SCOPE OF LECTURE. Recapitulation-The main drift of English History to 1714. Characteristics of the present period. Its unique importance. The absurdity of regarding eighteenth century history as dull. Contrast between 1700 and 1800. The transformation of British Kingdom into British Empire, of 10,000,000 into 100,000,000. The great industrial change-from agriculture to "workshop of the world." The century too has its Great Rebellion and tragic catastrophe, the Disruption of the British Race. The significance of the American Revolution to-day. English recovery from disaster. Loss of the American Colonies balanced bargain of Canada, India, Australia, S. Africa. Chatham, Wolfe, Clive, Hastings, Cook, Anson--a dull record! Necessity of distinguishing between the eighteenth century before Chatham and Wesley, and after. Low ideals of the age of the first Georges. Contrast between the John Hampden of 1640 and the John Hampden of 1740. Moral ugliness of the time. Political, religious, humanitarian movements under George III. The glory of the age which produced Chatham, Burke, Adam Smith, Gibbon, Johnson, Reynolds, John Wesley, John Howard, Wilberforce. England at the death of Queen Anne- a great crisis. The question of the succession to the throne. Had the Pretender a chance? The strength of the Tory reaction. The accession of George I. has been rightly described as “the greatest miracle in our history." The vitality of the Divine Right theory. Disadvantages of the Elector of Hanover—a disagreeable, narrow-minded, despotic German princelet. It is improbable that he would have succeeded had not James the Pretender been an honest, determined Roman Catholic. "I will abandon all rather than act against my conscience and honor, cost what it will." Conclusion--the chances were fairly even. Much depended upon the character of the minister in power, Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke. The extraordinary interest of Bolingbroke's career. Friend of Dryden and Pope, Swift and Voltaire, statesman, orator, philosopher, man of letters, leader of dissolute society. His antecedents and early life. The amazing contrasts of his history. In many ways, Bolingbroke was the most notable English figure of his period. Swift's opinion of him : Mr. St. John is the greatest young man I ever knew." His eloquence—“ I would rather possess a speech of Bolingbroke's than any of the lost treasures of antiquity" (William Pitt).— His writings: "Who now reads Bolingbroke?" All students of English History and Literature read him.-His daring ambition and unscrupulous character. Entirely distrusted by his own age. His brilliant failure due mainly to his utter lack of principle and conviction. Bolingbroke's conduct in 1714 is very difficult to understand. He was not at heart a Jacobite, but chiefly desirous of keeping the Tory party and himself in power. His idea probably was to strengthen the Tory position and compel the Elector of Hanover to come to terms, falling back upon the Pretender only if he refused. Bolingbroke believed that with six weeks of power he would have been successful, but he had only six days. While his plans were incomplete, Queen Anne died. The Whig leaders acted with great decision, and George I was proclaimed King. "The Queen died on Sunday," wrote the fallen minister to Swift. "What a world is this! and how does fortune banter us!" It meant the end of the Stuarts and Divine Right, the final triumph of the Whig Revolution. The age of Walpole, the first of English Prime Ministers. He, not George I or George II, is the chief political figure of the period. England is now an aristocratic Republic and the kings are almost Venetian Doges; it is the Minister who counts. The one benefit which George I conferred upon England was to place Walpole at the head of the Government; the greatest act of George II as king was to keep him there. To understand Walpole is to understand English history from 1721 to 1742. Robert Walpole, born in 1676, the younger son of a prosperous Norfolk squire, entered Parliament in 1700 at the same time as his rival, Henry St. John. His appearance and character. Outwardly, a big, coarse, hard-drinking, hard-living foxhunter, of overwhelming physical vitality, without eloquence, without culture. His chief characteristic-robust common sense. Not an orator, but a skilled debater. Emphatically a man of business, a financier, with the best head for figures of any public man of the period. This is illustrated by his attitude to the South Sea Bubble. He saved English credit, but made a fortune before the crash. Viciousness of his private life. A better man, nevertheless, than most of his contemporaries. Lack of elevation in his public career. His scoffs at purity and patriotism in politics. "No saint:" "no reformer." But the trend of modern historical opinion is distinctly in Walpole's favor, because (a) he was honest, "the most straightforward statesman of his time, the least addicted to scheming and cabal": (6) not cruel, or treacherous, or as cynical as his experience would have warranted: (c) and did a great work for England. What was his achievement ? 1. He reconciled England to the Hanoverian dynasty and prevented another Civil War. 2. He helped to mould the modern English Constitution, especially the Cabinet. 3. His financial policy was wise and enlightened, even his Excise Bill. 4. He was a Free Trader before Adam Smith. 5. He gave England peace. The chief charges brought against his administration by historians are three: (a) inordinate love of power: (6) a ruinous jealousy of able colleagues: (c) systematic corruption of Parliament. Judgments of Lord Stanhope, Macaulay, Lecky, John Morley. On the whole, there is truth in these charges, but they have been for the most part much exaggerated. "Walpole must be pronounced to have got discredit for more wrong than he ever did." If he loved power, he was the most fitted to rule. The able colleagues, Carteret and Chesterfield especially, deserved their dismissal. The third charge is more serious. Walpole never said " Every man has his price," but he thought it. He was a low man, living in a low age. But he did not invent Parliamentary corruption, nor at that time could any minister govern without its aid. What is true is that he acquiesced in the bad system, never desired to reform it. His place in English History is that of a great statesman, wise, wary and sagacious, unattractive, unheroic, of the dull-useful type, the representative man of a corrupt age, who conferred enormous benefits upon his country and deserves more gratitude than he commonly receives. IMPORTANT DATES. 1714. Death of Queen Anne (August 1). Accession of George I. 1715. Jacobite rebellion under Lord Mar. 1716. The Septennial Act. 1720. The South Sea Bubble. 1721. ROBERT WALPOLE PRIME MINISTER. 1723. Wood's Half-pence. The "Drapier Letters." RETURN TO ENGLAND. 1724. Dismissal of Carteret by Walpole. 1727. Accession of George II. 1730. Quarrel of Walpole and Townshend. 1733. THE EXCISE BILL. 1735. Withdrawal of Lord Bolingbroke from public life. 1736. Porteous Riots in Scotland. 1737. DEATH OF QUEEN CAROLINE. 1739. WAR OF "JENKINS' EAR." 1740. Anson's Voyage. 1742. FALL OF WALPOLE. 1744. Death of Pope. Ministry of Pelham (1744-1754). 1745. Death of Swift. Battle of Fontenoy. DEATH OF Walpole, Jacobite Rebellion. The Young Pretender. 1746. Battle of Culloden. 1748. Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. BOLINGBROKE'S 1. "Of all characters in our history, Bolingbroke must be pronounced to be most of all a charlatan." "Whatever view is taken of certain episodes in his career, no one will now dispute his title of The Great Lord Bolingbroke." Criticize these estimates. 2. Discuss the chances of a Jacobite restoration in 1714. 3. What degree of blame attaches to Walpole as regards the Parliamentary corruption of his time? 4. "The peace policy of Walpole was centred in a selfish desire to maintain the peace of his administration." How far do you agree with this judgment of Macauley ? BOOKS. A. ESSENTIAL BOOK. John Morley's "Walpole" (Macmillan, 1896). B. GENERAL TEXT-BOOKS. "The Early Hanoverians," by E. E. Morris (Longmans), or "Our Hanoverian Kings," by B. C. Skottowe (Sampson Low). C. MAIN AUTHORITIES for the WHOLE PERIOD. W. E. Lecky," History of England in the Eighteenth Century," 8 vols. (Longmans), and Lord Mahon's "History of England from 1713 to 1783," 7 vols. (John Murray). D. BIOGRAPHIES OF BOLINGBROKE. R. Harrop," Study of Bolingbroke." Churton Collins, "Bolingbroke and Voltaire." A. Hassall's "Bolingbroke " (Allen's Statesmen Series). E. REFER TO Macauley's "Essay on Horace Walpole;" Horace Walpole's "Letters," and his "Memoirs of the Reign of George II;" Coxe's "Life of Walpole;" Lord Hervey's "Memoirs;" Ballantyne's "Carteret;" Leslie Stephen's "Swift;" Bolingbroke's "Works ;" Burke's "Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs;" Carlyle's "Frederick the Great;" Dyer's “Modern Europe." B. WALPOLE'S INFLUENCE ON THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION. It is to the long administration of Sir R. Walpole that we are to look for the first distinct outline of our modern Constitution. It was Walpole who first administered the government in accordance with his own views of our political requirements. It was Walpole who first conducted the business of the country in the House of Commons. It was Walpole who in the conduct of that business first insisted upon the support for his measures of all servants of that Crown who had seats in Parliament. It was under Walpole that the House of Commons became the dominant power in the State, and rose in ability and influence as well as in actual power above the House of Lords. And it was Walpole who set the example of quitting his office while he still retained the undiminished affection of his king for the avowed reason that he had ceased to possess the confidence of the House of Commons."-W. E. HEARN, "The Government of England." C. MATERIAL PROSPERITY OF ENGLAND UNDER WALPOLE. = 6,039,684 5,134,561} = £6,000,000 "The nation, exhausted by the long wars of William and Anne, recovered strength in thirty years of peace that ensued; and in that period, especially under the prudent rule of Walpole, the needs of our commercial greatness were gradually ripened. It was evidently the most prosperous season England had ever experienced."-HALLAM. D. WALPOLE'S OPINION OF GEORGE II. "He thinks he is devilish stout and never gives up his will or his opinion; but he never acts in anything material according to either of them but when I have a mind he should . . . Our master, like most people's masters, wishes himself absolute, and fancies he has courage enough to attempt making himself so; but if I know anything of him, he is, with all his personal bravery, as great a political coward as ever wore a crown, and as much afraid to lose it."-LORD HERVEY'S Memoirs of the Reign of George II. E. CONTEMPORARY VERDICTS ON WALPOLE. "He is a brave fellow; he has more spirit than any man I ever knew."-GEORGE II. "The prudence, steadiness and vigilance of that man preserved the crown to this Royal family, and with it their laws and liberties to this country.”—BURKE. "He was a fine fellow, and his very enemies deemed him so before his death."-JOHNSON. "Seen him I have; but in his happier hour |