he Stuarts, there was no opposition. This great
coalition was called the "Broad Bottom," and comprehended the Duke of
Bedford, the Earls of Chesterfield and Harrington, Lords Lyttleton and
Hardwicke, Sir Henry Cotton, Mr Doddington, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, and Mr.
Murray. The three latter statesmen were not then formidable.

The Pelhams were descended from one of the oldest, proudest and
richest families in England, and had an immense parliamentary
influence from their aristocratic connections, their wealth, and their
experience. They were not remarkable for genius so much as for
sagacity, tact, and intrigue. They were extremely ambitious, and fond
of place and power. They ruled England as the representatives of the
aristocracy--the last administration which was able to defy the
national will. After their fall, the people had a greater voice in the
appointment of ministers. Pitt and Fox were commoners in a different
sense from what Walpole was, and represented that class which has ever
since ruled England,--not nobles, not the democracy, but a class
between them, composed of the gentry, landed proprietors, lawyers,
merchants, manufacturers, men of leisure, and their dependants.

The administration of the Pelhams is chiefly memorable for the Scotch
rebellion of 1745, and for the great European war which grew out of
colonial and commercial ambition, and the encroachments of Frederic
the Great.

[Sidenote: The Pretender Charles Edward Stuart.]

The Scotch rebellion was produced by the attempts of the young
Pretender, Charles Edward Louis Philip Casimir Stuart, to regain the
throne of his ancestors. His adventures have the interest of romance,
and have generally excited popular sympathy. He was born at Rome in
1720; served, at the age of fifteen, under the Duke of Berwick, in
Spain, and, at the age of twenty, received overtures from some
discontented people of Scotland to head an insurrection. There was, at
this time, great public distress, and George II. was exceedingly
unpopular. The Jacobites were powerful, and thousands wished for a
change, including many persons of rank and influence.

With only seven followers, in a small vessel, he landed on one of the
Western Islands, 18th of July, 1745. Even had the promises which had
been made to him by France, or by people in Scotland, been fulfilled,
his enterprise would have been most hazardous. But, without money,
men, or arms, his hopes were desperate. Still he cherished that