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veral particulars, which showed the dangerous aims and objects of the jacobites.

To corroborate the whole, an original and printed copy of a declaration, signed by the Pretender at Lucca, was laid before the house. In this curious paper the Chevalier expatiated on the grievances of the nation, and calling upon the people to assert their rights, gravely proposed that if king George would relinquish the throne, the right heir, in return, would bestow on the said king George the title of king in his native dominions, and secure his succession to the British sceptre, whenever in due course, his natural right should take place.

In revenge, a bill was prepared by the commons to raise one hundred thousand pounds on the real and personal estates of papists, towards defraying the expenses incurred by the late rebellion and disorders; and all persons of that faith in Scotland were called upon to register their names and real estates.

These pecuniary mulcts were followed by the trial, conviction, and execution of Layer. No evidence appeared, or at least was produced, for grounding any process against the nobles who had been arrested; but Atterbury, bishop of Rochester, had made himself too conspicuous to escape punishment. On the mere evidence of hearsay and conjecture, a bill of pains and penalties passed the lower house against him, and was sent up to the lords, when the trial commenced. All that could be produced against him was certain decyphered letters, which were construed as treasonable from a name in the direction of one of them, said to be a cant term for the Pretender. The oaths of the clerks of the post-office were taken as sufficient evidence of their being the hand-writing of Kelly, amanuensis to the bishop, and this was considered as a proof that his employer was guilty. In short, the weakness, the insufficiency, and the contradiction of the evidence were notorious to all, yet a majority voted in favour of the bill, by which he was deprived of all his ecclesiastical offices, dignities, and benefices; disabled from holding or enjoying any office, dignity, benefice, or employment in future, adjudged to be for ever banished the realm, and all other his majesty's dominions, and ordered to depart out of the same before the 25th of June, 1723. It was also declared a capital offence to harbour or correspond with him, without exception to any persons whatsoever, and every offence against this act was to be tried in any county within the realm of Great-Britain.

The punishment of the bishop of Rochester seems to have been a blow levelled at the high church party, who looked up to this prelate as their chief ornament and support. The whole kingdom resounded with their complaints of the indignity and injustice that had been offered to the episcopal order, and public prayers were offered up for his health in all the churches and chapels in London and Westminster. The bishop died in exile a few years after.

The remainder of the reign of George the first presents little, except a tedious repetition of intricate and contradictory treaties, most of which were inimical to the interests of this country. To enable the king to fulfil some new engagements with the kings of Prussia and Denmark, an additional number of sea

men and land forces were voted by the com

mons.

Soon after, on a close alliance taking place between the courts of Spain and Vienna, the king felt alarmed for his German dominions, and a negociation between Prussia, France, and England, took place at Hanover, which ended in a defensive treaty for fifteen years.

1727.

The hostile designs of Spain, in conA. D. junction with the emperor, becoming daily more apparent, the naval and military force of the kingdom were put on a respectable footing; and in order to cut off the supplies which furnished Spain with the means of annoyance, admiral Hosier was directed to sail to the West-Indies, with the intent of mak. ing prize of the galleons, which annually import the treasures of America into the mother country. This design, however, being divulged before it could be executed, the treasure, amounting to six millions sterling, was unloaded, and carried back to Panama.

It was now asserted in parliament that the objects of Spain were to place the Pretender on the throne of Great-Britain, and to recover Gibraltar and port Mahon. Mutual affronts and recriminations followed between the powers at variance, and the season for action seemed to be approaching. George entered into a more strict alliance with the kings of France and Denmark, subsidized Sweden, formed a convention with Hesse Cassel, and determined to send a strong fleet into the Baltic to check the Russians, who were suspected of being in the interests of Spain and the emperor.

Parliament gave its entire sanction to these measures, and voted an adequate supply. Meanwhile, hostilities were commenced against the dominions of Great-Britain, by the Spaniards investing Gibraltar. This place was defended by colonel Clayton, and after the enemy had lain before it for some months, and lost ten thousand men, they found it expedient to raise the siege. The garrison did not lose more than three hundred during this invest

ment.

Early in the spring sir Charles Wager had been dispatched with a reinforcement to the garrison of Gibraltar, and sir John Norris, set sail for the Baltic, where he was joined by a Danish squadron. Every where preparations were making for a war, which threatened to embroil all Europe. A stop, however, was put to the farther effusion of human blood, by the mediation of the king of France; and at length twelve preliminary articles were signed by the respective plenipotentiaries, by which it was stipulated, "that hostilities should immediately cease, that the charter of the Ostend company should be suspended for seven years, and that a congress should in four months, assemble at Aix-la-Chapelle, for adjusting all differences, and consolidating the peace of Europe."

George did not live to enjoy the agreeable prospect which his successful negociations now opened. Being suddenly seized with a paralytic disorder, on the road from Holland to Hanover, he was conveyed in a state of insensibility to Osnaburgh, where he expired on Sunday, the 11th of June, 1727, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and the thirteenth of his reign.

George I. was of a moderate stature; his features were regular and manly, and his countenance grave and majestic. He was an able and experienced general, and a consummate politician. Though the rage of party was never stronger than during his reign, he was allowed by all to have an honest heart; and he was beloved by those who had the best opportunity of appreciating his worth. He governed England with great mildness, was an enemy to persecution, and never wished to encroach on the civil or religious liberties of his people. That he felt too strong a predilection for his native country, Hanover, cannot be said; but that he showed it too evidently at the expense of Great-Britain, is a fact which will not be denied.

George I. had been long separated from the princess Sophia, his queen, who never came into England; of course the court at St. James's was never brilliant, nor did his majesty seem fond of etiquette.

A. D.

1727.

CHAP. XΧΙ.

The Reign of George II.

T was upwards of a month after the demise of George I. before that melancholy event was known in England. Immediately on the news being communicated to sir Robert Walpole, that minister carried it to the prince and princess of Wales, at Richmond, who removing to Leicester-house, a privy council was instantly assembled, and next day George II. was proclaimed king, with the usual solemnities. His majesty took and subscribed

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