King George, that he might not seem to convert all his attention to the affairs of the North, had equipped two other squadrons, one of which was destined for the West Indies, under the command of admiral Hosier: the other, conducted by sir John Jennings, having on board a body of land-forces, sailed from St. Helen’s on the twentieth day of July, entered the bay of St. Antonio, then visited Lisbon, from whence he directed his course to the bay of Bulls near Cadiz, and cruised off Cape St. Mary’s, so as to alarm the coast of Spain and fill Madrid with consternation. Yet he committed no act of hostility: but was treated with great civility by the Spanish governor of Cadiz, who supplied him with refreshments. Rear-admiral Hosier, with seven ships of war, had sailed in April for the Spanish West-Indies, with instructions to block up the galleons in the port of that country; or should they presume to come out, to seize and bring them to England. Before his arrival at the Bastimentos, near Porto-Bello, the treasure, consisting of above six millions sterling, had been unloaded and carried back to Panama, in pursuance of an order sent by an advice-boat which had the start of Hosier. This admiral lay inactive on that station, until he became the jest of the Spaniards. He returned to Jamaica, where he found means to reinforce his crews; then he stood over to Carthagena. The Spaniards had by this time seized the English South-Sea ship at La Vera Cruz, together with all the vessels and effects belonging to that company. Hosier in vain demanded restitution: he took some Spanish ships by way of reprisal, and continued cruising in those seas until the greater part of his men perished deplorably by the diseases of that unhealthy climate, and his ships were totally rained by the worms. This brave officer, being restricted by his orders from obeying the dictates of his courage, seeing his best officers and men daily swept off by an outrageous distemper, and his ships exposed to inevitable destruction, is said to have died of a broken heart; while the people of England loudly clamoured against this unfortunate expedition, in which so many lives were thrown away, and so much money expended, without the least advantage to the nation. It seems to have been a mean piratical scheme to rob the court of Spain of its expected treasure, even while a peace subsisted between the two nations. The ministry of Great Britain indeed alleged, that the Spanish king had entered into engagements in favour of the pretender.
DISGRACE OF THE DUKE DE RIPPERDA.
The dukes of Ormond and Wharton,* and the earl Marischal, were certainly at Madrid; and the duke de Ripperda, now prime-minister of Spain, dropped some expressions to the English envoy that implied some such design, which however the court of Madrid positively denied.
* The duke of Wharton having consumed his fortune in riot and extravagance, repaired to the court of Vienna, from whence he proceeded to Rome, and offered his service to the pretender. There he received the order of the garter, and the title of duke of Northumberland. He was sent by the chevalier de St. George with credentials to the court of Madrid, where he abjured the protestant religion, married a lady of the queen of Spain’s bed-chamber, and obtained the rank and appointment of a lieutenant-colonel in the Spanish service.
Ripperda, as a foreigner, fell a sacrifice to the jealousy of the Spanish ministers. He was suddenly dismissed from his employments, with a pension of three thousand pistoles. He forthwith took refuge in the house of Vandermeer the Dutch ambassador, who was unwilling to be troubled with such a guest. He therefore conveyed the duke in his coach to the house of colonel Stanhope, the British minister, whose protection he craved and obtained. Nevertheless, he was dragged from thence by force, and committed prisoner to the castle of Segovia. He afterwards made his escape, and sheltered himself in England from the resentment of his catholic majesty. Colonel Stanhope complained of this violation of the law of nations, which the Spanish ministers endeavoured to excuse. Memorials and letters passed between the two courts, and every thing tended to a rupture. The king of Spain purchased ships of war; began to make preparations for some important undertaking; and assembled an army of twenty thousand men at St. Roch, on pretence of rebuilding the old castle of Gibraltar. Meanwhile the states-general and the king of Sweden acceded to the treaty of Hanover: but the king of Prussia, though his majesty’s son-in-law, was detached from the alliance by the emperor, with whom he contracted new engagements.
SUBSTANCE OF THE KING’S SPEECH.
On the seventeenth day of January, the British parliament was opened with a long elaborate speech, importing that the proceedings and transactions of the emperor and king of Spain, and the secret offensive alliance concluded between them, had laid the foundation of a most exorbitant and formidable power; that they were directly levelled against the most valuable and darling interests and privileges of the British nation, which must either give up Gibraltar to Spain, and acquiesce in the emperor’s usurped exercise of commerce, or resolve vigorously to defend their undoubted rights against those reciprocal engagements, contracted in defiance and violation of all national faith, and the most solemn treaties. He assured them, that one of those secret articles was the placing the pretender on the throne of Great Britain; and another the conquest of Gibraltar and Port Mahon. He affirmed that those combinations extended themselves into Russia; and that the English fleet seasonably prevented such designs as would have opened a way to the invasion of these kingdoms. He exhorted the commons to grant such supplies as should be necessary for the defence of then-country, and for making good his engagements with the allies of Great Britain. He told them that the king of Spain had ordered his minister residing in England to quit the kingdom; and that he had left a memorial little short of a declaration, in which he insisted upon the restitution of Gibraltar. He did not fail to touch the energetic strings which always moved their passions: the balance of power in Europe, the security of the British commerce, the designs of a popish pretender, the present happy establishment, the religion, liberties, and properties of a protestant people. Such addresses of thanks were penned in both houses as the ministers were pleased to dictate; yet not without opposition from a minority, which was far from being formidable, though headed by chiefs of uncommon talents and resolution. The commons voted twenty thousand seamen, besides six-and-twenty thousand three hundred and eighty-three men for the land service; and, to defray the extraordinary expense, a land-tax of four shillings in the pound was granted.
GEORGE I, 1714—1727