Ripperda purchased a villa near Segovia, and a superb mansion at Madrid. His household establishment and equipages were not less magnificent, than when he was one of the _merchant princes_ of Holland; and his table, in like manner was surrounded by the best company of Spain. The gayer part believed that his evening attendance at the _Buen Retiro_ was to play picquet with the Queen, or chess with His Majesty; but the graver sort were fully aware that, whoever were the ostensible ministers of Philip, Ripperda was the one in fact. They could trace to his suggestion, and covert execution, various changes in the constitution, to consolidate its power and augment its resources. Plans of commerce were devised and put into practice; and manufactures introduced at Segovia and Gaudalaxara, which threatened the staple trade of Great Britain. Considering the immediate instruments of national greatness to be wealth, and the power of defending it; he formed a design for rendering Cadiz one of the noblest ports in the world; and to establish around the coast, docks and arsenals, and every other means of constructing a formidable navy. This was the internal policy of Spain, under the secret influence of the Baron de Ripperda. With Alberoni's dismission, its external measures also took a new aspect; and with regard to the disputed accession in England, seemed meditating a change. A few years ago Philip had assisted the chevalier Saint George in his descent on Scotland; but he now resisted all applications to the same effect; and openly professed a growing respect for the house of Hanover. Notwithstanding similar repulses from the French minister, the irrepressible hopes of James Stuart were kept on the alert by repeated assurances from his partizans in England; that a schism in the parliament had aroused corresponding jealousies amongst the people, which were daily expected to break out into an insurrection, not likely to be quelled by a king and an heir-apparent avowedly hostile to each other. "At so critical a juncture, as the cabinet of St. Germain's supposed this to be;" observed the Pastor, "it is not surprising that Duke Wharton should grasp at any means of averting the absolute secession of Spain from his master's cause. He is aware of the Baron de Ripperda's power with King Philip: and by seeking to involve the son in a project for a second rebellion, he hopes to engage the father's pride or his fears, in the same adventure."