САМЕО XXVIII. Septennial Parliament. 1716. IT was in the subsidence of the alarm caused by the Jacobite attempt of 1715 that it was felt that there was a certain instability in a Parliament dispersed every three years, and the ministry of George I., of which Lord Townshend was the head, brought in the Septennial Bill, fixing the necessary existence of the House of Commons at seven years. It was passed on the 26th of April, 1716, just before the King went to Hanover, the only place where he was happy, as he rudely told his ministers, who wished to keep him from thus exciting the jealousy of the English. They told him that if he went he must make the Prince of Wales regent. This, the King, who had a bitter quarrel with his son, was most unwilling to do, but he was really urgently needed at his beloved Hanover, and he finally consented to name the Prince, Guardian of the Realm and Lieutenant. Before going, he made Madame von Schulenberg Duchess of Munster, and afterwards she became Duchess of Kendal, and was said to be his left-handed wife. She had all the revenues of the Master of the Horse during the vacancy of that office, and her greed only equalled that of her rival, Baroness Kilmanseck, created Countess of Darlington. General Stanhope went with the King, and, indeed, there was much scope for diplomacy in the unsettled state of Europe. To begin with, Charles VI., the new Emperor, had set his mind on obtaining the succession to his own hereditary dominions for his own children, whether sons or daughters, to the exclusion of the daughters of his elder brother, Joseph II. In France the extreme delicacy of health of little Louis XV. gave rise to much anxiety, since his uncle in Spain was his rightful heir by blood, while the crown had been settled on the Duke of Orleans, and a war in case of the King's death would be inevitable. George I. was not over secure on his throne, but Lord Stair and Dubois had agreed to do their best to support their masters' doubtful claims in conjunction. By the Treaty of Utrecht, Louis XIV. had bound himself to demolish the port and fortifications of Dunkirk, a standing menace to England. This had been done, but a new canal and harbour had been commenced at Mardyke, which would have exactly the same effect, and the English Government remonstrated. The Regent had once before sent his familiar, Dubois, to meet Stanhope at the Hague and conduct a negotiation, and in this the Abbé had been so successful that he was again despatched to Hanover. He lodged in the same house with Stanhope, and an agreement was finally made by which George purchased the demolition of the works at Mardyke by engaging to support Orleans in succession in the case of the death of the little king. A treaty was made by which Holland, Austria, France, and England bound themselves to maintain the House of Hanover in England and the House of Orleans in France, and this was known as the Triple Alliance. Meantime, George's mind was chiefly set on acquiring for Hanover the secularised bishoprics of Bremen and Werden, which belonged to the Crown of Sweden; but during the captivity of Charles XII. at Bender, his domains were a prey to all around. Money for the purpose was wanting, also for the payment of some German troops, hired during the Jacobite rising, and over these matters the King and Sir Robert Walpole had a great quarrel. They had no common language but Latin, so that it was no wonder that there should be misunderstandings. Walpole had various enemies, among them the Earl of Sunderland, son to Anne's minister and son-in-law to Marlborough. It ended in Walpole's going out of office, Lord Townshend's being disposed of as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, while Stanhope and Sunderland came into office. Stanhope was soon after raised to the peerage, by which means the ministerial leaders in the House of Commons became Addison, Mr. Secretary Craggs, and Mr. Aislabie, none of them able to make a strong impression on the House, and the last two weak men, easily duped. Great anxieties were at this time caused by the ambition, not of the King of Spain himself, but that of his wife. Philip V., like all Fénélon's pupils, was a good, pious, and conscientious man, but it had not been possible to give him a larger mind or more force of character than had his father, the Grand Dauphin. Like that prince, he had no taste for reading or conversation and cared for no amusement but hunting, and like his mother, who was said to have died of her own dulness, he was very shy and unwilling to see any one. To each of his wives he was devoted, and all through his reign he was home-sick, longing to get back to Versailles, so that on his grandfather's death his ministers had hardly been able to prevent him from starting at once to claim the Regency of France, and the chief thing he seems to have inherited from his grand CAMEO XXVIII. Alliance. 1718. CAMEO XXVIII. Queen of Spain's ambition 1716. father was the conviction that it was mean to shrink from war, as the only means of winning glory. The leading spirit was his second wife, Elizabeth Farnese. Her face was much disfigured by small-pox, but her figure was fine, and she had much grace and dignity as well as kindness of manner, though she was of an extremely haughty and ambitious nature. From the first moment of her arrival, she studied to keep full possession of her husband, sharing his devotions and seeming to enjoy the chase as much as he did. She never contradicted him, nor appeared to lead him, even while she did so completely; and from the moment of the birth of her first child, Carlos, on the 16th of January, 1716, her mind was set on making the boy a king. She even thought that if his half-brother Luis were King of Spain, he might be King of France, and whereas the two Italian ducal families of Parma and Tuscany were verging towards extinction, she hoped to put forward claims to these, although they had never gone in the female line. Above all things, she hated the house of Austria, both with an Italian's feeling towards the Germans as oppressors of Lombardy, and because the Emperor Charles still would give no title to her husband but that of Duke of Anjou, while Madrid could only retaliate by calling him the Archduke. The chief assistant in all her schemes was Giulio Alberoni, the representative of her brother, the Duke of Parma, at the Spanish Court. This man was the son of a gardener at Piacenza, and had not begun to learn to read and prepare for the priesthood till he was twelve years old, when he went to the Jesuit school, and made the most rapid progress in all branches of study. During the War of Succession he had acted as interpreter for the Parmesan Government, and thus had become acquainted with the Duke of Vendôme, whom he pleased by his jests and witticisms, and a style of buffoonery that accorded well with his grotesque appearance— short, stout, and with head and face disproportionately large; but he had a beautiful voice, and could on occasion speak with an eloquence that surprised his hearers. Vendôme took him to France, and presented him to Louis XIV., who, after the Duke's death, sent him to the Court of Madrid, where it was he who induced the Princesse des Ursins to select Elizabeth of Parma as Philip's wife, the choice that turned out so ill for the poor Camerera Mayor; but Alberoni remained as Representative of the Court of Parma, and became the Queen's chief adviser and instrument. He was too wise to demand as yet any higher or more Spanish position, but he guided the Queen, and she managed the King, and the resources of Spain began to be developed so far as was practicable in the midst of inveterate abuses, interwoven with the interest of the grandees. "Five years of peace," said Alberoni, "and this might be made the most powerful monarchy in Europe." The English minister at Madrid, Mr. Bubb-afterwards Bubb Doddington, and then Lord Melcombe—was of the same opinion. They made friends, and a treaty of commerce was arranged by them, which was to give the English the rights of trade on the Mediterranean Spanish Coast, and with the Colonies in South America. But this did not please George I., who was afraid of offending powers that might threaten Werden and Bremen, and at the same time the Spanish Court was affronted at any alliance of England with the Emperor, and still more at the Triple Alliance, which confirmed Philip of Orleans in his pretensions to the crown of France. Each side was offended, and the King and Queen of Spain were both so much determined on a war that Alberoni could not withstand them, and indeed was hurt at the rejection of his own advances; but the army of Spain merely consisted of 50,000 men, and he was working at the navy, which only numbered twelve ships of war and 8,000 men. To the Pope, Clement XI., he alleged that this armament was to defend Christendom against the Turks, who were besieging Corfu ; and he thus obtained the great object of his desires-the Cardinal's hat. He was trying, however, to dissuade the King from beginning the war till the preparations should be complete, when an outrage on the part of the Emperor precipitated matters. Don Jose Molinos, the Spanish Ambassador at Rome, and a very infirm old man, had been nominated Inquisitor General for Spain. He was travelling home by land, trusting to a safe conduct from the Pope, and a verbal assurance from the Imperial ambassador at Rome that it would be respected, besides which, the North of Italy had always been considered as neutral throughout the war. Nevertheless a German officer pounced on the poor old man at the Milanese borders, sent his papers to Vienna, and shut him up in the citadel of Milan, where he died, two years later. Philip V. could not choose but be greatly incensed, and so likewise were all his council. War was inevitable, and the fleet was sent off at once to attack Sardinia, which had formerly belonged to Spain, but had been made over to the Emperor when, at the peace of Utrecht, Sicily had been given to Victor Amadeus of Savoy. There was severe fighting, and much loss from the unwholesome climate. About 5,000 men were left to garrison the island, whose natives greatly preferred the Spanish to the Austrian rule, and the fleet returned to Barcelona. There was great indignation, for the Pope considered himself to have been made to give the hat on false pretences; and the Emperor called on the members of the Triple Alliance to punish an attack made without any formal declaration of war; but every one in Europe, except the King and Queen of Spain, wanted peace, and the Regent of France sent Dubois over to London to confer with Stanhope on the best means of preserving it; whille William Stanhope (afterwards Lord Harrington) went to Spain to assist Bubb Doddington. Alberoni was with all his might having ships built, artillery cast, sailors trained, soldiers enlisted ; all with the support of the Queen, for the King was dangerously ill, and CAMEO XXVIII. Alberoni. 1720. CAMEO XXVIII. War with Spain. 1710. in a state of hypochondriac melancholy. Curious things took place in his bed-chamber, for the Spanish grandees were naturally exceedingly jealous of the ascendancy of the Italian, and wanted to have Philip set aside as imbecile, and his eldest son Luis, Prince of the Asturias, placed on his throne. One day, the old Duke of Escalona, who was the Lord Chamberlain, a very proud and determined man, but very infirm and gouty, made his appearance when the queen was sitting by the bed, and Alberoni and some attendants standing by. The page in waiting refused to open the door, so the Duke threw it open for himself and hobbled in ; but an attendant was sent to order him back. Still he went forward, and the Cardinal advanced and told him that the King wished to be alone. "That is not true," said the Duke, "I may be lame, but I am not blind, and you never approached the head of the bed, nor did the King speak to you." To this Alberoni replied that the visitor must retire, and laid a hand on his sleeve, an insult that enraged him to such a degree that there was a personal struggle between them in which the old man was pushed back into a chair, but there, raising his cane, he struck the Cardinal about the head and shoulders, and raved on with opprobrious language, declaring that but for the presence of the King, he should kick the impudent Italian varlet out. The King apparently took no notice, but the next day a sentence of exile was brought to the old Duke, upon which all the Spaniards near at hand came to pay him their respects as an honour to his country. They could, however, do nothing, the King was absolute, and the Queen and Alberoni could conduct everything, and were bent on war. They were in correspondence with James Stewart, who had been driven to Rome by the Triple Alliance, and in whom fresh hopes were excited by promises of a Spanish army to land in some part of Britain, in conjunction with the Swedes of Charles XII. who was determined to retain the two bishoprics. A new Armada was being fitted out in Spain for this new Stewart, 29 huge men of war, 100 heavy artillery, 40 mortars, and hosts of transports were all lying prepared in Cadiz Bay, their destination, it is said, kept secret from the Spaniards themselves; and when William Stanhope and Nancré, the French envoy, tried to come to treaty, Alberoni called their scheme for peace an unheard-of impossibile monster, a hirco-cervus or goat-stag, and the peace of Utrecht a treaty made for the devil, in which his King was used like a mere German! At the same time, he complained loudly of the fleet preparing by England at Portsmouth. However, the account of the Spanish armament decided Stanhope upon sending 20 ships of the line to sail for the Mediterranean, under Admiral Sir George Byng. The Spanish fleet had gone from Cadiz to Barcelona with sealed orders, indeed, it is said that no one knew Alberoni's plans except his friend Patiño, who had been brought up as a Jesuit. His schemes were to obtain Sicily, and compensate Victor Amadeus by assisting him to |