Since the rise of the modern nation state in Europe, political leaders have had to cope with the problems of conspiracy and internal security. The English Ministers and Jacobitism between the Rebellions of 1715 and 1745 is a study of the response made to these twin problems by the British central government, under Stanhope, Sunderland, and Walpole. Faced with the prospect of assassination, internal rebellion, and conspiracy, the ministers naturally took all necessary measures to protect the security of the state. Nor did their worries end with the successful defeat of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715; an examination of the anti-Jacobite campaign after this date clearly demonstrates a continuing dread of Jacobitism. At the same time, their action in the years 1715-45 against Jacobite plots for a restoration betrays an acute awareness on their part of the political advantages to be reaped through careful exploitation of those fears.

Professor Fritz's study is a valuable addition to the existing literature on Jacobitism. It uncovers new documents revealing the workings of the conspirators, and it illuminates how the threat of conspiracy was used successfully by imaginative politicians to retain power.