Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/341

A.D. 1714.] wonderful what a new light had burst on the tories. Another clause was proposed by Horace Walpole—that a reward of one hundred thousand pounds should be offered for the apprehension of the pretender, should he attempt a landing, and was carried with the same ease. Some money bills having been passed, the session was closed by prorogation.

During these transactions there was naturally an earnestly-inquiring eye kept open towards Hanover, whence the king appeared in no hurry to issue forth and assume the throne of these three fair kingdoms. The coolness with which George of Hanover appeared to contemplate the splendid prize which had fallen to him, appeared to the English little less than unnatural. Thrones and crowns are generally seized upon with avidity; but the new king seemed to feel more regret in quitting his petty electorate than eagerness to enter on his splendid kingdom. But George was a man of phlegmatic disposition, and of the most exact habits, and went through his duties like an automaton or a piece of machinery. He took, therefore, much time in settling his affairs in Hanover before he turned his face towards England, and it was not till the 18th of September, or nearly seven weeks after the decease of the late queen, that he landed at Greenwich with his son George. "His views and affections were," as lord Chesterfield properly observed, "singly confined to the narrow compass of his electorate. England was too big for him."

Nor was his appearance, when he did arrive, calculated to enchant his new subjects. His countenance was heavy, his manners awkward, and he had a great dislike to public display, the very acclamations of the people in welcome of him being an annoyance to him. He was now fifty-four years of age, and firmly stereotyped into a slow, dull German mould. It was soon discovered that his mind was as dull as his appearance; that he was narrow and obstinate to an extreme; had no taste of any elevated kind for any branch of literature, of science, or the fine arts, except music. He was utterly ignorant of the English language, though he had for many years had the prospect of succeeding to the English throne, and though his mother was said to be perfectly familiar with the speech of his royal ancestors. On the other hand, he was not without his sober virtues. He was brave, and understood military affairs, yet he loved peace. He was economical, if not rather penurious; he was just and honourable in private life, and capable of a sedate but not zealous friendship. Such was the man who appeared to occupy the throne of a great, enlightened, and busy-spirited nation. His German subjects had seen him depart with tears and regret; his English ones beheld him arrive with wonder and disappointment. From the moment that he reached his capital it was obvious that the whigs possessed his exclusive favour. The tories who hastened to welcome him even on the road were received with chilling coldness. The chancellor Harcourt was dismissed, though he hastened to carry to him the patent of peerage for the prince of Wales. The duke of Ormonde, while on his way to Greenwich to pay his homage, received the message that he would not be admitted to the royal presence. Before his landing he had forwarded orders to remove Bolingbroke, and appoint lord Townshend as secretary of state in his place; and the blunt rudeness with which this had been done by Shrewsbury, Cowper, and Somerset, made that proud minister and all his party sensible of the royal aversion towards them. The seals were abruptly taken from him, and his office doors locked behind him. "To be removed," wrote the fallen man to Atterbury, "was neither matter of surprise nor concern to me; but the manner of my removal shocked me for at least two minutes. I am not in the lease intimidated from any consideration of the whig malice and power; but the grief of my soul is this:—I see plainly that the tory party is gone." It showed that party that their negotiations with the pretender were fully understood. Addison, in a letter to the Hanoverian cabinet, expresses the salutary effect of this decisive measure:—"The removal of the lord Bolingbroke has put a seasonable check to an interest that was making in many places for members in the next parliament, and was very much relished by the people, who ascribe to him, in a great measure, the decay of trade and public credit."

The triumph of the whigs was complete. Whilst Oxford, who had been making great efforts at the last to retrieve himself with his party by assisting them to seize the reins of power on the queen's illness, was admitted in absolute silence to kiss the king's hand, and that not without many difficulties, Marlborough, Somers, Halifax, and the rest were received with the most cordial welcome. Yet, on appointing the new cabinet, the king showed that he did not forget the double-dealing of Marlborough. He smiled on him, but did not place him where he hoped to be, at the head of affairs. He was on his guard against the "junto," as it was termed; and though he did not altogether by them aside, he preferred men hitherto less prominent. He made lord Townshend secretary of state and prime minister; Stanhope, the second secretary; the duke of Mar was removed from the secretary-ship of Scotland to make way for the duke of Montrose; lord Halifax was made first lord commissioner of the treasury, and was raised to an earldom, and was allowed to confer on his nephew the lucrative sinecure of auditor of the Exchequer; lord Cowper became lord chancellor; lord Wharton was made privy seal, and created a marquis; the earl of Nottingham, president of the council; Mr. Pulteney was appointed secretary-at-war; the duke of Argyll, commander-in-chief for Scotland; Shrewsbury, lord chamberlain and groom of the stole; the duke of Devonshire became lord steward of the household; the duke of Somerset, master of the horse; Sunderland, lord lieutenant of Ireland; Walpole was at first made simply paymaster of the forces, without a place in the cabinet, but his ability in debate and as a financier soon raised him to higher employment; lord Orford was made first lord of the admiralty; and Marlborough, commander-in-chief and master of the ordnance. The duchess says that she went down on her knees to entreat him to decline any employment, assuring him that his fame and his wealth would, in an independent position, render him far more necessary to the court than it could be to him, and that he ought never to put it in the power of any king to use him ill. This was sound advice, but Marlborough had not the firmness to listen to it; neither his love of money nor his love of power would allow him to listen to it. He accepted office, and was gratified by appointments bestowed upon his son-in-law, Sunderland, the lords Godolphin and Bridgewater, and the duke of Montague. But he soon saw cause