recognized. In June 1705 he was appointed one of the council
to Prince George of Denmark, the inactive husband of Queen
Anne, and then lord high admiral of England. Complaints
against the administration of the navy were then loud and
frequent (Burton’s Queen Anne, ii. 22-31), and the responsibilities
of his new position tested his capacity for public life. His
abilities justified his advancement, in succession to his lifelong
rival, Henry St John, to the more important position of secretary-at-war
(February 25, 1708), which brought him into immediate
contact with the duke of Marlborough and the queen. With
this post he held for a short time (1710) the treasurership of the
navy, and by the discharge of his official duties and by his skill
in debate became admitted to the inmost councils of the ministry.
He could not succeed, however, in diverting Godolphin from the
great error of that statesman’s career, the impeachment of
Sacheverell, and when the committee was appointed in December
1709 for elaborating the articles of impeachment Walpole was
nominated one of the managers for the House of Commons.
On the wreck of the Whig party which ensued, Walpole shared
in the general misfortune, and in spite of the flattery, followed
by the threats, of Harley he took his place with his friends in
opposition. His energies now shone forth with irresistible vigour;
both in debate and in the pamphlet press he vindicated Godolphin
from the charge that thirty-five millions of public money were not
accounted for, and in revenge for his zeal his political opponents
brought against him an accusation of personal corruption. On
these charges, now universally acknowledged to have proceeded
from party animosity, he was in January 1712 expelled from
the House and committed to the Tower. His prison cell now
became the rendezvous of the Whigs among the aristocracy,
while the populace heard his praises commemorated in the ballads
of the streets. The ignominy which the Tories had endeavoured
to inflict upon him was turned into augmented reputation. In
the last parliament of Queen Anne he took the leading part in
defence of Sir Richard Steele against the attacks of the Tories.
After the accession of George, the Whigs for nearly half a century retained the control of English politics. Walpole obtained the lucrative if unimportant post of paymaster-general of the forces in the administration which was formed under the nominal rule of Lord Halifax, but of which Stanhope and Townshend were the guiding spirits. A committee of secrecy was appointed to inquire into the acts of the late ministry, and especially into the Peace of Utrecht, with a view to the impeachment of Harley and St John, and to Walpole was entrusted the place of chairman. Most of his colleagues in office were members of the House of Lords, and the lead in the Commons quickly became the reward of his talents and assiduity. Halifax died on the 19th of May 1715, and after a short interval Walpole was exalted into the conspicuous position of first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer (October 11, 1715). Jealousies, however, prevailed among the Whigs, and the German favourites of the new monarch quickly showed their discontent with the heads of the ministry. Townshend was forced into resigning his secretaryship of state for the dignified exile of viceroy of Ireland, but he never crossed the sea to Dublin, and the support which Sunderland and Stanhope, the new advisers of the king, received from him and from Walpole was so grudging that Townshend was dismissed from the lord-lieutenancy (April 9, 1717), and Walpole on the next morning withdrew from the ministry. They plunged into opposition with unflagging energy, and in resisting the measure by which it was proposed to limit the royal prerogative in the creation of peerages (March-December 1718) Walpole exerted all his powers. This display of ability brought about a partial reconciliation of the two sections of the Whigs. To Townshend was given the presidency of the council, and Walpole once again assumed the paymastership of the forces (June 1720).
On the financial crash which followed the failure of the South Sea scheme, the public voice insisted that he should assume a more prominent place in public life. At this crisis in England’s fortunes Stanhope and James Craggs, the two secretaries of state, were seized by death, John Aislabie, the chancellor of the exchequer, was committed to the Tower, and Sunderland, though acquitted of corruption, was compelled to resign the lead. Walpole, at first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer (April 1721), became with Townshend responsible for the country’s government (though for some years they had to contend with the influence of Carteret), the danger arising from the panic in South Sea stock was averted by its amalgamation with Bank and East India stock, and during the rest of the reign of George I. they remained at the head of the ministry. The hopes of the Jacobites, which revived with these financial troubles, soon drooped in disappointment. Atterbury, their boldest leader, was exiled in 1723; Bolingbroke, in dismay at their feebleness, sued for pardon, and was permitted to return to his own country. The troubles which broke out in Ireland over Wood’s patent for a copper coinage were allayed through the tact of Carteret, who had been banished in April 1724 as its lord-lieutenant by his triumphant rivals. The continent was still troubled with wars and rumours of wars, but a treaty between England, Prussia and France was successfully effected at Hanover in 1725.
England was kept free from warfare, and in the general prosperity which ensued Walpole basked in the royal favour. His eldest son was raised to the peerage as Baron Walpole (June 10, 1723) and he himself became a Knight of the Bath on the 27th of May 1725, and was rewarded with the Garter in May 1726. Next year the first King George died, and Walpole’s enemies fondly believed that he would be driven from office, but their expectations were doomed to disappointment. The confidence which the old king had reposed in him was renewed by his successor, and in the person of Queen Caroline, the discreet ruler of her royal spouse, the second George, the Whig minister found a faithful and lifelong friend. For three years he shared power with Townshend, but the jealous Walpole brooked no rival near the throne, and his brother-in-law withdrew from official life to Norfolk in May 1730. Before and after that event the administration was based on two principles, sound finance at home and freedom from the intrigues and wars which raged abroad. On the continent congresses and treaties were matters of annual arrangement, and if the work of the plenipotentiaries soon faded it was through their labours that England enjoyed many years of peace. Walpole’s influence received a serious blow in 1733. The enormous frauds on the excise duties forced themselves on his attention, and he proposed to check smuggling and avoid fraud by levying the full tax on tobacco and wine when they were removed from the warehouses for sale. His opponents fastened on these proposals with irresistible force, and so serious an agitation stirred the country that the ministerial measure was dropped amid general rejoicing. Several of his most active antagonists were dismissed from office or deprived of their regiments, but their spirits remained unquenched, as the incessant attacks in the Craftsman showed, and when Walpole met a new House of Commons in 1734 his supporters were far less numerous. The Gin Act of 1736, by which the tax on that drink was raised to an excessive amount, led to disorders in the suburbs of London; and the imprisonment of two notorious smugglers in the Tolbooth at Edinburgh resulted in those Porteous riots which have been rendered famous in the Heart of Midlothian. These events weakened his influence with large classes in England and Scotland, but his parliamentary supremacy remained unimpaired, and was illustrated in 1737 by his defeat of Sir John Barnard’s plan for the reduction of the interest on the national debt, and by his passing of the Playhouse Act, under which the London theatres are still regulated. That year, however, heralded his fall from power. His constant friend Queen Caroline died on the 20th of November 1737, and the prince of Wales, long discontented with his parents and their minister, flung himself into active opposition. Many of the boroughs within the limits of the duchy of Cornwall were obedient to the prince’s will, and he quickly attracted to his cause a considerable number of adherents, of whom Pitt and the Grenvilles were the most influential. The leading orators of England thundered against Walpole in the senate,
