Lord Sandwich then, with most ungraceful delivery, which yet was as powerful as the matter of his speech, lamented his misfortune of differing with his friend the Duke of Bedford, which he must do, though he found the reasons preponderate very little on the side of the Treaty, and though he agreed with his Grace in near half he had said: that he considered how little regard was paid to economy, and that nobody was less prepossessed in favour of the Ministry, whom he should gladly oppose, but where the exigencies of the public required his concurrence. That he knew their sentiments were to silence opposition at any rate; that influenced by that motive, they had last year reduced the Navy: however, he must own that the event had justified the reduction; that he should not concur now, if he did not hope that granting this subsidy would stop greater profusion. And, that the public might at least have this security even from the badness of the present Ministers, that they will even wave their own bad purposes, rather than hear disagreeable truths; which, for his part, he should always be ready to utter, though he did not approve being actuated by private connexions in public affairs.
The secret of this speech was, that the Duke of Bedford having acquainted Lord Sandwich with his intention of opposing the Treaty, and having desired him to consult the Duke, the latter had approved the opposition, but would not openly concur, for fear of offending the King; and as Lord Sandwich was the known creature of the Duke, it was thought proper that he should act this middle part, of voting for the Treaty, and censuring the Pelhams. The Duke went so far as to tell the King, that the Duke of Bedford spoke just better than the Duke of Newcastle, but that Lord Sandwich alone shone. The truth was, Lord Sandwich ruined his little remains of character for abilities; the Duke of Bedford was seen in a new light. The method with which he went through the Treaty, the great variety of matter of which through the whole Debate he showed himself master, and the coolness with which he mastered his own temper too, made him considered as a very formidable and able speaker.
Lord Halifax then rose and said, “They who disapprove all treaties, cannot like this: they who are for no connexion with the Continent—” the Duke of Bedford interrupted him, and said, “That is not my opinion.” Lord Halifax replied, “But very like it.” The Duke again interposed, but the Duke of Argyle called him to order, and with acrimony said, that he had never seen such interruption given twice in one Debate. Lord Halifax then continued, that if the peace was not strengthened, it would only be a cessation of arms: that we must not be parsimonious, while France was dealing out a million in subsidies (this had been a most exaggerated calculation of the Solicitor-General[210] in the House of Commons), that she had offered more to Saxony, who had preferred our alliance with the lesser sum. That the money granted for Nova Scotia had been given to establish the settlement, not to carry on a war: that if the ships had been sent out too late last year, it was the fault of the Admiralty; and that of all men he least expected opposition from those two Lords, who had so lately approved these treaties.
This was the accusation for which the Duke of Bedford had waited; and he embraced it artfully. He said, that this was so far from a preventive measure, that it was more likely to raise a war; that he had indeed said nothing hitherto to explain the consistence of his own conduct, foreseeing that he might be attacked on it. That he had always wished to detach Bavaria from France, and thought it a great point gained, though not with a view to engage that vote for a King of the Romans; but that, while he had acted in the Ministry, he had disapproved this profusion of subsidies; and that, having made the most earnest representations against that to Bavaria, he had received the strongest assurances from one,[211] who had inclination to prevent, and power to hinder, that the subsidy then granted to the Elector of Bavaria should be the last we would give. He had then in his pocket a letter from Mr. Pelham, with a solemn promise of this.
Lord Granville put an end to the debate by a speech of spirit and humour; that the Motion was full of inflammatory matter, and that it was drawing the House into declaring against subsidiary treaties in general: that France can be attacked by no single Power; that leagues must humble her, subsidies cement leagues. France has no Pretender to be set up against her. She might say, “I will give no subsidies,”—and yet she does. That formerly during his Embassies, he had been asked by a great Prince[212] (the King of Denmark) what we meant by that magnificent bravado in the Preamble to our Mutiny Bill, where we say, that we keep up eighteen thousand men to preserve the balance of Europe. “I told him, my Lords, ‘One day can make those eighteen fifty thousand.’ If you say you will pay no more electors, you have erected a bridge without complete arches—and what kind of policy is that, if this House rejects a treaty already ratified by King and Commons! The Court of France does not regard guarantees—or indeed what Powers do? Would Prussia retain Silesia long, if he had nothing to defend it with but the guarantee? for, my Lords,” concluded he, laughing, “I must bring out some of my secrets too.” The Motion was rejected without a division. The next time the Duke of Bedford went to Court, the King took no notice of him; nor for some time.
29th.—Lord Harley, seconded by Northey, made a Motion for declaring against subsidiary treaties in time of peace. It occasioned a warm Debate; and Prowse, escaping from his usual plausibility, said, that he could discover no symptoms of economy in the Administration, though indeed they had enforced it, for by lowering interest, and by the land-tax of three shillings, both landed and monied men were reduced to be economists. Beckford, Fazakerley, Sir Roger Newdigate, Morton, Sydenham, Cooke, Delaval, and Sir Walter Blacket, spoke for the Motion: Hampden against it, but with a sneer, said, that he approved bribing electors, as he saw by other instances how it had contributed to quash opposition. Mitchell taxed old Horace Walpole with his unparliamentary behaviour, in speaking on one side and voting on the other. The Solicitor-General, Sir Henry Erskine, Nugent, Ellis, Tracy, and Sir William Yonge, all opposed the Motion; and lastly, Mr. Pelham, who seized the opportunity of venting the anguish he had felt the day before in the House of Lords (which from that day he never attended more), and of abusing with much bitterness and ability the Duke of Bedford and Lord Sandwich. The Motion was rejected by 180 to 52. After the Debate, Mr. Pelham asked Fox, if he had gone too far in invectives. “No,” answered Fox, “as they began; though you originally gave the provocation.” “Oh! Fox,” replied he, “you did not feel for me, as I should for you in the same circumstances!”
In the beginning of February, Lord Cardigan was appointed Governor of Windsor Castle, and was succeeded as Chief Justice in Eyre by the Duke of Somerset.
4th.—Died Sir John Cotton; the last Jacobite of any sensible activity.
21st.—Sir John Barnard, whose popularity had suffered by the share he had had in reducing the interest of the public debt to three per cent., made a proposal to tie down six hundred thousand pounds a year of the Sinking Fund, from the year 1758, towards discharging the whole national incumbrance. Beckford supported him; but Mr. Pelham and the Solicitor-General opposing it, his scheme was rejected without a division. We shall see him afterwards addressing himself to his lost popularity with more success, and as it often happens, on a worse foundation.