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prefent limitation of the crown. I therefore think it may very impartially be pronounced, that the number of those, who wish to see the son of the abdicated prince upon the throne, is altogether inconfiderable. And further, I believe it will be found, that there are none who fo much dread any attempt he fhall make for the recovery of his imagined rights, as the Roman Catholics of England; who love their freedom and properties too well to defire his entrance by a French army, and a field of blood; who must continue upon the same foot if he changeth his religion, and must expect to be the first and greatest fufferers if he fhould happen to fail.

As to the perfon of this nominal prince, he lies under all manner of difadvantages: the vulgar imagine him to have been a child impofed upon the nation, by the fraudulent zeal of his parents and their bigotted counfellors; who took fpecial care, against all the rules of common policy, to educate him in their hateful fuperftition, fucked in with his milk and confirmed in his manhood, too frong to be now fhaken by Mr. Lefley *; and a counterfeit converfation will be too grofs to pafs upon the kingdom, after what we have feen and fuffered from the like practice in his father. He is likewife faid to be of weak intellectuals, and an unfound constitution: he was treated contemptibly enough by the young princes of France, even during the war; is now wholly neglected by that crown, and driven to live in exile upon a fmall exhibition he is utterly unknown in England, which he left in the cradle: his father's friends are moft of them dead, the reft antiquated or poor. Six and

* Lefley was a nonjuring clergyman, who wrote a letter from Barleduc in Lorrain, the place of the pretender's refidence, addreffed to a member of parliament in London, in praife and on behalf of his prince. The letter was printed, and publicly handed about in London.

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twenty years have almoft paft fince the revolution, and the bulk of those who are now most in action, either at court, in parliament, or public offices, were then boys at fchool or the universities, and look upon that great change to have happened during a period of time for which they are not accountable. The logic of the highest tories is now, that this was the establishment they found, as foon as they arrived to a capacity of judging; that they had no hand in turning out the late king, and therefore have no crime to answer for, if it were any: that the inheritance to the crown is fixed in pursuance of laws made ever fince their remembrance, by which all papifts are excluded, and they have no other rule to go by: that they will no more difpute King William III's. title, than King William I's.; fince they must have recourfe to history for both: that they have been inftructed in the doctrines of paffive obedience, non-resistance and hereditary right, and find them all neceffary for preferving the prefent establishment in church and tate, and for continuing the fucceffion in the house of Hanover, and muft, in their own opinion renounce all thofe doctrines, by fetting up any other title to the crown. This, I fay, feems to be the political creed of all the high-principled men I have for fome time met with of forty years old and under; which although I do not pretend to justify in every part, yet I am fure it fets the proteftant fucceffion upon a much firmer foundation, than all the indigested schemes of those who profefs to act upon what they call revolution-principles.

Neither fhould it perhaps be foon forgotten, that, during the greateft licentiousness of the prefs, while the facred character of the Queen was every day infulted in factious papers and ballads, not the least reflecting infinuation ever appeared against the Hanover family, whatever occafion was offered to inVOL. V. temperate

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temperate pens, by the rafhness or indifcretion of one or two minifters from thence.

From all these confiderations, I must therefore lay it down as an incontestable truth, that the fuc ceffion to thefe kingdoms in the illuftrious house of Hanover, is as firmly fecured as the nature of the thing can poffibly admit by the oaths of all thofe who are intrufted with any office, by the very principles of those who are termed the High Church, by the general inclinations of the people, by the infignificancy of that perfon who claims it from inheritance and the little affiftance he can expect, either from princes abroad, or adherents at home.

However, fince the virulent oppofers of the queen and her adminiftration, have fo far prevailed by their emiffaries at the court of Hanover, and by their practices upon one or two ignorant, unmannerly Meffengers from thence, as to make the Elector defire fome farther fecurity, and fend over a Memorial here to that end: The great queftion is, how to give reasonable fatisfaction to His Highness, and (what is infinitely of greater confequence) at the fame time, confult the honour and fafety of the Queen, whofe quiet Poffeffion is of much more confequence to us of the prefent age, than his Reverfion. The fubftance of his memorial, if I retain it right, is to defire that fome one of his family might live in England, with fuch a maintenance as is ufual to thofe of the royal blood, and that certain titles fhould be conferred upon the rest, according to ancient cuftom. The memorial doth not fpecify which of the family fhould be invited to refide here; and if it had, I believe however her Majefty would have looked upon it as a circumftance left to her own choice.

But, as all this is moft manifeftly unneceffary in itfelf, and only in compliance with the mistaken -doubts of a prefumptive heir; fo the nation would (to speak in the language of Mr. Steel) expect, that

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her Majefty should be made perfectly eafy from that fide for the future; no more to be alarmed with apprehenfions of vifits or demands of writs, where *the hath not thought fit to give any invitation; The nation would likewise expect, that there should be an end of all private commerce between that court and the leaders of a party here; and, that his Electoral Highness should declare himself entirely fatisfied with all her Majefty's proceedings, her treaties of peace and commerce, her alliances abroad her choice of minifters at home, and particularly in her moft gracious condefcenfions, to his requeft: that he would, upon all proper occafions, and in the most public manner, difcover his utter diflike of factious perfons and principles, but, efpecially of that party, which under the pretence or shelter of his protection, hath fo long difquieted the kingdom and laftly, that he would acknowledge the goodness of the Queen, and juftice of the nation, in fo fully fecuring the fucceffion to his family.

It is indeed a problem which I could never comprehended, why the court of Hanover, who have all along thought themfelves fo perfectly fecure in the affections, the principles, and the profeffions of the Low-Church party, should not have endeavour. ed, according to the ufual politics of princes, to gain over those who were reprefented as their enemies; fince these fuppofed enemies had fo many advances, were in poffeffion of all the powers, had framed the very fettlement to which that illuftrious family owes its claim; had all of them abjured the pretender; were now were now employed in the great offices of ftate, and compofed a majority in both houfes of parliament. Not to mention, that the Queen

Baron Schutz, envoy extraordinary from the Elector of Hanover, demanded a Writ for the Electoral Prince to fit in the house of Peers as Duke of Cambridge, and it was expected, that his Highness wouldhave made a vifit to the Court of London.

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berfelf, with the bulk of the landed gentry and commonalty throughout the kingdom, were of the number. This, one would think, might be a strength fufficient not only to obftruct but to bestow a fucceffion and fince the prefumed heir could not but be perfectly fecure of the other party, whofe greateft avowed grievance was the pretended danger of his future rights; it might therefore furely have been worth his while, to have made at least one step towards cultivating a fair correfpondence with the power in poffeffion. Neither could thofe, who are called his friends, have blamed him, or with the leaft decency enter into any engagements for defeat. ing his title.

But why may not the reafons of this proceeding in the elector be directly contrary to what is commonly imagined? Methinks I could endeavour to believe, that his Highness is thoroughly acquainted with both parties; is convinced, that no true member of the church of England can eafily be fhaken: in his principles of loyalty, or forget the obligation of an oath, by any provocation: That thefe are therefore the people he intends to rely upon, and keeps only fair with the others, from a true notion he hath of their doctrines, which prompt them to forget their duty upon every motive of intereft or ambition. If this conjecture be right, his Highness cannot fure but entertain a very high efteem of such minifters, who continue to act under the dread and appearance of a fucceffor's utmoft difpleasure, and the threats of an enraged faction, whom he is fuppofed alone to favour, and to be guided entirely in his judgement of British affairs and perfons by their opinions.

But to return from this digreffion: the prefence of that infant prince* among us could not, I think,

The infant prince was the fon of the electoral prince of Hanover who might be chofen to refide here in confequence of the Memorial. See p. 351.

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