Protestant Exiles from France/Book Second - Chapter 3 - Section XV
Sec. 15.— The Earl of Galway’s Later Residence in Portugal, and his Return Home (1708-1710).
The noble and gallant Earl found that great changes had taken place in Lisbon society. Not only was our very influential ambassador, Mr Methuen, dead and gone, but death had also removed King Pedro and his sister, Katherine, Queen Dowager of England, a great advocate of the policy of the Anti-French alliance as to the war of the Spanish succession. The new king, Juan V., was much under the influence of a French faction headed by the Duke of Cadaval. The Portuguese Government, awed by the British fleet, was outwardly true to the grand alliance; but, as far as the war was concerned, little was in Lord Galway’s power either as an ambassador or a general. The British government gave every assistance in the endeavour to make a favourable impression on the people. Luttrell noted at London, 15th May 1708, “Two rich coaches and forty liveries are making here for the Earl of Galway, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Portugal.” And it is recorded that he made a magnificent entry into Lisbon.
At that date our Government officials had the privilege of sending letters free by post (called franking) to a ludicrous extent. When quite at a loss for a conveyance, they posted the article or the creature whether living or dead. I may quote here the contents of two odd franked letters — (1.) Two maid-servants going out as laundresses to my Lord Ambassador Methuen. (2.) A box of medicines for my Lord Galway in Portugal. The maidens and the medicines, having been franked, were conveyed, at the expense of the post-office, from London to Lisbon.
Lord Galway knew how to serve the common cause by attractive courtesy and dignified hospitality. A letter dated Lisbon, Aug. 8, says —
“Everything is quiet on the frontiers. Three British men of war are going to meet the Brazil fleet. The news of the victory obtained at Oudenarde occasioned a great rejoicing at court, and public rejoicings were made for three days together, not only in the city, but likewise in all the other cities of Portugal. His Excellency, the Earl of Galway, gave a splendid entertainment to the grandees, attended with a fine consort [concert] of music, fireworks, &c.”
His sense and ingenuity as an ambassador were well illustrated in an incident related by Sir Thomas de Veil thus:— “The King of Portugal, who began to draw greater advantages from the Brazils than any of his predecessors had done, was very uneasy at the sight of the gold vanishing as it came from thence almost as soon as it appeared; and being informed that the greatest part of it was sent to England, he consulted privately with his ministers about finding out ways and means for putting a stop to this, in order to keep the money at home. A project was formed for this purpose, which turned chiefly upon two points — one was setting up manufactures in his own country for supplying the people of Brazil with what they wanted; the other, putting the laws strictly in execution for preventing the exportation of gold. This scheme was kept very private, but as he had a great confidence in Lord Galway, and believed him to be, as he really was, a man of great honour and sincerity, he desired his opinion upon it. Lord Galway, therefore, humbly represented to the king that the situation of his dominions made it requisite for him to depend constantly on his allies for his security against neighbours who were inclined to do him all the mischief they could, and were powerful enough to do it if he was not assisted by his friends. While he lived upon good terms with the British nation, he was sure of receiving succours from them proportionable both to his wants and wishes, which he ought to consider to be a great alleviation of any alleged grievances. He told the king that as to the remedies proposed, he would not inquire whether they might or might not prove effectual; if the latter should be the case, he would not barely be disappointed, but would also lose the hearts of his allies by making the experiment. Even if, by his contrivances, the gold could be kept in Portugal, he would very soon find worse consequences to flow from thence. As things then stood, the English weavers, tailors, shoemakers, and other tradesmen, wrought for his subjects in Brazil; the English merchants were at the pains to send those goods to Lisbon, and a great many ships and some hundreds of seamen were annually employed in this trade, which, suddenly taken away from them, would leave thousands of people destitute of subsistence. And as this proceeding would be a breach of the alliances subsisting between the two nations, numbers of the people so distressed might turn soldiers, and embarking on board the very ships turned out of the Portugal trade, might prove strong enough to attack and conquer the Brazils. Providence had made a wise and just distribution of wealth to the one and industry to the other, which proved a bond of harmony and a source of happiness to both; and if this was taken away, wars would certainly follow, and the power that was weakest at sea would certainly have the worst of it. The king and his ministers saw the strength and justice of his lordship’s observations, and immediately laid aside their design. This was a very important service rendered to the English nation.” I extract from another volume a fuller account of this service:—
“In the year 1709. the King of Portugal perceived that the vast quantities of gold that came from Brazil did but just touch at Lisbon. . . . His Council reported that the English and Dutch ran away with all the gold, in consequence of their furnishing the goods and manufactures that were sent to Brazil; and they proposed that the using these goods, and the wearing these manufactures, should be prohibited in that colony, and that the people should be content with what could be sent them from Portugal. This, as a great stroke of policy, was on the very point of being put in execution, when it was prevented by the following method.
“I he famous Lord Galway was then there on behalf of this nation, and had the confidence of the king, of whom he demanded a particular audience upon this occasion, upon which he delivered himself in the following manner:—
‘Your Majesty cannot be sufficiently commended for that steady attention which you have always shown to the affairs of your government, and the pains you have lately bestowed in examining into the Balance of Trade is a new proof of that merit which would entitle you to the crown, had it not descended to you from a long and glorious line of royal ancestors. But permit me, Sire, to observe that there is a greater King, one by whom all kings reign, and whose Providence is over all His works. According to His distribution of things, riches belong to some nations and industry to others; and by this means the liberality of Heaven is made equal to all. Vain, Sire, are all human counsels when opposed to His wisdom, and feeble are the efforts, even of royal power, when directed to cross His will. You have forbid gold to be exported from your dominions, and you would willingly enforce this prohibition; but the thing is impracticable. You may restrain your subjects (it is true), but you cannot set bounds to their necessities. But say that this was possible; suppose you could set bounds to the industry of the northern nations, what would be the consequence? Their husbandmen, graziers, weavers, and all that infinite train of manufacturers that now labour quietly at home to clothe and feed your subjects, would then turn soldiers; and instead of seeing their Merchantmen in the river of Lisbon, you would hear of their Fleets conveying them to Brazil, to fetch much more of that gold than you now fetch for them. Besides, Sire, if they are gainers by your trade, they became thereby the natural guarantees of your dominions. It is not their treaties only, but their interests that bind them to your service. You have potent enemies and you require powerful friends. The ambition of France knows no bounds; the pride of Spain will teach her to keep up a perpetual claim to your territories and crown. To frustrate the views and defeat the endeavours of those potentates, you can have no recourse but to the maritime Powers; and therefore let me beseech your Majesty to consider that every project to distress them is, in effect, a scheme to destroy yourself.’
“This speech had the desired effect; the intended prohibition was laid aside, and the English nation has reaped the benefit of this Trade ever since. I came to the knowledge of this fact by an accident. It is very imperfectly related by a French author. And I thought it my duty, and a piece of justice owing to his lordship’s memory, to relate it fully and fairly as I have done.” (Harris’ “Voyages and Travels,” vol. ii., book i. chapter iii., section 16, pp. 188-9.)
As a soldier, all that the Court would allow him to do, was to exercise his usual vigilance, and to defend the coast and frontier. His mind was busy, as is proved by two letters from Marlborough to Godolphin.
“Terbank, June 14. — By the letters of Lord Galway, as well as what you write me in yours of the 25th and 26th, I cannot but observe that his project that he now makes does no way agree with the project he sent by Mr Stanhope. That would have been expensive, but this is likely to be much more. There can be no doubt but Cadiz would be of great use. But I beg you to consider how impossible it will be to have success, unless it be done by surprise; and how impossible that will be, when the much greatest part of the troops are to march by land, and that you are to deceive the Portuguese as well as the French and Spaniards. But if it be practicable, it must be this year, and not the next; for when you shall the next winter put your troops into such quarters as may be proper for that expedition, you may be assured that they will take such precaution as will put that place out of danger. You know that by the treaty England and Holland are obliged to give every year to the King of Portugal upwards of four thousand barrels of powder, which is more than is expended by France and all the allies in the armies; so that I beg you will be cautious of giving any encouragement of having an English train established in Portugal, for if the attempt at Cadiz goes on, the cannon and everything for that expedition must be furnished by the fleet. As for the refugee officers, I think he sets a much greater value on them than they deserve. If he can make any use of them, I should think they would be better there than in Ireland.” “Peronne, Sept. 3. — I see Lord Galway presses very much for troops. It is certain if the Court of Portugal will not come into the queen’s measures, whatever troops are sent will be useless to the common cause; for they will do nothing but defend their own frontier.”
In winter we find a proof that he had not forgotten his Irish friends. He wrote to the Earl of Wharton[1] from Lisbon, Dec 11, 1708:—
“I assure your Excellency ’tis with great pleasure I have learned the news of your having kissed the Queen’s hands for the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland, which kingdom may reasonably promise itself many advantages from your lordship’s active and zealous genius. I shall only beg leave to recommend all the poor refugees in general, but more particularly those at Portarlington, to your lordship’s protection, and to assure you that I shall always be, &c. &c.”[2]
In Spain, his friend and admirer, Major-General Stanhope, commanded the British troops, and Count Staremberg, the German Marshal, was at the head of military affairs. It was a compliment to Lord Galway, that Marlborough, in congratulating Stanhope on the improved state of the confederate army, said, “Between ourselves, I fear, if Count Noyelles were living, matters would not go so easy.”[3]
The Parliamentary opposition continued to gain ground in England. They were determined to impute all the cowardice and inefficiency of the Portuguese to Lord Galway. In 1709, the battle on the banks of the Caya, which the Portuguese brought on in opposition to Lord Galway’s remonstrances, and in which his part was to bring them out of the mess after their retreat — this battle was spoken of as another battle lost by Galway, and as a tremendous defeat. Marlborough’s letter to Lord Galway gives the right view:—
“I have received the honour of your Excellency’s letter of the 8th May, giving an account of the misfortune the Portuguese have drawn upon themselves by their over forwardness in engaging the Marquis de Bay near Badajoz. The French had made a great noise of it before your letters came to give us a true relation of the action, which I am glad to find was of no greater consequence, and that the enemy had not been able to reap any great advantage from it.”
“The Annals of Queen Anne” contain this observation:— “The action on the Caya gave the Portuguese a great idea of the capacity and courage of the Earl of Galway, against whose advice they entered on that unfortunate affair, and whose conduct prevented fatal consequences from the flight of their horse.” If the Portuguese were now willing to laud the Earl, he was not prepared to return the compliment. He wrote to Godolphin, Sept. 4, —
“By the accounts you have heard since my return to Lisbon, you are prepared to expect no good from this court. It is every day worse and worse. The king is pretty well, but enters no more into affairs than if he were in his infancy. Nobody will appear to govern, for certainly no government was ever so abandoned. There is not a penny in the treasury, and less credit, and no care taken to remedy it.”
During 1710, the Portuguese, under the influence of the Duke of Cadaval, refused to allow any troops to cross the frontier. Lieutenant-General Stanhope had brilliant success in Spain. In the end of August, after the victory of Saragossa, letters from the Portuguese ambassador in Spain to his court, accompanied with letters from Stanhope to Galway, urged that the Portuguese troops must join the allies at Almaraz without the smallest delay. This the Portuguese Government refused. Lord Galway was now a martyr to gout and general bodily indisposition.
All his requests to be recalled had been refused; but his self-denial could be taxed no longer, and he was now expecting that his successor would be sent out. He was quite unable to be present at any conference to counteract Cadaval. A last appeal for succour was made by Stanhope, in a letter dated in October, asking only for such forces in Portugal as were in the pay of the Queen of Great Britain. But neither would the Portuguese Government part with those; and their infatuated conduct issued in Stanhope being taken prisoner, his army having been surrounded by the enemy. Before the latter correspondence, Lord Galway had sailed for England, oppressed with vexations, broken health, and advancing years. Luttrell gives the following details:— “News from Gibraltar, received on Thursday, July 11th. — There has been a great tumult in that garrison, occasioned by the governor stopping their pay for bread, which was always allowed them. It grew to such a head that some officers and soldiers were killed. The Lord Galway, being informed thereof, sent to the governor not to do the like for the future, and a general pardon to all the mutineers, which quieted the commotion. Thursday, 21st September. — A Lisbon mail of the 16th says, the Lord Galway had taken his audience of leave of the King of Portugal, and appointed Major-General Newton commander of the British forces in that country till the arrival of the Earl of Portmore. Saturday, 21st October. — Lord Henry Powlett, second son of the Duke of Bolton, is landed at Falmouth with the Earl of Galway, who, it’s said, has brought with him £200,000 in gold and silver, belonging to our merchants, as part of their effects on board the Portuguese Brazil fleet.”
The winter of 1710 was in a twofold sense a cold and tempestuous time for Lord Galway to come home. The triumph of the anti-government party had been accelerated by the prosecution of the High Church divine, Dr. Henry Sacheverell, for seditious language regarding the Revolution settlement. Stanhope, who was member for Cockermouth, had, before the opening of the campaign, been one of the managers appointed by the Commons for the Doctor’s trial at the bar of the House of Lords. On the 20th of March Sacheverell had been voted guilty by a majority of sixty-nine to fifty-two, and had been sentenced to a three years' suspension from clerical functions. The appearance of persecution, the insignificance of the culprit, and the weakness of the sentence, had given a mortal wound to the Government. Lord Sunderland had been dismissed from the Secretaryship of State on June 14th. The Lord High Treasurer Godolphin had been displaced on August 9th,[4] and a Treasury Board inaugurated with the Earl of Poulett at its head, and Harley as the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
“The Annals of Queen Anne” record that “on the 18th November 1710, the queen came from Hampton Court to St James’s Palace, when the same evening the Earl of Galway, who some days before arrived from Portugal, and whose waiting upon the queen was excused till her Majesty should come to town, had the honour of kissing her Majesty’s hand, and met with a more gracious reception than many expected, after the removal of the Lord Treasurer, his intimate friend.” His friends say that he “met with a very gracious reception.” Indeed, having not seen him for six years, observing his altered appearance and shattered frame, and remembering the loyalty which alone had reconciled him to foreign service, her Majesty must have looked upon the fine old general with grateful respect and womanly sympathy. But her new ministers were bent upon inflicting public censure and disgrace on Marlborough and all his friends, the queen cordially encouraging them as far as Marlborough and his duchess were concerned. The duke, returning from Flanders on December 28th, was so well received by the populace, that though ministers withheld from him a vote of thanks, they did not venture to begin their measures by censuring him. His friends and admirers, General the Earl of Galway and Lieutenant-Generals Lord Tyrawley and James Stanhope, were therefore fixed upon as prefatory victims; and it was determined to revive Lord Peterborough’s old stories, founded upon his selection of documents and upon his suppression of more important ones.
- ↑ It is remarkable that a small business during Wharton’s vice-royalty afforded Dean Swift the opportunity for bringing his only tangible charge against Galway. The Earl of Kildare, finding that a deceased brother s bargain in giving up a £300 salary, payable only during the life of the Earl of Meath, and in accepting a £200 life pension, had in the course of events proved to be a bad one, declared as his brother’s heir, that Meath was still alive, and he petitioned the Lord-Lieutenant for a return to the original bargain — which petition was granted. How could the Dean fabricate an accusation against Galway out of this? (the reader may ask). By interpolating a rhetorical clause, “My Lord Galway did, by threats, compel” George Fitzgerald to surrender the contingent salary ! ! !
- ↑ Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. lxxiii.
- ↑ The Count de Noyelles did not live to be superseded by Marshal Staremberg. He had continued in the service (or disservice) of Charles III. Narcissus Luttrell wrote on 29th May 1708, — “This day’s Holland post advises that the Dutch general, Noyelles, died of a quinsy, the 21st of April, at Barcelona.” It was in May that Staremberg took the command.
- ↑ It was, however, by Godolphin that Galway was recalled, and that Portmore was sent to relieve him. Godolphin wrote to Marlborough, June 22, 1710, “Lord Galway pressed for leisure to come home, and it was allowed him. . . . If Lord Portmore be as capable of serving well as he believes himself, there needs no more.” — Correspondence of the Duke, appended to the Duchess of M.’s Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 447.