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 1723 by Bolingbroke, who had received a pardon in the previous May. Bolingbroke suggested that Walpole should accept his aid in forming such a coalition in his own interest. But Walpole was no lover of intrigue. When Sunderland made a similar proposal, ‘Mr. Walpole took the other point of standing or falling with the whigs’ (Carlisle MSS. p. 38). He now as firmly rejected Bolingbroke's overtures. It was at this period that he detected Pulteney [see ] in secret correspondence with Carteret, and never put confidence in him again (, Memoirs, i. 12). Townshend's success over Carteret was marked by the dismissal of Carteret from the secretaryship of state and his appointment as lord-lieutenant of Ireland (3 April 1724). From this time may be dated a resolution apparent in Walpole to keep men of brilliant talent out of his administrations. He nominated as Carteret's successor the Duke of Newcastle [see ], ‘having experienced how troublesome a man of parts was in that office’ (, Mem. i. 163). The natural consequence was that the whig opposition was constantly recruited by the men of promise whose numbers and abilities eventually proved equal to the overthrow of Walpole's administration.

Carteret arrived in Ireland (23 Oct. 1724) in the midst of the excitement aroused over ‘Wood's halfpence.’ This grant had been made by Sunderland to gratify the Duchess of Kendal [see ], who had sold it to Wood [see d. 1730]. Walpole had, in fact, opposed it (Lord Midleton to Thomas Brodrick, 15 Aug. 1725,, ii. 427), but it was his duty as first lord of the treasury to sign the treasury warrant of 23 Aug. 1722 authorising ‘William Wood of Wolverhampton to establish at or near Bristol his office for carrying out the affairs of his patent giving him sole power and authority to coin copper farthings and halfpence for the service of Ireland’ (Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. App. p. 79 a). The value was limited to 108,000l. Walpole made diligent inquiry into the justification of the outcry raised. In a letter to Townshend on 12 Oct. 1723 he showed in detail that it was utterly baseless, and proved it by the verdict of a practical assayer (January 1724,, ii. 410). He was for resolute measures. On 24 Sept. and 3 Oct. 1723 he wrote angry letters to Grafton, Carteret's predecessor as lord lieutenant, for his weakness in face of the opposition to the patent in the Irish parliament (MSS. Record Office). Carteret, whom Walpole had, perhaps on insufficient grounds, suspected of inciting his friends the Brodricks [see ], who led the Irish party, to resistance, had originally been nominated lord lieutenant, as Sir W. Scott, in his ‘Life of Swift,’ says, by a ‘refined revenge,’ that he might carry the matter through with a high hand. Wood was said to have indiscreetly boasted, ‘Mr. Walpole will cram his brass down their throats’ (‘Fourth Drapier Letter,’ Works, vi. 428). But it was never Walpole's policy to fly in the face of popular passion. He bowed to the storm by recommending to the king to substitute 40,000l. for the 100,000l. as the limit of value of the coin to be imported into Ireland (see the report of the privy council, dated 24 July 1724, in Works, vi. 366–76). Primate Hugh Boulter [q. v.] had warned the ministry on 19 Jan. 1724 that not even a reduction to 20,000l. would be accepted. He was right. On 4 Aug. appeared the second ‘Drapier Letter,’ assailing Walpole's concession as savagely as the original grant. Walpole then felt that no safe course was left but to withdraw the patent altogether, and wrote to that effect to Newcastle on 1 Sept. 1724. But Townshend and the king were still for strong measures, and Carteret, whose private opinion was known to be adverse to the patent (St. John Brodrick to Midleton, 10 May 1724), went to Ireland determined to regain the royal favour by his zeal in enforcing it. By December Carteret had come round to Walpole's opinion, and in May 1725 the king, on Walpole's advice, consented that the patent should be cancelled. So tranquil was England during 1724 that only one public division took place in the House of Commons, where Walpole was now all-powerful.

The year 1725 was marked by disturbances in Scotland. In February 1724 the English country gentlemen in parliament had expressed a grievance at the evasion by the Scots of their share of the malt tax. Walpole, apprehensive of exciting the latent disaffection of Scotland, at first resisted the proposal to enforce its levy; but in December 1724 a motion was carried to substitute a duty of sixpence a barrel on beer in Scotland instead of the malt tax. In July 1725 this led to a riot in Glasgow and a combination among the brewers of Edinburgh to discontinue brewing, which it was expected would lead to fresh disturbances. Walpole had reason to believe that the riots were being fomented for political purposes by the Duke of Roxburghe [see ], one of the Carteret faction, secretary of state for Scotland, who was persuaded that they would lead to Walpole's overthrow. On