DIVISIONS IN THE MINISTRY.

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mand, and put a stop to the career of British conquest by so doing. The Elector of Hanover was induced to negotiate with Holland and other powers, to supply him with troops and shipping, in case it should be necessary to use force in supporting his title to the succession of Great Britain. A scheme was laid for taking possession of the Tower on the first appearance of danger; and the great men of the party entered into an association, binding themselves to stand by each other in defence of the Protestant succession.

While the Whigs were united in these energetic and daring measures, the Tory ministers were, by their total disunion, rendered incapable of availing themselves of the high ground which they occupied, as heads of the administration, or by the time allowed them by the flitting sands of the Queen's life, which were now rapidly ebbing. The discord between Oxford and Bolingbroke had now risen so high, that the latter frankly said, that if the question were betwixt the total ruin of their party, and reconciliation with Oxford and safety, he would not hesitate to choose the first alternative. Their views of public affairs were totally different. The Earl of Oxford advised moderate measures, and even some compromise or reconciliation with the Whigs. Bolingbroke conceived he should best meet the Queen's opinions by affecting the most zealous high church principles, giving hopes of the succession of her brother after her death, and by assiduously cultivating the good graces of Mrs. Hill, (now created Lady Masham,) the royal favourite; in which, by the superior grace of his manners, and similarity of opinions, he had entirely superseded the Lord Treasurer Oxford.

This dissension betwixt the political rivals, which had smouldered so long, broke out into open hostility in the month of July, 1714, when an extremely bitter dialogue, abounding in mutual recriminations, passed in the Queen's presence betwixt Lord Treasurer Oxford on the one part, and Bolingbroke and Lady Masham on the other.

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DEATH OF QUEEN ANNE.

It ended in the Lord Treasurer's being deprived of his office.

The road was now open to the full career of Bolingbroke's ambition. The hour he had wished and lived for was arrived; and neither he himself, nor any other person, entertained a doubt that he would be raised to the rank of lord treasurer and first minister. But vain are human hopes and expectations! The unfortunate Queen had suffered so much from the fatigue and agitation which she had undergone during the scene of discord which she had witnessed, that she declared she could not survive it. Her apprehensions proved prophetic. The stormy consultation, or rather debate, to which we have alluded, was held on the 27th July, 1714. On the 28th, the Queen was seized with a lethargic disorder. On the 30th, her life was despaired of.

Upon that day, the Dukes of Somerset and Argyle, both hostile to the present, or, as it might rather now be called, the late, administration, took the determined step of repairing to the Council-board, where the other members, humbled, perplexed, and terrified, were well contented to accept their assistance. On their suggestion, the

treasurer's staff was conferred on the Duke of Shrewsbury, a step with which the dying Queen declared her satisfaction; and thus fell the towering hopes of Bolingbroke.

On the 1st of August Queen Anne expired, the last of the lineal Stewart race who sat on the throne of Britain. She was only fifty years old, having reigned for twelve years; and her death took place at the most critical period which the empire had experienced since the Revolution.

VIEWS OF OXFORD.

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CHAPTER VI.

Proclamation of King George I-The Earl of Stair's Embassy to France-his influence in preventing opposition on the part of Louis XIV. to the Accession of the Elector of Hanover-State of Parties on the arrival of George I-Imprisonment of Oxford, and Impeachment of Bolingbroke and Ormond-Insurrection planned by the Jacobites-The Earl of Mar is repulsed in his advances to the new Monarch, and retires to Scotland-The Scottish Cavaliers-Hunting of Braemar, and resolution of the Jacobite Leaders to take up arms-Attempt to surprise Edinburgh Castle-Preparations of Government to oppose the Insurgent Jacobites.

THE period of Queen Anne's demise found the Jacobites, for a party who were both numerous and zealous, uncommonly ill prepared and irresolute. They had nursed themselves in the hope that the dark and mysterious conduct of Oxford was designed to favour his purpose of a counter revolution; and the more open professions of Bolingbroke, which reached the Jacobites of Scotland through the medium of the Earl of Mar, were considered as pointing more explicitly to the same important end.

But they were mistaken in Oxford's purpose, who only acted towards them as it was in his nature to do towards all mankind; and so regulated his conduct as to cause the Jacobites to believe he was upon their side, while, in fact, his only purpose was to keep factions from breaking into extremities, and to rule all parties, by affording hopes to each in their turn, which were all to be ultimately found delusive.

Bolingbroke, on the other hand, was more sanguine and decided, both in opinion and action; and he would

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PROCLAMATION OF KING GEORGE.

probably have been sufficiently active in his measures in behalf of King James, had he possessed the power of maturing them. But being thus mocked by the cross fate which showed him the place of his ambition at one moment empty, and in the next all access to it closed against him, he was taken totally unprepared; and the Duke of Ormond, Sir William Windham, and other leaders of the Jacobite party, shared the same disadvantage. They might, indeed, have proclaimed King James the Third in the person of the Chevalier de St. George, and trusted to their influence with the Tory landed gentlemen, and with the populace, to effect an universal insurrection. Some of them even inclined to this desperate measure; and the celebrated Dr. Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, offered to go to Westminster in his rochet and lawn sleeves, and himself to perform the ceremony. This, however, would have been commencing a civil war, in which, the succession of the house of Hanover being determined by the existing law, the insurrectionists must have begun by incurring the guilt of high treason, without being assured of any force by which they might be protected. Upon the whole, therefore, the Jacobites, and those who wished them well, remained, after the Queen's death, dejected, confused, and anxiously watchful of circumstances, which they did not pretend to regulate or control.

On the contrary, the Whigs, acting with uncommon firmness and unanimity, took hold of the power which had so lately been possessed by their opponents, like troops who seize in action the artillery of their enemy, and turn it instantly against them. The privy counsellors who were of that party, imitating the determined conduct of the Dukes of Somerset and Argyle, repaired to the Council, without waiting for a summons, and issued instant orders for the proclamation of King George, which were generally obeyed without resistance. The assembled Parliament recognized King George I. as the sovereign entitled to succeed, in terms of the act regulating the destination of the crown. The same proclamation took

place in Ireland and Scotland without opposition; and thus the King took legal and peaceable possession of his kingdom. It appeared, also, that England's most powerful, and it might seem, most hostile neighbour, Louis XIV., was nowise disposed to encourage any machinations which could disturb the Elector of Hanover's succession to the crown. The Chevalier de St. George had made a hasty journey to Paris, upon learning the tidings of Queen Anne's death; but far from experiencing a reception favourable to his views on the British crown, he was obliged to return to Lorraine, with the sad assurance that the monarch of France was determined to adhere to the Treaty of Utrecht, by an important article of which he had recognized the succession of the House of Hanover to the Crown of Great Britain. It is more than probable, as before hinted, that there had been, during the dependence of the treaty, some private understanding, or perhaps secret agreement with Bolingbroke, which might disarm the rigour of this article. But it was evident that the power of the minister with whom such an engagement had been made, if indeed it existed in any formal shape, was now utterly fallen; and the affairs of Britain were, soon after King George's accession, entrusted to a ministry, who had the sagacity to keep the French King firm to his engagement, by sending to Paris an ambassador, equally distinguished for talents in war and in diplomacy, and for warm adherence to the Protestant line.

This eminent person was John Dalrymple, the second Earl of Stair, whose character demands particular notice amongst the celebrated Scotsmen of this period. He was the eldest surviving son of the first Earl, distinguished more for his talents than his principles, in the reigns of King William and Queen Anne, infamous for his accession to the massacre of Glencoe, and unpopular from the skill and political talent which he displayed in favour of the Union, in carrying which through the Scottish Parliament he was a most useful agent. According to the prejudiced observations of the common people, ill for