1759. ACCESSION OF THE KING OF NAPLES. 183 her death without issue in August 1758, Ferdinand sunk into hopeless melancholy, immured himself in the secluded palace of Villa Viciosa, and refused to transact any public business. His situation is thus described by the British Ambassador, Lord Bristol: "The Catholic King will "not be shaved, walks about without any covering but "his shirt, which has not been changed for a surprising time, and a night-gown. He has not been in bed for ten nights, nor is he thought to have slept five hours "since the 2d of this month, and that only by intervals "of half an hour, sitting upon his chair. He declines "lying down, because he imagines he shall die when he "does so." "* At length he expired on the 10th of August 1759, and in the forty-seventh year of his age. 66 The next heir to the throne was now his half-brother the King of Naples, with whom Ferdinand had always maintained a cordial correspondence. As Sir Benjamin Keene informs us, "the two Kings write to each other 66 by every courier, but they never talk of their affairs; "their letters are only accounts of the game they have "killed in the foregoing week."† At the news of Ferdinand's demise the King of Naples assumed the title of Charles the Third, King of Spain and the Indies, and prepared to set out for his new dominions. It had been provided by the treaty of Vienna that the Crowns of Naples and Spain should never be united on the same head, and it therefore became incumbent on Charles to resign the less valuable kingdom to his younger son; but here an obstacle intervened, through the hopeless idiotcy of his eldest, Don Philip. Under these circumstances, Charles adopted a prudent and honourable part. He directed that the young Prince (then thirteen years of age) should be formally examined by physicians. Their report, which was made public, declares that Don Philip is of low stature and contracted joints, that he squints, and is short-sighted, that he is sometimes indifferent to things convenient for him, and at other times too warm and im * Earl of Bristol to Mr. Pitt, November 13. 1758. Coxe's Bourbon Kings of Spain, vol. iv. p. 216. †To Mr. Pitt, September 26. 1757. On King Charles's feats as a sportsman, see Swinburne's Travels in Spain, vol. ii. p. 140. ed. 1777. petuous. They go on to complain that he has an obstinate aversion to fruits and sweetmeats, that all kinds of noise disturb and disconcert him, that pain or pleasure make no lasting impressions, that he is utterly unacquainted with politeness and good-breeding, that he has not the least idea of the mysteries of their holy religion, and, lastly, that he loves childish amusements, the most boisterous the best, and is continually shifting from one thing to another.* Hereupon the King issued a decree, by which his eldest son was set aside, -his second, Don Carlos, was declared Prince of Asturias, -and his third, Don Ferdinand, King of Naples, with a Council of Regency named by his father before his embarkation. The new Sovereign of Spain, like his predecessor, was not a man of shining talents, but had many virtues, justice, economy, and mildness. So strict were his notions of equity, that on leaving Naples he not only relinquished every farthing of the public treasure, but also every article of personal ornament, - even down to gems and rings, considering them as the property of the people, in whose palaces he had found or from whose resources he had purchased them. On arriving at Madrid he steered a happy mean between a blind acquiescence and rash innovation, sending into exile Farinelli, as the mere minion of Court favour, but retaining in office General Wall and other worthy servants of the late King. Of his foreign policy I shall hereafter have occasion to speak, and not in terms of praise. But his domestic administration shines forth like a green oasis amidst the long and dreary misgovernment of Spain. Strict justice was his fundamental rule. He honestly designed the public good, and steadily pursued it, with a limited capacity indeed, but with a boundless benevolence. 66 "He ever," writes a British Ambassador at his Court, "pre"fers carrying a point by gentle means, and has the "patience to repeat exhortations rather than exert his authority even in trifles. Yet with the greatest air of 66 * See this Report printed at full length in the Annual Register, 1759, p. 251. Horace Walpole malignantly adds: "If these defects "were disqualifications, hard would be the fate of most sovereigns!" (Mem., vol. ii. p. 375.) 1789. YEAR. GLORIES OF THIS YEAR. 185 66 gentleness, he keeps his Ministers and attendants in "the utmost awe. ""* During his reign torture was abolished, and the Inquisition, if still retained, yet checked and curbed. Though without any taste for literature or the arts, he held out to them a fostering hand. Every enterprise for national improvement found in him a patron and a friend. Even at the present day the traveller in Spain, whenever any great public works or useful establishments, and how seldom do they!-meet his eye, may be assured that their first foundation or their liberal encouragement was due to Charles the Third. Such then were the principal foreign transactions of the year 1759, the most glorious, probably, that England ever yet had seen. That it was the most glorious was apparently proclaimed or acknowledged by all parties at the time, nor will History find much to detract from that contemporary praise. In Asia, Africa, America, Europe, by land and sea, our arms had signally triumphed. Every ship from India came fraught with tidings of continued success to the British cause. In January we received the news of the capture of Goree, in June of the capture of Guadaloupe. In August came the tidings of the victory at Minden, in September of the victory off Lagos, in October of the victory at Quebec, in November of the victory at Quiberon. "Indeed," says Horace Walpole, in his lively style, "one is forced to ask every morning what victory there is, for fear of missing one!" † Another contemporary, Dr. Hay, exclaimed, in no liberal spirit of triumph, that it would soon be as shameful to beat a Frenchman as to beat a woman! With better reason we might have claimed to ourselves the arrogant boast of the Spaniards only 150 years before, that there were not seas or winds sufficient for their ships.‡ 66 * Lord Bristol to Mr. Pitt, Segovia, August 31. 1761. (Coxe's Bourbon Kings, vol. iv. p. 235.) See also a note by the late Lord Holland to Lord Orford's Memoirs (vol. ii. p. 377.) † To Sir H. Mann, November 30. 1759. 66 Oprimas el Oceano "Con tantas naves que apenas "Ni el viento ocupe sus velas." Lope de Vega a la muerte del Rey Felipe II. Obras, vol. iv. p. 374. ed. 1776. Nor did our trade and manufactures languish amidst this blaze of military fame. It is the peculiar honour of Chatham, as may yet be seen inscribed on the stately monument which the citizens of London have raised him in Guildhall, — that under his rule they found COMMERCE UNITED WITH AND MADE TO FLOURISH BY WAR. Still less can it be said that these wonders had grown altogether from harmony and concord at home. It was the just vaunt of Chatham himself in the House of Commons, that success had given us unanimity, not unanimity success. *Never yet had there been a more rapid transition from languor and failure to spirit and conquest. Never yet had the merits of a great Minister in producing that transition been more fully acknowledged in his lifetime. The two Houses, which re-assembled in November, met only to pass Addresses of Congratulation and Votes of Credit. So far from seeking to excuse or to palliate the large supplies which he demanded, Pitt plumed himself upon them; - he was the first to call them enormous, and double any year's of Queen Anne. "To push expense," he said openly upon the Army Estimates, "is "the best economy;" a wise doctrine in war, which, perhaps, no statesman since his son has had the courage 66 to avow. Of the mastery which Pitt at this time could wield over the House of Commons a most remarkable instance is recorded by a most respectable authority. Once having concluded a speech, and finding no opponent rise, Pitt slowly walked out of the House. He had already opened the lobby-door, when a Member started up, saying, “I "rise to reply to the Right Honourable Gentleman.' Pitt, catching the words, stopped short, turned round, and fixed his eyes on the orator, who at that steady and scornful gaze sat down again silent and abashed. Pitt, who was suffering from gout, then returned to his seat, repeating to himself as he painfully hobbled along some lines of Virgil which express the ascendency of Æneas.† * Lord Orford's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 389. t "At Danaûm proceres, Agamemnoniæque phalanges, (Æneid. lib. vi. ver. 489.) 1759. EARL TEMPLE. 187 Then, placing himself on the front bench, he exclaimed, Now, let me hear what the Honourable Member has to say to me." But nothing ensued.* 66 66 It was the remark of the Prussian Monarch at this time, while talking of English affairs at his own table, England has been long in the pangs of labour, and has grievously toiled in producing Mr. Pitt, but at length "she has borne A MAN."† The colleagues of the "Great "Commoner" were no longer talked of or thought of either by foreign nations or their own; those only who had favours to solicit remembered that there was a Duke of Newcastle. The concert in the administration, on which so much depended, was, however, nearly disturbed by the personal pretensions of one man, Earl Temple. In the preceding year he had pressed the Duke of Newcastle with much warmth for the Garter, to which, says Horace Walpole, his awkward figure and his recent Earldom gave him but slender pretensions. The motive he put forward was, that His Majesty continued to slight and ill use him before all the world, and that he required some public token of esteem to wipe out that reproach, — the first time probably that the King's dislike has been urged as a claim to the King's favour! With better reason he might rely on the eminent services of Pitt, as his brotherin-law, even while concealing his application, through delicacy, as he said, from Pitt himself. The Duke of Newcastle replied, as usual, in a timid and conciliatory strain, pleading the prior claims of Prince Ferdinand, the Marquis of Rockingham, and the Earl of Holderness.‡ There the matter was allowed to rest; but in the autumn of 1759 Pitt renewed the application of a Garter for Temple, as a reward to himself, and the only one he desired, for his services. Finding the King disinclined to his request, Pitt adopted a most haughty tone. He writes * Butler's Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 154. Mr. Butler asked his informant, who was present, whether the House did not laugh at the ridiculous figure of the poor Member. "No, Sir," he replied; 66 we were all too much awed to laugh." 66 Mr. Mitchell to Mr. Pitt, Torgau, October 22. 1759. See his letter (dated September 28. 1758) in the Chatham Correspondence. |