POLITICAL DRAMA.
During the remainder of the tragedy the love-woes of Tancred, and Sigismunda absorbed the sympathies of the audience, though Thomson laid a clap-trap or two, in a passage where mention was made of ‘a faithless prince, an upstart king,’ and in an allusion to the Normans who bravely won,
With their own swords, their seats, and still possess them,
By the same noble tenure;
but especially in denouncement of a reign which Osmond stigmatised as a usurpation; and added—
This meteor King may blaze awhile, but soon
Must spend his idle terrors;—
which usurpation Jacobites would assign to George; while Whigs saw in the temporary royal meteor the ‘King’ in whose name, his son, Charles Edward, was preparing to invade Great Britain.
The Earl of Orford, the champion of Brunswick and the staunch supporter of the Hanoverian succession, died this year. Horace Walpole says of his father, ‘he died, foretelling a Rebellion which happened in less than six months, and for predicting which he had been ridiculed.’ It required no gift of prophecy to foretell an event which had been long almost openly preparing.
Amid the growing excitement of London, there was a motion made by Mr. Carew in the Commons, for holding new parliaments annually. He supported the motion by a curious illustration. The king, he said, who first introduced long parliaments (Richard II.) was dethroned and put to death by Henry of Lancaster, who took his place and was honoured by the people as their deliverer from slavery. Sir William Yonge replied that annual parliaments would deprive the king of all power over them; and deprivation of all such power cost Charles I. his head. Similar effect would follow from like cause. Sir John Phillips, who was said to be equally troublesome whether as patriot or placeman, was not only for annual parliaments, but for a fresh Ministry every new session! The motion was negatived by 145 to 112.