A SQUADRON SENT TO THE BALTIC.
By this time Peter the czar of Muscovy was dead, and his empress Catharine had succeeded him on the Russian throne. This princess had begun to assemble forces in the neighbourhood of Petersburgh, and to prepare a formidable armament for a naval expedition. King George, concluding that her design was against Sweden, sent a strong squadron into the Baltic, under the command of sir Charles Wager, in order to anticipate her views upon his allies. The English fleet being joined at Copenhagen by a Danish squadron, alarmed the court of Russia, which immediately issued orders for reinforcing the garrisons of Wilbourg, Cronstadt, Revel, and Riga. The English admiral, having had an audience with his Swedish majesty, steered towards Revel, and sent thither a lieutenant, with a letter from the king of Great Britain to the czarina. This was an expostulation, in which his majesty observed, that he and his allies could not fail of being alarmed at her great preparations by sea and land. He complained that measures had been taken at her court in favour of the pretender; that his repeated instances for establishing a lasting friendship with the crown of Russia had been treated with neglect; and he gave her to understand, that he had ordered his admiral to prevent her ships from coming out of her harbours, should she persist in her resolution to execute the designs she had projected. The czarina, in her answer to the king, expressed her surprise that she had not received his majesty’s letter until his fleet was at anchor before Revel, since it would have been more agreeable to the custom established among sovereigns, and to the amity which had so long subsisted between her kingdoms and the crown of Great Britain, to expostulate with her on her armament, and expected her answer before he had proceeded to such an offensive measure. She assured him that nothing was farther from her thoughts than any design to disturb the peace of the North; and with regard to the pretender, it was a frivolous and stale accusation, which had been frequently used as a pretext to cover all the unkind steps lately undertaken against the Russian empire. Sir Charles Wager continued in his station until he received certain intelligence that the Russian galleys were laid up in their winter harbour; then he set sail for the coast of Denmark, from whence he returned to England in the month of November.
ADMIRAL HOSIER’S EXPEDITION.
King George, that he might not seem to convert all his attention to the affairs of the North, had equipped two other squadrons, one of which was destined for the West Indies, under the command of admiral Hosier: the other, conducted by sir John Jennings, having on board a body of land-forces, sailed from St. Helen’s on the twentieth day of July, entered the bay of St. Antonio, then visited Lisbon, from whence he directed his course to the bay of Bulls near Cadiz, and cruised off Cape St. Mary’s, so as to alarm the coast of Spain and fill Madrid with consternation. Yet he committed no act of hostility: but was treated with great civility by the Spanish governor of Cadiz, who supplied him with refreshments. Rear-admiral Hosier, with seven ships of war, had sailed in April for the Spanish West-Indies, with instructions to block up the galleons in the port of that country; or should they presume to come out, to seize and bring them to England. Before his arrival at the Bastimentos, near Porto-Bello, the treasure, consisting of above six millions sterling, had been unloaded and carried back to Panama, in pursuance of an order sent by an advice-boat which had the start of Hosier. This admiral lay inactive on that station, until he became the jest of the Spaniards. He returned to Jamaica, where he found means to reinforce his crews; then he stood over to Carthagena. The Spaniards had by this time seized the English South-Sea ship at La Vera Cruz, together with all the vessels and effects belonging to that company. Hosier in vain demanded restitution: he took some Spanish ships by way of reprisal, and continued cruising in those seas until the greater part of his men perished deplorably by the diseases of that unhealthy climate, and his ships were totally rained by the worms. This brave officer, being restricted by his orders from obeying the dictates of his courage, seeing his best officers and men daily swept off by an outrageous distemper, and his ships exposed to inevitable destruction, is said to have died of a broken heart; while the people of England loudly clamoured against this unfortunate expedition, in which so many lives were thrown away, and so much money expended, without the least advantage to the nation. It seems to have been a mean piratical scheme to rob the court of Spain of its expected treasure, even while a peace subsisted between the two nations. The ministry of Great Britain indeed alleged, that the Spanish king had entered into engagements in favour of the pretender.
DISGRACE OF THE DUKE DE RIPPERDA.
The dukes of Ormond and Wharton,* and the earl Marischal, were certainly at Madrid; and the duke de Ripperda, now prime-minister of Spain, dropped some expressions to the English envoy that implied some such design, which however the court of Madrid positively denied.
* The duke of Wharton having consumed his fortune in riot and extravagance, repaired to the court of Vienna, from whence he proceeded to Rome, and offered his service to the pretender. There he received the order of the garter, and the title of duke of Northumberland. He was sent by the chevalier de St. George with credentials to the court of Madrid, where he abjured the protestant religion, married a lady of the queen of Spain’s bed-chamber, and obtained the rank and appointment of a lieutenant-colonel in the Spanish service.
Ripperda, as a foreigner, fell a sacrifice to the jealousy of the Spanish ministers. He was suddenly dismissed from his employments, with a pension of three thousand pistoles. He forthwith took refuge in the house of Vandermeer the Dutch ambassador, who was unwilling to be troubled with such a guest. He therefore conveyed the duke in his coach to the house of colonel Stanhope, the British minister, whose protection he craved and obtained. Nevertheless, he was dragged from thence by force, and committed prisoner to the castle of Segovia. He afterwards made his escape, and sheltered himself in England from the resentment of his catholic majesty. Colonel Stanhope complained of this violation of the law of nations, which the Spanish ministers endeavoured to excuse. Memorials and letters passed between the two courts, and every thing tended to a rupture. The king of Spain purchased ships of war; began to make preparations for some important undertaking; and assembled an army of twenty thousand men at St. Roch, on pretence of rebuilding the old castle of Gibraltar. Meanwhile the states-general and the king of Sweden acceded to the treaty of Hanover: but the king of Prussia, though his majesty’s son-in-law, was detached from the alliance by the emperor, with whom he contracted new engagements.
SUBSTANCE OF THE KING’S SPEECH.
On the seventeenth day of January, the British parliament was opened with a long elaborate speech, importing that the proceedings and transactions of the emperor and king of Spain, and the secret offensive alliance concluded between them, had laid the foundation of a most exorbitant and formidable power; that they were directly levelled against the most valuable and darling interests and privileges of the British nation, which must either give up Gibraltar to Spain, and acquiesce in the emperor’s usurped exercise of commerce, or resolve vigorously to defend their undoubted rights against those reciprocal engagements, contracted in defiance and violation of all national faith, and the most solemn treaties. He assured them, that one of those secret articles was the placing the pretender on the throne of Great Britain; and another the conquest of Gibraltar and Port Mahon. He affirmed that those combinations extended themselves into Russia; and that the English fleet seasonably prevented such designs as would have opened a way to the invasion of these kingdoms. He exhorted the commons to grant such supplies as should be necessary for the defence of then-country, and for making good his engagements with the allies of Great Britain. He told them that the king of Spain had ordered his minister residing in England to quit the kingdom; and that he had left a memorial little short of a declaration, in which he insisted upon the restitution of Gibraltar. He did not fail to touch the energetic strings which always moved their passions: the balance of power in Europe, the security of the British commerce, the designs of a popish pretender, the present happy establishment, the religion, liberties, and properties of a protestant people. Such addresses of thanks were penned in both houses as the ministers were pleased to dictate; yet not without opposition from a minority, which was far from being formidable, though headed by chiefs of uncommon talents and resolution. The commons voted twenty thousand seamen, besides six-and-twenty thousand three hundred and eighty-three men for the land service; and, to defray the extraordinary expense, a land-tax of four shillings in the pound was granted.
GEORGE I, 1714—1727
DEBATE IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS.
The house of lords having taken into consideration the letters and memorials between the ministers of Great Britain, France, and Spain, and the papers relating to the accession of the states-general to the treaty of Hanover, a warm debate ensued. Lord Bathurst took notice that the accession of the states-general to the treaty was upon condition that this their act should be approved and ratified by the king of Great Britain, the most christian king, and the king of Prussia; but that the minister of his Prussian majesty had refused to sign the act of accession, which was therefore of no effect: that if the court of France should, for the same reason, think itself disengaged from the Hanover alliance, Britain alone would be obliged to bear the burden of an expensive war against two of the greatest potentates of Europe. He said he could not see any just reason for a rupture with Spain; that indeed the duke de Ripperda might have dropped some indiscreet expressions; he was known to be a man of violent temper; and he had been solemnly disavowed by his catholic majesty; that, in the memorial left by the Spanish ambassador, he imputed the violent state of affairs between the two crowns to the ministers of England; and mentioned a positive promise made by the king of Great Britain for the restitution of Gibraltar; that methods of accommodation might be tried before the kingdom engaged in a war which must be attended with dangerous consequences; that the nation was loaded with a debt of fifty millions; and, in order to maintain such a war, would be obliged to raise seven millions yearly; an annual sum by which the people would soon be exhausted. He observed, that in some papers laid before the house, mention was made of great sums distributed in divers places, to bring certain measures to bear. He declared, that for his own part, he had touched neither Spanish nor English gold; he was neither a Spaniard nor a Frenchman, but a true Englishman, and so long as he had the honour to sit in that house, he would speak and act for the good of his country. He therefore desired their lordships seriously to consider the matter before them, which was of the last consequence and importance to the whole nation. He said nothing could be gained by the war, should it prove successful: and every thing would be lost should it be unprosperous. He was answered by lord Town-shend, Who affirmed that his majesty had received positive and certain information with respect to the secret article of alliance between the courts of Vienna and Madrid, in favour of the pretender, though the safety of the state did not permit him to lay these advices before the parliament. After much altercation, the majority resolved, that the measures his majesty had thought fit to take were honourable, just, and necessary for preventing the execution of the dangerous engagement entered into in favour of the pretender; for preserving the dominions belonging to the crown of Great Britain by solemn treaties, and particularly those of Gibraltar and the island of Minorca; and for maintaining to his people their most valuable rights and privileges of commerce, and the peace and tranquillity of Europe. Seventeen lords entered a protest against this resolution. Disputes of the same nature arose from the same subject in the lower house. Lord Townshend had affirmed in the house of peers, that no promise of restoring Gibraltar bad been made: sir Kobert Walpole owned such a promise in the house of commons: a motion was made for an address, desiring these engagements might be laid before the house; another member moved for a copy of the memorial presented by Mr. Pointz to the king of Sweden, and for the secret offensive article between the courts of Vienna and Madrid; a third motion was made to address the king for such memorials and representations from the courts of Sweden and Denmark, as induced him, in the course of the preceding year, to send a squadron to the Baltic. In the account of the money granted for the service of the last year, there was an article of one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds charged in general terms as issued out for other engagements and expenses, over and above such as were specified. Mr. Pulteney moved for an address on this subject; but each of these motions was rejected on a division: and the majority concurred in an address of thanks to his majesty, for the great wisdom of his conduct. They expressed the most implicit confidence in his goodness and discretion: they promised to support him in all such further measures as he should find necessary and expedient for preventing a rupture, as well as for consulting the honour and advantage of these kingdoms.
His majesty’s speech gave such umbrage to the court of Vienna, that Mr. Palms, the Imperial resident at London, was ordered to present a warm memorial to the king, and afterwards to publish it to the whole nation. In this bold remonstrance, the king was charged with having declared from the throne, as certain and undoubted facts, several things that were either wrested, misrepresented, or void of all foundation. The memorialist affirmed, that the treaty of Vienna was built on the quadruple alliance; that the treaty of commerce was calculated to promote the mutual and lawful advantages of the subjects of both parties, agreeably to the law of nations; and in no respect prejudicial to the British nation. He declared that there was no offensive alliance concluded between the two crowns; that the supposed article relating to the pretender was an absolute falsehood; that the insinuation with respect to the siege of Gibraltar was equally untrue, his master having made no engagements with the king of Spain, but such as were specified in the treaty communicated to his Britannic majesty. He said, however, the hostilities notoriously committed in the West Indies, and elsewhere, against the king of Spain, in violation of treaties, seemed to justify that prince’s undertaking the siege of Gibraltar. Finally, he demanded, in the name of his Imperial majesty, suitable reparation for the injury his honour had sustained from such calumnious imputations. Both houses of parliament expressed their indignation at the insolence of this memorial, in an address to his majesty; and Mr. Palms was ordered to depart the kingdom. Virulent declarations were presented by the ministers of the emperor and the king of Great Britain to the diet of the empire at Ratisbon; and such personal reflections retorted between these two potentates, that all hope of reconciliation vanished.
CONVENTIONS WITH SWEDEN AND HESSE-CASSEL.
King George, in order to secure himself against the impending storm, entered into more strict engagements with the French king; and agreed to pay fifty thousand pounds for three years to the king of Sweden, in consideration of that prince’s holding in readiness a body of ten thousand troops for the occasions of the alliance. He concluded a fresh treaty with the king of Denmark, who promised to furnish a certain number of auxiliaries, on account of a large subsidy granted by the king of France. The proportions of troops to be sent into the field in case of a rupture were ascertained. His Britannic majesty engaged for four-and-twenty thousand men, and a strong squadron to be sent into the Baltic. He made a convention with the prince of Hesse-Cassel, who undertook to provide eight thousand infantry, and four thousand horse, in consideration of seventy-four thousand pounds, to be paid by Great Britain immediately, and fifty thousand pounds more in case the troops should be required, besides their pay and subsistence. Such was the fruit of all the alliances so industriously planned since the accession of king George to the throne of Great Britain. In the day of his trouble the king of Prussia, who had espoused his daughter, deserted his interest; and the states-general stood aloof. For the security of his German dominions, he had recourse to the king of France, who was a precarious ally; to the kings of Sweden and Denmark, and the principality of Hesse-Cassel: but none of these powers would contribute their assistance without being gratified with exorbitant subsidies, though the danger was common, and the efforts ought to have been equal. Instead of allies, they professed themselves mercenaries. Great Britain paid them for the defence of their own dominions: she, moreover, undertook to maintain a powerful fleet for their safety. Is there any Britain so weak as to think, or so fool-hardy as to affirm, that this was a British quarrel?
1727
VOTE OF CREDIT.
For the support of those expensive treaties, Mr. Scroope, secretary of the treasury, moved in the house of commons, that in the malt-tax bill they should insert a clause of appropriation, empowering the king to apply such sums as should be necessary for defraying the expenses and engagements which had been, or should be made before the twenty-fifth day of September, in concerting such measures as he should think most conducive to the security of trade, and restoring the peace of Europe. To little purpose did the members in the opposition urge that this method of asking and granting supplies was unparliamentary; that such a clause would render ineffectual that appropriation of the public money, which the wisdom of all parliaments had thought a necessary security against misapplication, which was the more to be feared as no provision was made to call any person to account for the money that should be disposed of by virtue of this clause; that great sums had already been granted; that such an unlimited power ought never to be given in a free government; that such confidence in the crown might, through the influence of evil ministers, be attended with the most dangerous consequences; that the constitution could not be preserved, but by a strict adherence to those essential parliamentary forms of granting supplies upon estimates, and of appropriating these supplies to services and occasions publicly avowed and judged necessary; that such clauses, if not seasonably checked, would become so frequent as in time to lodge in the crown and in the ministers an absolute and uncontrollable power of raising money upon the people, which by the constitution is, and with safety can only be, lodged in the whole legislature. The motion was carried, the clause added, and the bill passed through the other house without amendment, though not without opposition. Notwithstanding this vote of credit, sir William Yonge moved, that towards the supply granted to the king, the sum of three hundred and seventy thousand pounds should be raised by loans on exchequer bills, to be charged on the surplus of the duties on coal and culm, which was reserved for the parliament’s disposal. Though this motion was vigorously opposed by sir Joseph Jekyll and Mr. Pulteney, as a dangerous deviation from several votes and acts of parliament, by which the exceed-ings of the public funds were appropriated to the discharge of the national debt, or to the increase of the sinking fund, it was carried by the majority.
SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR
On the fifteenth day of May the parliament was prorogued, after the king had acknowledged their zeal, liberality, and despatch; and given them to understand that the siege of Gibraltar was actually begun. The trenches were opened before this fortress on the eleventh day of February, by the Conde de las Torres, at the head of twenty thousand men. The place was well provided for a defence; and the old earl of Portmore, who was governor, embarked with a reinforcement from England, under convoy of a fleet commanded by sir Charles Wager. He arrived at Gibraltar in the beginning of April, where he landed the troops, with a great quantity of ammunition, warlike stores, and four-and-twenty pieces of cannon. At the same time, five hundred men arrived from Minorca; so that the garrison amounted to six thousand, plentifully supplied with fresh provisions from the coast of Barbary, and treated the efforts of the besiegers with great contempt. The states-general, being apprehensive of an attempt upon their barrier in the Netherlands, desired the king would hold in readiness the ten thousand auxiliaries stipulated in the treaty. These were immediately prepared for embarkation, and the forces of England were augmented with thirty new raised companies. Sir John Norris set sail with a powerful fleet for the Baltic, and was joined by a Danish squadron; but the czarina dying on the seventeenth day of May, he had no occasion to commit hostilities, as the Russian armament was laid aside.
PRELIMINARIES OF PEACE.
Meanwhile the powers at variance, though extremely irritated against each other, were all equally averse to a war that might again embroil all Europe. The king of France interposed his mediation, which was conducted by the duke de Richlieu, his ambassador at Vienna. Plans and counterplans of pacification were proposed between the two crowns and the allies. At length all parties agreed to twelve preliminary articles which were signed in May at Paris, by the ministers of the Hanoverian alliance, and afterwards at Vienna, by the Imperial and Spanish ambassadors. These imported, that hostilities should immediately cease; that the charter of the Ostend company should be suspended for seven years; and that a congress should in four months be opened at Aix-la-Chapelle, for adjusting all differences, and consolidating the peace of Europe. This congress was afterwards transferred to Soissons, for the conveniency of the French minister, whose presence was necessary at court. The siege of Gibraltar was raised, after it had lasted four months, during which the Spaniards lost a great number of men by sickness, while the garrison sustained very little damage. The court of Madrid, however, started some new difficulties, and for some time would not consent to the restitution of the South-Sea ship, which had been detained at La Vera-Cruz, in the West Indies; so that sir Charles Wager continued to cruise on the coast of Spain: but these objections were removed in the sequel.
DEATH AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE I.
King George, having appointed a regency, embarked at Greenwich on the third day of June, and landing in Holland on the seventh, set out on his journey to Hanover. He was suddenly seized with a paralytic disorder on the road: he forthwith lost the faculty of speech, became lethargic, and was conveyed in a state of insensibility to Osnabruck. There he expired on Sunday the eleventh day of June, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and in the thirteenth of his reign.—George I. was plain and simple in his person and address, grave and composed in his deportment, though easy, familiar, and facetious in his hours of relaxation. Before he ascended the throne of Great Britain, he had acquired the character of a circumspect general, a just and merciful prince, a wise politician, who perfectly understood, and steadily pursued, his own interest. With these qualities, it cannot be doubted but that he came to England extremely well disposed to govern his new subjects according to the maxims of the British constitution, and the genius of the people; and if ever he seemed to deviate from these principles, we may take it for granted that he was misled by the venal suggestions of a ministry whose power and influence were founded on corruption. 229 [See note 2 I, at the end of this Vol.]
NOTES:
206 (return)
[ Note 2 H, p. 206. The
pretender, who resided at Urbino, having received intelligence from Paris,
that there was a design formed against his life, pope Clement XL gave
directions that all foreigners in that neighbourhood, especially English,
should be arrested. The earl of Peterborough arriving at Bologna, with a
few armed followers, was seized with all his papers. Being interrogated,
he said he came to pass some time in Italy for the benefit of the air. He
was close confined for a whole month in fort Urbino, and his attendants
were sent to prison. Nothing appearing to justify the suspicion, he was
dismissed with uncommon civility. The king demanding reparation for this
insult, the pope wrote with his own hand a letter to an ally of Great
Britain, declaring that the legate of Bologna had violently and unjustly,
without the knowledge of his holiness, caused the earl of Peterborough to
be seized upon suspicions which proved to be ill-grounded. The cardinal
legate sent a declaration to the English admiral in the Mediterranean,
that he had asked forgiveness of his holiness, and now begged pardon of
his Britannic majesty, for having unadvisedly arrested a peer of Great
Britain on his travels.]
229 (return)
[ Note 2 I, p. 229.
George I. married the princess Sophia Dorothy, daughter and heiress of the
duke of Zell, by whom he had king George II. and the late queen of
Prussia. The king’s body was conveyed to Hanover, and interred among his
ancestors. From the death of Charles II. to this period, England had made
a considerable figure in every branch of literature. Dr. Atterbury and Dr.
Clarke distinguished themselves in divinity—Mr. Whiston wrote in
defence of Arianism—John Locke shone forth the great restorer of
human reason—the earl of Shaftesbury raised an elegant, though
feeble, system of moral philosophy—Berkeley, afterwards bishop of
Cloyne in Ireland, surpassed all his contemporaries in subtle and variety
of metaphysical arguments, as well as in the art of deduction—lord
Bolingbroke’s talents as a metaphysician have been questioned since his
posthumous works appeared—great progress was made in mathematics and
astronomy, by Wallis, Halley, and Flamstead—the art of medicine owed
some valuable improvements to the classical Dr. Friend, and the elegant
Dr. Mead. Among the poets of this era, we number John Philips, author of a
didactic poem, called Cyder, a performance of real merit; he lived and
died in obscurity—William Congreve, celebrated for his comedies,
which are not so famous for strength of character and power of humour, as
for wit, elegance, and regularity—Vanburgh, who wrote with more
nature and fire, though with less art and precision—Steele, who in
his comedies successfully engrafted modern characters on the ancient drama—Farquhar,
who drew his pictures from fancy rather than from nature, and whose chief
merit consists in the agreeable pertness and vivacity of his dialogue—Addison,
whose fame as a poet greatly exceeded his genius, which was cold and
enervate; though he yielded to none in the character of an essayist,
either for style or matter—Swift, whose muse seems to have been mere
misanthropy; he was a cynic rather than a poet, and his natural dryness
and sarcastic severity would have been unpleasing, had not he qualified
them, by adopting the extravagant humour of Lueian and Rabelais—Prior,
lively, familiar, and amusing—Rowe, solemn, florid, and declamatory—Pope,
the prince of lyric poetry; unrivalled in satire, ethics, and polished
versification—the agreeable Parnel—the wild, the witty, and
the whimsical Garth—Gay, whose fables may vie with those of La
Fontaine, in native humour, ease, and simplicity, and whose genius for
pastoral was truly original. Dr. Bentley stood foremost in the list of
critics and commentators. Sir Christopher Wren raised some noble monuments
of architecture. The most remarkable political writers were Davenant,
Hare, Swift, Steele, Addison, Bolingbroke, and Trenchard.]
==============================
GEORGE II.
1727
CHAPTER I.
George II. ascends the Throne of Great Britain..... Characters of the principal Persons concerned in the ministry..... Debates in Parliament concerning the Civil- list..... Changes and Promotions..... New Parliament..... Violent Dispute concerning the National Debt..... Vote of Credit..... A double Marriage between the Houses of Spain and Portugal..... liberality of the Commons..... Debates on the Subsidies of Hesse-Cassel and Wolfenbuttle..... Committee for inspecting the Gaols——Address touching the Spanish Depredations..... A Sum voted to the King on account of Arrears due on the Civil-list Revenue..... Proceedings in the House of Lords..... Wise conduct of the Irish Parliament..... Abdication of the King of Sardinia..... Death of Pope Benedict XIII..... Substance of the King’s Speech to both Houses..... Objections to the Treaty of Seville in the House of Lords..... Opposition in the Lower House to a standing Army..... Bill prohibiting Loans to Foreign Princes or States..... Charter of the East-India Company prolonged..... The Emperor resents the Treaty of Seville..... Seven Indian Chiefs arrive in England..... Revolution at Constantinople..... England infested with Robbers, Assassins, and Incendiaries..... Bill against Pensioners sitting as Members in the House of Commons..... Treaty of Vienna..... Death of the Duke of Parma..... Don Carlos takes Possession of his Territories—France distracted by religious Disputes..... The Ministry violently opposed in Parliament..... Debate on a standing Army..... Account of the Charitable Corporation..... Revival of the Salt-tax..... Mr. Pulteney’s name struck out of the List of Privy-counsellors..... The King sets out for Hanover
GEORGE II. 1727-1760
GEORGE II. ASCENDS THE THRONE.
At the accession of George II. the nation had great reason to wish for an alteration of measures. The public debt, notwithstanding the boasted economy and management of the ministers; notwithstanding the sinking fund, which had been extolled as a growing treasure sacred to the discharge of national incumbrances, was now increased to fifty millions two hundred and sixty-one thousand two hundred and six pounds, nineteen shillings and eightpence three farthings. The kingdom was bewildered in a labyrinth of treaties and conventions, by which it stood engaged in pecuniary subsidies to many powers upon the continent, with whom its real interests could never be connected. The wealth of the nation had been lavished upon those foreign connexions, upon unnecessary wars, and fruitless expeditions. Dangerous encroachments had been made upon the constitution, by the repeal of the act for triennial parliaments; by frequent suspensions of the habeas-corpus act upon frivolous occasions; by repealing clauses in the act of settlement; by votes of credit; by habituating the people to a standing army; and, above all, by establishing a system of corruption, which at all times would secure a majority in parliament. The nature of prerogative, by which the liberties of the nation had formerly been often endangered, was now so well understood, and so securely restrained, that it could no longer be used for the same oppressive purposes; besides, an avowed extension of the prerogative required more ability, courage, and resolution, than the present ministry could exert. They understood their own strength, and had recourse to a more safe and effectual expedient. The vice, luxury, and prostitution of the age, the almost total extinction of sentiment, honour, and public spirit, had prepared the minds of men for slavery and corruption. The means were in the hands of the ministry; the public treasure was at their devotion; they multiplied places and pensions, to increase the number of their dependants; they squandered away the money of the nation without taste, discernment, decency, or remorse; they enlisted an army of the most abandoned emissaries, whom they employed to vindicate the worst measures, in the face of truth, common sense, and common honesty; and they did not fail to stigmatize as Jacobites, and enemies to the government, all those who presumed to question the merit of their administration.
CHARACTERS OF THE PRINCIPAL PERSONS CONCERNED IN THE MINISTRY.
The supreme direction of affairs was not yet engrossed by a single minister. Lord Townshend had the reputation of conducting the external transactions relating to treaties and negotiations. He is said to have understood that province, though he did not always follow the dictates of his own understanding. He possessed an extensive fund of knowledge; and was well acquainted with the functions of his office. The duke of Newcastle, his colleague, was not remarkable for any of these qualifications; he owed his promotion to his uncommon zeal for the illustrious house of Hanover, and to the strength of his interest in parliament, rather than to his judgment, precision, or any other intellectual merit. Lord Carteret, who may be counted an auxiliary, though not immediately concerned in the administration, had distinguished himself in the character of envoy at several courts in Europe. He had attained an intimate knowledge of all the different interests and connexions subsisting among the powers of the continent; and he infinitely surpassed all the ministers in learning and capacity. He was indeed the only man of genius employed under this government. He spoke with ease and propriety, his conceptions were just and lively; his inferences bold; his counsels vigorous and warm. Yet he depreciated his talents, by acting in a subordinate character to those whom he despised; and seemed to look upon the pernicious measures of a bad ministry with silent contempt, rather than with avowed detestation. The interior government of Great Britain was chiefly managed by sir Robert Walpole, a man of extraordinary talents, who had from low beginnings raised himself to the head of the treasury. Having obtained a seat in the lower house, he declared himself one of the most forward partisans of the whig faction. He was endued with a species of eloquence, which, though neither nervous nor elegant, flowed with great facility, and was so plausible on all subjects, that even when he misrepresented the truth, whether from ignorance or design, he seldom failed to persuade that part of his audience for whose hearing his harangue was chiefly intended. He was well acquainted with the nature of the public funds, and understood the whole mystery of stock-jobbing. This knowledge produced a connexion between him and the money-corporations, which served to enhance his importance. He perceived the bulk of mankind were actuated by a sordid thirst of lucre; he had sagacity enough to convert the degeneracy of the times to his own advantage; and on this, and this alone, he founded the whole superstructure of his subsequent administration. In the late reign he had by dint of speaking decisively to every question, by boldly impeaching the conduct of the tory ministers, by his activity in elections, and engaging as a projector in the schemes of the monied interest, become a leading member in the house of commons. By his sufferings under the tory parliament, he attained the rank of a martyr to his party. His interest, his reputation, and his presumption daily increased; he opposed Sunderland as his rival in power, and headed a dangerous defection from the ministry, which evinced the greatness of his influence and authority. He had the glory of being principally concerned in effecting a reconciliation between the late king and the prince of Wales; then he was re-associated in the administration with additional credit; and, from the death of the earls of Sunderland and Stanhope, he had been making long strides towards the office of prime minister. He knew the maxims he had adopted would subject him to the hatred, the ridicule, and reproach of some individuals, who had not yet resigned all sentiments of patriotism, nor all views of opposition; but the number of these was inconsiderable, when compared to that which constituted the body of the community; and he would not suffer the consideration of such antagonists to come in competition with his schemes of power, affluence, and authority. Nevertheless, low as he had humbled anti-ministerial association, it required all his artifice to elude, all his patience and natural phlegm to bear, the powerful arguments that were urged, and the keen satire that was exercised against his measures and management, by a few members in the opposition. Sir William Wyndham possessed all the energy of elocution; Mr. Shippen was calm, intrepid, shrewd and sarcastic; Mr. Pulteney inherited from nature a good understanding, which he had studiously cultivated. He was one of the most learned members in the house of commons, extremely well qualified to judge of literary productions; well read in history and politics; deeply skilled in the British constitution, the detail of government, and the nature of the finances. He spoke with freedom, fluency, and uncommon warmth of declamation, which was said to be the effect of personal animosity to sir Robert Walpole, with whom he had been formerly connected.
DEBATES IN PARLIAMENT CONCERNING THE CIVIL LIST.
An express arriving on the fourteenth day of June, with an account of the king’s death, his late majesty king George II. repaired from Richmond, where he received this intelligence, to Leicester-house; and the members of the privy-council being assembled, were sworn a-new. The king declared his firm purpose to preserve the constitution in church and state, and to cultivate those alliances which his father had made with foreign princes. At the same time, he took and subscribed the oath for the security of the church of Scotland, as required by the act of union. Next day he was proclaimed king of Great Britain. The parliament assembled in pursuance of the act made for that purpose; but was immediately prorogued by commission to the twenty-seventh day of the month. All the great officers of state continued in their places; sir Robert Walpole kept possession of the treasury; and the system of politics which the late king had established underwent no sort of alteration. The king, in his speech to both houses at the opening of the session, professed a fixed resolution to merit the love and affection of his people, by maintaining them in the full enjoyment of their religious and civil rights. He promised to lessen the public expense as soon as the circumstances of affairs would permit: he observed to the commons, that the grant of the greatest part of the civil list revenues was now determined; and that it would be necessary for them to make a new provision for the support of him and his family: lastly, he recommended it to both houses to dispatch the business that should be necessarily brought before them, as the season of the year and the circumstances of time required their presence in the country. Addresses of condolence and congratulation being drawn up and presented, the commons, in a committee of the whole house, took into consideration a motion for a supply to his majesty. Sir Robert Walpole having observed, that the annual sum of seven hundred thousand pounds granted to, and settled on, the late king, had fallen short every year; and that his present majesty’s expenses were likely to increase, by reason of the largeness of his family, moved, that the entire revenues of the civil list, which produced about eight hundred thousand pounds per annum, should be settled on the king during his life. Mr. Shippen opposed this motion, as inconsistent with the trust reposed in them as representatives of the people, who ought to be very frugal in exercising the right of giving away the public money. He said, the sum of seven hundred thousand pounds was not obtained for his late majesty without a long and solemn debate; and every member who contended for it at that time, allowed it to be an ample royal revenue: that, although his majesty’s family should be enlarged, a circumstance which had been urged as one reason for the motion, he presumed the appointments of prince Frederick would not be much inferior to those settled on his present majesty when he was prince of Wales: besides, it was to be hoped that many personal, many particular expenses in the late reign, especially those for frequent journeys to Hanover, would be discontinued, and entirely cease. He observed, that the civil list branches in the queen’s reign did not often exceed the sum of five hundred and fifty thousand pounds; nevertheless, she called upon her parliament but once, in a reign of thirteen years, to pay the debts contracted in her civil government; and these were occasioned by the unparalleled instances of her piety and generosity. She gave the first-fruits and tenths, arising to nineteen thousand pounds a-year, as an augmentation of the maintenance of the poor clergy. She bestowed five thousand pounds per annum, out of the post-office, on the duke of Marlborough: she suffered seven hundred pounds to be charged weekly on the same office, for the service of the public: she expended several hundred thousand pounds in building the castle of Blenheim: she allowed four thousand pounds annually to prince Charles of Denmark: she sustained great loses by the tin contract: she supported the poor Palatines: she exhibited many other proofs of royal bounty: and immediately before her death she had formed a plan of retrenchment, which would have reduced her yearly expenses to four hundred and fifty-nine thousand nine hundred and forty-one pounds. He affirmed, that a million a-year would not be sufficient to carry on the exorbitant expenses, so often and so justly complained of in the house of commons: that over and above the yearly allowance of seven hundred thousand pounds, many occasional taxes, many excessive sums were raised, and all sunk in the bottomless gulf of secret service. Two hundred and fifty thousand pounds were raised in defiance of the ancient parliamentary methods, to secure the kingdom from a Swedish invasion; then the two insurance offices were erected, and paid near three hundred thousand pounds for their charters: our enmity with Sweden being changed into an alliance, a subsidy of seventy-two thousand pounds was implicitly granted, to fulfil some secret engagements with that crown: four and twenty thousand pounds were given for burning merchant ships arrived from infected places, though the goods which ought to have been destroyed for the public safety were afterwards privately sold: a sum of five hundred thousand pounds was demanded, and granted, for paying the debts of the civil list; and his majesty declared by message, he was resolved to retrench his expenses for the future. Notwithstanding this resolution, in less than four years, a new demand of the like sum was made and granted to discharge new incumbrances: the Spanish ships of war which admiral Byng took in the Mediterranean, were sold for a considerable sum of money: one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds were granted in the last session, to be secretly disposed of for the public utility; and there was still a debt in the civil government, amounting to above six hundred thousand pounds. He took notice, that this amazing extravagance happened under the conduct of persons pretending to surpass all their predecessors in the knowledge and care of the public revenue: that as none of these sums had been accounted for, they were, in all probability, employed in services not fit to be owned. He said, he heartily wished that Time, the great discoverer of hidden truths and concealed iniquities, might produce a list of all such as had been perverted from their public duty by private pensions: who had been the hired slaves and the corrupt instruments of a profuse and vain-glorious administration. He proposed, that instead of granting an addition to the civil list, they should restrict that revenue to a certain sum, by concluding the question with these words, “in like manner as they were granted and continued to his late majesty, so as to make up the clear yearly sum of seven hundred thousand pounds.” To these particulars, which were indeed unanswerable, no reply was made. Even this mark of decency was laid aside, as idle and superfluous. The house agreed to the motion; and a bill was brought in for the better support of his majesty’s household. The commons having received a message from the king, desiring they would make further provision for the queen his consort, resolved, That in case she should survive his majesty, the sum of one hundred thousand pounds should be settled upon her for life, charged upon the revenues of the civil list, together with his majesty’s palace of Somerset-house, and Richmond Old-park. A bill was formed on this resolution, which, as well as the other, passed both bouses, and received the royal assent on the seventeenth day of July, when the king, in a speech to both houses, expressed his satisfaction with their conduct, and congratulated them on the wealth and glory of the nation, by which they had acquired such weight in holding the balance of Europe. Then the lord-chancellor prorogued the parliament to the twenty-ninth day of August; but on the seventh day of that month a proclamation was issued for dissolving this, and convoking another.
In the interim some changes were made in different departments of civil economy. Lord viscount Torrington was placed at the head of the admiralty; the earl of Westmoreland was appointed first lord commissioner of trade and plantations. Philip Dormer Stanhope, earl of Chesterfield, a nobleman remarkable for his wit, eloquence, and polished manners, was nominated ambassador to the Hague. The privy-council being dissolved, another was appointed of the members then present. The duke of Devonshire was dignified with the place of president; and the duke of St. Alban’s was appointed master of the horse. On the eleventh day of October, the coronation of the king and queen was performed at Westminster-Abbey, with the usual solemnity.* By this time the courts of France and Spain were perfectly reconciled; all Europe was freed from the calamities of war; and the peace of Great Britain suffered no interruption, except from some transient tumults among the tinners of Cornwall, who, being provoked by a scarcity of corn, rose in arms and plundered the granaries of that county.
* King George II. ascended the throne in the forty-fourth year of his age. On the second day of September, 1705, he espoused the princess Wilhelmina Charlotte Caroline, daughter to John Frederick, marquis of Brandenburgh Anspach, by whom he had two sons, Frederick Louis, prince of Wales, born at Hanover on the thirty-first day of January, 1707, and William Augustus, born at London on the fifteenth day of April, 1721. She had likewise borne four princesses, namely, Anne, Amelia, Caroline, Mary, and was afterwards delivered of Louisa, married in the sequel to the king of Denmark.