It was estimated that it would bring in an income of 6,000l. per annum. How the fund is now administered may be learned from the following extract from the Globe of Feb. 15, 1882. 'In Convocation of York yesterday a Committee was appointed to report upon the constitution and management of Queen Anne's Bounty. It was stated that the income of the Bounty is 15,000l., and that the cost of management is between 7,000l. and 8,000l.'[560] Comment on this is superfluous.
London was growing bigger, but with the extension of house-building there was no commensurate increase of church accommodation; so the Upper House of Convocation presented an address to the Queen upon the subject, and the Lower House petitioned the House of Commons. The outcome of this was, that the Queen sent a message to the latter, calling their attention to the state of spiritual destitution, and recommending them to further 'so good and pious a work.' The Commons dutifully replied that, although they had an expensive war on hand, and heavy burdens to bear besides, yet they would be happy to do their part, and consequently the session of 1711 saw the royal assent given to an act for building fifty new churches within the Bills of Mortality, to meet the expense of which was assigned the duty on coals, which had defrayed the expenses of building St. Paul's. Convocation returned thanks, and the fifty churches were eventually built.
The tone of the Church at that time was essentially Protestant. And no wonder. William the Deliverer was warm in men's memory; and men, fearing a repetition of Roman supremacy, as in the times of the second James, unreasoningly went in the opposite direction, probably without much absolutely religious feeling prompting them. More possibly it was
'The Church God Bless,
The Queen no less,
And all that do Profess
The same religion with Queen Bess.
But I'll warrant now, if we had a Bonfire in the Street, and such a Whig as Tom Double shou'd pass by, he wou'd refuse this Health, and then I shou'd break his Head.'[561]
Queen Bess was the Madonna of the Protestants, and 'her glorious Memory' was a watchword of the party. Nov. 17, the anniversary of her accession to the throne, was celebrated in the same manner as Nov. 5 used to be, until police control interfered with it. One Nov. 17 in Queen Anne's reign, that of 1711, was rendered historically famous by the steps the Government took in the suppression of this carnival. A contemporary account[562] is as follows: 'Nov. 20. Upon information, that the Effigies of the Devil, the Pope and his Attendants were to be carry'd in Procession, and, according to Custom, burnt on Saturday last, the 17th Inst. being the Anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's Accession to the Crown, of ever Pious and most Glorious Memory, the Government apprehending that the same might occasion Tumults in this Populous City, thought fit to prevent it. Accordingly, on Friday last, about Twelve a Clock at Night, some of Her Majesty's Messengers, sustain'd by a Detachment of Grenadiers of the Foot Guards, with their Officer, were order'd to go to an Empty House in Angel Court, Drury Lane, which being broke Open, they found in it the Effigies of the Devil, that of the Pope on his Right hand, and that of a Young Gentleman in a Blue Cloth Coat, with Tinsel Lace, and a Hat with a White Feather, made of Cut Paper, seated under a large Canopy; as also the Figures of Four Cardinals, Four Jesuits, and Four Franciscan Fryars, and a large Cross about Eighteen Foot High; all which, being put on several Carts were, about Two a Clock in the Morning, carry'd to the Cock Pit, and there lodg'd in a Room between the Council Chamber, and the Right Honourable the Earl of Dartmouth's Secretary's Office. Moreover, on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday the Trained Bands of London and Westminster were under Arms; so that there was no Pope Burnt, tho' we hear of one that was Drown'd. It may, perhaps, appear strange that a Popular Rejoycing so grateful to this Protestant City, which was never attempted to be quash'd but in K. James the Second's Reign, should, at this Juncture, be interrupted: But, to be sure, those who did it had very good Reasons for their Management.'
Swift, of course, gives Stella all the gossip about it, and says the Whigs laid out about a thousand pounds upon the proposed show. 'They did it by Contribution. Garth gave five guineas; Dr. Garth I mean, if ever you heard of him.' Swift afterwards went to see the effigies, and his report very much modifies his previous account: 'The fifteen images that I saw were not worth forty pounds, so I stretched a little when I said a thousand. The Devil is not like lord treasurer; they were all your odd antick masks, bought in Common Shops.'
The last of them is told in a paragraph of the Post Boy, July 1/3, 1712: 'Yesterday, were disrobed at the Cockpit the Effigies of the Devil, the Person who has pretended to disturb the Settlement of the Protestant Succession of the House of Hanover, the Pope, Cardinals &c. Our Enemies being now disarm'd, we will venture to say, that there will soon be a General Cessation of Arms.'
Protestant throats yelled out—
O! Queen Bess, Queen Bess, Queen Bess,
Who sav'd us all from Popish Thrall?
O! Queen Bess, Queen Bess, Queen Bess—