reveals the of Vienna. CHAP. IV. and after some adventures, compelled to save himself by flight to England. He took vengeance on his former patrons by Ripperda disclosing the secret articles of the Treaty of Vienna. These secret articles were communicated to the Parliament by the King himself, of the Treaty in his opening speech (17th January, 1727), and created so much indignation, that large supplies of men and money were readily voted, and authority given for a declaration of war against Spain. That power had already commenced hostilities by laying siege to Gibraltar; but Cardinal Fleury, who was then at the head of the French government, seeing that the war was likely to embroil the whole of Europe, undertook to mediate an accommodation between the two belligerent powers. He managed this so successfully, that preliminaries were signed at Paris (May, 1727). The Emperor consented to suspend for seven years the charter of the Ostend Company; to confirm all the treaties previous to 1725; and to refer any other discussions to a general congress. The Spanish ambassador signed these preliminaries, but Philip refused to ratify them; though he suspended hostilities for the present.* Cardinal Spain and cabals against the 43. The Opposition called "The Patriots."-Walpole was exceedingly satisfied at this speedy cessation of war, but presently found his power seriously endangered at home. Ever since his Bolingbroke's return, Bolingbroke had been actively engaged in cabals against the Minister, and as he was debarred from his Ministry. seat in the Lords, he endeavoured to combine a strong opposition to the Government, outside the walls of Parlia ment, under the convenient name of the Patriots. In this effort he found an unexpected and most powerful ally in William Pulteney. This famous party leader was born in 1682, of an old and wealthy family. During the last years of Queen Anne's reign, he was one of the steadiest and most able supporters of the Whigs; became Secretary at War at the accession of George I., was one of those who adhered to Walpole, and left office with him in the great Whig Schism of 1717. But although a friend of Walpole, he had two great faults in the estimation of that Minister-ability and independence. The Premier was always extremely jealous of any colleague who was likely to be his rival, and accordingly, when he succeeded to power, he offered no office to Pulteney, but tendered him a peerage, which was indignantly declined. This deprivation of power and influence highly incensed Pulteney, and in 1725 he openly joined the Opposition, and leagued himself with Bolingbroke. In the following year, they projected and issued the celebrated paper called The Craftsman, in which they assailed the Minister with the greatest bitterness.t William Stanhope's England, II., 96-107; Knight's Popular History, VI., 55-56; Coxe's House of Austria, II., chap. 87; Pictorial History, IV., 387-392. + Stanhope's England, II., 73-75. 1727 Another of Bolingbroke's allies was the Duchess of Kendal, the King's favourite mistress, by whose influence Bolingbroke caused a memorial to be presented to the King, in which Walpole was denounced as the author of every public evil. With his accustomed straightforwardness, George placed this paper in the hands of his Minister, who, perceiving that Bolingbroke therein solicited an interview, to make good his assertions, earnestly pressed the King to grant it, on the ground that if this was not done, it would be said that no one was allowed to come near His Majesty and tell him the truth. Bolingbroke was accordingly admitted; but his representations produced no effect, and the King afterwards mentioned them slightingly as mere "bagatelles." sets out for 44. The King's Death-Soon after this occurrence, George set out for Hanover, accompanied by the Duchess of Kendal and Lord Townshend. But as he was travelling during The King the morning of the 9th of June from Delden, he was Hanover. seized with an apoplectic fit in his coach, and on coming to Ippenburen was observed to be in a serious condition. He refused to stop at Ippenburen, as his attendants wished; and when he recovered his speech, cried out several times impatiently-"Osnabruck! Osnabruck!" His well trained courtiers dared not disobey him, and they hastened on to Osnabruck, Osnaburgh. where the King's surviving brother, the Prince Bishop, resided. He gradually sank, and murmuring in his death sleep "C'est fait de moi," expired before his brother's house was reached. He was buried at Hanover, in the vault of his ancestors. His unfortunate wife, who never saw England, had passed away from this life only seven months before him.* He dies at * Stanhope's England, II., 107-109; Carlyle's Frederick the Great, Book VI., chap. 2. CHAPTER V.-THE REIGN OF GEORGE THE SECOND. 1727 to 1760. GEORGE II.-Reigned thirty-three years, from 10th June, 1727, to 25th October, 1760. Born at Hanover, 1683. Married, Caroline of Anspach, 1705. Died, 25th October, 1760. Buried in Westminster Abbey. SECTION I.-CONTINUATION OF WALPOLE'S ADMINISTRATION.-1727 to 1742. 1.-DURING THE LIFE OF QUEEN CAROLINE. 1. The Reign begins peaceably.-The faction of the "Patriots counted on Walpole's fall at the accession of the new Sovereign, since it was known that George hated his father and his father's Influence of Queen Caroline. Ministers, and that he had spoken of the Premier as "a rogue." But George the Second was under the absolute guidance of his wife, Caroline of Anspach, and as she was Walpole's firm friend, no change took place in the administration. During the first ten years of her husband's reign, she may be said to have governed England, and it was during these ten years that Walpole's power was at its highest. The new Parliament which assembled in January, 1728, contained an immense Ministerial majority, so that when Shippen and Wyndham sharply criticized the foreign relations of the Government, they were but feebly supported, and a large sum was voted for the maintenance of Hessian troops, and for a subsidy to the Duke of Brunswick. This extravagant vote, however, was quite unjustifiable, as the aspect of affairs both at home and abroad showed every promise of peace. The Jacobites refused to stir without foreign assistance; the Dissenters, who pressed for a repeal of their disabilities, were satisfied, by an annual Act of Indemnity, for any breach of the penal statutes; while the King of Spain, awed by the firm attitude of England, France and Holland, intimated his desire for peace. After some protracted negotiations, the Treaty of Seville was finally concluded on the 9th of November, 1729. By this Treaty, a defensive alliance was established between England, Spain, and France, to which Holland subsequently acceded. Spain revoked * Stanhope's England, II., 123. 1729-30 The Treaty of all the privileges granted to Austrian subjects by the Treaties of Vienna; English trade to America was placed on its former footing; all captures were restored; the Asiento was confirmed to the South Sea Company; and Gibraltar wast acitly relinquished by Spain. Seville. The Emperor held aloof until 1731, when he concluded the Second Treaty of Vienna, with the four States named above. By this Treaty Charles VI. agreed to the Italian Duchies being conferred upon Don Carlos, and to the abolition of the Ostend Company. The other Powers satisfied the Emperor by guaranteeing the The Second Pragmatic Sanction, on the condition that the Archduchess, Treaty of who succeeded to the Austrian dominions, should not be married Vienna. to a Bourbon or any other Prince whose power and prospects would be likely to endanger the Balance of Power.* Thus finally terminated the disputes which arose out of the Spanish Succession, and "the problem with which creation had groaned for some twenty years past, was finally accomplished, better or worse."t of Lord 2. Inquiry into the State of the London Gaols.-The treaty of Seville was followed in a few months by the resignation of Lord Townshend, who differed with his brother-in-law on almost all points of policy; and whose violent temper could not Resignation brook Walpole's inordinate love of power. He left office Townshend. with an unblemished character; and so upright were his principles, that he refused to join the faction by which the Minister was assailed, and withdrew to his country seat at Raynham, where he passed the rest of his life in making agricultural improvements. Townshend's resignation was followed by the appointment of Henry Pelham, as Secretary at War, and of Lord Harrington, and the Duke of Newcastle, as Secretaries of State. During the general peace which now prevailed, a few trade measures and social reforms crept quietly through the Houses, and a law of great value was enacted, that all proceedings in courts of justice should henceforth be in the English language. An inquiry was also instituted into the condition of the three London gaols for debtors-the Fleet, the Marshalsea, and the King's Bench (1730). This inquiry laid bare a horrible system of oppression and cruelty. The warders connived at the escape of rich prisoners and subjected the poor ones to every kind of insult and inhumanity. They were Condition of loaded with irons, which were riveted so close, that their limbs the gaols. were kept in constant torture; while thumb screws and iron skull caps were common instruments of punishment. These unhappy prisoners Coxe's House of Austria, II., chap. 88; Stanhope's England, II., 149; Dyer's Modern Europe, III., 313-315. + Carlyle's Frederick the Great, Book VI., chap. V. Knight's Pop. Hist., VI., 62; Stanhope's England, II., 126-138. CHAP. V. were also confined in damp and loathsome dungeons, where they were often so crowded together, that forty or fifty would be thrust into a room not sixteen feet square. Many had no beds to lie on; and if they did not pay the rent demanded for their wretched apartments, they were turned out into the open yard, and left to perish of want and exposure. These incredible abuses were chiefly brought to light through the exertions of Mr. afterwards, General Oglethorpe, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry, whose philanthropy is praised by Pope, and who became a warm friend to Dr. Johnson. The warden ship of the Fleet an office of profit. The government of all prisons had been vested in the Judges of the higher courts, and in the Justices of the Peace, by the 22 and 23 Charles II.; but the wardenship of the Fleet was a patent office, which was generally purchased by a large payment to some Minister of the Crown. It was therefore the object of the warden to make his office as lucrative as possible, by the exaction of exorbitant fees and rentals for lodgings, from the unfortunate debtors who were committed to his custody. Those who had no money were handed over to the "common side," where, being crowded into a few narrow wards, they died of famine or distemper, and so relieved the wardens of their unprofitable maintenance. The result of the inquiry was, the removal and imprisonment of those wardens who had most offended.* 3. Walpole's Excise Scheme. The great financial measure of Walpole's administration was his Excise Bill, which was "the first measure in which an English Minister showed any real grasp of the principles of taxation," but which raised an agitation such as had not been seen in the country for many years. Origin and growth of excise. Excise was first imposed by the Long Parliament in 1645, and consisted of duties on beer, cider, and perry. After the Restoration, tea, coffee, wine, vinegar, tobacco, and sugar, were gradually laid under the impost; and after the Revolution, salt, malt, spirits, and distilled liquors. The duties on these articles were very productive, and at the death of George I. their value amounted to nearly two and a half millions, as against six hundred thousand pounds at the Restoration. But the tax was very obnoxious, and was regularly evaded by smuggling; so that it was calculated that the loss of revenue in tobacco alone amounted, in 1732, to a third of the duty. Besides this, the smuggling led to many outrages, and between 1723 and 1732, two hundred and fifty custom-house officers had been maltreated and six murdered; while as many as two thousand persons had been prosecuted for illicit trade.+ To prevent these evils, Walpole proposed the establishment of Bonded Warehouses, whence the goods could be freely removed for exportation, or disposed of for home consumption, on payment of duty by the inland dealers in the form of Excise, and not of Customs. The Bonding system, as Walpole truly said, would make "London a free port, and the market of the world," and the alteration in the payment of the Knight's Popular History, VI., €3-65; Stanhope's England, II., 149-151. + Greene's Short Hist., 710. Knight's Pop. Hist., VI., 69. Proposal to establish bonded warehouses. |