Читать книгу A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering in the Old Days - Joseph Grego - Страница 39

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“Had my dear Sister still been living,

I might have hop’d for (the Crown) of her giving;

But she, alas, is gone, and all

Her latest servants—I should call

My friends—disgrac’d and out of power,

Nay some committed to the Tower,

Impeach’d! Who then but must resent, To see a British parliament, With all the power of Arms and Laws, So zealously oppose my Cause, Pay Dutch, raise English troops and seamen, And may, perhaps, bring more from Bremen. Can my good subjects bear this still, And thus be sav’d against their will? However, if you’ll still consent, To damn that thing call’d Parliament, Burn Magna Charta, bring confusion On all things since the Revolution, Be governed by no other measure, But our own sovereign will and pleasure, I’ll pardon all, and what I’ve promis’d, grant ye, All ‘Oaths of Coronation’ non obstante.”

Whatever prospects the Pretender and his good friends the Tories might have cherished on the accession of George I., were abruptly put to flight after the abortive rising in 1715; this ill-advised attempt, and the consequences of its utter failure, are wittily set forth in the ballad:—