George II. did not hear of Mollwitz for above a fortnight after it fell
out; but he had no need of Mollwitz to kindle his wrath or his activity
in that matter. [Mollwitz first heard of in London, April 25th (14th);
Subsidy of 300,000 pounds voted same day. _London Gazette_ (April
11th-14th, 1741); _Commons Journals,_ xxiii. 705.] George II. had seen,
all along, with natural manifold aversion and indignation, these high
attempts of his Nephew. "Who is this new little King, that will not let
himself be snubbed, and laughed at, and led by the nose, as his Father
did; but seems to be taking a road of his own, and tacitly defying us
all? A very high conduct indeed, for a Sovereign of that magnitude.
Aspires seemingly to be the leader among German Princes; to
reduce Hanover and us,--us, with the gold of England in our
breeches-pocket,--to the second place? A reverend old Bishop of Liege,
twitched by the rochet, and shaken hither and thither, like a reverend
old clothes-screen, till he agree to stand still and conform. And now a
Silesia seized upon; a Pragmatic Sanction kicked to the winds: the
whole world to be turned topsy-turvy, and Hanover and us, with our
breeches-pocket, reduced to--?"
The emotions, the prognosticatings, and distracted procedures of his
Britannic Majesty, of which we have ourselves seen somewhat, in this
fermentation of the elements, are copiously set down for us by the
English Dryasdust (mostly in unintelligible form): but, except for sane
purposes, one must be careful not to dwell on them, to the sorrow of
readers. Seldom was there such a feat of Somnambulism, as that by the
English and their King in the next twenty Years. To extract the particle
of sanity from it, and see how the poor English did get their own errand
done withal, and Jenkins's Ear avenged,--that is the one interesting
point; Dryasdust and the Nightmares shall, to all time, be welcome to
the others. Here are some Excerpts, a select few; which will perhaps
be our readiest expedient. These do, under certain main aspects,
shadow forth the intricate posture of King George and his Nation, when
Belleisle, as Protagonistes or Chief Bully, stept down into the ring,
in that manner; asking, "Is there an Antagonistes, then, or Chief
Defender?" I will label them, number them; and, with the minimum of
needful commentary, leave them to imaginative readers.
No. 1. SNATCH OF PARLIAMENTARY ELOQUENCE BY MR. VINER (19th April,
1741).
The fuliginous explosions, more or less volcanic, which went on
in Parliament and in English society, against Friedrich's Silesian
Enterprise, for long years from this date, are now all dead and
avoidable,--though they have left their effects among us to this day.
Perhaps readers would like to see the one reasonable word I have fallen
in with, of opposite tendency; Mr. Viner's word, at the first starting
of that question: plainly sensible word, which, had it been attended to
(as it was not), might have saved us so much nonsense, not of idle talk
only, but of extremely serious deed which ensued thereupon!
"LONDON, 19th APRIL, 1741. This day [Mollwitz not yet known, Camp of
Gottin too well known!] King George, in his own high person, comes down
to the House of Lords,--which, like the Other House, is sunk painfully
in Walpole Controversies, Spanish-War Controversies, of a merely
domestic nature;--and informs both Honorable Houses, with extreme
caution, naming nobody, That he much wishes they would think of helping
him in these alarming circumstances of the Celestial Balance, ready
apparently to go heels uppermost. To which the general answer is, 'Yes,
surely!'--with a vote of 300,000 pounds for her Hungarian Majesty, a few
days hence. From those continents of Parliamentary tufa, now fallen
so waste and mournful, here is one little piece which ought to be
extricated into daylight:--
"MR. VINER (on his legs):... 'If I mistake not the true intention of the
Address proposed,' in answer to his Majesty's most gracious Speech from
the Throne, 'we are invited to declare that we will oppose the King of
Prussia in his attempts upon Silesia: a declaration in which I see
not how any man can concur who KNOWS NOT the nature of his Prussian
Majesty's Claim, and the Laws of the German Empire [NOR DO I, MR. V.]!
It ought therefore, Sir, to have been the first endeavor of those by
whom this Address has been so zealously supported, to show that his
Prussian Majesty's Claim, so publicly explained [BY KAUZLER LUDWIG, OF
HALLE, WHO, IT SEEMS, HAS STAGGERED OR CONVINCED MR. VINER], so firmly
urged and so strongly supported, is without foundation and reason, and
is only one of those imaginary titles which Ambition may always find to
the dominions of another.' (HEAR MR VINER!)" [Tindal, xx. 491, gives the
Royal Speech (DATE in a very slobbery condition); see also Coxe, _House
of Austria,_ iii. 365. Viner's Fragment of a Speech is in Thackeray,
_Life of Chatham,_ i. 87.]...
A most indispensable thing, surely. Which was never done, nor can ever
be done; but was assumed as either unnecessary or else done of its own
accord, by that Collective Wisdom of England (with a sage George II.
at the head of it); who plunged into Dettingen, Fontenoy, Austrian
Subsidies, Aix-la-Chapelle, and foundation of the English National Debt,
among other strange things, in consequence!--
Upon that of Kanzler Ludwig, and the "so public Explanation" (which we
slightly heard of long since), here is another Note,--unless readers
prefer to skip it:--
"That the Diplomatic and Political world is universally in travail at
this time, no reader need be told; Europe everywhere in dim anxiety,
heavy-laden expectation (which to us has fallen so vacant); looking
towards inevitable changes and the huge inane. All in travail;--and
already uttering printed Manifestoes, Patents, Deductions, and other
public travail-SHRIEKS of that kind. Printed; not to speak of the
unprinted, of the oral which vanished on the spot; or even of the
written which were shot forth by breathless estafettes, and unhappily
did not vanish, but lie in archives, still humming upon us, "Won't you
read me, then?"--Alas, except on compulsion, No! Life being precious
(and time, which is the stuff of life), No!--
"At Reinsberg as elsewhere, at Reinsberg first of all, it had been felt,
in October last, that there would be Manifestoes needed; learned Proof,
the more irrefragable the better, of our Right to Silesia. It was
settled there, Let Ludwig, Kanzler of the University of Halle, do it.
[Herr Kanzler Ludwig, monster of Antiquarian, Legal and other Learning
there: wealthy, too, and close-fisted; whom we have seen obliged to open
his closed fist, and to do building in the Friedrich Strasse, before
now; Nussler, his son-in-law, having no money:--as careless readers
have perhaps forgotten?] Ludwig set about his new task with a proud
joy. Ludwig knows that story, if he know anything. Long years ago he
put forth a Chapter upon it; weighty Chapter; in a Book of weight, said
Judges;--Book weighing, in pounds avoirdupois and otherwise, none of
us now knows what: [Title of this weighty Performance (see Preuss,
_Thronbesteigung,_ p. 432) is, or was (size not given), _Germania
Princeps_ (Halae, 1702). Preuss says farther, "That Book ii. c. 3
handles the Prussian claims: Jagerndorf being? 13; Liegnitz,? 14; Oppeln
and Ratibor,? 16;--and that Ludwig had sent a Copy of this Argument
[weighty Performance altogether? Or Book ii. c. 3 of it, which would
have had a better chance?] to King Friedrich, on the death of Kaiser
Karl VI."]--but, in after years, it used to be said by flatterers of the
Kanzler, 'Herr Kanzler, see the effect of Learning. It was you, it was
your weighty Book, that caused all this World-tumult, and flung the
Nations into one another's hair!' Upon which the old Kanzler would
blush: 'You do me too much honor!'
"Ludwig, directly on order given, gathered out his documents again, in
the King's name this time; and promised something weighty by New-year's
day at latest." Doubtless to the joy of Nussler, who has still no
regular appointment, though well deserving one. "And sure enough, on
January 7th, at Berlin, 'in three languages,' Ludwig's DEDUCTION had
come out; an eager Public waiting for it: [Title is, _Rechtsgegrundetes
Eigenthum_ (in the Latin copies, _Patrimonium,_ and _Propriete fondee en
Droit_ in the French copies) _des &c.,_--that is to say, _Legal Right of
Property in the Royal-Electoral House of Brandenburg to the Duchies
and Principalities of Jagerndorf, Liegnitz, Brieg, Wohlau_ (Berlin,
7th January, 1741).]--and at Berlin it was generally thought to be
conclusive. I have looked into Ludwig's Deduction, stern duty urging,
in this instance for one: such portions as I read are nothing like so
stupid as was expected; and, in fact, are not to be called stupid at
all, but fit for their purpose, and moderately intelligible to those who
need them,"--which happily we do not in this place.
Judicious Mr. Viner availed nothing against the Proposed Address; any
more than he would against the Atlantic Tide, coming in unanimous,
under influence of the Moon itself,--as indeed this Address, and the
triumphant Subsidy which was voted in the rear of it, may be said to
have done. [Coxe, iii. 265.] Subsidy of 300,000 pounds to her Hungarian
Majesty; which, with the 200,000 pounds already gone that road, makes
a handsome Half-million for the present Year. The first gush of the
Britannia Fountain,--which flowed like an Amalthea's Horn for seven
years to come; refreshing Austria, and all thirsty Pragmatic Nations, to
defend the Keystone of this Universe. Unluckily every guinea of it went,
at the same time, to encourage Austria in scorning King Friedrich's
offers to it; which perhaps are just offers, thinks Mr. Viner; which
once listened to, Pragmatic Sanction would be safe. [Mr. Viner was of
Pupham, or Pupholm, in Lincolnshire, for which County he sat then, and
for many years before and after,--from about 1713 till 1761, when he
died. A solid, instructed man, say his contemporaries. "He was a friend
of Bolingbroke's, and had a house near Bolingbroke's Battersea one." He
is Great great-grandfather to the present Mr. Viner, and to the Countess
de Grey and Ripon; which is an interesting little fact.]
This Parliament is strong for Pragmatic Sanction, and has high
resentments against Walpole; in both which points the New Parliament,
just getting elected, will rival and surpass it,--especially in the
latter point, that of uprooting Walpole, which the Nation is bent on,
with a singular fury. Pragmatic Sanction like to be ruined; and Walpole
furiously thrown out: what a pair of sorrows for poor George! During his
late Caroline's time, all went peaceably, and that of "governing" was
a mere pleasure; Walpole and Caroline cunningly doing that for him, and
making him believe he was doing it. But now has come the crisis, the
collapse; and his poor Majesty left alone to deal with it!--
No. 2. CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORIAN ON THE PHENOMENON OF WALPOLE IN ENGLAND.
"For above Ten Years, Walpole himself", says my Constitutional Historian
(unpublished), "for almost Twenty Years, Walpole virtually and through
others, has what they call 'governed' England; that is to say, has
adjusted the conflicting Parliamentary Chaos into counterpoise, by
what methods he had; and allowed England, with Walpole atop, to jumble
whither it would and could. Of crooked things made straight by Walpole,
of heroic performance or intention, legislative or administrative, by
Walpole, nobody ever heard; never of the least hand-breadth gained from
the Night-realm in England, on Walpole's part: enough if he could manage
to keep the Parish Constable walking, and himself float atop. Which task
(though intrinsically zero for the Community, but all-important to
the Walpole, of Constitutional Countries) is a task almost beyond the
faculty of man, if the careless reader knew it!
"This task Walpole did,--in a sturdy, deep-bellied, long-headed,
John-Bull fashion, not unworthy of recognition. A man of very forcible
natural eyesight, strong natural heart,--courage in him to all lengths;
a very block of oak, or of oakroot, for natural strength. He was always
very quiet with it, too; given to digest his victuals, and be peaceable
with everybody. He had one rule, that stood in place of many: To keep
out of every business which it was possible for human wisdom to stave
aside. 'What good will you get of going into that? Parliamentary
criticism, argument and botheration? Leave well alone. And even leave
ill alone:--are you the tradesman to tinker leaky vessels in England?
You will not want for work. Mind your pudding, and say little!' At home
and abroad, that was the safe secret. For, in Foreign Politics, his rule
was analogous: 'Mind your own affairs. You are an Island, you can do
without Foreign Politics; Peace, keep Peace with everybody: what, in the
Devil's name, have you to do with those dog-worryings over Seas? Once
more, mind your pudding!' Not so bad a rule; indeed it is the better
part of an extremely good one;--and you might reckon it the real rule
for a pious Rritannic Island (reverent of God, and contemptuous of the
Devil) in times of general Down-break and Spiritual Bankruptcy, when
quarrellings of Sovereigns are apt to be mere dog-worryings and Devil's
work, not good to interfere in.
"In this manner, Walpole, by solid John-Bull faculty (and methods of
his own), had balanced the Parliamentary swaggings and clashings, for
a great while; and England had jumbled whither it could, always in a
stupid, but also in a peaceable way. As to those same 'methods of his
own' they were--in fact they were Bribery. Actual purchase of votes by
money slipt into the hand. Go straight to the point. 'The direct
real method this,' thinks Walpole: 'is there in reality any other?' A
terrible question to Constitutional Countries; which, I hear, has never
been resolved in the negative, by the modern improvements of science.
Changes of form have introduced themselves; the outward process, I
hear, is now quite different. According as the fashions and conditions
alter,--according as you have a Fourth Estate developed, or a Fourth
Estate still in the grub stage and only developing,--much variation of
outward process is conceivable.
"But Votes, under pain of Death Official, are necessary to your poor
Walpole: and votes, I hear, are still bidden for, and bought. You may
buy them by money down (which is felony, and theft simple, against the
poor Nation); or by preferments and appointments of the unmeritorious
man,--which is felony double-distilled (far deadlier, though more
refined), and theft most compound; theft, not of the poor Nation's
money, but of its soul and body so far, and of ALL its moneys and
temporal and spiritual interests whatsoever; theft, you may say, of
collops cut from its side, and poison put into its heart, poor Nation!
Or again, you may buy, not of the Third Estate in such ways, but of
the Fourth, or of the Fourth and Third together, in other still more
felonious and deadly, though refined ways. By doing clap-traps, namely;
letting off Parliamentary blue-lights, to awaken the Sleeping Swineries,
and charm them into diapason for you,--what a music! Or, without
clap-trap or previous felony of your own, you may feloniously, in the
pinch of things, make truce with the evident Demagogos, and Son of Nox
and of Perdition, who has got 'within those walls' of yours, and is
grown important to you by the Awakened Swineries, risen into alt, that
follow him. Him you may, in your dire hunger of votes, consent to
comply with; his Anarchies you will pass for him into 'Laws,' as you are
pleased to term them;--instead of pointing to the whipping-post, and
to his wicked long ears, which are so fit to be nailed there, and of
sternly recommending silence, which were the salutary thing.--Buying may
be done in a great variety of ways. The question, How you buy? is not,
on the moral side, an important one. Nay, as there is a beauty in going
straight to the point, and by that course there is likely to be the
minimum of mendacity for you, perhaps the direct money-method is a shade
less damnable than any of the others since discovered;--while, in
regard to practical damage resulting, it is of childlike harmlessness in
comparison!
"That was Walpole's method; with this to aid his great natural faculty,
long-headed, deep-bellied, suitable to the English Parliament and
Nation, he went along with perfect success for ten or twenty years. And
it might have been for longer,--had not the English Nation accidentally
come to wish, that it should CEASE jumbling NO-whither; and try to
jumble SOME-whither, at least for a little while, on important business
that had risen for England in a certain quarter. Had it not been for
Jenkins's Ear blazing out in the dark English brain, Walpole might have
lasted still a long while. But his fate lay there:--the first Business
vital to England which might turn up; and this chanced to be the Spanish
War. How vital, readers shall see anon. Walpole, knowing well enough in
what state his War-apparatus was, and that of all his Apparatuses there
was none in a working state, but the Parliamentary one,--resisted
the Spanish War; stood in the door against it, with a rhinoceros
determination, nay almost something of a mastiff's; resolute not to
admit it, to admit death as soon. Doubtless he had a feeling it would
be death, the sagacious man;--and such it is now proving; the Walpole
Ministry dying by inches from it; dying hard, but irremediably.
"The English Nation was immensely astonished, which Walpole was not, any
more than at the other Laws of Nature, to find Walpole's War-apparatus
in such a condition. All his Apparatuses, Walpole guesses, are in
no better, if it be not the Parliamentary one. The English Nation is
immensely astonished, which Walpole again is not, to find that his
Parliamentary Apparatus has been kept in gear and smooth-going by the
use of OIL: 'Miraculous Scandal of Scandals!' thinks the English Nation.
'Miracle? Law of Nature, you fools!' thinks Walpole. And in fact there
is such a storm roaring in England, in those and in the late and the
coming months, as threatens to be dangerous to high roofs,--dangerous
to Walpole's head at one time. Storm such as had not been witnessed in
men's memory; all manner of Counties and Constituencies, with solemn
indignation, charging their representatives to search into that
miraculous Scandal of Scandals, Law of Nature, or whatever it may be;
and abate the same, at their peril.
"To the now reader there is something almost pathetic in these solemn
indignations, and high resolves to have Purity of Parliament
and thorough Administrative Reform, in spite of Nature and the
Constitutional Stars;--and nothing I have met with, not even the
Prussian Dryasdust, is so unsufferably wearisome, or can pretend to
equal in depth of dull inanity, to ingenuous living readers, our poor
English Dryasdust's interminable, often-repeated Narratives, volume
after volume, of the debatings and colleaguings, the tossings and
tumults, fruitless and endless, in Nation and National Palaver, which
ensued thereupon. Walpole (in about a year hence), [February 13th (2d),
1742, quitting the House after bad usage there, said he would never
enter it again; nor did: February 22d, resigned in favor of Pulteney and
Company (Tindal, xx. 530; Thackeray, i. 45).] though he struck to the
ground like a rhinoceros, was got rolled out. And a Successor, and
series of Successors, in the bright brand-new state, was got rolled
in; with immense shouting from mankind:--but up to this date we have
no reason to believe that the Laws of Nature were got abrogated on
that occasion, or that the constitutional stars have much altered their
courses since."
That Walpole will probably be lost, goes much home to the Royal bosom,
in these troublous Spring months of 1741, as it has done and will do.
And here, emerging from the Spanish Main just now, is a second sorrow,
which might quite transfix the Royal bosom, and drive Majesty itself
to despair; awakening such insoluble questions,--furnishing such proof,
that Walpole and a good few other persons (persons, and also things, and
ideas and practices, deep-rooted in the Country) stand much in need of
being lost, if England is to go a good road!
The Spanish War being of moment to us here, we will let our
Constitutional Historian explain, in his own dialect, How it was so
vital to England; and shall even subjoin what he gives as History of it,
such being so admirably succinct, for one quality.
No. 3. OF THE SPANISH WAR, OR THE JENKINS'S-EAR QUESTION.
"There was real cause for a War with Spain. It is one of the few cases,
this, of a war from necessity. Spain, by Decree of the Pope,--some Pope
long ago, whose name we will not remember, in solemn Conclave, drawing
accurately 'his Meridian Line,' on I know not what Telluric or
Uranic principles, no doubt with great accuracy 'between Portugal
and Spain,'--was proprietor of all those Seas and Continents. And now
England, in the interim, by Decree of the Eternal Destinies, had clearly
come to have property there, too; and to be practically much concerned
in that theoretic question of the Pope's Meridian. There was no
reconciling of theory with fact. 'Ours indisputably,' said Spain, with
loud articulate voice; 'Holiness the Pope made it ours!'--while fact
and the English, by Decree of the Eternal Destinies, had been grumbling
inarticulately the other way, for almost two hundred years past, and no
result had.
"In Oliver Cromwell's time, it used to be said, 'With Spain, in Europe,
there may be peace or war; but between the Tropics it is always war.'
A state of things well recognized by Oliver, and acted on, according
to his opportunities. No settlement was had in Oliver's brief time;
nor could any be got since, when it was becoming yearly more pressing.
Bucaniers, desperate naval gentlemen living on BOUCAN, or hung beef;
who are also called Flibustiers (FLIBUTIERS, 'Freebooters,' in French
pronunciation, which is since grown strangely into FILIBUSTERS,
Fillibustiers, and other mad forms, in the Yankee Newspapers now
current): readers have heard of those dumb methods of protest. Dumb and
furious; which could bring no settlement; but which did astonish the
Pope's Decree, slashing it with cutlasses and sea-cannon, in that
manner, and circuitously forwarded a settlement. Settlement was becoming
yearly more needful: and, ever since the Treaty of Utrecht especially,
there had been an incessant haggle going on, to produce one; without the
least effect hitherto. What embassyings, bargainings, bargain-breakings;
what galloping of estafettes; acres of diplomatic paper, now fallen
to the spiders, who always privately were the real owners! Not in
the Treaty of Utrecht, not in the Congresses of Cambray, of Soissons,
Convention of Pardo, by Ripperda, Horace Walpole, or the wagging of
wigs, could this matter be settled at all. Near two hundred years of
chronic misery;--and had there been, under any of those wigs, a
Head capable of reading the Heavenly Mandates, with heart capable of
following them, the misery might have been briefly ended, by a direct
method. With what immense saving in all kinds, compared with the oblique
method gone upon! In quantity of bloodshed needed, of money, of idle
talk and estafettes, not to speak of higher considerations, the saving
had been incalculable. For it was England's one Cause of War during the
Century we are now upon; and poor England's course, when at last driven
into it, went ambiguously circling round the whole Universe, instead of
straight to the mark. Had Oliver Cromwell lived ten years longer;--but
Oliver Cromwell did not live; and, instead of Heroic Heads, there came
in Constitutional Wigs, which makes a great difference.
"The pretensions of Spain to keep Half the World locked up in embargo
were entirely chimerical; plainly contradictory to the Laws of Nature;
and no amount of Pope's Donation Acts, or Ceremonial in Rota or
Propaganda, could redeem them from untenability, in the modern days. To
lie like a dog in the manger over South America, and say snarling, 'None
of you shall trade here, though I cannot!'--what Pope or body of Popes
can sanction such a procedure? Had England had a Head, instead of Wigs,
amid its diplomatists, England, as the chief party interested, would
have long since intimated gently to such dog in the manger: 'Dog, will
you be so obliging as rise! I am grieved to say, we shall have to do
unpleasant things otherwise. Dogs have doors for their hutches: but to
pretend barring the Tropic of Cancer,--that is too big a door for
any dog. Can nobody but you have business here, then, which is not
displeasing to the gods? We bid you rise!' And in this mode there is no
doubt the dog, bark and bite as he might, would have ended by
rising; not only England, but all the Universe being against him. And
furthermore, I compute with certainty, the quantity of fighting needed
to obtain such result would, by this mode, have been a minimum. The
clear right being there, and now also the clear might, why take refuge
in diplomatic wiggeries, in Assiento Treaties, and Arrangements which
are NOT analogous to the facts; which are but wigged mendacities,
therefore; and will but aggravate in quantity and in quality the
fighting yet needed? Fighting is but (as has been well said) a battering
out of the mendacities, pretences, and imaginary elements: well
battered-out, these, like dust and chaff, fly torrent-wise along the
winds, and darken all the sky; but these once gone, there remain the
facts and their visible relation to one another, and peace is sure.
"The Assiento Treaty being fixed upon, the English ought to have kept
it. But the English did not, in any measure; nor could pretend to have
done. They were entitled to supply Negroes, in such and such number,
annually to the Spanish Plantations; and besides this delightful branch
of trade, to have the privilege of selling certain quantities of their
manufactured articles on those coasts; quantities regulated briefly by
this stipulation, That their Assiento Ship was to be of 600 tons burden,
so many and no more. The Assiento Ship was duly of 600 tons accordingly,
promise kept faithfully to the eye; but the Assiento Ship was attended
and escorted by provision-sloops, small craft said to be of the most
indispensable nature to it. Which provision-sloops, and indispensable
small craft, not only carried merchandise as well, but went and came
to Jamaica and back, under various pretexts, with ever new supplies of
merchandise; converting the Assiento Ship into a Floating Shop, the Tons
burden and Tons sale of which set arithmetic at defiance. This was the
fact, perfectly well known in England, veiled over by mere smuggler
pretences, and obstinately persisted in, so profitable was it.
Perfectly well known in Spain also, and to the Spanish Guarda-Costas
and Sea-Captains in those parts; who were naturally kept in a perennial
state of rage by it,--and disposed to fly out into flame upon it, when a
bad case turned up! Such a case that of Jenkins had seemed to them; and
their mode of treating it, by tearing off Mr. Jenkins's Ear, proved to
be--bad shall we say, or good?--intolerable to England's thick skin; and
brought matters to a crisis, in the ways we saw."...
The Jenkins's-Ear Question, which then looked so mad to everybody, how
sane has it now grown to my Constitutional Friend! In abstruse ludicrous
form there lay immense questions involved in it; which were serious
enough, certain enough, though invisible to everybody. Half the World
lay hidden in embryo under it. Colonial-Empire, whose is it to be? Shall
Half the World be England's, for industrial purposes; which is innocent,
laudable, conformable to the Multiplication-table at least, and other
plain Laws? Or shall it be Spain's for arrogant-torpid sham-devotional
purposes, contradictory to every Law? The incalculable Yankee Nation
itself, biggest Phenomenon (once thought beautifulest) of these
Ages,--this too, little as careless readers on either side of the sea
now know it, lay involved. Shall there be a Yankee Nation, shall there
not be; shall the New World be of Spanish type, shall it be of English?
Issues which we may call immense. Among the then extant Sons of Adam,
where was he who could in the faintest degree surmise what issues lay in
the Jenkins's-Ear Question? And it is curious to consider now, with what
fierce deep-breathed doggedness the poor English Nation, drawn by their
instincts, held fast upon it, and would take no denial, as if THEY had
surmised and seen. For the instincts of simple guileless persons (liable
to be counted STUPID, by the unwary) are sometimes of prophetic nature,
and spring from the deep places of this Universe!--My Constitutional
Friend entitles his next Section CARTHAGENA; but might more fitly have
headed it (for such in reality it is, Carthagena proving the evanescent
point of that sad business),
SUCCINCT HISTORY OF THE SPANISH WAR, WHICH BEGAN IN 1739; AND
ENDED--WHEN DID IT END?
1. WAR, AND PORTO-BELLO (NOVEMBER, 1739-MARCH, 1740).--"November
4th, 1739, War was at length (after above four months' obscure
quasi-declaring of it, in the shape of Orders in Council, Letters of
Marque, and so on) got openly declared; 'Heralds at Arms at the usual
places' blowing trumpets upon it, and reading the royal Manifesto, date
of which is five days earlier, 'Kensington, October 30th (19th).' The
principal Events that ensue, arrange themselves under Three Heads, this
of Porto-Bello being the FIRST; and (by intense smelting) are datable
as follows:--[_Gentleman's Magazine,_ ix. 551, x. 124, 142, 144, 350;
Tindal, xx. 430-433, 442; &c.]
"Tuesday Evening, 1st December, 1739, Admiral Vernon, our chosen
Anti-Spaniard, finding, a while ago, that he had missed the Azogue Ships
on the Coast of Spain, and must try America and the Spanish Main, in
that view arrives at Porto-Bello. Next day, December 2d, Vernon
attacks Porto-Bello; attacks certain Castles so called, with furious
broadsiding, followed by scalading; gets surrender (on the 3d);--seamen
have allowance instead of plunder;--blows up what Castles there are; and
returns to Port Royal in Jamaica.
"Never-imagined joy in England, and fame to Vernon, when the news came:
'Took it with Six Ships,' cry they; 'the scurvy Ministry, who had heard
him, in the fire of Parliamentary debate, say Six, would grant him no
more: invincible Vernon!' Nay, next Year, I see, 'London was illuminated
on the Anniversary of Porto-Bello:'--day settled in permanence as one of
the High-tides of the Calendar, it would appear. And 'Vernon's Birthday'
withal--how touching is stupidity when loyal!--was celebrated amazingly
in all the chief Towns, like a kind of Christmas, when it came round;
Nature having deigned to produce such a man, for a poor Nation in
difficulties. Invincible Vernon, it is thought by Gazetteers, 'will look
in at Carthagena shortly;' much more important Place, where a certain
Governor Don Blas has been insolent withal, and written Vernon letters.
"2. PRELIMINARIES TO CARTHAGENA (MARCH-NOVEMBER, 1740).--Monday,
14th March, 1740, Vernon did, accordingly, look in on Carthagena;
[_Gentleman's Magazine,_ x. 350.] cast anchor in the shallow waste of
surfs there, that Monday; and tried some bombarding, with bomb-ketches
and the like, from Thursday till Saturday following. Vernon hopes he
did hit the Jesuits' College, South Bastion, Custom-house and other
principal edifices; but found that there was no getting near enough on
that seaward side. Found that you must force the Interior Harbor,--a
big Inland Gulf or Lake, which gushes in by what they call LITTLE-MOUTH
(Boca-Chica), and has its Booms, Castles and Defences, which are
numerous and strongish;--and that, for this end, you must have seven or
eight thousand Land Forces, as well as an addition of Ships. On Saturday
Evening, therefore, Vernon calls in his bomb-ketches; sails past,
examining these things; and goes forth on other small adventures. For
example,--
"Sunday, 3d April, 1740, 'about 10 at night' opens cannonade on Chagres
(place often enough taken, by cutlass and pistol, in the Bucanier
times); and, on Tuesday, 5th, gets surrender of Chagres: 'Custom-house
crammed with goods, which we set fire to.' On news of which, there is
again, in England, joy over the day of small things. The poor English
People are set on this business of avenging Jenkins's Ear, and of
having the Ocean Highway unbarred; and hope always it can be done by the
Walpole Apparatuses, which ought to be in working order, and are not.
'Support this hero, you Walpole and Company, in his Carthagena views: it
will be better for you!"
"Walpole and Company, aware of that fact, do take some trouble about it;
and now, may not we say, PAULLO MAJORA CANAMUS? All through that Summer,
1740,"--while King Friedrich went rushing about, to Strasburg, to Wesel;
doing his Herstals and Practicalities, with a light high hand, in almost
an entertaining manner; and intent, still more, on his Voltaires and
a Life to the Muses,--"there was, in England, serious heavy tumult of
activity, secret and public. In the Dockyards, on the Drill-grounds,
what a stir: Camp in the Isle of Wight, not to mention Portsmouth and
the Sea-Industries; 6,000 Marines are to be embarked, as well as Land
Regiments,--can anybody guess whither? America itself is to furnish 'one
Regiment, with Scotch Officers to discipline it,' if they can.
"Here is real haste and effort; but by no means such speed as could be
wished; multiplex confusions and contradictions occurring, as is usual,
when your machinery runs foul. Nor are the Gazetteers without
their guesses, though they study to be discreet. 'Here is something
considerable in the wind; a grand idea, for certain;'--and to men of
discernment it points surely towards Carthagena and heroic Vernon out
yonder? Government is dumb altogether; and lays occasional embargo;
trying hard (without success), in the delays that occurred, to keep it
secret from Don Blas and others. The outcome of all which was,
"3. CARTHAGENA ITSELF (NOVEMBER, 1740--APRIL, 1741).--On November
6th,--by no means 'July 3d,' as your first fond program bore; which
delay was itself likely to be fatal, unless the Almanac, and course of
the Tropical Seasons would delay along with you!--we say, On Sunday,
6th November, 1740 [Kaiser Karl's Funeral just over, and great thoughts
going on at Reinsberg], Rear-Admiral Sir Chaloner Ogle,--so many weeks
and months after the set time,--does sail from St. Helen's (guessed,
for Carthagena); all people sending blessings with him. Twenty-five
big Ships of the Line, with three Half-Regiments on board; fireships,
bomb-ketches, in abundance; and eighty Transports, with 6,000 drilled
Marines: a Sea-and-Land Force fit to strengthen Hero Vernon with
a witness, and realize his Carthagena views. A very great day at
Portsmouth and St. Helen's for these Sunday folk. [Tindal, xx.
463 (LISTS, &c. there; date wrong, "31st October," instead of 26th
(o.s.),--many things wrong, and all things left loose and flabby, and
not right! As is poor Tindal's way).]
"Most obscure among the other items in that Armada of Sir Chaloner's,
just taking leave of England; most obscure of the items then, but
now most noticeable, or almost alone noticeable, is a young
Surgeon's-Mate,--one Tobias Smollett; looking over the waters there and
the fading coasts, not without thoughts. A proud, soft-hearted, though
somewhat stern-visaged, caustic and indignant young gentleman. Apt to be
caustic in speech, having sorrows of his own under lock and key, on this
and subsequent occasions. Excellent Tobias; he has, little as he hopes
it, something considerable by way of mission in this Expedition, and
in this Universe generally. Mission to take Portraiture of English
Seamanhood, with the due grimness, due fidelity; and convey the same to
remote generations, before it vanish. Courage, my brave young Tobias;
through endless sorrows, contradictions, toils and confusions, you will
do your errand in some measure; and that will be something!--
"Five weeks before (29th September, 1740, which was also several months
beyond time set), there had sailed, strictly hidden by embargoes which
were little effectual, another Expedition, all Naval; intended to be
subsidiary to this one: Commodore Anson's, of three inconsiderable
Ships; who is to go round Cape Horn, if he can; to bombard Spanish
America from the other side; and stretch out a hand to Vernon in his
grand Carthagena or ulterior views. Together they may do some execution,
if we judge by the old Bucanier and Queen-Elizabeth experiences? Anson's
Expedition has become famous in the world, though Vernon got no good of
it."
Well! Here truly was a business; not so ill-contrived. Somebody of head
must have been at the centre of this: and it might, in result, have
astonished the Spaniard, and tumbled him much topsy-turvy in those
latitudes,--had the machinery for executing it been well in gear. Under
Friedrich Wilhelm's captaincy and management, every person, every item,
correct to its time, to its place, to its function, what a thing!
But with mere Walpole Machinery: alas, it was far too wide a Plan for
Machinery of that kind, habitually out of order, and only used to be as
correct as--as it could. Those DELAYS themselves, first to Anson, then
to Ogle, since the Tropical Almanac would not delay along with them, had
thrown both Enterprises into weather such as all but meant impossibility
in those latitudes! This was irremediable;--had not been remediable, by
efforts and pushings here and there. The best of management, as under
Anson, could not get the better of this; worst of management, as in the
other case, was likely to make a fine thing of it! Let us hasten on:--
"January 20th, 1741, We arrive, through much rough weather and other
confused hardships, at Port Royal in Jamaica; find Vernon waiting on
the slip; the American Regiment, tolerably drilled by the Scotch
Lieutenants, in full readiness and equipment; a body of Negroes
superadded, by way of pioneer laborers fit for those hot climates. One
sad loss there had been on the voyage hither: Land forces had lost
their Commander, and did not find another. General Cathcart had died of
sickness on the voyage; a Charles Lord Cathcart, who was understood
to possess some knowledge of his business; and his Successor, one
Wentworth, did not happen to have any. Which was reckoned unlucky, by
the more observant. Vernon, though in haste for Carthagena, is in some
anxiety about a powerful French Fleet which has been manoeuvring in
those waters for some time; intent on no good that Vernon can imagine.
The first thing now is, See into that French Fleet. French Fleet, on our
going to look in the proper Island, is found to be all off for home;
men 'mostly starved or otherwise dead,' we hear; so that now, after this
last short delay,--To Carthagena with all sail.
"Wednesday Evening, 15th March, 1741, We anchor in the Playa Grande, the
waste surfy Shallow which washes Carthagena seaward: 124 sail of us, big
and little. We find Don Blas in a very prepared posture. Don Blas has
been doing his best, this twelvemonth past; plugging up that Boca-Chica
(LITTLE MOUTH) Ingate, with batteries, booms, great ships; and has
castles not a few thereabouts and in the Interior Lake or Harbor; all
which he has put in tolerable defence, so far as can be judged: not an
inactive, if an insolent Don. We spend the next five days in considering
and surveying these Performances of his: What is to be done with them;
how, in the first place, we may force Boca-Chica; and get in upon his
Interior Castles and him. After consideration, and plan fixed:
"Monday, 20th March, Sir Chaloner, with broadsides, sweeps away
some small defences which lie to left of Boca-Chica [to our LEFT, to
Boca-Chica's RIGHT, if anybody cares to be particular]. Whereupon the
Troops land, some of them that same evening; and, within the next
two days, are all ashore, implements, Negroes and the rest; building
batteries, felling wood; intent to capture Boca-Chica Castle, and
demolish the War-Ships, Booms, and fry of Fascine and other Batteries;
and thereby to get in upon Don Blas, and have a stroke at his Interior
Castles and Carthagena itself. Till April 5th, here are sixteen days of
furious intricate work; not ill done:--the physical labor itself, the
building of batteries, with Boca-Chica firing on you over the woods, is
scarcely do-able by Europeans in that season; and the Negroes who are
able for it, 'fling down their burdens, and scamper, whenever a gun goes
off.' Furious fighting, too, there was, by seamen and landsmen; not ill
done, considering circumstances.
"On the sixteenth day, April 5th [King Friedrich hurrying from the
Mountains that same day, towards Steinau, which took fire with him
at night], Boca-Chica Castle and the intricate War-Ships, Booms, and
Castles thereabouts (Don Blas running off when the push became intense),
are at last got. So that now, through Boca-Chica, we enter the Interior
Harbor or Harbors. 'Harbors' which are of wide extent, and deep enough:
being in fact a Lake, or rather Pair of Lakes, with Castles (CASTILLO
GRANDE, 'Castle Grand,' the chief of them), with War-Ships sunk or
afloat, and miscellaneous obstructions: beyond all which, at the
farther shore, some five miles off, Carthagena itself does at last lie
potentially accessible; and we hope to get in upon Don Blas and it.
There ensue five days of intricate sea-work; not much of broadsiding,
mainly tugging out of sunk War-Ships, and the like, to get alongside of
Castle Grand, which is the chief obstruction.
"April 10, Castle Grand itself is got; nobody found in it when we storm.
Don Blas and the Spaniards seem much in terror; burning any Ships they
still have, near Carthagena; as if there were no chance now left." This
is the very day of Mollwitz Battle; near about the hour when Schwerin
broke into field-music, and advanced with thunderous glitter against the
evening sun! Carthagena Expedition is, at length, fairly in contact with
its Problem,--the question rising, 'Do you understand it, then?'
"Up to this point, mistakes of management had been made good by
obstinate energy of execution; clear victory had gone on so far, the
Capture of Carthagena now seemingly at hand. One thing was unfortunate:
'the able Mr. Moor [meritorious Captain of Foot, who, by accident, had
spent some study on his business], the one real Engineer we had,' got
killed in that Boca-Chica struggle: an end to poor Moor! So that
the Siege of Carthagena will have to go on WITHOUT Engineer science
henceforth. May be important, that,--who knows? Another thing was still
more palpably important: Sea-General Vernon had an undisguised contempt
for Land-General Wentworth. 'A mere blockhead, whose Brother has a
Borough,' thinks Vernon (himself an Opposition Member, of high-sniffing,
angry, not too magnanimous turn);--and withdraws now to his Ships;
intimating: 'Do your Problem, then; I have set you down beside it, which
was my part of the affair!'--Let us give the attack of Fort Lazar, and
end this sad business.
"Sunday, 16th April, Wentworth, once master of the Uppermost Lake or
Harbor (what the Natives call the SURGIDERO, or Anchorage Proper),
had disembarked, high up to the right, a good way south of Carthagena;
meaning to attack there-from a certain Fort Lazar, which stands on a
Hill between Carthagena and him: this Hill and Fort once his, he has
Carthagena under his cannon; Carthagena in his pocket, as it were. 'Fort
not to be had without batteries,' thinks Wentworth; though the sickly
rainy season has set in. 'Batteries? Scaling-ladders, you mean!' answers
Vernon, with undisguised contempt. For the two are, by this time, almost
in open quarrel. Wentworth starts building batteries, in spite of the
rain-deluges; then stops building;--decides to do it by scalade, after
all. And, at two in the morning of this Sunday, April 16th, sets forth,
in certain columns,--by roads ill-known, with arrangements that do NOT
fit like clock-work,--to storm said Hill and Fort. The English are an
obstinate people; and strenuous execution will sometimes amend defects
of plan,--sometimes not.
"The obstinate English, nothing in them but sullen fire of valor, which
has to burn UNluminous, did, after mistake on mistake, climb the
rocks or heights of Lazar Hill, in spite of the world and Don Blas's
cannonading; but found, when atop, That Fort Lazar, raining cannon-shot,
was still divided from them by chasms; that the scaling-ladders had
not come (never did come, owing to indiscipline somewhere),--and that,
without wings as of eagles, they could not reach Fort Lazar at all!
For about four hours, they struggled with a desperate doggedness,
to overcome the chasms, to wrench aside the Laws of Nature, and do
something useful for themselves; patiently, though sulkily; regardless
of the storm of shot which killed 600 of them, the while. At length,
finding the Laws of Nature too strong for them, they descended gloomily:
'in gloomy silence' marched home to their tents again,--in a humor too
deep for words.
"Yes; and we find they fell sick in multitudes, that night; and, 'in two
days more, were reduced from 6,645 to 3,200 effective;' Vernon, from
the sea, looking disdainfully on:--and it became evident that the big
Project had gone to water; and that nothing would remain but to return
straightway to Jamaica, in bankrupt condition. Which accordingly was set
about. And ten days hence (April 26th)) the final party of them did
get on board,--punctual to take 'three tents,' their last rag of
Siege-furniture, along with them; 'lest Don Blas have trophies,' thinks
poor Wentworth. And sailed away, with their sad Siege finished in such
fashion. Strenuous Siege; which, had the War-Sciences been foolishness,
and the Laws of Nature and the rigors of Arithmetic and Geometry been
stretchable entities, might have succeeded better!" [Smollett's Account,
_Miscellaneous Works_ (Edinburgh, 1806), iv. 445-469, is that of a
highly intelligent Eye-witness, credible and intelligible in every
particular.]
"Evening of April 26th:"--I perceive it was in the very hours while
Belleisle arrived in Friedrich's Camp at Mollwitz; eve of that Siege of
Brieg, which we saw performing itself with punctual regard to said
Laws and rigors, and issuing in so different a manner! Nothing that
my Constitutional Historian has said equals in pungent enormity the
matter-of-fact Picture, left by Tobias Smollett, of the sick and
wounded, in the interim which follow&d that attempt on Fort Lazar and
the Laws of Nature:--
"As for the sick and wounded", says Tobias, "they were, next day, sent
on board of the transports and vessels called hospital-ships; where they
languished in want of every necessary comfort and accommodation. They
were destitute of surgeons, nurses, cooks and proper provision; they
were pent up between decks in small vessels, where they had not room to
sit upright; they wallowed in filth; myriads of maggots were hatched in
the putrefaction of their sores, which had no other dressing than that
of being washed by themselves with their own allowance of brandy; and
nothing was heard but groans, lamentations and the language of despair,
invoking death to deliver them from their miseries. What served to
encourage this despondence, was the prospect of those poor wretches who
had strength and opportunity to look around them; for there they beheld
the naked bodies of their fellow-soldiers and comrades floating up and
down the harbor, affording prey to the carrion-crows and sharks, which
tore them in pieces without interruption, and contributing by their
stench to the mortality that prevailed.
"This picture cannot fail to be shocking to the humane reader,
especially when he is informed, that while those miserable objects
cried in vain for assistance, and actually perished for want of proper
attendance, every ship of war in the fleet could have spared a couple of
surgeons for their relief; and many young gentlemen of that profession
solicited their captains in pain for leave to go and administer help
to the sick and wounded. The necessities of the poor people were well
known; the remedy was easy and apparent; but the discord between the
chiefs was inflamed to such a degree of diabolical rancor, that the
one chose rather to see his men perish than ask help of the other, who
disdained to offer his assistance unasked, though it might have
saved the lives of his fellow-subjects." [Smollett, IBID. (Anderson's
Edition), iv. 466.]
In such an amazing condition is the English Fighting Apparatus under
Walpole, being important for England's self only; while the Talking
Apparatus, important for Walpole, is in such excellent gearing, so well
kept in repair and oil! By Wentworth's blame, who had no knowledge of
war; by Vernon's, who sat famous on the Opposition side, yet wanted
loyalty of mind; by one's blame and another's, WHOSE it is idle arguing,
here is how your Fighting Apparatus performs in the hour when needed.
Unfortunate General, or General's Cocked-Hat (a brave heart too, they
say, though of brain too vacant, too opaque); unfortunate Admiral
(much blown away by vanity, in-nature and Parliamentary wind);--doubly
unfortunate Nation, that employs such to lead its armaments! How the
English Nation took it? The English Nation has had much of this kind to
take, first and last; and apparently will yet have. "Gloomy silence,"
like that of the poor men going home to their tents, is our only dialect
towards it.
This is a dreadful business, this of the wrecked Carthagena Expedition;
such a force of war-munitions in every kind,--including the rare kind,
human Courage and force of heart, only not human Captaincy, the rarest
kind,--as could have swallowed South America at discretion, had there
been Captains over it. Has gone blundering down into Orcus and the
shark's belly, in that unutterable manner. Might have been didactic
to England, more than it was; England's skin being very thick against
lessons of that nature. Might have broken the heart of a little
Sovereign Gentleman Curator of England, had he gone hypochondriacally
into it; which he was far from doing, brisk little Gentleman; looking
out else-whither, with those eyes A FLEUR DE TETE, and nothing of
insoluble admitted into the brain that dwelt inside.
What became subsequently of the Spanish War, we in vain inquire of
History-Books. The War did not die for many years to come, but neither
did it publicly live; it disappears at this point: a River Niger, seen
once flowing broad enough; but issuing--Does it issue nowhere, then?
Where does it issue? Except for my Constitutional Historian, still
unpublished, I should never have known where.--By the time these
disastrous Carthagena tidings reached England, his Britannic Majesty
was in Hanover; involved, he, and all his State doctors, English and
Hanoverian, in awful contemplation on Pragmatic Sanction, Kaiserwahl,
Celestial Balance, and the saving of Nature's Keystone, should this
still prove possible to human effort and contrivance. In which Imminency
of Doomsday itself, the small English-Spanish matter, which the Official
people, and his Majesty as much as any, had bitterly disliked, was quite
let go, and dropped out of view. Forgotten by Official people; left
to the dumb English Nation, whose concern it was, to administer as IT
could.
Anson--with his three ships gone to two, gone ultimately to one--is
henceforth what Spanish War there officially is. Anson could not meet
those Vernon-Wentworth gentlemen "from the other side of the Isthmus of
Darien," the gentlemen, with their Enterprise, being already bankrupt
and away. Anson, with three inconsiderable ships, which rotted gradually
into one, could not himself settle the Spanish War: but he did, on his
own score, a series of things, ending in beautiful finis of the Acapulco
Ship, which were of considerable detriment, and of highly considerable
disgrace, to Spain;--and were, and are long likely to be, memorable
among the Sea-heroisms of the world. Giving proof that real Captains,
taciturn Sons of Anak, are still born in England; and Sea-kings, equal
to any that were. Luckily, too, he had some chaplain or ship's-surgeon
on board, who saw good to write account of that memorable VOYAGE of his;
and did it, in brief, perspicuous terms, wise and credible: a real Poem
in its kind, or Romance all Fact; one of the pleasantest little Books
in the World's Library at this date. Anson sheds some tincture of heroic
beauty over that otherwise altogether hideous puddle of mismanagement,
platitude, disaster; and vindicates, in a pathetically potential way,
the honor of his poor Nation a little.
Apart from Official Anson, the Spanish War fell mainly, we may say,
into the hands of--of Mr. Jenkins himself, and such Friends of his,
at Wapping, Bristol and the Seaports, as might be disposed to go
privateering. In which course, after some crosses at first, and great
complaints of losses to Spanish Privateers, Wapping and Bristol did at
length eminently get the upper hand; and thus carried on this Spanish
War (or Spanish-French, Spain and France having got into one boat), for
long years coming; in an entirely inarticulate, but by no means quite
ineffectual manner,--indeed, to the ultimate clearance of the Seas from
both French and Spaniard, within the next twenty years. Readers shall
take this little Excerpt, dated Three Years hence, and set it twinkling
in the night of their imaginations:--
BRISTOL, MONDAY, 21st (10th) SEPTEMBER, 1744.... "Nothing is to be seen
here but rejoicings for the number of French prizes brought into this
port. Our Sailors are in high spirits, and full of money; and while on
shore, spend their whole time in carousing, visiting their mistresses,
going to plays, serenading, &c., dressed out with laced hats, tossels
(SIC), swords with sword-knots, and every other way of spending their
money." [Extract of a Letter from Bristol, in _Gentleman's Magazine,_
xiv. 504.]
Carthagena, Walpole, Viners: here are Sorrows for a Britannic
Majesty;--and these are nothing like all. But poor readers should
have some respite; brief breathing-time, were it only to use their
pocket-handkerchiefs, and summon new courage!