was not deceived (indeed, every opportunity was sought
by the Jacobites of parading their numbers,) as to
the force of its enemies; and precautionary measures
were taken to defeat their designs. On the very
day of which we write, namely, the 10th of June 1715,
Bolingbroke and Oxford were impeached of high treason.
The Committee of Secrecy—that English Council
of Ten—were sitting, with Walpole at their
head; and the most extraordinary discoveries were
reported to be made. On the same day, moreover,
which, by a curious coincidence, was the birthday
of the Chevalier de Saint George, mobs were collected
together in the streets, and the health of that prince
was publicly drunk under the title of James the Third;
while, in many country towns, the bells were rung,
and rejoicings held, as if for a reigning monarch:—the
cry of the populace almost universally being, “No
King George, but a Stuart!”
The adherents of the Chevalier de Saint George, we
have said, were lavish in promises to their proselytes.
Posts were offered to all who chose to accept them.
Blank commissions, signed by the prince, to be filled
up by the name of the person, who could raise a troop
for his service, were liberally bestowed. Amongst
others, Mr. Kneebone, whose interest was not inconsiderable
with the leaders of his faction, obtained an appointment
as captain in a regiment of infantry, on the conditions
above specified. With a view to raise recruits
for his corps, the warlike woollen-draper started
for Lancashire, under the colour of a journey on business.
He was pretty successful in Manchester,—a
town which may be said to have been the head-quarters
of the disaffected. On his return to London,
he found that applications had been made from a somewhat
doubtful quarter by two individuals, for the posts
of subordinate officers in his troop. Mr. Kneebone,
or, as he would have preferred being styled, Captain
Kneebone, was not perfectly satisfied with the recommendations
forwarded by the applicants. But this was not
a season in which to be needlessly scrupulous.
He resolved to judge for himself. Accordingly,
he was introduced to the two military aspirants at
the Cross Shovels in the Mint, by our old acquaintance,
Baptist Kettleby. The Master of the Mint, with
whom the Jacobite captain had often had transactions
before, vouched for their being men of honour and
loyalty; and Kneebone was so well satisfied with his
representations, that he at once closed the matter
by administering to the applicants the oath of allegiance
and fidelity to King James the Third, and several
other oaths besides, all of which those gentlemen took
with as little hesitation as the sum of money, afterwards
tendered, to make the compact binding. The party,
then, sat down to a bowl of punch; and, at its conclusion,
Captain Kneebone regretted that an engagement to spend
the evening with Mrs. Wood, would preclude the possibility
of his remaining with his new friends as long as his
inclinations prompted. At this piece of information,
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