1712.]

TERMS OF PEACE ANNOUNCED TO PARLIAMENT.

66

395

prevented by the duke of Anjou and his descendants renouncing all claim to the crown of France, and a similar renunciation was to be made by the king of France, his heirs and successors, of all claim to the crown of Spain. Certain cessions of territory in America were to be made to Great Britain. Gibraltar, Port Mahon, and Minorca were to be secured to her; and Dunkirk was to be demolished. Various announcements of territorial arrangements connected with the Allied powers were also made. An amendment was moved to the complimentary Address of the Lords, in reply to this communication, recommending a general guarantee of the Allies to the conditions of peace. This was rejected by a large majority; but a protest was signed by many peers, in which the objections to the proposed Treaty, and to the separate negotiations, were very forcibly put. The chief objection, which long continued to be a source of alarm to Europe, was in these terms: A perfect union among the Allies seems to us to be more necessary in the present case, because the foundation upon which all the offers of France, relating to Great Britain, as well as to the Allies, are built, viz., a renunciation of the duke of Anjou to that kingdom, is, in our opinion, so fallacious, that no reasonable man, much less whole nations, can ever look upon it as any security. Experience may sufficiently convince us, how little we ought to rely upon the renunciation of the House of Bourbon, and though the present duke of Anjou should happen to think himself bound by his own act, which his grandfather did not, yet will his descendants be at liberty to say, that no act of his could deprive them of their birth-right, and especially when it is such a right, as, in the opinion of all Frenchmen, ought inviolably to be maintained, by the fundamental constitution of the kingdom of France.” *

The lapse of time has produced some changes of opinion as to those terms of pacification which were finally concluded by the peace of Utrecht; but there can be little doubt that the dangers set forth in this protest were present to the minds of all that portion of the nation who were not clamorous for peace upon any terms, and who were not infected with that political insanity which hailed the friendship of France as the preliminary condition to the re-establishment of the throne upon the sole principle of hereditary right. Nevertheless, the people were not in a temper to make any very strenuous opposition to any negotiation for peace which would bring them an immediate reduction of taxation. Moreover, a peace would put an end to those advantages which the moneyed interest derived from the necessities of the government-advantages which made the landowners believe that " power, which, according to the old maxim, was used to follow land, is now gone over to money, so that if the war continue some years longer, a landed man will be little better than a farmer of a rack-rent to the army and to the public funds." + The landed interest was still paramount in Parliament; but it saw with dread that the new power was making some inroad upon its supposed exclusive right to legislate for the whole community-" to force the election of boroughs out of the hands of those who had been the old proprietors and inhabitants."

The withdrawal of the British troops, under Ormond, from that co-operation

* "Parliamentary History," vol. vi. col. 1149.

"Examiner," October, 1710.

"Four last years of Queen Anne."

896

BOLINGBROKE'S EMBASSY TO PARIS.

[1712. with Eugene upon which the plan of the campaign had been arranged, was preceded by the announcement to Parliament of the terms upon which peace might be made. But the congress at Utrecht had been no party to these terms; and therefore the surprise and indignation of the Allies was as great as if the British abandonment of their cause had taken place without any announcement that a separate negotiation had been proceeding between the courts of Versailles and St. James's. An old soldier, serjeant Milner, has described the separation from their companions in arms of the twelve thousand brave fellows that were compelled to obey the orders of Ormond, on the 16th of July: "As they marched off that day, both sides looked very dejectfully on each other, neither being permitted to speak to the other, to prevent reflections that might thereby arise; being there was then made a strange revolution between us and our Allies, by our cessation of arms, or entrance on an odd peace with France." Ormond, amidst the contempt of his men as "a stupid tool and a general of straw," made his inglorious way to Ghent and Bruges, the Dutch governors refusing to let him pass through the fortified towns which Marlborough had won. St. John, who had now been created viscount Bolingbroke to his great indignation at not receiving an earldom-was dispatched to Paris, to settle some points that were still in dispute. He was accompanied by Matthew Prior, who had previously been an agent in the clandestine correspondence between the two courts. Although the wily Secretary remained only about a fortnight in Paris and the neighbourhood— amply engaged with his negotiations and his pleasures-it is asserted that he had two private interviews with the chevalier St. George. In discussing with Torcy the absolute necessity of the removal of the Pretender from the French territory, he said the time might come when the well-disposed [les bien intentionnés] would be sorry if the chevalier were at a distance from the British isles. The plenipotentiaries of the emperor at Utrecht had not hesitated to say that the great end of the English management was to bring in the Pretender; and the Dutch had expressed the same belief. The abilities of Bolingbroke were sufficiently tasked to keep Louis firm to his engagements. Torcy says that if the success of Villars at Denain had occurred earlier, the king would not have consented to the renunciation which separated the French and Spanish crowns. When the Allies were afterwards discomfited, Louis rose in his demands as regarded the fortresses to be retained as a barrier by the Dutch. Bolingbroke accomplished one special object of his embassy-to secure the interests of the duke of Savoy. How far he may have yielded some points to the personal address of Louis XIV., who had the kingly faculty of winning men by politeness, is not evident. He was not directly won after the old French fashion of bestowing "gratifications" upon English ministers. But the present of a ring of the value of four thousand pounds from the magnificent king, was not a compliment which a statesman of later and better times would have accepted. Before Bolingbroke left Paris, a suspension of arms was proclaimed between Great Britain and France. The States refused to accede to this armistice; and their first inclination was to continue the war, in conjunction with the emperor and the smaller German powers. But they saw themselves deserted; they saw that Eugene could not stand up

1718.]

TREATIES COMPLETED AT UTRECHT.

397

against the military resources of France, and the genius of her commanders. They finally, in December, accepted the propositions made in concert between France and England. But in the proportion that concessions were made to France her plenipotentiaries became more captious and evasive. The treaty would probably have fallen through, and have left its English negotiators exposed to the vengeance of their political rivals, had not the ministers issued peremptory orders to their plenipotentiaries to sign it at all hazards.

On the 11th of April, 1713, the treaty of Utrecht was signed by the representatives of Great Britain, France, Savoy, Portugal, Prussia, and the States-General. The emperor refused to be a party to it. Those points which affected Great Britain have been already mentioned in general terms. Those which affected the other powers were accomplished by this treaty of Utrecht, and by subsequent treaties of 1714.* We subjoin a very brief view of the entire arrangement. Spain and the Indies were given to Philip; the French king recognised the Protestant succession, and engaged to make the Pretender withdraw from the French dominions; he renounced for himself, his heirs, and his successors, the succession to the throne of Spain, while Philip renounced in like manner the succession to the throne of France; the fortifications of Dunkirk were to be demolished, and the harbour filled up, an equivalent being first given to France by Great Britain; Hudson's Bay and Straits were to remain to Great Britain, and satisfaction was to be made by France to the Hudson's Bay Company for all damages sustained; St. Christopher's, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland were given to Great Britain, with certain rights of fishing off Newfoundland reserved to France, and, by a separate treaty with Philip, as king of Spain, Minorca and Gibraltar were retained by Great Britain; the emperor of Austria received the kingdom of Naples, the duchy of Milan, and the Spanish Netherlands; Sicily was separated from Naples, and given to the duke of Savoy, with the title of king, and the succession to the throne of Spain, in default of descendants from Philip, was settled in the house of Savoy; Luxembourg, Namur, Charleroy, Ypres, and Nieuport were assigned to the Dutch, in addition to the places already possessed by them.

Upon the assembling of Parliament, the queen announced in general terms the conclusion of the treaty of peace. On the 9th of May her majesty sent a message to the effect, that as it is the undoubted prerogative of the Crown to make peace and war, she had ratified the treaties of peace and commerce with France, and had concluded a treaty with Spain. The treaties were then laid before the Houses. The treaty of commerce contained two articles which had been agreed to by the British plenipotentiaries, upon the condition that they should be binding if they received the sanction of Parliament. They were conceived in a spirit of liberality which was far before the age in which they were propounded. The negotiators proposed that reciprocal advantages should be enjoyed by the subjects of Great Britain and France, by putting the trade of each upon the footing of that of the most favoured nations; and that the laws made since 1664 for the prohibition of French imports should be repealed. The mercantile public clamoured against the proposal as destructive of British commerce. The balance of

* See the Table of Treaties, ante, p. 389.

398

TREATY OF COMMERCE WITH FRANCE REJECTED.

[1713.

trade would be annually a million and a half against Great Britain; which was held to be equivalent to the actual loss, according to the absurd delusion of those days, of a million and a half. The manufactures of silk, linen, and paper, would be destroyed. France would not buy our wool or woollen stuffs. We should drink her wines, to the injury of Portugal, who had become our best customer under the Methuen treaty, actually paying us half a million in good, hard, unconsumable dollars. Burnet expresses the popular philosophy when he says, "We were engaged by our treaty with Portugal that their wines should be charged a third part lower than the French wines; but if the duties were, according to the treaties of commerce, to be made equal, then, considering the difference of freight, which is more than double from Portugal, the French wines would be cheaper, and the nation liking them better, by this means we should break our treaties with Portugal," and lose that wonderful balance in our favour.* It never entered into the reasonings of the advocates of prohibition and forced consumption, that a supply at the cheapest rate of what a nation liked and. wanted, was preferable to a supply at a dearer rate of what a nation did not like and did not want. The treaty of comfierce with France was rejected by a small majority of the Commons; and though much has been since done for the removal of prohibitory duties, there still remains much to be accomplished before the two nations, each producing what the other would willingly take in exchange, shall have wholly cast aside the prejudices of 1713.

On the 7th of July there was a public thanksgiving for the Peace, and both Houses of Parliament went in procession to St. Paul's. The Commons had sufficiently manifested their adhesion to the principles which placed Harley and St. John in power, by appointing Sacheverel to preach before them on the 29th of May. Yet this uncompromising body of so-called representatives of the people, who would gladly have annihilated all that the Revolution bestowed upon the people, was happily limited in its term of existence by the Triennial Bill. The Parliament was prorogued on the 16th of July; and very shortly afterwards was dissolved. The elections were conducted with more than usual party-violence. The Tory wore a green bough in honour of the Restoration of the Stuarts; the Whig placed a lock of wool in his hat to mark how he had supported the good old principles of exclusive trade. But the Jacobites were working steadily at their great object of preparing the way for their legitimate shadow of a king, who had, according to the letter of the treaty with France, been removed out of the dominions of Louis, to be seated in Lorraine, which was equally convenient for any enterprise, either before or after the decease of the queen. The Jacobites had great encouragement in their schemes through the ascendancy of Bolingbroke. Oxford had become comparatively powerless; and the bold Secretary, in conjunction with the duke of Ormond, reduced the army, particularly the regi ments which had been raised by William III.; and they placed their own instruments in the command of various strongholds. The chevalier St. George was in his own person the greatest obstacle to the success of the plans of his adherents. Bolingbroke and other Jacobites who knew how

"Own Time," vol. vi. p. 146.

1714.]

JACOBITE INTRIGUES-LIBELS.

399

firmly the people clung to the principle of Protestantism, had repeatedly urged him to change his religion, or at least to make a pretended renunciation. of his faith. His determination was honourable to himself, and a severe rebuke to his unscrupulous friends. He wrote a letter in 1711, which was shown to many persons, containing this honest sentence: "Plain dealing is best in all things, especially in matters of religion; and as I am resolved never to dissemble in religion, so I shall never tempt others to do it; and as well as I am satisfied of the truth of my own religion, yet I shall never look worse upon any persons because in this they chance to differ from me; nor shall I refuse, in due time and place, to hear what they have to say upon this subject. But they must not take it ill if I use the same liberty I allow to others, to adhere to the religion which I, in my conscience, think the best; and I may reasonably expect that liberty of conscience for myself which I deny to none. The son of James inherited the inflexibility of his father in his adherence to the church of Rome, also inheriting the family likeness, Horace Walpole says, "Without the particular features of any Stuart, the Chevalier has the strong lines and fatality of air peculiar to them all. From the first moment I saw him, I never doubted the legitimacy of his birth." +

The new Parliament met in February, 1714. The queen in her Speech said, "there are some who are arrived to that height of malice, as to insinuate that the Protestant Succession in the House of Hanover is in danger under my government." Her majesty called upon Parliament to suppress "seditious papers and factious rumours." Both Houses went to work in this congenial duty, according to their respective party-tendencies. The Lords had the printer and publisher of "The Public Spirit of the Whigs" called to their bar. They were committed to the custody of the Black Rod. Swift was the author of this libel against the Scotch nation, but Oxford professed indignation against such libels. Oxford had caused a hundred pounds to be presented to the anonymous writer. Steele had written a pamphlet called "The Crisis," to which he had affixed his name. He was expelled the House by a large majority of his fellow representatives. Steele made an able defence, in which he was assisted by Addison; and Walpole, in a speech of unanswerable truth, showed the atrocious tyranny of this proceeding. "In former reigns, the audacity of corruption extended itself only to judges and juries. The attempt so to degrade Parliament was, till the present period, unheard of. The Liberty of the Press is unrestrained. How then shall a part of the Legislature dare to punish that as a crime which is not declared to be so, by any law framed by the whole." +

On the 28th of May an event occurred which, although highly probable, and therefore likely to be familiar to men's thoughts, gave more distinctness to the question of the Protestant Succession. The princess Sophia fell dead in an apoplectic fit whilst walking in the garden of the palace of Herrenhausen. She was in her eighty-fourth year. Her son was therefore, under the Act of Settlement, the heir-apparent to the British Crown. George, elector of Hanover-or more properly elector of Brunswick and Lunenburg-was born on the 28th of May, 1660. He had therefore

* Macpherson Papers, vol. ii. +"Memoirs of George II.," vol. i. p. 285.

p.

225.

Coxe's "Walpole," vol. i. p. 44.