Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/372

358 to Stanhope:—"My lord perceives by a letter from M. Robethon, that the king is likely to insist on Sir John Norm's squadron being left to winter in the Baltic; and he commands me to acquaint you that it makes him lose all patience to see what ridiculous expedients they propose to his majesty for extricating themselves out of their present difficulties, as if the leaving you eight men-of-war to be frozen up six months would signify five grains towards giving a new turn to the affairs of the north." This billet was, as might have been expected, never forgiven Townshend, and he was soon made to feel the effects of it. Stanhope continued to write urging the king's views, the danger of allowing the czar to make himself the master of the Baltic, and suggesting that Cromwell had sent a fleet several times to that sea to protect trade, and check the northern potentates. But Townshend might have replied that Cromwell really knew what he was about, and supported Sweden both by ships and money against the aggressions of its neighbours, which the Hanoverian, in his small but grasping intellect, had alienated, and then found himself exposed to the natural consequence—the power of the czar. Fortunately, the czar was induced, by the combined remonstrances of Austria, Denmark, and Sir John Norris, to abandon his projects for the moment, at least in Germany, and to withdraw his troops from Mecklenburg.

The fear of the Russians being removed, the king was impatient to get the treaty with France ratified both by England and Holland. As there was some delay on the part of Holland, Stanhope proposed to comply with the king's desire, that the treaty should be signed without further waiting for the Dutch, but with the agreement on both sides that they should be admitted to sign as soon as they were ready. The abbé was to proceed to the Hague, and there sign the treaty in form with our plenipotentiaries at that place, lord Cadogan and Horace Walpole. But these ministers had repeatedly assured the States that England would never sign without them, and Horace Walpole now refused to consent to any such breach of faith. He declared he would rather starve, die, do anything than thus wound his honour and conscience; that he should regard it as declaring himself villain under his own hand. He declared ho would rather lay his patent of reversion in the West Indies, or even his life, at his majesty's feet, than be guilty of such an action, and he begged leave to be allowed to return home. Townshend, for a moment, gave in to the proposition for not waiting for the Dutch, but immediately recalled that opinion; and he drew the powers of the plenipotentiaries for signing so loosely, that Dubois declined signing upon them. As we have said, the ratification did not take place till January 1717, and after great causes of difference had arisen betwixt Townshend and Stanhope. So greatly did Stanhope resent the difference of opinion in Townshend, that he offered his resignation to the king, who refused to accept it, being himself by this time much out of humour with both Townshend and Robert Walpole, the paymaster of the forces.

Various causes, in fact, were operating to produce a great schism in the ministry of George I. Townshend, as we have seen, had very unguardedly expressed his disgust with the measures of the king at and concerning Hanover. Walpole had equally offended by refusing to advance a sum demanded for the payment of certain German troops engaged by the king on the killing of the pretender in Scotland, which the king declared that Walpole had engaged to pay, and Walpole denied any knowledge of. As George I., however, could speak no English, and Walpole neither German nor French, mistakes between them were by no means wonderful, as they endeavoured to converse in a little bad Latin. These differences were rendered worse by the German favourite, Bothmar, and the king's mistresses. Townshend declared that Bothmar had every day some infamous project or other on foot to get money. One of these projects was to obtain a good share of the proceeds of the French lands in St. Christopher, ceded to England at the peace of Utrecht, and which Townshend did his best to prevent him getting. Madame von Schulemberg, now duchess of Kendal, had at this time, amongst her various transactions of the kind, undertaken, for a handsome bribe, to procure a peerage for Sir Richard Child, a tory member of the house of commons; and Townshend strongly advised the king against granting this request, as Child was a political opponent, and might in his elevation do much mischief. Whilst these creatures, therefore, were doing their best to undermine Walpole and Townshend, they found an equally formidable enemy in the earl of Sunderland, now privy seal.

Sunderland was a man of a blunt and fiery temper, concealed under a cold exterior. Queen Anne and his own father-in-law, Marlborough, used to complain of his excessive rudeness, and Anne, in 1710, dismissed him from his post of secretary of state, but offered him a retiring pension of three thousand pounds a year. This Sunderland refused, observing that if he could not have the honour of serving his country, he would not plunder it. Notwithstanding this, and his being much lauded by certain parties for his honesty and independence, there were charges of embezzlement against him when in office that have never been cleared up to satisfaction. One thing is certain, that he was an able and a proud man. When George came to the throne, he, as well as his father-in-law, was deeply mortified in being placed beneath Townshend in the administration. He had solicited, through Bothmar, the honour of being placed at the head of the administration, but that honour was conceded to lord Townshend, and he was appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland. He accepted the office with an ill grace, and never went over to discharge its duties. On the death of lord Wharton, however, he exchanged that post for the privy seal and a seat in the cabinet. But, for the two first years of the reign of George, he did not find himself making way in the royal confidence, and he took little part in the administration, and less in defending its measures in the house of lords. He attached himself, moreover, to the seceders from the great whig party, especially to lord Cadogan, Hampden, and Lechmere, and was prepared to assist in the overthrow of the cabinet to which he still belonged.

But as he saw, during the king's absence, the decline of Townshend in the royal favour, a new desire seemed to spring in his mind to win the confidence of the king, and there can be little doubt but that it was suggested by the possibility of superseding the man whom he had always