Chapter III
Bill against Atheism and Immorality postponed..... Session closed..... Alliances between Great Britain, France, and Spain..... Plague at Marseilles..... Debates in the House of Lords about Mr. Law the Projector..... Sentiments of some Lords touching the War with Spain..... Petition of the Quakers..... The Parliament dissolved..... Rumours of a Conspiracy..... The Bishop of Rochester is committed to the Tower..... New Parliament..... Declaration of the Pretender..... Report of the Secret Committee..... Bill of Pains and Penalties against the Bishop of Rochester..... Who is deprived and driven into perpetual Exile..... Proceedings against those concerned in the Lottery at Hamburgh..... Affairs of the Continent..... Clamour in Ireland on account of Wood’s Coinage..... Death of the Duke of Orleans..... An Act for lessening the Public Debts..... Philip King of Spain abdicates the Throne..... Abuses in Chancery..... Trial of the Earl of Macclesfield..... Debates about the Debts of the Civil List..... A Bill in favour of the late Lord Bolingbroke..... Treaty of Alliance between the Courts of Vienna and Madrid..... Treaty of Hanover..... Approved in Parliament..... Riots in Scotland on account of the Malt- tax..... A small Squadron sent to the Baltic..... Admiral Hosier’s Expedition to the West Indies..... Disgrace of the Duke de Ripperda..... Substance of the King’s Speech to Parliament..... Debate in the House of Lords upon the approaching Rupture with the Emperor and Spain..... Memorial of Mr. Palms, the Imperial Resident at London..... Conventions with Sweden and Hesse-Cassel..... Vote of Credit..... Siege of Gibraltar by the Spaniards..... Preliminaries of Peace..... Death and Character of George I. King of Great Britain.
{GEORGE I., 1714-1727}
BILL AGAINST ATHEISM.
During the infatuation produced by this infamous scheme, luxury, vice, and profligacy, increased to a shocking degree of extravagance. The adventurers, intoxicated by their imaginary wealth, pampered themselves with the rarest dainties, and the most expensive wines that could be imported; they purchased the most sumptuous furniture, equipage, and apparel, though without taste or discernment; they indulged their criminal passions to the most scandalous excess; their discourse was the language of pride, insolence, and the most ridiculous ostentation; they affected to scoff at religion and morality, and even to set heaven at defiance. The earl of Nottingham complained in the house of lords of the growth of atheism, profaneness, and immorality; and a bill was brought in for suppressing blasphemy and profaneness. It contained several articles seemingly calculated to restrain the liberty granted to nonconformists by the laws of the last session: for that reason it met with violent opposition. It was supported by the archbishop of Canterbury, the earl of Nottingham, lords Bathurst and Trevor, the bishops of London, Winchester, and Litchfield and Coventry. One of these said, he verily believed the present calamity occasioned by the South-Sea project, was a judgment of God on the blasphemy and profaneness of the nation. Lord Onslow replied, “That noble peer must then be a great sinner, for he has lost considerably by the South-Sea scheme.” The duke of Wharton, who had rendered himself famous by his wit and profligacy, said he was not insensible of the common opinion of the town concerning himself, and gladly seized this opportunity of vindicating his character, by declaring he was far from being a patron of blasphemy, or an enemy to religion. On the other hand, he could not but oppose the bill, because he conceived it to be repugnant to the holy scripture. Then pulling an old family bible from his pocket, he quoted several passages from the epistles of St. Peter and St. Paul; concluding with a desire that the bill might be thrown out. The earl of Peterborough declared, that though he was for a parliamentary king, yet he did not desire to have a parliamentary God, or a parliamentary religion; and, should the house declare for one of this kind, he would go to Rome and endeavour to be chosen a cardinal; for he had rather sit in a conclave than with their lordships upon those terms. After a vehement debate, the bill was postponed to a long day, by a considerable majority. The season was far advanced before the supplies were granted; and at length they were not voted with that cheerfulness and good humour which the majority had hitherto manifested on such occasions. On the sixteenth day of June, the king sent a message to the house of commons, importing, that he had agreed to pay a subsidy to the crown of Sweden, and he hoped they would enable him to make good his engagements. The leaders of the opposition took fire at this intimation. They desired to know whether this subsidy, amounting to seventy-two thousand pounds, was to be paid to Sweden over and above the expense of maintaining a strong squadron in the Baltic? Lord Molesworth observed, that, by our late conduct, we were become the allies of the whole world, and the bubbles of all our allies: for we were obliged to pay them well for their assistance. He affirmed that the treaties which had been made with Sweden at different times, were inconsistent and contradictory; that our late engagements with that crown were contrary to the treaties subsisting with Denmark, and directly opposite to the measures formerly concerted with the czar of Muscovy. He said, that in order to engage the czar to yield what he had gained in the course of the war, the king of Prussia ought to give up Stetin, and the elector of Hanover restore Bremen and Verden; that, after all, England had no business to intermeddle with the affairs of the empire; that we reaped little or no advantage by our trade to the Baltic, but that of procuring naval stores; he owned that hemp was a very necessary commodity, particularly at this juncture; but he insisted that if due encouragement were given to some of our plantations in America, we might be supplied from thence at a much cheaper rate than from Sweden and Norway. Notwithstanding these arguments, the Swedish supply was granted; and, in about three weeks, their complaisance was put to another proof. They were given to understand, by a second message, that the debts of the civil list amounted to five hundred and fifty thousand pounds; and his majesty hoped they would empower him to raise that sum upon the revenue, as he proposed it should be replaced in the civil list, and reimbursed by a deduction from the salaries and wages of all officers, as well as from the pensions and other payments from the crown. A bill was prepared for this purpose, though not without warm opposition; and, at the same time, an act passed for a general pardon. On the tenth day of August, the king closed the session with a speech, in which he expressed his concern for the sufferings of the innocent, and a just indignation against the guilty, with respect to the South-Sea scheme. These professions were judged necessary to clear his own character, which had incurred the suspicion of some people, who whispered that he was not altogether free from connexions with the projectors of that design; that the emperor had, at his desire, refused to deliver up Knight; and that he favoured the directors and their accomplices.
ALLIANCE BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE, AND SPAIN.
Lords Townshend and Carteret were now appointed Secretaries of state; and the earl of Hay was vested with the office of lord privy-seal of Scotland. In June the treaty of peace between Great Britain and Spain was signed at Madrid. The contracting parties engaged to restore mutually all the effects seized and confiscated on both sides. In particular, the king of England promised to restore all the ships of the Spanish fleet which had been taken in the Mediterranean, or the value of them, if they were sold. He likewise promised, in a secret article, that he would no longer interfere in the affairs of Italy: and the king of Spain made an absolute cession of Gibraltar and Port Mahon. At the same time a defensive alliance was concluded between Great Britain, France, and Spain. All remaining difficulties were referred to a congress at Cambray, where they hoped to consolidate a general peace, by determining all differences between the emperor and his catholic majesty. In the meantime the powers of Great Britain, France, and Spain, engaged, by virtue of the present treaty, to grant to the duke of Parma a particular protection for the preservation of his territories and rights, and for the support of his dignity. It was also stipulated that the states-general should be invited to accede to this alliance. The congress at Cambray was opened; but the demands on both sides were so high, that it proved ineffectual. In the meantime, the peace between Russia and Sweden was concluded, on condition that the czar should retain Livonia, Ingria, Estonia, part of Carelia, and of the territory of Wyburg, Riga, Revel, and Nerva, in consideration of his restoring part of Finland, and paying two millions of rix-dollars to the king of Sweden. The personal animosity subsisting between king George and the czar seemed to increase. Bastagif, the Russian resident at London, having presented a memorial that contained some unguarded expressions, was ordered to quit the kingdom in a fortnight. The czar published a declaration at Petersburgh, complaining of this outrage, which, he said, ought naturally to have engaged him to use reprisals; but as he perceived it was done without any regard to the concerns of England, and only in favour of the Hanoverian interest, he was unwilling that the English nation should suffer for a piece of injustice in which they had no share. He, therefore, granted to them all manner of security, and free liberty to trade in all his dominions. To finish this strange tissue of negotiations, king George concluded a treaty with the Moors of Africa, against which the Spaniards loudly exclaimed.
PLAGUE AT MARSEILLES.
In the course of this year pope Clement XI. died; and the princess of Wales was delivered of a prince, baptized by the name of William-Augustus, the late duke of Cumberland. A dreadful plague raging at Marseilles, a proclamation was published, forbidding any person to come into England, from any part of France between the Bay of Biscay and Dunkirk, without certificates of health. Other precautions were taken to guard against contagion. An act of parliament had passed in the preceding session, for the prevention of infection, by building pest-houses, to which all infected persons, and all persons of an infected family, should be conveyed; and by drawing trenches and lines round any city, town, or place infected. The king, in his speech at opening the session of parliament on the nineteenth day of October, intimated the pacification of the north, by the conclusion of the treaty between Muscovy and Sweden. He desired the house of commons to consider of means for easing the duties upon the imported commodities used in the manufactures of the kingdom. He observed, that the nation might be supplied with naval stores from our own colonies in North America; and that their being employed in this useful and advantageous branch of commerce, would divert them from setting up manufactures which directly interfered with those of Great Britain. He expressed a desire that, with respect to the supplies, his people might reap some immediate benefit from the present circumstances of affairs abroad; and he earnestly recommended to their consideration, means for preventing the plague, particularly by providing against the practice of smuggling.
DEBATES IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS ABOUT MR. LAW.
One of the first objects that attracted the attention of the upper house was the case of John Law, the famous projector. The resentment of the people on account of his Mississippi scheme had obliged him to leave France. He retired to Italy; and was said to have visited the pretender at Rome. From thence he repaired to Hanover; and returned to England from the Baltic, in the fleet commanded by sir John Norris. The king favoured him with a private audience; he kept open house, and was visited by great numbers of persons of the first quality. Earl Coningsby represented in the house of lords that he could not but entertain some jealousy of a person who had done so much mischief in a neighbouring kingdom; who, being immensely rich, might do a great deal more hurt here, by tampering with those who were grown desperate, in consequence of being involved in the calamity occasioned by the fatal imitation of his pernicious projects. He observed, that this person was the more dangerous, as he had renounced his natural affection to his country, his allegiance to his lawful sovereign, and his religion, by turning Roman catholic. Lord Carteret replied, that Mr. Law had, many years ago, the misfortune to kill a gentleman in a duel; but, having at last received the benefit of the king’s clemency, and the appeal lodged by the relations of the deceased being taken off, he was come over to plead his majesty’s pardon. He said there was no law to keep an Englishman out of his country; and, as Mr. Law was a subject of Great Britain, it was not even in the king’s power to hinder him from coming over. After some dispute, the subject was dropped, and this great projector pleaded his pardon in the king’s bench according to the usual form.
SENTIMENTS OF SOME LORDS TOUCHING THE WAR.
The ministry had by this time secured such a majority in both houses, as enabled them to carry any point without the least difficulty. Some chiefs of the opposition they had brought over to their measures, and among the rest lord Harcourt, who was created a viscount, and gratified with a pension of four thousand pounds. Nevertheless they could not shut the mouths of the minority, who still preserved the privilege of complaining. Great debates were occasioned by the navy debt, which was increased to one million seven hundred thousand pounds. Some members in both houses affirmed, that such extraordinary expense could not be for the immediate service of Great Britain; but, in all probability, for the preservation of foreign acquisitions. The ministers answered, that near two-thirds of the navy debts were contracted in the late reign; and the parliament acquiesced in this declaration; but in reality the navy debt had been unnecessarily increased, by keeping seamen in pay during the winter, and sending fleets to the Mediterranean and Baltic in order to support the interests of Germany. The duke of Wharton moved that the treaty with Spain might be laid before the house. The earl of Sunderland said it contained a secret article which the king of Spain desired might not be made public until after the treaty of Cambray should be discussed. The question was put, and the duke’s motion rejected. The earl of Strafford asserted, that as the war with Spain had been undertaken without necessity or just provocation, so the peace was concluded without any benefit or advantage; that, contrary to the law of nations, the Spanish fleet had been attacked without any declaration of war; even while a British minister and a secretary of state were treating amicably at Madrid; that the war was neither just nor politic, since it interrupted one of the most valuable branches of the English commerce, at a time when the nation groaned under the pressure of heavy debts, incurred by the former long expensive war. He therefore moved for an address to his majesty, desiring that the instructions given to sir George Byng, now lord Torrington, should be laid before the house. This motion being likewise, upon the question, rejected, a protest was entered. They voted an address, however, to know in what manner the king had disposed of the ships taken from the Spaniards. Disputes arose from the bill to prevent infection. Earl Cowper represented, that the removal of persons to a lazaret, or pest-house, by order of the government, and the drawing lines and trenches round places infected, were powers unknown to the British constitution; inconsistent with the lenity of a free government, such as could never be wisely or usefully put in practice; the more odious, because copied from the arbitrary government of France; and impracticable, except by military compulsion. Those obnoxious clauses were accordingly repealed, though not without great opposition. Indeed, nothing can be more absurd than a constitution that will not admit of just and necessary laws and regulations to prevent the dire consequences of the worst of all calamities. Such restrictions, instead of favouring the lenity of a free government, would be the most cruel imposition that could be laid on a free people, as it would act in diametrical opposition to the great principles of society, which is the preservation of the individual.
PETITION OF THE QUAKERS..
The quakers having presented a petition to the house of commons, praying that a bill might be brought in for omitting in their solemn affirmation the words “In the presence of Almighty God,” the house complied with their request: but the bill gave rise to a warm debate among the peers. Dr. Atterbury, bishop of Rochester, said he did not know why such a distinguishing mark of indulgence should be allowed to a set of people who were hardly christians. He was supported by the archbishop of York, the earl of Strafford, and lord North and Grey. A petition was presented against the bill by the London clergy, who expressed a serious concern lest the minds of good men should be grieved and wounded, and the enemies of Christianity triumph, when they should see such condescension made by a christian legislature to a set of men who renounce the divine institutions of Christ; particularly that by which the faithful are initiated into his religion, and denominated christians. The petition, though presented by the archbishop of York, was branded by the ministry as a seditious libel, and rejected by the majority. Then, upon a motion by the earl of Sunderland, the house resolved that such lords as might enter protestations with reasons, should do it before two o’clock on the next sitting day, and sign them before the house rises. The supplies being granted, and the business of the session despatched as the court was pleased to dictate, on the seventh day of March the parliament was prorogued. In a few days it was dissolved, and another convoked by proclamation. In the election of members for the new parliament, the ministry exerted itself with such success as returned a great majority in the house of commons, extremely well adapted for all the purposes of an administration. *
* The earl of Sunderland died in April, after having incurred a great load of popular odium, from his supposed connexions with the directors of the South-Sea company. He was a minister of abilities, but violent, impetuous, and headstrong. His death was soon followed by that of his father-in-law, the great duke of Marlborough, whose faculties had been for some time greatly impaired. He was interred in Westminster-abbey, with such profusion of funeral pomp, as evinced the pride and ostentation, much more than the taste and concern, of those who directed his obsequies. He was succeeded as master of the ordnance, and colonel of the first regiment of foot guards, by earl Cadogan.
{1722}
In the beginning of May, the king is said to have received from the duke of Orleans full and certain information of a fresh conspiracy formed against his person and government. A camp was immediately formed in Hyde-Park. All military officers were ordered to repair to their respective commands. Lieutenant-general Macartney was despatched to Ireland, to bring over some troops from that kingdom. Some suspected persons were apprehended in Scotland: the states of Holland were desired to have their auxiliary or guarantee troops in readiness to be embarked; and colonel Churchill was sent to the court of France with a private commission. The apprehension raised by this supposed plot affected the public credit. South-Sea stock began to fall, and crowds of people called in their money from the bank. Lord Townshend wrote a letter to the mayor of London, by the king’s command, signifying his majesty’s having received unquestionable advices that several of his subjects had entered into a wicked conspiracy, in concert with traitors abroad, for raising a rebellion in favour of a popish pretender; but that he was firmly assured the authors of it neither were nor would be supported by any foreign power. This letter was immediately answered by an affectionate address from the court of aldermen; and the example of London was followed by many other cities and boroughs. The king had determined to visit Hanover, and actually settled a regency, in which the prince of Wales was not included: but now this intended journey was laid aside; the court was removed to Kensington, and the prince retired to Richmond. The bishop of Rochester having been seized with his papers, was examined before a committee of the council, who committed him to the Tower for high-treason. The earl of Orrery, lord North and Grey, and Mr. Cockran and Mr. Smith from Scotland, and Mr. Christopher Layer, a young gentleman of the Temple, were confined in the same place. Mr. George Kelly, an Irish clergyman, Mr. Robert Cotton of Huntingdonshire, Mr. Bingly, Mr. Fleetwood, Neynoe, an Irish priest, and several persons, were taken into custody; and Mr. Shippen’s house was searched. After bishop Atterbury had remained a fortnight in the Tower, sir Constantine Phipps presented a petition to the court at the Old Bailey, in the name of Mrs. Morris, that prelate’s daughter, praying that, in consideration of the bishop’s ill state of health, he might be either brought to a speedy trial, bailed, or discharged: but this was over-ruled. The churchmen through the whole kingdom were filled with indignation at the confinement of a bishop, which they said was an outrage upon the church of England, and the episcopal order. Far from concealing their sentiments on this subject, the clergy ventured to offer up public prayers for his health, in almost all the churches and chapels of London and Westminster. In the meantime, the king, attended by the prince of Wales, made a summer progress through the western counties.
NEW PARLIAMENT.
The new parliament being assembled on the ninth day of October, his majesty made them acquainted with the nature of the conspiracy. He said the conspirators had, by their emissaries, made the strongest instances for succours from foreign powers, but were disappointed in their expectations. That nevertheless, confiding in their numbers, they had resolved once more, upon their own strength, to attempt the subversion of his government. He said they had provided considerable sums of money, engaged great numbers of officers from abroad, secured large quantities of arms and ammunition; and, had not the plot been timely discovered, the whole nation, and particularly the city of London, would have been involved in blood and confusion. He expatiated upon the mildness and integrity of his own government; and inveighed against the ingratitude, the implacability, and madness of the disaffected, concluding with an assurance that he would steadily adhere to the constitution in church and state, and continue to make the laws of the realm the rule and measure of all his actions. Such addresses were presented by both houses, as the fears and attachment of the majority may be supposed to have dictated on such an occasion. A bill was brought into the house of lords for suspending the habeas-corpus act for a whole year, but they were far from being unanimous in agreeing to such an unusual length of time. By this suspension they, in effect, vested the ministry with a dictatorial power over the liberties of the people.
DECLARATION OF THE PRETENDER.
The opposition in the house of commons was so violent, that Mr. Robert Walpole found it necessary to alarm their apprehensions by a dreadful story of a design to seize the bank and exchequer, and to proclaim the pretender on the Royal Exchange. Their passions being inflamed by this ridiculous artifice, they passed the bill, which immediately received the royal assent. The duke of Norfolk being brought from Bath, was examined before the council, and committed to the Tower on suspicion of high-treason. On the sixteenth day of November, the king sent to the house of peers the original and printed copy of a declaration signed by the pretender. It was dated at Lucca, on the twentieth day of September, in the present year, and appeared to be a proposal addressed to the subjects of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as to all foreign princes and states. In this paper, the chevalier de St. George having mentioned the late violation of the freedom of elections, conspiracies invented to give a colour to new oppressions, infamous informers, and the state of proscription in which he supposed every honest man to be, very gravely proposed, that if king George would relinquish to him the throne of Great Britain, he would, in return, bestow upon him the title of king in his native dominions, and invite all Other states to confirm it; he likewise promised to leave to king George his succession to the British dominions secure, whenever, in due course, his natural right should take place. The lords unanimously resolved that this declaration was a false, insolent, and traitorous libel; and ordered it to be burned at the Royal Exchange. The commons concurred in these resolutions. Both houses joined in an address, expressing their utmost astonishment and indignation at the surprising insolence of the pretender; and assuring his majesty they were determined to support his title to the crown with their lives and fortunes. The commons prepared a bill for raising one hundred thousand pounds upon the real and personal estates of all papists, or persons educated in the popish religion, towards defraying the expenses occasioned by the late rebellion and disorders. This bill, though strenuously opposed by some moderate members as a species of persecution, was sent up to the house of lords; together with another obliging all persons being papists in Scotland, and all persons in Great Britain, refusing or neglecting to take the oaths appointed for the security of the king’s person and government, to register their names and real estates. Both these bills passed through the upper house without amendment, and received the royal sanction.
REPORT OF THE SECRET COMMITTEE.
Mr. Layer being brought to his trial at the king’s bench, on the twenty-first day of November, was convicted for having enlisted men for the pretender’s service, in order to stir up a rebellion, and received sentence of death. He was reprieved for some time, and examined by a committee of the house of commons: but he either could not, or would not, discover the particulars of the conspiracy, so that he suffered death at Tyburn, and his head was fixed up at Temple-bar. Mr. Pulteney, chairman of the committee, reported to the house, that, from the examination of Layer and others, a design had been formed by persons of figure and distinction at home, in conjunction with traitors abroad, for placing the pretender on the throne of these realms: that their first intention was to procure a body of foreign troops to invade the kingdom at the time of the late elections; but that the conspirators being disappointed in this expectation, resolved to make an attempt at the time that it was generally believed the king intended to go to Hanover, by the help of such officers and soldiers as could pass into England unobserved, from abroad, under the command of the late duke of Ormond, who was to have landed in the river with a great quantity of arms provided in Spain for that purpose; at which time the Tower was to have been seized. That this scheme being also defeated by the vigilance of the government, they deferred their enterprise till the breaking up of the camp; and, in the meantime, employed their agents to corrupt and seduce the officers and soldiers of the army: that it appeared from several letters and circumstances, that the late duke of Ormond, the duke of Norfolk, the earl of Orrery, lord North and Grey, and the bishop of Rochester, were concerned in this conspiracy; that their acting agents were Christopher Layer and John Plunket, who travelled together to Rome; Dennis Kelly, George Kelly, and Thomas Carte, nonjuring clergymen; Neynoe the Irish priest, who by this time was drowned in the river Thames in attempting to make his escape from the messenger’s house; Mrs. Spilman, alias Yallop, and John Sample.
BILL OF PAINS AND PENALTIES AGAINST THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER.
This pretended conspiracy, in all likelihood, extended no farther than the first rudiments of a design that was never digested into any regular form; otherwise the persons said to be concerned in it must have been infatuated to a degree of frenzy: for they were charged with having made application to the regent of France, who was well known to be intimately connected with the king of Great Britain. The house of commons, however, resolved, that it was a detestable and horrid conspiracy for raising a rebellion, seizing the Tower and the city of London, laying violent hands upon the persons of his most sacred majesty and the prince of Wales, in order to subvert our present happy establishment in church and state, by placing a popish pretender upon the throne: that it was formed and carried on by persons of figure and distinction, and their agents and instruments, in conjunction with traitors abroad. Bills were brought in and passed, for inflicting pains and penalties against John Plunket and George Kelly, who were by these acts to be kept in close custody during his majesty’s pleasure, in any prison in Great Britain; and that they should not attempt to escape on pain of death, to be inflicted upon them and their assistants. Mr. Yonge made a motion for a bill of the same nature against the bishop of Rochester. This was immediately brought into the house, though sir William Wyndham affirmed that there was no evidence against him but conjectures and hearsay. The bishop wrote a letter to the speaker, importing, that, though conscious of his own innocence, he should decline giving the house any trouble that day, contenting himself with the opportunity of making his defence before another, of which he had the honour to be a member. Counsel being heard for the bill, it was committed to a grand committee on the sixth day of April, when the majority of the tory members quitted the house. It was then moved, that the bishop should be deprived of his office and benefice, and banished the kingdom for ever. Mr. Lawson and Mr. Oglethorpe spoke in his favour.
{1723}
The bill being passed, and sent up to the lords, the bishop was brought to his trial before them on the ninth of May. Himself and his counsel having been heard, the lords proceeded to consider the articles of the bill. When they read it a third time, a motion was made to pass it, and then a long and warm debate ensued. Earl Paulet demonstrated the danger and injustice of swerving in such an extraordinary manner from the fixed rules of evidence. The duke of Wharton having summed up the depositions, and proved the insufficiency of them, concluded with saying, that, let the consequences be what they would, he hoped such a hellish stain would never sully the lustre and glory of that illustrious house, as to condemn a man without the least evidence. Lord Bathurst spoke against the bill with equal strength and eloquence. He said, if such extraordinary proceedings were countenanced, he saw nothing remaining for him and others to do, but to retire to their country houses, and there, if possible, quietly enjoy their estates within their own families, since the least correspondence, the least intercepted letter, might be made criminal. He observed, that cardinal Mazarin boasted, that if he had but two lines of any man’s writing, he could, by means of a few circumstances, attested by witnesses, deprive him of his life at his pleasure. Turning to the bench of bishops, who had been generally unfavourable to Dr. Atterbury, he said he could hardly account for the inveterate hatred and malice some persons bore the learned and ingenuous bishop of Rochester, unless they were intoxicated with the infatuation of some savage Indians, who believe they inherited not only the spoils, but even the abilities of any great enemy whom they had killed in battle. The bill was supported by the duke of Argyle, the earl of Seafield, and Lord Lechmere, which last was answered by earl Cowper. This nobleman observed, that the strongest argument urged in behalf of the bill was necessity; but that, for his part, he saw no necessity that could justify such unprecedented and such dangerous proceedings, as the conspiracy had above twelve months before been happily discovered, and the effects of it prevented: that, besides the intrinsic weight and strength of the government, the hands of those at the helm had been still further fortified by the suspension of the habeas-corpus act, and the additional troops which had been raised. He said the known rules of evidence, as laid down at first and established by the law of the land, were the birth-right of every subject in the nation, and ought to be constantly observed, not only in the inferior courts of judicature, but also in both houses of parliament, till altered by the legislature; that the admitting of the precarious and uncertain evidence of the clerks of the post-office, was a very dangerous precedent. In former times, said he, it was thought very grievous that in capital cases a man should be affected by similitude of hands; but here the case is much worse, since it is allowed that the clerks of the post-office should carry the similitude of hands four months in their minds. He applauded the bishop’s noble deportment in declining to answer before the house of commons, whose proceedings in this unprecedented manner, against a lord of parliament, was such an encroachment on the prerogative of the peerage, that if they submitted to it, by passing the bill, they might be termed the last of British peers, for giving up their ancient privileges. The other party were not so solicitous about answering reasons, as eager to put the question, when the bill passed, and a protest was entered. By this act the bishop was deprived of all offices, benefices, and dignities, and rendered incapable of enjoying any for the future: he was banished the realm, and subjected to the pains of death in case he should return, as were all persons who should correspond with him during his exile. Dr. Friend, the celebrated physician, who was a member of the house of commons, and had exerted himself strenuously in behalf of the bishop, was now taken into custody on suspicion of treasonable practices.
PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THOSE CONCERNED IN THE LOTTERY AT HAMBURGH.
The next object that excited the resentment of the commons was the scheme of a lottery to be drawn at Hamburgh in the king’s German dominions. The house appointed a committee to inquire into this and other lotteries at that time on foot in London. The scheme was published, on pretence of raising a subscription for maintaining a trade between Great Britain and the king’s territories on the Elbe; but it was a mysterious scene of iniquity, which the committee, with all their penetration, could not fully discover. They reported, however, that it was an infamous fraudulent undertaking, whereby many unwary persons had been drawn in, to their great loss: that the manner of carrying it on had been a manifest violation of the laws of the kingdom: that the managers and agents of this lottery had, without any authority for so doing, made use of his majesty’s royal name, thereby to give countenance to the infamous project, and induce his majesty’s subjects to engage or be concerned therein. A bill was brought in to suppress this lottery; and to oblige the managers of it to make restitution of the money they had received from the contributors. At the same time the house resolved, That John lord viscount Barrington had been notoriously guilty of promoting, abetting, and carrying on their fraudulent undertaking; for which offence he should be expelled the house. The court of Vienna having erected an East-India company at Os-tend, upon a scheme formed by one Colebrooke an English merchant, sir Nathaniel Gould represented to the house of commons the great detriment which the English East-India company had already received, and were likely further to sustain, by this Ostend company. The house immediately resolved, That for the subjects of this kingdom to subscribe, or be concerned in encouraging any subscription, to promote an East-India company now erecting in the Austrian Netherlands, was a high crime and misdemeanor; and a law was enacted for preventing British subjects from engaging in that enterprise. By another act, relating to the South-Sea company, the two millions of stock which had been annihilated were revived, added to the capital, and divided among the proprietors. A third law passed, for the more effectual execution of justice in a part of Southwark called the Mint, where a great number of debtors had taken sanctuary, on the supposition that it was a privileged place. On the twenty-seventh day of May the session was closed, with a speech that breathed nothing but panegyric, acknowledgment, and affection to a parliament which had complied with all his majesty’s wishes.
{GEORGE I, 1714--1727}
AFFAIRS OF THE CONTINENT.
His majesty having ennobled the son of Mr. Robert Walpole, in consideration of the father’s services, made a good number of church promotions. He admitted the imprisoned lords and gentlemen to bail; granted a pardon to lord Bolingbroke; and ordered the bishop of Rochester to be conveyed to the continent. Then he himself set out for Hanover, leaving the administration of his kingdoms in the hands of a regency, lord Har-court being one of the justices. The king was attended by the two secretaries, lords Townshend and Carteret, who were counted able negotiators. The affairs of the continent had begun to take a new turn. The interests and connexions of the different princes were become perplexed and embarrassed; and king George resolved to unravel them by dint of negotiation. Understanding that a treaty was on the carpet between the czar and the king of Sweden, favourable to the duke of Holstein’s pretensions to Sleswick, the possession of which the elector of Hanover had guaranteed to Denmark, his majesty began to be in pain for Bremen and Verden. The regent of France and the king of Spain had now compromised all differences; and their reconciliation was cemented by a double marriage between Philip’s sons and the regent’s daughters. The former proposed new treaties to England; but insisted upon the restitution of Gibraltar and Port-Mahon, as well as upon the king’s openly declaring against the Ostend company. His Britannic majesty was apprehensive, that, should the emperor be hard pressed on that subject, he might join the czar and the king of Sweden, and promote their designs in favour of the duke of Holstein. On the other hand, all the Italian powers exclaimed against the treaty of London. The pope had protested against any thing that might have been decided at Cambray to the prejudice of his right. Memorials to the same effect had been presented by the king of Sardinia, the dukes of Tuscany, Parma, and Modena. France and Spain were inclined to support these potentates against the house of Austria. Europe seemed to be on the eve of a new war. King George was entangled in such a variety of treaties and interests, that he knew not well how to extricate himself from the troublesome engagements he had contracted. By declaring for the emperor, he must have countenanced the new establishment at Ostend, which was so prejudicial to his British subjects, and incurred the resentment of France, Spain, and their allies of Italy. In renouncing the interest of the emperor, he would have exposed his German dominions. In vain he exhorted the emperor to relax in his disputes with Spain, and give up the Ostend company, which was so detrimental and disagreeable to his faithful allies; the court of Vienna promised in general to observe the treaties which it had concluded, but declined entering into any particular discussion; so that all his majesty’s endeavours ended in contracting closer connexions with Prussia and Denmark. All those negotiations carried on, all those treaties concluded by king George, with almost every prince and state in Christendom, which succeeded one another so fast, and appear at first view so intricate and unaccountable, were founded upon two simple and natural principles, namely, the desire of ascertaining his acquisitions as elector of Hanover, and his resolution to secure himself against the disaffection of his British subjects, as well as the efforts of the pretender.
CLAMOUR IN IRELAND ON ACCOUNT OF WOOD’S COINAGE.
Great Britain at this period enjoyed profound tranquillity. Ireland was a little ruffled by an incident which seemed to have been misrepresented to the people of that kingdom. William Wood had obtained a patent for furnishing Ireland with copper currency, in which it was deficient. A great clamour was raised against this coin. The parliament of that kingdom, which met in September, resolved, that it would be prejudicial to the revenue, destructive of trade, and of dangerous consequence to the rights of the subject; that the patent had been obtained by misrepresentation; that the halfpence wanted weight; that, even if the terms of the patent had been complied with, there would have been a great loss to the nation; that granting the power of coinage to a private person had ever been highly prejudicial to the kingdom, and would at all times be of dangerous consequence. Addresses from both houses were presented to the king on this subject. The affair was referred to the lords of the privy-council of England. They justified the conduct of the patentee, upon the report of Sir Isaac Newton and other officers of the Mint, who had made an assay and trial of Wood’s halfpence, and found he had complied with the terms of the patent. They declared that this currency exceeded in goodness, fineness, and value of metal, all the copper money which had been coined for Ireland, in the reigns of king Charles II., king James II., king William and queen Mary. The privy-council likewise demonstrated, that his majesty’s predecessors had always exercised the undoubted prerogative of granting patents for copper coinage in Ireland to private persons: that none of these patents had been so beneficial to the kingdom as this granted to William Wood, who had not obtained it in an unprecedented manner, but after a reference to the attorney and solicitor-general, and after Sir Isaac Newton had been consulted in every particular: finally, they proved, by a great number of witnesses, that there was a real want of such money in Ireland. Notwithstanding this decision, the ferment of the Irish nation was industriously kept up by clamour, pamphlets, papers, and lampoons, written by dean Swift and other authors; so that Wood voluntarily reduced his coinage from the value of one hundred thousand to forty thousand pounds. Thus the noise was silenced. The commons of Ireland passed an act for accepting the affirmation of the quakers instead of an oath; and voted three hundred and forty thousand pounds towards discharging the debt of the nation, which amounted to about double that sum.
DEATH OF THE DUKE OF ORLEANS.
In the month of October, England lost a worthy nobleman in the death of earl Cowper, who had twice discharged the office of lord-chancellor, with equal discernment and integrity. He was profoundly skilled in the laws of his country; in his apprehension quick and penetrating; in his judgment clear and determinate. He possessed a manly eloquence; his manner was agreeable, and his deportment graceful. This year was likewise remarkable for the death of the duke of Orleans, regent of France, who, since the decease of Louis XIV., had ruled that nation with the most absolute authority. He was a prince of taste and spirit, endowed with shining talents for empire, which he did not fail to display, even in the midst of effeminate pursuits and idle debauchery. From the infirm constitution of the infant king, he had conceived hopes of ascending the throne, and taken his measures accordingly; but the young monarch’s health began to be established, and all the duke’s schemes were defeated by an apoplexy, of which he died, in the fiftieth year of his age, after having nominated the duke of Bourbon as prime-minister. King George immediately received assurances of the good disposition of the French court, to cultivate and even improve the good understanding so happily established between France and Great Britain. The king arrived in England on the eighteenth day of December; and on the ninth day of January the parliament was assembled. His majesty, in his speech, recommended to the commons the care of the public debts; and he expressed his satisfaction at seeing the sinking fund improved and augmented, so as to put the debt of the nation into a method of being speedily and gradually discharged.
AN ACT FOR LESSENING THE PUBLIC DEBTS.
This was the repeated theory of patriotism, which unhappily for the subjects, was never reduced to practice; not but that a beginning of such a laudable work was made in this very session, by an act for lessening the public debts. This law provided that the annuities at five per cent, charged on the general fund by a former act, except such as had been subscribed into the South-Sea, together with the unsubscribed blanks of the lottery in the year one thousand seven hundred and fourteen, should be paid off at Lady-day of the year next ensuing, with the money arising from the sinking fund. The ministry, however, did not persevere in this path of prudent economy. The commons granted all the supplies that were demanded. They voted ten thousand seamen; and the majority, though not without violent opposition, agreed to maintain four thousand additional troops, which had been raised in the preceding year; so that the establishment of the land-forces amounted to eighteen thousand two hundred and sixty-four. The expense of the year was defrayed by a land-tax and malt-tax. The commons having despatched the supply, took into consideration a grievance arising from protections granted by foreign ministers, peers and members of parliament, under which profligate persons used to screen themselves from the prosecution of their just creditors. The commons resolved, That all protections granted by members of that house should be declared void, and immediately withdrawn. The lords made a declaration to the same purpose, with an exception to menial servants, and those necessarily employed about the estates of peers.*
* The duke of Newcastle was now appointed secretary of state; the duke of Grafton, lord-chamberlain; and lord Carteret, lord-lieutenant of Ireland.--The king instituted a professorship for the modern languages in each university.-- In the month of May died Robert Harley, earl of Oxford and earl Mortimer, who had been a munificent patron of genius and literature; and completed a very valuable collection of manuscripts.--The practice of inoculation for the small-pox was by this time introduced into England from Turkey. Prince Frederic, the two princesses Amelia and Carolina, the duke of Bedford and his sister, with many other persons of distinction, underwent the operation with success.--Dr. Henry Sacheverel died in June, after having bequeathed five hundred pounds to the late bishop of Rochester.
{1724}
On the twenty-fourth day of April, his majesty closed the session in the usual manner, made some alterations in the disposition of the great officers of state, and sent Mr. Horatio Walpole as ambassador-extraordinary to the court of France.
PHILIP, KING OF SPAIN, ABDICATES THE THRONE.
In the beginning of this year, Philip king of Spain, retiring with his queen to the monastery of St. Ildefonso, sent the marquis of Grimaldi, his principal secretary of state, to his son Louis prince of Asturias, with a solemn renunciation of the crown, and a letter of advice in which he exhorted him to cultivate the Blessed Virgin with the warmest devotion, and put himself and his kingdoms under her protection. The renunciation was published through the whole monarchy of Spain; and the council of Castile resolved, That Louis might assume the reins of government without assembling the Cortez. The English minister at Paris was instructed to interpose in behalf of the French protestants, against whom a severe edict had been lately published; but his remonstrances produced no effect. England, in the meantime, was quite barren of such events as deserve a place in history. The government was now firmly established on the neck of opposition; and commerce flourished even under the load of grievous impositions.
ABUSES IN CHANCERY.
The next parliament, which met on the twelfth day of November, seemed to be assembled for no other purpose than that of establishing funds for the expense of the ensuing year; yet the session was distinguished by a remarkable incident--namely, the trial of the earl of Macclesfield, lord-chancellor of England. This nobleman had connived at certain venal practices touching the sale of places, and the money of suitors deposited with the masters of chancery, so as to incur the general reproach of the nation. He found it necessary to resign the great seal in the beginning of January, 1725. On the ninth day of the ensuing month, the king sent a message to the commons, importing, That his majesty having reason to apprehend that the suitors in the court of chancery were in danger of losing a considerable sum of money, from the insufficiency of some of the masters, thought himself obliged, in justice and compassion to the said sufferers, to take the most speedy and proper method the law would allow for inquiring into the state of the master’s accounts, and securing their effects for the benefit of the suitors; and his majesty having had several reports laid before him, in pursuance of the directions he had given, had ordered the reports to be communicated to the house, that they might have as full and as perfect a view of this important affair as the shortness of the time, and the circumstances and nature of the proceedings, would admit.
TRIAL OF THE EARL OF MACCLESFIELD.
These papers being taken into consideration, sir George Oxenden observed, that enormous abuses had crept into the high court of chancery; that the crimes and misdemeanors of the late lord-chancellor were many and various, but might be reduced to the following heads --that he had embezzled the estates and effects of many widows, orphans, and lunatics; that he had raised the offices of masters in chancery to an exorbitant price; trusting in their hands large sums of money belonging to suitors, that they might be enabled to comply with his exorbitant demands, and that in several cases he had made divers irregular orders. He therefore moved, That Thomas earl of Macclesfield should be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors. Mr. Pulteney moved, That this affair might be left to the consideration of a select committee. Sir William Wyndham asserted, That in proceeding by way of impeachment upon reports from above, they would make a dangerous precedent; and seem to give up the most valuable of their privileges, the inquest after state criminals. The question being put, it was carried for the impeachment. The earl was accordingly impeached at the bar of the upper house; a committee was appointed to prepare articles; and a bill was brought in, to indemnify the masters in chancery from the penalties of the law, upon discovering what consideration they had paid for their admission to their respective offices. The trial lasted twenty days; the earl was convicted of fradulent practices; and condemned in a fine of thirty thousand pounds, with imprisonment until that sum should be paid. He was immediately committed to the Tower, where he continued about six weeks; but upon producing the money he was discharged; and sir Peter King, now created baron of Oakham, succeeded him in the office of chancellor.
DEBATES ABOUT THE DEBTS OF THE CIVIL LIST.
His majesty, on the eighth day of April, gave the house of commons to understand, that having been engaged in some extraordinary expenses, he hoped he should be enabled to raise a sum of money, by making use of the funds lately established for the payment of the civil list annuities, in order to discharge the debts contracted in the civil government. Mr. Pulteney, cofferer of the household, moved for an address, That an account should be laid before the house of all monies paid for secret service, pensions, and bounties, from the twenty-fifth day of March, in the year one thousand seven hundred and one, to the twenty-fifth of the same month in the present year. This address being voted, a motion was made to consider the king’s message. Mr. Pulteney urged, that this consideration should be postponed until the house should have examined the papers that were the subject of the address. He expressed his surprise that a debt amounting to above five hundred thousand pounds should be contracted in three years; he said, he did not wonder that some persons should be so eager to make good the deficiencies of the civil-list, since they and their friends enjoyed such a share of that revenue; and he desired to know whether this was all that was due, or whether they should expect another reckoning? This gentleman began to be dissatisfied with the measures of the ministry; and his sarcasms were aimed at Mr. Walpole, who undertook to answer his objections. The commons took the message into consideration, and passed a bill, enabling his majesty to raise a sum, not exceeding one million, by exchequer bills, loans, or otherwise, on the credit of the deductions of sixpence per pound, directed by an act of parliament of the seventh year of his majesty, and of the civil-list revenues, at an interest not exceeding three pounds per cent, till repayment of the principal.
BILL IN FAVOUR OF THE LATE LORD BOLINGBROKE.
On the twentieth day of April, a petition was presented to the house by lord Finch in behalf of Henry St. John, late viscount Bolingbroke, praying that the execution of the law with respect to his forfeitures might be suspended, as a pardon had suspended it with respect to his life. Mr. Walpole signified to the house, by his majesty’s command, that, seven years before, the petitioner had made humble application and submission to the king, with assurances of duty, allegiance, and fidelity; that, from his behaviour since that time, his majesty was convinced of his being a fit object of his mercy, and consented to his petitioning the house. The petition being read, Mr. Walpole declared himself fully satisfied that the petitioner had sufficiently atoned for his past offences; and therefore deserved the favour of that house, so far as to enable him to enjoy the family inheritance that was settled upon him, which he could not do by virtue of his majesty’s pardon, without an act of parliament. Lord Finch moved, That a bill might be brought in for this purpose, and was warmly opposed by Mr. Methuen, comptroller of the household, who represented Bolingbroke as a monster of iniquity. His remonstrance was supported by lord William Paulet and Mr. Onslow; nevertheless, the bill was prepared, passed through both houses, and received the royal assent. An act being passed for disarming the highlanders of Scotland, another for regulating elections within the city of London, a third for reducing the interest of several bank annuities, together with some bills of a private nature, the parliament was prorogued in May, after the king had, in the warmest terms of acknowledgment, expressed his approbation of their conduct. Then he appointed lords-justices to govern the nation in his absence; and set out in June for his German dominions.*
* On the fifth day of December the princess of Wales was delivered of a princess, christened by the name of Lotvisa, and afterwards married to the king of Denmark. She died December the nineteenth, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-one.--Immediately after the session of parliament, the king revived the order of the Bath, thirty-eight in number, including the sovereign.--William Bateman was created baron of Calmore in Ireland, and viscount Bateman; and sir Kobert Walpole, who had been one of the revived knights of the Bath, was now honoured with the order of the Garter.
TREATY OF ALLIANCE.
The tide of political interest on the continent had begun to flow in a new channel, so as to render ineffectual the mounds which his Britannic majesty had raised by his multiplicity of negotiations. Louis, the Spanish monarch, dying soon after his elevation to the throne, his father Philip resumed the crown which he had resigned, and gave himself up implicitly to the conduct of his queen, who was a princess of indefatigable intrigue and insatiate ambition. The infanta, who had been married to Louis XV. of France, was so disagreeable to her husband, that the whole French nation began to be apprehensive of a civil war in consequence of his dying without male issue; he therefore determined, with the advice of his council, to send back the infanta, as the nuptials had not been consummated; and she was attended to Madrid by the marquis de. Monteleone. The queen of Spain resented this insult offered to her daughter; and, in revenge, dismissed mademoiselle de Beaujolois, one of the regent’s daughters, who had been betrothed to her son don Carlos. As the congress at Cambray had proved ineffectual, she offered to adjust her differences with the emperor, under the sole mediation of Great Britain. This was an honour which king George declined. He was averse to any undertaking that might interrupt the harmony subsisting between him and the court of Versailles; and he had taken umbrage at the emperor’s refusing to grant the investiture of Bremen and Verden except upon terms which he did not choose to embrace. The peace between the courts of Vienna and Madrid, which he refused to mediate, was effected by a private negotiation, under the management of the duke de Ripperda, a native of the states-general, who had renounced the protestant religion, and entered into the service of his catholic majesty. By two treaties, signed at Vienna in the month of April, the emperor acknowledged Philip as king of Spain and the Indies, promised that he would not molest him in the possession of those dominions that were secured to him by the treaty of Utrecht. Philip renounced all pretensions to the dominions in Italy and the Netherlands, adjudged to the emperor by the treaty of London; Charles granted the investiture of the dukedoms of Tuscany, Parma, and Placentia, to the eldest son of the queen of Spain, in default of heirs in the present possessors, as masculine fiefs of the empire. Spain became guarantee of the Austrian succession, according to the pragmatic sanction, by which the dominions of that house were settled on the emperors’s heirs general, and declared to be a perpetual, indivisible, and inseparable feoffment of the primogeniture. By the commercial treaty of Vienna, the Austrian subjects were entitled to advantages in trade with Spain, which no other nation enjoyed. His catholic majesty guaranteed the Ostend East India company; and agreed to pay an annual subsidy of four millions of piastres to the emperor. Great sums were remitted to Vienna; the Imperial forces were augmented to a formidable number; and other powers were solicited to engage in this alliance, to which the court of Petersburgh actually acceded.
TREATY OF HANOVER.
The kind of Great Britain took the alarm. The emperor and he had for some time treated each other with manifest coolness. He had reason to fear some attempts upon his German dominions, and projected a defensive treaty with France and Prussia. This alliance, limited to the term of fifteen years, was negotiated and concluded at Hanover in the month of September. It implied a mutual guarantee of the dominions possessed by the contracting parties, their rights and privileges, those of commerce in particular, and an engagement to procure satisfaction to the protestants of Thorn, who had lately been oppressed by the catholics, contrary to the treaty of Oliva. The king having taken these precautions at Hanover, set out on his return for England; embarked at Helvoetsluys in the middle of December; and after having been exposed to the fury of a dreadful storm, was landed with great difficulty at Rye, from whence he proceeded by land to London. The parliament meeting on the twentieth day of the next month, he gave them to understand that the distressed condition of some of their protestant brethren abroad, and the negotiations and engagements contracted by some foreign powers, which seemed to have laid the foundation of new troubles and disturbances in Europe, and to threaten his subjects with the loss of several of the most advantageous branches of their trade, had obliged him to concert with other powers such measures as might give a check to the ambitious views of those who were endeavouring to render themselves formidable, and put a stop to the further progress of such dangerous designs. He told them that the enemies of his government were already very busy, by their instruments and emissaries in those courts whose measures seemed most to favour their purposes, in soliciting and promoting the cause of the pretender. One sees, at first sight, that the interests of Germany dictated the treaty of Hanover; but, in order to secure the approbation of Great Britain, upon which the support of this alliance chiefly depended, it was judged necessary to insert the articles relating to commerce and the protestant religion, as if the engagement had been contracted purely for the advantage and glory of England. In a word, the ministry began now to ring the changes upon a few words that have been repeated ever since, like cabalistical sounds, by which the nation has been enchanted into a very dangerous connexion with the concerns of the continent. They harangued, they insisted upon the machinations of the disaffected, the designs of a popish pretender, the protestant interest, and the balance of power, until these expressions became absolutely terms of ridicule with every person of common sense and reflection. The people were told that the emperor and the king of Spain, exclusive of the public treaties concluded at Vienna, had entered into private engagements, importing that the Imperialists should join the Spaniards in recovering Gibraltar and Port-Mahon by force of arms, in case the king of England should refuse to restore them amicably, according to a solemn promise he had made: that a double marriage should take place between the two infants of Spain, and the two archduchesses of Austria; and that means should be taken to place the pretender on the throne of Great Britain.
When the treaties of Vienna and Hanover fell under consideration of the house of commons, Horatio Walpole, afterwards termed in derision, “the balance master,” opened the debate with a long unanimated oration, giving a detail of the affairs of Europe since the treaty of Utrecht. He enumerated the barrier-treaty, the convention for executing that treaty, the defensive alliance with the emperor, the other with the most christian king and the states-general, another convention, the quadruple alliance, the congress at Cambray, the treaty of Hanover, and that of Vienna. He explained the nature of each engagement. He said the main design of the treaty of commerce concluded between the emperor and the king of Spain, was to countenance and support the East-India company established at Ostend, which interfered so essentially with the East-India companies of England and Holland, and was directly contrary to several solemn treaties still in force. He enlarged upon the danger to which the balance of power would be exposed, should the issue male of this projected marriage between the houses of Austria and Spain ever possess the imperial dignity and the kingdom of Spain together. The reader will take notice that this very man was one of those who exclaimed against that article of the treaty of Utrecht, which prevented the power of those two houses from being immediately united in the person of the emperor. He did not forget to expatiate upon the pretended secret engagement concerning Gibraltar and Minorca, and the king’s pious concern for the distressed protestants of Thorn in Poland. In vain did Mr. Shippen urge that the treaty of Hanover would engage the British nation in a war for the defence of the king’s German dominions, contrary to an express provision made in the act of limitation. These arguments had lost all weight. The opposition was so inconsiderable, that the ministry had no reason to be in pain about any measure they should propose. An address was voted and delivered to his majesty, approving the alliance he had concluded at Hanover, in order to obviate and disappoint the dangerous views and consequences of the treaty of peace betwixt the emperor and the king of Spain: and promising to support his majesty against all insults and attacks that should be made upon any of his territories, though not belonging to the crown of Great Britain. An address of the same kind was presented by the house of lords in a body. A bill was brought in, empowering the commissioners of the treasury to compound with Mr. Richard Hampden, late treasurer of the navy, for a debt he owed to the crown, amounting to eight-and-forty thousand pounds. This deficiency was occasioned by his embarking in the South-Sea scheme. The king recommended his petition; and the house complied with his request, in consideration of his great-grandfather, the famous John Hampden, who made such a noble stand against the arbitrary measures of the first Charles.
{GEORGE I, 1714--1727}
RIOTS IN SCOTLAND.
The malt-tax was found so grievous to Scotland, that the people refused to pay it, and riots were excited in different parts of the kingdom. At Glasgow, the populace, armed with clubs and staves, rifled the house of Daniel Campbell, their representative in parliament, who had voted for the bill, and maltreated some excisemen who attempted to take an account of the malt. General Wade, who commanded the forces in Scotland, had sent two companies of soldiers, under the command of captain Bushel, to prevent or appease a disturbance of this nature. That officer drew up his men in the street, where they were pelted with stones by the multitude, which he endeavoured to disperse by firing among them without shot. This expedient failing, he ordered his men to load their pieces with ball, and at a time when the magistrates were advancing towards him in a body, to assist him with their advice and influence, he commanded the soldiers to fire four different ways, without the sanction of the civil authority. About twenty persons were killed or wounded on this occasion. The people seeing so many victims fall, were exasperated beyond all sense of danger. They began to procure arms, and breathed nothing but defiance and revenge. Bushel thought proper to retreat to the castle of Dumbarton, and was pursued above five miles hy the enraged multitude. General Wade being informed of this transaction, assembled a body of forces; and being accompanied by Duncan Forbes, lord-advocate, took possession of Glasgow. The magistrates were apprehended and conveyed prisoners to Edinburgh, where the lords justiciary having taken cognizance of the affair, declared them innocent; so that they were immediately discharged. Bushel was tried for murder, convicted, and condemned; but instead of undergoing the penalties of the law, he was indulged with a pardon, and promoted in the service. Daniel Campbell having petitioned the house of commons, that he might be indemnified for the damage he had sustained from the rioters, a bill passed in his favour, granting him a certain sum to be raised from an imposition laid upon all the beer and ale brewed in the city of Glasgow. The malt-tax was so sensibly felt in Scotland, that the convention of the royal burghs presented a remonstrance against it, as a grievous burden, which their country could not bear: petitions to the same purpose were delivered to the commons from different shires in that kingdom.
{1726}
On the twenty-fourth day of March, the king sent a message to the house by sir Paul Methuen, desiring an extraordinary supply, that he might be able to augment his maritime force, and concert such other measures as should be necessary in the present conjuncture. A debate ensued, but the majority complied with the demand. Some members in the upper house complained that the message was not sent to both houses of parliament, and this suggestion gave rise to another debate, in which lord Bathurst and others made some melancholy reflections upon the state of insignificance to which the peers of England were reduced. Such remarks, however, were very little minded by the ministry, who had obtained a complete victory over all opposition. The supplies, ordinary and extraordinary, being granted, with every thing else which the court thought proper to ask, and several bills passed for the regulation of civil economy, the king dismissed the parliament on the twenty-fourth day of May.
A SQUADRON SENT TO THE BALTIC.
By this time Peter the czar of Muscovy was dead, and his empress Catharine had succeeded him on the Russian throne. This princess had begun to assemble forces in the neighbourhood of Petersburgh, and to prepare a formidable armament for a naval expedition. King George, concluding that her design was against Sweden, sent a strong squadron into the Baltic, under the command of sir Charles Wager, in order to anticipate her views upon his allies. The English fleet being joined at Copenhagen by a Danish squadron, alarmed the court of Russia, which immediately issued orders for reinforcing the garrisons of Wilbourg, Cronstadt, Revel, and Riga. The English admiral, having had an audience with his Swedish majesty, steered towards Revel, and sent thither a lieutenant, with a letter from the king of Great Britain to the czarina. This was an expostulation, in which his majesty observed, that he and his allies could not fail of being alarmed at her great preparations by sea and land. He complained that measures had been taken at her court in favour of the pretender; that his repeated instances for establishing a lasting friendship with the crown of Russia had been treated with neglect; and he gave her to understand, that he had ordered his admiral to prevent her ships from coming out of her harbours, should she persist in her resolution to execute the designs she had projected. The czarina, in her answer to the king, expressed her surprise that she had not received his majesty’s letter until his fleet was at anchor before Revel, since it would have been more agreeable to the custom established among sovereigns, and to the amity which had so long subsisted between her kingdoms and the crown of Great Britain, to expostulate with her on her armament, and expected her answer before he had proceeded to such an offensive measure. She assured him that nothing was farther from her thoughts than any design to disturb the peace of the North; and with regard to the pretender, it was a frivolous and stale accusation, which had been frequently used as a pretext to cover all the unkind steps lately undertaken against the Russian empire. Sir Charles Wager continued in his station until he received certain intelligence that the Russian galleys were laid up in their winter harbour; then he set sail for the coast of Denmark, from whence he returned to England in the month of November.
ADMIRAL HOSIER’S EXPEDITION.
King George, that he might not seem to convert all his attention to the affairs of the North, had equipped two other squadrons, one of which was destined for the West Indies, under the command of admiral Hosier: the other, conducted by sir John Jennings, having on board a body of land-forces, sailed from St. Helen’s on the twentieth day of July, entered the bay of St. Antonio, then visited Lisbon, from whence he directed his course to the bay of Bulls near Cadiz, and cruised off Cape St. Mary’s, so as to alarm the coast of Spain and fill Madrid with consternation. Yet he committed no act of hostility: but was treated with great civility by the Spanish governor of Cadiz, who supplied him with refreshments. Rear-admiral Hosier, with seven ships of war, had sailed in April for the Spanish West-Indies, with instructions to block up the galleons in the port of that country; or should they presume to come out, to seize and bring them to England. Before his arrival at the Bastimentos, near Porto-Bello, the treasure, consisting of above six millions sterling, had been unloaded and carried back to Panama, in pursuance of an order sent by an advice-boat which had the start of Hosier. This admiral lay inactive on that station, until he became the jest of the Spaniards. He returned to Jamaica, where he found means to reinforce his crews; then he stood over to Carthagena. The Spaniards had by this time seized the English South-Sea ship at La Vera Cruz, together with all the vessels and effects belonging to that company. Hosier in vain demanded restitution: he took some Spanish ships by way of reprisal, and continued cruising in those seas until the greater part of his men perished deplorably by the diseases of that unhealthy climate, and his ships were totally rained by the worms. This brave officer, being restricted by his orders from obeying the dictates of his courage, seeing his best officers and men daily swept off by an outrageous distemper, and his ships exposed to inevitable destruction, is said to have died of a broken heart; while the people of England loudly clamoured against this unfortunate expedition, in which so many lives were thrown away, and so much money expended, without the least advantage to the nation. It seems to have been a mean piratical scheme to rob the court of Spain of its expected treasure, even while a peace subsisted between the two nations. The ministry of Great Britain indeed alleged, that the Spanish king had entered into engagements in favour of the pretender.
DISGRACE OF THE DUKE DE RIPPERDA.
The dukes of Ormond and Wharton,* and the earl Marischal, were certainly at Madrid; and the duke de Ripperda, now prime-minister of Spain, dropped some expressions to the English envoy that implied some such design, which however the court of Madrid positively denied.
* The duke of Wharton having consumed his fortune in riot and extravagance, repaired to the court of Vienna, from whence he proceeded to Rome, and offered his service to the pretender. There he received the order of the garter, and the title of duke of Northumberland. He was sent by the chevalier de St. George with credentials to the court of Madrid, where he abjured the protestant religion, married a lady of the queen of Spain’s bed-chamber, and obtained the rank and appointment of a lieutenant-colonel in the Spanish service.
Ripperda, as a foreigner, fell a sacrifice to the jealousy of the Spanish ministers. He was suddenly dismissed from his employments, with a pension of three thousand pistoles. He forthwith took refuge in the house of Vandermeer the Dutch ambassador, who was unwilling to be troubled with such a guest. He therefore conveyed the duke in his coach to the house of colonel Stanhope, the British minister, whose protection he craved and obtained. Nevertheless, he was dragged from thence by force, and committed prisoner to the castle of Segovia. He afterwards made his escape, and sheltered himself in England from the resentment of his catholic majesty. Colonel Stanhope complained of this violation of the law of nations, which the Spanish ministers endeavoured to excuse. Memorials and letters passed between the two courts, and every thing tended to a rupture. The king of Spain purchased ships of war; began to make preparations for some important undertaking; and assembled an army of twenty thousand men at St. Roch, on pretence of rebuilding the old castle of Gibraltar. Meanwhile the states-general and the king of Sweden acceded to the treaty of Hanover: but the king of Prussia, though his majesty’s son-in-law, was detached from the alliance by the emperor, with whom he contracted new engagements.
SUBSTANCE OF THE KING’S SPEECH.
On the seventeenth day of January, the British parliament was opened with a long elaborate speech, importing that the proceedings and transactions of the emperor and king of Spain, and the secret offensive alliance concluded between them, had laid the foundation of a most exorbitant and formidable power; that they were directly levelled against the most valuable and darling interests and privileges of the British nation, which must either give up Gibraltar to Spain, and acquiesce in the emperor’s usurped exercise of commerce, or resolve vigorously to defend their undoubted rights against those reciprocal engagements, contracted in defiance and violation of all national faith, and the most solemn treaties. He assured them, that one of those secret articles was the placing the pretender on the throne of Great Britain; and another the conquest of Gibraltar and Port Mahon. He affirmed that those combinations extended themselves into Russia; and that the English fleet seasonably prevented such designs as would have opened a way to the invasion of these kingdoms. He exhorted the commons to grant such supplies as should be necessary for the defence of then-country, and for making good his engagements with the allies of Great Britain. He told them that the king of Spain had ordered his minister residing in England to quit the kingdom; and that he had left a memorial little short of a declaration, in which he insisted upon the restitution of Gibraltar. He did not fail to touch the energetic strings which always moved their passions: the balance of power in Europe, the security of the British commerce, the designs of a popish pretender, the present happy establishment, the religion, liberties, and properties of a protestant people. Such addresses of thanks were penned in both houses as the ministers were pleased to dictate; yet not without opposition from a minority, which was far from being formidable, though headed by chiefs of uncommon talents and resolution. The commons voted twenty thousand seamen, besides six-and-twenty thousand three hundred and eighty-three men for the land service; and, to defray the extraordinary expense, a land-tax of four shillings in the pound was granted.
{GEORGE I, 1714--1727}
DEBATE IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS.
The house of lords having taken into consideration the letters and memorials between the ministers of Great Britain, France, and Spain, and the papers relating to the accession of the states-general to the treaty of Hanover, a warm debate ensued. Lord Bathurst took notice that the accession of the states-general to the treaty was upon condition that this their act should be approved and ratified by the king of Great Britain, the most christian king, and the king of Prussia; but that the minister of his Prussian majesty had refused to sign the act of accession, which was therefore of no effect: that if the court of France should, for the same reason, think itself disengaged from the Hanover alliance, Britain alone would be obliged to bear the burden of an expensive war against two of the greatest potentates of Europe. He said he could not see any just reason for a rupture with Spain; that indeed the duke de Ripperda might have dropped some indiscreet expressions; he was known to be a man of violent temper; and he had been solemnly disavowed by his catholic majesty; that, in the memorial left by the Spanish ambassador, he imputed the violent state of affairs between the two crowns to the ministers of England; and mentioned a positive promise made by the king of Great Britain for the restitution of Gibraltar; that methods of accommodation might be tried before the kingdom engaged in a war which must be attended with dangerous consequences; that the nation was loaded with a debt of fifty millions; and, in order to maintain such a war, would be obliged to raise seven millions yearly; an annual sum by which the people would soon be exhausted. He observed, that in some papers laid before the house, mention was made of great sums distributed in divers places, to bring certain measures to bear. He declared, that for his own part, he had touched neither Spanish nor English gold; he was neither a Spaniard nor a Frenchman, but a true Englishman, and so long as he had the honour to sit in that house, he would speak and act for the good of his country. He therefore desired their lordships seriously to consider the matter before them, which was of the last consequence and importance to the whole nation. He said nothing could be gained by the war, should it prove successful: and every thing would be lost should it be unprosperous. He was answered by lord Town-shend, Who affirmed that his majesty had received positive and certain information with respect to the secret article of alliance between the courts of Vienna and Madrid, in favour of the pretender, though the safety of the state did not permit him to lay these advices before the parliament. After much altercation, the majority resolved, that the measures his majesty had thought fit to take were honourable, just, and necessary for preventing the execution of the dangerous engagement entered into in favour of the pretender; for preserving the dominions belonging to the crown of Great Britain by solemn treaties, and particularly those of Gibraltar and the island of Minorca; and for maintaining to his people their most valuable rights and privileges of commerce, and the peace and tranquillity of Europe. Seventeen lords entered a protest against this resolution. Disputes of the same nature arose from the same subject in the lower house. Lord Townshend had affirmed in the house of peers, that no promise of restoring Gibraltar bad been made: sir Kobert Walpole owned such a promise in the house of commons: a motion was made for an address, desiring these engagements might be laid before the house; another member moved for a copy of the memorial presented by Mr. Pointz to the king of Sweden, and for the secret offensive article between the courts of Vienna and Madrid; a third motion was made to address the king for such memorials and representations from the courts of Sweden and Denmark, as induced him, in the course of the preceding year, to send a squadron to the Baltic. In the account of the money granted for the service of the last year, there was an article of one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds charged in general terms as issued out for other engagements and expenses, over and above such as were specified. Mr. Pulteney moved for an address on this subject; but each of these motions was rejected on a division: and the majority concurred in an address of thanks to his majesty, for the great wisdom of his conduct. They expressed the most implicit confidence in his goodness and discretion: they promised to support him in all such further measures as he should find necessary and expedient for preventing a rupture, as well as for consulting the honour and advantage of these kingdoms.
His majesty’s speech gave such umbrage to the court of Vienna, that Mr. Palms, the Imperial resident at London, was ordered to present a warm memorial to the king, and afterwards to publish it to the whole nation. In this bold remonstrance, the king was charged with having declared from the throne, as certain and undoubted facts, several things that were either wrested, misrepresented, or void of all foundation. The memorialist affirmed, that the treaty of Vienna was built on the quadruple alliance; that the treaty of commerce was calculated to promote the mutual and lawful advantages of the subjects of both parties, agreeably to the law of nations; and in no respect prejudicial to the British nation. He declared that there was no offensive alliance concluded between the two crowns; that the supposed article relating to the pretender was an absolute falsehood; that the insinuation with respect to the siege of Gibraltar was equally untrue, his master having made no engagements with the king of Spain, but such as were specified in the treaty communicated to his Britannic majesty. He said, however, the hostilities notoriously committed in the West Indies, and elsewhere, against the king of Spain, in violation of treaties, seemed to justify that prince’s undertaking the siege of Gibraltar. Finally, he demanded, in the name of his Imperial majesty, suitable reparation for the injury his honour had sustained from such calumnious imputations. Both houses of parliament expressed their indignation at the insolence of this memorial, in an address to his majesty; and Mr. Palms was ordered to depart the kingdom. Virulent declarations were presented by the ministers of the emperor and the king of Great Britain to the diet of the empire at Ratisbon; and such personal reflections retorted between these two potentates, that all hope of reconciliation vanished.
CONVENTIONS WITH SWEDEN AND HESSE-CASSEL.
King George, in order to secure himself against the impending storm, entered into more strict engagements with the French king; and agreed to pay fifty thousand pounds for three years to the king of Sweden, in consideration of that prince’s holding in readiness a body of ten thousand troops for the occasions of the alliance. He concluded a fresh treaty with the king of Denmark, who promised to furnish a certain number of auxiliaries, on account of a large subsidy granted by the king of France. The proportions of troops to be sent into the field in case of a rupture were ascertained. His Britannic majesty engaged for four-and-twenty thousand men, and a strong squadron to be sent into the Baltic. He made a convention with the prince of Hesse-Cassel, who undertook to provide eight thousand infantry, and four thousand horse, in consideration of seventy-four thousand pounds, to be paid by Great Britain immediately, and fifty thousand pounds more in case the troops should be required, besides their pay and subsistence. Such was the fruit of all the alliances so industriously planned since the accession of king George to the throne of Great Britain. In the day of his trouble the king of Prussia, who had espoused his daughter, deserted his interest; and the states-general stood aloof. For the security of his German dominions, he had recourse to the king of France, who was a precarious ally; to the kings of Sweden and Denmark, and the principality of Hesse-Cassel: but none of these powers would contribute their assistance without being gratified with exorbitant subsidies, though the danger was common, and the efforts ought to have been equal. Instead of allies, they professed themselves mercenaries. Great Britain paid them for the defence of their own dominions: she, moreover, undertook to maintain a powerful fleet for their safety. Is there any Britain so weak as to think, or so fool-hardy as to affirm, that this was a British quarrel?
{1727}
VOTE OF CREDIT.
For the support of those expensive treaties, Mr. Scroope, secretary of the treasury, moved in the house of commons, that in the malt-tax bill they should insert a clause of appropriation, empowering the king to apply such sums as should be necessary for defraying the expenses and engagements which had been, or should be made before the twenty-fifth day of September, in concerting such measures as he should think most conducive to the security of trade, and restoring the peace of Europe. To little purpose did the members in the opposition urge that this method of asking and granting supplies was unparliamentary; that such a clause would render ineffectual that appropriation of the public money, which the wisdom of all parliaments had thought a necessary security against misapplication, which was the more to be feared as no provision was made to call any person to account for the money that should be disposed of by virtue of this clause; that great sums had already been granted; that such an unlimited power ought never to be given in a free government; that such confidence in the crown might, through the influence of evil ministers, be attended with the most dangerous consequences; that the constitution could not be preserved, but by a strict adherence to those essential parliamentary forms of granting supplies upon estimates, and of appropriating these supplies to services and occasions publicly avowed and judged necessary; that such clauses, if not seasonably checked, would become so frequent as in time to lodge in the crown and in the ministers an absolute and uncontrollable power of raising money upon the people, which by the constitution is, and with safety can only be, lodged in the whole legislature. The motion was carried, the clause added, and the bill passed through the other house without amendment, though not without opposition. Notwithstanding this vote of credit, sir William Yonge moved, that towards the supply granted to the king, the sum of three hundred and seventy thousand pounds should be raised by loans on exchequer bills, to be charged on the surplus of the duties on coal and culm, which was reserved for the parliament’s disposal. Though this motion was vigorously opposed by sir Joseph Jekyll and Mr. Pulteney, as a dangerous deviation from several votes and acts of parliament, by which the exceed-ings of the public funds were appropriated to the discharge of the national debt, or to the increase of the sinking fund, it was carried by the majority.
SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR
On the fifteenth day of May the parliament was prorogued, after the king had acknowledged their zeal, liberality, and despatch; and given them to understand that the siege of Gibraltar was actually begun. The trenches were opened before this fortress on the eleventh day of February, by the Conde de las Torres, at the head of twenty thousand men. The place was well provided for a defence; and the old earl of Portmore, who was governor, embarked with a reinforcement from England, under convoy of a fleet commanded by sir Charles Wager. He arrived at Gibraltar in the beginning of April, where he landed the troops, with a great quantity of ammunition, warlike stores, and four-and-twenty pieces of cannon. At the same time, five hundred men arrived from Minorca; so that the garrison amounted to six thousand, plentifully supplied with fresh provisions from the coast of Barbary, and treated the efforts of the besiegers with great contempt. The states-general, being apprehensive of an attempt upon their barrier in the Netherlands, desired the king would hold in readiness the ten thousand auxiliaries stipulated in the treaty. These were immediately prepared for embarkation, and the forces of England were augmented with thirty new raised companies. Sir John Norris set sail with a powerful fleet for the Baltic, and was joined by a Danish squadron; but the czarina dying on the seventeenth day of May, he had no occasion to commit hostilities, as the Russian armament was laid aside.
PRELIMINARIES OF PEACE.
Meanwhile the powers at variance, though extremely irritated against each other, were all equally averse to a war that might again embroil all Europe. The king of France interposed his mediation, which was conducted by the duke de Richlieu, his ambassador at Vienna. Plans and counterplans of pacification were proposed between the two crowns and the allies. At length all parties agreed to twelve preliminary articles which were signed in May at Paris, by the ministers of the Hanoverian alliance, and afterwards at Vienna, by the Imperial and Spanish ambassadors. These imported, that hostilities should immediately cease; that the charter of the Ostend company should be suspended for seven years; and that a congress should in four months be opened at Aix-la-Chapelle, for adjusting all differences, and consolidating the peace of Europe. This congress was afterwards transferred to Soissons, for the conveniency of the French minister, whose presence was necessary at court. The siege of Gibraltar was raised, after it had lasted four months, during which the Spaniards lost a great number of men by sickness, while the garrison sustained very little damage. The court of Madrid, however, started some new difficulties, and for some time would not consent to the restitution of the South-Sea ship, which had been detained at La Vera-Cruz, in the West Indies; so that sir Charles Wager continued to cruise on the coast of Spain: but these objections were removed in the sequel.
DEATH AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE I.
King George, having appointed a regency, embarked at Greenwich on the third day of June, and landing in Holland on the seventh, set out on his journey to Hanover. He was suddenly seized with a paralytic disorder on the road: he forthwith lost the faculty of speech, became lethargic, and was conveyed in a state of insensibility to Osnabruck. There he expired on Sunday the eleventh day of June, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and in the thirteenth of his reign.--George I. was plain and simple in his person and address, grave and composed in his deportment, though easy, familiar, and facetious in his hours of relaxation. Before he ascended the throne of Great Britain, he had acquired the character of a circumspect general, a just and merciful prince, a wise politician, who perfectly understood, and steadily pursued, his own interest. With these qualities, it cannot be doubted but that he came to England extremely well disposed to govern his new subjects according to the maxims of the British constitution, and the genius of the people; and if ever he seemed to deviate from these principles, we may take it for granted that he was misled by the venal suggestions of a ministry whose power and influence were founded on corruption. [229] [See note 2 I, at the end of this Vol.]
NOTES:
[Footnote 206: Note 2 H, p. 206. The pretender, who resided at Urbino, having received intelligence from Paris, that there was a design formed against his life, pope Clement XL gave directions that all foreigners in that neighbourhood, especially English, should be arrested. The earl of Peterborough arriving at Bologna, with a few armed followers, was seized with all his papers. Being interrogated, he said he came to pass some time in Italy for the benefit of the air. He was close confined for a whole month in fort Urbino, and his attendants were sent to prison. Nothing appearing to justify the suspicion, he was dismissed with uncommon civility. The king demanding reparation for this insult, the pope wrote with his own hand a letter to an ally of Great Britain, declaring that the legate of Bologna had violently and unjustly, without the knowledge of his holiness, caused the earl of Peterborough to be seized upon suspicions which proved to be ill-grounded. The cardinal legate sent a declaration to the English admiral in the Mediterranean, that he had asked forgiveness of his holiness, and now begged pardon of his Britannic majesty, for having unadvisedly arrested a peer of Great Britain on his travels.]
[Footnote 229: Note 2 I, p. 229. George I. married the princess Sophia Dorothy, daughter and heiress of the duke of Zell, by whom he had king George II. and the late queen of Prussia. The king’s body was conveyed to Hanover, and interred among his ancestors. From the death of Charles II. to this period, England had made a considerable figure in every branch of literature. Dr. Atterbury and Dr. Clarke distinguished themselves in divinity--Mr. Whiston wrote in defence of Arianism--John Locke shone forth the great restorer of human reason--the earl of Shaftesbury raised an elegant, though feeble, system of moral philosophy--Berkeley, afterwards bishop of Cloyne in Ireland, surpassed all his contemporaries in subtle and variety of metaphysical arguments, as well as in the art of deduction--lord Bolingbroke’s talents as a metaphysician have been questioned since his posthumous works appeared--great progress was made in mathematics and astronomy, by Wallis, Halley, and Flamstead--the art of medicine owed some valuable improvements to the classical Dr. Friend, and the elegant Dr. Mead. Among the poets of this era, we number John Philips, author of a didactic poem, called Cyder, a performance of real merit; he lived and died in obscurity--William Congreve, celebrated for his comedies, which are not so famous for strength of character and power of humour, as for wit, elegance, and regularity--Vanburgh, who wrote with more nature and fire, though with less art and precision--Steele, who in his comedies successfully engrafted modern characters on the ancient drama--Farquhar, who drew his pictures from fancy rather than from nature, and whose chief merit consists in the agreeable pertness and vivacity of his dialogue--Addison, whose fame as a poet greatly exceeded his genius, which was cold and enervate; though he yielded to none in the character of an essayist, either for style or matter--Swift, whose muse seems to have been mere misanthropy; he was a cynic rather than a poet, and his natural dryness and sarcastic severity would have been unpleasing, had not he qualified them, by adopting the extravagant humour of Lueian and Rabelais--Prior, lively, familiar, and amusing--Rowe, solemn, florid, and declamatory--Pope, the prince of lyric poetry; unrivalled in satire, ethics, and polished versification--the agreeable Parnel--the wild, the witty, and the whimsical Garth--Gay, whose fables may vie with those of La Fontaine, in native humour, ease, and simplicity, and whose genius for pastoral was truly original. Dr. Bentley stood foremost in the list of critics and commentators. Sir Christopher Wren raised some noble monuments of architecture. The most remarkable political writers were Davenant, Hare, Swift, Steele, Addison, Bolingbroke, and Trenchard.]
CONTINUATION
OF
THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
BY TOBIAS SMOLLETT, M.D.
GEORGE II.
{1727}
Chapter I
George II. ascends the Throne of Great Britain..... Characters of the principal Persons concerned in the ministry..... Debates in Parliament concerning the Civil- list..... Changes and Promotions..... New Parliament..... Violent Dispute concerning the National Debt..... Vote of Credit..... A double Marriage between the Houses of Spain and Portugal..... liberality of the Commons..... Debates on the Subsidies of Hesse-Cassel and Wolfenbuttle..... Committee for inspecting the Gaols----Address touching the Spanish Depredations..... A Sum voted to the King on account of Arrears due on the Civil-list Revenue..... Proceedings in the House of Lords..... Wise conduct of the Irish Parliament..... Abdication of the King of Sardinia..... Death of Pope Benedict XIII..... Substance of the King’s Speech to both Houses..... Objections to the Treaty of Seville in the House of Lords..... Opposition in the Lower House to a standing Army..... Bill prohibiting Loans to Foreign Princes or States..... Charter of the East-India Company prolonged..... The Emperor resents the Treaty of Seville..... Seven Indian Chiefs arrive in England..... Revolution at Constantinople..... England infested with Robbers, Assassins, and Incendiaries..... Bill against Pensioners sitting as Members in the House of Commons..... Treaty of Vienna..... Death of the Duke of Parma..... Don Carlos takes Possession of his Territories--France distracted by religious Disputes..... The Ministry violently opposed in Parliament..... Debate on a standing Army..... Account of the Charitable Corporation..... Revival of the Salt-tax..... Mr. Pulteney’s name struck out of the List of Privy-counsellors..... The King sets out for Hanover
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
GEORGE II. ASCENDS THE THRONE.
At the accession of George II. the nation had great reason to wish for an alteration of measures. The public debt, notwithstanding the boasted economy and management of the ministers; notwithstanding the sinking fund, which had been extolled as a growing treasure sacred to the discharge of national incumbrances, was now increased to fifty millions two hundred and sixty-one thousand two hundred and six pounds, nineteen shillings and eightpence three farthings. The kingdom was bewildered in a labyrinth of treaties and conventions, by which it stood engaged in pecuniary subsidies to many powers upon the continent, with whom its real interests could never be connected. The wealth of the nation had been lavished upon those foreign connexions, upon unnecessary wars, and fruitless expeditions. Dangerous encroachments had been made upon the constitution, by the repeal of the act for triennial parliaments; by frequent suspensions of the habeas-corpus act upon frivolous occasions; by repealing clauses in the act of settlement; by votes of credit; by habituating the people to a standing army; and, above all, by establishing a system of corruption, which at all times would secure a majority in parliament. The nature of prerogative, by which the liberties of the nation had formerly been often endangered, was now so well understood, and so securely restrained, that it could no longer be used for the same oppressive purposes; besides, an avowed extension of the prerogative required more ability, courage, and resolution, than the present ministry could exert. They understood their own strength, and had recourse to a more safe and effectual expedient. The vice, luxury, and prostitution of the age, the almost total extinction of sentiment, honour, and public spirit, had prepared the minds of men for slavery and corruption. The means were in the hands of the ministry; the public treasure was at their devotion; they multiplied places and pensions, to increase the number of their dependants; they squandered away the money of the nation without taste, discernment, decency, or remorse; they enlisted an army of the most abandoned emissaries, whom they employed to vindicate the worst measures, in the face of truth, common sense, and common honesty; and they did not fail to stigmatize as Jacobites, and enemies to the government, all those who presumed to question the merit of their administration.
CHARACTERS OF THE PRINCIPAL PERSONS CONCERNED IN THE MINISTRY.
The supreme direction of affairs was not yet engrossed by a single minister. Lord Townshend had the reputation of conducting the external transactions relating to treaties and negotiations. He is said to have understood that province, though he did not always follow the dictates of his own understanding. He possessed an extensive fund of knowledge; and was well acquainted with the functions of his office. The duke of Newcastle, his colleague, was not remarkable for any of these qualifications; he owed his promotion to his uncommon zeal for the illustrious house of Hanover, and to the strength of his interest in parliament, rather than to his judgment, precision, or any other intellectual merit. Lord Carteret, who may be counted an auxiliary, though not immediately concerned in the administration, had distinguished himself in the character of envoy at several courts in Europe. He had attained an intimate knowledge of all the different interests and connexions subsisting among the powers of the continent; and he infinitely surpassed all the ministers in learning and capacity. He was indeed the only man of genius employed under this government. He spoke with ease and propriety, his conceptions were just and lively; his inferences bold; his counsels vigorous and warm. Yet he depreciated his talents, by acting in a subordinate character to those whom he despised; and seemed to look upon the pernicious measures of a bad ministry with silent contempt, rather than with avowed detestation. The interior government of Great Britain was chiefly managed by sir Robert Walpole, a man of extraordinary talents, who had from low beginnings raised himself to the head of the treasury. Having obtained a seat in the lower house, he declared himself one of the most forward partisans of the whig faction. He was endued with a species of eloquence, which, though neither nervous nor elegant, flowed with great facility, and was so plausible on all subjects, that even when he misrepresented the truth, whether from ignorance or design, he seldom failed to persuade that part of his audience for whose hearing his harangue was chiefly intended. He was well acquainted with the nature of the public funds, and understood the whole mystery of stock-jobbing. This knowledge produced a connexion between him and the money-corporations, which served to enhance his importance. He perceived the bulk of mankind were actuated by a sordid thirst of lucre; he had sagacity enough to convert the degeneracy of the times to his own advantage; and on this, and this alone, he founded the whole superstructure of his subsequent administration. In the late reign he had by dint of speaking decisively to every question, by boldly impeaching the conduct of the tory ministers, by his activity in elections, and engaging as a projector in the schemes of the monied interest, become a leading member in the house of commons. By his sufferings under the tory parliament, he attained the rank of a martyr to his party. His interest, his reputation, and his presumption daily increased; he opposed Sunderland as his rival in power, and headed a dangerous defection from the ministry, which evinced the greatness of his influence and authority. He had the glory of being principally concerned in effecting a reconciliation between the late king and the prince of Wales; then he was re-associated in the administration with additional credit; and, from the death of the earls of Sunderland and Stanhope, he had been making long strides towards the office of prime minister. He knew the maxims he had adopted would subject him to the hatred, the ridicule, and reproach of some individuals, who had not yet resigned all sentiments of patriotism, nor all views of opposition; but the number of these was inconsiderable, when compared to that which constituted the body of the community; and he would not suffer the consideration of such antagonists to come in competition with his schemes of power, affluence, and authority. Nevertheless, low as he had humbled anti-ministerial association, it required all his artifice to elude, all his patience and natural phlegm to bear, the powerful arguments that were urged, and the keen satire that was exercised against his measures and management, by a few members in the opposition. Sir William Wyndham possessed all the energy of elocution; Mr. Shippen was calm, intrepid, shrewd and sarcastic; Mr. Pulteney inherited from nature a good understanding, which he had studiously cultivated. He was one of the most learned members in the house of commons, extremely well qualified to judge of literary productions; well read in history and politics; deeply skilled in the British constitution, the detail of government, and the nature of the finances. He spoke with freedom, fluency, and uncommon warmth of declamation, which was said to be the effect of personal animosity to sir Robert Walpole, with whom he had been formerly connected.
DEBATES IN PARLIAMENT CONCERNING THE CIVIL LIST.
An express arriving on the fourteenth day of June, with an account of the king’s death, his late majesty king George II. repaired from Richmond, where he received this intelligence, to Leicester-house; and the members of the privy-council being assembled, were sworn a-new. The king declared his firm purpose to preserve the constitution in church and state, and to cultivate those alliances which his father had made with foreign princes. At the same time, he took and subscribed the oath for the security of the church of Scotland, as required by the act of union. Next day he was proclaimed king of Great Britain. The parliament assembled in pursuance of the act made for that purpose; but was immediately prorogued by commission to the twenty-seventh day of the month. All the great officers of state continued in their places; sir Robert Walpole kept possession of the treasury; and the system of politics which the late king had established underwent no sort of alteration. The king, in his speech to both houses at the opening of the session, professed a fixed resolution to merit the love and affection of his people, by maintaining them in the full enjoyment of their religious and civil rights. He promised to lessen the public expense as soon as the circumstances of affairs would permit: he observed to the commons, that the grant of the greatest part of the civil list revenues was now determined; and that it would be necessary for them to make a new provision for the support of him and his family: lastly, he recommended it to both houses to dispatch the business that should be necessarily brought before them, as the season of the year and the circumstances of time required their presence in the country. Addresses of condolence and congratulation being drawn up and presented, the commons, in a committee of the whole house, took into consideration a motion for a supply to his majesty. Sir Robert Walpole having observed, that the annual sum of seven hundred thousand pounds granted to, and settled on, the late king, had fallen short every year; and that his present majesty’s expenses were likely to increase, by reason of the largeness of his family, moved, that the entire revenues of the civil list, which produced about eight hundred thousand pounds per annum, should be settled on the king during his life. Mr. Shippen opposed this motion, as inconsistent with the trust reposed in them as representatives of the people, who ought to be very frugal in exercising the right of giving away the public money. He said, the sum of seven hundred thousand pounds was not obtained for his late majesty without a long and solemn debate; and every member who contended for it at that time, allowed it to be an ample royal revenue: that, although his majesty’s family should be enlarged, a circumstance which had been urged as one reason for the motion, he presumed the appointments of prince Frederick would not be much inferior to those settled on his present majesty when he was prince of Wales: besides, it was to be hoped that many personal, many particular expenses in the late reign, especially those for frequent journeys to Hanover, would be discontinued, and entirely cease. He observed, that the civil list branches in the queen’s reign did not often exceed the sum of five hundred and fifty thousand pounds; nevertheless, she called upon her parliament but once, in a reign of thirteen years, to pay the debts contracted in her civil government; and these were occasioned by the unparalleled instances of her piety and generosity. She gave the first-fruits and tenths, arising to nineteen thousand pounds a-year, as an augmentation of the maintenance of the poor clergy. She bestowed five thousand pounds per annum, out of the post-office, on the duke of Marlborough: she suffered seven hundred pounds to be charged weekly on the same office, for the service of the public: she expended several hundred thousand pounds in building the castle of Blenheim: she allowed four thousand pounds annually to prince Charles of Denmark: she sustained great loses by the tin contract: she supported the poor Palatines: she exhibited many other proofs of royal bounty: and immediately before her death she had formed a plan of retrenchment, which would have reduced her yearly expenses to four hundred and fifty-nine thousand nine hundred and forty-one pounds. He affirmed, that a million a-year would not be sufficient to carry on the exorbitant expenses, so often and so justly complained of in the house of commons: that over and above the yearly allowance of seven hundred thousand pounds, many occasional taxes, many excessive sums were raised, and all sunk in the bottomless gulf of secret service. Two hundred and fifty thousand pounds were raised in defiance of the ancient parliamentary methods, to secure the kingdom from a Swedish invasion; then the two insurance offices were erected, and paid near three hundred thousand pounds for their charters: our enmity with Sweden being changed into an alliance, a subsidy of seventy-two thousand pounds was implicitly granted, to fulfil some secret engagements with that crown: four and twenty thousand pounds were given for burning merchant ships arrived from infected places, though the goods which ought to have been destroyed for the public safety were afterwards privately sold: a sum of five hundred thousand pounds was demanded, and granted, for paying the debts of the civil list; and his majesty declared by message, he was resolved to retrench his expenses for the future. Notwithstanding this resolution, in less than four years, a new demand of the like sum was made and granted to discharge new incumbrances: the Spanish ships of war which admiral Byng took in the Mediterranean, were sold for a considerable sum of money: one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds were granted in the last session, to be secretly disposed of for the public utility; and there was still a debt in the civil government, amounting to above six hundred thousand pounds. He took notice, that this amazing extravagance happened under the conduct of persons pretending to surpass all their predecessors in the knowledge and care of the public revenue: that as none of these sums had been accounted for, they were, in all probability, employed in services not fit to be owned. He said, he heartily wished that Time, the great discoverer of hidden truths and concealed iniquities, might produce a list of all such as had been perverted from their public duty by private pensions: who had been the hired slaves and the corrupt instruments of a profuse and vain-glorious administration. He proposed, that instead of granting an addition to the civil list, they should restrict that revenue to a certain sum, by concluding the question with these words, “in like manner as they were granted and continued to his late majesty, so as to make up the clear yearly sum of seven hundred thousand pounds.” To these particulars, which were indeed unanswerable, no reply was made. Even this mark of decency was laid aside, as idle and superfluous. The house agreed to the motion; and a bill was brought in for the better support of his majesty’s household. The commons having received a message from the king, desiring they would make further provision for the queen his consort, resolved, That in case she should survive his majesty, the sum of one hundred thousand pounds should be settled upon her for life, charged upon the revenues of the civil list, together with his majesty’s palace of Somerset-house, and Richmond Old-park. A bill was formed on this resolution, which, as well as the other, passed both bouses, and received the royal assent on the seventeenth day of July, when the king, in a speech to both houses, expressed his satisfaction with their conduct, and congratulated them on the wealth and glory of the nation, by which they had acquired such weight in holding the balance of Europe. Then the lord-chancellor prorogued the parliament to the twenty-ninth day of August; but on the seventh day of that month a proclamation was issued for dissolving this, and convoking another.
In the interim some changes were made in different departments of civil economy. Lord viscount Torrington was placed at the head of the admiralty; the earl of Westmoreland was appointed first lord commissioner of trade and plantations. Philip Dormer Stanhope, earl of Chesterfield, a nobleman remarkable for his wit, eloquence, and polished manners, was nominated ambassador to the Hague. The privy-council being dissolved, another was appointed of the members then present. The duke of Devonshire was dignified with the place of president; and the duke of St. Alban’s was appointed master of the horse. On the eleventh day of October, the coronation of the king and queen was performed at Westminster-Abbey, with the usual solemnity.* By this time the courts of France and Spain were perfectly reconciled; all Europe was freed from the calamities of war; and the peace of Great Britain suffered no interruption, except from some transient tumults among the tinners of Cornwall, who, being provoked by a scarcity of corn, rose in arms and plundered the granaries of that county.
* King George II. ascended the throne in the forty-fourth year of his age. On the second day of September, 1705, he espoused the princess Wilhelmina Charlotte Caroline, daughter to John Frederick, marquis of Brandenburgh Anspach, by whom he had two sons, Frederick Louis, prince of Wales, born at Hanover on the thirty-first day of January, 1707, and William Augustus, born at London on the fifteenth day of April, 1721. She had likewise borne four princesses, namely, Anne, Amelia, Caroline, Mary, and was afterwards delivered of Louisa, married in the sequel to the king of Denmark.
NEW PARLIAMENT.
The elections in England and Scotland for the parliament having succeeded on the new system, according to the wishes of the ministry, the two houses met on the twenty-third day of January, when the commons unanimously chose for their speaker Arthur Onslow, esquire, knight of the shire for Surrey, a gentleman of extensive knowledge, worth, and probity; grave, eloquent, venerable, and every way qualified for the discharge of that honourable and important office. The king, in his speech to this new parliament, declared, that by the last advices from abroad, he had reason to hope the difficulties which had hitherto retarded the execution of the preliminaries, and the opening of the congress, would soon be entirely removed; in the meantime, he represented the absolute necessity of continuing the preparation which had hitherto secured the nation, and prevented an open rupture in Europe. He promised, that his first care should be to reduce, from time to time, the expense of the public, as often, and as soon as the interest and safety of his people would permit such reduction. He expressed an earnest desire of seeing the foundation laid of an effectual scheme for the increase and encouragement of seamen in general, that they might be invited rather than compelled into the service of their country. Finally, he recommended unanimity, zeal, and despatch of the public business. Those speeches, penned by the minister, were composed with a view to soothe the minds of the people into an immediate concurrence with the measures of the government; but without any intention of performing those promises of economy, reformation, and national advantage. The two houses seemed to vie with each other in expressions of applause and affection to his majesty. The lords, in their address, hailed him as the best of kings, and the true father of his country. The commons expressed the warmest sense of gratitude for the blessings they enjoyed in his reign, though it was not yet eight months old. They approved of all his transactions; they promised to support him in all his undertakings; and declared they would cheerfully grant whatever supplies should be wanted for the public service. Having considered the estimates which were laid before them by order of his majesty, they voted two-and-twenty thousand nine hundred and fifty-five men for guards and garrisons; and fifteen thousand seamen for the service of the ensuing year. They granted two hundred and thirty thousand nine hundred and twenty-three pounds, for the maintenance of twelve thousand Hessian troops; a subsidy of fifty thousand pounds to the king of Sweden; and half that sum to the duke of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle.* The expense of the year amounted to four millions, raised by a land-tax of three shillings in the pound, a malt-tax, and by borrowing of the bank one million seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds, for which annuities to the amount of seventy thousand pounds, to be raised by duties on coals imported into the city of London, were granted to that corporation.
* Nothing could be a greater burlesque upon the negotiation than this treaty of alliance concluded with the petty duke of Wolfenbuttle, who very gravely guarantees to his Britannic majesty the possession of his three kingdoms, and obliges himself to supply his majesty with five thousand men, in consideration of an annual subsidy of five-and- twenty thousand pounds for four years.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
VIOLENT DISPUTE CONCERNING THE NATIONAL DEBT.
All these sums, however, were not granted without question. The number of land-forces occasioned a debate; and the Hessian auxiliaries were not allowed without dispute and opposition. When they deliberated on the loan of the bank, Mr. Pulteney observed, that the shifting of funds was but perpetuating taxes, and putting off the evil day; that notwithstanding the great merit which some persons had built on the sinking fund, it appeared that the national debt had been increased since the setting up of that pompous project. Some warm altercation passed between him and sir Robert Walpole on this subject. The lord-mayor, aldermen, and common-council of London, presented a petition, setting forth, that the duties already laid upon coals and culm imported into London, affected the trade of that city only; that the inequality of the burden was a great discouragement to their manufactures, and a hardship upon all the trading inhabitants. The petition was rejected, and the tax imposed. The house having addressed the king for a particular and distinct account of the distribution of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, charged to have been issued for securing the trade and navigation of the kingdom, and preserving and restoring the peace of Europe, he declined granting their request, but signified in general that part of the money had been issued and disbursed by his late majesty, and the remainder by himself, for carrying on the same necessary services, which required the greatest secrecy. Such a message in the reign of King William would have raised a dangerous flame in the house of commons.
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Mr. W. Pulteney inveighed against such a vague and general way of accounting for the public money, as tending to render parliaments altogether insignificant, to cover embezzlements, and to screen corrupt and rapacious ministers. The commons having taken into consideration the state of the national debt, examined the accounts, and interrogated the proper officers. A motion was made by a court member, that it appeared the monies already issued and applied towards discharging the national debts, together with a sum to be issued at Lady-day, amounted to six millions six hundred and forty-eight thousand seven hundred and sixty two pounds, five shillings and one penny one farthing. In vain did the leaders of the opposition expose the fallacious tendency of this motion. In vain did they demonstrate the fraudulent artifice used in drawing up the accounts; the motion was carried; and several resolutions were taken on the state of the national debts. In the particular account of these debts, upon which the house resolved to form a representation to his majesty, an article of three hundred thousand pounds relating to the duty upon wrought plate was totally omitted. This extraordinary omission being discovered, gave rise to a very warm debate, and to very severe reflection against those who superintended the public accounts. This error being rectified, a committee appointed for the purpose drew up the representation, containing a particular detail of the national debts discharged and incurred since the twenty-fifth day of December, in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixteen, with a state of the sinking fund and of the public credit. The draft being approved by the house, was presented to the king-, who received it graciously. He took this opportunity of saying, that the provision made for gradually discharging the national debts was now become so certain and considerable, that nothing but some unforeseen event could alter or diminish it; a circumstance that afforded the fairest prospect of seeing the old debts discharged without any necessity of incurring new incumbrances.
This answer, fraught with many other expressions of fatherly tenderness for his people, paved the way for a message to the house, demanding a vote of credit to fulfil certain engagements entered into, and concerted, with the advice and concurrence of the last parliament, for securing the trade and navigation of the kingdom, and for restoring and preserving the peace of Europe. Though a debate ensued upon this message, the majority resolved that an address should be presented to his majesty, declaring the duty and fidelity of the commons, their entire confidence in his royal care and goodness, and their readiness to enable his majesty to fulfil his engagements, A vote of credit passed accordingly. During this session, the peers were chiefly employed in examining copies of several treaties and alliances which the king submitted to their perusal; they likewise prepared a bill for amending the statute of limitation, which, however, did not pass into a law; they considered the state of the national debt, a subject fruitful of debates; they passed the mutiny bill, and those that were sent up from the commons touching the supplies; together with an act obliging ships arriving from infected places, to perform quarantine; and some others of a more private nature. These bills having received the royal assent, the king closed the session on the twenty-eighth day of May, when he thanked the commons for the effectual supplies they had raised, and, in particular, for having empowered him to borrow five hundred thousand pounds for the discharge of wages due to the seamen employed in the navy.
A DOUBLE MARRIAGE BETWEEN THE HOUSES OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.
England was at this period quite barren of remarkable events. The king’s uncle, Ernest Augustus, prince of Brunswick, duke of York, and bishop of Osnabruck, died on the third day of August, and was succeeded in the bishopric by the elector Cologn, according to the pactum by which Osnabruck is alternately possessed by the house of Brunswick and that elector. In the beginning of December, his majesty’s eldest son prince Frederick arrived in England from Hanover, where he had hitherto resided, was introduced into the privy-council, and created prince of Wales. Signior Como, resident from the duke of Parma, was ordered to quit the kingdom, because his master paid to the pretender the honours due to the king of Great Britain. The congress opened at Soissons, for determining all disputes among the powers of Europe, proved ineffectual. Such difficulties occurred in settling and reconciling so many different pretensions and interests, that the contracting parties in the alliance of Hanover proposed a provisional treaty, concerning which no definitive answer was given as yet by the courts of Vienna and Madrid. The fate of Europe, therefore, continued in suspense; the English fleet lay inactive and rotting in the West-Indies; the sailors perished miserably, without daring to avenge their country’s wrongs; while the Spanish cruisers committed depredations with impunity on the commerce of Great Britain. The court of Spain, at this juncture, seemed cold and indifferent with regard to a pacification with England. It had renewed a good understanding with France, and now strengthened its interests by a double alliance of marriage with the royal family of Portugal. The infanta of this house was betrothed to the prince of Asturias; while the Spanish infanta, formerly affianced to the French king, was now matched with the prince of Brazil, eldest son of his Portuguese majesty. In the month of January, the two courts met in a wooden house built over the little river Coya, that separates the two kingdoms, and there the princesses were exchanged.
LIBERALITY OF THE COMMONS.
The parliament of Great Britain meeting according to their last prorogation on the twenty-first day of January, the king in his speech communicated the nature of the negotiation at the congress. Pie demanded such supplies as might enable him to act vigorously in concert with his allies, provided his endeavours to establish an advantageous peace should miscarry; and he hinted that the dilatory conduct of the courts of Vienna and Madrid proceeded in a great measure from the hopes that were given of creating discontents and divisions among the subjects of Great Britain. This suggestion was a ministerial artifice to inflame the zeal and resentment of the nation, and intimidate the members in the opposition. Accordingly the hint was pursued, and in the addresses from both houses, that could not fail of being agreeable, considering the manner in which they were dictated, particular notice was taken of this article; both peers and commons expressed their detestation and abhorrence of those, who, by such base and unnatural artifices, suggested the means of distressing their country, and clamoured at the inconveniencies which they themselves had occasioned. In these addresses, likewise, the parliament congratulated his majesty on the arrival of the prince of Wales in his British dominions; and the commons sent a particular compliment to his royal highness on that occasion, The estimates having been examined in the usual form, the house voted fifteen thousand seamen for the ensuing year; but the motion for continuing the same number of land-forces which had been allowed in the preceding year, was not carried without dispute. All the arguments against a standing army in time of peace, as inconsistent with the British constitution, and dangerous to the liberties of the people, were repeated with great vivacity by Mr. Shippen and Mr. W. Pulteney. These, however, were answered, and represented as absurd, by Mr. Horatio Walpole and Mr. D., two staunch adherents of the minister. The first had, in despite of nature, been employed in different negotiations; he was blunt, awkward, and slovenly, an orator without eloquence, an ambassador without dignity, and a plenipotentiary without address. The other had natural parts and acquired knowledge; spoke with confidence; and in dispute was vain, sarcastic, petulant, and verbose.
DEBATES ON THE SUBSIDIES OF HESSE-CASSEL AND WOLFENBUTTLE.
The subsidies to Sweden, Hesse-Cassel, and Wolfen-buttle were continued, notwithstanding the remonstrances of sir Joseph Jekyll, Mr. Lutwyche, and Mr. Pulteney; which last observed, that as the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and the duke of Brunswick-Wolfen-buttle, usually maintained a certain number of troops in their pay, it was but reasonable that Great Britain should defray no more than the expense of the additional forces which those powers had raised, in consequence of their conventions with the king of England. Sir Robert Walpole perceiving that this remark made an impression on the house, thought it necessary to vindicate his measure. He expatiated upon the wisdom of the late king, in concluding the Hanover alliance. He affirmed, that the convention with Hesse-Cassel had prevented a war in the empire, for which the court of Vienna had made great preparations; that the emperor had not only augmented his own forces by the help of Spanish subsidies, but also retained the troops of three electors; and if he had not been overawed by the Hessians, would certainly have rejected the preliminaries, and all other advances towards a pacification; that, therefore, they ought not to grudge an expense which had already proved so beneficial to the tranquillity of Europe. Sir Joseph Jekyll replied, that whatever gloss might be put upon such measures, they were repugnant to the maxims by which England in former times had steered and squared its conduct with relation to its interest abroad; that the navy was the natural strength of Great Britain--its best defence and security; but if, in order to avoid a war, they should be so free-hearted as to buy and maintain the forces of foreign princes, they were never like to see an end of such extravagant expenses. This gentleman, who exercised the office of master of the rolls, had approved himself a zealous defender of whig principles, was an able lawyer, a sensible speaker, and a conscientious patriot. The supplies were raised by a continuation of the land-tax, the duties upon malt, cyder, and perry, an additional imposition on unmalted corn used in distilling, and by sale of annuities to the bank not exceeding fifty thousand pounds per annum.
COMMITTEE FOR INSPECTING THE GAOLS.
Petitions were delivered to the house of commons from the merchants of London, Liverpool, and Bristol, complaining of the interruptions they had suffered in their trade for several years, by the depredations of the Spaniards in the West Indies. These being considered, the house ordered the lords of the admiralty to produce the other memorials of the same kind which they had received, that they might be laid before the congress at Soissons: then they addressed his majesty for copies of all the letters and instructions which had been sent to admiral Hosier, and those who succeeded him in the command of the West-India squadron. Mr. Oglethorpe, having been informed of shocking cruelties and oppressions exercised by gaolers upon their prisoners, moved for an examination into these practices, and was chosen chairman of a committee appointed to inquire into the state of the gaols in the kingdom. They began with the Fleet-prison, which they visited in a body; there they found sir William Rich, baronet, loaded with irons, by order of Bambridge the warden, to whom he had given some slight cause of offence. They made a discovery of many inhuman barbarities which had been committed by that ruffian, and detected the most iniquitous scenes of fraud, villany, and extortion. When the report was made by the committee, the house unanimously resolved, That Thomas Bambridge, acting warden of the Fleet, had wilfully permitted several debtors to escape; had been guilty of the most notorious breaches of trust, great extortions, and the highest crimes and misdemeanors in the execution of his office; that he had arbitrarily and unlawfully loaded with irons, put into dungeons, and destroyed prisoners for debt, under his charge, treating them in the most barbarous and cruel manner, in high violation and contempt of the laws of the kingdom. John Huggins, esquire, who had been warden of the Fleet-prison, was subjected to a resolution of the same nature. The house presented an address to the king, desiring he would direct his attorney-general forthwith to prosecute these persons and their accomplices, who were committed prisoners to Newgate. A bill was brought in, disabling Bambridge to execute the office of warden; another for the better regulating the prison of the Fleet, and for more effectually preventing and punishing arbitrary and illegal practices of the warden of the said prison.*
* It afterwards appeared that some of the members of this inquest were actuated by other motives than those they professed; and the committee was suffered to sink into oblivion.
ADDRESS TOUCHING THE SPANISH DEPREDATIONS.
Other merchants complained by petition of the losses they sustained by the Spaniards. The house, in a grand committee, deliberated on this subject, inquired into the particulars, examined evidence, and drew up an address to the king, desiring his majesty would be graciously pleased to use his utmost endeavours for preventing such depredations; for procuring just and reasonable satisfaction; and for securing to his subjects the free exercise of commerce and navigation to and from the British colonies in America. The king assured them he would use his best endeavours to answer the desires and expectations of his people, in an affair of so much importance; and they, in another address, thanked him for his gracious answer. They did not, however, receive such a satisfactory reply to a former address, touching the sum of sixty thousand pounds that had been stated in the public account, without specification of the particular uses to which it was applied. His majesty gave them to understand that the money had been issued and disbursed for secret services; and that a distinct and particular account of the distribution of it could not be given without a manifest prejudice to the public. A bill was prepared for the more effectual preventing bribery and corruption in elections for members of parliament; and it passed through the house without opposition; but their attention was chiefly employed upon the Spanish depredations, which had raised a great clamour through the whole kingdom, and excited very warm disputes in parliament; for they were generally reputed the fruits of negligence, incapacity, or want of vigour in the ministers.. The commons having made further progress in the inquiry, and received fresh petitions from the merchants, passed some resolutions, in which the Spaniards were accused of having violated the treaties subsisting between the two crowns; and with having treated inhumanly the masters and crews of ships belonging to Great Britain. They justified the instructions given to admiral Hosier, to seize and detain the flota and galleons of Spain, until justice and satisfaction should be rendered to his majesty and his allies; nay, even declared that such seizure would have been just, prudent, and necessary, tending to prevent an open rupture, and to preserve the peace and tranquillity of Europe. They again addressed the king to use his endeavours to procure satisfaction; and he promised to comply with their request.
Mr. Scroope, member for Bristol, moved for an address entreating his majesty to order an account of the produce of the civil list revenues for one year to be laid before the house. The address was presented, the account produced, and the house, in a grand committee, took this affair into consideration. The courtiers affirmed that they fell short of the eight hundred thousand pounds settled upon his majesty; and Mr. Scroope proposed that the sum of one hundred and fifteen thousand pounds should be granted to the king, on account of those deficiencies and arrears. The motion was vigorously opposed by Mr. Pulteney and other members. They expressed their surprise that it should be made so late in the session, when no further demand of money could be reasonably expected; and they said it was the more extraordinary, because it appeared in the former session, from the examination of the accounts then before the house, that the revenues of the civil list produced yearly a much greater sum than that for which they were given. Mr. Pulteney moved, that the accounts and papers should be referred to the examination of a select committee, properly empowered to investigate the truth. The ministers opposed this motion; and the question being put, it passed in the negative. The majority voted the sum demanded; and in a bill for settling the price of imported corn, they inserted the resolution for granting to his majesty the sum of one hundred and fifteen thousand pounds, on account of arrears due on the civil list revenues.
PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS.
The house of lords having prepared a bill for the more effectual punishment of forgery, which was passed into a law, and ordered the judges to bring in another on the report of a committee appointed to consider the case of imprisoned debtors, at length deliberated upon the state of the nation, particularly the positive demand made by the court of Spain for the restitution of Gibraltar, grounded in a letter written by the late king to his catholic majesty. From a copy of the letter laid before the house, it plainly appeared that king George I. had consented to this restitution. A motion being made for a resolution, importing, that for the honour of his majesty, and the preservation and security of the trade and commerce of the kingdom, effectual care should be taken in the present treaty that the king of Spain should renounce all claim and pretension to Gibraltar and Minorca, in plain and strong terms; a debate ensued, and the question being put, passed in the negative, though not without a protest. Then the majority resolved, that the house did entirely rely upon his majesty, that he would, for maintaining the honour and securing the trade of this kingdom, take effectual care in the present treaty to preserve his undoubted right to Gibraltar and Minorca. When the house examined the papers relating to the Spanish depreciations, many severe reflections were uttered against the conduct of the ministry; and a motion was made, to resolve that Hosier’s expedition was an unreasonable burden on the nation; but this too was rejected, and occasioned another protest. Nor did the clause in the corn-bill, for granting one hundred and fifteen thousand pounds to his majesty, pass through the house of peers without warm opposition. Divers lords alleged, that, instead of a deficiency in the civil list revenues, there was a considerable surplus; that this was a new grant, and a new burden on the people; that the nation was loaded, not to complete but to augment the surplus designed for the civil list; and this at a time when the public debts were increased; when the taxes were heavily felt in all parts of the country; when the foreign trade of Britain was encumbered and diminished; when her manufactures were decayed, her poor multiplied, and she was surrounded by many other national calamities. They observed, that if the produce of the civil list revenue should not amount to the yearly sum of eight hundred thousand pounds, the deficiency must be made good to his majesty by the public; whereas no provision was made, by which, if the produce of these revenues should exceed that sum, the surplus could accrue to the benefit of the public; that, by this precedent, not only real deficiencies were to be made good, but also supplies were to be given for arrears standing out at the end of the year, which should come on before the supplies could be granted, though the supply given to make good arrears in one year would certainly increase the surplusages in another; that the revenues of the civil list were variable in their own nature, and even when there is a deficiency in the produce, there might be arrears in the receipt; these might be easily increased by the management of designing ministers, by private directions to receivers, and by artful methods of stating accounts. All these arguments, and other objections equally strong and plausible, against this unconsionable and unparliamentary motion, served only to evince the triumph of the ministry over shame and sentiment, their contempt of public spirit, and their defiance of the national reproach.*
* The peers that distinguished themselves in the opposition were Beaufort, Strafford, Craven, Foley, Litchfield, Scarsdale, Grower, Mountjoy, Plymouth, Bathurst, Northampton, Coventry, Oxford and Mortimer, Willoughby de Broke, Boyle, and Warrington.
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WISE CONDUCT OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT.
The king had, on the twenty-fourth day of March, given the royal assent to five bills; and on the fourteenth day of May the same sanction was given to thirty other bills, including an act enabling the queen to be regent in the kingdom during his majesty’s absence without taking the oaths, and another for the relief of insolvent debtors. At the same time two-and-thirty private bills were passed: then the king expressed his approbation of the parliament, signified his intention to visit his German dominions, and ordered the chancellor to prorogue both houses. His majesty having appointed the queen regent of the realm, set out for Hanover on the seventeenth day of May, in order to remove a petty misunderstanding which had happened between that electorate and the court of Berlin. Some Hanoverian subjects had been pressed or decoyed into the service of Prussia; and the regents of Hanover had seized certain Prussian officers by way of reprisal. The whole united kingdom of Great Britain at this juncture enjoyed uninterrupted repose; and commerce continued to increase, in spite of all restriction and discouragement. The people of Ireland found themselves happy under the government of lord Carteret; and their parliament, assembling in the month of September, approved themselves the fathers of their country. They established funds for the discharge of their national debt, and for maintaining the expense of government: they enacted wholesome laws for the encouragement of manufactures, trade, and agriculture; and they formed wise regulations in different branches of civil economy. Some time after this session, which was conducted with so much harmony and patriotism, lord Carteret returned to England; and was succeeded by the duke of Dorset in the government of that kingdom. In the month of May, Charles lord Townshend resigned the seals, which were given to colonel Stanhope, now created earl of Harrington; so that sir Robert Walpole now reigned without a rival. James earl of Waldegrave was appointed ambassador to the court of France, which about that time was filled with joy by the birth of a dauphin.
ABDICATION OF THE KING OF SARDINIA.
In the month of September, Victor Amadeus king of Sardinia, resigned his crown to his son Charles Emanuel, prince of Piedmont. The father reserved to himself a revenue of one hundred thousand pistoles per annum, retired to the castle of Chamberry, and espoused the countess dowager of St. Sebastian, who declined the title of queen, but assumed that of marchioness of Somerive. Though the congress at Soissons proved abortive, conferences were begun at Seville between the plenipotentiaries of England, France, and Spain; and a treaty was concluded on the ninth day of November, not only without the concurrence of the emperor, but even contrary to his right, as established by the quadruple alliance. On this subject he communicated an imperial commissorial decree to the states of the empire assembled in the diet at Eatisbon, which was answered by the French minister de Chavigny. In October, Peter II., czar of Muscovy and grandson of Peter I., died in the fifteenth year of his age, at Muscow, and was succeeded on the Russian throne by the princess Anne Ivanowna, second daughter of John Alexowitz, elder brother of the first Peter, and widow of Frederic William duke of Courland. The following month was rendered remarkable by the death of pope Benedict XIII., in whose room cardinal Laurence Corsini was raised to the pontificate, and assumed the name of Clement XII.
SUBSTANCE OF THE KING’S SPEECH.
The British parliament assembling on the thirteenth day of January, the king gave them to understand that the peace of Europe was now established by the treaty of Seville, built upon the foundation of former treaties, and tending to render more effectual what the contracting powers in the quadruple alliance were before engaged to see performed. He assured them that all former conventions made with Spain in favour of the British trade and navigation were renewed and confirmed: that the free uninterrupted exercise of their commerce was restored: that the court of Spain had agreed to an ample restitution and reparation for unlawful seizures and depredations: that all rights, privileges, and possessions, belonging to him and his allies, were solemnly re-established, confirmed, and guaranteed; and that not one concession was made to the prejudice of his subjects. He told them he had given orders for reducing a great number of his land-forces, and for laying up great part of the fleet; and observed ‘that there would be a considerable saving in the expense of the current year. After both houses had presented their addresses of thanks and congratulation to the king on the peace of Seville, the lords took that treaty into consideration, and it did not pass inquiry without severe animadversion.
OBJECTIONS TO THE TREATY OF SEVILLE.
The lords in the opposition excepted to the article by which the merchants of Great Britain were obliged to make proof of their losses at the court of Spain. They said this stipulation was a hardship upon British subjects, and dishonourable to the nation: that few would care to undertake such a troublesome and expensive journey, especially as they had reason to apprehend their claims would be counterbalanced by the Spaniards; and after all they would have no more than the slender comfort of hoping to obtain that redress by commissaries which they had not been able to procure by plenipotentiaries. They thought it very extraordinary that Great Britain should be bound to ratify and guarantee whatever agreement should be made between the king of Spain and the duke of Parma and Tuscany, concerning the garrisons once established in their countries; that the English should be obliged to assist in effectuating the introduction of six thousand Spanish troops into the towns of Tuscany and Parma, without any specification of the methods to be taken, or the charge to be incurred, in giving that assistance: that they should guarantee for ever, not only to Don Carlos, but even to all his successors, the possession of the estates of Tuscany and Parma; a stipulation which in all probability would involve Great Britain in endless quarrels and disputes about a country with which they had no concern. They affirmed that the treaty of Seville, instead of confirming other treaties, was contradictory to the quadruple alliance, particularly in the article of introducing Spanish troops into Tuscany and Parma in the room of neutral forces stipulated by the former alliance; and agreeing that they should there remain until Don Carlos and his successors should be secure and exempt from all events. They complained that these alterations from the tenor of the quadruple alliance, were made without the concurrence of the emperor, and even without inviting him to accede; an affront which might alienate his friendship from England, and hazard the loss of such an ancient, powerful, and faithful ally; they declared that throughout the whole treaty there seemed to be an artful omission of any express stipulation to secure Great Britain in her right to Gibraltar and Minorca. Such was the substance of the objections made to the peace: then lord Bathurst moved for a resolution that the agreement on the treaty of Seville, to secure the succession of Don Carlos to the duchies of Tuscany, Parma, and Placentia, with Spanish troops, was a manifest violation of the fifth article of the quadruple alliance, tending to involve the nation in a dangerous and expensive war, and to destroy the balance of power in Europe. The question was put, and the motion rejected. Such too was the fate of two other motions, to resolve that Great Britain’s right of sovereignty, dominion, possession, and claim to Gibraltar and Minorca, were not ascertained by the treaty of Seville: and that the stipulations in that treaty for repairing the losses of the British merchants were insufficient and precarious. The majority, far from stigmatizing this transaction, resolved, that the treaty did contain all necessary stipulations for maintaining and securing the honour, dignity, rights, and possessions of the crown: that all due care was taken therein for the support of the trade of the king dom, and for repairing the losses sustained by the British merchants. On these resolutions an address of approbation was founded: but when a motion was made for an address to his majesty, that he would order to be laid before the house a list of all pensions payable to the crown, it was immediately resolved in the negative. Divers contests of the same kind arose upon the mutiny-bill, the pension-bill, and the maintenance of twelve thousand Hessians; but the ministry bore down all opposition, though their triumphs were clogged with vigorous protests, which did not fail to make impression upon the body of the people.
OPPOSITION TO A STANDING ARMY.
Nor was the success of the court interest in the house of commons altogether pure, and free from exception and dispute. When the charge of the land forces fell under the consideration of the commons, and Mr. Henry Pelham, secretary at war, moved that the number of effective men for the land service of the ensuing year should be fixed at seventeen thousand seven hundred and nine, Mr. Pulteney insisted upon its being reduced to twelve thousand. Mr. Shippen affirmed that Mr. Pelham’s motion was a flat negative to the address for which he voted on the first day of the session, as it plainly implied a distrust of the validity of the late treaty, which he then assured the house would immediately produce all the blessings of an absolute peace, and deliver the kingdom from the apprehensions and inconveniences of a war. He said the motion tended directly towards the establishment of an army in Great Britain, which he hoped would never be so far germanized as tamely to submit to a military government. He observed, that the nation could have no occasion for all the troops that were demanded, considering the glorious scene of affairs which was now opened to all Europe. “They are not necessary,” said he, “to awe Spain into a firm adherence to its own treaty; they are not necessary to force the emperor into an immediate accession, nor are they in any sort necessary for the safety of his majesty’s person and government. Force and violence are the resort of usurpers and tyrants only; because they are, with good reason, distrustful of the people whom they oppress; and because they have no other security for the continuance of their unlawful and unnatural dominion, than what depends entirely on the strength of their armies.” The motion, however, was carried in the affirmative.
BILL PROHIBITING LOANS.
Another warm debate was excited by a bill which the courtiers brought in, to prevent any subjects of Great Britain from advancing sums of money to foreign princes or states, without having obtained license from his majesty, under his privy-seal or some great authority. The minister pretended that this law was proposed to disable the emperor, who wanted to borrow a great sum of the English merchants, from raising and maintaining troops to disturb the tranquillity of Europe. The bill contained a clause empowering the king to prohibit by proclamation all such loans of money, jewels, or bullion: the attorney-general was empowered to compel, by English bill, in the court of exchequer, the effectual discovery, on oath, of any such loans; and it was enacted, that in default of an answer to any such bill, the court should decree a limited sum against the person refusing to answer. Mr. Daniel Pulteney, a gentleman of uncommon talents and ability, and particularly acquainted with every branch of commerce, argued strenuously against this bill, as a restraint upon trade that would render Holland the market of Europe, and the mart of money to the nations of the continent. He said that by this general prohibition, extending to all princes, states, or potentates, the English were totally disabled from assisting their best allies: that, among others, the king of Portugal frequently borrowed money of the English merchants residing within his dominions; that while the licensing power remained in the crown, the licenses would be issued through the hands of the minister, who by this new trade might gain twenty, thirty, or forty thousand a-year: that the bill would render the exchequer a court of inquisition: and that whilst it restrained our merchants from assisting the princes and powers of Europe, it permitted our stockjobbers to trade in their funds without interruption. Other arguments of equal weight were enforced by Mr. Barnard, a merchant of London, who perfectly understood trade in all its branches, spoke with judgment and precision, and upon all occasions steadily adhered to the interest and liberties of his country. After having explained his reasons, he declared he should never consent to a bill which he deemed a violation of our fundamental laws, a breach of our dearest liberties, and a very terrible hardship on mankind. Sir William Wyndham distinguished himself on the same side of the question: the bill was vindicated by sir Robert Walpole, Mr. Pelham, and sir Philip Yorke, attorney-general; and being supported by the whole weight of ministerial influence, not only passed through the house, but was afterwards enacted into a law.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
CHARTER OF THE EAST-INDIA COMPANY.
The subsidies were continued to the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel and the duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttle, in spite of all that could be urged against these extraneous incumbrances; and the supply for the ensuing year was granted according to the estimates which the ministry thought proper to produce, amounting to about two millions two hundred and eighty thousand pounds. It must be owned, however, for the credit of the session, that the house appropriated one million of the surplusses arising from the sinking fund towards the discharge of the national debt; and by another act extinguished the duties upon salt, by which expedient the subject was eased of a heavy burden, not only in being freed from the duty, but also from a considerable charge of salaries given to a great number of officers employed to collect this imposition. They likewise encouraged the colony of Carolina with an act, allowing the planters and traders of that province to export rice directly to any part of Europe southward of Cape Finisterre; and they permitted salt from Europe to be imported into the colony of New York. The term of the exclusive trade granted by act of parliament to the East India company drawing towards a period, many considerable merchants and others made application forbeing incorporated and vested with the privilege of trading to those countries, proposing to lay that branch of trade open to all the subjects of Great Britain on certain conditions. In consideration of an act of parliament for this purpose, they offered to advance three millions two hundred thousand pounds, for redeeming the fund and trade of the present East India company. This proposal was rejected; and the exclusive privilege vested in the company was, by act of parliament, protracted to the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-six, upon the following conditions: That they should pay into the exchequer the sum of two hundred thousand pounds towards the supplies of the year, without interest or addition to their capital stock: that the annuity or yearly fund of one hundred and sixty thousand pounds, payable to them from the public, should be reduced to one hundred and twenty-eight thousand: that after the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-six, their right to the exclusive trade should be liable to be taken away by parliament, on three years’ notice, and repayment of their capital.
{1730}
THE EMPEROR RESENTS THE TREATY OF SEVILLE.
On the fifteenth day of May, the king went to the house of peers and closed the session. In his speech he expressed his joy, that, notwithstanding all the clamours which were raised, the parliament had approved of those matters which, he said, could not fail to inspire all mankind with a just detestation of those incendiaries, who, by scandalous libels, laboured to alienate the affections of his people; to fill their minds with groundless jealousies and unjust complaints, in dishonour of him and his government, and in defiance of the sense of both houses of parliament.*
* In the course of the session the commons passed a bill for making more effectual the laws in being, for disabling persons from being chosen members of parliament who enjoyed any pension during pleasure, or for any number of years, or any offices holden in trust for them, by obliging all persons hereafter to be chosen to serve the commons in parliament to take the oath therein mentioned. In all probability this bill would not have made its way through the house of commons, had not the minister been well assured it would stick with the upper house, where it was rejected at the second reading, though not without violent opposition.
The emperor was so much incensed at the insult offered him in the treaty of Seville, with respect to the garrisons of Tuscany and Parma, that he prohibited the subjects of Great Britain from trading in his dominions: he began to make preparations for war, and actually detached bodies of troops to Italy with such despatch as had been very seldom exerted by the house of Austria. Yet the article of which he complained was not so much a real injury as an affront put upon the head of the empire; for eventual succession to those Italian duchies had been secured to the infant, Don Carlos, by the quadruple alliance; and all that the emperor required was, that this prince should receive the investiture of them as fiefs of the empire.
ARRIVAL OF SEVEN INDIAN CHIEFS.
In Great Britain, this year was not distinguished by any transaction of great moment. Seven chiefs of the Cherokee nations of Indians in America were brought to England by sir Alexander Cumin. Being introduced to the king, they laid their crown and regalia at his feet; and by an authentic deed acknowledged themselves subjects to his dominion, in the name of all their compatriots, who had vested them with full powers for this purpose. They were amazed and confounded at the riches and magnificence of the British court: they compared the king and queen to the sun and moon, the princes to the stars of heaven, and themselves to nothing. They gave their assent in the most solemn manner to articles of friendship and commerce, proposed by the lords commissioners of trade and plantations; and being loaded with presents of necessaries, arms, and ammunition, were re-conveyed to their own country, which borders on the province of South Carolina. In the month of September, a surprising revolution was effected at Constantinople, without bloodshed or confusion. A few mean Janissaries displayed a flag in the streets, exclaiming that all true Mussulmen ought to follow them, and assist in reforming the government. They soon increased to the number of one hundred thousand, marched to the seraglio, and demanded the grand vizier, the kiaja, and captain pacha. These unhappy ministers were immediately strangled. Their bodies being delivered to the insurgents, were dragged through the streets, and afterwards thrown to the dogs to be devoured. Not content with this sacrifice, the revolters deposed the grand seignor Achmet, who was confined to the same prison from whence they brought his nephew Machmut, and raised this last to the throne, after he had lived seven-and-twenty years in confinement.
England was at this period, infested with robbers, assassins, and incendiaries, the natural consequences of degeneracy, corruption, and the want of police in the interior government of the kingdom. This defect, in a great measure, arose from an absurd notion, that laws necessary to prevent those acts of cruelty, violence, and rapine, would be incompatible with the liberty of British subjects; a notion that confounds all distinctions between liberty and brutal licentiousness, as if that freedom was desirable, in the enjoyment of which people find no security for their lives or effects. The peculiar depravity of the times was visible even in the conduct of those who preyed upon the commonwealth. Thieves and robbers were now become more desperate and savage than ever they had appeared since mankind was civilized. In the exercise of their rapine, they wounded, maimed, and even murdered the unhappy sufferers, through a wantonness of barbarity. They circulated letters demanding sums of money from certain individuals, on pain of reducing their houses to ashes, and their families to ruin; and even set fire to the house of a rich merchant in Bristol, who had refused to comply with their demand. The same species of villany was practised in different parts of the kingdom; so that the government was obliged to interpose, and offer a considerable reward for discovering the ruffians concerned in such execrable designs.
BILL AGAINST PENSIONERS SITTING AS MEMBERS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
In the speech with which the king opened the session of parliament on the twenty-first day of January, he told them that the present critical conjuncture seemed in a very particular manner to deserve their attention; that as the transactions then depending in the several courts of Europe were upon the point of being determined, the great event of peace or war might be very much affected by their first resolutions, which were expected by different powers with great impatience. He said, the continuance of that zeal and vigour with which they had hitherto supported him and his engagements, must at this time be of the greatest weight and importance, both with regard to his allies, and to those who might be disposed before the season of action to prevent, by an accommodation, the fatal consequences of a general rupture. The former scene was repeated. Both houses, in their addresses, promised to support his majesty in all his engagements; yet the members of the opposition demonstrated the absurdity of promising to fulfil engagements before they could possibly know whether or not they were for the service of Great Britain. Another bill was brought into the house of commons, to prevent pensioners from sitting as members of parliament; and, after a third reading, carried up to the lords for their concurrence. When the supply fell under consideration, the debates were renewed upon the subsidies to the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel and the duke of Wolfenbuttle, which, however, were continued; and every article was granted according to the estimates given in for the expense of the ensuing year. Two petitions being presented to the commons, representing the delays of justice occasioned by the use of the Latin tongue in proceedings at law, a bill was brought in for changing this practice, and enacting, that all those processes and pleadings should be entered in the English language. Though one would imagine that very little could be advanced against such a regulation the bill met with warm opposition, on pretence that it would render useless the ancient records which were written in that language, and introduce confusion and delay of justice, by altering the established form and method of pleading: in spite of these objections it passed through both houses, and obtained the royal assent. A great number of merchants from different parts of the kingdom having repeated their complaints of depredations and cruelties committed by the Spaniards in the West Indies, their petitions were referred to the consideration of a grand committee. Their complaints upon examination appeared to be well founded. The house presented an address to the king, desiring his majesty would be graciously pleased to continue his endeavours to prevent such depredations for the future; to procure full satisfaction for the damages already sustained; and to secure to the British subjects the full and uninterrupted exercise of their trade and navigation to and from the British colonies in America. The hill against pensions produced a warm debate in the house of lords, where it was violently opposed by the dukes of Newcastle and Argyle; the earl of Hay, and Dr. Sherlock, bishop of Bangor. This prelate, in a remarkable speech, represented it as a scheme to enlarge the power of the house of commons, and to break the balance between the powers essential to the constitution, so as sooner or later to prove the ruin of the whole. The great barrier provided against bribery and corruption by this bill, consisted in an oath to be imposed on all members of the lower house, by which they must have solemnly sworn and declared, that they had not directly, nor indirectly, any pension during pleasure, or for any number of years, or any office in part, or in the whole, held for them, or for their benefit, by any persons whatsoever; and that they would not accept any such pensions or offices, without signifying the same to the house within fourteen days after they should be received or accepted. The bill was vindicated as just and necessary by the earls of Winchelsea and Strafford, lord Bathurst, and lord Carteret, who had by this time joined as an auxiliary in the opposition. [237] [See note 2 K, at the end of this Vol.]
{1731}
TREATY OF VIENNA.
The house of peers proceeded to consider the state of the national debt: they read a bill for the free importation of wool from Ireland into England, which was fiercely opposed, and laid aside, contrary to all the rules of sound policy. They passed the bill for carrying on proceedings at law in the English language; and a fruitless motion was made by lord Bathurst for an address, to desire his majesty would give directions for discharging the Hessian troops that were in the pay of Great Britain. On the seventh day of May the parliament was prorogued, after the king had given them to understand that all apprehensions of war were now happily removed, by a treaty signed at Vienna between him and the emperor. He said it was communicated to the courts of France and Spain, as parties to the treaty of Seville, the execution of which it principally regarded; and that it likewise was submitted to the consideration of the states-general. He observed, that the conditions and engagements into which he had entered on this occasion were agreeable to that necessary concern which the British nation must always have for the security and preservation of the balance of power in Europe; and that this happy turn, duly improved with a just regard to former alliances, yielded a favourable prospect of seeing the public tranquillity re-established.
DEATH OF THE DUKE OF PARMA.
In the month of January the duke of Parma died, after having made a will, in which he declared his duchess was three months advanced in her pregnancy; entreating the allied powers of Europe to have compassion upon his people, and defer the execution of their projects until his consort should be delivered. In case the child should be still-born, or die after the birth, he bequeathed his dominions and allodial estates to the infant Don Carlos of Spain; and appointed five regents to govern the duchy. Notwithstanding this disposition, a body of Imperial troops immediately took possession of Parma and Placentia, under the command of general Stampa, who declared they should conduct themselves with all possible regularity and moderation, and leave the administration entirely to the regents whom the duke had appointed. They publicly proclaimed in the market-place, that they took possession of these duchies for the infant Don Carlos; and that if the duchess dowager should not be delivered of a prince, the said infant might receive the investiture from the emperor whenever he would, provided he should come without an army. Though these steps seemed to threaten an immediate war, the king of Great Britain and the states-general interposed their mediation so effectually with the court of Vienna, that the emperor desisted from the prosecution of his design; and on the sixteenth day of March concluded at Vienna a treaty with his Britannic majesty, by which he consented to withdraw his troops from Parma and Placentia. He agreed, that the king of Spain might take possession of these places in favour of his son Don Carlos, according to the treaty of Seville. He likewise agreed that the Ostend company, which had given such umbrage to the maritime powers, should be totally dissolved, on condition that the contracting powers concerned in the treaty of Seville should guarantee the pragmatic sanction, or succession of the Austrian hereditary dominion to the heirs female of the emperor, in case he should die without male issue. The Dutch minister residing at the Imperial court did not subscribe this treaty, because, by the maxims received in that republic, and the nature of her government, he could not be vested with full powers so soon as it would have been necessary: nevertheless the states-general were, by a separate article, expressly named as a principal contracting party.
DON CARLOS TAKES POSSESSION OF HIS TERRITORIES.
On the twenty-second day of July, a new treaty was signed at Vienna between the emperor and the kings of Great Britain and Spain, tending to confirm the former. In August, a treaty of union and defensive alliance between the electorates of Saxony and Hanover was executed at Dresden. The court of Spain expressing some doubts with regard to the pregnancy of the duchess of Parma, she underwent a formal examination by five midwives of different nations, in presence of the elder duchess dowager, several ladies of quality, three physicians and a surgeon; and was declared with child: nevertheless, after having kept all Europe in suspense for six months, she owned she had been deceived; and general Stampa, with the Imperial forces, took formal possession of the duchies of Parma and Placenta. Spain and the great duke of Tuscany having acceded to the last treaty of Vienna, the crown of Great Britain engaged to equip an armament that should convoy Don Carlos to his new dominions. Accordingly, sir Charles Wager sailed with a strong squadron from Portsmouth on the twenty-sixth day of August; and in September arrived at Barcelona, where-, being joined by the Spanish fleet and transports, they sailed together to Leghorn; from whence the admiral returned to England. Don Carlos passed through part of France, and embarking at Anti-bes on board of the Spanish galleys, arrived at Leghorn in December. Then the Imperial general withdrew his forces into the Milanese; and the infant took possession of his new territories.
FRANCE DISTRACTED BY RELIGIOUS DISPUTES.
During these transactions France was distracted by religious disputes, occasioned by the bull Unigenitus thundered against the doctrines of Jansenius; a bull which had produced a schism in the Gallican church, and well nigh involved that country in civil war and confusion. It was opposed by the parliaments and lay tribunals of the kingdom; but many bishops, and the Jesuits in general, were its most strenuous assertors. All the artifices of priestcraft were practised on both sides to inflame the enthusiasm, and manage the superstition of the people. Pretended miracles were wrought at the tomb of abbé Paris, who had died without accepting the bull, consequently was declared damned by the abettors of that constitution. On the other hand, the Jesuites exerted all their abilities and industry in preaching against the Jansenists; in establishing an opinion of their superior sanctity; and inspiring a spirit of quietism among their votaries, who were transported into the delirium of possession, illumination, and supernatural converse. These arts were often used for the most infamous purposes. Female enthusiasts were wrought up to such a violence of agitation, that nature fainted under the struggle, and the pseudo saint seized this opportunity of violating the chastity of his penitent. Such was said to be the case of mademoiselle la Cadiere, a young gentlewoman of Toulon, abused in this manner by the lust and villany of Père Girard, a noted Jesuit, who underwent a trial before the parliament of Aix, and very narrowly escaped the stake.
THE MINISTRY VIOLENTLY OPPOSED.
The parliament of Great Britain meeting on the thirteenth day of January, the king in his speech declared, that the general tranquillity of Europe was restored and established by the last treaty of Vienna; and Don Carlos was actually possessed of Parma and Placentia; that six thousand Spaniards were quietly admitted and quartered in the duchy of Tuscany, to secure, by the express consent and agreement of the great duke, the reversion of his dominions; and that a family convention was made between the courts of Spain and Tuscany for preserving mutual peace and friendship in the two houses. He told the commons, that the estimates for the service of the current year would be considerably less than those of former years. He recommended unanimity; he observed that his government had no security but what was equally conducive to their happiness, and to the protection of his people: that their prosperity had no foundation but in the defence and support of his government. “Our safety,” said he, “is mutual, and our interests are inseparable.” The opposition to the court measures appears to have been uncommonly spirited during the course of this session. The minister’s motions were attacked with all the artillery of elocution. His principal emissaries were obliged to task their faculties to their full exertion, to puzzle and perplex where they could not demonstrate and convince, to misrepresent what they could not vindicate, and to elude the arguments which they could not refute. In the house of commons, lord Hervey, lately appointed vice-chamberlain of his majesty’s household, made a motion for an address of thanks, in which they should declare their entire approbation of the king’s conduct, acknowledge the blessings they enjoyed tinder his government, express their confidence in the wisdom of his councils, and declare their readiness to grant the necessary supplies. This member, son to the earl of Bristol, was a nobleman of some parts, which, however, were more specious than solid. He condescended to act as a subaltern to the minister, and approved himself extremely active in forwarding all his designs, whether as a secret emissary or public orator; in which last capacity he appears to have been pert, frivolous, and frothy. His motion was seconded by Mr. Clutterbuck, and opposed by sir Wilfred Lawson, Mr. Shippen, Mr. W. Pulteney, sir William Wyndham, and Mr. Oglethorpe. They did not argue against a general address of thanks; but exposed the absurdity and bad tendency of expressions which implied a blind approbation of all the measures of the ministry. Sir Wilfred Lawson observed, that notwithstanding the great things we had done for the crown of Spain, and the favours we had procured for the royal family of that kingdom, little or no satisfaction had as yet been received for the injuries our merchants had sustained from that nation. Mr. Pulteney took notice, that the nation, by becoming guarantee to the pragmatic sanction, laid itself under an obligation to assist the Austrian family when attacked by any potentate whatever, except the grand seignor; that they might be attacked when it would be much against the interest of the kingdom to engage itself in a war upon any foreign account; that it might one day be for the interest of the nation to join against them, in order to preserve the balance of Europe, the establishing of which had already cost England such immense sums of money. He insisted upon the absurdity of concluding such a number of inconsistent treaties; and concluded with saying, that if affairs abroad were now happily established, the ministry which conducted them might be compared to a pilot, who, though there was a clear, safe, and straight channel into port, yet took it in his head to carry the ship a great way about, through sands, rocks, and shallows; who, after having lost a great number of seamen, destroyed a great deal of tackle and rigging, and subjected the owners to an enormous expense, at last by chance hits the port, and triumphs in his good conduct. Sir William Wyndham spoke to the same purpose. Mr. Oglethorpe, a gentlemen of unblemished character, brave, generous, and humane, affirmed that many other things related more nearly to the honour and interest of the nation, than did the guarantee of the pragmatic sanction. He said he wished to have heard that the new works at Dunkirk had been entirely razed and destroyed; that the nation had received full and complete satisfaction for the depredations committed by the natives of Spain; that more care was taken in disciplining the militia, on whose valour the nation must chiefly depend in case of invasion; and that some regard had been shown to the oppressed protestants in Germany. He expressed his satisfaction to find that the English were not so closely united to France as formerly; for he had generally observed that when two dogs were in a leash together, the stronger generally ran away with the weaker; and this he was afraid had been the case between France and Great Britain. The motion was vigorously defended by Mr. Pelham, paymaster of the forces, and brother to the duke of Newcastle, a man whose greatest fault was his being concerned in supporting the measures of a corrupt ministry. In other respects he was liberal, candid, benevolent, and even attached to the interest of his country, though egregiously mistaken in his notions of government. On this occasion, he insisted that it was no way inconsistent with the honour or dignity of that house to thank his majesty in the most particular terms, for every thing he had been pleased to communicate in his speech from the throne; that no expressions of approbation in the address could be any way made use of to prevent an inquiry into the measures which had been pursued, when the treaties should be laid before the house. He said, at the opening of a session the eyes of all Europe were turned towards Great Britain, and from the parliament’s first resolves all the neighbouring powers judged of the unanimity that would ensue between his majesty and the representatives of his people; that their appearing jealous or diffident of his majesty’s conduct, would weaken his influence upon the councils of foreign states and potentates, and perhaps put it out of his power to rectify any false step that might have been made by his ministers. His arguments were reinforced by a long speech from Mr. H. Walpole. The question was put, the motion carried, and the address presented.
DEBATE ON A STANDING ARMY.
The next subject of debate was the number of land-forces. When the supply fell under consideration, sir W. Strickland, secretary at war, moved that the same number which had been maintained in the preceding year should be continued in pay. On the other hand, lord Morpeth having demonstrated the danger to which the liberties of the nation might be exposed, by maintaining a numerous standing army in time of peace, made a motion that the number should be reduced to twelve thousand. A warm debate ensuing, was managed in favour of the first motion by lord Hervey, sir Robert Walpole and his brother, Mr. Pelham, and sir Philip Yorke, attorney-general. This gentleman was counted a better lawyer than a politician, and shone more as an advocate at the bar than as an orator in the house of commons. The last partisan of the ministry was sir William Yonge, one of the lords commissioners in the treasury; a man who rendered himself serviceable and necessary by stooping to all compliances, running upon every scent, and haranguing on every subject, with an even uninterrupted tedious flow of full declamation, composed of assertions without veracity, conclusions from false premises, words without meaning, and language without propriety. Lord Morpeth’s motion was espoused by Mr. Watkin Williams Wynne, a gentleman of an ancient family and opulent fortune in Wales, brave, open, hospitable, and warmly attached to the ancient constitution and hierarchy; he was supported by Mr. Walter Plummer, who spoke with weight, precision, and severity; by sir W, Wyndham, Mr. Shippen, Mr. W. Pulteney, and Mr. Barnard. The courtiers argued that it was necessary to maintain such a number of land-forces as might defeat the designs of malcontents, secure the interior tranquillity of the kingdom, defend it from external assaults, overawe its neighbours, and enable it to take vigorous measures in case the peace of Europe should be re-embroiled. They affirmed, the science of war was so much altered, and acquired so much attention, that no dependance was to be placed upon a militia; that all nations were obliged to maintain standing armies, for their security against the encroachments of neighbouring powers; that the number of troops in Great Britain was too inconsiderable to excite the jealousy of the people, even under an ambitious monarch; that his majesty never entertained the least thought of infringing the liberties of his subjects; that it could not be supposed that the officers, among whom were many gentlemen of family and fortune, would ever concur in a design to enslave their country; and that the forces now in pay could not be properly deemed a standing army, inasmuch as they were voted and maintained from year to year by the parliament, which was the representative of the people. To these arguments the members in the opposition replied, that a standing force in time of peace was unconstitutional, and had been always thought dangerous; that a militia was as capable of discipline as a standing army, and would have more incentives to courage and perseverance; that the civil magistrate was able to preserve the peace of the country; that the number of the malcontents was altogether contemptible, though it might be considerably augmented by maintaining a standing army, and other such arbitrary measures; that other nations had been enslaved by standing armies; and howsoever they might find themselves necessitated to depend upon a military force for security against encroaching neighbours, the case was very different with regard to Great Britain, for the defence of which nature had provided in a peculiar manner; that this provision was strengthened and improved by a numerous navy, which secured her dominion of the sea; and, if properly disposed, would render all invasion impracticable, or at least ineffectual; that the land-army of Great Britain, though sufficient to endanger the liberties of an unarmed people, could not possibly secure such an extent of coast, and therefore could be of very little service in preventing an invasion; that though they had all imaginable confidence in his majesty’s regard to the liberty of the subjects, they could not help apprehending, that should a standing army become part of the constitution, another prince of more dangerous talents, and more fatal designs, might arise, and employ it for the worst purposes of ambition; that though many officers were gentlemen of honour and probity, these might be easily discarded, and the army gradually moulded into quite a different temper. By these means, practised in former times, an army had been new modelled to such a degree, that they turned their swords against the parliament for whose defence they had been raised, and destroyed the constitution both in church and state; that with respect to its being wholly dependent on the parliament, the people of England would have reason to complain of the same hardship, whether a standing army should be declared at once indispensable, or regularly voted from year to year, according to the direction of the ministry; that the sanction of the legislature granted to measures which in themselves are unconstitutional, burdensome, odious, and repugnant to the genius of the nation, instead of yielding consolation, would serve only to demonstrate that the most effectual method of forging the chains of national slavery, would be that of ministerial influence operating upon a venal parliament. Such were the reasons urged against a standing army, of what number soever it might be composed; but the expediency of reducing the number from about eighteen thousand to twelve thousand, was insisted upon as the natural consequence of his majesty’s declaration, by which they were given to understand that the peace of Europe was established; and that he had nothing so much at heart as the ease and prosperity of his people. It was suggested, that if eighteen thousand men were sufficient on the supposed eve of a general war in Europe, it was surely reasonable to think that a less number would suffice when peace was perfectly re-established. Whatever effect these reasons had upon the body of the nation, they made no converts in the house, where the majority resolved that the standing army should be maintained without reduction. Mr. Plummer complained that the country was oppressed by an arbitrary method of quartering soldiers, in an undue proportion, upon those publicans who refused to vote in elections according to the direction of the ministry. Mr. Pulteney asserted, that the money raised for the subsistence of eighteen thousand men in England, would maintain sixty thousand French or Germans, or the same number of almost any other people on the continent. Sir William Wyndham declared, that eighteen thousand of the English troops in the late war were maintained on less than two-thirds of the sum demanded for the like number; but no regard was paid to these allegations.
THE CHARITABLE CORPORATION.
The next object of importance that attracted the notice of the house, was the state of the charitable corporation. This company was first erected in the year one thousand seven hundred and seven. Their professed intention was to lend money at legal interest to the poor upon small pledges; and to persons of better rank upon an indubitable security of goods impawned. Their capital was at first limited to thirty thousand pounds, but, by licenses from the crown, they increased it to six hundred thousand pounds, though their charter was never confirmed by act of parliament. In the month of October, George Robinson, esquire, member for Mar-low, the cashier, and John Thompson, warehouse-keeper of the corporation, disappeared in one day. The proprietors, alarmed at this incident, held several general courts, and appointed a committee to inspect the state of their affairs. They reported, that for a capital of above five hundred thousand pounds no equivalent was found; inasmuch as their effects did not amount to the value of thirty thousand, the remainder having been embezzled by means which they could not discover. The proprietors, in a petition to the house of commons, represented that by the most notorious breach of trust in several persons to whom the care and management of their affairs were committed, the corporation had been defrauded of the greatest part of their capital; and that many of the petitioners were reduced to the utmost degree of misery and distress; they therefore prayed, that as they were unable to detect the combinations of those who had ruined them, or to bring the delinquents to justice, without the aid of the power and authority of parliament, the house would vouchsafe to inquire into the state of the corporation, and the conduct of their managers; and give such relief to the petitioners as to the house should seem meet. The petition was graciously received, and a secret committee appointed to proceed on the inquiry. They soon discovered a most iniquitous scene of fraud, which had been acted by Robinson and Thompson, in concert with some of the directors, for embezzling the capital, and cheating the proprietors. Many persons of rank and quality were concerned in this infamous conspiracy; some of the first characters in the nation did not escape suspicion and censure. Sir Robert Sutton and sir Archibald Grant were expelled the house of commons, as having had a considerable share in those fraudulent practices; a bill was brought in to restrain them and other delinquents from leaving the kingdom, or alienating their effects. In the meantime, the committee received a letter from signior John Angelo Belloni, an eminent banker at Rome, giving them to understand, that Thompson was secured in that city, with all his papers, and confined to the castle of St. Angelo; and that the papers were transmitted to his correspondent at Paris, who would deliver them up, on certain conditions stipulated in favour of the prisoner. This letter was considered as an artifice to insinuate a favourable opinion of the pretender, as if he had taken measures for securing Thompson, from his zeal for justice and affection for the English people. On this supposition, the proposals were rejected with disdain; and both houses concurred in an order that the letter should be burned at the Royal Exchange, by the hands of the common hangman. The lower house resolved, that it was an insolent and audacious libel, absurd and contradictory; that the whole transaction was a scandalous artifice, calculated to delude the unhappy, and to disguise and conceal the wicked practices of the professed enemies to his majesty’s person, crown, and dignity.
REVIVAL OF THE SALT-TAX.
No motion during this session produced such a warm contest, as did that of sir Robert Walpole, when, after a long preamble, he proposed that the duties on salt, which about two years before had been abolished, should now be revived and given to his majesty, his heirs and successors, for the term of three years. In order to sweeten this proposal, he declared that the land-tax for the ensuing year should be reduced to one shilling in the pound. All the members of the country party were immediately in commotion. They expressed their surprise at the grossness of the imposition. They observed, that two years had scarcely elapsed since the king, in a speech from the throne, had exhorted them to abolish some of the taxes that were the most burdensome to the poor: the house was then of opinion, that the tax upon salt was the most burdensome and the most pernicious to the trade of the kingdom, of all the impositions to which the poor was subjected, and therefore it was taken off; but that no good reason could be produced for altering their opinion so suddenly, and resolving to grind the faces of the poor, in order to ease a few rich men of the landed interest. They affirmed, that the most general taxes are not always the least burdensome: that after a nation is obliged to extend their taxes farther than the luxuries of their country, those taxes that can be raised with the least charge to the public are the most convenient and easiest to the people: but they ought carefully to avoid taxing those things which are necessary for the subsistence of the poor. The price of all necessaries being thus enhanced, the wages of the tradesman and manufacturer must be increased; and where these are high the manufacturers will be undersold by those of cheaper countries. The trade must of consequence be ruined; and it is not to be supposed that the landed gentlemen would choose to save a shilling in the pound from the land-tax, by means of an expedient that would ruin the manufactures of his country, and decrease the value of his own fortune. They alleged that the salt-tax particularly affected the poor, who could not afford to eat fresh provisions; and that, as it formerly occasioned murmurs and discontents among the lower class of people, the revival of it would, in all probability, exasperate them into open sedition. They observed, that while it was exacted in England, a great number of merchants sent their ships to Ireland, to be victualled for their respective voyages; that since it had been abolished, many experiments had been successfully tried with salt for the improvement of agriculture, which would be entirely defeated by the revival of this imposition. They suggested that the land-tax was raised at a very small expense, and subject to no fraud, whereas that upon salt would employ a great number of additional officers in the revenue, wholly depending upon the ministry, whose influence in elections they would proportionably increase. They even hinted, that this consideration was one powerful motive for proposing the revival of an odious tax, which was in effect an excise, and would be deemed a step towards a general excise upon all sorts of provisions. Finally, they demonstrated that the salt-tax introduced numberless frauds and perjuries in different articles of traffic. Sir Robert Walpole endeavoured to obviate all these objections in a long speech, which was minutely answered and refuted in every article by Mr. Pulteney. Nevertheless, the question being put, the minister’s motion was carried in the affirmative, and the duty revived; yet, before the bill passed, divers motions were made, and additional clauses proposed by the members in the opposition. New debates were raised on every new objection, and the courtiers were obliged to dispute their ground by inches.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
MR. PULTENEY’S NAME STRUCK OUT OF THE LIST OF PRIVY-COUNSELLORS.
The pension-bill was revived, and for the third time rejected in the house of lords. A bill for the encouragement of the sugar colonies passed through the lower house with great difficulty, but was lost among the peers: another, for the better securing the freedom of parliaments, by further qualifying members to sit in the house of commons, was read the third time, and thrown out upon the question. A committee had been appointed to inquire into a sale of the estate which had belonged to the late earl of Denventwater. It appeared by the report, that the sale had been fraudulent; a bill was prepared to make it void; Dennis Bond, esquire, and Serjeant Birch, commissioners for the sale of the forfeited estates, were declared guilty of notorious breach of trust, and expelled the house, of which they were members: George Robinson, esquire, underwent the same sentence on account of the part he acted in the charitable corporation, as he and Thompson had neglected to surrender themselves, according to the terms of a bill which had passed for that purpose. During this session, five members of parliament were expelled for the most sordid acts of knavery; a sure sign of national degeneracy and dishonour. All the supplies were granted, and among other articles, the sum of two-and-twenty thousand six hundred and ninety-four pounds, seven shillings and sixpence, for the agio or difference of the subsidies payable to the crown of Denmark, in pursuance of the treaty subsisting between the late king and that monarch; but this was not obtained without a violent dispute. Mr. Pulteney, who bore a considerable share in all these debates, became in a little time so remarkable as to be thought worthy of a very particular mark of his majesty’s displeasure. The king, on the first day of July, called for the council-book, and with his own hand struck the name of William Pulteney, esquire, out of the list of privy-counsellors; his majesty further ordered him to be put out of all the commissions of the peace. The several lord-lieutenants, from whom he had received deputations, were commanded to revoke them; and the lord-chancellor and secretaries of state were directed to give the necessary orders for that purpose.
THE KING SETS OUT FOR HANOVER.
Nor did the house of peers tamely and unanimously submit to the measures of the ministry. The pension-bill being read, was again rejected, and a protest entered. A debate arose about the number of standing forces; and the earl of Chesterfield argued for the court motion. The earl of Oxford moved that they might be reduced to twelve thousand effective men. The earl of Winchelsea observed, that a standing army rendered ministers of state more daring than otherwise they would be, in contriving and executing projects that were grievous to the people; schemes that could never enter into the heads of any but those who were drunk with excess of power. The marquis of Tweedale, in reasoning against such a number as the ministry proposed, took occasion to observe, that not one shilling of the forfeited estates was ever applied to the use of the public; he likewise took notice, that the eighteen thousand men demanded as a standing force, were modelled in such a manner, that they might be speedily augmented to forty thousand men on any emergency. The duke of Argyle endeavoured to demonstrate the danger of depending for the safety of the kingdom upon an undisciplined militia, a fleet, or an army of auxiliaries. Then he represented the necessity of having recourse to a regular army in case of invasion; and, after all, acknowledged that the number proposed was no way sufficient for that purpose. All his arguments were answered and refuted in an excellent speech by lord Carteret; nevertheless, victory declared for the minister. The parliament having granted every branch of the supply, towards the payment of which they borrowed a sum from the sinking fund, and passed divers other acts for the encouragement of commerce and agriculture, the king, on the first day of June, gave the royal assent to the bills that were prepared, and closed the session, after having informed both houses that the states-general had acceded to the treaty of Vienna; that he had determined to visit his German dominions, and to leave the queen regent in his absence. He accordingly set out for Hanover in the beginning of June. By this time the pragmatic sanction was confirmed by the diet of the empire, though not without a formal protest by the electors Palatine, Bavaria, and Saxony.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}