The Project Gutenberg eBook, Walpole and Chatham (1714-1760), by Katharine Ada Esdaile

BELL'S ENGLISH HISTORY SOURCE BOOKS

General Editors: S. E. Winbolt, M.A., and Kenneth Bell, M.A.

WALPOLE AND
CHATHAM
(1714-1760)

COMPILED BY
KATHARINE A. ESDAILE
SOME TIME SCHOLAR OF LADY MARGARET HALL, OXFORD

LONDON
G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.
1912

INTRODUCTION

This series of English History Source Books is intended for use with any ordinary textbook of English History. Experience has conclusively shown that such apparatus is a valuable—nay, an indispensable—adjunct to the history lesson. It is capable of two main uses: either by way of lively illustration at the close of a lesson, or by way of inference-drawing, before the textbook is read, at the beginning of the lesson. The kind of problems and exercises that may be based on the documents are legion, and are admirably illustrated in a History of England for Schools, Part I., by Keatinge and Frazer, pp. 377-381. However, we have no wish to prescribe for the teacher the manner in which he shall exercise his craft, but simply to provide him and his pupils with materials hitherto not readily accessible for school purposes. The very moderate price of the books in this series should bring them within the reach of every secondary school. Source books enable the pupil to take a more active part than hitherto in the history lesson. Here is the apparatus, the raw material: its use we leave to teacher and taught.

Our belief is that the books may profitably be used by all grades of historical students between the standards of fourth-form boys in secondary schools and undergraduates at Universities. What differentiates students at one extreme from those at the other is not so much the kind of subject-matter dealt with, as the amount they can read into or extract from it.

In regard to choice of subject-matter, while trying to satisfy the natural demand for certain "stock" documents of vital importance, we hope to introduce much fresh and novel matter. It is our intention that the majority of the extracts should be lively in style—that is, personal, or descriptive, or rhetorical, or even strongly partisan—and should not so much profess to give the truth as supply data for inference. We aim at the greatest possible variety, and lay under contribution letters, biographies, ballads and poems, diaries, debates, and newspaper accounts. Economics, London, municipal, and social life generally, and local history, are represented in these pages.

The order of the extracts is strictly chronological, each being numbered, titled, and dated, and its authority given. The text is modernised, where necessary, to the extent of leaving no difficulties in reading.

We shall be most grateful to teachers and students who may send us suggestions for improvement.

S. E. WINBOLT.
KENNETH BELL.

NOTE TO THIS VOLUME

I have to thank the Editors of the English Historical Review for permission to reprint the passages dealing with the War of Jenkins' Ear, published by Sir John Laughton in the fourth volume of the Review, and the Scottish History Society for a similar permission with regard to the Proclamation of James III. and the Landing of the Young Pretender. The Letters of Horace Walpole are quoted throughout under the dates and names of correspondents, not from any particular edition, as this enables a letter to be found without difficulty in any edition; otherwise the sources are given in full.

The lover of the eighteenth century is born, but he is also made. It is the aim of this little book to help in the making.

K. A. E.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WALPOLE AND CHATHAM

1714-1760

STATE OF PARTIES AT THE QUEEN'S DEATH (1714).

Source.—Letter to Sir William Windham, Bolingbroke's Works, 1754. Vol. i., pp. 28-31.

The thunder had long grumbled in the air, and yet when the bolt [the Queen's death] fell, most of our party appeared as much surprised as if they had had no reason to expect it. There was a perfect calm and universal submission throughout the whole kingdom. The Chevalier indeed set out as if his design had been to gain the coast and to embark for Great Britain, and the Court of France made a merit to themselves of stopping him and obliging him to return. But this, to my certain knowledge, was a farce acted by concert, to keep up an opinion of his character, when all opinion of his cause seemed to be at an end. He owned this concert to me at Bar, on the occasion of my telling him that he would have found no party ready to receive him, and that the enterprise would have been to the last degree extravagant. He was at this time far from having any encouragement: no party, numerous enough to make the least disturbance, was formed in his favour. On the King's arrival the storm arose. The menaces of the Whigs, backed by some very rash declarations, by little circumstances of humor which frequently offend more than real injuries, and by the entire change of all the persons in employment, blew up the coals.

At first many of the tories had been made to entertain some faint hopes that they would be permitted to live in quiet. I have been assured that the King left Hanover in that resolution. Happy had it been for him and for us if he had continued in it; if the moderation of his temper had not been overborne by the violence of party, and his and the national interest sacrificed to the passions of a few. Others there were among the tories who had flattered themselves with much greater expectations than these, and who had depended, not on such imaginary favor and dangerous advancement as was offered them afterwards, but on real credit and substantial power under the new government. Such impressions on the minds of men had rendered the two houses of parliament, which were then sitting, as good courtiers to King George, as ever they had been to queen Anne. But all these hopes being at once and with violence extinguished, despair succeeded in their room.

Our party began soon to act like men delivered over to their passions, and unguided by any other principle; not like men fired by a just resentment and a reasonable ambition to a bold undertaking. They treated the government like men who were resolved not to live under it, and yet they took no one measure to support themselves against it. They expressed, without reserve or circumspection, an eagerness to join in any attempt against the establishment which they had received and confirmed, and which many of them had courted but a few weeks before: and yet in the midst of all this bravery, when the election of the new parliament came on, some of these very men acted with the coolness of those who are much better disposed to compound than to take arms.

The body of the tories being in this temper, it is not to be wondered at, if they heated one another and began apace to turn their eyes towards the pretender: and if those few, who had already engaged with him, applied themselves to improve the conjuncture and endeavour to lift a party for him.

I went, about a month after the queen's death, as soon as the seals were taken from me, into the country, and whilst I continued there, I felt the general disposition to jacobitism encrease daily among people of all ranks; among several who had been constantly distinguished by their aversion to that cause. But at my return to London in the month of February or March one thousand seven hundred and fifteen, a few weeks before I left England, I began for the first time in my whole life to perceive these general dispositions ripen into resolutions, and to observe some regular workings among many of our principal friends, which denoted a scheme of this kind. These workings, indeed, were very faint, for the persons concerned in carrying them on did not think it safe to speak too plainly to men who were, in truth, ill disposed to the government, because they neither found their account at present under it, nor had been managed with art enough to leave them hopes of finding it hereafter: but who at the same time had not the least affection for the pretender's person, nor any principle favorable to his interest.

This was the state of things when the new parliament, which his majesty had called, assembled. A great majority of the elections had gone in favour of the Whigs, to which the want of concert among the tories had contributed as much as the vigor of that party, and the influence of the new government. The whigs came to the opening of this parliament full of as much violence as could possess men who expected to make their court, to confirm themselves in power, and to gratify their resentments by the same measures. I have heard that it was a dispute among the ministers how far this spirit should be indulged, and that the king was determined, or confirmed in determination, to consent to the prosecutions, and to give the reins to the party by the representations that were made to him, that great difficulties would arise in the conduct of the session, if the court should appear inclined to check this spirit, and by Mr. W[alpole]'s undertaking to carry all the business successfully through the house of commons if they were at liberty. Such has often been the unhappy fate of our princes; a real necessity sometimes, and sometimes a seeming one, has forced them to compound with a part of the nation at the expense of the whole; and the success of their business for one year has been purchased at the price of public disorder for many.

The conjecture I am speaking of forms a memorable instance of this truth. If milder measures had been pursued, certain it is, that the tories had never universally embraced jacobitism. The violence of the whigs forced them into the arms of the pretender. The court and the party seemed to vie with one another which should go the greatest lengths in severity: and the ministers, whose true interest it must at all times be to calm the minds of men, and who ought never to set the examples of extraordinary inquiries or extraordinary accusations, were upon this occasion the tribunes of the people.

PROCLAMATION OF GEORGE I. (1714).

Source.—Oldmixon's History of England, George I., 1735. P. 564.

Whereas it hath pleas'd Almighty God to call to his Mercy our late Soveraign Lady Queen Anne, of blessed Memory; by whose Decease, the Imperial Crowns of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, are solely, and rightfully come to the High and Mighty Prince George, elector of Brunswick-Lunenburg: We therefore, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the Realm, being here assisted with those of her late Majesty's Privy Council, with Numbers of other principal gentlemen of Quality, with the Lord-Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of London, do now hereby, with one full Voice and Consent of Tongue and Heart, publish and proclaim, That the high and mighty Prince George, Elector of Brunswick-Lunenburg, is now, by the Death of our late Soveraign of happy Memory, become our lawful and rightful Liege Lord, George, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. To whom we do acknowledge all Faith and constant Obedience, with all hearty and humble Affection, beseeching God, by whom Kings and Queens do reign, to bless the Royal King George with long and happy years to reign over us.

Given at the Palace of St. James's,
the First Day of August, 1714.

God Save the King.

[Then follow the signatures of 127 peers and commoners, "Lords and Gentlemen who signed the Proclamation," including Lords Buckingham, Shrewsbury, Oxford, Bolingbroke, and Sir Christopher Wren.]

CHARACTER AND PERSON OF GEORGE I. (1660-1727).

A. By Lord Chesterfield.

Source.—Lord Chesterfield (1694-1774), Characters of Eminent Persons of His own Time, 1777. P. 9.

George the First was an honest and dull German gentleman, as unfit as unwilling to act the part of a King, which is, to shine and oppress. Lazy and inactive even in his pleasures; which were therefore lowly and sensual: He was coolly intrepid, and indolently benevolent. He was diffident of his own parts, which made him speak little in public[1] and prefer in his social, which were his favourite, hours, the company of waggs and buffoons.... His views and affections were singly confined to the narrow compass of his electorate.—England was too big for him.—If he had nothing great as a King, he had nothing bad as a Man—and if he does not adorn, at least he will not stain the annals of this country. In private life, he would have been loved and esteemed as a good citizen, a good friend, and a good neighbour.—Happy were it for Europe, happy for the world, if there were not greater Kings in it!

B. By Horace Walpole.

Source.—Reminiscences, in Works of Horace Walpole, Earl of Oxford, 1798. Vol. iv., p. 275; Letter to Sir Horace Mann, Feb. 25, 1782.

"At ten years old [i.e., in 1727] I had set my heart on seeing George I., and being a favourite child, my mother asked leave for me to be presented to him; which to the First Minister's wife was granted, and I was carried by the late Lady Chesterfield to kiss his hand as he went to supper in the Duchess of Kendal's apartment. This was the night but one before he left England the last time."

"The person of the King is as perfect in my memory as if I saw him but yesterday. It was that of an elderly man, rather pale, and exactly like his pictures and coins, not tall, of an aspect rather good than august, with a dark tie wig, a plain coat, waistcoat and breeches of snuff-coloured cloth, with stockings of the same colour and a blue riband over all."

[1] Lord Chesterfield does not mention that George I. spoke no English.—Ed.

PUBLIC FEELING AS TO THE NEW DYNASTY (1714).

A. Whig.

Source.—Letters of Lady M. W. Montagu. Vol. 1., p. 86. Bohn's edition.

Aug. 9, 1714.

The Archbishop of York has been come to Bishopsthorpe but three days. I went with my cousin to see the King proclaimed, which was done, the archbishop walking next the Lord Mayor, all the country gentry following, with greater crowds of people than I believed to be in York, vast acclamations, and the appearance of a general satisfaction. The Pretender afterwards dragged about the streets and burned. Ringing of bells, bonfires, and illuminations, the mob crying Liberty and Property! and Long live King George! This morning all the principal men of any figure took port for London, and we are alarmed with the fear of attempts from Scotland, though all Protestants here seem unanimous for the Hanover succession.

B. Tory.

Source.—Thomas Hearne [1678-1735], Reliquiæ Hearnianæ, 1869. Vol. i., pp. 303, 309.

Aug. 4.—This day, at two o'clock, the said elector of Brunswick (who is in the fifty-fifth year of his age, being born May 28th, 1660) was proclaimed in Oxford. The vice-chancellor, and doctors, and masters met in the convocation house, and from thence went to St. Mary's, to attend at the solemnity. There was but a small appearance of doctors and masters that went from the convocation house. I stood in the Bodleian gallery where I observed them. Dr. Hudson was amongst them, and all the heads of houses in town. But there were a great many more doctors and masters at St. Marie's, where a scaffold was erected for them.

Aug. 5.—The illumination and rejoicing in Oxford was very little last night. The proclamation was published at Abingdon also yesterday, but there was little appearance.

A letter having been put into the mayor of Oxford's hands before he published the proclamation, cautioning him against proclaiming King George, and advising him to proclaim the pretender by the name of King James III., the said Mayor, notwithstanding, proclaimed King George, and yesterday our vice-chancellor, and heads, and proctors, agreed to a reward of an hundred pounds to be paid to anyone that should discover the author or authors of the letter; and the order for the same being printed I have inserted a copy of it here.

"At a general meeting of the vice-chancellor, heads of houses, and proctors of the university of Oxford, at the Apodyterium of the Convocation House, on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 1714.

"Whereas a letter directed to Mr. Mayor of the city of Oxford, containing treasonable matters, was delivered at his house on Monday night last, betwixt nine and ten of the clock, by a person in an open-sleeved gown, and in a cinnamon-coloured coat, as yet unknown: which letter has been communicated to Mr. Vice-Chancellor by the said Mayor: if any one will discover the author or authors of the said letter, or the person who delivered it, so as he or they may be brought to justice, he shall have a reward of one hundred pounds, to be paid him forthwith by Mr. Vice-Chancellor.

"Bernard Gardiner, Vice-Chancellor."

The letter to which the vice-chancellor's programme refers:

Oxon, August 2nd, 1714.

Mr. Mayor,

If you are so honest a man as to prefer your duty and allegiance to your lawfull sovereign before the fear of danger, you will not need this caution, which comes from your friends to warn you, if you should receive an order to proclaim Hannover, not to comply with it. For the hand of God is now at work to set things upon a right foot, and in a few days you will find wonderfull changes, which if you are wise enough to foresee, you will obtain grace and favour from the hands of his sacred majestie king James, by proclaiming him voluntarily, which otherwise you will be forced to do with disgrace. If you have not the courage to do this, at least for your own safety delay proclaiming Hannover as long as you can under pretense of sickness or some other reason. For you cannot do it without certain hazard of your life, be you ever so well guarded. I, who am but secretary to the rest, having a particular friendship for you, and an opinion of your honesty and good inclinations to his majestie's service, have prevailed with them to let me give you this warning. If you would know who the rest are, our name is

Legion, and we are many.

This note shall be your sufficient warrant in times to come for proclaiming his majestie King James, and if this does not satisfie you, upon your first publick notice we will do it in person.

For Mr. Broadwater, mayor of the City of Oxford, these.

Sept. 25.—On Monday last (Sept. 20th) King George (as he is styled) with his son (who is in the 31st year of his age, and is called prince of Wales, he having been so created), entered London, and came to the palace of St. James's, attended with several thousands. It was observed that the Duke of Marlborough was more huzza'd, upon this occasion, than King George, and that the acclamation, God save the Duke of Marlborough! was more frequently repeated than God save the king! In the evening the illuminations and bonfires were not many. King George hath begun to change all the ministers, and to put in the whiggs, every post bringing us news of this alteration, to the grievous mortification of that party called tories. The duke of Marlborough is made captain general of all the forces in room of the duke of Ormond, not to mention the other great changes. But the tories must thank themselves for all this, they having acted whilst in power very unworthily, and instead of preferring worthy scholars and truly honest men, they put in the quite contrary, and indeed behaved themselves with very little courage or integrity. I am sorry to write this; but 'tis too notorious, and they therefore very deservedly suffer now. They have acted contrary to their principles, and must therefore expect to smart. But the whiggs, as they have professed bad principles, so they have acted accordingly, not in the least receding from what they have laid down as principles. 'Tis to be hoped the tories may now at last see their folly, and may resolve to act steadily and uniformly, and to provide for, and take care of, one another, and with true courage and resolution endeavour to retrieve credit and reputation by practising those doctrines which will make for the service of the king, and of the whole nation, and not suffer those enemies the whiggs utterly to ruin their country, as they have done almost already.

THE '15.

I.
The Pretender's Declaration (1715).

Source.—A. Boyer's Political State of Great Britain, 1720. Vol. x., pp. 626-630.

His Majesty's Most Gracious Declaration.

James R.

James VIII. by the Grace of God, of Scotland, England, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith &c. To all Our Loving Subjects of What Degree or Quality soever. Greeting. As we are firmly resolved never to lose any Opportunity of asserting Our undoubted Title to the Imperial Crown of these Realms, and of endeavouring to get the Possession of that Right which is devolv'd upon Us by the Laws of God and Man: so we must in Justice to the Sentiments of our Heart declare, That nothing in the World can give Us so great satisfaction, as to owe to the Endeavours of Our Loyal Subjects both our own and their Restoration to that happy Settlement which can alone deliver this Church and Nation from the Calamities which they lie at present under, and from those future Miseries which must be the Consequences of the present usurpation. During the Life of Our dear Sister, of Glorious Memory, the Happiness which Our People enjoy'd softened in some Degree the Hardship of our own Fate; and we must further confess, That when we reflected on the Goodness of her Nature, and her Inclination to Justice, we could not but persuade Our Self, that she intended to establish and perpetuate the Peace which she had given to these Kingdoms by destroying for ever all Competition to the Succession of the Crown, and by securing to us, at last, the Enjoyment of the Inheritance out of which We had been so long kept, which her Conscience must inform her was our Due, and which her Principles must bend her to desire that We might obtain.

But since the Time that it pleased Almighty God to put a Period to her Life, and not to suffer Us to throw Our Self, as We then fully purposed to have done, upon Our People, We have not been able to look upon the Present Condition of Our Kingdoms, or to consider their Future Prospect, without all the Horror and Indignation which ought to fill the Breast of every Scotsman.

We have beheld a Foreign Family, Aliens to our Country, distant in Blood, and Strangers even to our Language, ascend the Throne.

We have seen the Reins of Government put into the Hands of a Faction, and that Authority which was design'd for the Protection of All, exercis'd by a Few of the Worst, to the oppression of the Best and Greatest number of our Subjects. Our Sister has not been left at Rest in her Grave; her name has been scurrilously abused, her Glory, as far as in these People lay, insolently defaced, and her faithful Servants inhumanely persecuted. A Parliament has been procur'd by the most Unwarrantable Influences, and by the Grossest Corruptions, to serve the Vilest Ends, and they who ought to be the Guardians of the Liberties of the People, are become the Instruments of Tyranny. Whilst the Principal Powers, engaged in the Late Wars, enjoy the Blessings of Peace, and are attentive to discharge their Debts, and ease their People, Great Britain, in the Midst of Peace, feels all the Load of a War. New Debts are contracted, New Armies are raised at Home, Dutch Forces are brought into these Kingdoms, and, by taking Possession of the Dutchy of Bremen, in Violation of the Public Faith, a Door is opened by the Usurper to let in an Inundation of Foreigners from Abroad and to reduce these Nations to the State of a Province, to one of the most inconsiderable Provinces of the Empire.

These are some few of the many real Evils into which these Kingdoms have been betrayed, under Pretence of being rescued and secured from Dangers purely imaginary, and these are such Consequences of abandoning the Old constitution, as we persuade Our Selves very many of those who promoted the present unjust and illegal Settlement, never intended.

We observe, with the utmost Satisfaction, that the Generality of Our Subjects are awaken'd with a just Sense of their Danger, and that they shew themselves disposed to take such Measures as may effectually rescue them from that Bondage which has, by the Artifice of a few designing Men, and by the Concurrence of many unhappy Causes, been brought upon them.

We adore the Wisdom of the Divine Providence, which has opened a Way to our Restoration, by the Success of those very Measures that were laid to disappoint us for ever: And we must earnestly conjure all Our Loving Subjects, not to suffer that Spirit to faint or die away, which has been so miraculously raised in all Parts of the Kingdom, but to pursue with all the Vigour and Hopes of Success, which so just and righteous a Cause ought to inspire, those methods, which The Finger of God seems to point out to them.

We are come to take Our Part in all the Dangers and Difficulties to which any of Our Subjects, from the Greatest down to the Meanest, may be exposed on this important Occasion, to relieve Our Subjects of Scotland from the Hardships they groan under on account of the late unhappy Union; and to restore the Kingdom in its ancient, free, and independent State.

We have before Our Eyes the Example of Our Royal Grandfather, who fell a Sacrifice to Rebellion, and of Our Royal Uncle, who, by a Train of Miracles, escaped the Rage of the barbarous and blood-thirsty Rebels, and lived to exercise his Clemency towards those who had waged war against his Father and himself; who had driven him to seek Shelter in Foreign Lands, and who had even set a Price upon his Head. We see the same Instances of Cruelty renewed against Us, by Men of the same Principles, without any other Reason than the Consciousness of their own Guilt, and the implacable Malice of their own Hearts: For in the Account of such Men, it's a Crime sufficient to be born their King; but God forbid, that we should tread in those Steps, or that the Cause of a Lawful Prince, and an Injur'd People, should be carried on like that of Usurpation and Tyranny, and owe its Support to Assassins. We shall copy after the Patterns above mentioned, and be ready, with the Former of Our Royal Ancestors, to seal the Cause of Our Country, if such be the Will of Heaven, with Our Blood. But we hope for Better Things; we hope, with the Latter, to see Our just Rights, and those of the Church and People of Scotland, once more settled in a Free and Independent Scots Parliament, on their Antient Foundation. To such a Parliament, which we will immediately call, shall we intirely refer both Our and Their Interests, being sensible that these Interests, rightly understood, are always the same. Let the Civil, as well as Religious Rights of all our Subjects, receive their Confirmation in such a Parliament; let Consciences truly tender be indulged; let Property of every Kind be better than ever secured; let an Act of General Grace and Amnesty extinguish the Fears even of the most Guilty; if possible, let the very Remembrance of all which have preceded this happy Moment be utterly blotted out, that Our Subjects may be united to Us, and to Each Other, on the strictest Bonds of Affection, as well as Interest.

And that nothing may be omitted which is in Our Power to contribute to this desirable End, we do, by these Presents, absolutely and effectually, for Us, Our Heirs and Successors, pardon, remit and discharge all Crimes of High Treason, Misprision of Treason, and all other Crimes and Offences whatsoever, done or committed against Us or Our Royal Father of Blessed Memory, by any of Our Subjects of what Degree or Quality soever, who shall, at or after Our Landing, and before they engage in any Action against Us, or Our Forces, from that Time, lay hold on Mercy, and return to that Duty and Allegiance which they owe to Us, their only rightful and lawful Sovereign.

By the joint Endeavours of Us and Our Parliament, urged by these Motives, and directed by these Views, we may hope to see the Peace and flourishing Estate of this Kingdom, in a short Time, restored: and We shall be equally forward to concert with our Parliament such further Measures as may be thought necessary for leaving the same to future Generations.

And We hereby require all Sheriffs of Shires, Stewarts of Stewartries, or their Deputies, and Magistrates of Burghs, to publish this Our Declaration immediately after it shall come to their Hands in the Usual Places and Manner, under the Pain of being proceeded against for Failure thereof, and forfeiting the Benefit of Our general Pardon.

Given under Our Sign Manual and Privy Signet, at Our Court at Commercy, the 25th Day of Octob. in the 15th Year of Our Reign.

II.
The Proclamation of James III. (1715).

Source.—Peter Clarke's Journal, in Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, 1893. Vol. i., p. 513.

Sir,—On Wednesday the second day of November one thousand seaven hundred and fifteen, the then high sherriff of Cumberland assembled the posse comitatus on Penrith Fell, Viscount Loynsdale being there as commander of the militia of Westmoreland, Cumberland and Northumberland, who were assembled at the place aforesaid for prevention of rebellion and riots. The Lord Bishop of Carlisle and his daughter were there. By the strictest observation the numbers were twenty-five thousand men, but very few of them had any regular armes. At 11 o'clock in the forenoon of the same day the high sherriff and the two lords received a true account that the Earl of Derwentwater, together with his army, were within 6 miles of Penrith. Upon the receipt of this news the said high sherriff and the said 2 lords, the posse comitatus and the militia fled, leaving most of their arms vpon the said fell. There is no doubt had the men stood their ground the said Earl and his men (as it hath since beene acknowledged by divers of them) wood have retreated. About 3 aclock in the afternoon on the same day the said Earl, together with his army, in number about one thousand seaven hundred, entred the said towne of Penrith, where they proclaimed their king by the name and title of James the 3d. of England and Ireland, and 8th of Scotland. In this towne they received what excise was due to the crowne and gave receipts for the same. A small party were sent to Lowther Hall to search for Lord Loynsdale, but not finding him there (for he was gone into Yorkshire), they made bold to take provision for themselves and their horses, such as the Hall aforded. There were only at that time two old woomen in the said Hall who received no bodily damage. But provision being scarce in the said towne, Penrith, they marched betimes next morning for Apleby. The gentlemen paid their quarters of for what they called for in both these townes, but the commonality paid little or nothing, neither was there any person that received any bodily damage in either of the said townes. If they found any armes they tooke them without paying the owners for them. Only one man joyned them in their march from Penrith to Apleby. In this towne they made the same proclamation as they had done in the former, and received the excise. The weather at this time for some days before was rainey. They marched out of this towne betimes on Saturday morning, being the 5th of November, in order for Kendall. In this day's march none joyned them (excepting one, Mr. Francis Thornburrow), son of Mr. William Thornburrow of Selfet Hall neare Kendall. His father sent one of his servant men to wait upon his son because he was in scarlet cloathes, and stile of Captain Thornburrow.

About 12 aclock of the same day 6 quartermasters came into the towne of Kendall, and about 2 aclock in the afternoone Brigadeer Mackintoss and his men came both a horseback, having both plads on their targets hanging on their backs, either of them a sord by his side, as also either a gun and a case of pistols. The said Brigadeer looked with a grim countenance. He and his man lodged at Alderman Lowrys, a private house in Highgate Street in this towne. About one houre after came in the horsemen, and the footmen at the latter end. It rained very hard here this day, and had for several days before, so that the horse and the footmen did not draw their swords, nor show their collours, neither did any drums beat. Onely six highlands bagpipes played. They marched to the cold-stone or the cross, and read the same proclamation twice over in English without any mixture of Scotish tongue. I had for about one month lived and was clerke to Mr. Craikenthorp, attorney at Law, and as a spectator I went to heare the proclamation read, which I believe was in print, and began after this manner, viz., Whereas George Elector of Brunswick has usurped and taken upon him the stile of the king of these realms, etc. Another clause in it I took particular notice of was this, viz.—Did immediately after his said fathers decease become our only and lawful leige. At the end of the proclamation they gave a great shout. A quaker who stood next to me not puting of his hat at the end of the said ceremony, a highlander thrust a halbert at him, but it fortunately went between me and him, so that it did neither of us any damage. So they dispersed.

III.
Failure of the Expedition Explained.

(a) Absence of Foreign Aid.

Source.—Letter to Sir William Windham, Bolingbroke's Works, 1754. Vol. i, pp. 79, 80.

The true cause of all the misfortunes which happened to the Scotch and those who took arms in the north of England, lies here: that they rose without any previous certainty of foreign help, in direct contradiction to the scheme which their leaders themselves had formed. The excuse which I have heard made for this, is that the act of parliament for curbing the highlanders was near to be put in execution: that they would have been disarmed and entirely disabled from rising at any other time, if they had not rose at this. You can judge better than I of the validity of this excuse. It seems to me that by management they might have gained time, and that even when they had been reduced to the dilemma supposed, they ought to have got together under pretence of resisting the infractions of the union without any mention of the pretender, and have treated with the government on this foot. By these means they might probably have preserved themselves in a condition of avowing their design when they should be sure of being backed from abroad; at the worst they might have declared for the Chevalier when all other expedients failed them. In a word I take this excuse not to be very good, and the true reason of this conduct to have been the rashness of the people, and the inconsistent measures of their head.

(b) The Pretender no Leader of Men.

Source.—A true Account of the Proceedings at Perth, Written by a Rebel, 1716, p. 20.

I must not conceal that when we saw the man whom they called our King, we found ourselves not at all animated by his presence, and if he was disappointed in us, we were tenfold more so in him. We saw nothing in him that looked like spirit. He never appeared with cheerfulness and vigour to animate us. His countenance looked extremely heavy. He cared not to come abroad among us soldiers, or to see us handle our arms or do our exercises. Some said, the circumstances he found us in dejected him; I am sure the figure he made dejected us; and had he sent us but 3.000 men of good hopes, and never himself come among us, we had done other things than we have now.

(c) The Nation's Dread of Popery.

[Just as in 1745 the Curse of Ernulphus was reprinted in the Gentleman's Magazine for September "to shew what is to be expected from the Pope, if he come to be supreme head of the church in this nation," so in 1715 the same fears were worked upon in innumerable pamphlets. The first Article of Impeachment of High Treason against Lord Derwentwater is the charge of re-establishing popery, and is taken from A Faithful Register of the Late Rebellion, 1718, p. 41; the second extract is from A Caveat against the Pretender, 1725, p. 5.]

(1) ... For many Years past, a most wicked Design and Contrivance has been formed and carried on, to subvert the ancient and established Government, and the good Laws of these Kingdoms; to extirpate the true Protestant Religion therein established, and to destroy its Professors; and, instead thereof, to introduce and settle Popery and arbitrary Power; in which unnatural and horrid Conspiracy, great Numbers of Persons, of different Degrees and Qualities, have concerned themselves, and acted; and many Protestants, pretending an uncommon Zeal for the Church of England, have join'd themselves with professed Papists, uniting their Endeavours to accomplish and execute the aforesaid and traitorous designs.

(2) The Pretender return! What Flames will this kindle? What burning of Towns, and ransacking of Cities? What Plunder and Rapine? And what Blindness, Superstition; Ruin of all Religion, and utter Waste of Conscience, would be the Issue of his Success!...

That this is not mere Declamation, and design'd for Amusement, a little Inspection into that Mystery of Iniquity, we call Popery, wou'd convince the Reader, even to Amazement: But these Papers must be confin'd to a narrower compass, and shall only fix upon one single Point of Popery, that of Persecution and Cruelty, so natural, and even essential to it: I shall make it appear that Popery is a Religion set on fire of Hell, the true Molock and Tophet that devours and consumes all Protestants thro'out the Earth, that are not by interposing Providence rescu'd from its Jaws.

THE SEPTENNIAL ACT (1716).

Source.—Danby Pickering, The Statutes at Large, 1764. Vol. xiii., pp. 1713-1717. Cambridge.

Whereas in and by act of parliament made in the sixth year of the reign of their late Majesties King William and Queen Mary (of ever blessed memory) intituled, An Act for the frequent meeting and calling of parliaments: IT WAS among other things enacted, That from henceforth no parliament whatsoever, that should at any time then after be called, assembled or held, should have any continuance longer than for three years only at the farthest, to be accounted from the day on which by the writ of summons the said parliament should be appointed to meet: whereas it has been found by experience, that the said clause hath proved very grievous and burthensome, by occasioning much greater and more continued expences in order to elections of members to serve in parliament, and more violent and lasting heat and animosities among the subjects of this realm, than were ever known before the said clause was enacted; and the said provision, if it should continue, may probably at this juncture, when a restless and popish faction are designing and endeavouring to renew the rebellion within this Kingdom, and an invasion from abroad, be destructive to the peace and security of the government: be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons in parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That this present parliament, and all parliaments that shall at any time hereafter be called, assembled or held, shall and may respectively have continuance for seven years, and no longer, to be accounted from the day on which by the writ of summons this present parliament hath been, or any future parliament shall be, appointed to meet, unless this present, or any future parliament hereafter to be summoned shall be sooner dissolved by his Majesty, his heirs or successors.

DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH FLEET OFF SICILY BY ADMIRAL SIR GEORGE BYNG, JULY 31, 1718.

Source.—Byng's original despatch in Oldmixon's History of England: George I., 1735. P. 663.

August 6, O.S.—Early in the Morning, on the 30th of July, as we were standing in for Messina, we saw two Scouts of the Spanish fleet in the Faro, very near us; and at the same time a Felucca coming off from the Calabrian shore, assur'd us they saw from the Hills the Spanish Fleet lying by; upon which the Admiral stood thro' the Faro after the scouts, judging they would lead us to their Fleet, which they did, for before Noon we had a fair sight of all their Ships.... Their Fleet consisted of 26 Men of War, great and small, two Fireships, four Bomb Vessels, seven Galleys, and several Ships with Stores and Provisions. The Admiral order'd the Kent, Superbe, Grafton and Oxford, the best Sailors in the Fleet, to make what Sail they could to come up with the Spaniards; and that the Ship that could get nearest to them should carry the Lights usually worn by the Admiral, that he might not lose sight of them in the Night, and he made what sail he could with the rest of the Fleet to keep up with them. It being little Wind the Spanish Galleys tow'd their heaviest Sailors all Night. The 31st in the Morning, as soon as it was day, they finding us pretty near up with their Fleet, the Galleys and smaller Ships, with the Fireships, Bomb-Vessels, and Store-Ships separated from their Admiral and bigger Ships, and stood in for the Shore. After whom the Admiral sent Captain Walton in the Canterbury, with the Argyle and six Ships more. As those Ships were coming up with them, one of the Spaniards fir'd a Broadside at the Argyle. The Admiral seeing those Ships engag'd with the Spanish which were making towards the Shore, sent orders to Captain Walton to rendezvous after the Action at Syracuse.... We held our Chace after the Spanish Admiral with three of his Rear Admirals and the biggest Ships, which staid by their Flags, till we came near them. The Captains of the Kent, Superbe, Grafton and Orford having Orders to make all the Sail they could to place themselves by the four Headmost Ships, were the first that came up with them. The Spaniards began by firing their Stern Chace at them. But they having Orders not to fire unless the Spanish Ships repeated their firing, made no return at first, but the Spaniards firing again, the Orford attack'd the Santa Rosa, the St. Charles struck without much Opposition, and the Kent took Possession of her. The Grafton attack'd the Prince of Asturias, formerly call'd the Cumberland, in which was Rear Admiral Chacon, but the Breda and Captain coming up, she left that Ship for them to take, which they soon did, and stretched ahead after another 60 Gun Ship, which was at her Starboard Bow while she was engaging the Prince of Asturias, and kept firing her Stern-Chace into the Grafton. About One o'clock the Kent and Superbe engaged the Spanish Admiral, which with two more Ships fir'd on them, and made a running Fight till about Three, when the Kent bearing down upon her and under her Stern gave her a Broadside, and went away to Leeward of her; then the Superbe put for it and laid the Spanish Admiral on Board, falling on her Weather-Quarter, but the Spanish Admiral shifting her Helm and avoiding her, the Superbe rang'd under her Lee-Quarter, on which she struck to her. At the same time the Barfleur being within Shot of the said Spanish Admiral, one of their Rear Admirals, and another 60 Gun Ship, which were to Windward of the Barfleur, bore down and gave her three Broadsides, and then clapt upon a Wind, standing in for the land; the Admiral in the Barfleur stood after them till it was almost Night, but it being little Wind ... he left pursuing them and stood away to the Fleet again, which he found two Hours after Night. The Essex took the Juno, the Montague and Rupert took the Volante; Vice Admiral Cornwall followed the Grafton to support her ... Rear Admiral Delaval with the Royal Oak chas'd two Ships that went away more Leewardly than the rest, one of them said to be Rear Admiral Crammock, a Scotch or Irish Renegade, who had serv'd several years in the English Fleet; but we not having seen them since, know not the Success.[2]

[2] The result of the battle, in which the English had 1,360 guns, the Spanish 1,310, was that fifteen Spanish ships of war, 744 guns in all, one fireship, and one store-ship were taken, and two smaller vessels burnt, and Byng goes on to say that, "as is usual on such Occasions, their Mortification after their Defeat was equal to their Presumption before."

THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE (1720).

I.
The Proposals: The Second Scheme of the South Sea Company.

Source.—The Schemes of the South Sea Company and the Bank of England as Propos'd to the Parliament for the Reducing of the National Debts. London, 1720.

To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament Assembled.

The Corporation of the Governors and Company of Merchants, Trading to the South Seas and other Parts of America, and for Encouraging the Fishery, having on the 27th January last presented their Humble Proposal to this Honourable House, for Enlarging the Capital Stock of the said Company, by taking thereinto the several Annuities and Publick Debts therein Mentioned, on the Terms and Conditions in the said Proposal also Mentioned, in which Proposal such Advantages were offer'd to the Publick, as the said Corporation did humbly hope would have been to the entire Satisfaction of this Honourable House, and most conducive to the certain Discharging and Paying off the whole Debt of the Nation, and to which Proposal they humbly crave Leave to refer. But the Governors and Company of the Bank of England having the same day also delivered a Proposal to this Honourable House, for enlarging their Capital Stock, by taking in the same Annuities and Debts on the Terms and Conditions in their Proposal also mentioned.

This Corporation therefore further, to manifest their Zeal and Earnest desire to Contribute their utmost to the reducing and paying off the Publick Debts, crave leave to offer the following Explanations and Amendments to their said Proposal.

I. As to the sixth Article of their said former Proposal, wherein they have humbly desir'd to be Allowed for Charges of Management, for their to be increased Capital, so much as it now costs the Government for the Charges of Paying, Assigning and Accounting for the said Debts, or such Proportion thereof, as the Sum which shall be taken in by the Company, shall bear to the whole of those Debts.

They now offer by way of Explanation of that Article, that the Allowances therein Mentioned, are not to exceed a Proportion to the Allowance they now have by Act of Parliament on their present Capital for that purpose.

II. That whereas, in their seventh Article of their said Proposal it is Mentioned that the Annuities for the Company's present, and to be increased Capital, be continued at the Rates therein Mentioned till Midsummer, 1727. And that from and after that time their then Annuity on their whole Capital, shall be actually reduced to £4 per Cent. per Ann. and likewise be from thenceforth redeemable by Parliament.

They do humbly offer that if this Honourable House do think it more for the Interest of the Publick, that in lieu of the said seventh Article, all the Sums to be taken into the Company's Capital, in pursuance of their proposal, shall be redeemable by Parliament, from and after Midsummer 1724, in Sums not less than £500,000 at a time they do consent thereto.

III. And whereas by the tenth Article of their said former Proposal, they offer'd for the Liberty of Increasing their Capital Stock, as is therein aforesaid; that they would give and pay into his Majesty's Exchequer, for the Service of the Publick, the sum of £3,500,000.

They now humbly Offer, that over and above the said £3,500,000, They will farther give and pay into his Majesty's Exchequer, for the use of the Publick, by four Equal Quarterly Payments on the days Mention'd in their said former Proposal, £500,000 more certain, and also upon all the said Annuities for certain Terms of Years which this Company shall take into their Capital Stock, before the first day of March, 1721, after the rate of four Year and half purchase, by four Quarterly Payments which if all the said Annuities be taken into the said Company, will amount to the Sum of £3,567,503 or thereabouts, to which being added the said £3,500,000 and the said further Sum of £500,000 will amount in the whole to the Sum of £7,567,500 or thereabouts.

IV. That whereas in the eleventh Article of their former Proposal, they did submit that so much as shall arise by the sinking Fund before Midsummer 1727 may from and after paying Off such Part of the Publick Debts, as may be Redeemed within that time, and which shall not be taken into this Company, be applied at the end of every Year towards paying off, in even One Hundred Thousand Pounds, that part of the Company's Capital, which carries £5 per Cent. per Ann.

They do humbly offer in lieu thereof, that if this Honourable House think fit to make their to be Increased Capital, Redeemable at Midsummer 1724, That the said sinking Fund may till that time be applied half Yearly, to the paying off that part of the Company's which is to carry £5 per Cent. per Ann.

V. As to the twelfth Article of this Company's former Proposal, Relating to the Circulating of £1,000,000 in Exchequer Bills Gratis, and likewise pay the Interest for that Million, so as no other Exchequer Bills be issued than what shall be Circulated by the Credit of the Exchequer, without the aid of Subscription or Contract.

VI. And Lastly, that this Honourable House may be fully satisfied of the sincere Intentions of this Company to use their best Endeavours to take in all the said Annuities for ninety-nine, and ninety-six Years, which amount to £667,705 8s. 1d. per Ann. This Company do further Humbly offer to give and pay into his Majesty's Exchequer, for the Service of the Publick, by four Equal Quarterly Payments, one Years Purchase upon all such of those Annuities as shall happen not to come into the Company's Capital within the time aforesaid.

And whereas this Company is very Sensible, that the Prosperity of the Nation doth greatly depend upon the discharging the Publick Debts (a Motive which Induced them to make the first Propositions of this Publick and beneficial nature) They do Humbly submit these Explanations and Amendments to this Honourable House, flattering themselves that Readiness and Cheerfulness that Ingaged them so much earlier than any other Society, to endeavour to reduce that great Debt under which this Nation is Oppressed, will Intitle them to the favour and preference of this House, since they are willing and do hereby declare they are ready to undertake this great work upon whatever Terms may be offered by any other Company.

By Order of the General Court.

John Fellows, Sub-Governour.

Charles Joye, Dep. Governour.

Feb. 1, 1719

II.
The Bubble Burst.

Source.—The Case of the Borrowers on the South Sea Loans Stated. Pp. 1-7. London, 1721.

Since the Parliament has thought it of service to the Publick, that the unhappy sufferers by the South Sea should have Relief: and are at present considering how to give it them: I am persuaded, no one will think it either improper or unreasonable, that the case of the Borrowers on the Loans (who in my opinion are the most unhappy of them all) should be truly stated and made publick.

For my part, I will endeavour it, as far as I am able, with Justice to the Company who are their Creditors, and with no more Compassion to these unfortunate People, than their Circumstances honestly deserve: And I have this Satisfaction in what I undertake, that as I believe it is not the Intent of the Members of either of the Honourable Houses to administer Relief with Partiality, or to neglect any set of Men who really want it, should I so far succeed, as to show that these Borrowers do, I can't but hope that they will be esteemed at least worthy their Care and Protection.

To what purpose these Loans were opened by the late Directors, I need not mention: Every one knows, that without them they could never have perfected their Scheme, as they used to term their Villainy. It was not enough for them to have raised their Stock to such a Price, as to have been only able to have discharged their Agreement with the Government; they had larger Views, they were to satisfy their own Avarice, and could not therefore give too great an imaginary Value to their Stock. These Managers (unhappily for us) set out with the good opinion of Mankind: they were esteemed too wise to be deceived themselves, and too honest to deceive their Friends. Thus qualified for Mischief, they soon began it: they soon intoxicated the Brains of all they talked with, gave them wild Notions of the rising Value of their Stock, and persuaded them at any rate to put themselves in Fortune's way: Having with great Art and Industry gained a Credit to their Stock, they immediately upon it took in the first Subscriptions; but these Subscriptions having drawn a great Quantity of Money into their hands, they apprehended the rising Spirit of the Stock might soon be checked for want of Money, and their Project by it injured: For even then the Species of our Nation was not infinite, it was therefore necessary to contrive some Means to carry on quick Circulations of it: and the Means contrived was to issue Money on these Loans. The Success they had we all remember; the Price increased prodigiously, and, if I am not mistaken, above £100 per Cent. in a Day. And indeed this Success was very probable: for these Loans served two Ends at once of the greatest moment to their Schemes: While they furnished the unhappy Borrowers with Money to purchase Stock with, they gave fresh Credit to the Stock, and raised the Price: For when the Directors, who must be supposed to know what they were doing, had put so great a confidence in their Stock, as to lend such Sums upon the Security of that alone, others might with good reason take courage, and trust it too. And their Cunning upon this occasion was very extraordinary, for they were not contented with the Credit they gave to their Stock by this Act, which was a tacit Declaration that they knew it to be intrinsically worth as much or more than what they ventured to lend on it; but they were diligent in private Companies to confirm Men in such Opinion of it, by a constant Ridicule of the Bank for their pitiful and cautious Loan of £100 per Cent. To this Step are greatly owing all our Misfortunes: The most Prudent now began to blame themselves for the most unjust Suspicions they had entertain'd of so good a Project. A Man of moderate Fortune now seem'd poor by the Vast Riches all about him had so suddenly acquired. All grew impatient and uneasy, who were not in this Stock, the Managers were idolised, and only they were happy, who had Directors for their Friends. The Merchant, who thro' a long Diligence and great Variety of Hazard had gained a small Estate, grew mad to see so many idle Fellows enrich themselves within a day or two. The honest Country Gentleman, who by good Management and wise economy had been an Age in paying off a Mortgage, or saving a few small Portions for his younger Children, could not bear the big Discourse and Insults of this New Race. Both laid aside their Prudence, and at last became unhappy Converts to South Sea: Both were persuaded now to use their Diligence, and recover that time their Disbelief had lost them. The one despised his Trade, and sold his Effects, at any rate, to try his Fortune: The other mortgaged what he could, or sold it for a little stock or Third Subscription: And now both are undone, both Beggars. I should think Cases of such Distress as these could not be reflected on without even Humanity itself becoming painful; and yet, whether it proceeds from such Cases being frequent and daily seen, or from an Hardness of Heart, which Providence for a Judgment has suffered to fall on us, I know not; but such Cases are scarce pitied by us: Every one still pursues his own Interest, and seems to grudge the Expense even of a few Shillings, to save thousands from Destruction.

SIR ROBERT WALPOLE AS PRIME MINISTER (1721-1741).

I.
By Lord Hervey.

Source.—John, Baron Hervey (1696-1743), Memoirs, 1848. Vol. i., pp. 23-25.

No man ever was blessed with a clearer head, a truer or quicker judgment, or a deeper insight into mankind; he knew the strength and weakness of everybody he had to deal with, and how to make his advantage of both; he had more warmth of affection and friendship for some particular people than one could have believed it possible for any one who had been so long raking in the dirt of mankind to be capable of feeling for so worthless a species of animals. One should naturally have imagined that the contempt and distrust he must have had for the species in gross, would have given him at least an indifference and distrust towards every particular. Whether his negligence of his enemies, and never stretching his power to gratify his resentment of the sharpest injury, was policy or constitution, I shall not determine: but I do not believe anybody who knows these times will deny that no minister ever was more outraged, or less apparently revengeful. Some of his friends, who were not unforgiving themselves, nor very apt to see imaginary faults in him, have condemned this easiness in his temper as a weakness that has often exposed him to new injuries, and given encouragement to his adversaries to insult him with impunity. Brigadier Churchill, a worthy and good-natured, friendly, and honourable man, who had lived Sir Robert's intimate friend for many years, and through all the different stages of his power and retirement, prosperity and disgrace, has often said that Sir Robert Walpole was so little able to resist the show of repentance in those from whom he had received the worst usage, that a few tears and promises of amendment have often washed out the stains even of ingratitude.

In all occurrences, and at all times, and in all difficulties, he was constantly present and cheerful; he had very little of what is generally called insinuation, and with which people are apt to be taken for the present, without being gained; but no man ever knew better among those he had to deal with who was to be had, on what terms, by what methods, and how the acquisitions would answer. He was not one of those projecting systematical great geniuses who are always thinking in theory, and are above common practice: he had been too long conversant in business not to know that in the fluctuation of human affairs and variety of accidents to which the best concerted schemes are liable, they must often be disappointed who build on the certainty of the most probable events; and therefore seldom turned his thoughts to the provisional warding off future evils which might or might not happen; or the scheming of remote advantages, subject to so many intervening crosses; but always applied himself to the present occurrence, studying and generally hitting upon the properest method to improve what was favourable, and the best expedient to extricate himself out of what was difficult. There never was any minister to whom access was so easy and so frequent, nor whose answers were more explicit. He knew how to oblige when he bestowed, and not to shock when he denied: to govern without oppression, and conquer without triumph. He pursued his ambition without curbing his pleasures, and his pleasures without neglecting his business; he did the latter with ease, and indulged himself in the other without giving scandal or offence. In private life, and to all who had any dependence upon him, he was kind and indulgent; he was generous without ostentation, and an economist without penuriousness; not insolent in success, nor irresolute in distress; faithful to his friends, and not inveterate to his foes.

II.
By Horace Walpole.

Source.—Horace Walpole's Reminiscences, Works, 1798. Vol. iv., p. 271.

It was an instance of Sir Robert's singular good fortune, or evidence of his talents, that he not only preserved his power under two successive monarchs, but in spite of the efforts of both their mistresses to remove him. It was perhaps still more remarkable, and an instance unparalleled, that Sir Robert governed George the first in Latin, the King not speaking English, and his minister not German, nor even French. It was much talked of, that Sir Robert, detecting one of the Hanoverian ministers in some trick or falsehood before the King's face, had the firmness to say to the German, "Mentiris, impudentissime!"

WOOD'S HALFPENCE: THE FIRST DRAPIER'S LETTER (1724).

Source.—Works of Jonathan Swift. Pp. 13 seqq. Bohn's edition, 1903.

To the Tradesmen, Shop-Keepers, Farmers, and Common People in General of Ireland.

Brethren, Friends, Countrymen and Fellow-Subjects,

What I intend now to say to you, is, next to your duty to God and the care of your salvation, of the greatest concern to yourselves, and your children, your bread and clothing, and every common necessary of life entirely depend upon it. Therefore I do most earnestly exhort you as men, as Christians, as parents, and as lovers of our country, to read this paper with the utmost attention, or get it read to you by others; which that you may do at the less expense, I have ordered the printer to sell it at the lowest rate.

It is a great fault among you, that when a person writes with no other intention than to do you good, you will not be at the pains to read his advice: One copy of this paper may serve a dozen of you, which will be less than a farthing a-piece. It is your folly that you have no common or general interest in your view, not even the wisest among you, neither do you know or enquire, or care who are your friends, or who are your enemies.

About three years ago a little book[3] was written to advise all people to wear the manufactures of this our own dear country: It had no other design, said nothing against the King or Parliament, or any man, yet the POOR PRINTER was prosecuted two years, with the utmost violence, and even some WEAVERS themselves, for whose sake it was written, being upon the JURY, FOUND HIM GUILTY. This would be enough to discourage any man from endeavouring to do you good, when you will either neglect him or fly in his face for his pains, and when he must expect only danger to himself and loss of money, perhaps to his ruin.

However I cannot but warn you once more of the manifest destruction before your eyes, if you do not behave yourselves as you ought.

I will therefore first tell you the plain story of the fact; and then I will lay before you how you ought to act in common prudence, and according to the laws of your country.

The fact is thus: It having been many years since COPPER HALFPENCE OR FARTHINGS were last coined in this kingdom, they have been for some time very scarce, and many counterfeits passed about under the name of raps, several applications were made to England, that we might have liberty to coin new ones, as in former times we did; but they did not succeed. At last one Mr. Wood, a mean ordinary man, a hardware dealer, procured a patent under his Majesty's broad seal to coin fourscore and ten thousand pounds in copper for this kingdom, which patent however did not oblige any one here to take them, unless they pleased. Now you must know, that the halfpence and farthings in England pass for very little more than they are worth. And if you should beat them to pieces, and sell them to the brazier you would not lose above a penny in a shilling. But Mr. Wood made his halfpence of such base metal, and so much smaller than the English ones, that the brazier would not give you above a penny of good money for a shilling of his; so that this sum of fourscore and ten thousand pounds in good gold and silver, must be given for trash that will not be worth above eight or nine thousand pounds real value. But this is not the worst, for Mr. Wood, when he pleases, may by stealth send over another and another fourscore and ten thousand pounds, and buy all our goods for eleven parts in twelve, under the value. For example, if a hatter sells a dozen of hats for five shillings a-piece, which amounts to three pounds, and receives the payment in Mr. Wood's coin, he really receives only the value of five shillings.

Perhaps you will wonder how such an ordinary fellow as this Mr. Wood could have so much interest as to get His Majesty's broad seal for so great a sum of bad money, to be sent to this poor country, and that all the nobility and gentry here could not obtain the same favour, and let us make our own halfpence, as we used to do. Now I will make that matter very plain. We are at a great distance from the King's court, and have nobody there to solicit for us, although a great number of lords and squires, whose estates are here, and are our countrymen, spending all their lives and fortunes there. But this same Mr. Wood was able to attend constantly for his own interest; he is an Englishman and had great friends, and it seems knew very well where to give money, and those that would speak to others that could speak to the King and could tell a fair story. And his Majesty, and perhaps the great lord or lords who advised him, might think it was for our country's good; and so, as the lawyers express it, "the King was deceived in his grant," which often happens in all reigns. And I am sure if his Majesty knew that such a patent, if it should take effect according to the desire of Mr. Wood, would utterly ruin this kingdom, which hath given such great proof of its loyalty, he would immediately recall it, and perhaps show his displeasure to some one or other. But "a word to the wise is enough." Most of you must have heard, with what anger our honourable House of Commons received an account of this Wood's patent. There were several fine speeches made upon it, and plain proof that it was all A WICKED CHEAT from the bottom to the top, and several smart notes were printed, which that same Wood had the assurance to answer likewise in print, and in so confident a way, as if he were a better man than our whole Parliament put together....

The common weight of this halfpence is between four and five to an ounce, suppose five, then three shillings and four-pence will weigh a pound, and consequently twenty shillings will weigh six pound butter weight. Now there are many hundred farmers who pay two hundred pound a year rent. Therefore when one of these farmers comes with his half-year's rent, which is one hundred pound, it will be at least six hundred pound weight, which is three horse load.

If a 'squire has a mind to come to town to buy clothes and wine and spices for himself and family, or perhaps to pass the winter here; he must bring with him five or six horses loaden with sacks as the farmers bring their corn; and when his lady comes in her coach to our shops, it must be followed by a car loaden with Mr. Wood's money. And I hope we shall have the grace to take it for no more than it is worth.

They say 'Squire Conolly [Speaker of the Irish House of Commons] has sixteen thousand pounds a year. Now if he sends for his rent to town, as it is likely he does, he must have two hundred and forty horses to bring up his half-year's rent, and two or three great cellars in his house for stowage. But what the bankers will do I cannot tell. For I am assured, that some great bankers keep by them forty thousand pounds in ready cash to answer all payments, which sum, in Mr. Wood's money, would require twelve hundred horses to carry it.

For my own part, I am already resolved what to do; I have a pretty good shop of Irish stuffs and silks, and instead of taking Mr. Wood's bad copper. I intend to truck with my neighbours the butchers, and bakers, and brewers, and the rest, goods for goods, and the little gold and silver I have, I will keep by me like my heart's blood till better times, or till I am just ready to starve, and then I will buy as my father did the brass money, in K. James's time,[4] I who could buy ten pound of it with a guinea....

When once the kingdom is reduced to such a condition, I will tell you what must be the end: The gentlemen of estates will all turn off their tenants for want of payment, because as I told you before, the tenants are obliged by their leases to pay sterling which is lawful current money of England; then they will turn their own farmers, as too many of them do already, run all into sheep where they can, keeping only such other cattle as are necessary, then they will be their own merchants and send their wool and butter and hides and linen beyond sea for ready money and wine and spices and silks. They will keep only a few miserable cottiers. The farmers must rob or beg, or leave their country. The shopkeepers in this and every other town, must break and starve: for it is the landed man that maintains the merchant, and shopkeeper, and handicraftsman.

But when the 'squire turns farmer and merchant himself, all the good money he gets from abroad, he will hoard up or send for England, and keep some poor tailor or weaver and the like in his own house, who will be glad to get bread at any rate.

I should never have done if I were to tell you all the miseries that we shall undergo if we be so foolish and wicked as to take this CURSED COIN. It would be very hard if all Ireland should be put into one scale, and this sorry fellow Wood into the other, that Mr. Wood should weigh down this whole kingdom, by which England gets above a million of good money every year clear into their pockets, and that is more than the English do by all the world besides.

But your great comfort is, that as His Majesty's patent does not oblige you to take this money, so the laws have not given the crown a power of forcing the subjects to take what money the King pleases. For then by the same reason we might be bound to take pebble-stones or cockle-shells or stamped leather for current coin, if ever we should happen to live under an ill prince, who might likewise by the same power make a guinea pass for ten pounds, a shilling for twenty shillings, and so on, by which he would in a short time get all the silver and gold of the kingdom into his own hands, and leave us nothing but brass or leather or what he pleased. Neither is anything reckoned more cruel or oppressive in the French government than their common practice of calling in all their money after they have sunk it very low, and then coining it anew at a much higher value, which however is not the thousandth part so wicked as this abominable project of Mr. Wood. For the French give their subjects silver for silver and gold for gold, but this fellow will not so much as give us good brass or copper for our gold and silver, nor even a twelfth part of their worth.

Having said thus much, I will now go on to tell you the judgments of some great lawyers in this matter, whom I fee'd on purpose for your sakes, and got their opinions under their hands, that I might be sure I went upon good grounds....

I will now, my dear friends, to save you the trouble, set before you in short, what the law obliges you to do, and what it does not oblige you to.

First, You are obliged to take all money in payments which is coined by the King and is of the English standard or weight, provided it be of gold or silver.

Secondly, You are not obliged to take any money which is not of gold or silver, no not the halfpence, or farthings of England, or of any other country, and it is only for convenience, or ease, that you are content to take them, because the custom of coining silver halfpence and farthings hath long been left off, I will suppose on account of their being subject to be lost.

Thirdly, Much less are you obliged to take those vile halfpence of that same Wood, by which you must lose almost eleven-pence in every shilling.

Therefore my friends, stand to it one and all, refuse this filthy trash. It is no treason to rebel against Mr. Wood. His Majesty in his patent obliges nobody to take these halfpence,[5] our gracious prince hath no so ill advisers about him; or if he had, yet you see the laws have not left it in the King's power, to force us to take any coin but what is lawful, of right standard gold and silver; therefore you have nothing to fear.

And let me in the next place apply myself particularly to you who are the poor sort of tradesmen. Perhaps you may think you will not be so great losers as the rich, if these halfpence should pass, because you seldom see any silver, and your customers come to your shops or stalls with nothing but brass, which you likewise find hard to be got. But you may take my word, whenever this money gains footing among you, you will be utterly undone; if you carry these halfpence to a shop for tobacco or brandy, or any other thing you want, the shopkeeper will advance his goods accordingly, or else he must break, and leave the key under the door. Do you think I will sell you a yard of tenpenny stuff for twenty of Mr. Wood's halfpence? No, not under two hundred at least, neither will I be at the trouble of counting, but weigh them in a lump. I will tell you one thing further, that if Mr. Wood's project should take, it will ruin even our beggars; for when I give a beggar an halfpenny, it will quench his thirst, or go a good way to fill his belly, but the twelfth part of a halfpenny will do him no more service than if I should give him three pins out of my sleeve.

In short these halfpence are like "the accursed thing, which," as the Scripture tells us, "the children of Israel were forbidden to touch": they will run about like the plague and destroy every one who lays his hands upon them. I have heard scholars talk of a man who told a king that he invented a way to torment people by putting them into a bull of brass with fire under it, but the prince put the projector first into his own brazen bull to make the experiment;[6] this very much resembles the project of Mr. Wood, and the like of this may possibly be Mr. Wood's fate, that the brass he contrived to torment this kingdom with, may prove his own torment, and his destruction at last.

N.B. The author of this paper is informed by persons who have made it their business to be exact in their observations on the true value of these halfpence, that any person may expect to get a quart of twopenny ale for thirty-six of them.

I desire all persons may keep this paper carefully by them to refresh their memories when ever they shall have farther notice of Mr. Wood's halfpence, or any other the like imposture.

[3] Swift's own Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufactures.

[4] The famous "gun-money," coined to meet the exigencies of the Stuart army in Ireland, a crown piece of which was by a proclamation of William III. of July 10, 1690, to pass current as a penny.

[5] The words of the patent are "to pass and to be received as current money, by such as shall or will, voluntarily and wittingly, and not otherwise, receive the same" (the halfpence and farthings). [T. S.]

[6] Phalaris, the genuineness of whose Letters had occasioned the famous controversy which brought about Swift's first venture into literature with the Battle of the Books.

CHARACTER OF GEORGE II. (1683-1760).

A. By Lord Hervey.

Source.—Memoirs. Vol. i., pp. 145, 146.

His faults were more the blemishes of a private man than of a King. The affection and tenderness he invariably showed to a people over whom he had unbounded rule [in Hanover] forbid our wondering that he used circumscribed power with moderation [in England]. Often situated in humiliating circumstances, his resentments seldom operated when the power of revenge returned. He bore the ascendant of his Ministers, who seldom were his favourites, with more patience than he suffered any encroachment on his will from his mistresses. Content to bargain for the gratification of his two predominant passions, Hanover and money, he was almost indifferent to the rest of his royal authority, provided exterior observance was not wanting; for he comforted himself if he did not perceive the diminution of Majesty, though it was notorious to all the rest of the world. Yet he was not so totally careless of the affection and interests of his country as his father had been. George the First possessed a sounder understanding and a better temper: yet George the Second gained more by being compared with his eldest son, than he lost if paralleled with his father.

B. By Horace Walpole.

Source.—Memoirs of the Reign of George II. (2nd ed.), 1848. Vol. i., pp. 175, 176; vol. iii., pp. 303, 304.

The King had fewer sensations of revenge, or at least knew how to hoard them better, than any man who ever sat upon a Throne. The insults he experienced from his own and those obliged servants, never provoked him enough to make him venture the repose of his people, or his own. If any object of his hate fell in his way, he did not pique himself upon heroic forgiveness, but would indulge it at the expense of his integrity, though not of his safety. He was reckoned strictly honest; but the burning his father's will must be reckoned an indelible blot upon his memory; as a much later instance [1749] of his refusing to pardon a young man who had been condemned at Oxford for a most trifling forgery, contrary to all example when recommended to mercy by the Judge, merely because Welles, who was attached to the Prince of Wales, had tried him and assured him his pardon, will stamp his name with cruelty, though in general his disposition was merciful if the offence was not murder. His avarice was much less equivocal than his courage; he had distinguished the latter early [at Oudenarde]; it grew more doubtful afterwards[7]: the former he distinguished very near as soon, and never deviated from it. His understanding was not near so deficient, as it was imagined; but though his character changed extremely in the world, it was without foundation; for [whether] he deserved to be so much ridiculed as he had been in the former part of his reign, or so respected as in the latter, he was consistent in himself, and uniformly meritorious or absurd.

[7] This is unjust—George II. displayed conspicuous courage at Dettingen.

THE CONDITION OF THE FLEET PRISON, AS REVEALED BY A PARLIAMENTARY ENQUIRY (1729).

A. Description of the Warden, Thomas Bambridge.

Source.—Horace Walpole: Anecdotes of Painting in England, 1771. Vol. iv., p. 71.

I have a sketch in oil that Hogarth gave me, which he intended to engrave.[8] It was done at the time when the house of commons appointed a committee to enquire into the cruelties exercised on prisoners in the Fleet to extort money from them. The scene is the committee; on the table are the instruments of torture. A prisoner in rags, half starved, appears before them; the poor man has a good countenance that adds to the interest. On the other hand is the inhuman gaoler. It is the very figure that Salvator Rosa would have drawn of Iago in the moment of detection. Villainy, fear, and conscience are mixed in yellow and livid on his countenance, his lips are contracted by tremor, his face advances as eager to lie, his legs step back as thinking to make his escape; one hand is thrust precipitately into his bosom, the fingers of the other are catching uncertainly at his button-holes.

B. His Cruelty.

Source.—Lieutenant Bird's Letter from the Shades to T——s B-m-dge, 1729. Pp. 37, 38.

As soon as he had introduced his Marmadons,[9] he began to treat the Prisoners in a Manner little different from that Dragooning, which, upon another Account the Protestants some time ago, suffer'd in France; some he clapp'd into Irons, and others he flung into dungeons; so that it may be said without much Impropriety, that the poor Prisoners underwent a perfect Persecution from their New Warden. The Effect of Persecution is always the same, tho' the Pretence may be Religion, or something else, yet Interest is the true Cause. It soon appear'd that all this Cruelty of B-mb-ge, was only to make the Prisoners more ready to comply with his Demands, by striking a previous Terror into their Minds, and they found out that the only Way to lay that spirit of Cruelty, which possess'd the New Warden, was to give up to his Avarice all the Little which was left them, or cou'd be procured from their Friends to support Life, which every one knows is as much as the generality of Men in those unfortunate Circumstances can hope or desire to do, so helpless they are of themselves, and so cold and scanty is the Charity and Allowance of Friends and Relations; many of those distress'd People, in order to satisfy his avaricious Demands, and to avoid his rigorous Treatment, which grew as terrible to them as an Inquisition, have been obliged to sell their Cloathes off their Backs and give up every Penny of their little Subsistence, by which Means they have been ready to perish with cold and hunger, passing many miserable Days together without eating a Morsel of Victuals.

C. Findings of the Parliamentary Committee of Enquiry.

Source.—T. B. Howell: State Trials. Vol. xvii., pp. 300-302.

The Committee of enquiry found amongst other things. That the said Thomas Bambridge ... caused one Jacob Mendez Solas[10] ... to be seized, fettered, and carried to Corbett's, the spunging-house, and there kept for upwards of a week, and when brought back into the prison, Bambridge caused him to be turned into the dungeon, called the Strong Room of the Master's side.

This place is a vault like those in which the dead are interred, and wherein the bodies of persons dying in the said prison are usually deposited, till the coroner's inquest hath passed upon them; it has no chimney nor fire-place, nor any light but what comes over the door, or through a hole of about eight inches square. It is neither paved nor boarded; and the rough bricks appear both on the sides and top, being neither wainscotted nor plastered: what adds to the dampness and stench of the place is, its being built over the common sewer.... In this miserable place the poor wretch was kept by the said Bambridge, manacled and shackled, for near two months. At length, on receiving five guineas from Mr. Kemp, a friend of Solas's, Bambridge released the prisoner from his cruel confinement. But though his chains were taken off, his terror still remained, and the unhappy man was prevailed upon by that terror, not only to labour gratis, for the said Bambridge, but to swear also at random all that he hath required of him; and the Committee themselves saw an instance of the deep impression his sufferings had made upon him; for on his surmising, from something said, that Bambridge was to return again, as Warden of the Fleet, he fainted, and the blood started out of his mouth and nose.

[The sufferings of Captain John Mackpheadnis, who was ruined by being surety for a man in the South Sea Bubble, are then narrated. He was forced to pay double fees, his room, which he duly rented and had himself furnished, was wrecked, and he was forced "to lie in the open yard called the Bare," where the little hut he built was pulled down, and he was exposed to the rain all night. Finally Bambridge used actual torture.]

Next morning the said Bambridge entered the prison with a detachment of soldiers, and ordered the prisoner to be dragged to the lodge, and ironed with great irons, on which he desired to know for what cause, and by what authority he was to be so cruelly used? Bambridge replied, "It was by his own authority, and damm him he would do it, and have his life." The prisoner desired that he might be carried before a magistrate, that he might know his crime before he was punished; but Bambridge refused, and put irons upon his legs which were too little, so that in forcing them on, his legs were like to have been broken; and the torture was impossible to be endured. Upon which the prisoner complaining of the grievous pain and the straitness of the irons, Bambridge answered, "That he did it on purpose to torture him;" on which the prisoner replying "That by the law of England no man ought to be tortured"; Bambridge declared, "That he would do it first and answer for it afterwards;" and caused him to be dragged away to the dungeon, where he lay without a bed, loaded with irons so close-rivetted that they kept him in continued torture, and mortified his legs. After long application[11] his irons were changed, and a surgeon directed to dress his legs, but his lameness is not, nor ever can be cured. He was kept in this miserable condition for three weeks, by which his sight is greatly prejudiced, and in danger of being lost.

[8] This picture is now in the National Portrait Gallery.

[9] Myrmidons—i.e., the band of soldiers whom Bambridge had procured under false pretences.

[10] A Portuguese prisoner for debt.

[11] I.e., after he had made many applications.

THE EXCISE BILL (1733).

Source.—Hervey's Memoirs. Vol. i., pp. 159-163, 175, 176.

But this flame[12] was no sooner extinguished in the nation than another was kindled, and one that was much more epidemical, and raged with much greater fury. Faction was never more busy on any occasion; terrors were never more industriously scattered, and clamour never more universally raised.

That which gave rise to these commotions was a project of Sir Robert Walpole's to ease the land-tax of one shilling in the pound, by turning the duty on tobacco and wine, then payable on importation, into inland duties; that is, changing the Customs on those two commodities into Excises; by which scheme, joined to the continuation of the salt-duty, he proposed to improve the public revenue £500,000 per annum, in order to supply the abatement of one shilling in the pound on land, which raises about that sum.

The landed men had long complained that they had ever since the Revolution borne the heat and burden of the day for the support of the Revolution Government; and as the great pressure of the last war had chiefly lain on them (the land having for many years been taxed to four shillings in the pound), they now began to say, that since the public tranquility both at home and abroad was firmly and universally established, if ease was not at this time thought of for them, it was a declaration from the Government that they were never to expect any; and that two shillings in the pound on land was the least that they or their posterity, in the most profound peace and fullest tranquility, were ever to hope to pay.

This having been the cry of the country gentlemen and landowners for some time, Sir Robert Walpole thought he could not do a more popular thing than to form a scheme by which the land-tax should be reduced to one shilling in the pound, and yet no new tax be substituted in the lieu thereof, no new duty laid on any commodity whatsoever, and the public revenue improved £500,000 per annum, merely by this alteration in the method of management.

The salt-duty, which had been revised the year before, could raise only in three years what one shilling in the pound on land raised in one year; consequently, as that tax was an equivalent only to one-third of a shilling on land, if the remission of that shilling on land was further and annually continued, some other fund must be found to supply the other two-thirds.

This of Excising tobacco and wine was the equivalent projected by Sir Robert Walpole, but this scheme, instead of procuring him the popularity he thought it would, caused more clamour and made him even, whilst the project was only talked of and in embryo, more vilified and abused by the universal outcries of the people, than any one Act of his whole administration.

The art, vigilance, and industry of his enemies had so contrived to represent this scheme to the people, and had so generally in every county and great town throughout all England prejudiced their minds against it; they had shown it in so formidable a shape and painted it in such hideous colours, that everybody talked of the scheme as a general Excise: they believed that food and raiment, and all the necessaries of life, were to be taxed; that armies of Excise officers were to come into any house and at any time they pleased; that our liberties were at an end, trade going to be ruined, Magna Charta overturned, all property destroyed, the Crown made absolute, and Parliaments themselves no longer necessary to be called.

This was the epidemic madness of the nation on this occasion; whilst most of the boroughs in England, and the city of London itself, sent formal instructions by way of memorials to their Representatives, absolutely to oppose all new Excises and all extensions of Excise laws, if proposed in Parliament, though introduced or modelled in any manner whatsoever.

It is easy to imagine that this reception of a scheme by which Sir Robert Walpole proposed to ingratiate himself so much with the people, must give him great disquiet. Some of his friends, whose timidity passed afterwards for judgment, advised him to relinquish it, and said, though it was in itself so beneficial a scheme to the public, yet since the public did not see it in that light, that the best part he could take was to lay it aside.

Sir Robert Walpole thought, since he was so far embarked, that there was no listening to such advice without quitting the King's service, for as it was once known that he designed to execute this scheme, had he given it up, everything that had been said of its tendency, would have been taken for granted; and the same men who had prepossessed the minds of the people, so far as to have these things credited, would very naturally and easily have persuaded them that their rescue from ruin, and the stop that had been put to this impending blow, were entirely owing to their patriotism; that it was the stand they had made had prevented the universal destruction that had been threatened to the liberties and fortunes of the people.

Sir Robert Walpole, therefore (who, if he could have foreseen the difficulties in which this scheme involved him, would certainly never have embarked in it at all), in this disagreeable dilemma chose what he thought the least dangerous path, and resolved, since he had undertaken it, to try to carry it through. His manner of reasoning was, that if he had given way to popular clamour on this occasion, it would be raised, right or wrong, on every future occasion to thwart and check any measure that could be taken by the Government whilst he should have the direction of affairs, and that the consequence of that must be, his resignation of his employment or his dismissal from the King's service....

At the same time, many pamphlets were written and dispersed in the country, setting forth the dangerous consequences of extending the Excise Laws, and increasing the number of Excise-officers; showing the infringement of the one upon liberty, and the influence the other must necessarily give the Crown in elections. And so universally were these terrors scattered through the nation, and so artfully were they instilled into the minds of the people, that this project, which in reality was nothing more than a mutation of two taxes from Customs to Excises, with an addition of only one hundred and twenty-six officers in all England for the collection of it, was so represented to the country, and so understood by the multitude, that there was hardly a town in England, great or small, where nine parts in ten of the inhabitants did not believe that this project was to establish a general Excise, and that everything they ate or wore was to be taxed; that a colony of Excise-officers was to be settled in every village in the Kingdom, and that they were to have a power to enter all houses at all hours;[13] that every place and every person was to be liable to their search, and that such immense sums of monies were to be raised by this project, that the Crown would no longer be under the necessity of calling Parliament for annual grants to support the Government, but be able to provide for itself, for the most part; and whenever it wanted any extraordinary supplies, that the Excise officers, by their power, would be able at any time to choose just such a Parliament as the Crown should nominate and direct.

[12] The attempted repeal of the Test Act.

[13] This feeling found expression in various scurrilous ballads. The following verse may serve as a specimen:

Who would think it a hardship that men so polite

Should enter their houses by day or by night,

To poke in each hole, and examine their stock,

From the cask of right Nantz to their wives' Holland smock?

He's as cross as the devil

Who censures as evil

A visit so courteous, so kind, and so civil;

For to sleep in our beds without their permit,

Were in a free country a thing most unfit.

THE PORTEOUS RIOTS (1736).

Source.—Gentleman's Magazine, 1736, p. 230.

One Wilson was hang'd at Edinburgh for robbing Collector Stark. He having made an Attempt to break Prison, and his Comrade having actually got off, the Magistrates had the City Guards and the Welsh Fusiliers under Arms during the execution, which was perform'd without Disturbance; but on the Hangman's cutting down the Corpse (the Magistrates being withdrawn) the Boys threw, as usual, some Dust and Stones, which falling among the City Guard, Capt. Porteous fired, and order'd his Men to fire; whereupon above 20 Persons were wounded, 6 or 7 kill'd, one shot thro' the Head at a Window up two Pair of Stairs. The Capt. and several of his Men were after committed to Prison.

[Captain Porteous was thereupon tried and condemned for murder, but he was reprieved, to the fury of the populace. A contemporary account of the sequel is to be found in the same volume of the Gentleman's Magazine, p. 549.]

Tuesday, 7 September. Betwixt 9 and 10 at Night, a Body of Men enter'd the West Port of Edinburgh, seiz'd the Drum, beat to Arms, and calling out, Here! All those who dare avenge innocent Blood! were instantly attended by a numerous Crowd. Then they seized and shut up the City Gates, and posted Guards at each to prevent Surprise by the King's Forces, while another Detachment disarm'd the City Guards, and advanced immediately to the Tolbooth or Prison, where not being able to break the Door with hammers &c. they set it on Fire, but at the same Time provided Water to keep the Flame within the Bounds. Before the outer Door was near burnt down several rush'd thro' the Flames and oblig'd the Keeper to open the inner Door and going into Capt. Porteous' Apartment, call'd, Where is the Villain Porteous? who said I'm here, what is it you are to do with me? To which he was answered, We are to carry you to the Place where you shed so much innocent Blood and Hang you. He made some Resistance, but was soon overcome, for while some set the whole Prisoners at Liberty, others caught him by the Legs and dragged him down Stairs, and then led him to the Grass Market, where they agreed to Hang him without further Ceremony.... After he had hung till suppos'd to be dead, they nail'd the Rope to the Post, then formally saluting one another, grounded their Arms, and on t'other Rapp of the Drum retir'd out of Town."

LORD CHESTERFIELD'S SPEECH ON THE BILL FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CENSORSHIP OF STAGE PLAYS (1737).

Source.—Parliamentary History, 1812. Vol. x., pp. 327-331, 338, 339.

My Lords; the Bill now before you I apprehend to be of a very extraordinary, a very dangerous nature. It seems designed not only as a restraint on the licentiousness of the stage, but it will prove a most arbitrary restraint on the liberty of the stage; and I fear it looks yet farther. I fear it tends towards a restraint on the liberty of the press, which will be a long stride towards the destruction of liberty itself....

... I am as much for restraining the licentiousness of the stage, and every other sort of licentiousness, as any of your lordships can be; but, my Lords, I am, I shall always be extremely cautious and fearful of making the least incroachment upon liberty; and therefore, when a new law is proposed against licentiousness, I shall always be for considering it deliberately and maturely, before I venture to give my consent to its being passed. This is a sufficient reason for my being against passing this Bill at so unseasonable a time, and in so extraordinary a manner[14]; but I have many reasons against passing the Bill itself, some of which I shall beg leave to explain to your lordships.... By this Bill you prevent a play's being acted, but you do not prevent its being printed; therefore, if a licence should be refused for its being acted, we may depend upon it, the play will be printed. It will be printed and published, my Lords, with the refusal in capital letters on the title page. People are always fond of what is forbidden. Libri prohibiti are in all countries diligently and generally sought after. It will be much easier to procure a refusal, than ever it was to procure a good house, or a good sale; therefore we may expect, that plays will be wrote on purpose to have a refusal; this will certainly procure a good house, or a good sale. Thus will satires be spread and dispersed through the whole nation, and thus every man in the Kingdom may, and probably will, read for sixpence, what a few only could have seen acted, and that not under the expense of half-a-crown. We shall then be told, What! will you allow an infamous libel to be printed and dispersed, which you would not allow to be acted? You have agreed to a law for preventing its being acted, can you refuse your assent to a law forbidding its being printed and published? I should really, my Lords, be glad to hear what excuse, what reason one could give for being against the latter, after having agreed to the former; for, I protest, I cannot suggest to myself the least shadow of an excuse. If we agree to the Bill now before us, we must, perhaps next session, agree to a Bill for preventing any plays being printed without a licence. Then satires will be wrote by way of novels, secret histories, dialogues, or under some such title; and thereupon we shall be told, What! will you allow an infamous libel to be printed and dispersed, only because it does not bear the title of a play?...

If poets and players are to be restrained, let them be restrained as other subjects are, by the known laws of their country; if they offend, let them be tried, as every Englishman ought to be, by God and their country. Do not let us subject them to the arbitrary will and pleasure of any one man. A power lodged in the hands of one single man, to judge and determine, without any limitation, without any control or appeal, is a sort of power unknown to our laws, inconsistent with our constitution. It is a higher, a more absolute power than we trust even to the King himself; and, therefore, I must think, we ought not to vest any such power in his Majesty's lord chamberlain....

... The Bill now before us cannot so properly be called a Bill for restraining licentiousness, as it may be called a Bill for restraining the liberty of the stage, and for restraining it too in that branch which in all countries has been the most useful; therefore I must look upon the Bill as a most dangerous encroachment upon liberty in general. Nay, farther, my Lords, it is not only an encroachment upon liberty, but it is likewise an encroachment upon property. Wit, my Lords, is a sort of property: it is the property of those that have it, and too often the only property they have to depend on. It is, indeed, but a precarious dependence. Thank God! we, my Lords, have a dependence of another kind; we have a much less precarious support, and therefore cannot feel the inconveniences of the Bill now before us; but it is our duty to encourage and protect wit, whosoever's property it may be. Those gentlemen who have any such property, are all, I hope, our friends: do not let us subject them to any unnecessary and arbitrary restraint. I must own, I cannot easily agree to the laying of any tax upon wit; but by this Bill it is to be heavily taxed, it is to be excised;[15] for if this Bill passes, it cannot be retailed in a proper way without a permit; and the lord chamberlain is to have the honour of being chief gauger, supervisor, commissioner, judge and jury: but what is still more hard, though the poor author, the proprietor I should say, cannot perhaps dine till he has found out and agreed with a purchaser: yet before he can propose to seek for a purchaser, he must patiently submit to have his goods rummaged at this new excise-office, where they may be detained for fourteen days, and even then he may find them returned as prohibited goods, by which his chief and best market will be for ever shut against him; and that without any cause, without the least shadow of reason, either from the laws of his country, or the laws of the stage....

[14] It had been rushed through the House of Commons at the very end of the session.

[15] Walpole's Excise Bill had been withdrawn under strong pressure four years earlier (see p. 22). Hence the cogency of this allusion here.

DEATH OF QUEEN CAROLINE (1737).

Her Character described by George II.

Source.—Hervey's Memoirs. Vol. ii., pp. 531-533.

During this time [of the Queen's fatal illness in 1737] the King talked perpetually to Lord Hervey, the physicians and surgeons, and his children, who were the only people he ever saw out of the Queen's room, of the Queen's good qualities, his fondness for her, his anxiety for her welfare, and the irreparable loss her death would be to him; and repeated every day, and many times in the day, all her merits in every capacity with regard to him and every other body she had to do with. He said she was the best wife, the best mother, the best companion, the best friend, the best woman that ever was born; that she was the wisest, the most agreeable, and the most useful body, man or woman, that he had ever been acquainted with; that he firmly believed she never, since he first knew her, ever thought of anything she was to do or say, but with the view of doing or saying it in what manner it would be most agreeable to his pleasure or most serviceable for his interest; that he had never seen her out of humour in his life; that he had passed more hours with her than he believed any other two people in the world had ever passed together, and that he had never been tired in her company one minute; and that he was sure he could have been happy with no other woman upon earth for a wife, and that if she had not been his wife, he had rather have had her for his mistress than any woman he had ever been acquainted with; that he believed she never had had a thought of people or things which she had not communicated to him; that she had the best head, the best heart, and the best temper that God Almighty had ever given to any human creature, man or woman; and that she had not only softened all his leisure hours, but been of more use to him as a minister than any other body had ever been to him or to any other prince; that with a patience which he knew he was not master of, she had listened to the nonsense of all the impertinent fools that wanted to talk to him, and had taken all that trouble off his hands, reporting nothing to him that was unnecessary or that would have been tedious for him to hear, and never forgetting anything that was material, useful, or entertaining for him to know. He said that, joined to all the softness and delicacy of her own sex, she had all the personal as well as political courage of the finest and bravest man; that not only he and her family, but the whole nation, would feel the loss of her if she died, and that, as to all the brillant and enjouement of the Court, there would be an end of it when she was gone; and that there would be no bearing a drawing-room when the only body that ever enlivened it, and one that always enlivened it, was no longer there. "Poor woman, how she always found something obliging, agreeable, and pleasing to say to somebody, and always sent people away from her better satisfied than they came! Comme elle soutenoit sa dignité avec grace, avec politesse, avec douceur!"

THE WAR OF JENKINS' EAR (1739).

I.
Rear-Admiral Charles Stewart's Letter to the Governor of the Havana and the Duke of Newcastle.

Source.—English Historical Review. Vol. iv., pp. 743, 742.

12 Sept., 1731.

... I have repeated assurances that you allow vessels to be fitted out of your harbour, particularly one Fandino and others, who have committed the most cruel piratical outrages on several ships and vessels of the King my master's subjects, particularly about the 20th April last [N.S.] sailed out of your harbour in one of those Guarda Costas [Spanish revenue cutters], and met a ship of this island [Jamaica] bound for England; and after using the captain in a most barbarous inhuman manner, taking all his money, cutting off one of his ears, plundering him of those necessaries which were to carry the ship safe home, without doubt with the intent that she should perish in her passage; but as she has providentially got safe home, and likewise several others that have met with no better usage off the Havana, and the King my master having so much reason to believe that these repeated insults on his subjects could never be continued but by the connivance of several Spanish governors in these parts, is determined for his own honour as well as for the honour of his Catholic Majesty who he is now in the strictest friendship with, to endeavour to put a stop to these piratical proceedings.

12 Oct., 1731.

... It is without doubt irksome to every honest man to hear such cruelties are committed in these seas; but give me leave to say that you only hear one side of the question; and I can assure you the sloops that sail from this island, manned and armed on that illicit trade, has (sic) more than once bragged to me of their having murdered 7 or 8 Spaniards on their own shore.... It is, I think, a little unreasonable for us to do injuries and not know how to bear them. But villainy is inherent to this climate, and I should be partial if I was to judge whether the trading part of the Island [Jamaica] or those we complain of among the Spaniards are most exquisite in that trade....

I was a little surprised to hear of the usage Captain Jenkins met with off the Havana, as I know the Governor there has the character of being an honest good man, and don't find anybody thinks he would connive or countenance such villainies.

II.
Account of the Examination of Jenkins before the House of Commons (1738).

Source.—Samuel Boyse: An Historical Review of the Transactions of Europe. Vol. i., p. 29. Reading, 1747.

There was amongst the rest, one Instance that made so much Noise at this time, it cannot well be omitted. One Capt. Jenkins, Commander of a Scotch Vessel, was in his Passage home boarded by a Guarda Costa, the Captain of which was an Irishman. The Spaniards, after rummaging, finding their Hopes disappointed, tearing off part of his ear, and bidding him carry it to the English King, and tell him they would serve him in the same manner if they had him in their Power: This Villainy was attended with other Circumstances of Cruelty too shocking to mention. The Captain, on his Return, was examined at the Bar of the House of Commons; and being ask'd what his Sentiments were, when threaten'd with Death? nobly reply'd, That he recommended his Soul to God, and his Cause to his Country;—which Words, and the Sight of his Ear, made a visible Impression on that great Assembly.

THE OPPOSITION SUSPECTS WALPOLE OF DOUBLE-DEALING.

Source.—Memorial from the Earl of Stair to Alexander Earl of Marchmont, December, 1739. Printed in Papers of the Earls of Marchmont, 1831. Vol. ii., pp. 170-172.

I shall take it for granted, that Great Britain has it in her power to make a prosperous war against Spain, spite of all the opposition that can possibly be made, even though France should meddle in the quarrel, by taking the Havannah, which can be done by raising troops in our colonies of America, headed by a very few regular troops sent from Britain. I mention the Havannah only, because cela décide la guerre. The Havannah once taken, the body of troops can be employed in several other expeditions, which may be very useful and very practicable. I say nothing of the method of raising these troops in America; that is a consideration of another time and place. I shall only say, that by the means of our colonies in America Britain should get the better of any nation in a war in America. By a proper use made of our colonies, I do not know what we are not able to do in America.

This proposition is demonstrably true; but, I believe, it is no less true, that Sir Robert has no such intention. The disposition of raising men in America would appear; but as no such disposition appears, we may conclude, that Sir Robert's scheme is different. I am afraid, that it is to make a treaty with Spain by the mediation of France. If that treaty should be apparently good, Great Britain will find herself in the state of the horse in Horace's fable:

"Sed postquam victor violens discessit at hoste,

Non equitem dorso, non frenum depulit ore."

This being the case, as I am afraid it is, that we can neither secure our constitution at home, nor make a prosperous war abroad, whilst Sir Robert has the sole direction of our affairs, foreign and domestic, there is a preliminary absolutely necessary to the saving of the nation, and that is, the removing of Sir Robert. The question is, How can that be done? I shall freely tell my opinion, with great submission to better judgments. In the first place, there must be a perfect union amongst the leaders of the country party; they must make one common cause of preserving their country, which indeed stands in the utmost danger; all the operations must be directed by one common council. Though there are many great and able men on the side of their country, yet in my opinion the great strength of the party is the people, who are well-disposed to follow their leaders, to save themselves and their country from impending slavery. If the leaders will advise the communities to declare their sentiments on a very few public points, and instruct their representatives in Parliament accordingly, the strength of the country party will very soon appear so very great, that it will very soon put Sir Robert's gang out of countenance, and occasion a great many of them to think of changing their side. At the same time, it will be impossible for Sir Robert to continue to deceive his Majesty, by pretending that either the nation is of his side, or that by means of the Houses of Parliament, which are with him, he can govern the nation as he pleases. This method of proceeding appears to me a certain one, which the leaders of the opposition have entirely in their own power; I can see no objection to the using of it. Does it hinder anything else? If there is any good to be done by negociations, or other ways, does it hinder? On the contrary, must not everybody feel, that the credit of the strength of the people must be very favourable to negociations in either House of Parliament?

I need say no more. In my opinion at this critical moment Britain may not only be saved, but she may come out of this war with safety and honour, nay, with great glory to her deliverers. But if the opportunity of this session of Parliament is neglected, to-morrow will be Sir Robert's and France's, without any possibility of relief.

ADMIRAL VERNON'S VICTORY AT PORTOBELLO (1740).

I. ADMIRAL HOSIER'S GHOST.

To the Tune of, "Come and Listen to my Ditty."

Source.—Original broadside of 1740 in the British Museum.

[This ballad, by the Opposition poet and pamphleteer Richard Glover, implies that Walpole would willingly have let Vernon and his fleet perish in 1740 as Hosier and his fleet had perished in 1726.]

I.

As, near Porto-Bello lying,

On the Gently swelling Flood,

At Midnight, with Streamers flying,

Our triumphant Navy rode,

There, while Vernon sate all Glorious

From the Spaniards late Defeat,

And his Crew with Shouts victorious

Drank Success to England's Fleet;

II.

On a sudden, shrilly sounding,

Hideous Yells and Shrieks were heard;

Then, each Heart with fear confounding,

A sad Troop of Ghosts appear'd;

All in dreary Hammocks shrouded,

Which for winding Sheets they wore;

And with Looks by Sorrow clouded,

Frowning on that hostile Shore.

III.

On them gleam'd the Moon's wan Lustre,

When the Shade of Hosier brave

His Pale Bands was seen to muster,

Rising from their wat'ry Grave;

O'er the glimmering Wave he hy'd him,

Where the Burford[16] rear'd her Sail,