duties of life, than a public ftation; being a pattern of conjugal fidelity, a good mother, a warm friend, and an indulgent miftrefs. During her reign none fuffered on the fcaffold for treafon; for when an oppreffed faction takes the lead, it is feldom cruel. In her ended the line of the Stuarts; a family whofe misfortunes and mifconducts are not to be paralleled in hiftory. A family, who lefs than men themselves, feemed to expect from their followers more than manhood in their defence; a family that never rewarded their friends, and never avenged them of their enemies.

TH

HE two parties which had long divided the kingdom, under the names of Whig and Tory, now feemed to alter their titles; and as the old epithets had loft their virulence by frequent use. the Whigs were now ftiled Hanoverians, and the Tories were branded with the appellation of Jacobites. The former boafted of a proteftant king, the latter of an hereditary monarch; the former urged the wisdom of their new monarch, and the latter alleged that theirs was an Englishman. It is eafy to perceive, that the choice would reft upon him whose wifdom and religion promised the people the greatest security.

The Jacobites had long been flattered with the hopes of feeing the fucceffion altered by the new miniftry. Ungrounded hopes, and impracticable fchemes, feem to have been the only portion bequeathed to that party. They now found all their expectations blafted by the premature death of the queen. The diligence and activity of the privy

council,

council, in which the Hanoverian intereft prevailed, the general ridicule which attended their inconfiftent conduct, all ferved to complete their confufion Upon recollection, they faw nothing fo eligible in the prefent crifis, as filence and fubmiffion; they hoped much from the affiftance of France, and still more from the popularity and councils of the pretender. This unfortunate man feemed to poffefs all the qualities of his father; his pride, his want of perfeverance, and his attachment to the catholic religion. He was but a poor leader, therefore, to conduct so desperate a cause; and in fact, all the fenfible part of the kingdom had forfaken it as irretrievable.

Pursuant to the act of fucceffion, George the firft, fon of Erneft Auguftus, first elector of Brunswick, and the princefs Sophia, grand daughter to James the first, afcended the British throne. His mature age, he being now fifty-four years old, his fagacity and experience, his numerous allies, the general tranquility of Europe, all contributed to eftablifh his interefts, and to promife him a peaceable and happy reign. His virtues, tho' not fhining, were folid; he was of a very different difpofition from the Stuart family, whom he fucceeded. These were known, to a proverb, for leaving their friends in extremity; George, on the contrary, foon after his arrival in England, was heard to fay,.

66

My maxim is, never to abandon my friends, to "do juftice to all the world and to fear no man. To these qualifications of refolution and perfeverance he joined great application to bufinefs. However, one fault with refpect to England remained behind; he ftudied the interefts of those fubjects he had left, more than of thofe he came to govern.

The queen had no fooner refigned her laft breath, than the privy-council met, and three inftruments

ftruments were produced, by which the elector appointed several of his own adherents to be added as lords juftices to the feven great offices of the kingdom. Orders alfo were immediately iffued out for proclaiming George king of England, Scotland and Ireland. The regency appointed the earl of Dorfet to carry him the intimation of his acceffion to the crown, and to attend him in his journey to England. They fent the general officers, in whom they could confide, to their pofts; they reinforced the garrifon of Portsmouth, and appointed the celebrated Mr. Addison fecretary of ftate. To mortify the late miniftry the more, lord Bolingbroke was obliged to wait every morning in the paffage among the fervants, with his bag of papers, where there were perfons purpofely placed to infult and deride him. No tumult appeared, no commotion arose against the acceffion of the new king, and this gave a ftrong proof that no rational measures were ever taken to obftruct his exaltation.

The king first landed at Greenwich, where he was received by the duke of Northumberland, captain of the life-guard, and the lords of the regency. From the landing place, he walked to his houfe in the park, accompanied by a great number of the nobility and other perfons of distinction, who expected to make their court in this reign in confequence of their turbulence and oppofition to the laft. When he retired to his bedchamber, he then fent for fuch of the nobility as had diftinguished themselves by their zeal for his fucceffion. But the duke of Ormond, the lord chancellor, and the lord treasurer, found themselves excluded. Lord Oxford, the next morning, prefented himfelf with an air of confidence, fuppofing that his rupture with Bolingbroke would compenfate for his former conduct. But he had the mor tification to remain a confiderable time un

noticed

noticed among the crowd; and then was permitted to kifs the king's hand, without being honoured with any circumftances of peculiar respect. To mortify him ftill more, the king expreffed the most uncommon regard for the duke of Marlborough, who had just come from the continent, as well as for all the leaders of the Whig party.

The king of a faction, is but the fovereign of half his fubjects. Of this however, the newelected monarch did not feem fenfible. It was his misfortune, and confequently that of the nation, that he was hemmed round by men, who foured him with all their own interefts and prejudices. None now but the leaders of a party were admitted into employment. The Whigs, while they pretended to fecure the crown for their king, were with all poffible arts confirming their own interests, extending their connexions, and giving laws to their fovereign. An inftantaneous and total change was made in all the offices of truft, honour, or advantage. The Whigs governed the fenate and the court; whom they would, they oppreffed; bound the lower orders of people with fevere laws, and kept them at a diftance by vile diftinctions; and then taught them to call this-Liberty.

These partialities foon raifed difcontents among the people, and the king's attachment confiderably encreased the malecontents thro' all the kingdom. The clamour of the church's being in danger was revived, and the people only feemed to want a leader to incite them to infurrection. Birmingham, Bristol, Norwich, and Reading, ftill remem bered the fpirit with which they had declared for Sacheverel; and now the cry was, Down with the Whigs, and Sacheverel for ever. During A. D. thefe commotions, which were foment

ed by every art, the pretender hin felf 1714. continued a calm fpectator on the continent. Then

was

was the time for him to have ftruck his greatest blow; but he only fent over his emiffaries to disperfe his ineffectual manifeftoes, and delude the unwary. In these papers he obferved, that the late queen had intentions of calling him to the crown. He expoftulated with his people upon the injuftice they had done themselves in proclaiming a foreign prince for their fovereign, contrary to the laws of the country that gave him only the real claim. Copies of a printed addrefs, were fent to the dukes of Shrewsbury, Marlborough, Argyle, and other noblemen of the first diftinction, vindicating his right to the crown, and complaining of the injuftice of his people. Yet though he ftill complained of their conduct, he never took one step to reform his own, or to correct that objection, upon which his father had forfeited the throne. He ftill continued to profefs the truest regard to the catholic religion; and inftead of concealing his fentiments on that head, gloried in his principles. He expected to afcend the throne against a very powerful oppofition, and that by profeffing the very fame principles by which it had been loft..

But however odious the popifh fuperftition was to the bulk of the people at that time, the principles of the diffenters were equally difpleafing. It was against them and their tenets, that mobs were excited, and riots became frequent. How violent. foever the conduct of either party feemed to be, yet their animofities were founded upon religion, and they committed every excefs upon principles that had their foundation in some mistaken virtue. It was now faid, by the Tories, that impiety and herefy were daily gaining ground under a Whig adminiftration. It was faid, that the bifhops were fo lukewarm in favour of the church, and fo ardent in pursuit of temporal advantages, that every vice

was