CHAP. was no doubt that Alberoni persevered in his VIII. aspiring hopes, and that the return of summer would be marked by a renewal of his warlike enterprises.

1717.

To withstand the confederacy of France, Eng-
land, and Holland, and to dare at the same time
the enmity of the Court of Vienna, might have
appalled the boldest Spanish statesman in the
proudest days of the monarchy; but, even in its
decline and abasement, did not daunt the lofty
soul of Alberoni. His active armaments at home
were combined with skilful negotiations abroad.
He enticed Victor Amadeus by holding out a
prospect of the Milanese as an equivalent for
Sicily; he encouraged the Turks to continue their
war against the Emperor in spite of their defeats;
he made overtures to Prince Ragotzky, the exiled
Prince of Transylvania, and urged him to attempt
the recovery of his dominions. In the north of
Europe he adopted the views of Gortz, and had
grounds to expect that Charles the Twelfth and
the Czar, concluding a peace, and forgetting their
old animosities, would combine against George the
First for the restoration of the exiled family. The
commercial jealousy of the Dutch was stirred anew
by the intrigues of Alberoni. The factions in

France were taken under his fostering care; he
caballed to raise an insurrection of the discontented
in Britanny, and of the Protestants in the Cevennes;
and made overtures to the secret parties of the

VIII.

1717.

Jesuits, of the Parliaments, and of the Duke CHAP. and Duchess du Maine. The convocation of the States-General, the immediate reformation of abuses, the speedy payment of the public debts all popular measures, and the more so as being some of them impracticable - were professed as objects by his emissaries; and the seeds were ready laid of a wide and alarming conspiracy.

But it was against England, as the soul and spirit of the whole confederacy, that the Cardinal more especially directed his batteries. Besides his northern negotiations, he entered into a direct correspondence with the Pretender, who, in consequence of the Triple Alliance, had been compelled to cross the Alps, and who had fixed his temporary residence at Rome. An expedition to the British coasts, conveying a sufficient body of troops, and to be headed by Ormond or by James himself, stood foremost amongst the schemes of Alberoni. Meanwhile he availed himself to the utmost of the divisions in England, his agents and creatures publishing specious declamations on the burthen of taxes, the dangers of a standing army, the losses of trade which must follow a rupture with Spain, and other such popular topics; and finding, unhappily, not merely the Tories, but also some of the Whigs in opposition, eagerly second their efforts to agitate and inflame the public mind.

Such unwearied and combined exertions threat

CHAP. ened the most serious danger, and required the VIII. most active measures; but before I come to the 1717. steps adopted by the British Government for its defence, I must resume the thread of our domestic

affairs.

CHAPTER IX.

IX.

1717.

WHILE the coldness between George the First CHAP. and his son had been merely a Court secret, or a public surmise, it produced comparatively little mischief; but when it grew into an avowed and open breach, followed by a change of residence, and authenticated by published letters, it became a much more momentous affair. The jealousy and suspicion of the King, the forwardness and caballing of the Prince, have been already mentioned in this narrative, and from a very slight spark, their smoul dering resentments blazed high. On the christening of one of the Prince's children, the Prince had designed his uncle, the Duke of York, as godfather; but, by the King's commands, the Duke of Newcastle stood in that relation at the cere mony, not as proxy for the Duke of York, but in his own behalf. The Prince, incensed at this insolence (so he called it), as soon as the ceremony was over, addressed Newcastle in very harsh and reproachful terms; and the King, offended at this want of respect, ordered his son to remain in his

IX.

1717.

A

CHAP. own apartments under arrest, and soon afterwards sent him his commands to quit St. James's. The Prince and Princess accordingly withdrew into the house of the Earl of Grantham, lord chamberlain to his Royal Highness. This frivolous dispute, in which the King was certainly severe, the Prince undutiful, and both childish, produced a total alienation between them during several years. notice was issued, that no person who paid his respects to the Prince or Princess, would be received at Court; they were deprived of their guard of honour and other distinctions; and the Secretary of State wrote a circular to the Foreign Ministers, giving an account of this whole transaction; nay, to such an extent did the royal displeasure proceed, that George formed a scheme for obtaining an act of Parliament by which the Prince, on coming to the throne, should be compelled to relinquish his German states. This project he afterwards laid before Lord Chancellor Parker; and it was only on the Chancellor's representations of its inexpediency and impracticability, that it was abandoned by his Majesty. On the other hand, the Prince, fixing his residence at Leicester House, openly raised the standard of opposition against his father.

The feverish anxiety produced by this schism in

* St. Simon, who is always fond of scandal, and not always solicitous as to its truth, does not scruple to say, "Jamais le père "n'avait pu souffrir ce fils, parcequ'il ne le croyait point à lui." (Mem. vol. xviii. p. 197. ed. 1829.)