A History of England, Period III. Constitutional Monarchy

by J. Franck Bright

First signs of the breaking up of the Cabinet.

No sooner was the great question which had held the Whig party together settled by the suppression of the insurrection, than certain elements of disunion which already existed in the Cabinet began to make themselves felt, and a train of circumstances began, which ended in the disruption of the ministry. The tumult of pardon and execution had scarcely subsided, when the King, to the great dislike of his ministers, giving way to those natural inclinations which were for many years to be the chief weakness of our Hanoverian Princes, insisted upon the repeal of the clause of the Act of Settlement which restrained the King from leaving England, and hurried to his hereditary dominions. Stanhope accompanied George and Stanhope go to Hanover. him as representative of the English ministry, Townshend being left at home. This separation of the ministry of itself afforded room for intrigue, and the state of affairs both at home and abroad supplied a more than usually appropriate occasion for it, for the hereditary family quarrel had already broken out between George and his eldest son. It was impossible, however, to ignore his claims to the regency during his father's absence, nor would Townshend permit them to be overlooked. The King was with difficulty persuaded to put the Government in his hands, with the inferior title of Guardian of the Realm and Lieutenant, and under considerable restrictions. The minister in England was thus at once put, in some sort, in opposition to the King, and in a position which gave great opening for the intrigues of his enemies who surrounded the King; for a clique, consisting of the King's Hanoverian courtiers, Bernsdorf, Bothmar, George's private Secretary Robethon, and Madame de Schulenberg, Duchess of Kendal, the royal mistress, were full of animosity to the minister. Like the Scotch followers of James I., they regarded England as a sort of promised land, and took umbrage at the attempts of the English ministry to check their rapacity. The mistrust thus engendered was rapidly increased by subsequent events, chiefly connected with the affairs of the Continent.

Negotiations with France.

As the King entered Hanover with Stanhope, the minister was met by the Abbé Dubois, an agent of the Regent Orleans, and negotiations began for the establishment of friendly relations with France, which mark an entire change in the politics of Europe. To complete the security of the new succession, it was regarded as necessary that the Pretender should be removed beyond the Alps, and that all hope of assistance to his cause from France should cease. Open hostilities to gain this end seemed out of the question. Austria was much irritated by the Barrier Treaty, by which the Dutch were secured a line of fortresses in the Austrian Netherlands, garrisoned by the Dutch, but paid by Austria. The Emperor, too, was naturally jealous of the increasing power of the Princes of the Empire, three of whom had acquired kingdoms; the Elector of Saxony was King of Poland, the Elector of Brandenburg King of Prussia, the Elector of Hanover King of England. The temper of Austria thus forbade all hope of re-establishing the Grand Alliance. The withdrawal of support from the Pretender had to be sought by peaceful means; and the Regent, intent on his personal aims, was willing to surrender the cause of the Stuarts, and to destroy the works at Mardyke as the price of peace with England. On these terms negotiations for a treaty, in which Holland was to share, were begun.

Danger of Hanover from Charles XII.

The German objects of the King rendered its speedy conclusion an object of the first importance. After his defeat at Pultowa, Charles XII. had withdrawn to Bender, where he had vainly attempted to rouse the Turks to assist him against the Russians. In his absence, Russia, Poland, and Denmark, the countries which in turn he had conquered, combined against his deserted country; and the King of Prussia, for his own ends no doubt, but with some appearance of keeping the balance between the parties, succeeded in neutralizing Pomerania, and in obtaining the sequestration into his own hands of the strong town of Stettin. This arrangement by no means pleased Charles, who hastened home from Bender, hoping by an alliance with England to keep his enemies at bay. The accession of the house of Hanover destroyed this hope. The Elector of Hanover had obtained from Denmark Bremen and Verden, part of the spoils of Charles, and was pledged by his own interests to oppose him. He insisted upon an English fleet being sent to the Baltic, though the question was obviously one of German interest only. Not content with opposing Sweden, George eagerly desired that the fleet should be used against Russia, for that country had invaded Mecklenburg, and intended apparently to appropriate it. Again it was evident that the question was chiefly of German interest. Townshend placed the English view of the affair before the King—it did not matter much who possessed Mecklenburg, but to attack Russia, the chief opponent of Sweden, was to leave Charles XII. free for dangerous designs in favour of the Stuarts, in which he was now almost openly engaged. Fortunately diplomacy induced the Czar to withdraw, and the question was thus solved.

But while eager for war with Sweden and Russia, George was naturally anxious for the conclusion of the peace with France, and thought himself purposely thwarted by his minister, when the peculiarities of the Dutch constitution threw delays in the way of its completion, and Townshend refused to break faith and conclude the treaty without the accession of the Dutch. The King's dislike for Dismissal of Townshend. Townshend, excited by his opposition to his German plans, was sedulously fomented both by his Hanoverian courtiers and by the Earl of Sunderland, who, thoroughly discontented with his subordinate position in the ministry as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, had joined the King at Hanover, and had entered busily into the intrigues going on there. A letter from Townshend, in which, in order to allow the longer absence of the King, he recommended that additional powers should be given to the Prince in England, brought matters to a crisis. Townshend was dismissed from his office, and offered in exchange the viceroyalty of Ireland. For the sake of the party, and upon some sort of apology from the King, Townshend accepted his new office, and the quarrel was temporarily healed.

The Triple Alliance. Jan. 1717.

During this brief reconciliation, the negotiations which had been carried on at the Hague and Hanover were completed, and a Triple Alliance was signed in January 1717, by which the clauses in the Treaty of Utrecht having reference to the Protestant succession in England, to the French succession, and to the renunciation of the Spanish King to his claims on the French throne, were guaranteed.

Changes in the ministry. April.