Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Her Life and Letters (1689-1762)Melville, Lewis
History
Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Her Life and Letters (1689-1762)
Melville, Lewis
Montagu, Mary Wortley, Lady 1689-1762; Montagu, Mary Wortley, Lady 1689-1762 -- Correspondence
The political staff that came included twenty-three persons. Baron von
Bothmer was already in England. Now arrived Baron von Bernstorff, Prime
Minister of Hanover; Baron von Schlitz-Goertz, Hanoverian Finance
Minister; Baron von Hattorf, Hanoverian Minister of War; and John
Robethon.
To these men, who advised the King in his capacity of Elector of
Hanover, there would have been no objection had they confined their
energies to administering that country. This, unfortunately, was not the
case. Some of them, at least, notably Bernstorff and Robethon, meddled
in English politics, and most of them desired high office, lucrative
appointments, peerages, and other grants. It is certain that they must
have known that they were barred from such delights by an Act of 1700
which carefully guarded against foreigners acquiring any share in the
government of this country. Nothing, in fact, could be more definite
than clause three of the "Act for the further limitation of the Crown":
"No person born out of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, or Ireland, or
the dominions thereunto belonging (although he be naturalised or made a
denizen, except such as are born of English parents)," so runs clause
three of the above-mentioned Act, "shall be capable of the Privy
Council, or a Member of either House of Parliament, or to enjoy any
office or place of trust, either civil or military, or to have any grant
of lands, tenements, or hereditaments from the Crown to himself or to
any other or others in trust for him." Still, Acts of Parliament have
been repealed, and the invaders may well have hoped that, with the
King's support, their influence might increase until they were strong
enough to have the clause revoked.
As a matter of fact, nothing of the kind happened, and no Hanoverian
statesman or court officer was appointed to any place of profit under
the Crown or rewarded for his services in the Electorate by the grant of
a British peerage. It may be noted that the Hanoverian officials, fond
as all Germans were and are of wordy distinctions, styled themselves
"Koenigliche-Gross-britannische-Kurfuerstlich-Braunschweig-Lueneburgische"
(Royal-British-Electoral-Brunswick-Luenburg) councillors or magistrates.
The Hanoverians who were on the political side or held posts in the
Household might, by the exercise of a little tact, have lived down an
unpopularity that was the result of circumstances rather than arising
from any personal animosity. That they did not do so may be ascribed
partly, anyhow, to their own fault.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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