George I. son of Ernest Augustus, elector of Bruns wick, and Sophia, grand-daughter to James I. succeed ed, pursuant to the act of succession, in his 55th year. In the new parliament, which was summoned, the Whigs had by far the majority ; full of the strongest aversion to the Tories, and led on by the king himself, who made no secret of his displeasure at the party who were accused of having intended to exclude him from the throne. The commons began the expression of their resentment by arraigning lord Bolingbroke for high treason ; but that intriguing statesman disappoint ed their vengeance by flying to the continent, from whence he solemnly declared his having cherished no favour for the Jacobites, though he afterwards embark ed in the Pretender's interest. Robert earl of Oxford was impeached for the same crime, and was committed to the Tower, where he remained for two years. When he was brought to trial, a dispute arose among the COM mons, who were to be summoned to impeach which prevented their appearance ; and he was discharged for want of accusers. While these severities were attempt ed against an humiliated faction, some popular distur bances, which, though transient and easily suppressed, gave alarm to a timid and jealous government, drew forth a most tyrannical edict against rioting, which made it unlawful for even a group of people to assemble on the streets. In this system of proscription, exclusion, and jealousy, the Whigs were only imitating the recent conduct of their adversaries, but they improved upon the example ; they converted the Tories into Jacobites, and filled the nation with tumult and discontent. The earl of Mar, the secretary of state for Scotland, pro fessed an early allegiance to George, and procured a loyal address from the Highland clans ; but the con tumelious refusal of his overtures, and the fate of Ox ford, Strafford, Ormond, and Bolingbroke, drove him to despair.
On repairing to the Highlands, he was joined by 10,000 men from clans or families disgusted at the union, or attached to the hereditary descent of the crown. With these he made himself master of Fife. The Duke of Argyle, who commanded the troops in Scotland, set out from Stirling to oppose him ; and at Dumblane deter mined to give him battle, though his forces did not ex ceed 3,500 men. The rebels having attempted to sur round his diminutive army before he could change his position, their centre charged his left wing, and were once repulsed; but Glengary, one of their chiefs, wav ing his bonnet, and crying out, " Revenge !" they made a second charge, with such success, that General Wit ham fled to Stirling, and gave out that all was lost. Argyle, however, had, in the mean time, attacked with the right wing, and driven the opposing wing of the rebels across the Allen ; when he returned to that part of the rebels which had been victorious. Neither army chose to renew the attack, but drew off, each claiming the victory. It was sufficient for Argyle to have inter rupted the enemy's progress, since to them delay was defeat. Mar was soon deserted by numbers of his ir regular followers ; and the castle of Inverness being delivered up by Lord Lovat, who betrayed his trust, the cause of the pretender became desperate in the north. Nor was it more successful in England. The Earl of Derwentwater and Mr Forster took the field on the bor ders of Scotland, and penetrated as far as Preston, where their army was invested on all sides by the regular forces under General Wells. They at first repulsed the attack of the royal army; but before the assault was renewed, surrendered at discretion, after having in vain attempted to obtain terms of capitulation. Their leaders were
brought to London, and led through the streets pinioned and bound ; while the common men were confined in Chester and Liverpool. This desperate state of his af fairs, did not hinder James from hazarding his person among his friends in Scotland. Upon his arrival at Aberdeen, with six gentlemen in his retinue, he was solemnly proclaimed; and soon after made a public en try into Dundee.
After ordering thanksgivings in the churches for his safe arrival, he abandoned the enterprise with the sank levity with which it had been undertaken; and he em barked for France, with the Earl of Mar and other ad herents. The rebellion was thus suppressed, but the fury of the law was let loose in all its terrors on the de voted prisoners. An act of parliament, contrary to the custom of the constitution, was made for trying many of them, not in Lancashire, where they were found in arms, but in London ; and the habeas corpus act was suspended. The Earls of Derwentwater, Nithsdale, and Kenmuir, were sentenced to death ; Nithsdale, however, escaped in Woman's clothes, which were brought to him the night before the execution.
Though the rebellion was thus extinguished, the danger of the state was made a pretext for continuing the parliament, and repealing the act by which they were to be dissolved at the expiratian of every third year ; an outrage on the constitution at which the peo ple might murmur, but of which they could obtain no redress.
Domestic concerns being thus adjusted, and the pros pect of a dangerous enemy abroad having been also dispelled by the death of Charles the XIIth, at the siege of Frederickstadt, his majesty paid a visit to his Ger man territories, and entered into several alliances with the different powers of Europe ; among which the most remarkable was the quadruple alliance. It was agreed between the Emperor, France, England, and Holland, that the Emperor should renounce all pretensions to the crown of Spain, and exchange Sardinia for Sicily with the Duke of Savoy ; that the succession for the duchies of Tuscany, Parma, and Placentia, should be settled on the Queen of Spain's eldest son, in case the present possessors should die without issue. This treaty was generally thought unfavourable to the interests of Eng land, as it interrupted the commerce with Spain, and destroyed the balance of power in Italy, by throwing too much into the hands of the Emperor. England, however, fitted out a strong squadron, in order to bring Spain to terms; and as her mediation was refused, it was resolved to support the negotiations by force. Sir George Byng, sailing to Naples with 22 ships of the line, delivered that place from the terrors of a Spanish invasion ; but learning that the Spanish fleet had landed 30,000 men in Sicily, he returned westward, and after doubling Cape Faro, came up with 27 sail of the line. The hostile fleet, though so much superior, maintained only a running fight, in which they lost 3 of their ships. This blow produced a remonstrance on the part of Spain, which France and England answered by declar ing war against her ; but the failure of an enterprise for landing the Pretender, concerted by the Duke of Ormond, and the Spanish minister Alberoni, occasioned by the dispersion of the armament by a storm, off Cape Finisterre,` together with time bad success of the Span ish army in Sicily, in a short time obliged the Spaniards to sign the quadruple alliance.