Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/376

362 if Townshend accepted the lord-lieutenancy the council would remain just as it was, except with the addition of the duke of Kingston as privy seal; but if Townshend should decline, and he, Robert Walpole, should quit his employment, the king had determined to make Sunderland secretary of state, and he Stanhope, chancellor of the exchequer. He concluded by urging Walpole to do his utmost to induce Townshend to accept the lord-lieutenancy.

When the news of lord Townshend's removal reached London, it excited a great sensation. Townshend was considered pre-eminently an English minister, above all foreign influences, and this change was regarded as a Hanoverian cabal, a proof that no man could stand with the king and those about him, who would not fall in with the continental plans of that court. Townshend and the Walpoles were greatly exasperated, and this feeling was aggravated by a very intemperate letter of Sunderland's to lord Orford, in which he accused Townshend, Robert Walpole, and the lord chancellor of having entered into engagements with the prince and the duke of Argyll against the king's authority. This revealed the ground on which Townshend was really removed, and as he knew himself to be quite innocent in that respect, he denied the charge in no measured terms, as being an "infamous accusation," originating in "the villainy and infatuation "of lord Sunderland. He declared that Sunderland wrote his letters in "frenzy fits."

To the king Townshend wrote, declining the offer of Ireland, saying, "My private affairs would not permit me to remove to Ireland, any more than common honesty would permit me to put the profits of that employment in my pocket without going over to do the duties of it." This was aimed at Sunderland, who had done so. To Stanhope both Townshend and Walpole wrote, violently accusing him of having changed towards his sworn friends. Stanhope replied, calmly repelling the charge, and still urging Walpole to keep his place, and Townshend to accept Ireland. On his way home the king spent a few days at the Hague, and there the Dutch ministers, who were warm friends of Townshend, and especially Slingeland, to whom Townshend had written, stating the whole affair, used their offices to disabuse the mind of the king with good effect. The king's presence at the Hague also facilitated the signing of the treaty by the Dutch, which was done a few days after he left, and thus became

On the arrival of George in London he received Townshend very cordially, and so softened him as to induce him to accept the lord lieutenancy, and to do the very thing he had declared it was not common honesty to do—accept the post and still remain in London, acting with the rest of the cabinet. His political adherents, including Methuen, Pulteney, the Walpoles, lord Oxford, and the duke of Devonshire, were contented to remain in office. The only change was that Methuen was made one of the two secretaries along with Stanhope. It was thus imagined that the great schism in the whig party was closed; but it was far from being the case: the healing was only on the surface.

Thus entered the year 1717. It had been intended to open parliament immediately on the king's return, but the discovery of a new and singular phase of the Jacobite conspiracy compelled its postponement. We have seen that the paltry and unprincipled trafficking of George with Denmark for the bishoprics of Bremen and Verden, reft in the king of Sweden's absence from his possession, had justly incensed that monarch, and made him vow that he would support the pretender and march into Scotland with twelve thousand men. Such a menace on the part of a general like Charles XII. was not likely to pass unnoticed by the Jacobites. The duke of Berwick had taken up the idea very eagerly. He had held several conferences upon it with baron Spaar, the Swedish minister at Paris, and he had sent a trusty minister to Charles at Stralsund, with the proposal that a body of seven or eight thousand Swedes, then encamped near Gothenburg, should embark at that port, whence, with a favourable wind, they could land in Scotland in eight and forty hours. The pretender agreed to furnish one hundred and fifty thousand livres for their expenses. At that time, however, Charles was closely besieged by the Danes, Prussians, and their new ally, George of Hanover, purchased by the bribe of Bremen and Verden. Charles was compelled by this coalition to retire from Stralsund, but only in a mood of deeper indignation against the king of England, and therefore more favourable to his enemies.

The invasion of Scotland was again brought under his notice, and strongly recommended by his chief confidant and minister, baron Gortz. Charles now listened with all his native spirit of resentment, and Gortz immediately set out on a tour of instigation and arrangement of the invasion. Gortz was by birth a Franconian, an adventurer whom many ups and downs and secret intrigues had made acute and destitute of every principle that might impede his objects, before he attracted the notice and the favour of the hero of Sweden. Among other clever spirits whom he had sought to enlist in his cause, was Voltaire, who, in his history of Charles XII., says he was equally lavish of gifts and promises, of oaths and lies. Gortz now hastened to Holland, where he corresponded with count Gyllenborg, the Swedish ambassador at London, and baron Spaar, the Swedish minister at Paris. He put himself also into communication with the pretender and the duke of Ormonde. The scheme of Gortz was able and comprehensive. A peace was to be established betwixt Charles and his great enemy and rival, Peter of Russia. They both hated George of Hanover and England, and by this union might inflict the severest injuries on him. Next a conspiracy was to be excited against the regent of France, so as to prevent his aiding England according to the recent treaty, and all being thus prepared, Charles XII. was himself to conduct the army of twelve thousand veterans destined to invade Scotland, and, if supported by the Jacobites, England.

The Jacobites were in ecstasies at this new phase of their old enterprise. By Charles's adhesion, their scheme was stripped of all those prejudices which had insured its ruin with the English. It had no longer the unpopular aspect of a French invasion; it was no longer headed by a popish but a protestant leader; it was no longer consigned to an untried or doubtful general, but to one of the mast victorious monarchs living, who came as a protestant to call on a protestant nation to receive their rightful king. Money