Source 2

Transcript

After his Demise [death], his Crowns which the Prince of Orange had usurp’d being them rightfully ours, according to the fundamentall Laws of the Land, we immediately claim’d our Right to the same by a Declaration under our great Seal dated at St. Germains 8. Oct: 1701. And as soon as it pleas’d Divine Providence to enable us to attempt the recovery thereof, we readily embrac’d the occasion [took action], and ‘tis sufficiently known that the miscarriage [failure] of that expedition could not be imputed [related] to us.

When we found after this that a Treaty of Peace was upon the point of being concluded without any regard had to us, we publish’d our Protestation dated at St. Germains the 25. Aprill 1712 in the most solemn & most Authentick manner our Circumstances would then allow of, alerting thereby our incontestable Right to our Crowns, & protecting against whatever might be stipulated in the said Treaty to our prejudice [against us].

Tho’ we might have been oblig’d since that time to remove [travel] from France to a remoter place, we have still continued to have our Kingdoms & our People in our view, to whom we are convinc’d that God in his mercy will sooner or later restore us; and notwithstanding the malice [evil] & open Rebellion of some & the forc’d compliance [consent] of others, we have never ceas’d to hope that God would in time open our People’s eyes, & convince them not onely of the Notorious [wicked] injustice done to the Crown & us, but of the dangerous consequences thereof for themselves. It is not our interest alone we are concern’d for, our naturall & unalterable love for our People is such, that as we could not see without grief their blood & Treasure lavish’d in the last war in opposition to our undoubted Right, so we cannot now with less sorrow see them expos’d to be subjected to an Arbitrary power, & become a prey to foreigners.

Besides that the Elector of Brunswick is one of the remotest Relations we have, & consequently one of the remotest Pretenders to our Crowns after us, it is evident that nothing is more opposite to the Maxims of England in all respects than that unjust settlement of the Succession upon his family. He is a foreigner, a powerful Prince, & absolute in his own Country, where he has never met with the least contradiction from his subjects: He is ignorant of our Laws, Manners, Customs & Language, & supported by a good Army of his own People, besides the assistance which a Neighbouring State is oblig’d to grant him upon demand, and many thousands of Aliens refug’d in England these thirty years past, who haveing their dependence wholly upon him will be ready to stand by him upon all occasions.

Moreover what can our Subjects expect but endless wars & Divisions from subverting [overthrowing] so sacred & fundamentall a Constitution as that of Hereditary Right, which has still prevail’d against all usurpations how successful & for how long time so ever continued, the Government finding still no rest ‘till it return’d again to it’s true Center. And how can they be ignorant of the just pretentions of so many other Princes that are before the House of Hannover, whose Right, after us, will be undoubted as your own, and who neither want will nor power to assert it in their turns, and to intail [result] a perpetuall war upon our Kingdoms, with a Civill war in their own bowels, which their Divisions will make unavoidable.

From all which it is plain our People can never enjoy any lasting peace or happiness’ till they settle the succession again in the right Line, & recall us the immediate Lawfull Heir, & the onely born English-man now left of the Royall family.

Glossary for source 2

Usurp’d: unjustly taken

Prince of Orange: William III of England and Ireland

Fundamental: basic rule or principal

Divine Providence: God’s will

Constitution: the fundamental political points on which a state is governed

Hereditary right: having title or possession of the throne by inheritance

Incontestable: not possible to deny or dispute

Authentick: genuine

Stipulated: set down

Arbitrary: unreasonable

Elector of Brunswick: Georg Ludwig, Elector of Hanover, the nearest heir and non Catholic relative to Queen Anne. The Act of Settlement 1701 said Catholics could not inherit British throne