Chapter III (2)

His majesty, on the eighth day of April, gave the house of commons to understand, that having been engaged in some extraordinary expenses, he hoped he should be enabled to raise a sum of money, by making use of the funds lately established for the payment of the civil list annuities, in order to discharge the debts contracted in the civil government. Mr. Pulteney, cofferer of the household, moved for an address, That an account should be laid before the house of all monies paid for secret service, pensions, and bounties, from the twenty-fifth day of March, in the year one thousand seven hundred and one, to the twenty-fifth of the same month in the present year. This address being voted, a motion was made to consider the king’s message. Mr. Pulteney urged, that this consideration should be postponed until the house should have examined the papers that were the subject of the address. He expressed his surprise that a debt amounting to above five hundred thousand pounds should be contracted in three years; he said, he did not wonder that some persons should be so eager to make good the deficiencies of the civil-list, since they and their friends enjoyed such a share of that revenue; and he desired to know whether this was all that was due, or whether they should expect another reckoning? This gentleman began to be dissatisfied with the measures of the ministry; and his sarcasms were aimed at Mr. Walpole, who undertook to answer his objections. The commons took the message into consideration, and passed a bill, enabling his majesty to raise a sum, not exceeding one million, by exchequer bills, loans, or otherwise, on the credit of the deductions of sixpence per pound, directed by an act of parliament of the seventh year of his majesty, and of the civil-list revenues, at an interest not exceeding three pounds per cent, till repayment of the principal.

BILL IN FAVOUR OF THE LATE LORD BOLINGBROKE.

On the twentieth day of April, a petition was presented to the house by lord Finch in behalf of Henry St. John, late viscount Bolingbroke, praying that the execution of the law with respect to his forfeitures might be suspended, as a pardon had suspended it with respect to his life. Mr. Walpole signified to the house, by his majesty’s command, that, seven years before, the petitioner had made humble application and submission to the king, with assurances of duty, allegiance, and fidelity; that, from his behaviour since that time, his majesty was convinced of his being a fit object of his mercy, and consented to his petitioning the house. The petition being read, Mr. Walpole declared himself fully satisfied that the petitioner had sufficiently atoned for his past offences; and therefore deserved the favour of that house, so far as to enable him to enjoy the family inheritance that was settled upon him, which he could not do by virtue of his majesty’s pardon, without an act of parliament. Lord Finch moved, That a bill might be brought in for this purpose, and was warmly opposed by Mr. Methuen, comptroller of the household, who represented Bolingbroke as a monster of iniquity. His remonstrance was supported by lord William Paulet and Mr. Onslow; nevertheless, the bill was prepared, passed through both houses, and received the royal assent. An act being passed for disarming the highlanders of Scotland, another for regulating elections within the city of London, a third for reducing the interest of several bank annuities, together with some bills of a private nature, the parliament was prorogued in May, after the king had, in the warmest terms of acknowledgment, expressed his approbation of their conduct. Then he appointed lords-justices to govern the nation in his absence; and set out in June for his German dominions.*

* On the fifth day of December the princess of Wales was
delivered of a princess, christened by the name of Lotvisa,
and afterwards married to the king of Denmark. She died
December the nineteenth, one thousand seven hundred and
fifty-one.--Immediately after the session of parliament, the
king revived the order of the Bath, thirty-eight in number,
including the sovereign.--William Bateman was created baron
of Calmore in Ireland, and viscount Bateman; and sir Kobert
Walpole, who had been one of the revived knights of the
Bath, was now honoured with the order of the Garter.

TREATY OF ALLIANCE.

The tide of political interest on the continent had begun to flow in a new channel, so as to render ineffectual the mounds which his Britannic majesty had raised by his multiplicity of negotiations. Louis, the Spanish monarch, dying soon after his elevation to the throne, his father Philip resumed the crown which he had resigned, and gave himself up implicitly to the conduct of his queen, who was a princess of indefatigable intrigue and insatiate ambition. The infanta, who had been married to Louis XV. of France, was so disagreeable to her husband, that the whole French nation began to be apprehensive of a civil war in consequence of his dying without male issue; he therefore determined, with the advice of his council, to send back the infanta, as the nuptials had not been consummated; and she was attended to Madrid by the marquis de. Monteleone. The queen of Spain resented this insult offered to her daughter; and, in revenge, dismissed mademoiselle de Beaujolois, one of the regent’s daughters, who had been betrothed to her son don Carlos. As the congress at Cambray had proved ineffectual, she offered to adjust her differences with the emperor, under the sole mediation of Great Britain. This was an honour which king George declined. He was averse to any undertaking that might interrupt the harmony subsisting between him and the court of Versailles; and he had taken umbrage at the emperor’s refusing to grant the investiture of Bremen and Verden except upon terms which he did not choose to embrace. The peace between the courts of Vienna and Madrid, which he refused to mediate, was effected by a private negotiation, under the management of the duke de Ripperda, a native of the states-general, who had renounced the protestant religion, and entered into the service of his catholic majesty. By two treaties, signed at Vienna in the month of April, the emperor acknowledged Philip as king of Spain and the Indies, promised that he would not molest him in the possession of those dominions that were secured to him by the treaty of Utrecht. Philip renounced all pretensions to the dominions in Italy and the Netherlands, adjudged to the emperor by the treaty of London; Charles granted the investiture of the dukedoms of Tuscany, Parma, and Placentia, to the eldest son of the queen of Spain, in default of heirs in the present possessors, as masculine fiefs of the empire. Spain became guarantee of the Austrian succession, according to the pragmatic sanction, by which the dominions of that house were settled on the emperors’s heirs general, and declared to be a perpetual, indivisible, and inseparable feoffment of the primogeniture. By the commercial treaty of Vienna, the Austrian subjects were entitled to advantages in trade with Spain, which no other nation enjoyed. His catholic majesty guaranteed the Ostend East India company; and agreed to pay an annual subsidy of four millions of piastres to the emperor. Great sums were remitted to Vienna; the Imperial forces were augmented to a formidable number; and other powers were solicited to engage in this alliance, to which the court of Petersburgh actually acceded.

TREATY OF HANOVER.

The kind of Great Britain took the alarm. The emperor and he had for some time treated each other with manifest coolness. He had reason to fear some attempts upon his German dominions, and projected a defensive treaty with France and Prussia. This alliance, limited to the term of fifteen years, was negotiated and concluded at Hanover in the month of September. It implied a mutual guarantee of the dominions possessed by the contracting parties, their rights and privileges, those of commerce in particular, and an engagement to procure satisfaction to the protestants of Thorn, who had lately been oppressed by the catholics, contrary to the treaty of Oliva. The king having taken these precautions at Hanover, set out on his return for England; embarked at Helvoetsluys in the middle of December; and after having been exposed to the fury of a dreadful storm, was landed with great difficulty at Rye, from whence he proceeded by land to London. The parliament meeting on the twentieth day of the next month, he gave them to understand that the distressed condition of some of their protestant brethren abroad, and the negotiations and engagements contracted by some foreign powers, which seemed to have laid the foundation of new troubles and disturbances in Europe, and to threaten his subjects with the loss of several of the most advantageous branches of their trade, had obliged him to concert with other powers such measures as might give a check to the ambitious views of those who were endeavouring to render themselves formidable, and put a stop to the further progress of such dangerous designs. He told them that the enemies of his government were already very busy, by their instruments and emissaries in those courts whose measures seemed most to favour their purposes, in soliciting and promoting the cause of the pretender. One sees, at first sight, that the interests of Germany dictated the treaty of Hanover; but, in order to secure the approbation of Great Britain, upon which the support of this alliance chiefly depended, it was judged necessary to insert the articles relating to commerce and the protestant religion, as if the engagement had been contracted purely for the advantage and glory of England. In a word, the ministry began now to ring the changes upon a few words that have been repeated ever since, like cabalistical sounds, by which the nation has been enchanted into a very dangerous connexion with the concerns of the continent. They harangued, they insisted upon the machinations of the disaffected, the designs of a popish pretender, the protestant interest, and the balance of power, until these expressions became absolutely terms of ridicule with every person of common sense and reflection. The people were told that the emperor and the king of Spain, exclusive of the public treaties concluded at Vienna, had entered into private engagements, importing that the Imperialists should join the Spaniards in recovering Gibraltar and Port-Mahon by force of arms, in case the king of England should refuse to restore them amicably, according to a solemn promise he had made: that a double marriage should take place between the two infants of Spain, and the two archduchesses of Austria; and that means should be taken to place the pretender on the throne of Great Britain.

When the treaties of Vienna and Hanover fell under consideration of the house of commons, Horatio Walpole, afterwards termed in derision, “the balance master,” opened the debate with a long unanimated oration, giving a detail of the affairs of Europe since the treaty of Utrecht. He enumerated the barrier-treaty, the convention for executing that treaty, the defensive alliance with the emperor, the other with the most christian king and the states-general, another convention, the quadruple alliance, the congress at Cambray, the treaty of Hanover, and that of Vienna. He explained the nature of each engagement. He said the main design of the treaty of commerce concluded between the emperor and the king of Spain, was to countenance and support the East-India company established at Ostend, which interfered so essentially with the East-India companies of England and Holland, and was directly contrary to several solemn treaties still in force. He enlarged upon the danger to which the balance of power would be exposed, should the issue male of this projected marriage between the houses of Austria and Spain ever possess the imperial dignity and the kingdom of Spain together. The reader will take notice that this very man was one of those who exclaimed against that article of the treaty of Utrecht, which prevented the power of those two houses from being immediately united in the person of the emperor. He did not forget to expatiate upon the pretended secret engagement concerning Gibraltar and Minorca, and the king’s pious concern for the distressed protestants of Thorn in Poland. In vain did Mr. Shippen urge that the treaty of Hanover would engage the British nation in a war for the defence of the king’s German dominions, contrary to an express provision made in the act of limitation. These arguments had lost all weight. The opposition was so inconsiderable, that the ministry had no reason to be in pain about any measure they should propose. An address was voted and delivered to his majesty, approving the alliance he had concluded at Hanover, in order to obviate and disappoint the dangerous views and consequences of the treaty of peace betwixt the emperor and the king of Spain: and promising to support his majesty against all insults and attacks that should be made upon any of his territories, though not belonging to the crown of Great Britain. An address of the same kind was presented by the house of lords in a body. A bill was brought in, empowering the commissioners of the treasury to compound with Mr. Richard Hampden, late treasurer of the navy, for a debt he owed to the crown, amounting to eight-and-forty thousand pounds. This deficiency was occasioned by his embarking in the South-Sea scheme. The king recommended his petition; and the house complied with his request, in consideration of his great-grandfather, the famous John Hampden, who made such a noble stand against the arbitrary measures of the first Charles.

{GEORGE I, 1714--1727}

RIOTS IN SCOTLAND.

The malt-tax was found so grievous to Scotland, that the people refused to pay it, and riots were excited in different parts of the kingdom. At Glasgow, the populace, armed with clubs and staves, rifled the house of Daniel Campbell, their representative in parliament, who had voted for the bill, and maltreated some excisemen who attempted to take an account of the malt. General Wade, who commanded the forces in Scotland, had sent two companies of soldiers, under the command of captain Bushel, to prevent or appease a disturbance of this nature. That officer drew up his men in the street, where they were pelted with stones by the multitude, which he endeavoured to disperse by firing among them without shot. This expedient failing, he ordered his men to load their pieces with ball, and at a time when the magistrates were advancing towards him in a body, to assist him with their advice and influence, he commanded the soldiers to fire four different ways, without the sanction of the civil authority. About twenty persons were killed or wounded on this occasion. The people seeing so many victims fall, were exasperated beyond all sense of danger. They began to procure arms, and breathed nothing but defiance and revenge. Bushel thought proper to retreat to the castle of Dumbarton, and was pursued above five miles hy the enraged multitude. General Wade being informed of this transaction, assembled a body of forces; and being accompanied by Duncan Forbes, lord-advocate, took possession of Glasgow. The magistrates were apprehended and conveyed prisoners to Edinburgh, where the lords justiciary having taken cognizance of the affair, declared them innocent; so that they were immediately discharged. Bushel was tried for murder, convicted, and condemned; but instead of undergoing the penalties of the law, he was indulged with a pardon, and promoted in the service. Daniel Campbell having petitioned the house of commons, that he might be indemnified for the damage he had sustained from the rioters, a bill passed in his favour, granting him a certain sum to be raised from an imposition laid upon all the beer and ale brewed in the city of Glasgow. The malt-tax was so sensibly felt in Scotland, that the convention of the royal burghs presented a remonstrance against it, as a grievous burden, which their country could not bear: petitions to the same purpose were delivered to the commons from different shires in that kingdom.

{1726}

On the twenty-fourth day of March, the king sent a message to the house by sir Paul Methuen, desiring an extraordinary supply, that he might be able to augment his maritime force, and concert such other measures as should be necessary in the present conjuncture. A debate ensued, but the majority complied with the demand. Some members in the upper house complained that the message was not sent to both houses of parliament, and this suggestion gave rise to another debate, in which lord Bathurst and others made some melancholy reflections upon the state of insignificance to which the peers of England were reduced. Such remarks, however, were very little minded by the ministry, who had obtained a complete victory over all opposition. The supplies, ordinary and extraordinary, being granted, with every thing else which the court thought proper to ask, and several bills passed for the regulation of civil economy, the king dismissed the parliament on the twenty-fourth day of May.

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:

[Footnote 206: 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.]

[Footnote 229: 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.]

CONTINUATION

OF

THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND,

BY TOBIAS SMOLLETT, M.D.

GEORGE II.

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