to the patriotic
energy of the King to suppose that he had gone to Hanover for the sake
of promoting arrangements calculated to be of advantage to England.
Let us do justice to George's sincerity: he never pretended to any
particular concern for English interests when they were not bound up
with the interests of Hanover. But he had long been pining for a sight
of Hanover. He had now been away from his beloved Herrenhausen for
nearly two {153} years, and he was consumed by an unconquerable
homesickness. That his absence might be inconvenient to his newly
acquired country or to his ministers had no weight in his mind to
counterbalance the desire of walking once more in the prim Herrenhausen
avenues and looking over the level Hanoverian fields, or treading the
corridors of the old Schloss, where the ancestral Guelphs had revelled,
and where the ghost of Koenigsmark might well be supposed to wander.
The Act for restraining the King from going out of the kingdom was
repealed in May, 1716. The Prince of Wales was to be appointed
temporary ruler in the King's absence. This appointment was the only
obstacle that George admitted to his journey. In the Hanover family,
father had hated son, and son father with traditional persistence.
George was animated by the sourest jealousy of his son. One reason, if
there had been no other, for this animosity was that the young man was
well known to have some sympathy for the sufferings of his mother, the
unhappy Sophia Dorothea, imprisoned in Ahlden, and he had at least once
made an unsuccessful effort to see her. Since George came to England
he persisted in regarding his eldest son as a rival for popular favor,
and this feeling was naturally kept alive by the enemies of the House
of Hanover. To this detested son George had now to intrust the care of
his kingdom, or else abandon his visit to dear Herrenhausen. The
struggle was severe, but patriotic affection triumphed over paternal
hatred. The Prince was named not indeed Regent, but Guardian of the
Realm and Lieutenant, with as many restrictions upon his authority as
the King was able or was allowed to impose, and on July 9th George set
out for Hanover, accompanied by Secretary Stanhope. He was not long
absent from England, however. On November 14th he came back again.
Loyalists issued prints of the monarch waited upon by angels, and
accompanied by flattering verses addressed to the "Presedent of ye
Loyall Mug Houses." But the