Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

him. A petition, presented by the electors of Westminster, complaining of an undue election, which had been carried on by the unjust influence of the ministry, and which they begged to set aside, was presented to the house. Sir Robert laboured with all his art to overrule their petition; the house entered into a discussion, and carried it against him by a majority of four voices. He resolved to try his strength once more in another disputed election, and had the mortification to see the majority against him augmented to sixteen. He then declared he would never more sit in that house. The next day the king adjourned both houses of parliament for a few days; and, in the interim, sir Robert Walpole was created earl of Orford, and resigned all his employments.

Nothing could give the people more general satisfaction than this minister's deposition. It was now universally expected, that, his power being abridged, his punishment was to follow; and mankind prepared themselves for some tragical event with vindictive satisfaction. Every person now flattered himself that every domestic grievance would be redressed; that commerce would be protected abroad; that the expensive subsidies to foreign states would be retrenched; and that the house of commons would be unanimous in every popular measure. But they soon found themselves miserably deceived. Those who clamoured most against him, when put into power, began exactly to adopt all his measures.

At no time of life did this minister acquit himself with such art as on the present occasion. The country party consisted of Tories, reinforced by discontented Whigs: the former, implacable in their resentments against him, could not be mollified; the latter, either soured by disappointment, or excited by ambition, only wished his removal. To these, therefore, Walpole applied, and was willing to grant them that power at which they aimed; and, in return for this concession, he only demanded impunity. The offer was accepted with pleasure; their Tory friends were instantly abandoned; and, a breach thus ensuing, the same opposition still continued against the new ministry that had obtained against the old.

The place of chancellor of the exchequer was bestowed on Mr. Sandys, who was likewise appointed a lord of the treasury. Lord Harrington was declared president of the council; and in his room lord Carteret became secretary of state. Mr.

Pulteney was sworn of the privy council, and afterwards created earl of Bath. The reconciliation between the king and the prince of Wales took place soon after; and the change in the ministry was celebrated by rejoicings over the whole nation.

But this transport was of short duration; it soon appeared that those who declaimed most loudly for the liberties of the people had adopted new measures with their new employments. The new converts were branded as betrayers of the interests of their country; but particularly the resentment of the people fell upon the earl of Bath, who had long declaimed against that very conduct which he now seemed earnest to pursue. He had been the idol of the people, and considered as one of the most illustrious champions that had ever defended the cause of freedom; but, allured perhaps by the hope of governing in Walpole's place, he was contented to give up his popularity for ambition. The king, however, treated him with that neglect which he merited: he was laid aside for life, and continued a wretched survivor of all his former importance.

The war with Spain had now continued for several years, and was attended with but indifferent fortune. Some unsuccessful expeditions had been carried on in the West Indies, under admiral Vernon, commodore Knowles, and others; and the failure of these was still more aggravated by the political writers of the day-a class of beings that had risen up during this and the preceding administration, at first employed against Walpole, and afterwards taken into pay by him. Dull and without principle, they made themselves agreeable to the public by impudence and abuse, embarrassed every operation, and imbittered every misfortune. These had for some time inspired the people with a disgust for their operations by sea, and taught them to wish for better fortune on land. The people became ripe for renewing their victories in Flanders, and the king desired nothing with so much ardour. It was resolved, therefore, to send a powerful body of men into the Netherlands, to join in the quarrels that were beginning on the continent; and immense triumphs were expected from such an undertaking, which the king resolved to conduct in person.

An army of sixteen thousand men were transported to Flanders, and the war with Spain became but an object of secondary consideration.

CHAPTER XXIV.

GEORGE II. (CONTINUED.)

A. D. 1742-1748.

To have a clear yet concise idea of the origin of the troubles on the continent, it will be necessary to go back for some years, and trace the measures of the European republic from that period where we left them in our former narrative. After the duke of Orleans, who had been regent of France, died, cardinal Fleury undertook to settle the great confusion in which that luxurious prince had left the kingdom. His moderation and prudence were equally conspicuous; he was sincere, frugal, modest, and simple: under him, therefore, France repaired her losses, and enriched herself by commerce; he only left the state to its own natural methods of thriving, and he saw it gradually regaining its former health and vigour.

During the long interval of peace which this minister's counsels had procured for Europe, two powers, till now unregarded, began to attract the notice and jealousy of the neighbouring nations. Peter the Great had already civilized Russia; and this new-created extensive empire began to influence the counsels of other nations, and to give laws to the North. The other power that came into notice was that of the king of Prussia, whose dominions were populous, and whose forces were well maintained and ready for action.

The other states were but little improved for the purposes of renewing the war. The empire remained under the government of Charles the Sixth, who had been placed upon the throne by the treaty of Utrecht. Sweden continued to languish, being not recovered from the destructive projects of her darling monarch Charles the Twelfth. Denmark was powerful enough, but inclined to peace: and part of Italy still remained subject to those princes who had been imposed upon it by foreign treaties.

All those states, however, continued to enjoy a profound peace until the death of Augustus, king of Poland, by which a

general flame was once more kindled in Europe. The emperor, assisted by the arms of Russia, declared for the elector of Saxony, son of the deceased king. On the other hand, France declared for Stanislaus, who long since had been nominated king of the Poles by Charles of Sweden, and whose daughter the king of France had since married. In order to drive forward his pretensions, Stanislaus repaired to Dantzic, where the people very gladly received him. But his triumph was short; ten thousand Russians appearing before the place, the Polish nobility dispersed, and Stanislaus was besieged by this small body of forces. But though the city was taken, the king escaped with some difficulty by night; and fifteen hundred men that were sent to his assistance were made prisoners of war. France, however, resolved to continue her assistance to him; and this, it was supposed, would be the most effectually done by distressing the house of Austria.

The views of France were seconded by Spain and Sardinia, both having hopes to grow more powerful by a division of the spoils of Austria. A French army, therefore, soon overran the empire, under the conduct of old marechal Villars; while the duke of Montemar, the general of Spain, was equally victorious in the kingdom of Naples. Thus the emperor had the mortification to see his own dominions ravaged, and a great part of Italy torn from him, only for having attempted to give a king to Poland.

These rapid successes of France and its allies soon compelled the emperor to demand a peace. It was accordingly granted him; but Stanislaus, upon whose account the war was begun, was neglected in the treaty. It was stipulated that he should renounce all claim to the crown of Poland; for which the emperor gratified France with the duchy of Lorraine, and some other valuable territories.

The emperor, dying in the year 1740, the French began to think this a favourable opportunity of exerting their ambition. once more. Regardless of treaties, particularly that called the Pragmatic Sanction, which settled the reversion of all the late emperor's dominions upon his daughter, they caused the elector of Bavaria to be crowned emperor. Thus, the queen of Hungary, daughter of Charles the Sixth, descended from an illustrious line of emperors, saw herself stripped of her inherit

ance, deserted for a whole year by all Europe, and left without any hopes of succour. She had scarcely closed her father's eyes when she lost Silesia, by an irruption of the young king of Prussia, who seized the opportunity of her defenceless state to renew his ancient pretensions to that province, of which, it must be owned, his ancestors had been unjustly deprived. France, Saxony, and Bavaria, attacked the rest of her dominions; England was the only power that seemed willing to espouse her helpless condition. Sardinia and Holland soon after came to her assistance; and, last of all, Russia acceded to the union in her favour.

[ocr errors]

It may now be demanded, what cause Britain had to intermeddle in these continental schemes. It can only be answered, that the interest of Hanover, and the security of that electorate depended upon the nicely balancing the different interests of the empire; and the English ministry were willing to gratify the king. Lord Carteret, who had now taken up that place in the royal confidence which had formerly been possessed by Walpole, by pursuing these measures soothed the wishes of his master, and opened a more extensive field for his own ambition. He expected to receive honour from victories which he seemed certain of obtaining; and wished to engage in measures which must be injurious to the nation, even though attended with the desired success.

When the parliament met, his majesty began by informing them of his strict adherence to engagements; and that he had sent a body of English forces into the Netherlands, which he had augmented by sixteen thousand Hanoverians, to make a diversion upon the dominions of France, in the queen of Hungary's favour. When the supplies came to be considered, by which these Hanoverian troops were to be paid by England for defending their own cause, it produced most violent debates in both houses of parliament. It was considered as an imposition upon the nation, as an attempt to pay foreign troops for fighting their own battles; and the ministry were pressed by their own arguments against such measures before they came into power. They were not ashamed, however, upon this occasion, boldly to defend what they had so violently impugned; and at length, by the strength of numbers, and not of reason, they carried their cause.

« ZurückWeiter »