The English
"Nation is immensely astonished, which Walpole againtis not,
"to find that his Parliamentary Apparatus has been kept in
"gear and smooth going by the use of oil:'Miraculous Scandul
"of Scandals!
"Nation is immensely astonished, which Walpole againtis not,
"to find that his Parliamentary Apparatus has been kept in
"gear and smooth going by the use of oil:'Miraculous Scandul
"of Scandals!
Thomas Carlyle
This day" (Mollwitz not yet
known, Camp of Grottin too well known! ) "King George, in
"his own high person, comes down to the House of Lords,--
"which, like the Other House, is sunk painfully in Walpole
"Controversies, Spanish-War Controversies, of a merely
"domestic nature; -- and informs both Honourable Houses,
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? CHAP. XII. ] SORROWS OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 387
April--May 1741.
"with extreme caution, naming nobody, That he much wishes
"they would think of helping him in these alarming cir-
cumstances of the Celestial Balance, ready apparently to go
"heels uppermost. To which the general answer is, 'Yes,
"surely! ' -- with a vote of 300,000/. for her Hungarian
"Majesty, a few days hence. From those continents of Par-
"liamentary tufa, now fallen so waste and mournful, here
"is one little piece which ought to be extricated into day-
light:
'Mr. Viner (on his legs): * * "If I mistake not the true
'intention of the Address proposed,' in answer to his Majesty's
most gracious Speech from the Throne, 'we are invited to
'declare that we will oppose the King of Prussia in his attempts
'upon Silesia: a declaration in which I see not how any man
'can concur who knows not the nature of his Prussian Majesty's
'Claim, and the Laws of the German Empire' (nor do J,
Mr. V. )\ 'It ought therefore, Sir, to have been the first
'endeavour of those by whom this Address has been so
'zealously supported, to show that his Prussian Majesty's
'Claim, so publicly explained' (by Kanzler Ludwig, of Halle,
who, it seems, has staggered or convinced Mr. Viner), 'so firmly
'urged, and so strongly supported, is without foundation and
'reason, and is only one of those imaginary titles which Ambit
'tion may always find to the dominions of another. ' (Hear,
Mr. Viner! )"*
A most indispensable thing, surely. Which was never
done, nor can ever be done, but was assumed as either un-
necessary or else done of its own accord, by that Collective
Wisdom of England (with a sage George II. at the head of
it); who plunged into Dettingen, Fontenoy, Austrian Sub-
sidies, Aix-la-Chapelle, and foundation of the English
National Debt, among other strange things, in con-
sequence! --
Upon that of Kanzler Ludwig, and the "so public
Explanation" (which we slightly heard of long since),
here is another Note,--unless readers prefer to skip it:
* Tindal, xx. 491, gives the Royal Speech (date in a very slobbery
condition); gee also Coxe, House of Austria, iii. 365. Viner's Fragment of
a Speech is in Thackeray, Life of Chatham, i. 87.
25*
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? 388 FIRST SILESIAX WAR. [bOOK xn.
April--May 1741.
"That the Diplomatic and Political world is universally in
"travail at this time, no reader need be told; Europe every -
"where in dim anxiety, heavy-laden expectation (which to us
"has fallen so vacant); looking towards inevitable changes
"and the huge inane. All in travail; -- and already uttering
"printed Manifestoes, Patents, Deductions, and other public
"tmvail-shrieks of that kind. Printed; not to speak of the
"unprinted, of the oral which vanished on the spot; or even
"of the written which were shot forth by breathless estafettes,
"and unhappily did not vanish, but lie dn archives, still
"humming upon us, 'Won't you readme, then? ' -- Alas,
"except on compulsion, No! Life being precious (and time,
"which is the stuff of life), No! --
"AtReinsberg as elsewhere, at Eeinsberg first of all, it
"had been felt, in October last, that there would be Mani-
"festoes needed; learned Proof, the more irrefragable the
"better, of our Right to Silesia. It was settled there, Let
"Ludwig, Kanzler of the University of Halle, do it. " (Herr
Kanzler Ludwig, monster of Antiquarian, Legal and other
Learning there: wealthy, too, and close-fisted; whom we have
seen obliged to open his closed fist, and to do building in the
Friedrich Strasse, before now; NUssler, his son-in-law, naving
no money: -- as careless readers have perhaps forgotten? )
"Ludwig set about his new task with a proud joy. Ludwig
"knows that story, if he know anything. Long years ago
"he put forth a Chapter upon it; weighty Chapter; in a Book
"of weight, said judges; -- Book weighing, in pounds avoir-
"dupois and otherwise, none of us now knows what:* -- but,
"in after years, it used to be said by flatterers of the Kanzler,
"'Herr Kanzler, see the effect of Learning. It was you, it
"was your weighty Book, that caused all this World-tumult,
"and flung the Nations into one another's hair! ' Upon which
"the old Kanzler would blush: 'You do me too much
"honour! '
"Ludwig, directly on order given, gathered out his docu-
* Title of this weighty Performance (seePreuss, Thronbesteigitnq, p.
432) is, or was (size not given), Germania Princept (Halse, 1702). Preoss
says farther, "That Book li. c. 3 handles the Prussian claims: Jagerndorf
"being ? 13; Liegnitz, ? 14; Oppeln and Ratibor, ? 16; -- and that Ludwig
"had sent a Copy of this Argument'' (weighty Performance altogether?
Or Book ii. c. 3 of it, which would have had a better chance? ) "to King
"Friedrich, on the death of Kaiser Karl VT. "
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? CHAP. XII. ] SORROWS OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 389
April--May 1741.
"ments again, in the King's name this time; and promised
"something weighty by Newy ear's day at latest. " Doubtless
to the joy of Niissler, who has still no regular appointment,
though well deserving one. "And sure enough, on January
'' 7th, at Berlin,'in three languages,' Ludwig^ Deduction had
"come out; an eager Public waiting for it;* -- and at Berlin
'' it was generally thought to be conclusive. I have looked
"into Ludwig's Deduction, stern duty urging, in this instance
"for one: such portions as I read are nothing like so stupid as
"was expected; and in fact, are not to be called stupid at all,
'' but fit for their purpose, and moderately intelligible to those
"who need them, -- which happily we do not in this place.
Judicious Mr. Viner availed nothing against the
Proposed Address; any more than he would against the
Atlantic Tide, coming-in unanimous, under influence of
the Moon itself, -- as indeed this Address, and the
triumphant Subsidy which was voted in the rear of it,
may be said to have done. ** Subsidy of 300,000/. to
her Hungarian Majesty; which, with the 200,000/. al-
ready gone that road, makes a handsome Half-million
for the present Year. The first gush of the Britannic
Fountain, -- which flowed like an Amalthea's Horn
for seven years to come; refreshing Austria, and all
thirsty Pragmatic Nations, to defend the Keystone of
this Universe. Unluckily every guinea of it went, at
the same time, to encourage Austria in scorning King
Friedrich's offers to it; which perhaps are just offers,
thinks Mr. Viner; which once listened to, Pragmatic
Sanction would be safe. ***
* Title is, Rechtsgcgrundetes Eigenthum (in the Latin copies', Patrimo-
nium , and Propricle fondee en Droit in the French copies) des &c. , -- that
is to say, Legal Right of Property in the Royal-Electoral House of Branden-
burg to the Duchies and Principalities of Jagerndorf, Liegnitz, Brieg, Wohlau
(Berlin, 7th January 1741).
** Coxe, iii. 265.
*** Mr. Viner was of Pupham, or Pupholm, in Lincolnshire, for which
County he sat then, and for many years before and after', -- from about
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? 390 FIRST SILESIAN WAS. [book XU.
April--May 1741.
This Parliament is strong for Pragmatic Sanction,
and has high resentments against Walpole; in both
which points the New Parliament, just getting elected,
will rival and surpass it, -- especially in the latter
point, that of uprooting Walpole, which the Nation is
bent on, with a singular fury. Pragmatic Sanction like
to be ruined; and Walpole furiously thrown out: what
a pair of sorrows for poor George! During his late
Caroline's time, all went peaceably, and that of
"governing" was a mere pleasure; Walpole and
Caroline cunningly doing that for him, and making
him believe he was doing it. But now has come the
crisis, the collapse; and his poor Majesty left alone to
deal with it! --
No. 2. Constitutional Historian on the Phenomenon of Walpole
in England.
"For above Ten Years, Walpole himself," says my
Constitutional Historian (unpublished), "for almost Twenty
"Years, Walpole virtually and through others, has what
"they call 'governed'England; that is to say, has adjusted
"the conflicting Parliamentary Chaos into counterpoise, by
"what methods he had; and allowed England, with Walpole
"atop, to jumble whither it would and could. Of crooked
"things made straight by Walpole, of heroic performance or
"intention, legislative or administrative, by Walpole, nobody
"ever heard; never of the least handbreadth gained from the
"Night-Realm in England, on Walpole's part: enough if he
"could manage to keep the Parish Constable walking, and
"himself float atop. Which task (though intrinsically zero
"for the Community, but all-important to the Walpole, of
1713 till 1761, when he died. A solid, instructed man, say his contempora-
ries. "He was a friend of Bolingbroke's and had a house near Boling-
broke's Battersea one. " He is Great-great-grandfather to the present Mr.
Viner, and to the Countess De Grey and Ripon; which is an interesting
little fact.
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? CHAP. XII. ] SORROWS OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 391
April--May 1741.
"Constitutional Countries) is a task almost beyond the faculty
"of man, if the careless reader knew it!
"This task Walpole did, -- in a sturdy, deep-bellied, long-
'' headed, John-Bull fashion, not unworthy of recognition. A
"man of very forcible natural eyesight, strong natural heart,
"-- courage in him to all lengths; a very block of oak, or of
"oak-root, for natural strength. He was always very quiet
"with it, too; given to digest his victuals, and be peaceable
"with everybody. He had tt>> rule, that stood in place of
"many: To keep out of every business which it was possible
"for human wisdom to stave aside. 'What good will you get
"of going into that? Parliamentary criticism, argument and
"botheration! Leave well alone. And even leave ill alone:
"-- are you the tradesman to tinker leaky vessels in England?
"You will not want for work. Mind your pudding, and say
'' little! ' At home and abroad, that was the safe secret. For,
'' in Foreign Politics, his rule was analogous: 'Mind your own
"affairs. You are an Island, you can do without Foreign Po-
"litics; Peace, keep Peace with everybody: what, in the Devil's
"name, have you to do with those dog-worryings over Seas?
"Once more, mind your pudding! ' Not so bad a rule; indeed
"it is the better part of an extremely good one; -- and you
"might reckon it the real rule for a pious Britannic Island
"(reverent of God, and contemptuous of the Devil) in times of
"general Downbreak and Spiritual Bankruptcy, when quar-
"rellings of Sovereigns are apt to be mere dog-worryings, and
"Devil's work, not good to interfere in.
"In this manner, Walpole, by solid John-Bull faculty (and
"methods of his own), had balanced the Parliamentary swag-
"gings and clashings, for a great while; and England had
"jumbled whither it could, always in a stupid, but also in a
"peaceable way. As to those same 'methods of his own,'
"they were -- in fact they were Bribery. Actual purchase of
"votes by money slipt into the hand. Go straight to the
"point. 'The direct real method this,' thinks Walpole: 'is
"there in reality any other? ' A terrible question to Uonstitu-
"tional Countries; which, I hear, has never been resolved in
"the negative, by the modern improvements of science.
"Changes of form have introduced themselves; the outward
"process, I hear, is now quite different. According as the
"fashions and conditions alter, -- according a3 you have a
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? 392 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [book xn.
April--May 1741.
"Fourth Estate developed, or a Fourth Estate still in the grub
"stage and only developing, -- much variation of outward
"process is conceivable.
"But Votes, under pain of Death Official, are necessary
"to your poor Walpole: and votes, 1 hear, are still bidden
"for, and bought. You may buy them by money down (which
"is felony, and theft simple, against the poor Nation); or by
"preferments and appointments of the unmeritorious man, --
"which is felony double-distilled (far deadlier, though more
"refined), and theft most compound; theft, not of the poor
"Nation's money, but of its soul and body so far, and of all
"its moneys and temporal and spiritual interests whatsoever;
"theft, you may say, of collops cut from its side, and poison
put into its heart, poor Nation! Or again, you may buy, not
"of the Third Estate in such ways, but of the Fourth, or of
"the Fourth and Third together, in other still more felonious
"and deadly, though refined ways. But doing claptraps,
"namely; letting off Parliamentary blue-lights, to awaken
"the Sleeping Swineries, and charm them into diapason for
"you, -- what a music! Or, without claptrap or previous
"felony of your own, you may feloniously, in the pinch of
"things, make truce with the evident Demagogos, and Son of
"Nox and of Perdition, who has got 'within those walls' of
"yours, and is grown important to you by the Awakened
"Swineries, risen into alt, that follow him. Him you may, in
"your dire hunger of votes, consent to comply with; his
"Anarchies you will pass for him into 'Laws,' as you are
"pleased to term them;--instead of pointing to the whipping-
post, and to his wicked long ears, which are so fit to be
"nailed there, and of sternly recommending silence, which
"were the salutary thing. -- Buying may be done in a great
"variety of ways. The question, How you buy? is not, on
"the moral side, an important one. Nay, as there is a beauty
"in going straight to the point, and by that course there is
"likely to be the minimum of mendacity for you, perhaps the
"direct money-method is a shade less damnable than any of
"the others since discovered; -- while, in regard to practical
"damage resulting, it is of childlike harmlessness in com-
"parison!
"That was Walpole's method; with this to aid his great
"natural faculty, long-headed, deep-bellied, suitable to the
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? CHAP. XII. ] SORROWS OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 393
April--May 1741.
"English Parliament and Nation, he went along with perfect
"success for ten or twenty years. And 'it mighthave been for
"longer, -- had not the English Nation accidentally come to
"wish, that it should cease jumbling nowhither; and try to
"jumble somewhither, at least for a little while, or important
"business that had risen for England in a certain quarter.
"Had it not been for Jenkins's Ear blazing out in the dark
"English brain, Walpole might have lasted still a long while.
"But his fate lay there: -- the first Business vital to England
"which might turn up; and this chanced to be the Spanish
"War. How vital, readers shall see anon. Walpole, know-
"ing well enough in what state his War apparatus was, and
"that of all his Apparatuses there was none in a working
"state, but the Parliamentary one, -- resisted the Spanish
"War; stood in the door against it, with a rhinoceros deter-
"mination, nay almost something of a mastiff's; resolute not
"to admit it, to admit death as soon. Doubtless he had a
'' feeling it would be death, the sagacious man: -- and such it
"is now proving; the Walpole Ministry dying by inches from
"it; dying hard, but irremediably.
"The English Nation was immensely astonished, which
"Walpole was not, any more than at the other Laws of
"Nature, to find Walpole's War-apparatus in such a condi-
"tion. All his Apparatuses, Walpole guesses, are in no
"better, if it be not the Parliamentary one.
The English
"Nation is immensely astonished, which Walpole againtis not,
"to find that his Parliamentary Apparatus has been kept in
"gear and smooth going by the use of oil:'Miraculous Scandul
"of Scandals! ' thinks the English Nation. 'Miracle? Law of
"Nature, you fools! ' thinks Walpole. And in fact there is
"such a storm roaring in England, in those and in the late
"and the coming months, as threatens to be dangerous to
"high roofs, -- dangerous to Walpole's head at one time.
"Storm such as had not been witnessed in men's memory; all
"manner of Counties and Constituencies, with solemn indig-
nations charging their representatives to search into that
'' miraculous Scandal of Scandals, Law of Nature, or whatever
"it may be; and abate the same, at their peril.
"To the now reader there is something almost pathetic in
"these solemn indignations, and high resolves to have Purity
"of Parliament and thorough Administrative Keform, in spite
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? 394 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [bOOK Xn.
April--May 1741.
"of Nature and the Constitutional Stars;-- and nothing I
"have met with, not even the Prussian Dryasdust, is so un-
"sufferably wearisome, or can pretend to equal in depth of
"dull inanity, to ingenuous. livingreaders, as our poor English
"Dryasdust's interminable, often-repeated Narratives, volume
"after volume, of the debatings and colleaguings, the tossings
"and tumults, fruitless and endless, in Nation and National
"Palaver, which ensued thereupon. iWalpole (in about a
"year hence), * though he stuck to the ground like a rhino-
"ceros, was got rolled out. And a Successor, and series of
"Successors, in the bright brand-new state, was got rolled in;
"with immense shouting from mankind: -- but up to this date
"we have no reason to believe that the Laws of Nature were
"got abrogated on that occasion, or that the constitutional
"stars have much altered their courses since. "
That Walpole will probably be lost, goes much
home to the Royal bosom, in these troublous Spring
months of 1741, as it has done and will do. And here,
emerging from the Spanish Main just now, is a second
sorrow, which might quite transfix the Royal bosom,
and drive Majesty itself to despair; awakening such in-
soluble questions, -- furnishing such proof, that Wal-
pole <<md a good few other persons (persons, and also
things, and ideas and practices, deep-rooted in the
Country) stand much in need of being lost, if England
is to go a good road!
The Spanish War being of moment to us here, we
will let our Constitutional Historian explain, in his own
dialect, How it was so vital to England; and shall even
subjoin what he gives as History of it, such being so
admirably succinct, for one quality.
* February lSth (2d), 1742, quitting the House after bad usage there,
said he would never enter it again; nor did: February 22d, resigned in
favour of Pulteney and Company (Tindal, xx. 530; Thackeray, i. 46).
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? CHAP. XII. ] SORROWS OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 395
April--May 1741.
No. 3. Ofthe Spanish War, or the Jenkins's-Ear Question.
"There was real cause for a War with Spain. It is one of
"the few cases, this, of a war from necessity. Spain, by
"Decree of the Pope, -- some Pope long ago, whose name we
"will not remember, in solemn Conclave, drawing accurately
"'his Meridian Line,' on I know not what Telluric or Uranic
"principles, no doubt with great accuracy, 'between Portugal
"and Spain,' -- was proprietor of all those Seas and Con-
"tinents. And now England, in the interim, by Decree of
"the Eternal Destinies, had clearly come to have property
"there, too; and to be practically much concerned in that
"theoretic question of the Pope's Meridian. There was no
"reconciling of theory with fact. 'Ours indisputably," said
"Spain, with loud articulate voice; 'Holiness the Pope made
"it ours! ' -- while fact and the English, by Decree of the
"Eternal Destinies, had been grumbling inarticulately the
"other way, for almost Two Hundred years past, and no
"result had.
"In Oliver Cromwell's time, it used to be said, 'With
"Spain, in Europe, there may be peace or war; but between
"the Tropics it is always war. ' A state of things well re-
cognised by Oliver, and acted on, according to his op-
"portunities. No settlement was had in Oliver's brief time;
"nor could any be got since, when it was becoming yearly
"more pressing. Bucaniers, desperate naval gentlemen living
"on boucan, or hung beef; who are also called Flibustiers
"(Flibutiers, "Freebooters," in French pronunciation, which
"is since grown strangely into Filibusters, Fillibustiers, and
"other mad forms, in the Yankee Newspapers now current):
'' readers have heard of those dumb methods of protest. Dumb
"and furious; which could bring no settlement; but which did
"astonish the Pope's Decree, slashing it with cutlasses and
"sea-cannon, in that manner, and circuitously forwarded a
'' settlement. Settlement was becoming yearly more needful:
"and, ever since the Treaty of Utrecht especially, there had
"been an incessant haggle going on, to produce one; without
"the least effect hitherto. What embassyings, bargainings,
"bargain-breakings; what galloping of estafettes; acres of
"diplomatic paper, now fallen to the spiders, who always
"privately were the real owners! Not in the Treaty of Utrecht,
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? 396
[book XII.
F1KST SILESIAN WAR.
April--May 1741.
"not in the Congresses ofCambray, ofSoissons, Convention
"of Pardo, by Ripperda, Horace Walpole, or the wagging of
"wigs, could this matter be settled at all. Near two hundred
"years of chronic misery; -- and had there been, under any
"of those wigs, a Head capable of reading the Heavenly Man-
dates, with heart capable of following them, the misery
"might have been briefly ended, by a direct method. With
"what immense saving in all kinds, compared with the oblique
"method gone upon! In quantity of bloodshed needed, of
"money, of idle talk and estafettes, not to speak higher con-
siderations, the saving had been incalculable. For it was
"England's one Cause of War during the Century we are now
"upon; and poor England's course, when at last driven into
"it, went ambiguously circling round the whole Universe,
"instead of straight to the mark. Had Oliver Cromwell lived
"tenyears longer; -- but Oliver Cromwell did not live; and,
"instead of Heroic Heads, there came in Constitutional Wigs,
"which makes a great difference.
"The pretensions of Spain to keep Half the World locked
"up in embargo were entirely chimerical; plainly contra-
"dictory to the Laws of Nature; and no amount of Pope's
"Donation Acts, or Ceremonial in Rota or Propaganda, could
"redeem them from untenability, in the modern days. To lie
"like a dog in the manger over South America, and say
"snarling, 'None of you shall trade here, though I cannot! '
"--what Pope or body of Popes can sanction such a proce-
"dure? Had England had a Head, instead of Wigs, amidite
"diplomatists, England, as the chief party interested, would
"have long since intimated gently to such dog in the manger:
'"Dog, will you be so obliging as rise! I am grieved to say,
"we snail have to do unpleasant things otherwise. Dogs have
"doors for their hutches: but to pretend barring the Tropic
"of Cancer, -- that is too big a door for any dog. Can nobody
"but you have business here, then, which is not displeasing to
"the gods? We bid you rise! ' And in this mode there is no
"doubt the dog, bark and bite as he might, would have ended
"by rising; not only England, but all the Universe being
"against him. And furthermore, I compute with certainty,
"the quantity of fighting needed to obtain such result would,
"there, and now also the clear might, why take refuge in
The clear right being
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? CHAP. XII. ] SORROWS OP HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 397
April--May 1741.
"diplomatic wiggeries, in Assiento-Treaties, and Arrange-
"ments which are not analogous to the facts; which are but
"wigged mendacities, therefore; and will but aggravate in
"quantity and in quality the fighting yet neededV Fighting
"is but (as has been well said) a battering out of the men-
"dacities, pretences, and imaginary elements: well battered
"out, these, like dust and chaff, fly torrent-wise along the
"winds, and darken all the sky; but these once gone, there
"remain the facts and their visible relation to one another,
"and peace is sure.
"The Assiento Treaty being fixed upon, the English ought
"to have kept it. But the English did not, in any measure;
"nor could pretend to have done. They were entitled to
"supply Negroes, in such and such number, annually to the
"Spanish Plantations; and besides this delightful branch of
"trade, to have the privilege of selling certain quantities of
"their manufactured articles on those coasts; quantities re-
"gulated briefly by this stipulation, That their Assiento Ship
"was to be of 600 tons burden, so many and no more. The
"Assiento ship was duly of 600 tons accordingly, promise kept
"faithfully to the eye; but the Assiento Ship was attended
"and escorted by provision-sloops, small craft said to be of
"the most indispensable nature to it. Which provision-sloops,
"and indispensable small craft, not only carried merchandise
"as well, but went and came to Jamaica and back, under
"various pretexts, with ever new supplies of merchandise;
"converting the Assiento ship into a Floating Shop, the Tons
"burden and Tons sale of which set arithmetic at defiance.
"This was the fact, perfectly well known in England, veiled
"over by mere smuggler pretences, and obstinately persisted
"in, so profitable was it. Perfectly well known in Spain also,
"and to the Spanish-Guarda-Costas and Sea-captains in those
"parts; who were naturally kept in a perennial state of rage
"by it, -- and disposed to fly out into flame upon it, when a
"bad case turned up! Such a case that of Jenkins had seemed
"to them; and their mode of treating it, by tearing off Mr.
"Jenkins's Ear, proved to be, -- bad shall we say, or good?
"--intolerable to England's thick skin; and brought matters
"to a crisis, in the ways we saw. " * * *
The Jenkins's-Ear Question, which then looked so
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? 398 FIRST SILESIAN WAB. [book Xa.
April--May 1741.
mad to everybody, how sane has it now grown to my
Constitutional Friend! In abstruse ludicrous form, there
lay immense questions involved in it; which were
serious enough, certain enough, though invisible to
everybody. Half the World lay hidden in embryo
under it. Colonial-Empire, whose is it to be? Shall
Half the World be England's, for industrial purposes;
which is innocent, laudable, conformable to the Mul-
tiplication-table at least, and other plain Laws? Or
shall it be Spain's, for arrogant-torpid sham-devotional
purposes, contradictory to every Law? The incalculable
Yankee Nation itself, biggest Phenomenon (once
thought beautifullest) of these Ages, -- this too, little
as careless readers on either side of the sea now know
it, lay involved. Shall there be a Yankee Nation, shall
there not be; shall the New World be of Spanish type,
shall it be of English? Issues which we may call im-
mense. Among the then extant Sons of Adam, where
was he who could in the faintest degree surmise what
issues lay in the Jenkins's-Ear Question! And it is
curious to consider now, with what fierce deep-breathed
doggedness the poor English Nation, drawn by their
instincts, held fast upon it, and would take no denial,
as if they had surmised and seen. 'For the instincts of
simple guileless persons (liable to be counted stupid,
by the unwary) are sometimes of prophetic nature, and
spring from the deep places of this Universe!
My Constitutional Friend entitles his next Section,
Carthagena; but might more fitly have headed it (for
such in reality it is, Carthagena proving the evanes-
cent point of that sad business),
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? CHAP. XB. 1 SORROWS OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 399
April--May 1741.
Succinct History of the Spanish War, which began in 1739; and
ended -- When did it end?
10. War, and Porta-Bello (November 1739 -- March 1740).
-- "November 4th, 1739, War was at length (after above
"four months obscure quasi-declaring of it, in the shape of
"Orders in Council, Letters of Marque, and so on) got openly
"declared; 'Heralds at Arms at the usual places' blowing
'' trumpets upon it, and reading the royal Manifesto, date of
"which is five days earlier, 'Kensington, October 30th (19th. )'
"The principal Events that ensue, arrange themselves under
"Three Heads, this of Porto-Bello being the first; and (by in-
"tense smelting) are dateable as follows: *
"Wednesday Evening, 1st December 1739, Admiral Ver-
'*non, our chosen Anti-Spaniard, finding, a while ago, that he
"had missed the Azogue Ships on the Coast of Spain, and
'' must try America and the Spanish Main, in that view arrives
"at Porto-Bello. Next day, December 2d, Vernon attacks
"Porto-Bello; attacks certain Castles so-called, withfurious
"broadsiding, followed by scalading; gets surrender (on the
"3d); -- seamen have allowance instead of plunder; -- blows
"up what Castles there are; and returns to Port Royal in
"Jamaica.
"Never-imagined joy in England, and fame to Vemon,
"when the news came: 'Took it with Six Ships,' cry they;
''' the scurvy Ministry, who had heard him, in the fire of Par-
liamentary debate, say Six, would grant him no more: in-
"vincible Vernon! ' Nay, Next Year, I see, 'London was
"illuminated on the Anniversary of Porto-Bello:' -- day
"settled in permanence, as one of the High-tides of the
"Calendar, it would appear. And 'Vernon's Birthday'
"withal, -- how touching is stupidity when loyal! -- was
"celebrated amazingly in all the chief Towns, like a kind of
"Christmas, when it came round; Nature having deigned to
"producesuch a man, for a poor Nation in difficulties. In-
"vincible Vernon, it is thought by Gazetteers, 'will look in at
"Carthagena shortly;' much more important Place, where a
"certain Governor Don Blas has been insolent withal, and
"written Vernon letters.
* Gentleman's Magazine, ix. 551, x. 124, 142, 144 , 350; Tindal, xx.
430-3, 442; &c.
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? 400 FIRST SILESIAN WAK. [book xn.
April--May 1741.
"2o. Preliminaries to Carthagena [March-- November 1740. )
"-- Monday, 14th March 1740, Vernon did, accordingly, look
"in on Carthagena; * cast anchor in the shallow waste of surfs
"there, that Monday; and tried some bombarding, with bomb-
"ketches and the like, from Thursday till Saturday following.
"Vernon hopes he did hit the Jesuits' College, South Bastion,
"Custom-house and other principal edifices; but found that
"there was no getting near enough on that seaward side.
"Found that you must force the Interior Harbour, -- a big In-
"land Gulf or Lake, which gushes in by what they call Little
"Mouth (Boca-Chica), and has its Booms, Castles and De-
fences, which are numerous and strongish; -- and that , for
"this end, you must have Seven or Eight Thousand Land
"Forces, as well as an addition of Ships. On Saturday
"Evening, therefore, Vernon calls-in his bomb-ketches; sails
"past, examining these things; and goes forth on other small
"adventures. For example, --
"Saturday, 3d April 1740, 'about 10 at night,' Opens can-
"nonade on Chagres (place often enough taken, by cutlass
"and pistol, in the Bucanier times); and, oh Monday 5th, gets
"surrender of Chagres: 'Custom-house crammed with goods,
"which we set fire to. ' On news of which, there is again, in
"England, joy over the day of small things. The poor English
"People are set on this business of avenging Jenkins's Ear,
"and of having the Ocean Highway unbarred; and hope al-
"ways it can De done by the Walpole Apparatuses, which
"ought to be in working order, and are not! 'Support this
"hero, you Walpole and Company, in his Carthagena views:
St will be better for you! '
"Walpole and Company, aware of that fact, do take some
"trouble about it; and now, may not we say, Paullo majora
"canamus? All through that Summer 1740" -- while King
Friedrich went rushing about, to Strasburg, to Wesel; doing
his Herstals and Practicalities, with a light high hand, in al-
most an entertaining manner; and intent, still more, on his
Voltaires and a Life to the Muses, -- " there was, in England,
"serious heavy tumult of activity, secret and public. In the
"Dockyards, on the Drill-grounds, what a stir: Camp in the
"Isle of Wight, not to mention Portsmouth and the Sea-
"industries; 6,000 Marines are to be embarked, as well as
* Gentleman's Magazine, x. 350.
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? CHAP, m. ] SORROWS OF HIS BRITANK10 MAJESTY. 401
April--May 1741.
"Land Regiments, -- can anybody guess whither? America
"itself is to furnish 'one Regiment, with Scotch Officers to
"discipline it,' if they can.
"Here is real haste and effort; but by no means such speed
"as could be wished; multiplex confusions and contradictions
"occurring, as is usual, when your machinery runs foul. Nor
"are the Gazetteers without their guesses, though they study
"to be discreet. 'Here is something considerable in the wind;
"a grand idea, for certain ',' -- and to men of discernment, it
"points surely towards Carthagena and heroic Vernon out
"yonder? Government is dumb altogether; and lays oc-
casional embargo; trying hard (without success), in the
"delays that occurred, to keep it secret from Don Blas and
"others. The outcome of all which was,
"3? . Carthagena itself (November 1740--April 1741).
known, Camp of Grottin too well known! ) "King George, in
"his own high person, comes down to the House of Lords,--
"which, like the Other House, is sunk painfully in Walpole
"Controversies, Spanish-War Controversies, of a merely
"domestic nature; -- and informs both Honourable Houses,
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? CHAP. XII. ] SORROWS OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 387
April--May 1741.
"with extreme caution, naming nobody, That he much wishes
"they would think of helping him in these alarming cir-
cumstances of the Celestial Balance, ready apparently to go
"heels uppermost. To which the general answer is, 'Yes,
"surely! ' -- with a vote of 300,000/. for her Hungarian
"Majesty, a few days hence. From those continents of Par-
"liamentary tufa, now fallen so waste and mournful, here
"is one little piece which ought to be extricated into day-
light:
'Mr. Viner (on his legs): * * "If I mistake not the true
'intention of the Address proposed,' in answer to his Majesty's
most gracious Speech from the Throne, 'we are invited to
'declare that we will oppose the King of Prussia in his attempts
'upon Silesia: a declaration in which I see not how any man
'can concur who knows not the nature of his Prussian Majesty's
'Claim, and the Laws of the German Empire' (nor do J,
Mr. V. )\ 'It ought therefore, Sir, to have been the first
'endeavour of those by whom this Address has been so
'zealously supported, to show that his Prussian Majesty's
'Claim, so publicly explained' (by Kanzler Ludwig, of Halle,
who, it seems, has staggered or convinced Mr. Viner), 'so firmly
'urged, and so strongly supported, is without foundation and
'reason, and is only one of those imaginary titles which Ambit
'tion may always find to the dominions of another. ' (Hear,
Mr. Viner! )"*
A most indispensable thing, surely. Which was never
done, nor can ever be done, but was assumed as either un-
necessary or else done of its own accord, by that Collective
Wisdom of England (with a sage George II. at the head of
it); who plunged into Dettingen, Fontenoy, Austrian Sub-
sidies, Aix-la-Chapelle, and foundation of the English
National Debt, among other strange things, in con-
sequence! --
Upon that of Kanzler Ludwig, and the "so public
Explanation" (which we slightly heard of long since),
here is another Note,--unless readers prefer to skip it:
* Tindal, xx. 491, gives the Royal Speech (date in a very slobbery
condition); gee also Coxe, House of Austria, iii. 365. Viner's Fragment of
a Speech is in Thackeray, Life of Chatham, i. 87.
25*
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? 388 FIRST SILESIAX WAR. [bOOK xn.
April--May 1741.
"That the Diplomatic and Political world is universally in
"travail at this time, no reader need be told; Europe every -
"where in dim anxiety, heavy-laden expectation (which to us
"has fallen so vacant); looking towards inevitable changes
"and the huge inane. All in travail; -- and already uttering
"printed Manifestoes, Patents, Deductions, and other public
"tmvail-shrieks of that kind. Printed; not to speak of the
"unprinted, of the oral which vanished on the spot; or even
"of the written which were shot forth by breathless estafettes,
"and unhappily did not vanish, but lie dn archives, still
"humming upon us, 'Won't you readme, then? ' -- Alas,
"except on compulsion, No! Life being precious (and time,
"which is the stuff of life), No! --
"AtReinsberg as elsewhere, at Eeinsberg first of all, it
"had been felt, in October last, that there would be Mani-
"festoes needed; learned Proof, the more irrefragable the
"better, of our Right to Silesia. It was settled there, Let
"Ludwig, Kanzler of the University of Halle, do it. " (Herr
Kanzler Ludwig, monster of Antiquarian, Legal and other
Learning there: wealthy, too, and close-fisted; whom we have
seen obliged to open his closed fist, and to do building in the
Friedrich Strasse, before now; NUssler, his son-in-law, naving
no money: -- as careless readers have perhaps forgotten? )
"Ludwig set about his new task with a proud joy. Ludwig
"knows that story, if he know anything. Long years ago
"he put forth a Chapter upon it; weighty Chapter; in a Book
"of weight, said judges; -- Book weighing, in pounds avoir-
"dupois and otherwise, none of us now knows what:* -- but,
"in after years, it used to be said by flatterers of the Kanzler,
"'Herr Kanzler, see the effect of Learning. It was you, it
"was your weighty Book, that caused all this World-tumult,
"and flung the Nations into one another's hair! ' Upon which
"the old Kanzler would blush: 'You do me too much
"honour! '
"Ludwig, directly on order given, gathered out his docu-
* Title of this weighty Performance (seePreuss, Thronbesteigitnq, p.
432) is, or was (size not given), Germania Princept (Halse, 1702). Preoss
says farther, "That Book li. c. 3 handles the Prussian claims: Jagerndorf
"being ? 13; Liegnitz, ? 14; Oppeln and Ratibor, ? 16; -- and that Ludwig
"had sent a Copy of this Argument'' (weighty Performance altogether?
Or Book ii. c. 3 of it, which would have had a better chance? ) "to King
"Friedrich, on the death of Kaiser Karl VT. "
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? CHAP. XII. ] SORROWS OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 389
April--May 1741.
"ments again, in the King's name this time; and promised
"something weighty by Newy ear's day at latest. " Doubtless
to the joy of Niissler, who has still no regular appointment,
though well deserving one. "And sure enough, on January
'' 7th, at Berlin,'in three languages,' Ludwig^ Deduction had
"come out; an eager Public waiting for it;* -- and at Berlin
'' it was generally thought to be conclusive. I have looked
"into Ludwig's Deduction, stern duty urging, in this instance
"for one: such portions as I read are nothing like so stupid as
"was expected; and in fact, are not to be called stupid at all,
'' but fit for their purpose, and moderately intelligible to those
"who need them, -- which happily we do not in this place.
Judicious Mr. Viner availed nothing against the
Proposed Address; any more than he would against the
Atlantic Tide, coming-in unanimous, under influence of
the Moon itself, -- as indeed this Address, and the
triumphant Subsidy which was voted in the rear of it,
may be said to have done. ** Subsidy of 300,000/. to
her Hungarian Majesty; which, with the 200,000/. al-
ready gone that road, makes a handsome Half-million
for the present Year. The first gush of the Britannic
Fountain, -- which flowed like an Amalthea's Horn
for seven years to come; refreshing Austria, and all
thirsty Pragmatic Nations, to defend the Keystone of
this Universe. Unluckily every guinea of it went, at
the same time, to encourage Austria in scorning King
Friedrich's offers to it; which perhaps are just offers,
thinks Mr. Viner; which once listened to, Pragmatic
Sanction would be safe. ***
* Title is, Rechtsgcgrundetes Eigenthum (in the Latin copies', Patrimo-
nium , and Propricle fondee en Droit in the French copies) des &c. , -- that
is to say, Legal Right of Property in the Royal-Electoral House of Branden-
burg to the Duchies and Principalities of Jagerndorf, Liegnitz, Brieg, Wohlau
(Berlin, 7th January 1741).
** Coxe, iii. 265.
*** Mr. Viner was of Pupham, or Pupholm, in Lincolnshire, for which
County he sat then, and for many years before and after', -- from about
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? 390 FIRST SILESIAN WAS. [book XU.
April--May 1741.
This Parliament is strong for Pragmatic Sanction,
and has high resentments against Walpole; in both
which points the New Parliament, just getting elected,
will rival and surpass it, -- especially in the latter
point, that of uprooting Walpole, which the Nation is
bent on, with a singular fury. Pragmatic Sanction like
to be ruined; and Walpole furiously thrown out: what
a pair of sorrows for poor George! During his late
Caroline's time, all went peaceably, and that of
"governing" was a mere pleasure; Walpole and
Caroline cunningly doing that for him, and making
him believe he was doing it. But now has come the
crisis, the collapse; and his poor Majesty left alone to
deal with it! --
No. 2. Constitutional Historian on the Phenomenon of Walpole
in England.
"For above Ten Years, Walpole himself," says my
Constitutional Historian (unpublished), "for almost Twenty
"Years, Walpole virtually and through others, has what
"they call 'governed'England; that is to say, has adjusted
"the conflicting Parliamentary Chaos into counterpoise, by
"what methods he had; and allowed England, with Walpole
"atop, to jumble whither it would and could. Of crooked
"things made straight by Walpole, of heroic performance or
"intention, legislative or administrative, by Walpole, nobody
"ever heard; never of the least handbreadth gained from the
"Night-Realm in England, on Walpole's part: enough if he
"could manage to keep the Parish Constable walking, and
"himself float atop. Which task (though intrinsically zero
"for the Community, but all-important to the Walpole, of
1713 till 1761, when he died. A solid, instructed man, say his contempora-
ries. "He was a friend of Bolingbroke's and had a house near Boling-
broke's Battersea one. " He is Great-great-grandfather to the present Mr.
Viner, and to the Countess De Grey and Ripon; which is an interesting
little fact.
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? CHAP. XII. ] SORROWS OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 391
April--May 1741.
"Constitutional Countries) is a task almost beyond the faculty
"of man, if the careless reader knew it!
"This task Walpole did, -- in a sturdy, deep-bellied, long-
'' headed, John-Bull fashion, not unworthy of recognition. A
"man of very forcible natural eyesight, strong natural heart,
"-- courage in him to all lengths; a very block of oak, or of
"oak-root, for natural strength. He was always very quiet
"with it, too; given to digest his victuals, and be peaceable
"with everybody. He had tt>> rule, that stood in place of
"many: To keep out of every business which it was possible
"for human wisdom to stave aside. 'What good will you get
"of going into that? Parliamentary criticism, argument and
"botheration! Leave well alone. And even leave ill alone:
"-- are you the tradesman to tinker leaky vessels in England?
"You will not want for work. Mind your pudding, and say
'' little! ' At home and abroad, that was the safe secret. For,
'' in Foreign Politics, his rule was analogous: 'Mind your own
"affairs. You are an Island, you can do without Foreign Po-
"litics; Peace, keep Peace with everybody: what, in the Devil's
"name, have you to do with those dog-worryings over Seas?
"Once more, mind your pudding! ' Not so bad a rule; indeed
"it is the better part of an extremely good one; -- and you
"might reckon it the real rule for a pious Britannic Island
"(reverent of God, and contemptuous of the Devil) in times of
"general Downbreak and Spiritual Bankruptcy, when quar-
"rellings of Sovereigns are apt to be mere dog-worryings, and
"Devil's work, not good to interfere in.
"In this manner, Walpole, by solid John-Bull faculty (and
"methods of his own), had balanced the Parliamentary swag-
"gings and clashings, for a great while; and England had
"jumbled whither it could, always in a stupid, but also in a
"peaceable way. As to those same 'methods of his own,'
"they were -- in fact they were Bribery. Actual purchase of
"votes by money slipt into the hand. Go straight to the
"point. 'The direct real method this,' thinks Walpole: 'is
"there in reality any other? ' A terrible question to Uonstitu-
"tional Countries; which, I hear, has never been resolved in
"the negative, by the modern improvements of science.
"Changes of form have introduced themselves; the outward
"process, I hear, is now quite different. According as the
"fashions and conditions alter, -- according a3 you have a
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? 392 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [book xn.
April--May 1741.
"Fourth Estate developed, or a Fourth Estate still in the grub
"stage and only developing, -- much variation of outward
"process is conceivable.
"But Votes, under pain of Death Official, are necessary
"to your poor Walpole: and votes, 1 hear, are still bidden
"for, and bought. You may buy them by money down (which
"is felony, and theft simple, against the poor Nation); or by
"preferments and appointments of the unmeritorious man, --
"which is felony double-distilled (far deadlier, though more
"refined), and theft most compound; theft, not of the poor
"Nation's money, but of its soul and body so far, and of all
"its moneys and temporal and spiritual interests whatsoever;
"theft, you may say, of collops cut from its side, and poison
put into its heart, poor Nation! Or again, you may buy, not
"of the Third Estate in such ways, but of the Fourth, or of
"the Fourth and Third together, in other still more felonious
"and deadly, though refined ways. But doing claptraps,
"namely; letting off Parliamentary blue-lights, to awaken
"the Sleeping Swineries, and charm them into diapason for
"you, -- what a music! Or, without claptrap or previous
"felony of your own, you may feloniously, in the pinch of
"things, make truce with the evident Demagogos, and Son of
"Nox and of Perdition, who has got 'within those walls' of
"yours, and is grown important to you by the Awakened
"Swineries, risen into alt, that follow him. Him you may, in
"your dire hunger of votes, consent to comply with; his
"Anarchies you will pass for him into 'Laws,' as you are
"pleased to term them;--instead of pointing to the whipping-
post, and to his wicked long ears, which are so fit to be
"nailed there, and of sternly recommending silence, which
"were the salutary thing. -- Buying may be done in a great
"variety of ways. The question, How you buy? is not, on
"the moral side, an important one. Nay, as there is a beauty
"in going straight to the point, and by that course there is
"likely to be the minimum of mendacity for you, perhaps the
"direct money-method is a shade less damnable than any of
"the others since discovered; -- while, in regard to practical
"damage resulting, it is of childlike harmlessness in com-
"parison!
"That was Walpole's method; with this to aid his great
"natural faculty, long-headed, deep-bellied, suitable to the
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? CHAP. XII. ] SORROWS OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 393
April--May 1741.
"English Parliament and Nation, he went along with perfect
"success for ten or twenty years. And 'it mighthave been for
"longer, -- had not the English Nation accidentally come to
"wish, that it should cease jumbling nowhither; and try to
"jumble somewhither, at least for a little while, or important
"business that had risen for England in a certain quarter.
"Had it not been for Jenkins's Ear blazing out in the dark
"English brain, Walpole might have lasted still a long while.
"But his fate lay there: -- the first Business vital to England
"which might turn up; and this chanced to be the Spanish
"War. How vital, readers shall see anon. Walpole, know-
"ing well enough in what state his War apparatus was, and
"that of all his Apparatuses there was none in a working
"state, but the Parliamentary one, -- resisted the Spanish
"War; stood in the door against it, with a rhinoceros deter-
"mination, nay almost something of a mastiff's; resolute not
"to admit it, to admit death as soon. Doubtless he had a
'' feeling it would be death, the sagacious man: -- and such it
"is now proving; the Walpole Ministry dying by inches from
"it; dying hard, but irremediably.
"The English Nation was immensely astonished, which
"Walpole was not, any more than at the other Laws of
"Nature, to find Walpole's War-apparatus in such a condi-
"tion. All his Apparatuses, Walpole guesses, are in no
"better, if it be not the Parliamentary one.
The English
"Nation is immensely astonished, which Walpole againtis not,
"to find that his Parliamentary Apparatus has been kept in
"gear and smooth going by the use of oil:'Miraculous Scandul
"of Scandals! ' thinks the English Nation. 'Miracle? Law of
"Nature, you fools! ' thinks Walpole. And in fact there is
"such a storm roaring in England, in those and in the late
"and the coming months, as threatens to be dangerous to
"high roofs, -- dangerous to Walpole's head at one time.
"Storm such as had not been witnessed in men's memory; all
"manner of Counties and Constituencies, with solemn indig-
nations charging their representatives to search into that
'' miraculous Scandal of Scandals, Law of Nature, or whatever
"it may be; and abate the same, at their peril.
"To the now reader there is something almost pathetic in
"these solemn indignations, and high resolves to have Purity
"of Parliament and thorough Administrative Keform, in spite
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? 394 FIRST SILESIAN WAR. [bOOK Xn.
April--May 1741.
"of Nature and the Constitutional Stars;-- and nothing I
"have met with, not even the Prussian Dryasdust, is so un-
"sufferably wearisome, or can pretend to equal in depth of
"dull inanity, to ingenuous. livingreaders, as our poor English
"Dryasdust's interminable, often-repeated Narratives, volume
"after volume, of the debatings and colleaguings, the tossings
"and tumults, fruitless and endless, in Nation and National
"Palaver, which ensued thereupon. iWalpole (in about a
"year hence), * though he stuck to the ground like a rhino-
"ceros, was got rolled out. And a Successor, and series of
"Successors, in the bright brand-new state, was got rolled in;
"with immense shouting from mankind: -- but up to this date
"we have no reason to believe that the Laws of Nature were
"got abrogated on that occasion, or that the constitutional
"stars have much altered their courses since. "
That Walpole will probably be lost, goes much
home to the Royal bosom, in these troublous Spring
months of 1741, as it has done and will do. And here,
emerging from the Spanish Main just now, is a second
sorrow, which might quite transfix the Royal bosom,
and drive Majesty itself to despair; awakening such in-
soluble questions, -- furnishing such proof, that Wal-
pole <<md a good few other persons (persons, and also
things, and ideas and practices, deep-rooted in the
Country) stand much in need of being lost, if England
is to go a good road!
The Spanish War being of moment to us here, we
will let our Constitutional Historian explain, in his own
dialect, How it was so vital to England; and shall even
subjoin what he gives as History of it, such being so
admirably succinct, for one quality.
* February lSth (2d), 1742, quitting the House after bad usage there,
said he would never enter it again; nor did: February 22d, resigned in
favour of Pulteney and Company (Tindal, xx. 530; Thackeray, i. 46).
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? CHAP. XII. ] SORROWS OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 395
April--May 1741.
No. 3. Ofthe Spanish War, or the Jenkins's-Ear Question.
"There was real cause for a War with Spain. It is one of
"the few cases, this, of a war from necessity. Spain, by
"Decree of the Pope, -- some Pope long ago, whose name we
"will not remember, in solemn Conclave, drawing accurately
"'his Meridian Line,' on I know not what Telluric or Uranic
"principles, no doubt with great accuracy, 'between Portugal
"and Spain,' -- was proprietor of all those Seas and Con-
"tinents. And now England, in the interim, by Decree of
"the Eternal Destinies, had clearly come to have property
"there, too; and to be practically much concerned in that
"theoretic question of the Pope's Meridian. There was no
"reconciling of theory with fact. 'Ours indisputably," said
"Spain, with loud articulate voice; 'Holiness the Pope made
"it ours! ' -- while fact and the English, by Decree of the
"Eternal Destinies, had been grumbling inarticulately the
"other way, for almost Two Hundred years past, and no
"result had.
"In Oliver Cromwell's time, it used to be said, 'With
"Spain, in Europe, there may be peace or war; but between
"the Tropics it is always war. ' A state of things well re-
cognised by Oliver, and acted on, according to his op-
"portunities. No settlement was had in Oliver's brief time;
"nor could any be got since, when it was becoming yearly
"more pressing. Bucaniers, desperate naval gentlemen living
"on boucan, or hung beef; who are also called Flibustiers
"(Flibutiers, "Freebooters," in French pronunciation, which
"is since grown strangely into Filibusters, Fillibustiers, and
"other mad forms, in the Yankee Newspapers now current):
'' readers have heard of those dumb methods of protest. Dumb
"and furious; which could bring no settlement; but which did
"astonish the Pope's Decree, slashing it with cutlasses and
"sea-cannon, in that manner, and circuitously forwarded a
'' settlement. Settlement was becoming yearly more needful:
"and, ever since the Treaty of Utrecht especially, there had
"been an incessant haggle going on, to produce one; without
"the least effect hitherto. What embassyings, bargainings,
"bargain-breakings; what galloping of estafettes; acres of
"diplomatic paper, now fallen to the spiders, who always
"privately were the real owners! Not in the Treaty of Utrecht,
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? 396
[book XII.
F1KST SILESIAN WAR.
April--May 1741.
"not in the Congresses ofCambray, ofSoissons, Convention
"of Pardo, by Ripperda, Horace Walpole, or the wagging of
"wigs, could this matter be settled at all. Near two hundred
"years of chronic misery; -- and had there been, under any
"of those wigs, a Head capable of reading the Heavenly Man-
dates, with heart capable of following them, the misery
"might have been briefly ended, by a direct method. With
"what immense saving in all kinds, compared with the oblique
"method gone upon! In quantity of bloodshed needed, of
"money, of idle talk and estafettes, not to speak higher con-
siderations, the saving had been incalculable. For it was
"England's one Cause of War during the Century we are now
"upon; and poor England's course, when at last driven into
"it, went ambiguously circling round the whole Universe,
"instead of straight to the mark. Had Oliver Cromwell lived
"tenyears longer; -- but Oliver Cromwell did not live; and,
"instead of Heroic Heads, there came in Constitutional Wigs,
"which makes a great difference.
"The pretensions of Spain to keep Half the World locked
"up in embargo were entirely chimerical; plainly contra-
"dictory to the Laws of Nature; and no amount of Pope's
"Donation Acts, or Ceremonial in Rota or Propaganda, could
"redeem them from untenability, in the modern days. To lie
"like a dog in the manger over South America, and say
"snarling, 'None of you shall trade here, though I cannot! '
"--what Pope or body of Popes can sanction such a proce-
"dure? Had England had a Head, instead of Wigs, amidite
"diplomatists, England, as the chief party interested, would
"have long since intimated gently to such dog in the manger:
'"Dog, will you be so obliging as rise! I am grieved to say,
"we snail have to do unpleasant things otherwise. Dogs have
"doors for their hutches: but to pretend barring the Tropic
"of Cancer, -- that is too big a door for any dog. Can nobody
"but you have business here, then, which is not displeasing to
"the gods? We bid you rise! ' And in this mode there is no
"doubt the dog, bark and bite as he might, would have ended
"by rising; not only England, but all the Universe being
"against him. And furthermore, I compute with certainty,
"the quantity of fighting needed to obtain such result would,
"there, and now also the clear might, why take refuge in
The clear right being
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? CHAP. XII. ] SORROWS OP HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 397
April--May 1741.
"diplomatic wiggeries, in Assiento-Treaties, and Arrange-
"ments which are not analogous to the facts; which are but
"wigged mendacities, therefore; and will but aggravate in
"quantity and in quality the fighting yet neededV Fighting
"is but (as has been well said) a battering out of the men-
"dacities, pretences, and imaginary elements: well battered
"out, these, like dust and chaff, fly torrent-wise along the
"winds, and darken all the sky; but these once gone, there
"remain the facts and their visible relation to one another,
"and peace is sure.
"The Assiento Treaty being fixed upon, the English ought
"to have kept it. But the English did not, in any measure;
"nor could pretend to have done. They were entitled to
"supply Negroes, in such and such number, annually to the
"Spanish Plantations; and besides this delightful branch of
"trade, to have the privilege of selling certain quantities of
"their manufactured articles on those coasts; quantities re-
"gulated briefly by this stipulation, That their Assiento Ship
"was to be of 600 tons burden, so many and no more. The
"Assiento ship was duly of 600 tons accordingly, promise kept
"faithfully to the eye; but the Assiento Ship was attended
"and escorted by provision-sloops, small craft said to be of
"the most indispensable nature to it. Which provision-sloops,
"and indispensable small craft, not only carried merchandise
"as well, but went and came to Jamaica and back, under
"various pretexts, with ever new supplies of merchandise;
"converting the Assiento ship into a Floating Shop, the Tons
"burden and Tons sale of which set arithmetic at defiance.
"This was the fact, perfectly well known in England, veiled
"over by mere smuggler pretences, and obstinately persisted
"in, so profitable was it. Perfectly well known in Spain also,
"and to the Spanish-Guarda-Costas and Sea-captains in those
"parts; who were naturally kept in a perennial state of rage
"by it, -- and disposed to fly out into flame upon it, when a
"bad case turned up! Such a case that of Jenkins had seemed
"to them; and their mode of treating it, by tearing off Mr.
"Jenkins's Ear, proved to be, -- bad shall we say, or good?
"--intolerable to England's thick skin; and brought matters
"to a crisis, in the ways we saw. " * * *
The Jenkins's-Ear Question, which then looked so
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? 398 FIRST SILESIAN WAB. [book Xa.
April--May 1741.
mad to everybody, how sane has it now grown to my
Constitutional Friend! In abstruse ludicrous form, there
lay immense questions involved in it; which were
serious enough, certain enough, though invisible to
everybody. Half the World lay hidden in embryo
under it. Colonial-Empire, whose is it to be? Shall
Half the World be England's, for industrial purposes;
which is innocent, laudable, conformable to the Mul-
tiplication-table at least, and other plain Laws? Or
shall it be Spain's, for arrogant-torpid sham-devotional
purposes, contradictory to every Law? The incalculable
Yankee Nation itself, biggest Phenomenon (once
thought beautifullest) of these Ages, -- this too, little
as careless readers on either side of the sea now know
it, lay involved. Shall there be a Yankee Nation, shall
there not be; shall the New World be of Spanish type,
shall it be of English? Issues which we may call im-
mense. Among the then extant Sons of Adam, where
was he who could in the faintest degree surmise what
issues lay in the Jenkins's-Ear Question! And it is
curious to consider now, with what fierce deep-breathed
doggedness the poor English Nation, drawn by their
instincts, held fast upon it, and would take no denial,
as if they had surmised and seen. 'For the instincts of
simple guileless persons (liable to be counted stupid,
by the unwary) are sometimes of prophetic nature, and
spring from the deep places of this Universe!
My Constitutional Friend entitles his next Section,
Carthagena; but might more fitly have headed it (for
such in reality it is, Carthagena proving the evanes-
cent point of that sad business),
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? CHAP. XB. 1 SORROWS OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 399
April--May 1741.
Succinct History of the Spanish War, which began in 1739; and
ended -- When did it end?
10. War, and Porta-Bello (November 1739 -- March 1740).
-- "November 4th, 1739, War was at length (after above
"four months obscure quasi-declaring of it, in the shape of
"Orders in Council, Letters of Marque, and so on) got openly
"declared; 'Heralds at Arms at the usual places' blowing
'' trumpets upon it, and reading the royal Manifesto, date of
"which is five days earlier, 'Kensington, October 30th (19th. )'
"The principal Events that ensue, arrange themselves under
"Three Heads, this of Porto-Bello being the first; and (by in-
"tense smelting) are dateable as follows: *
"Wednesday Evening, 1st December 1739, Admiral Ver-
'*non, our chosen Anti-Spaniard, finding, a while ago, that he
"had missed the Azogue Ships on the Coast of Spain, and
'' must try America and the Spanish Main, in that view arrives
"at Porto-Bello. Next day, December 2d, Vernon attacks
"Porto-Bello; attacks certain Castles so-called, withfurious
"broadsiding, followed by scalading; gets surrender (on the
"3d); -- seamen have allowance instead of plunder; -- blows
"up what Castles there are; and returns to Port Royal in
"Jamaica.
"Never-imagined joy in England, and fame to Vemon,
"when the news came: 'Took it with Six Ships,' cry they;
''' the scurvy Ministry, who had heard him, in the fire of Par-
liamentary debate, say Six, would grant him no more: in-
"vincible Vernon! ' Nay, Next Year, I see, 'London was
"illuminated on the Anniversary of Porto-Bello:' -- day
"settled in permanence, as one of the High-tides of the
"Calendar, it would appear. And 'Vernon's Birthday'
"withal, -- how touching is stupidity when loyal! -- was
"celebrated amazingly in all the chief Towns, like a kind of
"Christmas, when it came round; Nature having deigned to
"producesuch a man, for a poor Nation in difficulties. In-
"vincible Vernon, it is thought by Gazetteers, 'will look in at
"Carthagena shortly;' much more important Place, where a
"certain Governor Don Blas has been insolent withal, and
"written Vernon letters.
* Gentleman's Magazine, ix. 551, x. 124, 142, 144 , 350; Tindal, xx.
430-3, 442; &c.
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? 400 FIRST SILESIAN WAK. [book xn.
April--May 1741.
"2o. Preliminaries to Carthagena [March-- November 1740. )
"-- Monday, 14th March 1740, Vernon did, accordingly, look
"in on Carthagena; * cast anchor in the shallow waste of surfs
"there, that Monday; and tried some bombarding, with bomb-
"ketches and the like, from Thursday till Saturday following.
"Vernon hopes he did hit the Jesuits' College, South Bastion,
"Custom-house and other principal edifices; but found that
"there was no getting near enough on that seaward side.
"Found that you must force the Interior Harbour, -- a big In-
"land Gulf or Lake, which gushes in by what they call Little
"Mouth (Boca-Chica), and has its Booms, Castles and De-
fences, which are numerous and strongish; -- and that , for
"this end, you must have Seven or Eight Thousand Land
"Forces, as well as an addition of Ships. On Saturday
"Evening, therefore, Vernon calls-in his bomb-ketches; sails
"past, examining these things; and goes forth on other small
"adventures. For example, --
"Saturday, 3d April 1740, 'about 10 at night,' Opens can-
"nonade on Chagres (place often enough taken, by cutlass
"and pistol, in the Bucanier times); and, oh Monday 5th, gets
"surrender of Chagres: 'Custom-house crammed with goods,
"which we set fire to. ' On news of which, there is again, in
"England, joy over the day of small things. The poor English
"People are set on this business of avenging Jenkins's Ear,
"and of having the Ocean Highway unbarred; and hope al-
"ways it can De done by the Walpole Apparatuses, which
"ought to be in working order, and are not! 'Support this
"hero, you Walpole and Company, in his Carthagena views:
St will be better for you! '
"Walpole and Company, aware of that fact, do take some
"trouble about it; and now, may not we say, Paullo majora
"canamus? All through that Summer 1740" -- while King
Friedrich went rushing about, to Strasburg, to Wesel; doing
his Herstals and Practicalities, with a light high hand, in al-
most an entertaining manner; and intent, still more, on his
Voltaires and a Life to the Muses, -- " there was, in England,
"serious heavy tumult of activity, secret and public. In the
"Dockyards, on the Drill-grounds, what a stir: Camp in the
"Isle of Wight, not to mention Portsmouth and the Sea-
"industries; 6,000 Marines are to be embarked, as well as
* Gentleman's Magazine, x. 350.
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? CHAP, m. ] SORROWS OF HIS BRITANK10 MAJESTY. 401
April--May 1741.
"Land Regiments, -- can anybody guess whither? America
"itself is to furnish 'one Regiment, with Scotch Officers to
"discipline it,' if they can.
"Here is real haste and effort; but by no means such speed
"as could be wished; multiplex confusions and contradictions
"occurring, as is usual, when your machinery runs foul. Nor
"are the Gazetteers without their guesses, though they study
"to be discreet. 'Here is something considerable in the wind;
"a grand idea, for certain ',' -- and to men of discernment, it
"points surely towards Carthagena and heroic Vernon out
"yonder? Government is dumb altogether; and lays oc-
casional embargo; trying hard (without success), in the
"delays that occurred, to keep it secret from Don Blas and
"others. The outcome of all which was,
"3? . Carthagena itself (November 1740--April 1741).
