8 - ‘A Strenuous Advocate for the Ministry’: 1745–1748

Summary

In the summer of 1745, while the King was enjoying his annual visit to Hanover, Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender, raised his standard in Scotland, entering an undefended Edinburgh on 17 September. Although he was unaware of this latest development, Pelham wrote to the Duke of Devonshire, the Lord Steward, about the progress of the rebellion on the same day:

My reason for troubling your Grace with these particulars is to convince you that we are not unattentive to the great point of the rebellion, tho’ at the same time it is difficult for persons in our situation, either to say what is or what should be. The conduct of a certain person is worse than ever. To speak of personal treatment is idle at this time, but we are not permitted either to give our advice or to act in consequence of any advice that is given. Tomorrow there is to be a Council for calling the Parliament, which is proposed for Thursday the 17th of next month. It will be incumbent upon us all, especially myself, to let the King know that this meeting of Parliament is called so early only to put this nation in a proper position of defence, to pass such laws as are necessary for the preservation of his government, when there is an actual rebellion in the kingdom.

Late in August George II had finally been persuaded to return to England, but he was proving difficult to deal with even in the teeth of an armed rebellion. On the same day, 17 September, he actually went so far as to suggest to Lord Harrington that he become ‘sole minister … make his own Treasury and Secretaries of State’, and that Pelham and his brother, the Duke of Newcastle, the Secretary of State, be dismissed. Although Harrington turned down the King's offer, the reverberations caused by the ill-considered proposal were felt throughout the government.