Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/559

A.D.1753 still more so, as a nobleman of unblemished character, and a prelate of most distinguished virtue, had resigned their charge over the prince, because their remonstrances against these mischievous inculcations had been treated with contempt. It was observed that Murray, the solicitor-general, afterwards lord Mansfield, a man of a most decided Jacobite family, had advised the dismissal of these patriotic and eminent men, and had the real management of the prince's household.

Great pains were taken to discover the author of this letter, but in vain. Dr. Johnson, bishop of Gloucester, was recommended by the princess as chief preceptor; but finally Dr. Thomas, bishop of Peterborough, was chosen, and lord Waldegrave as governor. There had been a difficulty in getting anybody to accept the office, and it was soon seen that the caution was not groundless.

The year 1753 opened by lord Ravensworth, who, having received one of Walpole's anonymous letters, hastened up to town to inform ministers that the bishop of Gloucester, whom the princess had been anxious to have appointed, as preceptor, was a rank Jacobite, and that he had the strongest evidence of Stone, the prince's tutor, and Murray, the solicitor-general and adviser of the princess, being the same. He and the dean of Durham were heard before the privy council, where they produced one Fawcett, an attorney, who swore that he, Stone, and Murray, the solicitor-general, then young men and very poor, used to meet at one Vernon's, a rich mercer, twenty years ago, and drink the healths of the chevalier and lord Dunbar—that is, Murray, the young pretender's secretary. Fawcett, however, refused to sign his depositions, and Stone and Murray swore that they were false; whereupon the charge was dismissed as groundless and scandalous. But the matter was not allowed to rest here. The duke of Bedford moved in the house of lords, on the 22nd of March, for the production of the papers relating to Stone and Murray, and a fierce debate ensued, without any conclusion being arrived at.

Waldegrave, who was a most honourable, amiable, and accomplished man, descended from James II. by Arabella Churchill, sister of the duke of Marlborough, soon found his post a most trying one. Though the princess of Wales had outwardly professed to throw herself entirely into the hands of the king, all the old feuds and prejudices of her late husband were kept up by her and her friends. Waldegrave was hated by the princess, because she considered he was placed by the king as a spy over her; and he had no influence over the prince whatever, for he regarded him from his mother's point of view, and gave him no confidence. Though the bishop of Peterborough, Stone, and Scott were able men, their learning and counsels were equally thrown away. The prince was cold and indolent, equally averse to books and to any active amusements. He received all his ideas and his prejudices from the conversation of the bedchamber-women and pages of the back stairs. With any one else he scarcely ever conversed, and had no associates of his own age; his brother Edward was the sole exception. His mother kept him carefully away from the young aristocracy, because, she said, they were so badly educated and so vicious. The immorality of the children of the nobles was at that time shocking enough; but the mother's care, it was suspected, was rather to keep George under her own tutelage than out of harm's way. In fact, his education continued of the most defective kind, and he turned out in after years a cold piece of respectable morality, but destitute of the information which became his royal position, and filled with narrow and obstinate prejudices, which produced the most fatal consequences to the nation. Lord Waldegrave, after George came to the throne, used to make great allowances for him on these grounds. Meantime, his own situation was most irksome. Without any means of influencing the prince for good, he was condemned to listen to all the vituperations of Leicester House against the king, to whom he was greatly attached. The princess complained that the king robbed her and her family by not granting them the revenues of the duchy of Cornwall, but putting the money in his own pocket, and not paying her late' husband's debts, which, at the same time, she described as very trifling—namely, only seventy thousand pounds owing abroad, ninety thousand pounds to his tradesmen and servants, and some other similarly small items. Lord Waldegrave continued to exert himself to mitigate these bitter feelings and to introduce a better state of things by making the most favourable representations of the king to the princess, and of her and the prince to the king. He was doomed, however, very soon to find all his endeavours rendered abortive by the rapidly advancing favour with the princess of John Stuart, earl of Bute. Bute was a handsome man, solemn and slow in his manners, extremely proud and sensitive, but of no depth of talent. The late prince Frederick used to say, "Bute is a fine, showy fellow, and would make an excellent ambassador at a court where there is nothing to do." In private life he had hitherto borne a blameless character, being married to a daughter of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, and leading a quiet life at Caen Wood, on a rather narrow income, with his large family. Suddenly, however, he was observed to have seized on the favour of the princess of Wales to such a degree as produced the utmost scandal. He became everything in her establishment, and we shall hereafter find him occupying a prominent place in the government of her son.

The session of 1753 was distinguished by two remarkable acts of parliament. The one was for the naturalisation of the Jews, the other for the prevention of clandestine marriages. The persecutions of the Jews had in every age of Christianity been one of the worst exhibitions of human cruelty. That religion which of all others preaches up the forgiveness of injuries and the returning of good for evil, had been preached in vain to the professed disciples of Christ. The Jews, as the rejectors and murderers of the Messiah, had been regarded with horror, and pursued with the most terrible vengeance through successive centuries and through every so-called Christian land, regardless of the words, of the Saviour himself praying for their forgiveness, on the ground that they had not known what they were doing. Since the reformation this furor against them had somewhat abated in Holland and England; if they were not respected, they were, at least, tolerated. Cromwell, with that breadth of mind which distinguished him above his contemporaries, had combated the prejudices of the clergy and the merchants against them, showing that, as it was declared by the prophets and apostles that the Jews were