Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/384

370 cries by which the government was attempted to be embarrassed.

The proceedings of Alberoni were worthy of the best days of Spain; but he did not carry out these measures without danger from a strong opposition party. The king was now a decided invalid, as his predecessor, Charles, had been. Alberoni and the queen allowed none but their own creatures to approach his bedside. This roused the pride of the Spanish nobles, and Las Torres, Aguilar, and others proposed that the king should be set aside as incompetent, and the prince of Asturias be placed on the throne. They contended that the king was no longer capable of business, and that the country was under the real control of Alberoni and the queen. The duke of Escalana, as lord chamberlain, insisted on penetrating to the presence of the monarch in the discharge of his duty; and though he was compelled by gout to go upon crutches, he resolutely forced his way thither, though opposed by the officials, and actually coming to blows with Alberoni himself. The consequence, however, was the banishment of Escalana, and the triumph of Alberoni.

The interest with which these menacing foreign affairs was contemplated was interrupted by the scandalous quarrels betwixt the king and his son and successor at home. George I. had never tolerated the prince electoral, even whilst in Hanover, and, if we are to believe St. Simon, because he never believed him to be his own son. However that might be, the feuds of the nominal father and son had been long and bitter in Germany, and the accession to the throne of England had only tended to aggravate them. They now broke forth with open and unrestrained violence, the ostensible cause being a most frivolous one. The prince, being about to christen one of his children, proposed as god-father the child's uncle, the duke of York; but the king ordered the duke of Newcastle to take that place, not as proxy for the duke of York, but in his own character. The prince, resenting this, used very offensive language to Newcastle, which, of course, applied still more offensively to the king. In consequence, the prince was ordered to confine himself in his own apartment, and soon after to quit the palace. On this, he took up his residence with the princess and family at Leicester House. This, which, on expulsion, became on tho prince's part a necessity, was immediately regarded by the king as the erection of a sort of standard of public opposition and insubordination. A notice was issued that any person paying his or her respects to the prince or princess would not be received at court. The prince and princess were deprived of their guard of honour and other distinctions. To such a length was this unseemly and unnatural quarrel carried, that the king ordered the secretary of state to send an account of the whole matter to all foreign ministers; and he proposed to bring in an act of parliament to decree that on coming to the throne the prince should relinquish his German states. This would have been the best thing that could have happened to England, so far as those states were concerned; but the ministers dissuaded George from indulging his paternal hatred to that extent. Not the less, however, was the public mind kept on the tension by this royal animosity, and parliament was in daily expectation that the subject would be broached in one house or the other. On one occasion lord North, in a very full house, and the prince present, rose and produced a startling sensation by saying that he wished "to take notice of the great ferment which was in the nation." He paused for a moment, and the most painful suspense kept the house hushed; but he then relieved it by disclosing the fact that the ferment to which he alluded regarded the great scarcity of silver. Besides the discussion on this scarcity, which was attributed to its having been extensively melted down for exportation to foreign countries, and for the use of silver-smiths, as well as the great exports of plate and bullion to the East Indies, the only other topics of interest during the session were the demand of additional troops in consequence of the aspect of affairs abroad, and for the renewal of the military bill. On both these occasions the Walpole and Townshend party made a determined opposition. The demand was for eighteen thousand troops, and Walpole contended that twelve thousand were ample, and became extremely eloquent against standing armies. He likewise contended that martial law was contrary to our constitution, and that soldier's, any more than other subjects, ought not to be left to the mercy of courts-martial, but should have the benefit of the civil courts and of juries. It was well known, however, that this was but the language of opposition, and that Walpole add his friends, in office, would be equally eloquent on the other side. Both bills were, therefore, carried by considerable majorities, Walpole himself, after all, voting with the majority on the mutiny bill. During the debate on tho grant of troops, Shippen indulged in very keen remarks against the German tendencies of the king. He observed that the proposed augmentation of the army seemed "rather calculated for the meridian of Germany than of Great Britain; but it is the infelicity of his majesty's reign that he is unacquainted with our language and constitution, and it is, therefore, the more incumbent upon his British ministers to inform him that our government does not stand upon the same foundation as that which is established in his German dominions." For these words, such was the loyalty of the house, Shippen was committed to the Tower.

During this session, too, a circumstance occurred which showed that the merciful spirit of Anne no longer occupied the throne. A youth named James Shepherd, who, had every appearance of being insane, was condemned and executed for professing his readiness to convey letters to his majesty in Italy, and then to smite the usurper, George, in his own palace.

The year 1717 terminated thus in blood, which "the good queen Anne" would have spared, and in busy preparation for more bloodshed abroad. The session of parliament terminated on the 21st of March, 1718, and the words of the king in dismissing the houses sounded, as Walpole observed, very like a declaration of war—a meaning only too well borne out by the active preparation of a large armament at Portsmouth, though the negotiations betwixt the great powers still continued.

The fact was that cardinal Alberoni, the Spanish minister, a man of wonderful spirit and activity, but of an ambition that led him to overrate the power and resources of Spain, was daring enough to imagine that he could cope with