Shall there be a Yankee Nation, shall
there not be; shall the New World be of Spanish type,
shall it be of English?
there not be; shall the New World be of Spanish type,
shall it be of English?
Thomas Carlyle
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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). -- On
"November 6th,--by no means, 'July 3d,' as your first fond
"programs bore; which delay was itself likely to be fatal, un-
less the Almanac, and course of the Tropical Seasons would
"delay along with you! -- we say, On Sunday, 6th November
"1740" (Kaiser Karl's Funeral just over, and great thoughts
going on at Reinsberg), "Rear-Admiral Sir Chalouer Ogle,--
"so many weeks and months after the set time, -- does sail
"from St. Helen's (guessed, for Carthagena); all people send-
"ing blessings with nim. Twenty-five big Ships of the Line,
"with three Half - Regiments on board; fireships, bomb-
"ketches, in abundance; and eighty Transports, with 6,000
"drilled Marines: a Sea-and-Land Force, fit to strengthen
"Hero Vernon with a witness, and realize his Carthagena
"views. A very great day at Portsmouth and St. Helen's for
"these Sunday folk. *
"Most obscure among the other items in that Armada of
"Sir Chaloner's, just taking leave of England; most obscure
"of the items then, but now most noticeable, or almost alone
"noticeable, is a young Surgeon's - Mate, -- one Tobias
"Smollett; looking over the waters there and the fading
"coasts, not without thoughts. A proud, soft-hearted, though
"somewhat stern-visaged, caustic and indignant young gen-
"tleman. Apt to be caustic in speech, having sorrows of his
* Tindal, xx. 463 (Mats &c. there; date wrong, "31st October," Instead
of 26th (o. s. ), many things wrong, and all things left loose and flabby,
and not right! As is poor Tindal's way).
Curhjle, Frederick the Great. VI. 26
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? 402 FIKST SILESIAN WAR. [BOOK HI.
April--May 1741.
"own under lock and key, on this and subsequent occasions.
"Excellent Tobias; he has, little as he hopes it, something
"considerable by way of mission in this Expedition, and in
"this Universe generally. Mission to take Portraiture of
"English Seamanhood, with the due grimness, due fidelity;
"and convey the same to remote generations, before it vanish.
"Courage, my brave young Tobias; through endless sorrows,
"contradictions, toils and confusions, you will do your errand
"in some measure; and that will be something! --
"Five weeks before (29th September 1740, which was also
"several months beyond time set), there had sailed, strictly
"hidden by embargoes which were little effectual, another
"Expedition, all Naval; intended to be subsidiary to this one:
"Commodore Anson's, of Three inconsiderable Ships; who is
"to go round Cape Horn, if he can; to bombard Spanish Ame-
"rica from the other side; and stretch out a hand to Vernon in
"his grand Carthagena or ulterior views. Together they may
"do some execution, if we judge by the old Bucanier and
"Queen-Elizabeth experiences? Anson's Expedition has be-
"come famous in the world, though Vernon got no good of it. "
Well! Here truly was a business; not so ill - contrived.
Somebody of head must have been at the centre of this: and it
might, in result, have astonished the Spaniard, and tumbled
him much topsy-turvy in those latitudes, -- had the machinery
for executing it been well in gear. Under Friedrich Wilhelm s
captaincy and management, every person, every item, correct
to its time, to its place, to its function, what a thing! But with
mere Walpole Machinery: alas, it was far too wide a Plau
for Machinery of that kind, habitually out of order, and only
used to be as correct as -- as it could. Those delays them-
selves, first to Anson, then to Ogle, since the Tropical Almanac
would not delay along with them, had thrown both En-
terprises into weather such as all-but meant impossibility in
those latitudes! This was irremediable; -- had not been re-
mediable, by efforts and pushings here and there. The best
of management, as under Anson, could not get the better of
this; worst of management, as in the other case, was likely to
make a fine thing of it! Let us hasten on:
"January 20th, 1741, We arrive, through much rough
"weather and other confused hardships, at Port Royal in
"Jamaica; find Vernon waiting on the slip; the American
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? 'CHAP. XII. ] SORROWS OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 403
"April--May 1741.
"Regiment, tolerably drilled by the Scotch Lieutenants, in
"full readiness and equipment; a body of Negroes super-
added, by way of pioneer labourers fit for those hot climates.
"One sad loss there had been on the voyage hither: Land
"forces had lost their Commander, and did not find another.
"General Cathcart had died of sickness on the voyage; a
"Charles Lord Cathcart, who was understood to possess some
"knowledge of his business; and his Successor, one Went-
"worth, did not happen to have any. Which was reckoned
"unlucky, by the more observant. Vernon, though in haste
"for Carthagena, is in some anxiety about a powerful French
"Fleet which has been manoeuvring in those waters for some
"time; intent on no good that Vernon can imagine. The first
"thing now is, See into that French Fleet. French Fleet, on
"our going to look in the proper Island, is found to be all off
'', for home; men 'mostly starved or otherwise dead,' we hear;
"so that now, after this last short delay, -- To Carthagena,
"with all sail.
"Wednesday Evening, 15th March 1741, We anchor in the
"Playa Grande, the waste surfy Shallow which washes Cartha-
"gena seaward; 124 sail of us, big and little. We find Don
"Bias in a very prepared posture. Don Blas has been doing
"his best, this twelvemonth past; plugging up that Boca-
"Chica (Little-Mouth) Ingate, with batteries, booms, great
"ships; and has castles not a few thereabouts and in the In-
"terior Lake or Harbour; all which he has put in tolerable de-
"fence, so far as can be judged: not an inactive, if an insolent
"Don. We spend the next five days in considering and
"surveying these Performances of his: What is to be done
"with them; how, in the first place, we may force Boca-Chica;
"and get in upon his Interior Castles and him. After con-
"sideration, and plan fixed:
"Monday, 20th March, Sir Chaloner, with broadsides,
"sweeps away some small defences which lie to left of Boca-
"Chica" (to our left, to Boca-Chica's right, if anybody cares to
be particular). "Whereupon the Troops land, some of them
"that same evening; and, within the next two days, are all
"ashore, implements, Negroes and the rest; building bat-
"teries, felling wood; intent to capture Boca-Chica Castle,
"and demolish the War-Ships, Booms, and fry of Fascine and
"other Batteries; and thereby to get in upon Don Bias, and
26*
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? 404 FIRST 8ILESIAN WAR. [bOOK xn.
April--May 1741.
"have a stroke at his Interior Castles and Carthagena itself.
"Till April 5th, here are sixteen days of furious intricate work';
"not ill done: -- the physical labour itself, the building of bat-
"teries, with Boca-Chica firing on you over the woods, is
"scarcely doable by Europeans in that season; and the
"Negroes, who are able for it, 'fling down their burdens, and
"scamper, whenever a gun goes off. ' Furious fighting, too,
"there was, by seamen and landsmen; not ill done, consider-
ing circumstances.
"On the sixteenth day, April5th" (KingFriedrichhurrying
from the Mountains, that same day, towards Steinau, which
took fire with him at night), "Boca-Chica Castle and the in-
tricate War-Ships, Booms, and Castles thereabouts (Don
"Blas running off when the push became intense), are at last
"got. So that now, through Boca-Chica, we enter the Interior
"Harbour or Harbours. 4 Harbours 'which are of wide extent,
"and deep enough; being in fact a Lake, or rather Pair of
"Lakes, with Castles (Castello Grande, 'Castle Grand,' the
"chief of them), with War-Ships sunk or afloat, and mis-
"cellaneous obstructions: beyond all which, at the farther
"shore, some five miles off, Carthagena itself does at last lie
"potentially accessible; and we hope to get in upon Don Bias
"and it. There ensue five days of intricate sea-work; not
"much of broadsiding, mainly tugging-out of sunk War-Ships
"and the like, to get along-side ot Castle Grand, which is the
"chief obstruction.
"April 10th, Castle Grand itself is got; nobody found in it
"when we storm. Don Blas and the Spaniards seem much in
"terror; burning any Ships they still have, near Carthagena;
"as if there were no chance now left. " This is the very day of
Mollwitz Battle; near about the hour when Schwerin broke
into field-music, and advanced with thunderous glitter against
the evening sun! " Carthagena Expedition is, at length, fairly
"in contact with its Problem, -- the question rising, 'Do you
"understand it, then? '
"Up to this point, mistakes of management had been made
"good by obstinate energy of execution; clear victory had
"gone on so far, the Capture of Carthagena now seemingly at
"hand. One thing was unfortunate: 'the able Mr. Moor'
"(meritorious Captain of Foot, who, by accident, had spent
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? CHAP. XII. ] SORROWS OP HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 405
April--May 1741.
"some study on his business), 'the one real Engineer we had,'
"got killed in that Boca-Chica struggle: an end to poor Moor!
"So that the Siege of Carthagena will have to go on without
"Engineer science henceforth. May be important, that,--
"who knows? Another thing was still more palpably import-
ant: Sea-General Vernon had an undisguised contempt for
"Land-GeneralWentwortb. 'A mere blockhead, whose Bro-
"ther has a Borough,' thinks Vernon (himself an Opposition
"Member, of high-sniffing, angry, not too magnanimous
"turn); -- and withdraws now to his Ships; intimating: 'Do
"your Problem, then; I have set you down beside it, which
"was my part of the affair! ' -- Let us give the attack of Fort
"Lazar, and end this sad business.
"Sunday, 16th April, Wentworth, once master of the Up-
permost Lake or Harbour (what the Natives call the Surgi-
"dero, or Anchorage Proper), had disembarked, high up to the
"right, a good way south of Carthagena; meaning to attack
"therefrom a certain Fort Lazar, which stands on aHillbe-
"tween Carthagena and him: this Hill and Fort once his, he
"has Carthagena under his cannon; Carthagena in his pocket,
"as it were. 'Fort not to be had without batteries,' thinks
"Wentworth; though the sickly rainy season has set in.
'"Batteries? Scaling-ladders, you mean! ' answers Vernon,
"with undisguised contempt. For the two are, by this time,
"almost in open quarrel. Wentworth starts building bat-
"teries, in spite of the rain-deluges; then stops building; --
"decides to do it by scalade, after all. And, at two in the
"morning of this Sunday, April 16th, sets forth, in certain
"columns, -- by roads ill-known, with arrangements that do
"not fit like clock-work, -- to storm said Hill and Fort. The
"English are an obstinate people; and strenuous execution
"will sometimes amend defects ofplan, -- sometimes not.
"The obstinate English, nothing in them but sullen fire of
"valour, which has to burn unluminous, did, after mistake on
"mistake, climb the rocks or heights of Lazar Hill, in spite of
"the world and Don Blas's cannonading; but found, when
"atop, ThatFortLazar,raining cannon-shot, was still divided
"from them by chasms; that the scaling-ladders had not come
"(never did come, owing to indiscipline somewhere), -- and
"that, without wings as of eagles, they could not reach Fort
"Lazar at all! For about four hours, they struggled with a
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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). -- On
"November 6th,--by no means, 'July 3d,' as your first fond
"programs bore; which delay was itself likely to be fatal, un-
less the Almanac, and course of the Tropical Seasons would
"delay along with you! -- we say, On Sunday, 6th November
"1740" (Kaiser Karl's Funeral just over, and great thoughts
going on at Reinsberg), "Rear-Admiral Sir Chalouer Ogle,--
"so many weeks and months after the set time, -- does sail
"from St. Helen's (guessed, for Carthagena); all people send-
"ing blessings with nim. Twenty-five big Ships of the Line,
"with three Half - Regiments on board; fireships, bomb-
"ketches, in abundance; and eighty Transports, with 6,000
"drilled Marines: a Sea-and-Land Force, fit to strengthen
"Hero Vernon with a witness, and realize his Carthagena
"views. A very great day at Portsmouth and St. Helen's for
"these Sunday folk. *
"Most obscure among the other items in that Armada of
"Sir Chaloner's, just taking leave of England; most obscure
"of the items then, but now most noticeable, or almost alone
"noticeable, is a young Surgeon's - Mate, -- one Tobias
"Smollett; looking over the waters there and the fading
"coasts, not without thoughts. A proud, soft-hearted, though
"somewhat stern-visaged, caustic and indignant young gen-
"tleman. Apt to be caustic in speech, having sorrows of his
* Tindal, xx. 463 (Mats &c. there; date wrong, "31st October," Instead
of 26th (o. s. ), many things wrong, and all things left loose and flabby,
and not right! As is poor Tindal's way).
Curhjle, Frederick the Great. VI. 26
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? 402 FIKST SILESIAN WAR. [BOOK HI.
April--May 1741.
"own under lock and key, on this and subsequent occasions.
"Excellent Tobias; he has, little as he hopes it, something
"considerable by way of mission in this Expedition, and in
"this Universe generally. Mission to take Portraiture of
"English Seamanhood, with the due grimness, due fidelity;
"and convey the same to remote generations, before it vanish.
"Courage, my brave young Tobias; through endless sorrows,
"contradictions, toils and confusions, you will do your errand
"in some measure; and that will be something! --
"Five weeks before (29th September 1740, which was also
"several months beyond time set), there had sailed, strictly
"hidden by embargoes which were little effectual, another
"Expedition, all Naval; intended to be subsidiary to this one:
"Commodore Anson's, of Three inconsiderable Ships; who is
"to go round Cape Horn, if he can; to bombard Spanish Ame-
"rica from the other side; and stretch out a hand to Vernon in
"his grand Carthagena or ulterior views. Together they may
"do some execution, if we judge by the old Bucanier and
"Queen-Elizabeth experiences? Anson's Expedition has be-
"come famous in the world, though Vernon got no good of it. "
Well! Here truly was a business; not so ill - contrived.
Somebody of head must have been at the centre of this: and it
might, in result, have astonished the Spaniard, and tumbled
him much topsy-turvy in those latitudes, -- had the machinery
for executing it been well in gear. Under Friedrich Wilhelm s
captaincy and management, every person, every item, correct
to its time, to its place, to its function, what a thing! But with
mere Walpole Machinery: alas, it was far too wide a Plau
for Machinery of that kind, habitually out of order, and only
used to be as correct as -- as it could. Those delays them-
selves, first to Anson, then to Ogle, since the Tropical Almanac
would not delay along with them, had thrown both En-
terprises into weather such as all-but meant impossibility in
those latitudes! This was irremediable; -- had not been re-
mediable, by efforts and pushings here and there. The best
of management, as under Anson, could not get the better of
this; worst of management, as in the other case, was likely to
make a fine thing of it! Let us hasten on:
"January 20th, 1741, We arrive, through much rough
"weather and other confused hardships, at Port Royal in
"Jamaica; find Vernon waiting on the slip; the American
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? 'CHAP. XII. ] SORROWS OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 403
"April--May 1741.
"Regiment, tolerably drilled by the Scotch Lieutenants, in
"full readiness and equipment; a body of Negroes super-
added, by way of pioneer labourers fit for those hot climates.
"One sad loss there had been on the voyage hither: Land
"forces had lost their Commander, and did not find another.
"General Cathcart had died of sickness on the voyage; a
"Charles Lord Cathcart, who was understood to possess some
"knowledge of his business; and his Successor, one Went-
"worth, did not happen to have any. Which was reckoned
"unlucky, by the more observant. Vernon, though in haste
"for Carthagena, is in some anxiety about a powerful French
"Fleet which has been manoeuvring in those waters for some
"time; intent on no good that Vernon can imagine. The first
"thing now is, See into that French Fleet. French Fleet, on
"our going to look in the proper Island, is found to be all off
'', for home; men 'mostly starved or otherwise dead,' we hear;
"so that now, after this last short delay, -- To Carthagena,
"with all sail.
"Wednesday Evening, 15th March 1741, We anchor in the
"Playa Grande, the waste surfy Shallow which washes Cartha-
"gena seaward; 124 sail of us, big and little. We find Don
"Bias in a very prepared posture. Don Blas has been doing
"his best, this twelvemonth past; plugging up that Boca-
"Chica (Little-Mouth) Ingate, with batteries, booms, great
"ships; and has castles not a few thereabouts and in the In-
"terior Lake or Harbour; all which he has put in tolerable de-
"fence, so far as can be judged: not an inactive, if an insolent
"Don. We spend the next five days in considering and
"surveying these Performances of his: What is to be done
"with them; how, in the first place, we may force Boca-Chica;
"and get in upon his Interior Castles and him. After con-
"sideration, and plan fixed:
"Monday, 20th March, Sir Chaloner, with broadsides,
"sweeps away some small defences which lie to left of Boca-
"Chica" (to our left, to Boca-Chica's right, if anybody cares to
be particular). "Whereupon the Troops land, some of them
"that same evening; and, within the next two days, are all
"ashore, implements, Negroes and the rest; building bat-
"teries, felling wood; intent to capture Boca-Chica Castle,
"and demolish the War-Ships, Booms, and fry of Fascine and
"other Batteries; and thereby to get in upon Don Bias, and
26*
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? 404 FIRST 8ILESIAN WAR. [bOOK xn.
April--May 1741.
"have a stroke at his Interior Castles and Carthagena itself.
"Till April 5th, here are sixteen days of furious intricate work';
"not ill done: -- the physical labour itself, the building of bat-
"teries, with Boca-Chica firing on you over the woods, is
"scarcely doable by Europeans in that season; and the
"Negroes, who are able for it, 'fling down their burdens, and
"scamper, whenever a gun goes off. ' Furious fighting, too,
"there was, by seamen and landsmen; not ill done, consider-
ing circumstances.
"On the sixteenth day, April5th" (KingFriedrichhurrying
from the Mountains, that same day, towards Steinau, which
took fire with him at night), "Boca-Chica Castle and the in-
tricate War-Ships, Booms, and Castles thereabouts (Don
"Blas running off when the push became intense), are at last
"got. So that now, through Boca-Chica, we enter the Interior
"Harbour or Harbours. 4 Harbours 'which are of wide extent,
"and deep enough; being in fact a Lake, or rather Pair of
"Lakes, with Castles (Castello Grande, 'Castle Grand,' the
"chief of them), with War-Ships sunk or afloat, and mis-
"cellaneous obstructions: beyond all which, at the farther
"shore, some five miles off, Carthagena itself does at last lie
"potentially accessible; and we hope to get in upon Don Bias
"and it. There ensue five days of intricate sea-work; not
"much of broadsiding, mainly tugging-out of sunk War-Ships
"and the like, to get along-side ot Castle Grand, which is the
"chief obstruction.
"April 10th, Castle Grand itself is got; nobody found in it
"when we storm. Don Blas and the Spaniards seem much in
"terror; burning any Ships they still have, near Carthagena;
"as if there were no chance now left. " This is the very day of
Mollwitz Battle; near about the hour when Schwerin broke
into field-music, and advanced with thunderous glitter against
the evening sun! " Carthagena Expedition is, at length, fairly
"in contact with its Problem, -- the question rising, 'Do you
"understand it, then? '
"Up to this point, mistakes of management had been made
"good by obstinate energy of execution; clear victory had
"gone on so far, the Capture of Carthagena now seemingly at
"hand. One thing was unfortunate: 'the able Mr. Moor'
"(meritorious Captain of Foot, who, by accident, had spent
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? CHAP. XII. ] SORROWS OP HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY. 405
April--May 1741.
"some study on his business), 'the one real Engineer we had,'
"got killed in that Boca-Chica struggle: an end to poor Moor!
"So that the Siege of Carthagena will have to go on without
"Engineer science henceforth. May be important, that,--
"who knows? Another thing was still more palpably import-
ant: Sea-General Vernon had an undisguised contempt for
"Land-GeneralWentwortb. 'A mere blockhead, whose Bro-
"ther has a Borough,' thinks Vernon (himself an Opposition
"Member, of high-sniffing, angry, not too magnanimous
"turn); -- and withdraws now to his Ships; intimating: 'Do
"your Problem, then; I have set you down beside it, which
"was my part of the affair! ' -- Let us give the attack of Fort
"Lazar, and end this sad business.
"Sunday, 16th April, Wentworth, once master of the Up-
permost Lake or Harbour (what the Natives call the Surgi-
"dero, or Anchorage Proper), had disembarked, high up to the
"right, a good way south of Carthagena; meaning to attack
"therefrom a certain Fort Lazar, which stands on aHillbe-
"tween Carthagena and him: this Hill and Fort once his, he
"has Carthagena under his cannon; Carthagena in his pocket,
"as it were. 'Fort not to be had without batteries,' thinks
"Wentworth; though the sickly rainy season has set in.
'"Batteries? Scaling-ladders, you mean! ' answers Vernon,
"with undisguised contempt. For the two are, by this time,
"almost in open quarrel. Wentworth starts building bat-
"teries, in spite of the rain-deluges; then stops building; --
"decides to do it by scalade, after all. And, at two in the
"morning of this Sunday, April 16th, sets forth, in certain
"columns, -- by roads ill-known, with arrangements that do
"not fit like clock-work, -- to storm said Hill and Fort. The
"English are an obstinate people; and strenuous execution
"will sometimes amend defects ofplan, -- sometimes not.
"The obstinate English, nothing in them but sullen fire of
"valour, which has to burn unluminous, did, after mistake on
"mistake, climb the rocks or heights of Lazar Hill, in spite of
"the world and Don Blas's cannonading; but found, when
"atop, ThatFortLazar,raining cannon-shot, was still divided
"from them by chasms; that the scaling-ladders had not come
"(never did come, owing to indiscipline somewhere), -- and
"that, without wings as of eagles, they could not reach Fort
"Lazar at all! For about four hours, they struggled with a
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