250 ENGLAND. 



was sent, in 1759, with a squadron of six ships to the West Indies, 

 where he took and demolished Porto Bello; but being a hot intracta- 

 ble man, he miscarried in his other attempts, especially that upon 

 Carthagena, in which some thousands of British lives were wantonly- 

 thrown away. The opposition exulted in Vernon's success, and 

 afterwards imputed his miscarriages to the minister's starving the 

 war, by withholding the means for carrying it on. The general 

 election approaching, so prevalent was the interest of the prince of 

 Wales in England, and that of the duke of Argyle in Scotland, that a 

 majority was returned to parliament who were no friends to the min- 

 ister ; and, after a few trying divisions, he retired from the house j, 

 on the 9th of February, 1742, he was created earl of Oxford, and en 

 the 1 1th resigned all his employments. 



George II bore the loss of his minister with the greatest equani- 

 mity, and even conferred titles of honour, and posts of distinction, 

 upon the heads of the opposition. At the same time, the death of 

 the emperor Charles VI, the danger of the pragmatic sanction (which 

 meant the succession of his daughter to all the Austrian dominions) 

 through the ambition of France, who had filled all Germany with 

 her armies, and many other concurrent causes, induced George to 

 take the leading part in a continental war. He was encouraged to 

 this by lord Carteret, afterwards earl of Grenville, an able but head- 

 strong minister, whom George had made his secretary of state, and 

 indeed by the voice of the nation in general. George accordingly 

 put himself at the head of his army, fought and gained the battle of 

 Dettingen, June 16, 1748; but would not sutler his general, the earl of 

 Stair, to improve the blow, which was thought to proceed from ten- 

 derness for his electoral dominions. 



Great Britain was then engaged in a very expensive war both 

 against the French and Spaniards ; and her enemies thought to avail 

 themselves of the general discontent that had prevailed in England on 

 account of Hanover. This naturally suggested to them the idea of 

 applying to the Pretender, who resided at Rome ; and he agreed that 

 his eldest son Charles should repair to France ; from whence he set 

 sail, and narrowly escaped, with a few followers, in a frigate, to the 

 western coasts of Scotland, between the islands of Mull and Sky, 

 where he discovered himself, assembled his followers, and published 

 a manifesto exciting the nation to a rebellion. 



The government never so thoroughly experienced, as it did at 

 that time, the benefit of the public debt for the support of the Revo- 

 lution. The French and the Jacobite party (for such there was at 

 that time in England) had laid a deep scheme of distressing the 

 Bank; but common danger abolished all distinctions, and united them 

 in the defence of one interest, which was private property. The 

 merchants undertook, in their address to the king, to support it by 

 receiving bank notes in payment. This seasonable measure saved 

 public credit ; but the defeat of the rebels by the duke of Cumber- 

 land at Culloden, in the year 1746, did not restore tranquillity to 

 Europe. Though the prince of Orange, son-in-law to his majesty 

 George II, was, by the credit of his majesty, and the spirit of the 

 people of the United Provinces, raised to be their stadtholder, the 

 Dutch never could be brought to act heartily in the war. The allies 

 were defeated at Val, near Maestricht, and the duke of Cumberland 

 was in danger of being made prisoner. Bergen-op-Zoom was taken. 

 The allies suffered other disgraces on the continent j and it now be- 



