she had sworn to obey. This drew from the Queen
the expression : " Poor creature, if she were to spit
in my face I should only pity her for being under
such a fool's direction, and wipe it off". She pitied
the Princess rather than blamed her, and allowed
this little incident to make no difference to her
behaviour towards her. The Princess no doubt
had done wisely and the Prince showed his ap-
preciation by treating his wife with courtesy and
kindness, and the marriage, which had begun in-
auspiciously, turned out better than any one ex-
pected.
296
CHAPTER XIII.
CAROLINE'S LAST REGENCY.
1736.
The Prince of Wales's marriagfe over, the Kinor
became very impatient to return to Hanover. The
pledge he had given to Madame Walmoden last
year, that he would be with her on May 29th, had
become known to Walpole, who swore to the Queen
that the King should not go if he could prevent it.
The Quakers' Bill was just then before Parliament
and the bishops were giving a great deal of trouble
to the Government in the House of Lords ; the King's
departure for Hanover again so soon would be another
source of embarrassment. But neither Walpole's pro-
tests nor the Queen's more diplomatic representations
were of any avail with the King. " I am sick to death
of all this foolish stuff," said the Defender of the Faith
to the Queen one day when she was speaking to
him about the bishops' action in the House of
Lords, "and wish with all my heart that the devil
may take all your bishops and the devil take your
minister, and the devil take the parliament, and the
devil take the whole island, provided I can get out
of it and go to Hanover."
CAROLINE'S LAST REGENCY 297
After this there was clearly nothing more to be
said, and in the middle of May the King set out for
Hanover, this time taking- Horace Walpole with
him as minister in attendance instead of Harring-
ton, whom the Queen and Walpole determined
should never go with the King to Hanover again.
He again appointed the Queen Regent, and sent
a message to the Prince of Wales telling him that
wherever the Queen-Regent resided, there would
be apartments provided for himself and the Princess.
The Prince resented this message, which forced
him, he said, to move his household at the Queen's
pleasure, and made him practically a prisoner in her
palace. That was perhaps an exaggeration, but the
order was evidently designed to prevent the Prince
and Princess setting up a court of their own in the
King's absence. The Prince considered that his
marriage gave him an additional claim to be
appointed Regent instead of the Queen. He there-
fore tried in many small ways to set her authority as
Regent at defiance, and he trumped up the excuse
of the Princess's indisposition to hinder him from
occupying the same house as the Queen according
to the King's command. The Queen, who suspected
that this was only an evasion, came up from Rich-
mond, where she had removed after the King left,
to London to find out if the Princess of Wales were
really ill. But her intention was baffled, for when
she arrived she was told that the Princess was in
bed and could not receive her, and when the Queen
insisted on being shown to her daughter-in-law's
298 CAROLINE THE ILLUSTRIOUS
chamber, she found the room so dark that she could
scarcely see her, and had to return to Richmond no
better informed than when she set out. Shortly
afterwards the Queen removed to Hampton Court,
and with some little delay the Prince and Princess
followed, and had their suite of apartments allotted
them there.
The Prince of Wales did not attend the Council
when the Queen broke the seals of the King's com-
mission making her Regent ; he pretended that he
had mistaken the hour. He tried by every possible
means to discredit the Queen- Regent's authority, and
to cultivate popularity at the expense of his parents.
It was fairly easy for liim to pit himself against his
father, for the King's conduct in going to Hanover
two years running, his affaire with the Walmoden,
and the fact that he had left unfilled several com-
missions in the army because, people said, he wished
to pocket the pay himself, had made him more
unpopular than ever. Some measure of this un-
popularity reflected itself upon the Queen, though
she, poor woman, was the greatest sufferer by the
Kino^'s intriorue with the Walmoden. The Princess
of Wales also suddenly discovered that she had
scruples about receiving the Sacrament according
to the rites of the Church of England, and de-
clared that she was a Protestant and a Lutheran.
This move, which was probably made by command
of the Prince in order to oain the ooodwill of the
o o
Dissenters, gave a great deal of annoyance to the
Queen, for the bishops and clergy were up in arms
CAROLINE'S LAST REGENCY 299
about it, talked loudly of the Act of Succession, and
declared that if the Princess would not conform to
the rites of the Church of England she would have
to be sent back again to Saxe-Gotha. The Queen
spoke to the Prince on the subject, but he declared
that he could do nothing, for when he reasoned to
his wife she only wept and talked of her conscience.
However, the threat of being sent back to Saxe-
Gotha effectually abolished the Princess's scruples ;
she dried her tears and attended the services at the
chapel at Hampton Court like the rest of the Royal
Family. Yet even when they came to church the
Prince and Princess of Wales managed to show
disrespect to the Queen's office as Regent. They
arranged always to come late, so that the Princess
had to push past the Queen in the royal pew, an
uncomfortable proceeding so far as the Queen was
concerned, for she was stout and the pew was narrow.
Moreover, the arrival of the Prince and Princess and
a numerous suite half-way through the service was
exceedingly disturbing, so, after bearing with it two
or three Sundays, the Queen sent word that if the
Princess came late she must make her entry by an-
other door. The Princess, however, persisting, the
Queen ordered a servant to stand at the main entrance
of the chapel after she had gone in and not permit
any one to pass until the service was over, which
would have the effect of sending the Princess round
to another door, or of keeping her out of. the chapel
altogether. The Prince, however, was equal even
to this, for he told the Princess that if she was not
300 CAROLINE THE ILLUSTRIOUS
ready to go into chapel with the Queen she was not
to go at all, and so neatly avoided yielding the point.
The Queen, notwithstanding all these studied
slights and petty insults, was determined not to
quarrel with her son, and regularly asked the Prince
and Princess to dine with her once or twice a week,
and sometimes invited them to music and cards
in the gallery at Hampton Court in the evening.
The Princess came now and then to these latter
functions, the Prince never, though they both were
obliged to come to dinner when the Oueen asked
them. These dinners could not have been pleasant
to either side ; they certainly were not to the Queen,
who, after they were over, used to declare that the
dulness of her daughter-in-law and the silly jokes of
her son gave her the vapours, and she felt more
tired than " if she had carried them round the garden
on her back ".
Meanwhile the King at Hanover was enjoying
himself with his enchantress, who had presented
him with a fine boy, which it suited her purpose to
declare was his son.^ The King, who was now fifty-
three years of age, firmly believed her, and his affec-
tions became riveted to Madame Walmoden more
firmly than ever. Yet he might well hav^e doubted,
for the lady had many friends to console her in his
absence, and a suspicious incident occurred this
^ This son, according to some authorities, came over to England
with Madame Wahnoden, afterwards Countess of Yarmouth, after
the Queen's death, and was generally known at court as " Master
Louis". But according to Lord Hervey the child died within a year
of its birth.
CAROLINE'S LAST REGENCY 301
summer even while George was at Hanover. The
King was staying, according to his custom, at Her-
renhausen, and Madame Walmoden was living in the
apartments set apart for her by the King in the Leine
Schloss. She spent most of her time with the King
at Herrenhausen, returning to the Leine Schloss at
night, where she was sometimes visited by the King.
The Leine Schloss was very different then to what
it is now, for it was fronted by extensive gardens on
both banks of the Leine, the gardens through which
poor Sophie Dorothea used to steal, disguised, to
Konigsmarck's lodgings. The Walmoden's bed-
chamber was on the garden side of the palace, and
one night a gardener chancing to walk round the
palace in the small hours found a ladder placed im-
mediately under Madame Walmoden's window. The
man thought this must be the attempt of a burglar,
who had come to steal the lady's jewels, and
made a careful search round the garden. He pre-
sently discovered a man hiding behind a bush,
whom he immediately seized, and, shouting for the
guard, had him placed under arrest. To every one's
astonishment, the prisoner proved to be no thief, but
an officer in the Austrian service, named Schulem-
burg, a relative of the Duchess of Kendal's, who
was on a visit to Hanover in connection with some
diplomatic mission. Schulemburg protested against
the indignity put upon him, which he said would be
resented not only by himself, but by his master, the
Emperor, and made such a fuss that the captain of
the guard released him at once.
302 CAROLINE THE ILLUSTRIOUS
Before the morning the story was all over the
palace, and Madame Walmoden, who had been
aroused in the night, was in a great state of agita-
tion. But her woman's wit came to her aid. As
early as six o'clock the next morning she ordered
her coach and drove off to Herrenhausen to give
her version of the affair to the King before any one
else could tell him. George was still a-bed when
the lady arrived, but being a privileged personage
she passed the guards and made her way to his
bedside. She threw herself upon her knees, and
besought the King, between her tears and sobs, to
protect her from gross insult, or allow her to retire
from his court for ever ; she declared that she
loved him not as a king but as a man, and for his
own sake alone, but wicked envious people, who
were jealous of the favour he had shown her, were
plotting to ruin her. The King, astonished at this
early visit, rubbed his eyes, and asked what it all
meant. She then told him about the ladder, and
declared that it must have been placed there by
design of a certain Madame d'Elitz with intent to
ruin her with the King. This Madame d'Elitz was
also a Schulemburg, a niece of the old Duchess of
Kendal. She was credited with having had intrigues
with three generations of the Hanoverian family,
the old King, George the First, the present King,
George the Second, and Frederick, Prince of Wales,
before he came over to England. This was pro-
bably an exaggeration, but it is certain that she was
the mistress of George the Second before he
CAROLINE'S LAST REGENCY 303
deserted her for the superior charms of the Wal-
moden. So the story had at least the element of
plausibility. At any rate the King accepted it, and
ordered the captain of the guard to be put under
arrest for having released Schulemburg, and sent
word that he should again be apprehended. But
Horace Walpole, the English Minister in attendance,
fearing that this might involve the King in a quarrel
with the Emperor, sent Schulemburg word pri-
vately to make speed out of Hanover, which he did
forthwith.
All sorts of versions were given of this ladder
incident, which quickly became known in London,
and was much' discussed by Queen Caroline and her
court. The King wrote long letters to the Queen
in England, telling her all about the affair, and
asking her to judge it impartially for him, as he was
so fond of the Walmoden that he could not judge it
otherwise than partially, and if she were in doubt
he asked her to consult le o-ros homme. Sir Robert
Walpole, "who," he said, "is much more experi-
enced, my dear Caroline, in these affairs than you,
and less prejudiced than myself in it". But whatever
was the Queen's opinion the King remained devoted
to his Walmoden, and refused to believe any evil of
her. Whether Caroline really consulted Walpole or
not it is impossible to say ; but though she laughed
about the incident in public she wept many bitter tears
in private, and her patience was well-nigh exhausted.
Caroline had no easy part to play in this, her
fourth and most eventful, regency. Her health had
304 CAROLINE THE ILLUSTRIOUS
been failing for some time, and now was an ever-
present trouble. The knowledge of the King's
infatuation, and the fear that her influence over him
was waning, preyed upon her mind, and she was
further harassed by the covert rebellion against her
authority carried on by the Prince of Wales. All
these were troubles from within, but those from
without were also serious. The King was never so
unpopular as now, and his unpopularity reflected itself
upon the Government. There were discontents and
disorders in different parts of the country ; a riot broke
out in the west of England because of the exporta-
tion of corn, and so violent were the farmers that in
many districts the military had to be called out to
quell the tumult. Another disturbance took place
at Spitalfields among the weavers, who objected to
Irishmen working there because they were willing to
accept lower wages and could accustom themselves
to a lower standard of living than Englishmen. A
riot broke out and many Irish were killed and others
wounded. Huge mobs assembled, and again the
Queen-Regent had to command that soldiers should
be called out, which had the effect of diverting the
rage of the weavers from the Irish to the court.
They now began to curse the Germans even more
loudly than they execrated the Irish, and from cursing
the Germans they proceeded to cursing the King and
Queen, and shouting for James the Third. Eventu-
ally the soldiers quelled the riots, but not without
bloodshed, and the discontent was all the more
active for being driven below the surface.
CAROLINE'S LAST REGENCY 305
Another source of dissatisfaction with the people
was the Gin Act, which had been passed with the
object of abating the vice of drunkenness, and
especially the drinking of gin by the lower classes.
Gin drinking at that time was the popular habit, and
was carried to such a degree that the drunkenness
of the mob and the depraved and debased condition
of public morals became a crying scandal. The
sale of gin was carried to such an extent in the
taverns that a newspaper of the time informs us :
"We hear that a strong- water shop was lately
opened in Southwark with this inscription on the
sign :—
Drunk for one penny,
Dead drunk for two pence,
Clean straw for nothing." ^
The Gin Act was passed with a view to putting
a stop to this sale, but without success, and the
truth that people cannot be made sober by Act of
Parliament was proved up to the hilt. The only
result was to encourage a gang of informers who be-
came the pest of the country. The Act came into
force on September 29th, 1736, and as the date
approached ballads and lamentations of " Mother
Gin " were sung about the streets, the signs of the
liquor shops were everywhere put into mourning,
and mock ceremonies on the funeral of " Madam
Gin " were carried out by the mob. To quote from
the journals : " Last Wednesday, September 29th,
^ Old Whig, 26th February, 1736. This inscription was after-
wards introduced by Hogarth in his caricature of Gin Lane.
VOL. n. 20
3o6 CAROLINE THE ILLUSTRIOUS
several people made themselves very merry with the
death of ' Madam Gin,' and some of both sexes
got soundly drunk at her funeral, of which the mob
made a formal procession with torches." ^
All over the country it was the same, and the
Act was practically abortive. The selling of gin
was carried on just the same, sometimes publicly in
the shops, more often by hawkers who sold it about
the streets in flasks and bottles under fictitious
names. Some of these names were odd enough,
such as "Cuckold's Comfort," "Make-Shift," "The
Ladies' Delight," " Colic and Gripe water," and so
forth. Sometimes the gin was coloured with ti
drop or two of pink fluid, and sold in bottles,
labelled : "Take two or three spoonfuls of this four
or five times a day, or as often as the fit takes
you ". The Act was repealed seven years later ;
but the whole of its unpopularity now fell upon
Walpole and the Queen-Regent, especially on the
latter, who certainly had urged its passing, as she
wished to abate the crying scandal of drunkenness.
The Prince of Wales, in his quest for popularity,
sided with the people, and was said to have been
seen drinking gin publicly in one of the taverns the
very day the Act came into force.
The most serious riot of all took place, not
in London or the provinces, but in Edinburgh.
Scotland, though quelled for a time after the abortive
rising of 1715, was still restless under Hanoverian
rule, and it needed but a spark to set the discontent
' The Daily Gazetteer, 2nd October, 1736.
«
CAROLINE'S LAST REGENCY 307
in a blaze. Scotland had never been reconciled to
the Act of Union, and the jealousy of any inter-
ference from England was strongly resented, even
by many of those who refused to acknowledge
James as their King. The Porteous Riots served
to brinof matters to a climax. These riots had their
origin in a small matter. Two smugglers, named
Robertson and Wilson, were arrested by the
officers of the Crown for robbing a collector of
customs, and lay in the Tolbooth, or city gaol of
Edinburgh, under sentence of death. Hanging was
the punishment for smuggling in those days, but
practically the severity of the sentence rendered the
Act inoperative, and smuggling was winked at by
many honest Scots who regarded these imposts as
an unjust aggression upon their ancient liberties.
But in this case the Government determined to
make an example. Great sympathy was felt for the
prisoners by the people, and files were secretly con-
veyed to them from outside to aid their escape. The
prisoners freed themselves from their manacles, and
cut through a bar of the window. Wilson insisted
on going first, but as he was a stout man he got
fixed in the opening, and there remained, unable
to move backwards or forwards. In this plight he
was found in the morning, and the escape of the
prisoners was defeated. Wilson was seized with
self-reproach at the thought that, if it had not been
for his wilfulness, Robertson, who was a younger
and slimmer man, would have been saved, and he
determined to do something to help him.
308 CAROLINE THE ILLUSTRIOUS
It was the custom in those days for condemned
prisoners to be taken to the Tolbooth church the
Sunday before their execution, and be preached at.
Robertson and Wilson went as was customary, es-
corted by guards, but as they were coming out
Wilson attacked the guards unexpectedly, and cried
to Robertson to escape. In the confusion the latter
managed to do so ; he jumped over the pews, and was
aided by the sympathetic congregation. The gener-
ous conduct of Wilson excited great popular sym-
pathy, but Captain John Porteous, who was in
command of the city guard, a rough and brutal man,
especially resented the saving of one prisoner by the
other, and determined that Wilson's execution should
take place the next day. In this decision he was
hastened by a rumour that Wilson would be rescued
from the gallows by the mob. He ordered a double
guard around the scaffold, and was said to have forced
the unfortunate victim to wear handcuffs much too
small for him as he went to the place of execution,
though the latter showed him his bruised and
bleeding wrists, and protested against this barbarity.
" It signifies little," said Porteous brutally, " your
pain will soon be at an end." Wilson answered him
in words that were afterwards remembered : '* You
know not how soon you yourself may have occasion
to ask the mercy which you are now refusing to a
fellow-creature. May God forgive you ! "
Wilson was hanged by the neck on the gibbet
erected in the Grassmarket, and the execution passed
off quietly enough, though an enormous and threaten-
^Jyi
CAROLINE'S LAST REGENCY 309
ing crowd had assembled. But when the body had
hung on the gibbet for some time, some of the mob
began to throw stones at the guards and a rush was
made for the scaffold to cut down the body, either
to give it decent burial or to see if it could be resusci-
tated, Porteous, who was a violent-tempered man
and was said to be half-drunk, ordered the soldiers
to fire upon the crowd and even stimulated them by
snatching a musket from a soldier and firing it him-
self. Several persons were wounded, and six or
seven killed on the spot. The firing was the signal
for a general tumult ; Porteous and his soldiers
withdrew with difficulty to the guard-house, pur-
sued by execrations and volleys of stones. Local
feeling was wholly against Porteous ; he was arrested
for ordering the soldiers to fire upon the citizens,
several of whom had taken no part in the tumult.
His trial took place before the High Court of Justice
in Edinburgh, and he was found guilty and condemned
to death. He was to be hanged on September 8th,
1736, and meanwhile lay in the Tolbooth. He
appealed to London, and the Queen-Regent in
Council, taking into consideration the provocation
which Porteous had received, ordered his reprieve.
When this reprieve arrived at Edinburgh from
the Secretary of State's Office, under the hand of
the Duke of Newcastle, the agitation that arose was
almost beyond belief. The people, who had been
thirsting for the death of Porteous, were like tigers
baulked of their prey, and determined to take the
law into their own hands. There is little doubt
3IO CAROLINE THE ILLUSTRIOUS
that the Lord Provost and city authorities were
aware of what was going to take place, and also the
General in command of the troops at the Castle.
They did nothing to prevent it, for their sympathies
were with the people. The night after the Queen's
reprieve arrived in Edinburgh, a fierce mob arose
as if by magic, armed with pikes, bayonets, Loch-
aberaxes, and any arms they could find, and headed
by a man dressed in woman's clothes. The rioters
made themselves masters of the gates of the city,
disarmed the guard, and marched to the Tolbooth,
with shouts of " Porteous ! Porteous ! " The un-
happy man within, who was entertaining a party
of boon companions on the cheerful news of his
reprieve, saw the glare of the torches, heard the
cries, and recognised in them the shout of his doom.
His friends made off as fast as they could, the
turnkeys were seized with panic and ran away, and
many prisoners escaped. Porteous concealed him-
self in the chimney of his cell. For some time the
old door of the Tolbooth, which was of stout oak,
heavily clamped with iron, resisted the onslaughts
of the rioters, but at last they burned it down, and
leaping over the embers rushed into the prison in
search of their prey. The miserable man was soon
discovered, dragged from the chimney, carried out-
side and hanged in the sight of the mob from an
improvised gibbet made of a barber's pole. The
crowd then dispersed as suddenly and mysteriously
as it had assembled ; the method and precision with
which the ringleaders carried out their work, and the
CAROLINE'S LAST REGENCY 311
celerity with which they dispersed, showed there
was method in this rough justice, and that it was
rather the result of a conspiracy than an ordinary
riot. The next morning not a sign remained of
the night's dread work except the body of Porteous
hanging from the pole.
When the news reached London the Queen was
furious at the insult which she conceived had been
especially aimed at her authority as Regent, and
gave vent to language which for vigour would have
done credit to her exemplar, Queen Elizabeth. For
the only time on record Caroline thoroughly lost
her temper. She hastily summoned a council and
proposed the wildest measures. The charter of
Edinburgh, she said, must be withdrawn, the
Provost must be incapacitated from ever holding
office again, the commander of the garrison must
be cashiered, and fines and imprisonment were to
be the order of the day. The Duke of Argyll
endeavoured to put in a moderating word on behalf