XVI. 1731. at a low ebb. They could not deny that the Mi- GHAP nisters had been very successful in their foreign negotiations; and were reduced to argue that this advantage had accrued by chance, or might have been attained a shorter way. According to Pul teney, "It is something like a pilot, who, though "he has a clear, a safe, and a straight passage for going into port, yet takes it in his head to 66 66 carry the ship a great way about, through sands, "rocks, and shallows, and thereby loses a great many of the seamen, destroys a great deal of the "tackle and rigging, and puts the owners to a "vast expense; however, at last, by chance, he hits the port, and then triumphs in his good "conduct." According to Wyndham, "We have "been like a man in a room, who wants to get “out, and though the door be open, and a clear 66 way to it, yet he stalks round the room, breaks "his shins over a stool, tumbles over a chair, and "at last, rumbling over every thing in his way, by "chance finds the door and gets out, after abun"dance of needless trouble and danger."* In proportion, however, as the Opposition flagged in argument, they (as usual in such cases) increased in, virulence. The Craftsman still continued his weekly attacks with unabated spirit and with growing effect. Other pamphlets also appeared from T the same quarter, under the name of Caleb Danvers, and one of these lashed the character of Lord Hervey with such asperity, that Hervey called Speeches on the Address, January 13. 1732. CHAP. on Pulteney to déclare whether he was the author XVI. of the libel. After some altercation, Pulteney re1781. plied, that whether he were or not, he was ready to justify and stand by its truth: a duel ensued, and both combatants were slightly wounded.” Hervey was a young man of considerable wit and ability, but most infirm health, insomuch that he found it necessary to live only on asses' milk and biscuits. Once a week he indulged himself with an apple; emetics he used daily.t He attracted ridicule by the contrast between his pompous solemn manner and his puny effeminate appearance; and still more unhappily for himself, he attacked Pope, who, in return, has sent down his name to posterity as a monster of profligacy, and a mere "white curd of asses' milk!" Another pamphlet which Pulteney published in the same year, and in which he did not conceal his name, brought down upon him the full tide of ministerial resentment. He had disclosed some former private conversation between him and Walpole, in which Sir Robert had not spared the character of George the Second as Prince of Wales. However blamable this breach of confidence, Walpole ought not to have mixed the King in the quarrel; but he now prevailed upon His Mr. Thomas Pelham to Lord Waldegrave, January 28. 1731. Pulteney suspected Lord Hervey of having written a scurrilous pamphlet against him and Bolingbroke, called Sedition and Defamation displayed. The real author was Sir William Yonge. † See a note to Coxe's Walpole, vol.i. p. 362.~ XVI. 1731. Majesty to strike Pulteney's name out of the list of CHAP Privy Councillors, and to order that the several Lords Lieutenant who had granted him commissions of the peace should revoke them. It should be observed also, that Pulteney's breach of confidence was not without justification. For the libel which he was answering contained a like disclosure of other conversations between him and Walpole; and as the former declares in his preliminary address, "these passages of secret history, however "falsely stated and misrepresented, could come "from nobody but yourself." The year 1733 was marked by two great finan cial measures of Walpole, the first certainly wrong, but carried by large majorities; the latter as certainly just and wise, but repelled by the overpowering force of public indignation. The first was his proposal to take half a million from the Sinking Fund for the service of the current year. The Sinking Fund, established by Stanhope and Walpole himself in 1717, had been kept sacred during the whole reign of George the First. Since 1727, however, various encroachments had been made upon this surplus, and now, in 1733, it received an open attack. It was truly urged by the Opposition, and especially by Sir John Barnard, member for London, a man of the greatest weight on all financial questions, that this precious fund ought never to be applied to any other purpose than that of discharging debts, except in the case of some ex * Tindal's Hist. vol. viii. p. 104. 1733. CHAP. treme emergency; that to ease ourselves by loading XVI. our posterity is a poor, short-sighted expedient; "and the author of such an expedient," emphati 1733. 66 cally added Barnard, "must expect the curses of 'posterity.". -"The Right Honourable Gentleman," said Pulteney, "had once the vanity to "call himself the Father of the Sinking Fund; but "if Solomon's judgment was right, he who is thus "for splitting and dividing the child can never be "deemed to be the real father." But Walpole had a most irresistible argument for the country gentlemen: he declared, that if his proposal were not carried, he must move for a land-tax of two shillings in the pound-and his proposal was carried by a majority of 110. His biographer and warm admirer admits, on this occasion, " a dark speck in "his financial administration." For the example once set was too tempting not to follow. Next year 1,200,000l. the whole produce of the fund was taken from it; in 1735 and 1736 it was mortgaged and alienated. Our debts were always augmented in moments of difficulty, never diminished in a period of peace, until the Sinking Fund was restored, in a different era and on a new foundation, by the genius and integrity of Pitt. * It may be observed, however, in justice to Walpole, that many persons in the reign of the two first Georges entertained an idea, however erro Coxe's Walpole, vol. i. p. 371. See also Sinclair's Public Revenue, part ii. p. 108. XVI. neously, that the public debt was a main pillar of CHAP. the established Government by interesting so many persons in its support, and were therefore extremely 1733. unwilling to take any measures for an effectual reduction. This idea was founded on the fear of the Pretender, who it was thought if once enthroned in the kingdom would never acknowledge the debts contracted mainly to keep him out of it. In an allegory of Addison, accordingly, we find James introduced as a young man with a sword in his right hand and a sponge in his left. Several Jacobites disclaimed any such intention, while the majority, no doubt, looked to it as an unfailing resource against all future financial difficulties. We may notice, also, that the fundholders, probably from the same apprehension, were very moderate and reasonable in their views, and that even the reduction of their interest in 1717 was not unpopular amongst them; at least one of their chief men, Mr. Bateman, told Lord Stanhope that he was glad the resolution had been taken, because though his interest was diminished, he should think his principal more secure than ever. ‡ Walpole's next financial measure was the famous EXCISE SCHEME. The excise duties, first levied in the civil wars, and continued, but curtailed (... Sinclair's History of the Revenue, part ii. p. 75. ct Spectator, No. iii. Bolingbroke on the State of the Nation. (Polit. Works, vol. iv. p. 150. ed. 1773.) |