Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/414

400 timidly or treacherously conniving at the riots, they were declared innocent and set at liberty. On the contrary, Bushell was brought to trial on a charge of murder for firing on the people, and was convicted. The government rescued him only by a pardon, and afterwards rewarded him by promotion in the service.

Walpole suspected that the duke of Roxburgh, who was secretary of state for Scotland, and who was a partisan of Carteret's, had secretly encouraged these commotions, as he adroitly affected to believe, in order to get rid of the office of Secretary for Scotland altogether. He therefore obtained the dismissal of Roxburgh, abolished the office, and sent down the earl of Isla, the brother of the duke of Argyll, and a zealous adherent of his own, to pacify the country. Isla behaved with equal prudence and firmness. He found the powerful combination of brewers assaying to make a stand against and then attempting to make terms with him. But he let them know that nothing but unconditional surrender to the laws would be accepted, and they at length held a meeting, where the chairman put the question, "To brew, or not to brew?" The members were to vote seriatim; but neither the man on his right nor the one on his left would venture to begin. In the long pause that ensued, one Gray declared that he thought there was nothing for them but to return to their trades; that he would not be bound by the majority, but would vote independently, and he voted to brew. Some of the company proposed to hold out till their brethren were set at liberty; but Gray had set the ball in movement; more voted to brew, the meeting broke up, and that night a number of breweries were set to work, and the next day, at noon, above forty brew-houses were in full action in Edinburgh, and ten in Leith. Lord Isla was greatly complimented by Walpole for his skilful settlement of the question, adding, "and now we have once got Ireland and Scotland quiet, we will take care to keep them so"

Parliament met on the 12th of November. The king in his speech congratulated the country on its prosperous condition. At the same time, he was in reality very anxious regarding continental politics, and especially in consequence of the news of an alliance betwixt Russia and Sweden. He was anxious to keep up the amount of the army, and it was accordingly continued in the same force for another year. In fact, Walpole had so far inaugurated that system of parliamentary corruption which was afterwards perfected, that he could readily carry any such measures.

One of the first acts of the parliament was to punish the peculations and abuses of the lord chancellor, Parker, earl of Macclesfield. The court of chancery, in all ages a sink of corruption, was at this time in its worst condition. The offices of masters were regularly sold, and the master as regularly took care to indemnify themselves by all manner of peculation. The estates of widows and orphans and the money of suitors were unscrupulously plundered. There was a loud outcry against these legal robberies, and especially against the lord chancellor, for his not only tolerating but partaking in them. He endeavoured to escape the storm of public indignation by resigning in January, but this did not avail him. He was impeached by Sir George Oxenden in the commons, and tried in the lords, and fined thirty thousand pounds. A motion for disabling him from ever again sitting in parliament or holding any office was lost only by a very few votes. The king struck his name out of the list of privy counsellors, and Sir Peter King was made chancellor in his stead, with the title of baron.

The next matter of much importance was a bill to restore Bolingbroke to his honours and estates. Early in this year an attempt to deprive his wife of fifty thousand pounds invested in the English funds brought her over to London. She had invested this sum as Madame de Villette, but Sir Matthew Decker now represented to the government that this lady was married to lord Bolingbroke, and that, consequently, this money was a forfeit to the crown. Lord Townshend, however, was so much disgusted by this dishonest reasoning that he opposed the idea of confiscating the stock. Lady Bolingbroke came over to protect her property, and having secured it, next adroitly made use of her presence at court to endeavour to obtain the reversal of her husband's attainder. She did not succeed in making a favourable impression on the king, who said she talked too much, and without respect; but she found a more facile channel of success through the ever-bribable duchess of Kendal. A present of fourteen thousand pounds smoothened things wonderfully at court; and Walpole, though abhorring the very idea of seeing Bolingbroke once more in parliament, was compelled to give way. A bill was brought into the commons to put him in possession of his forfeited estates, but without removing the attainder. There was a violent opposition even to this favour both by the stanch whigs and the Jacobites, who never could forgive Bolingbroke's desertion of the pretender's cause. The bill passed by a majority of two hundred and thirty-one to one hundred and thirteen, and was afterwards accepted by the lords, though not without a strong protest by five peers. Methuen, the comptroller of the household, spoke very determinedly against the bill. He declared that Bolingbroke's crimes were of so deep a dye as not to admit of any atonement, especially his traitorous attempt, when minister of queen Anne, to defeat the protestant succession, and thus ruin the foundation of our present and future happiness.

Bolingbroke came over and took possession of his property; but he never forgave those who had opposed him, and especially Walpole, notwithstanding his having seconded the bill. "Here I am," he wrote to Swift, "two-thirds restored—my person safe, and my estate, with all other property I have acquired or may acquire, secured to me; but the attainder is kept carefully and prudently in force, lest so corrupt a member should come again into the house of lords, and his bad leaven should sour that sweet, untainted mass."

Besides Methuen, lord William Powlet, Onslow—afterwards speaker—the duke of Wharton, and others, took a prominent part in opposition to the bill. Bolingbroke, concealing his resentment, made a fresh attempt to gain the good will of Walpole, in the hope of obtaining through him the reversal of his attainder, but in this he failed. Walpole invited him to dine with him at Chelsea, but it appeared to Bolingbroke rather to show him his power and prosperity than for any other reason; and Horace Walpole, the celebrated son of the minister, says in his "Reminiscences," that "whether tortured at witnessing Walpole's serene frankness and felicity, or suffocated with indignation and