complete in all the departments of the government. It is worth remembering that this precedent for packing the house of lords was set by the Tories. In 1832 and again in 1911 they had occasion to regret it; for their opponents were able to force legislation through a hostile house of lords by threatening to do what Harley and Bolingbroke had taught them to do. It was quite generally known that the elector George suspected the Tories of Jacobite sympathies and that he was already in alliance with the Whigs. The death of Anne would then mean the downfall of Harley's ministry. Harley was perplexed, for he did not know whether the Catholic James would be acceptable to the nation. Bolingbroke was for immediate action and Results of Louis XIV. forced the dismissal of his hesitating chief. For a few days he was at the head of the government and probably in- Jacobite tended to restore the Stuarts; but the queen died be- schemes. fore his plan was completed, and four days later, the electress Sophia having departed life a few weeks earlier, the privy council proclaimed her son, George I, king of Great Britain (August 5, 1714). 406. Summary. The period from the revolution of 1688 to the treaty of Utrecht was one of almost continuous warfare between England and France. In the great international problems of the time England had no direct interest; still, the outcome of the two wars had important results for the English nation and the British Empire. the war with England maintained her position as the greatest naval power. Important additions were made to her empire both in America and in Europe. The war also emphasized the need of a closer union on the island of Great Britain and indirectly led to the union of 1707. It ruined the cause of the Stuart dynasty, for King James was a pensioner of the great enemy, Louis XIV. For the same reason the Tories felt compelled to pass the Act of Settlement, which provides that Protestant kings only shall rule in England. The Tory leaders were, however, not entirely faithful to this Act and the result was that on the death of Queen Anne power passed into the hands of the Whigs. The age was also a notable Progress of one in the economic and in the literary history of the age. England: it was the age of Paterson and the Bank of England; of reforms in the coinage; of new forms of industry brought in by the fugitive Huguenots; and it was the age of Addison, Defoe, Swift, and Steele. REFERENCES COMMERCE AND FINANCE. - Fletcher, Introductory History of England, II, i, 87-92; Innes, History of England, 534-540; Ransome, Advanced History of England, 688-691; Tout, Advanced History of Great Britain, 524-526. THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. - Innes, 526-530; Ransome, 700-702; Tout, 507-508. THE PANAMA VENTURE. of Scotland, c. xxviii. Fletcher, II, i, 248-250; Lang, Short History THE UNION OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. - Brown, Short History of Scotland, 509-522; Cross, History of England, 660–662; Fletcher, II, i, 251–256; Innes, 555-560; Jenks, Parliamentary England, 124-129; Lang c. xxix; Ransome, 714-718; Tout, 521-523. THE LAST YEARS OF QUEEN ANNE'S REIGN: UTRECHT AND THE SUCCES SION. - Fletcher, II, i, 140-148; Innes, 566-570; Oman, History of England, 476-480; Ransome, 725-730. THE "PENAL LAWS" IN IRELAND. — Johnston and Spencer, Ireland's Story, c. xxiii; Lawless, Ireland, cc. xlv-xlvi. CHAPTER XX THE RULE OF THE WHIGS 407. The Early Hanoverians.1 George I waited more than a month before he set out for England. When he finally did arrive in his new kingdom, there was much display and much official rejoicing: the masses, however, showed little enthusiasm for the new king. George I, the "wee German lairdie" that the Scotch Jacobites sang about, was a middleGeorge I. aged prince of moderate abilities and few personal attractions, who brought little to England but a set of Hanoverian favorites, uncouth personal manners, and a dense ignorance of British affairs. He came to enjoy the new kingship, and apparently he succeeded in his purpose. As government is at best a bothersome affair, George I determined to have as little to do with it as possible. George II, who succeeded his father in 1727, was a slight improvement as a ruler, but scarcely as a human being. The two Georges disliked each other most cordially and with good reason. In order to appear as unlike his sluggish father as possible, the younger George strove to become English and made constant, though not always discriminating, use of the English language. But he, too, was coarse, vulgar, rude in manners, and uneducated. Believing himself something of a military genius, he showed great interest in the army; he was also anxious to have a larger share in the government of the kingdom; but here his ministers balked him, and he was compelled to be satisfied with remaining a showy figurehead. George II. 408. The Jacobite Rising. 1715. It was not many months before the Hanoverians had become extremely unpopular. It 1 Cheyney, Nos. 345-346. Sheriffmuir. seemed to many of the Jacobites that the time was surely ripe for a revolt in favor of the Pretender James. King George had The rising in been in England only a year when Jacobite parthe Highlands. tisans raised the standard of the Stuarts in the Highlands; a little later there was a rising in the northern counties of England. The Jacobite forces in Scotland were at first reasonably successful; in November they fought an indecisive battle with the forces of the government at Sheriffmuir, where one half of each army defeated the opposing half of the enemy's forces. But the next day the Jacobites in England were crushed at Preston not far from the border. Early in January the Pretender landed in Scotland, but he was too late in coming. Winter made operations difficult, and the religious questions came up continuously. The somewhat shy, silent man was not the sort of a leader that the Highlanders had expected; James soon realized that his cause was lost. In February he secretly left his Highland army and embarked for France. The rising The melted away. 1 409. Whigs and Whiggism. For half a century the first two Georges bore the English crown. During this period the actual rulers of the kingdom were the chiefs of the Whig party, The Whig doctrine. of whom Sir Robert Walpole was the most notable. The cardinal doctrine of Whiggism was that parliament and not the king should be the controlling force and ultimate ruler of the nation. With the earlier Hanoverians on the throne, this doctrine came to be a political fact: George I and his son made no attempt to oppose the will of parliament. The Whig The Whig leaders were chiefly peers or members of leaders. noble families; their aim seems to have been to center as much power and influence as possible in the house of lords. The peers were great landowners and were influential with their tenants, some of whom had a right to vote; they also controlled a large number of English boroughs; consequently they were able to get their younger sons, their friends, 1 Masterman, 159-160. |