A.D. 1714.

OXFORD AND BOLINGBROKE.

591

powers; and that, on the whole, the conditions exacted from France were not disadvantageous. In general the peace was popular in England, and, when proclaimed on the 5th of May, was received with the acclamations of the populace.

§ 12. It became evident in the winter of this year that the queen's health was fast declining, and the near prospect of her dissolution animated the struggle between the Jacobites and the adherents of the house of Hanover. The Whigs urged the elector to a step which gave great offense to the queen. Schutz, the Hanoverian envoy, demanded for the electoral prince a writ to take his seat in the House of Lords, he having lately been created Duke of Cambridge. The queen was so enraged that she forbade Schutz to appear again at court, declared that she would suffer the last extremities rather than permit any prince of the electoral family to reside in England during her life, and wrote to the elector, to the Princess Sophia, and to the electoral prince, expressing her surprise at the step they had taken, and almost openly threatening that it might endanger their succession. Not long afterward (May 28th) the Princess Sophia died suddenly in the garden at Herrenhausen, aged 83.

ture.

§ 13. Oxford and St. John, now Viscount Bolingbroke, who had long been irreconcilable enemies, came this year to an open rupEach accused the other of being a Jacobite, and both were believed. Bolingbroke, in conjunction with Marlborough, laid a plot for the treasurer's ruin. Bolingbroke persuaded the queen that Oxford had privately forwarded the demand of a writ for the clectoral prince, and on the 27th of July he was deprived of the treasurer's staff, but permitted to retain his other offices. Thus ended his course as a public man. He has no title to be called a great minister; his policy was narrow, and he owed his rise to private intrigue. He had neither great natural ability nor much acquired learning. In temper he was reserved and distrustful; in policy tenacious rather than resolute; in manner awkward and undignified.

Bolingbroke had triumphed over his rival, and seemed on the point of succeeding to his power. He was generally regarded as the future prime minister; Marlborough hastened from the Continent to partake his triumph, when all his hopes were disappointed in a moment. The agitation of this political crisis had a fatal effect on the queen's declining health. A discharge from her leg suddenly stopped, and the gouty matter, making its way to the brain, threw her into a lethargy. While she lay in this state, the Duke of Shrewsbury,* who was both lord chamberlain and lord lieutenant of Ireland, concerted with the Dukes of Argyle and *He was the son of the 11th Earl of Shrewsbury, and was created a

ANNE.

CHAP. XXVIII

Somerset a plan for defeating the schemes of Bolingbroke and his Jacobite confederates in the ministry. Argyle and Somerset, without being summoned, suddenly appeared in the council (July 30th), to offer, they said, their advice at this juncture. Shrewsbury thanked them; and after ascertaining from the physicians the dangerous state of the queen, they proposed that the Duke of Shrewsbury should be recommended to her without delay as treasurer. The proposition was immediately submitted to the queen, who had recovered some degree of consciousness; and she not only gave him the treasurer's staff, but also continued him in the offices of chamberlain and lord lieutenant.

On Sunday, August 1st, Anne expired at Kensington, in the 50th year of her age stature, her hair and complexion dark, her features strongly markand 13th of her reign. She was of middle ed, the expression of her countenance rather dignified than agreeable. She was not deficient in accomplishments, understood music and painting, and had some taste for literature. She was jealous of her authority, and sometimes sullen when offended; and the good-nature and generosity which procured her the name of the good Queen Anne seem to have sprung as much from the indolence of her temper and the weakness of her understanding as from any active principle of benevolence. Her consort, Prince George of Denmark, had died in 1708.

1709. Battle of Malplaquet.

1710. Trial of Sacheverell.

1711. Harley (Earl of Oxford) made lord
treasurer. Marlborough deprived of
all his offices.

1713. Treaty of Utrecht.

1714. Death of Queen Anne.

duke by William III. in 1694. The dukedom became extinct upon his death in 1718, but his cousin succeeded to the earldom.

Obv.: GEORG LVD. D. G. M. BRIT. FR. ET HIB. REX DVX B & L. S. R. I. ELEC. Bust, laureate, to right. Rev.: ACCEDENS DIGNVS DIVISOS ORBE

BRITANNOS. The horse of Brunswick running across the map of the northwest of Europe. Below, VNVS NON SVFFICIT ORBIS.

CHAPTER XXIX.

HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK-GEORGE I. A.D. 1714-1727.

§ 1. Accession of George I. Character. New Ministry. § 2. Impeachment of Bolingbroke, Oxford, and Ormond. § 3. Mar's Rebellion. § 4. The Pretender lands in Scotland. Rebellion quashed. Executions. Repeal of Triennial Act. § 5. Unpopularity of the King. His Favorites and Mistresses. Treaty with France and Holland. § 6. Hanoverian Politics. Sweden favors the Pretender. Change of Ministry. § 7. Designs of Alberoni. Quadruple Alliance. Defeat of the Spanish Fleet at Cape Passaro. § 8. Projected Spanish Invasion. Vigo taken. Walpole and Townshend join the Ministry. § 9. The South Sea Bubble. § 10. The South Sea Directors punished. Death of Marlborough. Atterbury's Plot. § 11. Disturbances in Ireland on Account of Wood's Halfpence. Malt Tax in Scotland. Order of the Bath. § 12. Confederacy between the Emperor and Spain. Alliance with France and Prussia. Death of the King.

§ 1. GEORGE I. succeeded Queen Anne as quietly as if he had been the undisputed heir to the throne. No sooner had the queen expired than Kreyenberg, the Hanoverian resident, produced an instrument in the handwriting of the elector, nominating 18 peers, who, according to the Regency Bill, were to act as lords justices till his arrival. The peers selected were mostly Whigs, including the Dukes of Shrewsbury, Somerset, and Argyle, Lords Cowper, Halifax, and Townshend; but it created some surprise that neither Marlborough nor Somers was among the number. Marlborough had landed at Dover on the very day of the queen's death. He was indignant to find himself excluded; but he was

in some degree consoled by the reception he met with from the citizens of London, where he made a sort of public entry. Then, having taken the oaths in the House of Lords, he retired into the country.

The new king was proclaimed, both in Dublin and Edinburgh, without opposition or tumult. On the 5th of August the lords justices delivered a speech to the Parliament, recommending them to provide for the dignity and honor of the crown; and loyal and dutiful addresses were unanimously voted by both houses. George was immediately acknowledged by Louis XIV. and the other European powers. A British squadron had been dispatched to wait for him in Holland. He did not set out from Hanover till August 31, and landed at Greenwich on September 18, bringing with him his eldest son.

The monarch who now ascended the throne of England was 54 years of age, heavy in look, awkward and undignified in manner and address, without the slightest tincture of literature or science, but possessing that taste for music which characterizes his country. He disliked pomp, and was even averse to popular applause; and the society which he preferred was that of buffoons and persons of low intellect. His total ignorance both of the English manners and language added to his other disadvantages in the new scene in which he was to appear. Yet his own subjects parted with him with regret, for he possessed some good qualities. He was honorable, benevolent, and sincere; economical even to niggardliness; regular in the distribution of his time; possessing both personal courage and military knowledge, yet a lover of peace.

Before the king landed he sent directions to remove Bolingbroke from the office of secretary of state, and to appoint Lord Townshend in his place, who must now be considered as prime minister. The Duke of Shrewsbury resigned his offices of treasurer and lord lieutenant. In the latter he was succeeded by Sunderland; the treasury was put in commission, with Lord Halifax at the head, and the office of lord treasurer was never afterward revived. General Stanhope was made second secretary of state; Lord Cowper, chancellor; the Earl of Wharton, privy seal; the Earl of Nottingham, president of the council; Mr. Pulteney secretary-at-war; the Duke of Argyle, commander-in-chief for Scotland. Marlborough and the leading Whigs were graciously received by the king, but it was with difficulty that Oxford was permitted to kiss his hand. Marlborough was reinstated in his old offices of captain general and master of the ordnance; and his three sons-in-law received appointments. His merits were too great to be overlooked, but the court must have been well aware of his predilection for the

A.D. 1714, 1715. BOLINGBROKE AND ORMOND ATTAINTED.

595

Stuarts, and he soon found that he was not trusted. Indeed, it appears that even now, when holding a high post under the house of Brunswick, he sent a loan to the Pretender which probably assisted the rebellion of 1715. The Chevalier de St. George, as the Pretender was frequently called, was still residing in Lorraine ; and having repaired to the baths of Plombières, he published there, August 29, a manifesto asserting his right to the English

crown.

§ 2. The Parliament, which met in March, 1715, was opened by the king in person; but as he was unable to pronounce English, his speech was read by the chancellor. It soon appeared that the ministers were determined to impeach their predecessors. Bolingbroke took alarm and fled to the Continent, where he entered the service of the Pretender as secretary of state; Oxford, of a more phlegmatic temperament, calmly awaited the storm; the Duke of Ormond, another of the compromised, the idol of the mob, behaved with bravado, and in his style of living vied with the court itself. A secret committee was appointed by the Commons to inquire into the late negotiations; and when the report, drawn up by Walpole, had been read, the three noblemen just mentioned were impeached of high treason. Various articles were alleged against them; but the charge most relied on was the procuring Tournay for the King of France, which it was endeavored to bring under the statute of Edward III. as an adhering to the queen's enemies. Lord Strafford, one of the plenipotentiaries at Utrecht, was also accused of high crimes and misdemeanors, but no notice was taken of his two colleagues. Ormond now fled to France. Before he went he visited Oxford in the Tower, and counseled him to attempt his escape. The ex-treasurer refused, and Ormond took leave of him with the words, "Farewell, Oxford without a head!". To which the latter replied, “Farewell, duke without a duchy!" In fact, Ormond never returned, and died abroad in 1745, at the age of 80. Bills of attainder against him and Bolingbroke were passed without opposition. These impeachments were merely the results of party animosity, and evidently could not be maintained. The peace had been approved by two Parliaments; yet Oxford was detained two years in the Tower, till Townshend and Walpole, his greatest enemies, had both quitted office, when he was dismissed by a sort of collusion of the two houses.

§ 3. The death of Louis XIV. (Sept. 1) was a severe blow to the Pretender, who was meditating an invasion. The Duke of Orleans, who now became regent in the minority of Louis XV., had different views from Louis. He could not, indeed, altogether reject the claims of a kinsman, but he was unwilling to compro