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some friends in a narrow lane, persons were overheard talking on the other side of the hedge. "Whose voice is "that?" asked one of the party. "Do not you know? replied Sir Robert. "It is one which I never shall "forget. I have often felt its power!" It was Sir John Barnard's.

The project of Sir John Barnard was, briefly, to borrow money at three per cent., and redeem some of the annuities for which a higher rate was yearly paid. But several solid and many specious arguments against it were urged by Walpole. "If we advert," said he, "to "the time and manner in which these debts were cre"ated, every argument against the reduction of interest acquires a great additional force. At that disastrous "period (1720), the creditors of the South Sea and East "India Companies had a power to demand the whole "amount of their bonds. Their forbearance was essen"tially necessary to the defence and well-being of the "community; for, had they persisted in claiming their principal, the whole must have fallen on the landed in"terest, or the result must have been such as I dare not "mention, or hardly think of. And is the service then "rendered to the country to be now repaid by a com"pulsory reduction of their dividends? I call it

compulsory, for any reduction by terror can only be "described by that name.' The country gentlemen were in general eager for Barnard's plan; and it was not without much adroitness and several Parliamentary manœuvres, on the part of the Minister, that it was at length rejected by a large majority.

But the principal hopes of the Opposition in this year rested on Frederick Prince of Wales, whose secret encouragement had now ripened into open support. His disagreements with his father were by no means of recent date. Even whilst he remained at Hanover, and whilst his father, as Prince of Wales, had gone to England, they were near enough to bicker. His own wishes were strongly fixed on an alliance with the Princess Royal of Prussia, the same who afterwards became Margravine of Bareith, and who, in her Memoirs, has left us a strange, and probably exaggerated, portrait of all her own relations. The marriage was earnestly desired by the Queen

of Prussia, and, indeed, by the chief members of both families; but the brutal temper of the King, who used to beat his daughter, and who wished to behead his son*, and the personal antipathy between him and his cousin George the Second, finally broke off the negotiations. Prince Frederick, in as much despair as a lover can be who has never seen his mistress, sent from Hanover one La Motte as his agent, to assure the Queen of Prussia that he was determined, in spite of his father, still to conclude the marriage, and that he would set off in disguise for Berlin to execute his purpose. But the Queen, in an overflowing transport of delight, could not refrain from imparting the good news to the English envoy at her Court. He, as was his duty, gave timely notice to his own; the rash project was prevented t; and the headstrong Prince was summoned to England, where, as I have already noticed, he arrived, to the great joy of the nation, in 1728.

For some years after his arrival, the Prince remained tranquil; but, as he became familiar with the English language and customs, and conscious of his own importance, he entered more and more into cabals against his parents. His character was weak, yet stubborn; with generous impulses, and not without accomplishments; but vain, fond of flattery, and easily led by flatterers. Even after his marriage, and whilst devoted to his wife, he thought it incumbent upon him to affect the character of a man of intrigue: this reputation, and not beauty, appears to have been his aim; and his principal favourite, Lady Middlesex, is described as very short, very plain, "and very yellow, and full of Greek and Latin!" He professed a love of literature, and a patronage of men of

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*Besides the Mémoires de Bareith, passim, see Lord Chesterfield's despatch to the Plenipotentiaries, September 15. 1730. Appendix. † Mém. de Bareith, vol. i. p. 154.

Horace Walpole's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 65. In his Appendix (p. 500.) are printed some French and English songs of the Prince on the Princess, whom he calls his Sylvia. One stanza ends thus:

"Peu d'amis, reste d'un naufrage,

"Je rassemble autour de moi,

"Et me ris de l'étalage

talents; partly, I believe, from opposition to his father, who had always despised the first, and neglected the latter. Thus it had happened, at last, that nearly all the wit and genius were ranged on the side of Opposition. To these the Prince's house was always open: Pulteney, Chesterfield, Wyndham, Carteret, and Cobham became his familiar friends, and the "all accomplished St. John," the Mentor of his political course. It was with a view to his future reign, and as an oblique satire on his father's, that the fine essay of Bolingbroke, the "Patriot King," was composed. The rising men of talent, also (Pitt and Lyttleton especially), were taken into his confidence, and afterwards into his household.

The marriage of Frederick, in April, 1736, to Augusta of Saxe Gotha, a Princess of beauty and excellent judgment, did not, as was hoped, restore union to the Royal Family. It is remarkable, that the Address to the King on this occasion was moved by Pulteney, and that the principal speakers rose from the ranks of the Opposition. Pitt and Lyttleton both made their first speeches that evening; and the performance of the former is highly praised by a contemporary; yet the subject seems to admit of little eloquence and less variety; and the comparison with Demosthenes and Cicero is evidently an anticipation. So much are men mistaken at their outset, that Lyttleton appears to have been considered the greater of the two; and Pope calls him "the rising genius of this 'age."†

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*

Immediately after the Prince's marriage, his narrow income became the constant theme of his complaints. His father, as Prince of Wales, had been allowed 100,000/. from a Civil List of 700,000l. a year; how unjust, therefore, that he should receive only 50,000l. from a Civil List of 800,000l.! It might have been observed that George the Second, when Prince, had to maintain a large family in suitable splendour; but all such considerations are usually leapt over by self-interest. The Prince's mind continually reverted to a scheme which Bolingbroke

* Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 301.

1739.

I gather this expression from Swift's answer to Pope, May 10.

had first suggested two years before, and which, on leav ing England, had been his parting advice to set the King at defiance, and apply to Parliament for a permanent income of 100,000l. a year. Some of his best friends remonstrated warmly against this violent measure; amongst others, Dodington, afterwards Lord Melcombe, a man of some talent, and, as patron of two boroughs, of considerable influence, who has left a curious and minute account of this transaction.* He earnestly endeavoured to dissuade Frederick from thus dragging his private differences into public view, and forcing every one to declare either against the King or against the Prince; but His Royal Highness remained immovable, and used only what an acute traveller has called the Italian mode of argument; that is, repeating again and again the same original assertion!†

In general, however, the Opposition were far from displeased at the prospect thus afforded of perplexing the Monarch and defeating the Minister. Pulteney consented to bring the question forward; Sir John Barnard promised his support; and Sir William Wyndham answered for the Tories, declaring that they had long desired an opportunity of showing their attachment to the Prince, and proving that they were not, as falsely represented, Jacobites. The question derived still more interest from the ill health of the King, who was at this time suffering under a low fever, and by many persons not expected to survive. This circumstance, while it aggravated the undutiful conduct of the Prince, induced many more politicians to approve it.

The King, on his part, at last hearing of his son's design, was persuaded by Walpole to send him a message,

* Appendix to Dodington's Diary. His first name had been Bubb; and he has already been mentioned as Minister at Madrid in 1715. See vol. i. p. 282.

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† Il répond aux objections à la manière Italienne; c'est de répéter en criant un peu plus la phrase à laquelle on vient de répondre." (Stendhal, Rome et Naples, p. 99.)

I heard this day, from a pretty good hand, that His Majesty has "been worse than they cared to own. The physicians say "that if he does get over his illness, he cannot live a twelvemonth." Opinions of the Duchess of Marlborough, February 6. 1737. See also Dodington's Narrative.

promising to settle a jointure upon the Princess, and, though not augmenting the Prince's income, to make it independent, and out of His Majesty's control. This message was delivered by several great officers of state, especially Lord Hardwicke, who had just succeeded Lord Talbot as Chancellor; but it produced only some civil expressions from Frederick, without any change of purpose.* On the very next day, the 22d of February, 1737, Pulteney made his motion in the House of Commons, in the form of an Address, beseeching the King to settle upon the Prince 100,000l. a year, and promising that the House would enable him effectually to perform the same. He was seconded by Sir John Barnard. Their arguments, couched in very moderate and cautious terms, turned chiefly on historical precedents of heirs apparent and presumptive, who, it was maintained, had a right to a sufficient and settled income. Walpole began his reply by declaring that he had never risen to speak with more pain and reluctance; but that, from his personal knowledge of the two great characters concerned, he was convinced that neither of them would think himself injured because any gentleman gave his opinion or vote freely in Parliament. He said that he had the King's commands to acquaint them with the particulars of the message delivered to the Prince on the preceding day, and of His Royal Highness's answer; that 50,000l. a year, with the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall, amounting to about 10,000l. more, formed a competent allowance for the heir apparent; and that the King could afford no more from the Civil List; that to interfere between father and son would be highly indecorous; and that no real precedent for it could be adduced, except under Henry the Sixth, a prince so weak, that the Parliament found it necessary to assume several rights and privileges to which they were not properly entitled.

The King's ill health, however, made more impression than the Minister's arguments, and greatly reduced the usual majority of the latter: nay, he would even have been left in a minority, had Wyndham been able to fulfil his promise when he answered for his friends. But the

* Lord Hardwicke's Narrative. Hardwicke Papers.