‘_June_, 1718.――Informations are sometimes officiously given concerning transactions on foot; but no effectual care is taken to discover the men or the measures by which they are carried on; nor do those whose peculiar business it is to search into these things, seem at all to concern themselves in them, though they are forced now and then to commit and examine a person (upon particular information given) and then dismiss him, without any hurt done or light gained by that means. Hearne’ (the pseudonym for King George) ‘in the meantime is soothed up with new pleasures and new Mistresses. English Ladies and a Garden take up all his time, and his indolence and ignorance of his affairs are more remarkable than ever; and this sense of life is not casual, but plainly contrived for him. Should any accident happen, they who manage under him have no refuge; their heads must answer for what they have conceived and done, and perhaps without any formal process of Law, vengeance would be taken of them. Nor could they have any methods of saving themselves but by a voluntary exile, should they have time enough to get away upon such an occasion. They seem to take no single step towards avoiding this storm, as the fastest friends of the present Settlement have been all along gradually removed and disgraced; so are some of them even now, that still continue in the service, far from receiving the encouragements they have promised themselves.’ [Sidenote: _THE ROYAL FAMILY ON THE ROAD._] The king kept none the more private, nor protected himself any the more, for any troubles that were seriously threatening. There seemed really to be in him the ignorance or indifference described by Atterbury. Early in July the king drove from Kensington to sup with the Duke of Kingston, at Kingston House, Acton. At three o’clock on the following morning he was cheerily trotting home in his ponderous carriage, daylight breaking on him, as he passed the men hanging in chains on the gibbet at Shepherd’s Bush. There is something more lively in another royal incident. One evening during the summer, the young Princesses left London for Hampton Court. Nearly the whole way they were singing French and Italian songs, and as the ‘Lady-governess’ ordered the coachman to drive slowly through the crowds that lined the road, the pretty incident and the implied confidence in the public loyalty delighted the people, and rendered the princely vocalists as safe as if they had been in their father’s drawing-room.