CHAP. The effectiveness of the Quadruple alliance was now demonstrated. At home, the troops in the north and west of England were reinforced, and naval preparations hurried on. On March 10 the king acquainted parliament with the intended invasion, and received loyal assurances from both houses. A fleet of seven ships under Sir John Norris sailed from Spithead to watch the coast of Cornwall. The Spanish fleet, off Cape Finisterre, met with a storm on March 29 which lasted for two days and entirely dispersed it. Only the two frigates with the earl marischal and his party which sailed from the bay of Passajes, the harbour of San Sebastian, succeeded in making their way to the neighbourhood of Kintail in Ross-shire (April 13) having on board 300 Spanish soldiers. They brought arms, also, for 2,000 men, but were only joined by about 1,000 highlanders and by Lords Seaforth and Tullibardine, who had landed in a small ship from France. They took possession of Donan Castle and garrisoned it with forty-five Spaniards. After a slight resistance to three English men-of-war, the garrison surrendered on May 10. On June 5, General Wightman marched from Inverness against the main body, which now numbered about 2,000 strong. He found them on the 10th encamped in an advantageous position, strengthened by hasty fortifications, in a pass in Glen Shiel. His own force consisted of no more than 1,100 men, composed of Dutch and highlanders, one English regiment of infantry, and detachments of grenadiers and dragoons. Nevertheless, he delivered his attack on the evening on which he came up with the rebels, drove them from rock to rock, and after bivouacking for the night, received on the following day the surrender of the whole body of 274 Spaniards. The highlanders dispersed to their homes and the three lords took refuge in the western isles, whence, at a later date, they succeeded in escaping to Spain. Alberoni's invasion was at an end. The The continuance of the pretender at the court of Madrid was felt by the King of Spain to be an irksome expense. Princess Clementina, grand-daughter of John Sobieski, late King of Poland, to whom James was contracted, contrived in April to escape from the convent at Innsbruck, where she had been detained at the instance of the British government. Upon May 28, while still at Madrid, James was married to 1719 FALL OF ALBERONI. 285 XVI. her by proxy at Bologna. This afforded him a pretext for CHAP. returning to Italy. During the summer and autumn of 1719 English and French expeditions destroyed a number of Spanish naval stations, while Byng's ships swept the Italian coast, preventing the supply of troops and munitions to the Spanish army in Sicily. To Byng's effective action it was mainly owing that Philip realised the futility of Alberoni's schemes of conquest. In the summer of 1719 the cardinal opened negotiations for peace. The events of the year had not been such as to dispose the allies to concessions. Stanhope was determined that the prime cause of disturbance in Europe should be driven from Spain. Alberoni's enemies at the court of Madrid were also intriguing against him. On December 5, 1719, the cardinal was dismissed from all his employments and ordered to quit Spanish territory within twenty-one days. Stanhope visited Paris, in order to insist on his demands in concert with the French and imperial ministers. On January 19, 1720, these three signed a joint declaration, binding themselves to enforce the accession of Spain to the Quadruple alliance. In February Philip yielded. He repeated the renunciation of the French succession imposed on him by the treaty of Utrecht, and he undertook to evacuate Sicily and Sardinia within six months. Stanhope's organisation of alliances had borne its first fruits, and Europe enjoyed peace for twelve years. The death of Charles XII. had already revolutionised the situation in the north of Europe. The combinations of Görz and Alberoni, by which Sweden, Russia, and Spain were to cooperate against England, instantly fell to pieces. On the other hand, the exhaustion of Sweden by Charles XII.'s campaigns removed a possible counterpoise to the growing power of the tsar in the Baltic. The friendly relations which Peter cultivated with Prussia, a power whose policy was always capricious and incalculable, and the animosity, sometimes latent sometimes undisguised, subsisting between him and George I., involved a constant apprehension for the safety of the electoral dominions. George, therefore, as elector, without consulting his English ministry, at once effected a combination against the two powers he dreaded. On January 5, 1719, a treaty of mutual defence was signed at Vienna between Hanover, Saxony, and the emperor. This treaty, though a relief to George's most XVI. CHAP. pressing anxiety, still left unsettled the affairs of northern Europe, out of which the apprehended difficulties were likely to arise. The first steps taken by George towards a pacification were the adjustment of the claims of the belligerents other than Russia, and the detachment of Prussia from the tsar. Whitworth, who had been British envoy to Berlin in 1716-17, was sent back there in April, 1719, with instructions to propose a treaty. As Frederick William's indecision between England and Russia was long protracted, Whitworth advised that it should be hastened by the inception of negotiations with Sweden. Lord Carteret, a young peer whose abilities had already attracted attention, arrived in July as ambassador at Stockholm. At this time the Tsar Peter was ravaging the Swedish islands and plundering and burning almost within sight of the capital, while his allies the Danes were invading the south of the country. The alternative appeared to be either the immediate intervention of England or the submission of Sweden to the tsar on his own terms. Norris was lying off Copenhagen with eleven ships of the line and a frigate, and the Swedes begged that he might be ordered to their capital. Upon a promise to this effect Carteret secured the signature of a preliminary convention between Hanover and Sweden, by which a complete cession was made of Bremen and Verden for 1,000,000 crowns. British mediation was promised in arranging a peace for Sweden with the Kings of Denmark and Poland. Whitworth's anticipations were justified. Frederick William began to apprehend an arrangement between Great Britain and Sweden, in which his interests would be neglected. On August 14 he signed treaties with both Great Britain and Hanover. The treaty with Great Britain contained a separate secret article pledging the two powers to mutual defence. Encouraged by the proximity of the English fleet, and also by the sum of £10,000 distributed by Carteret among the senators, the Swedes concluded a preliminary treaty with Great Britain on August 18, O.S. This treaty established an inviolable friendship with a view to the maintenance of the protestant religion; provided for the free navigation of the Baltic by British ships, and for the assessment of damages to trade on either side; and promised, while war continued, subsidies to Sweden in lieu of the succours to which England was pledged under the treaty of Travendal (1700), and the good offices of King George in the conclusion 1719 THE NORTHERN PACIFICATION. 287 of a peace. By one separate article the preliminary convention CHAP. between Hanover and Sweden, particularly the cession of XVI. Bremen and Verden, was confirmed; by another Great Britain undertook to unite her forces to those of Sweden against the tsar in the event of his continuance of hostilities. On September 5 Norris joined the Swedish fleet, but Peter had no wish to court the destruction of his ships, and they were prudently withdrawn to Reval. On December 9 Norris was back at the Nore. The Danes having on October 30 accepted King George's mediation, the signature of the British treaty with Sweden, based upon the preliminary treaty of August, took place at Stockholm on January 21, O.S., 1720. A treaty between Sweden and Prussia, in the negotiation of which Carteret played an active part, was also signed. To the treaty with Great Britain an article was added binding Sweden to afford no asylum to the pretender and to guarantee the protestant succession. Mutual succours for defence were fixed at 6,000 infantry or their equivalents in munitions of war, ships, etc. The final treaty of Fredericksborg on July 3 between Sweden and Denmark succeeded a protracted wrangle, in which Carteret again took a leading part. There now remained Russia, but Peter withstood the offers of mediation jointly made by George and Frederick William. British fleets appeared in the Baltic in 1720 and 1721, but as the Russians sought the shelter of their fortifications, these demonstrations were ineffective. At the close of 1720 both Stanhope and Carteret began to see that Sweden had no resource but to accept the Russian terms. The Mississippi scheme and the South Sea bubble had crippled France and England alike. The death of Stanhope on February 5, 1721, suddenly deprived England of the mind which since 1716 had held the direction of public affairs. By the treaty of Nystad of August 30, 1721, peace was re-established between Sweden and Russia, with Russia as the dominant power in the north of Europe. Unwelcome as this result was to King George, there had emerged to him from the tangle of negotiations two substantial compensations, the acknowledgement by Sweden of his claim to the disputed duchies and the security of British trade in the Baltic.1 1 For a detailed account of the relations of Great Britain to Russia, Sweden, and Denmark during this period, see a long series of articles by Mr. J. F. Chance in the English Historical Review, 1900-08. XVII. CHAPTER XVII. ADMINISTRATION OF STANHOPE AND SUNDERLAND (1717-1721). CHAP. WALPOLE at the moment of his resignation on April 10, 1717, had matured a scheme for the reduction of the interest on the national debt, which, "as a country gentleman," he, at the instance of the king, consented to pilot through the house of commons. The debt stood at £47,000,000, the interest being seven, eight, and nine per cent. To effect his object he borrowed £2,500,000 and £2,000,000 from the Bank of England and the South Sea Company respectively for the purpose of paying off such fundholders as might refuse a reduction of interest to five per cent. The surplus arising out of the taxes which had been appropriated for the payment of the higher interest constituted a sinking fund. These financial arrangements were embodied in three bills, which all became law, the General Fund act, the Bank act, and the South Sea act. But though Walpole came to the help of the government, the friction between him and Stanhope, which had arisen in connexion with the dismissal of Townshend, continued to manifest itself. "The parties of Walpole and Stanhope," wrote Pope in June, 1717, "are as violent as whig and tory." The Earl of Oxford had in May, 1717, been confined in the Tower almost two years without trial. In the opinion of some of the more moderate whigs, it was time that he should be set at liberty. On June 24 he was brought from the Tower to Westminster Hall. After the opening of proceedings by the reading of the articles of impeachment and of the earl's answer, Lord Harcourt carried a resolution that the lords should receive no evidence on the charges of misdemeanour until those of high treason had been tried. The house of commons was nettled 1 Lord Carleton to Oxford, May 25, 1717, Portland MSS., v., 526. |