Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/373

A.D.1716.] since the accession of the house of Hanover, regarded as his rival. In July he procured permission from the king to go to Aix-la-Chapelle to drink the waters; and Walpole at this moment was aware of his real design—that of getting to Hanover, and setting himself right with the king. In a letter on the 30th of that month to Stanhope, at Hanover, he says—"Lord Sunderland talks of leaving England in a fortnight, and, to be sure, will not be far from you. He seems very pressing to have instructions from us how to behave at Hanover. His professions for an entire reconciliation and a perfect union are as strong as words can express, and, you may be sure, are reciprocal; and when I consider that common interest should preserve sincerity amongst us, I am astonished to think there is reason to fear the contrary."

Accordingly Sunderland soon requested the royal permission to proceed from Aix to Hanover, and Stanhope seconded his request, which was granted. At Hanover, or rather, at the little court of Gohrde, where the king spent his summers, Sunderland used all diligence to win the good will of both the king and Stanhope, and the royal feelings towards Townshend and Walpole gave him peculiar facility in this respect. To such a pitch of confidence had Sunderland arrived, that on the 11th of November, when Stanhope had offered his resignation, which was not accepted, but, on the contrary, had been desired by the king to write to Townshend, expressing his displeasure at the delays of the French treaty, Sunderland also wrote a letter to Townshend, without, it is alleged, any authority from the king, in a tone of haughty rudeness, which appeared as if studied to offend.

Townshend wrote a clever and masterly reply to the king, stating satisfactory reasons for his conduct, but taking no notice of the letter of Sunderland. His explanations appeared to satisfy the king, and all ill will to be thus averted; but this was far from being the case. Before he received the king's letter and replied to it, Townshend dispatched Horace Walpole to Hanover, bearing letters in reply to a suggestion of his majesty's, that he was inclined to continue at Hanover through the winter, provided the state of affairs in England did not seem to necessitate his return earlier, and requesting Townshend to give him the matured opinion of the cabinet upon it. Accordingly, Townshend stated in full, in the dispatch by Horace Walpole, the views of the cabinet on the politics of the north, the payment of the public debts, the trial of lord Oxford, and a proposed act of indemnity. So far all was right; but then Townshend came upon tender ground. Whilst he did not press the return of the king, he advised, in case of his absence, the grant of a discretionary power to the prince of Wales to meet any difficulty or altered circumstances.

This called forth at once George's jealousy of his son, and roused all his suspicions. Horace, hearing the king express his intention of returning to England, and to open the parliament in person, considered the dispatch of which he was the bearer of little consequence, and thought no more of it. The king did not forget it for a moment. Walpole was soon, however, forced to observe the unfriendly feeling in the minds both of the king and of Stanhope towards lord Townshend in regard to the management of the French treaty, and he did his best to remove it by expressing the strongest conviction of the thoroughly honourable conduct of both Townshend and Walpole through the whole. His zealous words appeared to have had their full effect. Stanhope declared his suspicions removed, and then came the full explanations of Townshend in his letter to the king, and it appeared to heal all the sore feeling. Walpole, therefore, returned home with the full conviction that everything was restored to a footing of harmony and confidence. There was only one thing which left a lingering trace of uneasiness, and that was an ever-returning rumour of Townshend and Walpole having entered into cabals for transferring some part of the king's authority to the prince of Wales, and that they were accustomed to associate with the prince's adherents, especially the duke of Argyll, Horace Walpole, however, felt satisfied that the king's arrival in England would effectually dissipate this. He was grievously mistaken.

The king's ears were sensitively alive to all accounts of his son's proceedings, and he had plenty of people in England to communicate such news to him, amongst the rest, his creature Bothmar. The prince, on his part, does not seem to have taken much pains to prevent statements to his prejudice. Being more open and cheerful than his father, and having the advantage of knowing something of the language, he was much more popular than the king. He took evident pains to conciliate the English. He made a short tour through Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire, and conferred various acts of grace, such as dispensing with passports betwixt Dover and Calais. The discontented whigs and Jacobites seized on the greater affability and pleasantness of the prince to draw unfavourable contrasts between him and his father. They represented the prince as more English, and more disposed to unite all parties. The Jacobites went so far as to present most loyal addresses to him, not with the view of expressing a real attachment to the prince, but to show the king to disadvantage, and in this they were imitated by the discontented whigs. Had the prince been most guarded and exemplary in his conduct, he could not possibly have escaped giving offence, for the fetching which haunts most kings of their successors was excessive in George, and the evident desire of the prince to obtain a personal influence with the people was poison to the jealous parent. The prince, besides associating with Argyll, Lechmere, Hampden, and other discontented whigs, made himself agreeable to the tories, and displayed an evident desire to open the parliament in person. The ministers, Townshend and Walpole, thought it their duty, left as they were to conduct the government under the prince, to endeavour, by their frank and courteous behaviour, to draw him as much as possible from the influence of Argyll and that party. But this only aggravated the jealousy of the king. The recommendation of Townshend in his dispatch by Horace Walpole, to confer a discretionary power on the prince, put the climax to his resentment. He suppressed it, however, sufficiently to allow Walpole to depart in a false security, and waited further details by the next post. This, which arrived about the middle of December, seemed to cause his anger to burst all bounds, and he vowed that he would dismiss Townshend at once from his service.