Walpole and Townshend. Many things, however, had to be weighed before such advances could be made. Walpole had to consider whether they would become real friends or concealed enemies still, and whether, by receiving them into favour, through the services of Bolingbroke, he might not give too much handle to the presumption of that ambitious man. Walpole knew that Bolingbroke was seeking to regain the whole of his lost advantages; and he probably knew, too, that it was not the intention of the court readily to concede them. He therefore received the proposals of Bolingbroke with coldness, and represented to him that as his restoration depended on a whig parliament, he ought to be careful how he renewed his intimacy with tories, and that the king's ministers could not hazard the royal affairs by proposing this restoration rashly. Walpole has been blamed for his rejecting an accession of strength from a junction with the tories, but it is more than doubtful whether such accession at this period would have been strength, especially as it implied the return to active political life of the aspiring and unprincipled Bolingbroke.
Disappointed in the result of this attempt, and the king prolonging his sojourn on the continent by a visit to his son-in-law, the king of Prussia, Bolingbroke returned to the continent, and went to Aix-la-Chapelle, whence he wrote soliciting permission to proceed to Hanover. This request was declined, thus showing that Walpole had acted in perfect concert with the court. Mortified at this repulse, Bolingbroke returned to Paris, where a field of action had opened in which he was well calculated to figure.
The restless Englishman, much more like a Frenchman in temperament and character than a native of England, had married Madame de Villette, a niece of Louis XIV.'s last mistress, Madame de Maintenon, a lady rich and well trained in all the court life of Paris. By this means Bolingbroke was brought into close connection with that court. The notorious cardinal Dubois had died in August, and in less than four months died also the duke of Orleans, the regent. Louis XV. being nominally of age, no other regent was appointed, but the duke of Bourbon, a man of much better character but of less ability than the regent Orleans, was prime minister. He was greatly under the influence of his bold and ambitious mistress, Madame de Prie, and Bolingbroke, who was high in favour of both minister and mistress, flattered himself that, with the aid of his courtier wife, he could govern both them and France.
Bolingbroke was well aware that a violent strife for power was going on in the English cabinet. Lord Carteret, the new secretary of state, and afterwards earl Granville, was labouring hard to undermine both Walpole and Townshend. He was a very accomplished man and a great linguist, familiar with nearly all the continental languages, including German, which, strangely enough, the English courtiers neglected, though they had a German monarch on the throne who could not speak English. German then was regarded as a language rude and even vulgar; a tongue, as Voltaire afterwards said, only fit for horses. But Carteret, by being master of it, could converse freely with the king, whilst Walpole, ignorant, too, of French, could only hold communication with him in Latin, which, from the wide difference betwixt the English and foreign pronunciation of it, could not have been a very favourable medium. Carteret had ingratiated himself so much with the king by conversing in German, and flattering George's German tastes and politics, that he had succeeded to the influence which Stanhope had formerly possessed. He had also secured the same influence in the court of Paris. He had, by that means, confirmed the appointment of Sir Luke Schaub at that court, and thus kept open the most favourable communication with the abbé Dubois. The courts of England and France continued during Dubois' life in close connection, and through the influence of George and his ministers, Dubois obtained first the archbishop's mitre, and then the cardinal's hat.
The struggle for ascendancy proceeding, Walpole and his party secured the interest of the duchess of Kendal, who always took care to side with that which she thought the strongest. Carteret and his party, on the other hand, secured the interest of the other mistress, the countess of Darlington, and her sister, Madame de Platen. Whilst affairs were in this position, the two secretaries of state, Townshend and Carteret, accompanied the king to Hanover. There came upon the tapis the question of a marriage betwixt the count St. Florentin, the son of La Vrilliere, the secretary of state for France, and a daughter of Madame Platen. Madame Platen, however, demanded that La Vrilliere should be made a duke, so that in due course of time her daughter would be a duchess. George I. warmly seconded this demand; and, had Bolingbroke used his influence, there was little doubt that it would have been accomplished. But the French nobility raised a huge outcry against this honour being conferred on the family of La Vrilliere, which they deemed too obscure for such a dignity. Bolingbroke, however, was seeking his own objects through the other mistress, the duchess of Kendal; and, notwithstanding the repulse which he had received from Walpole, he still calculated that his power would prevail, and he therefore smothered his personal vexation, and remained on the side of the duchess of Kendal and Walpole, leaving Carteret and his allies, the Platens, to fight their own battle.
In the midst of these cabals died the regent, and Townshend, acting with Walpole, sent over Walpole's brother Horace to watch their interests at Paris. Carteret, on the other hand, ordered Sir Luke Schaub to make every exertion for the grant of the dukedom. On the arrival of Horace Walpole, Bolingbroke, obeying the impulses of the courtier and not of the man, immediately waited on him, and placed all his influence at the French court at his service; but Walpole, who had an invincible repugnance to Bolingbroke, whilst he availed himself of the advantages offered by Bolingbroke, still kept him at a great and stately distance. Undeterred by this conduct, Bolingbroke, however, swallowed his mortification, and continued to keep his eye and his hope on the Walpole ministry. Unassisted by Bolingbroke, the dukedom could not be obtained, but George reconciled Madame Platen to the match by giving her daughter a portion of ten thousand pounds. Horace Walpole, at the same time, succeeded in getting Schaub recalled, and himself installed in his office of ambassador at Paris — a decided victory over Carteret; indeed, so decided, that Carteret was removed from the secretaryship to the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland. His
