to rue his compliance. He was treated with great outward respect, but no confidence; nor did he deserve it; for, with a strange fancy for treason when it could no longer offer any plausible motive, it is shown by the Stuart papers that, whilst still holding this office, he furnished the pretender with a loan which assisted him in the rebellion of the next year, 1715. His past and present conduct, therefore, left him without excuse for a complaint when he could not obtain even a lieutenancy for a friend, but was obliged to solicit Pulteney, the secretary-at-war, to do it for him, adding, "Don't say it is for me, for whatever I ask is sure to be refused." In Ireland Sir Constantine Phipps, in spite of his new-fangled loyalty, was deprived of the seals, and Mr. Broderic made chancellor. Lord Somers was passed over altogether, professedly on account of his age, but, as it was supposed, in a great measure, from his having been one of the "junto;" but he was gratified by an additional pension of two thousand pounds a year.
In the whole new cabinet Nottingham was the only member who belonged to the tory party, and of late he had been acting more in common with the whigs. The tories complained vehemently of their exclusion, as if their dealings with the pretender had been a recommendation to the house of Hanover. They contended that the king should have shown himself the king of the whole people, and aimed at a junction of the two parties; but the violence of these factions was far too great to tempt any man in his senses to such a measure, the failure of which had been sufficiently striking under king William. The ministerial arrangements being completed, the coronation took place on the 20th of October, and was fully attended by the chief nobles and statesmen, even by Oxford and Bolingbroke, and was celebrated in most parts of the kingdom with many demonstrations of joy. At Bristol, Norwich, and Birmingham, however, there were tory and high church riots, for even Birmingham was then remarkably high church. At Bristol the cry was, "Sacheverel and Ormonde!" and "Down with all foreign governments!" At Oxford full convocation met, and conferred an honorary degree on Sir Constantine Phipps, the late Jacobite chancellor of Ireland. These were plain enough indications of the sentiments and wishes of that party; but the government behaved with a wise moderation. Though they had plundered a house and murdered a man, fifteen of the Bristol rioters were tried and sentenced to fine and imprisonment, but not a man was put to death—a lenity far more striking than was displayed in the same city after the riots of 1831.
On the 28th of August the pretender, who was again at Plombières drinking the waters, issued a proclamation asserting his right to the throne of Great Britain, and explaining the cause of his not having hitherto made a resolute effort to regain it—namely, "the death of the princess our sister, of whose good intention towards us we could not for some time past well doubt." It was her deplorable and unexpected death which had, he argued, prevented the completion of these good intentions. This was a direct charge of complicity in his cause by the late tory ministry of England, and was immediately seized on as an unanswerable proof, of it by the whigs. The tories, confounded by so damning a disregard of their interests by the pretender, had no alternative but to deny the authenticity of the document; but that authenticity was as stoutly and foolishly maintained by the pretender himself. Then followed a fierce war of pamphlets. Those on the tory side were bearing such titles as the following:—"Stand fast to the Church." "Where are the Bishops now?" "The Religion of King George." "No Presbyterian Government." "The State Gamester; or, the Church of England's Sorrowful Lamentation." "Æsop in Mourning." "The Duke of Ormonde's Vindication." "The Lord Bolingbroke's Vindication." "No Pretender; or, the Duke of Marlborough's Design Defeated." These were hawked in all directions; but the hawkers were seized, their pamphlets burnt, and themselves sent to the house of correction. Able writers were employed on the whig side, and Addison admirably ridiculed the Jacobites in what he called "A Tory Creed," which appeared in the "Freeholder." The first three articles were—"That the church of England will always be in danger till it has a popish king for its defender. That for the safety of the church no subject should be tolerated in any religion different from the established, but that the head of our church may be of that religion which is most repugnant to it. That the protestant interest in this nation and in all Europe could not but flourish under the protection of one who thinks himself obliged, on pain of damnation, to do all that lies in its power for the extirpation of it."
At the coronation there was the usual creation or advancement of peers. Amongst these, besides Halifax being made an earl, and Wharton a marquis, as we have said, lord Paget was made earl of Uxbridge, Henry Boyle baron Carlton, and Sir Richard Temple lord Cobham. The day after, Cobham and general Stanhope were dispatched on a secret mission to the emperor of Vienna. Stanhope was chosen because he had fought bravely for the emperor Charles VI. in Spain, and the object was to assuage the jealousy of Charles at seeing one of the vassals of the empire advanced to the independent position of king of England, and to obtain, if possible, the completion of the Bavarian treaty, which still remained an obstacle to the cordial alliance of the Dutch and Charles. They took the Hague on their way, and endeavoured to bring the States-General to a reasonable view of the matter. At Vienna, Stanhope was most cordially received by the emperor, and urged upon him the necessity of settling the Barrier Treaty to secure the Netherlands against French intrigues; but he very unexpectedly found prince Eugene much opposed to it, being extremely indignant at the last proposals of the Dutch, and declaring the Low Countries rather a burden than a benefit to the empire, and not worth accepting on such terms. Stanhope remained in Vienna till the 22nd of December, endeavouring to reduce the difficulties, and on his way back again paused to induce the Dutch to reduce their terms. Though he did not succeed in bringing the parties to an immediate agreement, he prepared the way for one, and, after a yet considerable struggle betwixt Dutch and German pugnacity, the treaty was finally concluded in November of 1715. The Dutch were to garrison Namur, Tournay, Menin, Furnes, Warneton, Ypres, and Knoque; and, jointly with Austria, Dendermond, for which they were to receive five hundred thousand crowns yearly.
