there was but one duller person than the Queen in her
Kingdom, and that was the royal Consort, George, Prince of Denmark.
Happy was it for England that of the seventeen children born into this
royal household, not one survived. {135} The succession, in the
absence of direct heirs, was pledged to George, Elector of Hanover, a
remote descendant of James I.

It was during Anne's reign that English literature assumed a new
character. The stately and classic form being set aside for a style
more familiar, and which concerned itself with the affairs of everyday
life. Letters shone with a mild splendor, while Steele, Sterne, Swift,
Defoe and Fielding were writing, and Addison's "Spectator" was on every
breakfast-table.

In the year 1714 Anne died, and George I., of the House of Hanover, was
King of England,--an England which, thanks to the great soldier and
Duke, would never more be molested by the intriguing designs of a
French King, and which held in her hand Gibraltar, the key to the
Mediterranean.

King George I. was a German grandson of Elizabeth, sister of Charles I.
Deeply attached to his own Hanover, this stupid old man came slowly and
reluctantly to assume his new honors. He could not speak English; and
as he smoked his long pipe, his homesick soul was soothed by the ladies
{136} of his Court, who cut caricature figures out of paper for his
amusement, while Robert Walpole relieved him of affairs of State. As
ignorant of the politics of England as of its language, Walpole
selected the King's Ministers and determined the policy of his
Government; establishing a precedent which has always been followed.
Since that time it has been the duty of the Prime Minister to form the
Ministry; and no sovereign since Anne has ever appeared at a Cabinet
Council, nor has refused assent to a single Act of Parliament.

Such a King was merely a symbol of Protestantism and of Constitutional
Government. But this stream of royal dulness which set in from Hanover
in 1714, came as a great blessing at the time. It enabled England to
be ruled for thirty years by the party which had since the usurpation
of James I. stood for the rights of the people. Walpole created a Whig
Government. The Whigs had never wavered from certain principles upon
which they had risen to power. There must be no tampering with
justice, nor with the freedom of the press, {137} nor any attempt to
rule independently of Parliament. Thirty years of rule under