The new sovereign lost no time in coming over to Britain, and fixing
himself in that heritage which his family has ever since retained. He
was fifty-four years of age, of a good, though not brilliant
understanding, and very firm in his principles. Knowing well that the
whigs were his only true friends, he at once called them into the
administration. It was the custom of that period for every party, on
getting into power, to try to annihilate their opponents. Not only
were the whole Tory party insulted by the king, but a committee of the
House of Commons was appointed to prepare articles of impeachment
against Oxford, Bolingbroke, the Duke of Ormond, and the earl of
Strafford. Bolingbroke, perceiving his life to be in danger, fled to
the continent; and his attainder was in consequence moved and carried
by his rival Walpole. Ormond suffered a similar fate. Oxford, after a
protracted trial, was only saved in consequence of a differance
between the Lords and Commons.
During the first year of King George, the Tories kept up very
threatening popular disturbances in favor of High Church principles;
but the Whigs, gaining a majority in the new House of Commons, were
able to check this a little by the celebrated enactment called the
_Riot Act_, which permits military force to be used in dispersing a
crowd, after a certain space of time has been allowed. Disappointed in
their hopes of office and power, and stung by the treatment of their
leaders, the Tories resolved to attempt bringing in the Pretender by
force of arms. With an eager hopefulness, which for a long time was
characteristic of the party, they believed that all England and
Scotland were ready to take up arms for the Pretender, when in reality
there was but a limited portion of the people so inclined, and that
portion unwilling to move if they saw the least risk or danger. Blind
to these circumstances, and without design or concert, they commenced
the unfortunate civil war of 1715.
The Earl of Mar, who had been a secretary of state in the late
administration, raised his standard in Braemar (September 6), without
any commission from the Pretender, and was soon joined by Highland
clans to the amount of 10,000 men, who rendered him master of all
Scotland north of the Forth. There, however, he weakly permitted
himself to be cooped up by the Duke of Argyle, who with a far less
numerous force, had posted himself at Stirling. Mar expected to be
supported by an invasion of England by the Duke of Ormond, and a
rising of the people of that country. But the Duke completely failed
in his design, and no rising took place, except in Northumberland.
There Mr. Foster, one of the members of Parliament for the county, and
the Earl of Derwentwater, with some other nobleman, appeared in arms,
but unsupported by any considerable portion of the people. Mar
detached a party of 1800 foot, under Mackintosh of Borlum, to join the
Northumbrian insurgents, who complained that they had no infantry. The
junction was managed with great address; and at the same time some
noblemen and gentlemen of the south of Scotland attached themselves to
the southern army. The government was ill provided with troops but it
nevertheless sent such a force against Mr. Foster, as obliged him to
retire with his men into the town of Preston, in Lancashire, where,
after an obstinate defense, the whole party (November 13) surrendered
themselves prisoners at the king’s mercy. On the same day, the Earl of
Mar met the Duke of Argyle at Sheriffmuir, near Dumblane, where a
battle was fought, in which, after the manner of the battles in the
civil war, the right wing of each army was successful, but neither
altogether victorious. The Duke withdrew in the face of his enemy to
Stirling, and the earl retired to Perth, resolved to wait for the news
of an invasion from France, and for the arrival of the Pretender, whom
he had invited to Scotland.
Mar did not for some time become aware how little reason he had to
expect support from France. Louis XIV, upon whom the hopes of the
party greatly rested, had died in September, leaving the government to
the Regent Orleans, who had strong personal reasons for wishing to
cultivate the good-will of the British monarch, and of course declined
to assist in the present enterprise. The Pretender, nevertheless,
sailed for Scotland, and on the 22d of December, arrived incognito at
Peterhead, bringing nothing but his person to aid his adherents. Mar,
who had already attempted to negotiate a submission to the government,
brought him forward to Perth, where he was amused for some time with
preparations for his coronation. But before he had been many days
there, the Duke of Argyle found himself in a condition to advance
against the insurgent force; and on the 30th of January 1716, this
unfortunate prince commenced a retreat to the north, along with his
dispirited army. On the 4th of February, he and the Earl of Mar
provided for their own safety by going on board a vessel at Montrose,
and setting sail for France: the army dispersed itself into the
Highlands. For this unhappy appearance in arms, the Earl of
Derwentwater, Viscount Kenmure, and about twenty inferior persons,
were executed; forty Scottish families of the first rank lost their
estates, and many excellent members of society became exiles for the
remainder of their lives.
The suppression of this insurrection, and the ruin of so many Tory
leaders, tended to increase the power of the Whig party, and the
stability of the Hanoverian dynasty. The government, nevertheless,
acted under considerable difficulties, as they were opposed by the
majority of the clergy and country gentry, as well as by the whole of
the mob feeling, except in the large commercial towns. To avoid the
hazard of too often appealing to the people, they carried, in 1716, a
bill for repealing King William’s Triennial Act, and protracting the
present and all future Parliaments to a duration of seven years. The
chief popular support of the government was in the dissenters, and in
the middle classes of the community.
From the peace of Utrecht, Britain remained free from foreign war for
nearly thirty years, excepting that, in 1719, the ministry was called
on to interfere for the repression of an attempt on the part of Spain
to regain her Italian territories.