XIII. missed from his place as Cofferer; he then openly CHAP. joined opposition and leagued himself with Bolingbroke. In conjunction between them was planned 1725. and penned that celebrated paper, the Craftsman, which first appeared in the ensuing year, and which proved one of the bitterest and most formidable assailants of the minister. The eloquence of Pulteney was of that kind most valued in English Parliaments-ready, clear, and pointed, and always adapted to the temper of the moment. He was often heard to say, that hardly any man ever became a great orator, who began by making a set speech. A most competent judge, and not his friend, Speaker Onslow, assures us that he knew how "to animate every subject of popularity with the spirit and fire, that the "orators of the ancient commonwealths governed "the people by; was as classical and as elegant "in the speeches he did not prepare, as they "were in their most studied compositions, mingling "wit and pleasantry, and the application even of "little stories so properly, to affect his hearers, "that he would overset the best argumentation "in the world, and win people to his side, often "against their own convictions." The same quickness of wit sparkled in his conversation, and in An accomplished acquaintance said of him, " Whenever Lord "Bath desists from Greek and punning, I take it to be just as "bad a symptom as if he lost his appetite." This was only a few months before his death. See the Memoirs of Mrs. Carter by the Rev. M. Pennington, vol. i. p. 394. CHAP. would be all or nothing. never great talents. teret; we shall to Chesterfie' · · raised bition. a T for he had a natural er sort of poetry. But unsettled his judgment, His parts," says Lord her above business; and magination, joined to the lessness of his temper, made conducting it long together From the same temper, he of indiscretion; and he someseen) attempted to prove that new secrets, by revealing old ones, sting of the instances in which he had trusted. If we compare him to we shall not find the same lofty and spirit; if to Walpole, we shall miss and sagacious application. Unlike both A the base passion of avarice had sprung is bosom, and grew so high, as sometimes that nobler plant, ambition. His private ter, however, was respectable; his public, rupt. No stain of treachery, of ingratitude, intrigues against the Protestant succession, rests upon 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 his human mind-to find its aspirations higher than CHAP. its powers. XIII. Another result of this Session, which must not 1725. 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, 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 minister, and that the * Duke of Wharton to James, May 1. 1725. Appendix. Coxe's Pelham, vol. i. p. 221. CHAP. 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, |