* Sir Robert Walpole , Earl of Oxford , 1^st Prime minister of GB *

9th Gt Uncle

ID 2054

Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford ( 26 August 1676 � 18 March 1745 ) , normally known as Sir Robert Walpole, (1725�42) is generally regarded as the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. The position of Prime Minister was only a de facto one, having no official recognition in law, but Walpole is nevertheless acknowledged as having held the de facto office due to the extent of his influence in the Cabinet .

Walpole, a member of the Whig Party, served during the reigns of George I and George II. His tenure is normally dated to 1721, when he obtained the post of First Lord of the Treasury; others date it to 1730, when, with the retirement of Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, he became the sole and undisputed leader of the Cabinet. Walpole continued to govern until he resigned in 1742, making his administration the longest in British history. He deliberately cultivated a frank, hearty manner, but his political subtlety has scarcely been equalled.

Essential facts:

Born: 26 August 1676 (Houghton, Norfolk)
Died: 18 March 1745 (Arlington St., London)
Nicknames: "Sir Blustering" for accepting the Order of the Garter; "Screen-Master General" for screening offenders from investigation in the South Sea Bubble affair
Education: Eton and King's College, Cambridge

Age at appointment: 44 years, 107 days
First entered Parliament: 11 Jan 1701
Maiden Speech: His first recorded speech in the House of Commons was on 24 Jan 1704 on the rights of electors
Total time as PM: 20 years, 314 days

Early life
Robert Walpole was born at Houghton Hall, Norfolk in 1676. His father, Col. Robert Walpole, was a Whig politician who represented the borough of Castle Rising in the House of Commons. His mother was Mary Walpole (n�e Mary Burwell); he was the 3rd son & 5th born of 17 children , 8 of whom died during infancy. Robert Walpole would later prove to hold the record amongst Prime Ministers for the greatest number of siblings.

Education and early career
Walpole He was educated at Great Dunham, Norfolk, and afterward studied in Eton (1690�96), and joined King's College, Cambridge (1696�98) . In 1698 , he left the University of Cambridge after the death of his only remaining elder brother, Edward, so that instead of entering the church he could help his father administer the family estate. Walpole had planned to become a clergyman, but abandoned the idea when, as the eldest surviving son in the family , aged 24 , he became the heir to his father's heavily encumbered estate and also the family parliamentary seat at Castle Rising, for which he was immediately elected. In 1702 he transferred to King's Lynn, which he represented, with one short intermission, for the next 40 years
Walpole married Catherine Shorter of Bybrook, Kent, on 30th July 1700 , by whom he later had 3 sons (Robert, Edward and Horatio) and 4 daughters (Catherine, Catherine, Mary and Maria) . After Catherine died in 1737, Walpole married his mistress, Maria Skerritt , who died shortly thereafter during childbirth.

Like his father, Robert Walpole was a zealous member of the Whig Party, which was then more powerful than the opposing Tory Party. In 1705, Walpole was appointed a member of the Council of the Lord High Admiral (then Prince George of Denmark, the husband of Queen Anne), a body which oversaw naval affairs. His administrative skills having been noticed, Walpole was promoted by Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin (the Lord High Treasurer and leader of the Cabinet) to the position of Secretary at War in 1708; for a short period of time in 1710, he also simultaneously held the post of Treasurer of the Navy. Walpole's service in these offices made him a close advisor of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, the commander of British forces in the War of the Spanish Succession and a dominant force in British politics. Robert Walpole himself quickly became one of the most important members of the Cabinet.

Despite his personal clout, however, Walpole could not stop Lord Godolphin and the Whigs from pressing for the prosecution of Henry Sacheverell, a minister who preached anti-Whig sermons. The trial was extremely unpopular with much of the country, and was followed by the downfall of the Duke of Marlborough and the Whig Party in the general election of 1710. The new ministry, under the leadership of the Tory Robert Harley, removed Walpole from his office of Secretary at War, but allowed him to remain Treasurer of the Navy until 2 January 1711. Harley attempted to entice him to join the Tories, but Walpole rejected the offers, instead becoming one of the most outspoken members of the Whig Opposition. He effectively defended Lord Godolphin against Tory attacks in parliamentary debate, as well as in the press.

Angered by his political attacks, the Tories sought to ruin and discredit him along with the Duke of Marlborough. In 1712, they alleged that he had been guilty of corruption as Secretary at War; these charges, however, stemmed from politicical hatred rather than fact. Walpole was impeached by the House of Commons and found guilty by the overwhelmingly Tory House of Lords; he was then imprisoned in the Tower of London for six months and expelled from Parliament. The move, however, backfired against the Tories, as Walpole was percieved by the public as the victim of an unjust trial. His own constituency even re�lected him in 1713, despite his earlier expulsion from the House of Commons. Walpole developed an intense hatred for Robert Harley (by then Earl of Oxford and Mortimer) and Henry St John (by then Viscount Bolingbroke), the Tories who had engineered his impeachment.

Stanhope/Sunderland Ministry
Queen Anne died in 1714, to be succeeded by a distant German cousin, George I, under the Act of Settlement 1701. George I distrusted the Tories, whom he believed opposed his right to succeed to the Throne. (The Act of Settlement had excluded several senior relatives of Anne on the grounds of their adherence to Roman Catholicism.) Thus, 1714, the year of George's accession, marked the ascendancy of the Whigs, who would remain in power for the next fifty years. Robert Walpole became a Privy Counsellor and rose to the position of Paymaster of the Forces in a Cabinet nominally led by Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, but actually dominated by Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend (Walpole's brother-in-law) and James Stanhope. Walpole was also appointed as the Chairman of a secret committee formed to investigate the actions of the previous Tory ministry. The individuals who had brought about Walpole's impeachment in 1712 were now themselves attacked for purely political reasons: Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer was impeached, and Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke suffered from an act of attainder.

Lord Halifax, the titular head of the administration, died in 1715. Walpole, recognised as an assiduous politician, was immediately promoted to the important posts of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer; in this position, he introduced the sinking fund, a device to reduce the national debt. The Cabinet of which he was a member was often divided over most important issues; normally, Walpole and Lord Townshend were on one side, with Stanhope and Lord Sunderland on the other. Foreign policy was the primary issue of contention, for Walpole and Townshend believed that George I was conducting foreign affairs with the interests of his German territories�rather than those of Great Britain�at heart. The Stanhope-Sunderland faction, however, had the King's support. In 1716, Townshend was removed from the important post of Northern Secretary and put him in the lesser office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Even this change did not appease Stanhope and Sunderland, who secured the dismissal of Townshend from the Lord-Lieutenancy in April 1717. On the next day, Walpole resigned from the Cabinet to join Townshend in the Opposition. In the new Cabinet, Sunderland and Stanhope (who was created an Earl) were the effective heads.

Soon after Walpole's resignation, a bitter family quarrel between the King and HRH The Prince George, Prince of Wales split the Royal Family. Walpole and others who opposed the Government often congregated at Leicester House, the home of the Prince of Wales, to form political plans. Walpole also became a close friend of the Prince of Wales's wife, Caroline. In 1720, he improved his position by bringig about a reconciliation between the Prince of Wales and the King.

Walpole continued to be an influential figure in the House of Commons; he was especially active in opposing one of the Government's more significant proposals, the Peerage Bill, which would have limited the power of the monarch to create new peerage dignities. Walpole brought about a temporary abandonment of the bill in 1719, and the outright rejection of the bill by the House of Commons in the next year. This defeat led Lord Stanhope and Lord Sunderland to reconcile with their opponents; Walpole returned to the Cabinet as Paymaster of the Forces, and Townshend was appointed Lord President of the Council. By returning to the Cabinet, however, he lost the favour of the Prince of Wales (the future King George II), who still harboured disdain for his father the King's Government.

Rise to power
Soon after Walpole returned to the Cabinet, England was swept up by over-enthusiastic speculation which led to the South Sea Bubble. The Government had established a plan whereby the South Sea Company would assume the national debt of Great Britain in exchange for lucrative government bonds; it was widely believed that the Company would eventually reap an enormous profit. Many in the country, including Walpole himself, frenziedly invested in the company. By the latter part of 1720, however, the company had begun to collapse as the price of its shares plunged. Walpole was saved from financial ruin by his banker, who had earlier advised him to sell his shares; other investors, however, were not as fortunate.

In 1721, a committee investigated the scandal, finding that there was corruption on the part of many in the Cabinet. Among those implicated were John Aislabie (the Chancellor of the Exchequer), James Craggs the Elder (the Postmaster General), James Craggs the Younger (the Southern Secretary), and even Lord Stanhope and Lord Sunderland (the heads of the Ministry). Craggs the Elder, Craggs the Younger both died in disgrace; the remainder were impeached for their corruption. Aislabie was found guilty and imprisoned, but the personal influence of Walpole saved both Stanhope and Sunderland. For his role in preventing these individuals, and others, from being punished, Walpole gained the nickname of "Screenmaster-General."

The resignation of Sunderland and the death of Stanhope in 1721 left Walpole as the most important figure in the administration. In April 1721, he was appointed First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer. Walpole's de facto tenure as "Prime Minister" is often dated to his appointment as First Lord in 1721. In reality, however, Walpole shared power with his brother-in-law, Lord Townshend, who served as Secretary of State for the Northern Department and controlled the nation's foreign affairs. The two also had to contend with the Secretary of State for the Southern Department, John Carteret, 2nd Baron Carteret.

Premiership under George I
Under the guidance of Walpole, Parliament attempted to deal with the financial crisis. The estates of the directors of the company were confiscated and used to relieve the suffering of the victims, and the stock of the South Sea Company was divided between the Bank of England and East India Company. The crisis had done much to damage the credibility of the King and of the Whig Party, but Walpole defended both with skilful oratory in the House of Commons.

Walpole's first year as Prime Minister was also marked by the discovery of a Jacobite plot formed by Francis Atterbury, the Bishop of Rochester. The exposure of the scheme crushed the hopes of the Jacobites, whose previous attempts at rebellion (most notably, the risings of 1715 and 1719) had failed to meet with success. The Tory Party was equally unfortunate, even though Lord Bolingbroke, a Tory leader who fled to France to avoid punishment for his Jacobite sympathies, was permitted return to England in 1723.

During the remainder of George I's reign, Walpole's ascendancy continued; the political power of the monarch was gradually diminishing, and that of his ministers gradually increasing. In 1724, the primary political rival of Walpole and Townshend in the Cabinet, Lord Carteret, was dismissed from the post of Southern Secretary and instead appointed to the lesser office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Now, Walpole and Townshend were clearly the supreme forces in the ministry. They helped keep Great Britain at peace, especially by negotiating a treaty with France and Prussia in 1725. Great Britain, free from Jacobite threats, from war, and from financial crises, grew prosperous, and Robert Walpole acquired the favour of George I. In 1725, he was created a Knight of the Bath, and in 1726, a Knight of the Garter. Moreover, his eldest son (also named Robert) was granted a Barony.

Premiership under George II
Sir Robert Walpole's position was threatened in 1727, when George I died and was succeeded by George II. For a few days, it seemed that Walpole would be dismissed, but the King agreed to keep him in office upon the advice of Queen Caroline. Although the King disliked Townshend, he retained him as well. Over the next years, Walpole continued to share power with Townshend, but gradually became the clearly dominant partner in government. The two clashed over British foreign affairs, especially over policy regarding Prussia, but Walpole was ultimately victorious, with his colleague retiring on 15 May 1730. This date is often given as the beginning of Walpole's unofficial tenure as Prime Minister.

During the following years, Walpole was more dominant than during any other part of his administration. Having secured the support of Queen Caroline, and, by extension, of King George II, he made liberal use of the royal patronage, granting honours and making appointments for political gains. He selected the members of his Cabinet, and was capable of forcing them to act in unison when necessary; as no previous head of the administration could wield so much influence, Walpole is properly regarded as the first "Prime Minister."

Walpole, a polarising figure, had many opponents, the most important of which were Lord Bolingbroke (who had been his political enemy since the days of Queen Anne) and William Pulteney (a capable Whig statement who felt snubbed when Walpole failed to include him in the Cabinet). Bolingbroke and Pulteney ran a periodical called The Craftsman, in which they incessantly denounced the Prime Minister's policies. Walpole was also satirised and parodied extensively; he was often compared to the criminal Jonathan Wild, as, for example, John Gay did in his farcial Beggar's Opera. Walpole's other enemies included Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, Henry Fielding, and Dr Samuel Johnson.

Despite such opposition, Walpole secured the support of the people and of the House of Commons with a policy of avoiding war, which, in turn, allowed him to impose low taxes. He used his influence to prevent George II from entering a European conflict in 1733, when the War of the Polish Succession broke out. In the same year, however, his influence was seriously threatened by a taxation scheme he introduced. The revenue of the country had been severely diminished by smugglers, so Walpole proposed that the tariff on wine and tobacco be replaced by an excise tax. To countervail the threat of smuggling, the tax was to be collected not at ports, but at warehouses. This new proposal, however, was extremely unpopular, and aroused the opposition of the nation's merchants. Walpole agreed to withdraw the bill before Parliament voted on it, but he dismissed the politicians who had dared to oppose it in the first place. Thus, Walpole lost a considerable element of his Whig Party to the Opposition.

After the general elections of 1734, Walpole's supporters still formed a majority in the House of Commons, though they were less numerous than before. Though he maintained his parliamentary supremacy, however, his popularity began to wane. In 1736, an increase in the tax on gin inspired riots in London. The even more serious Porteous Riots broke out in Edinburgh, after the King pardoned a captain of the guard (John Porteous) who had commanded his troops to shoot a group of protestors. Though these events diminished Walpole's popularity, they failed to shake his majority in Parliament. Walpole's domination over the House of Commons was highlighted by the ease with which he secured the rejection of Sir John Barnard's plan to reduce the interest on the national debt. Walpole was also able to persuade Parliament to pass the Playhouse Act 1737, under which London theatres were regulated. The Act revealed a disdain for Swift, Pope, Fielding, and other literary figures who had attacked his government in their works.

Decline
The year 1737 was also marked by the death of Walpole's close friend, Queen Caroline. Her death, however, did not end Walpole's personal influence with George II, who had grown loyal to the Prime Minister during the preceding years. Still, Walpole's domination of government continued to decline. Walpole's opponents acquired a vocal leader in HRH The Prince Frederick, Prince of Wales, who was estranged from his father, the King. Young politicians such as William Pitt and George Grenville formed a faction known as the "Patriot Boys," and joined the Prince of Wales in opposition.

Walpole's failure to maintain a policy of avoiding military conflict eventually led to his fall from power. Under the Treaty of Seville (1729), Great Britain agreed not to trade with the Spanish colonies in North America; Spain claimed the right to board and search British vessels to ensure compliance. Disputes, however, broke out over trade with the West Indies. Walpole attempted to prevent war, but was opposed by the King, the House of Commons, and by a faction in his own Cabinet. In 1739, Walpole abandoned all efforts to stop the conflict, and commenced the War of Jenkins' Ear (so called because Robert Jenkins, an English mariner, claimed that a Spaniard inspecting his vessel had severed his ear).

Walpole's popularity continued to dramatically decline even after the war began. His party won the general elections of 1741, but many Whigs thought the aging Prime Minister incapable of leading the military campaign. Moreover, his majority was not as strong as it used to be; his detractors approximately as numerous as his supporters. In 1742, when the House of Commons was prepared to determine the validity of an allegedly rigged by-election in Chippenham, Walpole and others agreed to treat the issue as a Motion of No Confidence. As Walpole was defeated on the vote, he agreed to resign from the Government. On 11 February 1742, his term came to an end; two days earlier, the King elevated to the House of Lords by creating him Earl of Orford.

Later years
Orford was succeeded as Prime Minister by Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington, in an administration whose true head was Lord Carteret. A committee was created to inquire into his ministry, but no substantial evidence of wrongdoing or corruption was discovered. Though no longer a member of the Cabinet, Lord Orford continued to maintain personal influence with George II. In 1744, he managed to secure the dismissal of Carteret and the appointment of Henry Pelham.

Orford died in London on 18th March 1745 , aged nearly sixty-nine years; he was buried in his hometown of Houghton. His earldom passed to his eldest son Robert, who was in turn succeeded by his only son George. Upon the death of the third Earl, the Earldom was inherited by the first Earl's younger son, Horace, who died without heirs in 1797.

Legacy
Walpole's influence on the politics of his day was tremendous. The Tories became a minor, insignificant faction, and the Whigs became a dominant and largely unopposed party. His influence on the development of the uncodified constitution of Great Britain, however, was much less momentous, even though he is regarded as Great Britain's first Prime Minister. He relied primarily on the favour of the King, rather than on the support of the House of Commons. His power stemmed from his personal influence instead of the influence of his office. Most of his immediate successors were, comparatively speaking, extremely weak; it would take several decades more for the premiership to develop into the most powerful and most important office in the country.

Walpole's strategy of keeping Great Britain at peace contributed greatly to the country's prosperity. Walpole also managed to secure the position of the Hanoverian Dynasty, and effectively countervailed Jacobitism. The Jacobite threat was effectively put to rest, soon after Walpole's term ended, with the defeat of the rebellion of 1745.

Another part of Walpole's legacy is 10 Downing Street. George II offered this home to Walpole as a personal gift in 1732, but Walpole accepted it only as the official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury, taking up his residence there in 1735. His immediate successors did not always reside in Number 10 (preferring their larger private residences), but the home has nevertheless become established as the official residence of the Prime Minister (in his or her capacity as First Lord of the Treasury).

Walpole also left behind a famous collection of art which he had assembled during his career. This collection was sold by his grandson, the third Earl of Orford, to the Russian Empress Catherine II in 1779. This collection�which was regarded as one of the finest in Europe�now lies in the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia

Quotes:

"All these men have their price", indicating men who owed their places in the House of Commons to money or family connections

"My Lord Bath, you and I are now as insignificant men as any in England", to the Earl of Bath on their elevation to the House of Lords

Biography:

With this wealth he gained the self-sufficiency necessary to enter politics.

In 1701 he became the Whig member for Castle Rising, Norfolk. He proved himself an excellent speaker, and rose rapidly within the party. He was made a member of the Admiralty Board, Secretary of War and, in 1709, Treasurer of the Navy.

However, when the Whigs were in Opposition again, the ruling Tories had Walpole tried for accepting an illegal payment as Secretary of War. Found guilty, he spent 6 months imprisoned in the Tower of London. Despite this, he was later made Paymaster General and Leader of the House when the Whigs regained power. He quickly rose to the positions of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Walpole resigned amid party infighting in 1717, splitting the Whigs in Parliament. In 1720 he returned to the government as Paymaster General.

Walpole's career benefited from a government crisis in 1721, when thousands of people lost large amounts of money after the collapse of an investment scheme. Walpole, having bailed out early, was credited with financial know-how, and was made Chancellor and was invested with powers of a Prime Minister. He retained this position for 21 years, though his power waxed and waned during this period.

Walpole succeeded in neutralising dangerous opponents, reducing the national debt and stabilising prices and wages. His great power stemmed from his popularity with both the King and the people, and he realised the importance of a closely involved, active role in the Commons to consolidate this power. It was also alleged that he effectively used bribery and corruption to retain the power he so relished.

Walpole was knighted in 1725, but after George I's death in 1727, he was briefly superseded by the new King's favourite, Spencer Compton. He succeeded in returning to prominence by buttering up the King, and by consistently going further than Compton's own attempts at sycophancy. The King, now won round to Walpole, made his Prime Minister a gift of Number Ten Downing Street.

Walpole's position was threatened by a poor performance in a war against Spain in 1739, and his resignation was eventually forced by an election loss at Chippenham.

He was elevated to the House of Lords, remaining an influential parliamentarian. However, poor health forced him to retire in 1744. He died in March 1745.

In 1708 he was appointed secretary of war and later (1710�11) was treasurer of the navy. As a Whig, he led the opposition in Parliament to the Tory administration of 1710�14 and as a consequence was falsely convicted (1712) of corruption and spent some months in the Tower of London.

The accession of George I (1714) returned the Whigs to power, and Walpole served variously as paymaster of the forces, first lord of the treasury, and chancellor of the exchequer (1715) under his brother-in-law, Viscount Townshend, and James Stanhope (later 1st Earl Stanhope). The dismissal of Townshend led to Walpole's resignation (1717), and together they formed an opposition nominally headed by the prince of Wales (later George II). The two returned to office in 1720.

Walpole is usually described as the first prime minister of Great Britain, but he was not a prime minister in the modern sense. Although management of Parliament, and particularly the House of Commons, was an essential part of his power, so too was royal favor, on which he ultimately depended. The purge of his ministry in 1733, sometimes hailed as a major step in the development of cabinet solidarity, could not have been accomplished without royal support. Moreover, the contention that there was any idea of cabinet solidarity is refuted by the fact that when Walpole left office his most important colleagues remained in the ministry. Walpole's primacy was achieved and maintained through his own political talents and the circumstances of the time; he made little impact on constitutional development.

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Walpole rapidly made his mark in the House of Commons, earning the reputation of being a clear, forceful speaker, a firm but not fanatical Whig, and an active parliamentarian. He was made a member in 1705 of Prince George of Denmark's Council, which controlled the affairs of the navy during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701�14). His ability as an administrator brought him to the attention of both the Duke of Marlborough and Lord Godolphin. On Feb. 25, 1708, he was promoted to secretary at war and in 1710 to treasurer of the navy, a post from which he was dismissed on Jan. 2, 1711, with the advent of the Tory Party to power after the general election of 1710. During these years Walpole established himself as one of the foremost of the younger Whig leaders; in society as well as in politics he made his mark. He became a leading member of the Kit-Cat Club, a meeting place of many Whig men of letters. He had many friends, but his expenses were so high that he fell heavily in debt. He had relied on his political offices to keep himself afloat; nevertheless, he refused to compromise his principles for the sake of his salary and perquisites.

His assiduity in attending the Commons and his ability in debate made him the effective leader of the opposition, and the Tories determined to ruin him along with Marlborough. In January 1712 Walpole was impeached for corruption as secretary at war, found guilty, expelled from the Commons, and sent to the Tower of London. He was immediately acclaimed as a martyr by the Whigs, and he himself developed a hatred for the Tory leaders Robert Harley, earl of Oxford, and Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, who brought about his fall. He enjoyed his revenge in 1714 at the accession of George I when, as well as being made paymaster general of the forces, he became chairman of the secret committee that led to the impeachment for treason of both Bolingbroke and Oxford. Walpole's mastery of the Commons, allied to his formidable industry, brought him rapid promotion. He became first lord of the Treasury and chancellor of the Exchequer on Oct. 11, 1715. His abilities also aroused jealousy, which was exacerbated by a conflict over foreign policy that saw Walpole and his brother-in-law, Charles, Viscount Townshend, on one side and two of the King's closest advisers, James Stanhope and Charles Spencer, earl of Sunderland, on the other. Walpole and Townshend maintained that British interests were being sacrificed to the King's Hanoverian interests in order to curry favour. The break came in 1717, and Walpole and Townshend left the ministry; shortly afterward a violent quarrel between the King and the Prince of Wales split the royal family, and the opposition acquired its own court at the Prince's residence, Leicester House.

During the next three years Walpole fought the government on every issue, achieving considerable success in bringing about the rejection of the Peerage Bill (1719), which would have limited the royal prerogative in the creation of peers. During this time, too, he became friendly with Caroline of Ansbach, the princess of Wales, who was to help maintain him in power when her husband succeeded to the throne in 1727 as George II. Walpole used his influence with the Prince to bring about a reconciliation with the King in April 1720 and his own subsequent return to the ministry as paymaster general of the forces.

No sooner was Walpole back in office than the country was caught up in the speculative frenzy associated with the South Sea Company, a joint-stock company with monopoly rights to trade with Spanish America. A scheme was set up in 1720 whereby the company would take charge of a large part of the national debt. Although Walpole had favoured letting the Bank of England take over the debt, he was no more prudent than many others and invested heavily in South Sea stock. He was saved from financial disaster by the foresight of his banker, Robert Jacomb. Nevertheless, Walpole had not been a promoter of the scheme, and he was free from the stigma of corruption that marked many other ministers as well as the King's German favourites. He used his great political skill and persuasive powers of argument in the Commons to save the Whig leaders and the court from the consequences of their folly. Some members had to be sacrificed to appease public opinion, among them John Aislabie, chancellor of the Exchequer; others died under the strain, the most notable being Stanhope and James Craggs and his son James. Walpole restored confidence, maintained the Whigs in office, and greatly improved his own and Townshend's standing at court. He became first lord of the Treasury and chancellor of the Exchequer in April 1721, offices that he was to hold until 1742. Townshend became once more secretary of state and took over the control of foreign affairs. For some time, Walpole and Townshend were forced to share power with John Carteret (later Earl Granville), who had succeeded to Sunderland's influence after Sunderland's sudden death in April 1722. By 1724, however, Walpole and Townshend obtained the dismissal of Carteret from his secretaryship of state and had him sent to Ireland as lord lieutenant. For the rest of George I's reign Walpole and Townshend remained at the head of the ministry. Their position steadily grew stronger. The hopes of the Jacobites, supporters of a return to the throne of the Stuarts, which the South Sea Bubble had fanned, were quashed in 1723 by the exposure of the insurrection planned by Francis Atterbury, bishop of Rochester. The outlook for the Tory Party was equally gloomy in spite of the pardon given to Bolingbroke in 1725.

The long ascendancy.

The supremacy in the Commons was maintained by Walpole until 1742. In 1727, at the accession of George II, he suffered a minor crisis when for a few days it seemed that he might be dismissed, but Queen Caroline prevailed on her husband to keep Walpole in office. In 1730 he quarrelled with Townshend over the conduct of foreign affairs and forced Townshend's resignation, but his retirement had no effect on Walpole's position. These were the years of Walpole's greatness. His power was based on the loyal support given to him by George I and George II. This enabled him to use all royal patronage for political ends, and Walpole's appointments to offices in the royal household, the church, the navy, the army, and the civil service were, whenever possible, made with an eye to his voting strength in the House of Commons. By these means he built up the court and treasury party that was to be the core of Whig strength for many generations. These methods, however, never gave him control of the House of Commons. His majorities at Westminster came about because his policy of peace abroad and low taxation at home appealed strongly to the independent country gentlemen who sat in Parliament. Also, Walpole possessed remarkable powers in debate: his knowledge of the detail of government, particularly of finance, was unmatched, and his expression was clear, forceful, and always cogent. He never underestimated the powers of the Commons, and no minister, before or since, has shown such skill in its management.

Walpole needed all his art, for his rule was never free from crisis. Foreign affairs gave him constant trouble. Although Townshend had secured the prospect of a settlement by the Treaty of Hanover in 1725, which helped to strengthen the alliance between England and France, the difficulties that had arisen with Spain over Gibraltar and British trading rights in the West Indies proved intractable, and England hovered on the brink of war until Walpole intervened. By showing willingness to negotiate he secured the Treaty of Seville in 1729. This was followed by a general settlement in 1731 at the Treaty of Vienna. When war broke out on the Continent in 1733 over the question of the succession to the Polish throne, Walpole had to use all his influence with the King in order to maintain England's neutrality.

Many politicians, particularly those whom Walpole had driven into opposition, regarded his foreign policy as a betrayal of England's interests. They thought that he had become the dupe of France to the neglect of England's former allies (the Austrians and the Dutch), and that his desire to maintain friendship with France led to weakness toward Spain. They also disapproved of his use of patronage, which they stigmatized as corruption. They condemned his financial schemes as a sham, particularly the sinking fund to abolish the national debt. The prime movers in this opposition were William Pulteney, an able Whig whom Walpole had rejected in 1724 in favour of the Duke of Newcastle as secretary of state, and Bolingbroke. They drew together a miscellaneous collection of members in opposition: Jacobites, Hanoverian Tories, dissident Whigs, and urban radicals. They attempted to give coherence to the party so formed, but with little success. The liveliest part of their campaign was the violent press agitation against Walpole. For this purpose they founded The Craftsman, which denigrated Walpole's ministry week after week. Walpole was lampooned in pamphlets, ballads, and plays, as well as in the newspapers; and this constant stream of abuse, which was not without a certain element of truth, did much to bring both Parliament and politics into contempt.

The great opportunity for the opposition came in 1733 when Walpole decided to check smuggling and customs frauds by imposing an excise tax on wine and tobacco. This was extremely unpopular, particularly with the London merchants, and the opposition did all in its power to influence opinion. Walpole saved himself from defeat by withdrawing this measure, but those politicians who had been indiscreet enough to show opposition to Walpole's bill lost their offices. These dismissals, however, weakened Walpole's position; he lost considerable debating skill as well as votes in the House of Lords, which at that time still played an important part in government. After 1733 the list of able but dismissed Whig politicians grew large enough to supply an alternative Whig ministry to Walpole's own, and, after the excise crisis, the opposition Whigs had far less need to rely on Tory and Jacobite elements in their battle against Walpole. Bolingbroke himself realized this; he withdrew from politics and retired to France in 1735, admitting defeat in his lifelong struggle with Walpole.

Growing unpopularity.

Walpole won the general election of 1734, which had given rise to many violent contests and a resurgence of the old bitterness about excise, but his growing unpopularity was underlined by the loss of many seats in the large seaports and heavily populated counties. Nevertheless, his majority, although diminished, remained comfortable. Without much difficulty he surmounted troubles that arose in Edinburgh (the Porteous riots) over the royal pardon of a captain of the guard who had fired on a crowd demonstrating at Edinburgh prison; he easily persuaded the Commons to reject Sir John Barnard's scheme to reduce the interest on the national debt and showed his contempt for the literary opposition (among whose members were Swift, Pope, and Fielding) by imposing regulations on London theatres (1737). Yet from 1737 his position began to weaken. The death of Queen Caroline had less effect than many have assumed, for by then George II had developed great loyalty to his minister. More important was Walpole's increasing age, which led young politicians, such as William Pitt (afterward earl of Chatham), to look elsewhere for their future advancement. The emergence as a leader of the opposition of Frederick Louis, prince of Wales, who had quarrelled violently with his parents, provided a focus and a court for the �patriot boys,� as these young Whigs came to be called. The growing difficulties with Spain over trading matters in the West Indies were used by this opposition to embarrass Walpole. He did his utmost to settle these difficulties by negotiation, but in 1739 he was forced to declare war against Spain�the so-called War of Jenkins' Ear. He disapproved of the war and made his views clear to his Cabinet colleagues. These years, too, were darkened by private grief as well as public anxiety. His wife, with whom he had been on indifferent terms, died in 1737, and he was married by March 3, 1738, to his mistress of long-standing, Maria Skerritt, a woman of great charm and wit. Three months later she died in childbirth.

The war with Spain did not prosper, and opposition continued to mount against Walpole. He succeeded in winning the general election of 1741, but many Whig politicians, and a number of independents, did not consider him capable of directing the war vigorously enough or of surviving another seven years' Parliament. His resignation was forced on Feb. 2, 1742, on a minor issue. The king created him Earl of Orford (he had been knighted in 1725) and gave him an annual pension of �4,000, but the Commons set up a committee to investigate his ministry with a view to impeachment. They failed to secure sufficient evidence and the rancour against Orford petered out. For the rest of his life he continued to play an active and valuable part in politics. He did his utmost to secure the dismissal of Carteret, who had become secretary of state on the fall of his ministry, and to secure the promotion of Henry Pelham, his prot�g� and leader of the Walpole Whigs, to the position of chief minister. Orford's influence with George II remained powerful up to his death.

Assessment.

Although Walpole rejected the title of prime minister, which he regarded as a term of abuse, his control of the treasury, his management of the Commons, and the confidence that he enjoyed of the two sovereigns whom he served demonstrated the kind of leadership that was required to give stability and order to 18th-century politics. He used his power to maintain the supremacy of the Whig Party, as he understood it, and his prime concern was to forestall the machinations of the Jacobites, which he took very seriously, by securing the Hanoverian succession. He thought that this could best be achieved by prosperity and low taxation, which in turn depended on peace and on freedom from foreign entanglements. In order to achieve strong support for this policy he created as many obligations as possible among the politically powerful groups in the country. The Jacobite rebellion in 1745 demonstrated both the reality of his fears and the success of his policy.

The influence of Walpole's long ministry on the structure of 18th-century politics was profound. The Tory Party, split as it was between Hanoverians and Jacobites, faded into insignificance, and to be a Whig became a necessity for the politically ambitious. The struggle for power ceased to be a conflict between two parties and became a battle fought between divergent groups, personalities, and policies within the Whig Party itself, in order to gain the support of the court on the one hand and the independent country gentlemen in Parliament on the other. The frank realism that Walpole had used in all appointments to office, as well as the violent, prejudiced, and often exaggerated criticism to which this gave rise, did much to bring the institutions of government into disrepute and to strengthen the early growth of urban radicalism, particularly in the City of London. On the other hand, Walpole's ministry had little influence on constitutional development: many generations were to pass before any minister wielded power comparable to his. Like his master, George II, he disliked cabinet government and used it as sparingly as possible. He showed what could be done within the accepted conventions of the constitution; he never attempted to change them.

One side of Walpole's life is too little noted. He possessed remarkable delight in and judgment of works of art. His house, Houghton Hall, Norfolk, built and furnished under his close supervision, is a masterpiece of Palladian architecture. To the distress of his son Horace, the famous man of letters, Walpole's collection of pictures was sold to the empress of Russia by Walpole's grandson George in 1779. Now in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, it was one of the most remarkable collections in Europe. He delighted in ostentation and lived in great magnificence, spending freely the huge fortune that he made out of judicious speculation and public office.