No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
The social conditions of the early years of the eighteenth century were in a high degree favourable to underhand dealings. Although England was on the verge of a great war with her secular rival, the patrolling of the Channel seems to have been almost entirely neglected. Sloops crossed to France, and crossed to England from France almost daily, and went and came unchallenged. H.M.S. Warspite, on seizing a French privateer out of St. Malo, was confronted with the claim of a Yarmouth fisherman, who complained that the boat was his own; that it had been driven to sea in a storm, captured, and carried to St. Malo. Every fishing fleet clearly ran the same risk. The presence of a Seaford peasant having become desirable, for some undisclosed reason, he was kidnapped from his field, willingly or unwillingly, and carried to France. With the Channel in this condition it is clear that although the movements of highly placed men could be watched and controlled, obscure agents could pass and repass in perfect security, so far as the efforts of the pubic services were concerned. Extensive powers of the public services were concerned. Extensive powers of arrest of suspicious persons were enjoyed by the magistracy, but the public services were themselves not above suspicion.
page 69 note 1 On one occasion the French fleet provisioned and watered undisturbed in ritish ports. Welbeck MSS. (Historical MSS. Commission), p. 86. The Dutch were not above trading with the French in secret, ib. 260.
page 69 note 2 State Papers, Domestic, Anne. Mrs. Barbara Joblin to Lady Fretcheville, November 1, 1702.
page 69 note 3 Ibid. Bundle 11, No. 2.
page 69 note 4 Ibid. Report from Hastings, February 29, 1703.
page 69 note 5 Ibid. Bundle 6, No. 36.
page 69 note 6 Ibid. case of Viscount Montgomery, 1706, Bundle 10, No. 6: case of Mr. William Keith (p. 371), from whom recognisances in 3,000l. were taken not to leave the kingdom without permission. See also State Papers, Domestic, Anne, Bundle 7, No. 125.
page 70 note 1 See the case of Austin Belson at Hull in the year 1704, State Papers, Domestic, Anne, Bundle 3, No. 119; and of the fishing smack of London, 1706, Bundle 10, No. 33.
page 70 note 2 See the papers relative to a secret understanding between the British Consul at Calais and the Deal smugglers (State Papers, Domestic, Anne, Bundle 12, No. 55). See Welbeck MSS. p. 332. ‘Mayor of Deal and Mr. Secretary Hedges,’ no less a person than Mr. Harley being implicated.
page 70 note 3 See Welbeck MSS. pp. 114, 117, 118, 160, 174, 185, 210, 240, 249, 260, 304.
page 70 note 4 See petitions for mercy, State Papers, Domestic, Anne, Bundle 10, No. 92 (case of a child thirteen years old) and Ibid. No. 116 (case of a child of ten).
page 70 note 5 See case of Roger Lowen, petition of Mrs. Lowen (State Papers, Domestic, Anne, Bundle 10, No. 49). Lowen had murdered Mr. Richard Lloyd.
page 70 note 6 State Papers, Domestic, Anne, Bundle 9. No, 109.
page 71 note 1 State Papers, Domestic, Anne, Bundle 9, No. 117, 341; in particular ‘The Bell’ and ‘John o' Gaunt's.’ November, 1706, Harley's agents affected the ‘Boot and Slipper’ in Drury Lane and the ‘Peruque’ in Throgmorton Street, Welbeck MSS. 258.
page 71 note 2 Ibid. Bundle 5, No. 141.
page 71 note 3 Ibid. Bundle 14, No. 67. See also Transactions of Royal Historical Society (N.S.), vol. ix. Although attacked in every other war between France and England, Goree was unmolested 1693–1758.
page 71 note 4 The Martinico privateering fleet numbered twenty-two vessels. Stale Papers, Domestic, Anne, Bundle 7, No. 68.
page 71 note 5 St. Malo was a nest of privateers. See Welbeck Papers, January 5, 1705.
page 71 note 6 Case of Mr. Corso, who claimed 20,000l. State Papers, Domestic, Anne, Bundle 7, No. 122, and Bundle 11, No 114.
page 71 note 7 State Papers, Domestic, Anne, Bundle 11, No. 7; petition of Turkey and Italy merchants to shorten the period of mourning. Ib. Bundle 10, No. 78, petition of lacemakers to shorten the period of mourning. See also Wentworth Papers, ed. 1883, p. 40: ‘The Queen would not give them a Baul nor Play.’ Isabella Lady Wentworth to Lord Raby, March 9, 1705. See also p. 104, Peter Wentworth to his brother, January 24, 1710: ‘The Court is still in deep mourning.’ Ib. February 14, 1710: ‘Everybody is in as deep mourning as ever,’ p. 107.
‘On Sunday Her Majesty will go into mourning for the Queen of Prussia, to the great mortification of the shopkeepers.’ Wentworth Papers, February 6, 1705.
The bearing of these quotations is that the absence of social activity caused sxtra tension in the political atmosphere, an atmosphere already highly charged.
page 72 note 1 See Wentworth Papers, ed. 1883, p. 82. Peter Wentworth to Lord Raby, April 5, 1709.
page 72 note 2 ‘England to be wall'd with Gold,’ 1700, Brit. Mus. Cat. 816, m. 12, heading Abel Boyer. See also in same volume ‘On the Decay of Trade,’ ‘How to Revive the Golden Age,’ ‘The Case of the Fair Trader,’ ‘The British Merchant, or Commerce Preserved,’ all published between 1696 and 1714.
page 72 note 3 Ranke, History of England.
page 72 note 4 Such as Mrs. Manley's ‘Secret memoirs … of several persons of quality,’ (Brit. Mus. Cat. 1081, m. 2), a drearily improper work. ‘The Secret History of State Intrigues in the Management of the Scepter,’ 1712. Brit. Mus. Cat. 950 s. bbb. 15, a mere volume of verbiage.
Contemporary readers found it interesting. ‘Mrs, Manley, the author of the New Atlantis, is admitted to bayl.’ Luttrell [ed. 1857, vol. vi. p. 508]. She was on bail from November 7, 1709, till February 13, 1710, and was then discharged (id. 546).
page 73 note 1 Ranke, , History of England, vol. v. p. 291Google Scholar; Cunningham, , History of England, ed. 1787, vol. ii. pp. 339–40Google Scholar.
page 73 note 2 The Tories ‘would defend their King against any demands of his people, but they could not endure that he should be independent of themselves.’ Cooke, , History of Party, ed. 1836, vol. i. p. 20Google Scholar.
page 73 note 3 The origin and significance of these two names not being yet authoritatively settled, it may be worth while to indicate Rapin, (‘Whigs and Torys,’ London, Curll, 1717, p. 21Google Scholar. He says that Tories were Irish banditti and Whigs were Scotch banditti; that as the King was reported to be enlisting Irish aid his enemies called his party by the most offensive Irish name with which they were acquainted; and that as the King's enemies were known to be sympathetic with Scotch Presbyterians, the King's friends selected the most offensive Scotch term of abuse to describe both the party opposing the King and the allies of that party.
‘Whigs, who were, in Scotland, the same sort of banditti as the Tories in Ireland.’
Lord Cowper submitted to George I. what he called ‘An Impartial History of Parties.’ He does not define ‘Whig’ or ‘Tory,’ and alludes to the ‘paper war carried on under these names without emphasis. See the paper printed in Campbell's, Lord Lives, iv. 422Google Scholar.
page 74 note 1 Duke of Shrewsbury to Mr. Delafaye, October 5, 1706. State Papers, Domestic, Anne, Bundle 9, No. 70.
Note on the Duke of Shrewsbury: ‘He was mightily esteemed by King William, he was twice Secretary of State, and at last Lord Chamberlain,’ a Whig of the Whigs. Yet he accepted office in the coup d' Élat of 1710, and became Tory Lord Chamberlain in succession to the Whig Duke of Kent. ‘He went and lived for some years in Rome, where he married a lady very poor and of an indifferent reputation, which lost him his credit amongst his old friends. I suppose that vext him and made him fall in with Mr. Harley, who procured him this employment.’ Wentworth Papers, ed. 1883, p. 134. Memoir in Raby's, Lord handwritingGoogle Scholar.
page 74 note * For a notice of this lady (nata Paliotti) see Mr. Speaker Onslow's note on the Duke of Shrewsbury in Burnet, ed. 1823, vol. v. p. 438, note h.
page 75 note 1 Ranke, , History of England, vol. vGoogle Scholar. Compare Macpherson, ed. 1775, vol. ii. p. 430. Compare de Rémusat, Charles, L' Angleterre au Dix-hnitième, Siècle, ed. 1856, vol. ii. p. 207, an admirable passageGoogle Scholar. ‘Peace, which the Landed-Men, half ruined by the war, do so extremely want and desire.’ Letter to a Whig Lord. London, John Morphew, 1712.
page 75 note 2 It appears that there was a club entitled the Calf s Head Club, that made a point of dining off calf's head every 30th of January in mockery of the Tory grief for the memory of Charles the Martyr. It was in odious taste, but the Tory pamphlet ‘The Whigs unmask'd’ (Brit. Mus. Cat. 292, f. 17), denouncing it, described the Calf's Head Club Man as ‘the Spawn of a Regicide, hammered out of a rank Anabaptist Hypocrite,’ and further it is difficult to quote. Sir John Denham condescended to contribute to the volume some verses on ‘The True Presbyterian,’ beginning
‘A Presbyter is such a monstrous thing,
As loves democracy and hates a king.
The Whigs were generally called Presbyters, especially on the Continent, where fine distinctions were not understood. The book contains a woodcut of Oliver Cromwell in Council, the Devil presiding and seated between Bradshaw and Cromwell. After these extravagances the denunciation of the Whigs as ‘mercenary, oppressive, and imperious in power,’ loving intrigue ‘as dearly as a iilt,’ seems commonplace.
page 75 note * Published (it is right to remember) in 1714, when Tory exasperation was at its height.
page 76 note 1 Election mobs are hardly typical of party manners, but the Chester County Election of May 1705 resulted in the Whigs saluting a party of clergymen coming to vote with cries, ‘Hell is broke loose, and these are the Devil's Black Guard.’ They broke the cathedral windows. Welbeck MSS. 189. No Tory mob did worse than this, and the pamphlet ‘Vox Populi Vox Dei’ (B.M.C. 8005 e), describing passive obedience as ‘damnable and treasonable,’ does not err on the side of moderation.
page 76 note 2 State Papers, Domestic, Anne, , 03 14, 1702, Bundle 1, No. 3Google Scholar.
page 76 note 3 Subsequently given to Nathan Wright, with the title ‘Lord Keeper,’ not Lord Chancellor.
page 76 note 4 Wentworth Papers, ed. 1883, pp. 130–31. The other Commissioners were Paulet, Mansell, Paget, and Benson.
page 77 note 1 ‘The managing Whigs, such as Lord Wharton, Lords Somers and Halifax, and even Mr. Harley … are really the greatest enemies to the Union … because it is by the present confusion and difference that they make themselves necessary to a Court that, in their heart, hates them.’ Major Cranstoun to Cunningham, Robert, Welbeck MSS. 250Google Scholar. Cranstoun was a Whig officer, and this letter reflects the confused impression that the conduct of affairs left in the mind of an observer serving abroad with the army.
page 77 note 2 Of whom the other members were Somers, Wharton, and Russell, Lord Orford.
page 77 note 3 ‘Lord Sunderland was always a violent Whig, very violent in the House of Commons during his father's lifetime, and continued so in the House of Lords after his death’ (Wentworth Papers, ed. 1883, p. 135).
page 77 note 4 The early relations of these two remarkable men were affectionate. To St. John, , Harley, was ‘dear Master,’ ‘his good-natured Robin’ (Welbeck MSS. pp. 176, 180, 219, 223, 257)Google Scholar; St. John was Harley's ‘faithful Harry.’
page 78 note 1 Luxemburg, Namur, Mons, Charleroi, Nieuport, Ostend.
page 78 note 2 September 17, 1701.
page 78 note 3 Lecky, , History of England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. i. p. 33Google Scholar.
page 78 note 4 This view is taken by Cooke, , History of Parly, i. 576, ed. 1837Google Scholar.
page 78 note 5 See Brit. Mus. Cat. 1855, c. 4 (61). The war ‘to which doubtless the purses and prayers of those that are excluded in this Bill contributed.’ The same pamphlet points out how the Bill will ‘set old wounds a-bleeding,’ and states, ‘The churches were never so full since 1660, the Dissenters never so modest and tractable … it hath been almost equal with many of them to go to church or to their meeting-houses.’ The object of the Bill is thus described: ‘That things must be restored to their old foundations as they were before the Civil Wars. That the old Dissenters may be allow'd indeed to die of their own communion, but that their children ought to be taken from them and bred in that of the Church of England.’ There follows a warning: ‘Were we part of the Continent … we should find something else to do than quarrel among ourselves.’ The Bill was compared to the Edict of Nantes, which was ‘such a sensible Stab to the Natural and Intrinsic Strength of France that Ages will hardly recover.’ Compare ‘Some Queries on the Bill,’ from which may be extracted these:
1. Doth it not offer a strong temptation to the prophane and vicious to play the shameful hypocrite?
2. Upon what design are notorious Jacobites and Non-Jurors the fiercest writers for this Bill?
3. How come the Papists everywhere to be such great friends to it?
Compare ‘Occasional Conformity a most unjustifiable practice,’ 1704. Brit. Mus. Cat. Political Tracts, 1708, 1710. E. 1981, 43 and 110 f. 34.
page 79 note 1 The Bishops were equally divided. Burnet, , History of Own Time, vol. v. p. 106Google Scholar.
page 79 note 2 The Earl of Nottingham's ‘insignificant manner of executing the office of S— of S—, and all other in their respective stations who, appearing to drive at a despotic management, were hurrying the Nation on into Dangerous Confusion.’ Conduct of Parties, 110, d. 52 (Defoe), 1712.
page 80 note 1 ‘He could hardly live in common charity with men of moderate principles.’ Macpherson, , ii. 290, ed. 1775Google Scholar.
page 80 note 2 Harley, was sworn in as Secretary of State 05 18, 1704 (Welbeck MSS. p. 84)Google Scholar. Harley's appointment was very agreeable to Marlborough. See P.R.O. Military Expedition.
‘Camp of Great Heppach: June 1, 1704.
‘Sir,—I am favoured with your letter of the 
th past, and hope the office you are entred upon will be no less agreable to you then your services here in advantage to the Publick, to both which I am assured Her Maty, had especial regard, in the choice she has been pleased to make of a person so fitly qualified by experience and fidelity for a post of that importance and trust. In my own particular I am sensible of the advantage I shall reap by itt in having so good a friend near Her Maty.'s Person to represent in the truest light my fathful endeavours for Her Service, and the advantage to the Publick, which shall always be my sole aim wherever I am, and wherein I must very much depend on your good advice and direction for my guidance.’
page 80 note † Secretary of State, N.D. ‘The Tories would trust none but Nottingham; and Nottingham would serve with none but Hedges.’ Burnet, , History of Own Time, ed. 1823, vol. v. p. 10Google Scholar.
page 80 note 3 Swift gives a discreditable reason for Harley's position. His failings, so says Swift, were the same as the Queen's. ‘That incurable disease, either of negligence or procrastination, which influenced every action both of the Queen and the Earl of Oxford.’ Memoirs relating to the change in the Queen's Ministry, ed. Nimmo, 1876, p. 218, col. 2.
page 80 note 4 See Somers' Tracts, ed. 1748, vol. iii. p. 74Google Scholar … ‘The black lists, with the Seymours and the Musgraves, &c., watching all opportunities to embroil the affairs of the Government in order to bring about the grand design of subverting it, which they had so nearly accomplished.’ Cooke, , History of Parly, ed. 1836, vol. i. p. 560Google Scholar, says that Musgrave was reputed a pensioner of Louis XIV. Hardwicke (note in Burnet, v. 150) calls him ‘ignorant and violent.’
page 81 note 1 ‘Caressing the Queen's Majesty with the title of Queen … is a barbarous Treachery to the whole Nation … and a villainous attempt to destroy the present Settlement of Succession.’ Legion's humble address to the Lords, 1703. See Sowers' Tracts, vol. iii. p. 124. 100l. reward was offered for the discovery of the author of this libel and 50l. for the printer. The author was a Calf's Head Club man, one Pierce, alias Allen, (Welbeck MSS. p. 164)Google Scholar. He fled to Scotland.
page 81 note 2 See (among many references) Memoirs of Sarah Duchess of Marlboroug, ed. 1839, vol. i. pp. 388, 389, 390Google Scholar. ‘Marlborough never forgave the Tories,’ p. 391. See also Macpherson, , History of Great Britain, ed. 1775, p. 247Google Scholar.
page 81 note 3 The Memorial of the State of England, London, 1705Google ScholarPubMed. Brit. Mus. Cat. 101, c. 36.
page 81 note 4 ‘Whig and Tory … want an explanation no less than the rest. (Memorial of the State of England). The same memorial offers a definition:— ‘The late Revolution, with the Acts consequential to it, is the most infallible test whereby to distinguish and discover the true Whigs,’ p. 79. The full title of the pamphlet is, ‘The Memorial of the State of England, in vindication of the Queen, the Church, and the Administration, designed to rectify the mutual mistakes of Protestants and to unite their affections in defence of our Religion and Liberty.’
page 82 note 1 Memorial, p. 41.
page 82 note 2 Supra, p. 79, query 3.
page 82 note 3 Memorial, p. 9.
page 82 note 4 Cf. Burnet, , History of Own Time, vol. v. p. 107, ed. 1823Google Scholar. ‘The Jacobites desired to raise such a flame among us as might make it scarce possible to carry on the war.’
page 82 note 5 ‘The friends of France are Tories and her enemies Whigs.’ Rapin, , Dissertation sur les Whigs et les Torys (London, Curll, 1717, p. v)Google Scholar.
page 82 note 6 And moderate Tories, of whom Harley was the type. Sir Richard Cocks to Lord Berkeley, May 27, 1704. ‘Most people in the Protestant interest are pleased with his preferment’ (i.e. Mr. Harley's). Welbeck MSS. ed. 1897, p. 86. Harley's attitude on Church matters underwent considerable modification. In 1704 the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, was ‘most heartily and entirely your humble servant’ (Welbeck MSS. p. 116). But in 1710 Harley, was to the Dean ‘that spawn of a Presbyterian, Harley.’ Wentworth Papers, 10 20, 1710Google Scholar.
page 83 note 1 Who had been Lord Keeper in the Tory Cabinet of 1701 (Coxe, vol. i. p. 59).
page 83 note 2 Lecky, , Hist. Eng. Eighteenth Century, vol. i. p. 43Google Scholar.
page 83 note 3 If Tory genius was brilliant, and Tory attachment to principle as remarkable as the Whig attachment to expediency, it is no less true that in framing measures adapted to passing party needs the Tories were not to be compared with the Whigs for sagacity and resource. Consider this imbecile measure side by side with the report (no less imbecile surely), industriously circulated by the Tories, that the Electoral Family of Hanover had no desire for the Crown of England (Marchmont Papers, ed. 1831, vol. i. p. xxxix)Google Scholar.
The only Whig measure comparable to this for futility is the trial of Sacheverell, and this is in the nature of the exception that proves the rule, for the trial was a desperate attempt to save a losing battle. The party was wrought up to it by the exasperation of finding resistance where they least expected it (in the Queen's will), and determined at one blow to crush the spirit that threatened them in the country. Godolphin's annoyance at being called ‘Volpone’ had comparatively little to do with the Whig policy. Godolphin was completely under the thumb of the Junto.
page 83 note 4 ‘The Queen had a great opinion of Mr. Harley's integrity and abilities.’ Swift, , Memoir relating to the Change in the Queen's Ministry, ed. 1876, p. 219, vol iiGoogle Scholar.
page 84 note 1 Swift, , Memoir, ut supra, 219, i.Google Scholar: ‘His lordship … was, upon all occasions, much too arbitrary and obtruding.’
page 84 note 2 Wentworth, Peter to Raby, Lord (Wentworlh Papers, ed. 1883, p. 130)Google Scholar: ‘The Queen writ him a letter and sent it by a Groom to tell him 'twas for her service that the Treasurery shou'd be in commission, so he might break his staff at home; she would not give him the trouble to bring it to Kingsenton.’
page 84 note 3 See Transactions Royal Historical Society, vol. xii. (N.S.), p. 103. Marlborough at Altrannstadt, by A. E. Stamp.
page 84 note 4 Godolphin answered the Queen's messenger with astonishing insolence. ‘The command was sent by a livery servant and handed to the earl's porter, and the earl, enraged by this insult, in a disrespectful manner broke the staff, and threw the pieces into the chimney.’ Swift, , ut supra, 221, nGoogle Scholar. Lord Dartmouth (note on Burnet, ed. 1823, vol. vi. p. 9, note c) traverses this account. According to Lord Dartmouth the Queen's behaviour was polite, if somewhat unceremonious—a much more probable story. Nevertheless leter Wentworth is a good authority.
page 85 note 1 ‘The Duke of Marlborough and Lord Treasurer, finding his greatness with the Queen, … got him removed, not without great pains.’ Caractères de plusieurs ministres de la Cour d'Angleterre, by Lord Raby. Quoted Wentworlh Papers, ed. 1883, p. 32. Compare Chamberlen's, Paul Queen Anne, ed. 1738, p. 280, line 10Google Scholar.
page 85 note 2 ‘Lord Treasurer would sooner have lost his staff than he [Harley] his employment.’ Ib.
page 85 note 3 Cooke, (History of Party, London, 3 vols. 1836–1837Google Scholar) says that Harley only resigned after an ineffectual attempt to grasp Lord Treasurer's staff. It is possible, but not very likely. It was not in Harley's cautious nature to attempt the impossible. Coxe asserts that the delay occurring after Marlborough's resignation was due to the anxiety of the Queen to retain Harley in office (Coxe, ed. 1893, vol. ii. p. 191). Marlborough's words were: ‘I beseech your Majesty to look upon me, from this moment, as forced out of your service, as long as you think fit to continue him in it.’ In the Lockhart Papers, ed. 1817, p. 295, Harley's conduct is described thus: ‘Mr. Harley sim'd at more than was design'd for him, and endeavour'd to supplant those that brought him in.’
page 85 note 4 Swift, , Memoir, ut supra, 220, iGoogle Scholar.
page 85 note 5 Lecky, , Hist. vol. i. p. 42Google Scholar.
page 86 note 1 Referring to these changes Rapin says: ‘Ever since that time the moderate Tories and the moderate Whigs have been but one and the same party.’ Hardly: Marlborough and Godolphin became the Tory agents—hard-worked agents, too—of the Whigs, but were never admitted to belong to the party. Rapin, , Whig and Tory, p. 41Google Scholar.
page 86 note 2 But Lord Dartmouth traverses with some anger the story of the Queen's ill-treatment of him. See Burnet, ed. 1823, vol. vi. p. 19, note d.
page 86 note 3 This step had far-reaching effects. It appears to have been made without even consulting the Queen (Dartmouth on Burnet, ed. 1823, vol. v. p. 404, note h), and showed how wide was the permanent breach between the Duke and the Whigs; for Somers, the head of the Junto, having ‘no mind to be his Grace's subject,’ took the lead in baffling Marlborough.
page 86 note 4 Swift, , Memoir, ut supra, 219, iiGoogle Scholar.
page 87 note 1 Of Godolphin and Marlborough it may be correct to say, as MrCooke, says (History of Party, ed. 1836, vol i. p. 572)Google Scholar, that their interest ‘lay entirely among the Whigs,’ but they remained—Godolphin especially—the mere Tory agents of the Whigs, and were never even spoken of as members of the Whig party (Burnet, ed. 1823, vol. v. p. 389, Hardwicke's note. Compare Macpherson, ed. 1775, vol. ii. p. 403, where he speaks of Marlborough and Godolphin reconciling ‘the Whigs to their measures’ by wholesale bribery of place and power.
page 87 note 2 ‘Lord Treasurer begins to want friends.’ Wentworth Papers, p. 77, March 1, 1709. Peter Wentworth to Lord Raby.
page 87 note 3 Wentworth Papers, ut supra, p. 72. ‘The Tories rejoice that the great Whigs begin already to use the Lord Treasurer as they would wish, to oppose him publicly in the House, particularly Lord Somers.’
page 87 note 4 ‘I believe if he had a mind to be chosen King he would hardly be refused’ (Swift, , Journal, ed. 1876, 237 i.Google Scholar). ‘Mr. Addison is really a very great man with the Junto’ (Wentworth, Peter to Raby, Lord, 12 28, 1709)Google Scholar.
page 88 note 5 Marlborough attempted, but without success, to make Sunderland behave more respectfully to the Queen. Coxe, ed. 1893, vol. ii. p. 288. Sunderland's insolence was born with him, and was devoid of distinction. See his very vulgar behaviour to the Dukein the year 1721. Memoirs of the Duchess of Marlborough, ed. 1839, vol. ii. p. 320Google Scholar.
page 88 note 6 Sworn in December 3, 1706. His removal from office was the work of the Queen. He had failed ‘in his respect to her Majesty's person’ (Swift, , Memoir, ut supra, p. 221)Google Scholar.
page 88 note 1 Wentworth Papers, 78.
page 88 note 2 Compare the letter of the Abbé de Polignac from Gertruydenburgh dated July 20, 1710. Torcy to Tallard, May 23, 1709: ‘We are not far from an agreement on essential matters.’ Wentwortk Papers, May 24, 1709. Peter Wentworth to Lord Raby: ‘I heard Lord Treasurer say to Molesworth, “All is done, the French have agree'd to all we have ask't.”’
page 88 note 3 Wentwortk Papers, 83.
page 88 note 4 Ib. 90.
page 88 note 5 Welbeck Papers, ed. 1897, p. 490. E. Lewis to Robert Harley, May 22, 1705: ‘The notion of extinguishing the names of Whig and Tory and assuming the distinctions of Court and Country party …’
page 88 note 6 Supra, p. 81, note 4.
page 89 note 1 Lewis to Harley, May 29, 1708. (Welbeck MSS. 491.)
page 89 note 2 Ib.
page 89 note 3 Coxe, ed. 1893, vol. ii. p. 283.
page 89 note 4 Lewis to Ilarley, Oct. 20, 1708. (Welbeck MSS. 506.)
page 90 note 1 The Queen held firmly to what was left of the Royal prerogative (Coxe, ed. 1893, p. 292), and disliked intensely ‘the solicitations … made to her, when she was entirely surrounded by the party.’ Welbeck MSS. 506. ‘It is an old scandal, now almost worn out … that “the Whigs” are against the prerogative of the Crown.’ Cowper's Impartial History of Parties, in Campbell's, Lives of the Chancellors, ed. 1846, vol. iv. p. 428Google Scholar. Not an old scandal, and not worn out in Cowper's day. And precisely because Lord Cowper remains— accidentally or wilfully—blind to the point of issue between Whigs and Tories, he writes: ‘I dare not touch upon the particular causes which drew on the disgrace … of that Ministry’ (the Whig), ib. p. 426. There is no reason—disgrace … of that Ministry’ (the Whig), ib. p. 426. There is no reason—except a party reason—why they should not be touched upon.
page 90 note 2 The Duke's arrest was not a tribute to his rank—he was only one of many. ‘Great numbers of all ranks were thrust into prison.’ Lockhart Papers, ed. 1817, p. 293.
page 91 note 1 Lord Sunderland's sister, Lady Anne Spencer, had married the Duke of Hamilton.
page 91 note 2 In the Lockhart Papers, ed. 1817, p. 293, the incident is thus narrated: ‘The Duke of Hamilton … finding that the Whigs were most likely to preserve and relieve himselfe … clapt up a seperat Treaty with them.’ Possible—anything is possible at this epoch, but quite unlike the Duke's character.
page 91 note 3 Supra, p, 82, note 6.
page 91 note 4 Welbeck MSS. 534.
page 91 note 5 Supra, p. 85, note 3.
page 91 note 6 Swift, , Memoir, ut supra, p. 224Google Scholar.
page 92 note 1 ‘The Whigs rode them’ (Marlborough and Godolphin) ‘very hard, and they would have been glad to have relieved themselves, if they could have told how.’ Dartmouth on Burnet. The alliance of the Junto with Godolphin was only superficial. Onslow on Burnet, Burnet, ed. 1823, vol. v. p. 341, notes u, x.
page 92 note 2 By their resolute behaviour in the crisis of 1714 when they secured the Hanoverian Succession. This was a wonderful example of the discipline and power of concentration of the party. I venture to call their action ‘a distinguished service to the State’ because, to take the lowest ground (and assuming the Pretender to have been a desirable sovereign), James III. could not have been crowned until after a civil war.
page 93 note 1 Supra, p. 85.
page 93 note 2 Coxe, ed. 1893, vol. ii. p. 292.
page 93 note 3 The Bishop of Ely.
page 93 note 4 The Whig Junto, Somers, Sunderland, Russell, Wharton (let-'em-be-damned Wharton), and Halifax.
page 93 note 5 Sir Thomas Hanmer. ‘A council of the Junto will he held there (Newmarket), and then and not till then shall we know who will be Speaker … the vogue runs for Sir Richard Onslow, who was elected, “a worthy man” (Burnet), “a very trifling, vain man of a ridiculous figure, full of party zeal.” He went by the name of “Stiff Dick,” usually given him by the whole party except Bishop Burnet and a few solemn Nonconformists.’ (Dartmouth), Burnet, ed. 1823, vol.v. p. 384, note g. Welbeck MSS. 505. So the Queen's candidate was defeated. He was, however, elected in 1713.
page 94 note 1 Supra, p. 85.
page 94 note 2 Prince George's sympathies had been pronouncedly Tory (Swift, , Memoir ut supra, 223, ii. n.)Google Scholar.
page 94 note 3 Supra, pp. 85, 86.
page 94 note 4 Welbeck MSS. 516. Sir Thomas Mansell to Robert Harley. Compare Lord Dartmouth's caustic portrait of Queensberry in Burnet, ed. 1823, vol. v. p. 388, note n.
page 95 note 1 ‘Lord Treasurer had promised to adopt the Duke of Queensberry, and tosurrender himself up entirely to the sage advice of the Junto’ (Welbeck MSS. 508). ‘It was generally believed that the Lord Treasurer would fix measures and capitulate with the Junto’ (ib. 507).
page 95 note 2 Lewis to Robert Harley, Oct. 15, 1708. Welbeck MSS. 509.
If MrCooke, (History of party, ed. 1836, vol. ii. p. 571)Google Scholar is right in saying that Wharton was in possession of compromising letters from Godolphin to St. Germains, Wharton would hardly have used this expression. But see Macpherson, ed. 1775, for details, vol. ii. ch. 7, p. 406, and Hamilton MS. Anecdotes, quoted by Burnet, ed. 1823, vol. v. p. 382, note p.
page 95 note 3 Welbeck MSS. 507.
page 95 note 4 Moreover, his indecision was constitutional (Lecky, ed. 1892, vol. i. p. 70).
page 95 note 5 The Duchess carried insolence so far as to bid the Queen be silent (Coxe, vol. ii. p. 294, ed. 1893).
page 95 note 6 Swift, , Memoir relating to the Change in the Queen's Ministry ed. 1876, 221, iGoogle Scholar.
page 96 note 1 Cooke, (History of Party, ed. 1836, vol. ii. p. 567)Google Scholar gives a most contemptible picture of Harley's conduct. If his view of Harley's character were accepted we could only conclude that, if Harley's mind was debased, the Queen's mind was yet more debased. But she seems to have borne herself with a very stately and simple courage, a courage inconsistent with Mr. Cooke's view of her relations to Harley.
page 96 note 2 Wentworth Papers, p. 72.
page 96 note 3 Lockhart Papers, ed. 1817, p. 294.
page 96 note 4 Ib. pp. 309, 310.
page 96 note 5 Swift says that the Queen approached him (p. 27, n. 6).
page 97 note 1 Somers refused altogether to act with him. See his life in Lives of Eminent Persons, 1833, p. 21, col. 2.
page 97 note 2 Swift, , Memoirs, 220, iiGoogle Scholar.
page 97 note 3 The view taken in these pages of the character of Queen Anne is derived from sources always open, but, it is submitted, imperfectly explored. No woman who was no more of a personage than Thorold Rogers makes out Queen Anne to have been (‘fat, gouty, lethargic,’ and nothing more) could have written the Queen's letters, or borne herself in great public and private affliction like Queen Anne.
page 98 note 1 Lockhart Papers, ed. 1817, p. 316.
page 98 note 2 Case of the Lieutenancy of the Tower, Swift, , Memoir, ed. 1876, p. 221, i. and iiGoogle Scholar. It is not easy to concur in Coxe's view that this was a ‘stratagem unworthy of the royal dignity’ (Coxe, , vol. iii. p. 6, ed. 1893)Google Scholar.
page 98 note 3 Case of Richard Temple's Regiment, (Lockhart Papers, ed. 1827, p. 316)Google Scholar.
page 98 note 4 Ib.
page 98 note 5 ‘The most mysterious man of the time’ (Rogers, Thorold, Life of Halifax ed. 1869, p. 41)Google Scholar. Not at all ‘mysterious’ unless we try to make his conduct account for too much.
page 98 note 6 See P.R.O., C.C. ‘Dunkirk,’ and The Lost Possessions of England, pp. 32, 33, and 35.
page 98 note 7 Very differently did his contemporary rivals speak of him: ‘If man was ever born under a necessity of being a knave he [Harley] was.’ No less a man than Cowper wrote this. See Diary, p. 33, under date Sunday, January 6, 1706, after dining with Harley. Very bitter. ‘ Mr. Harley is generally allowed as cunning a man as any in England’ (Wentworth Papers, ed. 1883, p. 132).
page 99 note 1 Coxe, ed. 1893, vol. i. p. 59.
page 99 note 2 P.R.O. Military Expeditions (Marlborough to Harley).
page 99 note 3 Marlborough to the Queen (quoted Coxe, ed. 1893, vol. ii. p. 293).
page 99 note 4 Ib. p. 191.
page 99 note 5 Swift, , Memoir, ed. 1876, 220, iiGoogle Scholar.
page 99 note 6 Coxe, ed. 1893, vol. ii. p. 190.
page 100 note 1 The relations of Harley and Mrs. Masham, and, later on, of Mrs. Masham and Bolingbroke are much dwelt on by all writers of this epoch. Campbell's, Lord phrase, ‘Mrs. Masham who had made him [Lord Oxford] Prime Minister’ (Lives of the Chancellors, vol. iv. p. 477)Google Scholar, seems to me to state the popular view in its most ridiculous and exaggerated form.
page 100 note 2 Burnet, implies as much: ‘that tract of correspondence lately discovered, that was managed under Harley's protection’ (ed. 1823, vol. v. p. 356)Google Scholar. Mr. Speaker Onslow makes this comment: ‘These words imply more than the bishop had any authority to say. Harley was inexcusably negligent. That was his crime.’
page 100 note 3 ‘The circumstances of the transaction, as well as his (Greg's) dependence on Harley, appear to have given some colour to the accusation…of a correspondence with the French Court’ (Coxe, , ed. 1893, vol. ii. p. 189)Google Scholar.
page 101 note 1 …my guilt, which is alas ! but too great already' (Greg, William to Harley, , January 8, 1708. Welbeck Papers, ed. 1897, p. 474)Google Scholar.
page 101 note 2 ‘In order to my dying with as clear a conscience as I can, I may be admitted once more…to discharge it of all that remains’ (Ib. January 15, 1708). These are certainly not the expressions of a man who has it in his power to drag down in his fall one so highly placed as a Secretary of State.
page 101 note 3 For full details of Greg's, procedure see Memoirs of Lord Viscount Bolingbroke (ed. 1752, pp. 126, 127)Google Scholar.
page 101 note 4 Welbeck MSS. ed. 1897, p. 475.
page 101 note 5 Ib. January 31, 1708 (Greg to Harley).
page 101 note 6 Thomas, William to Harley, Edward. April 29, 1708 (Welbeck Papers, ed. 1897, p. 487)Google Scholar.
page 101 note 7 Neither threats nor promises were wanting to engage him to make a discovery. Queen Anne, ed. 1735, p. 291 (Chamberlen, Paul)Google Scholar.
page 101 note 8 Ib. 484.
page 101 note 9 Memoirs of the Duchess of Marlborough (ed. 1839, vol. ii. p. 132)Google Scholar: ‘the bitter accusations and unworthy suspicions of Sunderland.’
page 102 note 1 ‘Harley could not possibly be supposed to know anything of the matter’ (Macpherson, , ed. 1175, vol. ii. p. 385)Google Scholar.
page 102 note 2 See Luttrell, , Brief Relation, ed. 1857, vol. vi. p. 280Google Scholar. ‘This day the lords agreed upon an addresse to the Queen upon the report from the committee of lords appointed to examine Greg, &c., and in it is, that Greg deserves to die.’
Welbeck MSS., ed. 1897, p. 482 (Thomas, W. to Harley, Edward)Google Scholar. If any censure of Harley had been felt to be due by contemporary observers, it would have been noted here, or by Luttrell (cf. Luttrell, vol. vi. p. 177).
page 102 note 3 ‘Who visibly ruined your service last winter in several undeniable instances’ (Marlborough to the Queen, quoted, Coxe, , vol. ii. p. 293)Google Scholar.
page 102 note 4 The same Deference, or a greater, was paid him by the moderate Men of all Parties, when he was out than when he was in Power' (Memoir of…Bolingbroke, ed. 1752, p. 132).
page 102 note 5 ‘The ostensible reason of Secretary Harley's being suspected of corresponding with the French was quickly discovered to be no betcer than a falsehood’ Memoir of…Bolingbroke, p. 131).
page 103 note 1 The view of the Queen's character set forth in these pages is nowhere to be found in the pages of accepted authority. Accepted authorities content themselves with noting the Queen's dress, or perfumes, or fondness for a good dinner; her insistence on the proper performance of Court functions, or her indulgence in gossip:—trifles. But although, as Lord Chesterfield observes, over-attention to trifles is the mark of a small mind, proper attention to trifles is rather the mark of an orderly mind. There is, indeed, no evidence that Anne paid more than a proper attention to trifles, and we must look elsewhere for indications of her mental capacity. They are to be found in abundance: in the interview from which the great Lord Somers retired routed and dismayed, in the Queen's haughty bearing towards her greatest subject, in her royally patient endurance of the impertinence of Sunderland—in short, in the skilful use to which she put her position as Sovereign. All these incidents, just noted, demand courage, nerve, and much personal force of character. They are facts, undisputed facts, and are totally irreconcilable with the accepted view of the Queen's character. No doubt Anne was indolent—the Stuarts were indolent. But she had a high sense of duty—inherited, perhaps, from the great Earl of Clarendon—and when the call of duty summoned her to save the State (as she believed) she displayed remarkable energy. Paul Chamberlen ascribes the changes of party in England—and for the matter of that he ascribes the South Sea Bubble and the decay of the West Indies entirely to DrSacheverell, (see his History, ed. 1738, pp. 330, 331)Google Scholar. DrHallam, , almost as extravagantly, says that ‘the House of Bourbon would probably not have reigned beyond the Pyrenees but for Sarah and Abigail at Queen Anne's toilet’ (see his History, ed. 1854, vol. iii. p. 208)Google Scholar. These views are typical, and both of them appear to me to lack perspective. Sacheverell and Mrs. Masham were incidents, important incidents. But it needed a woman of capacity to make the most for herself out of Sacheverell's trial; and. as for Mrs. Masham, it is apparent that she was a pleasant companion for Anne's hours of sumptuous indolence, and a useful intermediary for Harley. Outside these limits I should hesitate to assign her much influence.
page 104 note 1 See Dartmouth's, note on Harley, in Burnet, , ed. 1823, vol. vi. p. 45, note e:—‘Mr. Harley understood and loved the Constitution. …’Google Scholar The note goes on to admit Harley's overweening vanity and that total indifference to his friends which earned for him the reputation of ‘treacherous.’ But it also points out that Harley had a most ‘affectionate zeal for the service of his country.’
page 104 note 2 Dartmouth, who succeeded Sunderland (June 15, 1710) as Secretary of State, says that Sunderland used to divert himself by deriding Royalty in the presence of the Queen. One can hardly imagine a more vulgar performance (Burnet, ed. 1823, vol. vi. p. 7, note a).
page 104 note 3 See Burnet, , ed. 1823, vol. vi. ‘An atheist grafted on a Presbyterian’ (p. 229, note a)Google Scholar, ‘inclined to republicanism’ (Onslow, S. A., p. 117, note p)Google Scholar, ‘intrinsically void of moral or religious principles, the mischievous Wharton’ (Macpherson).
‘A Whig from faction more than from any principle’ (Macpherson, , ed. 1775, vol. ii. p. 404)Google Scholar.
page 105 note 1 Of Orford we may say, as Charles the First said of Wentworth before he knew him, ‘Mr. Russell is an honest gentleman’—that and no more. Orford had no scintilla of genius. Somers was the greatest man of the Junto, Wharton the noisiest, Sunderland the most insolent, Halifax the most brilliant, and Orford the most respectable.
page 105 note 2 See Macpherson, , History, vol. ii. p. 656Google Scholar, for a notice—it is but one of a hundred in the same vein—of Anne, Queen, from which I entirely dissent (compare infra, pp. 118–121)Google Scholar.
page 105 note 3 ‘This Princess is timid to an excess, and lets herself be ruled …’ (Kemble, State Papers, ed. 1857, p. 491)Google Scholar. But what shall we say of the judgment of one (Schulenburg) who also says, ‘The Grand Treasurer Harley is an intrepid man’ The intrepid Harley!
page 105 note 4 Coxe, ed. 1893, vol. iii. p. 8.
page 105 note 5 Ib. ed. 1893, p. 10.
page 106 note 1 The Duchess of Marlborough had no patience with the Queen's piety. She called her Sovereign ‘a praying godly idiot’ (Burnet, , ed. 1823, vol. v. p. 440, note k)Google Scholar.
page 106 note 2 Supra, p. 98.
page 106 note 3 ‘There are few instances in modern history of a more scandalous abuse of the rights of conquest’ (Lecky, , ed. 1892, vol. i. p. 58, Hist. of the Eighteenth Century)Google Scholar.
page 106 note 4 ‘Marlborough…was the author of this injudicious step’ (Cooke, , Hist. ōf Party, ed. 1836, vol. i. p. 574)Google Scholar. But he was ardently championed in print by the author of The Negotiations for a Treaty of Peace in 1709 Considered (London, 1711, B. M. Cat. T (2031), 27)Google Scholar. This was Bishop Hare.
page 107 note 1 Lockhart Papers, ed. 1817, vol. i. p. 318Google Scholar.
page 107 note 2 Ibid. ed. 1817, p. 311.
page 107 note 3 Memoir, ut supra, p. 220, col. 2.
page 107 note 4 Cooke, , History of Party, ed. 1836, vol. i. p. 575Google Scholar.
page 107 note 5 Lecky, , Hist. of England in the Eighteenth Century, ed. 1892, vol. i. p. 63Google Scholar.
page 107 note 6 Welbeck MSS., ed. 1897, p. 539 (Abigail Harley to Edward Harley, March 25, 1710).
page 107 note 7 Wentworth Papers, ed. 1883, p. 114 (Wentworth, Peter to Raby, Lord)Google Scholar. See also Lecky, i. 70.
page 107 note 8 ‘To Westminster Abbey, where we saw Dr. Frewen translated…But Lord!…how people did look again at them [the Bishops] as strange creatures, and few with any kind of love and respect!’ (Pepys, , 10 4, 1660Google Scholar.)
page 108 note 1 Welbeck MSS., ed. 1897, pp. 534, 535.
page 108 note 2 ‘Though now forgotten, he was a man of great renown in his day, and his private life seems to have secured to him respect among all men’ (Burton, , Reign of Queen Anne, ed. 1880, vol. ii. p. 265)Google Scholar.
page 108 note 3 Sunderland to Marlborough, August 5, 1707 (quoted by Coxe, ed. 1893, vol. ii. P. 155).
page 109 note 1 Quoted by Coxe, ed. 1893, vol. ii. p. 157.
page 109 note 2 Lecky, ed. 1892, vol. i. p. 71.
page 109 note 3 Supra, p. 98, notes 2 and 3.
page 109 note 4 May 22, 1710. See Luttrell, ed. 1857, vol. vi. p. 585.
page 109 note 5 Luttrell, vi. 571.
page 109 note 6 He was invested October 25, 1712.
page 109 note 7 Lecky, i. 72. ‘The Ministry should, undoubtedly, have resigned’ And yet the office is only semi-political. Hence the wisdom of selecting this office for the experiment. Whichever way the Ministry decided, the Queen was favourably placed.
page 109 note 8 Wentworth Papers, ed. 1883, p. 117.
page 109 note 9 Coxe, ed. 1893, vol. iii. p. 88. ‘This is a resolution which I have long taken, and nothing shall divert me from it.’
page 109 note 10 Luttrell, ed. 1857, vol. vi. p. 594.
page 110 note 1 Dartmouth's selection was not without significance. His Toryism was pronounced (Lecky, ed. 1893, vol. i. p. 73).
page 110 note 2 Luttrell. See also Wentworth Papers, ed. 1883, p. 121.
page 110 note 3 Cooke, ed. 1836, vol. i. p. 577.
page 110 note 4 Mr. Coxe (iii. 19) maintains that the Whig party was torn by ‘schism’ when the Queen attacked it. The evidence to that effect is not forthcoming; on the contrary the Whigs were united to the last.
page 110 note 5 Wentworth Papers, ed. 1883, pp. 123, 124.
page 110 note 6 Lecky, ed. 1893, vol. i. p. 73, quoting Boyer. See also the letter itself set forth at full in Chamberlen's, Paul Queen Anne, ed. 1738, pp. 348, 349Google Scholar. The letter was dated April 15, 1710. The Duke of Kent was dismissed May 22, 1710. Paul Chamberlen says the ‘letter made no impression on the Queen.’ Not-a favourable impression, perhaps.
page 111 note 1 Swift, , Memoir, ed. Nimmo, , 1873, p. 221, col. 2Google Scholar.
page 111 note 2 The Duke of Devonshire delivered up the Steward's, staff ‘with an uncontrollable burst of passion’ (Wyon, , ii. 231)Google Scholar.
page 111 note 3 Coxe, ed. 1893, vol. iii. p. 88.
page 111 note 4 Memoirs of Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, ed. 1839, p. 203.
page 111 note 5 Ib. 207, 208.
page 111 note 6 Burnet, ed. 1823, vol. v. p. 443, note e (0).
page 111 note 7 Welbeck Papers, ed. 1897, p. 570.
page 111 note 8 Burnet, ed. 1823, vol. vi. p. 11, note, g.
page 111 note 9 ‘I asked the Queen how she would have the servants live with him (Marlborough). She said that would depend upon his behaviour to her’ (Burnet, , ed. 1823, vol. vi. p. 30, note (p) (Dartmouth.)Google Scholar. Compare Ranke, ed. 1875, vol. v. p. 337. Compare also Ranke, ed. 1875, vol. v. p. 330. ‘She had no idea of being made a tool.’ Ranke appears to be the only historian of this time who has given anything approaching due consideration to the extent to which the force of the Queen's character influenced the events of 1702–1710.
page 112 note 1 Macpherson, ed. 1775, vol. ii. p. 464.
page 112 note 2 ‘Scribbling down the illustrious warrior’ (Wyon, , ed. 1876, vol. ii. p. 261)Google Scholar seems hardly fair. But Mr. Wyon thinks that Anne's intelligence was no higher than a ‘kitchen-wench's,’ ib p. 531, following Rapin, perhaps, Whigs and Torys, p. 39Google Scholar.
page 112 note 3 Macpherson, ed. 1775, vol. ii. p.473.
page 113 note 1 Note that when the furious controversy relating to the trial of Sacheverell was proceeding, no man dreamed (even as a weapon of controversy) of using the charge of Jacobitism against the Tories. Burton (J. H.), ed. 1880, vol. ii. p. 285.
page 113 note 2 In France men looked on the distinction between Whigs and Tories as primarily religious, and sound Catholics ‘were pleased with the Tories for labouring to set a Popish king upon the throne of England ’ (see Rapin, , Dissertation sur les Whigs et les Torys (London, Curll, 1717, Preface, p. vGoogle Scholar).
page 113 note 3 Compare Danger of the Protestant Succession in the last years of Queen Anne, at the end of Somerville, , ed. 1798Google Scholar; although how he manages to make out that Harley was a Whig (p. 587, note 27), unless on account of his Nonconformist sympathies, is not easy to see. It may be noted, however, that in Scotland Toryism = Episcopacy = Jacobitism. Defoe to Harley, Edinburgh, 1710, 25 Dec. It may be noted also that Harley boasted that but for him the Pretender would have been restored (Wentworth Papers, p. 395).
page 113 note 4 Letter to SirWindham, W., ed. 1754, in Works, vol. i. p. 20Google Scholar. ‘The whimsical or Hanover Tories,’ p. 18.
page 113 note 5 Ib. 22. Cunningham, writing in 1775, did not do so, but used ‘Jacobite ’ as the natural antithesis of ‘Whig,’ vol. ii. p. 615.
page 114 note 1 ‘A son ancien dévouement pour le comte d'Oxford avait succédé la défiance, puis le mépris, puis l'aversion.’ (Rémusat, , L'Angleterre an Dix-huitième Siècle, ed. 1856, vol. i. p. 258)Google Scholar.
page 114 note 2 See the lists in Oldmixon, ed. 1735, P 563.
page 114 note 3 Wyon, , History of Great Britain during the Reign of Queen Anne, vol. ii. p. 529Google Scholar, says the omission of Marlborough and others ‘gave rise to much speculation,’and ‘has never been conclusively explained.’ The reasons are obvious from the narrative of these pages.
page 114 note 4 Compare the French estimate of Marlborough, , Rémusat, , ut supra, ii. 211Google Scholar; very penetrating. Compare Cowper's, Lord Diary, ed. 1833 (Eton, E. Williams), p. 54, B. M. C. Ac. 8104, 43), November 1712Google Scholar. Evidently the Queen's affectionate deference had turned to chill disapproval—naturally.
page 114 note 5 Especially by the editor and contributors to the Dictionary of National Biography. But ‘sincerely devoted to the Protestant succession,’ says Coxe, , ed. 1893, vol. iii. p. 344Google Scholar. ‘The Elector has a very high idea…of your devotion the Protestant succession.’ MrCressett, to Harley, Robert, Welbeck Papers, p. 643Google Scholar.
page 115 note 1 See MrWyon's, defence of StJohn, in his History, vol. ii. pp. 525Google Scholar… He says that persecution drove Bolingbroke into the Pretender's service.
page 115 note 2 Stanhope, ed. 1839, vol. i. p. 129, assumes that, as a matter of course, Bolingbroke was a Jacobite.
page 115 note 3 Pp. 556, 557, and his history of this period in every page.
page 115 note 4 Letter to Sir William Windham.
page 115 note 5 Also (after Harley obtained an earldom and the Garter, while Bolingbroke had to content himself with a viscountcy without the Blue Ribbon) in no small rage and disappointment that Harley should be so much more amply rewarded than he was, 1712. The Duke of Berwick, (Memoirs, ed. 1729, vol. ii. p. 192)Google Scholarstates without any reserve that Bolingbroke was definitely, and Harley hesitatingly, in the Pretender's interest, and that Harley was got rid of in order to enable Bolingbroke to force the pace.
page 115 note 4 Whereas Harley associated himself with Dissenters, partly from sympathy, partly from a politic resolve to detach them from the Whigs.
page 116 note 1 ‘Another victory might have been more fatal to the Nation than the most ignominious peace.’ To enter on negotiations in this temper is perilous work. See Complete History of the Treaty of Utrecht, London, 2 vols. 1715, I, 298 ppGoogle Scholar. Very valuable. ‘It is Peace England wants, and not to change wars’ (Wentworth Papers, ed. 1883, p. 302).
page 116 note 2 Four years of office did not develop any latent talent. Bolingbroke confessed that the cause went back rather than forward. ‘The sterility of good and able men is incredible.’ Stanhope, , ed. 1839, vol. i. p. 129Google Scholar, footnote quoting Erasmus Lewis, 1714.
page 116 note 3 Also ‘strongly suspected of being a Jacobite.’ Campbell, , Lives of the Chancellors, ed. 1840, vol. iv. p. 345Google Scholar. But Lord Campbell says that Bolingbroke ‘notoriously attempted to defeat the Protestant succession,’ ib. 344. A great lawyer,' p. 453, but 'not a profound equity judge (ib. 456).
page 116 note 4 He lacked ability and savoir faire. See Schulenburg to Leibnitz; Emden, July 12, 1714. Kemble's State Papers, ed. 1857.
page 116 note 5 See Rémusat, vol. ii. pp. 223, 224, for an excellent summary of St. John's political embarrassments. ‘Ce n'est pas l'habileté qui manquait à sa politique, c'est plutôt sa politique qui aurait compromis son habileté.’ Again: ‘Il y avait dans une telle situation une fausseté et une complication qui défiait toute la dextérité du plus adroit, toute la prudence du plus sage, tout le courage du plus intrépide.
page 117 note 1 ‘An impenetrable phalanx.’ Very just (Coxe, , ed. 1893, vol. iii. p. 346)Google Scholar.
page 117 note 2 See the very amusing Secret History of the October Club, 1711. Brit. Mus. Cat. 101, d. 6. Take the resolution No. 5:—‘That Anthony Marquis de Guiscard should in all their writings and discourses be damn'd for a poltron and a scoundrel, not for assassinating or stabbing Mr. Harley, but for doing it by halves.’ Mr. Harley was these young bloods' nominal chief!
page 117 note 3 See the List of Original Members in Oldmixon, p. 479.
page 117 note 4 Bolingbroke, emphasising the baneful effects of Harley's influence, says that from the autumn of 1713 there was, practically, no government in England. See letter to Sir William Windham in the works of Henry St. John, ed. 1754, vol. i. p. 26. This seems overstated, but M. de Rémusat, a temperate writer, adopts it. See his History, vol. i. p. 276.
page 118 note 1 Rapin says that this coup d'État was the result of an intrigue which he does not pretend to understand. In effect the coup d'État is incomprehensible if Rapin's (and the popular) view of Queen Anne is accepted (Rapin, , Whigs and Tory's, p. 42)Google Scholar.
page 118 note 2 SirAnson, William (Law and Custom of the Constitution, ed. 1892, vol. ii. p. 35)Google Scholar does not take quite such high ground.
page 119 note 1 History, ed. 1839, vol. i. p. 38Google Scholar.
page 119 note 2 History, ed. 1798, p. 568.
page 119 note 3 ‘Since that time the Queen was never rightly well with those two Lords’ (Wentworth Papers, ed. 1882, p. 132).
page 120 note 1 Cowper's, Lord Diary (09 22, 1710), p. 46Google Scholar. The explanation commonly given of this is that Harcourt had been extravagant, and could not afford to accept the Great Seal. Granted, although in point of fact he did accept the Great Seal. Still the episode proves, I think, that the Queen was sincere when she said that a good Whig was as welcome to her as a Tory.
page 120 note 2 And other Whig leaders, Wyon, (cf. Diary, 06 1712, p. 53)Google Scholar.
page 120 note 3 Memoirs of Marlborongh, ed. 1889, vol. iii. p. 19Google Scholar.
page 120 note 4 Similarly, to speak of the Queen as being ‘awed’ by the Duke, as Mr. Coxe does (iii. 20), appears an exaggeration. Anne, like many affectionate and easy-going people, male and female, permitted almost any liberty to be taken by those to whom she had given her confidence. But there was the force of the rebound to be reckoned with; and at no time of her life could it be said of her, with propriety, that she was ‘awed’by anybody.
page 120 note 5 He says that she drank 2,500 bottles of champagne sent to her by Louis XIV. laced with brandy.