n such an understanding
was of greater importance to England.

At home the prospect seemed equally bright. Walpole had contrived to
ingratiate himself more and more with the Prince of Wales, and had
become his confidential adviser. Acting on his counsel, the Prince
made his submission to the King; and acting on Stanhope's counsel, the
King accepted it. The Sovereign and his heir had a meeting and were
reconciled; for the time, at least. Walpole consented to join the
administration, content for the present to fill the humble place of
paymaster to the forces, without a seat in the Cabinet. He returned,
in {182} fact, to the ministerial position which he had first occupied,
and from which he had been promoted, and must have seemed to himself
somewhat in the position of a boy who, after having got high in his
class, has got down very low again, and is well content to mount up a
step or two from the humblest position. Walpole knew what he was
doing, and must have been quite satisfied in his own mind that he was
not likely to remain very long paymaster to the forces, although he
could not, by any possibility, have anticipated the strange succession
of events by which he was destined soon to be left without a rival.
For the present he was in the administration, but he took little part
in its actual work. He did not even appear to have any real concern in
it. He spent as much of his time as he could at Houghton, his pleasant
country-seat in Norfolk. Townshend, too, had been induced to join the
administration. To him was assigned the position of president of the
council.

Thus there appeared to be a truce to quarrels, and to enmities abroad
and at home. There was no dispute with any of the great Continental
powers; there was no dread of the Stuarts. Ministerial rivalries had
been reduced to concordance and quiet; the traditional quarrel between
the Sovereign and the heir-apparent had been composed. It might have
been thought that a time of peace and national prosperity had been
assured. In the history of nations, however, we commonly find that
nothing more certainly bodes unsettlement than a general conviction
that everything is settled forever.

{183}

CHAPTER XI.

"THE EARTH HATH BUBBLES."

[Sidenote: 1718-1719--The Mississippi Scheme]

One of the comedies of Ben Jonson gives some vivid and humorous
illustrations of the mania for projects, speculations, patents, and
monopolies that at his time had