a little later it made another law called the Schism Act, by which no one was allowed to keep a school without license from the bishop, the object of which was to prevent the Dissenters from having schools of their own. The Tories, however, were in the same difficulty which James II. had been in. Just as James had known that whatever he did would be undone, as soon as he died, by his daughter Mary, so the Tories knew that whatever they did would be undone whenever Anne died. By law Anne's heir was the Electress Sophia, and when she died, in 1714, her son George, Elector of Hanover, succeeded to her right. The Tories knew that George would favour the Whigs, and some of them would have been glad to change the law, and bring the son of James II.— the Pretender as he was usually called-to reign after Anne. If the Pretender had been a Protestant, this would perhaps have been done; but as he was not, the Tories could not make up their minds to have a Catholic king. Before they could resolve what to do, the queen died.

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE REIGNS OF THE FIRST TWO GEORGES
TO THE DEATH OF HENRY PELHAM.
(GEORGE I., 1714—GEORGE II., 1727—DEATH OF HENRY
PELHAM, 1754.)

1. The First Years of George I.-The new king sent away the Tory ministers and put Whig ministers

in their places. In 1715 the Jacobites rose against the Government in the North of England and in Scotland. The Pretender himself landed in Scotland. He was a slow and inactive man, and made a very bad soldier, so that no one felt much interest in him. The insurrection was put down, and the Pretender had to go back again to the Continent.

The Whig Government had everything its own way. It took away the laws which had been made in Anne's reign against the Dissenters, and some of the Whigs talked of putting an end to the Test Act, as far as the Dissenters were concerned, and allowing them to hold offices. The Whigs who proposed this soon found that it would make them very

unpopular. The greater part of the English people did not know much, or care much about politics, but they had strong prejudices, and they fancied that if the Dissenters had power they would behave in the way in which the Puritans had behaved in the time of Cromwell. Just at the time, however, when this matter was talked of, the Whig ministers, who were then in office, were driven out of it by an affair which had nothing to do with politics.

2. The South Sea Bubble.-In consequence of the peace which had followed the Treaty of Utrecht, there was more trade than there had been before, and many people who had a little money began to think that they had only to spend it on trade to make themselves rich. They began to form companies for trade, and some of these companies did good work, and brought profits to the shareholders. Others were only invented by ignorant or knavish men, in order to get money for themselves out of the pockets of people who were foolish enough to believe them. One of the companies which was most popular was the South Sea Company. It had been formed to carry on trade in South America, and it might have gained a profit there. But people fancied that its profit would be enormous, and large numbers paid for the right of joining in the company a great deal more than it was worth. At one time they were ready to give 1,000l. for such a share in the company as had at first been worth only 100l., and which was probably never worth more than that. By-and by these people found out that they had been deluded, and had to sell for less than it was worth what they

X

had bought for more than it was worth. Of course they were very angry, and as some of the ministers had been bribed by the people who managed the company to give them support in Parliament, there was a great outcry against them. One of the ministers was sent to the Tower. Another poisoned himself from shame and grief.

3. Sir Robert Walpole, Prime Minister.-A new ministry was formed, of which the chief member was Sir Robert Walpole. He was a Whig like the last ministers, but he was careful not to do anything which would rouse opposition. He was the first man who was called a Prime Minister in England. In the time of William III. and Anne the king or queen had been in the habit of being present at the meetings of the Cabinet and of listening to the advice of the ministers there. George I., however, could not talk English well enough to take an interest in the discussions of his ministers, and none of his ministers could talk German. He therefore stayed away, and none of the kings since have ever been present at a meeting of the Cabinet. When the king ceased to come, it was necessary that some one should take the first place, and in this way grew up the practice of having one minister, called a Prime Minister, who is superior to the rest.

4. Parliamentary Corruption.-Walpole understood business very well, and he understood how to manage the members of the House of Commons. Many of them would not vote as the ministers wished unless they were bribed, and Walpole was quite ready to bribe them. At that time no one,

unless he were a member of the House, knew how a member spoke or voted. Newspapers were not allowed to publish the speeches in Parliament or to tell how any vote had been given. The consequence was that a member could sell his vote, because none of those who had elected him would know anything of what he had done. Very few of them would have cared much about the matter if they had known. When election time came they knew that the candidates gave them money for their votes and plenty of beer without asking them to pay for it, and that was all that most of them thought of.

5. Walpole and the Excise Bill.-In 1727 George I. died, and was succeeded by his son George II. Walpole remained Prime Minister. There was beginning to be an opposition against him in the House of Commons. Some members opposed him because he had turned them out of office, or because he would not bribe them enough. There were others, too, who opposed him because they did not like seeing bribes given. He had the advantage over his opponents for a long time, not only because he had the money of the nation to give away, but because he never did anything imprudent. Once he proposed an Excise Bill to enable the Government to get money by an excise levied upon goods when they are ready to be sold, instead of getting it by customs, levied on goods when they are brought into the country. In this way he hoped to put an end to smuggling. Every one now thinks that this would have been a great improvement. But the people took it into their heads that it would be very