Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/448

 434 young prince than the brilliant but heartless and disappointed Bolingbroke, it is impossible to conceive. Whatever wit and malice could do to pervert a young mind, and to strengthen in self-will that which was already perverted, would be sure to be done by Bolingbroke, who had no Christian principle to restrain him, but an exhaustless supply of black and festering envy and hatred to urge him on. He and his beloved friend, the dean of St. Patrick, whose life was spent in attacking honest patriots, venting his poisonous spite on all that disliked or opposed him, and on torturing trusting women, were fatal counsellors for a young man already regarding with a jaundiced eye everything that related to his father. Bolingbroke could clothe his most devilish feelings under the most fair language, and, with the object of obliquely satirising George II., he wrote and introduced to the son his essay on a "Patriot King."

The prince of Wales, fast ripening into a pattern of unfilial popularity under such influences, possessing some accomplishments, and a desire to stand well with the people, was married in April, 1736, to Augusta of Saxe Gotha, a princess of so much beauty and good sense, as might have reclaimed many a nature, and seems to have at least won the heart of her husband from his former romantic passion. It was an ominous circumstance, however, that the address of congratulation on this occasion was moved, not by the king's own ministers, but by the king's own opposition. Pulteney was the mover, and it was supported by two young men who that evening made their first speeches, and in them burst suddenly forth with that splendour which was destined to grow transcendent through many years. They were Pitt, afterwards lord Chatham, and lord Lyttleton.

Scarcely was the prince married, when he began to complain of his limited income. His father, as prince of Wales, had been allowed one hundred thousand pounds from the civil list, which then was only seven hundred thousand pounds, but he now received only fifty thousand pounds from a civil list of eight hundred thousand pounds. The prince did not take into consideration that his father, on arriving in England, had already a large family to maintain, and that there could be no doubt that on his having a family the country would see that he had a suitable provision, if his father did not. At the same time, it must be allowed that George II. had, by all means, and some of them very paltry and truthless, augmented the civil list from seven hundred thousand pounds to eight hundred thousand pounds, and might with a good grace have allowed his heir the required one hundred thousand pounds, and thus taken away a very plausible plea from the opposition. But avarice was the besetting sin of George, and he allowed his son's discontents to be sounded all through the kingdom without making any movement towards silencing them in the most effectual manner, namely, by rendering them causeless. On the other hand, Bolingbroke and the opposition were only too happy to have such a subject of censure on the king; and they stimulated the prince to the most unbecoming defiance of his father. Bolingbroke, two years before, on leaving England, told the prince, as his parting advice, to apply to parliament, without any regard to the king, for a permanent income of one hundred thousand pounds a year. His best friends as earnestly dissuaded him from this conduct, and amongst others Bubb Doddington, a thorough time-serving courtier, who was professing to be the prince's friend whilst he was in league with Walpole and the king, was employed to prevail on him to remain quiet. Doddington, afterwards lord Melcombe, and a man who has already appeared in this history under his original name of Bubb, has left a very minute and amusing account in his "Diary" of his conversations with the prince, and of his employment at the same time by Walpole to bring over some of the opposition by bribes and promises. Through the whole, whilst Doddington was earnestly endeavouring to persuade the prince as his fast friend not to commit himself to any such impolitic course, he allows us to see that he was doing it at the instance and under the instructions of Walpole. The king was at this time very unwell, and many thought he would not have long, and Doddington urged upon the prince how ungenerous and unfilial it would appear to the nation to take such a step against his father at such a moment. He said that no one desired the downfall of the minister more than he did, but he thought this course would bind the king and ministers faster together than ever.

Doddington then sought his friend Sir Paul Methuen, and induced him to declare that he would neither vote for nor against the grant, and they together waited on the duke of Dorset and other lords, who declared that they would do their utmost to dissuade the prince from this matter. The result of this proceeding was, that the duke of Argyll, lord Scarborough, the duke of Dorset, lord Wilmington, Sir Thomas Frankland, and Sir Conyers Darcy, though the prince's friends, all declared that they could not vote for him.

All this appears very well as the proceeding of a friend who would fain prevent his prince running into a fatal dilemma; but the next moment we find this earnest and prudent friend in close conference with Walpole, who is offering through him to bribe and bring away as many of the opposition as he can get. "We understand one another," observed Walpole, at parting; and undoubtedly they did. Doddington was empowered to treat with others, and with no ambiguous assurance of his own advantage in it. Spite of Doddington's arguments, and spite of the conversions he made of some of the prince's usual partisans, the prince was resolute on proceeding. He declared that none would desert him who were not more afraid of their places and interests than they were sincerely attached to him; and he continually referred to the support which queen Anne, when princess of Denmark, had received under the same circumstances. Meantime, the great leaders of the opposition stood apparently firm to the prince — Pulteney, Wyndham, and Sir John Barnard, whose support of the prince gave a great moral momentum to his cause; for such was the character of Sir John for integrity, honour, and reasonableness, that it was thought he would not countenance anything that was really unjust.

Under these circumstances, Walpole persuaded the king to send a message to the prince, offering to settle a large jointure on the princess, and to make the prince's own