ship came to see me with M. de Monteleon; and in our conversation Monteleon took occasion to tell me that he should, in what he had to propose, confine himself to the Quadruple Alliance, and the execution of that, without any design of entering into a new war; but only to make the Emperor sensible that the three Powers of England, France, and Spain, are resolved to see it executed; but that he was not such a fool as to enter into wild projects, &c. After this general declaration, Monteleon took his leave; and leaving Lord Peterborough with me, his Lordship's discourse entirely turned in praise of Monteleon, as the honestest man that was ever known, and as the greatest friend to England; that his chief view was to please the King; but that he must be careful not to disoblige France by showing too great a preference to his Majesty; and therefore he would propose his scheme first here, and make a merit with France by it, reserving to be finally regulated and settled in England according to his Majesty's intentions; and therefore Lord Peterborough desired me to be easy in letting Monteleon make his court here first, without a previous communication to me of his project, as a means to be better able to serve England. I told his Lordship that I should be very easy in the matter; but, indeed, he would find the French Ministers would not resolve upon anything without his Majesty's approbation; and I think we had little discourse besides, except it was a few words about the Czar, wherein I told him that I was per suaded this Court would not make a treaty with the Czar without us; and that was all which passed then. His Lordship dined yesterday with me en famille; but nothing passed about business. He entertained the table with some of his old frolics in Spain; with my having been his enemy formerly; but having reconciled himself to the chief of the family, he believed all was now well again with us. After dinner I carried him to see Count Landi, the Minister of Parma, where Monteleon and a great deal of company had dined; where, after he and his friend had enter. tained the company some time, I left him, being obliged to make some visits, as his Lordship was to go and see some ladies. MR. W. STANHOPE TO THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. [Harrington Papers.] Madrid, Feb. 10, NS., 1727. ALL the advices that come this day from Andalusia agree that the Spanish army is actually encamped in sight of and within a little half league of Gibraltar, with which place all sort of communication by land and sea has been publicly prohibited upon pain of death, and the utmost diligence and preparation made use of for the beginning the siege, which only waited for the coming up of the artillery, part of which was already arrived, and the rest upon its march, as fast as the badness of the weather and the roads would possibly allow; and as positive orders were sent from hence eight days ago for the immediate opening of the trenches, this Court is in hourly expectation of a courier with an account of the siege being actually begun; upon whose arrival I shall immediately write to your Grace by a French Officer, who returns post to Paris, and only waits here for that purpose. Everything remains in the same situation as when I had the honour to write last to your Grace, no courier being since arrived from Vienna, which is the only thing capable of occasioning any alterations in the systems or proceedings of this Court. As I am fully convinced of this Court's having for the present laid aside their intended expedition in favour of the Pretender; and as I have taken the most effectual measures to be informed immediately, though absent, of any that may afterwards be retaken of that nature, I humbly think I ought to demand a passport from this Court as soon as the news shall arrive of Gibraltar's being actually attacked. MEMORANDUM BY EARL WALDEGRAVE. [Waldegrave Papers.] Notes relating to my coming here. D. of Newcastle childish about it. Takes it to be an encroachment. (Paris, 1730.) Essex grounded on a former promise of Lord Carteret; a very bad argument at this time. D. of N. insists it's a job of Lord Townshend for me, which I could not allow. Refer myself wholly to Lord T. Writ nothing to Lord T. of the difficulties between the first advice, and my declaring I would wait Lord T. further orders. I am told that if I would have given up I might have a pension of 1200l. till a place, that I sowed discord between two brothers, that I could hope for no advantage but from the Treasury. That Mr. Walpole was disobliged. I did not find it in the sequel: but found the D. of N. to be angry. No sort of lights given me from the D. of N.'s Office; but the day before I set out, received some small favour from D. of N. in copies of letters from Mr. W. the ambassador. The directions from D. of N. given mighty short, and a seeming dislike to my going, though after my arrival at Paris received an obliging letter. EARL OF CHESTERFIELD TO THE PLENIPOTENTIARIES. Hague, Sept. 15, 1730. Mr last letters from Berlin inform me that the King of Prussia had beaten the Prin. cess Royal, his daughter, most unmercifully; dragged her about the room by the hair, kicking her in the belly and breast, till her cries alarmed the officer of the guard, who came in. She keeps her bed of the bruises she received. Twenty pence a day is allowed for the maintenance of the Prince Royal in the Castle of Custrin; and the inquiry is carried on with rigour, under the direction of Monsieur Grumkow. JACOBITE PROPHECY. BARON POLNITZ tells us, in his Memoirs (vol. ii. p. 63, ed. 1737), that in 1731 the fol. lowing Prophecy was in every body's mouth at Rome. It points to the year 1734. CUM MARCUS CANTABIT HALLELUJAH, ET ANTONIUS VENI CREATOR, ET JOANNES BAPTISTA CENABIT, TUM REGNABIT ET TRIUMPHABIT REX IN ANGLIA JACOBUS III. When Easter falls on St. Mark's Day, And Whitsunday on St. Antony's, And when St. John the Baptist's is a Sacrament Day, Then King James III. shall reign and triumph in England! MR. KEENE TO THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. Seville, Feb. 2, 1731. THERE have been several little disputes between their Catholic Majesties about their irregular way of life and the time of hearing mass; but they still continue in the same 2M VOL. I. method, and go to bed at ten in the morning and rise at five in the afternoon. It is generally thought that the Queen is with child. LORD HARRINGTON TO THE EARL OF ESSEX. [Harrington Papers.] Whitehall, March 15, 1733. MY LORD, THE affair of the intended excises, upon which so much ferment has been artfully raised in the nation, came on yesterday. There scarce ever was a greater appearance of Members in the House, and a more numerous crowd in the Court of Requests, Westminster Hall, and the adjoining places and passages. The precaution usual on such occasions, of having Justices of the Peace and constables at hand, was taken, but proved happily quite unnecessary, for there did not happen the least incident tending to a tumult. The debate was opened, about three-quarters past 12 at noon, by Sir Robert Walpole, who, in a speech that lasted two hours and a quarter, explained his scheme as to the tobacco (for that relating to wine is deferred till after the holidays), which he did with so much perspicuity and strength of argument, that it was allowed to exceed any speech he ever made. I will next name the speakers in their order, underlining those who were against the question. Alderman Perry, Sir W. Yonge, Sir Paul Methuen, the AttorneyGeneral, Sir John Barnard, (here the Commissioners of the Customs were called in and examined as to certain facts,) Sir John Barnard again, Mr. Winnington, Mr. Henry Pelham, Mr. Shippen, the Master of the Rolls, Mr. Heathcote, the Solicitor-General, Mr. Pulteney, Sir William Wyndham. Sir Robert Walpole closed the debate; and about half an hour after midnight the question was put for putting fourpence of the duty on tobacco under the Excise, and carried by 265 against 204. The fifth penny, which goes to the Civil List, remains in the customs, which obviates one objection, that this is done to augment the Civil List revenue. The debate on the side of those who spoke for the question was urged with great dig nity and strength of reasoning. The speeches that were most admired were Sir Robert Walpole's, of whom it was observed that he possessed himself, and was in as high spirits when he spoke last as at the beginning of the day; the Attorney's and Solicitor's, and the Master of the Rolls',” which last gentleman, though strongly attached to the Royal Family and Constitution, does, your Excellency knows, through a particular turn of mind, seldom vote with the Court party, as it is called. He solemnly protested (and every body believes with great truth) that he came quite unbiassed, and fully resolved to be determined by the debate, to which he said he had diligently attended, had heard strong argu. ments on one side, and trifling and evasive ones on the other, which he recapitulated fairly on both sides, adding some good reasons of his own, which induced him to be for the question. Two other members have been named to me, who have owned that they came determined to have voted against the question; and from their known principles and conduct, and the company they keep, it could not well be otherwise; yet they were convinced by the debate, and voted for the question. I must own the majority was much greater than I expected, considering what art has been used to inflame the country boroughs, and make them (though in several places it was done by stratagem) write to their representatives to oppose the scheme, which could not but influence several of the members, with an eye to their future re-elections, which your Excellency knows are not very distant. However, the debate was well attended; for besides 471, as full a House, perhaps, as was ever known, there were in town Sir Robert Furnese, who died that morning, and eleven more that are so ill, that the state of their health would not possibly permit them to come to the House. Give me leave, my Lord, to wish you joy of the carrying a point of as great importance as almost any one that has been brought into debate since the Revolution; for besides the putting an end to frauds and perjuries, &c., too frequently practised in the Customs, and other considerations relating to the revenue, this event will show that neither the Ministry nor the Parliament are to be deterred by popular clamour from doing what is for the King's and Country's service. Then, my Lord, without a farthing new or addi tional impost being laid, but only an alteration in the manner of collecting the revenue * Sir Joseph Jekyll. here will be such an improvement of it (calculated at 5 or 600,0001. a year) as will enable the Parliament to take the Land Tax off entirely; which will always be a sure, known, ready fund of two millions a year upon any emergency, and might produce much more could it be equally laid, for which its having been disused might possibly give an opportunity. The land owners having had the comfort to find that they are not to be eternally burthened with this tax, will upon an extraordinary occasion pay it cheerfully, when they find that it is to end with the necessity (whenever it should unfortunately happen) that might bring it upon them. Then, as to the present time, the shopkeepers finding this excise, in the practice, not to be so terrible a monster as it has been painted to them, may be easy with it; and if any dissatisfaction should remain, which can scarcely be expected with them in the country, who will only see the same officer who already visits them on account of their tea, coffee, &c., the gentlemen of estates in their neighbourhood, being put into good humour, will have influence enough over their tradesmen, whose subsistence depends upon them, to bring them likewise into temper. This takes off one objection to the land forces, that they are the occasion of perpetuating the Land Tax. The taking off of this tax ought surely to reconcile all those who are eased by this means to the present administration, and incline them to wish for such another Parliament when a new one shall be chosen, and to conciliate their interest towards it. DEAR SIR, LORD HERVEY TO HORACE WALPOLE. Kensington, Sept. 9, 1735. If you find this prompt payment of so kind a letter as you honoured me with by the last post a troublesome return to so agreeable a distinction, your only way to prevent it for the future is not to put me in your debt: for whenever I am so obliged, unless you will point me out some other way, it must be so acknowledged. The natural and sensible account you give of your present situation in Holland would certainly make me pity you in the midst of all the difficulties you have to struggle with, if I was not very well assured that the same honesty and good sense, that have carried you through as intricate and delicate negotiations in former times, will now extricate you out of these with credit to yourself, satisfaction to your master, pleasure to your friends, and benefit to your country. I took the liberty to repeat to the Queen that part of your letter that related to her: for though, to people I am indifferent to, I make it a general rule to repeat nothing they say or write to me, yet with those to whom I feel I mean friendly and wish well, I act differently, and always think there is a discretionary power lodged in me to make the use I think fit of what they communicate. If ever, therefore, I err in this way towards you, you may find fault with me perhaps for judging ill, but I am sure it will never be in your power to reproach me with not meaning well. The Queen is so perfectly recovered, that I never knew her in better humour, health, and spirits than she has been this morning. I wish some of those wise sanguine people in the opposition could have seen her, who affect such joy, and give out that a vacant apartment is to be inhabited this winter by a new favourite. The joy this prospect gives them might perhaps be a little damped when they found our apprehensions did not keep pace with their hopes, and that those who are as nearly concerned, and a little better informed, think as differently on the truth of this report as they would feel to the conse quences of it if it were true. It is no news to you, I suppose, that the Duchess of Buckingham and her son are gone abroad again, any more than the particulars of the very extraordinary letter she wrote to your brother to notify her departure; however, there was one expression I cannot help repeating to you, which perhaps things of more importance prevented him from telling you of, and that is her calling her son a subject of this place, without saying of whom. The University of Oxford have lately paid my Lord Chancellor a great compliment by giving him his degrees in person in the theatre; which is a distinction that was never before shown to any body but a prince of the blood. I rememder formerly to have read in Cicero's epistles to Atticus, that when the Senate of Rome conferred the Senatorian rank, by an extraordinary law, on young Octavius, Tully says this compliment was paid as much to mortify Antony as to oblige Octavius. Whether the Bishop of London is the Antony of this compliment I know not; but whatever the University and the clergy Lord Talbot. meant by this act, it is thus the world and the laity interpret it; and though the father's prudence is silent on this particular, the son's triumph, as I am informed, is less private. The Bishop of Winchester's* late Book upon the Sacrament has made many enemies, or at least has given occasion to many people to show themselves such. Those who censure him on this occasion say it is written to take off all reverence for the Sacrament; those who justify him say it is only to take off the horror; but those who are reasonable about it, I think should neither censure the doctrine nor justify the publication. Things are very well as they are: why stir them? It is with many parts of policy, both in government and religion, as it is with some liquors: they will neither bear being shaken, nor going too near the bottom; for which reason, in both these cases, it is very ill judged to run the risk of spoiling all that is clear and good, only to squeeze a little more out of what is bad. When I reproached the Bishop of Winchester for publishing this book, without ever saying one word to me about it beforehand, his answer was, that he would not tell me of it, because he knew I should advise him against it, and he was determined to do it. Adieu; I have not room for a formal conclusion; but ain, &c. HERVEY. LORD HERVEY TO HORACE WALPOLE. Kensington, Sept. 12, 1735. You need not fear my troubling you, dear Sir, with another long letter this post, after the unreasonable one you had by the last; for I now write to you from the waitingrooms, with Mrs. Selwyn and her family talking so fast round me, that I hardly know whether I am writing my own thoughts or their words. My only reason for writing at all is, because I cannot send you the enclosed without telling you it gives general satisfaction on a point that has long been the occasion of a Craftsman triumph against us. Upon the whole, I think it well written; but the two last paragraphs (I do not mean the advertisements) incomparable: they are perfectly what the Italians call ben trovato. I disapprove the motto extremely they are reflections which ought never to be cast, as they never, with sensible people, hurt those on whom they are thrown, if they are true, and always hurt those who throw them, true or false; and I think, too, that much more might have been said in justification of Sir Robert's drawing this contract, than that he was implored and importuned to draw it: the circumstances of those times, and general ruin in that general confusion being apprehended, was, sure, a full justification of any body who tried to prevent it by the only method that the whole world then thought would prevent it. The news of Prince Eugene's having left the camp, and being returned to Vienna, is at present the topic of every coffee-house conversation, as well as every Court whisper; till the reason of this sudden unexpected step becomes as public as the fact, it will occasion great speculation among the politicians, and give birth to many conjectures among the refiners. I may talk, perhaps, my dear Mr. Walpole, extremely en ignorant; but to one who, like me, sees nothing more than the surface of events, and knows nothing of the deeper springs of causes, surely this war must seem the oddest that ever was carried on: the campaign last year in Italy was not more unreasonably bloody, than that of this year on the Rhine is unaccountably bloodless. France is refractory in all reasonable proposals for peace, and yet seems afraid to prosecute the war. On the other hand, the Emperor ransacks the remotest parts of barbarism under the pole, to fetch 30,000 Russian bears to strengthen his troops; and the moment he has fetched an army to his general he sends for his general from the army: tout cela me passe. I set out with a promise not to trouble you with a long letter; but I have kept my word very ill, and, I fear, have broken it very ill too; for in the noise I write I fear the little meaning I have to boast of will be quite unintelligible. There is one truth I am sure I can answer for, which is my being Dr. Hoadly. Most sincerely yours, HERVEY. ↑ Sir Robert Walpole's vindication for drawing the outline of a contract between the Bank and South Sea companies, in the autumn of 1720. |