OF THE KINGS OF GREAT BRITAIN OF THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWIC-LUNENBURG. BY W. BELSHAM, VOL. I. Ac mihi quidem videntur huc omnia effe referenda ab iis qui præsunt CICERO. LONDON: PRINTED FOR C. DILLY, IN THE FOULTRY. 1793. INTRODUCTION. T the era of the Revolution, the grand AT fabric of liberty, which it had been the labour of ages to erect in this island, was at length completed; and in one of the principal nations of the earth, a fyftem of Government was by general affent established, which had for its bafis the unalienable rights of man, and profeffing as its grand end and object, the happiness of the people. The defign of the following Memoirs is to fhow, by an impartial delineation of the interesting events of the fucceeding reigns, how far this end has been kept in view, how far it has been deviated from, and in what refpects the general fyftem of freedom is still susceptible of enlargement and fecurity. In confequence of the happy emancipation of these realms, by the expulfion of a wretched and merciless bigot, we were neceffarily involved in a war with France, then in the zenith of profperity, and governed by a monarch of the most aspiring ambition, fupported by a degree of power truly formidable. After a long and bloody conflict, however, France was compelled to relinVOL. I. B quish quifh her projects in favor of the abdicated House of Stuart; and to acknowledge, by a formal and folemn treaty, WILLIAM Prince of Orange as King of Great Britain. From this period, a new scene opens to our view; and England, confirmed and established in the poffeffion of her own liberty, appears in the high and exalted character of the Defender of the Liberties of Europe. And it is chiefly through the efforts of this country, in which the facred flame of freedom was happily preserved, that Europe was able to withstand, and at length effectually to baffle and defeat, the vast hopes and projects of LOUIS XIV.; who feemed to extend his views to no lefs than univerfal dominion. Scarcely was the treaty of Ryfwick figned*, when intrigues and negotiations were revived and profecuted by all the European Courts, with unintermitted and almost unprecedented ardour and activity. The declining health of the King of Spain, was the cause of this mighty internal agitation; at whofe decease it became a matter of great and anxious doubt, upon whom the fucceffion of that vaft Monarchy would devolve. The two most potent claimants were, the Emperor Leopold as head and heir-general of the House of Austria, and the Dauphin of France, who was descended from Isabella eldest daughter of Philip IV. whofe marriage, however, was accompanied by a formal renunciation of her eventual pretenfions to the |