The queen expired at seven o'clock on Sunday morning, the 1st of August, 1714, not having recovered sufficient consciousness to receive the Sacrament, or to sign her will. During her intervals of sense she is reported to have repeatedly exclaimed, "Oh, my brother, my dear brother, what will become of you!" She was still only in her fiftieth year, and the thirteenth of her reign. Bolingbroke wrote to Swift--"The Earl of Oxford was removed on Tuesday, and the queen died on Sunday. What a world is this, and how does fortune banter us!"
Bolingbroke had assured Iberville, the French agent, that, had the queen only lived six weeks longer, his measures were so well taken that he should have brought in the Pretender in spite of everything. On the very day of the queen's death Marlborough landed at Dover, so exactly had he timed his return. He found George I. proclaimed in London, in York, and in other large towns, not only without disorder, but with an acclamation of joy from the populace which plainly showed where the heart lay.
Peaceful Accession of George I.--His Arrival--Triumph of the Whigs--Dissolution and General Election--The Address--Determination to Impeach the late Ministers--Flight of Bolingbroke and Ormonde--Impeachment of Oxford--The Riot Act--The Rebellion of 1715--Policy of the Regent Orleans--Surrender of the Pretender's Ships--The Adventures of Ormonde and Mar--The Highlands declare for the Pretender--Mar and Argyll--Advance of Mackintosh's Detachment--Its Surrender at Preston--Battle of Sheriffmuir--Arrival of the Pretender--Mutual Disappointment--Advance of Argyll--Flight of the Pretender to France--Punishment of the Rebels--Impeachment of the Rebel Lords--The Septennial Act--The King goes to Hanover--Impossibility of Reconstructing the Grand Alliance--Negotiations with France--Danger of Hanover from Charles XII.--And from Russia--Alarm from Townshend--Termination of the Dispute--Fresh Differences between Stanhope and Townshend--Dismissal of the Latter--The Triple Alliance--Project for the Invasion of Scotland--Detection of the Plot--Dismissal of Townshend and Walpole--They go into Opposition--Walpole's Financial Scheme--Attack on Cadogan--Trial of Oxford--Cardinal Alberoni--Outbreak of Hostilities between Austria and Spain--Occupation of Sardinia--Alberoni's Diplomacy--The Quadruple Alliance--Byng in the Mediterranean--Alberoni deserted by Savoy--Death of Charles XII.--Declaration of War with Spain--Repeal of the Schism Act--Rejection of the Peerage Bill--Attempted Invasion of Britain--Dismissal of Alberoni--Spain makes Peace--Pacification of Northern Europe--Final Rejection of the Peerage Bill--The South Sea Company--The South Sea Bill--Opposition of Walpole--Rise of South Sea Stock--Rival Companies--Death of Stanhope--Punishment of Ministry and Directors--Supremacy of Walpole--Atterbury's Plot--His Banishment and the Return of Bolingbroke--Rejection of Bolingbroke's Services--A Palace Intrigue--Fall of Carteret--Wood's Halfpence--Disturbances in Scotland--Punishment of the Lord Chancellor Macclesfield--The Patriot Party--Complications Abroad--Treaty of Vienna--Treaty of Hanover--Activity of the Jacobites--Falls of Ripperda and of Bourbon--English Preparations--Folly of the Emperor--Attack on Gibraltar--Preliminaries of Peace--Intrigues against Walpole--Death of George I.
