ENGLAND. 
•npon the (bore. In behalf of the emperor it was ftipu- 
lated, that he Ihould poffefs the kingdom of Naples, the 
duchy of Milan, and the Spanifh Netherlands. The 
king of Prnflia was to have Upper Guelder; and a time 
was" fixed for the emperor’s acceding to thefe articles, 
which he had for,Tome time obftinately refilled. Thus 
Europe feemed to be formed into one great republic, the 
different members of which were cantoned out to differ¬ 
ent governors, and the ambition of any one (fate amenable 
to the tribunal of all. 
The Englifh having thus given peace to Europe, had 
•full leifure to indulge their domeftic diffenfions. The 
whig and tory parties never contended with greater ani- 
molity towards each other. Whether it was at this time 
the wifh of the minifters to alter the fucceflion of the 
-crown from the houfe of Hanover to the pretender, has 
never been clearly afeertained ; but true it is that the 
vvhigs believed it as certain, and the tories but faintly 
denied the charge. The fufpicions which fell upon that 
party became every day ftronger, particularly when the 
vvhigs came to be removed from ail places of trull and 
confidence throughout the kingdom. The whigs were 
now every where in commotion, either apprehending, or 
affedling to apprehend, a defign in favour of the pre¬ 
tender; nay, their reports went fo far as to afiert that he 
was adtually concealed in London, and that he had held 
feveral conferences with the minifters of ftate. The 
houfe of lords feemed to fhare in the general apprehen- 
fion. The queen was addreffed to know what fteps 
had been taken for removing the pretender from the do¬ 
minions of the duke of Lorrain. Mr. Steele, afterwards 
known as the celebrated fir Richard Steele, in a pam¬ 
phlet written by him, bitterly exclaimed againft the mi- 
niftry, and the immediate danger of their bringing in the 
pretender. The houfe of commons confidered this per¬ 
formance as a fcandalous and feditious libel; and Steele 
was in confequence expelled from the houfe. 
The two principal leaders of the adminiftration, Boling- 
broke and lord Oxford, becoming jealous of each others 
views, now quarelled, and began to divide the tory inte- 
reft. Oxford, it is thought, was entirely for the Hano¬ 
verian fucceftion ; Bclingbroke had fome hopes of bring¬ 
ing in the pretender. It was a mortifying profpedl to 
the queen, to perceive her favourite miniftry fplitting 
into opposite fadtions, w.hile her own ill health kept 
ace with their contentions. Her conllitution was 
roken ; and what completed the ruin of her health, was 
the anxiety of her mind. The council-chamber exhi¬ 
bited for fome time a feene of obftinate difpute and bitter 
altercation. Even in the queen’s prefence, the treafurer 
and fecretary did not abftain from mutual obloquy and 
reproach. At length, their animofities coming to a 
height, Oxford wrote a letter to the queen, calculated to 
expofe the turbulent and ambitious fpirit of his colleague. 
On the other hand, Bolingbroke charged the treafurer 
with having invited the duke of Marlborough to return 
from his voluntary exile, and of maintaining a private 
correfpondence with the houfe of Hanover. In confe- 
-quence of this charge, Oxford was removed from his 
employments, and Bolingbroke remained triumphant in 
his place. But the queen’s declining health foon gave 
him a profpedl of what was fliortly to follow. As no 
plan had been adopted for fupplying the vacancy of trea¬ 
furer, the queen was perplexed on whom to fix her 
choice; and it really had fo violent an effect upon her 
fpirits, that (he funk into a ftate of lethargic defpondency. 
Notwithftanding the bell aid of her phyficians, they de¬ 
spaired of her life, and the privy-council was affembled 
on the occalion. The dukes of Somerfet and Argyle, 
being informed of the defperate ftate in which Ihe lay, 
entered the council-chamber without being fummoned 
not a little to the furprife of the tory members, who ex¬ 
pelled not the interference of the body of . the peers. 
The duke of Shrewsbury thanked them for their guid¬ 
ance at fo critical a juncture. The phyficians having 
Vol. VI. No. 385. 
709; 
declared that the queen was ftill in her fenfes, the coun¬ 
cil unanimoufty agreed that the duke of Shrewlbury was 
the fitted perfon to be appointed to the vacant office of 
treafurer. Thus Bolingbroke’s ambition was defeated 
juft at the moment of his higheft elevation. 
All the peers and members of the privy-council, with¬ 
out diftindtion, being now furnmoned from the different 
parts of the kingdom, began to provide for the fafety of 
the conllitution. They lent to the eledlor of Hanover, 
informing him of the queen’s approaching diffolution, de¬ 
firing him to repair to Holland, where he would be at¬ 
tended by a Britifti fquadron to convey him to England. 
At the fame time they difpatched inftrudlions to the earl 
of Stafford at the Hague, to defire the ftates-general t» 
be ready to perform the guarantee of the prot.eftant fuc¬ 
ceflion. Precautions were taken to fecure the fea-ports; 
and the command of the fleet was bellowed upon the earl 
of Berkeley, a profeffed whig. Thefe nteafures, which 
were all didlated by that party, anfwered a double nur- 
pofe. They ferved to manifeft their own alacrity in the 
caufe of the proteftant fucceflion, and feemed to imply 
a danger to the ftate from the difaffedtion of the oppoiite 
intereft. 
On the thirtieth of July, the queen feemed fomewhat 
relieved by medicines, rofe from her bed about eight 
o’clock, and walked a little ; but (he was foon after 
leized with a fit of apoplexy, from which, however, Ihe 
was fomewhat recovered by the afliftance of Dr. Mead ; 
yet Ihe continued all night in a ftate of infenfibility. She 
gave fome languid figns of life between twelve and one ; 
and expired about feveno’clock in the morning, Augult i p 
1714, in the forty-ninth year of her age, after a profperous 
reign of more than twelve years. 
This princefs was rather amiable than great, rather 
pleading than beautiful. In her ended the line of the 
Stuarts ; a family, perhaps, whofe misfortunes and mif- 
condudls are not to be paralleled in liillory.—-For the 
character and iflue of this illuftrious fbvereign by her 
liulband George prince of Denmark, fee vol. i. p. 732. 
From the ACCESSION of the HOUSE of GUELPHS, 
to the PEACE of AMIENS, in 1801. 
Purfuant to the adl of fucceflion eftablifhed in the 
reign of William and Mary, George, fon of Ernell- Au- 
gullus Guelphs, fit'll eledlor of Brunfwick, and the prin¬ 
cefs Sophia, grand-daughter to James I. afeended the 
throne of Great Britain, by the title of George I. He 
was defeended from Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony and 
Bavaria, who married Maude, elded daughter of Henry II. 
of England ; hence he was the legitimate ilTue of one of 
our early monarchs, in whom had been united the royal 
Anglo-Saxon and Norman blood, and who was alfo the 
founder of the noble family of Brunfwick. His mature 
age, being fifty-four years old, his fagacity and experi¬ 
ence, his numerous alliances, and the general tranquillity 
of Europe, all contributed to promil'e him a peaceable 
and happy reign. His virtues, though not ihining, were 
folid ; he was of a very different difpofition from the 
Stuart family, whom he fucceeded. Thefe were prover¬ 
bially diftinguifhed for leaving their friends in extremity ; 
George, on the contrary, foon after his coronation, was 
heard to fay, “ My maxim is, never to abandon my 
friends ; to do juftice to all the world, and to fear no 
man.” To thefe excellent qualifications he joined great 
application to bufinefs. However, one fault, with refpedt 
to England, mud be admitted as the natural bias of hu¬ 
manity ; he (ludied more the interefts of thofe fubjedls 
he had left, than of thole he came to govern. 
The king firft landed at Greenwich ; and two days after, 
he made his public entry into London, and was crowned 
on the nth of Odlober, 1714. The hopes and fears 
of the tories, who were now called Jacobites , and of the 
whigs, who were called Hanoverians , ran very high on the 
acceflion of George I. but his majefty foon relieved them 
from their ftate of anxiety, by an inftantaneous and total 
8 S change 
