1717.

66

The representations of Colonel Stanhope and of M. de Nancré were met by Alberoni first with anger, and afterwards with dissimulation. In one of his private letters he inveighs against "certain unprincipled men, who "would cut and pare states and kingdoms as though they were so many Dutch cheeses;"* nevertheless, after a vain struggle for the cession of Sardinia, he sullenly consented to open a negotiation on the basis of the proposed preliminaries. But it soon became apparent that his object was only to gain time and to spread divisions. Under his orders, the most active measures were in progress for another armament. Ships of war were built in the Spanish ports, or bought in foreign ones†; the founderies of cannon at Pamplona, and the manufactories of arms in Biscay, sent forth the din of preparation; soldiers were enlisted in all quarters; the irregular valour of the Miquelets in Catalonia was raised and improved by discipline; and no less than six regiments. were formed from those hardy mountaineers. In order to obtain money for this armament Alberoni did not, as he boasts himself, lay any tax upon the people; but mortgaged some revenues, enforced the strictest economy, sold some offices at Court, and stinted the Queen's personal expenses, insomuch that Her Majesty afterwards complained of not having been allowed "sufficient to

who says of one of its churches, "Sainte Anne qui est d'un côté "du berceau de l'Enfant Jesus, est habillée comme une vieille dame, d'une grande robe de velours avec des dentelles d'or. Elle est assise sur un carreau à la manière du pays, et tient son chapelet à la main. St. Joseph est à côté de Sainte Anne vêtu à l'Espagnole, les culottes le pourpoint et le manteau de damas noir, avec la golille, les bas de "soie avec la rose de rubans de la même couleur, les cheveux partagés "sur le côté de la tête et poudrés, des grandes lunettes sur le nez, le chapeau à forme plate sous le bras gauche, l'épée de longueur, et le "poignard avec un très-grand chapelet à la main droite !" (Voyages, vol. i. p. 23.) In the same volume is a curious story of the monks of Cadiz, who, it seems, never attended the midnight Mass prescribed by their rules, although the bells for it were still rung every night, as they said, "pour l'édification du peuple!"

66

*To Mr. Bubb. Printed from the Melcombe Papers in the original French in Seward's Anecdotes, vol. iii. p. 255. ed. 1804.

This Court has contracted for the timber and all other necessaries "for the building of three ships in Catalonia, and eight in Cantabria, "and six from 60 to 80 guns they have bought of the Dutch; so that

"provide common necessaries” * words which, from such a quarter, may perhaps mean only jewels and trinkets! In short, there was no doubt that Alberoni persevered in his aspiring hopes, and that the return of summer would be marked by a renewal of his warlike enterprises.

To withstand the confederacy of France England and Holland, and to dare at the same time the enmity of the Court of Vienna, might have appalled the boldest Spanish statesman in the proudest days of the monarchy; but, even in its decline and abasement, did not daunt the lofty soul of Alberoni. His active armaments at home were combined with skilful negotiations abroad. He enticed Victor Amadeus by holding out a prospect of the Milanese as an equivalent for Sicily; he encouraged the Turks to continue their war against the Emperor in spite of their defeats; he made overtures to Prince Ragotzky, the exiled Prince of Transylvania, and urged him to attempt the recovery of his dominions. In the north of Europe he adopted the views of Gortz, and had grounds to expect that Charles the Twelfth and the Czar, concluding a peace, and forgetting their old animosities, would combine against George the First for the restoration of the exiled family. The commercial jealousy of the Dutch was stirred anew by the intrigues of Alberoni. The factions in France were taken under his fostering care; he caballed to raise an insurrection of the discontented in Britanny, and of the Protestants in the Cevennes; and made overtures to the secret parties of the Jesuits, of the Parliaments, and of the Duke and Duchess du Maine. The convocation of the States-General, the immediate reformation of abuses, the speedy payment of the public debts all popular measures, and the more so as being some of them impracticable

were

they pretend to have a numerous squadron at sea next year. One "Castañeta, a sea officer, and a builder, is gone to Holland to take care of their purchase; these six ships they will certainly have, and, "if we allow them, six more." Mr. Bubb to Lord Stanhope, Nov. 14. 1717. Hardwicke Papers, vol. xxxvii.

*This was said in 1725. See Mr. Keene's despatch as quoted in Coxe's House of Bourbon, vol. ii. p. 392.

1717.

SPANISH INTRIGUES.

293

professed as objects by his emissaries; and the seeds were ready laid of a wide and alarming conspiracy.

But it was against England, as the soul and spirit of the whole confederacy, that the Cardinal more especially directed his batteries. Besides his northern negotiations, he entered into a direct correspondence with the Pretender, who, in consequence of the Triple Alliance, had been compelled to cross the Alps, and who had fixed his temporary residence at Rome. An expedition to the British coasts, conveying a sufficient body of troops, and to be headed by Ormond or by James himself, stood foremost amongst the schemes of Alberoni. Meanwhile he availed himself to the utmost of the divisions in England; his agents and creatures publishing specious declamations on the burden of taxes, the dangers of a standing army, the losses of trade which must follow a rupture with Spain, and other such popular topics; and finding, unhappily, not merely the Tories, but also some of the Whigs in opposition, eagerly second their efforts to agitate and inflame the public mind.

Such unwearied and combined exertions threatened the most serious danger, and required the most active measures; but before I come to the steps adopted by the British Government for its defence, I must resume the thread of our domestic affairs.

CHAPTER IX.

WHILE the coldness between George the First and his son had been merely a Court secret, or a public surmise, it produced comparatively little mischief; but when it grew into an avowed and open breach, followed by a change of residence, and authenticated by published letters, it became a much more momentous affair. The jealousy and suspicion of the King, the forwardness and caballing of the Prince, have been already mentioned in this narrative, and from a very slight spark, their smouldering resentments blazed high. On the christening of one of the Prince's children, the Prince had designed his uncle, the Duke of York, as godfather; but, by the King's commands, the Duke of Newcastle stood in that relation at the ceremony, not as proxy for the Duke of York, but in his own behalf. The Prince incensed at this insolence (so he called it), as soon as the ceremony was over, addressed Newcastle in very harsh and reproachful terms; and the King, offended at this want of respect, ordered his son to remain in his own apartments under arrest, and soon afterwards sent him his commands to quit St. James's. The Prince and Princess accordingly withdrew into the house of the Earl of Grantham, Lord Chamberlain to His Royal Highness. This frivolous dispute, in which the King was certainly severe, the Prince undutiful, and both childish, produced a total alienation between them during several years. A notice was issued, that no person who paid his respects to the Prince or Princess would be received at Court; they were deprived of their guard of honour and other distinctions; and the

*

*St. Simon, who is always fond of scandal, and not always solicitous as to its truth, does not scruple to say, "Jamais le père "n'avait pu souffrir ce fils, parcequ'il ne le croyait point à lui." (Mém. vol. xviii. p. 197. ed. 1829.)

1718.

SCARCITY OF SILVER.

29â

Secretary of State wrote a circular to the Foreign Ministers, giving an account of this whole transaction; nay, to such an extent did the Royal displeasure proceed, that George formed a scheme for obtaining an Act of Parliament by which the Prince, on coming to the throne, should be compelled to relinquish his German states. This project he afterwards laid before Lord Chancellor Parker; and it was only on the Chancellor's representations of its inexpediency and impracticability, that it was abandoned by His Majesty. On the other hand, the Prince, fixing his residence at Leicester House, openly raised the standard of opposition against his father.

The feverish anxiety produced by this schism in the Royal Family was very apparent during the whole of this Session. It was a subject never touched upon, but always feared and expected in a debate. On one occasion, when the House of Lords was very full and the Prince of Wales present, Lord North and Grey rose, as he said, “to take "notice of the great ferment that is in the nation." Here he made a pause, and his hearers were in no small pain and suspense as to what might follow; but Lord North soon relieved them by mentioning only the great scarcity of silver, and the consequent hindrance of trade.

This scarcity of silver was, in fact, one of the principal matters to which the Parliament of this year directed their attention. The reports on this subject of Sir Isaac Newton, as Master of the Mint, are still on record, and appear interesting from his name, if not from their contents. Lord Stanhope, in his official statement, as head of the Treasury, ascribed the scarcity of silver to three causes; first, the increasing luxury in relation to plate; secondly, the vast exports of bullion and other plate to the East Indies; thirdly, the clandestine trade that had lately been carried on of exporting silver and importing gold to and from Holland, Germany, and other countries. In support of these allegations Stanhope produced several papers, and, among the rest, one drawn up at the Custom House, by which it appeared that in 1717 the East India Company had exported near three millions of ounces of silver, which far exceeded the imports in that year; so that large quantities of silver specie must necessarily have been melted down, both to make up that export and