XIII. 1725. CHAP. his writings, nor only in prose, for he had a natural and happy vein for the lighter sort of poetry. But this very vivacity too often unsettled his judgment, and defeated his designs. "His parts," says Lord Chesterfield, "were rather above business; and "the warmth of his imagination, joined to the impetuosity and restlessness of his temper, made "him incapable of conducting it long together "with prudence." From the same temper, he has been accused of indiscretion; and he sometimes (as is often seen) attempted to prove that he could keep new secrets, by revealing old ones, that is, by boasting of the instances in which he had been already trusted. If we compare him to Chatham, we shall not find the same lofty and commanding spirit; if to Walpole, we shall miss a steady and sagacious application. Unlike both of these, the base passion of avarice had sprung up in his bosom, and grew so high, as sometimes to stifle that nobler plant, ambition. His private character, however, was respectable; his public uncorrupt. No stain of treachery, of ingratitude, or of intrigues against the Protestant succession, rests upon his memory. He could win popularity, but not employ it either for the benefit of those who gave it or for his own. The idol of the nation, as William Pulteney, became their scorn as Earl of Bath; he tried often, but in vain, to recover his lost ground; and he passed his old age in that greatest of all curses that can befall the human mind — to find its aspirations higher than CHAP. Another result of this Session which must not be omitted, was the passing of the "City Act." The object was to curb the Common Council of London, and restrain that opposition which they frequently manifested against every government; the means were to vest in the Mayor and Court of Aldermen, a negative on their proceedings. The bill was not carried without a violent outcry in London, and a strong opposition in the House of Lords; and the negative it granted was so unpopular, that it appears to have remained dormant and disused for nearly fourteen years. * Immediately at the close of the Session, in June 1725, the King revived the order of the Bath, which had been dropped since the coronation of Charles the Second. The number of knights was now fixed at thirty-eight, amongst whom neither Walpole nor his son were forgotten. Next year, Sir Robert had the further distinction of being installed Knight of the Garter, being the only commoner in modern times, except Admiral Montagu, or the eldest sons of peers, who ever enjoyed that honour. I have been assured that the Garter was in like manner warmly pressed upon Mr. Pitt by George the Third, but respectfully declined by the * Duke of Wharton to James, May 1. 1725. Appendix. Coxe's Pelham, vol. i. p. 221. I 2 XIII. 1725. CHAP. minister, and that the King then insisted on transferring it to his brother Lord Chatham. XIII. 1725. It was with great difficulty that, in the foregoing year, the remonstrances of Townshend had withheld the King from returning to Hanover*; but scarcely had this Session ended, than he began his journey, accompanied as usual by Townshend and the Duchess of Kendal. The state of his foreign relations was now again becoming critical, and needed his utmost attention. Philip the Fifth, at this time, was once more King of Spain; he had, early in 1724, under the influence of a hypochondriac melancholy, resigned in favour of his son, Don Luis, and retired to St. Ildefonso; but the young Prince dying after a reign of only seven months, Philip was induced, by the ambition of his Queen, to re-ascend the throne. His differences with the Emperor were not yet finally adjusted. We have seen that the treaties at the fall of Alberoni being concluded in haste for the cessation of hostilities, could not at once wholly reconcile so many jarring and complicated interests, and reserved some points (amongst others Gibraltar) for a future Congress at Cambray. That Congress, from various petty difficulties and delays, did not meet till January 1724, and even then its proceedings were languid and without result. In fact, the Spanish Court had begun to think that a private and separate * Lord Townshend to the King, April, 1724. Coxe's Walpole. + See Vol. I. p. 527. XIII. 1725. negotiation with the Emperor would best attain CHAP. its objects; and with this hope it had despatched, as ambassador to Vienna, Baron Ripperda, an intriguing Dutch adventurer, who had been a tool of Alberoni, and who now, from the want of able statesmen, was considered so himself. It is probable, however, that these slow negotiations might have lingered on for many months, or even years, had they not received an impulse from a new and unforeseen event. One chief inducement with Philip, in acceding to the Quadruple Alliance, had been a double marriage between the branches of the House of Bourbon. His son, Don Luis, espoused a daughter of the Regent Duke of Orleans, while his daughter, the Infanta Mary Anne, was betrothed to the young King of France. In pursuance of this compact, the Infanta, then only four years of age, had been sent to Paris to be educated according to the French manners, and was treated as the future Queen. The French nation, however, viewed with much distaste an alliance which afforded only such distant hopes of issue; and when the Duke de Bourbon came to the helm of affairs, he had a peculiar motive for aversion to it. Should Louis the Fifteenth die childless, the next heir would be the son of the late Regent, the young Duke of Orleans, between whom and Bourbon there had sprung up a personal and rancorous hatred. Bourbon had, therefore, the strongest reason to dread the accession of that Prince; an illness of Louis, about this time, XIII. CHAP. quickened his apprehensions*, and he determined, at all hazards, to dismiss the Infanta, and find the 1725. King another bride of maturer years. At one time he thought of Princess Anne of England; but King George, when sounded on this subject, declared, much to his honour, that the obstacle of religion (for the bride must have become a Roman Catholic) was insuperable. The Duke de Bourbon and Madame de Prie next turned their eyes to Mary Leczinska, daughter of Stanislaus, the exiled King of Poland. The cradle of Mary had been rocked amidst the storms of civil war; on one occasion, for example, when still a child in arms, she was forgotten and lost in a hurried retreat; and at length, after an anxious search, was found by her father lying in the trough of a village stable. She was now twenty-one years of age, and not deficient in beauty or accomplishments; while her state of exile and obscurity would, Madame de Prie expected, render her more grateful for her elevation, and more pliant to control. This alliance being finally fixed, and the consent of Louis obtained, the Duke de Bourbon, in March, 1725, sent back the Infanta. Such an insult, which would have been painful to any temper, was intolerable to the pride of Spain. Scarcely could the mob be restrained from a general massacre of the French at Madrid. The King and Queen *Duclos, Mém. vol. ii. p. 299. + Voltaire, Hist. de Charles XII. livre iii. He heard this anecdote from Stanislaus himself. |