XX. 1738. CHAP. as always happens in moments of great excitement, was readily admitted without proof; and a spirited answer which he gave enhanced the popular effect. Being asked by a Member what were his feelings when he found himself in the hands of such barbarians, “I recommended,” said he, “ my soul to "God, and my cause to my country." These words rapidly flew from mouth to mouth, adding fuel to the general flame, and it is almost incredible how strong an impulse was imparted both to Parliament and to the public. "We have no need of "allies to enable us to command justice,” cried Pulteney; "the story of Jenkins will raise volunteers.”* On his part, Walpole did not deny that great outrages and injuries had been wrought by the Spaniards, but he expressed his hope that they might still admit of full and friendly compensation; he promised his strenuous exertions with the Court of Madrid, and he besought the House not to close the avenue to peace by any intemperate proceedings, and especially by denouncing altogether the right of search, which the Spaniards had so long exercised, and would hardly be persuaded to relinquish. The charge, that his love of peace was merely a selfish zeal for his own administration, he repelled with disdain: "I have always," said he, "disre"garded a popularity that was not acquired by a "hearty zeal for the public interest, and I have "been long enough in this House to see that the *Speech, May 15. 1738. Parl. Hist. vol. x. p. 850. XX. 1738. "most steady opposers of popularity founded upon CHAP. any other views, have lived to receive the thanks "of their country for that opposition. For my part, "I never could see any cause, either from reason or my own experience, to imagine that a minister " is not as safe in time of war as in time of peace. Nay, if we are to judge by reason alone, it is the "interest of a minister, conscious of any mismanage"ment, that there should be a war, because by a "war the eyes of the public are diverted from ex"amining into his conduct; nor is he accountable "for the bad success of a war, as he is for that of "an administration."* By the ascendency of Walpole a large majority of the Commons continued to withstand the manifold proposals and attacks of Pulteney. But in the Lords, the eloquence of Carteret and Chesterfield, feebly stemmed by the ministerial speakers, carried some strong resolutions, which were presented as an Address to the Crown. But these Parliamentary difficulties, however great, were not the only ones that beset the Minister. He had also to struggle against the waywardness and falsehood of the Spanish Envoy, Thomas Fitzgerald, or, as he was commonly called, Don Thomas Geraldino, who caballed with the Opposition in private, and held most intemperate language in public. The whole progress of the negotiations, and several other state secrets were disclosed by this agent to the party out of power, while he *Speech of Walpole, May 12. 1738. XX. 1738. CHAP. openly declared in all companies that the English Ministers were trifling with and imposing upon the people in pretending that the Court of Spain might yet be brought to any terms, or would recede in the slightest degree from its colonial rights and privileges. To such an extent did he carry this behaviour, that Walpole sent a formal complaint to the Ministers at Madrid. Geraldino on his part assured them that the views of Walpole, though professedly pacific, were in truth inconsistent with the security of the Spanish trade, and that they could not be more effectually served than by fomenting to the utmost the discontents and divisions in England; and by these representations he continued to retain their confidence and his employment.* Another source of embarrassment to Walpole was the conduct of his own colleague, the Duke of Newcastle. Both of them loved power with their whole hearts, but with this difference; Walpole loved it so well that he would not bear a rival; Newcastle so well that he would bear any thing for it. Under Stanhope's government he had professed unbounded admiration and friendship for that minister. Immediately on the death of Stanhope he had transferred the same sentiment and submission to the Wal * Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 368. †Thus, for instance, he writes to Mr. Charles Stanhope from Claremont, July 29. 1720, “Pray send me what news there is, “and particularly what comes from my dearest friend Stanhope. "He is always doing good, and always successful," &c. Coxe's MSS. British Museum. XX. 1738. poles, and became Secretary of State in 1724, as CHAP. their deputy and agent. But though willing to accept even the smallest morsel of authority, it was only till he could grasp at a larger. A favourable conjuncture of circumstances seemed now to open to him by the death of Queen Caroline, the growing unpopularity of Walpole, and the loud clamour for a Spanish war. Such a war, he found, was congenial to the military spirit of the King: it was also, as we have seen, eagerly pressed in Parliament; and of these wishes, accordingly, Newcastle, though still with great caution, made himself the mouthpiece in the Cabinet. With the consent or connivance of His Majesty, he sent angry instructions and memorials to the British Minister in Spain, which it required all the skill of Walpole to modify and temper; and which greatly aggravated the difficulties of the negotiations. The same leaning to warlike measures was likewise shown, but, as I believe, on more public-spirited grounds, by Lord Chancellor Hardwicke and by Lord Harrington. The former, on one occasion, speaking in the House of Lords, inveighed with so much vehemence against the Spanish depredations, that Walpole, who was standing behind the throne, could not forbear exclaiming to those around him, "Bravo! Colonel Yorke, bravo!" Nor durst Walpole at this crisis, with the inclinations of both King and people against him, pursue his usual haughty course, and at once cashier his wavering colleagues. Through these and many other obstacles derived XX. 1738. CHAP. from the pride of Spain, did Walpole prosecute his negotiation with the Government at Madrid (for the Court had now returned from Seville), and still endeavour to prevent an appeal to arms. He took care, however, to give weight to his pacific overtures by displaying his readiness for war. A squadron of ten ships of the line, under the command of Admiral Haddock, sailed for the Mediterranean; many single ships were despatched to the West Indies; letters of marque and reprisal were offered to the merchants; and the colony of Georgia was supplied with troops and stores to resist the Spaniards, who had threatened to invade it from St. Augustine. Directions were likewise sent to the British merchants in the several seaports of Spain, to register their goods with a notary public in case of a rupture. Such demonstrations were not lost upon the Spaniards, who, lowering their tone, gave orders that several prizes they had captured should be restored, and that seventy-one English sailors taken by Guarda Costas, and confined at Cadiz, should be sent home. New instructions likewise came out to Geraldino, and he delivered a message purporting that his master was inclined to enter into terms for conciliating past differences, and for preventing them in future. The negotiations that ensued were carried on first between Geraldino and Walpole in London, and afterwards between Mr. Keene and the Spanish Minister, Don Sebastian de la Quadra, at Madrid. The mutual demands for damages sustained in |