address ‘that no peace can be safe or honourable if Spain and the West Indies are to be allotted to any branch of the house of Bourbon’ (Swift, ‘Last Four Years,’ Works, v. 39). This, says Swift, ‘was rejected with contempt by a very great majority’ (ib.) The same amendment having been carried by two votes in the House of Lords, ministers now parried the blow by an attack upon their predecessors in office. A packed committee of tories reported that 35,302,107l. of public money was unaccounted for. The deficit was laid at the door of Godolphin, the leader of the whigs in the lords, and of Walpole. Walpole promptly produced two pamphlets: ‘The Debts of the Nation stated and considered,’ and ‘The Thirty-five Millions accounted for.’ He conclusively established that 31,000,000l. had already been accounted for, and that the debt of the navy, his particular province, estimated at 5,130,539l., did not exceed 574,000l. His explanations not only produced a sensible revulsion in public opinion—they acquired him the credit of being, as Arthur Mainwaring said, ‘the best master of figures of any man of his time.’
Walpole, the ministerialists felt, must be crushed. His expulsion from the house was, said Bromley, the tory speaker, the ‘unum necessarium.’ Harley's veiled threat was forthwith given effect. The commissioners of public accounts reported on 21 Dec. 1711 that Walpole, as secretary at war, had been guilty of venality and corruption in the matter of two forage contracts for Scotland. In giving out the forage contracts he had stipulated with the two contractors that one-fifth share in the contracts should be reserved for one Robert Mann [see Mann, Sir Horace], his relative and rent-receiver (Commons' Journals, xvii. 29). The contractors, desirous of redeeming Mann's share, had drawn two notes of hand for 500 guineas and 500l. respectively. The first had been paid. Walpole's name appeared on the receipt. The explanation was that the contractor who had conducted the negotiation dying, the other, who was ignorant of the name of Walpole's friend, handed to Walpole a note payable to his order. Walpole endorsed it and transmitted it to Mann. It was proved that none of the money had been retained by himself. Judged by the standard of the times, Walpole's share in the transaction was as regular as a minister's grant of a pension to a supporter. But the ‘unum necessarium’ was effected. Walpole, after being heard, was pronounced ‘guilty of a high breach of trust and notorious corruption.’ This was carried by a majority of fifty-seven, his expulsion from the house by twenty-two, and his committal to the Tower by twelve (ib. 17 Jan. 1711–12). The dwindling majorities showed the real feeling of the house as to the justice of the proceedings. He was taken to the Tower (Bayley, Hist. of the Tower, ii. 644). A new writ was issued. On 11 Feb. 1712 he was again returned for Lynn. A petition was lodged, and on 6 March the house declared him to be ineligible for the existing parliament and the election void (Commons' Journals, xvii. 128). He remained in the Tower till 8 July. He left as a memorial his name written on a window (H. Walpole, ‘Noble Authors,’ Works, 1798, i. 442). While in the Tower he was regarded as a political martyr, and visited by all the whig leaders. He occupied his time in composing a pamphlet in his defence: ‘The Case of Mr. Walpole, in a Letter from a Tory Member of Parliament to his Friend in the Country.’ Remaining excluded from the house after his release, he diligently cultivated his political connections. He assisted Steele [see Steele, Sir Richard] in several political pamphlets. In September he visited Godolphin on his deathbed, and was by him commended in touching terms to the Duchess of Marlborough's continued patronage. At the dissolution of parliament (8 Aug. 1713) he was again returned for Lynn (31 Aug. 1713). On the eve of the general election he published an anonymous pamphlet under the title of ‘A Short History of the Parliament.’ It was an attack on the ministerial party. Pulteney [see Pulteney, William] was courageous enough to write the preface, but no printer could be found to undertake the risk of printing it. A printing press was carried to Walpole's house and the copies printed there.
One of the earliest steps of the new parliament, which met on 12 Nov. 1713, was the expulsion of Steele from the House of Commons for attacking the ministry in his pamphlets ‘The Englishman’ and ‘The Crisis.’ Walpole had the credit of having co-operated in ‘The Crisis.’ He was deputed by the Kit-Cat Club to make a speech ‘in cold blood,’ the argument of which was to be noted by Addison to form the basis of a defence which Addison was to compose and Steele recite (Life of Bishop Newton, p. 130). Walpole himself delivered in the House of Commons a constitutional argument against the proceedings (see Hallam, Const. Hist. iii. 357). Steele shortly afterwards published a defence entitled ‘Mr. Steele's Apology,’ which he dedicated to Walpole (Parl. Hist. vi. 1275). The last six months of Anne's reign were to the
