Period III. was, in fact, fo very anxious to prevent a rupture 1720 to 1727 with the Emperor, that he availed himself of the pacific fentiments of the duchefs of Kendal*, to counteract, by her influence over the king, the more violent and hoftile refolutions of Townf hend, who fupported the neceffity of vigorous measures. Secret articles of the treaty of Vienna dif. cuffed. It was obferved by the late earl of Hardwicke, that the merits of the treaty of Hanover entirely reft on the still undetermined points, whether the courts of Vienna and Madrid intended only to compofe their own quarrels, or alfo to take Gibraltar, and to impofe the Pretender on England, As thefe yet undecided points ftill exercife the fagacity, and give full fcope to the conjectures of native and foreign hiftorians, I fhall here observe, that the papers and documents submitted to my infpection, fully difplay the facts which prove the reality of the fecret articles, and which produced the public declarations of the king and minifters in parliament, that the Emperor and king of Spain proposed to attempt the recovery of Gibraltar, and the restoration of the Pretender, From a candid review and comparison of these accounts, we may draw this inference, that the king of Spain, urged by refentment, ambition, and interest, was ferious in his refolution to extort the ceffion of Gibraltar and Minorca, at all events; was prepared to employ his whole force against England to restore the Pretender; and *Correspondence. that 1725. that he fully depended on the co-operation of the Chapter 28. Emperor, to whom he fent, in fourteen months, 1,340,000 piftoles; and would have remitted more, had the galleons arrived. To thefe facts, may be added the frequent conferences of Or· mond and Liria, fon of the duke of Berwick, with the Spanish, Imperial, and Ruffian ministers; the plan of an invafion by Liria; the affembling of troops on the coaft of Gallicia; the engagement of officers for the Pretender's fervice; the redemption of the ftands of arms which the Pretender had pawned at Cadiz; the distinguished reception of the duke of Wharton, as agent of the Pretender, with the enfigns of the garter, by him recently conferred; and his miffion to Vienna for the purpose of concerting a plan of operation. At this crifis, the British embaffador was treated with flight and indignity; he was, to ufe his own expreffion, avoided by the grandees like a peftilence. The Jacobite air, "The king fhall enjoy his own again," was infultingly played at court, and the duke of Liria did not fcruple to declare, that he hoped it would foon be a crime in Spain to mention George the First as king of England*. But a diftinction has been made between the king of Spain and the Emperor, on whose behalf it has been afferted, that fome reports were afterwards found to have been exaggerated, and fome imputed projects never intended to be carried into Mr. Stanhope's difpatches from Spain, 1725. Harrington and Walpole Papers. See Correfpondence, Article Ripperda. 1 Period III. execution, The Emperor himself positively denied 1720 to 1727 that he had ever entertained ferious defigns of affifting the Pretender, and declared that he had only lured the queen of Spain with the hopes of giving his daughters in marriage to her two fons, which he never meant to realize. Yet at the time there were strong reafons to believe that he encou raged the Pretender and his agents. The Emperor's great object was to establish the Oftend company, and to obtain the guaranty of the praginatic fanction, which England and France declined, and with that view, to force George the First to a compliance, by affecting to co-operate with Spain in favour of the Pretender, and by threatening an invafion of the electorate of Hanover, Yet there were fufficient appearances to juftify the apprehenfions of the king, and to induce him to believe that the Emperor was fincere in his defigns of joining Spain with all his forces, and that he would only be deterred by a counteralliance, Ripperda faid publicly, that by this clofe union of Spain and Austria, the two fovereigns would avenge the infults they had received; and the partifans of the Emperor boasted, that as he was no longer alarmed for Italy, there was no power in the empire who could venture to oppofe the dictates of their mafter in matters of religion or otherwise *. The Auftrian minifter publicly boasted, that the Emperor would give laws to Europe; that he would now poffefs the fole and St. Saphorin to lord Townshend, Vienna, 11th May 1725. 1725. entire direction of the court of Spain, and that in Chapter 28. future the king must be obliged to him for the continuance of the harmony between England and Spain, and for the fecurity of the commercial advantages ftipulated with that crown *. Count Sinzendorf also faid to Petkum, "Let the king take care of himself, for we know that the people of England are beginning to be tired of him." The Emperor was weak enough to make an unconftitutional diftinction between the king and parliament, and boasted to count Oropoffa, that by offering to the parliament the exclusive commerce to Spain and the Indies, he should not only obtain the reftitution of Gibraltar, but feduce England from France. My minifters," he added, "are unanimous; I am defirous to favour the people and commerce of England; but Gibraltar and Minorca must first be restored .' As the Emperor was at this time known to govern the councils of the court of Madrid, and the ftricteft union appeared to be maintained between them, it was not poffible for minifters to distinguish between his profeffions and intentions; nor does a subsequent avowal of duplicity on his part, inculpate those who, acting under the impulfe of opinions fo well founded, formed that treaty which deterred the king of Spain and his allies from exerting themselves in the execution of those projects, which, if once accompanied with fuccefs, might have been pursued to an extent not origi * Duke of Newcastle to Mr. Stanhope, May 4th, 1725, O. S. St. Saphorin to lord Townshend, Vienna, May 30th, 1725. nally Period III. nally intended by the Emperor. Such were the 1720 to 1727. grounds of alarm which induced Walpole, though not to approve the proceedings in all refpects, yet to justify and to fupport the treaty in parlia ment. CHAPTER THE TWENTY-NINTH: 1725-1727. The King's dangerous Paffage to England.-The Treaty of Hanover ap- over. The king's TH dangerous paffage to England. HE prefence of the king being now neceffary in England, for the purpose of laying the treaty before parliament, he quitted Hanover on the 29th of December, after a fhort ftay in Holland, embarked at Helvoetfluys, on the 1ft of January, O. S. at one in the afternoon; and after a violent ftorm, which continued three days, during which he was expofed to imminent danger, he landed on the 3d at Rye. To the king's escape, the author of the Night Thoughts alludes in his seventh Satire, which concludes with a high eulogium on Sir Robert Walpole. While fea and air, great Brunswick! fhook our state, Hang |