XVII.

CHAP. five ships of the line to the Tagus, under Sir John Norris, but gave him orders to act only defen1735. sively, and to urge moderation and forbearance on the Cabinet of Lisbon. At the time, the sailing of "so terrible a fleet," as Cardinal Fleury called it*, produced a strong effect, both at Paris and Madrid; the French exerted all their influence in Spain to prevent a collision; and at length, under the pacific mediation of Fleury and Walpole, harmony was restored between the two Peninsular Courts.

1736.

In all these foreign negotiations the English ministers found in Fleury the same judicious and conciliatory, though sometimes a little timid, temper. They were also much assisted by the close friendship of Baron Gedda, the Swedish ambassador at Paris. But the case was far otherwise with M. de Chauvelin, the French Secretary of State, who laboured on every occasion to thwart the English councils, and to exasperate the Cardinal against them. He seems to have inherited the old maxims of Louis the Fourteenth ; and was even engaged in a secret correspondence with the Pretender, as his own carelessness proved; for having, on one occasion, some papers to put into the hands of the English ambassador, he added, by mistake, one of James's letters to himself, which Lord Waldegrave immediately despatched by a messenger

* Earl Waldegrave to the Duke of Newcastle, June 1. 1735. (Coxe's Walpole.)

to England.*

Walpole had endeavoured to treat CHAP.

him in what might then, perhaps, be termed a
Parliamentary manner. He had instructed Lord
Waldegrave to seize any favourable opportunity to
offer him a bribe-a good round sum, he said,
"a compliment on the new year"-and not
less than 5000l. or 10,000l., so as to secure his
future friendship. But it appears that Chau-
velin, though he showed some inclination to this
disgraceful proposal, did not finally close with
it, and became more than ever a declared enemy
of England. Under these circumstances, Wal-
pole availed himself of a secret correspondence
which he had opened with Cardinal Fleury,
to point out the animosity of Chauvelin, and its
bad effects on the harmony between the two
countries; and it was probably, in a great measure,
to his remonstrances that we may ascribe the dis-
missal of Chauvelin, which occurred a few months
afterwards.

In England, the session of 1736 is chiefly remarkable for an attempt in behalf of the Dissenters, and for the passing of the Gin and Mortmain Acts. I have already related the endeavours of Stanhope, in 1719, to include the Test Act in his measure of relief to the Protestant Dissenters, and

* Earl Waldegrave to the Duke of Newcastle, October 11. 1736.

+ Sir Robert Walpole to Earl Waldegrave, January 1. 1736. He shrewdly observes, that 5000l. makes a great number of French crowns.

XVII.

1736.

CHAP. how long he had struggled against the suggestion XVII. of "a more favourable opportunity." *

1736.

This

more favourable opportunity had ever since been
held out to them by Walpole, in appealing to their
patience; but, like the horizon, it seemed to re-
cede as they advanced. They had given the
Minister their zealous support; in the elections
of 1734, for example, they had issued several
Declarations, pledging themselves to vote for his
candidates t; and they had done so the more
ostentatiously, as hoping to establish a claim to his
future favour. Yet they still found Sir Robert
immovable. Still did he reply to their depu-
tations, that the time was not yet come.
"You
"have so repeatedly returned us this answer," at
last said Dr. Chandler, "that I trust you will give
"me leave to ask you, when the time will come?"
"If you require a specific answer," said the
Minister, provoked into sudden frankness, "I will
give it
you in one word-Never!" Thus dis-
appointed in the government, the Dissenters be-
gan to court the Opposition, and, in 1736, induced
Mr. Plumer to bring forward a motion for the
repeal of the obnoxious statute. Sir Robert was
much embarrassed, wishing neither to forfeit their
support nor that of the Church; but at length,
after a wavering and evasive speech, voted against

66

* See vol. i. p. 491.

+ Boyer's Political State, vol. xlvii. pp. 332. 436.

See Coxe's Life, p. 608. No date is assigned to this anecdote; it must have happened either in 1736 or 1739.

XVII.

1736.

them, in a majority of 251 against 123. For this CHAP. conduct Walpole has been severely censured; yet, in justice to him, we should, perhaps, reflect, whether his ministerial power, great as it was, really sufficed to overthrow what most of the Churchmen of the time, however erroneously, respected as one of their principal bulwarks; whether, if not, it could be his duty to plunge, at all hazards, into a hopeless contest; and whether the Dissenters would not have acted far better, both for themselves and for their friends, had they shunned a struggle which afforded no chances of success, and which only retarded the march of their cause in popular opinion.

As a counterpoise to his vote on this occasion, Walpole gave his support to a Bill for the relief of Quakers in the recovery of tithes. The object was to render the proceedings against them less long and costly, and the Bill passed the House of Commons; but however well designed, it appears to have been loosely and hastily drawn. In the other House, both the Chancellor and Chief Justice (Lords Talbot and Hardwicke) pointed out its defects and opposed it, and under their guidance was the measure rejected. Walpole was much irritated at this failure, even on personal grounds, the Quakers in Norfolk being very numerous, and having always assisted him in his elections. His resentment was levelled especially against Gibson, Bishop of London, who had prevailed upon his Right Reverend brethren to declare against the

CHAP. measure, and who, in consequence, lost what he XVII. had hitherto enjoyed the chief confidence of the

1736.

minister in all ecclesiastical affairs.* Gibson was a prelate of eminent learning and talents, and so well known to be intended for the Primacy, on the next occasion, that Whiston used to call him the heir apparent to the See of Canterbury. But on the death of Archbishop Wake, the minister had not forgotten or forgiven the opposition to the Quaker's Tithe Bill, and the vacant dignity was conferred on Bishop Potter.

The Mortmain Act was a measure of which the necessity has often been proved in Roman Catholic countries, and seldom denied in ours: yet within the last hundred years we have seen but little cause to dread the excess of posthumous charity; and perhaps it might be said, that whenever the state of public feeling allows a mortmain law to be enacted, the same state of public feeling renders it unnecessary.t

The Gin Act was not a ministerial measure, but proceeded from the benevolent views of Sir Joseph Jekyll. Drunkenness, a vice which seems to strike deeper root than any other in uneducated minds, had greatly augmented, especially in London, during the late years of peace and prosperity.

According to Mr. Etough, Sir Robert was once reproached in conversation with giving Gibson the authority of a Pope. "And a very good Pope he is!" said Walpole. (Coxe's Life, p. 479.)

+ See Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. ii. p. 273. ed. 1897.