ravel; and with the same view was Mr. Morice CHAP. arrested and examined before the Privy Council. Atterbury's own papers had been disposed of by his own care before his death. The most secret he had destroyed; for the others he had claimed protection as an Englishman from the English ambassador, Lord Waldegrave; that a seal might be placed upon them, and that they might be safely delivered to his executors. Lord Waldegrave declined this delicate commission, alleging that Atterbury was no longer entitled to any rights as a British subject.* The Bishop next applied to the French government, but his death intervening, the papers were sent to the Scots College at Paris, and the seal of office affixed to them, Mr. Morice obtaining only such as related to family affairs. It may be observed, that the Government of George seems always to have possessed great facilities in either openly seizing or privately perusing the Jacobite correspondence. We have already seen how large a web of machinations was laid bare at Atterbury's trial. In 1728, Mr. Lockhart found that some articles of his most private letters to the Pretender were well known at the British Court, where, fortunately for himself, he had a steady friend; and on his expressing his astonishment, he Mr. Delafaye, Under Secretary of State, writes to Lord Waldegrave:-"As to your Excellency's getting the scellé put "to his effects...... if your own seal would have done, and "that you could by that means have had the fingering of his papers, one would have done him that favour." (May 11. 1732.) A most delicate sense of honour! XV. 1730. XV. 1730. 66 CHAP. was answered-"What is proof against the money "of Great Britain ?" * The testimony of Lord Chesterfield, as Secretary of State, is still more positive. "The rebels, who have fled to France "and elsewhere, think only of their public acts of rebellion, believing that the Government is not "aware of their secret cabals and conspiracies, "whereas, on the contrary, it is fully informed of "them. It sees two thirds of their letters; they 66 betray one another; and I have often had the very same man's letters in my hand at once, some "to try to make his peace at home, and others to "the Pretender, to assure him that it was only "a feigned reconciliation that they might be the "better able to serve him. . . . . . The spirit of "rebellion seems to be rooted in these people; "their faith is a Punic faith; clemency does not "touch them, and the oaths which they take to "Government do not bind them." + 66 Nothing certainly tended more than these frequent disclosures of letters to cool the ardour of the High Tory gentlemen in England, or, at least, to redouble their caution. They came, at length, to prefer, in nearly all cases, verbal messages to any written communication, and prudently kept themselves in reserve for the landing of a foreign force. Without it, they always told James that Lockhart's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 400. + To Madame de -, August 16. 1750. Orig. in French. XV. they could only ruin themselves without assisting CHAP. him. It was a frequent saying of Sir Robert Walpole" If you see the Stuarts come again, they will begin by their lowest people; their "chiefs will not appear till the end.”* 66 • H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, Sept. 27. 1745. 1730. XVI. 1731. CHAP. XVI. CHAP. FROM the resignation of Lord Townshend the ascendency of Walpole was absolute and uncontrolled, and confirmed by universal peace abroad, by growing prosperity at home. His system of negotiations was completed by the second treaty of Vienna, signed in March, 1731, and stipulating that the Emperor should abolish the Ostend Company, secure the succession of Don Carlos to Parma and Tuscany, and admit the Spanish troops into the Italian fortresses. England, on her part, was to guarantee the Pragmatic Sanction, on the understanding that the young heiress should not be given in marriage to a Prince of the House of Bourbon, or of any other so powerful as to endanger the balance of power.* At home, various measures of improvement and 66 This treaty was greatly promoted by the influence of Prince Eugene. He said to Lord Waldegrave : -“Je n'ai jamais eu si peu de plaisir de ma vie dans les apparences d'une guerre....... Il n'y a pas assez de sujet pour faire tuer un "poulet!" Lord Waldegrave to Lord Townshend, March 18. 1730. Coxe's House of Austria, vol. iii. XVI. 1731. reform were introduced about this time. An CHAP. excellent law was passed, that all proceedings of courts of justice should be in the English instead of the Latin language. "Our prayers," said the Duke of Argyle, "are in our native tongue, that they may be intelligible; and why should not the "laws wherein our lives and properties are con"cerned be so, for the same reason?" * The charter of the East India Company was renewed on prudent and profitable terms. Some infamous malversation was detected in the Charitable Corporation, which had been formed for the relief of the industrious poor, by assisting them with small sums of money at legal interest; but which, under this colour, sometimes received ten per cent., and advanced large sums on goods bought on credit by fraudulent speculators. Penalties were now inflicted on the criminals, and Sir Robert Sutton, the late ambassador at Paris, being concerned in these practices, was expelled the House. An inquiry into the Public Prisons of London laid bare a frightful system of abuses; we find the Wardens conniving at the escape of rich prisoners, and subjecting the poor ones who *Most of the lawyers were greatly opposed to the change. Lord Raymond, in order to throw difficulties in the way of it, said, that if the Bill passed the law must likewise be translated into Welsh, since many in Wales understood no English. (Parl. Hist. vol. viii. p. 861.) The great Yorkshire petition on this subject complained that "the number of attornies is excessive." (Ib. p. 844.) + See Coxe's Walpole, vol. i. p. 326. |