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Home Domestic Politics and the First Two Georges, 1714-1760 The Two Kings; Part 4 |
The Two Kings; Part 4The twenty-one years of Walpole's administration, from 1721-42, contain, it has been said, no history. We have seen how in foreign affairs Walpole maintained till near the close of his ministry a policy of peace, which was very beneficial to England. In domestic affairs little happens. In our financial history, however, Walpole's rule was very important. Walpole undoubtedly was a great financier. He restored credit after the South Sea panic. He found, it is said, our tariff to be the worst in Europe, and by abolishing duties on a great number of articles he made it the best, In all the details of financial administration he was excellent; if he could not, as George I said he could, make gold out of nothing, he could make it go a long way.Walpole's administration, again, marks a stage in the evolution of cabinet government. Walpole has been called our first prime minister, because he practically appointed all his colleagues, and insisted that they should have the same opinions as himself, He, however, was no believer in cabinet councils, and preferred to discuss public affairs with two or three of his colleagues at the more convivial and less controversial dinner table. But if a minister differed from him he had to go-either to govern Ireland like Carteret (1724); or to be the first leader of an organized Opposition like Pulteney (1725), whose tongue Walpole feared, it was said, more than another man's sword; or to grow turnips like Townshend (1730), the brother-in-law and Norfolk neighbour of Walpole. Though Walpole was supreme in his ministry, he had to encounter considerable opposition from other quarters. Boling-broke, who had fled to the Continent on George I’s accession, had been allowed to come back to England, and, though excluded, as one of the conditions of his return, from using his great powers of speech in the House of Lords, wielded his pen with great effect in a weekly papei called The Craftsman (The first number of The Craftsman appeared at the end of 1726, and the last number in 1736. It was published at first twice and then once a week, and amongst its contributors, besides Bolingbroke himself, were Swift, Pulteney, Pope, and Arbuthnot). He and the Tories, though not very numerous themselves, had as their allies in opposing Walpole an increasing number of the older Whigs under Pulteney, who were discontented with Walpole's monopoly of power, and of the younger Whigs called "the Boys", including a rising statesman in William Pitt, who unsparingly attacked Walpole's system of bribery and corruption. Walpole, however, held his own. He had the support of both George I and George II, and especially of Queen Caroline until she died in I737 (Queen Caroline on one occasion succeeded in convincing the king with arguments Walpole had used to her, though unconvinced by them herself. She had great influence over the king; cf, the old couplet: "You may strut, dapper George, but 'twill all be in vain; We know 'tis Queen Caroline, not you, that reign".). Moreover, his mixture of shrewdness, good sense, and good humour made him an excellent leader in the House of Commons; and these qualities, besides the power which he could exercise through the gift of places and pensions, and the possession by some of his chief supporters of " pocket boroughs", served to secure him a fairly docile majority. |
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