1714.

GENERAL STANHOPE.

111

to have been licentious; even then, however, he was an assiduous and able man of business. Like most other distinguished generals, he, in the field, gradually acquired the talent how, on any sudden emergency, to pour forth very rapidly a variety of orders, each, apparently, unconnected with the last, yet each tending to the same point from a different quarter, and forming, when put together, a regular and uniform plan. His bodily activity was no less remarkable, and appeared in the great number of special missions he undertook, and of affairs he transacted at foreign capitals whilst holding the seals of office at home. All this, I firmly believe, is no more than strict justice requires me to say of him. Yet I cannot deny that, in drawing his character, or in estimating his abilities, I may, perhaps, be misled by my affectionate and grateful attachment to his memory. I may, perhaps, be too ready to adopt the panegyric of Steele, on his "plain-dealing, generosity, and frankness a natural and prevailing eloquence in assemblies66 an heroic and inspiring courage in the field—a gentle "and winning behaviour in conversation." I may, perhaps, be partial in believing, as I do, that, had his life been longer spared-had not his career been cut short so soon after he had reached the heights of power and the age of forty-seven years-the world would not have been, what Steele proceeds to call it, "in arrear to his "virtue;" and that he would be generally acknowledged as inferior to few other public characters in the history of his country. It is for the reader to reflect and to decide.

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It remains for me to touch upon a circumstance connected with Stanhope's appointment as Secretary of State. Horace Walpole, Lord Orford, who numbered him amongst Sir Robert's enemies, and disliked him as such, says of him, in his Reminiscences"Earl Stanhope

was a man of strong and violent passions, and had dedi"cated himself to the army; and was so far from think

"Anglais avait été fort debauché." (Mem. vol. vii. p. 293. ed. 1829.) As to Stanhope's maturer years, I find that in 1708, in a private correspondence between two other persons, his "strict morals" are com▾ mended. See the Collection of Original Letters published by Mr. T. Forster. London, 1830, p. 234.

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"ing of any other line, that when Walpole, who first "suggested the idea of appointing him Secretary of State, "proposed it to him, he flew into a furious rage, and was "on the point of a downright quarrel, looking on himself as totally unqualified for the post, and suspecting it a "plan of mocking him."* In conversation with Archdeacon Coxe, Lord Orford afterwards improved this story into Stanhope's putting his hand to his sword†; and, perhaps, had Lord Orford lived a little longer, it might have grown into a statement of Stanhope's actually stabbing Walpole. It relates to a period of which the narrator has just before, in his Reminiscences, had the unusual candour to own that he was "but superficially "informed." The story is, moreover, in one of its circumstances, contradicted by a letter of the elder Horace Walpole, who states that it was he, and not his brother Robert, who first suggested the idea of appointing Stanhope Secretary of State.

But even were there no such circumstances to shake Lord Orford's testimony, it is, I conceive, fully disproved by the tenor of the Commons' proceedings in the Sessions of 1713 and 1714. All those who have perused them cannot fail to perceive that Stanhope had taken a very active and prominent part in them; and that none, not even I think Robert Walpole, at that time competed with him as a leader of the Opposition in that House. It is, therefore, as it seems to me, utterly incredible and absurd that so natural and common a result of Parliamentary distinction as the offer of a high civil appointment should have moved Stanhope into any expression of surprise or

resentment.

But this is not all. So far from being unexpectedly raised by the favour of Walpole, it appears, on the contrary, that Stanhope, and not Walpole, was the Government leader of the House of Commons. In the contemporary writers, I find, it is true, no positive statement either to that or to the opposite effect. But I find that, in the first place, Stanhope held the high office of Se* Reminiscences, Works, vol. iv. p. 287. ed. 1798. † Coxe's Memoirs of Walpole, vol. i. p. 96.

Letter to Etough, Sept. 21. 1752, printed in Coxe's second volume. Horace had been Stanhope's private secretary in Spain.

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LEADERSHIP IN THE COMMONS.

113

cretary of State, and Walpole only the subaltern post of Paymaster; so that it can hardly be supposed that the former was to be under the direction of the latter. I find, secondly, that in the Cabinet Council Walpole had no seat*; and I would ask, whether there is a single instance of the House of Commons being led by any placeman not a Cabinet Minister? I find, thirdly, that in the ensuing Session, the King's messages were brought down by Stanhope, and not by Walpole.

I believe, therefore, that Stanhope was the Government leader at first. There is no doubt, however, that as time went on Walpole showed himself the more able debater; and, accordingly, as will be seen in the sequel, he was promoted to be First Lord of the Treasury in October, 1715.

It may be observed that, with the exception of Nottingham, who of late had always acted with the Whigs, not a single Tory was comprised in the new administration. Some modern writers have severely arraigned the policy of George in that respect. They have argued that he ought to have shown himself the King of the whole people, promoted the junction of both parties, instead of the triumph of one, and formed his government on broad and comprehensive principles. But was such an union really possible? Had not the Whigs and Tories too fiercely and too recently waged war to be so suddenly combined? If even an experienced native monarch might have shrunk from this attempt, would it not have overwhelmed a stranger to our language and manners? How ill had that experiment succeeded with William the Third, a prince so far more able and energetic than George! Would it have been prudent, while the storm of a Jacobite rebellion was gathering, to place at the helm any statesman of doubtful or wavering loyalty? For though, on the one hand, it would be most unjust to accuse the whole Tory party of Jacobite principles, it can as little be denied that many of its leaders secretly held them. Let us not, then, consider as the fault of George what was rather the misfortune of his times, nor fall into the common error of judging past events by the standard of present facts and present feelings.

VOL. I.

* Tindal, vol. vi. p. 318.

Meanwhile a great number of loyal addresses from the various cities and counties continued to pour in. The Ministerial arrangements were all completed before the Coronation, which took place on the 20th of October, and which, according to custom, was signalised by several promotions both in and to the Peerage. Few of the principal statesmen of the time, whether in or out of power, failed to attend the solemnity; both Oxford and Bolingbroke were present; and there were great demonstrations of joy throughout most parts of the kingdom. The day was, however, painfully marked in some places by riot and outrage, and other such tokens of public disapprobation, especially at Norwich, Bristol*, and Birmingham, the latter being then remarkable for its highchurch and monarchical principles. The University of Oxford also chose that day to confer unanimously, in full convocation, an honorary degree upon Sir Constantine Phipps, the late Jacobite Chancellor of Ireland.

Meanwhile the innocent cause of these unhappy divisions-the Pretender, or, as he was frequently called, the Chevalier de St. George-was still residing in Lorraine. On the first tidings that his sister was either dead or dying, he had immediately posted towards the Court of Versailles; but found it so fearful of allowing England any pretext for a rupture that it would not afford him the least countenance. M. de Torcy gave him a civil but positive injunction to quit the French dominions; and, finding his partisans in England benumbed and confounded, and making no effort in his favour, he returned whence he came, after one melancholy visit to the Queen Dowager at Chaillot. From Bar-le-Duc he soon afterwards proceeded to drink the waters of Plombieres. There, on the 29th of August, New Style, he issued a manifesto, asserting his right to the Crown, and explaining the cause of his inactivity till "the death of the

*The cry of the Bristol rioters was, "Sacheverell and Ormond ! "Damn all foreign governments!" One house was plundered, and one man murdered. In November, seven of the ringleaders were brought to trial, and sentenced to fine and imprisonment; "but it

was thought surprising," says a contemporary, "that not one of "them suffered capitally." (Tindal, vol. vi. p. 341.) A curious contrast to the scenes of 1831.

1714.

66

STANHOPE SENT TO VIENNA.

115.

"Princess, our sister, of whose good intention towards us we could not for some time past well doubt." When published in England, this incautious declaration produced an impression most unfavourable to the late administration, as unveiling their secret and disavowed, because defeated, designs in favour of the Jacobites. Their adherents at first insisted upon this document being a base contrivance of the Whigs to reflect upon the memory of the Queen and of her Tory government, but were much disconcerted at finding its authenticity acknowledged. However, they soon rallied sufficiently to be able to pour forth with some effect a host of libels, whose tendency we may easily discover from their titles:

"Stand fast to the Church!-Where are the Bishops "now?- The Religion of King George.-No Presby"terian Government. - The State Gamester; or, the "Church of England's Sorrowful Lamentation. - Esop "in Mourning.—The Duke of Ormond's Vindication. "The Lord Bolingbroke's Vindication. -No Lord Pro"tector, or the Duke of Marlborough's Design defeated!" The hawkers who cried these and other such pamphlets were sent to the house of correction by the Lord Mayor, with the approbation of Lord Townshend; and some antidotes to the poison were put forth on the other side.*

On the day after the Coronation, Secretary Stanhope, and Sir Richard Temple, just created Lord Cobham, set out together on a secret mission to Vienna. It was of great importance to remove the jealousy and coldness

* Addison, in one short piece (Freeholder, No. 14., Works, vol. iv. p. 384. ed. 1761) very humorously exposes the inconsistencies of the High Church Jacobites, by drawing out the articles of what he calls A Tory's Creed. The three first are as follows: —

I.

That the Church of England will be always in danger till it has a Popish King for its defender.

II.

That for the safety of the Church no subject should be tolerated in any religion different from the Established, but that the head of our Church may be of that religion which is most repugnant to it.

III.

That the Protestant interest in this nation, and in all Europe, could not but flourish under the protection of one who thinks himself obliged, on pain of damnation, to do all that lies in his power for the extirpation of it.