Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/436

Rh 422 GEOR up his residence at Leicester House, and did everything in his power to support the opposition against his father’s ministers. When therefore. George I. died in 1727, it was generally supposed that alpole would be at once dismissed. The first direction of the new king was that Sir Spencer Compton would draw up the speech in which he was to announce to the Privy Council his accession. (‘ompton, not knowing how to set about his task, applied to Walpole for aid. The queen took advantage of this evidence of incapacity, advocated Walpole’s cause with her husband, and procured his continuance in oﬂice. This ciirions scene was indicative of the course likely to be taken by the new sovereign. His own mind was incapable of rising above the iiierest details of business. He made war in the spirit of a drill—sergcant, and he ecoiiomized his income with the minute regularity of a clerk. A blunder of a master of the ceremonies in iiiarshalling the attendants on a levee put him out of temper. IIe took the greatest pleasure in counting his money piece by piece, and he never forgot a date. He was above all things methodical and regular. “ He seems,” said one who knew him well, “to think his having done a thing to-day an unanswcrable reason for his doing it to-inorrow.” Most men so utterly immersed in details would be very l1l1[)l‘.1CtlCD.l)le to deal with. They would obstinately refuse ‘to listen to a wisdom and prudence which meant nothing in their ears, and which brought home to them a sense of their own inferiority. It was the happy peculiarity of George II. that he was exempt from this failing. 1Ie seemed to have an instinctive understanding that such and such persons were either wiser or even stronger than himself, and when he had once discovered that, he gave way with scarcely a struggle. Thus it was that, though in his domestic relations he was as loose a liver as his father had been, he allowed himself to be guided by the wise but unobtrusive counsels of his wife until her death in 1737, and that when once he had recognized Walpole’s superiority he allowed himself to be guided by the political sagacity of the great minister. It is difficult to exaggerate theimportance of such a temper upon the development of the constitution. The apathy ot the nation in all but the most exciting political questions, fostered by the calculated conservatism of Walpole, had thrown power into the hands of the great landowners. They maintained their authority by supporting a minister who was ready to make use of corruption, wherever corrup- tion was likely to be useful, and who could veii over the baseness of the means which he employed by his talents in debate and in ﬁnance. To shake off a combination so strong would not have been easy. George II. submitted to it with- out a struggle. So strong indeed had the Whig aristocracy grown that it began to lose its cohesion. Walpole was determined to monopolize power, and he dismissed from oflice all who ven- tured to oppose him. An Opposition formidable in talents was gradually formed. In its composite ranks were to be found Tories and discontented Whigs, discarded oﬂicial hacks who were hungry for the emoluments of office, and youthful purists who fancied that if Walpole were removed, bribes and pensions would cease to be attractive to a corrupt generation. Behind them was Bolingbroke, excluded from parliament but suggesting every party move. In 1737 the opposition acquired the support of Frederick prince of Wales. The young man, weak and headstrong, rebelled against the strict discipline exacted by his father. His marriage in 1736 to Augusta of Saxony brought on an open quarrel. In 1737 just as the princess of Wales was about to give birth to her ﬁrst child, she was hurried away by her husband from Hampton Court to St J ames’s Palace at the imminent risk of her life, simply in order that the prince GE II might show his spite to his father who had provided all- necessary attendance at the former place. George ordered his son to quit St Jaiiies's, and to absent himself from court. Frederick in disgrace gave the support of his name, and he had nothing else to give, to the Opposi- tion. Later iii the year 1737, on i'ovcmbcr 20, Queen Caroline died. In 17-1'3 Walpole, weighed down liy the iinpopularity both of his reluctance to engage in a war with Spain and of his supposed remissness in conducting the operations of that war, was driven from oflice. llis successors formed a composite ministry in wliieli Walpole’s old colleagues and Walpole’s old oppon:-nts were alike to be found. The years which followed settled conclusively, at least for this reign, the constitutional question of the power of appointing ministers.‘ The war between Spain and England had broken out in 1739. In 1741 the death of the emperor Charles VI. brought on the war of the Austrian succession. The position of George II. as a Hanoverian prince drew him to the side of Maria Theresa through jealousy of the rising Prussian monarchy. Jealousy of France led England in the same direction, and in 1741 a subsidy of £300,000 was voted to )laria'l‘lieresa. The king himself went to Germany and attempted to carry on the war according to his own notions. Those notions led him to regard the safety of Hanover as of f'.11‘l1)n1‘0 importance than the wishes of England. Finding that a French army was about to march upon his German states, he concluded with France a treaty of neutrality for a year without consulting a single English niiiiistcr. In England the news was received with feelings of disgust. The expenditure of English money and troops was to be thrown uselessly away as soon as it appeared that llanover was in the slightest danger. In 1742 Walpole was no longer in oﬂice. Lord Wilmington, the nominal head of the ministry, was a mere cipher. The ablest and most energetic of his colleagues, Lord Carteret, attached himself specially to the king, and sought to maintain himself in power by his special favour and by brilliant achievements in diplomacy. In part at least by Carteret’s mediation the peace of Breslau was signed, by which Maria Theresa ceded Silesia to Frederick (July 28, 1742). Thus relieved on her northern frontier, she struck out vigorously towards the west. Bavaria was overrun by her troops. In the begin- iiing of 1743 one French army was driven across the Ithine. On June 27th another French army was de- feated by George II. in person at Dettiiigen. Victory brought elation to Maria Theresa. Her war of de- fcnce was turned into a war of vengeance. Bavaria was to be annexed. The French frontier was to be driven back. George II. and Carterct after some hesitation placed themselves on her 'side. Of the public opinion of the political classes in England they took no thought. Hano- veriaii troops were indeed to be employed in the war, but they were to be taken into British pay. Collisions between British and Hanoverian officers were frequent. A storm arose against the preference shown to Hanoverian interests. After a brief struggle Carteret, having become Lord Granville by his 1iiother’s death, was driven from oflice in November 1744. Henry Pelliam, who had become prime minister in the preceding year, thus saw himself established in power. By the acceptance of this ministry, the king acknowledged that the function of choosing a ministry and directing a policy had passed from his hands. In 1745 indeed he recalled Granville, but a few days were snﬂicieiit to convince him of the futility of his attempt, and the effort to exclude Pitt at a later time proved equally fruitless. Important as were the events of the remainder of the reign, therefore, they can hardly be grouped round the name