peaceful accession of george i.—his arrival—triumph of the whigs—dissolution and general election—the address—determination to impeach the late ministers—flight of bolingbroke and ormonde—impeachment of oxford—the riot act—the rebellion of 1715—policy of the regent orleans—surrender of the pretender's ships—the adventures of ormonde and mar—the highlands declare for the pretender—mar and argyll—advance of mackintosh's detachment—its surrender at preston—battle of sheriffmuir—arrival of the pretender—mutual disappointment—advance of argyll—flight of the pretender to france—punishment of the rebels—impeachment of the rebel lords—the septennial act—the king goes to hanover—impossibility of reconstructing the grand alliance—negotiations with france—danger of hanover from charles xii.—and from russia—alarm from townshend—termination of the dispute—fresh differences between stanhope and townshend—dismissal of the latter—the triple alliance—project for the invasion of scotland—detection of the plot—dismissal of townshend and walpole—they go into opposition—walpole's financial scheme—attack on cadogan—trial of oxford—cardinal alberoni—outbreak of hostilities between austria and spain—occupation of sardinia—alberoni's diplomacy—the quadruple alliance—byng in the mediterranean—alberoni deserted by savoy—death of charles xii.—declaration of war with spain—repeal of the schism act—rejection of the peerage bill—attempted invasion of britain—dismissal of alberoni—spain makes peace—pacification of northern europe—final rejection of the peerage bill—the south sea company—the south sea bill—opposition of walpole—rise of south sea stock—rival companies—death of stanhope—punishment of ministry and directors—supremacy of walpole—atterbury's plot—his banishment and the return of bolingbroke—rejection of bolingbroke's services—a palace intrigue—fall of carteret—wood's halfpence—disturbances in scotland—punishment of the lord chancellor macclesfield—the patriot party—complications abroad—treaty of vienna—treaty of hanover—activity of the jacobites—falls of ripperda and of bourbon—english preparations—folly of the emperor—attack on gibraltar—preliminaries of peace—intrigues against walpole—death of george i.

the calculations of no political party had ever been more completely falsified than those of the jacobites and their congeners the tories on the death of the queen. they had relied on the fact that the house of hanover was regarded with dislike as successors to the throne of england by all the catholic powers of europe, on account of their protestantism, and many of the protestant powers from jealousy; and reckoned that, whilst france would be disposed to support the claims of the pretender, there were no continental countries which would support those of hanover, except holland and the new kingdom of prussia, neither of which gave them much alarm. prussia was but a minor power, not capable of furnishing much aid to a contest in england. holland had been too much exhausted by a long war to be willing to engage in another, except for a cause which vitally concerned itself. in england, the tories being in power, and bolingbroke earnest in the interest of the pretender, the duke of ormonde at the head of the army, there appeared to the minds of the jacobites nothing to fear but the too early demise of the queen, which might find their plans yet unmatured. to this they, in fact, attributed their failure; but we may very confidently assert that, even had anne lived as long as they desired her, there was one element omitted in their calculations which would have overthrown all their attempts—the invincible antipathy to popery in the heart of the nation, which the steadfast temper of the pretender showed must inevitably come back with him to renew all the old struggles. the event of the queen's death discovered, too, the comparative weakness of the tory faction, the strength and activity of the whigs. the king showing no haste to arrive, gave ample opportunity to the jacobites—had they been in any degree prepared, as they ought to have been, after so many years, for this great crisis—to introduce the pretender and rally round his standard. but whilst george i. lingered, no stuart appeared; and the whigs had taken such careful and energetic precautions, that without him every attempt must only have brought destruction on the movers. the measures of shrewsbury were complete. the way by sea was secured for the protestant king, and the regency act provided for the security of every department of government at home.

before the proclamation of the new king the council had met, and, according to the regency act, and an instrument signed by the king and produced by herr kreyenberg, the hanoverian resident, nominated the persons who were to act till the king's arrival. they consisted of the seven great officers of state and a number of the peers. the whole was found to include eighteen of the principal noblemen, nearly all of the whig party, as the dukes of shrewsbury, somerset, and argyll; the lords cowper, halifax,[25] and townshend. it was noticed, however, that neither marlborough, sunderland, nor somers was of the number; nor ought this to have excited any surprise, when it was recollected that the list was drawn out in 1705, though only signed just before the queen's death. these noblemen belonged to that junto under whose thraldom anne had so long groaned. the omission, however, greatly incensed marlborough and sunderland.

great seal of george i.

marlborough landed at dover on the day of the queen's death, where he was received with the warmest acclamations and tokens of the highest popularity. he was met on his approach to london by a procession of two hundred gentlemen, headed by sir charles coxe, member for southwark. as he drew nearer this procession was joined by a long train of carriages. it was like a triumph; and bothmar, the hanoverian minister, wrote home that it was as if he had gained another battle at h?chst?dt (blenheim) that he would be of great service in case the pretender should make any attempt, but that he was displeased that he was not in the regency, or that any man except the king should be higher in the country than he. he went straight to the house of lords to take the oaths to the king; but at temple bar his carriage broke down, to the great delight of the people, because it compelled him to come out and enter another, by which they got a good view of him. having taken the oaths, he retired into the country till the arrival of the king, disgusted at his not being in the regency.

the lords justices having met, appointed joseph addison, afterwards so celebrated as a writer, and even now very popular, as their secretary, and ordered all despatches addressed to bolingbroke to be brought to him. this was an intimation that bolingbroke would be dismissed; and that proud minister, instead of giving orders, was obliged to receive them, and to wait at the door of the council-chamber with his bags and papers. as the lords justices were apprehending that there might be some disturbances in ireland, they were about to send over sunderland as lord-lieutenant, and general stanhope as commander-in-chief; but they were speedily relieved of their fears by the intelligence that all had passed off quietly there; that the lords justices of ireland, the archbishop of armagh, and sir constantine phipps, who had been more than suspected of jacobitism, had proclaimed the king on the 6th of august, and, to give evidence of their new zeal, had issued a proclamation for disarming papists and seizing their horses. the proclamation of george passed with the same quietness in scotland, and no king, had he been born a native, in the quietest times, could have succeeded to the throne more smoothly. eighteen lords, chiefly whigs, were nominated by the new king to act as a council of regency, pending his arrival, and the civil list was voted by parliament.

during these transactions there was naturally an earnestly-inquiring eye kept open towards hanover, whence the king appeared in no hurry to issue forth and assume the throne of these three[26] fair kingdoms. the coolness with which george of hanover appeared to contemplate the splendid prize which had fallen to him, seemed to the english little less than unnatural. thrones and crowns are generally seized upon with avidity; but the new king seemed to feel more regret in quitting his petty electorate than eagerness to enter on his splendid kingdom. but george was a man of phlegmatic disposition, and of the most exact habits, and went through his duties like an automaton or a piece of machinery. he took, therefore, much time in settling his affairs in hanover before he turned his face towards england, and it was not till the 18th of september, or nearly seven weeks after the decease of the late queen, that he landed at greenwich with his son george. "his views and affections were," as lord chesterfield properly observed, "singly confined to the narrow compass of his electorate. england was too big for him."

the triumph of the whigs was complete. whilst oxford, who had been making great efforts at the last to retrieve himself with his party by assisting them to seize the reins of power on the queen's illness, was admitted in absolute silence to kiss the king's hand, and that not without many difficulties, marlborough, somers, halifax, and the rest were received with the most cordial welcome. yet, on appointing the new cabinet, the king showed that he did not forget the double-dealing of marlborough. he smiled on him, but did not place him where he hoped to be, at the head of affairs. he made lord townshend secretary of state and prime minister; stanhope, the second secretary; the earl of mar was removed from the secretaryship of scotland to make way for the duke of montrose; lord halifax was made first lord commissioner of the treasury, and was raised to an earldom, and was allowed to confer on his nephew the sinecure of auditor of the exchequer; lord cowper became lord chancellor; lord wharton was made privy seal, and created a marquis; the earl of nottingham became president of the council; mr. pulteney was appointed secretary-at-war; the duke of argyll, commander-in-chief for scotland; shrewsbury, lord chamberlain and groom of the stole; the duke of devonshire became lord steward of the household; the duke of somerset, master of the horse; sunderland, lord-lieutenant of ireland; walpole was at first made simply paymaster of the forces, without a place in the cabinet, but his ability in debate and as a financier soon raised him to higher employment; lord orford was made first lord of the admiralty; and marlborough, commander-in-chief and master of the ordnance. his power, however, was gone. in the whole new cabinet nottingham was the only member who belonged to the tory party, and of late he had been acting more in common with the whigs. the tories complained vehemently of their exclusion, as if their dealings with the pretender had been a recommendation to the house of hanover. they contended that the king should have shown himself the king of the whole people, and aimed at a junction of the two parties.

the ministerial arrangements being completed, the coronation took place on the 31st of october, and was fully attended by the chief nobles and statesmen, even by oxford and bolingbroke, and was celebrated in most parts of the kingdom with many demonstrations of joy. parliament was then dissolved, and the elections went vastly in favour of the whigs, though there were serious riots at manchester, and throughout the midlands. the hopes of advantage from a new monarch made their usual conversions. in the house of commons of 1710 there was a very large majority of whigs; in that of 1713 as great a one of tories; and now again there was as large a one of whigs. in the lords the spectacle was the same. bolingbroke says, "i saw several lords concur to condemn, in one general vote, all that they had approved of in a former parliament by many particular resolutions."

in the commons, mr. spencer compton, the ministerial nominee, was elected speaker. the king opened his first parliament in person, but, being unable to speak english, he handed his speech to lord chancellor cowper to read. in the commons the address condemned in strong language the shameful peace which had been made after a war carried on at such vast expense, and attended with such unparalleled successes; but expressed a hope that, as this dishonour could not with justice be imputed to the nation, through his majesty's wisdom and the faithful endeavours of the commons the reputation of the kingdom might in due time be vindicated and restored. this was the first announcement of the ministers' intention to call their predecessors to account, and secretary stanhope, in the course of the debate, confirmed it, observing that it had been industriously circulated that the present ministers never designed to bring the late ministers to trial, but only to pass a general censure on them; but he assured the house that, though active efforts had been used to prevent[27] a discovery of the late treasonable proceedings, by conveying away papers from the secretaries' offices, yet government had sufficient evidence to enable them to bring to justice the most corrupt ministry that ever sat at the helm. before three weeks were over a secret committee was appointed to consider the treaty of utrecht.

bolingbroke promptly fled and took service with the pretender; ormonde, after putting himself ostentatiously forward as leader of the jacobite opposition, followed his example. both were proceeded against by act of attainder.

the impeachment of oxford followed. on the 9th of july, 1715, lord coningsby, attended by many of the commons, carried up to the lords the articles against him, sixteen in number, to which afterwards six more were added. the first fifteen related to the peace of utrecht; the sixteenth to the sudden creation of twelve peers in 1711, in order to create a tory majority, by which it charged him with highly abusing the constitution of parliament and the laws of the kingdom. when the articles had been read, it was doubted whether any of the charges amounted to high treason. to decide this as a legal point, it was moved that the judges should be consulted; but this motion was rejected, and another was made to commit oxford to the tower; and, though reprieved a few days on account of an indisposition, he was committed accordingly, having made a very solemn plea of his innocence, and of having only obeyed the orders of the queen, without at all convincing the house. he continued to lie in the tower for two years before he was brought to trial, matters of higher public interest intervening. eventually the impeachment was dropped, the documentary evidence being considered insufficient.

whilst these proceedings were in agitation, the tory and jacobite party, which had at the king's accession appeared stunned, now recovering spirit, began to foment discontent and sedition in the public mind. they got the pulpits to work, and the high church clergy lent themselves heartily to it. the mobs were soon set to pull down the meeting-houses of the dissenters. many buildings were destroyed, and many dissenters insulted. they did not pause there, but they blackened the character of the king, and denied his right to the crown, whilst the most fascinating pictures were drawn of the youth, and grace, and graciousness of the rightful english prince, who was wandering in exile to make way for the usurper. to such a length did matters go, that the riot act, which had been passed in the reign of mary, and limited to her own reign, which was again revived by elizabeth, and had never since been called into action, was now made perpetual, and armed with increased power. it provided that if twelve persons should unlawfully assemble to disturb the peace, and any one justice should think proper to command them by proclamation to disperse, and should they, in contempt of his orders, continue together for one hour, their assembling should be felony without benefit of clergy. a subsequent clause was added, by which pulling down chapels or houses, even before proclamation, was made subject to the same penalties. such is the act in force at this day.

we come now to the rebellion of 1715. the succession of the house of hanover had raised the pretender and his jacobite faction in england to a pitch of excitement which made them ready to rush upon the most desperate measures. in england the destruction of the tory ministry, the welcome given to the new protestant king, and the vigour with which the whigs and all the supporters of the principles of the revolution had shown the majority which they were able to return to the new parliament, were all indications that the spirit of the nation was more firmly than ever rooted in protestantism and the love of constitutional liberty, and that any endeavours to overturn the new dynasty must be supported by an overwhelming power from without. without such force the event was certain failure; yet, under existing auspices, it was determined to try the venture. bolingbroke, on his arrival in france, saw that all was rashness, impatience, and want of preparation in the party on both sides of the channel. the highlanders were all eagerness for the chevalier's arrival, lest he should land in england, and the english should snatch the glory of the restoration from them. from england came the letters of ormonde, who was down in the west, and sent most glowing representations of the spirit of the people there; that out of every ten persons nine were against king george, and that he had distributed money amongst the disbanded officers, to engage them in the cause of king james. but all these fine words terminated with the damping intelligence that nobody would stir until they saw the chevalier with a good army at his back. such an army there was not the smallest hope of obtaining from france. all that louis would or could do, without engaging in a new war with england, was to prevail on his grandson, philip of spain, to[28] advance four hundred thousand crowns for the expedition, and besides this, the pretender had been able privately to borrow another hundred thousand, and purchase ten thousand stand of arms. at this juncture came two fatal events—the flight of ormonde and the death of louis xiv. on september 1st.

louis was succeeded for the time by the duke of orleans as regent, who had other views, and was surrounded by other influences than the old king. he had secured the regency in opposition to madame maintenon and the royal bastards. he changed all the ministers, and was not inclined to risk his government by making enemies of the english abroad, having sufficient of these at home. he had been for some time cultivating the good offices of the present english government, which had offered to assist him with troops and money, if necessary, to secure the regency. he had seen a good deal of the new secretary of state, stanhope, in spain, and still maintained a correspondence with him. lord stair, the british ambassador, therefore, was placed in a more influential position with the regent, and the pretender and his ministers were but coldly looked on.

vigilant stair had discovered the ships that had been prepared at havre, by the connivance and aid of the late king, and he insisted that they should be stopped. admiral byng also appeared off havre with a squadron, and lord stair demanded that the ships should be given up to him. with this the regent declined to comply, but he ordered them to be unloaded, and the arms to be deposited in the royal arsenal. one ship, however, escaped the search, containing, according to bolingbroke, one thousand three hundred arms, and four thousand pounds of powder, which he proposed to send to lord mar, in scotland.

this succession of adverse circumstances induced bolingbroke to dispatch a messenger to london to inform the earl of mar of them, and to state that, as the english jacobites would not stir without assistance from abroad, and as no such help could be had, he would see that nothing as yet could be attempted. but when the messenger arrived in london, he learnt from erasmus lewis, oxford's late secretary, and a very active partisan of the jacobites, that mar was already gone to raise the highlands, if we are to believe the duke of berwick, at the especial suggestion of the pretender himself, though he had, on the 23rd of september, in writing to bolingbroke, expressed the necessity of the scots waiting till they heard further from him. if that was so, it was at once traitorous towards his supporters and very ill-advised, and was another proof to bolingbroke of the unsafe parties with whom he was embarked in this hopeless enterprise.

as soon as this news reached france the pretender hastened to st. malo in order to embark for scotland, and ormonde hastened over from normandy to devonshire to join the insurgents, whom he now expected to meet in arms. he took with him only twenty officers and as many troopers from nugent's regiment. this was the force with which ormonde landed in england to conquer it for the pretender. there was, however, no need of even these forty men. the english government had been beforehand with him; they had arrested all his chief coadjutors, and when he reached the appointed rendezvous there was not a man to meet him. on reaching st. malo, ormonde there found the pretender not yet embarked. after some conference together, ormonde once more went on board ship to reach the english coast and make one more attempt in the hopeless expedition, but he was soon driven back by a tempest. by this time the port of st. malo was blockaded by the english, and the pretender was compelled to travel on land to dunkirk, where, in the middle of december, he sailed with only a single ship for the conquest of scotland, and attended only by half a dozen gentlemen, disguised, like himself, as french naval officers.

mar had left london on the 2nd of august to raise the highlands. in order to blind the agents of government he ordered a royal levée on the 1st, and on the following night got on board a collier bound for newcastle, attended by major-general hamilton and colonel hay. from newcastle they got to the coast of fife in another vessel. on the 6th of september he raised the standard of the chevalier at kirkmichael, a village of braemar. he was then attended by only sixty men, and the highland chiefs, extremely alive to omens, were startled by the gilt ball falling from the summit of the pole as it was planted in the ground. the standard was consecrated by prayers, and he was in a few days joined by about five hundred of his own vassals. the gentlemen who came on horseback, only about twenty at first, soon became several hundreds, and were named the royal squadron. the white cockade was assumed as the badge of the insurgent army, and clan after clan came in; first the mackintoshes, five hundred in number, who seized on inverness. james was proclaimed by panmure at brechin, by the earl[29] marshal at aberdeen, by lord huntly at gordon, and by graham, the brother of claverhouse, at dundee. colonel hay, brother of the earl of kinnaird, seized perth, and in a very short time the country north of the tay was in the hands of the insurgents.

the earl of mar raising the pretender's standard. (see p. 28.)

[see larger version]

by the 28th of september mar had mustered at perth about five thousand men. he was cheered by the arrival of one or two ships from france with stores, arms, and ammunition. he had also managed to surprise a government ship driven to take shelter at burntisland, on its way to carry arms to the earl of sutherland, who was raising his clan for king george in the north. the arms were seized by mar's party, and carried off to the army. argyll, commander of the king's forces, arrived about the same time in scotland, and marched to stirling, where he encamped with only about one thousand foot and five hundred cavalry. this was the time for mar to advance and surround him, or drive him before him; but mar was a most incompetent general, and remained inactive at perth, awaiting the movement of the jacobites in england. thanks, however, to the energy of the government, that movement never took place.

at length mar, who was kept back by the absence of the pretender, determined to outwit argyll by sending a detachment under brigadier mackintosh across the firth of forth below stirling, whilst another body, under general gordon, was despatched to seize on inverary, and keep the clan campbell in check. mackintosh had about two thousand men under his command, chiefly from his own clans, but supported by the regiments of the lords nairn, strathmore, and charles murray. to prevent these forces from crossing, three english ships of war ascended the forth to near burntisland; but whilst a detachment of five hundred men held the attention of the ships at that point, the main body were embarking on the right in small boats lower down, and the greater part of them got across the firth, and landed at aberlady and north berwick. the city of edinburgh was in consternation at this daring man?uvre, and at the proximity of such a force; and mackintosh, hearing of this panic, and of the miserable state[30] of defence there, determined to attempt to surprise it. he stayed one night at haddington to rest his men, and on the 14th appeared at jock's lodge, within a mile of edinburgh. but on the very first appearance of mackintosh's troops, sir george warrender, the provost of edinburgh, had despatched a messenger to summon the duke of argyll from stirling to the aid of the capital. the duke was already approaching edinburgh, and therefore mackintosh, perceiving that he had no chance of surprising the town, turned aside to leith.

continuing southwards, mackintosh joined the english insurgents at kelso on the 22nd. this united force now amounted altogether to about two thousand men—one thousand four hundred foot commanded by mackintosh, and six hundred horse under lord kenmure and mr. forster. this force might, in the paucity of troops in the service of the king, have produced a great effect had they marched unitedly southward and engaged general carpenter, who was advancing from newcastle, with only about nine hundred cavalry, to attack them; or had they gone at once north, taken argyll in the rear, and then combined with mar. but after marching to jedburgh and then to hawick, the scots and english formed two different opinions. the scots would not enter england, being persuaded by the earl of wintoun that, if they went into england, they would be all cut to pieces, or be sold for slaves. mackintosh was willing to enter england, but they would listen to no one but wintoun. several hundred highlanders deserted, and the remainder of the army, under the inefficient command of forster, marched into england and reached preston without molestation.

but here their career was doomed to end. preston had witnessed the rout of the royalists by cromwell, and it was now to witness the rout of the rebels by the royalists. carpenter, on finding that the insurgents had taken the way through cumberland, also hastened back to newcastle and durham, where he was joined by general wills. wills was in advance with six regiments of cavalry, mostly newly-raised troops, but full of spirit, and well-officered. he came near preston on the 12th of november, whilst carpenter was approaching in another direction, so as to take the enemy in the flank. forster quickly showed that he was an incompetent commander. he was at first greatly elated by the junction of the lancashire men, but, on hearing that the royal troops were upon them, he was instantly panic-stricken, and, instead of issuing orders, or summoning a council, he betook himself to bed. lord kenmure roused him from his ignominious repose, but it was too late; no means were taken to secure the natural advantages of the place. the bridge over the ribble, which might have kept the enemy at bay, was left undefended; so that when wills rode up to it on the morning of the 13th, he imagined that the rebels had evacuated the place. besides the bridge over the river, there was a deep and hollow way of half a mile from the bridge to the town, with high and steep banks, from which an army might have been annihilated; but all was left undefended. it was only when wills advanced into the town that he became aware that the rebels were still there, and found his path obstructed by barricades raised in the streets. his soldiers gallantly attacked these barricades, but were met by a murderous fire both from behind them and from the houses on each side. but luckily for the royal forces the least ability was wanting in the rebel commander. with all the advantages on his side, forster secretly sent colonel oxburgh to propose a capitulation. wills at first refused to listen to it, declaring that he could not treat with rebels who had murdered many of the king's subjects; but at length he said, if they would lay down their arms, he would defend them from being cut to pieces by the soldiers till he received further orders from government. one thousand five hundred men surrendered, including eight noblemen, but a good many escaped.

this branch of the rebel force was thus completely removed from the field, and on the same day a far more sanguinary conflict had taken place between the chief commanders on the two sides, argyll and mar, at sheriffmuir.

it was the 10th of november when mar, aware that argyll was advancing against him, at length marched out of perth with all his baggage and provisions for twelve days. on the 12th, when they arrived at ardoch, argyll was posted at dunblane, and he advanced to give them battle. the wild, uneven ground of sheriffmuir lay between them, and it was on this spot that argyll on quitting stirling had hoped to meet them. he therefore drew up his men on this moorland in battle array, and did not wait long for the coming of the highland army. it was on a sunday morning, the 13th of november, that the battle of sheriffmuir was fought. argyll commanded the right wing of his army, general whitham the left, and general wightman the centre. he[31] calculated much on this open ground for the operations of his cavalry. on the other hand, mar took the right wing of his army, and was thus opposed, not to argyll, but to whitham. the highlanders, though called on to form in a moment, as it were, did so with a rapidity which astonished the enemy. they opened fire on argyll so instantly and well, that it took the duke's forces by surprise. the left army retired on stirling pursued by mar. argyll was compelled to be on the alert. he observed that mar had drawn out his forces so as to outflank him; but, casting his eye on a morass on his right, he discovered that the frost had made it passable, and he ordered major cathcart to lead a squadron of horse across it, while with the rest of his cavalry he galloped round, and thus attacked the left wing of mar both in front and flank. the highlanders, thus taken by surprise, were thrown into confusion, but still fought with their wonted bravery. they were driven, however, by the momentum of the english horse, backwards; and between the spot whence the attack commenced and the river allan, three miles distant, they rallied ten times, and fairly contested the field. argyll, however, bore down upon them with all the force of his right wing, offering quarter to all who would surrender, and even parrying blows from his own dragoons which went to exterminate those already wounded. after an obstinate fight of three hours, he drove the highlanders over the allan, a great number of them being drowned in it. mar at this crisis returned to learn the fate of the rest of his army. he found that he had been taking the office of a general of division instead of that of the commander-in-chief, whose duty is to watch the movements of the whole field, and send aid to quarters which are giving way. like prince rupert, in his ardour for victory over his enemies in front of him, he had totally forgotten the centre and left wing, and discovered now that the left wing was totally defeated. he was contented to draw off, and yet boast of victory.

at this juncture, while daily desertions thinned mar's army at perth, arrived the pretender. he landed at peterhead on the 22nd of december. on the 6th of january, 1716, he made his public entry into dundee, at the head of his cavalcade, the earl of mar riding on his right hand, and the earl marshal on his left, and about three hundred gentlemen following. his reception was enthusiastic. the people flocked round him to kiss his hands; and to gratify this loyal desire he remained an hour in the market-place. on the 8th he arrived at scone, and took up his residence in the ancient palace of his ancestors. there he was only two miles from the army, and having established a council, and issued six proclamations, ordering a public thanksgiving for the "miraculous providence" of his safe arrival, for prayers in the church, for the currency of foreign coin, for a meeting of the convention of estates, for all fencible men from sixteen to sixty to repair to his standard, and for his coronation on the 23rd of january, he presented himself before the army. but here the scene was changed. instead of enthusiasm there was disappointment—disappointment on both sides. the soldiers, who expected to see a royal-looking, active-looking man, likely to encourage them and lead them on their career, beheld a tall, thin, pale, and dejected sort of person, who evidently took no great interest in them. that the pretender should not exhibit much vivacity was no wonder. he had been assured by mar that his army had swelled to sixteen thousand men; that the whole north was in his favour; and that he had only to appear to carry everything before him. on inquiring into the force, it turned out to be so miserably small, that the only desire was to keep it out of sight. the spirits of the pretender fell, and though not destitute of ability, as is manifest by his letters, he had by no means that strength of resolution demanded by such an enterprise.

at length argyll, whose movements had been hastened by the arrival of general cadogan, prepared to march northwards through deep snow and villages burnt by the pretender's order. on the 30th of january the rebel army retreated from perth, the highland soldiers, some in sullen silence, others in loud curses, expressing their anger and mortification at this proceeding. the inhabitants looked on in terror, and bade adieu to the troops in tears, expecting only a heavy visitation for having so long harboured them. early the next morning they crossed the deep and rapid tay, now, however, a sheet of solid ice, and directed their march along the carse of gowrie towards dundee.

argyll, who received the news of the retreat about four in the afternoon of that day, occupied perth with dutch and english troops by ten o'clock the next morning. they had quitted stirling on the 29th, and that night they encamped on the snow amid the burnt remains of the village of auchterarder. argyll and cadogan followed the advanced guard and entered perth on[32] the evening of the 1st of february; but the remainder of the troops did not arrive till late at night, owing to the state of the roads and the weather. some few of the rebels, who had got drunk and were left behind, were secured. the next day argyll and cadogan, with eight hundred light foot and six squadrons of dragoons, followed along the carse of gowrie to dundee. cadogan, in a letter to marlborough, complained of the evident reluctance of argyll to press on the rebels. when he arrived at dundee on the 3rd, the rebel army was already gone. he and cadogan then separated, taking different routes towards montrose. cadogan, whose heart was in the business, pushed on ahead, and on the 5th, at noon, reached arbroath, where he received the news that the pretender had embarked at montrose and gone to france. in this manner did the descendant of a race of kings and the claimant of the crown of great britain steal away and leave his unhappy followers to a sense of his perfidious and cruel desertion. his flight, no doubt, was necessary, but the manner of it was at once most humiliating and unfeeling. the consternation and wrath of the army on the discovery were indescribable. they were wholly broken up when argyll reached aberdeen on the 8th of february.

gloomy as was the pretender's fortune, it was, nevertheless, infinitely better than that of thousands who had ventured their lives and fortunes in his cause. there were not many prisoners in scotland, but the clans which had sided with the english government were hounded on to hunt down those who had been out with the pretender amongst their hills, and they were hunted about by the english troops under the guidance of these hostile clans; and where they themselves were not to be found, their estates suffered by troops being quartered in their houses and on their lands. in england the prisons of chester, liverpool, and other northern towns were crowded by the inferior class of prisoners from the surrender of preston. some half-pay officers were singled out as deserters, and shot by order of a court-martial; but the common soldiers were eventually acquitted or let off with light sentences.

on the 9th of january, a month after their arrival, lord derwentwater was impeached of high treason by mr. lechmere in a bitter speech in the commons. other members, with equal acrimony, followed with impeachments against the lords widdrington, nithsdale, wintoun, carnwath, kenmure, and nairn. the impeachments were carried up to the house of lords on the same day, and on the 19th the accused noblemen were brought before the peers, where they knelt at the bar until they were desired to rise by the lord chancellor, when, with the exception of lord wintoun, they confessed their guilt, and threw themselves on the mercy of the king. sentence of death was immediately pronounced on those who had pleaded guilty; and lord wintoun was condemned after trial, but several months later he effected his escape from the tower. every effort was made to save the prisoners, and they were all reprieved, with the exception of derwentwater, kenmure, and nithsdale. the first two were executed; but the countess of nithsdale, being about to take her leave of her husband, contrived, by introducing some friends, to secure his escape in female attire.

in april the inferior prisoners were tried in the common pleas. forster, brigadier mackintosh, and twenty of their accomplices were condemned; but forster, mackintosh, and some of the others, managed, like wintoun, to escape; so that, of all the crowds of prisoners, only twenty-two in lancashire and four in london were hanged. bills of attainder were passed against the lords tullibardine, mar, and many others who were at large. above a thousand submitted to the king's mercy, and petitioned to be transported to america.

meanwhile the whigs were anxious to add fresh security to their own lease of office. at the last election they had procured the return of a powerful majority; but two years out of the triennial term had expired, and they looked with apprehension to the end of the next year, when a dissolution must take place. they were aware that there were still strong plottings and secret agitations for the restoration of the banished dynasty. by both the king and his ministers all tories were regarded as jacobites, and it was resolved to keep them out of office, and, as much as possible, out of parliament. they had the power in their own hands in this parliament, and, in order to keep it, they did not hesitate to destroy that triennial act for which their own party had claimed so much credit in 1694, and substitute a septennial act in its place. they would thereby give to their own party in parliament more than a double term of the present legal possession of their seats. instead of one year, they would be able to look forward four years without any fear of[33] tory increase of power through a new election. on the 10th of april, devonshire, lord steward of the household, moved the repeal of the triennial act, long lauded as one of the bulwarks of our liberties, under the now convenient plea that it had been "found very grievous and burthensome, by occasioning much greater and more continued expenses in order to elections of members to serve in parliament, and more lasting heats and animosities amongst the subjects of this realm than ever were known before the said clause was enacted."

in the preamble to the new bill the object of that extended bill was candidly avowed, namely, that when "a restless and popish faction are designing and endeavouring to renew the rebellion in this kingdom and an invasion from abroad, it might be destructive to the peace and security of the government." the septennial bill was, in fact, intended as a purely temporary measure, and, though originated by party spirit, it was really of great advantage in days when every general election meant a fresh exercise of the influence of the crown and the lords.

retreat of the highlanders from perth. (see p. 31.)

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whilst parliament was busy with the septennial bill, george i. was very impatient to get away to hanover. like william iii., he was but a foreigner in england; a dull, well-meaning man, whose heart was in his native country, and who had been transplanted too late ever to take to the alien earth. the act of settlement provided that, after the hanoverian accession, no reigning sovereign should quit the kingdom without permission of parliament. george was not content to ask this permission, but insisted that the restraining clause itself should be repealed, and it was accordingly repealed without any opposition. there was one difficulty connected with george's absence from his kingdom which council or parliament could not so easily deal with: this was his excessive jealousy of his son. the king could not take his departure in peace if the prince of wales was to be made regent, according to custom, in his absence. he proposed, therefore, through his favourite, bothmar, that the powers of the prince should be limited by rigorous provisions, and that some other persons should be joined[34] with him in commission. lord townshend did not hesitate to express his sense of the impolicy of the king's leaving his dominions at all at such a crisis; but he also added that to put any other persons in commission with the prince of wales was contrary to the whole practice and spirit of england. driven from this, the king insisted that, instead of regent, the prince should be named "guardian and lieutenant of the realm"—an office which had never existed since the time of the black prince.

the retreat of george to hanover was not merely to enjoy his native scenes and old associations; he felt himself insecure even on the throne of england, and the rebellion for the present quelled; he was anxious to form or renew alliances on the continent to give strength to his position. the part which england had taken at the end of the war seemed to have alienated all her confederates of the grand alliance, and transferred their resentment to himself with his accession to the british crown. holland was, perhaps, the least sensible of the past discords; she had kept the treaty, and lent her aid on the landing of the pretender; but she was at daggers drawn with austria, who was much irritated by the barrier treaty, by which the dutch secured a line of fortresses on the austrian netherlands. as for the emperor, he was more feeble and sluggish than he had shown himself as the aspirant to the throne of spain. he was a bigoted catholic, little disposed to trouble himself for securing a protestant succession, although it had expended much money and blood in defence of his own. on the contrary, he felt a strong jealousy of george, the elector of hanover, as king of england, and therefore capable of introducing, through his augmented resources, aggressive disturbances in germany. the king of prussia, his son-in-law, was rather a troublesome and wrangling ally than one to be depended upon.

taking this view of his continental neighbours, george was driven to the conclusion that his only safety lay in firmly engaging france to relinquish the pretender. the means of the attainment of this desirable object lay in the peculiar position of the regent, who was intent on his personal aims. so long as the chances of the pretender appeared tolerable, the regent had avoided the overtures on this subject; but the failure of the expedition to the highlands had inclined him to give up the pretender, and he now sent the abbé dubois to hanover to treat upon the subject. he was willing also to destroy the works at mardyk as the price of peace with england. the preliminaries were concluded, and the dutch included in them; but the treaty was not ratified till january, 1717.

but though this difficulty was tided over, there remained a still greater one with sweden. charles xii., overthrown by the czar peter at the battle of pultowa, had fled into turkey, and obstinately remained at bender, though the czar and his allies were all the time overrunning and taking possession of the swedish territories on the eastern side of the baltic. russians, norwegians, danes, saxons, and prussians were all busy gorging the spoil. the king of denmark, amongst the invasions of swedish territory, had seized on the rich bishoprics of bremen and verden, which had been ceded to sweden at the peace of westphalia. these bishoprics, which lay contiguous to hanover, had always been an object of desire to that state. and now charles of sweden, suddenly ruined by the proceedings of his neighbours, who thus rent his kingdom limb from limb, galloped away from bender, and in november, 1714, startled all his enemies by appearing at stralsund. the danish king, seeing a tempest about to burst over his head, immediately tempted the english king to enter into alliance with him, by offering him the stolen bishoprics of bremen and verden on condition that he should pay a hundred and fifty thousand pounds and join the alliance against sweden. without waiting for any consent of parliament, sir john norris was sent with a fleet to the baltic, under the pretence of protecting our trade there, but with the real object of compelling sweden to cede the bishoprics, and to accept a compensation in money for them.

at the same time that we were thus dragged into hostilities with sweden, we were brought into hostilities with the czar too in defence of hanover. peter had married his niece to the duke of mecklenburg, who was on bad terms with his subjects, and the czar was only too glad to get a footing in germany by sending a large body of troops into the duchy. denmark became immediately alarmed at such a dangerous and unscrupulous neighbour, and remonstrated; whereupon the czar informed the danish king that if he murmured he would enter denmark with his army too. of course the king of denmark called on his ally, george of hanover, for the stipulated aid; and george, who hated the czar mortally, and was hated by the czar as intensely in return,[35] at once sent his favourite, bernsdorff, to stanhope, who had accompanied him to hanover, with a demand that "the czar should be instantly crushed, his ships secured, his person seized, and kept till he should have caused his troops to evacuate both denmark and germany."

the receipt of such proposals in england produced the utmost consternation in the cabinet. townshend, in an "absolutely secret" answer to stanhope, expressed the concern both of himself and the prince of wales at the prospect of a rupture with the czar, who would seize the british ships and subjects in russia, and prohibit the supply of naval stores from his kingdom, and that especially at a crisis when england was threatened with an invasion from sweden and a rising of the jacobites. he did not deny that there was a great risk of both these kingdoms and the german empire being exposed to imminent danger by the designs of the czar on the whole coast of the baltic, a danger which he might, had he dared, truly have attributed to george's own deeds by offending sweden, instead of uniting with it to counterbalance the czar's plan of aggrandisement. fortunately, the czar was induced, by the combined remonstrances of austria, denmark, and sir john norris, to abandon his projects for the moment, at least in germany, and to withdraw his troops from mecklenburg.

the fear of the russians being removed, the king was impatient to get the treaty with france ratified both by england and holland. as there was some delay on the part of holland, stanhope proposed to comply with the king's desire, that the treaty should be signed, without further waiting for the dutch, but with the agreement on both sides that they should be admitted to sign as soon as they were ready. dubois was to proceed to the hague, and there sign the treaty in form with our plenipotentiaries at that place, lord cadogan and horace walpole. but these ministers had repeatedly assured the states that england would never sign without them, and horace walpole now refused to consent to any such breach of faith. he declared he would rather starve, die, do anything than thus wound his honour and conscience; that he should regard it as declaring himself villain under his own hand. he said he would rather lay his patent of reversion in the west indies, or even his life, at his majesty's feet, than be guilty of such an action, and he begged leave to be allowed to return home. townshend, for a moment, gave in to the proposition for not waiting for the dutch, but immediately recalled that opinion; and he drew the powers of the plenipotentiaries for signing so loosely, that dubois declined signing upon them. as we have said, the ratification did not take place till january, 1717, and after great causes of difference had arisen between townshend and stanhope. so greatly did stanhope resent the difference of opinion in townshend, that he offered his resignation to the king, who refused to accept it, being himself by this time much out of humour with both townshend and robert walpole, the paymaster of the forces.

various causes, in fact, were operating to produce a great schism in the ministry of george i. townshend, as we have seen, had very unguardedly expressed his disgust with the measures of the king at and concerning hanover. george's dislike was, of course, fomented by his courtiers and mistresses, and they found a powerful ally in sunderland, who, tired of his subordinate position in the ministry, had joined the king in hanover. a letter from townshend, in which, in order to allow the longer absence of the king, he recommended that additional powers should be conferred on the prince of wales, brought george's indignation to a head. this letter, which arrived about the middle of december, seemed to cause his anger to burst all bounds, and he vowed that he would dismiss townshend at once from his service.

stanhope appears to have done his best to break townshend's fall. he represented to the king the high character of that minister, his real services, and the injustice and impolicy of disgracing him; that he might remove him to another office, and thus answer every purpose. he could take the chief direction of affairs out of his hands, even while appearing to promote him. he therefore advised that townshend should, without a word of dismissal or disapprobation, be offered the lord-lieutenancy of ireland, instead of the secretaryship of state, and to this the king consented. accordingly stanhope was directed to write to townshend, and also to secretary methuen, and he did so on the 14th of december, conveying in most courteous terms the king's desire that he should accept the lord-lieutenancy, and this without a syllable of discontent on the part of his majesty. townshend at first refused, but on the arrival of george in london he received townshend very cordially, and so softened him as to induce him to accept the lord-lieutenancy, and to do the very thing he had declared it was not[36] common honesty to do—accept the post and still remain in london, acting with the rest of the cabinet. his political adherents, including methuen, pulteney, the walpoles, lord orford, and the duke of devonshire, were contented to remain in office. the only change was that methuen was made one of the two secretaries along with stanhope. it was thus imagined that the great schism in the whig party was closed; but this was far from being the case: the healing was only on the surface. it was during this brief reconciliation that the great triple alliance between england, france, and holland, was concluded.

thus entered the year 1717. it had been intended to open parliament immediately on the king's return, but the discovery of a new and singular phase of the jacobite conspiracy compelled its postponement. we have seen that the trafficking of george with denmark for the bishoprics of bremen and verden, reft in the king of sweden's absence from his possession, had incensed that monarch, and made him vow that he would support the pretender and march into scotland with twelve thousand men. such a menace on the part of a general like charles xii. was not likely to pass unnoticed by the jacobites. the duke of berwick had taken up the idea very eagerly. he had held several conferences upon it with baron spaar, the swedish minister at paris, and he had sent a trusty minister to charles at stralsund, with the proposal that a body of seven or eight thousand swedes, then encamped near gothenburg, should embark at that port, whence, with a favourable wind, they could land in scotland in eight-and-forty hours. the pretender agreed to furnish one hundred and fifty thousand livres for their expenses. at that time, however, charles was closely besieged by the danes, prussians, and their new ally, george of hanover, purchased by the bribe of bremen and verden. charles was compelled by this coalition to retire from stralsund, but only in a mood of deeper indignation against the king of england, and therefore more favourable to his enemies.

the invasion of scotland was again brought under his notice, and strongly recommended by his chief confidant and minister, baron gortz. charles now listened with all his native spirit of resentment, and gortz immediately set out on a tour of instigation and arrangement of the invasion. he hastened to holland, where he corresponded with count gyllenborg, the swedish ambassador at london, and baron spaar, the swedish minister at paris. he put himself also into communication with the pretender and the duke of ormonde. the scheme of gortz was able and comprehensive. a peace was to be established between charles and his great enemy and rival, peter of russia. they both hated george of hanover and england, and by this union might inflict the severest injuries on him. next a conspiracy was to be excited against the regent of france, so as to prevent him aiding england according to the recent treaty, and all being thus prepared, charles xii. was himself to conduct the army of twelve thousand veterans destined to invade scotland, and, if supported by the jacobites, england.

the jacobites were in ecstasies at this new phase of their old enterprise. by charles's adhesion, their scheme was stripped of all those prejudices which had insured its ruin with the english. it had no longer the unpopular aspect of a french invasion; it was no longer headed by a popish but a protestant leader; it was no longer consigned to an untried or doubtful general, but to one of the most victorious monarchs living, who came as a protestant to call on a protestant nation to receive their rightful king. money was not wanting. spain remitted to baron spaar a million of livres for the expedition, and the court of the pretender offered sixty thousand pounds.

but unfortunately for the pretender, at the moment that the swedish hero should prepare his armament for the earliest spring, the conspiracy exploded. whilst the leaders of it had been flattering themselves that it was conducted with the profoundest secrecy, the english ministry were in possession of its clue. as early as october they had found reason to induce them to intercept the correspondence of gyllenborg, and had come at once on the letters of gortz. the matter was kept close, and as nothing was apprehended in winter, ministers used the time to improve their knowledge of the scheme from the inspected letters passing between gortz and gyllenborg. on the king's return it was resolved to act, and accordingly stanhope laid the information regarding this formidable conspiracy before the council, and proposed that the swedish minister, who had clearly, by conspiring against the government to which he was accredited, violated the law of nations, and deprived himself of its protection, should be arrested. the cabinet at once assented to the proposal, and general wade, a man of firm and resolute military habits, was ordered to make the arrest of the ambassador. the general found[37] count gyllenborg busy making up his despatches, which, after announcing laconically his errand, wade took possession of, and then demanded the contents of his escritoire. the dutch government acted in the same manner to gortz, and the evidence thus obtained was most conclusive.

james edward stuart, the "old pretender."

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when parliament met on the 20th of february, this conspiracy was laid before it and excited great indignation. the two houses voted cordial addresses to his majesty, and for a while there was an air of harmony. but the fires of discontent were smouldering beneath the surface, and, on a motion being made in april, in consequence of a royal message, to grant the king an extraordinary supply in order to enable his majesty to contract alliances with foreign powers, that he might be prepared to meet any attempts at invasion which the swedes might, after all, be disposed to make, the heat broke forth. the supply moved for was fixed at two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. it was expected that walpole, having had his name suspiciously mentioned in gyllenborg's correspondence, would take this opportunity to wipe off all doubt by his zeal and co-operation. on the contrary, he never appeared so lukewarm. both he and his brother horace, indeed, spoke in favour of the supply, but coldly; and townshend and all their common friends openly joined the tories and jacobites in voting against it; so that it was carried only by a majority of four. this could not pass; and the same evening stanhope, by the king's order, wrote to townshend, acknowledging his past services, but informing him that he was no longer lord-lieutenant of ireland.

walpole did not wait for a like humiliation.[38] the next morning he waited on the king, and tendered his resignation of his places as first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer. the king, if he could be judged by his conduct, had formed no resolution of parting with walpole. he handed again to him the seals, cordially entreating him to take them back, speaking to him in the kindest manner, and appearing as though he would take no refusal. but walpole remained steady to his purpose, and, accordingly, his friends methuen, pulteney, lord orford, and the duke of devonshire, resigned a few days afterwards. stanhope was then appointed first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer; sunderland and joseph addison were made secretaries of state; craggs, secretary at war; lord berkeley, first lord of the admiralty; the duke of newcastle, lord chamberlain; the duke of bolton, lord-lieutenant of ireland; lord cowper and the duke of kingston retaining their old places.

the retired ministers showed for the most part a very hostile attitude, and pulteney denounced the new ministry as a "german ministry." walpole, for a little time, affected a liberal conduct, declaring, when the supply of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds was voted, that, as he had before spoken in its favour, he should now vote in its favour, and would show by his proceedings that he had never intended to make the king uneasy, or to embarrass his affairs. but it was not in walpole's nature to maintain this air of temperance long. he was as violent in opposition as he was able and zealous in office. whether in or out of office, he was, in fact, equally unscrupulous. he very soon joined himself to shippen, wyndham, bromley, and the other violent opponents of the reigning family; so that shippen himself ere long said exultingly that he was glad to see that walpole was no longer afraid of being styled a jacobite.

before walpole thus threw off the mask of moderation—indeed, on the very day of his resignation—he introduced a well-matured scheme for the reduction of the national debt, which was, in fact, the earliest germ of the national sinking fund. though the ordinary rate of interest had been reduced, by the statute of the 12th of queen anne, to five per cent., the interest on the funded debt remained upwards of seven. the long and short annuities were unredeemable, and could not be touched without the consent of the proprietors; but walpole proposed to borrow six hundred thousand pounds at only four per cent., and to apply all savings to the discharge of the debts contracted before december, 1716. he proposed, also, to make some arrangement with the bank and the south sea company, by which the bank should lend two millions and a half, and the company two millions, at five per cent., to pay off such holders of redeemable debts as should refuse to accept an equal reduction.

the new administration took measures to render themselves popular. they advised the king to go down to the house on the 6th of may, and propose a reduction of the army to the extent of ten thousand men, as well as an act of grace to include many persons concerned in the late rebellion. walpole and his friends, on the contrary, did all in their power to embarrass the government. lord oxford was not included in the act of indemnity, and it was resolved now by his friends to have his trial brought on. before this was effected, however, a violent attack was made on lord cadogan. as ambassador at the hague, he had superintended the embarkation of the dutch troops sent to aid in putting down the rebellion. he was now charged with having committed gross peculations on that occasion. shippen led the way in this attack, but walpole and pulteney pursued their former colleague with the greatest rancour, and walpole declaimed against him so furiously that, after a speech of nearly two hours in length, he was compelled to stop by a sudden bleeding at the nose. stanhope, craggs, lechmere, and others defended him; but such was the combination of enemies against him, or rather, against the ministers, that the motion was only negatived by a majority of ten.

lord oxford's case was brought at length to a termination also in his favour. his friends having complained of the hardship of keeping him without a hearing for nearly two years, the 24th of june was appointed for the trial to take place in westminster hall. the commons again met in committee to complete the evidence against him; but it was now found that walpole, who was the chairman, and who had formerly pursued the inquiry with all eagerness, had suddenly cooled, and seldom came near the committee; and they therefore appointed a new one. in fact, he and townshend, out of opposition, were doing that secretly which they could not do openly without loss of character—they were exerting themselves in favour of their old antagonist, and they soon hit on a scheme for bringing him off without any trial at all. the lords were persuaded to listen to any evidence in support of the charge of[39] misdemeanour before they heard that on the grave charge of treason, and the result foreseen by the opposition took place when the resolution was reported to the commons. they immediately determined that it was an infringement of their privileges, and declined compliance with it. this was what walpole and the then partisans, secret or open, of lord oxford, had foreseen. the commons refusing to attend in westminster hall on the day fixed, the lords returned to their own house, and passed a resolution declaring the earl of oxford acquitted, an announcement received by the people with acclamation. the commons then demanded that oxford should be excepted from the act of grace; but, notwithstanding, he was released from the tower, and the commons never renewed the impeachment.

it might have been supposed that europe, or at least the southern portion of it, was likely to enjoy a considerable term of peace. france, under a minor and a regent, appeared to require rest to recruit its population and finances more than any part of the continent. the king of spain was too imbecile to have any martial ambition; and though his wife was anxious to secure the succession to the french throne in case of the death of the infant louis xv., yet alberoni, the prime minister, was desirous to remain at peace. this able churchman, who had risen from the lowest position, being the son of a working gardener, and had made his way to his present eminence partly by his abilities and partly by his readiness to forget the gravity of the clerical character for the pleasure of his patrons, was now zealously exerting himself to restore the condition of spain. he was thus brought into collision with austria and france, and eventually with this country to which at first he was well disposed. england was under engagement both to france and the empire, which must, on the first rupture with either of those powers and spain, precipitate her into war. the treaty with the emperor—as it guaranteed the retention of the italian provinces, which spain beheld with unappeasable jealousy, in austrian hands—was the first thing to change the policy of alberoni towards britain. this change was still further accelerated by the news of the triple alliance, which equally guaranteed the status quo of france. the spanish minister displayed his anger by suspending the treaty of commerce, and by conniving at the petty vexations practised by the spaniards on the english merchants in spain, and by decidedly rejecting a proposal of the king of england to bring about an accommodation between the emperor and the court of spain.

in this uneasy state of things austria very unnecessarily put the match to the political train, and threw the whole of the south of europe again into war. don joseph molina, the spanish ambassador at rome, being appointed inquisitor-general at spain, commenced his journey homewards, furnished with a passport from the pope, and an assurance of safety from the imperial minister. yet, notwithstanding this, he was perfidiously arrested by the austrian authorities and secured in the citadel of milan. the gross insult to spain, and equally gross breach of faith, so exasperated the king and queen of spain that they would listen to nothing but war. the earnest expostulations of alberoni, delivered in the form of a powerful memorial, were rejected, and he was compelled to abandon the cherished hopes of peaceful improvement and make the most active preparations for war.

alberoni despatched don joseph pati?o to barcelona to hasten the military preparations. twelve ships of war and eight thousand six hundred men were speedily assembled there, and an instant alarm was excited throughout europe as to the destination of this not very formidable force. the emperor, whose treacherous conduct justly rendered him suspicious, imagined the blow destined for his italian territories; the english anticipated a fresh movement in favour of the pretender; but alberoni, an astute italian, who was on the point of receiving the cardinal's hat from the pope led charles (vi.) to believe that the armament was directed against the infidels in the levant. the pope, therefore, hastened the favour of the roman purple, and then alberoni no longer concealed the real destination of his troops. the marquis de lede was ordered to set out with the squadron for the italian shores; but when naples was trembling in apprehension of a visit, the fleet drew up, on the 20th of august, in the bay of cagliari, the capital of the island of sardinia. that a force which might have taken naples should content itself with an attack on the barren, rocky, and swampy sardinia, surprised many; but alberoni knew very well that, though he could take, he had not yet an army sufficient to hold naples, and he was satisfied to strike a blow which should alarm europe, whilst it gratified the impatience of the spanish monarch for revenge. there was, moreover, an ulterior object. it had lately been proposed by england and holland to the emperor, in order to induce him[40] to come into the triple alliance and convert it into a quadruple one, to obtain an exchange of this island for sicily with the duke of savoy. it was, therefore, an object to prevent this arrangement by first seizing sardinia. the spanish general summoned the governor of cagliari to surrender; but he stood out, and the spaniards had to wait for the complete arrival of their ships before they could land and invest the place. the governor was ere long compelled to capitulate; but the aragonese and the catalans, who had followed the austrians from the embittered contest in their own country, defended the island with furious tenacity, and it was not till november, and after severe losses through fighting and malaria, that the spaniards made themselves masters of the island. the powers of the triple alliance then intervened with the proposal that austria should renounce all claim on the spanish monarchy, and spain all claim on italy. enraged at this proposal, alberoni embarked on extensive military preparations, and put in practice the most extensive diplomatic schemes to paralyse his enemies abroad. he won the goodwill of victor amadeus by holding out the promise of the milanese in exchange for sicily; he encouraged the turks to continue the war against the emperor, and entered into negotiations with ragotsky to renew the insurrection in hungary; he adopted the views of gortz for uniting the czar and charles of sweden in peace, so that he might be able to turn their united power against the emperor, and still more against the electorate of hanover, thus diverting the attention and the energies of george of england. still further to occupy england, which he dreaded more than all the rest, he opened a direct correspondence with the pretender, who was now driven across the alps by the triple alliance, and promised him aid in a new expedition against britain under the direction of the duke of ormonde, or of james himself. in france the same skilful pressure was directed against all the tender places of the body politic. he endeavoured to rouse anew the insurrection of the cevennes and the discontents of brittany. the jesuits, the protestants, the duke and duchess of maine, were all called into action, and the demands for the assembling of the states-general, for the instant reformation of abuses, for reduction of the national debts, and for other reforms, were the cries by which the government was attempted to be embarrassed.

these preparations on the part of spain were in one particular favourable to the king of england—they rendered the emperor much more conceding. the english envoy at that court—rather singularly a swiss of the canton of bern—the general de st. saphorin, had found stahremberg, the emperor's minister, very high, and disinclined to listen to the proposals of the king of england regarding bremen and verden; but the news of the spanish armament, and still more of its having sailed from cadiz to barcelona, produced a wonderful change. the imperial court not only consented to the demands of england, but accepted its mediation with the turks, by which a considerable force was liberated for the service in italy. the emperor acceded to the alliance proposed between england, france, and germany in order to drive spain to terms, and which afterwards, when joined by the dutch, was called the quadruple alliance. in france, however, all obstacles to this treaty were not yet overcome. there was a strong party, headed by the marshal d'huxelles, chief of the council for foreign affairs, which strongly opposed this plan of coercing the grandson of louis xiv. to overcome these obstacles stanhope went over to paris, and had several conferences with king philip; and, supported by lord stair and nancré, all difficulties were removed, and the alliance was signed in the succeeding august.

by this treaty parma and tuscany were ceded in reversion to the infant don carlos; sicily was to be made over to the emperor, and, in exchange for it, sardinia was to be given to victor amadeus of savoy. as sardinia was an island of so much less extent and value than sicily, the succession to the crown of spain was guaranteed to the house of savoy should philip of spain leave no issue. three months were allowed for the king of spain and the duke of savoy to come in, and after that, in case of their non-compliance, force was to be used to effect it. it was to avert such a result that stanhope (now secretary for the southern department, which included foreign affairs) made a journey to spain, where he failed to make the slightest impression on alberoni. before setting out, however, admiral byng had been despatched to the mediterranean with twenty-one ships of the line, and peremptory orders to attack the spanish fleet whenever he should find it engaged in any hostile attempt against sicily, naples, or any other of the emperor's possessions in the mediterranean.

byng went in pursuit of the spanish fleet, which was assisting in the conquest of sicily, and came in sight of twenty-seven sail of the line,[41] with fire-ships, ketches, bombs, and seven galleys, drawn up in line of battle between him and cape passaro. so soon as they were clear of the straits, a council was held to determine whether they should fight or retreat. they came to no resolution, but continued to linger about in indecision till byng was down upon them. whereupon he utterly destroyed them (august 11, 1718).

alberoni, though defeated at sea, was more successful in sicily, and he continued his cabals against england in nearly every court of europe with only the more assiduity. he was zealously at work in france, england itself, holland, piedmont, and sweden. by his ambassador at the hague he endeavoured to keep the dutch out of the quadruple alliance by exciting their commercial jealousy; but he was ably opposed by our minister there, the earl of cadogan. in piedmont he endeavoured to deter victor amadeus from entering into this alliance by assuring him that he was only endeavouring to secure sicily to keep it out of the hands of the austrians, and reserve it for him; while, on the other hand, he threatened him with thirty thousand bayonets if he dared to accede to the quadruple treaty. the allies, however, threatened still greater dangers, and the duke at last consented to accept sardinia in lieu of sicily, and that island remains attached to the kingdom of italy to the present time.

sea fight off cape passaro. (see p. 41.)

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foiled in these quarters, alberoni appeared more successful in the north. a negotiation had been opened between the two potentates, so long at bitter variance, the czar and charles xii. of sweden. they were induced to meet in the island of ?land, and to agree that the czar should retain livonia, and other swedish territories south of finland which he had torn from sweden, but, in compensation, charles was to be allowed to reconquer bremen and verden from george of hanover and england, and norway from denmark; and the two monarchs were to unite their arms for the restoration of stanislaus to the throne of poland, and of the pretender to that of great britain. the success of these arrangements appeared to alberoni so certain that he boasted that the northern tempest would burst ere long over england with annihilating fury; but even here he was doomed to disappointment. charles[42] xii. delighted in nothing so much as in wild and romantic enterprise. such was that of the conquest of norway; and he was led by his imagination to commence it without delay. with his characteristic madness, he divided his army into two parts, with one of which he took the way by the coast of norway, and the other he sent over the mountains at the very beginning of winter. there that division perished in the snow amid the most incredible horrors; and he himself, whilst carrying on the siege of frederickshall, was killed on the 11th of december, as appears probable, by the treacherous shot of a french engineer in his service. almost simultaneously the duke of maine's conspiracy against the french government was detected, and he and his wife, together with the spanish ambassador, were apprehended. there was nothing for it on the part of the regent but to proclaim war against spain—a measure which england had long been urging on him. the english declaration appeared on the 28th of december, 1718, and the french on the 9th of january, 1719.

in the session of 1719 stanhope and his colleagues tried to undo the arbitrary measures of 1711 and 1714—the occasional conformity bill and the schism bill. stanhope would have made a strenuous effort to abolish not only these laws, but the test act itself; but sunderland, though equally liberal, was more prudent, and showed that, to attempt too much was to ruin all; and when they came to introduce their greatly modified measure—that of annulling only some of the less prominent clauses of the test act under the name of a bill for strengthening the protestant interest—they found so much opposition that sunderland's discernment was fully justified. not only the two archbishops and some of the bishops opposed the measure, but the great whigs, the duke of devonshire and earl cowper. cowper, though he expressed himself willing to abolish the schism bill, stood stoutly for the test and corporation acts as the very bulwarks of our constitution in church and state; whilst the earl of islay declared even this moderate measure a violation of the union with scotland. on the other hand, the bishops hoadley, willis, gibson, and kennett supported the bill, which, however, was not carried without considerable mutilation; and had stanhope introduced such a measure as he proposed, including even considerable relief to catholics, the whole would have been lost.

parliament was prorogued on the 18th of april, and the king soon after set out for his german dominions, taking stanhope along with him, and his mistress, the duchess of kendal. in appointing the regency to administer affairs in the king's absence, the prince of wales was entirely passed over, to his great indignation; nor were he and the princess allowed to hold levees, that duty being assigned to the young princesses, to the great scandal of the public, and further exposure of the discord raging in the royal family. even during the session the ministers had brought in a bill to "settle and limit the peerage in such a manner that the number of english peers should not be enlarged beyond six of the present number (178), which, upon failure of male issue, might be supplied by new creations; that, instead of the sixteen elective peers of scotland, twenty-five should be made hereditary on the part of that kingdom; and that this number, upon failure of heirs male, should be supplied from the other members of the scottish peerage." both the king and ministers flattered themselves that they should carry this bill, and thus fetter the prince of wales when he came to the throne. the king was desirous to do this out of sheer jealousy and hatred of his own son, and the ministers, sunderland in particular, out of dread of his vengeance in that case; for, if he created a dozen peers at a time, as anne had done, he could easily swamp the whigs and put the present ministers in peril of impeachment. but though the whigs had been clamorous against the act of anne, some of them now, cowper and townshend at their head, as vehemently denounced this measure as a gross infringement of the royal prerogative. the debate became very bitter, and many friendships were broken up by it, amongst others that of addison and steele, who took different sides; but the bill was finally dropped, through the vigorous opposition offered to it by walpole.

scarcely had parliament ceased to sit, and the king was gone to spend the summer months in germany, when the vigilance of the ministry was demanded to ward off a fresh invasion. alberoni, defeated in his schemes on france, and his hopes of the invasion of england by charles xii. crushed by that monarch's death, determined now to make a grand effort to support the pretender himself. for this purpose, he invited him to spain, and at the same time began the equipment of a formidable fleet to carry over a spanish force, under the command of the duke of ormonde, to the shores of britain. the pretender was not intended to accompany the expedition, but to be in readiness to follow on the first news of its[43] successful landing. but it was no more destined to reach these shores than the grand armada. it has always been the fate of invading squadrons to encounter providential tempests in coming hitherward, and the usual hurricane was ready to burst. scarcely, indeed, had the fleet lost sight of cape finisterre before the storm swooped down upon it. for twelve days the terrible bay of biscay was swept by a frightful wind, which drove the vessels in all directions, and rendered it impossible to manage them. fortunate would it have been if every vessel had failed to reach the shores at which they aimed; but two vessels, on board of which were the earls marshal and seaforth, and the marquis of tullibardine, accompanied by about three hundred spanish soldiers, reached scotland, and landed, on the 16th of april, at kintail, in ross-shire. in the hope that ormonde would still reach england, this small force lay quiet for some time, and so little did they excite notice, that the government imagined that they had re-embarked. their presence there, however, had the mischievous effect of exciting some few of the highlanders to join them. they seized donan castle, and thus attracted the attention of the english. some vessels of war arrived upon the coast. the castle was speedily retaken, and lord carpenter, the commander of the forces in scotland, sent some troops from inverness against them. general wightman, the officer thus despatched, was attended by about a thousand men, and found the enemy, now swollen to about two thousand, strongly posted at glenshiel. he immediately attacked them, and the miscellaneous force speedily dispersed. the highlanders, who knew the country, rapidly disappeared amongst the hills, and the spaniards had no other resource than to lay down their arms.

alberoni now found himself in turn attacked by france. whilst busying himself to repair a few of the shattered ships which had escaped from the tempest, in order to harass the coast of brittany in conjunction with the malcontents there, he beheld an army of thirty thousand french menacing the pyrenean frontier. war having begun, the spaniards were utterly defeated by the french in spain and by the austrians in sicily, thanks to the zealous co-operation of the british fleet under admiral byng. at length philip was compelled to dismiss alberoni.

the king of spain hoped, by the dismissal of alberoni, to obtain more advantageous terms of peace from france and england; but they still stood firmly to the conditions of the quadruple alliance. on the 19th of january, 1720, the plenipotentiaries of england, france, and holland signed an engagement at paris not to admit of any conditions of peace from spain contrary to those of the alliance. stanhope despatched his secretary, schaub, to madrid, to endeavour to bring over the queen to this agreement, and dubois sent instructions to the marquis scotti, father d'aubenton, and others in the french interest to press the same point. she stood out firmly for some time, but eventually gave way, and the mind of the king was soon influenced by her. some difficulties which could not be overcome were referred to a congress to be held at cambray. on the 26th of january philip announced his accession to the quadruple alliance, declaring that he gave up his rights and possessions to secure the peace of europe. he renewed his renunciation of the french crown, and promised to evacuate sicily and sardinia within six months, which he faithfully performed.

by the firmness of the allies a peace which continued twelve years was given to europe, and the storm which alberoni had so fondly expected out of the north was as completely dissipated. the new queen of sweden had consented to yield absolutely to george i., as king of hanover, the disputed possession of bremen and verden. poland was induced to acknowledge augustus of saxony as king, and prussia to be satisfied with the acquisition of stettin and some other swedish territory. but the czar and the king of denmark, seeing sweden deprived of its military monarch, and exhausted by his wild campaigns, contemplated the actual dismemberment of sweden. the queen of sweden threw herself for protection on the good offices of the king of england, and both england and france agreed to compel the czar and the king of denmark to desist from their attacks on sweden if they would not listen to friendly mediation. lord carteret, a promising young statesman, was sent as ambassador to stockholm, and sir john norris, with eleven sail of the line, was ordered to the baltic. russia and denmark, however, continued to disregard the pacific overtures of england, trusting to there being no war with that power. they ravaged the whole coast of sweden, burning above a thousand villages, and the town of nyk?ping, the third place in the kingdom. seeing this, lord stanhope, who was still at hanover with the king, sent orders to admiral norris to pay no regard to the fact of there being no declaration of war, but to treat the russian and danish fleet as[44] byng had treated the spanish one. norris accordingly joined his squadron to the swedish fleet at carlscrona, and went in pursuit of the fleet of the czar. peter, seeing that the english were now in earnest, recalled his fleet with precipitation, and thereby, no doubt, saved it from complete destruction; but he still continued to refuse to make peace, and determined on the first opportunity to have a further slice of swedish territory. denmark, which was extremely poor, agreed to accept a sum of money in lieu of marstrand, which it had seized; and thus all europe, except the czar, was brought to a condition of peace.

george had arrived in england from his german states on the 11th of november of the preceding year, 1719, and opened parliament on the 23rd. in his speech he laid stress on the success of his government in promoting the evacuation of sicily and sardinia by spain, in protecting sweden, and laying the foundation of a union amongst the great protestant powers of europe. he then recurred to the subject of the bill for limiting the peerage, which had been rejected in the previous session. george was animated by the vehement desire to curtail the prerogative of his son, and said that the bill was necessary to secure that part of the constitution which was most liable to abuse. lord cowper declared, on the other hand, that besides the reasons which had induced him to oppose the measure before, another was now added in the earnestness with which it was recommended. but cowper was not supported with any zeal by the rest of the house, and the bill passed on the 30th of november, and was sent down to the house of commons on the 1st of december. there it was destined to meet with a very different reception. during the recess walpole had endeavoured to rouse a resistance to it in both houses. he had convened a meeting of the opposition whigs at devonshire house, and called upon them to oppose the measure; but he found that some of the whig peers were favourable to it, from the perception that it would increase the importance of their order; others declared that it would be inconsistent in them to oppose a principle which they had so strenuously maintained against a tory ministry—that of discountenancing the sudden creation of peers for party purposes; and others, though hostile to the bill, declared that they should only expose themselves to defeat by resisting it. but walpole persisted in his opposition, and declared that, if his party deserted him, he would contend against the bill single-handed. he asserted that it would meet with strong resistance from the country gentlemen who hoped some time or other to reach the peerage—a hope which the bill, if carried, would extinguish for ever.

by these endeavours walpole managed to array a considerable body of the commons against it. it was introduced on the 8th of december, and sir john pakington, sir richard steele, smith, methuen, and others joined him in attacking it. steele made a very powerful speech against it, but the grand assault was that of walpole. he put out all his strength, and delivered a harangue such as he had never achieved till that day. he did not spare the motives of the king, though handling them with much tact, and was unsparingly severe on the scottish clauses, and on the notorious subserviency of the scottish representative peers. he declared that the sixteen elective scottish peers were already a dead weight on the country; and he asked what they would be when made twenty-five, and hereditary? he declared that such a bill would make the lords masters of the king, and shut up the door of honour to the rest of the nation. amongst the romans, he said, the way to the temple of fame was through the temple of virtue; but if this bill passed, such would never be the case in this country. there would be no arriving at honours but through the winding-sheet of an old, decrepit lord, or the tomb of an extinct noble family. craggs, lechmere, aislabie, hampton, and other ministerial whigs supported the bill; but, in the words of speaker onslow, the declamation of walpole had borne down everything before it, and the measure was defeated by a majority of two hundred and sixty-nine to one hundred and seventy-seven.

in our time this defeat would, as a matter of course, have turned out the ministry, but in that day it had no such effect. they continued to hold office, and to command undiminished majorities on other questions. still more singular was its effect, for it induced them to offer office to their triumphant opponent walpole, who not only accepted a subordinate post amongst them—the paymaster of the forces—but consented to support the very clauses regarding the scottish peers which he had so firmly denounced, should they be inclined to bring forward the bill a third time.

[45]

the south sea bubble. (after the picture by e. m. ward, r.a., in the national gallery, london.)

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the spring of 1720 was a period of remarkable national prosperity. but "the grand money schemes projected of late," which appeared to the jacobite atterbury and others calculated to cement the royal peace and strengthen the foundation[46] of the government and nation, were destined to produce a very different effect. for the south sea bubble was about to burst. in 1711, harley, being at his wits' end to maintain the public credit, established a fund to provide for the national debt, which amounted to ten millions of pounds. to defray the interest he made permanent the duties on wine, vinegar, and tobacco, etc. to induce the purchase of the government stock, he gave to the shareholders the exclusive privilege of trading to the spanish settlements in south america, and procured them an act of parliament and a royal charter, under the name of the south sea company. the idea, hollow and groundless as it was, seized on the imagination of the most staid and experienced traders. all the dreams of boundless gold which haunted the heads of the followers of drake and raleigh were revived. the mania spread through the nation, and was industriously encouraged by the partisans of harley. but this stupendous dream of wealth was based on the promises of ministers, who at the peace of utrecht were to secure from the government of spain this right to trade to its colonies. the right was never granted by that haughty and jealous power, further than for the settlement of some few factories, and the sending of one small ship annually of less than five hundred tons. this, and the assiento, or privilege of supplying those colonies with african slaves, were the sole advantages obtained, and these were soon disturbed by the war with spain, which broke out under alberoni. the south sea company, however, from its general resources, remained a flourishing corporation, and was deemed the rival of the bank of england.

it was at the close of 1719, when george i. returned from hanover, that this company proposed to ministers to consolidate all the funds into one. it was strange that both ministers and merchants could be deluded by the hope of enriching themselves by a share of the trade with the spanish south american provinces, when spain herself, in full enjoyment of them, was sunk into indigence and weakness, and presented the most determined resistance to the unfettered intercourse of any other nation with them. yet sir john blunt, a leading director of the south sea company, persuaded the ministers that by granting the company power to deal with the public funds, and especially to buy up the unredeemable annuities which had been granted in the two preceding reigns, chiefly on terms of ninety-nine years, and which now amounted to about eight hundred thousand pounds a year, they could, in twenty-six years, pay off the entire national debt. but, to enable them to do this, they must be empowered to reduce all the different public securities to one aggregate fund in their hands, to convert both redeemable and unredeemable debts into stock by such arrangements as they could make with the holders, and to have certain commercial privileges vested in them. ministers accepted the proposals with great alacrity. aislabie introduced the scheme to parliament in the month of february, 1720, declaring that, if it was accepted by the house, the prosperity of the nation would be amazingly enhanced, and all its debts liquidated in a very few years. craggs seconded the proposal in most sanguine terms, expressing his conviction that every member of the house must be ready to adopt so advantageous an offer. ministers had already closed with the proposals of the company, and they were themselves greatly disconcerted by the suggestion of mr. thomas brodrick, the member for stockbridge, who expressed his entire accordance with ministers, but thought that the nation should endeavour to obtain the best terms for itself by opening the competition to every other company or association of men as well as that in question. ministers were confounded by this proposal, and aislabie endeavoured to get out of it by declaring that to do this would be like putting the nation up to auction, and that such things should be done with spirit. but jekyll interposed, saying it was this spirit which had ruined the nation, and it was now requisite to consider seriously what was best for the public. a violent debate ensued, in which walpole eloquently recommended open competition, and was sharply replied to by lechmere. the question was carried in favour of competition; and then the bank of england, which before had coolly declined to enter into the proposals, suddenly appeared in a new temper, and made liberal offers for the privilege of thus farming the public debts. but the south sea company was not to be outdone; it offered seven millions and a half, and the bank gave way in despair.

walpole, however, continued to oppose the south sea bill in the commons, declaring that the terms were too extravagant ever to be fulfilled; that the experiment could result in nothing but a fearful increase of the costs of stockjobbing, and final confusion and ruin. he insisted that, before the proposals of the company were accepted,[47] the rise of their stock should be limited, and every means taken to prevent the fever of infatuation that would ensue from the promise of dividends out of funds which could never be realised. he proposed for this purpose the introduction of a clause fixing the number of years' purchase to be granted to the annuitants of the south sea company; but to this it was objected that it was the interest of the company to take up the annuities; and, as the annuitants had the power of coming in or not, as they pleased, the company would, of course, offer advantageous terms, and, therefore, the whole affair might be safely left to private adjustment. aislabie added that the south sea company would not submit to be controlled in an undertaking they were to pay so dear for. the bill passed both houses.

the south sea company had immediately on the passing of the bill proposed a subscription of one million, and this was so eagerly seized on that, instead of one, two millions were subscribed. to stimulate this already too feverish spirit in the public, the company adopted the most false and unjustifiable means. they had eight millions and a half to pay over to government as a douceur for granting them the management of the funds; and, therefore, to bring this in rapidly, they propagated the most lying rumours. it was industriously circulated that lord stanhope had received overtures at paris to exchange gibraltar and port mahon for invaluable gold lands in peru! the south sea trade was vaunted as a source of boundless wealth in itself. in august the stock had risen from the one hundred and thirty of the last winter to one thousand! men sold houses and land to become shareholders; merchants of eminence neglected their affairs and crippled their resources to reap imaginary profits. the company flattered the delusion to the utmost. they opened a third, and even a fourth subscription, larger than the former, and passed a resolution that from next christmas their yearly dividend should not be less than fifty per cent.! in labouring to increase the public delusion they seem to have caught the contagion themselves, for they began to act, not like men who were blowing a bubble which they knew must speedily burst, but like persons who had mounted permanently into the very highest seat of prosperous power. they assumed the most arrogant and overbearing manner, even towards men of the highest station and influence. "we have made them kings," said a member of parliament, "and they deal with everybody as such."

the spirit of gambling thus set going by government itself soon surpassed all bounds, and burst forth in a thousand shapes. it was well known that the king, his mistresses, his courtiers, his son and heir apparent, were all dabbling busily in the muddy waters of this huge pool of trickery and corruption. a thousand other schemes were invented and made public to draw in fresh gudgeons, and the prince of wales allowed his name to stand as governor of a welsh copper company. all ranks and classes rushed to change alley—dukes, lords, country squires, bishops, clergy (both established and dissenting), were mixed up with stockjobbers and brokers in eager traffic. ladies of all ranks mingled in the throng, struggling through the press and straining their voices to be heard amid the hubbub. there and all over the kingdom were advertised and hawked about the following and other schemes:—wrecks to be fished for on the irish coast; plans for making of oil from sunflower seeds; for extracting of silver from lead; for the transmuting of quicksilver into a malleable and fine metal; for importing a number of large jackasses from spain; for a wheel for perpetual motion; and, finally, for an undertaking which shall in due time be revealed!

the south sea company, with a folly of which extreme greed only is capable, endeavoured to put down these rival schemes and obtained an order from the lords justices and writs of scire facias against several of these new bubbles. it was like raising a wind to blow away the bubbles, forgetting that their own was a bubble too, and would go with them. the moment that the people began to distrust one they distrusted all. the panic became as great as the mania had been. the south sea stock dropped in less than a month from one thousand to below six hundred. there was a simultaneous rush to sell out, and the shares must have sunk instantly to nil but for the gigantic exertions of the company to raise money and buy in. the relief, however, was but temporary. the bankers and pawnbrokers who had advanced money on scrip broke and fled; merchants, goldsmiths, and speculators rushed away after them. walpole was summoned in haste from haughton to devise some means of staying the panic. he endeavoured to get the bank of england to circulate three millions of south sea bonds for a year; but the bank, seeing that the case was desperate, declined it. this was decisive. the rage and despair of the swarming dupes were indescribable. they heaped[48] execrations not only on the south sea company, but on ministers, the king, his mistresses, and the royal family, who had all been deep in the affair, and who had taken good care of themselves. george landed at margate on the 9th of november, soon after which the south sea stock fell to one hundred and thirty-five. on the 8th of december parliament met, and promptly began to investigate the scandal.

in the house of lords on the 24th of january, 1721, five directors who had been called before them were arrested and their papers seized. by what had been drawn from them, it appeared that large sums had been given to people in high places to procure the passing of the south sea bill. lord stanhope rose and expressed his indignation at such practices, and moved that any transfer of stock for the use of any person in the administration without a proper consideration was a notorious and dangerous corruption. the motion was seconded by lord townshend, and carried unanimously. the examination being continued on the 4th of february, sir john blunt refused to answer their lordships, on the plea that he had already given his evidence before the secret committee. a vehement debate arose out of this difficulty, during which the duke of wharton, a most profligate young nobleman, and president of the hell-fire club, made a fierce attack on stanhope, accused him of fomenting the dissensions between the king and his son, and compared him to sejanus, who had sown animosities in the family of tiberius, and rendered his reign hateful to the romans. stanhope, in replying to this philippic, was so transported by his rage, that the blood gushed from his nostrils. he was carried from the house, and soon afterwards expired.

lord townshend succeeded stanhope as secretary of state. aislabie, who had been deep in the iniquities of the south sea affair, was compelled to resign his post as chancellor of the exchequer, to which walpole succeeded. meanwhile the secret committee appointed by the commons continued its labours indefatigably. they sat nearly every day from nine in the morning till eleven at night, and on the 16th of february, 1721, they presented their first report to the house. this revealed a vast amount of ministerial corruption.

on the very day that this report was being read in the house died one of the accused, james craggs, secretary of state. his complaint was smallpox; but the state of mind induced by this exposure is supposed to have rendered the malady fatal. his father, who was postmaster-general, was so shamefully involved in the same dishonest proceedings, that he took poison.

charles stanhope, though clearly guilty, escaped, after examination in the house, by a majority of three, out of respect for the memory of his deceased relative, the upright lord stanhope. aislabie's case came next, and was so palpably bad that he was committed to the tower and expelled the house, amid the ringing of bells, bonfires, and other signs of rejoicing in the city of london. the bulk of his property, moreover, was seized. this was some compensation to the public, which had murmured loudly at the acquittal of stanhope. sunderland's case was the next, and he escaped by the evidence against him being chiefly second-hand. he was acquitted by a majority of two hundred and thirty-three against one hundred and seventy-two. as to the king's mistresses, their sins were passed over out of a too conceding loyalty; but no favour was shown to the directors, though some of them were found to be much poorer when the scheme broke up than they were when it began. amongst them was mr. gibbon, the grandfather of the historian, who afterwards exposed the injustice of many of these proceedings, though at the time they were considered as only too merited. the directors were disabled from ever again holding any place, or sitting in parliament; and their estates, amounting to upwards of two millions, were confiscated for the relief of the sufferers by the scheme.

on the death of stanhope, sir robert walpole was left without a rival, and he received his commission of first lord of the treasury on the 2nd of april, and from this period down to 1742 he continued to direct the government of great britain. his chief anxiety now was to restore the public credit. he drew up, as chairman of the committee of the commons, a report of all that had been lost in the late excitements, and of the measures that had been adopted to remedy the costs incurred. amongst these were the resolutions of the house respecting the seven and a half millions the directors of the south sea company had agreed to pay to government; more than five had been remitted, and we may add that on the clamorous complaints of the company the remainder was afterwards remitted too. the forfeited estates had been made to clear off a large amount of encumbrance, the credit of the company's bonds had been maintained, and thirty-three per cent. of the capital paid to the proprietors. such were the[49] measures adopted by the commons, and these being stated in the report to the king, a bill was brought in embodying them all. many of the proprietors, however, were not satisfied. they were very willing to forget their own folly and greediness, and charge the blame on the government. on the second reading of walpole's bill they thronged the lobby of the house of commons. the next day the bill was carried, and gradually produced quiet; but walpole himself did not escape without severe animadversions. he was accused of having framed his measures in collusion with the bank, and with a clear eye to his own interest; but he had been strenuously vindicated from the charge, and on the whole the vigour and boldness with which he encountered the storm and quelled it deserve the highest praise, and may well cover a certain amount of self-interest, from which few ministers are free.

george i.

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the discontents occasioned by the south sea scheme and its issue had caused the jacobites to conceive fresh hopes of success, and their spirits were still more elevated by the birth of a son to the pretender. the business of this faction was conducted in england by a junto or council, amongst the chief members of which were the earls of arran and orrery, lords north and gower, and the bishop of rochester. lord oxford had been invited to put himself at the head of this council of five, but everything of a decided nature was out of his character. he continued to correspond with the leaders of the faction, but he declined putting himself too forward. in fact, his habitual irresolution was now doubled by advancing[50] infirmities, and he died three years afterwards. though several of the junto were men of parliamentary, and north of military experience, atterbury was the undoubted head of it. the period of confusion created by the south sea agitation was first pitched on for a new attempt, then that of the general election, which had taken place in march, and, finally, it was deferred till the king should have gone to hanover, according to his custom, in the summer.

in preparation for this movement james the pretender was to sail secretly to spain, in readiness to cross to england; and he had already quitted his house in rome and removed to a villa, the more unobserved to steal away at the appointed moment. ormonde also had left madrid and gone to a country seat half way to bilbao, when the secret of the impending expedition was suddenly revealed by the french government to that of england. the conspirators had been mad enough to apply to the regent for five thousand troops, trusting that, notwithstanding his peaceful relations with britain, he would secretly enjoy creating it some embarrassment. but in this, as in all other views, they proved more sanguine than profound. sir luke schaub, the british ambassador, was immediately informed of it on condition, it was said, that no one should die for it.

walpole was instantly on the alert on this startling discovery. he prevailed on the king to put off his journey to germany. troops were drawn round london and a camp was formed in hyde park. the king took up his residence at kensington, in the midst of the soldiers, and the prince of wales retired to richmond. general macartney was dispatched for still more troops from ireland; some suspected persons were arrested in scotland; the states of holland were solicited to have ships and soldiers in readiness; an order was obtained from the court of madrid to forbid the embarkation of ormonde; and general churchill was dispatched to paris to make all secure with the regent. atterbury was arrested on the 24th of august.

parliament opened its first sitting on the 9th of october. the rumour of invasion, of course, gave the tone to the king's speech. he recited the leading facts of the conspiracy, and observed that he should the less wonder at them had he in any one instance, since his accession to the throne of his ancestors, invaded the liberty or property of his subjects.

the very first act was to suspend the habeas corpus act for a year. to punish the catholics and non-jurors, who were all regarded as implicated in this conspiracy, walpole proposed to raise one hundred thousand pounds by a tax on their estates. a bill of pains and penalties was passed against atterbury, and he was compelled to go into banishment. on the 18th of june atterbury was put on board a man-of-war and conducted to calais. as he landed there, he was told that bolingbroke had received the king's pardon, and was just quitting calais for england; and the bishop said, with a smile, "then i am exchanged."

this act, however, merely gave bolingbroke the right to come back and live in security in england. his ambition could only be satisfied by the restoration of his estates and honours. unfortunately for him, when he arrived in england, the king had sailed for hanover, attended by townshend and carteret, and his great patroness, the duchess of kendal. he waited, therefore, on walpole, who promptly rejected his offers. mortified at this repulse, bolingbroke returned to paris, where a field of action had opened in which he was well calculated to figure.

the restless englishman, much more like a frenchman in temperament and character than a native of england, had married madame de villette, a niece of louis xiv.'s last mistress, madame de maintenon, a lady rich and well-trained in all the court life of paris. by this means bolingbroke was brought into close connection with that court. the notorious cardinal dubois had died in august, 1723, and in less than four months died also the duke of orleans, the regent. louis xv. being nominally of age, no other regent was appointed; but the duke of bourbon, a man of better character but of less ability than the regent, orleans, was prime minister. he was greatly under the influence of his bold and ambitious mistress madame de prie; and bolingbroke, who was high in the favour of both minister and mistress, flattered himself that, with the aid of his courtier wife, he could govern both them and france.

bolingbroke was well aware that a violent strife for power was going on in the british cabinet. lord carteret, the new secretary of state, and afterwards earl granville, was labouring hard to undermine both walpole and townshend. he was a very accomplished man and a great linguist, familiar with nearly all the continental languages, including german, which, strangely enough, the english courtiers neglected, though they had a[51] german monarch on the throne who could not speak english. german then was regarded as a language rude and even vulgar—a tongue, as voltaire afterwards said, "only fit for horses." but carteret, by being master of it, could converse freely with the king, whilst walpole, ignorant, too, of french, could hold communication with him only in latin, which, from the wide difference between the english and foreign pronunciation of it, could not have been a very favourable medium. carteret had ingratiated himself so much with the king by conversing in german, and flattering george's german tastes and politics, that he had succeeded to the influence which stanhope had formerly possessed. he had also secured the same influence in the court of paris. he had by that means confirmed the appointment of sir luke schaub at that court, and thus kept open the most favourable communication with the abbé dubois. the courts of england and france continued during dubois' life in close connection, and through the influence of george and his ministers, dubois obtained first the archbishop's mitre, and then the cardinal's hat.

the struggle for ascendency proceeding, walpole and his party secured the interest of the duchess of kendal, who always took care to side with that which she thought the stronger. carteret and his party, on the other hand, secured the interest of the other mistress, the countess of darlington, and her sister, madame de platen. whilst affairs were in this position, the two secretaries of state, townshend and carteret, accompanied the king to hanover. there came upon the tapis the question of a marriage between the count st. florentin, the son of la vrillière, the secretary of state for france, and a daughter of madame de platen. madame de platen, however, demanded that la vrillière should be made a duke, so that in due course of time her daughter would be a duchess. george i. warmly seconded this demand; and, had bolingbroke used his influence, there was little doubt that it would have been accomplished. but the french nobility raised a huge outcry against this honour being conferred on the family of la vrillière, which they deemed too obscure for such a dignity. bolingbroke, however, was seeking his own objects through the other mistress, the duchess of kendal; and, notwithstanding the repulse which he had received from walpole, he still calculated that his power would prevail, and he therefore smothered his personal vexation, and remained on the side of the duchess of kendal and walpole, leaving carteret and his allies, the platens, to fight their own battle.

in the midst of these cabals died the regent, and townshend, acting with walpole, sent over walpole's brother horace to watch their interests at paris. carteret, on the other hand, ordered sir luke schaub to make every exertion for the grant of the dukedom. on the arrival of horace walpole, bolingbroke, obeying the impulses of the courtier and not of the man, immediately waited on him, and placed all his influence at the french court at his service; but walpole, who had an invincible repugnance to bolingbroke, whilst he availed himself of the advantages offered by bolingbroke, still kept him at a great and stately distance. undeterred by this conduct, however, bolingbroke swallowed his mortification, and continued to keep his eye and his hope on the walpole ministry. unassisted by bolingbroke, the dukedom could not be obtained; but george reconciled madame platen to the match by giving her daughter a portion of ten thousand pounds. horace walpole, at the same time, succeeded in getting schaub recalled, and himself installed in his office of ambassador at paris—a decided victory over carteret; indeed, so decided, that carteret was removed from the secretaryship to the lord-lieutenancy of ireland.

the domestic serenity of the realm was, however, greatly disturbed at this moment by dean swift, who seized on the occasion to avenge himself on the whig ministry for the defeat and punishment of his party, and especially of his particular friends and patrons, oxford and bolingbroke. there had long been a great deficiency of copper coin in ireland. the government undertook to remove this pressing want of so useful a medium, and they set about it in an honest and honourable manner as regarded the quality of the coin. tenders were issued, and various offers received for the coining of farthings and halfpence to the value of a hundred and eight thousand pounds. the proposal of mr. william wood, an iron and copper founder, of wolverhampton, was accepted; but the quality of the coin, both as to weight and fineness, was determined by the advice of sir isaac newton, then master of the mint, and wood was bound under heavy penalties to furnish it according to this stipulation. every care was used by the ministers and the solicitor- and attorney-general to insure the supply of a much better copper coinage than ireland had ever possessed before.

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there were some circumstances, however, which came out that created considerable suspicion and displeasure in ireland. wood had given a bribe to the king's mistress, the duchess of kendal, to procure him the contract, and the government had ordered the coinage without paying the irish privy council and lord-lieutenant the compliment of consulting them on this occasion. swift saw these errors, and seized on them for his own purposes. he did not stop to inquire whether, after all, the proposed coinage would not, in any circumstances, be much better than the present distressing scarcity of copper money, and whether the farthings and halfpence might not turn out as good, though they were contracted for. it was enough for him that there was a cause of discontent which he could fan into a flame against the british government. he threw all his spiteful soul into it, and his "drapier's letters" inflamed the public mind to such a degree that walpole was compelled to cancel the patent.

the tumult in ireland was succeeded by one in scotland. the people of that country, though they were, by the provisions of the act of union, to bear their proportion of the malt tax, had always refused compliance, and in 1713 had issued a violent resolution against it. they had never yet complied with the law, and walpole, seeing the sturdy nature of the opposition, was willing to give up the point quietly. but during the parliamentary session of this year, mr. brodrick proposed that a duty of sixpence on every barrel of ale should be paid in lieu of it. walpole was reluctant to go into the question, but the house was bent on it, and he therefore complied so far as to consent to a duty of threepence per barrel, or half the amount. there were promptly riots in glasgow, and at edinburgh the brewers refused to brew. walpole sent down the earl of islay, the brother of the duke of argyll, and a zealous adherent of his own, to pacify the country. islay behaved with equal prudence and firmness. he found the powerful combination of brewers essaying to make a stand against and then attempting to make terms with him. but he let them know that nothing but unconditional surrender to the laws would be accepted, and they at length held a meeting, where the chairman put the question, "to brew, or not to brew?" the members were to vote seriatim; but neither the man on his right nor the one on his left would venture to begin. in the long pause that ensued, one gray declared that he thought there was nothing for them to do but to return to their trades; that he would not be bound by the majority, but would vote independently, and he voted to brew. the meeting broke up, and that night a number of breweries were set to work, and the next day, at noon, about forty brew-houses were in full action in edinburgh, and ten in leith.

one of the first acts of the parliament, which met on november 12th, was to punish the peculations and abuses of the lord chancellor, parker, earl of macclesfield. the court of chancery, in former ages a sink of corruption, was at this time in its worst condition. the offices of masters were regularly sold, and the masters as regularly took care to recoup themselves by all manner of peculation. the estates of widows and orphans and the money of suitors were unscrupulously plundered. there was a loud outcry against these robberies, and especially against the lord chancellor, for his not only tolerating but partaking in them. he endeavoured to escape the storm of public indignation by resigning in january, but this did not avail him. he was impeached by sir george oxenden in the commons, and tried in the lords, and fined thirty thousand pounds. a motion for disabling him from ever again sitting in parliament or holding any office was lost only by a very few votes. the king struck his name out of the list of privy councillors, and in 1725 sir peter king was made chancellor in his stead, with the title of baron.

bolingbroke, now restored to his estates, though the attainder still deprived him of his seat in the house of lords, endeavoured to create a new species of opposition in parliament. he retained his influence with the duchess of kendal, and cultivated that of the ultra-tories. still more, he soon discovered that william pulteney, the most eloquent man in the house, had grown disgusted with walpole, who could never bear any man of pre-eminent ability near the throne except himself. pulteney had been one of the steadiest friends of the late queen's government, and of the protestant succession. under george he had been made secretary at war. he had adhered to walpole when he was sent to the tower for corruption, and in the great schism of 1717. yet walpole had carefully excluded him from any high post in the cabinet, and had endeavoured to veil his jealousy of him by offering to procure him a peerage, by which he would have removed him from the active sphere of the house of commons. pulteney saw the object, and rejected the specious favour. instead of conferring on pulteney some[53] office worthy of his talents, walpole then put him into that of cofferer of the household. in the state of indignation which this paltry appointment raised in him bolingbroke soon induced pulteney to put himself at the head of a large body of oppositionists, under the title of "patriots." in this character he made some smart attacks on walpole and his heavy drafts on the civil list for his friends, for which he was dismissed, and joined bolingbroke in a bold attempt to write down the minister. between them the celebrated paper the craftsman was planned and established, and they became the bitterest and most persevering assailants of walpole.

bartholomew fair, london, in 1721. (from a painting on a fan.)

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soon after the close of the session in june, the king proceeded to hanover, accompanied, as usual, by townshend and the duchess of kendal. the state of his foreign relations demanded the utmost attention, and very soon underwent the most extraordinary changes. these were precipitated by the duke of bourbon, and were caused by the state of the french succession. the young king might have children, and the only reason why he might not have legitimate issue soon was that he was affianced to the infanta, mary ann, philip's daughter, then a mere child. should he not have children, the young duke of orleans, the son of the late regent, would succeed him. to prevent this contingency, the duke of bourbon, who had a violent hatred of orleans, prevailed on louis to dismiss the infanta, and choose as queen some princess of mature age. he turned his eye for this purpose on the princess anne of england, but george declined the alliance, because the queen of france was bound to become catholic. the princess mary leczinska was next fixed upon, daughter of the exiled stanislaus of poland, and the duke of bourbon then sent the infanta back to spain.

this insult roused the fiery blood of spain. the king and queen were excited to paroxysms of rage. they told mr. william stanhope that, in future, they would put confidence in no prince except his master, nor admit any one else to mediate for them in their negotiations. but george refused to break with france on their account, and ventured to remind philip that he himself stood greatly in need of the alliance with france. blinded, however, by their wounded pride, the king and queen of spain now turned their anger against england. they recalled their plenipotentiaries from the congress of cambray, which was sitting to settle the affairs of europe, and professed their readiness to abandon all their hostility to the emperor of germany, and to concede all that they had so long demanded from him, on condition that he entered into a close alliance with them against france and england. they sent back to france the widow of the late don louis, and also mademoiselle beaujolais, another daughter of the late regent orleans, who had been contracted to don carlos.

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the emperor of germany was delighted at the spanish offer. he had always felt himself aggrieved by the conditions of the quadruple alliance. he was afraid of france, and hated george of england for his german policy. he had, moreover, embroiled himself with both england and holland, by establishing at ostend an east india company, which was declared to be in violation of the treaty of westphalia, and was, at all events, regarded with particular jealousy by both england and holland. this being the case, ripperda, the envoy of spain, a dutch adventurer, who had been the tool of alberoni, completed with ease a treaty with the emperor at vienna, which was signed on the 30th of april, 1725.

by this treaty almost everything was given up which had kept spain and austria in war and conflict for many years, and by themselves and their allies had steeped europe in blood. the king of spain agreed to sanction the ostend company, to yield the long-contested point regarding the exclusive mastership of the golden fleece. he surrendered the right to garrison with spanish troops the fortresses of tuscany. he acknowledged the emperor's right to naples, sicily, the milanese, and netherlands, and guaranteed what was termed the pragmatic sanction; that is, the succession of the hereditary states of austria in the female line. this was a concession of immense importance to the emperor, who had only daughters, and whose claim to the flemish and italian dominions might thus have been contested by philip on the emperor's death. thus, before the emotions of a family quarrel, fell at once all the mighty questions which had rent and desolated europe for a quarter of a century! both the sovereigns engaged to afford mutual support should either be attacked. charles agreed to bring into the field twenty thousand foot and ten thousand horse, philip twenty thousand troops and fifteen ships of war.

the world looked on in astonishment—diplomatists in dread of more secret and momentous compacts, and that not without cause. in the heat of this hastily-formed alliance, it was proposed to marry the young archduchess, the heiress of the austrian states, to one of the infants of spain—a contract, if carried out, which would probably have overthrown all that had been done at such cost of life and wealth for the establishment of the balance of power. this dangerous project was frustrated by other events, but serious engagements were entered into for compelling england to surrender gibraltar and minorca to spain, and for placing the pretender on the throne of great britain.

but during these transactions france and england had not been idle. a new alliance had been signed at hanover between england, france, and prussia, to which soon after were added denmark and holland. the real objects of this treaty were to counterbalance that between spain, austria, and russia, to compel the dissolution of the ostend company, and to prevent the menaced assistance to the pretender. this was the celebrated treaty of hanover.

the confederacy of spain, austria, and sweden against england greatly encouraged the pretender and his party. his agents were active on almost every coast in europe, under the able direction of atterbury. but there were two new allies whom james acquired at this time who did him little service; these were lord north and the duke of wharton. they went over to the continent, and not only openly avowed themselves as friends of the pretender, but renounced protestantism and embraced popery. lord north, however, found himself so little trusted at the pretender's court, notwithstanding his apostasy, that he went to spain, entered its service, and there continued till his death, in 1734. wharton also arrived at madrid, where he fell in with a congenial spirit. this was ripperda, the renegade dutchman, now created a duke and made prime minister of spain. he had lately returned from a mission to vienna, and was as full of foolish boastings as wharton himself. he told the officers of the garrison at barcelona on landing, that the emperor would bring one hundred and fifty thousand men into the field; that prince eugene had engaged for as many more within six months of the commencement of a war; that in that case france would be pillaged on all sides, the king of prussia, whom he was pleased to call the grand grenadier, would be chased from his country in a single campaign, and king george out of both hanover by the emperor, and great britain by the pretender; that so long as he was in authority there should never be peace between france and spain. yet to mr. stanhope he declared that though he had talked both in vienna and spain in favour of the pretender, he was, nevertheless, as sincerely attached to the interests of his britannic majesty as one of his own subjects; that he would prove this on the first opportunity, and that he only talked as he did to please their catholic majesties,[55] and to avoid being suspected as a traitor, and falling into the hands of the inquisition, which he knew kept a sharp eye on him as a recent convert.

the folly of ripperda, however, had ruined his credit with his own sovereigns and the nation even more than with foreign powers. his swaggering and inflated language, in which he imagined that he was enacting alberoni, had destroyed all faith in him. but his final blow came from his own false representations to each other of the preparations for war made by austria and spain. count k?nigseck was most indignant when he discovered the miserable resources of the spanish monarchy in comparison with the pompous descriptions made of them by ripperda at vienna; and the spanish court was equally disappointed by a discovery of the real military status of austria. ripperda was suddenly and ignominiously dismissed on the 14th of may.

a revolution of a similar character took place in france within a month of the fall of ripperda in spain. the duke of bourbon had exhibited a gross incapacity for governing france under the young king. he was replaced by cardinal fleury, whose pacific designs harmonised with those of walpole. thus fleury's accession to power only strengthened the english alliance with france. as for spain, notwithstanding the fall of ripperda, philip continued the same course of policy—clinging firmly to the emperor, and employing palm, the envoy of the emperor in london, through bribery to the duchess of kendal and the king's hanoverian ministers, bothmar and the rest, who were averse from the treaty of hanover, as in their estimation too exclusively calculated for british interests. they even produced a strong feeling of this kind in the mind of george, and they managed to detach the king of prussia from the british alliance. on the other hand, sweden was won over, by british gold and diplomacy, from russian interests. the dutch also, with their usual slowness, came into the hanover treaty. several british fleets were at sea during the summer, watching the different points of possible attack. one under admiral wager sailed to the baltic to overawe the russians, which it did effectually. admiral jennings, with another squadron, having on board some land troops, scoured the coasts of spain, kept the spaniards in constant alarm, and returned home safe before winter. a third fleet, under admiral hosier, was not so fortunate. he was ordered to sail to the west indies, and the shores of the spanish main, to obstruct or capture the galleons; but he was attacked off porto bello by the yellow fever, and lost a great number of his men.

parliament met on the 17th of january, 1727. the royal speech breathed a decidedly warlike tone. the king informed parliament that he had received information, on which he could rely, that a secret article of the treaty between spain and the emperor bound those parties to place the pretender on the throne of great britain, and that the surrender of gibraltar and port mahon was the price to be paid for this service. he asked whether the public would not regard with indignation the imposition of a popish pretender on the nation at such a cost. he added that the king of spain had ordered his ambassador to quit the kingdom, leaving behind him a formal demand for the surrender of the above-named places. there was a great ferment in the house. palm, the emperor's envoy, wrote to his imperial master, advising him to disavow any such secret agreement in the treaty at vienna, and thus allay the excitement in england. but charles, who owed his throne to the victories of marlborough, and whose claims on spain had been prosecuted by britain at serious cost of men and money, performed this disavowal with as much arrogance as stupidity. he was not contented to say that the king of england was mistaken, but he declared that his speech was false. this gross insult to the head of the nation roused the indignation of all parties, even of the opposition; and wyndham, pulteney, and shippen denounced it as loudly as any, and supported a motion of walpole, declaring it an insolent affront. palm was ordered to quit the kingdom immediately.

with spain the prospect of war became every day more imminent. stanhope quitted that country, and the spanish government ordered the seizure of the prince frederick, a ship belonging to the south sea company. twenty thousand men were assembled and sent against gibraltar. all attempts on the great fortress were as useless as former ones had been. the english regarded the attack with even an air of indifference, whilst their guns, sickness, and desertion, were fast cutting off the besiegers. in four months the investing army, being reduced to half its number, drew off with this empty but destructive result.

this and other events at length convinced the stupid and ungrateful emperor that the war was[56] hopeless. russia had as good as deserted him; prussia, so lately won over, was again wavering; sweden and holland had joined the allies; and spain, so far from helping him, could not drive the enemy from a corner of its own territory. he therefore listened to terms of peace which were offered by the allies through the pacific medium of fleury, and the preliminaries were signed at paris by the austrian ambassador on the 31st of may with england, france, and holland. the emperor agreed to suspend for seven years the charter of the ostend company; to confirm all treaties previous to 1725; and to refer any other objects of dispute to a general congress. several articles were introduced regarding spain. the english consented to withdraw the fleet of admiral hosier from blockading porto bello, so that the galleons could return home; the siege of gibraltar was to be discontinued, and the prince frederick to be restored. these articles were signed by the spanish ambassador at paris, but philip himself never ratified them, and england and spain continued in a dubious state of neither peace nor war.

five-shilling piece of the south sea company.

five-guinea piece of george i.

whilst walpole was thus labouring to secure the peace of europe, bolingbroke was as industriously at work to undermine him. he had cultivated his intimacy with the duchess of kendal still more diligently, and by liberal bribes, and more liberal promises if he succeeded in once more regaining power, he had brought her to exert her influence with the king in his favour. this most sordid and rapacious of mistresses, who looked on england only as a country to be managed for her benefit, ventured at length to put into the king's hand a memorial drawn up for her by bolingbroke, demonstrating that the country must be absolutely ruined if walpole continued in office. the stratagem was too palpable. whilst she talked only, her suggestions might pass for her own, but the style of the document must have at once caused the king's suspicion of its true source. he put the paper into walpole's hand. walpole, after interrogating the two turks, who were always in attendance on the king, and on their denying all knowledge of the means by which the missive reached the royal person, went directly to the duchess and charged her with the fact. she did not deny it. walpole advised the king to admit bolingbroke to the audience which he solicited in the memorial, trusting that the king's dislike of him would prevail in the interview. the result appeared to be of that kind; nevertheless, walpole was far from being secure in his own mind. he knew that the mistress would be continually returning to the charge in favour of her friend and paymaster, though she enjoyed a pension from government of seven thousand five hundred pounds; and he even contemplated retiring with a peerage, but was dissuaded from this by the princess of wales and the duke of devonshire. on the other hand, bolingbroke was in the highest expectation of his speedy restoration not only to rank but to office.

the deaths of monarchs, however, were peculiarly fatal to this ambitious man; that of queen anne had precipitated him from power, and rescued his country from the ruin he prepared for it; that of george now came as opportunely to prevent the national calamity of his ministry. george set out for hanover on the 3rd of june, accompanied, as usual, by townshend and the duchess of kendal. just before his departure the youthful horace walpole saw him for the first and last time. when the king was come down to supper, lady walsingham took walpole into the duchess's ante-room, where george and his favourite were alone. walpole knelt and[57] kissed the king's hand. george appeared in his usual health.

in his impatience to reach his beloved hanover, the king had out-travelled his minister and the mistress, and reached delden on the 8th late at night. the next morning he proceeded again so early as four o'clock, and was pressing onward, when in the forenoon he was seized with a fit of apoplexy in his coach, and on arriving at ippenburen he was observed to be quite comatose—his eyes fixed, his hands motionless, and his tongue hanging from his mouth. his attendants wished to remain at ippenburen to procure medical assistance; but this seemed to rouse him, and he managed to articulate, "osnabrück! osnabrück!" the only chance for his life, if there was any, depended on instant surgical aid; they went in obedience to his command, and on arriving at osnabrück he was found quite dead on the 9th of june, 1727.