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of Sir Robert Walpole, first Earl of Orford-was born at Houghton, in Norfolk, December 8, 1678. He was educated at Eton; and in 1698 admitted in King's College, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself for the ele gance of his Latin compositions, as well as for his satirical wit on the tories and jacobites, among whom were the then provost and fellows. Descended from a family distinguished by their attachment to the ostensible principles of the whigs, he embraced the views of this party with zeal, and may be said to have outlived, if not extinguished, the distinction between whig and tory.

"From an early period of his life, Lord Walpole was engaged in a public capacity. In 1706, he accompanied General Stanhope to Barcelona as private secretary, and was employed in various missions of consequence. In 1707, he was appointed secretary to Mr. Boyle, first as chancellor of the exchequer, and afterwards as secretary of state; and, in 1709, accompanied the Duke of Marlborough and Lord Townshend, who were plenipotentiaries at the Congress of Gertruydenberg. Soon after the accession of George the First, he was succesively under-secretary of state, secretary to the Treasury, and envoy at the Hague, until the schism of the Whig Ministry, which terminated in the resignation of Lord Townshend and his brother, as well as his

own.

"In 1720, he became secretary to the Duke of Grafton, lordlieutenant of Ireland; was re-appointed secretary to the Treasury, and again deputed to the Hague.

"In 1723 he commenced his embassy to Paris; and continued to fill that important station until 1730. In 1733 he was nominated embassador to the States-General, and remained at the Hague until 1739, when he returned to England.

"During the whole period of Sir Robert Walpole's administration, Lord Walpole was an able and useful coadjutor to his brother, both in and out of Parliament; and was consulted in all business of state, particularly foreign transactions. During his residence abroad, besides official dispatches, he maintained a private intercourse of letters with his brother, and even a confidential correspondence with Queen Caroline, who reposed the fullest reliance on his talents and integrity.

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Although, from the time of his brother's resignation, he filled no official station; yet, in consequence of his abilities, experience, and weight among his party, he retained a considerable influence over many of the ministers; he was confidentially consulted by Mr. Pelham and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, and often gave his opinion in the most frank and unreserved manner to the Duke of Newcastle, to the Duke of Cumberland, and even to the King.

The importance of his correspondence and papers will fully appear from this sketch of his life; and it would be difficult to point out another character, who, for so long a period, was more

trusted with the secrets of government, more acquainted with the motives and springs of action, and possessed more influence in the direction of foreign and domestic affairs." P. ix.

The materials from which the author has composed this work, were, he informs us, Mr. Walpole's Apology, written by himself towards the latter end of his life, and still preserved in his own hand-writing, containing a candid and lively narrative of his transactions from 1715 to 1739; his extensive correspondence during his embassy at Paris; his correspondence with Queen Caroline, and other branches of the royal family, not before printed, parti cularly his letters to the Duke of Cumberland in 1746 and 1747; his miscellaneous correspondence from 1742 1757; thoughts on Prussian alliances in 1740; rhapsody on foreign politics, occasioned by the treaty of Aix-laChapelle in 1748, and that with Spain in 1750; and several drafts of speeches in Parliament, on continuing Hanoverian troops in British pay, 1743; on the supply to the Empress-Queen in 1749; and the fulfilment of his majesty's engagements with the King of Poland in 1752. In addition to these, Mr. Coxe has also been favoured with permission to copy or extract from the Hardwicke papers, the Hampden papers, and those of Sir C. Hanbury Williams, in the possession of Capel Hanbury Leigh, Esq, as well as Mr. Etough's "Minutes of Memorable Conversations with the late Lord Walpole, Baron of Wolterton, with Remarks on his Character and Conduct."

"The principal documents from which I have compiled these Memoirs, being in manuscript, i have had little occasion to draw my materials from printed narratives; but I have not omitted to cite those authors on whose testimony I have advanced any ma terial fact." P. XV.

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"From the resignation of Sir Robert Walpole, I have expatiated more largely on the history of the times. I have attempted to develope the characters and administrations of Lord Granville, Mr. Pelham, and the Duke of Newcastle; to sketch the state of parties, particularly the contests for power between Lord Granville and the Pelhams, and between Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox; and to form a connected narrative of political transactions, from 1742 to the death of Lord Walpole in 1757. With this view, besides the correspondence of Lord Walpole, I have introduced various letters from the Duke of Newcastle, Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, Mr. Pelham, and Mr. Fox," P. xvi.

The death of his college friend, the young Marquis of Blandford, in 1703, disappointed Horatio's hopes of en

tering the army; he took chambers in Lincoln's-Inn, and commenced the study of the law, but relinquished the profession, being appointed in 1705 secretary to Brigadier-general Stanhope, envoy and plenipotentiary to the Archduke Charles, son of the Emperor Leopold, and acknowledged King of Spain by the allies. Such a subordinate situation. of course precluded him from any particular distinction, and he only animadverted on the superstition and phlegm of the Archduke Charles, who, although contending for the Spanish crown, stopped at Barcelona and Montserrat to return thanks to the Virgin and St. Antonio. Unhappily both Austrians and Spaniards are still the slaves of such pestiferous superstition; and hence one of the principal causes of all their disasters. It was, however, during his embassy to Paris that Mr. Walpole's character was developed and his skill and address properly called into action. The following statement of the origin and progress of the alliance between George the First and the Duke of Orleans, as regent of France, although stated in the manner most forcible to the Walpolian whigs, unfolds one of their fundamental errors.

"The peculiar situations of the Duke of Orleans and George the First changed the discordant politics of the two cabinets, and united the interests of England and France. By the treaty of Utrecht it was stipulated, that the crowns of France and Spain should never be joined in the same person; and Philip Duke of Anjou was acknowledged King of Spain on renouncing his right to the crown of France, which was to devolve on the Duke of Orleans should Louis the Fifteenth die without issue male. The young monarch being of a sickly constitution, this event was not improbable; and Philip, notwithstanding his renunciation, entertained designs of ascending the throne of France, and was countenanced by a considerable party in the kingdom. Hence the Duke of Orleans, threatened with the loss of the succession, favourably received the overtures of England as the only power able to support his right: and George the First was equally anxious to conciliate the friendship of France, as the principal means of counteracting the schemes of the jacobites, and annihilating the hopes of the Pretender. When their interests thus concurred, it was not difficult to adjust the conditions of a treaty of alliance: after a few obstacles and delays, occasioned by the volatile character of the Regent, a negociation was commenced by the Earl of Stair at Paris, continued by Mr. Walpole and Chateauneuf the French minister at the Hague, and finally concluded by secretary Stanhope, and du Bois the confidential friend of the Regent.

"The principal articles of the treaty which formed the bond of union between the two countries, were, on the side of the Regent,

to send the Pretender beyond the Alps; and on the part of George the First, to guaranty, in conformity with the peace of Utrecht, the eventual succession of the house of Orleans to the crown of France. This singular alliance, concluded on the 21st of August 1716, formed the commencement of a new era in the political anuals of Europe, and united the rival powers of France and England, whose enmity had deluged Europe with blood, and whose union produced a long and unexampled period of peace and tranquillity.

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From the conclusion of this treaty the great object of the English cabinet was directed to keep the Regent steady to his engagements, through the channel of du Bois, who was gratified with a large pension from the King of England *. To attain this point, it was necessary to procure the dismission of Villars, Noailles, Torcy, and d'Uxelles, who were attached to the old system, and gradually to raise du Bois to the office of prime minister. But to compass this scheme was no easy task; for notwithstanding the wonderful ascendancy which du Bois had acquired over his illustrious pupil, the Regent did not without great reluctance consign to him the supreme direction of the state.

"Misinformed writers have asserted, that the advancement of du Bois was as unobstructed as it was rapid, and that the Duke of Orleans was as eager to promote him as he was to be promoted. The dispatches of the Earl of Stair† prove the falsity of these unqualified assertions, and show that the Regent hesitated, that du Bois almost despaired of conquering his repugnance, and that his success was principally owing to the influence of the English cabinet, by which the Regent from personal motives was governed."

P. 45.

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Having thus obtained for du Bois the management of foreign affairs, the next attempt of the English cabinet was to effect the dismission of de Torcy, secretary of state, the inveterate enemy England, and the ablest minister in the French cabinet.

of

"John Baptiste Marquis de Torcy, second son of the great Colbert, was born in 1665: brought up under the auspices and improved by the instructions of his celebrated father, he was soon initiated in state affairs, and commenced at a very early period his diplomatic career as secretary and envoy in different courts of Europe. In the twenty-second year of his age he was appointed secretary of state for foreign affairs. He distinguished himself in the negociations which took place on the death of Charles the Second, King of Spain, in regard to the succession of the Spanish dominions, at the congress of Gertruydenberg, and in the conferences which settled the peace of Utrecht. A striking proof of his ability is given in the history of these transactions published

* St. Simon affirms that this pension was 40,000l.; but this sum was so enormous at that period as to render it probable that he was misinformed.

"Hardwicke's State Papers, Vol. II.

after his death from his papers*; it is one of the most curiouz monuments of the superiority of the French cabinet in every species of intrigue and address in negociation.

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Torcy continued to enjoy, during the reign of Louis the Fourteenth, the full confidence of his sovereign, and was engaged in secretly promoting the success of the invasion against England, and in making excuses forpermitting the Pretender to reside in Loraine. On the death of Louis the Fourteenth, he was continued in the ministry, as the only person versed in the management of foreign transactions; his capacity for affairs, and the talent which he possessed of rendering business agreeable to the Regent, made him a necessary instrument in the administration. But Torcy + had become obnoxious to George the First, and to the whigs who directed the counsels of England at this period, by his declaration to Lord Bolingbroke concerning the nullity of any renunciation which could be made by Philip Duke of Anjou to the crown of France." P. 48.

"* Memoires de Torcy pour servir à l'Histoire des Negociations, depuis le Traité de Ryswick jusqu'à la Paix d'Utrecht.

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Torcy is represented by the French writers, and particularly by St. Simon, who knew him personally, as remarkable for the mildness of his manners and the placidness of his temper; yet the Earl of Stair has recorded an instance which proves a great want of self-command, and a peevish aversion to the English, at a time when it was the interest of the French court to continue on good terms with them.-See Hardwicke's Papers, Vol. II. p. 530, 535.

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"Though the peace of Utrecht had obliged the Spanish branch of the Bourbon family to renounce by oath the right of succession to the crown of France; yet the doctrine of its invalidity, as an act void ab initio, had been publicly avowed. Torcy frankly owned to Lord Bolingbroke, The renunciation desired would be • null and invalid by the fundamental laws of France, according to which laws the nearest prince to the crown is of necessity the heir. This law is considered as the work of Him who has established all monarchies, and we are persuaded in France that God only can abolish it. No renunciation therefore can destroy it; and if the King of Spain should renounce it for the sake of peace, and in obedience to his grandfather, they would deceive themselves, who received it as a sufficient expedient to prevent the mischief we purpose to avoid.'-See Report of the Secret Committee, P. 13.`

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Torcy made no scruple of publicly declaring that this expedient, which had been devised to prevent the union of France and Spain under one monarch, could be of little force, as being inconsistent with the fundamental laws of France. This declaration,' observes a judicious author, gives a remarkable instance ⚫ of the weakness or wickedness of that administration, who could ⚫ build the peace of Europe on so sandy a foundation, and accept of terms which France itself was honest enough to own were not ⚫ to be maintained.'-Letter to Two Great Men, P. 20."

P. 48.

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