Our party began soon to act like men delivered over to their passions, and unguided by any other principle; not like men fired by a just resentment and a reasonable ambition to a bold undertaking. They treated the government like men who were resolved not to live under it, and yet they took no one measure to support themselves against it. They expressed, without reserve or circumspection, an eagerness to join in any attempt against the establishment which they had received and confirmed, and which many of them had courted but a few weeks before: and yet in the midst of all this bravery, when the election of the new parliament came on, some of these very men acted with the coolness of those who are much better disposed to compound than to take arms.
The body of the tories being in this temper, it is not to be wondered at, if they heated one another and began apace to turn their eyes towards the pretender: and if those few, who had already engaged with him, applied themselves to improve the conjuncture and endeavour to lift a party for him.
I went, about a month after the queen's death, as soon as the seals were taken from me, into the country, and whilst I continued there, I felt the general disposition to jacobitism encrease daily among people of all ranks; among several who had been constantly distinguished by their aversion to that cause. But at my return to London in the month of February or March one thousand seven hundred and fifteen, a few weeks before I left England, I began for the first time in my whole life to perceive these general dispositions ripen into resolutions, and to observe some regular workings among many of our principal friends, which denoted a scheme of this kind. These workings, indeed, were very faint, for the persons concerned in carrying them on did not think it safe to speak too plainly to men who were, in truth, ill disposed to the government, because they neither found their account at present under it, nor had been managed with art enough to leave them hopes of finding it hereafter: but who at the same time had not the least affection for the pretender's person, nor any principle favorable to his interest.
This was the state of things when the new parliament, which his majesty had called, assembled. A great majority of the elections had gone in favour of the Whigs, to which the want of concert among the tories had contributed as much as the vigor of that party, and the influence of the new government. The whigs came to the opening of this parliament full of as much violence as could possess men who expected to make their court, to confirm themselves in power, and to gratify their resentments by the same measures. I have heard that it was a dispute among the ministers how far this spirit should be indulged, and that the king was determined, or confirmed in determination, to consent to the prosecutions, and to give the reins to the party by the representations that were made to him, that great difficulties would arise in the conduct of the session, if the court should appear inclined to check this spirit, and by Mr. W[alpole]'s undertaking to carry all the business successfully through the house of commons if they were at liberty. Such has often been the unhappy fate of our princes; a real necessity sometimes, and sometimes a seeming one, has forced them to compound with a part of the nation at the expense of the whole; and the success of their business for one year has been purchased at the price of public disorder for many.
The conjecture I am speaking of forms a memorable instance of this truth. If milder measures had been pursued, certain it is, that the tories had never universally embraced jacobitism. The violence of the whigs forced them into the arms of the pretender. The court and the party seemed to vie with one another which should go the greatest lengths in severity: and the ministers, whose true interest it must at all times be to calm the minds of men, and who ought never to set the examples of extraordinary inquiries or extraordinary accusations, were upon this occasion the tribunes of the people.
PROCLAMATION OF GEORGE I. (1714).
Source.—Oldmixon's History of England, George I., 1735. P. 564.
Whereas it hath pleas'd Almighty God to call to his Mercy our late Soveraign Lady Queen Anne, of blessed Memory; by whose Decease, the Imperial Crowns of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, are solely, and rightfully come to the High and Mighty Prince George, elector of Brunswick-Lunenburg: We therefore, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the Realm, being here assisted with those of her late Majesty's Privy Council, with Numbers of other principal gentlemen of Quality, with the Lord-Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of London, do now hereby, with one full Voice and Consent of Tongue and Heart, publish and proclaim, That the high and mighty Prince George, Elector of Brunswick-Lunenburg, is now, by the Death of our late Soveraign of happy Memory, become our lawful and rightful Liege Lord, George, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. To whom we do acknowledge all Faith and constant Obedience, with all hearty and humble Affection, beseeching God, by whom Kings and Queens do reign, to bless the Royal King George with long and happy years to reign over us.
Given at the Palace of St. James's,
the First Day of August, 1714.
God Save the King.