Cassell's History of England, Vol. 4 (of 8): From the Fall of Marlborough to the Peninsular WarAnonymous
History
Cassell's History of England, Vol. 4 (of 8): From the Fall of Marlborough to the Peninsular War
Anonymous
Great Britain -- History
The prince found in the Opposition in England the most unfortunate
fosterers of his unfilial temper. Pulteney, Wyndham, Chesterfield,
Carteret, Cobham, and, worst of all, Bolingbroke, became his
associates, and the frequenters of his house. Fast ripening into a
pattern of unfilial popularity under such influences, possessing some
accomplishments, and a desire to stand well with the people, he married
in April, 1736, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, a princess of so much beauty
and good sense, as might have reclaimed many a nature; who seems to
have at least won the heart of her husband from his former romantic
passion. It was an ominous circumstance, however, that the address
of congratulation on this occasion was moved, not by the king's own
Ministers, but by the king's own Opposition. Pulteney was the mover,
and it was supported by two young men who that evening made their first
speeches, and in them burst suddenly forth with that splendour which
was destined to grow transcendent through many years. They were Pitt,
afterwards Lord Chatham, and Lord Lyttelton.
Scarcely was the Prince married, when he began to complain of his
limited income. His father, as Prince of Wales, had been allowed one
hundred thousand pounds from the Civil List, which then was only seven
hundred thousand pounds, but he now received only fifty thousand pounds
from a Civil List of eight hundred thousand pounds. Bolingbroke, two
years before, on leaving England, told the prince, as his parting
advice, to apply to Parliament, without any regard to the king, for a
permanent income of one hundred thousand pounds a year. Under these
circumstances, Walpole persuaded the king to send a message to the
prince, offering to settle a large jointure on the princess, and to
make the prince's own income independent of his father. Here the prince
ought to have yielded; if he had been either politic or well-disposed,
he would have done so. The king was at this time very ill, and his
physicians declared that if he did not alter soon, he could not live
a twelvemonth. This circumstance of itself would have touched any
young man of the least natural feeling, to say nothing of policy; for,
if the king died, there was an end of the question--the prince would
be king himself. But he was now in such a temper that he would not
listen to the royal proposal; and the next day, the 22nd of February,
1737, Pulteney made his motion in the House of Commons for an address
beseeching the king to settle upon the prince a hundred thousand pounds
a year, and promising that the House would enable him effectually to
do so. What was still stranger, it was seconded by Sir John Barnard.
The Commons were not willing to run counter to a prince apparently on
the point of ascending the throne, and Walpole would have found himself
in a minority had Wyndham, as he hoped, brought the Tories to vote for
the prince. But forty-five Jacobites, who could not bring themselves
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