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"satisfaction to me, that I have fulfilled this duty, and "had my share in the last struggle that will be made, "perhaps, to preserve a Constitution which is almost de"stroyed... I fear nothing from those I have opposed; "I ask nothing from those I have served." *

Yet although the motives I have mentioned for Bolingbroke's departure seem fully sufficient to account for it, there is reason to suspect that they were not the only ones. We have vague hints of some disagreement between him and Pulteney, who, it is said, advised him to withdraw for the good of their party. It is not improbable that the cabals with foreign Ministers, in which Bolingbroke had engaged, and to which Walpole had alluded, may have been pushed so far as, at length, to disgust the Whigs in opposition, and turn them from their plotting leader. A letter, soon afterwards, from Swift to Pope, might have thrown great light on these suspicions; but it has been suppressed in the correspondence, and is only known to us by Pope's reply.† Bolingbroke himself, in a letter of 1739, alludes to some persons in opposition, who "think my name, and, much more, my "presence, in England, when I am there, does them mis"chief." Writing to the same person, seven years later, he not very consistently indulges in an empty boast, that he did not leave England till his friends had some schemes in contemplation in which he would not join.§

It may, perhaps, have some bearing to this subject, that we find Pulteney about the same time, or soon afterwards, much depressed in spirits, and seeming to make advances to the Walpoles. The day before the House rose, some remarkable civilities passed between him and Sir Robert; and proceeding on a journey to the Hague, he sent a message to Horace, who, in consequence, came

* To Sir William Wyndham, November 29. 1735. January 5. and February 20. 1736.

Pope to Swift, August 17. 1736. The close connection of Bolingbroke and the other opposition chiefs at this time with Frederick Prince of Wales, and their great hopes from him, seem incompatible with any Jacobite design.

Marchmont Papers, vol. ii. p. 179.

§ Ibid. p. 350. See also some acute observations in the Quarterly Review, No. cviii. p. 386.

to see him, and was very cordially received. "I endea"voured," says Horace, "to be easy and cheerful, and to "make him so; but his constant complaint was lowness "of spirits, and, in my opinion, he is rather dead-hearted "than sick in body; and, in other respects, had a stranger 66 come into the room, he would have thought we had 66 never been otherwise than good friends."" Be this as it may, the Parliamentary warfare between them was certainly waged as fiercely as ever in the ensuing Sessions.

* Sir R. Walpole to Horace, May 25. Horace to Sir Robert, June 10. 1736. Coxe's Walpole, vol. iii.

CHAPTER XVII.

WHILE such was the tranquillity in England, the hostilities abroad were dwindling into negotiations. The Emperor, chagrined at his losses, and foreseeing only fresh disasters should he continue to stand alone, made every effort to draw the Dutch and the English into his quarrel. He alleged positive engagements; he pleaded for the balance of power; entreaties, remonstrances, and threats were all tried in turn; he even menaced, unless he received some succours, to withdraw his troops from the Netherlands, and cede that country to the French. It may be observed, that even so early as 1714, Prince Eugene declared to Stanhope that Austria looked upon the Netherlands as only a useless drain, and accepted them rather for the sake of her allies than for her own*, but, in fact, during the whole of that century, these provinces were a constant source of uneasiness, vexation, and embarrassment to the Maritime Powers. Lord Chesterfield was, I believe, the first statesman who formed the plan to revive, as he termed it, the Duchy of Burgundy; that is, to unite Holland and Belgium, so as to construct a powerful and independent barrier against France. To this idea he alludes in one of his private letters, just after resigning the Seals.† It has since been carried into execution, under very favourable auspices, by the Congress of Vienna. Yet, above a century before, the genius of Marlborough could discern and declare the fatal obstacle which has lately marred and defeated that promising measure; and he writes to Lord Godolphin, from Flanders: "Not only the towns, but the people, of this country hate the Dutch."‡

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*See in the Appendix to this volume the letters of that year. To Mr. Dayrolles, September 23. 1748.

To Lord Godolphin, December 6. 1708.

Another hope of the Emperor was founded, as in 1726, on divisions in England. He knew that the King himself, and a section of the Cabinet, headed by Harrington, were inclined to grant him assistance, though not desiring, or not daring, to oppose the ascendency of Walpole ; he expected to induce this party to join the Opposition, and thus to overthrow the all-powerful Prime Minister. For this negotiation he availed himself of one Abbé Strickland, an unprincipled adventurer, who had intrigued for the Jacobites and against the Jacobites, and been alternately a spy of the Pretender and of the English GovernIn some of his juggling he had caught for himself the Bishoprick of Namur; and he had even some hopes of attaining a Cardinal's hat; but in this new enterprise he reaped neither profit nor fame.* Arriving in England under a false name, he had, indeed, a secret conference with Lord Harrington, and a gracious reception from the King and Queen; but no sooner had his real objects been developed, than Walpole stood forth, and scattered these cabals with a word. At his desire the intriguing emissary was civilly dismissed from England, and Queen Caroline wrote to the Empress, contradicting the erroneous reports of Strickland, and positively declaring, that England would not engage in the war.

ment.

Thus disappointed in all his flattering hopes, the Emperor at length, however reluctantly, consented to treat of peace under the mediation of the Maritime Powers. A plan of pacification was accordingly framed and proffered, with an armistice, to the several sovereigns at war. There being very skilful diplomatists on both sides, not a single point or punctilio was omitted, and the negotiation was spun out to an almost interminable length with forms and cavils. Yet the principal articles were early agreed upon; and, when finally matured into a treaty, were as follows: Naples and Sicily were to remain to Don Carlos; on the other hand, he was to resign the

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* Mr. Robinson, the English Minister at Vienna, asked Count Tarouca how the Emperor could possibly send such a person with his commission, but the Count answered, "Que voulez vous que l'on "fasse ? Quand on est pret à se noyer on s'attache à tout !" Mr. Robinson to H. Walpole, November 13. 1734. (Coxe's Walpole, vol. iii.)

possession of Parma, and the reversion to Tuscany. Augustus was acknowledged King of Poland. Stanislaus was to retain the Royal title, and to be put in immediate possession of the Duchy of Lorraine, which, after his decease, should devolve to the Crown of France. It was to Francis, the young Duke of Lorraine, that the Emperor was giving in marriage his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, the heiress of his states under the Pragmatic Sanction; yet it was not easy to persuade this young Prince to surrender his paternal dominions, the equivalent stipulated for them being only eventual and contingent, namely, the succession to Tuscany in the place of Don Carlos. However, the authority of the Emperor* and a pension from France overcame his unwillingness, and his consent became cordial before the final signatures by the death of the old Grand Duke of Tuscany, the last of the Medicis, in 1737, when Francis was immediately admitted as his heir. France and Sardinia gave their guarantee to the Pragmatic Sanction, and the latter obtained Novarra, Tortona, and other neighbouring districts. Thus was the war concluded, and thus did France obtain, from the pacific Fleury, the province of Lorraine; a richer prize than had ever crowned the aspiring genius of Richelieu, or the crafty refinements of Mazarin. England should, perhaps, have viewed with jealousy this aggrandisement of her powerful neighbour, yet, unless she had herself embarked in war, could scarcely have prevented it; and so favourable were the terms of the preliminaries generally thought, that even Bolingbroke is said to have exclaimed, "If the English "Ministers had any hand in it, they are wiser than I thought them; and if not, they are luckier than they "deserve to be."†

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In another foreign quarrel, at the same time, England was more actively concerned. The servants of the Portuguese Minister at Madrid being accused of having

*The favourite Minister Bartenstein told the Duke plainly before the marriage-"Monseigneur, point de cession, point d'Archidu"chesse!" (Coxe's House of Austria, vol. iii. p. 162.)

Lord Hervey to H. Walpole, January 3. 1736. (Coxe's Walpole.)

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