Walpole afterwards owned to the Chancellor his obligations to the Queen, and that with all her influence he had great difficulties to encounter :

"Nov. 24th.-At this time Sir Robert took occasion to tell me of the great credit he had with the King, and that it was principally by the means of the Queen, who was the most able woman to govern in the world: however, he wished now he had left off when the King came to the throne, for he looked upon himself to be in the worst situation of any man in England: that he was now struck at by a great number of people. All those who had hopes on the King's coming to the throne, seeing themselves disappointed, looked upon him as the cause. the discontented Whigs, and Carteret, Roxburgh, Berkeley, Bolingbroke, the Speaker Compton, and Pulteney, were entered into a formal confederacy against him; and if he could once retire, he never would meddle by way of opposition, but would comply with the Government in every thing."

All

The Lord Chancellor stood well with Walpole, who consulted him confidentially on all legal and constitutional questions which arose. I observe by the Journal, that Sir Robert as seldom as possible called meetings of the whole Cabinetand he never had what we should call "Cabinet dinners," but his favourite mode of preparing business was to invite two or three more particularly connected with the 'department to which the subject belonged, or whose opinion he particularly regarded, to dine with him,—and after the most unrestrained conversation with them, he settled what was fit to be done. Thus he would invite the two Tory law lords, Lord Harcourt and Lord Trevor, to meet the Chancellor, that he might consider with them respecting the reforms of the Court of Chancery.d

I do not think that the Chancellor ever was consulted by Sir Robert out of his own immediate department, or that he had any influence in the general measures of the Government. Indeed, the same thing might be said of Sir Robert's other colleagues during the whole course of his administration. If Lord King, like Lord Townshend, had made a struggle to share power with the Premier, he very speedily would have been obliged, like Lord Townshend, to retire.

When parliament first met for the despatch of business in the new reign, the Chancellor was relieved from the task of reading

d "Aug. 11th.-At Sir Robert Walpole's; dined there with Lord Harcourt and Lord Trevor. The end of our dining was to con

sider what was fit to be done with Lord Macclesfield's 30,000l."

A.D. 1729.

PROHIBITION TO PUBLISH DEBATES.

e

1729.

111

the royal speech, George II. having learned to speak English, although with a strong foreign accent; and the Lord Chancellor had no other duty to perform than to present the speech to his Majesty in the fashion now adopted, instead of receiving the speech from his Majesty according to the fashion of the reign of George I. The Opposition was still so feeble, that in the House of Lords the Chancellor's place was a sinecure. His name does not once appear in the printed debates; but this does not prove much, as they are so defective and scanty. The orders against publishing the proceedings of parliament were enforced by both Houses with greater rigour Feb. 26, than ever. Upon a complaint against one Raikes, a printer at Gloucester, that he had printed speeches purporting to have been delivered in the House of Commons, there was an unanimous resolution “that it is an indignity to, and a breach of the privileges of, this House for any person to presume to give, in written or printed newspapers, any account or minutes of the debates or other proceedings of this House, or of any committee thereof; and that upon discovery of the authors, printers, or publishers, this House will proceed. against the offenders with the utmost severity." The House of Lords enforced their order with equal rigour, and-by their superior power of fining and imprisoning for a fixed term, notwithstanding a prorogation-more effectually; insomuch that the magazines hardly ventured to give even a touch of their orations under feigned names, as delivered in Athens, Rome, or Lilliput. Upon consulting other sources of information, however, I think there is reason to believe that Lord Chancellor King spoke very rarely, except in bringing forward the bills for reforming the Masters' offices, and for the improvement of the administration of the law, which I shall notice

e It is said he never could pronounce P or G. Hence two of his noted sayings, "I hate all Boets and Bainters," and "I do love old Brentford; it reminds me so much of Yarmany."

proceedings excited curiosity, the Government was afraid that popular haranguing would be encouraged by the publicity of the debates, and that every successive Administration, even after the Revolution, thought they had f There is nothing in our constitutional an interest in making parliamentary prohistory which surprises me so much as the ceedings as secret as possible, forgetting that long continuance of this restriction; for, be- from the circulation of their own speeches sides that the publication of parliamentary they might acquire popularity and strength. debates is favourable to liberty, it is highly-At last the officer of the House of Commons flattering to the vanity of the members, and now pleases them so much, that when the reporters' gallery is shut, all speaking is suspended. I suspect that, originally, when printing was introduced, and parliamentary

who was to enforce the standing order was committed to prison; and now, in one session, there are more reports than during the first sixty years of the last century.

hereafter. Judging from his diary, which is almost entirely filled with the deliberations of the Cabinet on pending negotiations, he seems to have taken a lively interest in foreign affairs, but, when they came to be publicly discussed, he very prudently remained silent; nor did he speak upon the "Pension Bill," the "Mutiny Bill," or on the " Civil List Bill," almost the only other subjects which seem to have caused much excitement in the House of Lords, while he remained Chancellor. This was a most remarkably tranquil period in the history of parliament. Walpole's Excise scheme excited a storm in the Commons, but it never reached the Upper House.

Although there must have been still going forward at Court a number of intrigues in which the Chancellor was concerned, his Diary unfortunately takes no notice of these, and, abounding with discussions on continental politics, contains very few personal anecdotes of himself or his contemporaries;—but I will give one other extract from it, which may cause regret that he did not write oftener in the same strain, availing himself of the private communications of the Premier :

"Monday, 2nd September, 1729, went to town.-The next day saw the Queen, at Court: from thence went to Sir R. Walpole's in his chariot, and dined with him and his lady only. He told me, that since the last time I saw him, they had received the draught of articles for a definitive peace concerted between our Plenipotentiaries and the Cardinal and the garde des sceaux; that they were so plain and good, that they Idid not think it worth the while to send for me to come to town to see and agree to them, or to give any farther instruction; that they were as good as we could desire, he was afraid too good-but, however, the Cardinal said that he was sure Spain would come into it; that, for expedition, as soon as they were agreed on in France, they were immediately sent to Spain, and were there by this time. In talking with him about the King's orders, that orders for the fleet and the negotiations with Spain should be all from hence without first sending to Hanover, he told me that Lord Townshend was very much displeased at it; that he, in concert with the Queen, gained it by a stratagem; that the Queen wrote a letter to the King intimating that some people thought the orders for the fleet were too long coming from Hanover, but that she would not for the world desire the King to send a power to her or to any one here to give immediate orders; that would be to execute a power which belonged only to him, and should be only executed by him. Whereon he wrote her a letter, that he would trust his throne and kingdom entirely with her, and thereupon ordered, that not only the fleet, but also the Plenipotentiaries at Paris, should receive their immediate orders from hence, and not stay for his.-On this occasion he let me into several secrets relating to the King and Queen-that the

A.D. 1726. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN GEORGE II, AND WIFE. 113

King constantly wrote to her by every opportunity long letters of two or three sheets, being generally of all his actions-what he did every day, even to minute things, and particularly of his amours, what women he admired**,* ; and that the Queen, to continue him in a disposition to do what she desired, returned as long letters, and approved even of his amours, not scrupling to say, that she was but one woman, and an old woman, and that he might love more and younger women. By which means, and a perfect subserviency to his will, she effected whatsoever she desired, without which it was impossible to keep him within any bounds."

***g

This certainly is a very singular correspondence between husband and wife, and we should not be justified in remarking upon it had they not been the King and Queen of these realms; but it is matter of history, and discloses to us the real influences by which the nation was governed. There must have been an extreme intimacy between her Majesty and Walpole, that she should show him these letters; and we cannot help suspecting that, as a method of perpetuating her favour with his Majesty and consequently his own ministerial stability, he framed the answers-which could scarcely have been spontaneously suggested by her own mind. Indeed it is possible that the whole was the invention of Walpole, who over his wine might wish to mystify the Chancellor. Queen Caroline is generally, and I believe truly, represented to us as not only chaste and pure in her own conduct, but as a zealous patron of religion and morality."

The Diary, which had been kept very irregularly, entirely breaks off in October, 1729. I will try to supply its place by here introducing several letters addressed to Lord King while Chancellor, which will throw light upon his conduct and upon the manners and customs of his age.

1726.

On the sudden death of Sir Clement Wearg, there was a keen contest about the filling up of his office. Sir April 6, John Willes, afterwards Attorney-General, and a distinguished Judge, did not consider it beneath his dignity thus to address the distributor of legal patronage :

"The occasion of this is humbly to beg your Lordship's favour that I may succeed the late Solicitor-General. I have been King's Counsel above seven years, and none of my seniors, as I am informed, desire it.

5 Diary, p. 111. I have been obliged to omit some other expressions imputed to her Majesty as too coarse to be copied.

Lord Hervey," recently published, have removed all doubt as to the genuineness of the disgusting correspondence between George II.

h I am sorry to say that the "Memoirs of and Queen Caroline.-Note to 3rd edit. VOL. VI.

I

· During my whole life, in whatever station I have been, I have never omitted any one opportunity of showing my zeal for the present establishment; and your Lordship, I believe, can bear me witness that I was not wanting in my poor endeavours to promote his Majesty's interest at a time when it was not only very unfashionable, but very dangerous to do so. My behaviour in this respect will, I hope, be thought sufficient to balance my other imperfections, of which I am fully sensible."

Lord King, however, espoused the interest of Mr. Talbot, who was now appointed Solicitor-General and afterwards succeeded him as Chancellor.

It is curious to observe how judges who wished to resign on Sept. 21, account of age and infirmity were obliged to beg for 1725. a pension or retired allowance. Sir Littleton Powys, in a letter to Lord Chancellor King, after describing a severe illness from which he had recently recovered, thus proceeds to state his claims :

"I was in arms myself with three servants, at the time of the Revolution, under the then Lord Herbert, who chose me to read the Prince of Orange's Declaration at the head of many hundreds of the best of the county then met at Shrewsbury, which I did with a very loud voice, and I am sure with very great heartiness. I was the first circuit after that made Second Justice of Chester, and afterwards, by the great favour of my Lord Chancellor Somers, I was advanced into the Exchequer. I was afterwards, by the approbation of my Lord Chief Justice Holt, removed into the King's Bench, where I have been twenty-three years-so that I have now sat a Judge in Westminster Hall thirty years and in three reigns, and I have had the protection of the clause Quamdiu se bene gesserit,' without any misbehaviour ever imputed to me. I am sure I have been most hearty and zealous for his Majesty's person and government, and the present establishment." [Having described his terrible attacks of the gout, he says:] "I might by the help of the bath and other means try to restore my health, and endeavour to die a Judge, but my success in such restoring meets with a most untoward objection, that I am now fourscore years old wanting but one, and I am therefore thinking it better to resign my place if I may be admitted by the great favour and generosity of his Majesty, after so long and faithful service, to go off with honour, by having a pension, in like manner as my brother Powel had, who was a Judge in Westminster Hall eight years fewer than I have been, and my brother Blencowe now hath, who was my junior one year."

He continues at great length to urge his petition-hinting that it might be very convenient for some worthy friend of the Lord Chancellor, that there should be a vacancy on the bench.