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from one hundred and thirty, or thirty pounds on the hundred above its primary value, to near four hundred pounds, or four times the price paid by the first subscribers; and in order to raise it still higher, Blount, the projector of the scheme, circulated a report, on the passing of the bill, that Gibraltar and Minorca would be exchanged for some places in Peru, by the cession of which the British trade to the South Sea would be much enlarged. In consequence of this rumour, which operated like contagion, by exciting hopes of prodigious dividends, the subscription books were no sooner opened, than persons of all ranks and conditions, as well as all ages and sexes, crowded to the South Sea house, eager to become proprietors of the stock. The first purchases were, in a few weeks, sold for double the money paid for them; and the delusion, or rather the infatuation, was carried so far, that stock sold, at last, for ten times its original price. New projectors started up every day, to avail themselves of the avarice and credulity of the nation; and the Welch copper company, the York building company, and many others, were formed.

No interested project was so absurd as not to meet with encouragement, during the public delirium; but the South Sea scheme continued to be the great object of attraction. At length, however, to use the phrase of the times, the bubble began to burst. It was discovered, that such as were thought to be in the secret had disposed of all their stock, while the tide was at its height. A universal alarm was spread. Every one wanted to sell, and nobody to buy, except at a very reduced price. The South Sea stock fell as rapidly as it had risen, and to the lowest ebb; so that, in a little time, nothing was to be seen of this bewitching scheme but the direful effects of its violence-the wreck of private fortunes, and the bankruptcy of merchants and trading companies! nor any thing to be heard, but the ravings of disappointed ambition, the execrations of beggared avarice, the pathetic wailings of innocent credulity, the grief of unexpected poverty, or the frantic howlings of despair!-The timely interposition and steady wisdom of parliament only could have prevented a general bankruptcy.

A committee of the house of commons was chosen by ballot, to examine all the books, papers, and proceedings relative to the execution of the South Sea act; and this committee discovered, that before any subscription could be made, a fictitious stock of five hundred and seventy-four thousand pounds had been disposed of by the directors, in order to facilitate the passing of the bill. Mr. Aislabie, chancellor of the exchequer, who had shared largely in the stock, was expelled the house of commons, and committed to the tower, for having promoted the destructive execution of "the South Sea scheme, with a view to his own exorbitant profit; and having combined with the directors in their pernicious practices, to the ruin of public credit." Mr. secretary Craggs and his father, also great delinquents, died before they underwent the censure of the house; but the commons resolved, nevertheless, that Mr. Craggs, senior, was "a notorious accomplice with Robert Knight, treasurer to the South Sea company, and some of the directors, in carrying on their scandalous practices: and, therefore, that all the estate of which he was possessed at the time of his death, should be applied towards the relief of unhappy sufferers by the South Sea scheme."(1) The estates of the directors were also confiscated by act of parliament, and directed to be applied to the same purpose, after a certain allowance was deducted for each director, according to his conduct and circumstances.

The commons, having thus punished the chief promoters of this iniquitous scheme, by stripping them of their ill-got wealth, proceeded to repair, as far as possible, the mischief it had occasioned. They accordingly prepared a bill for that purpose. On the inquiries relative to the framing of this bill, it appeared that the whole capital stock of the South Sea company, at the end of the year 1720, amounted to thirty-seven millions eight hundred thousand pounds; that the stock allotted to all the proprietors did not exceed twenty

(1) Journals of the commons, 1721.

four millions five hundred thousand pounds; that the remaining capital stock belonged to the company in their corporate capacity, being the profit arising from the execution of the fraudulent stock-jobbing scheme. Out of this, it was enacted, that seven millions should be paid to the public sufferers. It was likewise enacted, that several additions should be made to the stock of the proprietors, out of that possessed by the company in their own right; and that after such distributions, the remaining capital stock should be divided among the proprietors. By these wise and equitable regulations, public credit was restored, and the ferment of the nation gradually subsided.

The discontents and disorders occasioned by the South Sea scheme encouraged the English jacobites to think of making a new attempt to change the line of succession. But the same want of concert, secrecy, and success attended this, as every other plan for the restoration of the unfortunate family of Stuart. George I., who had spies in every popish court, and who had, by alliances, made almost every European potentate his friend, was informed, by the regent of France, of the conspiracy hatching against his government. In consequence of this information, Christopher Layer, a young gentleman of the middle temple, was taken into custody, condemned, and executed, for having enlisted men for the service of the pretender. The duke of Norfolk, the earl of Orrery, Dr. Atterbury, bishop of Rochester, lord North and Grey, with many other suspected persons of less note, were committed to the tower. But they were acquitted, for want of evidence, except the bishop of Rochester, who was degraded, deprived of his benefice, and banished the kingdom for life.(1)

As Dr. Atterbury was a man of distinguished talents, and intimately connected with the heads of the tory party, his cause was warmly pleaded in the house of peers. Lord Bathurst, turning towards the bench of bishops, who had discovered peculiar animosity against the prisoner, said, he could hardly account for the inveterate malice and rancour with which some men pursued the learned and ingenious prelate, unless they were infatuated with the superstition of certain savages, who fondly believe that they inherit, not only the spoils, but the abilities, of any great man whom they destroy.(2) When the bishop of Rochester arrived at Calais, he met lord Bolingbroke on his return from exile, and had the spirit to observe, smiling, that they were exchanged!

Soon after this conspiracy was defeated, died Philip duke of Orleans, regent of France, one of the most elegant, accomplished, and dissipated men of his time. As a prince, he possessed great talents for government, which he did not fail to exert during his administration. Notwithstanding his precarious situation, he governed France with more absolute authority than any minister since cardinal Richelieu, and took many important steps for the benefit of the kingdom; but his own libertine example, and the necessity of making the oppressed people forget their miseries in a perpetual round of amusements, introduced a universal corruption of manners, which spread itself even to foreign nations.(3) He was succeeded in the administration, but not in the regency, the king being come of age, by the duke of Bourbon. This minister was soon supplanted by cardinal Fleury, a man of a mild and pacific disposition, who had been preceptor to Lewis XV., and who, at the advanced age of seventy-three, took upon him the cares of government.

Fortunately for the happiness of mankind, sir Robert Walpole, who began about the same time to acquire an ascendant in the councils of Great Britain, and who soon after became prime minister, possessed a disposition no less pacific than that of Fleury. În consequence of this coinciding mildness of temper, the repose of Europe was continued, with less interruption, for almost twenty years. Meanwhile, several treaties were negotiated between its dif

(1) Tindal. Smollett.

(2) Parl. Debates, 1722.

(3) The death of the duke of Orleans was distinguished by a very singular circumstance. Having neglected his usual time of bleeding, he was seized with an apoplexy, in the arms of the dutchess de Talaris, and instantly expired. Augustus II, king of Poland, when informed of this circumstance, wantonly exclaimed, in the words of Scripture, "O may I die the death of this just man!" alluding to his paying at once the d of nature and the debt of love. Mem. de Brandenburg, tom. ii.

ferent kingdoms and states, for securing more effectually, as was pretended, the objects of the quadruple alliance, and the balance of power. One of these treaties, concluded privately at Vienna, between the emperor and the Spanish monarch, excited the jealousy of George I., who was under apprehensions for the safety of his German dominions, as well as of some secret article in favour of the pretender, many of whose adherents were then entertained at the court of Madrid. It also gave umbrage to the French and Dutch, as it granted to the subjects of the house of Austria greater advantages, in their trade with Spain, than those enjoyed by any other nation :(1) and it guaranteed a new East India company, lately established at Ostend, which France, England, and Holland were equally desirous of suppressing.

In order to counteract the treaty of Vienna, another was concluded at Hanover, between the three offended powers, and the kings of Prussia, Denmark, and Sweden. Overawed by this formidable confederacy, the emperor and the king of Spain remained quiet. The king of Great Britain, however, fitted out three stout squadrons, one of which he sent to the West Indies, under admiral Hosier, who had orders to block np the Spanish galleons in the harbour of Porto Bello, and to seize them, if they attempted to come out. In cruising off that unhealthy coast, where he was restrained from obeying the dictates of his courage, the greater part of his officers and men were swept away by the diseases of the climate; his ships were ruined by the worms, and he himself is supposed to have died of a broken heart.

The Spaniards, in resentment of this insult, laid siege to Gibraltar, but without success; and a reconciliation was soon after brought about, through the mediation of France. It was agreed, that the charter of the Ostend East India company should be suspended for seven years; that the stipulations in the quadruple alliance, but particularly those relative to the succession of Don Carlos to the dutchies of Parma, Placenza, and Tuscany, should be fulfilled; and that all differences should be adjusted by a congress. This congress, which was held at Soissons, produced the treaty of Seville, by which all grounds of dispute were finally removed.

During these negotiations died George I., a prudent and virtuous prince, whose attachment to his German dominions, which has been much magnified, was made use of by the tories to render him odious to the English nation. He was succeeded by his son, George II., whose accession made no alteration in the system of British politics. The administration was wisely continued in the hands of the whigs, the only true friends to the Protestant succession, or to the principles of the revolution: and the same tory faction, which had so frequently attempted to thwart the measures, and overturn the throne of the first George, continued their violent opposition in parliament, during the more early part of the reign of George II. The heads of this faction, namely, sir William Wyndham, Mr. Shippen, Mr. Hungerford, and others, being men of great abilities, were soon joined by certain disgusted courtiers, of equal, if not superior talents, who hoped, by such coalition, to humble their successful rivals, and get into their own hands the highest employments of the state. Mr. Pulteney, the finest speaker of the house of commons, and lately a member of administration, already made one of their number. Lord Carteret and the earl of Chesterfield, the most distinguished orators in the house of peers, afterward joined the phalanx.

This powerful body, by continually opposing the measures of government, and passionately railing against continental connexions, soon acquired great popularity, and at last became formidable to the throne. The patriotic, or country party, as the members in opposition affected to call themselves, were always predicting beggary and ruin in the midst of the most profound peace, and the highest national prosperity; and a small standing army, which it was thought prudent to keep up, was represented as an engine of despotism.

(1) Count Konigseck, the imperial ambassador at the court of Madrid, had procured these advantageous conditions for his inaster Charles VI. by flattering the queen of Spain with a prospect of a match between her son Don Carlos and the archduchess Maria Theresa heiress to all the extensive dominions of the house of Austria. Mem. de Brandenburg, tom. ii.

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The liberties of the people were believed by many to be in danger. But those liberties, or at least the freedom of the constitution, has suffered more from a pernicious system of domestic policy, which that violent opposition at first made necessary, than from the so-much-dreaded military establishment.

When the wheels of government are clogged, and the machine rendered almost stationary, by the arts of an ambitious faction, the whole influence of the crown must be employed, in order to accelerate their motion. The force of opposition must be broken: its ablest members must be drawn over to the side of royalty, by the emoluments of office or the splendour of titles; by the highest honours and employments of the state. If this cannot be effected, if nothing less will content their pride than an entirely new arrangement of the servants of the crown, a measure always disagreeable to a sovereign, and often dangerous, as it may possibly be attended with the loss of his throne; if the heads of opposition cannot be taught silence, or induced to change sides, without a total change of administration, the king must either resign his minister, or that minister must secure a majority in the national assembly by other means.(1) No minister ever understood these means better than sir Robert Walpole. Possessed of great abilities, and utterly destitute of principle, he made no scruple of employing the money voted by parliament, in order to corrupt its members. Having discovered that almost every man had his price, he bought many; and to gain more, he let loose the wealth of the treasury at elections.(2) The fountain of liberty was poisoned in its

source.

This, my dear Philip, is an evil interwoven with the very frame of our mixed government, and which renders it, in many respects, inferior to a mere monarchy, regulated by laws, where corruption can never become a necessary engine of state. To say that it is absolutely necessary, in our government, would perhaps be going too far; but experience proves, that it has generally been thought so, since the revolution, when the powers of the crown were abridged. The opportunity which able and ambitious men have, by the freedom of debate in parliament, and which they have seldom failed to exercise, of obstructing our public measures, renders the influence of the crown in some degree necessary: and that is but a more refined species of corruption, or a milder name for the same thing.

Our patriotic ancestors, who so gloriously struggled for the abolition of the more dangerous parts of the prerogative, certainly did not foresee the weight of this enslaving influence, which the entire collecting and management of an immense public revenue has thrown into the scale of government, by giving rise to such a multitude of officers, created by, and removeable at, the royal pleasure; and by the frequent opportunities of conferring particular obligations, by preference in loans, lottery-tickets, contracts, and other moneytransactions; an influence too great for human virtue to withstand, and which has left us little more than the shadow of a free constitution. (3) The revolution was an over-hasty measure: it guarded only against the direct encroachments of the crown. The subsequent provisions were few: and the whigs, formerly so jealous of liberty, were afterward so fully employed, one while in combating their political enemies, in order to preserve the parliamentary settlement of the crown, and at another in opposing the violent faction occa

(1) Some men of patriotic principles have fondly imagined, that a good minister must always be able to command such a majority, merely by the rectitude of his measures; but experience has evinced, that in factious times, all the weight of government is often necessary to carry even the best measures.

(2) "To destroy British liberty," says Lord Bolingbroke, "with an army of Britons, is not a measure so sure of success as some people may believe. To corrupt the parliament is a slower, but a more effectual method." Dissert, on Parties, letter x.

(3) "Nothing," as lord Bolingbroke very justly remarks, “can destroy the constitution of Britain, but the people of Britain; and whenever the people of Britain become so degenerate and base, as to be induced by corruption (for they are no longer in danger of being awed by prerogative) to choose persons to represent them in parliament, whom they have found by experience to be under an influence arising from private interest-dependants upon a court, and the creatures of a minister; or others, who bring no recommendation, but that which they carry in their purses; then will that trite proverbial speech be verified in our case, that the corruption of the best things are the worst: for then will that very change in the state of property and power, which improved our constitution so much, contribute to the destruction of it.” Dissert. on Parties, let. xvii.

sioned by the Hanoverian succession, which it had been their great object to bring about, that they had no leisure to attend to the new bias of the constitution. In their anxiety for the security of that succession, stimulated by the lust of power, they shamefully neglected the independence of parliament, as well as the freedom of elections, in which it has its origin, till the malady was too inveterate to admit of a speedy cure. The septennial bill was a cruel stab to liberty.

Let us not, however, despair. Some late laws relative to elections, and for excluding from the house of commons contractors and money-jobbers, will greatly contribute to restore, if not to perfect, the British constitution. But the friends of monarchy will perhaps question, whether an independent parliament would be a public good in this licentious kingdom? And that question is not without its difficulties. Yet we know, that corruption is a public evil; that it is the parent of licentiousness, and of every enslaving vice. And as the reigning family is now fully established on the throne, without a competitor, government happily can have no occasion for undue influence, in order to carry any wholesome measure. I shall, therefore, conclude my observations on this subject with the memorable words of lord Bolingbroke:-" The inte grity of parliament is a kind of PALLADIUM, a tutelary goddess, who protects our state"(1)-and if ever she is finally removed, we must bid adieu to all the blessings of a free people. The forms of our constitution, and the names of its different branches, may remain, but we shall not be, on that account, the less slaves.

In consequence of the treaty of Seville, confirmed by another at Vienna, Don Carlos took quiet possession of the dutchies of Parma and Placenza, on the succession becoming vacant, the emperor withdrawing his troops. By the treaty of Vienna, the emperor also agreed, That the Ostend company, which had given so much umbrage to France, England, and Holland, should be totally dissolved, on condition that the contracting powers, in the treaty of Seville, should guarantee the PRAGMATIC SANCTION, or domestic law, by which the succession to the hereditary dominions of the house of Austria were secured to the heirs female of the emperor Charles VI. in case he should die without male issue. The proposal was acceded to; and the peace of Europe continued undisturbed, till the death of Augustus II. king of Poland. (2) On this event, Stanislaus Leczinski, whom Charles XII. had invested with the sovereignty of Poland, in 1704, and whom Peter the Great had dethroned, now become father-in-law to Lewis XV., was a second time chosen king. But the emperor, assisted by the Russians, obliged the Poles to proceed to a new election. The elector of Saxony, son of the late king of Poland, who had married the emperor's niece, was raised to the throne, under the name of Augustus III., and Stanislaus, as formerly, was forced to abandon his crown. Though the distance of his situation, and the pacific disposition of his minister, prevented the king of France from yielding effectual support to his father-in-law, a sense of his own dignity determined him to take revenge upon the emperor, for the insult he had suffered in the person of that unfortunate prince. He accordingly entered into an alliance with the kings of Spain and Sardinia, who also thought themselves aggrieved, and war was begun in Italy and on the frontiers of Germany. The duke of Berwick passed the Rhine, at the head of the French army, and reduced Fort Kehl. He afterward in

(1) Dissert. on Partios, let. x.

(2) That prince, when surprised by death, was occupied with a design of rendering the crown of Poland hereditary in his family. With this view, he had planned a division of the Polish dominions, hoping thereby to quiet the jealousy of his neighbours. The project, however, he knew to be impracticable, without the concurrence of the king of Prussia. He, therefore, desired Frederic II. to send him the mareschal de Grumkou, that he might open his mind to him. Augustus wanted to pump Grunikou, and Grumkou was no less anxious to discover the sentiments of the king. Mutually actuated by this motive, they contrived to make each other drunk: and that drunken bout was followed by the king of Poland's death, and ■fit of sickness in Grumkou, of which he never got the better. (Mem. de Brandenburg, tom. ii.) Au gustus II. was endowed with extraordinary bodily strength, a sound understanding, a social disposition, and many princely accomplishments. It was this Augustus, who, in a fit of gallantry, twisted a horseshoe in the presence of a fine woman, in order to give her some idea of his personal powers; and, at the same time, presented to her a purse of gold, to make her sensible of his generosity. Love perhaps never spoke a more eloquent language.

VOL. II.-C c

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