separate from Eugene. It was not without a considerable feeling of
disgrace that 12,000 English troops withdrew from their old comrades in
arms; the English stipendiaries refused to obey the command, and
remained with the Prince. A visit of St. John, now Lord Bolingbroke, to
Paris, put the finishing stroke to the negotiation, and peace was
virtually declared. The campaign, completed by Eugene alone, was
unsuccessful. His defeat at Denain, and further successes won over the
allies by Villars, inclined the new Emperor to look more favourably upon
the peace. The treaties were ultimately signed at Utrecht on the 31st of
March 1713. The Emperor's peace, by which the Electors of Cologne and
Bavaria were reinstated, was postponed for a year, and was finally
completed at Rastadt in the following March. It is certain that the
terms gained were infinitely less advantageous than the lengthened and
victorious war might have justified, or than those which could have been
obtained at the negotiations of Gertruydenberg. The desertion of the
Catalans, who had risen in insurrection chiefly at the instigation of
the English, was undoubtedly an act of selfishness; and Government would
even have sacrificed the advantages of the Methuen Treaty, and granted
commercial terms far more in favour of France, had not the moneyed
interest proved too strong for it. At the same time, though the Peace of
Utrecht was not a glorious one, there is much to be said in its favour;
the changed position of Europe, by the accession of Charles to the
Imperial crown, had in truth put the questions at issue upon a totally
new footing; it would have been quite as disadvantageous to the general
European balance that Spain and Austria should have been joined in the
hands of the Imperial house as that Spain and France should have been in
the hands of the Bourbon Princes.
[Sidenote: The succession.]
[Sidenote: Harley's conduct.]
[Sidenote: Bolingbroke's views.]
After the close of the great war, the question of succession, rendered
more pressing by the failing health of the Queen, came prominently
forward. In the midst of the negotiations the Pretender had written a
letter to Queen Anne, and Bolingbroke had been throughout in
correspondence with him. It is difficult to determine how far Harley was
really mixed up in the plot of changing the succession. That he had
frequently expressed himself as friendly to the Pretender is certain;
but his indolence in business, his constant difficulty in making up his
mind, and his love of intrigue, prevented him from taking any strong or
definite line in the scheme for the Stuart restoration. With Bolingbroke
the case was different. He was unaffected by any Church views, for he
did not believe in Christianity; he knew that the part he had already
played had rendered him obnoxious to the Elector of Hanover, he had
therefore little hope of office after the Queen's death. On the other
hand, he was certain of being a trusted minister of the new Stuart king.
To help him in the Cabinet he had Brumley, Ormond, and probably
Harcourt. But for the success of his plan extreme care was necessary;
for the general feeling of the country, though Tory and High Church, was
nevertheless Protestant and Hanoverian. An over-hasty declaration of
Jacobitism would probably destroy his ministry.
[Sidenote: New Tory Parliament. 1714.]
[Sidenote: Ormond reorganizes the army.]
A new Parliament assembled in February. It was again Tory in its views;
and it shows the real object of Bolingbroke's tactics, that the
Pretender during the elections wrote to his friends to use their best
efforts in favour of the Government. The new appointments also, which
were made on the occurrence of vacancies by deaths, show the same
Jacobite tendencies. Wyndam became Chancellor of the Exchequer, Athol
and Mar two of the chief officials in Scotland. Nor was the Jacobite
scheme confined to the appointment of ministers, more immediate
practical measures for securing the change of Government were taken. The
Cinque Ports were placed in the hands of Ormond, and the entrance of a
foreign force into England thus rendered easy; the army was remodelled,
and the greater part of those troops which William had organized
disbanded; while a plan was set on foot for obliging officers in the
army known to be friendly to Marlborough to sell their commissions,
which only failed because Harley, either through indolence, or because
he really shrunk from supporting the Jacobites, neglected to have the
funds ready for the purchase. The Whigs, on their side, also organized
themselves for the coming crisis. General Stanhope was regarded as their
leader. They seem to have been ready for all emergencies, intending even
to employ force, if necessary, to secure the throne for the Hanoverian
Elector. In spite of the caution of Bolingbroke, the scope of his plans
began to be discovered, and it became necessary still further to blind
the nation. Pretending to treat as libels all suggestions that he was
aiming at the restoration of the Stuarts, he introduced a resolution
that the Protestant succession was in no danger, but his credit was too
far shaken to allow of a complete victory. The motion was indeed passed,
but the small majority proved how large a section of the Tories were
attached to the Hanoverian house, and were willing on that point to make
common cause with the Whigs. That party were encouraged to take a
further step. Thinking it of the last importance that the Electoral
Prince should be in England to take possession of the inheritance of his
house on Anne's death, they induced the Hanoverian minister to demand
his writ of summons to the House of Lords as an English Peer in virtue
of his title of Duke of Cambridge. The Government was thrown into great
perplexity; to refuse it seemed to confess their Jacobite tendencies, to
grant it was certain to enrage the Queen, who, like other childless
sovereigns, was morbidly touchy about the succession, and it would
moreover deal a heavy blow at their own plans. The writ was given, but
accompanied by a letter from the Queen to the Electress Sophia, couched
in such angry language that it is said to have caused the death of that
princess, now far advanced in years.
But a schism within its own body was gradually undermining the ministry.
Harley, undecided upon all points, and strongly bound by old ties to the
Low Church and dissenting interest, could not throw himself heartily
into the vigorous policy of Bolingbroke; he was, moreover, jealous of
the ever-increasing importance of his energetic colleague. The Schism
Act, a measure conceived in the most exclusive High Church spirit,
brought their rivalry to a crisis. It enacted that no person should keep
a public or private school, or act as tutor, unless a member of the
Church of England, and licensed by his Bishop, thus in fact throwing the
whole education of the country into the hands of the Church. Harley,
bred a dissenter, and always relying much on the support of the
Nonconformist bodies, could not give it his hearty support. With his
usual indecision, he played fast and loose with the Bill. But he had
lost the ear of the Queen, Bolingbroke and Mrs. Masham had supplanted
him, and the favourite so played upon the Queen's High Church
propensities, that, after a hot altercation in the Council before the
eyes of the Queen, she was induced to dismiss the Lord Treasurer.
[Sidenote: The Queen's death.]
In the dismissal of his dilatory rival Bolingbroke saw the removal of
the last obstacle to the completion of his schemes, and he was preparing
to form a ministry wholly in the Jacobite interest, when the Queen's
sudden illness upset all his plans. Had the matter come to the decision
of arms, Marlborough, who had just returned from abroad, might, after
the treatment he had received at the hand of the Tories, have been
trusted to do his best for the Whigs. But, fortunately, the question was
destined to meet with a peaceful solution. The Duke of Shrewsbury, in
his time the leader of the Whigs of the Revolution, and subsequently
guilty of treacherous correspondence with the Stuarts, continued his
vacillating policy. The part he had taken in 1708, in persuading the
Queen to rid herself of the Whigs, had given him the confidence of the
Tory party. But he had never ceased to regret the one false step of his
life, and was firmly attached to the Hanoverian succession. His position
in the ministry enabled him for the time to become really master of the
situation, and to thwart all the schemes of Bolingbroke. With this end
in view he arranged a plan with the Dukes of Argyle and Somerset. As the
Council was sitting to consider what steps to take in consequence of the
Queen's illness, the two Dukes suddenly made their appearance, claimed
their right as Privy Councillors, were by Shrewsbury's advice admitted,
and at once proposed that the Queen, who had for the moment recovered
consciousness, should be requested, in view of the coming crisis, to
make the Duke of Shrewsbury Lord Treasurer. A deputation, of which the
Duke was himself a member, went to her bedside, and persuaded her to
give him the White Staff. Vigorous measures were at once taken. Troops
were collected, the Elector summoned over, and everything was ready to
withstand armed invasion, and to hasten the peaceful acceptance of the
legal heir, when the Queen died on the 1st of August.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: The Union.]
For several sessions the Parliament had been acting under the new title
of the Parliament of Great Britain, the Union with Scotland having been
completed in 1707. Quite at the beginning of the reign, in 1702, leave
having been given both by the Scotch and English Parliaments,
Commissioners had met to make arrangements for the Union, which had
always been a favourite project of William's. Neither party were,
however, much in earnest, and the members of the Commission were lax in
their attendance. There was no difficulty in agreeing upon the main
points, but upon trade and finance the claims advanced by the Scotch,
who seemed to wish on the one hand for equality of duties, and on the
other for exemption from liabilities, were regarded as untenable, and in
February 1703 the Commissioners ceased to meet.
[Sidenote: Scotch Parliament. 1703.]
On the 6th of May in that year the Scotch Parliament met, under the
Presidency of the Duke of Queensberry as Lord Commissioner. Its temper
was anything but conciliatory. The ill feeling excited by the Darien
Scheme had by no means subsided. The late futile efforts of the joint
Commission had still further roused the angry feelings of the people,
and there was an idea afloat, by no means without foundation, that the
High Church Tories, who were just coming into power, would seize the
opportunity for an assault upon the National Church. All these causes
influenced the temper of the Parliament, and instead of taking measures
tending towards the Union, it seemed bent upon doing all that was
possible to render the kingdoms quite separate. The Queen's letter, in
which she recommended toleration, was contemptuously neglected, and a
strong declaration passed, confirming the Presbyterian Church, "as the
only Church of Christ in the Kingdom." Politically, the conduct of the
Parliament was even less conciliatory. Resolutions were passed declaring
that, after the death of the Queen, no King of England should make peace
or war without consent of the Scotch Parliament; though the nation was
in the midst of a great war with France, restrictions on the trade in
French wine were removed; Fletcher of Saltoun introduced what were known
as the Limitations, by which the authority of the Crown was seriously
compromised; its power of appointing to the great offices of Government
was transferred to the Parliament; and finally, a Bill of Security with
regard to the succession was introduced, authorizing Parliament to name
a successor from among the Protestant descendants of the royal line, but
asserting that whoever that successor might be he was not to be the same
as the successor to the Crown of England, unless proper security was
given for the freedom of religion and trade. The nomination of the
Princess Sophia, hazarded by the Earl of Marchmont, was received with
derision and anger. All these Bills, except the last, received the royal
assent. But the refusal to pass the Bill of Security was so unpopular,
that it was found necessary to adjourn the House without securing any
subsidy.
[Sidenote: Scotch Parliament. July 1704.]
In the following year the Parliament again met. It was hoped that a new
Commissioner would manage it more successfully, and the Marquis of
Tweeddale was appointed to succeed Queensberry. The policy of
conciliation was carried to an extreme, and Godolphin, always a timid
minister, allowed Tweeddale to give the royal assent even to the Act of
Security.
[Sidenote: English Parliament. Oct. 1704.]
[Sidenote: Scotch Parliament. June 1705.]
The hostile feeling exhibited by the Scotch Parliament only went still
further to prove what the Darien Scheme had made evident, that the Union
was imperatively necessary. Whigs and Tories therefore combined, when
the English Parliament met, in attacking Godolphin for his weakness; and
in December, Somers brought forward, and succeeded in passing through
both Houses, a law which seemed to threaten war between the countries.
After Christmas 1705, all Scotchmen were to be regarded as aliens, the
importation into England of the chief Scotch products--cattle, coal, and
linen--was prohibited; and as a still stronger threat, it was ordered
that the Border towns should be fortified and put into a state of
security, and the militia in the northern counties called out. This
severe threat was not without its effect. But the anger of the Scotch at
the time only grew more vehement. In April of the following year, 1705,
Thomas Green, a captain of a ship belonging to the new East India
Company, had been seized by the agents of the Darien Company, charged
with piracy in the East, and with the murder of a Darien captain. It was
afterwards proved that the captain was alive; nevertheless, in spite of
orders from the English Council, the Scotch ministers were overawed by
the popular feeling, and the unfortunate man, with some others of his
crew, was hanged. But England was now determined that the Union should
be effected. Tweeddale was removed from his commissionership, and
Argyle, assisted by Queensberry, put in his place. This gave Tweeddale
an opportunity of forming a third party in the Parliament, which
attempted to hold the balance between those who were for the Union and
those who opposed it, and was known by the name of the Squadrone
Volante. On the whole, however, this party acted with the Government.
The Queen had instructed the Parliament to consider the question of the
settlement of the succession, and the appointment of Commissioners to
treat. With regard to the first point it proved obstinate, it insisted
on first discussing the condition of trade, and could not be induced to
name any successor. With some slight alterations, it passed again the
Limitations suggested by Fletcher of Saltoun, and added further, that a
Scotch ambassador should be present at all treaties involving the two
nations. But upon the second point, by the aid of the Squadrone Volante,
the Government was successful. The threatened Alien Bill indeed began to
have its effect; and it was ordered that the Commissioners should not
begin to act till that Bill was repealed. As it seemed to have done its
work, this suggestion was attended to, and in November the English
Parliament repealed the Act.
[Sidenote: The Commissioners meet. 1706.]
Thus then, the chief obstacles being removed, in April 1706, the
Commissioners, thirty-one on each side, met. The English Commissioners
at once suggested as the prime object of negotiation, that there should
be one Kingdom, one Parliament, and one Successor. The Scotch seemed
first to desire a Federative Union, but yielded, on condition that their
religion should be free, and that their trade should enjoy a general
equality of advantage. It was the details, especially of taxation and
trade, which gave the greatest trouble. The Scotch insisted on
discussing them in detail. It was finally agreed that they should be
exempt from terminable taxes, and receive an equivalent for any present
loss they might sustain, by taking their share in the public debt of
England, which was larger than their own. The revenue of England was
about £5,700,000, that of Scotland about £160,000. The debts of England
amounted to £17,700,000, those of Scotland, taken roughly, to £160,000;
that is, England owed three and a half, Scotland only one year's
revenue. The equivalent fixed was £398,000, which was employed to pay
off the whole Scotch debt, to dissolve the Darien Company and indemnify
its shareholders, and for other Scotch purposes. The other questions
were easily settled. The title of the United Kingdom was to be Great
Britain, the national flags were to be incorporated in one. The Scotch
taxes amounted to little more than a fortieth of the English. Had this
been observed as a basis of representation, they would have had but
thirteen members of Parliament. But this being held too few, they were
granted forty-five members, which was about a twelfth of the whole House
of Commons. The same proportion was taken for the basis of the
arrangement of the Upper House, and thus of the whole Scottish Peerage
sixteen were to be elected to sit in the united House of Lords.
[Sidenote: Scotch Parliament. Oct. 1706.]
When the Treaty had been settled by the Commissioners, it was brought
before the Scotch Parliament, where it met with violent opposition. In
one way or another it was objectionable to many classes. The Jacobites
saw in it the final destruction of all their hopes of a change of
dynasty. The extreme Presbyterians did not believe in a Union which
would leave their Church untrammelled. The views of the Revolution had
gone further in Scotland than in England, and a considerable body of
active spirits had adopted republican views; to them the establishment
of a monarchy backed by the strength of England was distasteful, as
rendering any fulfilment of their hopes impossible. And the Edinburgh
tradesmen recognized to the full the loss they would sustain by the
removal of Parliament to London. The discussion on the various points
went on throughout the whole of the year. The final effort of the
Opposition was to be a great protest, to be produced at the debate upon
the share Scotland was to have in the national legislature. This protest
was to be presented by Hamilton, as premier Peer, and to be followed by
a secession of the minority. But Hamilton's heart failed him at the
appointed moment, the protest was not presented, and on the 16th of
January 1707 the measure was finally carried by 110 votes to 69.
Having been successfully passed through the Scotch House, the Bill had
now to be ratified by the English Parliament. So many changes had been
made that it was possible there might be much difficulty in securing the
easy passage of the Bill. But as the Whigs and the Government were
determined that at all hazards it should become law, they accepted
without question all the Scotch amendments. When the articles of the
Treaty had thus been carried through the House, there yet remained the
Act of Ratification to complete it. It was still possible for the
opponents of the Bill to reopen discussion upon each article in detail.
The skill of Sir Simon Harcourt, the Attorney-General, thwarted this
disastrous intention, by so wording the Bill that the articles
themselves were not called in question, but their ratification alone
demanded. He induced all parties, who were on the whole agreed that in
some shape or other the Bill had better pass, to accept it. With little
opposition therefore it was carried through both Houses, and became law,
and the succeeding Parliament took the name of the Parliament of Great
Britain. Party feeling was at the time very high, and accusations of
bribery were lavishly flung abroad, but a closer examination appears to
prove that these charges were unfounded.
GEORGE I.
1714-1727.
Born 1660 = Sophia of Brunswick.
____________________|_________________
| |
George II. Sophia = Frederick William.
CONTEMPORARY PRINCES.
_France._ | _Germany._ | _Spain._ | _Prussia._
| | |
Louis XIV., 1643.| Charles VI., 1711.| Philip V., 1700.| Frederick
Louis XV., 1715. | | | William, 1713.
_Russia._ | _Denmark._ | _Sweden._
| |
Peter the Great, 1689. | Frederick IV., 1699. | Charles XII., 1697.
Catherine I., 1724. | | Frederick I., 1720.
POPES.--Clement XI., 1700. Innocent XIII., 1721. Benedict XIII., 1724.
_Archbishops._ | _Chancellors._
|
T. Tenison, 1694. | William Cowper, 1714.
W. Wake, 1715. | Lord Macclesfield, 1718.
| Lord King, 1725.
_First Lords of the | _Chancellors of the | _Secretaries of State._
Treasury._ | Exchequer._ |
| |
1714. Halifax. | 1714. R. Walpole. | 1714 { Stanhope.
1715. Carlisle. | 1717. Stanhope. | { Townshend.
1715. R. Walpole. | 1718. Aislabie. | 1716 { Stanhope.
1717. Stanhope. | 1721. R. Walpole. | { Methuen.
1718. Sunderland. | | 1717 { Sunderland.
1721. R. Walpole. | | { Addison.
| 1718 { Stanhope.
| { Craggs.
| 1721 { Townshend.
| { Carteret.
| 1724 { Townshend.
| { Newcastle.
[Sidenote: Probability of a restoration of the Stuarts.]
[Sidenote: Council of Regency.]
England had been slow to accept the principle of succession by
parliamentary instead of hereditary right; since 1688 the struggle had
been continuous, it had reached a crisis in the closing years of Queen
Anne. The triumph of the Whigs, secured to them by the constant
successes of the War of Succession, had rendered them over-confident,
and an act of foolish severity had been followed by their complete
overthrow. The natural inclinations of the Queen, and the weakness of
her character, which rendered her constantly liable to be subjugated by
the influence of those around her; the talents and intriguing ambition
of St. John, and the energy and compactness of the Jacobite body resting
upon the general Conservative feeling of the nation, had rendered the
return of the Stuarts to the throne a very probable event. A few weeks
only were wanting for the completion of the plot, and James Edward would
probably have been received as heir to the throne, and the work of the
Revolution have been undone. The unexpected illness of the Queen, the
rapidity and energy with which the Hanoverian Lords of the Council had
carried out what was virtually a _coup d'état_, had destroyed these
hopes. When the Lord Treasurer's staff was placed in the hands of the
Duke of Shrewsbury, all hope of carrying out this counter-revolution
with the aid of the executive was at an end. Although he had more than
once faltered in his allegiance to the Whig party, it was now well
understood that he was endowed with something not far short of a
dictatorship, for the express purpose of carrying out the enactments of
the Act of Succession. Everything was done as arranged by that Act.
There was no difficulty with regard to the regency; sealed packets
containing the names of those who were to act as the Council of Regency,
chosen by the Protestant successor, were in his hands. On their being
opened, the names of eighteen Lords, almost exclusively of the Whig
party, were found, who, together with the seven great officers named in
the Statute, were to act, under the title of Lords Justices, as an
interim Government until the arrival of the new King. It is to be
observed that the name of the Duke of Marlborough was not among them.
[Sidenote: Peaceful accession of the King.]
[Sidenote: New Whig ministry.]