LONDON
IN
THE JACOBITE TIMES.
CHAPTER I.
(1724-’25-’26-’27.)
LOYAL AND DISLOYAL PRINTERS.
singular illustration of the still partially troubled times which followed is furnished by a proceeding of Samuel Negus, printer. In 1724 he published a list of all the printers then exercising their craft in London, and he most humbly laid it before Lord Viscount Townshend; no doubt, for his guidance. The list is divided into four parts. The first consists of those ‘known to be well affected to King George.’ There are thirty-four of these ultra-loyal fellows, with Negus, of course, among them. The second list is headed ‘Nonjurors;’ in this, three names are entered, one of which is ‘Bowyer.’ In the third list, headed, ‘said to be High Flyers,’ there are two and thirty names; among them are found Alderman Barber (the friend of Swift, of Bolingbroke and Pope), Richardson (the novelist), and Mist (the Jacobite and something more!). The fourth list consists of three names, ‘Roman Catholics.’ Negus was probably a malicious though loyal busy-body. His list harmed neither Nonjuror nor High Flyer. When, in 1729, Mr. Speaker Onslow was instrumental in procuring for Bowyer the printing of the votes of the House of Commons, an alarmed and loyal Whig asked Mr. Speaker if he was aware that he was employing a Nonjuror. ‘I am quite sure of this,’ said Onslow, ‘I am employing a truly honest man.’ There was no lack of them among Nonjurors, and it is pleasant to find that even the High Flyers came soon to be looked upon by reasonable Whigs as honourable men. In 1732 Alderman Barber was elected by his fellow citizens Lord Mayor of London; and he was the first printer who enjoyed that dignity. This is the more remarkable, as poor Mrs. Manley, mistress of the alderman’s house and of the alderman, had bitterly satirised the Whig Ministry in her ‘New Atalantis.’ But the lady was now dead, and the High-Flying Barber lost nothing by his old Jacobite opinions.
SACHEVEREL.
In the year 1724, the Nonjurors lost one who had been their foremost man till he took the oath of allegiance; namely Sacheverel. That act of homage to Brunswick was never forgotten or forgiven by the Jacobites. When Sacheverel died in the spring of 1724, Hearne could only acknowledge his boldness and good presence. ‘He delivered a thing better than a much more modest man, however preferable in learning, could do.’ Hearne sarcastically calls Sacheverel a ‘but,’ and says the best thing this but ever printed was the speech at his trial, ‘which was none of his own, but was penned by Dr. Francis Atterbury.’ Hearne’s hardest hit at this recreant parson is to be found in the following words: ‘He was but an indifferent scholar, but pretended to a great deal of honesty, which I could never see in him, since he was the forwardest to take the oaths, notwithstanding he would formerly be so forward in speaking for, and drinking the health of, King James III.’