Dr. Johnson could not see why this play was ‘obstructed.’ Genest could no more see the reason than Dr. Johnson. Yet, the licenser may be easily justified in withdrawing a license which should never have been granted. The play touched nearly on the dissensions between George II. and his son Frederick, who were then living in open hostility. Such passages as the following would certainly have been hailed with hilarious sarcasm by the Jacobites, who dwelt with satisfaction on the unseemly antagonisms in the royal family:―― Has not the royal heir a juster claim To share the Father’s inmost heart and Counsels, Than aliens to his interest, those who make A property, a market, of his honour? The prince is urged to save the king from his ministers; England is represented as in peril from without as well as from within. Frederick, under the name of Edward, is described as one who ‘loves the people he must one day rule,’――Whigs and Jacobites equally, for:―― Yet bears his bosom no remaining grudge Of those distracted times. [Sidenote: _HENRY PELHAM AND THE JACOBITES._] When Henry III. is declared to be dead, his son thus speaks of him in terms applicable, by the poet’s intention, to George II.:―― The gentlest of mankind, the most abus’d! Of gracious nature, a fit soil for virtues, Till there his creatures sow’d their flatt’ring lies, And made him――No! not all their cursed arts Could ever make him insolent or cruel. O my deluded father! Little joy Had’st thou in life;――led from thy real good, And genuine glory, from thy people’s love,―― That noblest aim of Kings,――by smiling traitors! These domestic and political allusions pervade the play. Its production would probably have led to riot, and the Lord Chamberlain, or his deputy, did well in prohibiting the play and thus keeping the peace. In January, 1740, Mr. Sandys moved for leave to bring in a Bill for the better securing the freedom of Parliament, by limiting the number of Government officers to sit in the House of Commons. Among the opponents was Mr. Henry Pelham, who was convinced that the Bill would help the Jacobites to carry out their designs. ‘We know,’ he said, ‘how numerous the disaffected still are in this kingdom; and they, we may suppose, are not insensible to the prejudice that has been done to their faction, by the places and offices which are at the disposal of the crown. These places and offices are of great use to the crown and, I think, to the nation, in preventing gentlemen from joining with a faction, or winning them away from it; and the Jacobites are sensible they have lost many by this means, some, perhaps, after they had got a seat in this House.’ [Sidenote: _JACOBITE PROSPECTS._]