intrigues of the Jacobites on behalf of the pretender, calling himself James III., to whose succession the queen herself was favourable. Sophia, the electress-dowager of Hanover, died June 8, 1714, at the age of eighty-three, and her son, GEORGE LOUIS, became heir under the act of settlement. Bolingbroke, who was in correspondence with James, succeeded in driving Oxford from office, July 27, 1714. But two days after, the queen, being seized with a fatal illness, sent for the duke of Shrewsbury, who took prompt measures, in concert with Argyle and Somerset, to defeat the schemes of Bolingbroke. On July 30 Anne delivered the white staff of lord treasurer to Shrewsbury; and on Sunday, August 1, she expired at Kensington, in the fiftieth year of her age, and the thirteenth of her reign. Her easy temper and her faultless domestic life gained her the epithet of "the good queen Anne." Her weak and indolent temperament greatly contributed to the progress of that change by which the government of England has come to be directed by responsible ministers, rather than by the wishes of the sovereign. Hers was the first reign undisturbed by rebellion, and unstained by executions for high treason, with the one insignificant exception of Gregg. She showed her attachment to the church by giving up the firstfruits and tenths, and making that provision for the aid of poor livings, which bears the name of "queen Anne's bounty." Among the new institutions of her reign was the establishment of a General Post Office for all the British dominions (1710).

The time of Anne has been honoured with the name of the Augustan Age of English literature, a name more truly descriptive than those who first used it were aware; for in England, as at Rome, it marks a period of great excellence indeed, but of decline from a nobler perfection. ALEXANDER POPE stands at the head of the poets; while ADDISON and SWIFT are the greatest masters of prose, not only in this age, but in the whole course of English literature. The periodical essays, of which the Spectator is the great example, were the invention of this time. Most of the leading writers belong also to the reign of George I., and some reach into that of George II.

GEORGE LOUIS, elector of Hanover (son of Ernest Augustus, duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and elector of Hanover, and of Sophia, the youngest child of Frederick elector palatine and Elizabeth daughter of James I.), was proclaimed by the title of GEORGE I. immediately upon the death of queen Anne. His accession was unopposed, not only in England, but also in Scotland and Ireland; and he was acknowledged by Louis XIV. as well as by the other powers of Europe. He landed at Greenwich on Sept. 18, 1714, with his eldest son, afterwards George II. He was welcomed by the people as the representative of the great principle of a Protestant succession, though personally he had little to recommend him. The king was fifty-four years old, having been born May 23, 1660. In person and manner he was heavy, coarse, and awkward. His mind was uncultivated by literature or science, though he had, like nearly all his countrymen, a natural taste for music. His other tastes were low, and his society was composed of those who pandered to them. His wife, Sophia Dorothea of Zell, had been doomed to perpetual imprisonment for an alleged intrigue with count Königsmark; while his mistresses came over to enrich themselves in England. To these repulsive traits he added a total ignorance of the English language, customs, and feelings, which disabled him from presidir in his own council or cultivating the favour of his people. In

he seems to have regarded his reign in England as an experiment, and Hanover as his only true country and secure possession. On the other hand, he was straightforward, diligent, and frugal; and desirous of peace, though he had proved his courage and skill in war. He had the good sense to trust the government to well-chosen ministers. To confirm the hope of stability in the new dynasty, his son George Augustus, now prince of Wales, was already thirty years of age, had been a comrade of the British soldiers under Marlborough, and had distinguished himself on the field of Oudenarde; and this prince had a son, Frederick, who was seven years old.

Immediately on the death of Anne, the Hanoverian minister had produced an instrument, appointing eighteen lords justices, in accordance with the act of regency, nearly all of whom were Whigs; and the king on his arrival identified himself with that party. Lord Townshend, brother-in-law of Walpole, succeeded Bolingbroke as secretary of state, and was in reality prime minister. His principal colleague was general Stanhope, second secretary of state. Shrewsbury resigned the white wand; the office of lord high treasurer was put in commission, and has never since been revived. Steps were taken to punish the late ministers for their intrigues with France and the pretender. Oxford, Bolingbroke, and Ormond were impeached by the commons for high treason; but the first only remained to answer the charge, which was dropped after he had been detained two years in the Tower. Acts of attainder were passed against Ormond and Bolingbroke. Ormond had escaped to France after Oxford's arrest, and died abroad in 1745. Bolingbroke had taken the alarm still earlier, and fled to the pretender, who resided in Lorraine under the assumed name of the Chevalier de St. George, and became his chief adviser. But they quarrelled about the disastrous attempt of 1715; and, after some years, Bolingbroke obtained his pardon and returned to England (1723).

The chevalier had just published a manifesto of his right to the crown (Aug. 29, 1715), when his hopes of aid from France were crushed by the death of Louis XIV. (Sept. 1), who was succeeded by his infant great-grandson Louis XV. Meanwhile the Jacobites risked a premature rising under the earl of Mar in Scotland, and Mr. Foster and the earl of Derwentwater in the north of England. Foster advanced as far as Preston, and there surrendered to general Carpenter (Nov. 13), with lords Derwentwater, Nithisdale, Wintoun, Kenmure, and many members of old families in the north. On the same day Mar was defeated by Argyle at Sheriffmuir, near Stirling, and retired to Perth. The chevalier now risked his person in a cause already lost, landing at Peterhead (Dec. 22). But he only chilled his adherents by his want of cheerful energy. Perth was

abandoned on the fatal anniversary of January 30; and James slunk away with Mar from his army at Montrose (Feb. 4), and got back to St. Germain's with his person safe and his honour lost. Derwentwater and Kenmure were beheaded on Tower Hill (Feb. 24), and about twenty-six others were executed. The escape of lord Nithisdale, by the heroic devotion of his wife, is the sole pleasing incident of this rebellion. It led to the repeal of the Triennial Act of 1694 from fear of a Jacobite parliament, and the enactment of the SEPTENNIAL ACT, which still regulates the legal duration of parliaments. To deprive the pretender of support from France, negociations were opened with the regent duke of Orleans, whose interest suggested an alliance with England; since, in the event of the king's death, he would need help to enforce Philip V.'s renunciation of the crown of France. His minister, the celebrated abbé Dubois, negociated a treaty, which was afterwards merged in the Triple Alliance between England, France, and Holland (Jan. 4, 1717).

Philip V. of Spain now resolved on war, and seized Sardinia, by the advice of his ambitious minister cardinal Alberoni, who was intriguing with Charles XII. of Sweden and the czar in favour of the Stuarts, and renewing the old Spanish plots in England. Stanhope, who, from causes not worth relating. here, had displaced Townshend as prime minister (1717),* hastened to Paris, and formed a new Quadruple Alliance between the three former allies and the emperor, to preserve the peace of Europe (1718). He then proceeded to Madrid, but failed to move Alberoni. Meanwhile the Spaniards took Palermo and Messina, but were defeated (Aug. 11) off Cape Passaro by admiral Byng (afterwards viscount Torrington). The pretender was received with royal honours at Madrid, and a fleet was equipped at Corunna to convoy him to England (1719). But this new armada (like Philip II.'s) was dashed to pieces by a storm, when it had only just put out to sea. Further reverses led to the disgrace of Alberoni himself (Dec. 4), and Philip V. joined the Quadruple Alliance (Jan. 1720). About the same time Charles XII. dicl, and the queen of Sweden became the ally of George I.

Stanhope's administration, while thus successful abroad, advanced in a liberal course at home. In spite of the united opposition of the Tories and Walpole, who had resigned with Townshend, they repealed the act against occasional conformity and the Schism Act; and Stanhope himself wished to have repealed the Test Act (1718). But they incurred a serious check in the rejection of the Peerage Bill, the object of which was to limit the power of the king to create new peers, and its motive the fear lest the prince of Wales,

He was created viscount Stanhope in 1717, and earl Stanhope in 1718. His descendant, the present earl, is the historian of this period.

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on coming to the throne, should use his prerogative to swamp the Whig majority. Walpole opposed the bill with great eloquence in the House of Commons, and it was rejected by the peers. Walpole also succeeded in healing a quarrel between the king and the prince of Wales; and, early in 1720, he and Townshend accepted subordinate places in the government.

The autumn of this year brought on a singular commercial crisis. The South Sea Company was formed by Harley in 1710, as a means of meeting a deficit of nearly 9,000,000l. in the public services. The company took this debt upon itself, in consideration of a large annual payment as interest and the exclusive privilege of trading with the subjects of Spain in the South Seas. In 1719 they paid 7,500,000l. for the unredeemable government annuities created during the war, and induced the annuitants to accept South Sea stock on very low terms. The transaction gave rise to a mania for the company's stock, which seemed almost epidemic, for there was just the same rage in Paris for the Mississippi scheme of Law; and all manner of bubble companies were launched. In September came the crash. The South Sea stock fell from 1000 to 300. Thousands were ruined. The government were charged with aiding the delusion; and an attack, made on them in the House of Lords by the young duke of Wharton, was repelled by Stanhope with such heat, that the effort caused an apoplexy, of which he died next day (Feb. 5, 1721). Sir ROBERT WALPOLE now rose to the chief direction of affairs, which he retained for twenty years. His chief colleagues were lord Townshend, as secretary of state, and lord Carteret, afterwards earl Granville.* He took prompt measures to remedy the South Sea disaster, and to punish the directors. In 1722 a new Jacobite conspiracy was detected, and Atterbury, whom Anne had made bishop of Rochester, was deprived and banished (1723). At the very same time Bolingbroke returned, and became the head of a coalition against Walpole under the name of the "patriot party.” He was soon joined by Walpole's former friend, the great orator, William Pulteney (1725), who assisted him in editing the 'Craftsman.' The year 1724 was marked by party disturbances in Scotland and Ireland; the former arising out of the imposition of a malt-tax, and the latter out of a new copper coinage, called, from the name of the contractor, "Wood's halfpence," an affair only memorable from the power with which Swift, in his Drapier's Letters, turned a perfectly regular business transaction into a weapon against the ministry. To these symptoms of danger to the Whigs was added the threat of a general war, by a new confederacy formed at Vienna between Spain and the empire, supported by Russia, against England and

This title became extinct in 1776. The present earl Granville is the son of the youngest son of the marquis of Stafford, who was created earl Granville in 1833.