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  TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

  This is Volume 2 of 3. The first volume can be found in Project
  Gutenberg at: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57016

  The List of Illustrations has been copied from Volume I. This list
  describes six illustrations, two in each volume.

  As the Editor notes in his Preface in Volume I, “Some, though very
  few, coarse expressions, have been suppressed by the Editor, and the
  vacant spaces filled up by asterisks.” There is one such occurrence
  in this volume (on page 205). Some omitted text is indicated by * * *
  (on page 416.)

  The Editor has also inserted the occasional [word] in brackets, when
  that makes the passage more sensible.

  Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.

  A superscript is denoted by ^x or ^{xx}, for example M^R.

  Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have been
  placed at the end of each chapter.

  Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.




  MEMOIRS

  OF THE REIGN OF

  KING GEORGE THE SECOND.


  VOL. II.


[Illustration: M^R. FOX.

London, Henry Colburn, 1846.]




  MEMOIRS

  OF THE REIGN OF

  KING GEORGE THE SECOND.


  BY

  HORACE WALPOLE,

  YOUNGEST SON OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE, EARL OF ORFORD.


  EDITED, FROM THE ORIGINAL MSS.

  WITH A PREFACE AND NOTES,

  BY THE LATE

  LORD HOLLAND.


  Second Edition, Revised.

  _WITH THE ORIGINAL MOTTOES._


  VOL. II.


  LONDON:
  HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER,
  GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
  1847.




CONTENTS

OF

THE SECOND VOLUME.


             CHAPTER I.

  A. D.                                                         PAGE

  1755.  Endeavours for Peace with France in vain                  2

         Duke of Dorset removed; Lord Hartington made
           Lord-Lieutenant                                         3

         Debate on King Charles’s Martyrdom                     _ib._

         Affair of Sheriffs-Depute in Scotland, and Debates
           thereon                                                 4

         Ireland                                                  10

         History of the Mitchel Election                          11

         Scotch Sheriff-Depute Bill                               14

         History of Earl Poulet                                   18

         Preparations for War                                     19

         Ireland                                                _ib._

         Preparations for War in France                           20

         King’s Journey to Hanover                              _ib._

         Duke of Cumberland at head of Regency                    21

         Prospects of War                                         22

         Affairs of Ireland                                       23


             CHAPTER II.

  1755.  Commencement of the War                                  27

         War with France                                          28

         War in America                                           29

         Author avoids detailing Military events minutely         30

         Defeat and Death of General Braddock                     31

         Events at Sea                                            32

         Spain neutral                                            33

         Fears for Hanover                                      _ib._

         Negotiations at Hanover. Treaties made there             34

         Dissensions in Ministry and Royal Family                 36

         Disunion of Fox and Pitt                                 37

         Affairs of Leicester House                               39

         King arrives                                           _ib._

         Ministers endeavour to procure support in Parliament     41

         Fox made Secretary of State                              43

         Resignations and Promotions                              44

         Both Ministers insincere and discontented                45

         Sir William Johnson’s Victory                            46

         Accession of Bedford Party                             _ib._

         The Parliament meets                                     47

         Address in Lords                                         48

         New Opposition of Pitt, &c.                              50

         Debates on the Treaties                                _ib._

         Pitt &c. dismissed                                       62

         Sir George Lyttelton Chancellor of the Exchequer         63

         Complaint of Mr. Fox’s Circular to Members of
           Parliament                                           _ib._

         Debate on Fox’s Circular Letter                          65

         Debates on number of Seamen                              67


             CHAPTER III.

  1755.  Earthquake at Lisbon                                     77

         Debates on a Prize Bill                                  78

         Death of the Duke of Devonshire                          86

         Debates on the Army                                    _ib._

         Remarks on the above Debate                              96

         Debates on a new Militia Bill                            97


             CHAPTER IV.

  1755.  Debates on the Treaties                                 103

         Affair of Hume Campbell and Pitt                        107

         Changes in the Administration settled                   139

         Lord Ligonier and Duke of Marlborough                  _ib._

         Further Changes and new Appointments                    140

         Lord Barrington and Mr. Ellis                           141

         Pensions granted to facilitate Changes in Ministry      143

         Parliamentary Eloquence                                _ib._

         History of Oratory. Account and comparison of Orators   144


             CHAPTER V.

  1756.  Parliament                                              150

         Negotiations with France                               _ib._

         Accommodation with the King of Prussia                  152

         Parliament                                             _ib._

         Affair of Admiral Knowles                              _ib._

         Supplies                                                153

         Grants to North America                                 154

         Parliament and Parties                                 _ib._

         Hessians sent for                                       155

         Mischiefs produced by Marriage Act                     _ib._

         Prevot’s Regiment                                       156

         Debate on Prevot’s Regiment                             157

         Author’s Speech on Swiss Regiments                      163

         Debate on Swiss Regiments continued                     170

         Affair of Fox and Charles Townshend                     172

         Divisions                                               174

         Swiss Regiment Bill opposed in all its stages          _ib._

         Swiss Regiment Bill passed the Commons and Lords        175

         Anecdote of Madame Pompadour                            176

         Debates on Budget and Taxes                             177

         New Taxes                                              _ib._


              CHAPTER VI.

  1756.  Tax on Plate                                            179

         Tranquillity restored in Ireland                        183

         Hessians and Hanoverians sent for                       184

         Private Bill for a new Road, and Dissensions thereupon  186

         Hessians                                                187

         Hanoverians                                             188

         Debate on Hanoverians                                  _ib._

         French attack Minorca                                   190

         Militia Bill                                            191

         Vote of Credit                                         _ib._

         Debates on the Prussian Treaty                          197

         War declared                                            201

         Militia Bill in Lords                                  _ib._

         Parliament Prorogued                                    202

         Troops raised by Individuals                            203

         The Prince of Wales of age                              204

         History of Lord Bute’s favour                          _ib._

         Scheme of taking the Prince from his Mother             206


             CHAPTER VII.

  1756.  Minorca                                                 209

         Character of Richelieu and Blakeney                     210

         Siege of Minorca                                        212

         Incapacity of Administration                            213

         Reinforcements from Gibraltar refused                   214

         French Reports from Minorca                             215

         Public Indignation                                     _ib._

         Admiral Byng’s Despatch                                 217

         Remarks on the Character of Government                  218

         The Empress-Queen joins with France                     220

         Conclusion of the Law-suit about New Park               221

         Continuation of the proceedings with the Prince
           of Wales                                              221

         Death of the Chief Justice Rider, and designation
           of Murray                                             223

         Loss of Minorca                                         225

         Proceedings on Loss of Minorca                          227

         General Fowke tried                                     229

         Addresses on the Loss of Minorca                        230

         Revolution in Sweden                                    231

         Deduction of the Cause of the War in Germany            232

         German Ministers                                        233

         Bruhl                                                  _ib._

         Kaunitz                                                 234

         Views and Conduct of the Courts of Dresden and Vienna   235

         Character of the Czarina                                236

         League of Russia, Austria, and Saxony                   238

         King of Prussia apprized of the League against him     _ib._

         King of Prussia endeavours to secure Peace              240

         Invasion of Saxony by the King of Prussia               241

         Dresden Conquered, and the Archives searched by
           the Prussians                                         242

         Campaign in Saxony                                      243


             CHAPTER VIII.

  1756.  Affairs at Home                                         245

         Mr. Byng publishes a Defence                            246

         Effect of Byng’s Pamphlet                               247

         Loss of Oswego                                          248

         Affair of the Hanoverian Soldier at Maidstone          _ib._

         The King admits Lord Bute into the Prince’s Family      249

         Fox discontented with Newcastle, and insists
           on resigning                                          251

         Precarious state of the Ministry                        252

         Lord Grenville takes Fox’s resignation to the King      253

         Fox, irresolute, applies to the Author                  254

         Author’s motives in declining to interfere              255

         Fox has an Audience                                     256

         Pitt’s objections and demands                           257

         Prince of Wales’s new Household                         258

         Pitt visits Lady Yarmouth                               259

         State of Parties                                        260

         Duke of Newcastle determines to resign                  262

         Pitt declines acting with Fox                          _ib._

         Negotiations for the formation of a new Ministry        263

         Fox labours to obstruct the formation of a Ministry     268

         The designs of Fox defeated                             269

         Duke of Devonshire accepts the Treasury                _ib._

         New Ministry                                            270

         Duke of Newcastle resigns                               272

         The Chancellor resigns                                  273

         The changes settled                                     274

         Pitt Minister                                           275

         Parliament meets                                        276


             CHAPTER IX.

  1757.  Character of the Times                                  278

         Contest between the Parliament and Clergy in France     279

         France                                                  280

         King of France stabbed                                  281

         Torture and execution of Damiens                        282

         The King compliments Louis on his escape                283

         Trial of Admiral Byng                                   284

         Admiral Byng’s sentence, and the behaviour of the
           Court-Martial                                         287

         Author’s impressions                                    288

         Sentence of Court-Martial on Byng                       289

         Representation of Court-Martial                         292

         Remarks on Byng’s case                                  293

         Two Highland Regiments raised                           300

         Ordnance Estimates                                      301

         Guinea Lottery                                         _ib._

         Militia Bill                                            302

         Ordnance                                                303


             CHAPTER X.

  1757.  Baker’s Contract                                        304

         Parliamentary Inquiries limited to Minorca              305

         Byng’s Sentence produces various impressions            306

         The Sentence of the Court-Martial referred to
           the Judges                                            307

         Conduct of the Judges on the Case referred to them      308

         Conduct of Fox                                          309

         The Admiralty sign the Sentence                         311

         The Sentence notified to the House of Commons           312

         Mr. Pitt demands Money for Hanover                      313

         Lord G. Sackville declares for Pitt                     314

         Motives of Lord G. Sackville                            315

         Approaching Execution of Byng                           317

         House of Commons                                        318

         Sir Francis Dashwood animadverts on Byng’s Sentence    _ib._

         Debate on Byng’s Sentence                              _ib._

         Some applications to the King for mercy                 326

         Members of Court-Martial desirous to be absolved from
           their Oaths                                           327

         Author urges Keppel to apply to House of Commons       _ib._

         Author promotes an application to House of Commons      328

         Sir Francis Dashwood applies for Mr. Keppel            _ib._

         Keppel’s application to House of Commons               _ib._

         Debate on Keppel’s application                          329

         Keppel’s application considered in Cabinet              331

         The King’s Message on respiting Byng                    332

         Breach of Privilege in the King’s Message               332

         Debate on the King’s Message                           _ib._

         Bill to release Court-Martial from Oath                 335

         Sensations excited by proceedings in House of Commons   341

         Holmes and Geary disavow Keppel                         342

         Further debate on Court-Martial Bill                    344

         Court-Martial Bill passes House of Commons              350


             CHAPTER XI.

  1757.  Debate in Lords                                         351

         Debate in Lords on proposal to examine the Members
           of Court-Martial                                      354

         Court-Martial ordered to attend House of Lords          358

         Examination of Court-Martial in House of Lords          359

         Bill debated and dropped in House of Lords              366

         Result of Proceedings in Parliament                     367

         Petition for Mercy from City intended and dropped       368

         Death of Admiral Byng                                   369

         Reflections on Admiral Byng’s behaviour                 370

         Rochester Election                                      372

         Death of Archbishop Herring                             374

         Abolition of the Office of Commissioners of
           Wine-Licences                                         375

         Intrigues to dismiss Mr. Pitt, and form a new Ministry  376

         The Duke goes to Hanover to command the Army            378

         Change in Ministry                                      379

                                  ------
  APPENDIX                                                       383




ILLUSTRATIONS.


  VOL. I.

  GEORGE II.                                  _Frontispiece_.

  MR. PELHAM                                          p. 378


  VOL. II.

  MR. FOX                                     _Frontispiece_.

  DUKE OF BEDFORD                                        270


  VOL. III.

  MR. PITT                                    _Frontispiece_.

  DUKE OF NEWCASTLE                                      182




MEMOIRS

OF THE REIGN OF

KING GEORGE THE SECOND.




1755.

      Invenies etiam disjecti membra.--_Hor._




CHAPTER I.

  Fruitlessness of our efforts to maintain Peace with France
  at the commencement of the year 1755--Lord Hartington, Lord
  Lieutenant of Ireland--Debate on King Charles’s Martyrdom--Scotch
  Sheriff-Depute Bill--Speeches in the House of Commons--The St.
  Michael Election--History of Earl Powlett--Preparations for
  War--The King’s Journey to Hanover--Duke of Cumberland at the
  head of the Regency--Affairs of Ireland.


The tranquillity of the Administration continued to be disturbed
by repeated accounts of great armaments preparing in France for
the West Indies; of which General Wall was believed to have given
us the first intimation. Their marine grew formidable, but their
insults unwisely outstripped their increasing power. We took
the alarm; two regiments were ordered from Ireland; and by the
beginning of February a fleet of thirty ships of the line was
fitted out with equal spirit and expedition. Lord Anson had great
merit in that province where he presided. The Earl of Hertford, a
man of most unblemished morals, but rather too gentle and cautious
to combat so presumptuous a Court, was named Embassador to Paris,
whither Monsieur de Mirepoix was desired to write, that if they
meaned well, we would send a man of the first quality and character.

The Duke of Marlborough succeeded Lord Gower in the Privy Seal,
and the Duke of Rutland, a nobleman of great worth and goodness,
returned to Court, which he had long quitted, yet without enlisting
in any faction, though governed too much by a mercenary brother;
and was appointed Lord Steward.

France sent a haughty answer, accompanied with these inadmissible
proposals; that each nation should destroy all their forts on the
south of the Ohio, which would leave them in possession of all
the north side of that river; and whereas the Five Nations were
allotted to the division of England by the Treaty of Utrecht, and
the French had built forts amongst them contrary to that Treaty,
and we agreeably to it, they demanded that we should destroy
such forts, while they should be permitted to maintain theirs.
Lord Hertford’s journey was suspended; at the same time that his
brother, Colonel Conway, rose merely on the basis of his merit
to a distinguished situation, entirely unsought, uncanvassed.
The Ministry had perceived that it was unsafe to venture Ireland
again under the Duke of Dorset’s rule; and they had fixed on Lord
Hartington to succeed, as the most devoted to their views, and as
the least likely, from the wariness of his temper, to throw himself
into the scale of either faction. He refused to accept so uncommon
an honour, unless Mr. Conway, with whom he was scarce acquainted,
would consent to accompany him as Secretary and Minister. Mr.
Conway’s friends would not let him hesitate.

January 29th.--Mr. Fox having proposed that the House should sit
the next day, to read some Bill for which the time pressed, the
Speaker urged the Act of Parliament that sets apart that day for
the commemoration of what is ridiculously termed _King Charles’s
Martyrdom_. It occasioned a warm squabble between the Speaker and
Fox, and between Sir George Lyttelton[1] and General Mordaunt;
and though Sir Francis Dashwood talked of moving for a repeal of
the Act, the Speaker prevailed for observing the solemnity. One
can scarce conceive a greater absurdity than retaining the three
holidays dedicated to the house of Stuart. Was the preservation of
James the First a greater blessing to England than the destruction
of the Spanish Armada, for which no festival is established? Are
we more or less free for the execution of King Charles? Are we at
this day still guilty of his blood? When is the stain to be washed
out? What sense is there in thanking Heaven for the restoration of
a family, which it so soon became necessary to expel again? What
action of Charles the Second proclaimed him the--Sent of God? In
fact, does not the superstitious jargon, rehearsed on those days,
tend to annex an idea of sainthood to a worthless and exploded
race? and how easy to make the populace believe, that there was
a divine right inherent in a family, the remarkable events of
whose reigns are melted into our religion, and form a part of our
established worship!

February 20th.--The new Lord Advocate of Scotland moved that
the Bill, passed seven years before, for subjecting their
Sheriffs-depute to the King’s pleasure during that term, and which
was on the point of expiring, after which they were to hold their
offices for life, should continue some time longer on the present
foot. It was opposed with great eloquence and knowledge by one
Elliot, a young Scotch civilian, lately chosen into Parliament. The
measure had been one of the steps taken after the late Rebellion,
to create greater dependence on the Crown, and to empower it to
commit places of trust to more loyal hands, as it should be found
necessary.

26th.--The House went again upon the Scotch Bill. Charles Townshend
warmly opposed the Ministerial plan, urged that the independence of
the Sheriffs-depute was a case connected with every thing sacred,
and hoped that the most habitually-attached to a Ministry, who are
generally the most unfeeling, would think on this. What signifies
the best constitution, if the Judges [are] not independent, and
their judgments [not] impartial? If the people are oppressed, what
matters it by whom? That this alteration was a breach of faith to
Scotland--that these Sheriffs are formed according to the claim
of right, and to the Act of Settlement; would not the King have
sufficient power over them if they were to hold their offices only
_quam diù se benè gesserint_? that he was sorry to see _that_ basis
shaken, on which this Administration stands, or it ought to stand
on none. That this will be regarded with fear and amaze; with
fear, for the people will not know what is to follow, or whether
this is not an attempt to try how far they will bear: with amaze,
for Murray had pronounced that there was not one Jacobite left in
Scotland. That he neither meaned ambition nor courted popularity,
but looked upon himself as an executor of those who had planned the
Revolution.

Lord George Sackville replied well, and ridiculed the importance
with which Mr. Townshend had treated so immaterial a business, the
utmost extent of the jurisdiction of the Sheriffs not extending
to decide finally upon property of above the value of 12_l._ Yet,
whoever had come into the House, not knowing the subject, would
have concluded that a question was agitating for taking away the
Judges from Westminster-hall. The lawyers, he said, were not agreed
as to the extent of their criminal jurisdiction: in cases of
treason, it is agreed, they have none. That the Sheriffs-depute,
if supported by military authority, might have suppressed the last
Rebellion. With such resources for good, and so tied up from ill,
would you not entrust the disposition of them with the Crown? The
more this family encroaches illegally, the more they lessen their
tenure in the Crown. But this measure was taken at the request of
the people of Scotland; have any there petitioned against it? Nor
is it a breach of faith, for one Parliament may correct the acts of
a preceding.

The Attorney-General laboured, in a speech extremely artful, to
convince the Speaker, whose Whig spirit had groaned over this
attempt, that it was no breach of the principles of the Revolution;
and he insisted that it was by no means the sense of Scotland, that
these little magistrates should be for life. He owned, that Judges,
who are to decide on questions of State, should be for life, as in
cases of treason, where it is not fit to trust the Crown with its
own revenge; in cases of charters, &c.; but it is not necessary to
be so strict in mere cases of _meum_ and _tuum_. Even Charles, and
James the Second, permitted other Judges to be for life, as the
Master of the Rolls, the Judge of the Marshalsea, &c., because the
Crown could remove trials into the King’s Bench.

This, with many more details of law, too long to rehearse, were
poorly answered by Lord Egmont; by Pitt, with great fire, in one
of his best-worded and most spirited declamations for liberty,
but which, like others of his fine orations, cannot be delivered
adequately without his own language; nor will they appear so
cold to the reader, as they even do to myself, when I attempt to
sketch them, and cannot forget with what soul and grace they were
uttered. He did not directly oppose, but wished rather to send the
Bill to the Committee, to see how it could be amended. Was glad
that Murray would defend the King, only with a salvo to the rights
of the Revolution; he commended his abilities, but tortured him
on his distinctions and refinements. He himself indeed had more
scruples; it might be a Whig delicacy--but even that is a solid
principle. He had more dread of arbitrary power dressing itself in
the long robe, than even of military power. When master principles
are concerned, he dreaded accuracy of distinction: he feared that
sort of reasoning: if you class everything, you will soon reduce
everything into a particular; you will then lose great general
maxims. Gentlemen may analyze a question till it is lost. If I can
show him, says Murray, that it is not My Lord Judge, but Mr. Judge,
I have got him into a class. For his part, could he be drawn to
violate liberty, it should be _regnandi causâ_, for this King’s
reigning. He would not recur for precedents to the diabolic divans
of the second Charles and James--he did not date his principles of
the liberty of this country from the Revolution: they are eternal
rights; and when God said, “_let justice be justice_,” he made it
independent. The Act of Parliament that you are going to repeal is
a proof of the importance of Sheriffs-depute: formerly they were
instruments of tyranny. Why is this attempted? is it to make Mr.
Pelham more regretted? He would have been tender of cramming down
the throats of people what they are averse to swallow. Whig and
Minister were conjuncts he always wished to see. He deprecated
those, who had more weight than himself in the Administration, to
drop this; or besought that they would take it for any term that
may comprehend the King’s life; for seven years, for fourteen,
though he was not disposed to weigh things in such golden scales.

Fox said, that he was undetermined, and would reserve himself for
the Committee; that he only spoke now, to show it was not crammed
down his throat; which was in no man’s power to do. That in the
Committee he would be free, which he feared Pitt had not left it
in his own power to be, so well he had spoken on one side. That he
reverenced liberty and Pitt, because nobody could speak so well on
its behalf.

Nugent made an impertinent and buffoon speech, though not without
argument, the tenour of which was to impeach professors of liberty,
who, he said, (and which _he_ surely could say on knowledge,)
always became bankrupts to the public. He perceived, he said,
that the House was impatient to rise--they were not worthy of
liberty!--yet, what were they to stay to hear? vague notions of
liberty, which my Lord Egmont could even admire in Poland, and in
the dungeons of the Barons! The Craftsman[2] and Common Sense,
which had often very little common sense, had wound the notions of
liberty too high. That he had read the Craftsman over again two
years ago, and had found it poor stuff! that this was no more a
breach of public faith, than the innovations which had been made in
the Act of Settlement. Though the House sat till ten at night, no
division ensued.

27th.--The Chancellor and Newcastle acquainted the Duke of Dorset
that he was to return no more to Ireland. He bore the notification
ill, and produced a letter from the Primate, which announced
a calmer posture of affairs, and mentioned a meeting of the
Opposition, at which no offensive healths had been suffered. Lord
George Sackville, who was present, had more command of himself,
and owned, that one temperate meeting did not afford sufficient
grounds to say, that animosities were composed; and he agreed to
the prudential measure of their not going over again. His father
rejoined, that if the situation of affairs should prove to be
mended, he hoped his honour might be saved, and he be permitted to
return to his government. The next morning Andrew Stone conceded
for his brother the Primate, who, he owned, was sufficiently
elevated, and would be better without power. At last the Duke of
Dorset begged a little respite, and that the King might not yet be
acquainted with the scheme. He wanted to fill up Malone’s place of
Prime Serjeant, and to obtain the dismission of Clements.

The next business in Parliament did not deserve to be noticed for
any importance in itself; the scenes, to which it gave rise