VI. CHAP. in his Majesty's service, were more than suspected of taking money for recommendations to the King, and making a shameful traffic of his favour. 1716. But by far the greatest share of the public odium fell upon the King's foreign mistresses. The chief of these, Herrengard Melesina Von Schulenburg, was created by his Majesty Duchess of Munster in the Irish peerage, and afterwards Duchess of Kendal in the English. She had no great share of beauty; but with George the First a bulky figure was sufficient attraction. To intellect she could make still less pretension. Lord Chesterfield, who had married her niece, tells us that she was little better than an idiot; and this testimony is confirmed by the curious fact, that one morning, after the death of her royal lover, she fancied that he flew into her window in the form of a raven, and accordingly gave the bird a most respectful reception. She affected great devotion, and sometimes attended several Lutheran chapels in the course of the same day; perhaps with the view of countenancing a report which prevailed, though I believe without foundation, that the King had married her with the left hand, according to the German custom. Her rapacity was very great and very successful. After the resignation of the Duke of Somerset, no Master of the Horse was appointed for several years, the profits of the place being paid to the Duchess; and there is no doubt that her secret emoluments for patronage and recommendations far surpassed VI. any outward account of her receipts. Sir Robert CHAP. Walpole more than once declared of her (but this was after the death of George the First), that she would have sold the King's honour for a shilling advance to the best bidder. The second mistress, Sophia Baroness Kilmanseck, created Countess of Darlington, was younger and more handsome than her rival; but, like her, unwieldy in person, and rapacious in character. She had no degree either of talent or information, it being apparently the aim of George, in all his amours, to shun with the greatest care the overpowering dissertations of a learned lady.* This sort of feeling is well expressed in the pretended memoirs of Madame du Barry, "J'aimais à les voir," she says of two blockheads; "leur entretien me reposait l' imagination." (Vol. i. p. 147.) 1716. CHAPTER VII. CHAP. THE journey of the King from England was VII. marked by important negotiations in foreign 1716. affairs, and by a violent schism in the domestic administration. Both of these, as involving in no ordinary degree the safety of the country and the character of its principal statesmen, require from the historian a particular detail. It has already been noticed, that at the accession of George the First, he had not a single secure ally but the States-General, and his son-in law, the King of Prussia. Even the latter was frequently estranged from him, and every other power in Europe seemed either indifferent or hostile. The Pretender, backed by a large party at home, stationed in Lorraine, as on a neighbouring watch-tower, ready to descend at every favourable opportunity, and secretly assisted with gold from Spain and arms from France, had, since that time, shaken the state to its foundations in a most dangerous rebellion. Nor had the suppression of that rebellion by any means quelled the spirit or blasted VII. 1716. the hopes of his party. It was every where raising CHAP. its head, and preparing for a fresh attempt; whilst, the other hand, the people at large were murring at the oppressive and unwonted burthen a standing army, which, therefore, it seemed ually dangerous to disband or to maintain. On e whole, it plainly appeared that it was hopeless expect any restoration of quiet and security, less France, our nearest and most formidable eighbour, and the power that could afford by r the greatest aid to the Pretender, should be fectually detached from his cause. Now, to effect this necessary object, either of two plans might be pursued. The first and most obvious was to follow up the principles of the Grand Alliance, and form a close connection with the States-General and the Emperor, so as to compel France to dismiss the Pretender, and his principal partisans, Mar and Ormond, from all her dominions or dependencies. But to this course there were strong, and indeed invincible objections. The protracted struggle of the Cabinets of Vienna and the Hague, with respect to the Barrier Treaty, and the bitter animosity which had thereby arisen on both sides, prevented any close and cordial union between them. Nor was the Emperor friendly to King George, as Elector of Hanover; he viewed with peculiar jealousy the claims upon Bremen and Verden, which will presently be noticed; and without relinquishing these, it would have been impossible at that juncture to enter into Y VII. CHAP. a thorough concert of measures with the Cabinet of Vienna. The States-General, it is true, had no 1716. such jealousy; but their administration, once so active and able, was daily lapsing more and more into weakness and imbecility; "it is now," 66 says Horace Walpole, the British Minister at the See his Life by Coxe, p. 12. + To Mr. Drummond, August 7. 1711. |