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  The Two Kings; Part 6

The Two Kings; Part 6

Meanwhile Queen Caroline's death in 1737 had deprived Walpole of his chief ally, whilst in the same year the Prince of Wales joined the Opposition. Finally, the Opposition forced on the war with Spain in 1739 and Walpole's mismanagement of it helped to secure his defeat and resignation in 1742. Walpole's rule had not been an inspir­ing one. But his policy of peace abroad and inactivity at home had two results: it made the Hanoverian dynasty secure, and it gave the country a breathing space which enabled her to endure the exertions demanded during the later wars of the century. Moreover, Walpole's strong, clear common sense had been of great value in matters of practical administration, whilst his financial ability had done much, and would, but for a factious opposition, have done more to develop the prosperity and trade of the country.

To Walpole succeeded a ministry whose most prominent member was Carteret, and whose activity was chiefly shown in the War of the Austrian Succession; and to that another ministry commonly called the "Broad-bottomed administration", consisting of nearly all the chief Whigs under Henry Pelham and his brother, the Duke of Newcastle. That ministry, which lasted from 1744 to 1754, continued and ended the War of the Austrian Succession, and suppressed the Rebellion of 1745, and in home affairs pursued Walpole's quiescent policy. Only one matter of interest need be mentioned, and that was the reform of the calendar. Hitherto in Great Britain the old Roman calendar had been used, and not the corrected calendar adopted first by Gregory XIII in 1582, and subsequently by nearly all European nations. The old calendar was several days wrong, and the ministry, in order to rectify it, omitted some days in September 1752, calling the 3rd of September the 14th. Great irritation was aroused by this change, many people thinking that they had been defrauded by the Government of these days; hence came the popular cry, "Give us back our eleven days". Another change was made at the same time, and the legal year in future was to begin on January 1st, and not, as heretofore, on March 25th (The most permanent monument of Pelham's administration was the foundation of the British Museum in 1753, but all that can be said to Pelham's credit is that "he was not unfriendly to the scheme". The money for it was raised by means of a lottery).

Chronology
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