143 



TOWNSHEND, VISCOUNT. 



TOWNSHEND, VISCOUNT. 



141 



the fall. This offer, conveyed by Stanhope, together with the announce- 

 ment of his dismissal from the secretaryship, was indignantly refused. 

 "I am highly sensible," Lord Townshend wrote to the king, "of the 

 honour which your majesty confers on me by condescending to appoint 

 me lord-lieutenant of Ireland ; but as my domestic affairs do not permit 

 me to reside out of England, I should hold myself to be totally 

 unworthy of the choice which your majesty has been pleased to make, 

 if I were capable of enjoying the large appointments annexed to that 

 honourable office without doing the duty." (Coxe's ' Memoirs of Sir 

 R. Walpole,' vol. i., p. 191.) This was irony aimed at Sunderland, 

 who had been lord-lieutenant from George I.'s accession, and had never 

 visited Ireland. Sir Robert Walpole wrote to Stanhope, who had 

 urgently solicited his mediation with Townshend, to prevail on him 

 to accept the lord-lieutenancy ''When you desired me to prevail with 

 my Lord Townshend to acquiesce in what is carved out for him, I 

 cannot but say you desired an impossibility ; and 'tis fit you should 

 know that there is not one of the cabinet council with whom you and 

 Lord Sunderland have agreed in all things for so many years, but 

 think that, considering all the circumstances and manner of doing 

 this, nobody could advise him to accept of the lieutenancy of Ireland. 



And be assured that whosoever sent over the account of any 



intrigues or private correspondence betwixt us and the two brothers, 

 or any management in the least tending to any view or purpose but 

 the service, honour, and interest of the king I must repeat it, be 

 assured, they will be found, pardon the expression, confounded liars 

 from the beginning to the end." ('Id.,' vol. i., p. 310.) And in 

 another letter to Stanhope, whose conduct on this occasion was mis- 

 apprehended, not perhaps unnaturally, by Townshend and Walpole, 

 the latter made this pointed appeal : " What could prevail on you to 

 enter into such a scheme as this, and appear to be the chief actor in 

 it, and undertake to carry it through in all events, without which it 

 would not have been undertaken, is unaccountable. I do swear to 



you that Lord Townshend has no way deserved it of you 



Believe me, Stanhope, he never thought you could enter into a combi- 

 nation with his enemies." (' Id.,' p. 3 1 0.) Stanhope had concurred in 

 the king's resentment against Townsheud, when he was supposed to be 

 purposely delaying the French treaty, and had showed his feeling by 

 immediately tendering his resignation, which the king refused. But 

 having been satisfied that his suspicions against Townshend on this 

 occasion had been unjust, he now had borne no other part than to 

 transmit the king's commands, and to endeavour to conciliate him 

 towards Townshend, and soften his determination. The king had 

 conceived a disgust, Stanhope wrote in his first letter on the subject 

 to Sir Robert Walpole, at Townshend's temper. The falsehoods told 

 him of Townshend's intrigues with the prince, of which Stanhope 

 naturally said nothing, but with which there is no evidence to connect 

 him, drove the king into a fury. And the determination which the 

 king had come to under the influence of those violent personal feelings 

 it was impossible to alter. Stanhope wrote to Methuen, who sided 

 with Townshend and Walpole, though he had been destined to succeed 

 Townshend: "If you have any interest or credit with them, for God's 

 sake make use of it upon this occasion. They may possibly unking 

 their master, or (which I do before God think very possible) make 

 him abdicate England, but they will certainly not force him to make 

 my Lord Townshend secretary." (' Id.') The king's desire to consult 

 the interests of the Whig party had led him, though with some 

 reluctance, to adopt Stanhope's suggestion of offering Townshend the 

 lord-lieutenancy ; and now, when he found the degree of resentment 

 felt by Walpole and many of the leading Whigs, led him also to keep 

 the appointment open till his return to England, in the hope that 

 Townshend might yield. Stanhope saw a gleam of Towiishend's 

 return to his former post if he would first accept the lord-lieutenancy, 

 and he wrote to Walpole, January 16, 1717 : " Believe me, dear Wal- 

 pole, when I swear it to you, that I do not think it possible for all the 

 men in England to prevail upon the king to re-admit my Lord Towns- 

 heud into his service, upon any other terms than of complying with 

 the offer made of Ireland. The king will exact from him this mark 

 of duty and obedience." ('Id.,' p. 319.) It was not unnatural that 

 Townshend and Walpole, at a distance from the scene of the intrigues 

 against them, indignant at the false charges of which they had heard, 

 and astounded at the strong step to which the king had, without 

 giving any notice, had recourse, should attribute to Stanhope a share 

 in the cabal against them j and such was the opinion of the public. 



The effect of Lord Townshend's dismissal, when it was made known, 

 on the public mind and on the Whig party, was such, that the king 

 took fright, and on his arrival in England sent Count Bernsdorf to 

 Lord Townshend to tell him, that having taken away the seals, though 

 perhaps on false reports and too hastily, he yet could not with due 

 regard to his own character at once restore them to him, and to beg 

 Townshend to accept the lord-lieutenancy as a temporary office, to be 

 exchanged hereafter for another more influential one. Townshend 

 now yielded, and those who had sided with him in the ministry were 

 satisfied. But the union thus effected did not last long. Stanhope 

 and Sunderland had acquired an ascendancy with the king, from which 

 they were not now to be deposed by Townshend and Walpole. These 

 showed their mortification by cold support in parliament of the minis- 

 terial measures. On the motions for granting a supply against 

 Sweden, on the 9th of April 1717, almost all Townshend's personal 



friends voted against the ministry, which narrowly escaped a defeat 

 by a majority of four. The next day Townshend received a dismissal 

 from his office of lord-lieutenant of Ireland. Walpole immediately 

 tendered his resignation, which, it is said, the king received with so 

 much surprise and sorrow, that he returned the seals to him ten times 

 before he would finally accept them. [WALPOLE, SIB ROBERT.] The 

 example of Walpole was followed by Methuen, Pulteney, the secretary 

 at war, Lord Orford, and the Duke of Devonshire. 



Lord Townshend now went into opposition, and, like Walpole, is 

 open to the charge of having out of office opposed principles and 

 measures which he had previously supported. In the differences 

 between the king and the Prince of Wales, he and Walpole were now 

 the friends of the latter. A reconciliation having been brought about 

 between the king and Prince of Wales, in April 1720, Lord Towns- 

 hend was admitted a few days after, with the Duke of Devonshire, 

 Lord Cowper, Walpole, Methuen, and Pulteney, to kiss the king's 

 hands ; and received more decided proofs of restoration to the king's 

 favour by being appointed in June one of the lords justices, on tho 

 king's going to Hanover, and president of the council. Walpole was 

 appointed at the same time paymaster of the forces. The breaking 

 up of the South Sea scheme and the deaths of Lords Stanhope and 

 Sunderland, led in 1721 to a reconstruction of the ministry, in which 

 Lord Townshend became again secretary of state, and Walpole also 

 resumed his old posts of first lord of the treasury and chancellor of 

 the exchequer. Walpole had now attained to a more influential 

 position in the country, and was considered prime minister. 



Towushend and Walpole had now again complete influence with the 

 king. Lord Carteret, who was the other secretary of state, beginning 

 together with Count Bernsdorf, to intrigue against Townshend, did 

 not find success, as Lord Sunderland had done in former days. 

 When the king went again to Hanover, Townshend now took care to 

 accompany him, and Lord Carteret accompanied him also. "The 

 superior influence of Townshend and AValpole," says Archdeacon 

 Coxe, " was not solely gained by court intrigues, or by the corruption 

 of German favourites, and was not prostituted by a preference of 

 Hanoverian interests to those of England. In the midst of these 

 cabals, the conduct of the brother ministers was firm and manly, 

 moving in direct opposition to the king's prejudices and the wishes 

 of the German junta. Townshend prevented the adoption of violent 

 measures against Russia, proposed by Bernsdorf and seconded by 

 Carteret, which, if pursued, must have involved England with the 

 czar; and he exultingly informed Walpole that the king continued 

 true to his resolution of signing no paper relating to British affairs but 

 in his presence." ('Memoirs of Sir R. Walpole,' vol. it, p. 166.) 

 Lord Carteret was removed from the secretaryship of state in 1724, 

 and made lord-lieutenant of Ireland. The Duke of Newcastle, the 

 brother of Townshend's first wife, succeeded him ; and eventually 

 became, what Carteret had been, Townshend's rival. There soon 

 arose also a coolness between Townshend and his other brother-in- 

 law, and old friend and colleague, Walpole, owing, it is supposed, to 

 their altered positions and Townshend's jealousy of Walpole's growing 

 superiority. It was not until 1730 that the breach between the two 

 brother ministers, aud Lord Townshend's resignation, took place : 

 but there were symptoms of a rising misunderstanding as early as 

 1725, two years before the death of George I. Walpole does not 

 appear to have been to blame in the beginning. 



On George II.'s accession, in June 1727, Walpole's pre-eminence 

 was fully established. During this year Townshend had a dangerous 

 illness, which was expected to be fatal ; and when he was supposed 

 to be dying, Walpole wrote, that he considered him " the bulwark of 

 the constitution," and that he trusted " Providence would interfere to 

 save the man without whom all must fall to the ground." (Coxe's 

 ' Memoirs of Sir R. Walpole,' vol. ii., p. 382.) But Walpole's generous 

 conduct was destined to be fruitless. 



In the year 1729 Walpole and Townshend had become determined 

 opponents in the ministry, and Walpole, having the support of Queen 

 Caroline, who was all-powerful with the king, had no difficulty in 

 always gaining the victory over Townshend. Almost every question 

 that arose became a subject of dispute. The Duke of Newcastle and 

 Walpole endeavoured to bring Lord Harrington into the cabinet : 

 Lord Townshend brought forward a rival candidate in Lord Stan- 

 hope, afterwards the celebrated Earl of Chesterfield. Lord Towns- 

 hend's object was defeated. Dr. Maty has related the following 

 anecdote in his 'Memoirs of Lord Chesterfield' (p. 112): "The first 

 time he" (Lord Chesterfield) "appeared at court on his return to 

 London, Sir Robert Walpole took him aside aud told him, ' I find you 

 are come to be secretary of state.' ' Not I,' said his lordship, ' I have 

 as yet no pretensions, and wish for a place of more ease. But I 



claim the garter I am a man of pleasure, and the blue riband 



would add two inches to my size.' ' Then I see how it is,' replied Sir 

 Robert, ' it is Townshend's intrigue, in which you have no share ; but 

 it will be fruitless, you cannot be secretary of state, nor shall you 

 be beholden for tho gratification of your wishes to anybody but 

 myself.' " Disputes arose also between Townshend and Newcastle on 

 an important question of foreign policy. Townshend had advised 

 strong measures against the emperor, and had obtained the consent 

 of the king to a despatch directing an invasion of the Austrian 

 Netherlands. He went out of town to Norfolk for a short time, and 



