that they would meet with many, especially the meaner sort, to join them."i
Walpole was almost as worried about the "meaner sort" as he was about the invaders. In the event of a landing, he conjectured, the government could not afford to send the entire army against the foreigners, lest some counties be left without any troops at all; without troops to guard them, "the disaffected would rise" and turn against the forces of order. As long as there was a Pretender, the Protestant monarchy was potentially in peril. Only "peace and tranquility" could assure its secure continuation.
For two decades Walpole had been warning his countrymen about the Pretender and his secret followers. They were everywhere, spinning out their intrigues behind locked doors, in cellars, at clandestine midnight meetings. They were plotting to assassinate the king, to destroy the Protestant religion and install Catholicism, just as Bloody Queen Mary had done two hundred years earlier, to make all English men and women worship the pope. They were winning over the weak and the discontented, claiming to be champions of liberty when in truth they wanted a return to enslavement under Stuart rule.
"Your right Jacobite, Sir," Walpole maintained, "disguises his true sentiments. He roars out for revolution principles, he pretends to be a great friend to liberty, and a great admirer of our ancient constitution, and under this pretense there are numbers who every day endeavor to sow discontents among the people by persuading them that the constitution is in danger, and that they are unnecessarily loaded with many and heavy taxes." Of course, no Jacobite in his right mind would call himself such; that would do injury to the cause. Therefore no one could be trusted, and the more vehement a man might be in his expression of loyalty to the nation, the more suspect he ought to be.
No large-scale Jacobite plot had been unearthed since the early 1720s, but Walpole was certain that conspiracies were constantly being carried on and that only his vigilance and that of his colleagues and his informers stood between Britain and disaster. "These lower sorts of Jacobites appear at this time more busy than they have for a great while," he wrote in 1736. "They are very industrious, and taking advantage of everything that offers, to raise tumult and disorders among the people." When Westminster Hall was damaged by a gunpowder explosion he was sure he knew who was behind the "vile transaction." "There is no reason to doubt but the whole was projected and executed by a set of low Jacobites," he insisted. One of his agents had brought him word concerning it, and he trusted in his intelligence system.
Walpole's view of the precarious situation of the Hanoverian monarchy was widely shared. People recognized the possibility that Spain or France—or perhaps even Russia or Sweden—might supply money, arms and men to the Stuarts and realized too that, given how slowly news traveled, a small landing force might have a chance to conquer the country. Britain's army was relatively small, and scattered, and the militia could not be expected to stand for long against foreign soldiery. A good many people remembered what had happened in 1715, when in response to James's landing in Scotland the government had set up a military camp in Hyde Park and had brought down the heavy guns from the Tower, expecting to have to use them to defend the capital. No one had put much faith in the army then, especially when it was discovered that there were Jacobites serving in the Horse Guards and that at least one officer in the Foot Guards had a commission from James as colonel of a cavalry regiment and was busily enlisting men to serve under him in the Stuart army. The ministers, meeting in an emergency session, had come to unanimous agreement that, if James or one of his generals attacked London, the army could not be relied on to defend the king. He would have to flee to Holland.
Nor was the military
Walpole was almost as worried about the "meaner sort" as he was about the invaders. In the event of a landing, he conjectured, the government could not afford to send the entire army against the foreigners, lest some counties be left without any troops at all; without troops to guard them, "the disaffected would rise" and turn against the forces of order. As long as there was a Pretender, the Protestant monarchy was potentially in peril. Only "peace and tranquility" could assure its secure continuation.
For two decades Walpole had been warning his countrymen about the Pretender and his secret followers. They were everywhere, spinning out their intrigues behind locked doors, in cellars, at clandestine midnight meetings. They were plotting to assassinate the king, to destroy the Protestant religion and install Catholicism, just as Bloody Queen Mary had done two hundred years earlier, to make all English men and women worship the pope. They were winning over the weak and the discontented, claiming to be champions of liberty when in truth they wanted a return to enslavement under Stuart rule.
"Your right Jacobite, Sir," Walpole maintained, "disguises his true sentiments. He roars out for revolution principles, he pretends to be a great friend to liberty, and a great admirer of our ancient constitution, and under this pretense there are numbers who every day endeavor to sow discontents among the people by persuading them that the constitution is in danger, and that they are unnecessarily loaded with many and heavy taxes." Of course, no Jacobite in his right mind would call himself such; that would do injury to the cause. Therefore no one could be trusted, and the more vehement a man might be in his expression of loyalty to the nation, the more suspect he ought to be.
No large-scale Jacobite plot had been unearthed since the early 1720s, but Walpole was certain that conspiracies were constantly being carried on and that only his vigilance and that of his colleagues and his informers stood between Britain and disaster. "These lower sorts of Jacobites appear at this time more busy than they have for a great while," he wrote in 1736. "They are very industrious, and taking advantage of everything that offers, to raise tumult and disorders among the people." When Westminster Hall was damaged by a gunpowder explosion he was sure he knew who was behind the "vile transaction." "There is no reason to doubt but the whole was projected and executed by a set of low Jacobites," he insisted. One of his agents had brought him word concerning it, and he trusted in his intelligence system.
Walpole's view of the precarious situation of the Hanoverian monarchy was widely shared. People recognized the possibility that Spain or France—or perhaps even Russia or Sweden—might supply money, arms and men to the Stuarts and realized too that, given how slowly news traveled, a small landing force might have a chance to conquer the country. Britain's army was relatively small, and scattered, and the militia could not be expected to stand for long against foreign soldiery. A good many people remembered what had happened in 1715, when in response to James's landing in Scotland the government had set up a military camp in Hyde Park and had brought down the heavy guns from the Tower, expecting to have to use them to defend the capital. No one had put much faith in the army then, especially when it was discovered that there were Jacobites serving in the Horse Guards and that at least one officer in the Foot Guards had a commission from James as colonel of a cavalry regiment and was busily enlisting men to serve under him in the Stuart army. The ministers, meeting in an emergency session, had come to unanimous agreement that, if James or one of his generals attacked London, the army could not be relied on to defend the king. He would have to flee to Holland.
Nor was the military
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