[407] Coxe's Walpole, i. 296; H. Walpole's Works, iv. 476. The former, however, seems to rest on H. Walpole's verbal communication, whose want of accuracy, or veracity, or both, is so palpable that no great stress can be laid on his testimony. I believe, however, that the fact of George I. and his minister conversing in Latin may be proved on other authority.
[408] H. Walpole's Memoirs of the last Ten Years; Lord Waldegrave's Memoirs. In this well written little book, the character of George II. in reference to his constitutional position, is thus delicately drawn: "He has more knowledge of foreign affairs than most of his ministers, and has good general notions of the constitution, strength, and interest of this country; but, being past thirty when the Hanover succession took place, and having since experienced the violence of party, the injustice of popular clamour, the corruption of parliaments, and the selfish motives of pretended patriots, it is not surprising that he should have contracted some prejudices in favour of those governments where the royal authority is under less restraint. Yet prudence has so far prevailed over these prejudices, that they have never influenced his conduct. On the contrary, many laws have been enacted in favour of public liberty; and in the course of a long reign there has not been a single attempt to extend the prerogative of the Crown beyond its proper limits. He has as much personal bravery as any man, though his political courage seems somewhat problematical; however, it is a fault on the right side; for had he always been as firm and undaunted in the closet as he showed himself at Oudenarde and Dettingen, he might not have proved quite so good a king in this limited monarchy,"—P. 5. This was written in 1757.
The real tories, those I mean who adhered to the principles expressed by that name, thought the constitutional prerogative of the Crown impaired by a conspiracy of its servants. Their notions are expressed in some "Letters on the English Nation," published about 1756, under the name of Battista Angeloni, by Dr. Shebbeare, once a jacobite, and still so bitter an enemy of William III. and George I. that he stood in the pillory, not long afterwards, for a libel on those princes (among other things); on which Horace Walpole justly animadverts, as a stretch of the law by Lord Mansfield destructive of all historical truth. Memoirs of the last Ten Years, ii. 328. Shebbeare, however, was afterwards pensioned, along with Johnson, by Lord Bute, and at the time when these letters were written, may possibly have been in the Leicester House interest. Certain it is, that the self-interested cabal who belonged to that little court endeavoured too successfully to persuade its chief and her son that the Crown was reduced to a state of vassalage, from which it ought to be emancipated; and the government of the Duke of Newcastle, as strong in party connection as it was contemptible in ability and reputation, afforded them no bad argument. The consequences are well known, but do not enter into the plan of this work.
[409] Many proofs of this occur in the correspondence published by Mr. Coxe. Thus Horace Walpole writing to his brother Sir Robert, in 1739, says: "King William had no other object but the liberties and balance of Europe; but, good God! what is the case now? I will tell you in confidence; little, low, partial, electoral notions are able to stop or confound the best conducted project for the public." Memoirs of Sir R. Walpole, iii. 535. The Walpoles had, some years before, disapproved the policy of Lord Townshend on account of his favouring the king's Hanoverian prejudices. Id. i. 334. And, in the preceding reign, both these whig leaders were extremely disgusted with the Germanism and continual absence of George I. (Id. ii. 116, 297), though first Townshend, and afterwards Walpole, according to the necessity, or supposed necessity, which controls statesmen (that is, the fear of losing their places), became in appearance the passive instruments of royal pleasure.
It is now, however, known that George II. had been induced by Walpole to come into a scheme, by which Hanover, after his decease, was to be separated from England. It stands on the indisputable authority of Speaker Onslow. "A little while before Sir Robert Walpole's fall (and as a popular act to save himself, for he went very unwillingly out of his offices and power), he took me one day aside, and said, 'What will you say, speaker, if this hand of mine shall bring a message from the king to the House of Commons, declaring his consent to having any of his family, after his death, to be made, by act of parliament, incapable of inheriting and enjoying the crown, and possessing the electoral dominions at the same time?' My answer was, 'Sir, it will be as a message from heaven.' He replied, 'It will be done.' But it was not done; and I have good reason to believe, it would have been opposed, and rejected at that time, because it came from him, and by the means of those who had always been most clamorous for it; and thus perhaps the opportunity was lost: when will it come again? It was said that the prince at that juncture would have consented to it, if he could have had the credit and popularity of the measure, and that some of his friends were to have moved it in parliament, but that the design at St. James's prevented it. Notwithstanding all this, I have had some thoughts that neither court ever really intended the thing itself; but that it came on and went off, by a jealousy of each other in it, and that both were equally pleased that it did so, from an equal fondness (very natural) for their own native country." Notes on Burnet (iv. 490, Oxf. edit.). This story has been told before, but not in such a manner as to preclude doubt of its authenticity.
[410] A bill was brought in for this purpose in 1712, which Swift, in his History of the Last Four Years, who never printed anything with his name, naturally blames. It miscarried, probably on account of this provision. Parl. Hist. vi. 1141. But the queen, on opening the session, in April 1713, recommended some new law to check the licentiousness of the press. Id. 1173. Nothing, however, was done in consequence.
[411] Bolingbroke's letter to the Examiner, in 1710, excited so much attention that it was answered by Lord Cowper, then chancellor, in a letter to the Tatler (Somers Tracts, xiii. 75), where Sir Walter Scott justly observes, that the fact of two such statesmen becoming the correspondents of periodical publications shows the influence they must have acquired over the public mind.
[412] It was resolved, nem. con., Feb. 26th, 1729, That it is an indignity to, and a breach of the privilege of, this house, for any person to presume to give, in written or printed newspapers, any account or minutes of the debates, or other proceedings of this house or of any committee thereof; and that upon discovery of the authors, etc., this house will proceed against the offenders with the utmost severity. Parl. Hist. viii. 683. There are former resolutions to the same effect. The speaker having himself brought the subject under consideration some years afterwards, in 1738, the resolution was repeated in nearly the same words, but after a debate wherein, though no one undertook to defend the practice, the danger of impairing the liberty of the press was more insisted upon than would formerly have been usual; and Sir Robert Walpole took credit to himself, justly enough, for respecting it more than his predecessors. Id. x. 800; Coxe's Walpole, i. 572. Edward Cave, the well-known editor of the Gentleman's Magazine, and the publisher of another magazine, was brought to the bar, April 30th, 1747, for publishing the house's debates; when the former denied that he retained any person in pay to make the speeches, and after expressing his contrition was discharged on payment of fees. Id. xiv. 57.
[413] Malthus, Principles of Political Economy (1820), p. 279.
[414] Macpherson (or Anderson), Hist. of Commerce; Chalmers's Estimate of Strength of Great Britain; Sinclair's Hist. of Revenue, cum multis aliis.