Preliminaries of Peace concluded Dispute between the Courts of Spain and Portugal... 277 1736. Correspondence of Walpole with Cardinal Fleury ... 279 Opinion of Alfieri, Schiller, and Byron .................. 325 Advantages of preserving the Unities .................. 326 Modern attacks on the poetry of Pope.................. 329 Literary profits and Literary patronage ....................... 336 Contempt of Walpole for Literature ........................ 337 State of the Church at that period .... Alienation between the higher and lower clergy State of the Universities ...... THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND FROM THE PEACE OF UTRECHT. CHAPTER XI. XI. 1720. In the spring of 1720, the administration of Lord CHAP. Stanhope had attained a high pitch of success and renown. By negotiation, he had driven Alberoni from Madrid; by force, the Spaniards from Sicily. The authority of the Regent had been secured in France, and his friendship with England confirmed; and some fresh difficulties which arose after Stanhope had left Paris in January, were adjusted by another journey of that Minister in March. At the same time the Cabinet of Vienna had been brought into a concert of measures and the ancient alliance renewed with the Dutch. In the North, the confederacy against Sweden had been successfully broken; Prussians, Danes, and Poles were disarmed; and the languid hostilities which the Czar still continued from his want of temper, must, it was evident, speedily terminate from |