Spectator.
It was published daily, and Addison, its chief contributor, soon made
it famous. Each number consisted of an essay hitting off the follies
and foibles of the age, and it was regularly served at the breakfast
tables of people of fashion along with their tea and toast.

One of the greatest merits of the Spectator was its happy way of
showing that wit and virtue are after all better friends than wit and
vice. Neither this little magazine nor the newspapers of that time
dared to publish a single line of parliamentary debate. But they
marked the humble beginning of that vast organized power, represented
by the daily press of London, which discusses everything of interest
throughout the world.

515. Death of the Queen.

The ingratitude of public men and the furious quarrels of politicians
so teased and vexed the Queen that she at last fell into a fatal
illness. Her physician wrote to Dean Swift, "I believe sleep was
never more welcome to a weary traveler than death was to her." When
she laid down the scepter (1714) she left no heir to the throne, and
so the power of the Stuarts (S415) came to an end.

According to the terms of the Act of Settlement (S497) the crown now
passed to George, Elector of Hanover, a Protestant descendant of James
I of England. (See Table, p. 323.) James Edward, son of James II,
believed to the last that his half-sister, Queen Anne, would name him
her successor;[1] instead of that it was she who first dubbed him the
"Pretender" (S491).

[1] Anne and the so-called "Pretender" were children of James II by
different mothers.

516. Summary.

The whole reign of Anne was taken up with the strife of political
parties at home, and the War of the Spanish Succession abroad. The
Whigs (S479) were always intriguing through the Duchess of Marlborough
and other leaders to keep up the war and to keep out the so-called
"Pretender"; the Tories (S479), on the other hand, were just as busy
through Mrs. Masham and her coadjutors in endeavoring to establish
peace, and with it the Divine Right of Kings (SS419, 429).

The extreme Tories hoped for the restoration of the Roman Catholic
Stuarts in the person of James Edward, the so-called "Pretender." The
War of the Spanish Succession resulted in the defeat of Louis XIV and
the confirmation of that Act of Settlement (S497) which secured the
English crown to a Protestant prince.

GENERAL REFERENCE SUMMARY OF THE STUART PERIOD

1603-1714 (Commo