Lockhart, "that Her Majesty might judge from the address she had read, that I should not be acceptable to my constituents if I gave my consent for bringing over any of that family, either now, or at any time hereafter." "At this," adds Lockhart, "she smiled, and I withdrew, and then she said to the Duke of Hamilton, she believed I was an honest man, and a fair dealer."* "Your affairs," says Bolingbroke, in a letter to the Pretender, "hasten to a crisis, and I hope that with prudence and fortitude, for they must go hand in hand, your Majesty's restoration will soon be accomplished. The Duke of Shrewsbury is frankly engaged, and was, the last time I heard of him, very sanguine. I submit to your Majesty whether a letter from yourself to him, or a message through me, would not be proper. As to Peterborough, I think, indeed, he is not to be neglected. I will write to him, and even offer to meet him. Your Majesty knows his character, and will give me your orders how far he is to be promised. May I presume to ask whether something particular has been said to Marlborough? he is at this moment much perplexed, and openly pushed at. Should not the Duke of Berwick, at least, by your Majesty's order, in this point of time, endeavour to fix him? An application justly timed has always double force. I had forgot to add, that any treaty with Marlborough must be kept very secret from Ormond; for though * Lockhart Papers, p. 317. A.D. 1713. nothing can cool the zeal of the latter, yet this might perhaps give him some dissatisfaction at heart."* Again, "I do not see why, when James goes to Scotland, he might not write a letter to Marlborough to require his attendance there on his declaring openly for him in England, for which an order would of necessity oblige Marlborough to pull off the mask, and trim no longer. I think it is now more than ever now or never.”† "The more I think of it, the more I am convinced that it is absolutely necessary that the Duke of Ormond should, on his arrival in England, instantly disperse some popular paper amongst the people, and that declarations and letters should be ready to fly about to all parts, on the very moment of time when your Majesty is arrived, or is upon your arrival. This is not my private sense alone, but the joint opinion of the Duke and of every man who knows anything of the present state of the country. What methods of carrying on business formerly might be I am ignorant; but of late years those have done it best who have, by frequent and plausible appeals to the people, gained the nation on their side. Since the decay of the monarchy, and the great rise of the popular power without, we have been forced to combat them at their own weapon."‡ Again, "I am very happy that your Majesty * Lord Bolingbroke to James, Aug. 20. 1715.- Letters now at Windsor. James to the Duke of Berwick, Aug. 23. 1715. Id. - is pleased to approve of the frankness with which I have exposed to you several disagreeable truths. The state of England is so much altered from what it was some years ago, and the notions in which men are educated are so different, that those motives which would have been sufficient formerly will not be so now. Whenever your Majesty sets your foot on English ground you will find all this to be true, even in a greater degree than I have presented it to you. Without arms and ammunition, neither England nor Scotland can support your cause; for, Sir, your Majesty must not expect a revolution now; you must depend upon a war.”* "What I had the honour to foretell you, Sir, proves true: this spirit" (popularity of the Hanover succession)" increases, and all the measures taken to extinguish the flame seem but as fresh fuel to make it burn higher. Things are hastening to that point that either you, Sir, at the head of the Tories, must save the church and constitution of England, or both must be irretrievably lost for ever." † "The party of James had been long flattered with the hope of seeing the succession altered by Oxford (the adviser of Anne); but by the premature death of the Queen all their expectations at once were blasted. The Hanoverian interest prevailed, which completed their confusion, and they Lord Bolingbroke to James, Nov. 2. 1715. † Lord Bolingbroke to James, Aug. 19. 1715. now found themselves without a leader to give consistency to their designs, and force to their councils. Upon recollection, they saw nothing so eligible as silence and submission; they hoped much from the assistance of France, and still more from the vigour of the Pretender." *Lord Littleton's Hist. of England, vol. ii. p. 124. 229 CHAPTER X. GEORGE I. AND GEORGE II. House of Brunswick support the free Constitution of Great Britain. Apprehension of the People of England from the Power and Ambition of the Monarch of France. George I. not popular in his Manners. Dread of the Return of the Stuarts. All the populous and manufacturing Towns in Great Britain declare for the Hanover Succession. The ignorant part of the remote Districts the only Population in favour of the Pretender. ALTHOUGH the ministry of Queen Anne were desirous of supporting the interests of the Pretender, yet the feeling of the community was so strong in favour of the House of Hanover, that a clause was inserted in the Treaty of Utrecht, securing the Protestant succession.* The Stuarts being expelled by the nearly unanimous sentiment of the country, the House of Brunswick, as descendants of James the First, were the only family on whom the suc One of the articles of the above treaty contained this provision: "His Most Christian King promises for himself and heirs that he will at no time disturb the Queen of Great Britain, her heirs and successors of the Protestant line, nor give any favour, protection, &c. to those who should oppose the Protestant succession." † George I. was great-grandson of James VI. of Scotland, and I. of England. On his mother's side, he was a Stuart. |