HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



up annuities that had been granted in the reign of 

 William and Mary, for the purpose of reducing the 

 national debt. It seemed for a time to prosper, 

 and many realised large fortunes by selling their 

 shares at a premium to others ; but in a short time 

 its unsoundness was discovered, the price of shares 

 fell, and thousands were utterly ruined. With 

 great difficulty, and by an extremely complicated 

 adjustment, the House of Commons equalised as 

 nearly as possible the state of gain and loss among 

 the innocent parties, and credit was restored. Sir 



I Robert Walpole, who was chiefly concerned in 

 effecting this arrangement, became Premier and 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer, and for upwards of 

 twenty years from that period (April 1721), he 

 must be looked on as the prime mover and manager 

 of the public affairs. Among the measures of this 

 reign was a bill, carried in 1716, for repealing 

 King William's Triennial Act, and giving to par- 

 liaments a duration of seven years. 



The commerce and manufactures of England 

 continued to advance steadily during this reign ; 



Fbut Scotland and Ireland remained in an unim- 

 proved state. Roads were now for the first 

 time made in the Highlands. The most notable 

 literary man of the time was Daniel Defoe, a 

 voluminous writer of pamphlets on the Noncon- 

 formist side, but far more noted in later times on 

 account of his admirable tale of Robinson Crusoe. 

 Few writers have shewn so great a knowledge of 

 human nature in all phases of life as he has. 



GEORGE II. WAR WITH SPAIN AND FRANCE. 



George I. at his death, June 10, 1727, was suc- 

 ceeded, in his 44th year, by his son, GEORGE II. 

 who, like his father, was German at heart, although 

 he could speak English fluently. He was methodi- 

 cal, economical, and courageous, but passionate, 

 and his private life was not free from reproach. 

 His wife, Caroline, of Brandenburg- Anspach, was 

 handsome, well educated, and clever, and for many 

 years virtually ruled the country. In the early part 

 of his reign, Walpole effected some useful measures, 

 and upon the whole was a vigorous and enlightened 

 administrator of public affairs, though nothing can 

 justify the extensive system of bribery by which 

 alone he pretended to manage the House of Com- 

 mons. After a peace of extraordinary duration, 

 he was urged, in 1739, much against his will, and 

 on account of a trifling dispute between Spanish 

 and British merchants, into a war with Spain. 

 This war proving almost everywhere unsuccessful, 

 Walpole resigned, and was called to the Upper 

 House in 1742, as Earl of Orford. He died three 

 years later. After the death of the Emperor Charles 

 VI. of Germany, his dominions fell by inheritance 

 to his daughter, the celebrated Maria Theresa, 

 Queen of Hungary. She was opposed in this suc- 

 cession by the sovereigns of France, Saxony, and 

 Bavaria, all of whom pretended to have some 

 claims on her dominions. A war was commenced 

 against her ; the Elector of Bavaria was crowned 

 emperor, under the title of Charles VII. ; and such 

 was the success of the French arms, that she was 

 soon reduced to the greatest distress. With this 

 quarrel Britain had little reason for interfering ; 

 but the king thought his dominions in Germany 

 endangered, and many of the people were animated 

 by their usual hostility to the French. Others, 

 however, like William Pitt, then rising into notice 



as the leader of the discontented Whigs or 

 'Patriots/ denounced the war, declaring that 

 Britain was being made a province of an elec- 

 torate. 



In 1743 the king joined the Earl of Stair, who 

 had entered Germany at the head of a considerable 

 army, and who had allowed himself to be shut up 

 by the French in a valley near Dettingen, on the 

 Main, and defeated the latter, fighting himself at 

 the head of the first line. In May 1745, however, 

 Marshal Saxe defeated an army under the king's 

 second son, the Duke of Cumberland, at Fontenoy, 

 owing to the desertion, by the continental allies' 

 of the British infantry, which behaved most gal- 

 lantly. 



REBELLION OF 1745-46. 



The Pretender had married, in 1719, the Prin- 

 cess Clementina Sobieski of Poland, and was now 

 the father of two sons in the bloom of youth, the 

 elder of whom has been distinguished in history 

 by the title of Prince Charles Stuart. The mis- 

 fortunes of the British arms on the continent, and 

 the dissensions which prevailed among the people 

 and the parliament, encouraged this prince to 

 make an attempt to recover the throne of his 

 ancestors. In 1745, he landed in Inverness-shire, 

 with only seven attendants, and on the igth August 

 he raised his standard at Glenfinnan, within a 

 few miles of the government station of Fort- 

 William, and found himself surrounded by about 

 1 500 men. A reward of ^30,000 was offered for 

 the head of the young prince, who, with all his 

 family, was under attainder by act of parliament ; 

 and Sir John Cope, commander of the forces in 

 Scotland, was ordered to advance with what troops 

 he had into the Highlands, and suppress the insur- 

 rection. The prince pushed rapidly southward, 

 took possession of Perth and Edinburgh in succes- 

 sion, and on the 2ist of September a rencontre 

 took place between him and Cope at Prestonpans. 

 Seized with a panic, the royal troops fled disgrace- 

 fully from the field, leaving the prince a complete 

 victory. With the lustre thus acquired by his arms, 

 he might have now, with 4000 or 5000 men, made 

 a formidable inroad into England. Before he 

 could collect such a force, six weeks passed away, 

 and when at length (November i) he entered Eng- 

 land, a large body of troops had been collected 

 to oppose him under the Duke of Cumberland. 

 Eluding Cumberland, however, he advanced boldly 

 to Derby, and created a kind of panic in the 

 metropolis. His adherents, however, were dis- 

 heartened by the small accessions to their strength 

 they received in England, and determined to go 

 no farther. The prince, therefore, reluctantly 

 retreated to Scotland, followed by the army of the 

 Duke of Cumberland. 



After a flash of success on January 17, 1746, 

 when he defeated General Hawley and a body of 

 English troops at Falkirk, Prince Charles was 

 completely defeated by Cumberland, April 16, at 

 Culloden, near Inverness. He had himself the 

 greatest difficulty, and encountered many ro- 

 mantic adventures, in escaping from the country, 

 and the Highlands were subjected for several 

 months to the horrors of military violence in all 

 its worst forms. Three of the insurgent nobles, 

 the Earl of Kilmarnock, and Lords Balmerino and 

 Lovat, suffered death on Tower Hill, and a large 

 number of meaner men were hanged at Carlisle 



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