Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/382

368 was too imbecile to have any martial ambition; and though his wife was anxious to secure the succession to the French throne in case of the death of the infant Louis XV., yet Alberoni, the prime minister, was desirous to remain at peace. This able churchman, who had risen from the lowest position, being the son of a working gardener, and had made his way to his present eminence partly by his abilities and partly by his readiness to forget the gravity of the clerical character for the pleasure of his patrons, was now zealously exerting himself to restore the condition of Spain. He boasted to Philip that, if he could remain five years at peace, he would make him the most powerful monarch in Europe. Bubb, the British minister at Madrid, bore testimony to the wonderful improvement which he had introduced into the trade, the finances, and the navy of the kingdom. He said Spain was actually relieved from a heavy expenditure by the loss of Italy and Flanders; that Alberoni had drawn income from Aragon and Catalonia, which had paid little or nothing before; that he had reduced the expenses of the kingdom one-half, and increased the revenues one-third more than any of the king's predecessors had enjoyed; so that, in a little time, Spain under Alberoni would become a very useful ally.

For a time these prospects continued. Alberoni showed the most friendly disposition towards England. During the invasion of the pretender he had avoided all open support of his claims, and had gone so far as to issue a proclamation declaring that it was his majesty's intention to give no countenance to the king's enemies; and Alberoni said to Bubb, his minister, "Next to God, the king my master looks up to yours." But this flattering state of things did not continue long. Alberoni's interest was to please the queen, who ruled rather than the poor invalid king, and she had causes of antagonism which clashed with his schemes of peace. She exerted herself all in her power to undermine the government of the regent of France through the duke of Maine and other malcontents, and Alberoni was obliged to go with her. Again, the emperor had never acknowledged the title of Philip as king of Spain, but continued to appropriate that title to himself, and to confer that of the prince of Asturias on his infant son, who, however, died during this year, the celebrated Maria Theresa being also born during it. The emperor, moreover, assembled around him at Vienna a number of Spanish exiles, and conferred on them the title of a Spanish council of state; and under the peace of Utrecht he held all the former Spanish dominions in Italy. These causes maintained an ill feeling towards Austria; and, besides these, the queen, as a princess of Parma, claimed the eventual succession of one of her sons to that duchy, and to Tuscany; and, continued Mr. Bubb, writing to secretary Stanhope, "the absolute command over Spain will belong to the highest bidder for the queen's son. This is the grand and the only maxim, which has never changed since I have been here."

Notwithstanding, therefore, that secretary Stanhope and Alberoni corresponded on the most amicable terms, and passed from one to another the warmest assurances of a "sincere and lasting friendship" between the two courts, it is obvious that the Spanish minister could not long calculate on the peace which he deemed so desirable. England was under engagement both to France and the empire, which must, on the first rupture with either of those powers and Spain, precipitate her into war. The treaty with the emperor, as it guaranteed the retention of the Italian provinces, which Spain beheld with unappeasable jealousy in Austrian hands, was the first thing to change the policy of Alberoni towards this country. This change was still further accelerated by the news of the triple alliance, which equally guaranteed the status quo of France. The Spanish minister displayed his anger by suspending the treaty of commerce, and by conniving at the petty vexations practised by the Spaniards on the English merchants in Spain, and by decidedly rejecting a proposal of the king of England to bring about an accommodation between the emperor and the court of Spain.

In this uneasy state of things Austria very unnecessarily put the match to the political train, and threw the whole of the south of Europe again into war. Don Joseph Molines, the Spanish ambassador at Rome, being appointed inquisitor-general at Spain, commenced his journey homewards, furnished with a passport from the pope, and an assurance of safety from the imperial minister. Yet, notwithstanding this, he was perfidiously arrested by the Austrian authorities, and secured in the citadel of Milan. The gross insult to Spain, and equally gross breach of faith, so exasperated the king and queen of Spain, that they would listen to nothing but war. The earnest expostulations of Alberoni, delivered in the form of a powerful memorial, were rejected, and he was compelled to abandon the cherished hopes of peaceful improvement, and make the most active preparations for war. The war, unwelcome as it was to Alberoni, probably became the cause of his salvation from his enemies. The marquis of Villadarias, Don Joseph Rodrigo, president of Castile, and upwards of thirty of his most devoted officers, had entered into a design, with the cognizance of the French minister, for his overthrow; but the patriotism of Villadarias now compelled him to let this scheme fall, and to engage in the service of his country.

Alberoni dispatched Don Joseph Patiño to Barcelona to hasten the military preparations. Twelve ships of war and eight thousand six hundred men were speedily assembled there, and an instant alarm was excited throughout Europe as to the destination of this not very formidable force. The emperor, whose treacherous conduct justly rendered him suspicious, imagined the blow destined for his Italian territories; the English anticipated a fresh movement in favour of the pretender; but Alberoni, an astute Italian, who was on the point of receiving the cardinal's hat from the pope, led him to believe that the armament was directed against the infidels in the Levant. The pope, therefore, hastened the favour of the Roman purple, and then Alberoni no longer concealed the real destination of his troops. The marquis de Lede was ordered to set out with the squadron for the Italian shores; but when Naples was trembling in apprehension of a visit, the fleet drew up, on the 20th of August, in the bay of Cagliari, the capital of the island of Sardinia. That a force which might have taken Naples should content itself with an attack on the barren, rocky, and swampy Sardinia, surprised many; but Alberoni knew very well that, though he could take, he had not yet an