Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/191

 offered him for the life of the Earl of Derwentwater [see, third ]. Walpole's answer discloses not only the reasons which necessitated severity, but the secret information upon which he had acted in the matter of the impeachments. Derwentwater, he told the house, had to his knowledge been preparing for the rebellion ‘six months before he appeared in arms.’ Not even the remonstrances of Steele and a considerable section of his party could prevail on him to spare the earl.

The extraordinary fatigues and anxieties of 1715, arising at a time when Walpole was already in bad health, brought on an illness in the spring of 1716 in which ‘his life was despaired of’ (Townshend to Stanhope,, ii. 116). During his absence from the house the septennial bill, of which he had already approved, was passed. Walpole retired for convalescence to a house he occupied at Chelsea, perhaps upon the site of the present Walpole Street. From here he wrote on 11 May to his brother Horatio that he ‘gathered strength daily … from the lowest and weakest condition that ever poor mortal was alive in.’ On 9 July George I, accompanied by Stanhope, left for Hanover.

A series of court intrigues now began against Walpole and Townshend, set on foot by the king's German favourites, headed by Bothmar, who desired titles and pensions for themselves and continental aggrandisement for their master. Sunderland's restless ambition discerned an opportunity for his own advancement, and he gathered round him a cabal of disappointed whigs. He was now lord privy seal with a seat in the cabinet. In the autumn of 1716 he made his way over to Germany, ostensibly to drink the waters at Aachen, really to gain the ear of George I—a design which Walpole shrewdly foresaw (COXE, ii. 59). Walpole had so far met the king's views as to foreign policy that he supported the proposed acquisition of Bremen and Verden from Sweden, but only because they offered increased facilities to a British fleet operating upon the German coasts. But he absolutely declined to find money either for a war with Russia or for the payment of a force of German troops who had been taken into the king's service at the time of the pretender's invasion of Scotland. The king asserted that Walpole had promised to repay him the advance which had been made out of the privy purse for this purpose; Walpole protested ‘before God that I cannot recollect that ever the king mentioned one syllable of this to me or I to him.’ Sunderland found the king incensed against Walpole on this account. He inflamed the king's resentment by suggesting that Walpole and Townshend were intriguing with the personal friends of the prince regent, the Duke of Argyll, and his brother the Earl of Islay, with ‘designs against the king's authority.’

In October the king was anxious for the signature of a treaty with France by which France was to discard the pretender and England should guarantee the succession to the regent in the event of the death of the king (Louis XV) childless. This treaty Horatio Walpole, then envoy extraordinary at the Hague, flatly refused to sign on the ground that it would be a betrayal of his promises to the Dutch. This accumulation of grievances led to the dismissal of Townshend by appointment to the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland in December 1716. Walpole would naturally have been dismissed with Townshend, but Townshend was the acting foreign minister, and the presence of Walpole in the cabinet inspired confidence in the city whigs (Thomas Brereton to Charles Stanhope, December 1716,, ii. 149). Walpole determined to throw in his lot with his chief. The animosities of the king disappeared before the apprehension of losing the minister whose reputation as a financier was one of the props of his throne. Stanhope, whom diplomatic exigencies had led to take sides with Sunderland, wrote to Walpole imploring him to persuade Townshend to accept the lord-lieutenancy and to remain in the cabinet (3 Jan. 1717). Townshend's acceptance implied the continuance of Walpole in office. Upon this basis a truce was established between the contending factions. But so long as the king gave his confidence to Sunderland and Stanhope, Townshend and Walpole did little beyond formally defend ministerial measures. The resulting friction became insupportable. On 9 April 1717 Stanhope announced to Townshend his dismissal from the lord-lieutenancy. On 10 April Walpole sought an audience and resigned the seals. Ten times did the king replace them in his hat (, ii. 169). Walpole, though touched by this confidence and with tears in his eyes, persisted in his resignation. He did so upon the constitutional ground, on which he always insisted, of the indivisible responsibility of an administration which he declined to share. On the same day he announced his resignation to the House of Commons by introducing a bill, ‘as a country gentleman,’ which as first lord of the treasury he had been instructed to prepare (5 March). He had for some time past