WALPOLE, SIR Robert, Emu. OF ORFORD, English statesman: b. Houghton, Norfolk, 26 Aug. 1676; d. there, 18 March 1745. He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cam bridge, and became a good classical scholar. On the death of his elder brother in 1698 he resigned his scholarship, in 1700 entered Par liament as member for Castle Rising and in 1702 was elected for King's Lynn. He became a leader of the Whig party and soon distin guished himself by attention to business, and, though not an orator, by practical debating power. In 1708 he was appointed Secretary-at War and entrusted with the management of the House of Commons. He was one of the man agers of the impeachment of Sacheverell (q.v.) (1710), though privately opposed to that meas ure. Soon after this the Whigs were dis missed from office. On the meeting of Parlia ment in 1712 he was convicted of a high breach of trust and notorious corruption, the charge being due wholly to party hostility. He was expelled from the House of Commons and im prisoned in the Tower. By his party Walpole was regarded as a martyr. He refused to make any submission and wrote a pamphlet in his own defense. He remained in prison, or held his levee in the Tower, till the prorogation. He was returned again for King's Lynn, after the dissolution in 1713 and resumed his place and influence in the House. In the first min istry of George I (1714) he was appointed paymaster of the forces. He was also in 1715 made chairman of the committee to impeach the late ministers, Bolingbroke, Ormonde, Ox ford and Stafford. In October he was made First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer. In April 1717, a split having occurred in the ministry, Walpole resigned and made himself formidable in opposition. He opposed the quadruple alliance and the South Sea Scheme, in which, however, he did not disdain to speculate and make a fortune. In 1720 he again took office as paymaster of the forces, and was entrusted with the measures rendered necessary by the failure of the scheme. On the resignation of Sunderland he again became Chancellor of the Exchequer and First Lord of the Treasury, 3 April 1721, and for 21 years held the highest office in the state without interruption. During his long administration the Hanoverian succession, to which he was zealously attached, became firmly established, a result to which his prudence and political sagacity largely con tributed. He promoted by an enlightened pol
icy the commercial prosperity of the nation, and relieved the weight of taxation by many improvements in the tariff. He was the first English minister after the Restoration to make particular study of commerce and finance, and it was he who laid the basis for the free-trade and colonial policies of Great Britain. To the war with Spain he was decidedly averse. In February 1742, two days before his resignation, he was created Earl of Orford. So long a period of office did not of course pass without opposition. In 1733 his important excise bill failed to pass, and during the later years of his ministry he encountered increasing difficulties. When, after successive defeats in Parliament, he resigned, he was consulted by the king as to his successors and allowed to stipulate for his own immunity. An attack was soon made upon him in Parliament. and. a conunittee of secrecy appointed to inquire mto his administration.
The committee's report charged him with hav ing used undue influence at elections, with granting fraudulent contracts, and with pecula tion and profusion in the use of secret service money. The king exerted himself to frustrate the inquiry, and the committee did not gain credit for impartiality. The prosecution against Walpole was dropped for want of evidence. He took little further part in public affairs, but was frequently consulted by the king. Walpole has been characterized by Burke as an ((intelli gent, prudent and safe minister? He was ambitious for power, but had above his con temporaries an understanding of true national interests. Consult various standard histories of England; Coxe, 'Memoirs of Sir Robert Wal pole> (1798) ; the studies by Ewald (1877) and John Morley (1890) ; (Historical Sketches of the Reign of George II' in Blackwood's foi April 1868; (Original Papers' (ed. Mac pherson 1775) ; King, (Political and Literary Anecdotes' (1818) • Macphersion, (Annals of Commerce,' vol. (1805) • Courtney, 'Par liamentary Representatives of 'Cornwall> (1889).