Great Britain -- History -- 18th century -- Sources; Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, 1708-1778; Walpole, Robert, Earl of Orford, 1676-1745
APPENDIX: LONDON IN 1725-1736:
(_a_) DEFOE'S DESCRIPTION OF LONDON IN 1725 117
(_b_) PRESENTMENT OF THE MIDDLESEX GRAND JURY (1736) 119
WALPOLE AND CHATHAM
1714-1760
STATE OF PARTIES AT THE QUEEN'S DEATH (1714).
+Source.+--_Letter to Sir William Windham_, Bolingbroke's Works, 1754.
Vol. i., pp. 28-31.
The thunder had long grumbled in the air, and yet when the bolt [the
Queen's death] fell, most of our party appeared as much surprised as if
they had had no reason to expect it. There was a perfect calm and
universal submission throughout the whole kingdom. The Chevalier indeed
set out as if his design had been to gain the coast and to embark for
Great Britain, and the Court of France made a merit to themselves of
stopping him and obliging him to return. But this, to my certain
knowledge, was a farce acted by concert, to keep up an opinion of his
character, when all opinion of his cause seemed to be at an end. He
owned this concert to me at Bar, on the occasion of my telling him that
he would have found no party ready to receive him, and that the
enterprise would have been to the last degree extravagant. He was at
this time far from having any encouragement: no party, numerous enough
to make the least disturbance, was formed in his favour. On the King's
arrival the storm arose. The menaces of the Whigs, backed by some very
rash declarations, by little circumstances of humor which frequently
offend more than real injuries, and by the entire change of all the
persons in employment, blew up the coals.
At first many of the tories had been made to entertain some faint hopes
that they would be permitted to live in quiet. I have been assured that
the King left Hanover in that resolution. Happy had it been for him and
for us if he had continued in it; if the moderation of his temper had
not been overborne by the violence of party, and his and the national
interest sacrificed to the passions of a few. Others there were among
the tories who had flattered themselves with much greater expectations
than these, and who had depended, not on such imaginary favor and
dangerous advancement as was offered them afterwards, but on real credit
and substantial power under the new government. Such impressions on the
minds of men had rendered the two houses of parliament, which were then
sitting, as good courtiers to King George, as ever they had been to
queen Anne. But all these hopes being at once and with violence
extinguished, despair succeeded in their room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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