K I T A I N. 



62.5 



misled him ; yet the blame of his fiicrificimj the peace 

 - - of England to his qu .lector or Hanover, 



appears by no means entirely transferable to his mi- 



; on _ led to his fath* r in the -Kill 



rye ye. Hi:' abilities were weaker, but h;s 



prejudices, especially his continental partialities, were 

 stronger than those of the late king. The various 

 subsidies of the last reign, which had already swelled 

 the national debt to the amount of fifty-two millions, 

 and the foreign connections which occasioned that ex- 

 penee, were still continued. The ministerial power 

 was still divided among a party who had long main- 

 tained an ascendency. Lord Townseud conducted 

 foreign negotiations. The Duke of Newcastle was of 

 consequence from his influence in parliament, though 

 without eloquence or intellectual merit. Lord Ches- 

 terfield, with brilliant powers, was contented to act 

 subordinately to men of inferior genius to himself. 



f Sir Robert Walpole was at the head of the treasury. 



. He possessed a species of eloquence, dispassionate, 

 plausible, and easy, though neither elegant nor ner- 

 vous. He was well acquainted with finance ; had 

 been regarded as a martyr to his party under the in- 

 fluence of the Tories; and a dangerous rival of Sun- 

 derland himself. He headed that party which was 

 called the court party, (for the distinction of Whigs 

 and Tories was not now entirely applicable to the 

 factions of the state). Their favourite measures 

 were, forming foreign alliances ; the subsidizing fo- 

 reign troops; and alarming the country and House 

 of Commons with the supposed dangers of tin state. 

 The country party, on the contrary, deprecated fo- 

 reign connections, and the maintenance of large ar- 

 mies, as dangerous to public liberty at home, and ex- 

 pensive when subsidized abroad. The leaders of this 

 party were Sir William Wyndham, an energetic 

 speaker; Mr Shippen, calm, intrepid, shrewd, and 

 sarcastic ; Mr Hungerford, who was insinuating and 

 ironical ; and Mr Pitt, who was now rising into emi- 

 nence, for the fiery vehemence of his genius, and the 

 extent of his knowledge. It required all the phleg 

 matic fortitude of Walpole to stand the united at- 

 tacks of these orators. Secure, indeed, in the sys- 

 tem of corruption which he had matured in the 

 House of Commons, he was always sure of majori- 

 ties, but he was frequently baffled in argument by 

 those whom he beat by means of numbers. 



f*. The principal subjects of these disputes, during 



the first pacific years of George II. were the settL-- 

 ment of the civil list ; * the mutiny bill ; the pension 

 list ; the number of the standing army, which Mr 

 Pulteney and the patriotic party wished to be redu 

 ced to 12,000 ; the subsidies to the German princes ; 

 and the treaties which were concluded with foreign 

 powers. Of these, the most important were the 

 treaties of Seville and Vienna. Their professed ob- 

 ject was to confirm the quadruple alliance ; but a 

 particular stipulation was added, for the succession 

 of the Infant of Spain, Don Carlos, to the duchies 

 of Tuscany, Parma, and Plactntia. That prince 

 was accordingly, upon the death of the Duke of 

 Parma, by the assistance of an English fleet, put in 



Britain. 



of Parma und Placcntin 



()'()()() i| tiy of Tus- 



Mi of ih.it kingdom. 



The BUCC< r .* of the min':.try, in , and 



supplies, v I, in one instance, not by par- 



liament, but I' i "'Titselves. T" j r vent 



tin- factors in London, who 

 employed by the American planters in selling 

 their tobacco, Walpole proposed, instead of levying 

 the custom:, in th- usual manner upon tobacco, that 

 what was imported should be lodged in warehoused 

 appointed for that purpose by the officers of the 

 crown, and thence be told, after paying the duty of 

 fourpcnce per pound, when the proprietor found a 

 market for it. The proposal raised such a ferment 

 in London, thaf the avenues to the house of parlia- 

 ment were choaked with enraged multitudes, and the 

 minister began o be in fear of his life. The propo- 

 sal was carried in the house ; but the ministry thought 

 proper to appease the public by dropping the scheme ; 

 and the triumph was celebrated with public rejoi- 

 cings. 



The success of the opposition on this occasion, in- The oppo- 

 duced them to attempt a repeal of the septennial, sitinnmcm- 

 and to restore triennial parliaments : but in this, as '' er * retire 



in other efforts, they were outnumbered ; and, in .. m P ar " 



f . , . ' . r Jiament. 



despair ot being able to stem the torrent ot corrup- 

 tion, they retired to their seats in the country, lea- 

 ving the minister and his corrupted lollowers iu un- 

 disputed majority in the commons. 



The minister being now left, for a while, without 

 an opposition, took an opportunity to render his ri- 

 vals odious or contemptible, by getting several use- 

 ful laws passed in their absence ; but a fresh opposi- 

 tion soon sprung up, and it was increased by the 

 partizans of the Prince of Wales : a prince that was 

 the darling of the people, and the enemy of a venal 

 ministry. He had lately married the Princess of 

 Saxe-Gotha. During the confinement of the prin- 

 cess in childbed, a message from the king produced 

 a misunderstanding, which at last occasioned his 

 royal highness bring forbidden the court. A mo- 

 tion which was made by the prince's friends, to in- 

 crease his settlement from L. 50.000 to L. 100,000, 

 was rejected in the commons tlm.ugh the influence 

 of Walpole, although it was proved, that, according 

 to his majesty's own regulation, his establishment re- 

 quired L. 6".. 000 per annum. 



At a certain period of civilization and information, 

 the press comes to possess, among a free people, a 

 power equal or superior to any constituted authority. 

 This formidable organ of public sentiments, Walpole 

 had severely felt ; but he had successfully used the 

 art of bribery, to attach the herd of ephemeral poli- 

 tical writers to his cause: but the theatre, however, 

 threatened to add ridicule to public scrutiny. To 

 silence these, he brought in a bill to limit the num- 

 ber of playhouses, and to subject all dramatic writ- 

 ings, before their appearance, to the inspection of the 

 lord chamiierlain. Among 'he opposers of the bill, 

 the Earl of Chesterfield spoke <vith becoming zeal 

 in behalf of literary liberty. " If stage- play era (said 

 his lordship) exceed the bounds of propriety, they 



civil list was fixed at 800,000 : its arrears were afterwards made up by considerable sums that were. voted. 

 VOL. IV. PART II. 4" K 



