96 WALPOLE'S STRUGGLE TO RETAIN POWER. [1739. with Wyndham ; and the secession left the minister at his ease for the rest of the session. Walpole was thus enabled to carry a very questionable measure -that of subsidizing Denmark for a Hanoverian object, instead of for the interest of Great Britain. The Parliament was prorogued on the 14th of June. The plenipotentiaries under the Convention had met; but the Spaniards had been moved by the threatening denunciations of the English Parliament to make a stand upon what they thought their national honour. There was a dispute about a trumpery money payment of ninety thousand pounds. Cardinal Fleury offered to guarantee the payment, provided an English squadron was withdrawn from the Mediterranean. The public temper was for war. The king was for war. Walpole was urged to demand an express renunciation of the right of search, and an acknowledgment of the British claims to disputed territory in North America. Spain unceremoniously rejected the demands; and on the 19th of October a declaration of war against Spain was proclaimed in London. When the heralds rode into the City to declare the war, the prince of Wales and a numerous body of opposition leaders accompanied them; and whilst every steeple sent forth a joyous peal, the prince stopped at a tavern at Temple Bar, and set the multitude huzzaing by calling for a tankard, and drinking "success to the war." Walpole heard the peal of the bells, and exclaimed, "They may ring the bells now; they will soon be wringing their hands." When the Parliament met on the 15th of November, 1739, the king said, "I have, in all my proceedings with the court of Spain, acted agreeably to the sense of both Houses of Parliament; and therefore I can make no doubt but I shall meet with a ready and vigorous support to this just and necessary war." "Just and necessary" are the epithets which every government applies to every war into which it rushes. The seceders from Parliament had returned. The altered policy of Walpole had failed to secure him popularity with the people, or adequate support from their representatives. He was regarded, truly enough, as the secret friend of peace. He had now to bear all the odium of the increased taxation which is the inevitable result of war. When he wished to conduct war with the necessary vigour, he was opposed. The royal navy was short of seamen. Walpole proposed that there should be a general registry of seamen serving on board merchant vessels, that they might be called upon in a case of emergency. This was held to be despotism; and he abandoned his measure. That real power which he derived from being firm to his own principles was gone. Old friends and enemies, new friends and enemies, saw that the commanding superiority of the man who had carried the vessel of the state through many a troubled sea was dwindling away. The duke of Argyle deserted him. The great Scottish chief was dismissed from his employments. Walpole had been dared by Pulteney to strip of his posts "one military person, great in his character, great in his capacity, great in the important offices he has discharged;" but he did dare. "Mr. Keith, a Jacobite, was with the duke when this dismission came. 'Mr. Keith,' the duke said, 'fall flat, fall edge, we must get rid of these people,' which Mr. Keith interpreted might imply both master and man."* Wyndham ceased to trouble Walpole. He died in 1740. * Extract from the "Stuart Papers," given by Lord Mahon, vol. iii. p. 10. Ի 17403 NEWCASTLE'S JEALOUSY OF WALPOLE. 97 But Pulteney was still ready to do battle against him; and "the terrible Cornet of Horse" was prepared for any onslaught. There were divisions in the Cabinet. The duke of Newcastle, whose name Walpole afterwards declared was synonymous with "perfidy," was growing jealous of the man who had so long treated him as a subordinate. Newcastle complained that measures were agreed upon before others were allowed to give an opinion. "What do you mean?" cried Walpole; "the war is yours. You have had the conduct of it. I wish you joy of it." They differed about ships being sent to America. Walpole objected to leaving our own coasts defenceless. Newcastle maintained his own view, and Walpole exclaimed, "I oppose nothing; I give in to everything; am said to do everything; and to answer for everything; and yet, God knows, I dare not do what I think right. I am of opinion for having more ships of the squadron left behind; but I dare not, I will not, make any alteration. Let them go! Let them go!" On the 17th of March, 1740, both Houses went up with an address of congratulation to the king, "on the glorious success of your majesty's arms in the West Indies, under the command of vice-admiral Vernon, by entering the port, and taking the town, of Porto Bello, and demolishing and levelling all the ports and castles belonging thereto, with six men-of-war only." Vernon, a member of parliament, was strongly opposed to the administration of Walpole; but the principle of concession procured his appointment to the command of the expedition, whose success was popularly reckoned as a wonderful triumph. The "six men-of-war only" was a phrase carried by * Letter of Newcastle to Hardwicke, quoted by Lord Mahon, vol. iii. p. 31. 98 CAPTURE OF PORTO BELLO. [1740. the opposition in the Commons, to mark what could be done by a resolute commander. Admiral Hosier had hesitated to attack the same place with twenty ships, in 1726. The famous ballad of "Admiral Hosier's Ghost" was written by Glover, to point this contrast; and to insinuate that Vernon, as he had informed his friends, was not properly seconded at home. The forced inactivity of Hosier enabled the government to avert a war. Yet the patriotic ballad of the author of "Leonidas," true to the politics of its time, sees no honour and safety but in fighting. The shade of Hosier thus apostrophises Vernon: "I, by twenty sail attended, Did this Spanish town affright: I had cast them with disdain, The ministry determined to let Vernon, the popular hero, have a fair opportunity to obey his "heart's warm motion." In the course of the summer and autumn they sent out an armament to join the popular admiral at Jamaica. Some great attack was to be made upon the Spanish possessions; but the precise destination of the expedition was to be determined by a council of war. The whole force consisted of 115 ships, 15,000 sailors, and 12,000 soldiers. It was resolved, upon the advice of Vernon, to attack Carthagena, the strongest fortified place in Spanish America. The command of the land forces had devolved upon general Wentworth; for lord Cathcart, an experienced officer, had died on the passage. Smollett, the historian, has related the assault upon Carthagena with the vague generality which was once considered to be the only proper historical style. Smollett, the novelist, who at the age of twenty was serving in one of admiral Vernon's ships as a surgeon's mate, has brought the scene before our eyes in far more vivid colours. After various delays, the fleet was before Carthagena. The one narrow entrance to the harbour, called the Boca Chica, was defended by several forts and batteries, one principal fort being known as the Castle. The troops had been landed, and had erected batteries to fire upon this castle on one side, whilst the large ships should attack it on the other side. The signal, says the surgeon's mate, was given for his ship to engage. "Our ship, with others destined for this service, immediately weighed, and in less than half-an-hour came to an anchor before the castle of Boca Chica, with a spring upon our cable; and the cannonading (which, indeed, was terrible) began. The surgeon, after having crossed himself, fell flat on the deck; and the chaplain and purser, who were stationed with us in quality of assistants, followed his example, while the Welshman and I sat upon a chest looking at one another with great discomposure, scarce able to refrain from the like prostration. And, that the reader may know it was not a common occasion that alarmed us thus, I must inform him of the particulars of this dreadful din that astounded us. The fire of the Spaniards proceeded from eighty-four great guns, besides a mortar and small arms, in Boca Chica, thirty-six in Fort St. Joseph, twenty in two fascine batteries, and four men 1741.] ATTACK UPON CARTHAGENA. 99 of-war, mounting sixty-four guns each. This was answered by our land battery, mounted with twenty-one cannon, two mortars, and twenty-four cohorns, and five great ships of seventy or eighty guns, that fired without intermission." A sailor whose hand was shattered by a grape-shot is brought down to the cock-pit: "While I was employed in dressing the stump, I asked Jack's opinion of the battle, who, shaking his head, frankly told me he believed we should do no good; 'For why? because instead of dropping anchor close under shore, where we should have had to deal with one corner of Boca Chica, we had opened the harbour, and exposed ourselves to the whole fire of the enemy from their shipping and Fort St. Joseph, as well as from the Castle we intended to cannonade; that, besides, we lay at too great a distance to damage the walls, and three parts in four of our shot did not take place; for there was scarce anybody on board who understood the pointing of a gun.' The Boca Chica is at length abandoned by the Spaniards, and the men of war enter the outward harbour. Vernon wrote home to announce his "wonderful success." Carthagena was held to have fallen; and, as Voltaire states, a medal was struck in honour of " the avenger of his country,"—of the gallant Vernon,-who had made himself master of the rich city hitherto deemed impregnable. The fleet tardily overcame the obstacle of sunk ships, and penetrated to the inner harbour. The author of "Roderick Random" again throws interest into the usual dry narrative: "After having put garrisons into the forts we had taken, and re-embarked our soldiers and artillery, a piece of service that detained us more than a week, we ventured up to the mouth of the inner harbour, guarded by a large fortification on one side, and a small redoubt on the other, both of which were deserted before our approach, and the entrance of the harbour blocked up by several old galleons and two men-of-war that the enemy had sunk in the channel. We made shift, however, to open a passage for some ships, that favoured a second landing of our troops, at a place called La Quinta, not far from the town, where, after a faint resistance from a body of Spaniards who opposed their disembarkation, they encamped with a design of besieging the Castle of St. Lazar, which overlooked and commanded the city. Whether our renowned general had nobody in his army who knew how to approach it in form, or that he trusted entirely to the fame of his arms, I shall not determine; but, certain it is, a resolution was taken in a council of war, to attack the place with musketry only. This was put in execution, and succeeded accordingly; the enemy giving them such a hearty reception that the greatest part of the detachment took up their everlasting residence on the spot. Our chief, not relishing this kind of complaisance in the Spaniards, was wise enough to retreat on board with the remains of his army, which from eight thousand able men landed on the beach, near Boca Chica, was now reduced to fifteen hundred fit for service." In all these operations there was no cordial union between the admiral and the general. They had separate commands. Vernon, a vain man, was indifferent to any success in which he should not have the chief honour. He sent no assistance to Wentworth in the attack upon Fort San Lazaro, until the failure was irretrievable. The wet season had begun; the fleet and army were ill-provisioned; an epidemic fever raged. On the 24th of April it was determined to abandon the assault of Carthagena. The one success was paraded by Vernon in a despatch: “I 100 ANSON'S EXPEDITION-BYRON. [1741. believe even the Spaniards will give us a certificate that we have effectually destroyed all their castles." The fortifications were demolished. The shades of the brave men whose "carcases floated in the harbour, until they were devoured by sharks and carrion-crows," might have repeated the words of Hosier's" sad troop of ghosts: " "Sent in this foul clime to languish, Think what thousands fell in vain." Another expedition, despatched from England in September, 1740, has furnished the materials for two of the most interesting relations in our language. Walter's narrative of lord Anson's voyage, and Byron's narrative of his adventures in the ship Wager, offer as many stirring examples of courage and fortitude as any of the most exciting records of naval victories. In the qualities which these captains displayed, under severe privations and sufferings which almost forbade hope, we see upon what foundations of national character our maritime greatness has been built. When we read Smollett's description of the brutal and the effeminate commanders under whom he served, we must not forget that the same age produced George Anson and John Byron. The squadron of six vessels under commodore Anson was to attack the shores of Peru, sailing round Cape Horn. It almost surpasses belief, that the only land troops which these vessels carried consisted of outpensioners of Chelsea, old men, some wounded, all feeble. Five hundred of these were to have incumbered the squadron. Only about half sailed, the rest having deserted. In the spring of 1741, in attempting to double Cape Horn, the ships were encountered by violent hurricanes; and the Centurion, Anson's ship, was separated from her companions. To understand what were the dangers of the sea a century ago, we must turn to the fearful relation of the ravages produced in the Centurion by the scurvy. Anson had determined, under stress of weather, to make for the uninhabited island of Juan Fernandez. Before he reached this refuge on the 10th of June, two hundred of his crew had died. The Trial sloop arrived at the island, having lost twothirds of her crew. Both ships were soon relieved of the poor out-pensioners of Chelsea, who were the first to sink under the fatal disease, which destroyed far more on ship-board than storm or battle. The Pearl and Severn, two large ships, had put back to the Brazils. The Wager was wrecked on a small desert island. Her crew were saved from drowning; but the prospect of the more terrible death of famine rendered them desperate. Byron, a stern commander, had not the one great quality of kindness by which violent men in seasons of suffering are more controlled than by harshness. They mutinied; seized the long-boat; and left their captain, with the lieutenant, the surgeon, and two midshipmen, on the desert island where the wreck took place. One of these five died. The adventures of the other four will always be read with deep interest by a maritime people. Anson remained at Juan Fernandez, with three vessels, till the autumn. His men were refreshed; his ships refitted; and he was ready for some exploit. In September they sallied forth, and secured a valuable prize. Other prizes were made, as they cruised about the island. The town of Paita was attacked by a boat's crew, and a large amount of public treasure was obtained. Anson, in the barbarous spirit of earlier times, suffered his sailors to rifle private houses and |