Swedish ambassador at St James's; while at the same time, and at George's request, the States-general secured the Baron Gortz. In Gyllenborg's papers were found the most complete proofs of the conspiracy. Of this the king took advantage to obtain an extraordinary supply, on the pretext of guarding against the designs of Sweden. But the sudden death of Charles XII., who was killed at the siege of Frederickshall, delivered him from the danger of the projected invasion, and the duchies of Bremen and Verden remained attached to the House of Hanover, an acquisition that brought with it many expensive continental connexions.

George I. was now in possession of these duchies, but had not yet received investiture from the emperor. This induced him to become the zealous ally of Charles VI. in the war which Alberoni excited between that prince and Spain. Philip V. having refused to accede to the treaty of the quadruple alliance, concluded between the Emperor, France, England, and Holland, in order to maintain the peace of Europe and to regulate the interests of the Spaniards and Imperialists in Italy, George equipped a strong squadron, which, under the command of Admiral Byng, destroyed the Spanish

fleet off the coast of Sicily. In the following year, 1718.} Alberoni prepared an expedition in favour of the Pre

tender, the usual scarecrow with which the enemies of England threatened the new dynasty. The armament consisted of ten vessels of war and a number of transports carrying 6000 soldiers with arms for 12,000 more. But this fleet was dispersed off Cape Finisterre by a violent tempest; only two frigates reached Scotland, where they landed 300 men, who, being joined and then abandoned by a few Highlanders, were promptly made prisoners. At the same time the Imperialists were victorious in Sicily, in consequence of the co-operation of the English fleet, and Philip V. at length joined the quadruple alliance, and dismissed his warlike minister.

5. SOUTH SEA SCHEME.-Alberoni by his impracticable enterprises, and Law by his extravagant schemes, had almost ruined Spain and France. England, in her turn, was brought to the verge of bankruptcy by the project of Sir John Blunt, a financier of Law's school. The national debt at this time exceeded forty millions sterling. The Bank of England and the South Sea Company each presented plans for redeeming this debt, and offered to undertake the business. The proposals of the company, which were made through Blunt, a

leading director, proved so advantageous that they were accepted by the ministry. It was in vain that Lord Cowper in one house, and Walpole in the other, prophesied that this measure would inevitably produce a commercial crisis. Parliament and people caught at it with a kind of delirium. The fallacious promises of the directors of the company and of their mercenary agents, the infamous manœuvres of the stockjobbers, and the avidity and credulity of the public, soon raised the hundred pound shares to the enormous price of £1000. The whole nation, without distinction of party, creed, profession, or sex, gave way to the speculative frenzy. They seemed to have forgotten everything for Blunt's scheme or other similar bubbles. The highest personages in the realm were not exempt from this wretched delusion. The Prince of Wales put his name down as governor of a Welsh copper company, and withdrew with a gambling profit of £40,000. A hundred absurd schemes were projected, which ruined a multitude of dupes. Among other joint-stock companies were some whose objects were the following:-for making salt-water fresh, for making oil out of sun-flower seeds, for extracting silver from lead, for converting mercury into a malleable metal, for trading in human hair, for importing asses from Spain, for fattening hogs, and for a perpetual motion. The sum proposed to be raised by these expedients amounted to three hundred millions sterling, an amount exceeding the value of all the landed property in the country. The South Sea Company, whose projects had given the signal to so many follies, more particularly fascinated men's minds; but this favourable impression did not last long. Shares that in the month of August were worth £1000 fell below £300 in September, and they never rose again. Numbers connected with the share-market-bankers, brokers, and merchants— became bankrupt and fled the country, each ruining hundreds and thousands in his fall. Walpole was now appealed to by those who had rejected his advice, and he faced the storm with equal courage and patriotism. The king returned in haste from Germany, and in concert with parliament, took vigorous and efficacious measures to remedy the disorder. A committee was appointed to examine the company's accounts; the property of the directors was confiscated for the benefit of the sufferers; other means were devised for indemnifying the creditors in part; and by wise financial combinations, principally the suggestions of Walpole, public credit was restored,

and the crisis averted that had threatened England with a general bankruptcy.

6. JACOBITE PLOT.-A new parliament, the second which had been elected under the septennial act, met in 1722. The royal speech, at its opening in October, disclosed the particulars of a Jacobite plot. Many persons, among others Atterbury, bishop of Rochester, were arrested on charges of high treason; the habeas corpus act was suspended for a year; and a particular tax of £100,000 was laid upon the real and personal estates of the papists, to go towards the expenses occasioned by the plot, of which they were said to have been the contrivers. Mr Layer, a young barrister of the Temple, was executed at Tyburn on a charge of having enlisted men for the Pretender's service, in order to stir up a rebellion. The Bishop of Rochester was deprived of his see and banished for life. He retired to France, where he became the Pretender's confidential agent and adviser. Not long after this, Parker earl of Macclesfield and lord-chancellor was impeached 1724. for his notorious misdeeds. He was found guilty of enormous abuses in the exercise of his legal functions, and condemned to pay a fine of £30,000, and to remain in prison until it was discharged.

A.D.

At this time, George's interests, as elector of Hanover, called him to the continent. The emperor, who was jealous of France and detested George, had established an East India Company at Ostend (a step which involved him in a quarrel with England and Holland), and concluded a treaty with Spain that was highly dangerous to England. George, fearing for the safety of his continental possessions, concluded a defensive alliance with France and Prussia. Three squadrons were put to sea; one to blockade the ports of Russia, which had acceded to the treaty of Vienna, and which was preparing an armament at Revel; the other, to watch the coasts of Spain, but with orders to abstain from any offensive act; and the third, to seize the Spanish galleons in the West Indies.

At the meeting of parliament in 1727, the king delivered a warlike speech, and the Commons voted 46,000 men, with a land-tax of four shillings in the pound for extraordinary expenses. Spain commenced hostilities by laying siege to Gibraltar; and while this strong place was holding out successfully against every attack, Fleury, who was at the head of the French government, mediated to put a stop to the war, which threatened to embroil all Europe. His exertions proved

11th June

1727.

successful, and preliminaries were signed at Paris (May 1727). By these it was stipulated that hostilities should immediately cease, that the charter of the Ostend East India Company should be suspended for seven years, and that a general congress should be opened within four months at Aix-la-Chapelle, for the settlement of all differences whatever. George Î. did not live to see the definitive conclusion of the treaty. He had left England on the 3d of June, and while on the road to Osnabruck, he was seized with apoplexy in his carriage, and died the next day. He was in the sixty-eighth and the thirteenth of his reign. year of his age The sect of the Methodists, a name derisively given to them from their strict regularity and method, was founded during this reign at Oxford by John Wesley. From a small college society it rapidly spread over the country, at a time when the spiritual wants of the people were very great. In 1741, the society was nearly destroyed by a difference between its Arminian founder and its Calvinistic apostle Whitefield. As yet the various congregations were all connected with the establishment, but about 1750 they seceded, at the same time expressing their reluctant difference on matters of discipline, and their unity with the church in matters of doctrine.

EXERCISES.

1. How was George I. related to the Stewart family? What branches were passed over in his favour? With what political views did he begin to reign? What was the peculiarity in his manner of eonvoking parliament ? What consequences did it produce?

2. Who was first charged with high-treason? Whom did Lord Coningsby impeach? What was the conduct of the impeached ministers? Who intrigued with the exiled court while professing to serve the house of Hanover? Describe the proceedings about the riot act. Whose death affected

the Pretender's hopes?

3. What was the conduct of the Earl of Mar? What did the Pretender do? How far was the Hanover succession in danger? What were the chief events in the rebellion? What measure was adopted to secure the

continued support of parliament?

4. What induced Charles XII. to threaten an invasion? What means were adopted to obviate the danger? What office did Gyllenborg hold, and what was his conduct? What event delivered the country from danger? What warlike events occurred at this period?

5. Who had brought France and Spain to the verge of ruin? What scheme was adopted in England? Give an account of the rise and progress of the South Sea scheme. What effect had it on the country in general? What was its result?

6. What bishop was charged with high-treason? What was his subsequent history? What alliance did the king conclude for the sake of his continental dominions? How did Spain commence hostilities? What negotiations were in progress when George died? Give an account of the Methodists.

CHAPTER XXXII.

GEORGE II., A. D. 1727-1760.

Sir Robert Walpole-The Excise Scheme-The Patriots or Country PartyRupture with Spain-Failure at Carthagena-Walpole's RetirementAustrian Succession War-Battle of Dettingen-Naval Fight off Toulon -Return of Anson from the South Seas-Fontenoy-Rebellion of 1745 -Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle-Colony of Nova Scotia founded-Seven Years' War-Execution of Admiral Byng-Ministry of Pitt-Colonial Wars-Conquest of Canada.

1. GEORGE II. now ascended the throne. His father never entertained for him any parental affection, and had always kept him aloof from public affairs. But instead of changing his ministers, as might have been expected, the new king conferred all his influence and favour on Sir Robert Walpole, the head of the whig or court party, the country party being in opposi

tion.

The congress, that should have terminated the work begun by the preliminaries of Paris, had met at Soissons, when unexpected obstacles sprung up. At the same time, the seizure of some English merchant vessels by the Spaniards, under the pretext that they were engaged in smuggling, had seriously excited the nation and parliament. A new rupture was feared; but by prudent negotiations this was prevented, and the treaty of Seville brought England and Spain into closer alliance (1729).

Walpole in the height of his power found an insuperable A. D. opposition to an excise scheme. The frauds and evasions 1733. of duties charged upon tobacco and wines were so glaring, that a change in the customs laws was imperatively necessary. The excise duties, which produced above three millions a-year, were chargeable principally upon malt, salt, and the materials used in distilleries. In order to prevent fraud in the sale of tobacco, he proposed that it should be brought under the laws of excise, which were to be remodelled; that instead of paying a duty on importation, it should he kept in bonded warehouses, whence it should be taken on paying a duty of 4 d., instead of 64d. A similar plan was to be applied to the duty on wine. Walpole's views were far-sighted: in his own words they would “make London a free port, and by consequence, the market