fled with her infant son, afterwards Joseph II., into Hungary,

her husband and his brother, Prince Charles of Lorraine, remaining to

defend the city. The Hungarians received their menaced queen with

enthusiasm. She had done much since the recent commencement of her

reign to win their affections. She had been crowned in the preceding

month of June in their ancient capital, and had sworn to maintain their

ancient constitution in all its force, and the people were fervent

in their loyalty. When, therefore, she appeared before the Hungarian

Parliament in Presburg with her son in her arms, and called upon that

high-spirited nation to defend her against her perfidious and selfish

enemies, the sensation was indescribable. All rose to their feet, and,

drawing their swords half-way from the scabbard, they exclaimed, "Our

lives and our blood for your majesty! We will die for our _king_, Maria

Theresa!"

Whilst these transactions had been taking place on the Continent, our

fleets, which should have kept the French and Spaniards in check, had

done worse than nothing. France had subtly delayed to declare war

against us, so that, although she joined her fleets and armies to the

enemy, we could not attack her without being the first to declare war,

or to commence it by direct breach of the peace. Admiral Haddock, who

was on the watch in the Mediterranean to harass the Spaniards, was thus

baffled. The Spanish fleet was joined by twelve French men-of-war from

Toulon, the admiral of which declared that he had orders to defend

the Spaniards if they were attacked. As the combined fleet, moreover,

doubled his own, Haddock was compelled to fall off and leave them.

Still more inglorious were the proceedings of our fleet on the coasts

of the Spanish-American colonies. Sir Chaloner Ogle joined Vernon in

Jamaica on the 9th of January, 1741, and no time was to be lost, for

the wet season set in at the end of April, which, besides the deluges

of rain, is attended by a most unhealthy state of the climate. Vernon,

however, did not move till towards the end of the month, and then,

instead of directing his course towards the Havannah, which lay to the

leeward, and could have been reached in three days, he beat up against

the wind to Hispaniola, in order to watch the motions of the French

fleet under D'Antin. It was the 15th of February before he learned

distinctly that the French had sailed for Europe in great distress

for men and provisions. Now was the time to make his way to Cuba;

but, instead of that, he called a council of war--the resource of a

weak commander,--which was followed by its almost invariable result,

a contrariety of advice. It was at length concluded that, as Admiral

Torres had now sailed for the Havannah, and thus closed the opportunity

for its attack, the fleet should take in wood and water at Hispaniola,

and make for the continent of New Spain. On the 4th of March the fleet

came to anchor in Playa Grande, to the windward of Carthagena.

Carthagena was strongly fortified, and the garrison was reinforced

by the crews of a squadron lying there under Don Blas de Leon. If

the place was to be assaulted, it should have been done at once; but

Vernon lay perfectly inactive for five days, as if to allow the enemy

to make all his preparations for defence. Notwithstanding this, the

brave English erected a battery on shore, and played so effectually

on the principal fort, that they soon made a breach in it, whilst the

fleet fired into the harbour, thus dividing the attention of the enemy.

In spite of their advantages, the Spaniards abandoned their forts and

batteries, the English entered the breach, the vessels in the harbour

were destroyed, and the passage cleared so that the fleet could sail

in and support the army. There appeared nothing capable of preventing

the conquest of the town but the cabals of the two commanders. Lord

Cathcart had caught the endemic fever and died, and was succeeded by

General Wentworth in command of the land forces. Wentworth had a great

contempt of Vernon, and Vernon was by no means well disposed towards

Wentworth. The fleet having entered the harbour, the land forces were

all disembarked, and posted within a mile of Carthagena; but there the

success stopped. Vernon had written home his dispatches to the Duke of

Newcastle saying, "The wonderful success of this evening and night is

so astounding, that we cannot but cry out, 'It is the Lord's doing, and

it seems marvellous in our eyes!'"

The news, when it reached England, produced a transport of exultation.

Bells were rung, cannon fired, and great rejoicings made, anticipatory

of fresh tidings of wonderful success. But very different was the

reality. Wentworth called on Vernon to bombard Carthagena from the

harbour, whilst he assailed it on land; but Vernon replied that

he could not get near enough to attack the town effectually, and

that Wentworth must attempt the reduction of the Fort San Lazaro,

which commanded the town, and might be taken by escalade. This was

attempted, and while our men were thus standing under a murderous fire,

they discovered, to their consternation, that their scaling ladders

were too short. But the escalade was persisted in: they remained

splicing their ladders, and a detachment of Grenadiers, under Colonel

Grant, reached the top of a rampart; but Grant was instantly killed,

and the Grenadiers hurled back over the wall. Still, the bull-dog

spirit of the English made them persist in this desperate attempt, till

six hundred--that is, half of them, lay dead, when they drew off.

All this time "the great Admiral Vernon," as the Opposition delighted

to call him, in disparagement of all the commanders favourable to the

Government, lay still with his ships and afforded no assistance to the

land troops. When Wentworth bitterly complained of this, to show that

it was impossible to operate on the town from the harbour, Vernon sent

into the inner harbour the _Galicia_, a Spanish ship which had been

taken. This ship kept up a cannonade on the town for several hours,

producing little effect, and was fired on from the town with as little.

The men were then brought off in boats, the _Galicia's_ cable was cut,

and she was suffered to run upon a shoal, where she soon filled. The

troops were now hastily re-embarked; the unhealthy season was at its

height, and the men were swept away by fever more rapidly than they had

been mowed down on land. The heavy rains had set in, and the troops

in a few days were reduced to one half their number. Admiral Vernon

instead of undertaking any enterprise which might have retrieved the

honour of the British arms, set sail from Jamaica with the forces in

July, and anchored in the south part of Cuba in a bay, on which he

bestowed the appellation of Cumberland Harbour. Here the remains of

that fine fleet and army, capable of achieving the most brilliant

conquests under able commanders, were suffered to corrode away under

the influence of inactivity, the season, bad salted provisions, and

excess of rum.

The conduct of Vernon, though he had been the Idol of the Opposition,

and not of the Ministry, as it became known, increased enormously the

unpopularity of Walpole. Though he had literally been forced into the

war by the Opposition, the whole of its disasters were charged, not on

them, but on him; and they did not hesitate to throw from themselves

upon him the odium of all its failures. The general election which now

came on was seized upon to load Walpole with all the weight of the

unsuccessful war. The Duchess of Marlborough, Pulteney, and the Prince

of Wales raised funds to outbribe the master of corruption himself.

They incurred heavy debts to complete his ruin, and as the news of

the miserable issue of the expedition to the Spanish settlements came

in, numbers of those who had been returned to Parliament as friends

of the Ministry turned round and joined the Opposition in violent

denunciations of the mismanagement of the war. Lord Chesterfield,

whilst these transactions had been progressing, had hastened on to

Avignon, and, taking up his quarters with the Duke of Ormonde, obtained

from the Pretender letters to nearly a hundred Jacobites in England

and Scotland, engaging them to put out all their power and influence

against Walpole.

Whilst these combined efforts were being made to unseat him, Walpole

saw his Cabinet every day becoming more untrustworthy, more divided

against him. The Duke of Newcastle was eagerly pressing forward to

supplant him. He had entered into secret engagements with the Duke of

Argyll, and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke threw himself into that clique.

To these were added the Earl of Wilmington, formerly Sir Spencer

Compton, who, forgetting his alarm at the idea of succeeding Walpole

as Prime Minister, now was anxious for that honour. To add to these

depressing circumstances, the king arrived from Hanover in a humour

ready to lay his disgrace and failure at anybody's door. On the 4th

of December he opened the new Parliament, and, conscious of his own

contemptible figure after the submission to French dictation in

Hanover, he took care to remind it that he had commenced the war only

at the urgent desire and advice of both Houses, and that he had been

particularly counselled to direct our naval efforts towards Spanish

America.

[Illustration: MARIA THERESA AND THE HUNGARIAN PARLIAMENT.

(_After the Picture by Laslett J. Pott, by permission of Ephraim

Hallam, Esq._)]

The Opposition made no objection to the re-election of Onslow as

Speaker of the Commons, but they made a determined attack on the

Address. Lord Noel Somerset moved that in the Address his Majesty

should be desired not to engage this kingdom in a war for the defence

of his Hanoverian dominions. This was seconded by Shippen, who declared

that he had grown old in the House of Commons only to see all the

predictions of his life realised in the management of the nation.

Pulteney seemed to be animated by a double portion of patriotic

indignation. He reviewed Walpole's whole administration, and accused

him, not merely of individual acts of erroneous policy, but of

deliberate treachery. The Whigs, elated by this fiery denunciation of

the Minister, called for a division; but Pulteney, aware that they had

not yet a majority, observed that dividing was not the way to multiply.

Walpole, on his part, offered to leave out the paragraph thanking his

Majesty for his royal care in prosecuting the war with Spain; but

this was only regarded as a proof of conscious weakness, and Pulteney

proceeded to charge Walpole with purposely ruining the nation to serve

the Pretender. This called Walpole up, and he defended himself with

all his accustomed self-command and ability. He retorted the charges

of serving the Pretender on his enemies, and these with real grounds.

He referred to Chesterfield's recent visit to the Pretender's Court at

Avignon. He asked, as he had done before more than once, whether he,

as Minister, had raised the war in Germany, or advised the war with

Spain? Whether he was amenable for the deaths of the late Emperor and

the King of Prussia, which opened up all these complications? Whether

the lawless ambition of Frederick, and the war between Sweden and

Russia, were chargeable on him? He offered to meet the Opposition on

the question of the state of the nation, if they would name a day. This

challenge was accepted, and the 21st of January, 1742, was fixed upon.

The clause respecting the Spanish war, as Walpole had suggested, was

also struck out, and the Address then was carried unanimously.

But though the 21st of January was to be the day of the grand attack

on the Ministry, the battle was not deferred till then. Every day was

a field-day, and the sinking Minister was dogged step by step, his

influence weakened by repeated divisions, and his strength worn out by

the display of the inevitable approach of the catastrophe. The first

decided defeat that he suffered was in the election of the Chairman of

Committees. The Ministerial candidate, Giles Earle, was thrown out by a

majority of two hundred and forty-two to two hundred and thirty-eight,

and the Opposition candidate, Dr. Lee, was hailed by a shout that rent

the House. Other close divisions followed. The fall of Walpole was

now certain, and he would have consulted both his dignity and comfort

in resigning at once. This was the earnest advice of his friends, but

he had been too long accustomed to power to yield willingly. He was

oppressed with a sense of his defeats, and the insolence of enemies

whom he had so long calmly looked down upon without fear. He was

growing old and wanted repose, but he still clung convulsively to his

authority, though he had ceased to enjoy it.

In these circumstances opened the year 1742. Fearing the consequences

of the debate on the state of the nation that was to take place on

the 21st of January, Walpole made a last grand effort to divide the

party in array against him: this was, to buy off the Prince of Wales

and his adherents. For this purpose he prevailed on the king to grant

an additional fifty thousand pounds a year and the payment of all his

debts, on condition that he should abandon the Opposition. Secker,

Bishop of Oxford, was selected as the bearer of this offer; but the

prince declined the proposal, declaring that he would listen to no

overtures so long as Walpole continued in office. This was a stunning

blow, but the tenacious Minister did not yet give in. He continued to

avail himself of the interval before the 21st to bribe and bring over

less distinguished men. The Opposition, however, were now every hour

receiving fresh accessions of strength, and men who had stood the brunt

of many years now went over to them. Lord Hervey joined Pulteney and

Chesterfield; and Bubb Doddington, now perceiving that one side really

preponderated, stepped out of his equivocal demeanour, and openly wrote

to Lord Wilmington to entreat him to persuade the king to dismiss the

obnoxious Minister.

The 21st of January arrived, and Pulteney entered on his great

question. There was nothing new to bring forward, but the old charges

were dressed up with new force. Walpole defended himself with an

ability worthy of his best days. He boldly reminded the Opposition of

the long twenty years of defeats in their endeavours to turn him out;

he declared their accusations were just as false and groundless as

ever; and he proceeded to anatomise the characters of Bubb Doddington

and Pulteney in a manner which must have made men of any feeling wince.

He was ably supported by Sir William Yonge, by Pelham, and Winnington,

but the division showed a majority for the Minister of only three.

The result of this division shook the last resistance of Walpole. When

the motion which had been rejected on the 18th of December--for copies

of the correspondence with the King of Prussia--was again put, he made

no opposition, and it passed without a division. He made, however,

one more attempt to carry his measures. In the disputed election of

Chippenham he stood his ground against the petition, and was defeated

by a majority of one. It was now clear to himself that he must give

way. His relatives and friends assured him that to defer longer was

only to court more decided discomfiture. On the 31st of January, he,

therefore, prepared to depart for his seat at Houghton, and the next

morning he demanded of the king, in a private audience, leave to

retire. George, on this occasion, evinced a degree of feeling that did

him honour. When the old Minister who had served him through so long a

course of years knelt to kiss hands, the king embraced him, shed tears,

and begged that he would often come to see him. On the 9th of February

Sir Robert was created Earl of Orford, and on the 11th he made a formal

resignation of all his places.