Cresset, were present at an interview between the Dowager Electress and her brother-in-law of Celle, the intimate friend of William III; and at this meeting the line of conduct was settled which was on the whole (though not without some occasional deviation) faithfully observed by the Electress and her son. In July, the Duke of Gloucester died, and the Electress became heiress presumptive to the throne. But this event, though it called for increased vigilance, made no alteration in the conclusions reached at Celle, which were elaborated by Leibniz in the Considerations on the rights of the House of Brunswick to the English succession drawn up by him after the meeting. What interests us in this statepaper is not only its bearing on the immediate issue, on which I need not dwell, but the farsightedness of some of its wider deductions. As to the justice of the claims of the House of Brunswick—and it was this consideration of justice which (as we know to her honour) troubled the Electress Sophia as it did many an honest Englishman of the time—he argues that the exclusion of Roman Catholics and the descendants of Roman Catholics from the succession is not a matter for the consideration of anyone except the English people; and France (he rather sophistically adds), which proposes to place the Duke of Anjou on the Spanish throne in accordance with the will of the Spanish nation, should be the last to object. As to the actual end in view (and here he may have thought of the unconcealed apathy of the future King George I towards the prospect of adding to his sovereign authority as Elector that of a constitutional ruler over-sea), it is perfectly true that a King of England has need of a great deal of prudence and moderation in order to govern a difficult people and one very jealous of its liberty.[1] On the other hand,
- ↑ If you look at the historical records of the latter half of the seventeenth and the early years of the eighteenth century, you will find that we were thought a very difficult and a very unstable people epithets which in later times we have been accustomed to apply to our neighbours rather than to ourselves.
