Fille, femme, et mère de vos maîtres;
a quotation less applicable even than the former, but in which Lord Hervey detected such abundance of wit that he went into a sort of ecstasy of delight at the Queen’s judgment, humour, knowledge, and ability.
When the Excise bill was for the first time brought before the house, the debate lasted till one in the morning. Lord Hervey, during the evening, wrote an account of its progress to the King and Queen; and when he repaired to the palace at the conclusion of the discussion, the King kept him in the Queen’s bed-chamber, talking over the scene, till three o’clock in the morning, and never for a moment remembered that the hungry intelligencer had not dined since the yesterday.
When the clamour against the bill rose to such a pitch that all England, the army included, seemed ready to rise against it, Walpole offered himself as a personal sacrifice, if the service and interests of the King would be promoted by his surrender of office and power. It is again illustrative of the influence of Caroline that this offer was made to her and not to the King. He was in truth the Queen’s minister; and nobly she stood by him. When Walpole made the offer in question, Caroline declared that she would not be so mean, so cowardly, or so ungrateful as to abandon him; and she infused the same spirit into the King. The latter had intended, from the first, to reign and govern, and be effectively his own minister; but Caroline so wrought upon him that he thought he had of himself reached the conviction that it was necessary for him to trust in a minister, and that Walpole was the fittest man for such an office. And so he grew to love the very man whom he had been wont to hold in his heart’s extremest hate. He would even occasionally speak of him as a ‘noble fellow,’ and, with tears in his eyes, would listen to an account of some courageous stand Walpole had made in the house against the enemies of the government, and he would add the while a running commentary of sobs.
The Queen’s greatest triumph was this overcoming of her husband’s personal hatred for Walpole. It could not have been an achievement easy to be accomplished. But her art in effecting such achievements was supreme, and she alone could turn to her own purpose the caprices of a hot-headed man, of whom it has been said, that he was of iron obstinacy, but that he was unlike iron in this, that the hotter he became the more impossible it was to bend him. Caroline found him pliant when she found him cool. But then, too, he was most wary, and it was necessary so to act as to cause every turn which she compelled him to make appear to himself as if it were the result of his own unbiassed volition.
Supremely able as Caroline was, she could not, however, always conceal her emotion. Thus, at this very period of the agitation of the Excise bill, on being told, at one of her evening drawing-rooms, of the difficulties and dangers which beset the path of the government, she burst into tears, became unusually excited, and finally affecting, and perhaps feeling, headache and vapours, she broke up her quadrille party, and betrayed in her outward manner an apparent conviction of impending calamity. She evinced the same weakness on being told, on a subsequent evening, that Walpole was in a majority of only seventeen. Such a small majority she felt was a defeat; and, on this occasion, she again burst into tears, and for the first time expressed a fear that the court must give way! The sovereign was, at the same time, as strong within her as the woman; and when she heard of the subordinate holders of government posts voting against the minister or declining to vote with him, she bitterly denounced them, exclaiming, that they who refused to march with their leader were as guilty as they who openly deserted, and that both merited condign punishment.[11]
The King on this occasion was as excited as his consort, but he manifested his feelings in a different way. He made Lord Hervey repeat the names of those who thwarted the views of the crown, and he grunted forth an angry commentary at each name. ‘Lord John Cavendish,’ began Hervey. ‘A fool!’ snorted the King. ‘Lord Charles Cavendish.’ ‘Half mad!’ ‘Sir William Lowther.’ ‘A whimsical fellow!’ ‘Sir Thomas Prendergast.’ ‘An Irish blockhead!’ ‘Lord Tyrconnel.’ ‘A puppy,’ said George, ‘who never votes twice on the same side!’
On the other hand, the populace made their comment on the proceedings of the court. It was rendered in a highly popular way, and with much significancy. In the city of London, for instance, the mob hung in effigy Sir Robert Walpole and a fat woman. The male figure was duly ticketed. The female effigy was well understood to mean the Queen.
Her power would, after all, not have followed in its fall that of Walpole. Lord Hervey remarks, that had he retired, Caroline would have placed before the King the names of a new ministry, and that the administration would not have hung together a moment after it had outlived her liking.
In the meantime her indefatigability was great. At the suggestion, it is supposed, of Walpole, she sent for the Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Hoadly, who repaired to the interview with his weak person and stately independence, if one may so speak, upheld by his ‘crutched stick.’ His power must have been considered very great, and so must his caprice; for he was frequently sent for by Caroline, remonstrated with for supposed rebellion, or urged to exert all his good offices in support of the crown. It is difficult to believe that the lengthy speeches reported by Hervey were actually delivered by Queen and bishop. There is nothing longer in Livy, and we are not told that any one took them down. Substantially, however, they may be true. The Queen was insinuating, complimentary, suggestive, and audacious; the bishop all duty, submission, and promise—as far as his consistency and principles could be engaged. But, after all, the immense mountain of anxiety and stratagem was reared in vain, for Walpole withdrew his bill, and Caroline felt that England was but nominally a monarchy.