But we must not anticipate the course of events. At the precise
period of this history, the Jacobite party was full of hope and
confidence. Louis the Fourteenth yet lived, and expectations were,
therefore, indulged of assistance from France. The disgrace of the
leaders of the late Tory administration had strengthened, rather than
injured, their cause. Mobs were gathered together on the slightest
possible pretext; and these tumultuous assemblages, while committing
the most outrageous excesses, loudly proclaimed their hatred to the
house of Hanover, and their determination to cut off the Protestant
succession. The proceedings of this faction were narrowly watched
by a vigilant and sagacious administration. The government was not
deceived (indeed, every opportunity was sought by the Jacobites
of parading their numbers,) as to the force of its enemies; and
precautionary measures were taken to defeat their designs. On
the very day of which we write, namely, the 10th of June 1715,
Bolingbroke and Oxford were impeached of high treason. The Committee
of Secrecy--that English Council of Ten--were sitting, with Walpole
at their head; and the most extraordinary discoveries were
reported to be made. On the same day, moreover, which, by a curious
coincidence, was the birthday of the Chevalier de Saint George, mobs
were collected together in the streets, and the health of that prince
was publicly drunk under the title of James the Third; while, in many
country towns, the bells were rung, and rejoicings held, as if for a
reigning monarch:--the cry of the populace almost universally being,
“No King George, but a Stuart!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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