1716 DISMISSAL OF TOWNSHEND. 279 XVI. it was "very possible the king and Mr. Walpole might mistake CHAP. one another". The discussion of business by a minister upon his knee in a dead language, spoken by the interlocutors with dissimilar pronunciations, was likely enough to lead to misunderstandings. The king's irritation with Townshend was not so quickly calmed. On December 15, 1716, Stanhope wrote conveying his dismissal from the secretaryship of state. His place was provisionally filled by Paul Methuen, who had been acting secretary during Stanhope's absence from England in the previous summer. Walpole, who lay under the same imputations, made common cause with his brother-in-law. Although with much difficulty, Townshend was induced to accept the lieutenancy of Ireland, retaining his seat in the cabinet. Stanhope remained secretary of state for the southern department. But harmony had passed away. The ministry was rent between Stanhope and Sunderland, who had fomented Stanhope's dissatisfaction with his colleagues, and Townshend and Walpole on the other side. The first two were for an adventurous foreign policy; the others were solicitous for national, and suspicious of dynastic interests. When, as a sequel to the Gyllenborg incident, Stanhope moved for a supply to counteract the apprehended designs of Sweden, Walpole supported the motion with ill-disguised reluctance, while the whole of his personal following and that of Townshend voted against it, together with the Jacobite and tory opposition. The supply was carried, in consequence, by a majority of no more than four votes. It was evident that in relation to foreign powers the ministry was discredited by its internal weakness. Stanhope was resolute. Stanhope was resolute. On the same evening, April 9, 1717, he wrote in the king's name dismissing Townshend from his lieutenancy. Walpole resigned the treasury and exchequer on the following day. His offices were taken by Stanhope, who appointed Joseph Addison to succeed himself as secretary for the southern, while Sunderland who from August, 1715, to December, 1716, had been lord privy seal, took over the northern department. William Pulteney, at this time a close ally of Walpole, was succeeded as secretary at war by James Craggs, the younger. Vice-Admiral the Earl of Berkeley displaced Orford as first lord of the admiralty. The Irish lieutenancy fell to the Duke of Bolton. Cowper remained XVI. CHAP. on the woolsack. The strength of the whig ascendancy was shewn by the fact that the party could furnish this strong alternative administration. It was now the ambition of Stanhope, as the unquestioned head of a united ministry, to extend the network of alliances by which he aspired at the same time to assure the peace of Europe and the stability of the Hanoverian dynasty. A storm was threatening from Spain. Philip V., already irritated by the British guarantee to the emperor of the formerly Spanish provinces of Italy under the treaty of Westminster, was exasperated by the Triple alliance, which aimed at shutting his house out from the succession to the crown of France. Alberoni and the Spanish queen, the restless and ambitious Elisabeth Farnese, were at one in a resolution to regain the lost Italian territories. Since 1713 Spain had been creating a navy and preparing for war. Stanhope, created a viscount in July, 1717, determined to form a combination to enforce peace upon Spain. His idea was a Quadruple alliance of the maritime powers with France and the empire. The regent required no great persuasion. The emperor hesitated, but acceded upon a promise of the dispatch of an English fleet to the Mediterranean. Negotiations were spun out till July 22August 2, 1718, when the representatives of Great Britain, France, and the empire signed in London the treaty which, on the accession of the Dutch in December, became known as the Quadruple alliance. Its main terms were the renunciation of Spain by the emperor, in consideration of which he received Sicily, whilst Victor Amadeus unwillingly accepted Sardinia in exchange, retaining the title of king. This bargain on behalf of the emperor, Lord Hervey tells us, was prompted by the desire of George I. to obtain an imperial investiture of the duchies of Bremen and Verden. The emperor also undertook to grant investiture within two months of the signature of the treaty of the duchies of Tuscany, Parma, and Piacenza to Don Carlos or other sons of Elisabeth, Queen of Spain, to take effect on the death of the present rulers, who were without direct male heirs. The question was whether Spain would defy the Quadruple alliance. During the progress of these negotiations Alberoni had not been inactive. In August, 1717, he had occupied 1717 DESIGNS OF ALBERONI. 281 XVI. Sardinia. In the north of Europe he entered into correspond- CHAP. ence with Charles XII. with a view of promoting a peace between Sweden and Russia as a preparatory step to an invasion of England on behalf of the pretender. In addition to the northern combination he prepared the plan of a Spanish attempt under Ormonde or the pretender himself. The scheme of a Quadruple alliance was formally communicated to Spain in March, 1718. The clause which it was hoped might make it acceptable was that by which the succession to the Italian duchies was to be guaranteed, in default of male issue, to the queen's eldest son. Alberoni, however, declared that Philip would never give up Sardinia. In November, 1717, Bubb had warned Stanhope of the extensive naval preparations on foot. It was evident that Spain no longer contemplated abiding by its promise to stop short at the occupation of Sardinia, but was meditating an attack on Sicily or the imperial possessions in Italy, if not on England itself. On June 15, 1718, Admiral Sir George Byng set sail from Spithead with a fleet of twenty ships of the line. His orders were to compel the Spaniards to abandon hostilities, but he was not directly instructed to attack them. Stanhope was, in fact, ready to purchase peace with the surrender of Gibraltar which, as we learn from a letter of James Craggs the younger, who had succeeded Addison as secretary of state for the southern department in March, he held "of no great consequence". Neither this offer nor other concessions agreed upon by the allies availed to bring Alberoni to terms. Although the instructions given to Byng were not distinctly aggressive, he had received verbal hints from the ministers that he need not be afraid of doing too much. The king even expressed to Penterriedter, the imperial ambassador, the hope that he would destroy the Spanish fleet. When Byng arrived at Naples on August 1, he heard that a large part of Sicily was already occupied by Spanish troops. He offered an armistice which was refused, and then resolved to attack their fleet, at that time engaged in the siege of the citadel of Messina. Upon learning his approach, the Spanish admiral called a council of war. The ex-captain George Camocke, then a rear-admiral in the service of Spain, advised that the Spanish ships should remain at anchor in the roads of Messina in line of battle, supported by the bat XVI. CHAP. teries and troops on shore. This proposal was outvoted, and the fleet put to sea without any definite plan, either of action or retreat. On the morning of the 11th, Byng came up with it off Cape Passaro, on the south-east of Sicily. The Spaniards without any ordered formation were overtaken ship after ship. Camocke with ten ships of war contrived to escape, but the English fleet destroyed eighteen Spanish ships of the line, besides smaller vessels. The defeat paralysed the designs of Alberoni. Byng was rewarded with a congratulatory letter from the king, and on September 9, 1721, after his return to England, was created Viscount Torrington. : Unless England was to take upon itself the main burden of preserving a peace, in which the emperor was more immediately interested, it was evidently desirable that the Turkish war, which was exhausting his resources, should be brought to an end. The treaty of Passarovits was signed on July 21, 1718. The credit of effecting peace was ascribed in the main to the British plenipotentiary, Sir Robert Sutton, who opened the congress at Passarovits. In the course of a few weeks three great successes had been achieved by Stanhope's ministry the conclusion of the Quadruple alliance, the termination of the Turkish war, and the victory of Cape Passaro. The hands of the emperor were now free to grapple with Alberoni, and Great Britain was established as the directing head of the international league of peace. But the action of Byng naturally provoked criticism. At the opening of parliament on November 11, the most effective attack on the ministry was delivered by Walpole. "Ministers," he said, "were conscious of having begun a war against Spain and would now make it the parliament's war." The government, however, had substantial majorities in both houses. Being thus assured of the support of parliament, the king declared war against Spain on December 17, on the ground that no redress could be obtained for the injuries inflicted on British commerce. Alberoni, aware that he would be unable to resist a combination in which France bore part, conceived the idea of substituting for the regent the Duke of Maine, who was at the head of the Spanish party. Maine assented to a plan to seize the Duke of Orleans when on a party of pleasure near Paris, to secure the person of the king, and in his name to summon 1718 SPANISH EXPEDITION AGAINST ENGLAND. 283 XVI. the States-general and proclaim Philip V. as the next heir to the CHAP. throne, with himself as his deputy. But the plot was discovered and the Duke and Duchess of Maine were imprisoned. After this provocation, the regent, in conformity with the terms of the Quadruple alliance, declared war against Spain on January 9, N.S., 1719. The combination between Sweden and Russia against England, which Alberoni, in concert with Görz, was planning during the autumn of 1718, was equally unfortunate. The conquest of Norway and the recovery of Bremen and Verden were to be antecedent steps. With the death of Charles XII., on December 11, N.S., this combination fell to the ground. There remained another chance of success, the invasion of England under Ormonde and the pretender, which had been planned to synchronise with the descent of Charles. In December Ormonde secretly left France, and arrived at Madrid. Alberoni, who was equipping a formidable armament, offered him the command of the expedition destined for an attempt upon the west of England. The pretender, who was then living at Rome, embarked at Nettuno on a ship of Admiral Camocke for Cagliari in February, 1719, and on March 9 reached Rosas, in Catalonia, and proceeded to Madrid where he was received with the honours of royalty. Two days before his landing Ormonde's expedition had sailed from Cadiz. It was intended that in the event of a successful attempt, the pretender should follow in person. The armament consisted of five men-of-war and about twenty transports, 5,000 regular troops, mostly Irish, and arms for 30,000 more. With these Ormonde was to land in the west of England, while the earl marischal with a small body of Spanish troops was to make a diversion in the highlands of Scotland. Ormonde himself was to embark at Corunna. The regent, Orleans, had sent warning of the expedition by a letter from Dubois to Craggs (January 16, 1719), and an offer of eighteen battalions of infantry and ten squadrons of cavalry,' which, however, were declined. In March and April the States-general dispatched 2,000 men, and the Marquis de Prié, governor of the Austrian Netherlands, six battalions of imperialists. 1 R. O., MS., State Papers, Foreign, France, 353, |