other charge was of a more serious nature, and rested on the breach of a promise which he was said to have made to the king, of providing immediate supplies for the pay of the Saxe Gotha and Munster troops. The words of Mr. Stanhope to lord Townshend, will best show the mode in which this accusation was advanced, and the effect which it had produced.

"It is very likely," he observes, "that Bothmar may have done ill offices to Mr. Walpole; but the king on that subject tells me, that he spoke himself about it with Mr. Walpole before he left England. It is very possible that the king and Mr. Walpole might mistake one another. But the king says he did apprehend, that Mr. Walpole had told him a way would be found to pay that money. He says, he hath in fact advanced the money. I do therefore beg, that Mr. Walpole and you will think of this matter. If it be necessary that I write a letter to be laid before the cabinet council, let him tell me in what manner he would have me write, and I will immediately send a letter, if he would have it, and do every thing that he and you will let me know of for your service. The concern I have for him makes me wish most earnestly that he will find some way to make this easy, which may and will otherwise give his enemies an opportunity of hurting him. I am sure I have staid in this office much longer than I would have done for your sake and his, and whenever we are to go out of place, let it not be upon such a foot, that the king shall say, Mr. Walpole hath promised

him one thing, and that Mr. Walpole shall say otherwise. I vent my thoughts very freely to you, and will do so while I am in business. You may easily believe me, when I tell you, that considering the present situation I am in, I do not wish that may be long."*

These insinuations, seconded by the Hanoverian mistresses, and ministers, having made a deep impression, Sunderland advised the king to demand of the cabinet council, the heads of the business to be brought forward in the next session; and to declare that he was desirous of passing the winter at Hanover, if any expedient could be adopted for summoning the parliament, and transacting affairs. This demand being forwarded to the minister, the council instantly deliberated on the message, and Townshend, anxious to gratify the inclination of his royal master, transmitted a favourable answer, by his brother-in-law, Horace Walpole, who had just arrived from the Hague. Anxious to convey this dispatch with all possible speed, Horace Walpole quitted London on the 13th of November, the evening of its signature, left the Hague on the 17th, and, travelling night and day, arrived at Gohre on the 22d. He flattered himself with a favourable reception, as the messenger of good tidings, but found the state of affairs far different from that which his sanguine expectations had suggested.

He found the king devoted to Sunderland, and exasperated against his brother and Towns*Correspondence, vol. 2. p. 125,

per

hend, to whom the letters on the delay in signing the French treaty, expressive of high indignation, had just been forwarded. He found him still greatly dissatisfied with their opposition to the plan of northern politics, disgusted with the backwardness of Walpole to advance the subsidies for the troops of Saxe Gotha and Munster, and so strongly impressed with the danger of mitting the prince of Wales to open the parliament in person, as to declare that no consideration should induce him to consent to the grant of discretionary powers for that purpose. He found Stanhope displeased with the conduct of Townshend, and convinced that his negociations for the peace with France, and for the operations in the north, were counteracted by the English cabinet.

The frankness and warmth of his temper, impelled him without disguise to speak plain truths, and to expostulate with a manly freedom and dignified spirit, which astounded Sunderland, and disconcerted Stanhope. He reminded Stanhope in particular, that he owed his high situation to Townshend and his brother; he remonstrated with him for having concurred with their enemies, and warmly vindicated the conduct of Townshend. He candidly avowed, that if blame was incurred by any delay in signing the treaty with France, that blame must attach solely to himself, whose delicacy prevented him from affixing his name to an act, after he had solemnly assured the leading men in Holland, that England would not conclude a

separate treaty. He finally answered for the honour and friendship of the brother ministers in England.

Stanhope, affected with these remonstrances, so forcibly urged by his friend, acknowledged that he had been deceived by false suggestions; spoke of Townshend and Walpole in terms of praise and affection; expressed a high sense of his obligations; requested that what was past might be forgotten, and what was to come might be improved; and promised in the most solemn manner to use his influence with the king, which he represented as very considerable, in favour of those who had committed to him his present trust. Horace Walpole was fully satisfied with these declarations. Stanhope seemed to act in conformity with his promises, and to labour in effacing the ill impressions which the king had entertained of his ministers in England. Sunderland appeared confounded; the Hanoverians abashed; and the king inclined to recover his former satisfaction and complacency.

While these favourable symptoms of returning good will and harmony apparently prevailed, the answer of Townshend to the charges of delaying the signature to the French treaty, arrived at Gohre. To Sunderland's insolent reproofs he did not condescend to make any reply; to Stanhope he wrote only a few lines, testifying his concern and indignation at being betrayed by one in whom he placed the most implicit confidence; but his answer to the king,*

* November 11. See Correspondence, Period II.

contained a full and dignified refutation of the malicious calumnies and misrepresentations of his enemies; and was written in a style and manner, expressing without disguise the high opinion which he entertained of his own character. This letter to the king was accompanied by another from Walpole to Stanhope, justifying himself and his colleague. "There can," he said, "be no greater misfortune than to incur blame and displeasure for those very things, which a man thinks he has deserved well in. But this seems to be the fate of those who serve at a distance."*

He then enters into a vindication of his proposal with regard to the sale of the lands at St. Christopher's; and positively denies, that he had misled the king by any promise relative to the payment of the Saxe Gotha and Munster troops. "I must beg leave to defer entering into any particulars relating to the payment of the troops of Saxe Gotha and Munster, till after my conference with Count Bothmar, because I am sure he dares not deny to me, but that I have showed a more than ordinary readiness to facilitate that matter; and this I am confident I shall be able to tell you he has confessed to me. I must only add one thing, that I am at a loss what to say, when I am told, I promised the king a method should be found out to pay this money. I do not presume to enter into this dispute, but I hope I shall be thought more excusable, when I protest before God, that I

*Correspondence, November 11, 1716, vol. 2, p. 128-135.