Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/426

41 time. But the best proofs of queen Caroline's superiority were shown in her pure, moral character, which was free from the slightest stain, and in her quick discernment and substantial promotion of the most able men in the church. Through her means were elevated to the episcopal bench such men as Hare, Sherlock, and Butler, and that such unprincipled and heartless men as Swift were kept from desecrating it. Through her, too, as long as she lived, the king was influenced to the discharge of his duties as a king, though she managed her power with such tact, that she seemed never to dictate or presume. She inspired the king, and he acted, believing himself to be directed by his own wisdom. Towards his foibles she was more than "a little kind." She not only tolerated his principal mistress, Mrs. Howard, afterwards countess of Suffolk, in the palace, but used banteringly to call her "sister Howard," and employed her at her toilet, and otherwise about her person.

The wits in the opposition, Swift, Gay, Pope, Arbuthnot, Bolingbroke, Peterborough, and others, imagining, as is commonly the case, that the mistress would have more power than the wife, paid all their court to lady Suffolk, and found out their blunder too late. Walpole, a deeper reader of human nature, from the first saw the truth, and herein showed himself a far profounder diplomatist than Bolingbroke. Such were the moral and intellectual elements prevailing in the court of George II. at its opening.

For a moment, however, Walpole appeared about to fall from his altitude, and the Jacobite faction was in ecstasies. The dispatch of Townshend announcing the king's death in Germany arrived in London on the 14th of June, and was soon followed by himself. Walpole instantly hastened to the palace of Richmond, where the prince of Wales resided, and was told that the prince was taking his usual afternoon siesta. He desired that he might be awoke, in consequence of important intelligence. George, suddenly aroused, rushed forth half dressed to learn the urgent business, when Walpole knelt down and kissed his hand, informing him of his father's decease, and that he was king. George was at first incredulous, but Walpole produced Townshend's dispatch, and inquired whom his majesty would be pleased to appoint to draw up the necessary declaration to the privy council, trusting that it would be himself. To his consternation and chagrin, the king said abruptly, "Compton;" and Walpole withdrew in deep vexation, imagining his own reign was at an end.

He waited on Sir Spencer Compton with the royal command. This gentleman, who was the second surviving son of the earl of Northampton, had long been, with lord Scarborough, the prince's chief favourite. Compton had conducted himself very well in the speaker's chair, where certain parliamentary knowledge and tact are needed rather than great abilities; but he felt himself totally unfit to wield the difficult affairs of a nation. He was confounded at the proposal to draw up the declaration to the privy council, and begged Walpole to do it for him. Walpole instantly recovered his spirits. He saw that such a man could never be his rival, and he advised his colleagues, if they went out of office, not to engage in any violent opposition, as they would soon be wanted again. He knew, too, that he had the queen in his favour, who was too clear-headed not to see that Walpole was alone the man for the time. He had also perceived her talent, her sound judgement, and the influence she was sure to acquire; and he had, accordingly, cultivated her goodwill. To complete his favour with her, he offered to procure her a jointure from parliament of one hundred thousand pounds a year, whilst the impolitic Compton had only proposed sixty thousand pounds. The queen did not oppose the king's attempt to change the ministry, but she impressed him with the danger of disturbing an already powerful and prosperous cabinet; and she made him aware of the fact that Compton had been compelled to get Walpole to draw up the declaration. Besides the liberal jointure which he promised, she added that he intended to add one hundred and thirty thousand pounds to the civil list. Horace Walpole, arriving from Paris, threw his whole weight into the scale, representing difficulties which must beset foreign negotiations in new hands. These combined circumstances told strongly on George; but the finish was put to Compton's government by his feeling overwhelmed by his own incompetence, and resigning the charge. The king had, therefore, nothing for it but to re-appoint the old ministry again. Some slight modifications took place. Lord Berkeley, who had joined the opposition of Carteret and Roxburgh, was replaced by lord Torrington, and Compton received the title of lord Wilmington, the order of the garter, and the presidency of the council.

The opposition was confounded. It had begun to triumph in the fall of Walpole, and his son relates that when the throng of nobility and gentry crowded to kiss the royal hands and congratulate them on their accession, his mother, lady Walpole, the wife of the supposed fallen minister, made her appearance, she was treated with the utmost rudeness. The crowd of titled vulgar sturdily hold her back by their scornful looks and elbows, so that she could not approach nearer than the third or fourth ring. The queen, however, instantly descried her, and exclaimed aloud, "There, I am sure, I see a friend!" The effect was instantaneous, and the lady herself observed, "I might have walked over their heads if I had pleased." The servile crew perceived they had made a blunder. Parliament, in accordance with the act of settlement, ought to have met the day after the announcement of the death of the late king, which would have been June 15th, but it was prorogued to the 27th.

The king, in his speech, made the usual avowal of regret for the death of a father whom he had never respected when alive, and the equally matter of course ones—that he would maintain the constitution and that civil and religious rights of his subjects. The address of condolence and congratulation was moved by Sir Paul Methuen and seconded by Walpole, and carried unanimously. These formalities settled, Walpole proposed that though the revenue of the civil list was found to produce one hundred and thirty thousand pounds more than the seven hundred thousand pounds allowed to the late king, the whole should be settled on his majesty for life. Not a man except Shippen raised a word of opposition. That stanch Jacobite declared that the civil list of queen Anne had amounted only to five hundred thousand pounds, and that the same sum had been twice