Paris, saying that the only hope of Spain ever obtaining Gibraltar was by dropping all mention of it for the present. The French government had eagerly snatched at the proposal, for it would have greatly liked to see England deprived of that important fortress, and had held it out to Spain as an incentive to peace. Stanhope, in order to induce the French government to desist from this mischievous course, had made an express journey to Paris. But Spain had continued to be so pressing on the subject, that the king had been induced, by the consent of the lords-justices, to write a letter to Madrid, offering to give up Gibraltar for an equivalent, and by consent of his parliament. The king and queen of Spain would hear of no equivalent, nor of the consent of parliament; and George wrote a second letter, considerably modified. Spain considered this letter as an unconditional offer of surrender, and demanded its fulfilment. When Townshend came into office after the deaths of Stanhope and Craggs, the contest on this point still went on. The house of lords now demanded that the king's letter should be laid before them, which, after some reluctance, was done; and the opposition moved, "That effectual care be taken in any treaty that the king of Spain do renounce all claims to Gibraltar and Minorca in plain and strong terms." The ministers, however, carried a more moderate resolution—"That the house relies on his majesty for preserving his undoubted right to Gibraltar and Minorca." A similar discussion with a similar result took place in the commons. The government saw plainly that nothing would induce the English public to relinquish this important station.
No sooner, therefore, had the parliament closed and the king had set out to Hanover, than ministers sent off William Stanhope to Madrid to exert all his powers of persuasion to procure a treaty of peace without any mention of Gibraltar. On arriving at Madrid he found that the court had removed to Seville, in Andalusia. This had been done by the influence of the queen, in order to draw Philip from the council of Castile, which was doing all it could to prevail on him again to abdicate. Stanhope followed the court to Seville, and laboured with such effect that he obtained the signing of a treaty of defensive alliance betwixt England, Spain, and France, to which Holland afterwards acceded. By this treaty Spain revoked all the privileges granted to Austria by the treaties of Vienna, and reestablished the English trade with her American colonies on its former footing, restored all captures, and made compensation for losses. The Assiento was confirmed to the South Sea Company. Commissioners were appointed to settle all claims of Spaniards for ships taken in 1718, and to settle the limits of the American trade. The succession of Don Carlos to Parma and Tuscany was recognised, with the right to garrison the ports of Leghorn, Porto Ferraja, Parma, and Placentia, with six thousand Spanish troops. Not a word was said of Gibraltar—a silence amounting to a renunciation of its demand by Spain; and that Philip regarded it as such was evidenced by his beginning to construct the strong lines of San Roque, and thus to cut off all communication with the obnoxious fortress by land. Though the king gave up all hope of ever recovering Gibraltar, the people of Spain still clung to the idea, and for half a century continued to cherish hopes of its realisation. Mr. Keene, the English consul, was instructed to remonstrate against the construction of the lines of San Roque, or the Campo, which ran right across the sandy isthmus connecting the rock with Andalusian mainland; but he received for answer that the king would rather let himself be cut to pieces than desist, though the whole universe should fall on him; and that the English might as well pretend to Cadiz as to the spot where the line is. Nearly a century after this the English procured the destruction of these lines by a clever ruse. When the French in the great Napoleon war were advancing on San Roque, the people ran to seek protection under the guns of Gibraltar; but the governor told them he could spare no artillery to protect the lines; that the French would seize and occupy them, and, therefore, it would be better to blow them up. The Spaniards consented, and not only the garrison, but nearly every inhabitant of Gibraltar, hastened to assist in this unexpected destruction of the fortifications which had so long shut them in from the mainland. There soon remained nothing of all these formidable defences but heaps of stones, which, owing to the tremendous batteries since erected to command them, are never likely to be again placed one upon the other.
William Stanhope was rewarded for his accomplishment of this treaty with the title of lord Harrington, and was soon after made secretary of state. But whilst the English were delighted by the completion of the treaty, the emperor was enraged by it, and his mortification was doubled by the fact that, when he sought to raise four hundred thousand pounds by a loan in London to supply the want of his Spanish subsidies, the ministry brought in and rapidly passed a bill prohibiting loans to foreign powers, except by a licence from the king under the privy seal. The opposition raised a loud outcry, calling it "a bill of terrors," an eternal yoke on our fellow-subjects, and a magnificent boon to the Dutch. But Walpole very justly answered, "Shall British merchants be permitted to lend their money against the British nation? Shall they arm an enemy with strength, and assist him with supplies?"
In the midst of this prosperous career, the two brothers-in-law, the ministers, began to differ in their views, and lord Townshend was soon driven, by the overbearing conduct of Walpole, to resign. Lady Townshend, the sister of Walpole, and even queen Caroline, exerted their influence for some time to put an end to these feuds; but lady Townshend soon died, and the queen, finding the breach inevitable, took the side of Walpole as the most indispensable servant of the crown. There were serious topics on which Townshend and Walpole differed, both domestic and foreign. Townshend did not approve of the length to which matters were carried against the emperor, and he was weary of the timid temper of the duke of Newcastle, and strongly urged his dismissal, and the employment of lord Chesterfield in his place; but a pension bill brought the quarrel to a crisis. The object of the bill, which was warmly supported by the whole opposition, was to prevent any man holding a pension, or who had any office held in trust for him, sitting in parliament. The king privately styled it "a villanous bill, which ought to be torn to pieces in every particular." Both Walpole and Townshend were of the same opinion; but Townshend was for openly opposing it, Walpole for letting it pass the commons, and be
