‘His Majesty is going to say that he approves of this wholeheartedly,’ said the Queen with a smile, ‘for I see he is thinking that the Civil List depends partly on these duties and if they are increased so will the Civil List be.’
‘I was going to say that,’ said the King with an approving nod.
‘It is true, of course,’ said Walpole with a smile. ‘I should now like to lay before Your Majesty my plan of the scheme.’
This he began to do while the Queen listened,, taking her cue when to speak from the minister; and in any case they had already decided how they would set the matter before the King. Not that George needed any persuasion on this occasion.
The new excise laws would increase the Civil List and that was good enough for him.
Bolingbroke, Pulteney, and Wyndham called a meeting of their friends in the Opposition.
‘Walpole is going to bring in his excise scheme,’ announced Bolingbroke. ‘He can fall on this, and we must see that he does.’
Pulteney pointed out that he would have the landowners with him because of the reduction of the Land Tax.
‘We must see that he has no one with him,’ retorted Bolingbroke. ‘This is an opportunity for which we have all been waiting. This is going to see the end of Walpole.’
‘What!’ cried Wyndham. ‘For a tax on wine and tobacco.’
‘We’ll call it a beginning.’ Bolingbroke’s eyes were aflame. ‘We’ll tell the country what it means. He will start on wine and tobacco and then it will be food . . . everything the people want to buy will be taxed. That will be our cry: “Down with the excise! “ ‘ He turned to Pulteney. ‘We’ll start at once in The Craftsman. “What is Robin the trickster doing now? He is tricking you of your hard earned wages. He is telling you it is only wine and tobacco. Wine and tobacco today. Bread tomorrow. It is only a matter of collecting the tax we will change? Yes, collect it so that more goes out of your pocket and more into Robin’s! “ ‘
‘You think it will be a big issue?’ asked Wyndham. ‘My friend, we are going to see that it is a big issue.’
Everyone was discussing the new excise proposals. In the coffee and chocolate houses they talked of nothing else. The Craftsman was handed from one to another. ‘Read this. Read what The Craftsman says.’
This was the end of freedom in England, The Craftsman told its readers. This was what Robin had been trying to bring about for years. He wanted to make the King an absolute monarch. Did the people remember that certain monarchs had believed in their Divine Right? They had a King who was more German than English, who preferred the little electorate of Hanover to the mighty country which was England. Between them he, his fat queen, and their henchman Walpole would ruin England; they would destroy the liberties of the people; it would be as though Magna Carta had never been signed. Robin was going to introduce his Excise Bill and lead them back to the dark ages.
‘To hell with these Germans!’ cried the people. ‘What are they doing here anyway!’
It was not only the Opposition who saw opportunities in the excise scheme. Many of Walpole’s own ministry were dissatisfied. Why had they not been given this or that job? Why were they in a minor ministerial position when their talents were so much greater than the men who had the jobs? Jealousy always walked side by side with ambition, and this was an opportunity to destroy the most successful minister of his day, the man who had brought peace and prosperity to England, the most powerful of all politicians, the man who had courted the Queen and won her approval so successfully that between them they had the King in leading strings.
These men called a meeting and selected one of themselves to go to the Queen and point out to her that she was being misled in this excise scheme by Walpole, of whom she had too high opinion; they were to ask her to dissociate herself and the King from the scheme and to let Walpole stand alone in its defence if he wanted to.
For this they chose a Scottish peer, John Dalrymple, Lord Stair.
Lord Stair had a great deal to recommend him for the task. He was a forthright man; he had been slighted and, he believed, treated very badly by Walpole, and he was one of his greatest enemies. He was fearless, and since he felt strongly would put the case well. He was no young fool, being nearly sixty; he was no respecter of persons, and as a Scotsman he had even less love for the Germans than the English had.
Stair had had an adventurous life. When he was only eight years old he had accidentally shot his elder brother, and although he had been pardoned for this his parents could not endure to have him near them constantly to remind them of what he had done, so he was put in the care of a tutor for three years and after that sent to his grandfather in Holland. His youth had been overshadowed by this event and as he had been entirely innocent it had set up a certain resentment in him. He had, however, become the friend of another strange and withdrawn man, William of Orange, and distinguished himself in battle, serving very successfully under Marlborough. Queen Anne had respected him and made him her ambassador to France, but when Marlborough fell, Stair fell with him.
He then went back to Edinburgh and became the leader of the Scottish Whigs; and there he fell in love with Eleanor, Viscountess Primrose. She was a widow who had been unhappy in her first marriage and vowed she would never marry again. But Lord Stair also made a vow which was that she should be his wife. He achieved this by finding a way into her house where he hid himself and then at a certain moment appeared at her bedroom window. Such a scandal ensued, for the Viscountess was reckoned to be one of the most virtuous women of her time, that all she could do was to marry him.
He had always been in favour of the Hanoverian succession and with the coming of George I he was appointed a Lord of the Bedchamber, a Privy Councillor, Colonel of the Inniskilling Guards, and sent as Ambassador to Paris. Walpole had earned his dislike by recalling him from this appointment. Then realizing that Stair was a forceful man Walpole had tried to placate him by making him Vice-Admiral of Scotland. This Stair accepted, but the Paris affair rankled; and ever since he had been prepared to act against ‘Walpole.
Because he was a man of strong views and not afraid to voice them, because of his resentment against Walpole, he was chosen to present the case against the excise to the Queen, who, on his request, received him in her apartments at Kensington Palace.
He came straight to the point and began by attacking Walpole.
‘Your Majesty knows nothing of this man,’ he cried, ‘but what he tells you himself. But let me tell Your Majesty this: In no age was any minister so universally detested as this man whom you support. Nobody doubts that he absolutely governs Your Majesty. You may have the semblance of power but this man Walpole is the true ruler.’
The Queen was astonished and for the moment could find nothing to say.
‘Who are his closest friends? Who are those whom he keeps in the highest places—next his own? Argyle and Islay! Is this your choice, Madam? And if so, have you forgotten that these two men tried to set up the power of the King’s mistress so that it should be greater than yours?’
Caroline flinched. She hated any reference to Henrietta Howard. And the idea that there should have been any question of her having power was very repugnant to her.
‘Mrs Howard ...’ began Stair, but Caroline cut him short.
‘Pray remember that you are speaking of the King’s servant and to the King’s wife,’ she said coldly.
Stair then began on the matter which had brought him to her: the Excise Bill. ‘Madam, it will be impossible to force this obnoxious Bill through the Lords. It may be that your minister will get it through’ the Commons by corruption ...’