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Diplomacy and the

convulsions at home may hurt our affairs abroad.' 'Head, and hearts, and hands' there must be. Surely there was a sound common platform on which leading men of the party could stand together: 'half a dozen of good men would go far; but they must be men indeed'. Only essentials of conformity should be exacted as a test.^[1]

And so we might by illustration proceed. We might show, on the one side, how Carteret in the conduct of his diplomacy, whatever in substance and objects be its merits, was obstructed by the intrigues and jealousies of the Pelhams in the ministry,^[2] and, on the other side, the great and brilliant results achieved

↑ The standard for co-operation and solidarity among ministers is very prudently conceived by Stanhope and in a way that furnishes an instructive comment on the means—some of them drastic—soon to be employed by Walpole for establishing his ascendancy as First Minister. 'And I agree with you, likewise, that in public affairs, when a measure is taken that a man does not approve of in his judgment, if it be only a matter of policy and not against the direct interest of one's country, I think one should support the measure when once it is resolved, as if it was their own, and as if they had advised it …: in taking public measures, I think the wisest and most moderate men's opinions should be asked and followed. For if rash councils are followed, you will not find hands to support them. By attempting things, even right things, which you are not able to carry, you expose yourself, in our popular government, to the having the administration wrested out of your hands, and put into other hands; may be, into the hands of the enemies of our constitution. … But if heat and impatience will make you go out of the entrenchments, and attack a formidable enemy with feeble forces, and troops that follow you unwillingly, you will run a risk to be beat, and you wont get people to go along with you to purpose, by reproaching them that they are of this cabal, or of the other cabal, or by reproaching them that they are afraid.'—Letter, October 5, 1717, to Craggs. Hardwicke, op. cit., ii. 559–60.
↑ In the Newcastle Papers, Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., see especially the letters of Richmond (with George II on the Continent) to Newcastle, June 3/14, 1743, and of Newcastle to Carteret (on the Continent), June 24, 1743, and July 5, 1743.

[1] The standard for co-operation and solidarity among ministers is very prudently conceived by Stanhope and in a way that furnishes an instructive comment on the means—some of them drastic—soon to be employed by Walpole for establishing his ascendancy as First Minister. 'And I agree with you, likewise, that in public affairs, when a measure is taken that a man does not approve of in his judgment, if it be only a matter of policy and not against the direct interest of one's country, I think one should support the measure when once it is resolved, as if it was their own, and as if they had advised it …: in taking public measures, I think the wisest and most moderate men's opinions should be asked and followed. For if rash councils are followed, you will not find hands to support them. By attempting things, even right things, which you are not able to carry, you expose yourself, in our popular government, to the having the administration wrested out of your hands, and put into other hands; may be, into the hands of the enemies of our constitution. … But if heat and impatience will make you go out of the entrenchments, and attack a formidable enemy with feeble forces, and troops that follow you unwillingly, you will run a risk to be beat, and you wont get people to go along with you to purpose, by reproaching them that they are of this cabal, or of the other cabal, or by reproaching them that they are afraid.'—Letter, October 5, 1717, to Craggs. Hardwicke, op. cit., ii. 559–60.

[2] In the Newcastle Papers, Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., see especially the letters of Richmond (with George II on the Continent) to Newcastle, June 3/14, 1743, and of Newcastle to Carteret (on the Continent), June 24, 1743, and July 5, 1743.

[1]

[2]