CHAP. pure; his labours for the Established Church no XII. less praiseworthy; but his defence was of some1722. what too fierce and turbulent a character; he thought less of personal worth than of party principles in others; and he was one of those of whom it has been wittily said, that out of their zeal for religion they have never time to say their prayers! Yet in private life no trace of his vehemence and bitterness appeared; his "softer hour" is affectionately remembered by Pope; and his own devoted love to his daughter, Mrs. Morice, sheds a milder light around his character. On the whole, he would have made an admirable Bishop had he been a less good partisan. The political views of Atterbury were always steadily directed against the accession of the House of Hanover. When the Rebellion broke forth in 1715, a Declaration of Abhorrence of it was published by the other Prelates; but Atterbury refused to sign it on the pretext of some reflections it contained against the High Church party. At no distant period from that time we find him in frequent corespondence with James, writing for the most part in a borrowed hand, and under counterfeit names, such as Jones, or Illington. Were we inclined to seek some excuse for his adherence to that cause, we might, perhaps, find it ́in his close study of Lord Clarendon's History, which he himself had edited conjointly with Aldrich and Smalridge. I have always considered the publication of that noble work (it first XII. 1722. appeared 'under Queen Anne) as one of the main CHAP. causes of the second growth of Jacobitism. How great seems the character of the author! How worthy the principles he supports, and the actions he details! Who could read those volumes and not first be touched, and at last be won, by his unconquerable spirit of loyalty by his firm attachment to the fallen - by his enduring and wellfounded trust in God when there seemed to be none left in man! Whose heart could fail to relent to that unhappy Monarch more sinned against than sinning to that "gray discrowned head" which lay upon a pillow of thorns at Carisbrook, or rolled upon a block at Whitehall! Or whose mind would not brighten at the thought of his exiled son-in difficulty and distress, with every successive attempt disappointed every rising hope dashed down yet suddenly restored against all probable chances, and with one universal shout of joy! How spirit-stirring must that History have been to all, but above all to those (and there were many at that time) whose own ancestors and kinsmen are honourably commemorated in its pages the soldiers of Rupert -or the friends of Falkland! Can we wonder then, or severely blame, if their thoughts sometimes descended one step lower, and turned to the grandson - also exiled for no fault of his own, and pining in a distant land, under circumstances not far unlike to those of Charles Stuart in France! I know the difference of the cases and most of all in what Atterbury XII. 1722. CHAP. ought least to have forgotten -in religion; I am not pleading for Jacobitism; but I am pleading for the honest delusion and pardonable frailty of many who espoused that cause; I am anxious to show that the large section of our countrymen which sighed for the restoration of James, were not all the base and besotted wretches we have been accustomed to consider them. The great object of Atterbury, and of the other Jacobite leaders, was to obtain a foreign force of 5000 foreign troops to land under Ormond. Failing in this, from the engagements of the English Government with almost every Continental Court, they determined, nevertheless, to proceed with only such assistance in arms, money, and disbanded officers or soldiers, as could be privately procured abroad. For this purpose their manager in Spain was Ormond; in France, General Dillon, an Irish Roman Catholic, who had left Ireland after the capitulation of Limerick, and had since risen in the French service. The project was to have made themselves masters of the Tower; to have seized the Bank, the Exchequer, and other places where the public money was lodged, and to have proclaimed the Pretender at the same time in different parts of the kingdom. The best time for this explosion was thought to be during the tumults and confusion of the General Election; but the chiefs not being able to agree among themselves, it was deferred till the King's journey to Hanover, which was expected to take place in the summer. XII. 1722. James himself was to embark at Porte Longone, CHAP. where three vessels were ready for him, and to sail secretly to Spain, and from thence to England, as soon as he should hear of the King's departure. Already had he left Rome for a villa, the better to cover his absence when it should take place; and with a similar view had Ormond also gone from Madrid to a country seat half-way to Bilbao.* But the eye of the Government was already upon them. One of their applications for 5000 troops had been made to the Regent of France, who, as they might have foreseen, so far from granting their request, immediately revealed it to Sir Luke Schaub, the English Minister +; on the condition, it is said, that no one should die for it. ‡ Other intelligence and discoveries completed the information of the Government, and they became apprised, not merely of the intended schemes and of the contriving heads, but also of the subaltern agents, especially Thomas Carte and Kelly, two nonjuring clergymen; Plunkett, the same Jesuit whose active intrigues in 1713 have been mentioned at that period; Neynoe, another Irish priest, and Layer, a Robert Walpole to Horace, May 29. 1722. Reports of Select Committee, 1723. W. Stanhope to Lord Carteret, June 8. 1722. Appendix. Schaub had been knighted at Stanhope's recommendation in October, 1720; and next year was appointed Minister at Paris. (Boyer's Polit. State, vol. xx. p. 379, &c.) Speaker Onslow's Remarks. Coxe's Walpole, vol. ii. p. 554. XII. CHAP. young barrister of the Temple. So many of their letters were intercepted abroad, that at length some conspirators perceiving it, wrote letters on purpose to be opened, and with false news, to mislead and distract the Government; but this artifice could not impose on the sagacity of Walpole.* Prudent measures were now adopted with prudent speed. The King was persuaded to relinquish his journey to Hanover for this year; and troops were immediately drawn to London, and a camp formed in Hyde Park. An order was also obtained from the Court of Madrid to restrain Ormond from embarking. This would no doubt have been sufficient to make the conspirarors postpone their scheme, but the object was to crush it altogether; and with this view warrants were issued for the apprehension of all the subaltern agents above named, and of several others. On the 21st of May, accordingly, Mr. Kelly was seized at his lodgings in Bury Street by two messengers. They came upon him by surprise, and took his sword and papers, which they placed in a window while they proceeded with their search. But their negligence gave Kelly an opportunity of recovering his weapon, and of threatening to run through the first man that came near him; and so *Letter to Horace Walpole, May 29. 1722. Even where no trap was intended, the Report of the Select Committee observes of their cant names and allegories, that "several of these dis"guises are so gross and obvious, that they only serve to be66 tray themselves." This I have remarked in many of the Stuart Papers. |