Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/201

 them at court. Strickland began by tampering with Harrington, the secretary of state, with whom he had a long and secret conference. He was graciously received by the king and queen. Rumour predicted Walpole's approaching fall. The queen argued her case with the minister week after week (, Memoirs, ii. 61). ‘I told the queen this morning,’ he said to Hervey, ‘Madam, there are fifty thousand men slain this year in Europe and not one Englishman.’ Alive to the intrigues around him, Walpole kept in his hand every thread of the negotiations. When in October 1734 Fleury made overtures for a peace, he succeeded in persuading the queen to support him in giving the cardinal a favourable response. He put a stop upon Harrington's attempt, made at the instance of the king himself, to involve England by guaranteeing, in conjunction with the emperor, the defence of Holland against the French. ‘My politics,’ he had written to Townshend on 3 Aug. 1723, ‘are to keep clear of all engagements.’ The plan of pacification, which was substantially that accepted by the belligerents, was the work of the two Walpoles, Sir Robert inspiring the foreign office of England, and Horatio having the ear of Fleury. Bolingbroke's comment on the peace was that ‘if the English ministers had any hand in it, they were wiser than he thought them; and if they had not, they were much luckier than they deserved to be.’

The general election had taken place in the spring of 1734, before the brilliant success of Walpole's foreign policy had operated to retrieve his defeat upon the excise bill. Despite a large expenditure on the elections, he lost some six or seven seats in Norfolk, and returned to parliament on 14 Jan. 1735 with a diminished following. The gratifying issue of his policy of peace announced in the king's speech of 15 Jan. 1736 furnished a compensating triumph. The address of congratulation was voted without the smallest opposition (17 Jan.), and the thanks of parliament, rendered by convention to the king, for ‘saving this nation from the calamities of war,’ were recognised on all hands as due to Walpole.

The dissenters judged this a favourable opportunity to solicit from Walpole a further indication of his friendly disposition to them. It was probably, as Stanhope conjectures, at this time that Dr. Chandler [see ], at the head of a deputation of dissenters, inquired of him when the moment would come for fulfilling the hopes he had held out to them. He replied that it had not yet arrived. Being pressed for a specific answer, he said, ‘I will give it you in a word—Never.’ The dissenters thereupon entrusted their case to the opposition whigs. On 12 March 1736 William Plumer moved the repeal of the Test Act. Walpole was placed in a position of great difficulty. With many considerate expressions towards the dissenters he opposed the motion, which was defeated by 251 to 123 votes. The motion for repeal was again pressed in 1739, but was again opposed by Walpole and was rejected in the House of Lords by 188 to 89 votes on 6 April. On the other hand, he zealously forwarded a bill for the relief of quakers. His interest was perhaps quickened by the circumstance that there were many quakers, his supporters, in his constituency. The bill was lost in the House of Lords chiefly through the opposition of the bishop of London [see ]. Walpole had regarded the bishop as his ‘first and sole minister in church matters,’ and intended him to succeed Wake [see ] at Canterbury. This following upon another difference between them [see ], he henceforth withdrew his confidence from Gibson and appointed Potter [see ] to Canterbury instead (1737).

August and September 1736 were marked by anti-Irish riots in London and by the Porteous riot at Edinburgh [see ]. The London riots were fomented by the Jacobites (, Memoirs, ii. 309), and associated with discontent on account of the Gin Act which had been passed in the previous session [see ]. Although Walpole had taken no further interest in this measure than to insure the civil list against consequent losses, it was popularly ascribed to him in concert with Jekyll, its real author (see Sir R. Walpole to Horatio Walpole, 11 Oct. 1736,, iii. 359). The Porteous riots were seized upon by the opposition in the lords, headed by Carteret, to embarrass Walpole by insistence on extreme measures, which, Lord Ilay warned him, would provoke a rebellion in Scotland (, Memoirs, iii. 103). The growing weakness of Walpole's position now became apparent. He was adverse both to the violent proposals of the opposition, and even to any inquiry upon which a justification of them might be found (ib. iii. 40). But two of his own cabinet, Hardwicke and Newcastle, were caballing against him with Sherlock and Carteret (ib. p. 102). He told Newcastle to his face ‘Your grace must take your choice between me and him [Carteret]’ (ib. p. 136). Signs of defection showed themselves in the commons, and the queen