XXXVI. CHAP. XXXVI. 1 English affairs-Union of England and Scotland Emigrations-Parliamentary transactions-First administration of the duke of Dorset-Question carried against the cabinetTythe agistment-Devonshire's government-Great frost-Chesterfield's government-Primate StoneLucas-Jones-Nevil. CHAP. WILLIAM the third, vested by parliament with the English monarchy, had crushed his opponents among the Scots, had finally reduced Ireland, and had seen in 1692 the last attempt for the restoration of his rival, James the second, frustrated by the naval battle of La Hogue, where the French fleet of sixty-three ships of the line, under admiral Tourville, ready to convey a French army into England; was totally defeated by a considerably superior force of English and Dutch vessels under admiral Russel. Acting as the head of a great confederacy against France, XXXVI. France, whose plans he repressed of inordinate am- CHA P. bition, he at length concluded a general peace with that power in 1697. Delicate in frame by nature, and vexatiously agitated by the factious proceedings of the English parliament, particularly in the resumption of the Irish forfeitures, he gradually declined in constitution, till his death was hastened by a fall from his horse. As Mary, his queen, the eldest daughter of James the second, had died before him, the crown, by an act of parliament made in 1689, devolved to Anne, the sister of Mary, in 1701. སུ This princess fulfilled the foreign engagements of her predecessor, in entering into a confederacy with the German emperor and the Dutch commonwealth for a war against France, to prevent the establishment of a grandson of the French monarch on the throne of Spain. She accomplished in 1706 a union of England and Scotland into one kingdom, styled, cognominally with the island of which they are parts, the kingdom of Great-Britain; a union plainly necessary for the independence of both in the growing magnitude of continental powers, yet not obtained without labour, largesses, and finesse. The war was prosecuted with a success quite glorious on the side of the Netherlands, where the famous John Churchill, duke of Marlborough, at the head of a confederate army, seemed to threaten the French monarchy with the lowest degradation. But the queen, whose councils at first were directed by whigs, was in the four last years of her reign guided by a tory ministry, who XXXVI. CHAP. Who concluded in 1712 a peace with the French king, on terms vastly less disadvantageous to him than those which he had before vainly solicited. On the decease of Anne, in 1714, without offspring, the crown devolved, by an act of parliament passed in 1700, on George, elector of Hanover, who was, by his mother Sophia, grandson of Elizabeth, the only daughter of king James the first, and wife of Frederic elector Palatine. This important event, accomplished by the vigilance and activity of the whigs, was very mortifying to the Jacobites, who had fondly hoped the restoration of the Stuart line. James had died in France in the year 1700, but his pretensions to the British crown were inherited by his son, thence denominated the pretender, styled also the Chevalier de Saint-George. Encouraged by a general disaffection of the tories, which was fomented by severities of the new government, seemingly pushed beyond the bounds of necessity and sound policy, the partizans of this prince raised a rebellion in North-Britain and the north-western counties of England, in the latter part of the year 1715. But, deprived of assistance from France by the death of his friend, Louis the fourteenth, at the critical juncture, and dreaded by all protestants of reflexion on account of his bigotry to the religion of his father, the chevalier, though he landed in Scotland to inspirit his adherents, was quite unsuccessful. The rebellion was suppressed; many of its leaders executed; and the new line of monarchs firmly. seated on the British throne. Although XXXVI. 1715. Although the last ministry of Anne had seemingly CHAP. taken measures to leave Ireland open to the attempts of the Chevalier de Saint-George, since the parlia-parliament. ment of this kingdom had been prevented by a prorogation from the passing of a bill of attainder against that personage, and great part of the army on the Irish establishment had been disbanded, while partizans of the chevalier were openly recruiting in this country for his service. Yet to the accession of her successor, George the first, not the smallest shew of opposition was made among the Irish. A parliament, convened in the November of 1715, by the lords justices, the duke of Grafton and the earl of Galway, manifested a zealous loyalty. Beside the recognition of his Majesty's title, and other acts of the same import, a bill of attainder was passed against the chevalier, including a reward of fifty thousand pounds for the seizure of his person. An act of attainder, with confiscation of his estates, and a reward of ten thousand pounds for his caption, was also decreed against James Butler, duke of Ormond, who had already, with too great rigour, been attainted by the British parliament, for his co-operation with the tory ministers of the late queen. The commons granted supplies without hesitation; they obliged those gentlemen to beg pardon on their knees, who had addressed the late sovereign in favour of Sir Constantine Phipps; they entered into an association against the pretender and his adherents; and, in an address to the king, they requested the removal of Arthur, earl of Anglesey, from his councils, CHAP. Councils, and from the office of vice-treasurer, as he XXXVI. was supposed to have advised or influenced the dangerous measures of the late ministry. They also voted resolutions of a dispensing nature, declaring any person an enemy to the king, who should commence a prosecution against any protestant dissenter, for his acceptance of a commission in the army or militia; and they resolved on an address to the lords justices to recommend the corporation of Dublin to his Majesty for a mark of his royal favour, to perpetuate the virtue and faithful services of the aldermen and sheriffs who had opposed the tory interest in the late election of a lord mayor. From the accession of George the first the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were administered exclusively by whigs, and so completely reduced in the latter was the force of Jacobitism supposed to be, that when the duke of Ormond, driven to desperate attempts by the violence of his enemies, took in 1718 the command of a Spanish fleet and army for an invasion of George's dominions in favour of the pretender, his voyage, which was frustrated by a storm, was directed not to Ireland, where the great body of catholics, including his own numerous tenantry, were too dispirited to afford hopes of strenuous aid, but to North Britain, where men of influence and resolution were strongly attached to the line of Stuart, and highly discontented with the new Unconstitu-government. The zealous loyalty of the Irish parthe British liament could not protect its privileges from the invasion of the British. In a suit for an estate between tional act of, parliament, 1719. Hester |