CHAPTER XXXI.

HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK-SIX SOVEREIGNS.

GEORGE I., A. d. 1714—1727.

Dynasty of Hanover-George I.-His first Parliament-Sir William Wynd. ham-Impeachment of Lords Oxford and Bolingbroke-Scottish Rebellion of 1715-The Septennial Act-Swedish Plot in favour of the Pretender -War with Spain-The South Sea Scheme-Jacobite Plot-War with Germany-Rise of the Methodists.

1. GEORGE, called to the throne by the act of settlement, was the first monarch of the Brunswick family, from which the present queen is lineally descended. It may be interesting to trace his relationship to the royal family of Stewart, which was now permanently superseded. It will be remembered that Elizabeth, the daughter of James I., was married to the Elector Palatine. They had a daughter, Sophia, married to the Elector of Hanover, who would have been the Queen of Britain had she not died shortly before Queen Anne. Her son, the Elector of Hanover, then fifty-four years old, succeeded to her right. By this arrangement, not only were the descendants of James II. passed over, but also those of his sister Henrietta, who was married to the Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV., all of them being Romanists.

The mature age of George I., his experience, his aptitude and application to business, his numerous alliances, and the general tranquillity of Europe, seemed to promise a happy and peaceful reign. But his aversion to the tories, and his exclusive attachment to the whigs, to whom he yielded the government, caused great discontent, and dangerous tumults broke out in several parts of his dominions.

The Pretender, for by this name the son of James II. was generally known, endeavoured to profit by this state of affairs, and published a manifesto, complaining that, contrary to the fundamental laws of hereditary right, the English nation had proclaimed a foreign prince. The king felt the need of a parliament devoted to his interests, and a new one was called under the influence of the court. Its first act was to fix the civil list at £700,000. The proclamation by which George had convoked the new parliament was in a form till then un

known. He complained of the wicked intentions of those who were ill affected to the order of succession, and expressed a hope and desire that the electors would return persons capable of remedying the existing disorders, and who were attached to the protestant succession. Some of the members of the Commons ventured to blame this proclamation; and when Sir William Wyndham declared it to be unprecedented and dangerous to the very nature of a parliament, he was threatened with the Tower, and was ordered to quit the house: one hundred and twenty-nine members accompanied him. Those who remained voted that he should be reprimanded by the Speaker for having made an unwarrantable use of the freedom of debate.

2. IMPEACHMENT OF Oxford.-This was merely a prelude to the violence meditated by the dominant party. Seeking a pretext for impeaching the late ministers, a secret committee was appointed to inquire into the negotiations concluded towards the end of the last reign. Upon the report of that committee, Robert Walpole accused one of the negotiators, Lord Bolingbroke, of high treason. When some of the members demurred to this serious charge, Lord Coningsby rose and said: "The worthy chairman of the committee has impeached the hand, but I impeach the head; he has impeached the scholar, and I the master; I impeach Robert earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer of high treason and other high crimes and misdemeanours." To no purpose did Oxford's brother represent that that minister had done nothing but by the queen's orders; that after all the peace of Utrecht was an advantageous one, and that it had been approved of by two parliaments. On the 9th of July, the articles of impeachment were carried to the bar of the House of Lords, and Oxford, although suffering under a painful malady, was committed to the Tower. Similar charges were brought against the Earl of Strafford and the Duke of Ormond. Bolingbroke, foreseeing the storm that threatened him, had escaped to France; and Ormond followed his example. A bill of attainder was passed against the two fugitives, and their names were erased from the rolls of the peerage. They subsequently joined the court of the exiled prince, with whom, indeed, there is no doubt that Bolingbroke held a correspondence when he was professing to serve the interests of Hanover. The proceedings of the party in power caused great discontent, which, being fomented by the whigs, daily increased in

strength. London and Westminster had already been the theatre of frequent tumults: the people had insulted those who celebrated the king's birth-day, and had burnt William III. in effigy in Smithfield. The Earl of Oxford had been accompanied to the Tower by an immense crowd, who vented loud execrations against his alleged persecutors. In the county of Stafford, and in other parts of England, tumultuous meetings had been held against the whigs; and the Commons presented an address to the king, soliciting vigorous measures against these disturbers of the public peace. A bill (the well known Riot Act) was accordingly prepared, which enacted that, whenever an assemblage of twelve persons should not disperse within an hour after a legal warning to that effect, they should be declared guilty of felony. When the king went to parliament to give his assent to this and other bills, he said that England was on the verge of rebellion, and that the country, in consequence of Jacobite intrigues, was threatened with an invasion from abroad. He was accordingly empowered to suspend the habeas corpus act and to arrest all suspected persons. A reward of £100,000 was offered for the apprehension of the Pretender, dead or alive. The fleet was put upon a war footing, and orders were issued for raising twenty new regiments. Some very stringent regulations were also passed against the Scotch Jacobites.

These measures were probably more calculated to precipitate than to prevent rebellion. The Pretender, invited by a powerful party in England, and relying upon assistance from Louis XIV., flattered himself with the hopes of a fortunate and early restoration. But the death of that king disappointed all his expectations. The regent, Philip of Orleans, connected himself with the House of Hanover, and the Jacobites were compelled to renounce all idea of support from France.

3. REBELLION OF 1715.-Nevertheless, a formidable rising took place in the Highlands of Scotland. The Earl of Mar, who had been secretary of state for Scotland, and had held other high offices under Queen Anne, immediately professed the utmost devotion to the cause of George, to whom he offered his services. The offer met with contemptuous neglect; and the earl set off for his highland estates, where he proclaimed James III. at the head of 10,000 followers, and the northern counties of England followed this example. The Pretender, a prince of feeble resolution, after some delay and hesitation, set sail for Scotland, where he found his partisans

weakened and discouraged by the battles of Preston in Lancashire and Sheriffmuir in Scotland. Instead of reviving them by active and energetic measures, he spent six weeks in idle parade; and then hastily re-embarked without having even seen an enemy. The course of the Revolution and the Hanover succession was at that time in great danger; and if the Jacobites had possessed an able general, they might at least have severed Scotland from England. They were, in fact, for a long time in complete possession of the ancient kingdom of the Stewarts, excepting its northern extremity, Edinburgh Castle, and a few other fortified places. The victory of the whigs was, however, in the end an easy one, and they might have followed it up with greater leniency. A large number of the insurgents were hanged, beheaded, and quartered, and 1000 were transported to the colonies of North America.

SEPTENNIAL ACT.-This harshness did not put an end to the discontent. The parliament, then sitting, was subservient to the ministers; but new elections, under the influence of the prevailing feelings, might change every thing, and expose the dominant party to terrible retaliation. To secure themselves against this danger, the ministry resolved on procuring the repeal of the triennial act, and extending the duration of parliament to seven years. After some opposition, the change was agreed to by a large majority (April 1716).

4. THE SWEDISH PLOT.-The king having relieved himself from the embarrassing clause in the act of settlement restraining him from leaving the kingdom, revisited his German dominions. As elector of Hanover, he had in the previous year purchased from the King of Denmark the duchies of Bremen and Verden, of which Charles XII. of Sweden had been deprived during his absence. When this prince returned to his kingdom, he vainly demanded their restoration, and in his resentment, he resolved, at the suggestion of Baron Gortz his principal minister, to attempt an invasion of England in favour of the Pretender. The connivance of Spain and Holland, the intrigues of Gortz in the latter country and in England, and the number of malcontents ready to second his enterprise, seemed to promise success. George prepared to meet this danger by entering into an alliance with France and Holland, and by the most prompt and energetic measures. At the news of the plot preparing against him, he hastily returned to London, and arrested Count Gyllenborg, the

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, 1715. Alberoni prepared an expedition in favour of the Pretender, 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