Jacobitism

The first lodge established in France under the English obedience was in 1727.

Its founder and first master was the celebrated Jacobite, Lord Derwentwater.

It had almost immediate acceptance from the degenerate nobility of France, who, partly because of the influence of English and Scotch Jacobite nobles, and partly because of its novelty, hard swearing, and mystery, joined the strange institution.

Its lodges were soon in every considerable city of the realm.

The philosophers and various schools of atheists, however, were the first to enter into and to extend it.

Now, Hiram became the murdered Charles, who was to be avenged instead of James Molay, and the reconstruction of the temple meant the restoration of the exiled house of Stuart.

On the accession of Charles II, the craft was, of course, not treated with disfavor, and when the misfortunes of James II drove him from the throne, the partisans of the house of Stuart had renewed recourse to it as a means of secret organization against the enemy.

To bring back the Pretender, the Jacobites formed a Scotch and an English and Irish constitution.

His house was constantly filled with officers who heated each other into fury by talking against the Dutch.

But before the preparations were complete, a strange suspicion arose in the minds of some of the Jacobites.

that the author of this bold and artful scheme wished to pull down the existing government, there could be little doubt.

But was it quite certain what government he meant to set up? Might he not depose William without restoring James? Was it not possible that a man so wise, so aspiring, and so wicked, might be meditating a double treason, such as would have been thought a masterpiece of statecraft by the great Italian politicians of the fifteenth century? such as Borgia would have envied, and such as Machiavelli would have extolled to the skies.

The friends of the lords and gentlemen who had been accused represented strongly that the house ought not to separate for the summer without coming to some decision on charges so grave.

Fuller was ordered to attend.

He pleaded sickness, and asserted, not for the first time, that the Jacobites had poisoned him.

But all his plans were confounded by the laudable promptitude and vigour with which the commons acted.

I called him by name and asked him his desires.

It appeared that he took me for a Jacobite, for he began a rigmarole about loyalty and hard fortune.

I hastened to correct him.

And he took the correction with the same patient despair with which he took all things.

An odd type of saint, his godliness was proved chiefly by his ferocity against the king's officers, for whom he would lie in wait behind a dyke with a musket.

He died gallantly, declaiming the twenty-third psalm.

The Jacobite rising brought hard riding round to the side of Caldshaw.

Home and Douglas rode south together, and the fate of the first at any rate is clear.

I called him by name and asked him his desires.

It appeared that he took me for a Jacobite, for he began a rigmarole about loyalty and hard fortune.

I hastened to correct him.

And he took the correction with the same patient despair with which he took all things.

An odd type of saint, his godliness was proved chiefly by his ferocity against the king's officers, for whom he would lie in wait behind a dyke with a musket.

He died gallantly, declaiming the twenty-third psalm.

The Jacobite rising brought hard riding round to the site of Caldshaw.

Home and Douglas rode south together, and the fate of the first at any rate is clear.

On the accession of Charles II, the craft was, of course, not treated with disfavor, and when the misfortunes of James II drove him from the throne, the partisans of the house of Stuart had renewed recourse to it as a means of secret organization against the enemy.

To bring back the Pretender, the Jacobites formed a Scotch and an English and Irish constitution.

The English constitution embraced the mother lodge of York and that of London, which latter separated from York and with a new spring of action started into life as the Grand Lodge of London in 1717.

The Jacobite nobles brought it to France chiefly to aid their attempts in favor of the Stuarts.

Chapter 21.

Freemasonry with ourselves.

We hear from every side a great deal regarding the difference said to exist between Freemasonry as it has remained in the United Kingdom and as it has developed itself on the continent of Europe since its introduction there, chiefly we must remember, by British Jacobites in the last century.

It is argued that the illuminism of Weishaupt or that of St. Martin did not cross the channel to any great extent, and that, on the whole, the lodges of England, Ireland, and Scotland remained loyal to monarchy and to religion.

the negotiations which had led to the peace of utrecht were condemned and of the late ministers bolingbroke and ormond who had fled to france were attainted while oxford robert harley was impeached and committed to the tower in seventeen seventeen the proceedings against him were allowed to drop and he was released but the policy adopted by the government towards the tories was continued though in a less violent manner all through the reigns of george i and that of his successor The Tories were carefully excluded from office for many years.

They were inaccurately identified with the Jacobites, and not infrequently they numbered but sixty to eighty in the House of Commons.

Before the year was over, however, the government was called upon to deal with a much more serious affair than the dubious treason of the late Tory ministry of 1712 through 14. in september a vigorous jacobite rebellion headed by the earl of mar broke out in scotland due to some extent to the uncalled-for measures of the triumphant whigs on the english side of the border lord derwentwater mr forster and a few country gentlemen of northumberland and lancashire took up arms The rising which was in full harmony with public opinion in the lowlands, as well as in the highlands, might have had some chance of success had it been managed by an able leader, had France given it loyal support, had the pretender been in Scotland when his flag was unfurled, and had the movements in England and Scotland taken place simultaneously.

But not one of these requisite conditions of success was present.

On November 13th, the English Jacobites were defeated at Preston, and the Scottish insurgents were checked at the indecisive Battle of Sherif Moua.

The pretender, who only landed in Scotland on December 22nd, sailed back to France on February 4th, 1716, and the rebellion ended in disastrous failure.

the reasons for this failure are not hard to seek the conflict of the principle of loyalty to the church and loyalty to the crown rendered the large majority of englishmen undecided and unwilling to rise they dared not risk the results that might follow if they placed a bigoted papist on the throne the rising moreover was badly organised no secrecy was kept bolingbroke and the duke of berwick the most able of the pretender's supporters were hardly consulted and john earl of mar an incapable leader was ordered to raise the standard before any promises of french help had been secured and before any rising was prepared in england the rebellion has with justice been described as a ludicrous exhibition of recklessness and mismanagement almost without parallel in history.

But it is significant of the deep strain of romance which the six Stuarts who reigned in England have implanted in the English heart.

the old Jacobite ballads still have power to thrill.

Queen Victoria herself used to have the pipers file out before her at Balmoral to the skirling of Bonnie Dundee, over the water to Charlie, and who'll be king but Charlie? It is a sentiment that has never died.

her late majesty used to say that when she heard these tunes she became for the moment a jacobite just as the empress eugenie at the height of her power used pertly to remark that she herself was the only legitimist left in france it may be suggested that the stuarts are still loved by many englishmen because they were unfortunate yet this is hardly true after all.

Killing became murder upon the high seas.

In politics he was, as became his official position, a stout prop of the House of Hanover, and he swore in his cups that he had never met a Jacobite without pistoling him where he stood.

Yet for all his vaporing and his violence, he was so good a companion with such a stream of strange anecdote and reminiscence that Scarrow and Morgan had never known a voyage pass so pleasantly.

And then at length came the last day, when, after passing the island, they had struck land again at the high white cliffs of Beachy Head.