64

DEATH OF SECRETARY CRAGGS.

accused Secretary Craggs, his father, the PostmasterGeneral; Aislabie, the Chancellor of the Exchequer ; Charles Stanhope, Secretary of the Treasury; and the Earl of Sunderland.

The last-named was ultimately declared innocent, but the pressure of public indignation compelled him to retire from office.* Aislabie was expelled the House, and committed to the Tower; and a great part of his property was confiscated. Charles Stanhope escaped; a majority of only three deciding in his favour. The Postmaster-General, when the accusation was pressed against him, committed suicide. Secretary Craggs died of small-pox the very day the report was presented, his illness having been aggravated by anxiety of mind. Whether innocent or guilty in this deplorable business, he had in his time rendered some service to the State. He was a man of parts, who combined administrative ability with a warm love of letters; and whatever the record History may preserve of him, he has been assured of immortality through the gratitude of Pope:

"A soul, as full of worth as void of pride,
Which nothing seeks to show, or needs to hide;
Which nor to guilt nor fear its caution owes,
And boasts a warmth that from no passion flows.
A face untaught to feign; a judging eye,

That darts severe upon a rising lie,

And strikes a blush through frontless flattery:

All this thou wert; and being this before,

Know, kings and fortune cannot make thee more.

*His death in April, 1722, left Walpole the undisputed leader of the

Whig party.

"THE CANNIBALS OF CHANGE ALLEY."

Then scorn to gain a friend by servile ways,
Nor wish to lose a foe these virtues raise;
But candid, free, sincere as you began,
Proceed-a minister, but still a man."

65

As for the South Sea Directors, Parliament punished them with an almost barbarous severity. They were disqualified from ever sitting in Parliament or holding any office; and their estates, valued at a total of upwards of £2,000,000, were confiscated for the benefit of those who had suffered rather from their own greed and folly than from the knavery or imprudence of the Directors. "Even the small allowance voted to each Director was often embittered," says the historian, "by insult, or diminished by enmity. Sometimes an allowance of one shilling, or of twenty pounds, was jestingly moved. A rough answer of one Director at the Treasury many months before was rancorously quoted against him. Another it seems had been foolish enough to boast that his horses should feed on gold: a facetious member observed that he might now feed on it himself, and should have just as much gold as he could eat, and no more."

Yet Parliament, in the opinion of the people, erred on the side of leniency. The pamphlets of the day, and the petitions poured in upon the House, bear witness to the depth and strength of the national wrath. Condign punishment was asked for "the Cannibals of Change Alley," the "monsters of pride and covetousness, " who had infamously betrayed their country. "If you ask," exclaims a writer, "if you ask what, monsters as they are, should be done with them, the

5

VOL. I.

66

THE PUBLIC CREDIT RESTORED.

answer is short and easy-Hang them! for whatever they deserve I would have no new tortures invented, nor any new deaths devised. In this, I think, I show moderation. Let them only be hanged, but hanged speedily!" In fact, the regret that no one's blood was shed seems to have been universal.

Walpole's object, however, was the further restoration of the public credit; and he carried through both Houses a bill by which, of the nine millions and a half due from the South Sea Company to the State, he remitted upwards of five. Eventually the whole was cancelled. The debts of the Company were defrayed from the proceeds of the confiscated estates of its directors. The credit of the bonds was upheld; and a third of the capital was paid to the proprietor. In this way justice was meted out, so far as possible, to all parties; though many were the impoverished families who, for years to come, had deep cause to lament their folly in being dazzled by the South Sea Bubble. That the disaster was not more extensive, and that the national credit was so quickly retrieved, must be ascribed to the prudence, calmness, and financial ability of Walpole, who now stood forward as the most powerful statesman in the kingdom.

"The

THE elections of 1722 returned to Parliament an overwhelming Whig majority, and Walpole entered upon his long lease of power. As Lord Stanhope says, the twenty years of his administration offer but few incidents to the historian's attention. At first, he was virtually unopposed, and the House of Commons existed apparently for the sole purpose of registering his decrees. It is no discredit to him that his rule was thus successful. On the contrary, it is a proof of his sagacity that he appreciated the country's need of prolonged repose. As with all great financial ministers, his chief object was to maintain peace; to prevent the national resources from being expended on fruitless continental wars. most pernicious circumstances," he was fond of saying, "in which the country can be are those of war; as we must be losers while it lasts and cannot be great gainers when it ends." To carry out this policy taxed all his ingenuity, for the Court and the Opposition frequently breathed a bellicose spirit. At the same time, he did not advocate peace at any price. No war-loving minister was ever more careful of the honour of England than he was; and we see no reason to doubt that he would have drawn the sword with resolution had he been convinced that the best interests of the country were at stake. But he attained his ends by his diplomatic skill. For instance, he baffled the ambition of

68

WALPOLE'S foreign POLICY.

Spain by the most masterly conduct. The Emperor of Germany, Charles the 6th, had no male heir, and aimed at transmitting his hereditary dominions in Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia to his daughter, Maria Theresa. Most of the European Powers hesitated to guarantee a succession which was obviously surrounded with many dangers. But Spain, desirous of recovering Gibraltar and Minorca from England, hastened to waive her own claims and to offer her recognition of the so-called Pragmatic Sanction,* if the Emperor would hand over the Duchies of Tuscany and Parma to Don Carlos, King Philip's second son. As an additional bribe she expressed her willingness to grant exclusive privileges in her American dominions to a trading company which, in spite of the objections of England and Holland, the Emperor had established at Ostend. Simultaneously with this movement, Catherine, the Empress of Russia, having cajoled Sweden into an alliance for the purpose of attacking Denmark, entered into secret negotiations with Spain and Germany. To encounter this formidable confederacy Walpole and his colleague, Townshend, adopted vigorous and well-considered measures, which have received warmer approval at the hands of modern historians than they did at those of his contemporaries. A squadron was ordered into the Baltic to overawe Russia; Sweden was gained over by a subsidy; and in 1725 the Treaty of Hanover bound England, France,

The imperial ordinance so-called was issued by the Emperor on the 19th of April, 1713, and provided that, in default of male issue, his daughters should succeed him in preference to the daughters of his brother, Joseph the 1st.