The principal subjects of these disputes, during the first pacific years of George II. were the settlement of the civil list ;* the mutiny bill ; the pension list ; the number of the standing army, which Mr Pulteney and the patriotic party wished to be reduced to 12,000 ; the subsidies to the German princes ; and the treaties which were concluded with foreign powers. Of these, the most important were the treaties of Seville and Vienna. Their professed object was to confirm the quadruple alliance ; but a particular stiplation was added, for the succession of the Infant of Spain, Don Carlos, to the duchies of Tuscany, Parma, and Placentia. That prince was accordingly, upon the death of the Duke of Parma, by the assistance of an English fleet, put in peaceable possession of Parma and Placentia ; and 6000 Spaniards were quartered in the duchy of Tuscany, to secure him the reversion of that kingdom.
The success of the ministry, in obtaining taxes and supplies, was interrupted, in one instance, not by liament, but by the people themselves. To prevent the frauds practised by the factors in London, who were employed by the American planters in selling their tobacco, Walpole proposed, instead of levying the customs in the usual manner upon tobacco, that what was imported should be lodged in warehouses appointed for that purpose by the officers of the crown, and thence be sold, after paying the duty of fourpence per pound, when the proprietor found a market for it. The posal raised such a ferment in London, that the avenues to the house of parliament were chocked with enraged multitudes, and the minister began to be in fear of his The proposal was carried in the house ; but the ministry thought proper to appease the public by drop ping the scheme ; and the triumph was celebrated with public rejoicings.
The success of the opposition on this occasion, in duced them to attempt a repeal of the septennial, and to restore triennial parliaments : but in this, as in other efforts, they were outnumbered ; and, in despair of be ing able to stem the torrent of corruption, they retired to their seats in the country, leaving the minister and his corrupted followers an undisputed majority in the commons.
The minister being now left, for a while, without an opposition, took an opportunity to render his rivals odious or contemptible, by getting several useful laws passed in their absence ; but a fresh opposition soon sprung up, and it was increased by tne partizans of the Prince of Wales : a prince that was the dar ling of the people, and the enemy of a venal ministry. Ile had lately married the Princess of Saxe-Gotha. During the confinement of the princess in childbed, message from the king produced a misunderstanding, which at last occasioned his royal highness being for bidden the court. A motion which was made by the
prince's friends, to increase his settlement from 50,0001. to 100,0001., was rejected in the commons through the influence of Walpole, although it was proved, that, ac cording to his majesty's own regulation, his establish ment required 63,0001. per annum.
At a certain period of civilization and information, the press comes to possess, among a free people, a power equal or superior to any constituted authority. This formidable organ of public sentiments, Walpole had severely felt ; but he had successfully used the art of bribery, to attach the herd of ephemeral political writers to his cause : but the theatre, however, threaten ed to add ridicule to public scrutiny. To silence these, he brought in a bill to limit the number of playhouses, and to subject all dramatic writings, before their ap pearance, to the inspection of the lord chamberlain. Among the opposers of the bill, the earl of Chesterfield spoke with becoming zeal in behalf of literary liberty. " If stage-players (said his lordship) exceed the bounds of propriety, they may be punished. To rob a man of the fruits of his wit, is to rob him of his property ; and as wit is too often the sole property of its possessor, the injustice becomes a cruelty. If poets and players are to be restrained, let them be tried by their peers, not by a lord chamberlain. A power lodged in his hands to judge, without appeal, is a power unknown to the con stitution." The public attention was, however, soon called from domestic to foreign disputes. The unexplained rights of the English to cut logwood in the bay of Campcachy, and the attempts of the individual traders to drive an illicit trade with the Spanish main, had drawn indis criminate retaliations and injuries from the guarda costas of that nation, who plundered the English mer chants, and sent the subjects of Britain to he buried in the mines of Potosi. Remonstrances had already been made to no purpose ; but the clamours of the merchants were at last listened to by parliament ; and a conven tion between the two crowns was concluded at Prado, importing, that plenipotentiaries should meet at Madrid to regulate the subjects in dispute. Spain was to pay a sum of money, on condition of her claims on Britain being satisfied ; and both sides were to discontinue hos ° tile preparations. But the minister, in demanding the first supply from parliament, w as obliged to acknow ledge, that the sum stipulated by Spain had not been paid ; and, to appease the public now, he began to pre pare for war. The French declared themselves bound by treaties to assist Spain : the Dutch declared a neu trality.