A History of England in the Eighteenth Century
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Please do not assume that a book's appearance in 'The Builder' library means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe. The Webmaster Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924087998849 A HISTORY OF ENGLAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY I. WILLIAM EDWAEI) HAETPOLE LECIY VOLUME I. NEW YOKK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 1, S, AND 5 BOND STEEET. 18S7. PEEFACE. The histokt of a nation may be written in so many different ways that it may not be useless, in laying these volumes before the public, to state in a few words the plan which I have adopted, and the chief objects at which I have aimed. I have not attempted to write the history of the period I have chosen year by year, or to give a detailed account of , military events or of the minor personal and party incidents which form so large a part of political annals. It has been my object to disengage from the great mass of facts those Avhich relate to the permanent forces of the nation, or which indicate some of the more enduring features of national life. The growth or decline of the monarchy, the aristocracy, and the democracy, of the Church and of Dissent, of the agricultural, the manufacturing, and the commercial interests ; the in- creasing power of Parliament and of the press ; the history of political ideas, of art, of manners, and of belief; the changes that have taken place in the social and economical condition of the people ; the influences that have modified national Character; the relations of the mother country to its depen- dencies, and the causes that have accelerated or retarded the VOL. I. 1 VI PEEFACE. advancement of the latter, form the main subjects of this book. In order to do justice to them within moderate limits it is necessary to suppress much that has a purely biographical, in party, or military interest ; and I have also not hesitated some cases to depart from the strict order of chronology. The history of an institution or a tendency can only be written by collecting into a single focus facts that are spread over many years, and such matters may be more clearly treated according to the order of subjects than according to the order of time. It will appear evident, I think, from the foregoing sketch, that this book differs widely from the very valuable history of Lord Stanhope, which covers a great part of the same period. Two writers, dealing with the same country and the same time, must necessarily relate many of the same events ; but our plans, our objects, and the classes of facts on which we have especially dwelt, are so very different that our books can hardly, I hope, come into any real competition; and 1 should much regret if it were thought that the present work had been written in any spirit of rivalry, or with any wish to depreciate the merits of its predecessor. Lord Stanhope was not able to bring to his task the artistic talent, the power, or the philoso- phical insight of some of his contemporaries; but no one can have studied with care the period about which he wrote without a feeling of deep respect for the range and accuracy of his research, for the very unusual skill which he displayed in the difficult art of selecting from great multitudes of facts those which are truly characteristic and significant, and, above all, for his transparent honesty of purpose, for the tulness and fair- . PKEFACE. vii ness with which he seldom failed to recount the faults of those with whom he agreed and the merits of thoge from whom he differed. This last quality is one of the rarest in history, and it is especially admirable in a writer who had himself strong party convictions, who passed much of his life in active politics, and who was often called upon to describe contests in which his own ancestors bore a part. To the great courtesy of the authorities of the French Foreign Office I am indebted for copies of some valuable letters relating to the closing days of Queen Anne ; and I must also take this opportunity of acknowledging the un- wearied kindness I have received from Sir Beenaed Bdkke, Ulster King of Arms, during my investigation of those Irish State Papers which he has arranged so admirably and which he knows so well. Lokdon: November 1S7T CO]t^TENTS OF THE FIEST VOLUME. CHAPTER I. ?AOB Vicissitudes of Whigs and Tories 1 Not true that the parties have exchanged their principles . , 2 The Eevolution much more due to special than to general causes . G ifany general influences Jtad long ieen inimical to Freedom The decline of the yeomen 6 Restrictions on the political influence of the commercial classes . 7 Subserriency of the Judges 8 Intellectual tendency towards despotism 8 Growth of the doctrine of the Divine Eight of Kings . 9 Summary of the causes of the Eevolution 10 Skill with which the Whig leaders availed themselves of their • opportunities . 13 Part played by general and particular causes in history . 14 Unpopularity of the Eevolutionary Government . 17 Strength of the English hatred of foreigners 19 It acted at first in favour of the Eevolution 20 And was strengthened by the Protestant feelings of the country . 20 Dangers to Protestantism in Europe 20 The jealousy of foreigners gradually turns against the Eevolution 25 BiriAgn Policy The Spanish Succession 2G England desires the acceptance of the will of Charles II. 27 Change of feeling produced by the invasion of Flanders . 29 Formation and prospects of the Grand Alliance ... 31 Becognition of the Pretender by Lewis XIV. 32 Strong warlike feeling. Dissolution of Parliament and triumph of the Whigs 38 X CONTENTS OF PAOB 33 Death of "William . ' Tory sympathies of Anne 33 New Tory Ministry and Parliament 35 The exigencies of foreign policy draw Godolphin and Marlborough towards the Whigs .... 36 Partial transformation of the Ministry 37 Blenheim 40 Anger of the clergy against the Queen *0 Great Whig majority of 1705 *1 41 Progress of the alienation of the Government from the Tories - Chief events of the Godolphin Ministry 42 Government at length completely Whig 45 Alienation of the Queen. The Ministers depend mainly for their 46 power on the continuance of the war . • Negotiations of 1706 48 And of 1709 . 50 Marlborough refused the position of Captain-General ... 54 The Cliurch Oji2>ositi<ni The Sacheverell case 55 Downfall of the Whigs 64 Coincidence of great ecclesiastical influence in England with great political and intellectual activity 65 Eelations of the clergy to the Kevolution : the abjuration oath . 67 Exaltation of Charles 1 70 The miracle of the royal touch 73 Strength of the Church in England 80 Its gains and losses by the Eeformation SO Poverty and low social position of the clergy 82 Effect of the Revolution in weakening their power ... 86 Growth of the Latitudinarian party. Burnet 87 Change in the tone of the pulpit ....... 91 The non-juror theology 93 Conflict between the lower clergy and the bishops ... 95 Divisions in Convocation 97 Several Church measures carried under Anne .... 98 History of the Occasional Conformity Bill 100 Conduct of the Whig party 102 The Schism Act 103 Political and religious liberty in great danger .... 105 Ileviem of Foreign Polioy Deaths in the French and Austrian royal families .