content, and to stir up hostility to the government. Several persons of rank were impeached, others were arrested, and at length the Jacobites in Scotland broke out into open rebellion. There was likewise an insurrection in England, but after proclaiming the Pretender in the North, and being joined by the Scottish malcontents, the insurgents were compelled to surrender at Preston; and about the same time the Highlanders under the Earl of Mar, were defeated at Dumblaine, and the rebellion was so far put down as no longer to excite serious apprehension. At this juncture the Pretender came over in disguise, and joined his discomfited partisans in Scotland; but he was soon compelled to re-embark, and all hopes of success were for the present abandoned, both by him and his followers. The smouldering embers of disaffection still remained, however, and continued to keep alive an uneasy and unsettled feeling in the country, and in some degree to influence the policy of the government throughout the reigns of the first two sovereigns of the House of Hanover.
One of the earliest Acts of the new reign was 1 George I. stat. 2, cap. 5, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. After declaring that many rebellious riots and tumults have of late taken place, and are yet continued and fomented by persons disaffected to his Majesty, it enacts that if twelve or more persons tumultuously assemble together to the disturbance of the public peace, and, on being required by proclamation in the king's name to disperse, shall notwithstanding riotously continue together the of one hour after such proclamation, the offenders shall be adjudged felons, and suffer death as in case of felony. The form of the proclamation is given, and it is directed to be openly read "with a loud voice" by the justice of peace, or other person authorised, as near to the said rioters as he can safely come, first com