1748.

66

RESENTMENT AT VIENNA AND TURIN.

347

"Chesterfield told me six months ago, that it would be so;" and the Earl himself could not refrain from boasting how his predictions were fulfilled. "I am heartily glad," he writes, "that the peace is made. I was for "making it sooner, and consequently better. I foresaw "and foretold our weakness this campaign, and would have "prevented by a timely negotiation, last October, those "evident dangers to which it must necessarily expose us, "and which we have escaped more by our good fortune "than our wisdom. I may add, that my resignation "made this peace, as it opened people's eyes as to the dangers of the war. The Republic is saved by it from "utter ruin, and England from bankruptcy." *

At the same time, however, indignation and resentment prevailed at the Courts of Turin and of Vienna. The King of Sardinia could ill brook the alienation of Placentia and Finale; and the Empress Queen, in spite of every representation from Sir Thomas Robinson, not only refused to concur in the preliminaries †, but publicly protested against them. The whole summer was consumed before these obstacles could be surmounted; but the negotiations at Aix were still conducted by Lord Sandwich, and he received directions, partly from Mr. Pelham and the Government in London, and partly from the King and the Duke of Newcastle, who had repaired to Hanover. At length, after a tangled web of most wearisome discussions, a definitive treaty was signed in October by all the belligerent powers. This peace confirmed and established the terms of the preliminaries, but it contained no stipulation on the first cause of the war, the commercial claims of England upon Spain; and it was clogged with a clause most unwelcome to the British pride that hostages should be given to France for the restitution of Cape Breton. Two noblemen of distinguished rank, the Earl of Sussex and Lord Cathcart, were accordingly selected for this purpose and sent *To Mr. Dayrolles, May 13. 1748.

Her Majesty's passionate exclamations at the news -"I am "neither a child nor a fool! . . . Good God! how have I been "used!.. There is your King of Prussia! . . . . No, no, I will "rather lose my head;" &c. may be seen from Robinson's despatches in Coxe's House of Austria, vol. iii. p. 353.

to Paris. At the news of their arrival, Prince Charles, it is said, displayed the highest indignation, and exclaimed with more of patriotism than of prudence, "If "ever I mount the throne of my ancestors, Europe shall "see me use my utmost endeavours to force France in "her turn to send hostages to England!"*

The definitive treaty being thus concluded, it became necessary for France to fulfil its engagement with regard to the expulsion of the young Pretender. On his return from Scotland, Charles had been favourably received by Louis; a burst of applause had signalised his first appearance at the Opera; and he found that both by King and people his exploits were admired, and his sufferings deplored. For some of his most faithful followers, as Lochiel and Lord Ogilvie, he had obtained commissions in the French service; and a pension of 40,000 livres yearly had been granted him for the relief of the rest; but when he applied for military succours-urging that a new expedition should be fitted out and placed at his disposal he found the Court of Versailles turn a deaf ear to his demands. Once, indeed, it was hinted to him by Cardinal Tencin, that the Ministers might not be disinclined to meet his views, provided, in case of his success, the kingdom of Ireland should be yielded as a province to the crown of France. But the high spirit of Charles could ill brook this degrading offer. Scarcely had Tencin concluded, when the Prince, starting from his seat and passionately pacing the room, cried out, NON MONSIEUR LE CARDINAL! TOUT OU RIEN! POINT DE PARTAGE! The Cardinal, alarmed at his demeanour, hastened to assure him that the idea was entirely his own, conceived from his great affection to the Exiled Family, and not at all proceeding from, or known to, King Louis.†

The applications of Charles were not confined to France; early in 1747, he undertook an adventurous journey to Madrid, and obtained an audience of the King and Queen, but found them so much in awe of the British Court, as to allow him only a few hours' stay.‡

*Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 578.

† Ibid., vol. ii. p. 568.

See a very curious account of this journey by Charles himself in his letter of March 12. 1747. Appendix.

1748.

66

PRINCE CHARLES AGAIN AT PARIS.

349

He next turned his hopes towards Frederick of Prussia. In April 1748 he despatched Sir John Graham to Berlin with instructions, "To propose, in a modest manner, a marriage with one of them. To declare that I never t intend to marry but a Protestant; and, if the King re"fuses an alliance with him, to ask advice whom to take, "as he is known to be the wisest Prince in Europe."* This scheme, however, though promising success for a short time, ended like the rest in failure.

Ere long, moreover, domestic discord arose to embitter the coldness or hostility of strangers. Charles's brother having secretly quitted Paris without any previous notice to him, had returned to Rome and resolved to enter Holy Orders. With the concurrence of the old Pretender, and by a negotiation with the Pope, he was suddenly named a Cardinal, on the 3rd of July, 1747, the design being concealed from Charles until a few days before, so as to guard against his expected opposition. It is difficult to describe with how much consternation the tidings struck the exiled Jacobites; several did not hesitate to declare it of much worse consequence to them than even the battle of Culloden. Charles himself, as he was the most injured, appeared the most angry; he broke off all correspondence whatever with his brother, and his letters to his father from this time forward became brief, cold, and constrained.

At the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the French Court, though willing to relinquish Charles's cause, and to stipulate his exclusion from their territories, were not wholly unmindful of his interests nor of their promises. They proposed to establish him at Friburg, in Switzerland, with the title of Prince of Wales, a company of guards, and a sufficient pension. In Charles's circumstances there was certainly no better course to take than

* Instructions for Sir John Graham in Charles's writing, and dated April 4. 1748. Stuart Papers. It is remarkable that the Duke of Newcastle writes to the Lord Chancellor, September 21. 1753: "The King of Prussia is now avowedly the principal, if not "the sole, support of the Pretender and of the Jacobite cause." Coxe's Pelham.

† James to Prince Charles, June 13. 1747. See Appendix. Mr. Hay to Mr. Edgar, July 26. 1747. Stuart Papers.

to accept these terms. But the lower he sank in fortunes the higher he thought himself bound to rise in spirit. He placed a romantic point of honour in braving the "orders from Hanover," as he called them, and positively refused to depart from Paris. Threats, entreaties, arguments were tried on him in vain. He withstood even a letter, obtained from his father at Rome, and commanding kis departure. He still, perhaps, nourished some secret expectation that King Louis would not venture to use force against a kinsman; but he found himself deceived. As he went to the Opera on the evening of the 11th of December, his coach was stopped by a party of French guards, himself seized, bound hand and foot, and conveyed, with a single attendant, to the state-prison of Vincennes, where he was thrust into a dungeon, seven feet wide and eight long. After this public insult, and a few days' confinement, he was carried to Pont de Beauvoisin, on the frontier of Savoy, and there restored to his wandering and desolate freedom.*

The first place to which Charles repaired upon his liberation was the Papal city of Avignon. But in a very few weeks he again set forth, attended only by Colonel Goring, and bearing a fictitious name. From this time forward his proceedings during many years are wrapped in mystery; all his correspondence passed through the hands of Mr. Walters, his banker at Paris: even his warmest partisans were seldom made acquainted with his place of abode; and though he still continued to write to his father at intervals, his letters were never dated. Neither friends nor enemies at that time could obtain any certain information of his movements or designs. Now, however, it is known that he visited Venice and Germany, that he resided secretly for some time at Paris, that he undertook a mysterious journey to England in 1750, and perhaps another in 1752, or 1753; but his principal residence was in the territory of his friend the Duke de Bouillon, where, surrounded by the wide and lonely forest of Ardennes, his active spirit sought in the

Charles wrote a most minute account of this transaction, in the third person; it was published as "Lettre d'un officier Français à son "ami à Londres ;" and the MS. is still amongst the Stuart Papers.

1748.

rest.

MISS WALKINSHAW.

351

dangerous chase of boars and wolves an image of the warlike enterprise which was denied him. It was not till the death of his father in 1766 that he returned to Rome, and became reconciled to his brother. But his character had darkened with his fortunes. A long train of disappointments and humiliations working on a fiery mind, spurred it almost into frenzy, and degraded it. The habit of drinking, which for some years he indulged without restraint, seems to have been first formed during his Highland adventures and escapes; when a dram of whiskey might sometimes supply the want of food and of Thus was the habit acquired, and, once acquired, it continued after the cause of it had ceased, and even grew amidst the encouragement of his exiled friends. The earliest hint I have found of this vice in Charles, is in a letter of April, 1747, addressed to Lord Dunbar, but only signed by the initial of the writer.* It alleges that an Irish Cordelier, named Kelly, has of late been much in the Prince's society and confidence; that Kelly loves good wine with all the fervour of a monk; and that, by this means, "His Royal Highness's character in point of sobriety has been a little blemished." A century before, Lord Clarendon reproaches the banished loyalists with intemperance*, at all times the fatal resource of poverty and sorrow; but the Prince, who could not relieve them by his bounty, should at least have forborne from degrading them by his example.

66

Still more imprudent, perhaps, was his conduct with regard to Miss Walkinshaw. This lady, it is said, first became known to him in Scotland; he sent for her some years after his return from that country, and soon allowed her such dominion over him that she became acquainted with all his schemes, and trusted with his most secret correspondence. As soon as this was known in England, his principal adherents took alarm, believing that she was in the pay of the English Ministers, and observing that her sister was housekeeper of the Dowager Princess of Wales. So much did they think their own safety endangered, that they despatched Mr. Mac

*Stuart Papers. See Appendix.

Life of the Earl of Clarendon by himself, vol. i. p. 353. ed. 1827.