The Age of Oligarchy

Pre-Industrial Britain 1722-1783

Geoffrey Holmes, D. Szechi

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317894254
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

The second volume, on early and mid-Georgian Britain, shows how the country used its expanding wealth, its new-found social cohesion at home and its international influence abroad to become not only a European but an imperial power. As with the first volume, every aspect of the period is covered.

PART ONE

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The Age of Walpole, 1722–1746

FRAMEWORK OF EVENTS 1722–1746

1722 George I’s first Parliament dissolved (Mar). General Election (Mar–Apr): Whigs increase majority over Tories to c. 200, even before hearing petitions [E.1]. Dubois reveals Jacobite plot to Walpole; death of Sunderland; Congress of Cambrai, planned to settle outstanding international problems in Western and Southern Europe, begins informal sessions (Apr).

News of the Jacobite conspiracy (‘Atterbury Plot’) made public (8 May); arrest of bishop of Rochester’s secretary (15th). Patent granted to William Wood for minting a new copper coinage in Ireland (July), sparking off three years of Irish ‘Patriot’ opposition to ‘Wood’s Half-Pence’. Bishop Atterbury arrested (Aug); his release under Habeas Corpus refused (Sept).

Parliament meets (9 Oct). Habeas Corpus Act suspended, after defeat of Opposition amendment – supported by some Whigs – to limit suspension to 6 months (16th). Jacobite Christopher Layer condemned to death for treason (Nov). Emperor grants by charter right to Ostend Company (Austr. Neths.) to trade with East and West Indies – early alarm in Britain and Holland (Dec).

Duke of Marlborough dies. Defoe’s Moll Flanders published.

1723 Walpole fails to oust Carteret from the ministry [cf. 1724] (Jan). Bill of Pains and Penalties against Atterbury passes Commons with huge majorities (Apr); Atterbury’s stout defence in Lords (11th–13th May), but bill passes there by 83:43 (15th); execution of Layer; Bolingbroke’s pardon passes the Great Seal and he returns to England (25th – cf. 1725); Parliament prorogued (28 May) – not to meet again this year, and with Walpole’s ‘interest so strong that he has nothing to apprehend, unless it be from the too great majority of Whigs in Parliament, for it is impossible to satisfy them all…’ [George Baillie, MP, Treasury Commissioner, July 1723].

Bishop Atterbury goes into exile (June). Nationalist agitation in Ireland: Irish Parliament meets (Sept) and votes to address the King that the patent granted to William Wood [cf. 1722] was ‘prejudicial to the revenue, destructive of trade, and dangerous to property’. Deaths in France of Dubois (Aug) and Regent Orléans (Nov).

Workhouse Test Act passed. Trenchard’s ‘Cato’s Letters’ in the London Journal end, after viciously attacking the Anglican charity school movement for encouraging Jacobitism and social insubordination. Deaths of Sir Christopher Wren and Sir Godfrey Kneller, the painter; birth of Adam Smith.

1724 Second session of George I’s second Parliament meets; Congress of Cambrai begins its formal sessions (Apr) after two years delay, but achieves little – Spain’s disillusionment with France and Britain over her Mediterranean aspirations grows.

First of Swift’s Drapier’s Letters published, attacking effects of ‘Wood’s Half-Pence’ on Irish prosperity (Feb); subsequent Letters call for Ireland’s liberation from slavish dependence on England; Carteret dismissed from his Secretaryship (Mar); despatched to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant with the brief of pacifying the kingdom (Apr); duke of Newcastle, Lord Chamberlain since 1717, begins epic tenure as a Secretary of State – claims of Walpole’s old ally, Pulteney, passed over (6 Apr); Parliament prorogued (24th).

Parliament reassembles; Spanish diplomat, Ripperda, sent on mission of reconciliation to Vienna (Nov – cf. 1725). London aldermen, at Walpole’s instigation, petition for reduction of City’s privileges; leave given in Commons for introduction of City of London Election Bill; Commons vote to impose duty of 3d. per bushel on Scottish malt – half the English rate (Dec).

Death of Robert Harley, earl of Oxford, statesman (May) and execution of Jonathan Wild, master-thief and fence; Part I of Defoe’s Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain and Vol. I of Bishop Burnet’s A History of My Own Time published.

1725 Lord Chancellor Macclesfield resigns (Jan); impeached for sale of offices, abandoned by Walpole, found guilty and disgraced – fined £30,000 (Feb–May). City Election Bill, affirming Court of Aldermen’s right of veto and disfranchising c. 3,000 liverymen passes its third reading in Commons – only 83 votes against (19 Mar); William Pulteney [Cofferer of the Household since 1723] ‘set[s] himself at the head of the Opposition to the Court’ in the Commons (8–9 Apr); Commons, 231:111, order a bill to reverse Bolingbroke’s attainder but exclude him from House of Lords (Apr). [First] Treaty of Vienna signed by Spain and the Emperor (Apr O.S.) – arousing anti-Jacobite and commercial fears in Britain, and concern for Balance of Power. Parliament prorogued (May). Shawfield (Malt Tax) riots in Glasgow (June). British diplomacy [Townshend] answers Vienna Treaty with Alliance of Hanover, concluded between Britain, France and Prussia (Aug O.S.).

Government back down before Irish opposition to new coinage – Wood’s patent annulled. Duke of Roxburgh, Scottish [Squadrone] Secretary of State since 1716, dismissed for inertia during Malt Tax riots: supremacy of Islay and Argyll in Scottish political management begins (Sept).

Comprehensive review of customs duties undertaken (new Book of Rates). First of ‘Wade’s roads’ built in Scottish Highlands [1725–37]. Alexander Pope translates the Iliad and the Odyssey. Halley’s second edition of Flamsteed’s Historia Coelistis (which Flamsteed did not endorse) lists 3,000 stars observable from England.

1726 New session of Parliament opens – King’s Speech announces war with Spain imminent and seeks supply for increasing Navy; army estimates easily approved, Pulteney and Tory leader Wyndham disagreeing over opposition (Jan); Daniel Pulteney’s motion for enquiring into National Debt crushed by 262:89; Opposition (Tory-Pulteneyite) attack on Alliance of Hanover beaten off – support pledged for George I’s electorate, if attacked, 285:107 (Feb). Parliament prorogued after 4 months (May). Poor harvest in Ireland leads to onset of famine.

British naval forces sent to Baltic, Spanish and W. Indian waters (summer – autumn); Cardinal Fleury becomes Louis XV’s chief minister and supreme influence over French foreign policy (June). Russia adheres to Vienna alliance and the Dutch to that of Hanover (Aug); Prussia withdraws from Hanover Alliance and signs treaty of alliance with Emperor at Wusterhausen (Oct).

First issue of a major new opposition journal, The Craftsman, founded by Bolingbroke and the Pulteneys (6 Dec).

Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels published.

1727 Beginning of fifth session of Parliament; Henry Pelham’s government motion to increase the size of the army by 8,000 carried, 250:85, in committee (Jan). Land Tax doubled to 4s. in the £; Spanish forces lay siege to Gibraltar (Feb). Vote of censure on Walpole defeated, 248:124 (Mar); government proposal to balance the budget by raiding the Sinking Fund agreed (Apr); Parliament prorogued (May).

Preliminaries of Paris signed by Britain, France, United Provinces (UP) and the Emperor: Charles VI agrees not to press Austria’s commercial aspirations and to attend a congress [at Soissons] to settle the outstanding disputes and grievances of the powers (May). But Spain still recalcitrant over Gibraltar and Italy.

Death of George I en route for Hanover (11 June): accession of Prince of Wales as George II; new King attempts to replace Walpole by Spencer Compton. Short parliamentary session (27 June–17 July); Walpole uses Treasury interest to pilot through increase in Civil List and survives the crisis with aplomb (July).

Parliament dissolved (Aug); General Election (Aug–Sept) – Tory strength lowest since 1679 [E.1].

Period of epidemics and heavy mortality in England and Wales begins [1727–9]. London dissenting ministers (Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist) draw together and appoint a General Committee of the Three Denominations. Death of Sir Isaac Newton; his Principia (1687) published in English.

1728 George II’s first Parliament meets; Arthur Onslow, ministerial candidate, elected Speaker – destined to hold office for 33 years (Jan). Low Tory morale and many absences; Commons vote to employ Hessian mercenary troops by 280:84, but Land Tax lowered to 3s. in the £ (Feb). Poor harvest in Ireland.

Spain ceases hostilities and accepts Paris Preliminaries as confirmed by Convention of Pardo; other outstanding questions referred to a congress (Feb–Mar). Bank of England lends £1.75 million to the government at 4 per cent (May); Walpole’s majorities remain enormous and impregnable down to time of prorogation (28th).

Congress of Soissons opens (June [concl. 1729]) – serious Austro-Spanish differences persist. Prince Frederick arrives in Britain (Dec) – created Prince of Wales 9 Jan 1729.

Alexander Pope’s The Dunciad and John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera performed – Walpole and his regime now the butt of literary-political satire.

1729 Parliament reassembles (21 Jan); King’s Speech stresses continuing uncertain prospects of European settlement; Opposition still weak and divided; motion attacking alliance with France attracts only 80 votes (5 Feb). First signs that ministerial majority might prove vulnerable (Mar) – reduced to 35 in a vote on Spanish depredations against British shipping (13th). Parliament prorogued (14 May). Another bad harvest in Ireland leads to famine across the whole country, with Ulster particularly badly hit.

Townshend travels to Hanover with George II – his foreign policy now too hawkish and pro-French for Walpole (May). Treaty of Seville signed with Spain (Oct O.S.) – the outcome of Walpole’s personal foreign policy initiative [H(vi)].

Widespread killer epidemics – the worst in the 18th century – sweep England and Wales. John Wesley becomes tutor of Lincoln College and leader of Oxford’s tiny ‘methodist’ society.

1730 Third session of Parliament begins (Jan). 80 Whigs desert the administration in annual vote on Hessian troops; full-scale parliamentary storm over news that the French had refortified Dunkirk; revival of campaign for place legislation – Sandys’s pensions bill rallies Country support and passes by 10 votes (but rejected by Lords); abolition of duties on salt moved from back benches and uneasily accepted by Walpole (Feb).

Parliament prorogued (May). Resignation of Townshend (16 May); Carteret dismissed from Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland; Harrington, a diplomat, made Northern Secretary (June), Devonshire Privy Seal, with further extensive reshaping of the ministry. Further European tension as Italian clauses of Seville Treaty are ignored; Walpole decides on secret negotiations with Charles VI with aim of resolving Britain’s European problems and defusing parliamentary opposition (Sept). Deist Matthew Tindal publishes Christianity Old as Creation.

1731 The Craftsman prints details of Vienna negotiations, which were being kept secret from France; its publisher, Francklin, jailed on charge of sedition (Jan); opening of Parliament (21st). Commons vote to re-engage Hessian troops, 249:164; Opposition vote falls by 43 when government’s handling of Spanish relations endorsed by Parliament (Feb).

[Second] Treaty of Vienna concluded with Emperor (Mar) – Austria gives vital ground on Spanish claims in Italy in return for British guarantee of Pragmatic Sanction [A; H(vii)]; Vienna Treaty triumphantly revealed to Commons (Apr); end of session (May).

Spain, for time being satisfied, accedes to the Austro-British treaty (July). British mercantile and squirearchical uneasiness with foreign policies of Walpole’s government damped down.

Colony of Georgia established. The Gentleman’s Magazine founded; John Hadley invents his quadrant.

1732 Parliament reassembles and its attention switches to the revenue (Jan); Walpole proposes reduction of land tax to 1s. in the £ to be partly paid for by reimposing salt duties removed in 1730; Opposition campaigns against the duties as unjust to the poor, and Commons vote to accept proposal in principle only by 205:176 (Feb); Salt Bill committed and passed by majorities of 64 and 72 (Mar). Prorogation of Parliament (1 June).

Report of committee on frauds and abuses in the customs presented to Treasury (June) – since Christmas 1723, 6 customs men murdered, 250 assaulted, 250,000 pounds of tea and 650,000 gallons of brandy seized and condemned, massive frauds revealed in tobacco and wine trade. Treasury prepares plans to remove domestically-consumed tobacco and wine from customs net and subject them to excise duties (‘Excise Scheme’). The Craftsman ‘unleashes a press campaign of unparal-leled fury’ [Plumb] against salt duties and threat of ‘general’ excise (Oct–Nov).

‘The Protestant Dissenting Deputies’ formed as parallel lay organisation to the Protestant Dissenting Ministers (cf. 1727) and pressure group. Water-driven threshing machine invented (by Michael Menzies).

1733 Parliament meets for its sixth session. Augustus II of Poland dies (Jan). Many public meetings, popular demonstrations and riots directed against Excise; 54 constituencies, especially trading boroughs, ‘instruct’ their members to oppose it (Jan–Mar). First part of Walpole’s Excise Scheme – for a tobacco excise – presented to the Commons (amid intense lobbying by Londoners) and approved in committee by 265:204 (14 Mar); ministry faced with dwindling majorities on the Excise Bill: motion to print the bill lost by only 16 votes (4–5 Apr); bill postponed until 12 June – effectively anaesthetised (11th).

Dismissal of Excise rebel peers, Chesterfield and Clinton (13 Apr). Tied vote in House of Lords (75:75) on an enquiry into the use of the confiscated estates of the South Sea Company’s directors (24 May); by means of the bishops’ votes government narrowly survives Opposition attack in Lords on South Sea question (2 June); more Excise rebels, duke of Montrose, earls of Stair and Marchmont, dismissed and duke of Bolton and Lord Cobham deprived of their regiments. Parliament rises (13 June).

French candidate, Stanislas Leszczynski, elected King of Poland (Aug): leading to election of rival Imperialist-backed and pro-Russian candidate, Augustus III [Augustus of Saxony], and to outbreak of the War of the Polish Succession (Oct), when Leszczynski deposed and France declares war on Charles VI. Horatio Walpole’s mission to the Hague – Britain joins Dutch in offering mediation between combatants, but her prime minister turns down first Austrian pleas for armed assistance due under terms of second Treaty of Vienna (Oct–Nov).

Treaty of Escorial (‘First Bourbon Family Compact’) signed, effecting rap-prochement between France and Spain: Philip V and Louis XV pledge ‘eternal friendship’; Louis agrees to Don Carlos’s claims on Parma/Piacenza and to anti-British clauses regarding trade and Gibraltar (29 Oct O.S.).

Molasses Act passed – attempt to protect West Indian sugar planters against harder times. Pope’s Essay on Man published. John Kay, a Bury weaver (or ‘reedmaker’) patents his flying shuttle.

1734 Last session of Parliament begins; Walpole easily deflects desultory Opposition calls for intervention on behalf of Austria; Opposition request for papers relating to Treaty of Seville rejected (Jan). Tory motion, ‘Patriot’-backed, to repeal Septennial Act lost, but only by 247:184, 77 Whig ‘Patriots’ voting against the government (Mar). Parliament dissolved (17 Apr).

General Election (Apr–May): emotive and sometimes violent campaign, fought largely on Excise issue, reduces ministerial majority vis-à-vis both Tories and ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of maps
• Editor’s foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Note on dating and quotations
• List of abbreviations
• Part One: The Age of Walpole, 1722–1746
• Part Two: Britain in the Eighteenth Century
• Part Three: Power Imperial: Triumph and Disaster, 1746–1783
• Compendium of Information
• Bibliography
• Index