his
enemies were in triumph over him, and were determined to bring about
his doom. Even before George had landed in England he had sent
directions that Bolingbroke should be removed from his place of
Secretary of State. On the last day of August this order was executed
in a manner which made it seem especially premature, and even
ignominious. The Privy Council, as it stood, was then dissolved, and
the new Council appointed, which consisted of only thirty-three
members. Somers was one of this new Council, but in name alone; his
growing years, his increasing infirmities, and the flickering decay of
his once great intellect, allowed him but little chance of ever again
taking an active part in the affairs of the State. Marlborough was
named a member of it, as we have seen. The Lords Justices ordered that
all despatches addressed to the Secretary of State should be brought to
them. Bolingbroke himself had to wait at the door of the Council
Chamber with his despatch-box, to receive the commands of his new
masters.

France, tired of war, recognized the new King of England. The
coronation of the King took place on October 20th; Bolingbroke and
Oxford were both present. We learn from some of the journals of the
day that it had rained on the previous afternoon, and that many of the
Jacobites promised themselves that the rain would continue to the next
day, and so retard, if only for a few hours, the hateful ceremony. But
their hopes of foul weather {102} were disappointed. The rain did not
keep on, and the coronation took place successfully in London; not,
however, without some Jacobite disturbances in Bristol, Birmingham,
Norwich, and other places.

[Sidenote: 1714--Flight of Bolingbroke]

The Government soon after issued a proclamation dissolving the existing
Parliament, and another summoning a new one. The latter called on all
the electors of the kingdom, in consequence of the evil designs of men
disaffected to the King, "to have a particular regard to such as showed
a firmness to the Protestant Succession when it was in danger." The
appeal was clearly unconstitutional, according to our ideas, but it was
made, probably, in answer to James Stuart's manifesto a few weeks
before, in which the Pretender reasserted his claims to the throne, and
declared that he had only waited until the death "of the Princess, our
sister, of whose good intentions towards us we could not for some time
past well doubt."

The gener