SIR ROBERT WALPOLE CREATED EARL OF ORFORD.
The country party maintained the advantage they had gained in deciding upon several other controverted elections; and sir Robert Walpole tottered on the brink of ruin. He knew that the majority of a single vote would at any time commit him prisoner to the Tower, should ever the motion be made; and he saw that his safety could be effected by no other expedient but that of dividing the opposition. Towards the accomplishment of this purpose he employed all his credit and dexterity. His emissaries did not fail to tamper with those members of the opposite party who were the most likely to be converted by their arguments. A message was sent by the bishop of Oxford to the prince of Wales, importing, That if his royal highness would write a letter of condescension to the king, he and all his counsellors should be taken into favour; that fifty thousand pounds should be added to his revenue; four times that sum be disbursed immediately for the payment of his debts; and suitable provision be made in due time for all his followers. The prince declined this proposal. He declared that he would accept no such conditions while sir Robert Walpole continued to direct the public affairs; that he looked upon him as a bar between his majesty and the affections of his people; as the author of the national grievances both at home and abroad; and as the sole cause of that contempt which Great Britain had incurred in all the courts of Europe. His royal highness was now chief of this formidable party, revered by the whole nation—a party which had gained the ascendancy in the house of commons; which professed to act upon the principles of public virtue; which demanded the fall of an odious minister, as a sacrifice due to an injured people; and declared that no temptation could shake their virtue; that no art could dissolve the cement by which they were united. Sir Robert Walpole, though repulsed in his attempt upon the prince of Wales, was more successful in his other endeavours. He resolved to try his strength once more in the house of commons, in another disputed election; and had the mortification to see the majority augmented to sixteen voices. He declared he would never more sit in that house; and next day, which was the third of February, the king adjourned both houses of parliament to the eighteenth day of the same month. In this interim sir Robert Walpole was created earl of Orford, and resigned all his employments.
CHANGE IN THE MINISTRY.
At no time of his life did he acquit himself with such prudential policy as he now displayed. He found means to separate the parts that composed the opposition, and to transfer the popular odium from himself to those who had professed themselves his keenest adversaries. The country-party consisted of the tories, reinforced by discontented whigs, who had either been disappointed in their own ambitious views, or felt for the distresses of their country, occasioned by a weak and worthless administration. The old patriots, and the whigs whom they had joined, acted upon very different, and, indeed, upon opposite principles of government; and there-fore they were united only by the ties of convenience. A coalition was projected between the discontented whigs, and those of the same denomination who acted in the ministry. Some were gratified with titles and offices; and all were assured, that in the management of affairs a new system would be adopted, according to the plan they themselves should propose. The court required nothing of them, but that the earl of Orford should escape with impunity. His place of chancellor of the exchequer was bestowed upon Mr. Sandys, who was likewise appointed a lord of the treasury; and the earl of Wilmington succeeded him as first commissioner of that board. Lord Harrington, being dignified with the title of carl, was declared president of the council; and in his room lord Carteret became secretary of state. The duke of Argyle was made master-general of the ordnance, colonel of his majesty’s royal regiment of horse guards, field-marshal and commander-in-chief of all the forces in South-Britain; but, finding himself disappointed in his expectations of the coalition, he, in less than a month, renounced all these employments. The marquis of Tweedale was appointed secretary of state for Scotland, a post which had been long suppressed; Mr. Pulteney was sworn of the privy-council, and afterwards created earl of Bath. The earl of Winchelsea and Nottingham was preferred to the head of the admiralty, in the room of sir Charles Wager; and, after the resignation of the duke of Argyle, the earl of Stair was appointed field-marshal of all his majesty’s forces, as well as ambassador-extraordinary to the states-general. On the seventeenth day of February the prince of Wales, attended by a numerous retinue of his adherents, waited on his majesty, who received him graciously, and ordered his guards to be restored. Lord Carteret and Mr. Sandys were the first who embraced the offers of the court, without the consent or privity of any other leaders in the opposition, except that of Mr. Pulteney; but they declared to their friends, they would still proceed upon patriot principles; that they would concur in promoting an inquiry into past measures; and in enacting necessary laws to secure the constitution from the practices of corruption. These professions were believed, not only by their old coadjutors in the house of commons, but also by the nation in general. The reconciliation between the king and the prince of Wales, together with the change in the ministry, were celebrated with public rejoicings all over the kingdom; and immediately after the adjournment nothing but concord appeared in the house of commons.
INQUIRY INTO THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.
But this harmony was of short duration. It soon appeared, that those who had declaimed the loudest for the liberties of their country, had been actuated solely by the most sordid and even the most ridiculous motives of self-interest. Jealousy and mutual distrust ensued between them and their former confederates. The nation complained, that, instead of a total change of men and measures, they saw the old ministry strengthened by this coalition; and the same interest in parliament predominating with redoubled influence. They branded the new converts as apostates and betrayers of their country; and in the transports of their indignation, they entirely overlooked the old object of their resentment. That a nobleman of pliant principles, narrow fortune, and unbounded ambition, should forsake his party for the blandishments of affluence, power, and authority, will not appear strange to any person acquainted with the human heart; but the sensible part of mankind will always reflect with amazement upon the conduct of a man, who seeing himself idolized by his fellow-citizens, as the first and firmest patriot in the kingdom, as one of the most shining ornaments of his country, could give up all his popularity, and incur the contempt or detestation of mankind, for the wretched consideration of an empty title, without office, influence, or the least substantial appendage. One cannot, without an emotion of grief, contemplate such an instance of infatuation—one cannot but lament that such glory should have been so weakly forfeited; that such talents should have been lost to the cause of liberty and virtue. Doubtless he flattered himself with the hope of one day directing the councils of his sovereign; but this was never accomplished, and he remained a solitary monument of blasted ambition. Before the change in the ministry, Mr. Pulteney moved, that the several papers relating to the conduct of the war, which had been laid before the house, should be referred to a select committee, who should examine strictly into the particulars, and make a report to the house of their remarks and objections. The motion introduced a debate; but, upon a division, was rejected by a majority of three voices. Petitions having been presented by the merchants of London, Bristol, Liverpool, Glasgow, and almost all the trading towns in the kingdom, complaining of the losses they had sustained by the bad conduct of the war, the house resolved itself into a committee to deliberate on these remonstrances. The articles of the London petition were explained by Mr. Glover, an eminent merchant of that city. Six days were spent in perusing papers and examining witnesses; then the same gentleman summed up the evidence, and in a pathetic speech endeavoured to demonstrate, that the commerce of Great Britain had been exposed to the insults and rapine of the Spaniards, not by inattention or accident, but by one uniform and continued design. This inquiry being resumed after the adjournment, copies of instructions to admirals and captains of cruising ships were laid before the house: the commons passed several resolutions, upon which a bill was prepared for the better protecting and securing the trade and navigation of the kingdom. It made its way through the lower house; but was thrown out by the lords. The pension-bill was revived and sent up to the peers, where it was again rejected, lord Carteret voting against that very measure which he had so lately endeavoured to promote. On the ninth day of March, lord Limerick made a motion for appointing a committee to inquire into the conduct of affairs for the last twenty years; he was seconded by sir John St. Aubyn, and supported by Mr. Velters Cornwall, Mr. Phillips, Mr. W. Pitt, and lord Percival, the new member for Westminster, who had already signalized himself by his eloquence and capacity. The motion was opposed by sir Charles Wager, Mr. Pelham, and Mr. Henry Pox, surveyor-general to his majesty’s works, and brother to lord Ilchester. Though the opposition was faint and frivolous, the proposal was rejected by a majority of two voices.
1742