Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/218

 vocation of the patent, and the excitement speedily subsided. In accordance with the usual custom of lord-lieutenants in those days, Carteret only remained in Ireland during the sitting of the Irish parliament, and in January 1727 we find him speaking in the House of Lords on the East Indian trade, and giving expression to views which in these days would be considered economically unsound.

On 1 June 1725, and again on 31 May 1727, he was appointed one of the lords justices of the kingdom during the king's absence from England. George I died suddenly while on his way to Hanover at his brother's palace at Osnaburgh on 11 June 1727. Carteret was one of the old privy councillors who met at Leicester House on the 14th for the purpose of proclaiming George II, and on the same day was sworn of the new privy council. Having been reappointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland on 29 July, he returned to Dublin in November, when he opened the new parliament. While in Ireland he lived on intimate terms with Swift, from whom he frequently received advice with regard to Irish affairs. The advice was not always taken, for it is related that when Carteret had parried, with his usual dexterity, some complaint or request of Swift, he exclaimed, What in God's name do you do here? Get back to your own country, and send us our boobies again (, Works, i. 372-3). Though Carteret declined to admit Swift to any office which would give him a right to interfere in the affairs of the country, he occasionally presented unimportant pieces of preferment to Swift's friends. On the appointment of Dr. Delany to some places of small profit, an outcry was raised by the more violent whigs, who declared that extravagant favour had been shown to a tory divine. This gave rise to Swift's pamphlet entitled 'A Vindication of His Excellency, John Lord Carteret, from the charge of favouring none but Tories, High-churchmen, and Jacobites,' which was published in 1730. Taken as a whole, Carteret's administration of Irish affairs during the six years he was lord-lieutenant was generally popular—indeed, Swift confessed in a letter to Gay, dated 19 Nov. 1730, that Carteret had a genteeler manner of binding the chains of the kingdom than most of his predecessors (ib. xvii. 350). That Carteret appreciated Swift's commendation is clear from a letter written by him to Swift and dated March 1737, in the postscript of which he says: When people ask me how I governed Ireland, I say that I pleased Dr. Swift (ib. xix. 135). At the same time, as the seals were taken away from his old enemy, Lord Townshend, Carteret was dismissed from his post. He left Ireland in April 1730, and though offered the post of lord steward, left vacant by the appointment of the Duke of Dorset as lord-lieutenant, he refused to take further office under Walpole.

Upon his return from Ireland he joined the opposition, and, becoming a close ally of Pulteney, took a very prominent part in the struggle against Walpole. During this period he seized every opportunity in the House of Lords of harassing the administration. His speeches, however, were not always consistent with those which he had delivered when in office. In a conversation with Lord Hervey about Carteret, Sir Robert Walpole is reported to have said that 'I had some difficulty to get him out, but he shall find much more to get in again' (, Memoirs, 1884, ii. 128). Walpole kept his word, and the struggle was long and doubtful. Towards the end of the opposition, Carteret was suspected by some of being desirous to make his peace with the court. However that may be, on 13 Feb 1741 he moved his famous resolution in the House of Lords that an address should be presented to the king requesting him to remove Walpole from his ‘presence and counsels for ever’ (Parl. Hist. xi. 1047-85). His speech on this occasion was the longest, as well as the ablest, which he appears to have made, and was characterised by contemporary authorities as one of the most splendid orations which had been heard in the House of Lords. The debate lasted two days, and Carteret was beaten by 108 to 59. A similar motion by Sandys in the House of Commons was, owing to dissensions among the heterogeneous opposition, defeated by a still larger majority. In April parliament was dissolved, and Walpole met the new House of Commons with a diminished majority. The opposition soon showed its strength, and on 29 Jan. 1742 the ministers were left in a minority of one in a division on the Chippenham election petition. Upon the resignation of Walpole, the Wilmington administration was formed, and Carteret was appointed secretary of state for the affairs of the northern province on 12 Feb 1742.

Once again we find him changing his parliamentary language, and supporting measures which he had formerly opposed; and so far as the domestic policy of the government was concerned, matters went on much the same as under Walpole. The foreign policy, however, gained considerably in energy under Carteret's direction. He at once sent the assurance of his full support to Maria Theresa