GEORGE I

THE transfer of the crown to a new dynasty was accomplished without the shade of disturbance. No dissentient murmur was heard when George Louis, Elector of Hanover, grandson of Elizabeth, daughter of James I. and of the Elector of Hanover grandson of Elizabeth daughter of James I and the Elector Palatine Frederick, was proclaimed King. For the principle of the Protestant succession was dear to the great bulk of the people and though the foreign king, unable to speak a sentence of English, was not likely to make a very favourable impression, his accession was hailed as a guarantee for the maintenance of the national Church in England. The new king also a reputation as a prudent and moderate prince, inclined to peace, though not unskilled in war. He was accompanied to England by his eldest son, but not by his wife, for Dorothea of Zell had been for many years in close imprisonment, being accused of an intrigue with a certain Count Konigsmark. The Electress always protested her innocence in the affair, and by many she was believed.

The ministry of George I. was formed entirely from the Whig party. The king seems to have considered his position in England would be best secured by entrusting the affairs of State to men of experience belonging to the party who had placed him on the throne. Some discontent was caused by the appearance in the king's train of two especially ugly mistresses, the Countess Platen and Madame Schuylenburg.

In the first assembly summoned by King George, the Whigs had altogether the preponderance; and they proceeded to take advantage of their position to the utmost, in inflicting vengeance upon their opponents. Harley, Bolingbroke, and Ormond were accused of high treason. Bolingbroke and Ormond fled to the Continent. Oxford, though advised by Ormond to secure his own safety, braved the tempest at home, and was committed to the Tower. He remained in durance for two years, and then petitioned that his trial might be proceeded with. The Lords acquitted him.

The next year, 1715, was signalized by a rebellion in Scotland and on the English border. The Pretender had hoped to receive aid from the old King of France; but the death of Louis XV., a child only five years old, put an end to his hopes in that quarter. Suddenly the Earl of Mar betook himself to the Highlands, and raised the standard of rebellion on behalf of the prince, whom he proclaimed under the title of James 111., at Braemar. A rising that was to have taken place simultaneously in the West of England was prevented by the prompt arrest of a number of disaffected gentlemen ; while the defence of the royal cause in Scotland was entrusted to John, Duke of Argyll. At the same time an insurrectionary movement began in the North of England, under the Earl of Derwentwater and Mr. Forster, who were presently joined by Lords Nithsdale, Kenmuir, Carnworth, and Wintoun, by Widdrington, Ord, and others. But at Preston, where they encountered the royal forces under Generals Willis and Carpenter, they surrendered unconditionally.

On November 13th, the day of the surrender of Derwentwater and Forster at Preston, a battle was fought at Sheriffmuir between the insurgents and the loyal troops under Argyll. Mar had nearly 9,000 men under his command, to whom the duke could oppose only some 4,000 But though the Highlanders charged Argyll's left wing, and drove it off the field; Mar neglected to follow up his advantage, and fell back upon Ardoch, leaving Argyll to march to Dumhlane. Argyll did not follow up his victory, having no rancour against his Highland foes. Mar was therefore allowed to retire to Perth unmolested.
The Pretender at length landed at Peterhead on the 22nd of December, 1715. He was presently joined by George Keith, Earl Marischal, and his brother James, by the Earl of Mar, General Hamilton, and sundry Jacobite gentlemen. But Argyll had been reinforced and the prince had neither energy nor talent. At the end of January, 1716, he embarked at Montrose in a French vessel, which conveyed him to Gravelines. The Lords Derwentwater, Kenmuir, Nithsdale, Wintoun, Carnworth, and Nairn were condemned to death, and two of them, Derwentwater and Kenmuir, were beheaded. Lord Nairn's life was saved by the intervention of Secretary Stanhope, and Lords Nithsdale and Winton escaped from their prison, Lord Nithsdale being saved by the heroic stratagem of the Countess, who dressed him in her own clothes, and thus enabled him to deceive the Tower guards. The punishments inflicted upon the minor rebels contrast favorably with the proceedings after Monmouth's rebellion. In Lancashire twenty-two executions took place in London, four. The bulk of the prisoners in Lancashire threw themselves on the royal mercy, and petitioned to be transported to the colonies in North America.

The ministers feared that a general election would reverse the state of parties. Accordingly, the Septennial Bill was brought in, proposing seven years instead of three for the longest interval between two general elections. After much opposition it was passed; and it continues in force to the present time.

Townshend and Walpole resigned in 1717, and were succeeded by Lord Stanhope and by Sunderland, the son-in-law of Marlborough. The new ministry repealed the Schism Act, and the Act against occasional conformity, passed in the last reign, and even endeavoured to get rid of the Test Act. An attempt was also made to pass the Peerage Bill, to limit the number of the Lords by restricting the prerogative of the king in creating new peerages. The bill was lost in the Commons, after it had passed the House of Lords.

The interests of England were frequently brought into collision with those of Hanover, and jealousy was aroused. The King of Denmark had seized upon the towns of Bremen and Verden. These two towns afterwards sold to George I., as Elector of Hanover. In great anger at this transaction, Charles XII. threatened to bring back the Pretender to Great Britain at the head of 12,000 Swedish veterans. To weaken the Pretender, the English cabinet made advances towards signing an alliancece with the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France. The duke was very ready to welcome the friendship of the King of England at that time. Philip V. of Spain had, indeed, formally renounced all title to the throne of France but at the instigation of his ambitious minister, Cardinal Alberoni, he was already intriguing to deprive Orleans of the office of regent. Accordingly, the triple alliance between England, France, and Holland was concluded in 1717. Philip V. thereupon seized on the island of Sardinia. He was bent on regaining the territory once held by his ancestors in Italy. The triple alliance was followed in the next year by a new compact, the quadruple alliance, in which the Emperor Charles VI. of Germany joined England, France, and Holland. Spain continued the war by the seizure of Palermo and Messina; but on the 11th of August, 1718, Admiral Byng gained a great victory' over the Spaniards off Cape Passaro, in Sicily. In recognition of this victory, Byng was raised to the peerage as Viscount Torrington. The death of Charles XII. frustrated a great part of Alberoni's scheme, so far as England was concerned he still, however, meditated the idea of a Stuart restoration. An expedition was organized under the command of the Duke of Ormond, who had made his way to Madrid in disguise. But, like the Spanish Armada, it was attacked by a storm, and the Spanish affair," as it was called, ended in failure. Peace was then concluded between England and Spain. Immediately afterwards, a defensive alliance was signed between England, France, and Spain, in which France and Spain guaranteed to the Elector of Hanover the possession of Bremen and Verden, a point which the emperor had steadfastly refused, losing the friendship of George by his, denial. Ulrica Eleonora, the sister of Charles XII., who became Queen of Sweeden, showed herself disposed to become the friend and ally of George I.

For some time the king was on very bad terms with his son. He retired to Leicester House in Leicester Fields, London. The good sense and astuteness of Walpole brought about something like a reconciliation between father and son.
Just at this time occurred that singular commercial hallucination, known as the South Sea Bubble.

The nation, in 1711, had a national debt of £11,000,000 ; it was chiefly funded, and Harley, Earl of Oxford, proposed to relieve the nation of the burden, by forming a company of the chief proprietors, who would take over the responsibility, the government guaranteeing them a profit of 6 per cent. This association was to be Company. called the South Sea Company, and was to have the monopoly of trade to the ports of the Spanish possessions on the Pacific coast. But Philip V. refused to grant the monopoly. In spite of this the company was well supported, and its stock came into favour. During the war the company arranged to undertake the payment of the irredeemable government annuities the annuitants were induced to commute their claims for South Sea stock. Mr Aislabie, the chancellor of the exchequer, was the promoter of the scheme. Walpole in the Commons, and Earl Cowper in the Lords, prophesied the ruin that would come from indulging hopes that could not be realized. ( While publicly denouncing the South Sea Scheme, and honestly pointing out the ruin in which it would end, Walpole nevertheless bought shares privately and sold them again while the stock was still rising, so that he made a handsome profit. The great Duke of Marlborough also bought and sold South Sea stock in advantageous a manner to gain £100,000 on his transactions ) But they were not listened to. The exaggerated accounts were spread abroad of the profits that would ensure from trading to the rich countries of silver and gold. Enormous dividends of 30, 40, and 50 per cent., paid by the directors to the shareholders, increased the general eagerness. The shares quickly rose. Two millions of stock were subscribed for at £300 for every £100 bond. The climax of folly was reached when hundred pound shares were quoted at £1,000.

Naturally the South Sea fever of speculation burst out in various cognate ways. Companies were formed for extracting silver from lead, for importing jackasses from Spain to improve the breed of mules, for crushing oil from seeds, for ensuring seamen swages, for the fattening of hogs, for making salt-water fresh, etc., etc. and one man actually found subscribers for a notable "scheme, an undertaking of great advantage, but no one to know what it is." In August, 1720, it oozed out that Sir John Blunt, the chairman of the company, and various of its principal promoters, had been getting rid of their shares. .The bursting of the bubble was sudden and lamentable. The shares sank rapidly. The general consternation and the general anger were great Walpole introduced a bill by which, on certain conditions, a large portion of South Sea stock was taken up by the Bank of England and the East India Company. This gave some kind of stability to the stock, and in some degree checked the panic among the public, whose cry was for vengeance. It appeared, on investigation, that more than half a million pounds of fictitious stock had been distributed as bribes to persons in high places. Among the recipients figured the names of Aislabie, the chancellor of the exchequer Craggs, the secretary of state ; Charles Stanhope, secretary to the treasury and the Earl of Sunderland himself. The estates of the directors were confiscated for the benefit of the victims only a small proportion of their fortunes being left to the them. The proprietors ultimately obtained a dividend of about 33 per cent on their shares. Had it not been for the judicious energy of WaIpole, this would have been lost with the rest.

Towards the end of the reign, the power was concentrated in the hands of Sir Robert Walpole, who continued at the head of affairs for almost twenty years, pursuing a peaceful policy, and greatly promoting the nation's well-being and prosperity. In 1722 a new project of invasion was entertained. It was made known to the government by the Regent of France, and Walpole at once took Plot for energetic measures. Lord Orrery, the Duke of Norfolk, a barrister named Sayer, and Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, were the principal prisoners arrested. Sayer was executed for high treason Norfolk and Orrery were released. Atterbury was deprived of his bishopric, and banished from the kingdom .At the same time a pardon was extended to Henry St. John, Lord Bohingbroke. It was at first only a permission to return to England. But Bolingbroke, who had made a rich marriage during his exile, was indefatigable in his endeavours to regain his former position, and, so far as his estates were concerned, he succeeded ; but he never regained his political ascendency.

In Ireland, a patent had been granted to William Wood, an iron master of Wolverhampton, for coining farthings and halfpence, to the amount of £108,000 for Ireland. The notion was started that this was a worthless copper coinage, to be foisted by an unscrupulous ministry upon an oppressed people; and great was the outcry raised against "Wood's halfpence." Dean Swift had been living in a state of chronic exasperation, in Dublin, from the beginning of the reign. Forthwith there appeared in Dublin a series of papers, under the title of " Letters of a Drapier " They denounced in a strain of tremendous invective the manufacturers and the ministry. The letters were received with acclamation. The dean became the most popular man in Ireland. The government offered a reward of £500 for the discovery of the author of the Drapier's Letters, but no one would betray the writer. It became necessary to call in the whole of the coinage, and to cancel the order, though the unfortunate patentee was almost ruined. Swift knew that it was a mere party cry he was raising, and that the display of patriotism was assumed for his own ends. If he looked forward to being employed again as a political writer, he was disappointed.

In Scotland, likewise, the year 1724 was marked by popular discontent. When Walpole, very reluctantly, imposed a duty of threepence upon every barrel of ale, the people of Glasgow turned out in the streets in riotous assemblage, sacked the house of Mr. Campbell, a member of parliament who had voted for the tax, attacked the soldiers who were ordered out to quell the tumult, and drove their opponents out of the town. Walpole sent down into Scotland Lord lslay, who soon restored peace and tranquillity. In England, at the same time, Parker, Earl of Macclesfield, the lord chancellor, was impeached for selling masterships and other offices, and also for the misappropriation of trust moneys, and fined £30,000. At this time also the Order of the Bath was revived.

In 1725 a quarrel occurred between France and Spain, in which England took part. Louis XV. had been betrothed to an infanta of Spain, but sent her back to Madrid, and married Mary Leezinska, the daughter of the banished King of Poland , Philip V. entered into a compact with Germany and Russia against France and England. A defensive treaty was made, on the other hand, Hanover by France, England, and Prussia, known as the Treaty of Hanover. Denmark, Sweden, and Holland afterwards joined this union. There was a considerable opposition among the Whigs themselves against the policy of Walpole. The dissentient Whigs, who called themselves the Patriots, were led by Pulteney, a former colleague of Walpole. Pulteney, his followers, and the Jacobites, vehemently inveighed against the Treaty of Hanover. The war was carried on by sea, three fleets being despatched - one to the Gulf of Finland under Sir Charles Wager, a second for the West Indies under Admiral Hosier, and a third under Sir John Jennings for the coast of Spain. The Empress Catherine declared her intentions to be pacific, though she joined the alliance of Spain and Austria soon afterwards. Jennings brought his ships safely home, after inflicting some damage upon the enemy but Hosier was singularly unfortunate. The greater part of the crews and officers, including Hosier himself, perished by yellow fever and other diseases. The expedition was a failure from beginning to end. Spain was presently deserted by the Emperor Charles VI., who made a separate pacification with France and England. Thus, at the end of the reign of George 1., Spain was the only country with which Great Britain was at war.

That end came somewhat suddenly. On the 3rd of June, 1727,the king, attended by the Duchess of Kendal and Lord Townshend. set out for his Hanoverian dominions, which he was in the habit of visiting nearly every year. His wife, Sophia Dorothea of ZelI, had died some months previously, in her dreary prison castle at Ahlen, where she had lived in confinement for more than thirty years. He was seized with an apoplectic stroke as he was traveling towards the village of lppenburen. The king's attendants wished to stop at lppenburen, but he motioned with his hand that they should go forward, and contrived to articulate several times, "Osnabruck !" When they arrived there, the king was dead. He was in his 68th year, and had reigned close upon thirteen years in England.

He had considerable shrewdness and sagacity, prudence and good sense, He studiously avoided everything that could offend the opinions and prejudices of his subjects. Horace Walpole speaks of him as "a good-natured king." Hardly ever has the rebellion of a country against its sovereign been punished with less rigour than was displayed towards the insurgents of 1715. He was considered a stout soldier and a skillful leader. But his habits and tastes were gross and unclean. The strangeness of his domestic arrangements was a source of never-ending sarcasm to the Jacobites and Tories of his time. In his course of action was seen much of the steadiness and solidity of the German character. It has been justly remarked of him that he was never so happy as when he could leave England for Hanover, and St. James's for Herrenhausen.