sovereign,
who was reputed a prince of sagacity and experience, would cultivate
and conciliate the affection of the tories, who were the landholders and
proprietors of the kingdom, rather than declare himself the head of a
faction which leaned for support on those who were enemies to the church
and monarchy, on the bank and the monied interest, raised upon usury
and maintained by corruption. In a word, the whigs were elated and
overbearing; the tories abashed and humble; the Jacobites eager,
impatient, and alarmed at a juncture which, with respect to them, was
truly critical.

KING GEORGE PROCLAIMED.

The queen had no sooner resigned her last breath than the privy-council
met, and the archbishop of Canterbury, the lord-chancellor, and the
Hanoverian resident, Kreyenburgh, produced the three instruments in
which the elector of Brunswick had nominated the persons * to be added
as lords-justices to the seven great officers of the realm.

* These were the dukes of Shrewsbury, Somerset, Bolton,
Devonshire, Kent, Argyle, Montrose, and Roxburgh; the earls
of Pomfret, Anglesea, Carlisle, Nottingham, Abingdon,
Scarborough, and Or-ford; lord viscount Townshend, and lords
Halifax and Cowper.

Orders were immediately issued for proclaiming king George in England,
Scotland, and Ireland. The regency appointed the earl of Dorset to carry
to Hanover the intimation of his majesty's accession, and attend him
in his journey to England. They sent the general officers in whom they
could confide to their respective posts; they reinforced the garrison
of Portsmouth; they appointed Mr. Addison their secretary; while
Bolingbroke was obliged to stand at the door of the council-chamber with
his bag and papers, and underwent every species of mortification. On
the whole, king George ascended the throne of Great Britain in the
fifty-fifth year of his age, without the least opposition, tumult, or
sign of popular discontent; and the unprejudiced part of the nation was
now fully persuaded that no design had ever been concerted by Queen
Anne and her ministry in favour of the pretender. The mayor of Oxford
received a letter, requiring him to proclaim the pretender. This being
communicated to the vice-chancellor, a copy of it was immediately
transmitted to Mr. secretary Bromley, member of Parliament for the
university; and the vice-chancellor offered a reward of one hundred
pounds to any person who should discover the a