London in the Jacobite times, Volume II

by Dr. Doran

A MINOR OFFENDER.

As a sample of how minor offences on the part of unquiet Jacobites were punished, the case may be cited of the Rev. James Taylor, who was not allowed to indulge his Jacobitism even in a compassionate form. A beggar was arrested in his progress from house to house. He was found to be the bearer of a recommendatory letter from the Nonjuror Taylor, in which it was stated that the bearer had fought on the right side at Preston Pans and Culloden. For this offence Mr. Taylor was tried, convicted, and heavily sentenced;—namely, to two years’ imprisonment, a fine of 300l., and to find sureties for his good behaviour during the next seven years, himself in 1000l., and two others in 500l. each.

All this time, Parliament was perfectly tranquil. There was no flash of anti-Jacobitism. There was nothing in the debates but what partook of the lightest of summer-lightning. In the whole session of 1755, there is but one allusion to Jacobites, and that took the form of a wish that, ten years before, Scotland had been as heavily oppressed as England was,—in that and many a succeeding year,—in one special respect. Mr. Robert Dundas, in the Commons’ debate on speedily manning the Navy, insisted on the legality and propriety of pressing seamen, and remarked: ‘How happy it would have been for Scotland, in 1745, if all her seamen had been pressed into the public service, in order to man a few guard-ships, to prevent the landing of those who, at that time, raised such a flame in the country; and yet I believe that a press could not then have been carried on without the aid of the military.’

SUSPICION AGAINST THE DUKE.

At this time there was one especial trouble in the royal family. The dowager Princess of Wales had as much dread of the conqueror at Culloden, as if he had been the Jacobite prince himself. Her dominant idea was that the really good-natured and now corpulent duke would act Richard III. towards the prince, her son, if opportunity should offer. Bubb Dodington says, in his Diary, May, 1755: ‘On my commending the Prince’s figure, and saying he was much taller than the King, she replied, yes; he was taller than his uncle. I said, in height it might be so, but if they measured round, the Duke had the advantage of him. She answered, it was true; but she hoped it was the only advantage that he ever would have of him.’

THE ANTI-JACOBITE PRESS.

In the following year, 1756, electioneering politics found violent suggestion and expression. Walpole, referring to the clamour raised by the Jacobites, speaks of ‘Instructions from counties, cities, boroughs, especially from the City of London, in the style of 1641, and really in the spirit of 1715 and 1745, (which) have raised a great flame.’ On the other hand, Jacobites and their manifestations were treated by the Whig press with boundless contempt. For example, the ‘Contest,’ in 1757, flung this paragraph at the supposed few Jacks now left in London to read it:—‘The word Jacobite is vox et prœterea nihil. The Name survives after the Party is extinct. There may be a few enthusiastic Bigots who deem Obstinacy a Merit, and who appear to be ungrateful for the Liberty and Security they enjoy under the present Government, and insensible of the Calamity and Oppression of the Government they would be willing to restore. But their Power is as inconsiderable as their Principles are detestable. And many of them, had they an Opportunity of accomplishing their proposed desires, would be the last to put them in Execution; for they are mostly influenced by an idle Affectation of Singularity, and the ridiculous Pride of opposing the Common Sense of their Fellow Citizens.’

In the same year, the ‘Independent Freeholder’ turned the question to party account, and divided the people of England into three classes. It admitted the diminished numbers of Jacobites, recorded their disaffection, and also accounted for it. The three classes were—Place Hunters, Jacobites, and English Protestants, whether Whig or Tory. The ‘Freeholder’ described the Jacobites as:—‘An Offspring of Zealots, early trained to support the divine hereditary Right of Men, who forfeited all Right by persisting to do every Wrong. They are not considerable in Number; and had probably mixed with the Mass of rational Men, had not the continued Abuses of the Administration furnished cause of Clamour, enabling secret Enemies of the Constitution to cherish a groundless Enmity to the Succession.’

THE CITY GATES.

As the reign of George II. drew to a close, in the autumn of 1760, a change came over the City of London, which, to many, indicated a new era; namely, the destruction of those City gates in the preservation of which timid Whigs saw safety from the assaults of Jacobites. Read announced the fate of those imaginary defences, in the ‘Journal’ of August 2nd:—‘On Wednesday, the materials of the three following City Gates were sold before the Committee of Lands, to Mr. Blagden, a carpenter, in Coleman Street; namely, Aldgate, for 157l. 10s.; Cripplegate, for 91l.; and Ludgate, for 148l. The purchaser is to begin to pull down the two first, on the first day of September; and Ludgate on the 4th of August, and is to clear away all the rubbish, &c., in two months from these days.’ In two months, a new reign had begun, and the old gates had disappeared.