HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

TO SEVENTH PERIOD,

EXTENDING

FROM GEORGE II. TO THE ACCESSION OF GEORGE IIL

1

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

TO

SEVENTH PERIOD.

Paucity of historical materials-Sources-Sketch of the state of parties at the acces sion of the house of Hanover-Successive ministries of George II.-State of English literature.

It is the just remark of an eminent critic, that "no part of our domestic history, since the Reformation, is so imperfectly known to us as the interval between the accession of the house of Hanover, and the death of George II." And yet the age which lay between these two events was not the least important one in English history. It indeed presented nothing like the religious agitations of the sixteenth century; and its civil wars-of which it had two-were utterly insignificant in comparison with those of the preceding century; yet it was an age of political activity, abounding in cabals and intrigues, and remarkable for the establishment and consolidation of that internal system of government, by which the affairs of this country have been conducted almost up to the present hour.

The fact is, the materials for modern English history are yet remarkably scanty, and of difficult access. That materials do exist, there can be no question; but they are still chiefly to be found in private collections, and family-archives. Mr Coxe, by the publication of the Walpole papers, has done something to remove this reproach. He was the first to illustrate the reigns of George I. and George II., from original and authentic documents; but he treats the historical personages of this period with as much deference and reserve as might be prudent were they still alive, and acting their parts on the political stage. Glover's Memoirs, though a work of some pretension, will be found of very little value to the future historian. Lord Waldegrave's Memoirs, however, are truly valuable; and those of Lord Orford are all that the historian could desire. If, to these three works, we add Bubb Dodington's Diary, and Lady Suffolk's Correspondence, we shall have indicated the principal historical sources, for the period under consideration, at present accessible to the public.

At the accession of the house of Hanover, three political parties divided the country. The whigs by whose exertions that event was

brought about, were of course the predominant party. Their strength chiefly lay in the trading and monied interests, and the adhesion of a few of the great aristocratical families. Opposed to the whigs, and in some important points to each other, were the tories and Jacobites. Betwixt their notions of indefeasible right in the succession to the crown, and their dread of papacy, the tories hung back, in a state of ludicrous perplexity, from pursuing decisive measures of any kind. They hated the house of Hanover as heartily as the Jacobites, but their attachment to the church of England made them hesitate to adopt a line of conduct which might ultimately terminate in the restoration of the Catholic church. The Jacobites, though many of them were staunch episcopalians, had no such qualms about religion. The restoration of the Stuart dynasty was an object dearer to them than any other consideration.

The united opposition of these two parties, to the existing government, greatly embarrassed the ministry, and drove them, in some instances, to the adoption of measures opposed in spirit to their principles, and from which, under other circumstances, they would have recoiled. Hence the large standing armies which they maintained; the unconstitutional powers with which they invested petty magistrates; and the bribery practised both within and without the houses of parliament. It was unfortunate also for the whigs, that, at this time, to use the words of Lord Waldegrave, "they were not united in one body, under one general, like a regular and well-disciplined army; but might more aptly be compared to an alliance of different clans fighting in the same cause, professing the same principles, but influenced and guided by their different chieftains."

Soon after the accession of George I., a schism took place amongst the whigs, in which Lords Sunderland and Stanhope headed one party, and Sir Robert Walpole and Lord Townshend the other. The Walpole party was successful; but from the ruins of the other, a formidable opposition arose, aided by the tories under Wyndham, and the Jacobites under Shippen, which, after twenty years of untiring efforts, finally overturned the administration of Walpole.

The administration of Lord Granville, and Pulteney, earl of Bath, succeeded; but these ministers were driven from their places by the eloquence of Pitt, seconded by their own rashness and incapacity.

A coalition ministry was put together towards the close of 1744, under the administration of which every thing went wrong at home and abroad. The Pelhams headed this unhappy ministry, which included the duke of Bedford and Lord Sandwich, and Pitt and Fox held subordinate stations in it. On the death of his brother, the duke of Newcastle endeavoured to dispense with the services both of Pitt and Fox, but was ultimately obliged to admit the latter into the cabinet. Such, however, was the want of confidence betwixt the duke and Fox, that the commoner tendered his resignation; and Newcastle, now deprived of his ablest allies, was necessitated to follow his example within a few days. The duke of Devonshire was now intrusted with the formation of a ministry. He immediately made overtures to Pitt, and so indispensable was the commoner's accession found to be, that it was purchased by the rejection of both Newcastle and Fox, with whom Pitt refused to associate.

The personal antipathy of the king to Pitt broke up the Devonshire administration, and an interministerium of two months followed. After

a variety of fruitless attempts to form a ministry to his liking, the king was forced to accept an administration formed under the auspices of the heir-apparent, and which long successfully conducted the affairs of the country, foreign and domestic.

The rapid outline we have now given will suffice to direct the reader's attention to the principal political personages of the period now under consideration; its literary history may be indicated in even fewer words. Under a necessity which seemed to be laid upon us by the fact, that the leading men of Queen Anne's reign, both in politics and literature, belong almost equally to the reign of the first George, and the difficulty we found in drawing any line of demarcation betwixt the two reigns considered as political and literary eras, we have already introduced the reader to several illustrious names, which belong not merely to the Augustan age of Queen Anne, as it is called, but also to the era of the first two Georges. In our notice of Thomson we shall be able to point out what we must regard as a wholesome change in the public taste of this period, we mean that true sense of the beauty of external nature, which, for any thing we can discover in the poetry of Pope and his school, seems to have lain dormant from the period of the Restoration until the author of the Seasons' appeared a candidate for public favours. His contemporary, Young, would probably have achieved greater things than he did, had he not unfortunately fallen upon imitating Pope, with whom his genius had little in common. Smollett has been pleased to mention Glover's 'Leonidas' among the glories of the reign of George II.; but the Grecian style, though supported by such men as Mason, and Gray, and Akenside, with all its classicality, and learning, and taste, was never fitted for the clime of Britain; it was altogether too cold, and tame, and elaborate for the country of Shakspeare, Milton, and Spenser. Collins was a lyric poet of a higher stamp than even Gray, but he long suffered strange neglect. Even Cowper had never heard of his name until he saw it first in Johnson's 'Lives of the Poets,' nearly thirty years after his death. Dyer awoke a simpler and more English strain than any of his poetical brethren betwixt Thomson and Goldsmith. The Wartons meanwhile did good service, both as critics and as poets, by directing the attention of the rising generation to the school of Spenser, and of the Elizabethan age. At last Cowper arose, and English poetry was finally emancipated from the unworthy bondage under which it had so long lain.

In philosophy, and prose writing, the period of the second George can show some worthy names. Balguy, and Doddridge, and Hoadly, and Sherlock, and Berkeley, and Butler, and Warburton, with a host of distinguished theologians and metaphysicians, adorn this era. Hume too had completed his History of England' before the third George ascended the throne.