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Home Domestic Politics and the First Two Georges, 1714-1760 The Two Kings; Part 2 |
The Two Kings; Part 2We must now turn to home politics. The accession of George I, in 1714, made the Whigs supreme. The Tories were tainted with Jacobite sympathies, and for forty-five years-till after the accession of George III-the Whigs remained in secure possession of the Government. The immense Whig majority that was returned to the first Parliament of George I showed considerable energy. It repealed the more intolerant Acts-such as the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts- passed in the Tory Parliament of Anne. It impeached the Tory leaders, including Harley. Fearful, after Mar's rising was suppressed, that a new Parliament might return a Tory majority, it proceeded to prolong its own existence by passing - somewhat unconstitutionally-the Septennial Act (1716), which allowed this and succeeding Parliaments to sit for seven years. The life of a Parliament was till 1911 subject to this Act, and this limit is undoubtedly better than that of three years which had been imposed in the reign of William III. Meanwhile the four leaders in the Whig ministry had quarrelled; and in 1717 two of them, Townshend and Walpole, resigned, leaving Sunderland, the son-in-law of Marlborough, and Stanhope, the conqueror of Minorca, supreme. The rule of the two latter, however, was to come to an abrupt conclusion in 1720.A company had been formed in 1711 to secure the trade of the South Seas. It had prospered, and in 1719 it offered to take over the National Debt, that is to say, to become the sole creditor of the Government, and to buy out, either by cash or by shares in the Company, all other creditors. The Company proposed to pay £7,000,000 for this privilege-for as such it was regarded-and to reduce the interest which the nation was paying. The Government accepted the offer, and the more willingly as the Company had paid considerable bribes to the less honest of its members. The directors of the Company thought that the close connection with the Government which would result from the Company being its sole creditor would be a gigantic advertisement and inspire confidence. And so it proved. Everyone, including philosophers and clergymen, and even in its corporate capacity the Canton of Berne, began to buy shares in the Company. The £100 shares went up by bounds and reached £1000. There followed a craze of speculation. Numerous companies were formed, none too foolish to lack subscribers (One financier brought out a company to promote "a certain design which will hereafter be promulgated"; and even this company did not lack subscribers). And then came the reaction, and the bubble burst. People began to realize that the South Sea Company's shares could not possibly be worth what had been paid for them, and tried to get rid of them. Consequently the shares fell even quicker than they had risen, and hundreds of people who had bought when the stock was high lost their fortunes. |
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