YALE UNIVEKSITY LIBEAEY ^ w^^ =»®:; ^^m M 1 1 i i -1 fei FORMED BY James Abraham Hillhouse, B.A. 1749 James Hillhouse, B.A. 177 S James Abraham Hillhouse, B.A. 1808 James Hillhouse, B.A. 1875 Removed 1942 from the Manor Souse in Sachem's Wood GIFT OF GEOBGE DUDLEY SEYMOUR MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF KING GEORGE THE SECOND. VOL. III. lllllllnilllllllll[IIIIIIIIIII!IIIIII{IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIItlllllll!lllllllllll[l!lltll[l»ll[IIIIIIlllllIlllllllllim j^iR jpjiiri]:'. MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF KING GEOEGE THE SECOND. BY HORACE WALPOLE, YOUNGEST SON OP SIR ROBERT WALPOLE, EARL OF ORFORD. EDITED, PROM THE ORIGINAL MSS. WITH A PREFACE AND NOTES, BY THE LATE LORD HOLLAND. VOL. III. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER,. GREAT MAELBOKOUGH STREET. 1846. :B/53 44/ CONTENTS THE THIRD VOLUME. CHAPTER I. A. D. PAGE 1757. Dismissal and Resignation of Ministers . . 1 Efforts to form a new Administration . . 2 Parliamentary Inquiries into the Loss of Minorca . 4 Mr. Pitt's Power and Popularity ... 5 Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Fox . . . ib. The Inquiries into the Loss of Minorca. . 7 No Ministry formed . . . . .11 The Militia Bill passes .... ib- Great success of the King of Prussia . .12 Various Plans for forming an Administration . 14 Vote of a Million . . . . .16 Bill regulating payment of Seamen's Wages . 19 Duke of Newcastle's irresolution . . .21 Rupture of Negotiation between Pitt and Newcastle 22 Duke of Newcastle's Projects and Difficulties . ib, CHAPTER IL 1757. Prince of Wales interferes to facilitate arrangements 25 Lord Waldegrave appointed First Lord of the Treasury 26 Resignation of the Duke of Newcastle's friends . 27 Author's advice to Fox .... 28 YOL. III. vi CONTENTS. Lord Waldegrave's projected Ministry abandoned — The King's reluctant acquiescence . • 30 The new Ministry settled . . . .31 Charge on the Public .... 32 Lord Waldegrave has the Garter . . .34 King of Prussia defeated by Daun . . 36 Battle of Hastenbecke .... ib. King overwhelmed with the misfortunes of Hanover 37 Leicester House . . • ¦ .38 Disturbances on the Militia Bill ... 40 France . . • • • -42 Expedition to Rochfort .... 44 Officers employed on Expedition to Rochfort . . 45 CHAPTER III. 1757. Isle of Aix ..... 50 Council of War . . . . .51 Conway proposes an Attack on Fouras . . 53 Attack on Fouras fails . . . .56 Affairs in the East Indies . . . 57 Victory of the Prussians over the Russians . . ib. Convention of Closter Seven ... 58 The King disavows the Convention of Closter Seven . 59 The Duke's return .... 60 Duke's reception at Court, and conduct thereupon . 61 The Duke resigns .... 64 Affairs of Ireland . . . . .65 Stateof Parties in Ireland ... 68 Inquiry into Miscarriages at Rochfort . . 75 Court-Martial ..... 78 Lord Mansfield of Cabinet . . . .79 Victories of the King of Prussia . . 80 Sir John Ligonier made Viscount and Marshal . 81 Death of Princess Caroline ... 82 CONTENTS. Til CHAPTER IV. 1758. Mr.PittFive great men Lord Granville Sir Robert Walpole Lord Mansfield Duke of Cumberland Mr. Pitt Five great men compared Parliament Speech of Mr. Pitt King of Prussia takes Breslau General dive's Victory Military Appointments Affairs of Ireland Picture of some of the Manners of the Age King's Munificence Affair of the Habeas Corpus Mr. Pratt brings in a Bill Anecdotes on the Navy Bill CHAPTER V. 1758. Death of Archbishop Hutton Affair of Lord Tyrawley New Treaty with Prussia Sequel of the Habeas Corpus . Habeas Corpus Bill in Lords Judges' Opinions on Habeas Corpus Bill Habeas Corpus Bill dropped Leicester House Operations of the King of Prussia Expedition to St. Maloes Till CONTENTS. A.D. Passage of the Rhine by Prince Ferdinand, and his Vic tory at Crevelt . . • .127 Defeats of Prince Ysenberg and M. Chevert . . 128 CHAPTER VI. 1758. History of Dr. Hensey . . 130 Election of a Pope . . 131 Rezzonico elected Pope . 133 Taking of Cherbourg . . ib. Cape Breton taken . ib. Other Events in America . . 134 Affair at St. Cas . . 135 Battle of Custrin, and relief of Dresden . 138 Disputes with Holland . . 139 Assassination of the King of Portugal . 141 Portugal . . 143 The English Army in Germany . 147 Defeat at Hochkirchen , 148 Sieges of Neiss, Cosel, and Dresden raised . 149 Parliament meets . , ib. Addresses of Thanks . . . 150 Army voted , 151 Affair of Dr. Shebbear . . . . 152 Pitt's behaviour to Conway . 154 Pitt's conduct in Ministry . . 156 Lord Arran , , 157 Disgrace of the Cardinal de Bemis . . 158 Conclusion . , ib. Author's own Chai'acter . . 159 CHAPTER VII. 1759. Author's motives for continuing the Work A memorable era Election of Chancellor of Oxford . 164 165 166 CONTENTS. IX Exchange of Prisoners Death of Princess of Orange Capture of Goree Expeditions to West Indies Mr. Pitt's Character and Ministry Estimates of the year Duty upon Dry Goods Mr. Pitt's speech on Taxes Mr. Pitt's sensibility to censure Mr. Pitt's complaisance to Lord Hardwicke Jealousies in Ministry Message on Militia Threats of Invasion from France Havre de Grace bombarded PAGE 167168169- ib. 172176 177 178179 ib. 181 184 185186 CHAPTER VIII. 1759. Campaign in Germany Battle of Minden Reports of Battle of Minden Lord Granby and Lord G. SackviUe Reflections on Lord G. Sackville Lord G. Sackville returns to England Correspondence of French Generals . King of Prussia's Campaign Battle of Cunnersdorf Prussians defeated King of Prussia saves Berlin and retrieves his Affairs Spain and Naples . . . . . Charles III. of Spain sets aside his eldest son . Reasons for setting aside Duke of Calabria examined King of Spain ..... Death of Lady Elizabeth . . . . Boscawen defeats the French Fleet Conquests in America . . . . Lord G. Sackville .... 188190191 192193 198 199 200 201203204 ib> 206207208211 ib.ib. 212 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. A.D. 1759. Marshal D'Estrees . French worsted in East Indies Wolfe's Embarrassments Conquest of Quebec, and death of Wolfe Perfidy and cruelty of French Government Bankruptcy of France Thurot sails .... ParliamentMr. Pitt's speech Lord Temple resigns the Privy Seal Lord Temple resumes the Privy Seal Monument to Wolfe, and Thanks to Officers Admirdl Saunders Hawke attacks and destroys Conflans' Fleet Debates on Extraordinary Commissions Army Estimates .... Proposals for Peace ineffectual Heir-Apparent's Court Victorious Officers rewarded Warburton made Bishop Ireland .... Tumults in Dublin Irish Parliament PAGE 216217 lb. 219223 ib- 224 ib. 225 228 ib. 229230231 233234 236 237 ib. 239 ib. 241245 CHAPTER X. 1760. War in Germany ..... 247 Prince Ferdinand's detachment to King of Prussia . 248 Value of contemporary Memoirs . . . 249 Lord Bath's Letter ..... 250 Macklyn's Love a la Mode . . . 250 Lord G. Sackville demands a Court-Martial . .251 Earl Ferrers murders his Steward . . 258 Smollett punished for a Libel . . . 259 CONTENTS. XI PAGE Thurot's Expedition to Ireland . . . 262 Thurot's death . . . . .265 Debate on Trial of Member of House of Commons ih. Court-Martial on Lord G. Sackville . . 266 Sentence of Court-Martial .... 273 Trial of Earl Ferrers .... 274 Execution of Earl Ferrers . . ... .278 Qualification Bill . . . .279 Militia Bills . . . . . .280 CHAPTER XI. 1760. General Murray beaten at Quebec French retreat from Quebec . General Amherst takes Montreal Successes in East Indies Campaign in Germany Prussians defeated, and General Fouquet taken King of Prussia before Dresden Is obliged to raise the siege . King of Prussia defeats Laudohn Daun compelled to raise the Siege of Schweidnitz, retreats ..... Allies take Berlin . Abandon it . King of Prussia beats Daun at Torgau Campaign in Germany Duke of Cumberland Earl of Clanrickard George the Second dies His Character, and Will Anecdote of George the First's Will and 284 ib. 288289290 291292 ib. 294295 ib. 296 297 ib. 300 . ih. 302 303 308 AppendixIndex of Names Index of Matters 313319 342 MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF KING GEORGE THE SECOND. CHAPTER L Dismissal and Resignation of Ministers — Parliamentary In quiries into the loss of Minorca — Mr. Pitt's Power and Popularity — Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Fox — Mr. Pitt's conduct on the Inquiries — Passing of the Militia Bill — Great success of the King of Prussia — Various Plans for an Administration — Votefor a Million — BiU for regulating the payment of the Wages of Seamen — Duke of New castle's irresolution — Rupture of the negotiation between him and Pitt — His Projects and Difficulties. April 5th Lord Holderness went to Lord Temple to notify to him his dismission. Legge pre vailed on Pitt and the rest not to resign, but to be turned out. The Duke of Devonshire had offered Legge to remain; but though he was never tardy at abandoning his friends for a richer prospect, nobody was more steady when it would hurt him to VOL. III. B 2 MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OP desert. The next night, Mr. Pitt was discarded : and then George GrenviUe and the others resigned. Charles Townshend alone took time to consider: the income of his place was large, and he did not love Pitt. After aa uncertainty of near three weeks, he resigned ; but by a letter to the Duke of Devonshire avoided as much as possible to have it thought that he quitted from attachment to Pitt. Resigning with him, and not for him, Townshend thought entitled him to be restored with Pitt, yet would not subject him to the King's displeasure. All men were curious to see the new Administra tion. None was formed. Lord Egremont had con sented to accept the Seals of Secretary of State, but soon desired to be excused. He had miscarried with Lord Granville, had not succeeded better by assiduous court to Newcastle, and now attaching himself to Fox, had his hopes soon blasted with this blossom of an Administration. Doddington, who had gone in and out too often to lose any reputa tion by one more promotion or disgrace, was ready to take anything. Sir George Lee, who could not give up the hopes of being Prime Minister, though never thought of but when he could not be so, pre pared to accept the Chancellorship of the Exchequer ; and Lord Winchelsea, uniform in detesting the GrenviUes, immediately entered upon his old office, the Admiralty, with a motley board, composed of Boscawen, (one of thg last set,) Rowley, (ofthe KINO GEORGE H. 3 fotegoing,) Moyston, his own nephew. Lord Carys fort, and young Sandys. Elliot was offered to remain, but refused ; and W. Gerard HamUton was designed for the seventh. Yet an Admiralty did not make an Administra tion. No man of abilities or reputation would enlist — even Sir Thomas Robinson refused to take the Seals again. Yet the Duke embarked with satis faction, telling Mr. Conway, the King could not be in a worse situation than he had been — " Yes, Sir," said Conway, " but he wUl, if Mr. Pitt gets the better." And Fox, to gratify at least some of his views in this revolution, procured a grant for him self and his two sons of the reversion of Dodding ton's place of Clerk of the Pells in Ireland. The King had forbidden the Duke, who negotiated this business, to mention the Peerage for Lady Caroline, which he would never grant; but he would give him Doddington's place for his chUd — " Say children. Sir," replied the Duke. " With all my heart," said the King ; " it is the same thing to me." He cared not how many reversions he granted from his successor. Still it was impossible for Fox himself to accept any ministerial post till the inquiries were at an end ; the whole tempest would have been directed at his head. Indeed many had such intentions : at a meeting of Pitt's friends and the Tories, it was agreed to push the scrutiny into the military part with great b2 4 MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OE vehemence. Charles Townshend accepted the office of manager : and George, on moving for more papers, made severe remarks on the want of miners at Minorca; which Fox excused, saying, it was hoped that the Minorchese, who had assisted in digging the mines, would have contributed to their defence. To keep miners there on the establish ment had been thought too expensive. " Are they more expensive to the Government," replied Townshend, "than sinecures?" alluding to Fox's new reversion. Pitt, at the meeting I have men tioned, promised his support, but feared he should not "be able to speak five minutes for his cough. He was aware that Newcastle had left too little power to Fox in their joint Administration, for it to be possible with any degree of decency to brand the one, and slide over the errors of the other, with whom Pitt wished to unite. Yet the temper of the nation left him master to take whatever resolution he pleased. The rashness of throwing Government into imminent confusion at such a juncture, struck both the enemies and friends of Fox. His ambition was glaring; his interested- ness, not even specious. Pitt had acted during his short reign with a haughty reserve, that, if it had kept off dependents and attachments, at least had left him all the air of patriot privacy ; and having luckily from the King's dislike of him, and from the shortness of the time, been dipped but in few KING GEORGE H. 5 ungracious businesses, he came back to the mob scarce " shorn of his beams.'' The stocks fell; the Common CouncU voted the Freedom of the City both to Pitt and Legge ;^ Sir John Barnard alone gave a negative. Allen of Bath procured them the same honour from thence ; and for some weeks it rained gold boxes : Chester, Worcester, Norwich, Bedford, Salisbury, Yarmouth, Tewkesbury, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Stirling, and other populous and chief towns following the example. Exeter, with singular affectation, sent boxes of heart of oak. On the other hand, a paper was affixed to the gate of St. James's, with these words, " A Secretary of State much wanted; honesty not necessary; no principles will be treated with." Such venom was not likely to bias Newcastle to Mr. Fox. It was the King's wish that they should unite; and many messages passed; but in vain. It was pretended that the Duke had promised his Majesty never to join Pitt, unless by command. The King said, he would abdicate sooner than give him such command; and complaining bit terly of his ingratitude ; imputing to him a refusal ' A card was published representing Pitt and Legge, like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, in a triumphal car, with this motto, Et sibi Consul Ne placeat, servus curru portatur eodem. — Juv. 6 MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF made by Lord Duplin to be made ChanceUor of the Exchequer; and his leaving his Majesty at the mercy of Mr. Pitt, by not uniting with Fox. His Grace, who scrupled not to wipe out one imputation by deserving another, wrote a peni tential letter, and sent it by Munchausen, lament ing his disgrace, after so many years of service, and hoping, when the inquiries should be at an end, that he might again have admission to the closet, where he should be ready to protest and promise whatever his Majesty expected. He had scarcely written this letter, but he laboured anew to obstruct the junction of his friends with Fox. In general, they outran his intentions : Lord Lin coln hated Fox ; the little tools feared him. Mur ray and Hume Campbell and Arundel sincerely wished to bring them together. The Princess, who looked on any settlement in which Fox was concerned as an establishment of the Duke's power, frowned on the new revolution ; and though Fox made very humble overtures to Leicester House, they were flatly rejected. Pitt grew less and less austere to Newcastle ; and now, when this vain man was arrived at the period of detected misgovernment with regard to his country, of ingratitude and disobedience to his master, of caprice, duplicity, and irresolution towards all fac tions ; when under prosecution by Parliament, and frowned on by his sovereign ; at this instant were KING GEORGE IL 7 the hopes, the vows of all men addressed to hinil The outcast of the Ministry, the scom of the Court, the jest ofthe people, was the arbiter of Britaui: her King, her patriots, her factions» waited to see into what scale he would fling his influence ! Inthe meantime, the inquiries began, April 19th. I shaU give but a summary account of them : it would be ridiciUous to enter into the detaU of a pan tomime, from which nothing was intended, expected^ or produced. The Townshends pretended to be mar nagers against the Ministers : Hume CampbeU and Lord Royston acted with spirit and sense for their friends : Ellis was agent for Fox. The latter himr self meddled a little, pointing out where inconveni ences might arrive to Government from probing inteUigence too nicely. The examination began with reading all the papers in order ; intelligence, letters, orders, &c. But no kind of check had been held over the offices from whence the inaterials came. The clerks had been left at liberty to omit, abridge, secrete, what they pleased. No questions were asked, no proofs of authenticity demanded, no witnesses examined; and, for fear of discovering our channels of inteUigence, no names were inserted in the extracts. And as the offices had been suf fered to curtail at their discretion, so they had had as impartial liberty to send as much useless and perplexing lumber as they could amass. The very 8 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OP dates of the letters filled three and twenty sheets of paper ! AU this was read over in a hurry, yet was so tiresome, that before half a day was wasted, the House was almost empty. Yet three or four hundred men were supposed to extract a judgment from so crude and slovenly a process ! Pitt, it was expected, would take advantage of iUness, and not appear. But he refined on that old finesse ; and pretending to wave the care of a broken constitution, when his country demanded his service, and as a pledge of his sincerity in the scrutiny, he came to the discussion in all the studied apparatus of a theatric valetudinarian. The weather was unseasonably warm; yet he was dressed in an old coat and waistcoat of beaver laced with gold : over that, a red surtout, the right arm lined with fur, and appendent with many black ribands, to indicate his inability of drawing it over his right arm, which hung in a crape sling, but which, in the warmth of speaking, he drew out with unlucky activity, and brandished as usual. On his legs were riding stockings. In short, no aspiring Cardinal ever coughed for the Tiara with more specious debility. This mummery was covered over with candour: he acquiesced in every softening term proposed by the advocates of the late criminals : his justice shrunk behind apprehensions of personality: moderation was the sole virtue of a censor. The loss of Minorca he avowed he meant to charge on the whole Govern- KING GEORGE n. 9 ment — for the whole Government could not be punished. On the second day, indeed, he trespassed a little upon all these gentle virtues, and threatened to secede, and publish to the world the iniquity of the majority: but recollecting how much more use ful to him the majority might be than the world, he recomposed himself, and was content that the majority should be responsible for whatever defects the public might find in the judgment given by the House. George Townshend proposed several resolutions : the drift of aU was to show that the Administration had chosen to believe a threatened invasion t)n Great Britain, rather than a design on Minorca. These motions were contested, modified, balanced, by appendent questions proposed by the Courtiers. Henley, the Attorney-General, scrupled not in the very outset to propose approbation. Pitt said he should prefer printing the examination, and leaving the public to judge for themselves. Hume Camp beU pleaded that such procedure in the House of Commons would be abdicating their share of Govern ment. The Ministerial party endeavoured, though with ostentatious decency, to load the late Admiral ; but in general their arguments tended to nothing but to prove that Minorca had been lost by the common course qf office. The questions of the Opposition were corrected till all sting was taken out of them ; and still others were coupled to them, 10 MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF that made the votes of the House seem a mere set of questions and answers, in which the whole advan tage remained to the respondent. These things passed not without divisions, but as the majority felt itself a majority, it was not modest; it stated roundly in favour of its prin cipals. Yet on the last day of the Committee, the Courtiers moving a resolution, that no greater force could have been sent to the Mediterranean under Mr. Byng, Triumph itself blushed at so palpable a falsehood, and the victorious majority shrunk to 78, many retiring, and many of the more independent sort joining the minority. By this might be seen what Mr. Pitt had in his power, had he exerted himself. The alarm, however, was so great, that a conclusive vote of acquittal, nay, of approbation, which it had been determined should be proposed by Lord Granby and Lord George Cavendish, was dropped with evident marks of dismay; and the late Cabinet, to their great disappointment, were forced to sit down contented, without receiving the thanks of the House of Commons for the loss of Minorca. The conclusion of the inquiries, however, from which at least it had been supposed a new Adminis tration would arise, facilitated nothing. No appro bation given pointed out nobody as deserving power again: nobody being stigmatized, nobody seemed excluded. Pitt had declined triumph, consequently KING GEORGE U. 11 had gained none. A field of negotiation was still open, tUl three men who knew, hated, and could not trust one another, might settle some such plan of agreement as would stiU leave those who should unite the hopes and the prospect of betraying or overpowering their new allies. In the meantime, as if to show how long a great nation can carry on itself without any Government, there were no Ministers, even in the midst of a for midable war, but those baby politicians, the Duke of Devonshire and Lord Holderness: the former with much importance declaring, that he would retain the Treasury but till some new system should be completed : yet he was delighted with the play thing of power, and'wished his holidays might be protracted. For the King himself, his very office seemed annihilated. While the three factions were caballing, he had not even an option. Whatever Administration should be settled, he was to receive when presented to him. Lord Mansfield held the Seals of the Exchequer pro tempore; and the House of Commons was so devoid of a Minister, that the office of proposing the Ways and Means devolved on Nugent, one of the Lords of the Trea sury. The House of Lords were employed on the mUitia. Lord Hardwicke opposed, but would not divide against it. The Duke of Bedford and Lord Temple joined to support it ; and it passed at last by 64 to 48. 12 MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF While this ridiculous scene was acting at home, our foreign affairs wore a more respectable aspect. Count Rantzau, the Danish Minister, mentioned to Lady Yarmouth, on the part of France, a neutrality for Hanover. She discreetly refused to meddle in it. He then, in concert with the Minister of the Empress-Queen, proposed it in form, but the terms ^ were so humUiating, that the King rejected them with dignity and scorn. In truth, as Elector, his ¦situation deserved compassion. At this instant, the French had seized in their own name the county of Bentheim, a purchase his Majesty had made him self: the rest of his territories they pretended to hold for the Empress-Queen. Under this depression, news came of a great victory obtained by the King of Prussia over the Austrians. He had planned ' Vienna, June 4. — Marshal Daun has detached from his Army a regiment of Hussars and some light troops, in order to cover the western side of Bohemia from the incursions of the Prussians. The Empress Queen has communicated to several of the Courts with whom she is in friendship, the conditions that were proposed for bringing about a neutrality in favour of the Electorate of Hanover. According to the overtures made on this occasion, the King of Great Britain, in quality of Elector of Hanover, would have been considered as a party not concerned in the present war, in consequence of which neither his troops nor those of his Allies were to act against those of the Empress Queen and her Allies. He would likewise have engaged not to assist the King of Prussia either with troops or money. The passage through KING GEORGE II. I3: his measures with such inteUigence, that he pre viously ventured to send the King word, that he should make four attacks at once on the quarters- ofthe enemy, and expected to find them unprepared. He confirmed his designs by success, carried every attack, possessed himself of their magazines, and when he dispatched the courier, was within thirty mUes of Prague, hoping to be master of Bohemia by the 15th of the month, and to be able to detach a body of twenty -five thousand men to support the Duke of Cumberland. The Austrian Generals dis agreed; their Foot behaved iU: in general, their troops thought the Prussians irresistible. The Hero-King, who dared to prophesy, because he left so little to chance, pursued his blow ; Mar shal Brown retiring to the other side of Prague. that part of his Electorate which lies on the left of the AUer was to have been granted to the troops of her Imperial Majesty and her Allies, they paying for provisions, forage, and waggons; besides which, they were to be allowed to establish magazines and hospitals in such places as should bo assigned them in the Electorate. The town of Hamelen was to be given up as a security, either into the hands of the- Empress or of some of her Allies, or to the guarantees of the Convention, whicli were proposed to be the Empress of Russia and the King of Denmark. Besides all this, it was to be stipulated in this Convention, that the Hanoverian troops should be quartered in such places only as should be agreed upon, and their number not augmented. {Extract from printed journal.) 14 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OP The King of Prussia with a strong Army on one side, Marshal Schwerin at the head of another from behind, feU on Brown at once, forced his camp, and took it with all his tents, baggage, and 250 pieces of cannon. Prince Charles, Brown, and Lucchesi, were wounded, and shut up in Prague. The King of Prussia lost little in numbers, exceedingly in one man, Marshal Schwerin, who making his attack before his second line was formed, and seeing his first line repulsed, seized a pair of colours, and fell with them in his hand. The glory of the day, that thus remained indubitably with the King, did not recompense him for the loss of such a servant. The primate of Ireland, who suspected that he should have little part in the Bedford Administra tion, had stayed in England to negotiate between Newcastle and Pitt, hoping that if Fox was entirely set aside here, the Duke of Bedford might in pique resign his new empire before he took possession of it ; at least, would not be countenanced in any de pression of him (the Primate). Lord George Sack viUe laboured in the same cause; and about the second week in May an interview was brought about between Pitt and Lord Hardwicke — as the latter said, by chance. Pitt insisted that New castle should not interfere in the House of Com mons, nor with the province of Secretary of State ; that is, with neither domestic nor foreign affairs. KING GEORGE U. 15 but should confine himself to the Treasury; yet there too Pitt pretended to place George GrenviUe as Chancellor of the Exchequer, with Potter and James GrenvUle. Legge, whom he meant to re move, having conceived insuperable aversion to him since harnessed with himself in the trammels of popularity, he named for the head of the Admi ralty, with a Peerage. For Lord Temple he de manded the Garter and some Post in the Cabinet. The terms were lofty ; yet considering his interest in the people, and his experience of Newcastle's engrossing chicanery, he was justifiable in endea vouring to clip the wings of so volatile a consti tution. The death of the Duke of Grafton, who had so often transacted Newcastle's variations, arrived now to facilitate his re-establishment. The Duke of Devonshire was charmed with the bubbles of the Chamberlain's office, and in three days accepted the White Stick and Golden Key, leaving the Treasury open. Yet in a week more the treaty between Newcastle and Pitt was broken off. Newcastle had negotiated for support, not for a master. Lord Hardwicke, notwithstanding his predilection for Pitt, owned that Fox was the more practicable : and George GrenviUe, finding that the coalition was impeded by what was demanded for him, desired to wave the Exchequer. But Pitt, not apt to bend to 16 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OP difficulties, replied to this concession, that it be came Mr. GrenviUe to make it, but he himself should not relax. During this parley, the King demanded support from the two Houses. Lord Waldegrave moved the Address, and a million was proposed. Lord Temple would have reduced it to 300,000/. Lord Holderness pleaded his Majesty's noble refusal of a neutrality for Hanover, and the claim he had to assistance. Lord Temple would have restricted the money to English purposes. The Duke of Bed ford supported the Motion of the Court, reflected on Pitt's all-sufficience, and the Address passed without a division. In the other House it occa sioned a good Debate, though no division. Nu gent expatiated on the King's merit to Britain : that he had said, " While Europe is in danger, Hanover shall not be safe." Pitt dropped several artful sentences, hostile to those that had been or might be Ministers, con vertible into excuses for himself, if he should again become a Minister. He said, he should not oppose the gross sum upon any foot but on the gift being offered without an iota of restriction : that indeed he had predicted his own fate when he acted on the restrictive plan : that he would support whoever had contributed to set this Government going again : that everybody was free to speak his senti ments on this measure, for no man could tell who KING GEORGE H. 17 would be Minister, who would be trusted with this million : that if it was to be confined to Great Britain and America, he would consent to give a mUlion : but now this might be dispensed to the troops of Hanover, though we had already given them 200,000/. He had heard of his own all-suf ficience ; he knew our insufficience. This might be the plan of a few great Lords who did not mind tossing in one or two hundred thousand pounds more : but the people had lost all confidence, seeing how surreptitiously their money was taken and given. He would not ask a question on the victory, the news of which were arrived that morning — he did not wish to relax, because the King of Prussia was successful. That Eang, who saw all, did all, knew all, did everything, was everything ! If you would deal with such great masses, and not take little things, and think they would make a great one, there might still be hopes — don't go on subsidizing little Princes here and there, and fancy that all together they will make a King of Prussia. That Prince had never asked a subsidy, at least while he had had any part in the Administration ; yet had raised the spirits of everybody, who hoped for a decent end of the war; for they were offensive operations that must bring about a peace. For the King, he said, though his Majesty did not serve so absolutely for nothing as the King of Prussia did, VOL. HI. c 18 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OF nor were the coffers of Hanover so exhausted but they might stop a gap tiU next winter, yet their Majesties had gone hand in hand together : but he dreaded the war being transferred to Flanders — he had rather feed it in Germany. If the King's Hanoverian ministers had been negUgent in their preparations, this victory would not repair their remissness : the Duke's authority must fetch up their negligence. He hoped the Ministers would not go to market this summer for German Princes, with whom we should find ourselves hampered next winter. Had any iUumination broken in upon that poor piddling plan, which carried the approbation of a whole na tion along with it? The King of Prussia with 170,000 men was worth giving one or two hundred thousand pounds to — but don't let a conciliabulum of Ministers, when they happen to dine together, settle another subsidiary plan, at once minute and extravagant. Were he Minister, he would have deprecated this measure, nay, would have said more against it, than he would say in the House of Com mons. He added some hints on his own popularity, and on the independence of the country gentlemen who favoured him. Fox took up some of Pitt's ex pressions : if a conciliabulum might not decide our measures, he hoped at least one man should not dic tate them. With regard to independence, he sup posed every man there was independent — but who KING GEORGE II. 19 were these particularly applauded for their inde pendence? Were they those, who, two years ago, lay under the irremissible crime of being Tories? or, who this year had the unknown merit of being so? These and other taunts drew on some warmth. Conway, too, offended Pitt by vindicating the Duke of Devonshire, whom Pitt had seemed to censure as concerned in what he called this surreptitious vote qf credit. Lord George SackviUe naturally closed with Pitt, when Conway seemed to debate with Fox : — Charles Townshend and Lord Egmont had another squabble ; and at last the million was voted. In one of the Debates at this time, Pitt talked much on Ximenes, who, he afterwards owned to Fox, was his favourite character. Another BiU, brought in by George GrenvUle on a good-natured principle, caUed out the passions and feelings of men at this extraordinary crisis. It was the custom in the Navy not to pay punc tually the wages of the seamen, but to keep back some part, lest the natural profuseness of that wandering people should disperse them as often as they were masters of a little sum. GrenvUle pro posed more frequent terms of payment. The supe riors of that class in the House of Commons, who, according to the nature of mankind, liked that others should endure what they had endured, and who are apt to attribute their own proficience to an education under which they had begun with C2 20 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OP suffering, had opposed this compassionate refor mation ; and indeed the profession were but too well founded in the advantages resulting from the estab lished hardships! Fox divided against the BUl, though without speaking ; and it was carried in that House by above 60 to 42. When it came to the Lords, it was warmly op posed by Lord Winchelsea. The Duke of Bedford, too honest to be always biassed by faction, supported it against his friends, as he had the MUitia BiU. Lord Denbigh, a man whose parts were better than his character, spoke out in very plain terms : he said, he should be for measures, not men : good measures he would support, whoever proposed them, be his name William, Holies, or even Harry — and observing all the Bishops withdrawn but two, he supposed, he said, they were gone to dinner — he hoped they would not return to vote! The Dukes - of Newcastle and Devonshire, Lord Hardwicke, and many others had retired, which gave but too fair a handle for that satire on the Bench. The Bill was rejected by 23 to 18. The inter-ministerium (if I may be permitted to use a new word on a new occasion ; and truly as there never was such a being as the Duke of New castle, one may be allowed to describe him, his actions, and their consequences in a novel language,) had now lasted seven weeks. On the last rupture of the treaty with Pitt, his Grace thought he had KING GEORGE H. 21 determined to take the sole burthen of the State upon himself. He even sent his Majesty word that he would be at Kensington on the 24th, and would declare his final resolution — ^but he put the King off; he had fixed on nothing — and whUe he pre vented any other man from having power, his own idea of being Minister was in a manner answered. Lord Lincoln, Lady Catherine Pelham, and Lord Ashbumham, the private chorus, that had not the less part in the drama for being cyphers, earnestly dissuaded him from coming in again without an union with Leicester House. To advise him to be governed by his fears, was governing him. He reverted to another interview with Pitt at Lord Royston's, where Lord Hardwicke was present. Pitt, the more he foresaw incompliance on the Duke's part, knew how much more grace he should wear (if forced to come to public explanation), by stipulating some advantages to his country, asked if they meant to send abroad any part of the new granted million, as Lord Granville and Fox had declared for doing. Newcastle said, he was not bound by their declarations — " and you, Mr. Pitt, you are not bound against sending any of it, are you?" Pitt replied he was; " and you, my lord, though you are not bound to send any more money abroad, are not you inclined to it?" Newcastle would not explain. Lord Hardwicke proposed to wave this point ad referendum; knowing how easily 22 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OP they should settle the nation's concerns, if they could agree upon their own. They then passed to the article of Chancellor of the Exchequer. Pitt urged that he had had it before for one of his friends ; Newcastle, that it would mark his having no power at the Treasury. Neither would yield. Even on the first Lord of the Admiralty, Newcastle haggled, pretending the King would not be brought to dismiss Lord Winchelsea. They parted in discontent ; though the Duke, in all his messages by the Primate, Lord George Sack ville, and others, had promised how reasonable he would be. This was exactly the manner in which he had formerly treated Fox, departing from his own' concessions before he had time to ratify them. Lord Hardwicke behaved more uniformly ; declared he would not take the Seals again ; desired nobody should be displaced for him ; if the Presidentship of the Council, or the Privy Seal should be vacant, he would gladly accept either: for Lord Anson he peremptorily insisted on the Treasurership of the Navy. Pitt now found his error ; by facilitating Newcastle's escape from the inquiries, he remained at the mercy of that Duke, not the Duke at his. May 27th.— The Duke of Newcastle did go to Kensington, and after a long audience, promised to be sole Minister, permitting Fox to be Paymaster, but with no power. Sir Thomas Robinson was to be Secretary of State, Sir George Lee, Chancellor of KING GEORGE U. 23 the Exchequer. Hume Campbell modestly asked the Treasurership of the Navy^ under this Ministry, in addition to his office of Lord Register — and probably would have had it, or something equiva lent : Newcastle's greatest want now was of men who would take anything to support him. Lord Egmont was much solicited to be of the band ; but he, the great opposer of the Duke of Cumberland and Fox, would have stipulated for more power to the latter, and did insist on a Peerage for himself, which would have destroyed his whole utility : it was not in the placid House of Lords that Newcastle expected to be worried. The Duke of Dorset was to be dis placed (for Lord George Sackville had been designed for Pitt's Secretary at War), Lord Gower was to be Master of the Horse, and Lord Hardwicke Privy Seal. The Duke of Newcastle was to retire to Claremont for two or three days, and take a final inspiration from his oracles. > When he found another designation of that office, he demanded that Lord Edgecumbe should be removed, and the Duchy of Lancaster given to himself for life — ^yet he had said on the inquiries, on which he pretended to date his new merit, that it would be ungrateful in any man not to defend Newcastle; in him it would be infamous. 24 MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF CHAPTER II. The Duke of Newcastle's difficulties in forming a new Government — Prince of Wales interferes to facilitate arrangements — Lord Waldegrave appointed first Lord of the Treasury — Resignation of the Duke of Newcastle's friends — The Author's advice to Fox — The King reluc tantly acquiesces in the abandonment of Lord Walde grave's projected Ministry — The new Ministry settled — Charge on the Public — Lord Waldegrave has the Garter — King of Prussia repulsed by Daun — Battle of Hasten becke — Duke of Cumberland defeated — The King over whelmed with the misfortunes of Hanover — Proceedings at Leicester House — Disturbances on the Militia BiU — France — Expedition to Rochfort. June 3rd His Grace returned to Kensington, but stUl fluctuating; and begged to defer declaring his last resolution till the Tuesday following : this was on the Friday. Preposterous as this suspense of Government was, it occasioned no disturbance, scarce a murmur. The people, hating Fox, neg lected by Pitt, and despising Newcastle, waited with patience to see which of them was to be their master. The next day was the Birthday of the Prince of KING GEORGE H. 25 Wales. His Royal Highness was told, that it would have a gracious air with the people, if he took upon himself to facilitate measures for his grandfather's ease ; that he must command Pitt to give up the point of George GrenviUe being ChanceUor of the Exchequer. Pitt, who had heard how much he was loaded by the other factions with the accusation of impracticable haughtiness, yielded ; and had a con ference at the Prince's drawing-room with Newcastle and Lord Bute, who acted as mediator. Newcastle persisted that the King would retain Lord Win chelsea; and to balance the authority that he saw must fall to Pitt, said to him, " But you will not act with Fox" — Pitt replied, " My lord, I never said so — but does your Grace say you would? When you have said you will, I will consult my friends." Newcastle, not the most intelligible even when he was explicit, took care not to be understood sooner than he was determined; and the conversation ended abruptly : — however, on the 7th, though not agreed with Pitt, he went to Kensington, and de clared to the King, that he could not come in, unless Mr. Pitt's whole plan was accepted. The King reproached him bitterly with aU his shifts and evasions, and falsehoods ; and demanded his assist ance for Fox, if he would not himself undertake the service. He waved any such promise, and the King dismissed him in wrath. Fox now took the merit of venturing all to sup- 26 MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF port his Majesty, and declared he would accept the Ministry — but it seemed almost impossible to form one, if Pitt was not to be of it, and Newcastle with held his assistance. It was difficult even to know whom they should place at the head of the Treasury. In this distress the King (probably by the suggestion ¦of Mr. Fox,) sent for Lord Waldegrave, and com manded him to accept that high and dangerous post. The public was not more astonished at that desig nation, than the Earl himself. Though no man knew the secrets of Government better, no man knew the manoeuvre of business less. He was no speaker in Parliament, had no interest there, and though universally beloved and respected where known, was by no means familiarized to the eyes of the nation. He declined as long as modesty became him ; engaged with spirit, the moment he felt the abandoned state in which his master and benefactor stood. A trifling incident showed the ridiculous light in which the new establishment appeared : it was the 8th of June when Fox's Administration was notified: the House of Commons was very thin; EUis came with an air of mysterious importance, and desired the House to adjourn to the 13th foUowing. Lord George Sackville and George Townshend opposed this in joke, the latter saying that a Bill of great consequence relating to Milbourn-port was to be KING GEORGE H. 27 considered that day ; yet if Ellis would say that a Ministry was to be formed during the proposed recess, he would consent to it. EUis would say nothing; the House divided, Ellis with ten more against fifty-seven ; and thus Fox lost a question even before he was Minister. The next day Lord Holderness went to Kensing ton and resigned the Seals, as a declaration of the Newcastle squadron against Fox. The King re ceived him with the cool scorn he deserved.^ Lord ¦ Rockingham and many others^ notified their inten tion of resigning upon the same foot. Newcastle took pains to promote these resignations, and told Lord Northumberland that they caught like wildfire. The latter replied artfully, " I have great obligations to your Grace, but should think I repaid them very ill by resigning, as it would be contributing to make your Grace distress his Majesty." Indeed, to the King and others, the Duke solemnly forswore any knowledge of that measure ; and while he enjoined or inculcated it to his friends, he prohibited it to Lord Lincoln and the Duke of Leeds, his relations, that he might teU the King that his own family had stood by his Majesty — a siUy finesse, and blown up ' It was but seven months since Pitt had insisted on the dismission of Lord Holderness, who now resigned against Pitt's rival, who had been his own associate at that time ! 2 Fox kissing hands was to be the signal. 28 IffiMOIRS OP THE REIGN OF even by himself, he bragging to Lord Waldegrave of the display of his power in that measure, the very instant after he had denied it with oaths. One resignation was made on the other hand; Sir George Lee quitted the Princess, not brooking the influence of Pitt with her, and finding himself a cypher at that Court, since Lord Bute had become more than Minister there. Sir George had even once determined to make such a remonstrance to her on her conduct, as the Fathers of the Church had formerly assumed the impertinent familiarity of making to Princes, in ages when insolence was reckoned a primitive virtue. Horace Walpole saw the precipice on which Fox stood, and wished to save him from it. He saw, too, an opening for delivering the nation from that disgraceful man (Newcastle), who had so long per plexed all its Councils, and been a principal cause of its misfortunes. He sounded Lord George Sack ville, and thinking him not ill-disposed to Fox, and by no means amicable to Newcastle, he proposed his plan to the former. It was, that the King should send carte blanche to Pitt, to place the Duke of Dorset at the head of the Treasury, with Lord George for Secretary at War, and, by dissolving the Parliament, dissipate at once Newcastle's influ ence. Fox, who feared a popular election, disap proved the latter part, and did not relish Lord George in the War Office — too sharp-sighted, and KING GEORGE U. 29 who, to the desertion of Fox, had added a refusal of making Calcraft agent to his regiment. However, he permitted Walpole to propose aU this to Lord George, adding that he would take Paymaster (which seemed to be his nearest wish), under Pitt, or would even act under him without an employment, with the sole priTilege reserved of abusing Newcastle as much as he pleased. Lord George Sackville owned he should have liked the plan, but was now too far engaged. He confessed he had taken his part, as the contest lay between Leicester House and the Duke ; and the rather, as he had long observed that the Duke loved none but men totally detached from all other con nexions, and had even been less kind to Conway since his marriage; and, as an insurmountable objection, said, that Lord Bute, who was of scrupu lous honour, would now reckon their, party bound by these resignations. Thus this plan failed, though the King, whose aversion was diverted from Pitt to Newcastle, would have consented to anything, that might make the treacheries of the latter fall on his own head. Fox's junto met two or three times : Lord Gran viUe would have infused his jovial intrepidity into them : Bedford wanted no inspired ardour ; but Fox himself desponded, and Bedford reproached him with it. June llth, — Lord Mansfield went to Kensington 30 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OP with the Exchequer Seals, which Fox was to re ceive. The King asked the former his opinion; Lord Mansfield told him fairly it could not do for Fox ; then, said the King, " Let them make an Administration." Fox and Lord Waldegrave both told him the impossibilities they found, yet would proceed if his Majesty insisted. He said, " No, he did not desire his friends should suffer for him : he found he was to be prisoner for the rest of his life : he hoped, whatever he might be made to do, his friends would not impute to him, for he should not be a free agent : he had not thought that he had so many of Newcastle's footmeiO- about him : soon, he supposed, he should not be able to make a Page of the Back-stairs. For Hanover, he must give it up, it cost an hundred and twenty thousand pounds a month for forage alone : he found he must lose his Electoral dominions for an English quarrel : , whUe at the same time he lost all authority in England !" Leicester House took advantage of these diffi culties : they engaged Lord Chesterfield to nego tiate between Newcastle and Pitt. The Earl, who had lived for some time retired from business, un dertook the Embassy. It seemed a marvellous office for him, who had long broken with the latter, ' He used this expression again soon after. Making Lord Orford Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk, he told him, he was of a family that had always stood by him; hoped he would too, and not behave like those footmen of the Duke of Newcastle. KING GEORGE H. 31 and had even, in very cutting terms, acquainted the world with his reasons for breaking with the former. But it seems he had stiU stronger pre judices to the Duke of Cumberland : he undertook the employ^ with cheerfulness and success. On the 15th, the King wrote a note to Lord Hardwicke, desiring him, in consideration of the state of affairs both at home and abroad, to hasten some Administration that might not be changed again in five months. He mentioned his promise of the Pay-Office to Fox, and his obligations to Lord Winchelsea. Lord Hardwicke promised to wait on his Majesty on the 17th with some plan;, but the next day desired a day longer. At last, after an interval of above eleven weeks, the Ministry was settled, and kissed hands on the 29th. The Duke of Newcastle returned to the Treasury, with Legge for his ChanceUor of the Ex chequer. Pitt and Lord Holderness were Secre taries of State. Lord Temple had the Privy Seal in the room of Lord Gower, who was made Master of the Horse, the Duke of Dorset being set aside, but with a pension of 3000/. a-year, added to his Wardenship of the Cinque Ports. On Lord George Sackville the King put a flat negative. Fox ac cepted the Pay-Office, professing great content, and that he should offend neither in thought, word, nor deed. Both Newcastle and Pitt acted wisely in > [Sic in MS.] E. 32 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OF permitting him to enjoy this place: he was tied -up from giving them any trouble — and while serving for interest under Pitt, how much did it exalt the latter ! Yet the latter, too, took care to deserve his share of reproach. Adjusting their list with Lord Hardwicke, Pitt said, he missed a very respectable name there, which he hoped would be placed . greatly — it was Lord Anson's — and he was restored to the Admi ralty — whether with more opprobrium to himself, who returned to that Board with Pitt's set, aban doning his own, who had been disgraced with him ; or to Pitt, who restored so incapable an object to a trust so wretchedly executed, I am in doubt to de termine. Who did act with honour and noble spirit, was Lord Winchelsea; he refused a pension, disdaining to accept any emolument, when his asso ciates were excluded. At that Board he always acted with capacity, everywhere with firmness ; and was the only man who, in all these changes, ac quired credit, both by his rise and by his faU. Lord Cholmondeley got a pension to make way for Potter : Lord Thomond had Lord Bateman's White Stick, who, the Duke of Newcastle said arro gantly enough, should not carry his messages. Ten- nison was removed with a pension from the Buck- Hounds, ceding them to Lord Bateman. Pitt insisted that Pratt, a favourite lawyer at the bar of the House of Commons, should be Attorney- KING GEORGE II. 33 General. Sir Robert Henley, who could not de cently be disgraced without any reason, was so lucky to find that that reason (and certainly there could be no other) was sufficient to promote him : he was made Lord Keeper. The Seals had been offered to Murray, and to the Master of the Rolls, who refused them, and to Willes, who proposed to be bribed by a Peerage, to be at the head of his profession, but could not obtain it. Henley, how ever, who saw it was the mode of the times to be paid by one favour for receiving another, demanded a Tellership of the Exchequer for his son, which was granted, with a pension of 1500/. a-year till it should drop; and, as if heaping rewards on him would disguise his slender pretensions, Lord Hard wicke told him he must be Speaker of the House of Lords too, for Westminster-Hall would never for give him (Lord Hardwicke) if he suffered those offices to be disjoined. Sandys and his son were both laid aside. Hardwicke himself took no em ployment; the Seals, which it was plain from his not resuming them, he had not resigned from mere friendship to Newcastle, were too great a fatigue ; and no other of the great offices was vacant. It was no small mischief flowing from these dis graceful revolutions, the additional charge entailed on the public. Here were new pensions, of 3000/. a-year to Dorset, near as much to Cholmondeley, VOL. III. D 34 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OP 1500/. to Henley, 1200/. to Tennison ; besides others more secret. Yet all this profusion of grants and concessions could not satisfy everybody. The Townshends were furious : George, at any amnesty for Fox ; Charles, at not being promoted himself. Lord Halifax, who demanded to be Secretary of State for the West Indies, a theatre on which Pitt meditated to shine himself, threw up on being refused; but, having outlived. his income, was forced to re-accept, what, unless he had persisted, he had done more wisely to retain. The Duke of Bedford was warm against the new system, but was soon composed. The City, too, was indignant at the re- establishment of Lord Anson : but when the chiefs are accorded, the mob of a faction are little regarded. Men could not but smile observing Pitt return to Court, the moment he had been made free of so many cities for quitting it, exactly as he accepted an em^ ployment there before old Marlborough was scarce cold, who had left him 10,000/. as a reward for his patriotism. The King gave the Garter to Lord Waldegrave, an almost unprecedented favour, as it was given alone— but he deserved it — and- this act of royalty, almost the only flower of the Crown unviolated gave the King double satisfaction, for he had before given hopes of it to Lord Holderness, who being, like Lord Harrington, the mere creature of his; Majesty's bounty, had, like Lord Harrington, been KING GEORGE H. 35 the first to insult his master with an offensive resig nation. I here close the scene on these Court squabbles ; and perhaps have described them too minutely. Passages, in which one has been conversant, often •appear too interesting. I can only say, that I have preferred offending in this extreme to the contrary. Nothing is more easy than to pass over what is too diffuse — but, as many men love these detaUs, their curiosity would be unsatisfied with abridgments. Probably these anecdotes wiU amuse for some years, till they are lost in the mass of books, and when the affairs of this little spot, which we call Britain, shall appear of no more importance than our island itself in a geographic picture. To be read for a few years is immortality enough for such a writer as me! A greater field was now opened. That formidable confederacy of France, Austria, Russia, and Sweden, seemed determined to enclose and crush the King of Prussia. The Duke of Cumberland, with the for lorn Hanoverian army, was a slight barrier against such alarming advances. Coloredo, the Austrian Minister at London, was ordered to retire without taking leave; and as a further earnest of their hostile intentions to England, Ostend and Nieuport were resigned into the bands of France. Count Daun, the Austrian Fabius, was sent with 45,000 d2 36 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OF men to raise the siege of Prague. The King of Prussia, too impetuous to await their cautious ap proach, flew with about 30,000 men to meet them ; and finding Daun strongly entrenched on a hiU, thought ardour and his name sufficient to dislodge them. He returned seven times to the attack after as many repulses, performed actions of extravagant bravery himself; and when forced at last, by an impregnable situation, by superior numbers, and by equal valour, to abandon his purpose, he crowned the splendour of the enterprise by modestly con fessing how unadvisedly he had undertaken it. He raised the siege of Prague, and retired to Leut- meritz. Daun had the good sense to know that his country was not to be saved by the rules of romance. Rashness ijaight immortalize a Monarch whose crown and life were at stake, and were at the same time less objects than his glory : a subject would be un pardonable, and of all subjects an Austrian had the least chance of pardon, who should suffer his fame to weigh one moment against his duty. The French in the meantime advanced in such formidable numbers, that the Duke of Cumberland was obliged to retire and leave Hanover at their mercy. HoAvever, they came up with him at Hastenbecke, and a battle ensued. The Duke never showed himself so able a General, and though ex ceedingly inferior in force, disputed his ground till the French, who had great difficulty to carry up KmG GEORGE IL 37 their men to the cha.rge, despaired of the victory. But fresh squadrons pouring in upon him, and more approaching, his Royal Highness, apprehensive of being enclosed, resigned the success, though not the glory, of the day to D'Etrees, who was happy to find his enemy take a step that he was deliberating whether it would not be prudent for him to take himself The Hanoverian statesmen, in the wild ness of their despair for the destruction of their country and of their fortunes, not caring whom they charged, accused that Prince of timidity, whom all England had all his life accused of rash and German appetite for fighting; and the French with no less injustice decried their own victorious General, till Madame Pompadour and the Courtiers took advan tage to supplant him ; and Richelieu was sent to become those laurels Avhich had been earned by the best officer in their service. The King almost sunk under this weight of mis fortunes. That country, which with so much pa triotism and so little prudence he had made the point in which his whole poUcy centred — that country now felt aU the bitterness of desolation! Hanover, which so long had tasted the felicity of being conjoined to England, was now ravaged in an English quarrel. And unless we wUl suppose that his Majesty hoped to hire out his Electoral troops to his Crown in a contest which he flat tered himself would never be agitated in Germany, 38 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OP one cannot conceive why with such improvident facility he had permitted the Chancellor and New castle to bound into a war with France; a war undertaken from some provocation, with no prepa ration ; and discussed with no more solidity, than the mob, whom it was made to captivate, could have ¦employed. The French had aimed at and proceeded to invade our settlements. We returned hostilities with as slight a force as if we had only sent a herald to denounce war. We then seized their ships — and did nothing more; yes, we engaged some German mercenaries, as if the Duke of Newcastle had thought that the Rhine and the Ohio were the same river. Had we, like the French, waved expressions of war, tiU we had mustered a mighty force in Ame rica, where our superiority is exceedingly great; had we increased our Navy before we seized theirs ; had we at least imitated their arts as well as their invasions, we might have dictated in the new world, and lived without hostilities in the old. No won der the King was overwhelmed with the explosion of such calamities and blunders — still he had de- Iserved compassion ; had he not shown that, what ever his reflection suggested, his heart had no gene rous feelings — But of this anon. The Court at Leicester House Avas very differently employed during these serious transactions. Hanover was lost ; in North America our affairs went iU ; England itself was in no flourishing condition. KING GEORGE H. 3^ How did the Princess occupy the heir of all these domains ? She was not Spartan enough to buckle on his armour with her own hands, and send him to save or reconquer what he was to govern. The light of the Gospel has emancipated mothers from such robust sensations. The Prince was instructed to commit the care of the temporal concerns of his subjects to Providence; and therefore, instead of sending men, arms, ammunition to the invaded frontiers of our colonies,^ with more patriarchal vigilance his Royal Highness sent them an hundred pounds' worth of Leland's polemic writings against the Deists. The Princess herself bestowed an an nuity of one hundred pounds on a young Scotch^ clergyman, who having been persecuted by the kirk for writing a tragedy called Douglas, threw himself and his piece on the protection of the Earl of Bute. I have said our affairs in North America went ill ; it is very true. About this time came letters from the Earl of Loudun, the Commander-in-Chief there, who said, he found the French were 21,000 strong; he had not so many; could not attack ' This sarcasm iS most unmerited and absurd. The Prince had no means of sending men, arms, and ammunition, nor was it any part of his duty to do so. Even if it had been, a regard for religion and literature, and sorae liberality in rewarding genius, ai"e surely not incompatible with a due attention to public affairs. — E. * John Home. 40 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OP Louisbourg; should return to Halifax. Admiral Holbourn, one of the sternest condemnors of Byng, wrote at the same time, that he having but seven teen ships, and the French nineteen, he dared not attack them. These disappointments gave great disgust. Lord Loudun had been selected by the Duke and Fox for this command, and our expecta tions had been raised high of what he would perform. Here was another summer lost! Pitt expressed himself with great vehemence against the Earl — and we naturally have too lofty ideas of our naval strength to suppose that seventeen of our ships are not a match for any nineteen others. At home there were great disturbances on the new Militia Bill. Lord Hardwicke and the Lords, meaning to defeat it, had clogged it with imprac ticabilities, absurdities, and hardships ; particularly by obliging every poor man to pay ten pounds, or find a substitute, or go for a soldier; and yet he would be liable to serve again at the end of three years. This was a tax of above three pounds a year. Nor was any fund provided for the expenses of carrying the Act into execution. These objec tions gave sufficient handle to the disaffected to decry the system. The Tory gentlemen in parti cular, apprehending that the Whigs would acquire influence in their counties by the articles of cloth ing, &c., used their utmost endeavours to prepossess the country against the Bill. They inculcated into KING GEORGE II. 41 the people a belief that they would be trepanned to Gibraltar, like the two Somersetshire regiments that I formerly mentioned; and that whoever should give in his name, would to all intents and purposes become a soldier for life. This misrepresentation had too fatal effect. The peasants became refractory beyond measure ; riots were raised in several counties, as Surrey, Kent, Leicester, Hertford, Bedford, Nottingham, and York shires. The lists were forced by violence from the magistrates ; Lord Robert Sutton was in danger of his life at Nottingham ; the Duke of Bed ford's house, near Bedford, was threatened to be demolished, as he had been the first to advertise for a meeting. The Blues were ordered down to his defence; and it was worth observation, that the standing Army was employed to impose upon the people a constitutional force. His Grace threatened to carry the act into execution with a high hand, but on the day of the meeting he adjourned it to December, when he knew he should be in Ireland. The Duke of Dorset was attacked at Knowle, but saved by a young officer, who sallied out, and seized two-and-twenty of the rioters. The Speaker him self was insulted at GuUdford, and menaced in his own house at Ember-court, and could not disperse the insurrection but by promising no further steps should be taken till the next session of Parliament. But the greatest indecencies were committed by the 42 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OP family of Townshend. George, the author of. the Militia, was on very ill terms with his father, who was as wrong-headed as his son, and more mad. They wrote abusive pamphlets against one another ; and the father, attended by a parson and a few low people, began a mob on the day the meeting for the Militia was to be held, and pasted up one of his own libels on the doors of four churches nearest to his seat. Under these difficulties, Mr. Pitt began to exert his new-acquired power, and to give symptoms of more vigorous government. France, notwithstand ing her imposing airs, and our feeble and spiritless conduct, had carried no great point against us. Her finances were in disorder, her marine not re spectable, the flower of her armies transported to Germany. Their King threw a damp on all opera tions. Melancholic, apprehensive of assassination, desirous of resigning his Crown, averse to the war from principles of humanity, perplexed by factions, and still resigned to the influence of his mistress, every measure was confirmed by him with reluct ance or obtained by intrigues ; yet they had im printed such terrors of invasion upon us, that Mr. Pitt, concluding their own coasts might be ill-pro vided, while they menaced ours, determined to strike a hardy stroke, that should at once invert the system of fear, and restore our reputation by carrying the war into the quarters of the enemy. KING GEORGE H. 4^^ There was a yoimg Scot, by name Clarke, iU- favoured in his person, with a cast in his eyes, of intellects not very sound, but quick, bold, adven turous. At the siege of Berg-op-zoom, being pur sued into a house where the enemies fired at him through a door, he opened it and told them he was related to Marshal Lowendahl, who would reward them for saving him. Being conducted to the Mar shal, with the same readiness he avowed the deceit,. urging that he had no other method of saving his life. Lowendahl was pleased with the man, and gave him money. Not rising in England to his expectation, he attempted to advance himself in Ireland under the Duke of Devonshire ; where mis carrying too, he imputed his disappointment to Mr. Conway, who equally incapable of disserving any man, or of enduring a false imputation, took Clarke to task, and convinced him of his error. Clarke, in the interval of some of these adventures, had rambled into France, and passing through Rochfort, observed a bank to which there was no ditch, and one part of the fortification left quite open. The adjacent country, called Little Holland, was flat, and cut with dykes, but which he persuaded himself were easily passable. Four years had passed since he made these remarks, and that in a time of pro found peace. He did not pretend to know the strength of the garrison, nor what troops were sta tioned on the coast since the declaration of war — 44 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OP and unfortunately a plan of the place procured by the late Lord Albemarle from the King's closet, since Clarke's survey, differed from his description. Yet communicating these observations to Mr. Pitt, the latter was captivated with the idea. The man and the project struck his notions of performing :Some action of eclat, that might rcTive our sinking affairs, and throw a lustre on the dawn of his own Administration. Rochfort lies ten miles from the sea. Of late years, we had dealt exceeding scantily in inteUi- •gence. No measures were, possibly could not in time be, taken to obtain better information of the dispositions in and near the place. Pitt indeed was a Minister to execute daringly; there wanted some men of deeper cast to deliberate wisely. He would not lose time on taking advice; the secret might evaporate ; and its fairest chance for success lay in the improbability that the French should suspect an attempt on one of the most important and strongest towns in France. But did not that very improba bility intimate, that they, so provident about their frontier towns, could not have neglected Rochfort, one of their principal naval magazines? Objections to a genius are but spurs. The Cabinet Council was called. Pitt proposed his conception of sur prising Rochfort, and of bm-ning the ships that lay in the river leading to it. The procrastinators in the Cabinet had but too lately felt his fire, to oppose KING GEORGE TI. 45 what they saw was a favourite plan. It was deter mined to be executed forthwith ; and the execution offered to Lord George Sackville, who, too sagacious- not to feel the impracticability, excused himself, pleading the averseness of the Duke to him, and therefore that he should not be supported. The excuse was flimsy. The persons who offered him the command, would have supported him the more for his disfavour with the Duke. Lord George was still more blameable in talking of the design to- several persons after he had refused to undertake it ; and yet though a large number were acquainted with it, the secret was kept from the public with uncommon fidelity. Sir John Mordaunt and General Conway, then encamped in Dorsetshire, were summoned to town,. and acquainted by the Cabinet Council with the service on which they were to be sent. They should take ten old battalions, a strong Fleet should be ready in a fortnight to couToy them; they were to attempt Rochfort, or any other place on the coast to which they should find an opening. The Gene rals felt the difficulty of the commission, saw the crowd of impediments that must arise, and the ignorance of those that foresaw none. Conway, as he told me himself, was satisfied he had given such indisputable proofs of his courage, that it could not be imputed to fear, if he discovered repugnance to the service — whatever might be imputed to him,, 46 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OP he was determined honestly to speak his opinion. He asked if they would venture ten of our best bat talions on so rash a hazard? If they should perish, would it not draw the French hither, where we had few other veteran troops ? He asked, on being told the ramparts were to be scaled, if their height was known? Ligonier, who was present, replied. No; but they never were above twenty-five feet; and they should have ladders high enough. Pitt said, in case they failed, they might go to Bourdeaux. Lord Anson informed him how far that city lay up the river — and it was information, for he knew not. Was it probable, Conway asked, that a place of that high importance should be neglected? and he showed them the contradictions in their own reasoning, for they pretended that it was a measure calculated to disembarrass the Duke, by drawing off the troops of France to its own coast, and yet all the hope of the enterprise depended on the French being taken unprepared. Pitt was too sanguine to desist for a little confutation. The instructions were drawn, the transports prepared. At first, Conway had been designed to command alone, but the King said he was too young, and insisted on joining Mordaunt with him. Mordaunt had been remarkable for alertness and bravery, but was much broken both in spirit and constitution, and fallen into a nervous disorder, which had made him entreat last year not to be sent to America, KING GEORGE H. 47 lest it should affect his head, and bring on disorders too familiar to his family. But though he and Conway had ill conceit of the service in question, they had both too much honour to decline it. When their representations failed, all they could was to demand specific orders; and not obtaining them, they drew up queries, which if the Ministry could not answer, the Generals hoped they should be jus tified in not performing what they foresaw imprac ticable. But neither in this did they receive satis faction. 48 MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF CHAPTER III. Expedition to surprise Rochfort — Officers employed — The Fleet off the Isle of Oleron— Council of War— Diffi culties of the Enterprise — Conway proposes an Attack on Fouras — Failure of the Expedition — Affairs in the East Indies — Victory of the Prussians over the Eussians — Convention of Closter Seven — The King disavows it — The Duke of Cumberland's return — His reception at Court, and subsequent conduct — Resigns all his Employ ments — Affairs of Ireland — State of Parties — Inquiry into the Miscarriages at Rochfort — Court-Martial — Lord Mansfield becomes a Cabinet Minister — Victories of the King of Prussia — Sir John Ligonier made a Field-Mar shal and a Viscount — Death of Princess Caroline. The measure was settled in July ; but it was the Sth of September before the Fleet sailed. The French, though they did not learn the specific spot of destination, had ample time for preparation ; and having a chain of garrisons along the coast, and being never totally destitute of supernumerary troops, hoped to be able to draw together a suffi cient body wherever the storm should fall. As the event occasioned much discourse, I shall be excusable for detailing it ; yet I shall do it with brevity ; and, as much proceeded from the personal characters of KING GEORGE H. 49 the commanders, I shall describe them shortly, and with the more satisfaction, as their faults flowed from no want of courage; on the contrary, they possessed amongst them most of the various shades of that qualification. Mordaunt, as I have said, had a sort of alacrity in daring, but from ill health was grown more indifferent to it. He affected not Mr. Pitt, and from not loving the projector, was more careless than he should have been of the suc cess of the project, presuming, unfortunately for himself, that if it should appear impracticable, the original mover would bear the blame. Conway, secure of his own intrepidity, and of no ostentation, could not help foreseeing that from the superiority of his talents to those of Mordaunt, the good conduct of the expedition would be expected from him. The more answerable he thought himself, the more he guarded against objections. Cold in his deportment, and with a dignity of soul that kept him too much above familiarity, he missed that affection from his brother officers, which his unsullied virtues and humanity deserved; for he wanted the extrinsic of merit. Added to these little failings, he had a natural indecision in his temper, weighing with too much minuteness and too much fluctuation whatever depended on his own judgment. CornwaUis was a man of a very different complexion : as cool as Con- Avay, and as brave, he was indifferent to everything but to being in the right. He held fame cheap, VOL. III. E 50 MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OP and smiled at reproach. General Howard was one of those sort of characters who are only to be distin guished by having no peculiarity of character. Under these was Wolfe, a young officer who had contracted reputation from his inteUigence of disci pline, and from the perfection to which he had brought his own regiment. The world could not expect more from him than he thought himself capable of performing. He looked on danger as the favourable moment that would call forth his talents. Sir Edward Hawke commanded the fleet — a man of steady courage, of fair appearance, and who even did not want a plausible kind of sense ; but he was reaUy weak, and childishly abandoned to the guidance of a Scotch secretary. The next was Knowles, a vain man, of more parade than real bravery. Howe, brother of the Lord of that name, was the third on the naval list. He was undaunted as a rock, and as silent; the characteristics of his whole race. He and Wolfe soon contracted a friendship like the union of a cannon and gunpowder. September 20th — The Fleet appeared off the isle of Oleron ; but it was the 23rd before they got in. Knowles, the Vice- Admiral, with his division, was ordered to attack the little isle of Aix. Howe, who led this detachment, sailed up with a steady magnanimity without fixing tiU within pistol-shot of the fort. Greaves followed, and Keppel pressed KING GEORGE H. 51 forward to get in between them : Knowles kept a little more distant. Howe began a dreadful fire, and in less than two hours the garrison surrendered. Conway pressed them to proceed immediately on some further enterprise, and proposed directly to go and consult Sir Edward Hawke, who lay more out at sea. Knowles replied, that he was so fatigued that he could not go till next morning ; when he reposed himself till ten. When Conway got him to Sir Edward Hawke's ship, they found Sir Edward had sent Broderick with their only pilot to see where they could land — and these men did not return till noon. Mordaunt appeared incapable of forming any opinion, and said he was ready to take any officer's advice. In this dilemma they called a Council of War. In their deliberation, it appeared that Clarke, and Thierri, a French Pilot, had not seen Rochfort in three years and half: it was longer since the latter was there : that the nature of the road of Basques, the country, the state of the troops and garrison, were entirely unknown to them : that the expedi tion had been projected on the sole footing of a sur prise, a view now entirely vanished, for our troops had lain near two months in the Isle of Wight, and many letters and neutral vessels had been inter cepted, which spoke the alarm spread along the coast : that no man of war could lie within two miles of the landing to assist that or secure a retreat ; and E 2 52 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OF that if the wind came to the west, as was usual at that season, all communication with the Fleet would be cut off; a point recommended to them to guard against by the express instructions of Marshal Ligonier : that there were sand-hills on the shore equivalent to an entrenchment, from behind which a small body of men might prevent a descent of 2000 men, the most the boats could contain at a time ; and that even more troops than were sufficient for that purpose had been seen by the captains who went to sound and reconnoitre the coast : and what was even more discouraging than all these impedi ments, the chief engineer declared that they had not brought artillery sufficient for a regular attack. As to Rochfort, many difficulties were foreseen from the state of the place; and considering how long the fleet had lain off the coast, it was highly probable that not only the . approach was guarded in a manner to have our troops cut to.pieces, as they must have landed in small divisions ; but that a strong garrison must have been thrown into the place, if not provided with one before. Bonville, a French volunteer, declared there were sluices with which they could flow the place all round; and he and the pilot of the Neptune had seen the ditch full of water. The dock-men were numerous, and five ships lay in the river, whose crews amounted to near 3000 men ; besides the Militia of the country. We should have been two days marching to the KING GEORGE H. 53 place, and could have carried up to it but 7400 men. The nights were as light as day ; and a letter found in a Priest's house at Aix, dated from Roch fort on the 18th, spoke expressly of the precautions the Governor had taken. No reasonable man could hope to surmount all these difficulties. Those, who had carried the same opinion from home with them, were not likely to find the objections weaker when mustered together on the spot. Both land and sea concurred in voting the surprisal of Rochfort impracticable, and then would have returned to England ; but Conway, who the evening before had proposed to make themselves masters of Fouras, a little fort on the shore, where, when once established, they might examine what further damage could be done to the enemy, per suaded the Council that it was necessary to do something before they retired. To that they all agreed except CornwaUis, who had seen no attain able object, or none worth attaining, from the begin ning to the end of the plan. Yet, that he might not stand single in a vote for retreating, he was induced to acquiesce: — however. Sir Edward Hawke's secretary, who took the minutes of the deliberation, inserted Cornwallis's real opinion into their votes, and without reading them to the Coun cil, sent them to the English Admiralty, by whom they were shown to the King ; and what Cornwallis's associates had advised him to depart from, lest it 54 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OF might turn to his prejudice, was, after their return, construed into the only sensible opinion. Conway renewed his proposal of an attack on Fouras, as, when once entrenched there, they might with more preparation march to Rochfort; or at least from thence hope to burn the five ships and the magazines on the Charente. Nobody approved the scheme. -In these discussions three or four days were wasted. Conway perpetually pressed for some action — at last Mordaunt said carelessly, " Ay, let us go stretch our legs on the Isle of Oleron." Con way said, a feigned diversion towards the Isle of Rhee would be more advisable ; it would draw the French troops, who by this time must be alarmed, to that side ; and then some surprise might be prac ticable. To this the rest would not agree. Con way then offered to make a real attack on the Isle of Oleron: they disputed on it till two in the morn ing ; and though the first proposal had come from the others, he could not obtain their acquiescence. They wasted time even in dining; Sir Edward Hawke's table lasted till late in the evening. Con way's ^ importunity at last prevailed for an attack ' He himself took a cutter and twenty marines and went to survey the coast. A battery fired on them; and one of the rowers said, " Sir, we are in great danger." He replied, coolly, "Pho, they can't hurt us;" and turning to young Fitzroy (Charles, afterwards Lord Southampton, from whom I received this relation), he said, " Now, if they would not say I was boyish, I would land with these twenty marines, to KING GEORGE TL. 55 on Fouras ; and aU the Generals, to show that want of spirit had not operated in their CouncUs, resolved to be present. The first division embarked, but being moonlight, and the nights clear, and the wind turning against them, Howe himself told them it was not safe at that time ; and Wolfe pronoimced it would be bloody work. They were ordered back from their boats. Yet Conway persisting for an attempt on Fouras, Mordaunt offered to undertake it, if Conway would take the advice solely on him self. Conway, eager for the danger, was averse to being the author of it. Mordaunt then artfuUy desired him to relinquish proposing it. Neither to that would he yield. Mordaunt solicited him with strange earnestness, either to abandon the project, or to undertake it as his own ; Mordaunt offering show them we can." I have already mentioned his gallant behaviour at Fontenoy, at Laffelt, and at CuUoden, at the first of which battles he was taken prisoner; but I cannot help repeating an unsuspected, because disinterested testi monial in his favour. When this miscarriage at Rochfort made so much noise, and the courage of the Generals was questioned, Lord Chesterfield said to Mr. Fox these words: " I am sure Conway is brave; I remember when I was praising George Stanhope (a young man of remarkable spirit, brother of Earl Stanhope), he replied, " Faith, my Lord, I believe I have as much courage as other people ; indeed, I don't pretend to be like Harry Conway, who walks up to the mouth of a cannon with as much coolness and grace, as if he was going to dance a minuet." 56 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OP to share the danger of the execution, not of the opinion. Conway at last said, if Mordaunt would call Wolfe and any other man, and they would advise him to advise the attack he would; or if they advised him to desist from proposing it, he would ; but either Mordaunt declined — in truth, it was a contest to be pitied rather than blamed : both saw the rashness of the project, to which they were willing to sacrifice themselves and their soldiers. Mordaunt, from esteem of Conway's abilities, hoped to be excused if he executed what the latter advised — and the latter was too happy in not being com manding officer, to take that charge upon himself in a hopeless bravado. Conway then proposed to submit to the same alternative from the opinions of Cornwallis and Howard; to which the General acquiesced ; and they, as he foresaw, concurring with him, Conway submitted, but desired they would observe, he acquiesced against his opinion — and it was determined to return, Sir Edward Hawke having often pressed the Generals to come to some resolution, the bad season approaching so near that he could not venture to keep the great ships much longer at sea. Wolfe and Howe had borne the dilatoriness of the chief commanders with indignation; yet see ing the minute lost, made no objection to a retreat ; and the Fleet arrived at Portsmouth October 3rd — in the meantime, many important events had hap pened. KING GEORGE II. 57 In the East Indies, the fleet under Admiral Wat son retrieved the damages inflicted on our settle ments by a new Nabob, of which we had received notice in the preceding June. That Viceroy had seized Cossimbuzar and Calcutta; the cruelties ex ercised on the factory in the latter place, where 170 persons were crammed into a dungeon, and stifled in the most shocking torments of heat, will not bear to be described to a good-natured reader.. Watson was seconded by Captain Clive, one of those extraordinary men, whose great soul broke out under all the disadvantages of an ugly and con temptible person. In the north of Germany, affairs had taken a favourable turn for the King of Prussia. Lehwald, one of his Generals, defeated a mighty army of Russians, who, in the most barbarian style, were pouring into Prussia. The Germans, whatever they pretended, were not cheaply conquerors. But the consequences of the battle were decisive; the Mus covites disappeared from the campaign for the rest of the summer. The Duke of Cumberland, after the battle of Hastenbecke, had retired with his army towards Stade, and was followed by the French. The Duchies of Bremen and Verden were at the eve of faUing into their hands, and the King expected that they would be given back to Sweden. The Hano verian Ministry did not doubt but the Duke's high 58 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OP spirit would venture the Army being cut to pieces rather than surrender them prisoners, and they complained of the scanty assistance afforded by England. Lady Yarmouth even said to Lord Hertford, " Que peut on faire, my Lord I le Ministere Anglois ne nous a voulu donner que quelque tonneaux defarine." The truth was, the King, to avoid expense, had neglected to raise the Militia of Hanover, though they had implored it, and might have given a decisive turn to the battle in his favour. Both the Sovereign and his German ¦Council were determined at all events to save the Duchies and the troops, and the most positive orders were dispatched to the Duke in consequence of those resolutions. Yet, not trusting to what conditions his son, however obedient, might obtain, his Majesty prevaUed on his son-in-law, the King of Denmark, to interpose his good offices, and accordingly, on the 7th of September, Count Lynar, Governor of Oldenburg, arrived in the Duke's camp as mediator, and a passport being demanded for him from Mar shal Richelieu, the latter sent it with an escort of a hundred horse, and by the next day a convention was obtained and signed, by which Stade and the district round it was left to the Hanoverians, with permission to the rest of those troops to repass the Elbe, observing a strict neutrality. The troops of Hesse, Brunswick, Saxe-Gotha, &c., in the King's pay, were to retire to their several countries. KING GEORGE H. 59 When the news of this suspension of arms arrived at Kensington, it occasioned the greatest surprise, the greatest clamour — ^for even the Monarch acted surprise ! The Foreign Ministers acquainted those of England that it was concluded, or certainly would be. The English with great truth disavowed aU knowledge, and protested entire disbeUef of it. They not only had not been entrusted with the secret, but saw their master affect equal indignation, and encouraged by that dissimulation, ventured to insist on his permitting them to write to foreign Courts that he disavowed the transaction. Even this he granted. He went further : he told Dabreu^ the Spanish Minister, that he would show him the rough draft of a letter which he had prepared to send to his son, with a positive command to fight. It was true, he had written such a letter; it is no less true that he never sent it. As the Dictator of the Convention disavowed it, as the father disclaimed the son, it was natural for those who suffered by the act, and for those who hated the actor, to break out against both. The King of Prussia said we had undone him, without mending our own situation. The Princess of Wales^ Lord Hardwicke, and Legge threw the strongest reflections on the Duke ; the last, indeed, with ap pearance of reason, being extremely hampered, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, by this transaction. How should he be able, he said, next winter to pro- 60 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OP pose the Hessian troops, whose hands were now tied up from assisting us? "or must he wave the subsidy to them, when they were starving in our cause? The others went further; they called his Royal Highness's Generalship in question; he was brave indeed, but that was all; he had wasted a good Army ; had beaten the French, and did not know it. But the most indecent in personal invectives was Baron Munchausen, the Hanoverian Minister in England — a man reckoned one of their ablest heads, and who had hitherto always comported himself with civility and inoffensively. He went so far as to caU for a Council to examine the Duke's beha viour; and Lord Hardwicke, to extend the insult, or to divide it amongst many, desired the whole Cabinet CouncU, not merely the junto, might meet : the affair was too serious. Thither Munchausen brought copies of his own letters to the Duke, to prove that his Royal Highness had acted without authority. Mr. Pitt observed, that they proved the direct contrary; and he, who certainly had never managed the Duke, nor stood on any good terms with him, acted a part nobly honest : when the King told him that he had given his son no orders for this treaty, Pitt replied with firmness, '¦^ 'Qui full powers, Sir; y&cj full powers." Yet this sincerity in a foe could infuse none into a father. Two messengers were dispatched to recal the Duke, and, October 12th, he arrived at Ken- KING GEORGE H. 61 sington. It was in the evening, and he retired to his own apartment, where Mr. Fox and his servants were attending. He thanked Mr. Fox for being there, and said, " You see me well both in body and mind. I have written orders in my pocket for everything I did." (He afterwards said, his orders had been so strong, that he had not expected to obtain such good conditions.) He then dismissed Fox, saying, he would send for him again. (The shortness of this interview, he afterwards told Mr. Fox, had proceeded from his determination of seeing nobody alone who could be supposed to advise him, tUl he had taken the step he meditated.) At nine, the hour the King punctually goes to play in the apartment of the Princess Emily, the Duke went to her. The King, who was there, had ordered the Princess not to leave them alone, received him with extreme coldness; and when his Royal Highness went afterwards into the other room where the King was at cards, his Majesty said aloud, " Here is my son, who has ruined me and disgraced himself," — and unless this was speaking to him, spoke not a word. At eleven, when the cards were over, the Duke went down to Lady Yarmouth, and told her the King had left him but one favour to ask, which he was come to solicit by her interposition, as he wished to make it as little disagreeable to the King as possible — it was to desire leave to resign every thing, the post of Captain-General, and his regi- 62 MEMOIRS, OP THE REIGN OP ment. The Countess was in great concern at the request, and said, " Pray, Sir, don't determine this at once." He replied, "He begged her pardon; he was not come for advice ; he had had time to think, and was determined." " Then, Sir," said she, " I have nothing left but to obey." The King received the notification with as much real agitation as he had counterfeited before. The next morning he ordered the Cabinet Council to wait on the Duke, and pay their respects to him. Lord Holderness went in first, and kissed his hand, but was not spoken to. Pitt followed ; and of him his Royal Highness took most notice, speaking to him at different reprisals with kindness, to mark his satisfaction with Pitt's behaviour. - He said a little to the Duke of Newcastle, Lord GranviUe, and Lord Anson. Lord Hardwicke was out of town. The Duke of Devonshire was sent to the Duke in private, to persuade him not to resign. He was inflexible. Devonshire was sent again to ask from the Ejng as a favour that he would at least retain his regiment; he need not do the duty; but his Majesty should not think himself safe in any other hands ; yet even this counterfeit of confidence was an aggravation of the cruelty. The Duke learned that this solicitude about the regiment proceeded solely from the King's averseness to give it to Prince Edward; as would be expected, and he was not softened by such duplicity. He even determined KING GEORGE U. 63 never to be employed under his father again, telling Fox, that no collusion about the treaty should be imputed to him, by his resuming his command. To' Conway he said, he could not, did not hope that the King would do what was necessary to justify him, it was therefore necessary to do all he could to jus tify himself. The next day, the Duke visited the Princess, and beginning to mention his resolution of resigning, she rung the beU, and asked him if he would not see the chUdren. When the King found his son's resentment inflexible, he thought of nothing but making it as little uncomfortable to himself as possible : provided the interior face of the palace was not discom posed, he cared little about justifying himself or making any reparation to his son; who, he thought, might as easily forget in the ceremonies of the drawing-room what he had suffered, as his Majesty drowned all sensibiUty in the parade of that narrow sphere. He insisted that the Duke should appear as usual at Court, and come to him in a morning. The Duke acquiesced, saying, he should always show the utmost respect to the King as his father, but never could serve him more. When these essential forms were adjusted, the Duke sent for Munchausen, and said, " Mr. Privy- councillor, I hear the King has sent for opinions of Hanoverian Generals on my conduct ; here are the opinions of the Hessian Generals, and of the Duke 64 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OF of Wolfenbuttle. As the King has ordered the former to be deposited among the Archives of Hanover, I hope he will do me the justice to let these be registered with them. Take them, and bring them back to me to-morrow." Munchausen returned with them the next day, and with a raes sage from the King that his Majesty had been better informed, and thought better of his Royal Highness than he had done ; and then Munchausen falling prostrate to kiss the lappet of his coat, the Duke with dignity and anger checked him, and said, " Mr. Privy- councillor, confine yourself to that office ; and take care what you say, even though the words you repeat should be my father's ; I have all possible deference for him, but I know how to punish anybody else that presumes to speak im properly of me." On the 15th, the Duke resigned all his commands. I have dwelt minutely on the circumstances of this history, having learned from the best authori ties, and being sure that few transactions deserve more to be remembered. A young Prince, warm, greedy of military glory, yet resigning aU his pas sions to the interested dictates of a father's pleasure, and then loaded with the imputation of having acted basely without authority: hurt with unmerited disgrace, yet never breaking out into the least unguarded expression; preserving dignity under oppression, and the utmost tenderness of duty KING GEORGE H. 65 under the utmost delicacy of honour — this an un common picture — for the sake of human nature, I hope the conduct of the father is uncommon too ! When the Duke could tear himself from his favourite passion, the Army, one may judge how sharply he must have been wounded. When afterwards the King, perfidiously enough, broke that famous con vention, mankind were so equitable as to impute it to the same unworthy politics, not to the disappro bation he had pretended to feel on its being made. In a former part of this history, I. have said with regard to his eldest, that the King might have been an honest man, if he had never hated his father, or had ever loved his son — what double force has this truth, when it is again applied to him on his treachery to the best son that ever lived! Considering with what freedom I have spoken of the Duke's faults in other parts of this work, I may be believed in the just praise bestowed on him here. We must now turn our eyes to Ireland, which Mr. Conway had left in a state of perfect tran quillity. The imprudence of the new Governors opened the wounds afresh. The Duke of Bedford set out for that Kingdom on the 20th of September, determined as he thought to observe a strict neu trality between the factions, and rigid uprightness in the conduct of his Administration. He began with exacting strict attendance on their posts from VOL, in. r 66 MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF persons in employment, and with refusing leave of absence to officers and chaplains of regiments ; and considering, too, how his new dominions had been loaded of late years to smooth the difficulties ofthe English Government, his Grace commenced his reign with strong declamations against Irish pensions. He had two difficulties to encounter before these fair views could be carried into execution : his own Court were far from being so disinterested as their master, and his new subjects were as little desirous of a reign of virtue. Nor had the Duke himself the art of reconciling them to it by his manner, which was shy, untractable, ungracious, ungenerous. The Duchess pleased universally ; she had aU her life been practising the part of a Queen; dignity and dissimulation were natural to her. The Irish were charmed with a woman who seemed to depart from her state from mere affability. But the person who influenced them both was the Secretary Rigby. He had ingratiated himself with the Duchess, and had acquired an absolute ascendant over her husband, who, with aU his impetuosity, was governed by his favourite in a style that approached to domineering. Rigby had an advantageous and manly person, recommended by a spirited jollity that was very pleasing, though sometimes roughened into bru tality : of most insinuating good-breeding when he wished to be agreeable. His passions were turbu lent and overbearing ; his courage bold and fond of KING GEORGE U. 67 exerting itself. His parts strong and quick, but totally uncultivated; and so much had he trusted to unaffected common sense, that he could never afterwards acquire the necessary temperament of art in his public speaking. He had been a pupil of Winnington, and owed the chief errors of his life to that man's maxims, perniciously witty. Winning- ton had unluckily lived when all virtue had been set to notorious sale, and in ridicule of false pre tences had affected an honesty in avowing whatever was dishonourable. Rigby, whose heart was natu rally good, grew to think it sensible to laugh at the shackles of morality ; and having early encumbered his fortune by gaming, he found his patron's maxims but too well adapted to retrieve his desperate fortunes. He placed his honour in steady addic tion to whatever faction he was united with : and from the gaiety of his temper, having indulged himself in profuse drinking, (for in private few men were more temperate,) he was often hurried beyond the bounds of that interest which he meant should govern aU his actions, and which his generous extravagance for ever combated. In short, he was a man who was seldom loved or hated with moderation ; yet he himself, though a violent oppo nent, was never a bitter enemy. His amiable qualities were all natural ; his faults acquired, or fatally linked to him by the chain of some other failings. f2 68' MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OP In a Court of such a complexion as I have described, no wonder the reign of virtue was vio lated in the outset. The Queen-Dowager of Prussia, the King's sister, was lately dead : during the par simonious barbarity of her husband, a pension of 8001. a year, on Ireland, had been privately trans mitted to her; and she retained it to her death. The Duke of Bedford was persuaded to ask this for the Duchess's sister. Lady Betty Waldegrave, and obtained it. His impartiality was as iU-observed as his maxims of frugality. Rigby, sacrificing to what he concluded Mr. Fox's inclination, hurried the Lord-Lieutenant into flagrant par tiality to Lord Kildare. The Primate was neg lected ; but he knew how to make himself of con sequence. The prostitution of his opponents had raised his character, and he omitted no address to conciliate popularity. Malone had at length ac cepted the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and being the last renegade, was the most obnoxious. Being regarded as Minister in the House of Com mons, the storm was intended to faU on him, for Rigby was not known as a man of business ; and till Lord George Sackville affected the active part of power, and after him Mr. Conway, the Lord- Lieutenant's secretary had been no character in Parliament. The factions existing were, the Primate's, Lord KUdare's, those attached to the Speaker Ponsonby, KING GEORGE H. 69 and who in truth were a defection from Kildare ; and a flying squadron of patriots, the smallest body of the four, and composed as is usual, of the dis contented — that is, of those who had been too insig nificant to be bought off, or whose demands had been too high — and of a few well-meaning men. Lord Kildare had stiU the greatest number of dependents, though inferior to those of the Primate and Pon sonby, if united ; a point^ now eagerly pursued by the Archbishop, while at the same time he under hand inflamed the patriots against the Castle : and had sufficient success. The Session no sooner opened, than French, a lawyer, proposed a trifling amendment to the Address, but with indirect reflections on Malone, whom they endeavoured to jnake rise, and take the Minister upon him ; but he avoided it, and suffered the amendment. The next day, one Upton, a warm and obstinate Patriot, formerly a friend of Malone, moved for the list of Pensions, on which Lady Betty Waldegrave's name must have appeared. Malone at last rose, and said, the Motion was premature, for the list would be given in with the Estimates. Upton, not being content with this answer, Malone moved to adjourn, the other threatening to renew his Motion at their 1 Lord George Sackville, who was privy to this nego tiation, and who hated the Speaker on former injuries, said, " Ponsonby is a dirty fellow; we have nothing to do but rub- his nose against a Devonshire." 70 MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OP next meeting. And when he did repeat it, it was rejected but by a majority of five; an advantage so slender, that the Castle did not venture to stem a torrent of violent resolutions, which the House passed a few days afterwards against pen sions, absentees, and other grievances, of which they demanded redress, desiring the Lord-Lieute nant to transmit them to his Majesty in their very words. This heat was led by one Perry, a bold, troublesome, and corrupt lawyer, who had been vexatious to Mr. Conway, and between whom and Rigby there soon passed such warm altercations, that they were with difficulty prevented from going greater lengths. The Duke, in answer to their resolutions, told them they were couched in such extraordinary terms, and aimed so high, that he should take time to con sider whether he would transmit them to England ; and this answer Rigby moved to have entered in the Journals, but desisted, on finding great opposi tion. Both the Duke and he acted with incredible intemperance ; and intending to establish their au thority by the weight of power, his Grace sent to England for assistance, and demanded to be invested with a latitude of rewards and punishments. The absentees were sent over to strengthen his party in the House of Commons ; but the English Council meeting upon his other demand, and not being com posed of many of his friends, Mr. Pitt wrote him a KING GEORGE H. 71 civil excuse, with a refusal of full powers ; if his Grace would name whom he wished to displace or prefer, he should be supported; on the whole, he was advised to compose the heats that had arisen. The Primate no doubt had early inteUigence from Lord George of the little attention paid to the Lord Lieutenant's remonstrance; but being dis posed to govern the Castle rather than overturn them, he retired to his country seat at Leixlip, declaring his disapprobation of the violence of the Commons ; and the next day sent two of his crea tures to the Duke to disavow any connexions with the Speaker, and to profess his aversion to disturb ing the Government ; in elections only against Lord Kildare and Malone he proposed to interfere. On the other hand. Lord Kildare protested that if the Primate was left of the Regency, he would not be of it. A menace most indifferent to the Prelate, who could forgive anything but exclusion from power, and who on his former disgrace had much resented the part his brother had acted in consenting to his being laid aside; and when it was notified to him, he broke out, " Now will my wise brother write me four sides to teU me it is all for the better." The dissimulation of the Primate was soon de tected: the Duke of Bedford, to oblige him, had preferred Cunningham in rank, who, however, voted against the Court in the strongest questions. Yet continuing to frequent the assemblies at the Castle, 72 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OP the Duke took him aside, reproached him with his behaviour, and told him, the bread he eat was the King's. The young man replied honestly, he had such obligations to the Primate and Lord George, that though he should be reduced to his pristine indigence, he would act in all things as they ordered hira. Sorae days afterwards, the Opposition calling in question the great powers exercised by the Privy Council of Ireland, and Malone sitting silent, the Solicitor-General, a friend of the Priraate, said, that, as an officer of the Crown, he could not sit still and see the prerogative attacked, without marking his disapprobation. He was joined by all the Primate's friends, and the motion for abridging those powers was rejected by 140 to 40. This more civil way of displaying to the Castle the Primate's interest in the House was not calculated to inspire them with less awe of his strength. Lord KUdare (who had no talents for governing, and yet would not unite with anybody that had,) declined Mr. Fox's advice of joining with the Speaker, by which he might have balanced the efforts of the Primate. The Earl thought of repelling the war by carrying it into the quarters of the enemy, and the Castle weakly concurred in this silly pro ject. They determined to move for an inquiry into the conduct of the Commissioners of the Revenue for the last twenty years, in which the principal KING GEORGE II. 73^ retrospect would involve the partizans of the House of Dorset. The execution of the measure was dele gated to Sir Archibald Atcheson, a man so insig nificant, that, having acquainted the House that he had a Motion of consequence to propose on the following Monday, he was so little regarded, that when the day came, the House was remarkably empty. The Courtiers opposed the question, till Rigby rose and said, a Motion .from so respectable a person must be of consequence ; the gentleman, he supposed, had some mismanagement to lay open. A secret Committee was immediately proposed and elected by ballot, when, to the great confusion of the Ministers, they carried but three out of thirty-one ; the other twenty-eight were all elected from the creatures of the Primate and Speaker. The Castle had no more success in the popularity they expected from this inquisition, than they had in the choice of the in quisitors. The Lord-Lieutenant, too, increased the offence by his ungracious reception of the Com missioners of the Revenue, who waiting on him to disculpate themselves, as they feared they had been misrepresented to his Grace, he answered them dryly, if anything was wrong, he supposed it would come out; if innocent, they would clear themselves. These transactions, which reached to the end of the year, I have chosen to throw together, as they would be little intelligible, if broken into the pre- 74 MEMOIRS OP THE REIGN OF cise order in which they happened. I shall use the same method on the sequel of the expedition to Rochfort. As soon as the Fleet was returned. Sir John Mor- m n\ m