Geo. I. to a foreign yoke, than depart from their darling and avowed 1716-17. defign of altering and fubverting the present happy establish your friends, that the expedition I do not expect to hear from ment have been got thither in my abfence, he would have found Stambke fully instructed. I herewith fend you back the contracts figned according to your defire The positive promife of letting them have iron puts me under fome difficulty, because I had no thoughts of preparing for fo great a quantity. As to your money, you may keep an account of what you fhall receive, four thousand crowns. I have not yet propofed to the king that augmentation; but I am in hopes of obtaining it for you. In the mean time, employ all your skill, in order to give the court all the trouble that is poffible, in the next feffion, in relation to their conduct in the affairs of the north; and tell me from whence proceeds the good difpofition wherein Walpole feems to be.' The form of the acquittance mife, on the part of his majesty, der, ment in the Proteftant fucceffion.' They conclude, We Geo. I. are all but too fenfible of the infupportable weight of the 1716-17. der, in the space of two years, to commence from the date of this acquittance: fo that every four months there fhall be paid a fixth part of the principal, together with intereft at the rate of one half per cent. by the month, and fo on, to the full payment of the total fum. In virtue and token whereof, I have figned thefe prefents, the eleventh of January, 1717. The baron de Gortz.' The next letter is from count Gyllenburg to baron Gortz, dated at London, January 18, 1717, N. S. as follows: My friend, that directs the whole affair, came back from the country laft Saturday night, as I had the honour to acquaint your excellency that he would, in my latt. He hath this day let me know, that upon a letter, which he received from my lord Mar, to remit forthwith 20,000l. into France, to the queen dowager of England, who was to pay it to us, he had actually remitted that money, which he hoped was already paid to your excellency. He asked my pardon for not having communicated this to me fooner, having been obliged to go into the country the moment the affair was dispatched. He added, that he had defired further orders from my lord Mar, with respect to the place, where the reft of the money fhould be paid. I doubt not but that baron Sparre has already had ad na. vice of all this, and that he has acquainted your excellency with it; which, however, I beg you would forthwith let me know, that I may quiet the minds of my friends here, who imagine, that the faid baron doth not act in concert with your excellency in an affair, wherein the leaft mifunderstanding might do a great deal of mifchief. I have told them, that your excellency defigned, that I should come to you in Holland, to concert every thing with you; with which they were very well fatisfied. But I have told them, that I will not go thither with empty hands, and that they ought at leaft to get 10000 1. ready for me to carry with me. I have alfo defired them to get me a letter from the brother of the czar's phyfician, which might ferve to introduce me to him, if your excellency thinks fit to employ me to speak to him. I cannot express to your excellency my concern, that the affair above-mentioned fhould have taken a turn, which I did not expect; and which, for aught I know, may not be pleafing to your excellency. Even my friends are diffàtisfied at it, every thing being done unknown to them. But, as they are obliged to have great regard for the director of the affair, who is a perfon of very great confequence, they muit feem to be fatisfied. If if your excellency, after this, thinks it neceffary for me to come to Holland, I beg your orders therein Geo. I. national debts, and therefore will not neglect to apply our1716-17. felves, with all poffible diligence and attention, to the great therein as foon as poffible, that I may take my measures. After I had written these lines, I received the favour of your excellency's of the 13th, from whence I perceive, with a great deal of pleasure, that our affair is begun. I read it to one of my friends, who told me, that that was the fum, of which he had spoken to me fome days ago, and which I mentioned in one of my former; that he then believed it to be 8,000l. but that it was but 6,500l which exactly anfwers that, which has been paid to your excellency, and which makes part of the zo,cool. that has been remitted. He has promised me to haften the reft, but I fhould think, that it would be neceffary, that our friends in France, from whom they expect the orders, fhould pray them to dispatch it with all hafte. He has given me hopes, that I fhall have a good fun with me, when I go to Holland.' The next letter is of count Gyllenburg to baron Gortz, dated at London, January 23, 1717, in which he writes thus: The day before yesterday, I received the favour of your excellency's of the 16th. The inclofed triplicate of that which I had the honour to write your excellency by the laft poft, will fhew you the train, that our affairs are in. In the mean time, I have told our friends, that your excellency thought my voyage to Holland abfolutely neceffary, in order to concert and with me the neceffary measures for the enterprize; but, that your excellency would by no means have me ftir from hence, without carrying with me what money fhould be neceffary. That it therefore lay upon them now to make the best use of the time, which was fo precious to us, and to put me in a condition of going with the first op. tunity. They promifed me to do their beft that my voyage might not be deferred longer than the end of the next week. In case I can by that means bring them to haften their difbarfement, it will afterwards depend upon your excellency's pleasure, whether I fhall go to pay my respects to you or not. Your excellency may be af fured, that I do all in my power to traverse the ill defigns of our enemies. The printed piece inclofed, wherein I have spoken intirely as as Englishman, is a fmall fpecimen of what is to follow. I do not know whether Mr. Walpole's expreffions were the effect of his first rage, on account of his brother-in-law my lord Townshend's being removed, or whether they came from his heart. We shall be better able to judge of those gentlemen after the king's arrival, when it fhall appear, if they have reason to be fatisfied; for it is from thence, that they will form their scheme of politics. It is ftrongly reported here, that your excellency has made a de and neceffary work of reducing and leffening, by degrees, Geo. I. this heavy burden, which may prove the moft effectual 1716-17. means of preferving to the public, funds a real and certain fecurity.' The convocation alfo prefented a very loyal addrefs, Addrefs of wherein was the following paragraph: We have feen, in cation. the late declarations of fome of thefe men, who, neverthelefs, call themselves by the name of Proteftants, what we muft look for, fhould a Popish prince ever fit upon the throne of these kingdoms. Whilft they allow us no better a character than that of Schifmatics and Heretics, of men cut off from the communion of Chrift's church, and all the hopes of falvation, What can be expected from profeffed Papifts, who account no better of them (however they may flatter themfelves) than they do of us; but that both they and we shall be utterly destroyed by them?' declaration, that the king, having waved all preliminary demands, has accepted the emperor's mediation, and agreed to fend his plenipotentiaries to Brunswick, I moit humbly beg your excellency will let me know what truth there is in it.' The next letter is from baron Gortz to count Gyllenburg, dated at Paris, January 27, 1717, N. S. wherein he fays: Yours of the 18th, with the duplicate, is come fafe to my hands. Your friends are in the wrong to imagine, that M. Sparre and I do not act in concert in this affair. He has communicated every thing to me with the greateft exactnefs, and not being authozed himself to enter upon this affair, nor to receive the money, he has left all to my difpofal. I have even put into his hands acquittances, where the fum is left in blanks, that he may make afe of them in my abfence, as foon as the money is come. The friends, which are in France, fhall be writ to, to prefs thofe VOL. XIX. in England, to furnish, as foon As for your voyage into Hol- F But Oxford a dress. Geo. I. But the university of Oxford did not fhew themfelves fo 1716-17. loyal; for, at the meeting of the vice-chancellor, and other heads of the univerfity, Dr. Dunfter, warden of WadhamDebate at college, having made a motion for an addrefs to the king, bout an ad- and being fupported by Dr. Wynne, bishop of St. Afaph, and by the warden of Merton-college; Dr. Smalridge, bifhop of briftol, defired to know the fubject of the addrefs. Bishop Wynne readily anfwered, That they might address upon these three heads: 1. The fuppreffion of the late unnatural rebellion 2. The king's fafe return: 3. The favour fhewn by the court to the univerfity, in granting their late request,' that the officers of Sterne's regiment, quartered at Oxford, fhould not burn publickly, on the day of his majefty's arrival, the effigies of the devil, pope, pretender, Ormond, Mar, and cthers.' 6 The bifhop, Smalridge, replied, The rebellion had been fuppreffed long before; a thanksgiving had already been obferved for it, and therefore he thought it now too late to addrefs upon that fubject.' As to the fecond, There would be no end of addreffes, if they made one upon fuch an occafion.' And as for the third, The late favour they had received was overbalanced, by having a whole regiment quartered upon them.' Dr. Charlett, the mafter of Universitycollege, urged, That there was no precedent for addreffing a king, who returned from his German territories.' Dr. Gardiner was againft addreffing, to fave charges, on pretence, that they were out of cafh.' Dr. Cobb, and others, made other objections, and fo the motion for addreffing dropped. But the univerfity of Cambridge did not follow their example, but prefented a loyal addrefs, wherein they owned the king to be their only rightful and lawful fovereign (a). (a) Thefe addreffes were followed by a long one from the diffenting minifters, in which they faid: We think it the particular honour of the Protestant Diffen ters, that their strict adherence to the intereft of your illuftrious family, before your majefty's acceffion, and their loyalty to it fince, have drawn upon them fo much of the fury of their fellowfubjects; we are not confcious Three what elfe could render us obnoxious to them; our principles being, as we hope, the most friendly to mankind, and amounting to no more than those of a general Toleration to all peaceable fubjects, univerfal love and charity for all Chriftians, and to act always in matters of religion, as God fhall give us light into his will about them. We do not fo much as expect or |