rtune's banter, and plan out new intrigues for the
restoration, not of the Stuarts, but of the Tory party--that is to say,
of {49} himself. His refusal wrung from Atterbury the declaration that
the best cause in England was lost for want of spirit.

Parliament assembled, and on August 5th the Commons were summoned to the
Bar of the House of Lords, and the Lord Chancellor made a speech in the
name of the Lords of the Regency. He told the Lords and Commons that the
Privy Council appointed by George, Elector of Hanover, had proclaimed
that prince as the lawful and rightful sovereign of these realms. Both
Houses agreed to send addresses to the King, expressing their duty and
affection, and the House of Commons passed a bill granting to his Majesty
the same civil list as that which Queen Anne had enjoyed, but with
additional clauses for the payment of arrears due to the Hanoverian
troops who had been in the service of Great Britain. The Lord
Chancellor, who had just addressed the House of Lords and the Commoners
standing at the Bar, was himself a remarkable illustration of the
politics and the principles of that age. Simon Harcourt had been Lord
Chancellor in the later years of Queen Anne's life. His appointment
ended with her death, but he was re-appointed by the Lords of the Regency
in the name of the new sovereign, and he was again sworn in as Lord
Chancellor on August 3, 1714, "in Court at his house aforesaid, Lincoln's
Inn Fields, _Anno Primo, Georgii Regis_." He was one of the Lords
Justices by virtue of his office, and as such had already taken the oath
of allegiance to the new sovereign, and of abjuration to James. Lord
Harcourt had been throughout his whole career not only a very devoted
Tory, but in later years a positive Jacobite. He was a highly
accomplished speaker, a man of great culture, and a lawyer of
considerable, if not pre-eminent, attainments. He was still
comparatively young for a public man of such position. Born in 1660, he
entered Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1675, was admitted to the Inner
Temple in 1676, and called to the Bar in 1683. He became member of
Parliament for Abingdon in 1690, and soon rose to great distinction in
the {50} House of Commons as well as at the Bar. He conducted the
impeachment of the great Lord Somers, and was knighted and made
Solicitor-General by Anne in 1702. He became Attorney-General shortly
after. He conducted, in 1703, the prosecution of Defoe for his fa