appeared daily, was the first regular opposition newspaper, and the frequency of its publication and the extent of its sale prove that an increase in the reading public had followed the abolition of the censorship of the press. Its principles were those of every thoroughgoing opposition paper-i.e. it attacked the government of the day impartially, whatever it did. If Walpole advocated peace, it said he was bent on sacrificing the best interests of his country; if he remonstrated with foreign powers, it declared that he was dragging the country into war. Such methods seem to be inevitable in party warfare. As David Hume wrote in 1741, the enemies of a minister are sure to charge him with the greatest enormities, both in domestic and foreign management; and there is no meanness or crime, of which, in their judgment, he is not capable'; on the other hand, his partisans 'celebrate his wise, steady and moderate conduct of his administration.' Indeed the Craftsman was only the forerunner of a long band of successors. To win favour with the multitude the opposition assumed what Dryden called the 'all-atoning name' of Patriot.

The headquarters of the new party was Leicester House, the residence of the Prince of Wales. It was one of the peculiarities of the early The Prince Hanoverian sovereigns that they always quarrelled with their of Wales. heirs. George the First was jealous of his son, who, being able to speak English, had better opportunities than his father of making himself popular, and the amount of his allowance was a constant source of dispute. The discredit of this must be divided equally between the king and the prince, but as matters then stood the opposition between them must be regarded as a good thing for the country. Had father and son been united, any one who was discontented with the court or the minister would have been sorely tempted to ally himself with the Pretender. As it was, he merely allied himself with the Prince of Wales; and even the Tories, though for the most part Jacobites at heart, found themselves drawn towards what thus became the natural centre of opposition. Moreover, in those days the influence of the king in choosing between rival members of the same party was still unimpaired, and Pulteney hoped that by making himself agreeable to the prince he was making his own selection secure when his patron became king.

Affairs.

At home these intrigues occupied the chief attention; but abroad, in spite of all his care, Walpole was unable to avoid taking part in a war Foreign which arose from the annoyance felt by the Spaniards when Louis xv. was married to Maria Leczinska of Poland, and a little Spanish princess who was being educated in Paris as the future queen of France was unceremoniously sent home. The result was the First Treaty of Vienna, an alliance against France between the emperor

and the king of Spain. As Great Britain was now friendly to France, she was included in their enmity, and a scheme was formed for the recapture of Gibraltar, and for the restoration of the Stuarts. This movement was met in 1725 by a counter-alliance between England, France, and Prussia, known as the treaty of Hanover. Happily the war was kept within narrow limits, and, so far as Great Britain was concerned, was confined to the defence of Gibraltar, and to the sending of an English fleet to the West Indies, under Captain Hosier, with orders to remain strictly on the defensive. Nevertheless, the excitement caused among the Jacobites and their ill-concealed hopes of a foreign invasion, showed conclusively how easily war abroad might be followed by insurrection at home. Seeing this, Walpole did all he could to bring hostilities to a conclusion, and, in 1729, peace was restored by the treaty of Seville.

During the progress of the war George 1. died suddenly at Hanover on June 10, 1727, leaving behind him the name of a cautious and wellmeaning sovereign, who, without any shining qualities, Death of had contrived during his thirteen years' reign to steer George, safely through the difficulties of party and parliamentary warfare, and to leave his family in safe possession of the British throne.

CHAPTER II

GEORGE II.: 1727-1760

Born 1683; married 1705, Caroline of Anspach.

France.

Louis xv., d. 1774.

Walpole retains power.

CHIEF CONTEMPORARY PRINCES

Emperor.

Charles VI., d. 1740.

Prussia. Frederick the Great, 1740-1786.

Walpole in Power-The Wesleyans-The Opposition-Spanish War and Fall of Walpole-Carteret in Power-Foreign Affairs-Henry Pelham-The '45-Rise of Pitt and Fox-Domestic Affairs-The Seven Years' War-Triumphs of Pitt. It was expected that the accession of the new king would be followed by a change of ministry, and his first act was to dismiss Walpole, and to offer his post to Sir Spencer Compton, speaker of the House of Commons. Compton, however, who is described as 'a dull, heavy man,' had little aptitude for business, and so little readiness that he actually asked Walpole to assist him in composing the short address which the new king was to deliver to the privy council. Of course Walpole complied, but took care to let the new queen know what he had done; and Caroline, who knew Walpole's worth, soon pointed out to her husband the absurdity of Compton's position. Walpole also let it be known that, if he had been continued in power, it had been his intention to propose a large increase in the civil list; and George soon perceived that he had little to gain and much to lose by dismissing the old minister. Accordingly, before forty-eight hours had elapsed, Walpole was reinstated; Compton's house, which since his eleva tion had been crowded by politicians, eager to place their services at his disposal, was again deserted; and Walpole repaid the king by an extra grant of £130,000 a year, and by carrying a declaration through the House of Commons that the death of the late sovereign was 'a loss to the nation, which your majesty alone could possibly repair.'

The new king was now in his forty-fourth year. In all respects he Character of was a smaller man than his father, and had less general George. capacity for affairs. At the same time he had something of his father's capacity for distinguishing ability in others, and when he

had selected his friends was not easily turned against them. In foreign politics his first care was for the interests of Hanover; in home affairs he took little interest, his most active enthusiasm being for the army. He had fought bravely under Marlborough at Oudenarde, and believed that he had talents for command.

Queen Caroline, on the other hand, was a much more remarkable personage. As a girl she had shown her independence of character by stoutly refusing to marry a Roman Catholic; and on arriving Character of in England she rapidly made herself mistress of English Queen Čaroline. politics, and of the true character of the chief public men. She interested herself also in literature and learning; offered a place in the household to Gay, who had written his Fables for the diversion of her little son William, afterwards duke of Cumberland; made the acquaintance of Swift; delighted in metaphysical discussions; and was an appreciative patron of the musician Handel. Over the king she exercised, though at the expense of much trouble, an almost unbounded influence. Indeed, so long as she lived, it was she and not her husband who really directed the politics of the court; and as she had a perfect understanding with Walpole, his position during her life was impregnable. At the accession, Walpole's chief attention was engrossed by foreign affairs; and at home he confined himself, as before, to carrying on the routine business of the country. The one question pressing Walpole's for immediate attention was the position of the Noncon- policy. formists in reference to the Test and Corporation Acts. These Stanhope would have ventured to repeal; but Walpole was far too much alive to the danger of raising the old cry of the church in danger' to run so much risk, and he contented himself with the less heroic policy of reducing them to a dead letter by passing an annual Act of Indemnity for all who had been guilty of violating their provisions. This was not a satisfactory way of dealing with the matter, but it was eminently characteristic of its inventor.

In 1730 Carteret resigned the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland, and openly joined the ranks of the opposition; and in the same year Lord Townshend also left the ministry. Townshend and Walpole had been on Quarrel with the most intimate terms for thirty years, but of late various Townshend. circumstances had arisen to cause an estrangement. Lady Townshend, Walpole's sister, was dead. A partnership, in which Townshend, as the elder man, had taken the lead, became less agreeable to him, when its title in Walpole's words was changed from 'Townshend and Walpole' to 'Walpole and Townshend.' The old grievance that Townshend, who accompanied George to Hanover, used his opportunities to increase his

own influence, was a constant source of friction; and Townshend was exasperated at Walpole's persistent habit of allowing obnoxious bills, which though popular were awkward for ministers to pass unopposed through the Commons, and leaving them to be rejected in the House of Lords. All these things helped to loosen the tie between them; and, finally, a coarse joke of Walpole's roused to anger the irascible Townshend, and they were with difficulty prevented from coming to blows in a lady's drawing-room. After this, further concord was out of the question; so Townshend with dignity resigned his office, and left Walpole supreme. Unlike Carteret and Pulteney, Townshend refrained from opposition to his old colleague, and retired to Norfolk, where he devoted himself to agriculture, and did a great service to the whole country by encouraging the growth of turnips.

The first success of the opposition was gained in 1733, when Walpole brought forward his celebrated excise scheme. At this date the chief The Excise sources of the crown revenue were the land tax, the customs Scheme. duties, and the excise. Of these, the land tax was levied at the rate of four shillings in war time, and from one shilling to three shillings in time of peace, according to a valuation made in the year 1692; and at four shillings produced about £2,000,000 per year. The customs duties-customary payments-were the modern substitutes for the old taxes of tonnage and poundage, but were levied only on articles imported into the country. In Walpole's time they produced £1,500,000 per year. The excise duties-excisum, a part cut off-were levied on articles produced or manufactured in the country itself. They had first been imposed by the Long Parliament, were levied chiefly on salt, malt, and distilleries, and in 1733 amounted to £3,200,000. Of these taxes the customs duties were decidedly the most expensive in collection, and were the most liable to be evaded; indeed the gross customs duty on tobacco being £750,000, the nett revenue was only £160,000. Moreover, customs duties raised the price to the consumer to the highest amount, because, the tax being levied on the raw material, interest on the sum paid was charged by the dealer at every stage of the manufacture, and the gross sum added to the cost of the finished article; whereas, in the case of the excise, the duty was levied once for all on the completed article. This was a great advantage to the consumer. For these reasons Walpole proposed to transfer tobacco and wine from the customs list to the excise, pointing out that the effect of doing so would be to enable him to repeal the land tax; and he also proposed to levy no taxes on goods merely imported for re-exportation,

h would, he said, tend 'to make London a free port, and the market