1744.

CHESTERFIELD AND PITT.

187

During this time the Parliament had met, when there appeared a dead calm in both Houses, and in consequence of it a very thin attendance. The leaders had imposed silence on their party; but this interval of apparent tranquillity was filled up by active negotiations and conferences among themselves. But here, again, the utmost difficulties were encountered from the King's personal aversion, especially to Lord Chesterfield and Mr. Pitt. His Majesty warmly resented the zeal of both against his Hanoverian objects, nor had he forgotten Chesterfield's connection with the Duchess of Kendal, and claims under the Will of George the First.* He was also- and it must be owned not unreasonably-displeased at the prospect that an undoubted adherent of the exiled family, like Sir John Hinde Cotton, should be forced into the nominal service of his own.†

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The repugnance of George prevailed in a few cases; in most others it was surmounted by the necessity of his affairs, he exclaiming with bitterness," Ministers are the King in this country!" As the Tories continued to insist on some place for Cotton, as the condition of their support, he was appointed Treasurer of the Chamber in the Royal Household. Lord Gower resumed the Privy Seal; and, according to the elder Horace Walpole, "several other "Tories, knights of the shire, were offered places by the "mediation of Gower, but serving for Jacobite counties "could not hazard a new election, and therefore declined "the offer, of which they have since made a merit with "their party. This made room for more of the patriot "kind." The King's objections to Chesterfield were so far complied with, that the Earl consented to be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland instead of Secretary of State; the

*See vol. ii. p. 111.

A caricature was circulated, representing the Ministers thrusting Sir John Hinde Cotton, who was extremely corpulent, down the King's throat. (Coxe's Life of Horace Lord Walpole, p. 276.) It would seem that political caricatures were much in vogue, in England, at that period; two very curious ones are mentioned in a letter of Earl Marischal, of November 4. 1743. See Appendix.

Notes of Conversation between the King and Lord Chancellor. Coxe's Pelham, vol. i. p. 202.

§ To Mr. Trevor, December 28. 1744.

former post not requiring, and indeed precluding, his frequent access to the Royal presence. The Duke of Devonshire, the devoted friend of Walpole, and often called by him "the rough diamond,"* became Lord Steward. The Duke of Bedford was made First Lord of the Admiralty, with the Earl of Sandwich as second Commissioner. A seat at the same board, for George Grenville, gratified his uncle Lord Cobham. In the room of Lord Sandys, Lord Bathurst, and Sir John Rushout, stepped in Waller, Dodington, and Lord Hobart, while a Lordship of the Treasury was conferred on Lyttleton.

Pitt alone was placeless. He loftily declared that he would accept no office, except that of Secretary at War, and the Ministers were not yet able to dispense with Sir William Yonge in that department. This resolution of Pitt, joined to the King's pertinacity against him, excluded him, for the present, from any share of power. But the Pelhams felt his importance, and anxiously courted his aid. They promised to take the earliest opportunity to soften or subdue the prejudice against him which rankled in the Royal mind; and they were sincere in that promise. Their great object was to prevent the return of Granville to office; their great dread, that Granville might form a party in the Lower House: and it was, therefore, their evident policy to attempt no deception, and to give no offence to any Commoner, so able and aspiring as Pitt. On the other hand, Pitt cheerfully concurred in the new arrangements; he resigned his place in the Household of the Prince, who had fallen into great contempt, by clinging, like the King, but against his own former professions, to Hanover and Granville; and he undertook to support the Ministerial measures in the House of Commons. An opportunity for Pitt's public declaration was afforded in the January ensuing, when Sir William Yonge moved a grant for continuing the army in Flanders; a grant which the patriots had heretofore strenuously opposed. Pitt, at this time, was disabled with gout, and painfully, nay dangerously ill; yet he desired to be carried to his place, and, rising upon his crutches, spoke with undiminished eloquence and fire. If," said he, "this were to be the

*H. Walpole's Memoirs of George the Second, vol. i. p. 170.

1745.

66

"last day of my life, I would spend it in the House of "Commons, since I judge the condition of my country to "be worse than even that of my own health." He argued, that the question was changed since the preceding year, when a certain fatal influence prevailed in His Majesty's councils. The object seemed then to multiply war upon war, expense upon expense, and to abet the House of Austria in such romantic attempts, as the recovery of the AVULSA MEMBRA IMPERII, without regard to the immediate interest of Great Britain. "The object now is," he continued, "to enable ourselves by a close connection with Holland, to hold out equitable terms of peace, both to "friends and foes, without continuing the war a moment 66 longer than is necessary for our own rights and those of our allies. We are now free of that Minister, who, "when not ten men in the nation were disposed to follow "him, supported himself in the Closet, on that broken "reed, a dependence on foreign Princes." He then proceeded to compliment Mr. Pelham on his genuine patriotism and capacity for business, and the new Ministry, for pursuing moderate and healing measures. "I perceive," he exclaimed, 66 a dawn of salvation in my country breaking "forth, and I will follow it as far as it will lead me. I "should, indeed, consider myself as the greatest dupe in "the world, if those now at the helm did not mean the "honour of their master, and the good of the nation. "I find myself deceived, nothing will be left but to act "with an honest despair!" A Member present, no friend of Pitt, declares that "his fulminating eloquence silenced "all opposition," and the question passed with only a single negative from Lord Strange.*

If

Indeed, so thoroughly were the leading members, whether Tory or Patriot, reconciled by the recent changes, that the Ministers might boast to the King, "If your "Majesty looks round the House of Commons, you will "find no man of business, or even of weight, left, capable

*For this remarkable debate see Mr. Yorke's Journal (Parl. Hist. vol. xiii. p. 1052.) and Mr. Cornabé's letter, January 25. 1745, in my Appendix. Sir Watkin Wynn also spoke for the question, saying, that he agreed with the Court for the first time in his life. On the other hand, Sir R. Newdigate drily called it " an old measure "from a new Ministry:" but he was put down by Pitt.

❝ of heading or conducting an Opposition."* And though some change occurred in that respect, yet still, from this period to the death of Mr. Pelham, in 1754, the Opposition was so feeble, that the debates in Parliament dwindled almost to insignificance; they made far less impression on the people, and should fill a much briefer space in History. Thus, for example, the remainder of the Session of 1745 was marked by no important division, and produced only some proceedings on the conduct of the Admirals in the Mediterranean; a silly motion of Mr. Carew for Annual Parliaments; and an attack upon the City Act of 1725 †, which was repelled this year, but to which Mr. Pelham prudently yielded in the next.

It must, however, be acknowledged, that no sooner had Granville fallen, than the Ministers readily slid into what they had previously denounced as "his abominable courtly

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measures." The Hanoverian system was as steadily pursued, the English money as lavishly supplied. All objection to the King's favourite wish at this moment — a new Saxon subsidy-disappeared, as soon as the Minister who urged it was removed. In January, 1745, a Quadruple Alliance was concluded between England, Holland, Austria, and Saxony; by which, the latter power engaged to furnish 30,000 men for the defence of Bohemia, in consideration of a subsidy of 150,000l., two thirds of this to be paid by England, and one third by Holland. But the system of German subsidies did not end here; such examples are contagious; and there was scarcely a Prince in the Empire, who did not, henceforth, think himself entitled to the praise and pay of Great Britain, even when he only defended his own dominions. The Elector of Cologne was gratified with 24,000l.; another sum of 8,000l. was not too small to tempt the Elector of Mayencé. All these, as well as an increased subsidy of half a million

* Notes of conversation between the King and Lord Chancellor. January 5. 1745.

† See vol. ii. p. 76.

An expression of the Duke of Newcastle. See Coxe's Lord Walpole of Wolterton, p. 377. The Duke, with a faint effort at consistency, writes to his brother, December 30. 1744, "We must not, "because we seem to be in, forget all we said to keep Lord Granville "out!"

.1745.

THE GERMAN SUBSIDIES.

191

to the Queen of Hungary, being supported by the patriots, were readily passed by the British Parliament.

With respect to the Hanoverian and Hessian mercenaries, they were indeed dismissed the British service, but by a private agreement with the Queen of Hungary, they were immediately taken into Austrian pay; and it was with this very view, that her subsidy had been raised from 300,000l. to 500,000l. The only difference was therefore, that, in the first case, the same foreign troops were paid by British money directly, and in the second case, indirectly. Nay, more; when the outcry against the Hanoverians had died away, the Ministers, knowing that popular clamour can scarce ever be effectually revived upon the same subject, reverted to their former plan. In 1746, 18,000 Hanoverians were once more taken into British pay, and the new Parliament of the ensuing year voted 22,000.

In all these measures, a strong case of inconsistency may unquestionably be established against the statesmen who, having first vehemently opposed, afterwards brought forward or acquiesced in them. My admiration of Chatham does not lead me to assert the perfection, though it does the purity, of his whole political career. Yet, with respect to the Hanover forces, voted after 1745, we should remember that the rebellion, which had manifested the strength of discontent and the want of troops at home, placed their engagement on a new foundation of experience, and afforded far more justifiable grounds for their support.

The new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, before proceeding to his Government, consented to undertake another embassy to the Hague, to endeavour to bring the Dutch into a more hearty co-operation in the war. In this object every preceding negotiator had failed; Chesterfield in a great measure succeeded. His knowledge of Dutch politics and statesmen, derived from his former mission, the high reputation which he had then left behind, joined to his insinuating manners and skilful address, in a few weeks prevailed over the greatest obstacles.* The Dutch were

* See an account of his proceeding, with the French envoy, Abbé de la Ville, in a letter to his son, September 29. 1752. See also Maty's Life, p. 236-243.