^n«fW«-»gr»lll»lBILM. 
 
 ^yy»nr»-4.Birgw»-»-g» ■>■»<! BUI a ■■»■■! 
 
 BOUGMSfiOUMS 
 
€mul\ mvAvmxtu f itotg 
 
 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 
 PROM THE 
 
 SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 Henvs W. Sage 
 
 1891 
 
 A...4.'?..s^.:'7 n/Ah"^..] 
 
 5474 
 
BOOKS BY JUSTIN MCCARTHY. 
 
 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES, from the 
 
 Accession of Queen Victoria to the General Election of 1880. 4 vols, 
 demy 8vo. cloth, 12s. each ; also a Popular Edition, in 4 vols, crown 8vo. cloth, 
 6s. each ; and the Jubilee Edition (with an Appendix of Events to the End of 
 1886), 2 vols, large post 8vo. cloth, 7*. 6d. each, 
 
 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES, from 1880 to 
 
 THE Diamond Jubilee. Demy 8vo. cloth, izs. ; crown 8vo. cloth, 6s. 
 
 A SHORT HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES. Crown 
 
 8vo. cloth, 6s. ; also a Popular Edition, post 8vo. cloth, 2s. 6d. 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE FOUR GEORGES AND OF 
 
 WILLIAM THE FOURTH. By Justin McCarthy and Justin Hontly 
 McCarthy. 4 vols, demy 8vo. cloth, laf. each. 
 
 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. 2 vols, demy 8vo. 
 
 cloth] i2f. each. 
 
 REMINISCENCES. With a Portrait. 2 vols, demy 8vo. 
 
 doth, 24J. 
 
 Crown 8vo. cloth, 3s. td. each ; post 8vo. illustrated boards, 2j. each ; 
 cloth limp, 2J. ^d. each. 
 
 DEAR LADY DISDAIN. 
 
 LINLEY ROCHFORD. 
 
 MY ENEMY'S DAUGHTER. 
 
 THE WATERDALE NEIGH- 
 BOURS. 
 
 A FAIR SAXON. 
 
 MISS MISANTHROPE. 
 
 DONNA QUIXOTE. 
 
 THE COMET OF A SEASON 
 
 MAID OF ATHENS. 
 
 CAMIOLA: a Girl with a For- 
 tune. 
 
 THE DICTATOR. 
 
 RED DIAMONDS. 
 
 THE RIDDLE RING. 
 
 Crown 8vo. cloth, 31. td. each. 
 THE THREE DISGRACES, and other Stories. 
 MONONIA: a Love Story of 'Forty-eight.' 
 
 'THE RIGHT HONOURABLE.' By Justin M^^Carthy and Mrs. 
 
 Campbell Praed. Crown 8vo. cloth, 6j. 
 London: CHATTO & WINDUS, in St. Martin's Lane, W.C. 
 
THE 
 
 Reign of Queen Anne 
 
 BY 
 
 JUSTIN MCCARTHY 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES' ETC. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 CHATTO & WINDUS 
 
 1902 
 
l^^l 
 
 PRINTED BY 
 
 SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. LTD., NEW-STREET SQUARE 
 LONDON 
 
TO MY DAUGHTER 
 
 CHARLOTTE ELY MCCARTHY 
 
 I DEDICATE THIS BOOK 
 
 JUSTIN MCCARTHY 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924087999912 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FIRST VOLUME 
 
 CHAPTER PAGK 
 
 I. THE WOMAN BOEN TO BE QUEEN .... 1 
 
 II. WHAT THE QUEEN CAME TO — AT HOME . . . 15 
 
 III. WHAT THE QUEEN CAME TO — ABEOAD ... 37 
 
 IV. THOSE ABOUND QUEEN ANNE 58 
 
 V. DISSENT AND DEFOE 78 
 
 VI. ON THE BOUGH EDGE OP BATTLE . . . . 96 
 
 VII. 'the campaign' — BLENHEIM 115 
 
 VIII. PETEEBOEOUGH IN SPAIN 144 
 
 IX. EVENTS AND PARTIES AT HOME . . . .164 
 
 X. THE UNION WITH SCOTLAND 188 
 
 XI. ' THE TEIVIAL BOUND — THE COMMON TASK ' . .211 
 
 XII. THE LONDON OP QUEEN ANNE 236 
 
 XIII. JONATHAN SWIFT 262 
 
 XIV. EAMILLIES AND ALMANZA 289 
 
 XV. THE PIEST PAELIAMENT OP THE UNION . . 309 
 
 XVI. SACHEVEEELL 332 
 
 XVII. ' HAELEY, THE NATION'S GEBAT SUPPOET ' . .360 
 
 XVin. THE TEIUMPH OP THE TOEIEB 382 
 
 XIX. WHAT THE WAE WAS COMING TO . . . .403 
 
 XX. JONATHAN SWIPT'S VIEWS 431 
 
THE 
 
 REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE 
 
 CHAPTEE I 
 
 THE WOMAK BOBN TO BE QUEEN 
 
 One of the poets of the later Victorian literature, 
 William Morris, has told in his melodious verse 
 the story of the 'Man born to be King,' the idea 
 of which is taken from that rich treasure house of 
 fantasy, the ' Gesta Eomanorum.' The story, how- 
 ever, is very different from that which begins under 
 the heading of this first chapter — the story of the 
 Woman born to be Queen. William Morris's hero 
 becomes king in default of every hereditary claim to 
 such a position and in despite of aU disadvantages, 
 difficulties, and seeming impossibilities, just because 
 Nature had endowed him with the special gifts which 
 are sure to win for their owner a complete success. 
 Queen Anne, on the contrary, was born to be a 
 Queen, and under no other conditions could have 
 had the slightest chance of becoming the ruler of a 
 great monarchy. Anne was the last of the Stuart 
 sovereigns. She was the second daughter of James 
 vol.. I, B 
 
2 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. i. 
 
 the Second by his first wife, Anne Hyde, who was 
 the daughter of Edward Hyde, afterwards Earl of 
 Clarendon, the famous lawyer, pohtician, and 
 historian. The marriage between James and Anne 
 Hyde was one of the sensations, and indeed, in a 
 certain sense, one of the conventional scandals, of the 
 time ; for public opinion was much shocked when it 
 became known that a marriage, secretly contracted, 
 had been carried out between the daughter of a man 
 who, no matter what his capacity, was born a 
 commoner, and James, the Duke of York as he then 
 was, heir presumptive to the throne of England. 
 Edward Hyde was known to have felt, or at all 
 events to have feigned, great indignation when he 
 found that his daughter had allowed the Duke of 
 York to contract an alliance with one who was not a 
 princess. 
 
 Anne was born at Twickenham on February 6, 
 1664, and she came into the world at a time as full 
 of threatening change and movement at home and 
 abroad, politically, morally, and intellectually, as the 
 history of England can picture. The child thus 
 born was destined to a place in history which may 
 well be described as unique. The mere mention of 
 her name brings with it to the mind of everyone who 
 has had any education, or even any opportunity of 
 desultory reading, the idea of an age illustrious in 
 war, in politics, in Hterature, and in art. It brings 
 with it, too, the thought of an age which became a 
 turning-point, not only in the history of England but 
 jn the history of Europe. The old world of political 
 
1664 THE AGE OF ANNE. 3 
 
 life seems to have closed for England and the world 
 of modern politics to have begun with the reign of 
 Queen Anne. ' Parliamentary government,' says Lord 
 Macaulay, ' is government by talking,' and the true 
 reign of debate as the overmastering power in 
 parliamentary and political life estabhshed itself with 
 the reign of Queen Anne. England never, perhaps, 
 had so great a soldier as Marlborough. Except for 
 the name of Wellington there is no name to be 
 compared with his in the modern history of England. 
 Enghsh poHtical history down to the latest days 
 recalls the name of no parliamentary debater greater, 
 on the whole, than Bolingbroke. The reign of Anne 
 saw the most momentous struggle in which England 
 was ever engaged on the Continent of Europe until 
 we come to the days of the French Eevolution and 
 the First Napoleon. 
 
 The age of Queen Anne stands out, a distinct 
 epoch in the history of the world. It takes rank 
 with the age of Pericles in Greece, with the 
 Augustan era in Eome, with the Elizabethan era 
 in England. The mere mention of any one of 
 these eras brings with it the thought of a peculiar 
 success as great in the achievements of peace as 
 in the achievements of war, as great in arts as in 
 arms. But in such instances as those when we 
 associate an era with one name we bear with us 
 the natural and weU-sustained impression that the 
 owner of the name had at least something to do with 
 the greatness of the era. When we speak of the 
 age of Queen Anne we cannot possibly associate the 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. i. 
 
 greatness of the era with any genius of inspiration 
 coming from the woman whose name it bears. Anne 
 was born to a great era, just as she was born to a 
 crown, and had no more to do personally with the 
 making of its greatness than if she had been born in 
 a garret to a life of commonplace obscurity. Even 
 the worst faults of Elizabeth may be seen to have 
 had some share in creating much of the picturesque 
 greatness at least which belongs to the Elizabethan 
 age. But even the best virtues of Anne had little or 
 nothing to do with the inspiration or the promotion 
 of the greatness which marks her reign. 
 
 The writer has thought it not amiss to begin his 
 survey of Queen Anne's life and reign by observa- 
 tions which might naturally have seemed to belong 
 rather to a closing review of the whole, because 
 he is anxious to direct the reader's attention from 
 the very outset to the curious contrast which the 
 history of the reign presents between the extra- 
 ordinary character of the age and the utterly com- 
 monplace character of the woman whose name it 
 bears. In more than one fairy legend we read of a 
 princess over whom a magical spell has been cast, 
 and who sleeps all her Ufe away in an aerial tower 
 while wars are carried on in her name and conquests 
 are added to her domain, and wonders of art and 
 letters are accomplished in her capital, and all the 
 world knows of these thrilling and marvellous doings 
 except the poor princess herself who reigns but does 
 not know it. The story of Queen Anne might, in a 
 certain sense, seem to belong almost as completely to 
 
1664 JAMES THE SECOND. 5 
 
 the world of enchantment. The sleeping princess in 
 the magical tower had about as much to do with the 
 great triumphs which were accomplished in every 
 field during her reign, and in her name, as Queen 
 Anne in the whole course of her mature life had to 
 do directly and personally with the achievements of 
 England abroad and at home. 
 
 History has done stern justice to the rule and to 
 the policy of James the Second, but it has not done 
 justice to his motives or to his personal character. 
 As to his rule and his policy there can hardly be 
 a second opinion among responsible historians and 
 impartial critics anywhere. But there seems a great 
 deal to be said for the personal character and the 
 public motives of the man, which most historians 
 and critics, and popular opinion generally in our 
 own days and earlier, have left altogether unsaid. 
 The history of Europe hardly contains the name 
 of any ruler who is so completely out of public 
 favour. Eichard the Third has found his champions, 
 but no such stroke of good luck has fallen to the 
 fortune of James the Second. Charles the First has 
 even still a select circle of devotees in England, and 
 his has always been a picturesque figure which 
 romance and the drama have loved to illustrate. 
 Macaulay said with great truth that Vandyke's brush 
 created for generations a hero whom the judgments 
 of history could never dethrone. Some of the most 
 uncompromising opponents of the Divine Eight theory 
 are quite ready to recognise good qualities in Charles 
 the Second, to see that he was a man of wit and 
 
6 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. i. 
 
 culture with better education than that of most 
 princes at his time and after, and with at least some 
 generous instincts and enlightened purposes. But 
 hardly anyone has a word to say in favour of James 
 the Second. In Ireland, where so many brave men 
 laid down their lives in defence of his cause, it has 
 become an accepted legend that James was a 
 positive coward, and that the Battle of the Boyne 
 might have ended quite differently if James had 
 had to sustain him one spark of the courage 
 possessed by WilUam the Dutchman. Yet it is 
 certain that James in his earlier days was highly 
 praised for his courage by the great Turenne, under 
 whom he served, and who may surely be regarded 
 as competent to form an opinion on the merits of a 
 soldier. 
 
 There is a common impression in England that 
 James was a man of no principles, although it is 
 certain that at more than one crisis of his Ufe the 
 Stuart cause might have had a fair chance of success 
 if James could have been prevailed upon to change 
 his religion, or even to announce that he had changed 
 it. The fact probably is that James meets with 
 universal condemnation because the principle which 
 he advocated is either universally condemned or 
 wholly out of fashion among Englishmen. In order 
 to do anything like justice to the unfortunate James 
 we must judge his personal character and his 
 personal doings by the light of his own principles and 
 not by the light of ours. It is not too much to say 
 for him that he was a sincere martyr to the cause 
 
1664 BIVINE EIGHT. 7 
 
 of Divine Eight. It is so hard for a reasonable 
 Englishman of our day to get into his mind the 
 possibility of any sane person sincerely believing in 
 the right of a king to govern a people exactly 
 according to his own liking, that he can only explain 
 James's conduct by assuming that James was an 
 utterly insincere and self-seeking personage. But aU 
 that we read of James, even in the writings of those 
 who most strongly condemn his policy, will give 
 warrant for the conviction that he was an unqualified 
 believer in the principle of Divine Eight, as Eichard 
 Cobden was in the doctrine of Free Trade, or Father 
 Mathew in the doctrine of total abstinence from 
 intoxicating liquors. James was a fanatic in his way, 
 and a fanatic whom evil fortune for himself and 
 others had put in a position to do immense harm by 
 the enforcement of his doctrine, but we may at least 
 concede to him the merit of having been sincere in 
 his fanaticism. 
 
 There is absolutely nothing to be said in defence 
 of James's system of rule unless it be said by those, 
 if any there be at present among civilised men, who 
 not only believe in the principle of Divine Eight, but 
 also believe that a king thus called to the throne can 
 never do wrong. It would hardly be possible to find 
 in history the accredited records of any sovereign 
 who governed when he had the chance with a more 
 absolute disregard for all the principles and practices 
 of constitutional hberty even as these were recog- 
 nised in the England of his time. Then again in his 
 private life he was quite as immoral as Charles the 
 
8 THE EBIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. i. 
 
 Second, and many chapters of his personal history 
 would seem as if they might have been suitably 
 chronicled by Saint-Simon. Even his marriage — his 
 first marriage, that is to say — was contracted under 
 conditions which made it a sort of public scandal. 
 James had large families of children, legitimate and 
 illegitimate, but among the children born to him by 
 both his wives very few attained to anything like 
 maturity. After the death of his eldest daughter, 
 Mary, who reigned with William the Third, Anne 
 became heir to the English Crown. Of her father's 
 character and temperament Anne seems to have in- 
 herited little more than a strong inclination towards 
 the doctrine of Divine Eight, especially when that 
 right was illustrated in the claims of the House of 
 Stuart. None of her father's worst qualities seems to 
 have descended to her. If she had as little sense of 
 humour as he had, and if she showed that she could 
 sometimes be as silently obstinate as he habitually 
 was, she had none of his moral corruptness, and, 
 happily for the people over whom she came to rule, 
 she had none of his self-conceit. It is necessary 
 to enter a protest against the unqualified and un- 
 conditional censure which history in general has 
 pronounced upon James the Second, but the pro- 
 test only refers to certain articles of the censure. 
 James has often been set down as a coward, which 
 he certainly was not, and he has been almost uni- 
 versally accused of insincerity and of mere self- 
 seeking, when he was positively acting in his wrong- 
 headed narrow-minded way under the influence of 
 
1683 QUEEN ANNE'S MARRIAGE. 9 
 
 what he firmly believed to be his Divine right to 
 rule his people. 
 
 Anne had not been fortunate in the husband 
 whom fate and family convenience had imposed upon 
 her. She was married in her twentieth year to 
 Prince George of Denmark, brother of the reigning 
 sovereign of that country, and Prince George was 
 perhaps as characteristic a specimen of the good-for- 
 nothing as any age or condition could have produced. 
 He was not exactly a bad man, but nobody seemed 
 to find anything to say in his praise. He had no 
 opportunity of doing much harm during his lifetime 
 and he kept himself for the most part conveniently 
 in the background. Historical controversy has not 
 troubled itself about him. It is said that he was the 
 occasion of the one only joke ever made by his father- 
 in-law James the Second. The story goes that when 
 James in his hours of political danger was receiving 
 successive announcements that this, that, or the other 
 public man had gone over to the side of the invader 
 William, Prince George always greeted the news with 
 the words ' Est-il possible ? ' The hour came at last 
 when George himself went over to the side of the 
 invader, and then King James asked, with a smile, 
 ' Has " Est-il possible " gone too ? ' 
 
 Anne was brought up in the Protestant faith 
 and always adhered to it. When the great crisis 
 came she abandoned the cause of her father, which 
 had indeed become already quite hopeless, and 
 in 1689 the Crown of Great Britain was settled 
 upon her in succession to William the Third, by 
 
10 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE, ch. i. 
 
 the Bill of Eights, as the Act making the decree was 
 called. 
 
 Anne had a large family of children, but aU 
 except one died at "birth or in mere infancy, and 
 even the one surviving child, the little Duke of 
 Gloucester, looked upon the earth but for a few years. 
 Therefore when William's wife, Mary, eldest sister of 
 Anne, died and left her husband a childless widower, 
 it became necessary to cast about for some new 
 arrangement which might secure the succession in 
 such a manner as to exclude the exiled Stuart 
 claimants. Not often in history has this sort of quest 
 been rendered necessary, and in thinking it over one 
 is sometimes reminded oddly of the story based on 
 some historical evidence that the rightful successor 
 to a Byzantine throne was absolutely advertised for 
 by public proclamation. In the instance of the 
 Enghsh monarch the quest was rendered all the more 
 embarrassing because there were so many relatives 
 and connections of English royal families scattered 
 all over the Continent of Europe. The object was to 
 hit upon some order of succession which should seem 
 to have a legitimate and reasonable claim to justify 
 it and, at the same time, should shut out as strictly 
 as possible any connection with the banished Stuarts. 
 
 This end was at last accomplished by selecting the 
 Electress Sophia of Hanover, who had on her mother's 
 side some family connection with Charles the First, 
 and who was the head of a German house which 
 was not likely to have much sympathy with Charles 
 the First's exiled and proscribed descendants. The 
 
1702 DEATH OF KING WILLIAM. 11 
 
 Electress Sophia had a son George, and therefore 
 if she should accept the arrangement there seemed 
 good reason to count on continuity of succession. 
 The Electress Sophia was not particularly anxious to 
 assume the responsibilities imposed upon her, but she 
 was a shrewd clever woman, and although at first she 
 saw no reason why she should accept the offer, yet 
 by the force of thinking the matter out she made up 
 her mind that there was no reason why she should not 
 accept it, and that it might on the whole bring many 
 advantages to her family. The matter was therefore 
 satisfactorily arranged by the Act of Settlement which 
 was passed on March 12, 1701. Anne had not long 
 to wait for her succession to the throne. William 
 the Third was in very feeble health. His physical 
 frame was thoroughly worn out by a life of what the 
 Scotch balladist calls ' sturt and strife.' No one, how- 
 ever, expected his immediate death, and indeed for 
 some little time it had been thought that his health was 
 improving. One evening in the end of February 
 1702, he rode out as he had lately been in the habit 
 of doing to Hampton Court. On the way the King's 
 horse stumbled over a molehill, and William was 
 thrown to the ground and broke his coUar-bone. He 
 never recovered from the effects of this accident, and 
 he died at Kensington Palace on March 8, 1702, in 
 the fifty-second year of his age — an early death, if 
 estimated according to the ordinary rate of human 
 life, but not too early for the accomplishment of a 
 great revolution in the history of England. 
 
 Anne was then the Queen of England. She had 
 
12 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. i. 
 
 but lately entered her thirty-eighth year. Bishop 
 Burnet teUs us that ' upon the King's death, the Privy 
 Council came in a body to wait on the new Queen : 
 she received them with a well-considered speech.' 
 In this weU-considered speech 'she expressed great 
 respect to the memory of the late King, in whose 
 steps she intended to go, for preserving both Church 
 and State, in opposition to the growing power of 
 France, and for maintaining the succession in the 
 Protestant line : she pronounced this, as she did aU 
 her other speeches, with great weight and authority, 
 and with a softness of voice, and sweetness in the 
 pronunciation, that added much life to all she spoke.' 
 The two Houses of Parliament met that same day 
 and agreed to send addresses to her ' full of respect 
 and duty,' as Burnet describes them. The Queen 
 ' answered both very favourably, and she received all 
 that came to her in so gracious a manner, that they 
 went from her highly satisfied with her goodness, and 
 her obliging deportment ; for she hearkened with 
 attention to every thing that was said to her.' It 
 does not even need the high authority of Bishop 
 Burnet to make us well assured that the capacity to 
 be, or seem to be, a good listener is an invaluable 
 quality in a new sovereign. 'Two days after,' 
 Burnet teUs us, ' she went to the parliament, which, 
 to the great happiness of the nation, and to the 
 advantage of her government, was now continued to 
 sit, notwithstanding the King's demise, by the Act 
 that was made five years before, upon the discovery 
 of the assassination plot. In her speech she repeated , 
 
1702 ANNE AS QUEEN. 13 
 
 but more copiously, what she bad said to the 
 Council, upon her first accession to the throne. 
 There were two passages in this speech that were 
 thought not so weU considered ; she assured them 
 her heart was " entirely English " ; this was looked on 
 as a reflection on the late King : she also added, that 
 th^y might "depend on her word." Both these 
 expressions had been in her father's first speech, how 
 little soever they were afterwards minded by him.' 
 Bishop Burnet lays some stress on the fact that these 
 two passages produced an unsatisfactory impression, 
 and his remark would be worthy of citation if only 
 that it illustrates a difficulty which beset Queen Anne 
 from the very outset of her career. If anything she 
 happened to say should remind the public of her 
 father, the majority of people might be fiUed with 
 the dread that she was likely to prove just such 
 another sovereign as he had been ; and if her style 
 of reply seemed obviously and purposely unlike his 
 mode of speech, a certain number of other people 
 would be sure to set her down as an ungrateful 
 daughter who was only too anxious to stand aloof 
 from any manner of association with her father who 
 had died dethroned and exiled. 
 
 If one were to compare the ruling capacity of 
 Queen Anne with that of the sovereign whom she 
 followed on the throne of England, it might seem as 
 if an anti-chmax had come to pass not less strange 
 and striking than that which was seen when the 
 rule of Oliver CromweU was followed by the rule of 
 Eichard Cromwell. The mere mention of the names, 
 
14 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. i. 
 
 however, is enough to illustrate the difference 
 between the one succession and the other. The 
 name of Eichard Cromwell means an ignoble blank 
 in EngUsh history following immediately after the 
 masterful and momentous domination of the great 
 Protector. The reign of Queen Anne must be for ever 
 memorable in the history of the English Constitution, 
 of English letters, and of English arms, even although 
 it came immediately after the reign of William the 
 Third. 
 
15 
 
 CHAPTEE II 
 
 WHAT THE QUEEN CAME TO — AT HOME 
 
 Now that Queen Anne has been solemnly enthroned 
 as sovereign of Great Britain, and is receiving 
 addresses of loyal congratulation from various cities 
 and towns and corporate bodies of all kinds, it is well 
 to take a rapid survey of the pohtical and social con- 
 ditions presented for her study, if she had the capacity 
 or the inclination to study them, by the England of 
 that day. Anne, the last of the Stuart sovereigns, may 
 fairly be described as the first of the constitutional 
 sovereigns in these countries. William the Third 
 had indeed laid the foundations of the constitutional 
 system, by which we mean the pohtical system that 
 depends avowedly on some sort of representative 
 principle and is not merely the expression and 
 realisation of the sovereign's will and pleasure. But 
 William had not much time or opportunity to settle 
 down into the sheltered condition of a constitutional 
 ruler. He had had to fight in order to gain his throne, 
 he had to fight in order to maintain it, he had to fight 
 in order to secure for England that place among 
 the States of Europe which he believed her entitled to 
 assert, and it was still not by any means out of the 
 question that he might have had to resist a counter- 
 
16 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. ii. 
 
 revolution at home. He was a great statesman as 
 well as a great soldier, he could read the signs of the 
 times, and he saw clearly enough that the day of 
 absolute monarchy was gone by for England. He 
 saw, however, much more than that : he saw how the 
 new Constitution was to be constructed and how it was 
 to act in the future. He was like the inventor and the 
 constructor of some new model of saihng ship who 
 has got the vessel ready for sea and has even taken 
 the command, but is for a time prevented by stress 
 of weather from giving his experiment a fair trial and 
 is cut off by death before the ship can make her first 
 voyage. 
 
 Parliament in the days of Queen Anne was more 
 like the parliament which we know in our own times 
 than any of its predecessors had ever been. The con- 
 ditions under which WiUiam the Third had settled 
 into the sovereign pQsition gave to the parliamentary 
 chambers a power of control over the wiU of the 
 sovereign which had not existed during any pre- 
 vious reign. The king could no longer maintain his 
 army except through supplies which were voted by 
 parliament, and therefore the king was no longer able 
 to put off the summoning of a parliament as long as 
 it was his royal pleasure to act for himself, without 
 taking the trouble to consult the parliamentary 
 representatives. The relations between the sove- 
 reign and his ministers had now, for the first time, 
 taken the form in which they are familiar to the 
 political life of our own generation. Up to the time 
 of William the Third the institution which we now 
 
1702 CONSTITUTIONAL GtOVEENMENT. 17 
 
 know as the Cabinet had not come into existence. 
 At the present day it would be hard indeed to find 
 any legislative authority estabhshing the existence 
 and defining the functions which are as certain, as 
 practical, and as essential to the working of our 
 political constitution as any other part of our 
 whole parliamentary system. 
 
 In the days before WiUiam the Third the 
 king consulted with such of his ministers as he 
 thought fit, and left some of them out of the 
 consultation altogether according as his humour 
 directed him. The king entrusted any one of his 
 ministers with such duties as he thought that 
 minister most hkely to discharge in a manner satis- 
 factory to the royal purposes. A favourite minister 
 was often entrusted with negotiations or other 
 business of the utmost importance concerning which 
 his companions in office — for they could hardly 
 be called his colleagues — were favoured with no 
 information whatever. There was no collective 
 responsibility involving all the ministers, even 
 those who formed what may be called the inner 
 circle of the king's advisers. There was, in point 
 of fact, no recognised and official prime minister as 
 we now understand the meaning of the title. The 
 prime minister and the cabinet became established 
 and recognised realities about that time in Enghsh 
 history when Queen Anne was called to the throne. 
 The policy of the State in home or foreign aflFairs 
 could no longer be settled by the sovereign's own 
 wiU and pleasure or by the decision of the sovereign 
 VOL. I. c 
 
18 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. n. 
 
 acting in consultation with this or that member of 
 the ministry. There was a prime minister and 
 there was a cabinet of ministers, every one of whom 
 was entitled to be consulted on each great question 
 coming up for decision, and every one of whom was 
 understood to have his share in the responsibility 
 which each decision brought with it. There was, 
 therefore, a body of men having seats in one or the 
 other House of Parliament, who were responsible for 
 the defence and the maintenance of their policy in 
 either assembly, who could be questioned as to their 
 policy and attacked because of it, or censured 
 because of it, if they failed to command support 
 enough to sustain them, or failed to convince their 
 habitual opponents that in this particular instance 
 their policy was just. Parliamentary debate was, 
 therefore, growing more and more to be one of the 
 vital forces in the working of the constitutional 
 system. 
 
 Then, again, that which we are accustomed in 
 more modern times to speak of as the power of the 
 press had been endowed with something like a 
 reasonable freedom of utterance during the reign of 
 William the Third. It was no longer part of the re- 
 cognised system of government to come down with 
 sharp and sometimes savage punishments on any auda- 
 cious offender who presumed to put into print some 
 opinions of his own which seemed offensive or even un- 
 timely to men in power. Of course there were severe 
 laws in existence against newspaper criticism of per- 
 sonages in high office for many generations after 
 
1702 CEITICISM BY PAMPHLET 19 
 
 Queen Anne had passed away and down to a time 
 not far remote from our own. But the legislation 
 by virtue of which William the Third had been 
 able to secure his place on the throne of England 
 had distinctly conferred a degree of tolerance 
 to printed comment and criticism which did not 
 exist under the Stuart dynasty or in the days of 
 the Commonwealth. During Queen Anne's reign, 
 the political air may be said to have been thick 
 with whole flights of pamphleteering criticism coming 
 from all quarters and descending on every field of 
 politics, letters, art, and social life. Most of these, 
 although certainly not aU, were allowed to go un- 
 punished. 
 
 Much of the work of criticism which is done by 
 the daily or weekly newspaper now, was done by the 
 pamphlet in the time of Queen Anne. The most 
 casual and cursory reader can observe the difference in 
 all that concerned political and parliamentary debate 
 between the reign of Queen Anne and that of James 
 the Second. Queen Anne's reign seems in this part of 
 its history at least like the opening of some new 
 chapter in civilisation. The centre of public interest 
 is no longer in the palace of the sovereign, but is 
 within the precincts of parliament. The statesman 
 who desires to maintain his place must now carry 
 along with him the public opinion of the country, 
 and can no longer sUence, by the mere threat of his 
 prohibition, the voices of any critics who may feel 
 audacious enough to disparage his policy or to 
 question his motives. The place from which he can 
 
 2 
 
20 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. ii. 
 
 best command the attention of the public is his place 
 in the House of Commons or the House of Lords, and 
 if he has in him the genuine capacity for debate, he 
 is only too glad to throw his whole energy and his 
 whole soul into the splendid parliamentary battle. 
 The power of eloquence is, in fact, resuming that 
 place in the government of States which it had held 
 in the days of Pericles and in the days of Julius 
 Caesar, and had lost during the long ages when kings 
 and soldiers managed the government of States 
 amongst them. It is not too much to say that we 
 can picture several of the leading figures of Queen 
 Anne's Parliament in many of the great parliamentary 
 debates of Queen Victoria's reign, just as we can 
 imagine Sir Eoger de Coverley taking a turn in the 
 Temple Gardens with Colonel Newcome. 
 
 The awakening power of the English Parliament 
 was accompanied by a corresponding activity on the 
 part of the EngUsh Press. The press, however, as 
 has been said already, made its activity felt more 
 through the influence of the pamphlet than of the 
 newspaper. We shall have occasion to notice how 
 one of the greatest Englishmen of his time — in his 
 own field of literature one of the greatest Englishmen 
 of any time — Daniel Defoe, made himself a genuine 
 popular power in the political and religious contro- 
 versy of the day. We hear a good deal about Daniel 
 Defoe in the commentary of Bishop Burnet on some 
 of the great questions, the 'burning questions' as 
 they would have been called at a later day, which 
 were occupying the attention of parliament and came 
 
1702 BISHOP BURNET. 21 
 
 under the special notice of the historian of the Ee- 
 formation vsdth whom these pages have more to do 
 as the author of ' The History of My Own Times.' 
 The name of Bishop Burnet is almost as completely 
 identified with the Ufe and politics of Queen Anne's 
 reign as that of Daniel Defoe himself, or any other 
 of the eminent writers whose literature helps to make 
 up the glory of that reign in one way, as did the 
 genius of Marlborough in another. Bishop Burnet 
 was not a great man in the nobler sense, and perhaps 
 we are not entitled to give him any higher position 
 as a chronicler of the reigns of William the Third 
 and Anne than that which BosweU holds in regard 
 to Samuel Johnson. But just as we have to con- 
 struct our Samuel Johnson with the help of the 
 illumination shed by BosweU, so we are compelled in 
 a great measure to form our ideas as to the men and 
 the movements of the reign of William and of Anne 
 under Bishop Burnet's guidance. 
 
 Bishop Burnet's History has become a sort of 
 classical authority, in a certain sense, with all readers 
 who study the events and the persons belonging to the 
 reigns of King William the Third and Queen Anne. 
 The good Bishop called his book a ' History of My Own 
 Times,' but the more modern editions of the book and 
 the references to it by more modern writers almost 
 invariably entitle it for some unexplained reason 
 Burnet's 'History of His Own Times.' The book 
 is undoubtedly a work of great historical value.^ 
 Burnet's views are not always quite impartial, and 
 even his statements of mere fact are occasionally 
 
22 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. ii. 
 
 inaccurate. The estimates he forms and the conclu- 
 sions he draws are not always in keeping with the 
 judgment which events unknown to Burnet, events 
 which could not have been known in his time, have 
 compelled later historians and readers to adopt. 
 But the value of the book to any careful student 
 of history is not much depreciated by Burnet's 
 occasional mistakes as to fact or misconception as to 
 character. The History has the inestimable advantage 
 of being a history of the man's Own times, and even 
 when we can clearly see that he was mistaken in this 
 or that statement or opinion, it is nevertheless a 
 matter of the greatest importance to the reader to 
 know that such were the impressions formed and 
 the opinions accepted by an observer who was 
 living and moving among the scenes and the 
 persons described in the work. When Bishop 
 Burnet tells us casually that he conversed with King 
 William on this or that event the day after it 
 happened, or that he received directly from Queen 
 Anne such opinions as she thought fit to give him on 
 some question of importance at the time, we cannot 
 help feeling that anything coming from such a man 
 must have a distinct value quite apart from the 
 narrator's own capacity to form an impartial 
 historical judgment. 
 
 No figure is more often made the mark of satire 
 than the self-sufl&cient person who settles every 
 question relating to the condition or the ways of any 
 foreign country by the declaration that he has been 
 there and ought to know. In private life, to this 
 
1702 'THE HISTOEY OF MY OWN TIMES.' 23 
 
 day, we are apt to be put out by the dogmatic 
 self-satisfaction of this authoritative personage, and 
 we are for that reason often inclined to attach little 
 importance to his testimony even where we have no 
 positive evidence to discredit his statements. Perhaps 
 one feels sometimes inclined to entertain a like 
 sentiment towards the good Bishop Burnet when 
 he invites us to believe that he understands the 
 characters and the motives of aU the illustrious 
 men and women whom he was in the habit of 
 meeting. It is certain that in his own days he was 
 the object of much sarcasm from the satirists and 
 wits of the time, and that men like Pope and Swift 
 were not slow to make it clear that they saw a very 
 comic side to his character. StiU it is no less certain 
 that Burnet continues to be regarded as an authority 
 on the history of his own times, and that the clever 
 things which Pope and Swift said about him are 
 forgotten by the great majority of readers. Anyone 
 who reads the book wiU easily see for himself the 
 principal weaknesses of Bishop Burnet's nature and 
 temperament, just as anybody can see for himself the 
 principal weaknesses in the character of Mr. Pepys. 
 But we can hardly understand to the fuU the history 
 of the Court of Charles the Second without taking 
 into account the testimony of Mr. Pepys ; and in the 
 same way, and to a still greater extent, we should 
 fail to understand the real history of the reigns of 
 William the Third and Anne if we failed to give due 
 weight to the testimony of Bishop Burnet. 
 
 ' The History of My Own Times ' has a fascination 
 
24 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. n. 
 
 for the reader which does not depend on vivacity of 
 narrative or beauty of style. There is no reason to 
 question the sincerity and the good faith of the man 
 who lived in such times and moved among such 
 personages. We can always take it that he is giving 
 us what he believes to be genuine evidence. His own 
 personal, pohtical, and religious partialities are made 
 so clear to us that we can easily allow for any bias in 
 his judgment, and we are not likely to follow him into 
 wrong conclusions because he has allowed his own 
 judgment to grow colour-bUnd here and there, or to 
 be led astray from the main track because he has 
 occasionally made an unsuccessful attempt at a 
 short cut in his eagerness to show that he knew the 
 right way better than anyone else could know it. 
 
 The realm over which Queen Anne came to reign 
 could not be described in any sense as the United 
 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Scotland 
 had her own ParHament and her own laws, and even 
 claimed a distinct and separate order of succession in 
 her sovereigns. There was almost as much rivalry 
 of trading and commercial interest between England 
 and Scotland as between England and the United 
 Provinces of the Netherlands. We shall presently 
 see that these very jealousies and rivalries of trade 
 and shipping had more to do than even political 
 influences with the condition of things which was 
 soon to force on public attention the momentous 
 question whether England and Scotland were really 
 to unite into one political system or were actually to 
 separate into rival States. Ireland was stiU merely 
 
1702 THE CONDITION OF IRELAND. 25 
 
 a conquered country, held by force under the 
 dominion of the Enghsh sovereign. Ireland was 
 still suffering severely from the effects of the iron 
 rule and the remorseless conquests of Oliver Crom- 
 well. In the interesting and really instructive 
 life of the great Protector by the distinguished 
 American soldier and politician, Theodore Eoosevelt, 
 now President of the United States, the author, 
 whose admiration of CromweU is never allowed to 
 interfere with his impartial judgment, tells us that 
 the only excuse for Cromwell's dealings with Ireland 
 is to be found in the fact that other English rulers 
 before and after Cromwell had dealt as severely with 
 what is commonly called the sister island. The fact 
 is that at the time of Queen Anne's accession the 
 greater part of the Irish population were in S3ma- 
 pathy with the claims of the Stuarts merely because 
 they stiU remembered with bitterness and passion 
 the manner in which Cromwell had dealt with their 
 country, and were willing to welcome as a friend 
 the descendant of the sovereign who had been de- 
 throned and done to death by the- over-mastering 
 Protector. 
 
 The people, as we understand the expression in 
 our modern days, could hardly be said to have any 
 influence on pohtical movements at the time when 
 the reign of Queen Anne opened. The voice of what 
 might, perhaps, be called the people occasionally 
 made itself heard, in approval or in disapproval, 
 through the lungs of noisy mobs in some of the 
 larger cities or towns. But there was no clear idea 
 
26 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. n. 
 
 of any such thing as popular representation, or even 
 of any popular organisation which might represent in 
 political and social controversy the views and the in- 
 terests of the working classes. The bitterness of dis- 
 pute among the various reUgious denominations was 
 keen and sometimes even ferocious. Many an English 
 Protestant seemed to be in serious doubt as to the 
 grave question whether he ought to dread and hate 
 the Eoman Catholics more than the Dissenters, or the 
 Dissenters more than the Eoman Catholics. 
 
 Eeaders of this generation looking composedly 
 back over the history of Queen Anne's reign are 
 naturally inclined to set it down as a matter of fact 
 that the principle of constitutional government has 
 been generated by the process of political evolution, 
 and that there can be no return on the part of 
 England to the earher stage of historical development. 
 But even the shrewdest observers who were contem- 
 poraries of Bishop Burnet and Daniel Defoe could 
 not be expected to regard the existing state of things 
 as a finally accomplished stage of poHtical growth 
 from which there could be no retrogression and to 
 which there could be no interruption. The struggle 
 for the Stuart family was, in fact, a struggle for the 
 principle of the Divine Eight of Kings. A devotion 
 personal, sentimental, and religious for the Stuarts 
 had much to do with the persevering adhesion of so 
 many in England, Scotland, and Ireland to the cause 
 of the family which went into exile with James the 
 Second. But there was more involved, although to 
 a great extent unconsciously, than any question of 
 
1702 HEKEDITARY SUCCESSION. 27 
 
 personal or even of religious attachment. The time 
 had come when the principle of Divine Eight had to 
 give place to the principle of hereditary succession, 
 originating avowedly in the national choice, and not 
 m any supposed investiture of the sovereign and his 
 successors by Divine ordination. So far as the formal 
 choice of the country itself was concerned, there was 
 perhaps not much more to be said for the principle 
 of hereditary succession than for that of succession 
 by Divine Eight. It would be impossible to contend 
 that the great majority of Englishmen, Irishmen, 
 Scotchmen, and Welshmen had been in any way 
 invited to consultation and decision on the question 
 whether the crown of these realms was to be given 
 thenceforward to those who represented the house 
 of Orange-Nassau, and not to those who represented 
 the house of Stuart. But the idea of inviting the 
 majority of the people to any consultation as to the 
 form of government had not then come up in the 
 State affairs of modern Europe, and the choice of the 
 nation was always assumed to be determined by the 
 relative influence of leading statesmen and leading 
 families on the one side of the question or on the 
 other. 
 
 The weakness of the Stuart cause consisted in the 
 fact that England had by this time outlived the 
 principle of Divine Eight. That principle had become 
 an anachronism, and was no more to be maintained 
 against the newer principle of hereditary succession 
 than, at a much later day, the old-world fashion 
 of travelling by horse-drawn coaches could be 
 
28 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. ii. 
 
 maintained against the newer practice of travelling 
 on lines of railway. 
 
 There was much blood yet to be shed in defence 
 of the Divine Eight principle. It had for many 
 succeeding generations large masses of followers 
 devoted to its cause, and indeed there are, even in 
 our own age and in these countries, intelligent men 
 and women who still believe in the Divine Eight of 
 the Stuarts to go on governing the realm after their 
 own fashion. But so far as practical politics in these 
 countries were concerned, the Divine Eight system 
 was outworn and was already becoming a mere 
 tradition of the past. A power stronger than that of 
 any mere set of Whig statesmen was against the old- 
 fashioned system. The process of political evolution 
 was the enemy against which no courage or self- 
 sacrifice on the part of those who still upheld the 
 Stuart dynasty could possibly prevail. In order 
 to understand fully the whole story of Queen 
 Anne's reign, we must bear in mind that to those 
 who were living at the time it was stiU quite 
 an unsettled question whether the fortunes of the 
 House of Stuart might not yet rise to a restoration 
 of the dynasty, for all that had come and gone. 
 We can often read, even in the writings of grave 
 historians who came long after Queen Anne had 
 passed away, dissertations on what might have 
 happened if only this or that event had not happened 
 — if James the Second could have been prevailed 
 upon to renounce his religious principles and become 
 a Protestant ; if Queen Anne had made up her mind 
 
1702 POLITICAL EVOLUTION. 29 
 
 resolutely a little eaxlier ; if she had trusted herself 
 altogether to this and not to that set of statesmen. 
 
 We can easily see at this distance of time that it 
 was after all mainly a question of political evolution, 
 and that the English world had outgrown the 
 principle of Divine Eight. But when we have to 
 study the character of Queen Anne herself and the 
 comparative capacity and trustworthiness of the 
 statesmen who struggled for ascendency in her 
 time, we must always remember that even to the 
 shrewdest and most far-seeing on either side of the 
 political field, it stiU seemed quite within the range 
 of ordinary possibilities that some sudden turn of 
 aflFairs, the influence of some daring energy, or even 
 the mere chapter of accidents might bring the Stuarts 
 to the front again, and set up a Divine Eight sovereign 
 once more upon the throne of England. 
 
 There was, it is almost needless to say, no senti- 
 mental passion attaching anywhere in England to the 
 memory of WiUiam the Third or to the order of 
 succession which his reign had established. William 
 the Dutchman, as he was commonly called for 
 generations after by those who belonged to the 
 opposite party, had never been particularly popular 
 in the country over which he came to rule. He was 
 a foreigner to begin with, and his ways were not the 
 ways of Englishmen. He had not even a son to 
 succeed him, and the hereditary principle could not 
 therefore work by its own direct movement. A new 
 arrangement, a new compromise of some kind, had to 
 be sought out and adopted in order to keep the new 
 
30 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. n. 
 
 principle in continuous action. If William the Third 
 had been the father of some prince who gave promise 
 of being another Henry the Fifth, or even another 
 William the Third, then everything might have gone 
 steadily and naturally on, and there would have 
 seemed little chance for the exiled representatives 
 of the Stuart cause. But it was a serious crisis 
 for England when it became apparent that nothing 
 had been definitely settled by the kingship of 
 William the Third, and that it required no less than 
 a new Act of Settlement to keep the hereditary 
 government going on. Then it soon became apparent 
 also that the only practical way of attempting any 
 reasonable form of adjustment was by accepting for 
 the time a sovereign who belonged to the House of 
 Stuart, and taking the opportunity of her childless 
 condition to arrange for a succession which should 
 declare the Stuart family cut off for ever. 
 
 Seldom has there been in the history of any 
 modern State a crisis more serious and, if we may 
 use an expression which seems to carry something 
 of triviality with it, a crisis more peculiarly in- 
 convenient. England had been impressed, so far as 
 statesmanship could effect the impression, with the 
 belief that the coming of William of Nassau would 
 bring with it a rule of steady and abiding govern- 
 ment, and would get rid of the Stuart claims, the 
 Stuart succession, and aU the essential conditions of 
 the disturbance for ever. Now, it had to be admitted 
 by King William's own chosen followers that it would 
 be necessary to accept the succession of a Stuart 
 
1702 QUEEN ANNE'S ENGLAND. 31 
 
 princess, and to devise some arrangement by means 
 of which other princes, but not the Stuarts, must be 
 brought from abroad to occupy in their turn the 
 throne of England. 
 
 Therefore, even when the Act of Settlement 
 had been passed, the Hanoverian Une had been 
 invested in anticipation with the succession to the 
 English throne, and the work, so far as the agreement 
 among recognised statesmen and the decree of 
 parliament could secure it, had been accomplished, 
 the mind of Anne herself and of many around her 
 must have had frequent anxious hours. At any 
 moment the Stuart claimant might come over from 
 France, land on the Scottish coast, and obtain the 
 help of the Scottish clans to make good his claim by 
 force of arms. 
 
 The England Queen Anne had come to rule was 
 a countrj' which, even if we include Wales, must 
 have had a population of somewhat under seven 
 millions. With the exception of London, and per- 
 Tiaps Bristol, there were reaUy no large cities accord- 
 ing to the proportions of modern estimates. It has 
 to be noticed as a curious characteristic of the time 
 that in the opening of Queen Anne's reign the popu- 
 lous and busy communities were found in the south 
 and in the east of the kingdom. In our times it 
 is very much the other way. With the exception 
 of London alone, the great manufacturing cities, the 
 strongholds of the country's business and population, 
 are found in the northern counties, in Manchester and 
 Liverpool, and the great and growing towns which 
 
32 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. ii. 
 
 cluster around them, or in such places as Birmingham 
 and other parts of the Midlands. Bristol was the great 
 seaport of Queen Anne's time, and now its shipping 
 hardly comes into consideration when we speak of 
 the docks and the merchant fleets of Liverpool. It 
 is not so much that Bristol has gone down as that 
 Liverpool has gone up. 
 
 At the time of Queen Anne's accession the most 
 important towns after London itself were Bristol, 
 York, Nottingham, Exeter, Shrewsbury, Winchester, 
 and Canterbury. Bath has indeed to be mentioned, 
 but only because of its claims to recognition as a 
 watering-place and because of its history going back 
 to the time of the Eoman Conquest, and by no means 
 for any importance which it could profess to have as 
 a centre of manufactures or of commerce. Bath had 
 always been regarded as a specially endowed health 
 resort so far back as the history of its existence 
 can be traced, but it was only in the first year of 
 Queen Anne's reign that it acquired its fashionable 
 reputation and became recognised as the place which 
 everybody ought to visit who desired to claim a 
 position in what would now be called smart society. 
 The once celebrated Beau Nash may be said to 
 have created the fame of Bath for this particular 
 purpose, and it made its influence felt in this way 
 through the literature of Queen Anne and in that of 
 Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. London itself was 
 then a city of what may fairly be called enormous 
 size when we consider the proportion of its inhabitants 
 to the whole population of England. The great 
 
1702 LONDON AND WESTMINSTER. 33 
 
 metropolis at the opening of Queen Anne's reign 
 contained a population approaching in number to 
 very nearly three-quarters of a million, or rather 
 more than a tenth of the population which the best 
 calc]ilations give to England and Wales. In the 
 years which have passed since that time, London has 
 not merely maintained her relative supremacy, but 
 has positively increased it, for the proportion of her 
 population is even higher now, when compared with 
 that of the whole country from the Scottish border to 
 the English Channel, than it was in the days when 
 Anne came to the throne. 
 
 London and Westminster were then two separate 
 communities divided from each other by distance as 
 weU as by name. The city of Westminster contained 
 the famous historic Abbey and the Houses of Parlia- 
 ment, while the centre of London life was the Ex- 
 change. The stranger who in the present year 
 happens to be in the lobby at the close of a night's 
 sitting in the House of Commons will hear the 
 words called out in stentorian tones, 'Who goes 
 home ? ' through aU parts of the building, thus recall- 
 ing to his mind the distant days when such an invi- 
 tation was necessary in order that members might 
 make up parties to journey home together through 
 the dangerous roads which stiU lay between West- 
 minster and London. The tendency of fashion in 
 the capital was then, as it has ever since been and 
 as it shows itself in most cities, to grow westward, 
 but the fashionable London of those days would be 
 regarded as a midland region at best by the dwellers 
 
 VOL. I. » 
 
34 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. ii. 
 
 in our West End of the present century. London 
 and Westminater were miserably lighted by few and 
 wretched oil lamps, and there was no police force 
 to take efficient charge of belated travellers. The 
 only organised protection which the wayfarers 
 knew was that afforded by the incompetent and 
 miserable civic watch which the local authorities 
 provided in order to keep up something like an 
 appearance of security for those who had to make 
 use of the public thoroughfares at night. In Gay's 
 ' Trivia,' in ' The Spectator,' in some of Swift's letters, 
 and in various records of the time we find ample and 
 telling evidence of the nightly dangers which beset 
 the path of the luckless ones who had to seek their 
 homes unguarded by a retinue of servants after 
 darkness had fallen upon the streets of London and 
 Westminster. To add to the troubles of those days, 
 it should be said that London had not yet recovered 
 from the effects of the great Fire in 1666, and some of 
 the new streets which it had been found necessary to 
 begin at once, after the wrecks of the conflagration 
 had been cleared away, had not yet been brought to 
 what even in those days would have been regarded 
 as a state of completion. 
 
 The England of Queen Anne's early reign held 
 more than a million and a quarter of pauper inhabi- 
 tants, pauperism thus in fact absorbing about one 
 fifth of the whole population. For a long time in 
 the history of England the poverty of the country, 
 when the labourer had ceased to be a mere serf, 
 T^as left to the ministration of private charity, so 
 
163&-170a PAUPERISM. 35 
 
 far as it obtained any ministration at all. The mona- 
 steries and other religious houses did the work of 
 charity, and after the suppression of the monasteries 
 the clergy and the landlords of the parishes either 
 did the work or left it undone. In the reign of 
 Henry the Eighth the Statute of Vagrants, as it 
 was called, made some attempt to deal with the 
 vast mass of idle pauperism, which indiscriminate 
 almsgiving was encouraging and even calling into 
 existence, by enacting that sturdy beggars who were 
 able to work and would not work might be whipped 
 for their idleness. Then there came the Statute of 
 Elizabeth, which dealt even more severely with the 
 sturdy vagrant by enacting that he should not merely 
 be liable to whipping, but that he might be taken as 
 a sort of serf and set to work compulsorily by any- 
 body who wanted to make use of his services. But 
 in the meantime laws were passed which set up 
 something like a system for the employment of the 
 poor who were wUling to work and could not find 
 work for themselves. The Poor Law of Henry the 
 Eighth recognised the fact that it was the duty of 
 the State to make some provision for the deserving 
 poor in order that suitable employment should be 
 found for them, or that relief should be given to 
 them if they were physically unable to work, disabled 
 by old age or by weakness, and that they should 
 be kept alive either out of doors or in some sort 
 of parochial institution. The Statute of Elizabeth 
 further extended and organised this system of relief, 
 and made it the duty of churchwardens and over- 
 
 B 2 
 
36 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. ii. 
 
 seers to ' provide work, build poor houses, and 
 apprentice paupers.' Not much change was made in 
 this system until the great impulse to economical 
 and social reform which set in with political reorgan- 
 sation in the reign of "William the Fourth. 
 
 The new reign had some bright omens to welcome 
 its opening. A wonderful era of literature had begun 
 along with it. The new era was not, indeed, one of 
 great originality in poetry of a high order, but it wiU 
 always be remembered for its masterpieces in every 
 department of prose. We shall have to tell in later 
 chapters of the men of hterature who contributed so 
 much to make Queen Anne's reign immortal, and we 
 now only stop to note the fact that the new reign and 
 the new era of literature may be said to have begun 
 together. 
 
37 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 WHAT THE QUEEN CAME TO — ABROAD 
 
 Queen Anne came in for an inheritance of Con- 
 tinental war. The sovereignty created by William 
 the Third had been born in bitterness and nurtured 
 in convulsion. The political principles of his time 
 had not allowed "WiUiam to settle steadily down to 
 the work of keeping his own kingdom safe and 
 strong against any efforts which might be made by 
 the dethroned Stuarts. Even so great a soldier and 
 statesman as he might have found it hard business 
 enough to make efficient preparation against aU such 
 attempts and possibilities, and at the same time to 
 foster and watch over the internal prosperity of his 
 new kingdom. It was his fate to have to take part 
 in a great Continental war which may be said to 
 have involved the whole of the European States at 
 one time or another in the long struggle. That war, 
 of which we shall have to speak more fuUy a 
 httle later, was not one which, according to the 
 ideas of the present day, had any direct bearing 
 on the interests of England. Some impulse was 
 undoubtedly given to the war spirit in England by 
 the utterly unwise provocation which came from the 
 King of France when he recognised the son of the 
 
38 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. hi. 
 
 exiled James the Second as the legitimate sovereign 
 of England. But even if no such provocation had 
 been given, it may be regarded as almost certain that, 
 under the conditions of the times, England would 
 have been drawn into the great struggle which was 
 then convulsing the Continent for the maintenance 
 of what was called the balance of power. That was 
 the struggle which Queen Anne inherited, and she 
 assumed it to be a necessary part of her duty and 
 her business to carry it on. It had divided itself 
 into two great military and political chapters, one 
 of which came to an end before William's death, 
 but the second chapter may be described as a 
 necessary development of the first. 
 
 The one great endeavour of the statesmanship of 
 Europe seemed then to be the endeavour to maintain 
 the balance of power on the European Continent. 
 We hear but little of the balance of power in our 
 own days, and many years have passed since it was 
 a subject of any serious account in the parliamentary 
 debates of Westminster Palace. It is perhaps not 
 unreasonable to say that it ceased to occupy the 
 attention of the Houses of Parliament since the 
 doctrine of nationaUties came to be accounted a living 
 principle in political afiairs. There was a time, how- 
 ever, when statesmanship distracted its brains with 
 schemes for the maintenance, or the redress, of the 
 balance of power. It would not be easy to reduce 
 the principle to any theory capable of definite ex- 
 pression, and perhaps even the rival statesmen who 
 disputed in parliament about the balance of power 
 
1702 THE BALANCE OF POWER. 39 
 
 would have found it as difficult to agree on the pre- 
 cise meaning of the words as they found it difficult 
 to agree on the practical application of the doctrine. 
 Yet it may safely be said that during a long period 
 of European history the balance of power had 
 quite as much to do with the promotion of war 
 as the passion for conquest or the rival claims of 
 dynasties. 
 
 The central idea, however, of the policy which 
 went in for adjusting the balance of power was the 
 idea that certain European States had acquired, 
 rightly or wrongly, by fair means or by foul, a title to 
 divide the Continent of Europe among them, and that 
 an innovation made by any of them, or by any new 
 Power arising outside them or within them, was an 
 unlawful attempt to disturb the recognised order of 
 things and ought to be immediately put down by 
 force. It was perhaps the doctrine of Divine Eight 
 breaking out upon the world in a new form and 
 under a new name. The embodied statesmanship of 
 the ages which succeeded the recognised reign of 
 mere conquest for the avowed purpose of conquest, 
 would seem to have set itself to find some basis of 
 compromise and arrangement and to have found it 
 in the principle of the balance of power. This 
 newer statesmanship said to itself, ' Behold ! — here 
 we have Europe divided practically among three or 
 four great predominant States, and this arrangement 
 must undoubtedly be the direct dispensation of 
 Providence. Let it therefore be regarded as an act 
 of impiety as well as of wanton destructiveness for 
 
40 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. hi. 
 
 anyone to interfere with the order of things which 
 we find established, and let us treat any attempt at 
 interference with it as an overt act of war.' 
 
 The great recognised Powers of Europe were then 
 England, France, Spain, and the Austrian Empire. 
 Eussia was slowly coming to a knowledge of her 
 own strength, and was beginning to assert her claim 
 to a share in the arbitration of the balance of power. 
 Spain had reached her zenith, and was distinctly 
 going down. If Eussia had not yet recognised her 
 own strength, Spain, on the other hand, had decidedly 
 outgrown and exhausted hers. Spain had, not long 
 before, stretched her empire farther over the world 
 than the empires of the Caesars had ever reached, 
 and, indeed, Spain may be said to have accomplished 
 what Alexander the Great only wished for — the 
 discovery of new worlds to conquer. The decay ot 
 Spain's greatness as a conquering and a domineer- 
 ing Power has been described by Macaulay in some 
 of his most picturesque and characteristic pages 
 as the result of her bad system of government at 
 home. No one can deny that every word said by 
 Macaulay about the evil systems of government into 
 wfeich the rulers of Spain caused their country to 
 sink is well deserved. Spain's misgovernment of her 
 Flemish subjects forced on that revolt of the Nether- 
 lands which was maintained by generation after 
 generation, until the oppressed at last succeeded in 
 making themselves free. Something like the same 
 story might be told of other provinces where the 
 Spanish rulers, by sheer misgovernment and oppres- 
 
1702 SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 41 
 
 sion, made the yoke of Spain unbearable, and led to 
 new disruptions of the Spanish Empire. 
 
 But it is coming of late to be recognised that 
 there is a natural principle of growth and decay in 
 great States which seems to be almost a part of the 
 physical system of nature. The life of a State would 
 appear to have its allotted season of growth and 
 decay like the life of a man. At aU events, it may be 
 reasonably contended that the greatness of a State, 
 its season of supremacy over its region of the world, 
 must have its natural time of decay as it had its time 
 of development, and that no State can overshadow all 
 its neighbours for an indefinite lapse of time. No 
 form of government, however enlightened, practical, 
 and beneficent, could have made the Eoman Empire 
 endure down to our own time, and although Spain 
 might have lasted longer than she did if her system of 
 government had been founded on better principles, 
 it seems quite clear now that in Queen Anne's time 
 Spain was sinking into the inevitable decrepitude of 
 old age. 
 
 HoUand was then one of the rising countries of 
 Europe, and as she had no pretension or desire to 
 become one of the conquering States, she could 
 safely look forward to a long life of quiet prosperity 
 if only her neighbours would let her alone. Sweden 
 had lately begun to distinguish herself in war, but 
 her fitful brilliant incursions into the battle-fields of 
 Europe had only amazed and startled the world as the 
 invasion of some northern pirate fleet might have 
 amazed and startled a French or an Enghsh seaport. 
 
42 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. hi. 
 
 The Turk was still a trouble to Europe, but the days 
 when it was feared that he might overrun half the 
 Continent had evidently passed away. Italy was 
 divided among various lords and masters, and indeed 
 her very name was only, as Metternich long after 
 declared it to be, a geographical definition. 
 
 The growing greatness of JFrance and the sinking 
 condition of Spain were the facts which, in the mind 
 of statesmanship at that time, seemed most seriously 
 and immediately to threaten the balance of power in 
 Europe. The statesmen of England were then, as at 
 most other times, particularly anxious and watchful 
 about the growth of the influence of France on the 
 European Continent. Every succeeding year of 
 Spanish decay seemed only to offer new invitations 
 and opportunities to France for the disturbance of 
 the balance of power. We shall the better under- 
 stand the feeling of England towards France at that 
 time if we carry our recollections back to what we 
 all know to have been the feehng of many English 
 statesmen, only a few years ago, with regard to the 
 growing power of Eussia. There was then a nervous 
 anxiety about every movement made by Eussia. 
 With certain of our statesmen it did not need evidence 
 of actual preparations against any of England's Eastern 
 possessions to make them convinced that Eussia's very 
 existence threatened danger to England, and that it 
 would be a part of the patriotic duty of Englishmen 
 to make common cause with the very Turk himself, if 
 only by such companionship we could check the ambi- 
 tion of the Muscovite Power. The time may possibly 
 
1702 LOUIS THE FOURTEENTH. 43 
 
 come when readers of history will find it as hard to 
 understand what business England had in promoting 
 and taking part in the Crimean War as matter-of- 
 fact readers find it now to understand what business 
 England had, during the early years of Queen Anne's 
 reign, to trouble herself about the attitude of France 
 with regard to the vacancy in the succession to the 
 Crown of Spain. 
 
 The quarrel, as has been stated, was none of 
 Queen Anne's seeking. Anne may be said to have 
 inherited it just as she inherited the throne, for it 
 would hardly have been possible for her under all the 
 conditions to strike out a new policy of her own even 
 if she had had the mind or the strength for a new 
 pohcy. The war to which Anne succeeded began 
 out of the rivalry between the aggressive policy of 
 France and the defensive policy of other States on 
 the European Continent. Louis the Fourteenth was 
 then King of France, and during his reign the 
 kingdom over which he ruled had risen to such a 
 position in letters and arts as it had never enjoyed 
 before, and to such a place in arms as it never held 
 again until the days of the Great Napoleon. The 
 constant dread of other Continental States was that 
 France might be tempted at any moment to extend 
 her territories this way or that, on one pretext or 
 another, by the mere force of conquest. William the 
 Third was naturally a close observer of the policy of 
 France, and watched with anxious and jealous eye 
 every movement on the part of Louis the Fourteenth 
 which seemed to threaten fresh annexation. William 
 
44 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. iti. 
 
 was a shrewd and crafty politician as well as a 
 soldier, and he did not scruple, on more occasions 
 than one, to enter into terms with Louis, to 'pack 
 cards' with him if we may adopt the language of 
 Shakespeare's Mark Antony, for the purpose of 
 making some arrangement which might at least 
 postpone a threatening war, even though the arrange- 
 ment were to be made at the expense of some 
 smaller State. 
 
 There came a crisis, however, when William 
 found it impossible any longer to deal with the policy 
 of Louis by other means than the arbitration of 
 war. Spain was then ruled by one of the weakest 
 and least capable of monarchs or men, Charles the 
 Second. The immediate trouble was that Charles 
 was childless, and that in his condition of health it 
 might be taken for granted that he must die 
 without leaving any direct heir to follow him in the 
 line of succession. In the year 1700 Charles died 
 childless, and then came the momentous question — 
 Who is to have the throne of Spain ? No difficulty 
 whatever arose in this instance from the lack or 
 scarcity of claimants — the throne of Spain was not 
 by any means going a-begging : the trouble was that 
 there were too many claimants, and that each 
 claimant had too many backers. One of the 
 claimants was the Dauphin of France, another was 
 the Emperor of Germany, and yet another was 
 Joseph, the Electoral Prince of Pavaria. Now in the 
 case alike of the Dauphin and the Electoral Prince 
 all right of succession to the throne of Spain had 
 
1702 THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 45 
 
 been formally renounced by the parents of both at 
 the time of their marriages because, if such renuncia- 
 tion had not been made, the union of these pairs 
 would have been regarded by all Europe as boding 
 threats of intolerable disturbance to the balance of 
 power. With regard to the family of the Emperor 
 there had been no such formal renunciation, but 
 then the claim of the Emperor's family by its degree 
 of relationship to the dead king of Spain was the 
 weakest of the three, and in any case it must have 
 been evident to all the world that the successor to the 
 Imperial throne of Germany would never be allowed 
 to enter into peaceful possession of the Spanish 
 throne as well. On the other hand, it was hardly in 
 the nature of things that the heir to the monarchy of 
 France could be quietly allowed to establish himself 
 as King of Spain, even if there had been no formal 
 renunciation of his claim at the time when his 
 parents were married. 
 
 The two rising rival Powers on the European 
 Continent were then the monarchy of France and 
 the curiously constructed, partly federated, partly 
 despotic empire of Germany. It was out of the 
 question to suppose that the other States of Europe 
 could look calmly on and see either France or 
 Germany become owner of the vast territorial 
 possessions of Spain. It might be said, indeed, that 
 there were two States of Europe, England and 
 HoUand, which had but little direct concern in the 
 disputed inheritance. The people of the United 
 Provinces, as the Dutch and Flemish populations 
 
46 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. m. 
 
 were then termed, were essentially a trading and a 
 navigating people who had not long succeeded in 
 establishing their independence, who had no ambition 
 to extend their territory, were only anxious to be let 
 alone and to follow the occupations in which they 
 were becoming more and more successful, and who 
 could have sailed the seas and sold their merchandise 
 just as well though France or Germany became 
 master of Spain. But the trouble with Holland was 
 exactly that which has been concisely described 
 by Schiller's Wilhelm Tell — one must be ever in 
 trouble when one has bad neighbours. Holland was 
 always, and not unnaturally, on the watch against 
 encroachments from some of her neighbours, and 
 she knew well enough that the stronger this or that 
 neighbour became the more likely he would be to 
 grasp at new acquisitions of territory. Holland, 
 therefore, from the first showed herself most active 
 in all the endeavours that were made to bring about 
 something like a final and satisfactory settlement of 
 the claims to the Spanish succession. 
 
 England, on the other hand, would appear to 
 have but little direct interest in the dispute. Even if 
 the heir to the King of France were to succeed at 
 once to the crown of Spain, and thus in time become 
 king of France and Spain together, it was hardly 
 probable that his wUdest schemes of aggression 
 would lead him to contemplate the annexation of 
 England. WiUiam might of course have kept to his 
 island sovereignty, looked after the prosperity of his 
 people and the strengthening of his dynasty, and left 
 
1701 DEATH OF JAMES THE SECOND. 47 
 
 the Continental Powers to settle among themselves, 
 by force of arms, the future ownership of Spain. But 
 even if William had been endowed by nature with 
 the temperament of a philosopher, it is not likely that 
 he could have given fuU scope to the impulses of 
 such a temperament at a time when the balance of 
 power was stiU a dominating principle in the pohtics 
 of Europe. 
 
 William, however, was not left to settle the 
 question in his own mind by a statesmanlike study 
 of the possible effects which the crisis might bring 
 with it to the balance of power. A sudden and 
 apparently a spontaneous act of insult and defiance 
 on the part of the King of France brought William 
 at once to his feet and into the great quarrel. 
 James the Second had been for a long time an exile 
 in France, and his claims to the English succession 
 as weU as his personal bearing had made an im- 
 pression on the mind of Louis the Fourteenth. 
 When James came to die the heart of Louis was 
 touched, and in an impulse of something like Quixotic 
 generosity he formally recognised James's son, the Old 
 Pretender as he was called in later days, as King of 
 England. When the news of this audacious stroke 
 of policy was brought to England, it created such a 
 storm of anger aU over the country that WiUiam 
 would have had much difficulty in holding his people 
 back from war, even if it had been his purpose to 
 keep them within the lines of peace. 
 
 Of late years the Enghsh people had had rather 
 too much of Continental embroilments. William, 
 
48 THE RBION of queen ANNE. ch. hi. 
 
 who had warred against France up to the settlement 
 of Eyswick, had since then received but slender 
 encouragement to carry out the strong and enter- 
 prising policy which he believed best suited to 
 maintain England's place among the Great Powers 
 of Europe. Now he found, in a moment, that he 
 could count on the full support of his people in a 
 forward policy. The insult of the King of France, 
 as it was then regarded by the vast majority of 
 Englishmen, had done it all. The existing par- 
 liament, which had been slow to vote the supplies 
 WiUiam thought necessary to carry out his military 
 plans, was dismissed and a new parliament was 
 summoned which showed itself ready to maintain 
 him to the full in any course of action he might 
 deem it statesmanlike and patriotic to follow. 
 Even before this had come about the English 
 ambassador had been recalled from France and the 
 ambassador of King Louis dismissed from London. 
 By the energy and the influence of WiUiam the 
 alliance was restored and England, the German 
 Empire, and the United Provinces of Holland pledged 
 themselves to resist the aggressive policy of France 
 and to prevent the kingdoms of France and Spain 
 from being united under one sovereign. This was 
 the Grand Alliance, the crowning work of WiUiam's 
 ever-active life. 
 
 The reader who contemplates this particular 
 chapter of history will see one fact at least clearly 
 established amid all the confusion of claims to 
 succession, and counter-claims, and aU the rival and 
 
1702 ANNE'S INHERITED ^W4A.E. 49 
 
 conflicting interests of dynasties and of systems. 
 The political development of England had advanced 
 one step beyond that of France. In France the 
 recognised head of the State was able to pledge his 
 people to the cause of Divine Eight, while the ruler 
 of England only occupied his throne by virtue of a 
 principle of hereditary succession which recognised 
 the right of the people to have something to say in 
 the settlement of their monarchical line. England 
 had indeed to go on a quest among the royal families 
 of Europe in order to find the one which could claim 
 the nearest relationship to some royal house of 
 England, while at the same time disclaiming any 
 title which identified it with the pretensions of the 
 House of Stuart. The Bill of Eights and the Act of 
 Settlement admitted and represented some claim 
 on the part of the State and the people to institute 
 a new line of succession maintaining, when it 
 had been instituted, the principle of hereditary 
 descent. France still held to the Divine Eight 
 of Kings — a right which was maintained until 
 the Great Eevolution went to work with a new 
 experiment. 
 
 The European struggle which we know as the 
 War of the Spanish Succession was, with her king- 
 dom, the inheritance of Queen Anne. William did 
 not live to carry it on. Seldom in the history of 
 any country has an entirely inexperienced sovereign 
 come in for so tremendous a crisis with the creation 
 of which the new sovereign had absolutely nothing 
 to do, and probably no other woman sovereign has 
 
 VOL. I. E 
 
50 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. iir. 
 
 ever come so suddenly into an inheritance of such 
 portentous responsibiUty. 
 
 The relative value of the rival claims made to 
 the throne of Spain is a matter of but slight account 
 to the readers of history now. There was so much 
 of intermarrying among members of the Continental 
 houses that it was hardly possible for any sovereign 
 to die childless without leaving his kingdom open to 
 the competing claims of various aspirants, each of 
 whom contended, with some plausible array of argu- 
 ment, that his birth brought him nearest in the order 
 of Divine Eight. None of the Continental sovereigns, 
 or of the statesmen who served them, thought for a 
 moment of settling the question by any reference to 
 the wishes or the interests of the Spanish people 
 themselves. Nor was there any way of settling the 
 controversy by an appeal to some International 
 Areopagus. Strokes must arbitrate — the rival claim- 
 ants must fight it out with such help as each of 
 them could get from neighbours who had no direct 
 and personal interest in the quarrel. No question of 
 principle either in statesmanship or morals was 
 concerned in the controversy, or could be invoked 
 as a direct influence in its settlement. It was a 
 dispute of grasping princes, to be settled on battle- 
 fields and on seas by armies and fleets. Such was 
 the war which was just breaking out when Queen 
 A.nne succeeded to the English throne. 
 
 Louis the Fourteenth was then at the height of 
 his power. Under his rule, although certainly not 
 because of any fostering qualities in him, France had 
 
1702 THE ZENITH OF FRENCH LITERATUEE. 51 
 
 reached the highest position in arms and in arts 
 which she had yet attained in history. The age of 
 Louis the Fourteenth was on the whole the greatest 
 age of French Hterature. We cannot trace the 
 sudden and splendid uprising of that literature to 
 any inspiring influence which came from King 
 Louis. If may weU be doubted whether the birth 
 and the growth of genius owe much, in any case, to 
 the influence of a monarch, and the effect of royal 
 patronage is shown quite as often in the encourage- 
 ment of the art that is fictitious and fleeting as in 
 the encouragement of the art that is genuine and 
 destined to make its enduring mark. Perhaps we 
 may take it for granted that true art will find its 
 expression whether it be favoured and patronised 
 by royal influence or not ; but in any case Louis 
 the Fourteenth does not seem the kind of sovereign 
 whose inteUect and education would have enabled 
 him to point with his sceptre at the right man to fiU 
 the foremost place in literature or in art. 
 
 Louis the Fourteenth was so fortunate as to live 
 at a time when French literature and art commanded 
 the admiration of the whole civilised world, and he 
 had himself done much, in obeying the impulses of 
 his own vainglorious ambition, to make France the 
 dread and wonder of Europe in politics and in war. 
 At the same time, and by the very same qualities, he 
 had opened the way for the great troubles, domestic 
 and foreign, which were to culminate in the French 
 Eevolution. By the Eevocation of the Edict of 
 Nantes he had compelled some of the best and 
 
 b2 
 
52 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. m. 
 
 bravest of his subjects to seek shelter in foreign 
 lands and to add to the intellectual, industrial, and 
 military strength of peoples who were afterwards to 
 be the rivals of France. He was a narrow-minded 
 bigot on all questions of religion, but the devotion to 
 his own religion, which he professed and which he 
 endeavoured to enforce upon others, never restrained 
 him from the indulgence of his own selfish and 
 sensuous vices. The very defects, the very worst 
 quahties of his character only helped the more to 
 make his reign a subject of deep and inexhaustible 
 interest for the students of history and of character, 
 for the writers and the readers of romance. Here 
 and there one may come on some episode or inci- 
 dent of his reign which has supplied matter for study, 
 for speculation, and for psychological puzzle to all 
 succeeding generations. Few historical mysteries 
 have ever excited more curiosity, given occasion for 
 more controversy, or started more plausible explana- 
 tions than the story of the Iron Mask, for which 
 George Agar Ellis, the English author and diplomatist, 
 afterwards Lord Dover, appears to have been the 
 first to find the true solution. Perhaps the highest 
 praise that the critical historian can ^well give to 
 Louis the Fourteenth — Louis the Great, as he was 
 called — is that when we contrast him with his suc- 
 cessor Louis the Fifteenth, we are inclined to think 
 that the figure of the elder ruler seems stately and 
 king-like in comparison, and the reign of the latter 
 Louis seems an anti-climax when we study its history 
 after that of his predecessor. 
 
1702 PETEK THE, GREAT. 53 
 
 The most striking figure among Continental 
 sovereigns at the time which we are now describing 
 was undoubtedly that of the Eussian Czar. Peter 
 the Great has been well described by the first Lord 
 Lytton as one of the greatest sovereigns ever born 
 to a throne. Julius Caesar, Cromwell, Napoleon — 
 these were not born to thrones ; but Peter the Great 
 began his career at the point where other conquerors 
 have commonly reached their climax. The ambition 
 of Peter was to make himself a great man and his 
 realm a great country, and he accomplished both 
 his objects. He was determined that Eussia should 
 become a naval Power, and he had first to turn his 
 attention to the means by which he could be enabled 
 to extend her territory to the sea. Augustus found 
 his city of brick and left it of marble ; Peter the 
 Great found a land-locked dominion and made a 
 way for it to the sea. He devoted himself with in- 
 domitable energy and patience to the study and 
 practice of mechanical arts which might help him 
 in the accomplishment of his purposes. He travelled 
 through foreign countries ; he worked at ship-car- 
 pentering in the dockyards of Holland ; he studied 
 the building of vessels under the shadow of the 
 Tower of London. 
 
 Bishop Burnet had some talks with Peter while 
 the Czar was pursuing his practical studies in London, 
 and seems to think him a sort of rough semi-savage. 
 Indeed, the Bishop appears to have been rather at a 
 loss to understand how Providence could have placed 
 such a man at the head of a great and rising State. 
 
54 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. hi. 
 
 As sovereign of Eussia he made his country for the 
 first time an influence and a power in the pohtics of 
 Europe, and beyond all question he laid the founda- 
 tions of that vast military and maritime empire 
 which counts for so much in the history of the 
 modern world, and does not even yet suggest the 
 limits of its possible development. The character 
 of Peter was disfigured by almost savage defects 
 of temper, by utter unscrupulousness, by sensuous 
 vices, and by a cruelty which was sometimes implac- 
 able. He appears to have had in him something of 
 the Oriental nature, the craft, the cruelty, the sudden 
 contrasts of generosity and ferocity, of clemency and 
 severity, of noble impulse and of selfish freak which 
 we associate with the conventional portraiture of an 
 Eastern despot. But whatever his personal defects, 
 it is certain that the Czar Peter was one of the 
 greatest men Hving at a time when there were many 
 great men, and that he was creating a powerful 
 and a developing State while other sovereigns were 
 unconsciously doing their very worst to bring to 
 ruin the fabric which had been bequeathed to them 
 by their predecessors. 
 
 Charles the Twelfth of Sweden was in his meteoric 
 course when Queen Anne came to the throne of 
 England. Charles was one of the most brilliant and 
 picturesque figures then to be seen on the battle- 
 fields of Europe. He was a very Quixote of national 
 ambition and adventure. He amazed and even 
 bewildered Europe by his genius and audacity. 
 Statesmen and soldiers of the older school did not 
 
1702 CHARLES THE TWELFTH. 55 
 
 know where to look for him, or how to deal with 
 him, when he suddenly flashed his searchlight upon 
 their political combinations and their territorial 
 schemes. Blushing glory had not yet to hide 
 Pultowa's day, as Johnson put it in those lines from 
 his ' Vanity of Human Wishes,' which will be remem- 
 bered when the most elaborate essays of ' The 
 Eambler ' have ceased to find even specialist readers. 
 The dominions of the German Emperor were 
 made up of Austria itself and of the federated States, 
 as they may be called, which belonged to the 
 Germanic system. There were nine electoral princes, 
 called Electors, who asserted and exercised the right 
 to choose the Emperor of Germany. That empire 
 stiQ claimed to be the representative of the Holy 
 Eoman Empire whose head was crowned at Eome by 
 Pope John the Twelfth. The Elector of Brandenburg 
 was now King of Prussia. The Germanic system 
 may be described as made up of three Estates — the 
 electors who chose the emperor, the nobles and 
 bishops and governors who constituted in a certain 
 sense a House of Peers, and then something like a 
 popular organisation supposed to represent the 
 interests and the feelings of the general community. 
 Already, the German Empire in its historic sense 
 was growing to be but a shadow of the Holy Eoman 
 Empire, and it could not have needed much foresight 
 to discern that the electors of Brandenburg as kings 
 of Prussia would come before long to contend for the 
 leadership of the Germanic peoples. The Emperor 
 of Germany was still, however, a sovereign whose 
 
56 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. iii. 
 
 power on the European Continent might compete 
 with that of France. The alliance which brought 
 England, Germany, and the United Provinces into an 
 engagement to resist to the uttermost the attempt of 
 Louis the Fourteenth to make Spain a part of the 
 French kingdom, was one which even the ambition 
 and arrogance of Louis himself could hardly have 
 contemplated without some sense of grave responsi- 
 bility. Louis was ready to brave all. His declara- 
 tion that there are no more Pyrenees has become 
 one of the famous sayings of history, but its fame 
 is fuUy equalled by its fallacy, and the Pyrenees, 
 crossed and recrossed since that time, are still the 
 dividing line between France and Spain. 
 
 Poland was still a kingdom — a kingdom trouble- 
 some to itself and to the world in general ; a kingdom 
 which under all its changes seemed ever to have 
 been endowed by fatality with a constitution unsuited 
 to its own conditions, and the conditions of succeed- 
 ing epochs. But Poland has a brave, gifted and 
 patriotic race for its people, and through its many 
 changes has been able to win for itself the sym- 
 pathy and good wishes of all lovers of liberty. For 
 some time yet it is to appear and reappear as a 
 nationality and a political force in the struggles of 
 European dynasties and peoples. Its efforts to 
 maintain its independence as a nation and a State 
 are to be sung by poets and pictured by romancists 
 from most of the civilised countries of the world, 
 and the sword of many a foreign volunteer is to fight 
 for its cause on all its battlefields. 
 
;i702 WAR PEOCLAIMED. 57 
 
 Thus may rapidly be described the principal 
 actors and influences in the great struggle on which 
 Europe was about to enter, when Queen Anne an- 
 nounced to her parliament her resolve that England 
 should declare war against France. 
 
58 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. iv. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV 
 
 THOSE AHOUND QUEEN ANNE 
 
 Among those who stood around the Queen at the 
 time of her accession to the throne the most con- 
 spicuous and greatest figure was that of John 
 Churchill, then earl and soon after duke of 
 Marlborough. Never was a man born into a time 
 more pecuharly fitted to prepare for him a stage 
 suited to the full development and display of his 
 commanding qualities. Never was a man better 
 gifted by nature with the faculties which enable 
 him to find or make such a stage. In describing the 
 character of Marlborough the first diflSculty is to 
 know how to give the fuU measure of praise or blame 
 without seeming to attempt the accomplishment of 
 that task which is, in the language of Shakespeare, 
 ' to solder close impossibilities and make them 
 kiss.' The public and private faults of Marlborough, 
 even if we tax them down to the most rigid limits 
 that impartial history will admit, are such that 
 they would seem to put the character of him who 
 possessed them out of the reach of most men's 
 sympathy. Yet, on the other hand, if we do the 
 barest justice to the better parts of the man's nature, 
 we must admit that he had qualities in him which 
 
1702 MARLBOROUGH. 59 
 
 would have gained affection and admiration from 
 minds of the most diverse constitution, even if he 
 had not been the greatest soldier, and in many 
 qualities the greatest hero, of his time. 
 
 We can aU remember the old story of the two 
 knights who feU into a fierce quarrel about the 
 colour of a certain shield, which the one declared 
 to be white and the other maintained to be black. 
 After the disputants had fought long and fiercely 
 over this question, some friends at last intervened, 
 and the argument was referred to the arbitration of 
 the shield itself, when it was found, by the easiest 
 inspection, that the shield was black on one side and 
 white on the other. It might appear within the 
 range of possibiUties that the same dispute could 
 long be maintained with perfect sincerity about the 
 character of Marlborough, provided each disputant 
 were so absorbed in his own view of the question 
 as to look only on that side of the shield which 
 had suggested his own conclusions. Concentrate 
 your attention for a time on the dark side of Marl- 
 borough's character, and it may well appear aU black 
 — fasten your gaze upon the brighter side, and you 
 may become satisfied that it is all white. 
 
 About Marlborough's genius there is, at all 
 events, no possibility of dispute. He was the 
 greatest European general of his time, and he was 
 probably the greatest English general known to 
 history up to our own time. It would be hardly too 
 much to say that he combined in himself all the 
 quahties of daring, foresight, energy, enterprise, 
 
60 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. iv. 
 
 imagination, minute power of observation, cool cal- 
 culating sagacity, and indomitable patience, wiiich 
 must be united in order to make a consummate 
 military commander. The controlling power which 
 he could exercise over the minds of men and 
 over the hearts of women was, in itself, a sort of 
 genius. Nature had given him appearance and 
 manners which well fitted him for the task of attract- 
 ing those who came within the range of his influence 
 and moulding them to his wiU. He was singularly 
 handsome of face and graceful of form — in any crowd 
 of men, in any society, he would have been singled out 
 in a moment as a most attractive figure. No stranger 
 could come near him without feeling an instant desire 
 to know who he was, and to learn aU about him. 
 We read in classic legend that when Momus had 
 racked his sarcastic brain in order to find some word 
 of disparagement to say about Venus, he could think 
 of no fault to find with the goddess but that her feet 
 made too loud a sound when she walked. The 
 most disparaging critics of Marlborough's physical 
 charms seemed to find nothing worse to say of him 
 than that his voice was sometimes untuneful in its 
 tone. 
 
 Marlborough belonged to a Devonshire family, and 
 started in life without much fortune to carry him on. 
 He entered the army and after a while found 
 advancement at the Court of James the Second — 
 partly, it is painful and pitiful to relate, through the 
 influence of his sister Arabella Churchill, who had 
 been mistress to the King when he was Duke of 
 
1678 MARLBOEOUGH'S MARRIAGE. 61 
 
 York. He fought in one of the wars against the 
 Dutch, and served for a time under Turenne himself, 
 who saw almost at a glance the young man's genius 
 for war. Eeturning to England he began to rise 
 steadily in the King's service. Meanwhile he had 
 secretly married the beautiful and imperious Sarah 
 Jennings, who was destined to exercise, through 
 her influence over him and over Queen Anne, a 
 directing power for a long time in the movement of 
 English history. James the Second endeavoured to 
 induce Marlborough to become a Eoman Catholic. 
 Perhaps the young soldier saw, even at that time, 
 that such a conversion would not be likely to bring 
 him to the winning side ; at any rate, he held to the 
 newer order of ideas. Marlborough had clearly 
 made up his mind, from the very first, that his 
 mission in life was to secure a career for himself, and 
 that no doubts or scruples were to interfere with that 
 object. He had no hesitation about accepting the 
 patronage of the Duke of York, although he knew 
 by what influence that patronage had been secured. 
 Unless the stories told of him from time to time, and 
 believed by his friends as weU as by his enemies, 
 were all untrue, Marlborough turned even his love 
 afiairs to practical account for the advancement of 
 his own self-interest. As might easily be supposed, 
 he was much admired by women, and he was not 
 above accepting handsome presents of money from 
 ladies who also honoured him with other favours. It 
 was said of him in his earlier days that he used to 
 lay down as a maxim for the guidance of young 
 
62 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. iv. 
 
 lovers that a woman who is really fond of a man will 
 be all the fonder of him if he consents to accept her 
 money. 
 
 Marlborough held to James the Second as long 
 as it seemed convenient to his own self-interest to 
 act the part of a loyal and devoted follower. When 
 WiUiam of Orange was about to invade England with 
 the object of dethroning James the Second, Marl- 
 borough was appointed to high command against the 
 invader. Marlborough, however, saw that his hour 
 had come, and he went straightway over to the 
 service of V/illiam, and lent the help of his energy 
 and his military genius to dethrone his former 
 master. This was not the first act of treachery, as 
 it was not the last, which Marlborough committed 
 against the man who, for whatever reason, had taken 
 earliest notice of him, had become his patron, and 
 put him on his way to success at Court and in camp. 
 Marlborough devoted himself to the service of 
 WUliam with as much fidelity as his peculiar 
 temperament allowed, the path to preferment was for 
 a time clear before him, and no considerations of 
 self-interest interposed to tempt him from the straight 
 way. He had many opportunities under William of 
 proving his great capacity as a soldier, and through- 
 out the whole of his career he made it evident that 
 he was no less a statesman than a soldier. His influ- 
 ence over the Princess Anne had always been very 
 great, owing chiefly to the fact that his wife, Sarah 
 Jennings, had obtained, and for a long time held, such 
 a complete dominion over the mind and heart of 
 
1702 ANNE AND LADY CHURCHILL. 63 
 
 Anne as one woman rarely obtains over the mind 
 and heart of another. 
 
 King William appointed Marlborough to be 
 governor over the young Duke of Gloucester, the 
 only one of Anne's numerous progeny who gave any 
 promise of living to maturity, and it is said that 
 William went so far out of his ordinary way of pre- 
 cise and literal address as to speak to Marlborough 
 on that occasion in the language of high compliment. 
 The King told Marlborough that if he could make 
 the young prince anything like Marlborough himself 
 he would have fulfilled the highest wishes of the 
 boy's mother and of the sovereign. Any hopes that 
 were founded on the life of the poor young Duke 
 of Gloucester were soon destined to be disappointed ; 
 the young prince, who had Marlborough for his 
 governor and Bishop Burnet for his preceptor, was 
 not allowed by the fates to have much opportunity 
 of showing that he had benefited by so exceptional 
 a course of education. 
 
 When Anne came to the throne she may fairly 
 be described as under the absolute dominion of 
 Marlborough and his wife, but of Marlborough chiefly 
 through the medium of his masterful and far-reaching 
 consort. Few chapters of personal history can be 
 more curious or more interesting than that which 
 tells of the strange supremacy so long exercised over 
 the mind of Anne by Marlborough's wife. Whole 
 volumes of correspondence preserve the story of 
 this extraordinary friendship. On the marriage of 
 Anne with Prince George of Denmark Lady Churchill, 
 
64 THE EBIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. iv. 
 
 as the future Duchess of Marlborough was then titled, 
 was appointed a Lady of her Bedchamber. Through- 
 out the whole of her life it was an inherent quality 
 of Anne's nature that she must depend upon some- 
 body, take her orders from somebody, have her 
 path of life and even her ways of thinking pointed 
 out to her by somebody, and for many years this 
 occupation was uncompromisingly undertaken by 
 Lady ChurchiU. There is something touching, 
 something pathetic, in the affectation of mystery, 
 often ridiculous enough in itself, with which these 
 two women were pleased dramatically to enfold their 
 close and constant correspondence. It was arranged 
 that Anne should be known in this scheme of 
 letter-writing by the name of Mrs. Morley, and Lady 
 ChurchiU by that of Mrs. Freeman, and other 
 eminent personages had their identity disguised to 
 as Uttle practical purpose by equally unpretending 
 appellations. 
 
 In the ' History of the Eeign of Queen Anne,' 
 by John Hill Burton, there is a sentence quoted from 
 one of Anne's letters to Lady ChurchiU written at 
 a time when some difficulties arose which led Marl- 
 borough to threaten that he might have to resign his 
 position in the Queen's service. ' As for your poor 
 unfortunate Morley,' Anne writes, ' she could not 
 bear it ; for if ever you should forsake me, I should 
 have nothing more to do with the world, but make 
 another abdication ; for where is a crown when the 
 support of it is gone ? ' In the same volume is a 
 letter written by Anne to Lord Godolphin ' at a point 
 
1701 'MR CALIBAN' 65 
 
 of time between her father's death and her own 
 accession ' : 
 
 For the Lord Godolphin. 
 
 ' Windsor, Tuesday night. 
 
 'I can not lett your servant goe back without 
 returning my thanks for the letter he brought me, & 
 assureing you it is a very great satisfaction to me to 
 find you agree wth Mrs. Morley conserning ye ill- 
 natured, cruel proceedings of Mr. Cahban, wch 
 vexes me more then you can emagin, & I am out of 
 aU patience when I think I must do soe monsterous 
 a thing as not to put my lodgings in mourning for 
 my father. I hope if you get a coppy of ye wUl Ld. 
 Manchester says he wiU send over, you wiU be soe 
 kind as to let me see it, & ever believe me your 
 faithful servant.' 
 
 Anne's speUing is somewhat peculiar, but it was 
 not any worse than that of many men and women of 
 her time who made profession of higher hterary 
 accomplishments than she ever claimed as her own. 
 The reader wiU naturally be curious to know some- 
 thing of the identity of the person described as Mr. 
 Caliban. At the time of her life when the letter was 
 written Anne was in the habit of describing William 
 the Third by that Shakespearean appellation. Indeed, 
 we find in Coxe's 'Life of Marlborough ' that amongst 
 her intimate friends she occasionally called the King 
 the Monster, Cahban, or the Dutch Abortion. It 
 appears, however, quite certain that the Caliban 
 phrase as applied to King William was the boasted 
 
 VOL. I. F 
 
66 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. it. 
 
 iiivention of Mrs. Freeman, and was only adopted 
 by the obedient Mrs. Morley. 
 
 Until her accession to the throne Anne led a 
 quiet and almost secluded life, concerning herself 
 but little with all that was going on in the great 
 world around her, and content to be taught how she 
 ought to think and feel by the clever and brilliant 
 woman who exercised for many years an unqualified 
 dominion over her. Now if Marlborough had any 
 one strong feeling suffusing and inspiring his whole 
 nature outside his mere self-interest, his love of 
 glory, and his desire to give his genius a fair field 
 for its exercise, it was assuredly his devoted and 
 passionate attachment to his wife. That splendid 
 quality of patience which stood him in such good 
 stead during the interruptions and delays put in 
 his way by hostile fortune, and by the shortcomings 
 of his allies and his supporters during his great 
 campaigns, enabled him to bear the changeful 
 temper and domineering ways of his wife without 
 showing any sign of irritability or resentment. It 
 has to be said in bare justice to Queen Anne that 
 she must have had some capacity of her own which 
 enabled her to comprehend the genius of Marl- 
 borough, quite independently of the influence exer- 
 cised over her by Marlborough's wife, for it was not 
 until after Anne came into the responsibility of 
 royal position that Marlborough was enabled to 
 prove himself equal to one of the most momentous 
 tasks ever imposed upon a military commander. 
 
 Sidney, Lord Godolphin, was one of the most 
 
1702 GODOLPHIN. 67 
 
 prominent and influential statesmen of the time, and 
 he had the advantage of being in close alliance and 
 friendship with Marlborough. Through the influence 
 of Marlborough, Godolphin was appointed to the 
 oflBce of Lord High Treasurer, a function which has 
 no exact equivalent in the political business of our 
 modern days, but may be described as a sort of 
 combination of the rank of 'Prime Minister with 
 the functions of Chancellor of the Exchequer. We 
 shall, of course, meet with Godolphin again and again 
 in the chapters of this history, and it is now only 
 necessary to say of him that he was undoubtedly one 
 of the most careful and capable managers of the 
 public funds an English sovereign has ever appointed 
 to office, and that in providing for the long and 
 perilous war which had to be undertaken, his 
 financial skiU combined the maximum of efficiency 
 with the minimum of waste. 
 
 Marlborough and Godolphin were both members 
 of the Tory party, but the word Tory, as it was under- 
 stood in those days, would hardly serve as a descrip- 
 tion for any Tory party in more modern times, when 
 political parties are created by principles and by 
 interests which have nothing to do with the question 
 of Eoyal Succession. Our modern ideas of a Tory 
 would naturally represent him as a man who believed 
 that the best interests of the country were served by 
 entrusting the task of its government, as much as 
 possible, to the hands of the aristocratic classes, and 
 by resisting, as far as possible, the growth of de- 
 mocracy. Our typical Whig, on the other hand, if 
 
68 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN AKNE. ch. it. 
 
 we take him as he began to show himself during the 
 reign of George the Third, would be a man who 
 believed that the object of a patriotic party was to 
 introduce, as far as might seem expedient, the repre- 
 sentative principle into the work of government, and 
 to give the people in general some share in the 
 making of the laws. We have outgrown of late the 
 Whigs and the Tories even of George the Third's 
 day, and the Whig may be said to have passed alto- 
 gether into history. The Whig is now either a 
 Liberal or a Eadical. The Tory still retains his old 
 name, unless he prefers to be called a Conservative, 
 and although he has necessarily advanced with the 
 times he still keeps to his old business of resisting as 
 long as he can the spread of the democratic move- 
 ment. But the Whigs and Tories in the days of 
 Marlborough and Godolphin had pohtical purposes 
 to occupy them which are unknown to our times. 
 The Tory had in his heart a partiahty for Divine 
 Eight and the Stuart dynasty, while the Whig looked 
 forward to hereditary succession on the lines estab- 
 lished by the reign of WiUiam the Third and the Act 
 of Settlement. 
 
 In the Tory party at the time of Queen Anne's 
 accession the two leading men were Eobert Harley, 
 afterwards Earl of Oxford, and Henry St. John, after- 
 wards Viscount Bolingbroke. Harley was the man 
 of capacity, Bolingbroke was the man of genius. If 
 the enthusiastic eulogy bestowed by a poet could be 
 taken as creating a picture which posterity might 
 accept as a faithful likeness, then surely the praise 
 
1702 BOLINGBROKE. 69 
 
 bestowed by Alexander Pope would give Harley a 
 place in history as a model of public and private 
 virtue. Pope ascribes to Harley : 
 
 A soul supreme in each hard instance tried 
 Above all pain or passion, and all ptide. 
 
 and other lines to the same effect which have never- 
 theless not established themselves as the pronounce- 
 ment of posterity. Pope poured forth raptures of 
 admiration upon Bolingbroke. Down to very recent 
 days there was hardly any line of English poetry 
 more familiar in the mouths of men — the majority 
 of whom, even when they quoted the line, had not 
 the least idea of its personal apphcation — than ' the 
 feast of reason and the flow of soul.' It was 
 St. John, the poet teUs us, who ' mingles with 
 my friendly bowl' that feast of reason and flow 
 of soul which until our own days, and quite lately, 
 became too much the recognised property of after- 
 dinner orators. Even an admiring poet, however, 
 could hardly go too far in paying a tribute to the 
 genius of Bolingbroke. Pope tells us how ' nobly 
 pensive St. John sat and thought.' We do not 
 now usually contemplate St. John as sitting and 
 thinking in this nobly pensive mood. We think 
 of him as the briUiant orator, the almost unrivalled 
 parliamentary debater, the great prose writer, the 
 fascinating man of fashion, the reckless Ubertine, the 
 versatile political conspirator. In an age of com- 
 manding political figures his was one of the most 
 commanding ; in an age of great prose writers he 
 wrote many pages which will live with the best. 
 
70 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. tv. 
 
 The uncertain temper, the disturbed principles 
 and practices of the time, can hardly find better 
 illustration than in the story of a supposed discovery 
 that was made shortly after the accession of Queen 
 Anne. Some of those around the Queen put into 
 circulation a report that a number of private papers 
 had been found soon after the death of William 
 the Third, which showed that the late King had a 
 plan — or it might be called a plot — in hand for the 
 removal of Anne from her place in the dynasty, and 
 even, it was said, for her imprisonment or banish- 
 ment, and for placing the head of the Hanover 
 family on the throne of England. This story found 
 so many serious believers that at last it was thought 
 necessary to make an official inquiry into the alleged 
 facts. A commission was actually appointed, one of 
 whose members was Marlborough himself, to search 
 the whole of the late King's papers and to report to 
 the Queen and to Parliament whether they contained 
 any evidence of such a design, A careful search 
 was made among all the letters and papers, of what- 
 ever kind, which WiUiam had left behind and of 
 course the result of the inquiry was that nothing 
 could be discovered which gave any support, 
 suggestion, or excuse for the diffusion of such ex- 
 traordinary statements. Then the professed friends 
 of the Queen who had been helping to spread 
 these utterly groundless reports grew suddenly 
 ashamed of the encouragement which they had given 
 to the rumours, and went about emphatically dis- 
 claiming any belief in them, and protesting that even 
 
1703 A WILD REPOIIT. 71 
 
 when they talked privately about the existence of 
 this scheme they had only done so for the pur- 
 pose of protesting their utter disbelief in it. On 
 the other hand, there were found many persons, as 
 there always wiU be found when such a controversy 
 arises, who shook their heads gravely over the official 
 report of the inquiry, and cautiously, but with 
 persistency and with increasing emphasis, declared 
 their sad suspicion that there was a great deal more 
 in the matter than those in high places were 
 wilUng to admit. They did their best to establish a 
 belief that the official report had been nothing but 
 a dehberate arrangement to avert a national scandal, 
 and to prevent the purpose of the late King from 
 being made known to the country. A strong effort 
 was made by some of those who accepted the report 
 of the commission, and who had never believed 
 in the whole story, to get some steps taken for 
 bringing to public trial and punishment those who 
 had had a prominent part in spreading abroad the 
 story of the alleged scheme. Nothing came of it, 
 however, and the controversy was allowed to pass 
 away without recourse to any process of law. 
 
 There were times in Queen Anne's life when she 
 seemed willing to believe in anything which told 
 her that the late King had been fiUed with an un- 
 conquerable distrust and dislike of her, and had 
 been, up to the last, quite capable of approving 
 ainy scheme which might prevent her from main- 
 taining her position on the throne of England. It 
 was an age of conspiracy and counter-conspiracy 
 
72 THE EBIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. it. 
 
 in political life at home and abroad, an age when 
 families were divided against themselves by political 
 passions and dynastic interest, and nobody could 
 have known better than Queen Anne did how little 
 even blood relationship, to say nothing of family 
 connections, could be relied upon as a guarantee for 
 enduring loyalty, political integrity, and personal 
 affection. 
 
 The country was now on the eve of a great crisis. 
 The Queen had announced to Parliament her deter- 
 mination to carry out the policy of William the 
 Third, and her resolve to declare war against France. 
 Her allies were to be the Emperor of Germany, with 
 such of the electoral German States as were willing 
 to become active supporters of the Emperor's policy, 
 and the United Provinces of Holland. The Queen con- 
 ferred on Marlborough the office of Commander-in- 
 Chief over aU the forces of England on land and sea. 
 Marlborough was now, in fact, only at the opening of 
 his great career. He had fought on many a battle- 
 field before this time, and wherever he had found an 
 opportunity of proving his military capacity he had 
 given ample promise of a genius for command. Up 
 to this time he had not had a chance of showing to 
 his country and to the world that he possessed the 
 quahties which would enable him to take rank among 
 the greatest soldiers in history. He was now more 
 than fifty years of age, and the Marlborough of 
 immortal fame had yet to assert himself and to prove 
 himself. 
 
 If the Grand Alliance had not been recon- 
 
1702 THE ORIGINAL OF ' ATOSSA.' 73 
 
 structed by Anne, and if England had followed what 
 would probably have been the policy of a later age, 
 and allowed the dynastic quarrels of Continental 
 States to settle themselves without the intervention 
 of Enghsh armies and fleets, the world might never 
 have come to know that the foremost supporter 
 of the new Queen was a soldier qualified to rank 
 with the greatest military commanders in ancient or 
 modern history. The woman born to be queen was 
 not much given to profound reflection, and had but 
 little of the imaginative power which can foresee the 
 greatness of a national crisis or comprehend the 
 quahties of men near to her who are destined to make 
 history. But Mrs. Morley was devoted to Mrs. Free- 
 man, and she had probably some faint conception of 
 the part which Mrs. Freeman's husband was to fill 
 in the reign of Queen Anne. It may be said, while 
 we are dealing with this part of our subject, that 
 Sarah Jennings was for many generations believed 
 to be the Atossa satirised by Alexander Pope in his 
 ' Moral Essays.' More recently a theory has been 
 started that Pope did not intend his satirical poetry 
 as the picture of Sarah Jennings, but as that of 
 another woman who held a high rank about the 
 same time. Unless, however, there are very con- 
 vincing grounds for rejecting what may be called 
 the contemporary belief as to the original of a 
 satirical sketch, it is safer to assume that contem- 
 porary opinion guessed rightly, and to accept Atossa 
 as Pope's pen-sketch of John Churchill's adored and 
 domineering wife. 
 
74 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. it. 
 
 The coronation of Queen Anne took place in 
 the year of her accession, and was attended with 
 all the splendour of ceremonial and all the array 
 of heraldic symbolism in its minutest details which, 
 for many succeeding generations, have been con- 
 sidered essential components of a coronation. West- 
 minster HaU and the majestic Abbey which stands 
 near it were the principal scenes of the historic dis- 
 play. The Queen herself was in very weak health, 
 and had to be carried or supported during the 
 greater part of the ceremony. We shall not enter 
 into much detail of description, but there are some 
 parts of the day's pageantry which may have an 
 awakened interest for readers of the present day. 
 There were two accompaniments of this coronation 
 which became for the first time a part of the cere- 
 mony. These were the Parliamentary Test and the 
 Coronation Oath. They were introduced and adopted 
 for the avowed purpose of proclaiming to the world 
 that the Eevolution had established new conditions 
 under which, and under which alone, the sovereign 
 of England could hold the throne and demand the 
 allegiance of the English people. They constituted, in 
 fact, a legal declaration that the old doctrine of Divine 
 Eight was done with for ever, and that the sovereign 
 had to enter into special and solemn agreements in 
 order to obtain the position of ruler. Just as a 
 subject accepting office under the Crown was com- 
 pelled to make certain professions of allegiance as a 
 condition of his obtaining such a place, so in the new 
 constitutional system the sovereign was required 
 
1702 THE CORONATION OATH. 75 
 
 to make publicly known the acceptance of certain 
 conditions before the right to the throne could be 
 formally acknowledged by Parliament and the people. 
 The Parliamentary Test which Queen Anne had to 
 submit to and accept as her declaration, embodied 
 the profession of the sovereign's faith. This oath 
 has within very recent times become a subject of 
 public discussion and some strong and natural dis- 
 approval. 
 
 ' I do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of 
 God, profess, testify, and declare ' — thus ran the 
 words of the announcement — ' that I do believe 
 that in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is 
 not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread 
 and wine into the body and blood of Christ at or 
 after the consecration thereof by any person whatso- 
 ever ; and that the invocation or adoration of the 
 Virgin Mary or any other Saint, and that the sacrifice 
 of the Mass — as they are now used in the Church of 
 Eome — are superstitious and idolatrous. And I do 
 solemnly, in the presence of God, profess, testify, and 
 declare that I do make this declaration, and every 
 part thereof, in the plain and ordinary sense of the 
 words read unto me, as they are commonly under- 
 stood by English Protestants, without any evasive 
 equivocation or mental reservation whatsoever, and 
 without any dispensation already granted me for 
 this purpose by the Pope, or any other authority or 
 person whatsoever, or without any hope of any 
 such dispensation from any person or authority what- 
 soever, or without thinking that I am or may be 
 
76 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. iv. 
 
 acquitted before God or man, or absolved of this 
 declaration, or any part thereof, although the Pope, 
 or any other person or persons or power whatsoever, 
 should dispense with or annul the same, or declare 
 that it was nuU and void from the beginning.' 
 
 When the Queen had made the required declara- 
 tion and the ceremonies belonging to the Coronation 
 had been completed, a benediction was pronounced 
 upon her by the Archbishop of York which, in the 
 midst of aU the splendour and all the public rejoicing, 
 must have fallen sadly on the ears of the Queen when 
 it invoked for her the blessing of the Lord that she 
 might ' have a numerous posterity to rule these 
 kingdoms after you by succession in all ages.' The 
 woman doomed to leave no child behind her, and for 
 whom it had been necessary to seek a successor in a 
 foreign family and a foreign State, must have found 
 only a melancholy reminder of her condition in this 
 futile passage of the ceremonial benediction. During 
 the great dinner in Westminster Hall 'just before the 
 second course, Charles Dymoke, Esq., Her Majesty's 
 Champion, in complete armour, between the Lord High 
 Constable and Earl Marshal, performed the challenge, 
 after which the Kings-of-Arms and Heralds proclaimed 
 Her Majesty's style in Latin, French, and Enghsh.' 
 This was of course the historical challenge to any 
 daring claimant or representative of a claimant who 
 should venture to dispute Her Majesty's right to the 
 throne. Then was the time for such person, if any 
 such there were, to come forward and make good his 
 claim against the mountied and mailed representative 
 
1702 THE CHALLENGE. 77 
 
 of royal authority, in presence of the guests assembled 
 at those dinner tables. No such rash intruder 
 came forward to dispute the sovereignty of Queen 
 Anne, but it may be remembered that at a later 
 coronation there were romantic stories of a plot to 
 take up the challenger's glove, and thus at least 
 testify to the world that there existed a rival 
 claimant to the throne of England in the person of a 
 stiU surviving representative of the Eoyall Stuart line. 
 It might have seemed more in accordance with 
 the fitness of things, or at aU events with the artistic 
 fitness of things, it such a challenge, supposing it to 
 have been seriously planned at all even for the sake 
 of theatrical effect, had been dehvered on this occa- 
 sion, when the last of the Stuarts was seated on the 
 throne, and arrangements had been made for the suc- 
 cession of a foreign famUy, rather than at the later 
 day when the new dynasty was actually in posses- 
 sion. Queen Anne, however, does not seem to have 
 been a sovereign with whom dramatic or romantic 
 effects had much to do, and her Coronation as that 
 of avowedly the last of the Stuart sovereigns was 
 allowed to pass off" without a challenge. 
 
78 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. v. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 DISSENT AND DEFOE 
 
 The religious troubles which beset the Queen on her 
 accession to power were not by any means fully 
 represented in the declaration which contained her 
 disavowal of all sympathy with certain beliefs and 
 practices of the Church of Rome. There were 
 questions of religious conformity which had nothing 
 to do with the faith adopted by James the Second. 
 Dissent among Protestants themselves was beginning 
 to be a subject of most serious controversy, and 
 drove many, who professed a horror of the spiritual 
 servitude enjoined by the Church of Eome, into a 
 constant clamour for the intervention of the criminal 
 law in order to put down aU freedom of private 
 judgment among Protestant denominations. Not to 
 speak for the moment of the fierce controversies 
 concerning the maintenance or the suppression of 
 Presbyterianism in the kingdom of Scotland, there 
 was a storm arising against Protestant Nonconformists 
 in England itself which might have aroused a feeling 
 of satisfaction in the breast of the least vindictive 
 Papist sufferer for his beUef. An agitation was going 
 on all through England which had for its object the 
 most rigid exclusion from all public office of everyone 
 
1702 DISSENT. 79 
 
 who not merely showed any lack of enthusiasm for 
 the doctrines of the State Church, but who failed to 
 make his fuU acceptance of all these doctrines known 
 by a sufficient number of public and formal protes- 
 tations in the proper places during certain specified 
 terms of each year. It was not thought by any 
 means enough that an aspirant to public office should 
 have given no sign whatever of conscientious objec- 
 tion to any tenet of the State Church : it was insisted 
 that unless he made known his absolute conformity 
 by a certain number of public professions within a 
 specified time, he ought not to be considered a fit 
 person to be entrusted with the duties of any office 
 held under the control of the established authorities. 
 Even so sound a Churchman as Bishop Burnet 
 was sometimes astonished, and often not a little 
 amused, at the alarm and passion aroused in the 
 minds of many respectable and intelligent Protestants 
 by the existence and growth of dissenting denomi- 
 nations in England. Such persons were constantly 
 asking whether after all it had really profited any- 
 thing to get rid of the Pope, the Jesuits, and the 
 Stuart dynasty if here at home in England men 
 were allowed to go about and start new theories 
 concerning ecclesiastical discipline, and even to hold 
 meetings and conferences, and to preach sermons in 
 support of heterodox and dissenting opinions. What 
 was the use of the Keformation ? it was asked ; what 
 was the good of establishing a State Church if men 
 were to be allowed, without interference on the part 
 of the law, to form themselves into Nonconformist 
 
80 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. t. 
 
 congregations, to hold religious services ot their 
 own, to choose their pastors, and to give so-called 
 reUgious instruction to their families without any 
 regard for the authority of the State Episcopate or 
 the decisions of Convocation ? 
 
 Nothing could be more certain than the fact that 
 dissent was growing and spreading day after day 
 among English communities. Nothing, indeed, could 
 have been more natural, among aU the changing 
 conditions of the time. Within the memory of 
 living men not yet old there had been a king 
 who professed the faith of the Church of Eome, 
 followed by a king who professed the faith of the 
 Church of England, and now by a Queen who, 
 while proclaiming her conformity with the doctrines 
 of the English State Church, was believed to be 
 secretly in sympathy with the dynastic claims of that 
 Stuart family to which she herself belonged, and 
 whose immediate and intimate friends were shrewdly 
 suspected of participation in political schemes for 
 a counter-revolution, and for the restoration of the 
 exiled princes. Everyone must have seen that 
 Marlborough was the devoted servant of James the 
 Second until it suited his interests to go suddenly 
 over and become the devoted servant of William 
 the Third ; and after he had made that remarkable 
 change, and had greatly profited by it, he was still 
 believed to be in constant communication with the 
 representatives of the discarded dynasty. 
 
 On the other hand, these very fluctuations of 
 opinion and of allegiance amongst those with whom 
 
1702 HOW TO DEAL WITH DISSENT. 81 
 
 dynastic interest or merely personal self-interest was 
 the principal guiding force only made the sincere 
 amongst all denominations more devoted than ever 
 to their own convictions, and more ready to take 
 alarm at anything which boded the predominance of 
 antagonistic ideas. The Dissenters and Nonconfor- 
 mists of all sects were beginning to revolt more and 
 more against the rigid rule of the State Church. 
 These Dissenters and Nonconformists were not con- 
 tent with holding their own opinions and keeping 
 them quietly to themselves, but they must take to 
 the convening of meetings for the diffusion of their 
 heterodox views. There were associations which 
 might almost be called public springing up every- 
 where for the teaching of dissenting doctrine and the 
 enrolment of dissenting citizens. The growth of such 
 organisations aroused alarm and wrath among the 
 less tolerant of the Churchmen, and a clamour was 
 raised for the intervention of the Crown and Parha- 
 ment. What to do with the Dissenters became, in 
 fact, the great question of the day amongst all zealous 
 Churchmen. It was insisted that they should not be 
 allowed to go on as they were going, if the rule of 
 the State Church were to be maintained, and zealous 
 Churchmen forgot aU about the perils of Papistry 
 when they contemplated the dangers of Dissent. 
 
 The crisis seemed to call for the right man, and 
 some eager Churchmen were allowed to believe, 
 during a short space of time, that the right man had 
 come to the front. It was certain at least that a man 
 had made his appearance who professed his capacity 
 
 VOL. I. G 
 
82 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. v. 
 
 to show the public the readiest and most masterful 
 way of dealing with the Dissenters. This man was 
 destined, for a time, to be the most-talked-of 
 personage of his day ; but even while his name was 
 on the lips of everyone, none could have predicted 
 the real fame he was destined to win. 
 
 Daniel Defoe was an Englishman by birth and 
 ancestry despite the foreign suggestion conveyed by 
 his name. The name of his father was, in fact, simply 
 Foe, and the son Daniel had changed it into Defoe or 
 De Foe more than twenty years after his birth. He 
 was the son of a butcher in an obscure part of the 
 city of London, but he obtained a good education at 
 a school established for Dissenters, and when still a 
 young man started in business as a maker and vendor 
 of stockings. Those were troublous times, and it is 
 not surprising to learn that Daniel Defoe was believed 
 to have been ' out ' in Monmouth's rebellion. He 
 afterwards took service in King William's army, and 
 appears to have travelled in France and Spain. He 
 was concerned later in various business occupations 
 and enterprises, and at one time he became bankrupt, 
 but he seems conscientiously to have paid aU his 
 debts by slow degrees. 
 
 Even while engaged in his business projects 
 Defoe's mind troubled itself constantly about 
 political and religious questions, and he was a 
 firm supporter of King William's policy. Defoe 
 found a way of supporting that policy which was 
 more practical and more wide-reaching than any 
 casual interchange of argument with his daily com- 
 
1702 DANIEL DEFOE. 83 
 
 panions in business could have been. He became 
 a pamphleteer, and thus availed himself of the one 
 department of the public Press which was most 
 effective in those days. He was soon known as a 
 pamphleteer of especial vigour even in that age of 
 vigorous prose and active pamphleteering. He seems 
 from the very opening of this part of his career to 
 have had a remarkable capacity for adapting him- 
 self to the level of any controversy in which he felt 
 inclined to engage. His opinions were unquestion- 
 ably genuine and were aU his own, but he had the 
 faculty, wanting to many a controversialist, of being 
 able to enter thoroughly into the feelings of his 
 antagonists, and thus to meet them with the kind of 
 argument which it was most difficult for them either 
 to refute or leave unnoticed. He always put forth 
 his case in such a manner that it neither went over 
 the heads of his opponents nor feU unnoticed at their 
 feet. In fact, that power of imagination which en- 
 abled him later in some of his immortal works to 
 picture scenes which he had never looked upon, and 
 to describe with aU semblance of reality troubles 
 which he had never undergone, enabled him at the 
 opening of his career as a writer to create for himself 
 the form of attack likely to teU most heavily upon 
 the peculiar forces which he had to encounter. 
 
 Defoe's early training and his ways of thought 
 had made him a strong supporter of the claims set 
 up by the dissenting bodies for the right to conduct 
 their own form of worship according to their own 
 conscience, and he could not see why a State Church 
 
 G '2 
 
84 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. v. 
 
 established by law in England should have an 
 autocratic power to dictate men's faith to them, when 
 the very men who claimed for it such a right were 
 foremost in their repudiation of the spiritual juris- 
 diction of Eome. The hostility which was growing 
 so much against Dissenters, and especially amongst 
 the influential and what may be called the privi- 
 leged classes, had become so strong that nothing 
 short of some parliamentary action against Non- 
 conformity could possibly satisfy it. Defoe had 
 written poems with a political purpose. One of 
 these, called ' The True-born Englishman,' was a 
 pamphlet in verse in defence of the policy and the 
 reign of William the Third. Defoe had not much 
 of the poetic gift ; the indescribable quality which, 
 apart from mere skiU in melody, distinguishes 
 genuine poetry from even the finest prose was not 
 bestowed upon him. The main object of this rhymed 
 pamphlet was to argue down the still popular feeling 
 which made men hold aloof from complete loyalty 
 to William simply because he was a foreigner. 
 Defoe argued, with much common sense and good 
 feeling, that every true-born Enghshman ought to 
 recognise the claims of the sovereign who had been 
 called to the throne and whose policy was to make 
 England prosperous and great even though a foreign 
 country had given him birth. ' The good of subjects 
 is the end of kings,' Defoe pointed out, and when this 
 end is laboured for and accomplished by a sovereign 
 he is then truly entitled to rank as an English 
 monarch. The pamphlet gave great satisfaction to 
 
1702 'THE SHOKTEST WAY.' 85 
 
 William, who showed his good feeUng towards Defoe 
 in many ways, and the writer then seemed fairly on 
 the road to advancement. 
 
 When King Wilham died and Anne succeeded 
 him, Defoe had a new political task to undertake. 
 Before that he had had to champion the policy of a 
 king against the opposition which proclaimed itself 
 in consequence of William's foreign birth, training, 
 and descent ; now he had to champion the claims of 
 the Dissenters against what was popularly believed 
 to be the sentiment of the Queen. Anne was known 
 to have strong convictions in favour of the claims 
 made out by Churchmen, clerical and lay, for the 
 supremacy of that form of Protestantism which had 
 been estabhshed as the religion of the State. Defoe 
 hit upon a most effective method of vindicating the 
 cause of the Dissenters and holding up to public 
 condemnation those who were striving to bring all 
 the powers of the law to bear against their demands 
 for liberty of conscience. He issued a pamphlet 
 called ' The Shortest Way with the Dissenters.' This 
 famous pamphlet was a piece of the most elaborate 
 and powerful satire. Defoe transformed himself, for 
 the time, into a domineering and unyielding High 
 Churchman, and he professed to advocate all the 
 views of such a personage with uncompromising and 
 unlimited conviction. His argument was that the 
 Dissenters deserved no favour, and even deserved no 
 toleration. He contended that whenever Dissenters 
 had any power they invariably exerted it to suppress 
 all liberty of conscience which was not that precise 
 
86 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. v. 
 
 liberty of conscience suited to their own beliefs and 
 their own interests. Every attempt that had been 
 made by Presbyterianism in Scotland to vindicate its 
 own claims he described as a deliberate attempt to 
 crush out all freedom of religious thought and all 
 unorthodox forms of religious worship. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be owned that the intolerance 
 sometimes displayed by Presbyterians in Scotland 
 lent more semblance of justification to this part of 
 Defoe's argument than Defoe himself could have 
 intended or would have admitted. Defoe had, of 
 course, stood up stoutly in his own person before this 
 as a defender of the moderation and tolerance shown 
 by Scottish Presbyterianism when it had power to 
 oppress the religious belief of those with whom it 
 was not in agreement. But when Defoe set himself 
 to present the case for the English State Church as 
 an English Churchman might have presented it, we 
 can easily understand how he made himself, for the 
 time, a representative of the extreme spirit of the 
 Churchman and allowed himself to argue down even 
 his own genuine conviction. The spirit of the 
 novelist was there as weU as that of the mere satirist. 
 If he had been putting himself, for artistic purposes, 
 into the form of a rehgious hypocrite, he would no 
 doubt have entered into the very spirit of a Tartufie. 
 If he had been engaged in a vindication of Moll 
 Flanders or Colonel Jack, he would not have hesitated 
 to push his case beyond the bounds of reasonable 
 and logical defence. So when he put himself into 
 the shape of an intolerant High Churchman it was 
 
1702 'SERPENTS, TOADS AND VIPERS.' 87 
 
 no part of his task to make the arguments of the 
 High Churchman consistent with the arguments of 
 Daniel Defoe. 
 
 The pamphlet begins with a studied moderation 
 of tone, and grows gradually more and more 
 vehement, passionate, and arbitrary as the work 
 proceeds. This was part of Defoe's plan. He makes 
 his Churchman, whose self-assumed task it is to set 
 forth the shortest way with Dissenters, begin with 
 an affectation of Christianlike forbearance and then 
 grow by degrees hotter and hotter as he expounds 
 his views, until towards the end he loses his temper 
 altogether and shows himself, what he is reaUy 
 intended to be, an overbearing and merciless tyrant. 
 In this mood he replies to some possible objections 
 which might be raised as to the cruelty of the 
 measures by which he proposes to deal with 
 Dissenters. He considerately admits that it may be 
 cruelty to kill a snake or a toad in cold blood, but 
 then he goes on to point out that ' the poison of their 
 nature makes it a charity to our neighbours to 
 destroy these creatures — not for any personal injury 
 received, but for prevention; not for the evil they 
 have done, but the evil they may do.' Such creatures 
 as serpents, toads, and vipers, he goes on to say, ' are 
 noxious to the body and poison the' sensitive life — 
 these poison the soul, corrupt our posterity, ensnare 
 our children, destroy the vitals of our happiness, our 
 future felicity, and contaminate the whole mass.' 
 ' If,' he declares, ' one severe law were made and 
 punctually executed, that whoever was found at a 
 
88 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. t. 
 
 conventicle should be banished the nation, and the 
 preacher be hanged, we should soon see an end of 
 the tale.' 
 
 In this spirit, and this tone, Defoe set out his 
 plan for deahng in the shortest way with Dissenters 
 who would not accept the principle of absolute 
 conformity. The pamphlet was a capital piece 
 of satirical extravaganza. It illustrated the very 
 extreme of the temper which would tolerate nothing 
 in Protestantism that did not show a complete 
 submission to the doctrines and rules of worship 
 ordained by the State Church. The pamphlet was 
 anonymous, and it was for a while accepted by many 
 people as a sincere and deliberate exposition of the 
 policy which its author believed to be called for by 
 all who held that there was only one true way to 
 maintain the Church in its proper position, and that 
 that one way was the suppression of aU independent 
 belief and aU nonconforming practices. Some of 
 those who felt in sympathy with what they under- 
 stood to be the author's exposition of his belief 
 thought that perhaps he had gone a little too far in 
 his controversial fervour, but they stiU sympathised 
 with its general object, and were willing to overlook 
 the occasional excesses into which he might have 
 been tempted by his conscientious desire to secure 
 the predominance of the Church. Many, of course, 
 understood and appreciated the satire from the very 
 first, and welcomed the pamphlet as a masterly 
 reductio ad absurdum of the arguments by which too 
 zealous Churchmen had been endeavouring to force 
 
1703 DEFOE 'PROCLAIMED.' 89 
 
 the Queen and the Parliament into a policy for the 
 suppression of all Dissent. 
 
 When the real meaning of the writer began to be 
 universally understood and the pamphlet was recog- 
 nised as an audacious satire, a positive storm of fury 
 raged around his devoted head. The High Church 
 party in general regarded the pamphlet as a scanda- 
 lous libel, and oflFered a large reward for the discovery 
 and apprehension of the perpetrator. A motion was 
 carried in the House of Commons that the book 
 should be burned by the common hangman, and the 
 Government, yielding to the pressure from without 
 and from within, issued a proclamation which is in 
 every way worth reproduction as a piece of history 
 illustrating the condition and temper of the times, 
 and indeed is worthy of reproduction if only for 
 its personal description of one of England's greatest 
 authors. The proclamation set forth — 
 
 ' Whereas Daniel De Foe alias De Fooe is charged 
 with writing a scandalous and seditious pamphlet 
 entitled " The Shortest Way with the Dissenters." He 
 is a middle-sized spare man about forty years old, of 
 a brown complexion, and dark brown coloured hair, 
 but wears a wig ; a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey 
 eyes, and a large mole near his mouth ; was born in 
 London and for many years was a hose-factor in 
 Freeman's yard in CornhiU., and now is owner of the 
 Brick and Pantile work near Tilbury Fort in Essex. 
 Whoever shall discover the said Daniel De Foe to 
 one of her Majesty's principal secretaries of State or 
 any of her Majesty's justices of peace so as he may 
 
90 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. v 
 
 be apprehended shall have a reward of fifty pounds 
 to be paid upon such discovery.' 
 
 There was not much chance of Defoe's trying to 
 escape, even if he had been inchned to make any 
 effort at escape, after such a description of his person, 
 his occupation, and his whereabouts, and it seems 
 only bare justice to the literary intelligence of the 
 age to say that nobody who had any acquaintance 
 with the pamphleteering issiies of the day could 
 have had the shghtest doubt as to the identity of the 
 author. Defoe was quickly and easily captured. 
 He was put on his trial at the Old Bailey for a 
 seditious libel, and as there was no possibility of his 
 disclaiming the charge or offering any defence which 
 could have availed him in the eyes of the law at 
 such a time, he decided on taking the situation as 
 he found it and merely pleading guilty. Perhaps he 
 may have thought that this course would obtain for 
 him some consideration from his judges, but if he had 
 any such hope it was destined to instant disappoint- 
 ment. He was sentenced to stand three times in the 
 pillory, and after that to be imprisoned until he 
 should pay a large fine and find security to be of good 
 behaviour for seven years. ' Thus,' as he says him- 
 self, ' was I a second time ruined, for by this affair 
 I lost above three thousand five hundred pounds.' 
 Savage and brutal as was the treatment awarded to 
 Defoe, he appears to have been treated with more 
 leniency during his imprisonment than he might have 
 been at a later period of English history. While he 
 was a prisoner in Newgate he was allowed to publish 
 
1703 WILLIAM PENN. 91 
 
 poems and pamphlets, and to prepare for the issue 
 of a periodical, a sort of newspaper, the contents of 
 which were written solely by himself, and which he 
 continued to issue two or three times a week for 
 many years after he had been set at liberty. Defoe 
 was kept in prison for more than a year. 
 
 Anne was by no means wanting in feelings of 
 humanity, and she could hardly have had much 
 sympathy with the kind of policy which had found 
 its illustration in the treatment inflicted on Defoe. 
 There were some men in the land, even then, who 
 had courage enough to plead for a mitigation of 
 his term of imprisonment, and influence enough to 
 commend their views to the notice of the Queen's 
 ministers. William Penn, the famous Quaker, the 
 founder of the State of Pennsylvania, was then at the 
 height of his renown. He had accomplished his great 
 work in the spread of Christian doctrine, he had 
 settled that establishment in the New World which 
 would in itself have made his name immortal, and he 
 occupied himself earnestly in attempting to obtain a 
 mitigation of Defoe's sentence. John HiU Burton in 
 his ' Eeign of Queen Anne ' publishes some documents 
 which have a curious interest, and have given rise 
 to some conflicting explanations in connection with 
 Penn's humane efforts for the release of Defoe. One 
 of these is a private letter from Godolphin to the Earl 
 of Nottingham, one of the Secretaries of State, which 
 notes the fact that ' Mr. William Penn came to tell 
 me he had acquainted my Lord Privy Seal that Defoe 
 was ready to make oath to your Lordship of all that 
 
92 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. v. 
 
 he knew, and to give an account of all his accom- 
 phces in whatsoever he has been concerned, provided 
 by so doing he may be screened from the punish- 
 ment of the pillory, and not produced as an evi- 
 dence against any person whatsoever. And upon 
 my acquainting the Queen with this just now at 
 noon, her Majesty was pleased to tell me she 
 had received the same account from my Lord Privy 
 Seal, and seemed to think this, if there were no 
 other, occasion for the Cabinet Council to reach 
 here to-morrow, and has commanded me to teU you 
 so.' 
 
 Burton is inclined to believe that Defoe was really 
 willing to give an account of aU his accomphces pro- 
 vided he might be relieved from the punishment of the 
 pillory and not produced as a public witness against 
 his friends. Godolphin's document, he thinks, ' must 
 touch the fame of Defoe in the eyes of all who 
 may not beheve that the chief advisers of the sove- 
 reign had conspired with her to blacken it.' ' One 
 can imagine,' he says, ' a touch of comic risibiUty 
 gleaming in Defoe's thoughts when he succeeded in 
 sending the sternly earnest Quaker on such an errand.' 
 Then he goes on to say ' There will be the less to 
 surprise us in this afiair when we make better 
 acquaintance with Defoe, and perhaps find that, what- 
 ever wealth of virtues he possessed, scrupulosity as 
 a public man was not among them.' Most readers, 
 however, will be rather inclined to believe that 
 Godolphin was willing to get out of a troublesome 
 business as soon and easily as possible, and that he 
 
1704 DEFOE RELEASED. 93 
 
 somewhat exaggerated the nature of the suggestion 
 which Penn described himself as authorised to make 
 on the part of Defoe. The word of William Penn 
 is wholly beyond doubt, and there is certainly no 
 reason to believe that Defoe could possibly be guilty 
 of the mean and craven suggestion described in 
 Godolphin's letter. 
 
 Nothing came of Penn's interference at that time. 
 Defoe was kept in prison for more than a year, and 
 then Harley, who had become Secretary of State, 
 used his influence with the Queen to obtain the 
 prisoner's liberation. Anne was not inclined to keep 
 up the rigour of Defoe's punishment any longer, and 
 it appears she was greatly touched by the condition 
 of distress in which Defoe's wife was placed, that she 
 sent her a gift of money, and after some further delay 
 ordered the remission of the fine and gave back to 
 liberty the author of the pamphlet which had created 
 such a political convulsion. We learn on Defoe's own 
 authority that he was afterwards employed by Harley 
 and by Godolphin in the service of the Queen, and 
 we know that in 1706 he was sent by Godolphin, 
 with the approval of the Queen, to occupy himself 
 in Scotland for the promotion of the ParHamentary 
 Union. Defoe never rose to his fuU fame during the 
 reign of Queen Anne. The production of ' Eobin- 
 son Crusoe ' was wanting to the literary glory of 
 that reign so rich in masterpieces of prose and 
 poetry. 
 
 The effort made by William Penn to obtain 
 Defoe's exemption from the disgraceful punishment 
 
94 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. t. 
 
 decreed for him is an appropriate illustration of 
 Penn's whole pareer, and indeed of the work which 
 Penn's co-religionists appear always to have marked 
 out for themselves. The Quakers are hardly to be 
 classed among the dissenting bodies of Queen Anne's 
 reign. Theirs was the very dissidence of Dissent. 
 It cannot be said that their hand was against that 
 of every other community in the religious world, but 
 it may almost be said that the hand of every other 
 religious community was against them. They only 
 saved themselves from the worst of persecution by 
 that course of non-resistance, or at aU events, passive 
 resistance, which their religious principles prescribed 
 for them. It was hardly possible, even in the days 
 of roughest religious controversy, to keep inflicting 
 bodily punishment on men who were pledged never 
 to defend themselves by force of arms. The Quakers 
 carried out the principles of Christianity according 
 to their own definitions of those principles with 
 a rigid fidelity which might often have put the 
 disciples of other Christian sects to shame. They^ 
 strove with undismayed perseverance to maintain 
 peace amongst men, to treat all men as their equals 
 and their brothers where justice had to ,be ad- 
 ministered and where charity could find work to do. 
 The story of Penn's life belongs to earlier days than 
 those of Queen Anne. His best work had been done, 
 and his fame as a philanthropist had been secured 
 before the opportunity came for him to intervene on 
 behalf of Daniel Defoe, in the futile hope of saving 
 him from the ignominy which, after all, only inflicted 
 
1704 DEFOE AND PENN. 95 
 
 disgrace upon the age, and could not inflict any dis- 
 honour on Defoe. There is, however, a peculiar 
 fitness in the historical chance which associates, in 
 such a manner, the names of Daniel Defoe and of 
 WiUiam Penn. • 
 
96 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. ti. 
 
 CHAPTEE VI 
 
 ON THE ROUGH EDGE OF BATTLE 
 
 While the three dissenting bodies, the Presbyterians, 
 the Baptists, and the Independents or the Congrega- 
 tionahsts, are fighting their battles against the more 
 aggressive of the Churchmen, and the Quakers are 
 standing aloof from each and aU, the war has opened 
 and is going on, and Marlborough is Commander-in- 
 Chief of the Allied Forces in Holland. We must 
 study the field and survey the forces arrayed on 
 either side. 
 
 The position of Marlborough could not be better 
 described than in the lines which Shakespeare has 
 put into the mouth of Ulysses when he is addressing 
 Agamemnon : 
 
 Thou great commauder, nerve and bone of Greece, 
 Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit, 
 In whom the tempers and the minds of all 
 Should be shut up. 
 
 Ulysses, indeed, addresses Agamemnon in language 
 of studied flattery, but the words which he uses 
 might be employed to describe with literal accuracy 
 the position of Marlborough at the head of his aUied 
 forces. Other words used by Ulysses in the same 
 scene may be employed to illustrate, no less faithfully. 
 
1702 THE ALLIES IN THE FIELD. 97 
 
 some of the conditions which tended most to interfere 
 with Marlborough's work and to delay the execution 
 of his finest plans : 
 
 And look how many Grecian tents do stand 
 Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions. 
 
 It is not too much to say that, while the avowed 
 object of the Allies was one and the same, the main- 
 tenance of the Spanish monarchy against the policy 
 of Louis the Fourteenth which demanded its absorp- 
 tion into his own possessions, each of the States 
 forming the alliance had its own separate end to 
 serve, and was unwilling to spend its resources for 
 any purpose outside the range of its own immediate 
 interests. England and France might be regarded 
 as opponents brought face to face with each other by 
 a direct and long-standing antagonism. These two 
 States had been enemies in the open field again and 
 again. England had won some of her greatest 
 military triumphs on the soil of France, and had 
 annexed French territory and proclaimed it part of 
 the dominion of the English Crown. France had 
 old scores to pay off with England, and Louis the 
 Fourteenth had come to understand only too clearly 
 that his ambition could never have full satisfaction 
 on the Continent of Europe while England remained 
 strong enough to assert the right of interfering with 
 his aggressive schemes. These two opponents may 
 be said to stand up to each other in the spirit 
 described by the Homeric line in which one rival 
 declares to another that either you must overthrow 
 me, or I will overthrow you. Agreements, and even 
 VOL. I. H 
 
98 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. vi. 
 
 alliances, between England and France had been 
 tried from time to time, but no lasting principle of 
 companionship could be found for such a rivalry. 
 Therefore it might be safely taken for granted that 
 England and France would have to fight out this 
 contest to the bitter end, and that neither would 
 swerve from any responsibility, or hold back from 
 any expenditure, until the contest had been positively 
 decided, and one or the other had to submit. 
 
 But the armies on both sides had taken the field 
 under very different conditions. The foremost of 
 England's allies was the Emperor of Germany, and 
 the Empire of Germany had become, by this time, 
 something like the hereditary possession of the House 
 of Hapsburg. The position of emperor was still, 
 indeed, treated as elective, and whenever a vacancy 
 took place the electors assembled in due form in 
 the historic chamber at Frankfort-on-the-Main and 
 solemnly went through the ceremony of choosing 
 the supreme representative of the German States. 
 During many generations, and even during centuries, 
 there had been no substantial opposition to the claims 
 of the House of Hapsburg and the German or, as we 
 may call him, the Austrian emperor was as certain 
 of his succession as if the dignity had been one of 
 hereditary descent. Eeaders may remember that 
 there was a time in the history of the Caliphate when 
 the principle of election was vaguely supposed to 
 govern the succession, although, in point of fact, the 
 right of hereditary descent was invariably recognised 
 in the Commanders of the Faithful. 
 
1702 THE GERMAN ELECTORS. 99 
 
 The electors of the Empire at the time with which 
 we are now dealing were nine in number. Three of 
 these held their right as representatives of ecclesias- 
 tical power, the Archbishops of Mayence, Treves, and 
 Cologne, and then there were the Electors of Saxony, 
 Bohemia, Brandenburg, Bavaria, the Palatinate, and 
 the Duke of Hanover, whose family had by this time 
 been chosen to succeed to the throne of England. 
 Two of these Electors, Cologne and Bavaria, had taken 
 the side of France. The Electors of Mayence and 
 Treves maintained a neutral position, Brandenburg, 
 the Palatinate, and Hanover sided with England and 
 HoUand against France. The electorate of Branden- 
 burg had long been growing in strength and influence, 
 and just before the opening of the war Frederick the 
 Elector demanded that the Emperor, in return for his 
 promised support, should sustain his claim to be 
 created a king. The Emperor and his ministers 
 believed that it would not be for their advantage to 
 resist the claim, because if they did so they might lose 
 the powerful support of Brandenburg. Frederick, 
 therefore, was made King of Prussia. This was the 
 first recognition of that great German power which, 
 during so many generations, disputed for supremacy 
 with the Empire of Austria, and achieved its fuU 
 triumph within the memory of most of us as the result 
 of the War of 1866, that seven weeks' war which 
 ended in the defeat of Austria at Sadowa. 
 
 Frederick, the first king of Prussia, was the 
 grandfather of Frederick the Great. The Elector 
 of Saxony had become King of Poland, an electoral 
 
 H 2 
 
100 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. ti. 
 
 appointment also, and he had quite enough to do in 
 trying to maintain his position by force of arms to 
 prevent him from rendering anj assistance to the 
 alliance against France. Thus it will be easily seen 
 that the German supporters of the Grand Alliance 
 had interests of their own to consider which kept 
 them from throwing themselves heart and soul into 
 the policy represented by England and Holland. 
 France was likely to continue a powerful and dan- 
 gerous enemy in any case, aU the more dangerous 
 because she must be a neighbour as well as an enemy. 
 Nothing short of her complete overthrow, which 
 could hardly be counted upon in any scheme of 
 human policy, could seem a sufficient guarantee to 
 the German princes for a thorough adhesion to a 
 course which, even if it secured the object of 
 England and of Holland, might at any crisis, or 
 after any settlement, leave these German princes open 
 to France's future purposes of retaliation. The deter- 
 mination of England and Holland was that the King 
 of France should not absorb into his dominions the 
 kingdom of Spain ; but even if their object were to be 
 fully accomplished and the ambitious designs of 
 Louis the Fourteenth in that direction were to be 
 frustrated for ever, France might stiU be left with 
 ample power to revenge herself on some of the 
 German States which had taken up arms against 
 her. 
 
 Even as regarded England and Holland, although 
 the main and avowed purpose of both was identical, 
 it could not possibly be held that they had quite 
 
1702 THE OPENING OP THE WAE. 101 
 
 the same interest in opposing the projects of King 
 Louis for the absorption of Spain. Let the war end 
 as it might, Holland, like the German States, would 
 be left with France a dangerous neighbour, while 
 England might well regard herself as destined to 
 hold her own under all conditions against the 
 most ambitious and reckless of French sovereigns. 
 Holland, moreover, had but little interest in warlike 
 enterprise. Shipping, commerce, and handicrafts 
 were her sources of prosperity, revenue, and renown. 
 She was already one of the most active colonising 
 States in Europe, but she sought to carry out her 
 schemes of colonisation by her ships and her traders, 
 and not by force of arms. She had been drawn into 
 antagonism to France because, unless the ambition 
 of French sovereigns should receive some emphatic 
 check, she could not count on being able to conduct 
 in safety her work of commerce and of colonisation. 
 It wUl be seen during the course of this narrative 
 that in the diversity of interests which inspired the 
 Grand Alliance, even Holland often found herself 
 reluctant or unable to lend all the help to Marl- 
 borough whicli was demanded by the simple and 
 straightforward policy he had to carry out. 
 
 When the war began Leopold the First was the 
 emperor. He was then an old man, having occupied 
 the Imperial throne for not much less than half a 
 century, and before the campaigns had come to their 
 close he died. The Imperial power passed to his son 
 Joseph, a soldier and a man of genuine capacity, who 
 was much esteemed by his own people for his high 
 
102 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. ti. 
 
 character and his sincere regard for the interests of 
 his subjects. Joseph's brother Charles was the man 
 whom the Grand Alliance had chosen as the claimant 
 best entitled to the succession in Spain. 
 
 Before the war had gone on very long the Grand 
 AUiance received the accession oftwo other members. 
 One of these was Victor Amadeus the Second, Duke 
 of Savoy, who may be regarded as the founder of the 
 present kingdom of Italy. Victor Amadeus had in his 
 character much of the heroic temperament, the spirit 
 of enterprise, and the gift of acquiring popularity 
 among his subjects which the world has long been 
 accustomed to associate with the princes of the House 
 of Savoy. He had suffered so much from the in- 
 tolerance and the arrogance of Louis the Fourteenth 
 that he was almost literally driven to take up arms on 
 the side of the Grand AUiance, although the interests 
 of his people and his own inclinations might well 
 have enabled a less overbearing and unscrupulous 
 sovereign than Louis the Fourteenth to secure his co- 
 operation for the armies of France. Louis had acted 
 towards him, on more than one occasion, on the 
 impulse of the same aggressive spirit which had 
 dictated to him the ostentatious recognition of the 
 exiled Stuart prince and thus forced Wilham the 
 Third to take up arms against France. 
 
 The other ally who joined England and Holland 
 about the same time as the Duke of Savoy was the 
 King of Portugal. Bishop Burnet traces, in a few 
 lines, the history of the earlier negotiations with the 
 King of Portugal to induce him to. enter into a treaty 
 
1702 THE KING OF PORTUGAL. 103 
 
 of alliance with. England. The narrative would be 
 interesting if only as an illustration of the fluctuations 
 of principle and policy which were common among 
 the sovereigns and ministers of Continental States 
 about the time when the Grand Alliance was in pro- 
 cess of formation. The King of Portugal's ministers, 
 Burnet teUs us, ' were in the French interests, but he 
 himself inclined to the Austrian family. He for some 
 time affected retirement, and avoided the giving 
 audience to foreign ministers. He saw no good 
 prospect from England ; so, being pressed to an 
 alliance with France, his ministers got leave from him 
 to propose one on terms of such advantage to him, 
 that as it was not expected they could be granted, 
 so it was hoped this would run into a long nego- 
 tiation. But the French were as liberal in making 
 large promises, as they were perfidious in not 
 observing them ; so the King of France agreed to all 
 that was proposed, and signed a treaty pursuant to 
 it, and published it to the world. Yet the King of 
 Portugal denied that he had consented to any such 
 project ; and he was so hardly brought to sign the 
 treaty, that, when it was brought to him, he threw it 
 down and kicked it about the room, as our envoy 
 wrote over. In conclusion, however, he was pre- 
 vailed on to sign it ; but it was generally thought that 
 when he should see a good fleet come from the allies, 
 he would observe this treaty with the French as they 
 have done their treaties with all the rest of the world.' 
 The general expectation was fully borne out by 
 the result. Sir Paul Methuen, the English envoy at 
 
104 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. vi. 
 
 the Court of Portugal, succeeded in prevailing on the 
 King to cast in his lot with the States who were able 
 to offer to him the most advantageous terms. The 
 situation might be illustrated fairly enough in a few 
 lines from Sheridan's immortal comedy ' The Critic' 
 The scene is that in which Tilburina endeavours to 
 win over her father the Governor to her plans. She 
 offers him ' A retreat in Spain,' to which he rejoins 
 ' Outlawry here ; ' ' A title,' she suggests, and he replies 
 indignantly ' Honour ! ' ' A pension,' she suggests, and 
 his proud answer is ' Conscience ! ' Then she comes 
 to the point more effectively and asks him what he 
 thinks of ' A thousand pounds,' to which he replies 
 ' Ha ; thou hast touched me nearly ! ' Methuen, the 
 English envoy, offered to the King of Portugal a 
 commercial treaty with England giving the wine 
 of Portugal an immense advantage in the English 
 market over the wine of France. This induce- 
 ment touched the monarch and his ministers so 
 very nearly that it may be said to have finished the 
 negotiations. 
 
 The arrangement then made is famous in history 
 as the Methuen Treaty. That part of the bargain 
 which had most interest for coming generations was 
 the condition that the tax upon Portuguese wines 
 imported into England should be one-third less than 
 that imposed on wines coming from France, and in 
 return for this concession Portugal was to import all 
 her woollen goods from England. The treaty had a 
 very decided effect on the English upper and middle 
 classes. Up to that time the favourite drinks in 
 
1703 THE METHUEN TEEATY. 105 
 
 England, among those who could afford to drink 
 wines at all, were the clarets and burgundies of 
 France ; but the cheap admission of the stronger wine 
 from Oporto, the wine which has always since been 
 known in these countries as port, soon made it the 
 habit and the delight of a large proportion of 
 Englishmen and Scotchmen. The ancestors of the 
 present generation continued for long years to in- 
 dulge themselves freely in this powerful wine, and 
 seeing that those who came to love it indulged in 
 it quite as freely as they had allowed themselves to 
 do in claret, the influence of the Methuen Treaty 
 had anything but a wholesome effect on the heads 
 and the habits of Englishmen and Scotchmen. If 
 there had been a British Anacreon at any time 
 during the following half-century he must have sung 
 the praises of good old port, and indeed the liquid 
 may be said to have established itself in literature as 
 well as in actual life among contemporary English 
 institutions. It was recognised as a good old gentle- 
 manly habit in the days of Dr. Johnson and in the 
 days of the younger Pitt to be able to drink a 
 quantity of port every day which would have proved 
 utterly beyond the powers of a more recent genera- 
 tion. Even the medical faculty got into the way of 
 prescribing a liberal allowance of port as an essential 
 part of the true Briton's daily diet. On the other 
 hand, it is only fair to say that the milder wines of 
 France had still their champions. There are some 
 famous lines which describe the effect of the new 
 importation on the habits and nerves of the popu- 
 
106 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. ti. 
 
 lation of this island who lived on the north side of 
 
 the Tweed. Often as the lines have been quoted, we 
 
 cannot resist the temptation to quote them once 
 
 more: 
 
 Firm and erect th^ Caledonian stood ; 
 
 Sweet was his mutton, and his claret good. 
 
 ' Thoiz shalt drink port,' the English statesman cried ; 
 
 He drank the poison, and his spirit died. 
 
 The treaty was afterwards modified and altered 
 in several particulars from time to time, but it 
 remained for Mr. Gladstone, within the memory of 
 men now Uving, to give back to the wines of France 
 their admission on cheaper terms into these countries, 
 and thus to effect a genuine and a wholesome change 
 in the daily habits of the wine-drinking population. 
 The alliance between Great Britain and Portugal was 
 more durable, however, than it could have been 
 made by any conditions which merely dealt with the 
 importation of wines. England proved the trusty 
 friend of Portugal during many a change and on 
 many a battlefield in days long after the War of 
 the Spanish Succession had become merely a matter 
 of history. 
 
 Louis of France had really no allies of any impor- 
 tance in this great war. The Elector of Bavaria had 
 been brought over to the side of France, but even he 
 had not committed himself to the alliance at the time 
 when the war began. Another ally of Louis was the 
 Bavarian Elector's brother, the Elector of Cologne, 
 but the assistance which such a State could give in 
 such a struggle brought little or no serious advantage 
 
1703 vend6me. 107 
 
 witli it. King Louis had some great soldiers in his 
 army. One was his famous marshal the Duke of 
 Vend&me, the extraordinary soldier whom Macaulay 
 has described in some vigorous and vivacious 
 passages. ' This man,' says Macaulay, ' was distin- 
 guished by the filthiness of his person, by the 
 brutahty of his demeanour, by the gross buffoonery 
 of his conversation, and by the impudence with which 
 he abandoned himself to- the most nauseous of all 
 vices. His sluggishness was almost incredible. 
 , Even when engaged in a campaign, he often passed 
 whole days in his bed. His strange torpidity had 
 been the cause of some of the most serious disasters 
 which the armies of the House of Bourbon had sus- 
 tained. But when he was roused by any great 
 emergency, his resources, his energy, and his presence 
 of mind, were such as had been found in no French 
 general since the death of Luxembourg. . .' 
 
 Another of Louis' great commanders was the 
 Duke of Berwick, the illegitimate son of James the 
 Second, last Stuart, king of England, by Arabella 
 Churchill, Marlborough's sister. It was a stpnge 
 stroke of fate which thus brought Marlborough into 
 antagonism with the son of his own sister, but the 
 son of James the Second was undoubtedly in his 
 fitting place when he led a French army against the 
 soldiers of the new dynasty in England. Berwick 
 was in his way a great soldier. As a commander he 
 was cool, calculating, cautious ; he was not made 
 up of surprising contrasts and paradoxical qualities 
 like Vend6me; he had not Vendome's brilliant 
 
108 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. vi. 
 
 flashes of military genius, and moods of overwhelm- 
 ing energy, but he proved himself a commander who 
 could put to trial even the foremost of the generals 
 whom England sent to meet him on the battlefield. 
 
 France had some obvious advantages for the 
 coming struggle. She was, as a whole, obedient to 
 one supreme will. Louis the Fourteenth was a des- 
 potic monarch and under him despotic monarchy had 
 become an almost absolute power. In all that great 
 region which acknowledged his control King Louis 
 had only to issue his commands and he had no fear 
 of divided counsels among the generals and the 
 forces to whom he issued them. He had a large 
 standing army well accustomed to war, an army 
 which of late years had grown habituated to victory. 
 Nothing is more dij0&cult than to obtain a trustworthy 
 estimate as to the number of troops which the 
 belligerents on either side could bring into the field, 
 but so far as one can form an opinion it would 
 appear that France could put at the disposal of King 
 Louis a larger force than the members of the Grand 
 AUiance taken together could set in opposition to him. 
 The few allies who had been induced to pledge them- 
 selves to his support counted for almost nothing in 
 the great approaching campaign, and whether they 
 stood by him or deserted him, or actually turned 
 against him, could have made but little difference in the 
 ultimate fortunes of the war. England, on the other 
 hand, could not yet feel herself secure against the 
 chance of a movement in Scotland to restore the Stuart 
 dynasty. ' Ere the King's crown go down there are 
 
1702 THE CONDITION OF SCOTLAND. 109 
 
 heads to be broke ' are the words which Walter Scott 
 put into the mouth ofClaverhouse, whom he pictured 
 in his last efforts to restore the fortunes of the 
 Stuarts, and the words might well have applied to 
 the desperate resolve of many adherents to the fallen 
 dynasty in the early days of Queen Anne and in days 
 much later still. The condition of Scotland at the 
 time when the armies of the Grand Alliance were 
 taking the field was still far from satisfactory to the 
 Enghsh Government, and no one could venture to 
 say what the result might be if a French force were to 
 effect a landing at some seaport north of the Tweed. 
 But the intolerant pohcy of Louis had created a 
 movement among the populations who inhabited the 
 regions of the Cevennes Mountains which threatened 
 a serious trouble to his plans at a moment singularly 
 inopportune for him. The Cevennes Mountains 
 stretch for a certain distance almost side by side 
 with the Eh6ne, and then turn towards the Pyrenees 
 which, though not of great height there, are rugged 
 and steep and had at that time much marsh and 
 much forest spreading towards the Mediterranean. 
 This extensive country seemed as if it were marked 
 out by nature as a region in which a fighting and 
 desperate population, even though small in numbers, 
 could hold out long against the forces of a well-dis- 
 ciplined army, no matter what its superior strength. 
 The population of the Cevennes mountain district 
 had suffered much by the Eevocation of the Edict 
 of Nantes, for it was a strongly Protestant popula- 
 tion, and was not in the least disposed to give in 
 
110 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. vi. 
 
 to the decree of barbarous intolerance which King 
 Louis had proclaimed. The inhabitants of this 
 region belonged for the most part to a simple and 
 sturdy peasantry who had aU the faith of fanaticism 
 in their resentment of the outrageous policy put in 
 force against them, and they soon found leaders 
 capable of inspiring and guiding their desperate 
 resistance. 
 
 Almost immediately after war had been pro- 
 claimed between England and France, a rising, 
 which was begun at first by a very small number of 
 men, broke out into organised resistance to the 
 persecuting policy of King Louis. Bishop Burnet 
 describes the rising as an ' unlooked-for accident,' 
 but to those who can survey the events from the 
 clearer point of view which later years command, 
 it would seem by no means an accident or any- 
 thing unlooked for, but the natural and very justifi- 
 able result of the policy which the French King had 
 consented to put in force. 'When it first broke 
 out,' says Burnet, ' it was looked on as the efiect 
 of oppression and despair, which would quickly 
 end in a scene of blood ; but it had a much longer 
 continuance than was expected, and it had a con- 
 siderable efiect on the afiairs of France ; for an 
 army of ten or twelve thousand men, who were 
 designed either for Italy or Spain, was employed 
 without any immediate success in reducing them.' 
 In a later passage of his History Burnet tells us that 
 'The rising in the Cevennes had not been yet 
 subdued, though mareschal Montravel was sent with 
 
1703 THE RISING IN THE CEVENNES. Ill 
 
 an army to reduce or destroy them ; he committed 
 great barbarities, not only on those he found in arms, 
 but on whole villages, because they, as he was in- 
 formed, favoured them : they came often down out 
 of their hiUs in parties, ravaging the country, and 
 they engaged the King's troops with much resolution, 
 and sometimes with great advantage ; they seemed 
 resolved to accept of nothing less than the restoring 
 their edicts to them ; for a connivance at their own 
 way of worship was offered them ; they had many 
 among them who seemed quaUfied in a very singular 
 manner to be the teachers of the rest; they had a 
 great measure of zeal without any learning ; they 
 scarcely had any education at all.' 
 
 The good Bishop Burnet does not seem to have 
 been very enthusiastic in the cause of men who might 
 well be regarded as his own co-religionists. He 
 appears to have been rather surprised that they could 
 not see their way to come to terms when what he 
 describes as ' a connivance at their own way of 
 worship' was , generously tendered to them on the 
 part of King Louis. The remainder of this passage 
 from Bishop Burnet is well worthy of a place here, 
 for it illustrates very effectively the condition of the 
 times, and the spirit which animated the men of the 
 Cevennes Mountains. ' I spoke with the person who, 
 by the Queen's order, sent one among them to know 
 the state of their affairs ; I read some of the letters, 
 which he brought from them, full of a sublime zeal 
 and piety ' — the Bishop seems by this time to become 
 awake to the deeper reaUties of the rising — ' expressing 
 
112 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. n. 
 
 a courage and confidence that could not be daunted ; 
 one instance of this was, that they aU agreed, that if 
 any of them was so wounded in an engagement with 
 the enemy, that he could not be brought ofi", he 
 should be shot dead, rather than be left alive to fall 
 into the enemies' hands ; it was not possible then to 
 form a judgment of that insurrection, the reports 
 about it were so various and uncertain, it being as 
 much magnified by some, as it was undervalued by 
 others ; the whole number that they could reckon on 
 was four thousand men, but they had not arms and 
 clothes for half that number, so they used these by 
 turns, while the rest were left at home, to foUow their 
 labour ; they put the country aU about them in a 
 great fright, and to a vast expence ; while no 
 intelligence could be had of their designs, and they 
 broke out in so many different places, that aU who 
 lay within their reach were in a perpetual agitation ; 
 it was a lamentable thing that they lay so far within 
 the country, that it was not possible to send supplies 
 to them unless the Duke of Savoy should be in a 
 condition to break into Dauphiny ; and therefore 
 advices were sent them, to accept of such terms as 
 could be had, and to reserve themselves for better 
 times.' We can judge from this passage that Queen 
 Anne's advisers were willing to make the best use 
 they could of the Cevennes insurgents, but the 
 insurgents do not seem to have been inclined to 
 adopt the prudential advice offered to them, and to 
 reserve themselves for better times. 
 
 The rising came to be known as the rebellion of 
 
1703 THE CAMISAEDS. 113 
 
 the Camisards or wearers of the shirt ' camisa,' a kind 
 of blouse or smock-frock which most of them wore 
 in the first instance as a mere matter of accident or 
 convenience, which became adopted as an easy means 
 of recognition by sympathisers during the progress 
 of the struggle, and afterwards was accepted as the 
 recognised uniform and emblem of the whole insur- 
 rection. They had some resolute and capable leaders, 
 the most distinguished among whom was Jean 
 Cavaher. We shall hear more of the insurrection 
 and of this leader before long ; at present it is only 
 necessary to describe its origin and its purposes in 
 order to call attention to one serious trouble which 
 beset the Zing of France at the very opening of the 
 war — a trouble which, like many others of his reign, 
 he would never have had to encounter if he had 
 not yielded himself whoUy to that policy of persecu- 
 tion which his favourites pressed upon him. It is a 
 fact worth noticing in further illustration of this 
 point that the command of the English and Portuguese 
 forces sent by the Grand Alliance to the west of 
 Europe was given to a French Protestant, the Earl 
 of Galway, who had renounced his allegiance to 
 the French sovereign in consequence of the persecut- 
 ing policy exercised over the Protestants of France, 
 had accepted a commission from King William, and 
 now, honoured with an Irish peerage, was to render 
 brilliant service to the cause of the Allies against 
 Louis the Fourteenth. 
 
 On the other hand, the German Emperor was 
 weakened to a great extent by the effects of a like 
 
 VOL. I. I 
 
114 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. vi. 
 
 policy of persecution. The Provinces of Hungary 
 and Transylvania had long been disaffected towards 
 the Imperial rule by the fact that the Protestant 
 populations, who resented bitterly the manner in 
 which they had been oppressed because of their 
 religion, were always looking out for any alliance 
 which might give them a chance of rising against the 
 Imperial rule, and were positively craving for any 
 opportunity of accomphshing a complete separation 
 from Austria. Nor can it be forgotten that England 
 by her treatment of the Catholics in Ireland had 
 driven the Irish people into sympathy with the Stuart 
 cause, and by her treatment of the Scottish 
 Presbyterians was at that very time arousing the 
 sentiment in Scotland which made that country a 
 favourable arena for any attempt at a restoration 
 of the exiled dynasty. More than one English 
 historical writer has deduced an obvious lesson as to 
 the political consequences of religious persecution 
 from the manner in which Prance was weakened by 
 her treatment of the Huguenots after the revocation of 
 the Edict of Nantes, and the German Empire was 
 enfeebled by its treatment of the Protestants in 
 Hungary. But these writers have failed to draw any 
 moral from the fact that England herself was suffering 
 because of the manner in which she had oppressed the 
 Cathohcs in Ireland and the Presbyterians in Scotland. 
 The truth is, that in those times there was not much 
 to choose, so far as the policy of religious persecu- 
 tion was concerned, between one State and another, 
 between one sovereign and his rival. 
 
115 
 
 CHAPTEE VII 
 
 ' THE CAMPAIGN ' — BLENHEIM 
 
 The story of the war has to divide itself into two 
 parts, the operations in the Low Countries and 
 Germany, and those which were carried on in the 
 south-west of the European Continent. The Dutch 
 people had of their own free wiU, and on the in- 
 spiration of their best national advisers, agreed to 
 place their forces under the command of the Duke 
 of Marlborough. They had recognised from the first 
 the great military and political capacity of Marl- 
 borough, who had indeed made himself well known 
 and very popular among the Dutch people, and they 
 saw the immense advantage of having the full control 
 of the armies operating in that part of Europe placed 
 in the hands of one leader, especially when that 
 leader was endowed with such gifts for the conduct 
 of a war as they could not but acknowledge to be 
 the possession of Marlborough. As the war went on 
 it brought out a whole group of generals whose 
 names have taken an enduring place in history: 
 Marlborough himself. Prince Eugene of Savoy, 
 Peterborough, and many others on the side of the 
 Grand Alliance ; Vendome, Berwick, and others on 
 the side of France. It was a war of navies as well 
 
 I 2 
 
116 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. vn. 
 
 as of armies, and on the sea the Grand Alliance * 
 naturally made a splendid show, the feats of Eooke 
 alone having raised monuments of English victory 
 which are holding their firm place up to the present 
 hour. No such war was ever seen in Europe from 
 that time until the outbreak of the French Eevo- 
 lution, when the policy of European States in en- 
 deavouring to overbear the national impulse of the 
 French people opened a field for the genius of the 
 First Napoleon. 
 
 The War of the Succession proved itself a test 
 for the national endurance and resolve of peoples, 
 alike for the genius of commanders and the 
 discipline of armies. It was a struggle in which the 
 survival of the fittest was amply, and we might 
 almost say scientifically, illustrated and demonstrated. 
 It exhibited a series of campaigns under the most 
 varying conditions, and the lessons to be learned 
 from aU the wars of former and succeeding days 
 might be studied in the history of that one tremen- 
 dous struggle. Many of the predictions which were 
 most confidently made at the opening of the 
 campaign were falsified before it had nearly come to 
 a close. In quarters where weakness of resistance 
 had been generally taken for granted an unconquer- 
 able resolve to hold out to the very last compelled 
 universal recognition. On the other hand, the very 
 difficulties at the outset considered most formidable 
 gave way with a suddenness which reduced to 
 mere confusion all previous calculations. The war 
 was great as a magnificent military pageant, but it 
 
1702 ENGLAND'S FOEOES. 117 
 
 can hardly be called great in its abiding results. 
 When all was done it left the political arrangements 
 of the European Continent very much as it had 
 found them. England, of course, although she took 
 the leading part in the struggle, was safe enough in 
 her insular position, and in the strength of her armies 
 and her fleets, not to be exposed to the risk of any 
 lasting disadvantage from the greatest successes her 
 enemies could obtain in the field. She had a strong- 
 hold to which, at the worst, she could always retire 
 and bid defiance to the vengeful malice of her 
 bitterest foes. The armies which could not stand 
 against Marlborough and his English troops on the 
 Continental battlefields were not likely to have 
 any chance of doing better if they were to attempt 
 an invasion of England. Even if we leave England 
 out of the calculation, it must be observed that France 
 and the Empire found themselves after the close of 
 the war in very much the same condition as before 
 its opening. It was reserved for other events and 
 for a much later time to call into existence that 
 newer German Empire which superseded Austria 
 as the representative of the German-speaking popu- 
 lations, and to create that kingdom of Italy which 
 was welcomed with so much enthusiasm by modern 
 civilisation. 
 
 The force which England sent to serve under 
 Marlborough in that part of the campaign which 
 was to be conducted in the Low Countries- was to 
 consist of 40,000 men. A separate force was to be 
 sent by England to Portugal, and 40,000 men were 
 
118 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. yii. 
 
 voted for the Navy. The Emperor, and the German 
 States which acted on his side, were to furnish 120,000 
 men. England had to make great efforts in order to 
 obtain the requisite number of troops for her army, 
 and the statute-book for this part of Queen Anne's 
 reign bears testimony still to the new measures 
 which had to be adopted in order to tempt recruits 
 to enter the military service. The armies of France 
 were understood to bring into the field a number 
 much larger than those provided by England and 
 her allies. The object of Marlborough was to 
 capture at once as many as possible of the strong 
 places which France had obtained by former cam- 
 paigns in the region of the Low Countries and 
 Germany, and thus to secure a vantage ground as a 
 starting-point for his movements, and at the same 
 time to establish a safe barrier between the opera- 
 tions of his Dutch allies and the operations of their 
 French enemies. His policy was to make a sudden 
 rush at the opening of the war, and thus at once to 
 impress the enemy with a recognition of his military 
 energy and power, to upset all the calculations which 
 his enemies had formed as to their means of directing 
 the campaign, and to keep the Dutch forces perfectly 
 free for the arrangement and development of their 
 own movements. 
 
 In the history of the war we shall find that there 
 were two distinct orders of generalship. One class 
 of leaders relied mainly on slow and steady movement, 
 on the old familiar Fabian policy of patient endurance, 
 waiting for the right opportunity to strike a heavy 
 
1702 MAELBOROUGH IN THE FIELD. 119 
 
 blow, and holding out against all difficulties and 
 disasters ; the other a policy of sudden rush, 
 bewildering the antagonist by its unlooked-for 
 impulse and energy. In times within the recollec- 
 tion of living men we have seen how in two great 
 campaigns the Prussian generalship, first displayed 
 against the Austrians, and not long after against the 
 French, succeeded in thus upsetting all the pre- 
 liminary calculations of the enemy, and making the 
 first blow struck in the campaign an omen of the 
 final and decisive victory. The generalship of 
 Marlborough shone with equal brilliancy in each 
 mode of warfare. Marlborough was great ahke in 
 a plan of sudden unforeseen rush, and in slow steady 
 patient movement. He was always open to the 
 suggestions and the advice of those who acted in 
 alliance with him, and if he saw any plan which he 
 believed to be superior to his own, he was ready to 
 adopt it ; he entered fuUy into its spirit and carried 
 it out to better effect than its authors could them- 
 selves have done. But it need hardly be said that 
 throughout the whole of his campaigns he very 
 seldom met with instances of this kind, and after a 
 prompt but fuU consideration of all the plans he 
 almost always saw that his own was best adapted 
 for its purpose. Like Olive at his council of war he 
 gave every suggestion its due consideration, and 
 then quietly adopted the advice of his own judgment 
 and acted upon it. We shall see during the course 
 of the war that he could show under the most 
 adverse conditions that subHme patience, that slow 
 
120 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. vii. 
 
 unconquerable power of mere endurance which a 
 great soldier of modern times — General Grant, after- 
 wards President of the United States — once described 
 to the author of these volumes as the most essential 
 quality for successful command. 
 
 By a series of sudden and daring movements 
 Marlborough captured a number of the French 
 strongholds, and thus made the ground which they 
 had occupied a most convenient theatre for the 
 exercise of his own operations. The capture of 
 some of these towns and strong places was ac- 
 companied by picturesque incidents of bravery 
 which have won a place never to be forgotten in 
 the history of modern warfare. Marlborough him- 
 self on one occasion escaped by the merest chance, 
 and by a curious stroke of good fortune, the fate of 
 falling into the hands of his French enemies. For 
 a time the appalling news spread through the 
 Dutch people in the Low Countries that the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief had been taken prisoner by the 
 French, and the consternation spread by this report 
 was only outdone by the exultation which followed 
 the certain and prompt news that he and his allies 
 had been saved from such a disaster. 
 
 Marlborough was, indeed, an innovator on the 
 old-fashioned forms of campaigning which had for 
 some time prevailed on the Continent of Europe. The 
 slow and steady etiquette — for it may almost be 
 called so — ^which had governed the plans of regular 
 campaign was totally upset, was put to complete 
 confusion and disorder by the daring inspiration of 
 
1702 THE CAPTURE OF LlIlGE. 121 
 
 Marlborough's niilitary genius. On the other hand, 
 the enemies who had begun to look for sudden 
 movements and surprises and were trying to shape 
 their own plans in order to counteract such a policy, 
 found their calculations often reduced to bewildering 
 nothingness when it suited Marlborough to remain 
 quiet and motionless until some special opportunity, 
 on which he had been carefully calculating, afforded 
 him the means of making the decisive stroke which 
 it had been his object aU through to accomplish. 
 Thus the French commanders began to have the 
 conviction borne in upon them that there was no 
 counting on Marlborough, that when they had made 
 aU their plans to resist some sudden onward move- 
 ment their hopes were utterly disappointed and 
 Marlborough frustrated all their arrangements by a 
 course of deliberation and delay, and then made his 
 sudden stroke from some direction which no foresight 
 of theirs had led them to anticipate and guard 
 against. "With the capture by storm of Li^ge, then 
 a city nominally independent but garrisoned by the 
 French, the English commander completed his plan 
 for clearing and securing an advantageous basis of 
 operations for himself and his Dutch allies. 
 
 The lower vaUey of the Ehine was now one of 
 the frontiers of what may be called Marlborough's 
 camping ground. This was the first genuine discom- 
 fiture which the French had received for many years 
 in their movements of aggression on the field of Con- 
 tinental warfare, and the news was received with 
 unbounded exultation in England. It was for that 
 
122 THE HEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. tii. 
 
 successful enterprise that Marlborough received his 
 dukedom, and Queen Anne herself attended a solemn 
 ceremonial in St. Paul's to celebrate the victory. 
 The desire and the obvious policy of Marlborough 
 were that he should follow up his advantage by 
 a series of bold movements, and that he should 
 make an attack on the city of Antwerp itself. But 
 he was greatly hampered in the execution of his 
 plans by the delays in council, and the difficulties put 
 in the way of his prompt action by his Dutch aUies. 
 The generals of the Dutch forces were accompanied 
 by a number of delegates from the central authorities 
 of the United Provinces, whose business it was to 
 consult with the commanding officers on every 
 military plan, and to insist that their own sugges- 
 tions and their own advice should be listened to 
 before any active step was taken. In point of fact, 
 Marlborough found himself thus accompanied every- 
 where by what may be called a civilian council of war, 
 and the civilian council appears to have been actuated 
 by a business-like anxiety to consider the cost and 
 the risk of every movement before giving it approval. 
 Such a course of proceeding might have been highly 
 reasonable and prudent in the commercial transac- 
 tions of life, and a cautious trader might fairly have 
 been allowed to satisfy himself that the possible 
 profits of an undertaking would be worth the certain 
 risk and expense, before committing himself to its 
 execution. Even in ordinary commercial transac- 
 tions, however, it might easily happen that the too 
 slow and cautious speculator would find the possible 
 
1702 ALLIES AND DELAYS. 123 
 
 opportunity secured in advance by some more enter- 
 prising rival, and in the business of war the more 
 successful rival is not likely to be content with 
 merely securing the gain for himself, but will aim at 
 the complete destruction of his opponent. Marl- 
 borough was to a great extent dependent on his 
 Dutch allies for supplies and for forces, and he had 
 to know, over and over again, that while the chances 
 of this or that plan were the subject of slow and 
 steady discussion, the opportunity for carrying it out 
 was passing away, and encouragement was given to 
 the enemy to make a forward movement of his own 
 on the delaying English and Dutch allies. 
 
 A large part of what is now the 'kingdom of 
 Belgium was at this time still under the dominion 
 of Spain, and so far as regards the purposes of the 
 war might be considered in the enemy's country. 
 The capture of Antwerp would have made Marl- 
 borough master of a splendid field for the operation 
 of his further plans, but owing to the hampering 
 influence of his allies he found that it would be 
 hopeless for him to undertake such an enterprise at 
 that time, and he had therefore to content himself 
 with obtaining possession of Bonn on the Ehine, and 
 thus securing still further his expanded vantage 
 ground. Meanwhile there had been some spirited 
 fighting in North Italy, and a victory won at 
 Cremona over the French forces had made the Empire 
 safe for a time against any invasion of the armies 
 of King Louis from that quarter. The victory of 
 Cremona was won by Prince Eugene of Savoy, who 
 
124 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. vii. 
 
 commanded the allied armies in the northern parts of 
 Italy. Up to this time Marlborough and Eugene 
 had never met, but from this time Marlborough 
 began to see in Eugene the promise of a military co- 
 operation and comradeship which might well be 
 worth cultivating, and a confidential communication 
 set in between the two generals whose names were 
 destined to be afterwards Unked together in fame. 
 Even with such a distance between them, Marlborough 
 could follow the movements of Prince Eugene's game. 
 Prince Eugene, ' der edle Eitter ' of German song, 
 was one of the heroic soldiers of the war. His name 
 will always be associated with that of Marlborough. 
 As we have already said, he was a younger son of the 
 House of Savoy. He was the youngest son of the 
 Prince of Savoy-Carignan, and his mother was a niece 
 of Cardinal Mazarin. From his birth he thus may 
 be said to have combined two nationalities, for he 
 was born in Paris, he was brought up in the Court of 
 Louis the Fourteenth, and he was intended for the 
 priesthood ; but he had no calling whatever for the 
 clerical profession, and even in his boyish studies 
 showed already his taste for a military life and his 
 determination to be a soldier. Indeed if destiny 
 ever had marked out a young man for the business 
 of the camp and the battlefield, Eugene of Savoy may 
 be said to have had his destiny thus forecast for him. 
 After the death of his father some estrangement arose 
 between Louis the Fourteenth and the widow of the 
 Savoy prince. In those days and in that sphere it 
 was no uncommon thing that the favoured courtier 
 
1703 'DER EDLE RITTER.' 125 
 
 of one week should be the discredited exile of the 
 next, and Eugene's mother was banished from the 
 Court. King Louis refused the application which 
 Eugene had made for a commission in the royal army, 
 spoke slightingly of him as a little abbe, and made 
 it only too clear to him that he must expect no 
 toleration from the Court of France. Eugene from 
 that time ceased to regard himself as a Frenchman, 
 renounced his allegiance to the King of France, and 
 took service under the Emperor. He got his first 
 taste of warfare in an expedition against the Turks, 
 in which he displayed all the courage and ability 
 that his most admiring comrades of former days 
 could have expected of him. When the Emperor 
 was engaged in war against Louis the Fourteenth in 
 Italy, Prince Eugene had opportunities of paying oflF 
 some of his old scores against the Grand Monarch, 
 and at a later day he won European renown by the 
 defeats which he inflicted on the Turks in Hungary, 
 defeats which may be said to have formed a decisive 
 chapter in the history of Turkish aggression. His 
 success in this campaign gave him the foremost 
 position among the commanders in the Imperial 
 service. 
 
 When the War of the Spanish Succession began 
 Eugene was put in command of the Imperial forces, 
 and the conditions of the campaign brought him 
 into co-operation with Marlborough. Between Marl- 
 borough and Eugene a friendship soon sprang up 
 which only deepened as time went on. The two men 
 were not, by any means, alike in character or in 
 
126 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. vn. 
 
 temperament. Eugene had the single-mindedness 
 and the romantic nature of the knight-errant. 
 Marlborough, with many noble qualities, was 
 capable of almost any act of treachery where he 
 saw his way to secure some prize, and believed 
 the prize to be worth the temporary sacrifice of 
 principle and honour. The two men differed from 
 each other as much in military disposition as in 
 personal character. Eugene was all compact of head- 
 long courage and almost heedless impetuosity. His 
 motto was ' Ever forward.' His men would have 
 followed him anywhere, and it has to be said that he 
 would have led them anywhere, no matter how im- 
 possible the success of the enterprise might be, if the 
 passion took him for the rush of an onward move- 
 ment. He had none of Marlborough's superb 
 patience, none of his calm steady foresight, none of 
 his comprehensive calculating power. Eugene, in 
 fact, was a splendid leader of cavalry, a knight with- 
 out fear and without reproach, but Marlborough was 
 one of the greatest commanders whose names live 
 in history. The two men, however, were thoroughly 
 in sympathy. Eugene appreciated the supreme 
 qualities of Marlborough, and Marlborough under- 
 stood Eugene's noble nature and the extent and the 
 limits of his mihtary capacity. 
 
 Marlborough always said that there was nothing 
 that he could not trust to Eugene, and nothing that 
 Eugene could not do if he only got a fair opportunity. 
 During many stages of the campaign they were 
 divided from each other by wide distances and were 
 
1702 A SEKIOUS CEISIS. 127 
 
 often compelled to act as if in absolute independence. 
 But whenever it was possible for them to keep in 
 touch with each other they did thus keep in touch, 
 and the genius of Marlborough was enabled at once 
 to direct the energies and to profit by the suggestions 
 of Eugene. 
 
 A serious crisis intervened for the time in the 
 plans of Marlborough. Owing to the continuous 
 obstacles interposed in his way by the slowness, the 
 unwillingness, and the incessant councillings of his 
 Dutch allies, he found it impossible to carry out his 
 enterprise for the capture of Antwerp. The armies 
 of the Allies in other parts of the Continental field of 
 campaign had received some serious checks from the 
 French, which even the brilliant success of Prince 
 Eugene at Cremona had not done much to counter- 
 balance. King Louis could only see that Marlborough 
 was not keeping up his sudden forward movement ; 
 he had yet no means of divining that the delay was 
 owing entirely to the slowness and hesitation of the 
 Dutch commissioners, and he seems to have taken 
 it for granted that the delay denoted some hesitation 
 on the part of Marlborough himself. The result was 
 that Louis began to feel greatly encouraged as to the 
 prospects of the campaign, and was forming schemes 
 in his mind for a forward and daring movement on 
 the part of the main French army. Marlborough 
 probably guessed by instinct that King Louis was 
 meditating some decisive movement which for the 
 moment he could do nothing to prevent or even 
 discourage. At one time he felt so disgusted by the 
 
128 THE EEiaN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. vn. 
 
 enforced inaction to which, he saw himself doomed, 
 for the moment, that he was actually making up his 
 mind to resign his command and to leave the Grand 
 Alliance to try what it could do without him. He 
 went so far as to let the home Government know that 
 he was unwilling to assume the responsibility any 
 further, and it required all the assurances and the 
 pressure of Godolphin to prevail on him not to 
 resign his command. Marlborough had great faith 
 in the judgment and resource of Godolphin, and 
 so long as he could feel assured that he might rely 
 upon the home Government for fuU support in any 
 enterprise he might decide upon, he was not the man 
 to give way before adverse conditions. 
 
 Marlborough's hands were very full about this 
 time. He was the political as weU as the military 
 adviser of the English Government, of the Emperor, 
 and of the United Provinces. He was unceasingly 
 engaged in efforts to bring about a better under- 
 standing between the Emperor and the Protestants of 
 Hungary. He was doing aU he could to stimulate 
 and make use of the rising in the Cevennes. 
 Marlborough hated nothing so much as the writing 
 of letters, and only the pressure of actual necessity 
 could compel him to send home despatches 
 sufficiently long for the information of Queen Anne's 
 ministers. Yet, it should be said that even in his 
 seasons of greatest stress he could always find time 
 to write love-letters to the imperious wife whom he 
 adored, and to assure her that in the midst of all 
 his battles, his sieges, and his various other troubles. 
 
1703-4 JEAN CAVALIER. 129 
 
 he was always her devoted admirer and her faithful 
 servant. 
 
 The rising in the Cevennes had assumed very 
 serious proportions. The efforts of Louis to put 
 down the movement by mere slaughter and cruelty 
 had proved wholly ineffectual. Jean Cavalier and 
 his Camisards were not men to be crushed into 
 submission. They had risen in rebellion for a cause 
 which was much dearer to them than life. In an 
 appeal which they addressed to the Governments of 
 England and of Holland they set forth their purposes 
 and their resolves in the most straightforward and 
 manly terms. ' We are ourselves,' they said, ' not in 
 rebellion against our lawful prince, but merely to 
 defend a right of nature. We follow but the dictates 
 of our conscience. We are not to be frightened by 
 numbers, however superior to our own. We desire 
 to harm no persons who do not strive to harm us. 
 But we shall not hesitate to make just reprisals 
 against our persecutors as we are sanctioned in doing 
 by the common laws of nations, by the common 
 practice and also by the Word of God.' Sometimes, 
 it may be admitted, the reprisals which they did 
 attempt and carry out were undoubtedly cruel and 
 severe, but they were driven to positive desperation 
 by the savage cruelties inflicted on them and on aU 
 around who encouraged and supported, or were 
 believed to encourage and support, them. Their 
 course, in fact, was clear. They were determined 
 that so long as any of them remained ahve to fight 
 for their cause, they would fight for it to the bitter 
 
 VOL. I, K 
 
130 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. vn. 
 
 end. It became evident that nothing but a war 
 of extermination could bring the rising to a close. 
 Jean Cavalier showed the true spirit of a gallant and 
 unconquerable soldier. 
 
 Louis at last sent against them one of his greatest 
 military commanders, Marshal ViUars; but Villars, 
 who was a man of keen judgment and on the whole 
 of enhghtened views, soon saw that the only way to 
 success must lie in keeping up the fight until the 
 last of the Camisards had been done to death ; he 
 knew well what such a policy as this must cost his 
 Eoyal master, and he was not the man to enter on 
 it except as the last possible resource. He saw 
 and thoroughly appreciated the military genius of 
 Cavaher, and he ventured on his own account to 
 make overtures which showed his willingness to 
 enter into conditions that might lead to a lasting 
 peace. He offered to open negotiations with 
 Cavalier. The result was that arrangements were 
 made by which, under certain conditions, some- 
 thing hke liberty of conscience was guaranteed to 
 the rebels, with a free pardon to aU of them who 
 were willing to accept the terms, and immunity 
 for the region from the oppressive taxation until 
 that part of the country should have had some 
 breathing time to recover from the cruel effects of 
 the previous devastation. Cavalier accepted the 
 conditions, although he had much difl&culty in pre- 
 vaiHng upon some of his followers to be guided by 
 him and to act upon\ his decision, so deeply rooted 
 was the terror with which the hitherto remorseless 
 
1704 THE TEEMS "WITH CAVALIER. 131 
 
 policy of Louis had filled their minds and hearts. 
 Cavaher, however, was influential enough to have his 
 way with the main body of the insurgents, and the 
 result was that, although the rebellion stiU held out 
 for a time, it greatly lost its force, and after a while 
 the large majority of the inhabitants were enabled to 
 return to their industrial occupations and to live in 
 peace. It must be added that in some instances the 
 terms of the treaty were carried out by the French 
 Government in a grudging and a niggardly spirit, and 
 that a large emigration from the oppressed district 
 set in. 
 
 For the time the struggle was over, and 
 Cavalier accepted service under the Government of 
 Queen Anne. He was dispatched into Spain, and in 
 command of a gallant band of his Camisards he bore 
 a brave part afterwards in the memorable battle 
 of Almanza. Cavalier himself, leading a desperate 
 charge, was severely wounded, and was left for dead 
 on the battlefield. He recovered, and was made a 
 general in the English army, and in the service of 
 England he continued until his death. When peace 
 was restored he was appointed Governor of Jersey 
 and afterwards of the Isle of Wight, and died quietly 
 in Chelsea, in the May of 1740. We are anticipating 
 time and events in order to complete at once the 
 story of this brave and noble career. 
 
 For the present we must turn to the position 
 of Marlborough as he found himself after he had 
 made up his mind to go on with his command to 
 the last. In the meantime Prince Eugene and his 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. to. 
 
 forces had come into Bavaria, and Marlborough. 
 was thus enabled to enter into frequent communi- 
 cation with the gallant Prince of Savoy. The two 
 commanders met for the first time in the Duchy of 
 Wurtemburg, and there they spent some days together 
 and arranged their plans for an active and decisive 
 co-operation. 
 
 King Louis, as we have already said, had become 
 inspired by the resolve to make a supreme effort 
 which should utterly confound the whole policy of 
 the EngUsh and the Dutch. His project was to 
 invade the Empire itself, and to make a forward 
 movement which was to end in nothing less than 
 the siege and capture of the Emperor's capital, 
 Vienna. Marlborough seems to have divined his 
 purpose by one of those instinctive impulses of 
 military genius and inspiration which did him such 
 splendid service during the whole of his career. 
 Louis put into the field all the forces he could 
 command, but he kept on sending separate armies 
 on different expeditions, threatening this or that 
 member of the Grand Alliance, in order to divert 
 attention from the master-stroke of military enter- 
 prise which it was his purpose and his hope to 
 direct to a complete success. Marlborough thoroughly 
 appreciated the plan. It was just such a plan as 
 he himself, under like conditions, would have made 
 up his mind to put into action. He felt sure that 
 he understood the King's intentions, and that he 
 knew the best way to frustrate them. In the 
 famous words which Grattan apphed to Edmund 
 
1704 MARLBOROUGH CROSSES THE DANUBE. 133 
 
 Burke, ' lie saw everytliing — he foresaw everything.' 
 He determined to force the French into a great 
 pitched battle, and to upset all their calculations by 
 a signal victory. 
 
 The policy of the French had, up to this time, 
 been to evade anything like a decisive encounter 
 on a grand scale, to play a sort of waiting game, and 
 to take all the advantage they possibly could from 
 the difficulties put in Marlborough's way by the 
 slowness of his aUies and by the manner in which the 
 forces of the Grand Alliance were compelled to act 
 on so many and so widely separated fields. Marl- 
 borough forced the counsels and the hands of his 
 Dutch allies. He suddenly crossed the Neckar and 
 directed his movements right through Germany 
 towards the Danube, formed a junction with the 
 army of the Emperor under the Prince of Baden, 
 stormed the heights which were guarded by some 
 of the French allies, crossed the Danube itself, and 
 made his way iuto Bavaria. There he encountered 
 the French forces, strengthened by the coming of 
 Marshal TaUard on the scene to the assistance of 
 the Bavarian troops. Marlborough effected a junc- 
 tion with the force commanded by Prince Eugene. 
 Marshal Tallard had at his back an army of more 
 than 30,000 men, who, when joined with the troops 
 under the command of the Bavarian Prince, num- 
 bered about 60,000, and thus the forces of King 
 Louis were strengthened so far as to give them 
 an advantage ia numbers over those of the Grand 
 Alliance. The allied armies now had at that place 
 
134 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. tii. 
 
 and time a number of about 52,000 fighting men, 
 but Tallard was strongly entrenched, and in the matter 
 of artillery was much stronger than his opponents. 
 
 The French were stiU anxious to avoid, at all 
 events to postpone, a great engagement, which it was 
 Marlborough's determination to force on them at 
 once. This resolve was Marlborough's own policy 
 altogether. There were some of the officers, even 
 under his own command, who tried to persuade him 
 that his policy was not only dangerous but despe- 
 rate. The mind of Marlborough was clearly made 
 up. He assured them that a great engagement was 
 necessary to their united purpose ; that he could 
 trust to the bravery and energy of the allied troops to 
 carry aU before them, and that now was the time and 
 in front of them lay the field where the great battle 
 must be fought and, as he felt convinced, could 
 actually be won. Night was approaching and Marl- 
 borough spent part of that night in prayer and the 
 remaining hours in close counsel with Prince Eugene. 
 When the first rays of light began to show themselves 
 in the summer sky on the morning of August 13 the 
 English commander gave the signal for a forward 
 movement. The scene of action enclosed the little 
 village of Blenheim, the name of which is destined 
 to be as famous in history as that of Waterloo. 
 
 The village of Blenheim stands on the north bank 
 of the Danube, which is there broad, deep, and very 
 rapid ; at a point not far below the village a small 
 stream, the Nebel, runs into the great river. The land 
 there was at that time almost aU swampy, but crossed 
 
1704 THE IRISH BRIGADE. 135 
 
 by some well-wooded Mils. Prince Eugene, in ac- 
 cordance with, the directions of Marlborough, made 
 the first movement. Marlborough was at the centre 
 of the English forces. The first business of the 
 English commander was to accomplish the crossing 
 of the Nebel streamlet. Tallard seems to have taken 
 the enemies' movements rather too easily and con- 
 fidently. He probably thought either that they could 
 not succeed in crossing the stream, or that if they 
 did cross it and get into the marshy and hiUy regions 
 beyond, they would become so much disordered by 
 the efEort that to crush them in their disarray would 
 be an easy piece of work for him. Tallard as a 
 soldier belonged rather to the old school; he was 
 a believer in a deliberate and methodical policy, 
 governed by ancient and well-established rules, and 
 did not count on the perfect order which the troops 
 of Marlborough had learned to maintain even in the 
 fiercest rush of a sudden onward movement. On the 
 right of Marlborough's centre one force of the Allies 
 had made an attack, and were encountered, delayed, 
 and actually driven back for a time by the impetuous 
 rush of the Irish Brigade. This Irish Brigade was 
 made up of a large number of exiles from Ireland 
 who had been trained on many battlefields and had 
 taken service under the King of France. During 
 generations in the past and for some time to come, 
 there was hardly a battle fought between an army of 
 England and an army of France in which the French 
 cause was not brilliantly sustained by a regiment 
 of Irishmen, whom the policy of successive English 
 
136 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. vn. 
 
 governments had driven from tlie service of England 
 and had forced to take arms on the side of England's 
 great enemy. 
 
 The news was soon brought to Marlborough 
 that the hne of the English troops had been broken 
 by the bold rush of the Irish Brigade, and that 
 there was even a possibility of aU communication 
 with the troops under Prince Eugene being cut off. 
 This was just the crisis to call into action the genius 
 of a commander like Marlborough, if indeed any other 
 commander of that age could be said to be like Marl- 
 borough. Marlborough took the field at once, drove 
 back the Irish Brigade, and before the evening had far 
 advanced the whole of his cavalry had been brought 
 across the stream. Marlborough ordered a general 
 advance of his main body against the lines of the 
 defending French. Then the great battle took 
 place, and it did not last long. The French were 
 completely defeated, and Marshal Tallard himself 
 was made a prisoner while endeavouring to find shelter 
 in Blenheim. Marlborough behaved with gracious 
 courtesy to the distinguished prisoner, put his own 
 carriage at TaUard's disposal, and saw that the French 
 Marshal was secured against aU danger. Then he 
 found time to write the despatch which is stiU pre- 
 served and makes a part of English history. The 
 dispatch was dated August 13, 1704. These were its 
 words : ' I have not time to say more, but to beg 
 you wiU give my duty to the Queen, and let Her 
 know Her Army has had a Glorious Victory. Monsr. 
 TaUard and two other Generals are in my Coach, and I 
 
1704 THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM. 137 
 
 am following the rest. The bearer, my Aide-de-Camp, 
 Coll. Parke, will give Her an account of what has 
 pass'd. I shall doe,' he thus wrote in his old-fashioned 
 spelling, 'it in a day or two by another more att 
 large.' The dispatch was signed ' Marlborough.' 
 
 The village of Blenheim itself had still to be 
 captured by the forces of the Allies. Blenheim 
 had been occupied by some French battalions, 
 and these were as yet in possession of the place. It 
 was not a fortified place ; was not a stronghold 
 in any sense of the word. It was a convenient 
 possession for the French commander as a starting 
 point for the conduct of his operations, and if he 
 could only have cleared Marlborough and Eugene 
 out of the field, it would have been a convenient 
 place to return to, and would have served as the scene 
 of new preparations. The French troops who fell 
 back upon it, and occupied it after the defeat of the 
 main army, soon found that it was impossible to hold 
 it as a place of arms. They had the English army 
 in front and the Danube behind. Many tried to 
 swim the river and lost their lives in the attempt. 
 Marlborough's troops kept up a continual firing on 
 the French troops who were thus beleaguered, and 
 gave them little opportunity of escape. The French 
 behaved bravely, and many of the officers and 
 men were weU inclined to stand the final assault 
 of the allied forces and give up their lives rather 
 than yield the place. More prudent counsels, how- 
 ever, prevailed — ^to hold out would have led to a 
 mere slaughter. The capture of the place was 
 
138 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. vii. 
 
 inevitable; further resistance only meant the futile 
 destruction of brave men in masses. The surrender 
 was made, and the battle was over. According to 
 the most accurate accounts which can be obtained, 
 Marlborough and his allies had about 52,000 men in 
 the field, while the French had somewhat more than 
 60,000. The loss of the EngUsh and their allies in 
 kiUed, wounded, and missing was about 11,000, and 
 that of the French amounted to more than 40,000 
 killed or taken prisoners, to say nothing of the large 
 numbers who were not likely to answer any roll-call, 
 but were wandering as stragglers and fugitives over 
 the face of the country. 
 
 Bishop Burnet's concise account of the great 
 battle is of the highest value, because it is taken, for 
 the most part, at first hand and on the best authority. 
 ' I will not,' says the Bishop modestly, ' venture on a 
 particular relation of that great day.' But then he 
 goes on to say that he has ' seen a copious account 
 of it, prepared by the duke of Marlborough's orders, 
 that wiU be printed some time or other ; but there 
 are some passages in it, which make him not think it 
 fit to be published presently. He told me he never 
 saw more evident characters of a special providence 
 than appeared that day ; a signal one related to his 
 own person ; a cannon-ball went into the ground so 
 near him, that he was some time quite covered with 
 the cloud of dust and earth that it raised about him.' 
 Then the Bishop proceeds, as he says, to sum up the 
 action in a few words. 
 
 ' Our men (^[uickly passed the brook, the French 
 
1704 BURNET'S DESCEIPTION. 139 
 
 making no opposition. This was a fatal error, and 
 was laid wholly to TaUard's charge. The action that 
 followed was for some time very hot, many fell on 
 both sides ; ten battalions of the French stood their 
 ground, but were in a manner mowed down in their 
 raiiks ; upon that the horse ran many of them into 
 the Danube, most of these perished ; TaUard himself 
 was taken prisoner. The rest of his troops were 
 posted in the village of Blenheim ; these, seeing aU 
 lost, and that some bodies were advancing upon 
 them, which seemed to them to be thicker than 
 indeed they were, and apprehending that it was 
 impossible to break through, they did not attempt 
 it, though brave men might have made their way. 
 Instead of that, when our men came up to set fire to 
 the village, the Earl of Orkney first beating a parley, 
 they hearkened to it very easily, and were aU made 
 prisoners of war ; there were about thirteen hundred 
 officers and twelve thousand common soldiers, who 
 laid down their arms, and were now in our hands. 
 Thus all TaUard's army was either kUled in the 
 action, drowned in the Danube, or become prisoners 
 by capitulation. Things went not so easily on 
 prince Eugene's side, where the elector and Marsin 
 commanded ; he was repulsed in three attacks, but 
 carried the fourth, and broke in; and so he was 
 master of their camp, cannon, and baggage. The 
 enemy retired in some order, and he pursued 
 them as far as men wearied with an action of 
 about six hours, in an extremely hot day, could 
 go. Thus we gained an entire victory. In this 
 
140 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. tii. 
 
 action there were on our side about twelve thousand 
 killed and wounded; but the French and the 
 elector lost about forty thousand, kUled, wounded, 
 and taken.' 
 
 Bishop Burnet seems to have been inclined to 
 disparage the spirit with which the French who 
 occupied the village of Blenheim were disposed to 
 encounter their enemies. Many accounts of that part 
 of the day's events given by observers on the English 
 side bear willing and generous testimony to the courage 
 displayed by the French, and to the fact that the 
 French officers in command had some difficulty in 
 prevailing on their men not to struggle on to the 
 very last. It is even stated that one French regiment 
 burnt its colours when the order for surrender was 
 given. Nothing seems to be more certain than the 
 fact that any further resistance would have been 
 utterly futile and that Blenheim would have been 
 taken aU the same, no matter how those who defended 
 it were captured or were slain. 
 
 Thus ended the first great battle between the 
 armies led by Marlborough and the forces of King 
 Louis. The glory of the victory was essentially 
 Marlborough's own. The great commander was 
 indeed splendidly seconded by Prince Eugene — 
 ' Great praise the Duke of Marlborough won and 
 our good Prince Eugene,' as the words go in 
 Southey's rather feeble poem — and he was supported 
 by the indomitable bravery of the troops who acted 
 under his orders. But not merely was the plan of 
 the battle his own, but the plans which brought about 
 
1704 'A FAMOUS VICTOKY.' 141 
 
 the battle and forced it on the enemy. Indeed the 
 whole policy which made that particular region a 
 field of battle, and thus shattered the enterprise which 
 King Louis had hoped to carry out, was the creation 
 of Marlborough's own genius. To win a chance of 
 putting his policy to any test he had to surmount 
 difficulties created by his own allies, which were 
 hardly less formidable and less obstructive at one 
 time than any that could have been thrown across 
 his path by his embattled enemies. 
 
 The news of this great victory was received in 
 England with a very natural outburst of exultation. 
 The estate of Woodstock, where Blenheim Palace was 
 afterwards buUt, was bestowed upon Marlborough in 
 grateful recognition of his services. The Emperor ex- 
 pressed a strong desire to confer upon Marlborough 
 some signal and special honour in acknowledgment of 
 the work he had done, and offered to create him a 
 prince of the German Empire. Marlborough dechned 
 to accept this dignity until he should have entered 
 into communication with Queen Anne, and obtained 
 her permission for one of her subjects in command 
 of her army to become a prince of a foreign State. 
 The Queen graciously accorded her permission. 
 Marlborough thereupon obtained the privilege, 
 extraordinary for an English subject, of becoming a 
 prince of a foreign empire, and not long after the 
 Emperor made him a gift of the province of 
 Mindelsheim in Bavaria, as the principahty which 
 was to enable him to sustain his new title. At home 
 the building of the palace of Blenheim was begun on 
 
142 THE REIGN OF QDEEN ANNE. oh. vn. 
 
 the royal manor of Woodstock. It was to be the 
 possession of him and his heirs, and a perpetual 
 monument of the gratitude felt for him by the Queen 
 and the country. Another honour, too, awaited him 
 which is Ukely to be remembered through all 
 history. An outburst of versified glorification in 
 honour of Marlborough's name and services came 
 from many English writers, but the English ministers, 
 anticipating correctly the decision of time, did not 
 consider any of these rhythmical laudations quite 
 equal to the occasion. Godolphin, who was then 
 what we should now caU the prime minister, was not 
 quite the man to discover, by his own literary 
 judgment, the fitting Enghsh laureate for such a 
 triumph, but he consulted with some of his friends 
 who knew rather more about poets and poetry 
 than he did. He was advised to apply to a rising 
 poet and essayist named Joseph Addison, then 
 about thirty years of age, and at his request 
 Addison was prevailed upon to attempt a poetic 
 celebration of the victory. This he did in the 
 famous poem called 'The Campaign,' some lines of 
 which have since become the subject of incessant 
 quotation. This poem shows how at the crisis of the 
 battle ' great Marlborough's mighty soul was proved,' 
 how he 
 
 how, 
 
 Inspired repulsed battalions to engage, 
 
 And taught the doubtful battle where to rage ; 
 
 Calm and serene he drives the furious blast ; 
 And, pleased the Almighty's orders to perform, 
 Eides in the whirlwind and directs the storm. 
 
1704 'THE CAMPAIGN.' 143 
 
 This passage is by far the finest and the most 
 characteristic of the whole poem, and gives it indeed 
 its title to immortality. Perhaps it is not too much 
 to say that Addison's own fame and the greatest part 
 of his career began with this poetic tribute, which 
 recognised so thoroughly the master quaUties of the 
 great commander who had then, for the first time, 
 given fuU proof of his genius for command. 
 
144 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. -rai 
 
 CHAPTER Vm 
 
 PETEBBOKOUGH IN SPAIN 
 
 The military and naval operations in and around Spain 
 must form a chapter in this story quite distinct from 
 that which describes the operations of Marlborough 
 in the Low Countries and in Germany. Although 
 the object of both campaigns was the same, yet owing 
 to the difference of locality and conditions the move- 
 ments were carried on in absolute independence of 
 each other, and it was, in fact, as if England had 
 been engaged in two separate wars for distinct 
 purposes in two different quarters of the globe. The 
 command of the English expedition to Spain was 
 given to the Duke of Ormond, a man who had shown 
 courage and soldierly energy in former campaigns, 
 but had none of the qualities which make a great 
 general. There was, as a matter of course, a con- 
 tingent of Dutch allies who had a general of their 
 own nationahty. The jealousies between the Dutch 
 and the other troops, the difficulties about agreeing 
 quickly upon any plan of combined action, which it 
 had taken all the authority and all the patience of 
 Marlborough to deal with on his fields of campaign, 
 proved entirely too much for Ormond's management. 
 
1702 THE WAR IN SPAIN. 145 
 
 The task which the allied forces had to undertake 
 would not have been easy for any commander. 
 
 The allied forces were understood to be acting 
 in the interests of Spain, and in order to rescue that 
 country from being converted into a mere province or 
 vassal of the French monarchy. But the population 
 of Spain could hardly be called a declared party to 
 the dispute of the rival princes who claimed the 
 succession, and of the foreign States which supported 
 one claim and opposed the other. Then, again, the 
 armies and fleets of England and Holland had to 
 begin their work of pacification by capturing Spanish 
 towns and landing troops on the Spanish coast. To 
 the mind of the ordinary Spaniard it might well have 
 seemed that a foreign army of occupation was the 
 army of an enemy, no matter what might be the name 
 and title, no matter what might be the friendly 
 or hostUe professions of the sovereign who gave it 
 orders to establish itself on Spanish soil. In fact, the 
 war, like most wars in those times, was made in the 
 interests of princes and dynasties only, and had as 
 httle to do with the condition and the sympathies of 
 the population of Spain as with those of the popula- 
 tion of England. 
 
 The troops of the Duke of Ormond made their 
 appearance off Cadiz in August 1702, One or two 
 small towns were captured, but the Duke of Ormond 
 proved himself utterly unequal to the occasion. 
 Macaulay tells us what came of these captures, ' No 
 discipline was kept ; the soldiers were suffered to rob 
 and insult those whom it was most desirable to 
 
 VOL. I. L 
 
146 THE REIGJiJ OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. vni. 
 
 conciliate. Churches were robbed; images were 
 pulled down ; nuns were violated. The officers 
 shared the spoil instead of punishing the spoilers.' 
 Cadiz was not taken, and after a few weeks of this 
 worse than futile and absolutely disgraceful work, it 
 was decided by the allied commanders that the enter- 
 prise should be abandoned. Still, however, the 
 whole enterprise was not abandoned without at least 
 one exploit, although the exploit did not tend much 
 to the advantage of the general policy or to the 
 national glory of the Allies. When the fleet was on 
 its way back to England, and was off the coast of 
 Portugal, the Duke of Ormond received news that 
 the treasure-ships from America had arrived within 
 European waters, and were making for the harbour 
 of Vigo in order to escape the armament of the Allies. 
 The treasure-ships, which were said to be carrying a 
 cargo of more than three miUions in gold and silver, had 
 actually got into Vigo Harbour. Here the blunder- 
 ing regulations of the Spanish authorities suddenly 
 came to the help of those whom we may fairly call 
 the invaders. It was one of the laws governing 
 Spanish trade that the treasure-ships should unload 
 nowhere but at Cadiz. A long delay, therefore, took 
 place while the defenders of Vigo were striving to 
 communicate with the central authorities and to 
 obtain permission for the landing of the precious 
 cargoes at Vigo. In the meantime the English fleet 
 were able to settle the whole question. Some 
 attempt was made to defend Vigo, but the troops of 
 Ormond captured the forts, a large part of the 
 
1702-4 THE CAPTURE OF GIBEALTAR. 147 
 
 treasure was sunk for ever in the waters of the 
 harbour, and the victors were only able to secure a 
 portion of the spoil. As Macaulay tells us, ' when aU 
 the gaUeons had been captured or destroyed, came an 
 order in due form allowing them to unload.' Never 
 was there a more curious illustration of the effect 
 which mere routine, in the business of administra- 
 tion, can sometimes work. If the central authorities 
 had only sent their permission a little earlier for the 
 unloading of the treasure-ships at Vigo, their whole 
 cargoes might easily have been landed and removed 
 to a place of security before the fleet of the Allies had 
 come up. The Allies got some solid plunder out of 
 their expedition, and had the satisfaction of knowing 
 that the Spanish authorities got nothing whatever. 
 
 That ended the attempt upon the Spanish coast 
 for the year. But in the following year, the alliance 
 with Portugal being now secured, a new attempt 
 was made, and this time Sir George Eooke had 
 command of an expedition which was destined to 
 leave a lasting monument of its success in history. 
 Sir George Eooke made an ineffectual attempt on Bar- 
 celona, and then suddenly attacked Gibraltar. Eooke 
 disembarked some of his troops on the narrow link of 
 land which connects the Eock and the Fortress with 
 the inhabited shore. The attack was wholly un- 
 expected. It was a Saint's day, August 3, 1704, and 
 many of the defenders of the fortress had gone to 
 attend religious services a little way off. A body of 
 English sailors accomplished the remarkable feat 
 of clambering by a path, which to observers from a 
 
 L 2 
 
148 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. vin. 
 
 distance might have seemed impossible even for the 
 agiUty of a goat, to the very top of the Eock and 
 there they hoisted the English flag. The few de- 
 fenders of the garrison who were left to look after its 
 safety had nothing for it but to capitulate, and the 
 Fortress of Gibraltar thus suddenly became a part of 
 the dominions of the English Crown and has remained 
 an English fortress to this day. 
 
 Bishop Burnet's cool and matter-of-fact comments 
 on this capture have a certain curious interest even 
 now for the reader. The Bishop certainly does not 
 seem to have shared in the general enthusiasm of 
 his country. ' It has been much questioned,' Burnet 
 says, ' by men who understand these matters well, 
 whether our possessing ourselves of Gibraltar, and 
 our maintaining ourselves in it so long, was to our 
 advantage or not. It has certainly put us to a great 
 charge, and we have lost many men in it ; but it 
 seems the Spaniards, who should know the import- 
 ance of the place best, think it so valuable, that they 
 have been at a much greater charge, and have lost 
 many more men, while they have endeavoured to 
 recover it, than the taking or keeping it has cost us. 
 And it is certain that in war, whatsoever loss on one 
 side occasions a greater loss of men, or of treasure, 
 to the other, must be reckoned a loss only to the side 
 that suffers most.' 
 
 England, however, did not regard the capture of 
 Gibraltar in this easy mood of methodical calculation. 
 The old saying which couples lightly won with lightly 
 lost does not apply to the occupation of Gibraltar. 
 
1704 GIBEALTAE HELD BY ENGLAND. 149 
 
 The capture of the Fortress had been made with all 
 the ease and the light suddenness which might belong 
 to some military feat in melodrama, or even in comic 
 opera. But England seemed only to grow more 
 and more resolute in her determination to hold on 
 to her prize in each succeeding generation. The 
 sovereign who followed Queen Anne on the English 
 throne was at one time weU inclined to enter into 
 arrangements with Spain for the restoration of 
 Gibraltar. But his ministers understood too well 
 the strength of public feeling to give any counten- 
 ance to such a proposal, and the King had to back 
 out of his suggestion very quickly, and try as best he 
 could to convey the idea that he really had nothing 
 of the kind in his mind, or that if he had, it was 
 only his fun. Since that time no English statesman 
 in office has ever entertained the idea of giving 
 back the Fortress of Gibraltar, and only the other 
 day a commission was appointed by the English 
 Government for the purpose of ascertaining whether 
 the defences of the Eock and the Fortress were 
 stiU strong enough to defy any attack from a possible 
 enemy, whether the enemy might come from within 
 or without the country to which Gibraltar once 
 belonged. 
 
 In 1705 after the fortress of Gibraltar had main- 
 tained with triumph a siege by the combined forces 
 of France and Spain, in which the defeated besiegers 
 suffered a severe loss of men and the English defen- 
 ders lost very few, the Government of Queen Anne 
 thought the time had come to open an effective 
 
150 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. vin. 
 
 campaign on a large scale in Spain. Queen Anne's 
 advisers were probably inspired as much by the 
 victories which Sir George Eooke had so suddenly 
 and easily accomphshed as by the comparative failure 
 of the expedition under the Duke of Ormond. This 
 time they made up their minds that something more 
 definite must be done. They had reason to believe 
 that the provinces of Catalonia and Valencia were 
 but little inclined to favour the cause of the claimant, 
 whose relationship with King Louis seemed only too 
 clearly to indicate a policy which must reduce the 
 whole of Spain into the' condition of a French 
 province for ever. The first object of the new 
 expedition, so far as the ministers of Queen Anne 
 could plan it, was to obtain possession of the 
 great commercial city of Barcelona, the capital of 
 Catalonia, and then to capture also some of the 
 other seaport towns on the Spanish coast, and thus 
 make sure of a convenient field of operations for a 
 systematic invasion of Spain. The first movement 
 for the carrying out of this plan was to find the 
 man who could most safely be entrusted with its 
 conduct, and Queen Anne's ministers had not much 
 difficulty in making their choice. 
 
 Charles Mordaunt, afterwards Earl of Peter- 
 borough, was one of the most brilliant and adven- 
 turous figures in that age of brilliant adventure. 
 During his youthful days he had served in -the fleet, 
 and afterwards had been engaged in exploring 
 enterprises of various kinds in the wild regions of 
 Barbary. It was not uncommon in those days for 
 
1705 PETERBOEOUGH. 151 
 
 young men of family to try their fortune and test 
 their capacity in both the fighting professions, and 
 Charles Mordaunt soon changed his naval career for 
 the life of a soldier. He was born not long before 
 the Kestoration, and as a young peer he had opposed 
 in the House of Lords much of the religious policy 
 of James the Second. This course of action brought 
 him so much into disfavour with the King and the 
 King's Court that he found it prudent to take refuge for 
 a time in Holland, and while there he came into close 
 association with William the Third. It is believed 
 that he was among the most earnest of those who 
 urged on William the advisability of putting himself 
 forward as the representative of the rising^opposition 
 to the Stuart dynasty, and even as the invader of 
 England for the rescue of the Enghsh people from 
 the Stuart dominion. It is believed that he was the 
 first Englishman of recognised rank who strove to 
 persuade William that the enterprise had every 
 chance of being crowned with complete success. 
 Most assuredly it was an undertaking which would 
 have suited thoroughly with the whole spirit of 
 Mordaunt's character, and with his genius for adven- 
 ture, and nothing could well have seemed more 
 delightful to such a man than to risk his life on so 
 perilous an undertaking. 
 
 When the revolution had been accomplished, 
 and WiUiam was on the throne of England, 
 Mordaunt was made Earl of Monmouth and held 
 office as First Lord of the Treasury. He did not, 
 however, get on very well with the new sovereign, 
 
152 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. viii. 
 
 and indeed any rule which seemed likely to bring 
 about a steady progress in peaceful and practical 
 government would not have much fascination for 
 a man of his restless and ardent temperament. 
 He was suspected and accused of encouraging plots 
 against the new sovereign, and he not only lost his 
 high public offices, but was actually committed as a 
 prisoner to the Tower of London. In those days a 
 change like that was not uncommon for a public 
 man. The uncertainty which seemed to attend each 
 new system of government, the absence of any 
 clearly recognised constitutional principles applicable 
 to aU governments, and the fluctuation of opinions 
 from this side to that, wiU explain many of the 
 sudden changes in the career of men who can hardly 
 be suspected of conscious duplicity or of mere self- 
 seeking motives. There was no conclusive evidence 
 to be brought against Charles Mordaunt, and he was 
 soon released from his imprisonment, which must 
 probably have appeared to him only one other 
 incident in his life of continuous adventure. When 
 he found that he had nothing else to do, he was in 
 the habit of starting out as a traveller to any part 
 of Europe whither his restless temperament directed 
 him^, and perhaps it might be said of him, without 
 extravagance of statement, that the only thing that 
 his untiring activity would not allow him to do was 
 to keep quiet and do nothing. He was very winning 
 in manners and, although his figure and personal 
 appearance had not the grace and beauty which 
 belonged to Marlborough, he was always a great 
 
1705 PETEEBOROUGH'S CHAEACTER. 153 
 
 favourite with women, and in the midst of all his 
 enterprises he could find time to pay devoted atten- 
 tion to a charming woman. Swift, in some animated 
 lines, tells of Mordaunt that 'In journeys he out- 
 rides the post ' ; that ' he travels not, but runs a 
 race.' 
 
 As a leader of men he had hardly a rival in those 
 days, and the soldiers who served under him were so 
 readily filled with his own enthusiasm that they only 
 wanted his word of command to undertake any 
 enterprise, no matter how difficult, no matter how 
 dangerous, no matter how seemingly hopeless, if 
 he would lead the way. The qualities of a really 
 great commander for a long undertaking and over a 
 wide field of action he could not be said to possess. 
 He had all the quickness of conception, all the sudden 
 impulses of energy and daring, which often made so 
 teUing, so practical, and so successful a part of Marl- 
 borough's plans. But then these were only a part, and 
 an occasional part, of Marlborough's military quahties, 
 and Charles Mordaunt had none of Marlborough's 
 patience, none of that cool calculating foresight 
 which enabled Marlborough to make arrangements 
 for the far future, and to wait resolute and motion- 
 less until the opportunity should arise for making 
 the right movement at the right moment. Macaulay 
 says of Mordaunt that he was, ' if not the greatest, 
 yet assuredly the most extraordinary character of 
 that age, the King of Sweden himself not even ex- 
 cepted.' Macaulay goes on to say that he might be 
 described as a ' polite, learned, and amorous Charles 
 
154 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. vni. 
 
 the Twelfth.' Macaulay describes him as ' a kind 
 friend, a generous enemy, and in deportment a 
 thorough gentleman,' as 'in truth, the last of the 
 knights-errant, brave to temerity, liberal to profusion, 
 courteous in his dealings with enemies, the protector 
 of the oppressed, the adorer of women.' But the 
 same historian does not fail to teU us that Mordaunt's 
 ' splendid talents and virtues were rendered almost 
 useless to his country by his levity, his restlessness, 
 his irritability, his morbid craving for novelty and 
 excitement.' 
 
 Before Queen Anne came to the throne Mordaunt 
 had already become Earl of Peterborough on the 
 death of his uncle, and on Anne's accession he 
 at once began to take a public part in life again. 
 Marlborough had a high opinion of Peterborough's 
 miUtary capacity, and indeed it was one of Marl- 
 borough's valuable gifts as a great commander that 
 he had an instinctive appreciation of the high 
 qualities of other men. It was believed, at the time, 
 that Marlborough's personal recommendation secured 
 for Peterborough the important post which was 
 given to him, and proved so well suited to his peculiar 
 genius — the command of the Queen's forces in Spain. 
 No other part of that immense enterprise could have 
 been so admirably adapted for the full development 
 of Peterborough's romantic energy as the field which 
 was assigned to him in Spain. The very atmosphere 
 of the region must have been congenial to him. He 
 was a Don Quixote of a later day, made happy by 
 conditions which allowed his knight-errant spirit to 
 
1705 PETERBOEOUGH IN COMMAITO. 155 
 
 find opportunities for genuine chivalry in a service 
 to which he had become devoted, and in enterprises 
 which made romance itself a living reality. 
 
 The position assigned to Peterborough in this 
 new Spanish expedition was one which ga've him full 
 command over the military force, and so much of 
 control over the fleet that, so long as he was actually 
 on board a vessel, he was to have a divided authority 
 with the British admiral. Sir Cloudesley Shovel. 
 The military force was not very great, amounting 
 only to about 5,000 men, of whom two-thirds were 
 Enghsh, and the remainder were supplied by the 
 Dutch allies. The fleet first made for Lisbon, and 
 by the time it had arrived there Peterborough found 
 that he was miserably provided with food or with 
 stores of any kind, and that the Government had 
 given him the disposal of very little money with 
 which to supply aU that was wanting. Peter- 
 borough's first act when he discovered the defective 
 condition of his fleet was pecuharly characteristic. 
 At his own cost, or at all events at his own risk and 
 responsibility, he suppHed his ships and his men with 
 all that was needed to keep them in good condition 
 for the work they had to undertake. He was, 
 fortunately, enabled also to increase his military 
 strength by two cavalry regiments put at his disposal 
 by the Earl of Galway, the Prench Protestant soldier 
 who has been already mentioned as engaged in 
 Portugal on the side of the Grand Alliance. The 
 Archduke Charles himself had been serving with 
 Galway, and he now took a part in the movement 
 
156 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. tiii. 
 
 conducted by Peterborough. Bishop Burnet always 
 speaks deferentially of the Archduke Charles, as the 
 king of Spain. Of course the Archduke Charles was 
 the claimant whom the Grand AUiance proposed to 
 put upon the throne of Spain, and already recognised 
 by the AUies as king. 
 
 The design of Peterborough was not to linger 
 over the capture of Barcelona, but to make a bold 
 attempt and move directly on Madrid itself. The 
 Archduke Charles and the Prince of Hesse were 
 strongly in favour of the attempt on Barcelona, and 
 both these princes were opposed to Peterborough's 
 daring project, which appeared to them to be 
 surrounded by insuperable difficulties. Peter- 
 borough was convinced that, if he accomplished his 
 bold and thorough design, he could, by seizing on 
 the capital which was only 150 miles away, bring 
 the war to a close by that one decisive stroke. On 
 the other hand, his behef was that the army at his 
 command was not strong enough in numbers to 
 effect the capture of Barcelona without a very heavy 
 loss of men, and that, in fact, he should be only 
 wasting his strength upon an enterprise which, even 
 if successful, might fail to have any conclusive 
 influence on the fortunes of the war. Barcelona was 
 defended on one side by the sea and on the other 
 side by the fortifications of Monjuich. These 
 fortifications were so strong that Peterborough did 
 not see how it would be possible even to attempt 
 their investment without a much larger force than 
 he had at his disposal. The idea entertained by some 
 
1705 BEFORE BARCELONA. 157 
 
 of his allies that there would be a general rising of 
 the Catalonian populations in favour^ of the invasion 
 found no confirmation in the events which were 
 passing under Peterborough's eyes. Only a few 
 hundreds of the Catalonian peasantry, furnished with 
 such poor weapons as they could bring to the service, 
 had come to the aid of the Allies, and the task of 
 providing them with mere food threatened to be a 
 severe trial on Peterborough's resources. 
 
 The usual councils of war, the familiar argu- 
 ments and delays, interfered with Peterborough's 
 plans. Burnet says that King Charles, as he 
 somewhat prematurely describes him, spoke on 
 one occasion for several hours in the exposition 
 and enforcement of his views. At last Peter- 
 borough became disgusted with the whole busi- 
 ness, and seems to have made up his mind that, as 
 he could not under the conditions attempt to 
 carry out his own enterprise, it would be better to 
 abandon the siege altogether and try some other 
 plan. Por this suggestion he was severely blamed 
 by some of his comrades in arms, and it is curious to 
 read by the light of subsequent history that there 
 were those among them who did not hesitate to 
 accuse him of what they believed to be a want 
 of daring and of enterprise. While the Archduke 
 Charles and the Prince of Hesse kept on still urging 
 him to attempt the capture of Barcelona, they do not 
 appear to have been able even to suggest any plan 
 by means of which the venture might be safely 
 attempted. Weeks were wasted in this futile 
 
158 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANKE. ch. vin. 
 
 discussion. With the instructions which were given 
 to him, Peterborough did not see his way to carry 
 out his own original project in defiance of some of 
 his allies. He therefore conceived a new and daring 
 project of his own, and by the sheer force of his 
 military genius and energy he carried it to success. 
 He outdid the most venturesome of his allies in this 
 sudden project, risked everything in an enterprise 
 much more audacious than anything which they had 
 contemplated, and carried out his purpose. He ac- 
 complished by storm what they had only proposed 
 to execute by a regular siege. 
 
 The citadel of Monjuich had practical command 
 of Barcelona. It was for this reason splendidly 
 fortified, and was garrisoned by some of the best 
 officers and men in the Spanish service. It stood 
 upon one of a range of hills the most distant from 
 the Allies, and it would have required for them a 
 march of nearly ten miles if they did not mean to 
 announce at once to the occupying garrison the real 
 purpose of a forward movement on their part. For 
 this very reason the occupying forces believed 
 themselves to be perfectly safe from any attempt at 
 a sudden attack, and were therefore likely to be off 
 their guard if an audacious scheme of the kind 
 should be attempted. This very fact only gave a 
 new impulse to the daring spirit of Peterborough, 
 who at once realised the possibility of its existence, 
 and found in it a new inspiration for the design he 
 had just conceived. At the dead hour of night 
 he paid a visit to the Prince of Hesse and told him 
 
1705 MONJUICH. 159 
 
 that he was resolved to make a decisive attempt 
 upon the Citadel. He gave the Prince of Hesse his 
 choice to join in the attack or to remain behind, 
 telling him at the same time that, happen what might, 
 his mind was fuUy made up, and that the Prince 
 must soon see whether British officers and men were 
 quite the laggards and weakhngs he had seemed 
 inclined to beheve them. Under these conditions 
 there was nothing for the Prince, who was a 
 thoroughly brave man, but to take his chance in the 
 enterprise, and without further altercation Peter- 
 borough was allowed to have his way. Peterborough 
 had only about 1,500 Enghsh soldiers to foUow him 
 into the assault, and about 1,000 more had been 
 stationed as a reserve force under the command of 
 Stanhope, the distinguished soldier and diplomatist 
 of those days. Peterborough and his small band of 
 followers made a circuitous march, and came to a 
 halt only under the walls of Monjuich. Then there 
 came to pass exactly what Peterborough had counted 
 on as the first result of his appearance under the 
 walls, and exactly what he hoped and expected to 
 see. The defenders of the fortress, surprised by the 
 audacious attempt, advanced into the outer ditch of 
 defence to meet their assailants, and the English 
 troops, prepared by Peterborough for such a move- 
 ment, rushed upon their enemies, and after a 
 desperate struggle completely defeated and scattered 
 the Spaniards, and occupied this first line of defence. 
 The Spanish troops in the garrison were so 
 bewildered by the attack, that Peterborough was 
 
160 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. viii. 
 
 able, almost with, a single stroke, to become master 
 of all the outworks. 
 
 At this critical moment an unexpected accident 
 came in his way. News was suddenly brought to him 
 that a large force was already on the march from 
 Barcelona to the aid of the garrison of Monjuich. Peter- 
 borough at once left his place, and rode out some 
 distance, in order to ascertain, if possible, whether 
 there was any truth in the alarming report. 
 During his sbort absence something happened 
 which might not unreasonably have been looked 
 for under such critical conditions. A sort of 
 panic seized upon Peterborough's troops. They 
 became bewildered by the absence of their leader ; 
 they had heard the story of forces coming to the 
 rescue of the garrison, and in their sudden con- 
 fusion they were actually preparing to evacuate the 
 outworks altogether and fall back on their reserves. 
 Peterborough returned just in time and, like some 
 hero of romance, he retrieved by his own presence 
 and daring the fortunes of that eventful night. He 
 rallied in a moment the men who were abandoning 
 their position, he inspired them with new courage by 
 his voice and his leadership, and he led them back 
 to their former position before the enemy had time 
 to take advantage of their confusion and their retreat. 
 Some of us still living can well remember the occa- 
 sion during the great Civil "War in the United States 
 of America, when the sudden return of General 
 Sheridan rallied a dispersing army, and led it back to 
 the scene of battle and to a complete victory. The 
 
1705 THE HERO OF BARCELONA. 161 
 
 troops under Stanhope soon came to the rescue. 
 The Spanish force, which had, too late, been march- 
 ing out of Barcelona to the relief of the garrison, 
 fell back, and almost in another moment the 
 capture of Monjuich was completely accomplished. 
 The Prince of Hesse was one of the first victims. 
 He was killed by a shot during the assault, but the 
 assault itself was a complete success, and with the 
 capture of Monjuich there was nothing left for 
 Barcelona but to capitulate to the victorious English 
 commander. 
 
 Peterborough made.good use of his victory. He 
 was now occupying the capital of the province, and 
 he at once issued a decree restoring and guarantee- 
 ing to the population of that province all the ancient 
 rights and hberties of which they had once been in 
 possession. He thus succeeded in obtaining their 
 cordial support for the cause of which he was then 
 the living and conquering representative. There had 
 been many jealousies among some of the Spanish 
 provinces, and the Catalonians felt in especial a strong 
 resentment of the superior position given to the 
 inhabitants of CastiUe, who were, in fact, the some- 
 what arrogant and overmastering race in Spain, 
 proud of their ancient descent, of their historical 
 position and dignities, and looking on themselves 
 as the ruling people of the country. Thus Peter- 
 borough won for himself by one successful stroke 
 the allegiance and support of all that region, and 
 many of its towns threw open their gates and 
 welcomed the sympathetic conqueror. The Spanish 
 
 VOL. I, Jl 
 
I 
 
 162 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. vm. 
 
 Government sent an army of more than 7,000 men 
 to recapture one of those towns. Peterborough, 
 with a force not a fifth of that number, succeeded 
 in frustrating this attempt, and rendered it, in fact, 
 a hopeless failure. Thereupon arose fresh difficulties 
 with some of his companions. The Archduke 
 Charles thought that enough had been done for 
 fame, so far at least as the immediate enterprise 
 was concerned, and strongly urged on the com- 
 mander the prudence of returning to Barcelona and 
 resting quietly there. 
 
 Peterborough, however, was not content. He 
 knew that there was immediate work still to do. 
 Like Charles the Twelfth, as described by Johnson, 
 he thought nothing done while aught remained 
 to do. He overruled all the counsellors who 
 talked to him of prudence. In the heart of winter, 
 in the midst of a mountainous country, where 
 there were hardly any roads worthy of the name, 
 with a force poorly armed and poorly provided 
 in every way, and with the army of the retreating 
 enemy still much stronger in numbers than his own, 
 he kept on his energetic movement, and in the 
 February of 1706 he made his way into Valencia. 
 That was not enough for him. He learned there 
 that a large body of Spanish troops was marching 
 to the assistance of the retreating enemy. He stiU 
 pushed on, and before his foes could have supposed 
 that he was close on their quarters, he attacked the 
 whole encampment, and kiUed, captured, or dispersed 
 the new army which had been brought out against 
 
1706 THE ENTRY INTO MADRID. 163 
 
 him. He returned to Valencia bringing with, him 
 several hundred prisoners. Yet a little, and he was 
 on his way to Madrid. Yet a little more, and the 
 army of the invaders under Galway had made their 
 entry into the Spanish capital, from which its Eoyal 
 occupant had fled in dismay, and there in the capi- 
 tal city the conquerors proclaimed the Archduke 
 Charles as King of Spain. So splendid a success 
 accomplished by the indomitable energy and the 
 military spirit of one man has seldom been recorded 
 in the history of war. Some words from Shakespeare 
 might well be employed in description of Peter- 
 borough's success. He had wrestled well, and over- 
 thrown more than his enemies. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. ix. 
 
 CHAPTER IX, 
 
 EVENTS AND PARTIES AT HOME 
 
 Addison in Ms poem ' The Campaign,' to wMcli 
 some reference has abeady been made, likens the 
 destructive work and the crash of the Blenheim 
 battlefield to the tumult of a storm. ' Such as of 
 late o'er pale Britannia passed.' Addison's allusion 
 went home to the memory and heart of everyone 
 in England just then. On November 26, 1703, a 
 tempest raged over a large part of Europe, and 
 especially over England, which was long remembered 
 as one of the destroying prodigies of all time. 
 For generations after it was spoken of in England 
 as the Great Storm, and was ranked as an event 
 with the Great Fire and the Great Plague of London. 
 No cause has ever been definitely assigned among 
 the atmospheric, meteorological, or other conditions 
 of the times for this terrible work of destruction, and 
 indeed those who teU of its fury, and who saw with 
 their own eyes the damage it was doing, did not 
 trouble themselves much to make any careful inquiries 
 into its origin, even if the scientific acquirements of the 
 age had been qualified to lend much help towards 
 the forming of a right conclusion. London, having 
 then as now the largest population of any city in the 
 
1703 THE GREAT STORM. 165 
 
 civUised world, gave the most striking and most wide- 
 spread evidences of the storm's destructive power. 
 The river was swollen by inundations, and Westmin- 
 ster HaU was flooded through by the overflowing 
 Thames. Whole fleets of merchant ships were torn 
 from their anchorage and dashed ashore, and Queen 
 Anne's navy suffered severely from the influence of 
 the tempest. The spires and towers of churches 
 were torn away and flung down in shapeless masses 
 of ruined masonry. The Palace of St. James' under- 
 went severe injury, and the Chapel of King's CoUege, 
 Cambridge, was almost totally reduced to ruin. The 
 Bishop of Bath and Wells was killed with his wife by 
 the faU of a stack of chimneys. 
 
 John Evelyn, the author of the immortal Diary, 
 saw and suSered by the tempest. 'Methinks I 
 still hear,' he says, ' sure I am that I stiU feel, the 
 dismal groans of our forests when that dreadful 
 hurricane subverted so many thousands of goodly 
 oaks, prostrating the trees, laying them in ghastly 
 postures, like whole regiments fallen in battle by the 
 sword of the conqueror, and crushing all that 
 grew beneath them.' Then he goes on to teU of 
 what happened in the Forest of Dean, in the New 
 Forest of Hampshire, and in many other Parks and 
 Groves. Evelyn introduces this description into his 
 book ' Sylvia ; or, a Discourse of Forest-trees,' and 
 he pictures the work of the storm, as its efiects made 
 themselves especially appropriate to that subject. 
 The Eddystone Lighthouse was shattered to pieces, 
 and those who occupied it at the time and had it in 
 
166 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. ix. 
 
 charge lost their lives with its fall. Vast numbers 
 of cattle and sheep were destroyed, and it is believed 
 that on land and sea more than 8,000 persons 
 perished in and around this island. Britannia might 
 well turn pale, in poetic metaphor at least, as Addison 
 has described her, when she had to look on such a 
 storm. 
 
 We have to turn for a while from the story of the 
 war. The campaigns which were brought about by 
 the question of the Spanish Succession lasted so long 
 that they occupied by far the greater part of the reign 
 of Queen Anne. Moreover the vicissitudes of the 
 war affected so often and so directly the fortunes of 
 political parties at home, and the strife of these 
 pohtical parties had so close and immediate a bearing 
 on the movements of the war, that it is not possible 
 for the historian to make a separate chapter of the 
 struggle on the Continental battlefields, and having 
 followed it uninterruptedly to its conclusion, return 
 to take up the thread of the domestic story just as if 
 the one set of events had been wholly disconnected 
 from the other. One who wrote of Enghsh history 
 during the reign of Queen Victoria might very well 
 treat the account of the Crimean War or of the 
 Indian Mutiny as a mere episode in his work, and, 
 when he had brought each chapter of history to its 
 conclusion, go quietly back to the movement of 
 occurrences at home with the conviction that his 
 reader's comprehension of the whole narrative and 
 the bearing of one set of events on the other would 
 in no wise be disturbed by the interruption ; but it 
 
1703 EVENTS AT HOME. 167 
 
 is not possible to follow such a course in dealing 
 with, the reign of Queen Anne and the events which 
 marked, and made or marred, its satisfactory pro- 
 gress. 
 
 WhUe Marlborough was leading the Allies in the 
 Low Countries and Germany ; whUe Peterborough 
 was carrying on his adventurous enterprises in Spain ; 
 while disaster to the arms of the Allies was following 
 victory, and victory was once again retrieving 
 disaster, events were going on at home which had an 
 abiding influence on the fortunes of England as a 
 State, and yet were so dependent on the fortunes of 
 the war, and had so much influence over those 
 fortunes, that we cannot contemplate what was 
 happening abroad and at home as separate parts 
 of history. The two great parties into which 
 English public hfe was then divided, the Tories and 
 the Whigs, were profoundly influenced from time to 
 time by the conditions of the Continental campaign, 
 and it would not always have been possible for the 
 observer at home to predict, with any certainty, the 
 course which this or that party might take in striving 
 to influence the fortunes of the war. 
 
 The Tories were not in the beginning well disposed 
 towards the whole poHcy of the war. They beheved 
 first of all in the Divine Eight of kings. They had 
 to recognise the force of circumstances which they 
 could not hope to resist, and to accept the situation, 
 as the modern phrase goes, or at least to put up with 
 it as long as they saw no reasonable chance of 
 converting it into other than it was. They had been 
 
168 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. ix. 
 
 compelled to go so far as to take up with tlie 
 principle of Hereditary Succession and to try to 
 regard it as a sort of Divine Eight ; but deep in the 
 hearts of many influential Tories was the hope that, 
 even yet, some interposition of Providence might 
 restore the Divine Eight to its old recognised place in 
 the Constitution of England. Many of the Tories 
 were strongly disinclined towards a war with France, 
 if only for the reason that the representatives of the 
 Stuart dynasty had still their home in that country 
 and were receiving the protection and even the 
 recognition of Versailles. These, however, found 
 themselves totally unable to resist the popular demand 
 for war when Louis the Fourteenth made the 
 political mistake of recognising the exUed Stuarts 
 as the rightful royal family of England. The war 
 pohcy had to be adopted by the Tory party, and 
 the great soldier of the day who was leading the 
 armies of England to victory on Continental battle- 
 fields was himself known to be a Tory in convictions 
 and at heart. The Tories, therefore, had to make 
 the war their own, and to proclaim their delight in 
 every triumph which it accomplished. 
 
 One of the events of the time was a growing 
 struggle between the House of Lords and the House 
 of Commons. The hereditary chamber and the 
 representative chamber might still be regarded as to 
 a great extent rival powers in the State. The 
 representative principle although long established, 
 at least in form, as the basis of the House of Com- 
 mons, was still very new in its practical operation. 
 
1700 THE AYLESBURY ELECTION. 169 
 
 and the period had only just begun when it was a 
 settled condition of the constitutional system that the 
 sovereign could no longer raise armies and dispose 
 of the national funds without the consent and co- 
 operation of the representative chamber. A conflict 
 of authority had been making itself manifest between 
 the principles of the present and the principles of the 
 past, and this conflict found a remarkable illustration 
 in the political events of the reign about the time at 
 which we have arrived in this narrative. 
 
 A dispute, or indeed it might be called a quarrel, 
 had been going on for some time between the two 
 Houses of the EngUsh Parliament which involved a 
 constitutional question of the highest importance to 
 the State. The dispute had begun in the last Parlia- 
 ment elected under WiUiam the Third, and had 
 continued in the first Parliament elected under 
 Anne, but there had been for a while nothing more 
 than the murmurings and grumblings which usually 
 prelude a great storm. The whole dispute arose out 
 of the election of a member of the House of Commons 
 to represent the town of Aylesbury in Buckingham- 
 shire. It seemed to be a very small and trivial 
 subject of dispute in the beginning. It might even 
 have been regarded as involving nothing more 
 than a merely personal claim and a demand for civil 
 damages by an obscure citizen. The sherifl" of the 
 county of Buckinghamshire had issued his writ for 
 the election of two burgesses to represent Aylesbury 
 in the House of Commons. When the time for the 
 election came, a man named Matthew Ashby tendered 
 
170 THE JREIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. ix. 
 
 his vote for two candidates and announced himself 
 as a duly qualified voter. The official in charge 
 declined to receive his vote, and Ashby straightway 
 brought an action, which was tried at the next 
 assizes, where he obtained a verdict with five pounds 
 damages as compensation for the injury done to him 
 by his exclusion from his right as a duly qualified 
 voter. An appeal was made to the Court of Queen's 
 Bench and the decision of that tribunal was a re- 
 versal of the verdict given at the assizes. It was 
 declared that the man was not properly qualified to 
 vote at the election. This judgment was founded on 
 a resolution passed by the House of Commons before 
 the action was brought, to the efiect that the right 
 of election for the borough of Aylesbury belonged 
 only to inhabitants not receiving parochial alms. 
 The plaintifi" in making out his case described him- 
 self as ' an inhabitant of that borough, not receiving 
 alms,' and went on to say that ' the constables falsely 
 and maliciously obstructed and hindered him from 
 giving his vote at the election there.' As the pro- 
 ceedings went on the evidence made it clear enough 
 that the plaintiff in the action was certainly in such 
 a condition as to excuse the constables if they 
 mistook him for a person who actually received 
 public ahns. His occupation was that of an ostler, 
 and he had been for a long time steeped in a con- 
 dition of such utter poverty that if not actually 
 in the receipt of alms at the time when he tendered 
 his vote, he unquestionably came to be a recipient 
 of parochial charity almost immediately after. 
 
1701 'A DELIGHTFUL POINT OF LAW.' 171 
 
 Here then had come up for the decision of the legal 
 authorities what an eminent English judge of a later 
 day sarcastically described as ' a delightful point 
 of law.' A very different issue, however, presented 
 itself for settlement along with this ' delightful 
 point of law.' The case was carried out of the 
 range of the ordinary law courts by a writ of error, 
 and the judgment of the Queen's Bench was reversed 
 by the House of Lords. The Lords by their decision 
 affirmed that the constables at the Aylesbury election 
 had no right to reject the vote of an inhabitant of 
 the borough, otherwise duly qualified, who had not 
 actually been in the receipt of public charity up to 
 the time when he presented himself as a votier. This 
 would seem to be a very reasonable decision on the 
 part of the House of Lords, for if a man had not up to 
 the time of tendering his vote been in the receipt of 
 parochial alms, it could hardly be considered quite 
 fair and reasonable that the constables should be 
 allowed to act on a kind of prophetic inspiration, 
 and to declare that, although the man had not been 
 a pauper in the past, he was a sort of person very 
 likely to become a pauper in the near future, and 
 therefore ought not to be regarded as a qualified 
 voter. Under such conditions the Apothecary in 
 ' Eomeo and Juliet,' if it were possible for him to be 
 a resident of Aylesbury, must have been in perpetual 
 disqualification as a voter because of the prima 
 facie evidence that he must before long be a re- 
 cipient of public charity. 
 
 The decision of the House of Lords raised a 
 
172 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. ix. 
 
 great constitutional question, during the discussion 
 of which the personal solvency of the Aylesbury 
 claimant soon passed out of public notice. That 
 question was whether the House of Lords had any 
 right to dictate the terms on which votes should 
 be given for the election of members to the House of 
 Commons. Of course there were legal conditions 
 under which alone a man could be entitled to vote 
 for the election of a member to the representative 
 chamber, and over these distinctly legal conditions 
 the House of Lords could not profess to exercise any 
 power. But when some question arose as to the 
 vaUdity of a vote given for the election of a member 
 to the House of Commons, was it for the House of 
 Lords, the hereditary chamber, the parliamentary 
 body which had nothing to do with the representa- 
 tive principle — was it for that House to decide a 
 question which only affected the rights of the House 
 of Commons? Other points of dispute soon began 
 to show themselves in this comphcating controversy. 
 Several inhabitants of Aylesbury followed the ex- 
 ample set them by Ashby, and brought actions 
 against the local constables on the ground that 
 these had unjustly disallowed their right to tender 
 a vote at the election. The bewildering prospect 
 seemed to be that everybody, in any part of the 
 country, who believed he had a right to vote and 
 whose vote had been disallowed by the local authori- 
 ties, would straightway bring his action against these 
 local authorities, and that the whole machinery of the 
 law would be kept in lively motion for a long time 
 
1701 THE ACTION OF THE COMMONS. 173 
 
 to come in the vain, effort to dispose of all this 
 indefinite multiplication of claims. 
 
 Here again the House of Commons showed itself 
 concerned about the maintenance of its own privileges 
 and rights. The House of Commons particularly- 
 wanted to know who had any right to interfere with 
 the manner in which its elections were conducted. It 
 was especially the interest of the stronger party in the 
 House to make such a demand, for if every claimant 
 whose vote was disallowed could forthwith bring his 
 action against the local authorities, a new terror 
 would be added to the electoral contest, and the 
 candidate who had secured his triumphant majority 
 would find a fresh campaign opening upon him the 
 moment he had taken his seat in Parliament. The 
 House of Commons then took the very decided step 
 of committing for breach of privilege each of the 
 luckless individuals who had brought actions against 
 the constables for refusing to accept their votes. At 
 the same time the House issued an address to the 
 Throne justifying the somewhat imperious course 
 which it had taken against the men who brought 
 these actions, on the ground that it is ' the un- 
 doubted right and privilege of the Commons of 
 England in Parliament assembled, to commit for 
 breach of privilege ; and that the commitments of 
 this House are not examinable in any other Court 
 whatever.' Then, as if to show how absolutely 
 resolved they were to maintain what they considered 
 to be their rights, the Commons actually ordered the 
 committed claimants to be removed from Newgate 
 
174 THE EEIQN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. ix. 
 
 and taken into the custody of the Serjeant-at-Arms. 
 It appears that this order was for some reason or 
 other put into execution at the mid hour of night, 
 thereby adding a stern gloom to the enforcement of 
 the Commons' authority which might be worthy of a 
 Turkish Pasha or what Disraeli once called ' the 
 tyrant of a twopenny tragedy.' 
 
 The Commons, however, went a step stiU farther. 
 They appointed a committee to discover what persons 
 had been engaged in soliciting or advising or prosecut- 
 ing upon the writs of Habeas Corpus, or writs of error 
 on the part of the persons committed for offending 
 against the privileges of the representative chamber. 
 The result of this inquiry was that three barristers- 
 at-law and two, attorneys-at-law were found to have 
 given legal advice and assistance to the committed 
 offenders, and the House directed the Serjeant-at- 
 Arms to take into custody these professional gentle- 
 men as aiders and abettors in the breach of privilege. 
 The Serjeant-at-Arms actually arrested one of the 
 three barristers, and held him in custody, but he 
 reported that he was not able to find any of the 
 other legal advisers. It now became the turn of the 
 Peers to assert their rights and privileges. An order 
 was issued by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in 
 Parliament assembled declaring that the legal gentle- 
 men already mentioned ' shall, and they have hereby, 
 the protection and privilege of this House, in the 
 advising, applying for, and prosecuting the said writs 
 of error ; and that aU keepers of prisons and jailors, 
 and aU Serjeants-at-Arms and other persons whatso- 
 
1701 THE ACTION OF THE LORDS. 175 
 
 ever be — and they are hereby, for or in respect of 
 any of the cases aforesaid — strictly prohibited from 
 arresting, imprisoning, or otherwise detaining or 
 molesting or charging the said persons, or any or 
 either of them, as they and every of them will answer 
 the contrary to this House.' 
 
 Here was a very- pretty quarrel indeed between 
 the Lords and the Commons. A more distinct issue 
 could hardly have been contrived by the perverse 
 ingenuity of man, desirous to bring rival claims of 
 authority into hostile and decisive action. The 
 Commons proclaimed in substance to the Lords — ^We 
 have a right to arrange all matters pertaining to our 
 elections for ourselves, and if anyone presumes to 
 bring an action against one of our officials, we have a 
 right to commit him to prison under the custody of 
 our Serjeant-at-Arms. The House of Lords declared 
 in reply — We are the highest court of law as well as 
 a court of parliament, and we have a right to protect 
 any person acting on the decree of a court of law 
 which we have sanctioned from being taken into 
 custody under your warrant and by your Serjeant- 
 at-Arms. Nor did the Lords hesitate to show that 
 they meant to be as good as their word in the asser*- 
 tion of their privileges. A few days after this 
 warning had been given to the Commons, the 
 Serjeant-at-Arms presented himself at the bar of the 
 representative chamber to inform its members that a 
 person had that morning brought him a writ of 
 Habeas Corpus under the Great Seal, calling on him 
 to hand over one of the persons in his custody in 
 
176 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. ix. 
 
 order that this person might be brought before the 
 Lord deeper of the Great Seal of England. The 
 embarrassed Serjeant-at-Arms naturally desired to 
 know which authority he was to recognise as 
 supreme. He held in custody a certain person under 
 an order of the House of Commons, and now behold ! 
 he was summoned to surrender his captive in 
 obedience to an order from the House of Lords. 
 The Commons were not long in deciding as to his 
 course of action. A resolution was promptly passed 
 ' That the serjeant-at-arms attending this House do 
 make no return of, or yield any obedience to, the 
 said writ of Habeas Corpus; and for such his refusal, 
 that he have the protection of the House of 
 Commons.' 
 
 Eeaders now would probably think that an 
 opinion expressed by Chief Justice Holt, one of 
 the most eminent and enlightened lawyers of his time 
 or of any time, fairly defined the hmitations of the 
 authority which the House of Commons claimed to 
 exercise over the manner of their own elections. 
 When the question was discussed before the Court of 
 Queen's Bench the Lord Chief Justice differed on this 
 point from the three other judges who sat with him. 
 These three judges held that an election to the House 
 of Commons was a matter solely for the jurisdiction 
 of the House of Commons. Lord Chief Justice Holt 
 declared that he saw a great difference between the 
 election of a member to that House and the right 
 to vote for a candidate at such an election. He 
 admitted that the House of Conmions alone had the 
 
1701-4 CHIEF JUSTICE HOLT. 177 
 
 right to judge whether an election had or had not 
 been rightfully carried out, whether it was properly 
 conducted without bribery, corruption, fraud, or 
 violence, but he maintained that the right of voting 
 in an election was quite a different matter and was, 
 in fact, an original right founded on the man's legal 
 qualification to vote. Such a qualification, he in- 
 sisted, was made by Act of Parliament, and therefore 
 every question relating to the claim of the voter was 
 the proper subject for the decision of a court of law. 
 The House of Commons stiU held to its former 
 position, and acted on the principle that the question 
 had now come to be strictly a question as to the 
 right of the House of Lords to over-ride the authority 
 of the House of Commons in the election of its own 
 members. The House of Commons insisted that any 
 dispute as to the validity of the vote accepted by 
 the officers whom the Commons had appointed to 
 receive votes, was a question which directly affected 
 the right of the Commons to a fuU authority over the 
 manner in which the elections to the representative 
 chamber were to be conducted. The position of the 
 Commons was that, if the House of Lords were to 
 say, ' We have the right to declare invalid a vote which 
 you by your officers have accepted as vaUd,' that 
 would be in effect to claim a right which is as fatal to 
 the privileges of the elected chamber as if the Lords 
 were to assert a power of control over the validity 
 of the whole election, and this is a power which 
 belongs to the Commons and to the Commons alone. 
 The Lords sent a message expressing a desire to hold 
 
 VOL. I. N 
 
178 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. ix. 
 
 a conference with the other House in the Painted 
 Chamber, in order that a good understanding might 
 be arrived at between the two Houses, which the 
 Lords declared they would always endeavour to 
 preserve. ' When either House of Parliament,' the 
 message went on to say, ' shall have apprehended the 
 proceedings of the other to be liable to exception, 
 the ancient parliamentary method has been to ask a 
 conference, it being ever supposed that when the 
 matters are fairly laid open and debated, that which 
 may have been amiss wiU be rectified, or else the 
 House that made the objections will be satisfied that 
 their complaint was well grounded.' 
 
 The terms of the message seemed to announce 
 and to invite a policy of conciliation. But then the 
 Lords distinctly maintained the judicial claims of 
 their House as rights which were in no wise afiected 
 by the existing dispute, and this was just the position 
 which the House of Commons was not willing to 
 recognise. The conference, therefore, did not seem 
 likely to bring the two Houses to a better under- 
 standing. The Commons declared that they could 
 not but see ' how your lordships are contriving by 
 aU methods to bring the determination of liberty and 
 property into the bottomless and insatiable gulf of 
 your lordships' judicature, which would swallow up 
 both the prerogatives of the Crown and the rights 
 and liberties of the people.' Furthermore the Commons 
 went on to declare that ' the bringing writs of Habeas 
 Corpus upon the commitments of the Commons and a 
 writ of error thereupon before the Lords, would bring 
 
1704 AN ADDRESS TO THE QUEEN. 179 
 
 all the privileges of the Commons to be determined by 
 the judges and afterwards by the Lords upon such writs 
 of error.' Such writs of error, it was argued, would 
 bring the liberty of every commoner in England to 
 the arbitrary disposition of the Peers. ' If a writ of 
 error cannot be denied in any case and the Lords 
 alone are to judge whether the case be proper for a 
 writ of error, then aU the Queen's revenues, aU her 
 prerogatives, and all the lives and hberties of the 
 people of England will be in the hands of the Lords ' ; 
 ' and by writs of error and appeals, as already 
 exercised, they will have all our properties ; by such 
 newly invented actions they will have aU our elec- 
 tions ; and by such writs of Habeas Corpus and writs 
 of error thereupon, they will have all our privileges, 
 liberties, and even lives at their determination.' 
 Finally the Commons declared that ' the novelty of 
 those things and the infinite consequences of them is 
 the greatest argument in the law that they are not 
 of right.' 
 
 The conference came to nothing, and as it did 
 not seem probable that further consultation would 
 lead to any better result, the Lords intimated that 
 they had nothing more to say on the subject, and 
 the friendly negotiations were broken ojBT. The 
 Lords issued an address to the Queen in which they 
 set forth their own view of the whole case and wound 
 up with a prayer, ' that no importunity of the House 
 of Commons, nor any other consideration whatsoever, 
 may prevail with your Majesty to suffer a stop to be 
 put to the known course of justice, but that you will 
 
 N 2 
 
180 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. ix. 
 
 be pleased to give effectual orders for the immediate 
 issuing of the writs of error.' The Queen made a 
 prompt reply. It was concise as well as prompt. 
 It merely said, ' My Lords, I should have granted the 
 writs of error desired in this address. But finding an 
 absolute necessity of putting an immediate end to the 
 session, I am sensible there could have been no 
 further proceeding in that matter.' The Queen, there- 
 fore, left the controversy exactly as she found it. 
 Acting no doubt under advice, she availed herself of 
 the supposed necessity for bringing the Session to a 
 close in order to get rid of the immediate dispute 
 and leave it to settle itself by the course of events 
 and the development of this or that competing power 
 in the work of legislation. 
 
 Those who represented the claims of the House 
 of Lords maintained, of course, that in the end there 
 must be some law supreme over all the struggles of 
 political parties. As an abstract proposition this is 
 no doubt reasonable and clear. In point of fact, the 
 right which the House of Commons exercised down 
 to our own times in the hearing and decision of elec- 
 tion petitions has for many years been transferred, 
 with the approval of all intelligent men, to the legal 
 tribunals of the country. At a time weU within the 
 memory of living men, the House of Commons had 
 the right of hearing and deciding upon all petitions 
 brought against the election of a member to sit in 
 the representative chamber. The course which the 
 House adopted was to refer each such petition for 
 trial and decision to a committee of members elected 
 
1701-4 LORDS AND COMMONS. 181 
 
 by the House itself. When the questions raised by 
 any such petition represented a conflict between the 
 two great political parties, it often happened that any- 
 one hearing the names of the committee who had 
 been chosen by ballot read aloud in the House 
 could have told at once which way the decision of 
 the committee would go. It came to be in too many 
 cases purely a question of party, and the grossest 
 instances of bribery, corruption, or intimidation, 
 might be proved in vain if the majority of the com- 
 mittee happened to belong to that political party 
 which would be likely to suffer if the prayer of the 
 petition were granted. It may be admitted without 
 hesitation that there was a great deal to be said for 
 the case which the House of Lords endeavoured to 
 set up in the early days of Queen Anne. Moreover, 
 the advocates of the House of Lords argued at the 
 time, and with only too much substantial reason for 
 their argument, that the political party in power was 
 in the habit of making its arrangements for elec- 
 tions to the House of Commons by appointing 
 oflicials in each electoral district who would take 
 good care not to disallow any votes which were 
 given on the side of those who had appointed them, 
 and to disallow as many as possible of those that 
 were tendered on the opposite side. 
 
 On the other hand, it was already becoming evi- 
 dent to every thinking observer that the House of 
 Commons was destined to be the real governing 
 power of the State. The sovereign was to rule 
 according to the advice of the ministers of the Crown, 
 
182 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. ix. 
 
 and even already it was coming to be more and more 
 clearly understood that the only real authority which 
 the House of Lords could claim was the right to act 
 as a sort of check in the last resort upon the action 
 of the representative chamber, and thus to obtain 
 time for a reconsideration of the particular question 
 which a passing crisis might involve, and if necessary 
 to compel a new appeal to the constituencies before 
 that decision could be regarded as final. Even this 
 power has been growing more limited in its actual 
 operation, and its exercise has been gradually 
 becoming a rarer event in constitutional history. 
 Therefore, although the House of Commons may 
 have shown a disposition, during the controversy 
 which the Aylesbury election brought up, to strain 
 its constitutional right beyond its natural province, 
 yet it will now readily be admitted by aU that the 
 whole question of popular election to the represen- 
 tative chamber was a singularly ill-chosen subject as 
 an occasion for the House of Lords to bring to a test 
 the extent of its constitutional power in the business 
 of government. The advisers of Queen Anne could 
 not help seeing that the occasion was peculiarly ill 
 suited for such a trial of strength, and the Queen, no 
 doubt, was led to believe that the easiest way out of 
 the difficulty was to bring the parliamentary Session to 
 a close and leave it to the growth of events and the 
 lapse of time to develop a state of afiairs which might 
 ultimately settle the whole embarrassing controversy. 
 Some such controversy has indeed been renewed 
 again and again, even in our own times, but the 
 
1703 QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY. 183 
 
 obvious effect of years and of political change has un- 
 questionably been to extend the governing powers of 
 the Commons and to restrict, more and more, the 
 right of control which public opinion could allow to 
 the House of Lords. Perhaps the whole controversy 
 arising out of the Aylesbury election could not be 
 more fairly summed up than by the judgment that 
 while the House of Lords may have been technically 
 in the right, the House of Commons was acting, un- 
 consciously perhaps, in the true spirit of the consti- 
 tution, and that a decisive struggle between the 
 two a,uthorities could only lead to the triumph of 
 that one which based its claims on the principle of 
 popular representation. 
 
 Perhaps this is the right time at which to tell the 
 story of that new arrangement instituted by the 
 sovereign which called into existence the system 
 known ever siuce by the name of Queen Anne's 
 Bounty. The Queen's Bounty was in fact the appli- 
 cation of the ' First-fruits ' and the tenths of benefices 
 to the increase of the small livings which were held 
 by so many clergymen of the Church of England. 
 The existence of the fund thus for the first time 
 devoted to this purpose carries us a long way back 
 in history. When the religion of Eome prevailed 
 throughout England there was an arrangement that 
 the whole income of a benefice during its first 
 year, and a tithe or tenth part of it during each 
 succeeding year, was claimed and made over to the 
 Vatican as England's contribution towards the main- 
 tenanae of the Papal revenues. During the reign of 
 
184 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. it. 
 
 Henry the Eighth, when the Protestant Church was 
 estabUshed in England, the grant was withheld from 
 the Church of Eome, but for a while without any- 
 definite application of it to any other purpose. 
 After a time this revenue was settled by Parhament 
 as part of the regular income of the Crown, and this 
 was declared to be a perpetual arrangement. The 
 bishops were supposed to be the distributors of the 
 fund, and it was distributed for the most part among 
 persons who enjoyed the favour of the king or of 
 the bishops without any special reference to chari- 
 table purposes, or even to the benefit of ill-paid 
 clergymen. Bishop Burnet teUs us that during the 
 reign of Charles the Second ' it went chiefly among 
 his women and his natural children.' Bishop Burnet 
 goes on to say, ' When I wrote the History of the 
 reformation I considered this matter so particularly, 
 that I saw here was a proper fund for providing 
 better subsistence to the poor clergy ; we having 
 among us some hundreds of cures that have not of 
 certain provision, twenty pounds a-year ; and some 
 thousands that have not fifty.' The Bishop justly 
 observes, ' It is a crying scandal that at the restora- 
 tion of King Charles the Second, the bishops and 
 other dignitaries who raised much above a million in 
 fines, yet did so little this way.' 
 
 Bishop Burnet, it will be seen, evidently regards 
 himself as the author of the reform which was carried 
 out by Queen Anne. We are not inclined to dispute 
 his claim to its authorship, which indeed he distinctly 
 asserted at a time when some public contradiction 
 
1703 THE QUEEN'S MESSAGE. 185 
 
 must have been called forth by his statement, if there 
 were any likelihood that his modest claim could have 
 been effectively disputed. His own account is well 
 worth quotation. ' I laid the matter before the late 
 king, when there was a prospect of peace, as a 
 proper expression both of his thankfulness to 
 Almighty God, and of his care of the church ; I 
 hoped that this might have gained the hearts of 
 the clergy : it might at least have put a stop to a 
 groundless clamour raised against him, that he was 
 an enemy to the clergy, which began to have a very 
 ill effect on aU his affairs. He entertained this so 
 well, that he ordered me to speak to his ministers 
 about it ; they aU approved it, the lord Somers and 
 the lord Halifax did it in a most particular manner ; 
 but the earl of Sunderland obtained an assignation, 
 upon two dioceses, for two thousand pounds a-year 
 for two lives ; so nothing was to be hoped for after 
 that. I laid this matter very fuUy before the present 
 queen, in the king's time, and had spoken often of 
 it to the lord Godolphin.' 
 
 In November 1703 the measure was introduced 
 to the House of Commons with a special message 
 from the Queen containing an expression of her 
 strong desire that the BiU should be passed into law. 
 The preamble of this measure set forth that 
 ' Whereas a sufficient settled provision for the 
 clergy, in many parts of this reahn, hath never yet 
 been made, by reason whereof divers ihean and 
 stipendiary preachers are in many places entertained 
 to serve the cures and officials there, who depending 
 
186 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. ix. 
 
 for their necessary maintenance on the good will and 
 liking of their hearers, have been and are thereby 
 under temptation of too much complying and 
 suiting their doctrines and teaching to the humours 
 rather than the good of their hearers, which hath 
 been a great occasion of faction and schism and 
 contempt of the ministry.' Then the preamble goes 
 on to say that 'your Majesty, taking into your 
 princely and serious consideration the mean and 
 insufficient maintenance belonging to the clergy in 
 divers parts of this your kingdom, has been most 
 graciously pleased out of your most religious and 
 tender concern for the Church of England — ^whereof 
 your Majesty is the only supreme head on earth — and 
 for the poor clergy thereof — not only to remit the 
 arrears of your tenths due from your poor clergy, 
 but also to declare unto your most dutiful and loyal 
 Commons your royal pleasure and pious desire that 
 the whole revenue arising from the first-fruits and 
 tenths of the clergy might be settled for a perpetual 
 augmentation of the maintenance of the said clergy 
 in places where the same is not already sufficiently 
 provided for.' 
 
 An Act of Parliament was passed accordingly, 
 and the institution which we know as Queen Anne's 
 Bounty became a part of the system by which the 
 State Church is conducted. There were difficulties 
 in the way of making a practical arrangement which 
 prevented the Queen's sincere and high-minded 
 purpose from being carried into full effect during her 
 own lifetime. Nobody can pretend to say that even 
 
1708 A GOODLY EPITAPH. 187 
 
 at the present time the distribution of the Church 
 revenues is so reasonably and beneficently adjusted as 
 to make fair provision for the maintenance of large 
 numbers of the clergy, or that the distribution of the 
 Church revenues has approached within measurable 
 distance of perfection. It still happens that in 
 numberless instances throughout England the hardest 
 working, the most highly gifted, and the most 
 thoroughly devoted clergymen of the State Church 
 find the poorest earthly reward for their services as 
 pastors and as reUgious teachers. But it is beyond 
 question that the principle of a great reform was 
 established by the legislation of Queen Anne's reign, 
 and that Anne herself was deeply and sincerely 
 interested in the settlement. We may give to 
 Bishop Burnet the fuU credit for having originated 
 the idea, but it must be owned that Queen Anne 
 appreciated and welcomed his suggestions, and took 
 care that they should be carried as far as possible 
 into effect. Perhaps the popular name given to the 
 new arrangement and still retained in ordinary speech 
 is in itself the most appropriate tribute which could 
 be paid to the sovereign who saw it carried into 
 law, and Queen Anne's Bounty becomes a goodly 
 epitaph. 
 
188 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. x. 
 
 CHAPTEE X 
 
 THE UNION WITH SCOTLAND 
 
 One of the greatest events of Queen Anne's reign 
 was the accomplishment of the Union between 
 England and Scotland. This event had been a long 
 time in contemplation and under discussion. When 
 the Union of the two Crowns was definitely 
 accoinphshed, after the formal and, as it proved, the 
 final abolition of the Stuart dynasty, the legislative 
 union of the two countries, being as they were 
 geographically only one country, naturally came up 
 for consideration as a necessary step towards the 
 establishment of the Imperial system. William the 
 Third had taken the project in hand and given it his 
 full approval and recommendation. One of the last 
 acts of King William was to commend the legislative 
 union in a message to the House of Commons. 
 It was on February 23, in that year of 1702, 
 which was destined so soon to see the close of his 
 great career, and at a moment when the shadow of 
 death was already on him, that he urged upon the 
 House of Commons the imperative necessity of a 
 complete union between the northern and southern 
 divisions of the island. In this message William 
 declared his fuU conviction ' that nothing can more 
 
1702 UNION CONTEMPLATED. 189 
 
 contribute to tlie present and future security and 
 happiness of England and Scotland than a firm and 
 entire union between them.' William went on to 
 say that he 'would esteem it a peculiar felicity if 
 during his reign some happy expedient for making 
 both kingdoms one might take place.' The King's 
 Speech added some words of peculiar and melancholy 
 significance. The King expressed his regret ' that 
 he was hindered by an unhappy accident from 
 coming in person to his Parliament, and so could only 
 signify to the Commons by message what he desired 
 to have spoken to both Houses from the throne.' 
 This was his last message to Parliament. The 
 unhappy accident to which he made allusion was 
 that fall from his horse which has been described in 
 an earher chapter, and the message to the Commons 
 was issued only a few days before his death. 
 
 During the earher part of Queen Anne's reign 
 new difficulties arose in the way of that Union which 
 once appeared to commend itself to the cordial 
 approval of both populations, and for some time the 
 consummation of William's desire seemed to be only 
 farther and farther removed from accomphshment. 
 The difficulties were not merely, or indeed mainly, 
 connected with questions of legislation or with the 
 political tendencies of each country. The very pro- 
 gress of England and Scotland alike in trade, com- 
 merce, and navigation led to new and increasing 
 antagonisms between the trading and commercial 
 classes of the two communities. Scotland had been 
 rapidly establishing a commerce and trade of her own, 
 
190 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. x. 
 
 and much fear was felt among the Scotch that a legis- 
 lative union would only tend to give England a 
 supremacy and a monopoly of trading advantages 
 which might be fatal to the rising activity and pro- 
 sperity of the northern country. These difficulties 
 had been already felt in the reign of King William 
 and for some time before, but it so happened that 
 events seemed to make them more serious and for- 
 midable during the early part of Queen Anne's reign. 
 This was a time when the spirit of modern pro- 
 gress was infusing itself, with an increasingly marked 
 influence, into the commercial undertakings of the 
 two countries. Men were beginning to discover that 
 great fortunes were to be made by sudden strokes of 
 enterprise which had nothing to do with the steady 
 and peaceful ways of trade, or with the mere 
 extension of recognised empire. There were 
 glittering bubbles of speculation which allured the 
 minds of the bold and imaginative with the prospect 
 of great fortunes made in a moment by some happy 
 stroke of venturesome enterprise. The Bank of 
 England had been created ; Land Banks had come 
 to be formed ; there were schemes of great planta- 
 tions in colonies ; there were companies organised 
 with large capital for pearl fisheries ; for fisheries 
 in Greenland and Newfoundland ; joint-stock com- 
 panies were created for all manner of commercial 
 ventures at home and abroad ; and that modern 
 system of commercial enterprise which has its 
 centre in the Stock Exchange of London, then an 
 entirely new creation, was making itself a conspicuous 
 
1702 TKADE EIVALEIES. 191 
 
 and powerful factor in the business life of the two 
 countries. 
 
 Scotland at the time was much more active than 
 England in these trading enterprises, and the check 
 maintained by the mere slowness of action which 
 almost necessarily characterised the doings of the 
 two Houses of Parliament in the southern part of 
 the island was not known to the constitutional 
 practices of the northern kingdom. The English and 
 Scotch trading companies regarded themselves as 
 rivals. The one set of capitahsts and speculators 
 was jealous of the legislative privileges accorded to 
 the other. Scotchmen were afraid that their spirit of 
 adventure would be controlled and kept inactive by 
 the protection, the special and exclusive protection, 
 which the English system accorded to the joint-stock 
 companies of England. Englishmen, on the other 
 hand, were jealous of the more energetic and far- 
 reaching enterprises of their Scotch rivals, and the 
 idea widely prevailed that Scotland was unduly 
 favoured to the restriction and disadvantage of 
 England. The same kind of feeling began to exist 
 between England and Scotland which already existed 
 in both countries with regard to such a foreign State 
 as Holland, for example, and the question was even 
 raised whether the rivalries of trade between the two 
 parts of the island might not sooner or later lead to 
 actual war between England and Scotland. At that 
 time the idea of a system of genuine and general free 
 trade had not come up as an acccepted influence in 
 European aflfairs, and men only saw in the successful 
 
192 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. x, 
 
 undertakings of one part of the country an exclusion 
 and hindrance to the trading efforts of the other. 
 Many authorised conferences were held between 
 English and Scotch commissioners for the purpose of 
 arranging some system of common legislation which 
 might make a Constitutional Union possible without 
 undue restriction to the trading projects of either 
 community. Time after time these consultations 
 came to nothing or were abruptly broken off by 
 what seemed to be the impossibility of any satisfactory 
 arrangement. 
 
 It so happened, however, that one of the most 
 adventurous and in the end disastrous speculations 
 in that day of speculations had a direct and un- 
 expected influence in promoting the legislative union 
 between England and Scotland. This was the 
 famous Darien Company, an enterprise which might 
 be regarded in some sense as a precursor of John 
 Law's famous Mississippi scheme, the South Sea 
 Bubble of a later day. The Estates of Scotland 
 passed an Act a few years before Queen Anne's 
 accession which was described as an Act for company 
 trading to Africa and the Indies, and aroused but 
 little attention at the time of its passing. The 
 schemes which were afterwards developed by this 
 company were the outcome mainly of the enterpris- 
 ing spirit of William Paterson. Paterson was a man 
 of unquestionable ability as a financier. He was a 
 Scotchman by birth, but had settled in London at an 
 early period of his life and made himself conspicuous 
 there. He will always be remembered in history as 
 
1695 WILLIAM PATERSON. 193 
 
 the founder of the Bank of England, although some 
 of his later projects brought him to be classed with 
 John Law, the promoter of the South Sea Bubble. 
 He had passed some years of his early hfe in the 
 West Indies, and his name was well known in the 
 financial circles of Hamburg, Amsterdam, and Berlin. 
 He amassed a large fortune by his commercial deal- 
 ings in London. He was one of the first directors of 
 that Bank of England which he may fairly be said 
 to have created. He was unquestionably a man of 
 much foresight and sound judgment in finance, 
 despite the one great failure which he brought upon 
 himself and upon others, and he had clearly defined 
 ideas of free trade long before the genuine principle 
 of free trade came to be recognised as a principle of 
 statesmanship. 
 
 Paterson was the guiding spirit of the new under- 
 taking, and by his direction it took the form of a 
 great colonisation scheme. He laid his plans fuUy 
 before the leading financiers of Edinburgh and Scot- 
 land generally, but under his guidance the company 
 was to begin its operations in London. The directors 
 of the company were to found a new colony in some 
 suitable land of rich soil accessible to aU the world, 
 and this new colony was to invite aU the communi- 
 ties of the earth to an equality of trade in buying 
 and selling, import and export. The colony was 
 to work the land it possessed to the fullest extent 
 in the production of everything which the soil was 
 especially qualified to bring forth, and was thus in 
 fact to caU into being a new world of productions 
 
 VOL, I. 
 
194 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. x. 
 
 especially commending themselves to the wants of 
 the exhausted Old World. The ports of the new 
 colony were to be unrestricted by any of the special 
 arrangements which were unwisely believed to pro- 
 tect the ports of civilised nations in those days, when 
 it was thought to be for the benefit of a community 
 that only privileged and friendly traders should be 
 allowed to enter its harbours. Paterson fixed upon 
 the region of Darien, in the Isthmus of Panama, as 
 the home of his new colony. 
 
 The Isthmus of Panama which, it need hardly be 
 said, is the connecting Unk between North and South 
 America, has had more than once since the days of 
 Paterson the disadvantage of being associated with 
 a doubtful or disastrous game of speculation. The 
 new colony advertised itself and its objects with 
 splendid audacity. It ofiered itself as buyer and 
 seller to the whole trading world. It said in so 
 many words. We the Scottish owners of this new 
 colony have got goods of priceless value to sell which 
 can only be produced from a soil like ours, by such 
 skill as we are able to bring to the work, and by the 
 liberal use of that capital which we possess, and of 
 which we know how to dispose in the best manner 
 for the due development of such productions. That 
 was the spirit of its invitation to the buyers, but 
 then on the other hand it also issu' '. its invita- 
 tion to the sellers. It invited aU tb peoples who 
 had anything rich and rare for sale j come to the 
 new colony, where they were a ^iured that they 
 could find eager purchasers of everything worth 
 
1695 THE DAEIEN SCHEME. 195 
 
 buying and with plenty of capital to meet aU 
 demands. 
 
 In our modern days when even the most re- 
 strictive duties on import and export trade are but 
 light compared with those which had to be endured 
 by former generations of traders, it may not seem 
 easy to realise the temptation which Paterson's new 
 scheme offered to the speculators of his time. But it 
 is certain that the idea of forming a new colony 
 which was free to trade with all the world, and with 
 which aU the world was free to trade, had a strong 
 fascination even for shrewd and practical men in the 
 days when Paterson started his project. Great wars 
 had been going on in Europe, and it has always been 
 found that great wars foster the spirit of speculation. 
 The New World was beginning to be regarded as a 
 region of unlimited and indefinite promise to men 
 possessed of courage enough to risk much in the hope 
 of making a fortune. Paterson himself had courage 
 enough to throw in his own lot with the fortunes of 
 his colony. He went out to Darien and did his best 
 to make the project successful. 
 
 Now the project was in the meantime regarded 
 with great jealousy by many English trading com- 
 panies. Perhaps the very jealousy with which it was 
 regarded was only a new tribute to its pretensions 
 and a new , argument furnished to its promoters 
 with which to make good the reasonableness of their 
 advertisements. The great English companies, they 
 might have said, are jealous of this Scottish com- 
 pany because it is developing a magnificent idea and 
 
 2 
 
196 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. x. 
 
 is certain to make the fortunes of all who are wise 
 enough, and lucky enough, to have shares in it. 
 The English companies were fuU of complaint be- 
 cause of the fact that the Estates of Scotland had 
 thus been allowed by their own authority to confer 
 such privileges upon a merely Scottish company, 
 and on the other hand patriotic Scotchmen asked, 
 what would be likely to become of Scottish enter- 
 prises if there were a legislative union with a people 
 who would want to secure every great financial 
 enterprise for themselves and to shut out their 
 Scottish rivals from their fair share of commercial 
 and trading profits ? For a time, therefore, the 
 floating of the Darien company seemed only to raise 
 new difficulties in the way of that legislative union 
 which King William had recommended and so many 
 enlightened public men on both sides of the Border 
 sincerely desired. At one time the feeling ran so 
 high that the English subscribers to the company 
 by a sort of common consent refused to pay up the 
 instalments on their shares ; the shares were con- 
 sequently forfeited, and the Scottish owners, who 
 were now left to run aU the risks and enjoy all the 
 profits of the undertaking, were allowed to pursue 
 the venture for themselves. 
 
 The company, however, did not prosper. The 
 hopes which its projectors had of securing a great 
 trading monopoly for themselves were destined to 
 a speedy bhght. The first trouble came from the 
 fact that Spain, even in her decaying days, still 
 asserted an absolute claim over undefined and 
 
1695-1700 THE COLONISTS SHOW FIGHT. 197 
 
 illimitable territory in the New World. The region of 
 Panama on which the new colony was settled might, 
 up to that time, have been absolutely regarded as no 
 man's land, but it stood in the close neighbourhood 
 of recognised Spanish possessions, and it soon became 
 apparent that Spain would assert her claims, whether 
 well founded or ill founded, and that the colonists 
 would have to fight for their holding or to give it up. 
 A Spanish fleet appeared off the coast, and a Spanish 
 army was on the march to attack Darien. The 
 colonists made one gallant attempt to maintain their 
 territory. A small but most resolute force, suddenly 
 summoned to arms by the authorities of the new 
 colony, crossed the Isthmus, encountered the Spanish 
 troops, who were utterly unprepared for any such 
 attack and never supposed that an attempt of the 
 kind would be made. The audacious assailants 
 completely dispersed the soldiers of the Spanish 
 monarchy. There was wild exultation in the new 
 colony, a medal was struck in commemoration of 
 the victory, and when the news reached Edinburgh, 
 in due course, it was celebrated by a somewhat 
 tumultuous demonstration which much alarmed the 
 more peaceful and less enterprising citizens. 
 
 In the meantime it should be said that the repre- 
 sentatives of King William the Third at foreign 
 Courts took good care to display no sympathy what- 
 ever with the doings of the Darien colonists, and, 
 indeed, did their very best to make it known that 
 these enterprising colonists were regarded in England 
 as men in opposition to the policy of the King and 
 
198 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. x. 
 
 as no better than adventurers, freebooters, and 
 pirates. All this was not very likely to invite the 
 world in general to any enthusiastic rivalry of trading 
 with the new colony. Even the victory obtained 
 over the Spanish force, however glorious a perfor- 
 mance for the victors, did not seem just the kind of 
 event to encourage peaceful trading, and to mark 
 out the spot on which it took place as the most 
 favourable scene for the quiet making of enormous 
 fortunes. The new colonists, it was plain, would have 
 to maintain their title by force of arms for some time 
 to come, and the immediate question in the minds of 
 outside observers was whether the Darien company 
 would have to encounter a war with Spain or a 
 war with England. The colony itself was suffering 
 from disease and something like starvation. The 
 cUmate of Darien was utterly unsuited to many or 
 most of the Scotch colonists who were trying to settle 
 there, and the whole foundation of the scheme was 
 laid on the assumption that the colonists would be 
 free to do a roaring trade in a region especially 
 adapted by kindly nature for such a purpose. The 
 project soon came to complete disaster. The 
 colonists had to surrender the territory on which 
 they had settled to the peremptory demand of Spain 
 in March 1700. Paterson and some others had 
 escaped before the final disaster, and Paterson 
 continued to be an energetic promoter of financial 
 schemes for many years after. But the Darien enter- 
 prise had come to an end, and its fate served, as we 
 have already said, to form an effective argument in 
 
1700 THE COLLAPSE OF THE SCHEME. 199 
 
 favour of the legislative union between England and 
 Scotland. 
 
 It was evident that the energy of the Scottish 
 trading spirit and the trade competition between 
 England and Scotland could not long go on without 
 bringing the two countries into frequent and danger- 
 ous dispute, unless a common parliament were in- 
 vested with equal dominion over both communities. 
 The views of Bishop Burnet on this subject may be 
 studied with much interest, if only because they are 
 those of a contemporary observer who must have 
 had ample opportunity of conversing with most of 
 the leading men in England having to do with the 
 working of the union project. ' I cannot, upon such 
 a signal occasion,' the Bishop observes with his usual 
 gravity, ' restrain myself from making some reflections 
 on the directions of Providence in this matter. It is 
 certain the design on Darien, the great charge it 
 put the nation to, and the total miscarriage of that 
 project, made the trading part of that kingdom see 
 the impossibility of undertaking any great design in 
 trade ; and that made them the more readily concur 
 in carrying on the union. The wiser men of that 
 nation had observed long, that Scotland lay at the 
 mercy of the ministry, and that every new set of 
 ministers made use of their power to enrich them- 
 selves and their creatures at the cost of the pubUc ; 
 that the judges, being made by them, were in such 
 a dependence, that since there are no juries allowed 
 in Scotland in civil matters, the whole property of 
 the kingdom was in their hands, and by their means 
 
200 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. x. 
 
 in the hands of the ministers ; they had also observed, 
 how ineffectual it had been to complain of them at 
 Court ; it put those who ventured on it to a vast 
 charge, to no other purpose but to expose them the 
 more to the fury of the ministry. The poor noble- 
 men, and the poor boroughs made a great majority 
 in their parliament, and were easily to be purchased 
 by the court ; so they saw no hopes of a remedy to 
 such a mischief, but by an incorporating union with 
 England. These thoughts were much quickened by 
 the prospect of recovering what they had lost in that 
 iU-concerted undertaking of Darien ; and this was 
 so universal and so operative, that the design on 
 Darien, which the Jacobites had set on foot, and 
 prosecuted with so much fury, and with bad intentions, 
 did now engage many to promote the Union, who, 
 without that consideration, would have been at least 
 neutral, if not backward in it.' Paterson himself 
 became after his return home one of the most earnest 
 advocates of the projected union, and was indeed one 
 of the first Scottish members elected, when the time 
 came, to the United Parliament. 
 
 Such were the conditions under which WiUiam 
 the Third sent his last message to his House of 
 Commons, the message recommending the legislative 
 union between England and Scotland. When Queen 
 Anne came to the throne she was advised to appoint 
 under her sign-manual a royal commission on the 
 part of England to treat with commissioners from 
 the Scottish Estates on the subject of the proposed 
 union between the two divisions of her kingdom. 
 
1702 THE BASIS OF UNION. 201 
 
 Once again the difficulty created by the supposed 
 rivalry of trading interests threatened to obstruct 
 any satisfactory settlement. The Scottish commission 
 was appointed and the commissioners put forward, 
 as what may be called a basis of negotiations, their 
 national claim for ' such an union as entitles the 
 subjects of both kingdoms to a mutual communi- 
 cation of trade privileges and advantages.' The 
 Enghsh commissioners accepted the basis of nego- 
 tiation, but they quaUfied their acceptance by a very 
 important condition. Their declaration set forth 
 that while the English commissioners recognised the 
 communication of trade and other privileges to be 
 the necessary result of a complete legislative union, 
 ' yet in the method of proceeding they must first 
 settle with your lordships the terms and conditions 
 of this communication of trade and other privileges.' 
 In effect, by these words the English commissioners 
 stated that they would cheerfully accept the principle 
 laid down by the Scottish commissioners, provided 
 only it was made clear to them that the definition 
 of that principle in the minds of the Scottish com- 
 missioners was precisely identical with its definition 
 in the minds of the Enghsh commissioners. 'We 
 are quite in agreement so far as words go, but had we 
 not better find out clearly whether we attach exactly 
 the same meaning to the words, before we commit 
 our agreement to the articles of a treaty?' — such 
 was, in substance, the meaning of the English com- 
 missioners' reservation.^ 
 
 This course of procedure naturally brought the 
 
202 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. x. 
 
 discussion to a point, and the Scottish commissioners 
 found it necessary to put their meaning into words 
 which admitted of no misunderstanding. They set 
 forth four conditions. The first was ' that there be 
 a free trade between the two kingdoms, without any 
 imposition or distinction.' The second 'that both 
 kingdoms be under the same regulations, and liable 
 to equal impositions for exportation and impor- 
 tation, and that a book of rates be adjusted for 
 both.' The third article required ' that the subjects 
 of both kingdoms and their seamen and shipping, 
 have equal freedom of trade and commerce to and 
 from the plantations, and be under the same regula- 
 tion.' The fourth clause addressed itself even more 
 directly and positively to some questions of recent 
 dispute. Its stipulation was ' that the Acts of 
 Navigation, and all other Acts in either kingdom, in 
 so far as contrary to or inconsistent with any of the 
 above-mentioned proposals, be rescinded.' 
 
 The Enghsh commissioners spent a week in con- 
 sidering these clearly defined conditions, and then 
 proceeded to set forth their own ideas of free trade 
 in relation to the first article. They declared it as 
 their opinion ' that there be a free trade between the 
 two kingdoms for the native commodities of the 
 growth, product, and manufactures of the respective 
 countries, with an exception to wool, sheep, and 
 sheep-fells, and without any distinction or imposition 
 other than equal duties upon the home consumption.' 
 The meaning of this opinion cannot probably be 
 more clearly deduced than as we find it in the 
 
1702-3 TKADE DIFFICULTIES. 203 
 
 comment of John Hill Burton, the Scottish historian, 
 who says that it ' implied an exclusion on importa- 
 tion of foreign merchandise into England in Scots 
 vessels, restricted the importation of Scots produce 
 to the market for home consumption, and made im- 
 portant exceptions to the articles of home produce 
 that might be imported.' Then the Enghsh commis- 
 sioners took up the third article and on this they 
 declared 'that the plantations are the property of 
 Enghshmen, and that this trade is of so great a con- 
 sequence, and so beneficial, as not to be communi- 
 cated, as is proposed, till all other particulars which 
 shall be thought necessary to this union be adjusted.' 
 It may perhaps be as well to explain that the com- 
 missioners use the word ' communicated ' in the sense 
 of making common to both countries. Furthermore 
 the English commissioners declared that with the ex- 
 ception of some rather unimportant commodities ' as 
 the case now stands by law, no European goods can 
 be carried to the English Plantations but what have 
 been first landed in England.' And they add that 
 the product of the plantations cannot ' be carried to 
 other parts of Europe till it has been first landed in 
 England.' 
 
 After some further delay and discussion the com- 
 missioners, Enghsh and Scotch, held a full and as 
 it turned out a very friendly conference on the trade 
 questions, and an agreement was come to by the 
 Court 'that there be a free trade between all the 
 subjects of the Island of Great Britain, without any 
 distinction, in the same manner as is now practised 
 
204 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. x. 
 
 from one part of England to another ; and that the 
 masters, mariners, and goods be under the same 
 securities and penalties in the coasting trade,' and 
 furthermore ' that both kingdoms be under the same 
 regulations and prohibitions, and liable to equal im- 
 positions for exportation and importation ; and that 
 a book of rates be adjusted for both,' and ' that the 
 subjects of both kingdoms, and their seamen and 
 shipping, have equal freedom of trade and commerce 
 to and from the plantations, under such and the 
 same regulations and restrictions as are and wiU be 
 necessary for preserving the said trade to Great 
 Britain.' 
 
 We need not follow out the further progress of 
 these conferences through all their details. The 
 events of the time were unquestionably leading, or 
 forcing, both sides on to an agreement. The out- 
 break of war on the Continent, and the part which 
 England had to take in it, made it clear to aU 
 minds capable of calm and judicious observation 
 that a legislative union of both parts of the kingdom 
 would be the only possible security against the up- 
 rising of events which might force the North and 
 the South into actual war. There was nothing like a 
 real and general opposition, so far as England was 
 concerned, to such a settlement of the question. 
 Queen Anne herself was very anxious that nothing 
 should be done which might affect in any way the 
 supremacy of the English Church at home, and 
 she appeared during one part of the discussion 
 to be afraid that something of the kind might be 
 
1703-6 THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 205 
 
 the result _ of an immediate compromise. But it was 
 hardly within the range of probability that any 
 danger of that sort could be seriously threatened, and 
 the general feeling of England was undoubtedly in 
 favour of an amicable and final arrangement. 
 
 In Scotland there was for a time much oppo- 
 sition to the proposed union. There was a strong 
 feeling that a legislative union would lead to the 
 dethronement of Edinburgh as a capital and that 
 the representatives of Scotland would lose their im- 
 portance and their power when once Westminster 
 had become the legislative centre for the two king- 
 doms. Then, of course, there existed in Scotland 
 the not unnatural or even unreasonable dread that 
 the result of an Act of Union might imperil the in- 
 dependent constitution of the Scotch Church. In 
 order to meet this difficulty a distinct and definite 
 understanding had to be arrived at that the legisla- 
 tive union should make no change in the condition of 
 either Church. This was an agreement of absolutely 
 vital importance, for it was made quite certain that 
 under no conditions would the majority of the Scottish 
 people consent to any union which might afiect the 
 independence and the constitution of the Church of 
 Scotland. To this end the Enghsh Parhament and the 
 Estates of Scotland passed definite Acts declaring that 
 each State should be free to maintain its own Church 
 in its existing form and conditions. In other words, it 
 was made clear by preliminary enactments that while 
 there was to be only one Crown, one Parliament, 
 and, one Kingdom, there were to be two absolutely 
 
206 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. i. 
 
 independent Churches. There were agreements also 
 fixing the proportion of taxation to which Scotland, 
 according to her means, should be held liable, and 
 ordering that the proportion of Scottish representa- 
 tives in the English Parliament should be fixed on 
 reasonable terms. These terms were rather favour- 
 able than otherwise to the Scottish people, for it was 
 felt that the growing population and the growing 
 activity of trade and commerce in Scotland could 
 not be adequately represented if the number of 
 Scottish representatives in the Parliament of West- 
 minster were to be estimated by a merely arith- 
 metical proportion to the existing conditions. 
 
 Another question of great importance which had 
 to be settled as essential to any Act of Union had 
 to do with the laws and administration of justice in 
 Scotland. The Scottish system of law differed in 
 many momentous characteristics from the system 
 existing in England. This question was settled, as 
 it could only be settled, by an agreement that the 
 Scottish system should remain as it was, absolutely 
 independent of that which existed in England. The 
 law of Scotland with regard to marriage and the 
 legitimacy of children differed materially from that 
 of England, and it was felt to be out of the question 
 that Scotland could be induced to submit to any 
 serious change in the long-established principles 
 taken from the old Eoman Law which regulated 
 her institutions. When this agreement had been 
 arrived at there was little trouble in coming to an 
 understanding upon other subjects. It had to be 
 
1707 THE UNION ACCOMPLISHED. 207 
 
 settled, for instance, what tlae national flag of the 
 new and United Kingdom should be, and the final 
 agreement was that the Crosses of St. George and 
 St. Andrew should be borne by the national banner 
 for the future. The ensign which we now know as 
 the Union Jack was the historical creation of this 
 agreement. 
 
 Queen Anne delivered an address to both Houses 
 of the EngHsh Parliament. The Eoyal Address de- 
 clared that ' You have now an opportunity before you 
 of putting the last hand to a happy union of the 
 two kingdoms, which, I hope, will be a lasting blessing 
 to the whole island, a great addition to its wealth and 
 power, and a firm security to the Protestant religion. 
 The advantages that wiU accrue to us all from an 
 union are so apparent, that I wiU add no more, but 
 that I shall look upon it as a particular happiness if 
 this great work, which has been so often attempted 
 without success, can be brought to perfection in my 
 reign.' After some discussion in both Houses, and 
 after several divisions had been taken in the House 
 of Lords, which only served to show that there was 
 a strong majority in favour of the measure, the 
 Act was passed, and on March 6, 1707, the Queen 
 came to the House of Lords and delivered her Eoyal 
 assent to the Union of England and Scotland. 
 
 In an interesting and well-prepared volume by 
 Edward E. Morris, which forms one of the series 
 called 'Epochs of Modern History,' and describes 
 'The Age of Anne,' the author calls attention to 
 the fact that the conditions under which the Union 
 
208 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. x. 
 
 between England and Scotland was effected differed 
 essentially from those under which, at the opening 
 of the next century, the Act of Union between 
 England and Ireland was passed into law. He 
 shows the injustice in the Irish Act of Union which 
 ' consisted in the fact that the dominant Church in 
 Ireland was not the Church of the people, a very 
 large majority of whom were Eoman Catholics.' He 
 points out as ' a fact that requires notice that whilst 
 the Scotch do not desire a repeal, the Irish as a 
 nation do.' This is indeed a fact of which history 
 has been compelled since the passing of the Irish 
 Act to take account more and more seriously with 
 each succeeding year. In Scotland the religion of 
 the people was protected by special enactment, 
 whereas in Ireland the Church of a smaU minority 
 was made by law a dominant establishment. 
 
 Mdre than a quarter of a century had to pass 
 after the Irish Act of Union before the first Eoman 
 Catholic representative of Ireland was allowed by 
 legislation to take a seat in the House of Commons. 
 Even then that tardy measure of religious equahty 
 was only accepted by the Parliament at Westminster 
 because Sir Eobert Peel, a genuine statesman, had 
 become convinced that unless it were passed he must 
 have to encounter a civil war, and the great Duke of 
 Wellington emphatically declared that he would not 
 accept the responsibiUty of further resistance to the 
 national demand of Ireland. There was, therefore, 
 no gratitude felt or professed by the Irish people for 
 the concession of Catholic Emancipation on the plain 
 
1707 THE UNION A SUCCESS. 209 
 
 ground that the concession had been made not to 
 the demands of justice or generosity, but as an alter- 
 native which the ruling English statesmen preferred 
 to the certainty of civil war. For more than another 
 generation after the passing of the Act of Catholic 
 Emancipation, the Protestant State Church was still 
 maintained as an establishment in a country where 
 at least five out of six of the inhabitants were Eoman 
 Catholics by religion. Mr. Gladstone completed the 
 work of religious equality which Sir Eobert Peel had 
 begun. 
 
 It wUl be seen that without any reference to 
 other national sentiments or national claims, the Act 
 of Union between Great Britain and Ireland differed 
 in one of its essential conditions from the Act of Union 
 between England and Scotland. No surprise can be 
 felt by any reasonable man that on this ground alone 
 the Union was utterly unwelcome to Ireland, while 
 it was cordially accepted by Scotland. It is certain 
 that the Union between England and Scotland was 
 welcomed and accepted by the one part of the island 
 as weU as by the other, and has proved thus far a 
 complete success. Even if the growth of new con- 
 ditions, and the development of that principle of 
 local government which is becoming more and more 
 recognised as the essential part of every system of 
 federation including different nationalities in one 
 State system, should lead to some further modifica- 
 tion of the terms under which England and Scotland 
 are to remain in Imperial Union, that fact would not 
 in the least degree affect the judgment of history on 
 
 VOL. I. P 
 
210 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. s. 
 
 the working of the measure passed in the reign of 
 Queen Anne. The Act of Union between England 
 and Scotland must always be regarded as one of the 
 greatest and most successful events which mark with 
 honour the momentous history of that reign. 
 
211 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 ' THE TEIVIAL ROUND — THE COMMON TASK ' 
 
 While the armies of Queen Anne are engaged on 
 the battlefields of the Low Countries, of Germany, and 
 of Spain, and the controversies of religious denomi- 
 nations and political parties are going on at home, it 
 may be a convenient time for us to endeavour to 
 form some idea as to the manner in which the trivial 
 round and the common task of life went on in 
 England for the ordinary citizen. So far as regards 
 the methods and the rate of passenger traffic in these 
 countries, life was going on in the days of Queen 
 Anne very much as it had gone on in the days of 
 Elizabeth or in those of King John, or indeed for 
 that matter in the days of Julius Csesar. What sails 
 and horses could do for travellers was done, and 
 there was nothing more, just then, to be done. But 
 our ancestors who lived under Queen Anne were 
 already beginning to enjoy the advantages of a 
 regular system of postal communication. Of course 
 there could be no quicker means of transmission 
 at that time than during any former age since 
 anything like civilisation had set in. When Marl- 
 borough could put such a pressure on himself as 
 to overcome his iiiherent dislike of formal latter- 
 
 p 2 
 
212 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xi. 
 
 writing, and pen a dispatch from the battle-field for 
 the instruction of the Government at home, his 
 dispatch travelled at just the same rate of speed 
 and by much the same methods of conveyance as 
 one of Julius Csesar's dispatches might have done 
 from Gaul or from Britain to Eome. But in Queen 
 Anne's days there was at least a regulated system 
 for such communication all over the kingdom, over 
 the greater part of the European continent, and 
 even across the ocean to some of England's distant 
 colonies. A citizen of London was then well aware 
 that on certain days of the week he could send a 
 letter to this or that part of the Continent, or farther 
 off still, with a reasonable hope of its reaching its 
 address. 
 
 In our modern days we are apt to regard the 
 Penny Post as an institution deriving its existence 
 from the inventiveness and the practical methods of 
 Eowland HiU. But while we do unquestionably 
 owe what may be called the national penny post — that 
 is, the penny post circulating through all parts of 
 the kingdom — to Eowland Hill's reform, it is certain 
 that there was a penny post existing in the days of 
 Queen Anne, although the range of its operation 
 was practically limited to the metropolitan district. 
 There was, in fact, a postal delivery every two hours, 
 to or from any part of the City or suburbs of London 
 at the cost of one penny for each letter. This post 
 was started somewhere about the opening of Charles 
 the Second's reign. It was in the first instance only 
 a private institution, or more properly a private 
 
1702 THE LONDON POST. 213 
 
 speculation, and after a while it was annexed by 
 the Government and incorporated with the ordinary- 
 postal system. In Mr. John Ashton's interesting 
 and instructive work 'Social Life in the Eeign of 
 Queen Anne' we can read a full and explicit ac- 
 count of the keen and personal disputations which 
 took place as to the actual authorship of the penny 
 postal system. We need not, however, enter into 
 any discussion here with regard to the identity of the 
 original inventor. There are few inventions known 
 to modern civiUsation which have not been closely 
 accompanied by some controversy as to rival claims 
 of authorship. It is enough for our purpose to know 
 that the penny post, within its prescribed limits, was 
 an institution in fuU existence and recognition at the 
 opening of Queen Anne's reign. 
 
 When a letter had to travel beyond the me- 
 tropolitan limits the charge was twopence a sheet 
 for eighty mUes, aU letters travelling more than that 
 distance having to pay threepence for a single sheet, 
 and sixpence for a double letter, or twelvepence if 
 the ponderous missive was swelled to greater dimen- 
 sions. A single letter went to Dublin for sixpence, 
 a double letter for one shilling, and one-and-sixpence 
 an ounce was charged for any communication of 
 greater bulk or weight. The cost of foreign postage 
 might be regarded as comparatively cheap. A 
 single-sheet letter could be sent to the West Indies 
 for one-and-threepence and a double letter for two- 
 and-sixpence, but letters coming from the West 
 Indies to England had to pay one-and-sixpence or 
 
214 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xi. 
 
 three shillings each, or, if bulky enough to be rated 
 according to mere weight, six shillings for each 
 ounce. There were separate days assigned for the 
 sending of letters to foreign countries, and indeed 
 to any places outside the metropolitan range. On 
 Monday letters went out to Spain, Italy, Germany, 
 Flanders, and some of the North countries, and also 
 to some parts of England. Tuesday was devoted to 
 Germany, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, and also 
 to North Britain, Ireland, and Wales. Wednesday 
 occupied itself exclusively with the postal service 
 of Kent and the Downs. Thursday sent out letters 
 to Spain, Italy, and all parts of North Britain and 
 England. Friday's missives ranged over Italy, 
 Germany, Flanders, HoUand, Sweden, Denmark, and 
 also the much-favoured Kent and the Downs. Satur- 
 day gave itself up to the service merely of England, 
 Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. 
 
 Now, if we consider, for even a moment, we shall 
 see that the Londoner of those days or the resident 
 of any part of Great Britain and Ireland must have 
 found his work of letter-writing embarrassed and 
 bewUdered by a variety of considerations and calcu- 
 lations whoUy unknown to our happier days. Leav- 
 ing out of the question altogether the cost of mere 
 postage, and the heavy tax thus imposed on those 
 who were anxious to communicate with their friends 
 abroad, we shall find that the effort to keep in recol- 
 lection the particular days when the latest news from 
 home could be conveyed to friends abroad must have 
 brought a serious and continuous perplexity into the 
 
1702 THE FOEEIGN POST. 215 
 
 perturbed mind of the faithful correspondent. Now 
 when we write a letter and address it to its destination, 
 we have nothing to do but simply to drop it into the 
 post, and we know that as a matter of course it wiU 
 be carried on its way by the next and, for the time, 
 the only channel of transport. But in the days of 
 Queen Anne the dweller in England who was anxious 
 to send news of himself to a friend in Spain or Italy, 
 and who missed his Monday post, had the discomfort 
 of knowing that his letter could not begin to go 
 on its way before the following Thursday. Many 
 a man who was, like most of us, not particularly 
 tenacious in his memory of dates must have dis- 
 patched his letter just too late for Spain and Italy, and 
 might have found something of peculiar interest to 
 write about during the two or three following days 
 if he had remembered in time that Monday and 
 Thursday were the only parts of the week directly 
 applicable to his purpose. In point of fact, the 
 nearest parts of the European continent, and for 
 that matter a large portion of the British counties as 
 well, were under the same conditions with regard 
 to postage as those which now apply to America 
 and Australasia and other regions beyond the 
 ocean. 
 
 Most of us, even in these present days of almost 
 incessant postal transit everywhere, must have 
 been sometimes a little perplexed by the trouble 
 of remembering the precise days when the latest 
 post can be secured for America or for Australia. 
 If we just bring our minds to a comprehension of 
 
216 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xi. 
 
 the mental trouble which must have been created 
 when the same consideration had to come up with 
 regard to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and even to many- 
 parts of England itself, we shall begin to understand 
 that the work of correspondence with one's friends 
 was a troublesome business in those days for even 
 the easiest letter-writer. Enterprise, however, was 
 not wanting in the steady-going years of Queen 
 Anne's postal system. We read that one adventurous 
 personage set up in London a postal institution all 
 of his own device — a system by which letters were to 
 be conveyed through all parts of the London district 
 by messengers on foot at the reduced charge of 
 one halfpenny for the single sheet. The post-office 
 authorities were not disposed to put up with audacious 
 rivalry, and they took steps to restrain this reckless 
 innovator from his interference with their monopoly. 
 The authorities, in fact, went so far as to issue 
 through the columns of the ' Gazette,' then as now 
 the official organ of the Government, a solemn pro- 
 clamation against these amateur rivals of the regular 
 postal system. 
 
 The proclamation set forth that ' Whereas Charles 
 Povey and divers Traders and Shopkeepers in and 
 about the Cities of London and Westminster, Borough 
 of Southwark and Parts adjacent, and several Persons 
 ringing Bells about the Streets of the said Cities and 
 Borough have set up, employ'd, and for some time 
 continued a Foot Post for Collecting and Delivering 
 Letters within the said Cities and Borough and Parts 
 adjoining for Hire under the Name of the Halfpenny 
 
1708-9 THE HALFPENNY POST. 217 
 
 Carriage, Contrary to the Known Laws of the King- 
 dom, and to the great Prejudice of her Majesty's 
 Eevenues arising by Posts.' 
 
 The Postmaster-General directed informations to 
 be laid against these offenders for the recovery of 
 one hundred pounds from each one of them for such 
 an act, the fine to be renewed for every week's con- 
 tinuance of these doings, and also five pounds for 
 every offence in the collecting and delivering of letters 
 for hire under such conditions. The halfpenny post 
 struggled on for a little against the resolute inter- 
 vention of the Postmaster-General, but competition 
 was not Hkely to be profitable under these difficulties, 
 and the pubhc had soon to confine itself to the 
 authorised plans and charges for the delivery of its 
 correspondence. 
 
 The cost of communication through the medium 
 of the Government Post-office naturally induced a 
 considerable proportion of the letter-writing class to 
 hunt up their influential and privileged friends, in 
 order to obtain the benefit of the Pranking system — 
 the system which allowed members of either House 
 of Parhament, and others in office or authority, to 
 secure a free passage through the post for any letters 
 which they might honour by their signature on the 
 outside. The practice of franking did not then, it is 
 only fair to say, make anything like the exorbitant 
 demands on the postal revenue which became a 
 peculiarity of later days, and went on increasing 
 steadily until the early years of Queen Victoria's 
 reign. The fact is that the habit of letter-writing 
 
218 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xi. 
 
 had not become, even for business naen, anything 
 like so engrossing a part of each day's work as it 
 grew to be in times more near to our own. During 
 Queen Anne's reign letter-writing for the great bulk 
 of the population entered but little into the ordinary 
 occupations and enjoyments of existence. Pubhc 
 men, officials, and persons largely engaged in com- 
 merce or business of any kind, were necessarily in 
 the habit of writing letters every day ; but in ordi- 
 nary life the penning and dispatching of a letter was 
 quite an event, and the majority of the population 
 hardly ever went to the trouble of writing letters at 
 aU. Indeed, it may be very safely affirmed that the 
 majority of the population did not write letters for 
 the very good reason that they did not know how to 
 write. England was yet a long way from the busy 
 times and the educational zeal which set up the 
 system of Board schools. In the matter of popular 
 education the England of Queen Anne was far 
 behind the Scotland of the same reign, and still 
 farther behind the greater number of the German 
 States. 
 
 The London Exchange was already the centre of 
 the country's financial business, and was a centre 
 for the financial business of many other countries 
 as weU. Dutch, German, and Italian traders and 
 traffickers were conspicuous figures at this great 
 market-place of speculation. The business of specu- 
 lation itself was beginning in Queen Anne's time to 
 be a trade and traffic aU of its own. A statue of 
 Charles the Second ornamented the centre of the 
 
1702 THE EOYAL EXCHANGE. 219 
 
 Exchange, althougli the real life of that quarter, as 
 we now understand it, had not begun its movement 
 in the days of the Merry Monarch. A contemporary 
 writer quoted by Mr. Ashton describes it as ' a vast 
 heap of Stones,' and he goes on to teU us that ' the 
 Noise in it is like that of Bees ; a strange Humming 
 or Buzzing, of walking tongues and feet ; it is a 
 kind of a stiU Eoaring, or loud Whisper.' Then he 
 describes it as ' the great Exchange of all Discourses,' 
 and he affirms, very correctly no doubt, that ' no 
 Business whatsoever but is here on Foot.' Hereupon 
 the writer becomes somewhat sarcastic, and he 
 informs his readers that ' all things are sold here, 
 and Honesty by Inch of Candle ; but woe be to the 
 Purchaser, for it wiU never thrive with him.' 
 
 All manner of salesmen crowded round the place, 
 and at the entrance to the front portico nostrums of 
 every kind were advertised by placards and com- 
 mended in loud voices by the vendors, and the 
 credulous could buy at varying rates any species of 
 drug which they were led to believe of service to 
 humanity in the removal of every bodily infirmity and 
 even the unlimited prolongation of life. Crowds of 
 merely curious citizens and strangers always gathered 
 around at Exchange hours, and many of these brought 
 their wives, daughters, or sweethearts to enjoy the 
 sights, and all the shops in the neighbourhood did a 
 roaring trade. The names of some of the weU-known 
 bankers of that time are identified with great financial 
 business even in our own day. The millionaires, the 
 multi-millionaires, of our present era, were unknown 
 
220 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xi. 
 
 figures in the reign of Queen Anne. The greatest for- 
 tune amassed in trade or commerce, or accomplished 
 by successful speculation at that time, would seem 
 but very modest wealth if compared with the vast 
 sums of money realised by the successful projector 
 or speculator of a more recent day. The great 
 private companies, or trusts as they would be called 
 in the United States, were the creation of an age 
 nearer to our own and of business developments which 
 had not blossomed into fuU existence, had hardly 
 indeed come into existence at all during the period 
 pictured in Mr. Ashton's volumes. 
 
 Education, as we have said, had not spread itself 
 in Queen Anne's days, or even in days much later, 
 among that vast proportion of the population where 
 the parents of the children could not afford to pay 
 for their teaching, or did not regard book learning 
 as a thing worth paying for or worth the trouble of 
 daily attendance. But it has to be stated that Queen 
 Anne's time saw the systematic beginning of the 
 Charity School institution, which did something 
 towards that work of free education now put within 
 the reach even of the very poorest by our modern 
 creation of Board schools. Some of the famous schools 
 existing in our own time were recognised institu- 
 tions in London then. The Westminster School, the 
 Merchant Taylors, Greyfriars, Christ's Hospital and 
 many others were flourishing. Among the classes 
 which were above the restrictions of mere poverty, a 
 classical education, as we still term it, and more 
 especially the teaching of Latin, obtained much 
 
1702 PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 221 
 
 favour with parents. It was regarded as an essen- 
 tial part of every gentleman's education that he 
 should be compelled in his scholastic days to go 
 through a certain study of Latin and the Latin authors, 
 with at least an infusion of the hterature of classic 
 Greece. The famous saying of Prince Bismarck, 
 that it was better for a man to have forgotten Latin 
 and Greek than never to have learned anything of 
 them, appears to have been the central theory of 
 education when Anne was Queen of England. The 
 modern languages — at least French, Italian, and 
 German — were special studies which were only 
 insisted upon when they were regarded as likely to 
 be of direct and practical advantage in the student's 
 future course of life. 
 
 The education of girls seldom went beyond French, 
 a little music, skUl in dancing, the use of the needle, 
 and of course reading and writing of English, without, 
 however, any very pedantic attention to precision 
 in the perplexing work of spelling. On the other 
 hand, greater pains were probably taken at that time 
 than in our own for the training of every girl to be 
 an accomphshed housewife, and to regard the cook- 
 ing of dainty dishes as one of the accomplishments 
 necessary to a well brought up young lady. The 
 age undoubtedly produced many highly cultured 
 women in England, but the general ideas as to the 
 mental education of a woman were entirely different 
 from those which dictated the mental education of a 
 man, and that a sister should read and study the 
 books which were thought essential for the proper 
 
222 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xi. 
 
 bringing up of her brother was no more held in 
 favour than the idea that she ought to learn as weU 
 as he how to swim and how to handle the rapier. 
 WeU-bred parents during the reign of Queen Anne 
 would have been as much surprised to hear of a girl 
 studying Latin as they would have been to hear of 
 the same girl learning how to take her part in open- 
 air contests of skiU with her brother and his school- 
 boy friends. 
 
 The club was now becoming a favourite social 
 institution, although it was not yet anything hke the 
 widespread organisation which has interwoven itself 
 so universally into the social and political hfe of all 
 civilised countries at the present time. The October 
 Club was, for a while, the principal and the most 
 prosperous institution of the kind in the reign of 
 Anne. This was the club of the High Tories, who 
 then regarded themselves as especially representing 
 the gentlemen and the gentlemanlike traditions of 
 England. The country party met in social and pohtical 
 converse there, and the name of the club was taken 
 from the good old October ale which was popularly 
 and traditionally supposed to be the favourite 
 beverage of aU sound country Tories. In one of his 
 letters to Stella, Swift teUs that ' We are plagued 
 here with an October club ; that is, a set of above a 
 hundred Parliament men of the Country, who drink 
 October beer at home and meet every evening at 
 a tavern near the Parliament, to consult affairs, and 
 drive things on to extremes against the Whigs, to 
 call the old ministry to account,' and he adds that 
 
1702 CLUB LIFE. 223 
 
 ' The ministry seem not to regard them, yet one of 
 them in confidence, told me that there must be some- 
 thing thought on to settle things better.' 
 
 We can perhaps without difiiculty form a kind of 
 comparison between the October Club and certain 
 political institutions of a time nearer to our own, 
 although the party organisations of a more recent 
 date have quite outgrown the idea of holding their 
 meetings within the walls of an ordinary "West- 
 minster tavern, and must have their own private 
 edifices of vast extent, solid structure, and imposing 
 frontage. The Calves' Head Club wiU perhaps assist 
 us to carry on the comparison. This club was the 
 centre of opposition to Toryism, and it was described 
 and denounced by Tory pamphleteers of that day as 
 a downright republican institution or even worse, 
 which was accustomed to celebrate with musical 
 rejoicing the anniversary of the day on which Charles 
 the First was done to death. Some of these pamph- 
 leteers point, as conclusive evidence of the truth of 
 their charges, to the fact that the members of the 
 Calves' Head Club consisted in great part of Indepen- 
 dents and Anabaptists and other Nonconformists. In 
 other words, the Calves' Head Club was described by 
 its enemies in very much the same spirit as that in 
 which one of the earlier Eadical clubs might have 
 been shown up by a Tory zealot in the days before 
 the representative system had yet expanded into 
 something like household suffrage. 
 
 The Kit Cat Club was one of the most famous 
 clubs of the time. It was called from the mutton 
 
224 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xi' 
 
 pies then known as Kit Cats, although why they were 
 thus designated is not quite certain. It succeeded 
 in establishing a distinct reputation of its own, and 
 we need not trouble ourselves now by any revival 
 of the controversy about the derivation of its whim- 
 sical title. So far as it was a political organisation it 
 may be set down as belonging to the Whig party, 
 but it was especially the meeting place of wits and 
 humourists and literary men of all political orders 
 and shades. Its leading members had the honour of 
 having their portraits painted by Sir Godfrey KneUer 
 in three-quarter lengths, and for a time all sketches 
 in such form obtained the generic name of Kit Cats. 
 The drinking glasses used by the club were adorned 
 by mottoes taken from verses written by Sir Samuel 
 Garth, author of ' The Dispensary,' and Sir Eichard 
 Blackmore wrote in 1708 a poem called ' The Kit 
 Cats.' This club held its meetings at a tavern in 
 King Street, Westminster. The Beef Steak Club and 
 the Saturday Club held a leading place among the 
 social gatherings of the day. Swift often speaks of 
 the Saturday Club ; he tells SteUa that ' I dined with 
 lord-treasurer, and shall again to-morrow, which is 
 his day when all the ministers dine with him.' 
 
 The club-house in Queen Anne's reign, if we can 
 call that a club-house which seldom aspired to meet 
 in a building of its own, seems always to have been 
 the meeting place of men who gathered together for 
 some special purpose, to promote political objects, or 
 to discuss art and literature, or to bring together 
 a number of kindred spirits for the sake of mere 
 
1702 COFFEE-HOUSES. 225 
 
 social companionship and hilarity. The club-rooms 
 of modern times, where men go to write their letters 
 and read the newspapers, and are not supposed to 
 enter of necessity into friendly relationship or even 
 into casual conversation with other members whom 
 they happen to meet there, do not seem to have 
 flourished much during the reign of Queen Anne. 
 Then, as now, there were certain clubs which, apart 
 from any question of political organisation, were 
 supposed to confer distinction on every one who 
 was fortunate enough to be received as a member. 
 At that time, as in our own, a young man's 
 chances of finding a favourable reception in good 
 society of this or that political order, or of no 
 political order in particular, might be greatly 
 advanced by the mere fact that he belonged to some 
 club of high and established reputation. 
 
 The coflfee-houses and chocolate-houses were a 
 special feature of London social life in Queen Anne's 
 reign, and the names and the ways of some of them 
 have found an abiding place in literature. The 
 coffee-house was not a novelty at that time, but in 
 Queen Anne's reign it reached its highest popu- 
 larity. It must not be supposed that the coffee- 
 houses served out to their customers no drinks 
 stronger than coffee ; for some of them had the repu- 
 tation of recognising no scrupulous teetotal restric- 
 tions as to the character of the potations they were 
 willing to supply to all who entered the premises. 
 In general, however, the coffee-house was used as a 
 place for the sipping of coffee and the hearing of 
 VOL, I. Q 
 
226 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xi. 
 
 news. Certain of these houses had a distinct political 
 character, and Defoe tells us that a Whig would no 
 more go to the Cocoa Tree Chocolate-House than a 
 Tory would be seen at the Coffee-House of St. James. 
 Button's has won a distinct fame of its own because it 
 was so much frequented by Addison and his friends. 
 It stood in Eussell Street, Covent Garden. The lion's 
 head which was used there as a letter-box has been 
 mentioned in many a brilliant paper of that time, and 
 after various removals, when Button's Coffee -House 
 was taken down, came into possession of the Bedford 
 famUy, and was preserved as a relic. The names of 
 Garraway's, of Lloyd's, and some others are still remem- 
 bered by every one and represent important institu- 
 tions which have long outgrown the original purpose 
 of the founders. The coffee-house of the better order 
 was, indeed, a sort of club without the exclusiveness 
 belonging to actual enrolment as a member. 
 
 There was a certain exclusiveness maintained 
 in fact, although not in name, by the character 
 which each of the important coffee-houses gradually 
 came to acquire. One, as we have said, became the 
 resort of Tories in general, and after a while few but 
 Tories ever cared to cross its threshold. Another 
 was frequented by leading Whigs, and visitors who 
 were not Whigs soon found themselves out of place 
 there, and ceased to enter it. A third was recog- 
 nised as the haunt of literary men and wits ; and al- 
 though mere strangers, whether residents of London 
 or visitors from the country, were glad to look in for 
 the sake of seeing distinguished men and the chance 
 
1702 PLAYHOUSES. 227 
 
 of hearing good things said, and were proud to be 
 able to talk to their friends about all they had seen 
 and all they had heard, and perhaps a good deal 
 that they had not seen or heard, yet they did not feel 
 themselves quite at home in such a place, and were 
 regarded as mere outsiders even by themselves. It 
 often happened that when a man of political or literary 
 distinction gave a dinner to some of his friends in the 
 coffee-house which he especially patronised, the 
 host entertained his guests with wine supplied from 
 his own cellar, and the proprietor of the coffee- 
 house received a small payment for his acquiescence 
 in this foreign importation. The coffee-house, in 
 fact, held a place between the club and the tavern. 
 It was more free and easy than the club, but any- 
 body, however eminent his name or exalted his 
 class, might go there without causing any of the 
 scandal which would have been certain to arise if 
 he were seen to enter an ordinary tavern. The 
 coffee-house was one of the characteristic institu- 
 tions of the age, and the literature of Queen Anne's 
 reign pays ample tribute to its peculiarities, its 
 popularity, and its influence on the manners of the 
 time. 
 
 Queen Anne was not a patroness of the drama, and 
 appears even to have had a conscientious objection 
 to giving it any encouragement by her own presence 
 within the walls of a theatre. But she showed a 
 close and keen interest in the dramatic performances 
 of her time, at least so far as that interest could be 
 manifestedjj by frequent, and no doubt well-meant, 
 
228 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANISIE. oh. xi. 
 
 endeavours to make the manners of the theatre 
 conform with her own ideas of decorum and pro- 
 priety. Again and again she issued manifestations 
 of her royal will that certain freedoms of speech, of 
 gesture, or of costume, on the stage or behind the 
 scenes, should be modified in accordance with seemli- 
 ness and modesty. The good Queen, although she 
 never entered a playhouse, evidently kept herself well 
 informed about aU that was going on in the London 
 theatres, and was ready at any moment to interpose 
 by royal admonition when she had reason to beheve 
 that something was said or done which it would have 
 offended her eyes to see and her ears to hear. One 
 of these proclamations, which is prefixed 'Anne E.' 
 admonishes that ' We have already given Orders to 
 the Master of Our Eevels, and also to Both the 
 Companies of Comedians, Acting in Drury Lane 
 and Lincoln's Inn Fields, to take Special Care, that 
 Nothing be Acted in either of the Theatres contrary 
 to Eeligion or Good Manners, upon Pain of our High 
 Displeasure, and, being Silenc'd from further Acting ; 
 And being further desirous to Eeform aU other In- 
 decencies, and Abuses of the Stage which have occa- 
 sion'd great Disorders, and Justly give Offence ; Our 
 WiU and Pleasure therefore is, and We do hereby 
 strictly Command, That no Person of what Quality 
 soever. Presume to go Behind the Scenes, or come 
 upon the Stage, either before, or during the Acting 
 of any Play. That no Woman be Allow'd or Presume 
 to wear a Vizard Mask in either of the" Theatres, 
 and that no Person come into either House without 
 
1704 anne's proclamation. 229 
 
 paying tlie Prices Establish'd for their Eespective 
 Places.' It concludes by threatening severe penalties 
 for any infraction of these orders. 
 
 On January 20, 1704, the House of Lords returned 
 thanks to the Queen for her determination to restrain 
 the playhouses from immorality and indecent be- 
 haviour. Another proclamation issued not long after 
 in the same year takes notice that complaints have 
 been made to Her Majesty ' of many indecent prophane 
 and immoral Expressions that are usually spoken 
 by Players and Mountebanks contrary to Eeligion 
 and Good Manners,' and requiring that the Master of 
 the Eevels shall take care to have all plays and other 
 performances brought, fairly written, to him at his 
 office in Somerset House, to be corrected by him before 
 they shall be set on the stage, under severe penalties 
 in case of neglect of this revision. The same orders 
 were specially applied to all companies of strolling 
 actors, aU mountebanks and keepers of puppet-shows, 
 and announced that, without the revision and the 
 permission of the Master of the Eevels, these exhi- 
 bitions too would be subject to penalties, no matter 
 what other licences they might profess to have. The 
 Queen even issued orders to regulate the conduct of 
 the lacqueys and footmen sent by persons of rank 
 to keep places for them until their arrival at the 
 theatre, inasmuch as it appeared that the conduct of 
 these lacqueys and footmen sometimes caused much 
 offence to the regular frequenters of the theatre. 
 
 Some of us can well remember that her late 
 Majesty Queen Victoria, on more than one occasion, 
 
230 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xi. 
 
 published a letter with her own signature condemn- 
 ing certain performances, chiefly acrobatic exhibi- 
 tions and suchlike, because they brought with them 
 danger to the lives of the acrobats, and led to 
 accidents which ended in the death of women 
 taking part in such performances. But Queen 
 Victoria never seems to have had occasion to 
 proscribe any of the ordinary performances at a 
 theatre, and no doubt felt that she could safely 
 trust to the care of the Lord Chamberlain, who held 
 office under the authority of the Court. Perhaps 
 the modern reader might be inclined to wonder 
 why Queen Anne, when she interfered so often 
 with the practices of the theatres, did not feel it 
 necessary to issue any orders against the repre- 
 sentation of certain pieces, the scenes and dialogue 
 of which contained so much that in modern days 
 would have been regarded as intolerable by any 
 audience. 
 
 Queen Anne, however, could only act accord- 
 ing to her lights, and according to the manners 
 of her age ; and some of the most popular and 
 successful plays of that time, written by authors 
 of established renown, contained scenes and dia- 
 logues which a barn-door company of strolling 
 actors would not venture to produce before any 
 audience of our time. Indeed, the good Queen 
 Anne, when, on rare occasions, she had plays 
 performed in her own Palace of St. James, was 
 content to authorise and look upon such pieces as 
 Dryden's ' All for Love, or the World well Lost,' 
 
1702-10 BETTERTON. 231 
 
 "which would certainly startle a modern audience 
 out of its propriety. The fact is worthy of notice 
 merely as an illustration of the diflFerent ideas as to 
 dramatic seemliness which prevail in different ages, 
 for there can be no question as to the purity of 
 Queen Anne's mind, and her rigorous resolve to 
 encourage or tolerate nothing which seemed to her 
 likely to contaminate the morals of the performers 
 or the spectators. It has also to be borne in mind 
 that the comedies of the Eestoration were many of 
 them so grossly indecent, in purpose as well as in 
 language, that the new order of things, introduced 
 under Queen Anne's authority, must have seemed 
 like the work of a complete moral reformation. 
 
 London, during Queen Anne's reign, had three 
 great theatres generally open throughout the season. 
 There were, indeed, four or five theatres altogether, 
 but all these seldom invited audiences at one time. 
 Drury Lane, the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket, 
 Dorset Gardens, and the house in Lincoln's Inn 
 Fields were those which especially commanded 
 pubhc attention. The Italian Opera was then an 
 institution of recent origin, and was the object of 
 much satirical criticism among writers of the day 
 who regarded it as rather an eJGfeminate and ignoble 
 sort of innovation. It was not until a late period of 
 the reign that Handel, then a young man, began 
 to be appreciated in England. Betterton was stiU 
 acting during the reign of Queen Anne, although 
 he had passed his prime when Anne came to the 
 throne, and his death was hastened in April 1710 
 
232 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xi. 
 
 by his persistency in keeping up his performances 
 when he was suffering from a severe attack of the 
 gout, which had been his constant enemy through 
 Ufe, and then proved fatal to him. Betterton was 
 unquestionably one of the great actors of the Eng- 
 lish stage. He had to strive against many serious 
 physical defects. He had small eyes and a broad 
 face, a very stout figure, thick legs and large feet, 
 and his voice was naturally low and unmusical. 
 Yet he was able to manage and modulate his voice 
 so that he could make every note and tone of it 
 teU upon the largest audience, and could command 
 therapt attention of every listener. ■ Addison, Dryden, 
 and other men whose recommendation must carry 
 immortal praise with it, have borne testimony to 
 the commanding power of his dramatic genius. His 
 grave, in Westminster Abbey, was the well-deserved 
 national recognition of the great work he had done 
 for the Enghsh stage. Eichard Steele declared of 
 him that he ' ought to be recorded ' among the Enghsh 
 ' with the same respect as Eoscius among the Eomans.' 
 Another actor of a very different order, Thomas 
 Doggett, an Irishman by birth, was one of the 
 most distinguished performers of Queen Anne's time. 
 He outlived the reign by many years, but he had given 
 up acting, at any regular theatre, before Queen 
 Anne's death. From aU we read of him, he would 
 seem to have been inspired by the very genius of 
 comedy. Perhaps he is best remembered in later 
 times by the fact that he left in his will the pro- 
 vision for the annual sculling prize, ' Doggett's 
 
1704 COLLEY GIBBER 233 
 
 Coat and Badge,' to be contended for by Thames 
 watermen on the anniversary of the accession of 
 George the First. 
 
 Colley Gibber was one of the dramatic celebrities 
 of the age. He made himself so much of a celebrity, 
 that the satirists and wits of the time found endless 
 theme for droU comment in his personal peculiarities. 
 He was a dramatic author, poet, or at least a composer 
 of lines and rhymes, and he was also an actor. He 
 began his career upon the boards at a salary of ten 
 shillings a week, which was increased to fifteen, and 
 at that rate of pay he continued to perform for some 
 time ; but he afterwards became successful as a 
 dramatic manager, and held a partnership in some 
 of the best London theatres. As an actor, comedy 
 was his peculiar line, and he seems to have had the 
 good fortune to hit on certain parts which exactly 
 suited his physical peculiarities. He was not one 
 of the performers who insist on playing great parts 
 for which neither age nor appearance gives them 
 natural adaptation. His voice was weak and thin, 
 neither his face nor his figure had anything pic- 
 turesque or commanding. One or two of his comic 
 parts won for him the praise of Congreve, which was 
 commendation enough to entitle him to be recorded 
 in the history of the stage. Some of his plays — 
 ' The Careless Husband,' for instance — are stUl re- 
 membered, and the version of Moliere's ' Tartufie,' 
 which he called the 'Non Juror,' was distinctly a 
 paying success. ' The Provoked Husband ' he wrote 
 in combination with Vanbrugh. Many years after 
 
234 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xi. 
 
 Queen Anne's death he was actually made poet 
 laureate, and he is the author of some birthday odes 
 which are perhaps not much inferior to other works 
 having a similar purpose, by authors with much 
 better claims than his to the poet laureate's place. 
 He adapted to the stage of his time some of Shake- 
 speare's plays, and his version of ' Eichard the Third ' 
 might have been called in one sense a theatric 
 success. One is inclined to think that no sharper 
 Satire on the poetic taste of the English public in his 
 time could be recorded than the fact that his ' Eichard 
 the Third ' was accepted as a distinct improvement 
 on Shakespeare's dramatic effort. 
 
 We have to bear in mind that although the age 
 of Anne produced some genuine poets of a high 
 order, it was certainly not an age which appre- 
 ciated the genius of Shakespea-re. The fact has 
 already been mentioned that Dryden's ' All for 
 Love, or the World well Lost ' was during Queen 
 Anne's reign regarded as an improvement upon 
 'Antony and Cleopatra.' There came, indeed, a 
 long interval in the history of English dramatic art, 
 when the fame of Shakespeare suffered an eclipse, 
 and when it seemed almost doubtful whether it 
 was likely to shine again through the clouds of 
 mannerism and unreality which hung over the in- 
 tellectual atmosphere. England had apparently to 
 wait for the time when the great German authors, 
 Lessing and Goethe, were to teach the world that the 
 England of Queen Elizabeth had brought forth a 
 dramatic poet worthy to rank with the greatest 
 
1703 THE BALLET. 235 
 
 of classic Greece. Barton Booth — the Booth of 
 Addison's Cato — and one or two other actors of the 
 same age are still remembered. Acting by women 
 was comparatively new to the English stage, but 
 Mrs. Barry, Mrs. Bracegirdle, and Mrs. Oldfield 
 were actresses who would have made a mark in the 
 history of any stage. 
 
 The baUet was coming into favour about this 
 time, and had a place in the theatrical performances 
 at most of the London houses. But it had as yet 
 reached nothing like the position of importance 
 which was given to it in more recent times. No 
 splendour of decoration set off its unpretending dis- 
 play, nor was it possible then for a ballet-dancer 
 to win by any skiU or charm the fame and the 
 fashion of a Taghoni, a Oerito, or a Fanny Elssler. 
 The. time had not yet arrived when a successful 
 baUet-dancer could have been thought by fashionable 
 people to make a mesalliance when she condescended 
 to marry a rising tragedian like Garrick. 
 
236 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xn. 
 
 CHAPTEE xn 
 
 THE LONDON OF QUEEN ANNE 
 
 The London of Queen Anne's day was a metropolis 
 very different in its size, as well as in many other of 
 its characteristic qualities, from the London we know 
 at present. Many of the outlying districts which are 
 now merely a part of the capital, and are lost to 
 ordinary observation in the vast agglomeration of 
 continuous streets, were then divided from the re- 
 cognised London by wide expanses of meadows 
 and gardens, traversed by connecting high-roads. 
 Piccadilly then, as now, stretched westward as far as 
 what we now call Hyde Park Corner. Bond Street 
 was not yet a completed thoroughfare, and had on its 
 west, north of Piccadilly, the Parks and the open 
 country. At the eastern end the occupied houses 
 stretched to Whitechapel Church and but a short 
 way beyond. Covent Garden, Soho Square, and 
 Leicester Square were enclosed within the limits 
 of West End fashionable life. The inhabitants of 
 these regions were held bound by law to keep 
 the roads in front of their houses and shops clean 
 and well swept, and to heap up refuse for the 
 scavengers' carts to carry away, under penalties 
 prescribed for any neglect of these civic duties. It 
 
1702 THE STATE OF THE STKEETS. 237 
 
 is needless to say that the orders of the law were 
 evaded as much as possible, and that the state of the 
 streets was often a serious trouble to the passengers, 
 who had to pick their steps through masses of 
 neglected refuse. Even at a date later than that of 
 Queen Anne's reign, we find it recorded as a matter 
 not calling for any serious observation, that the body 
 of a murdered child was found, after a quest of some 
 days, among the dunghills lying at the bottom of 
 Drury Lane. 
 
 There was practically no numbering of the houses, 
 and it was as difficult for a stranger to find out some 
 particular building which he desired to reach, as 
 some of us have found it in the streets of Constanti- 
 nople at a time very near to the present day. The 
 shops were nearly all proclaimed and identified by 
 the display of great projecting signs, and, indeed, the 
 street signs of that age form a very characteristic 
 and picturesque illustration of the life of the times, 
 as we can see for ourselves in many of Hogarth's 
 pictures. Stage coaches, hackney coaches, carts, 
 waggons, and sedan chairs made up, with the 
 carriages of the wealthy, the means of communica- 
 tion between one part of London and another. The 
 lighting of the streets, if we may thus describe 
 an attempt at illumination which did little more 
 than render darkness visible, was accomplished by 
 miserable oU lamps, and by the frequent use of 
 lanterns, which wayfarers found it necessary to carry 
 with them at night, weU knowing that in many of the 
 streets even the oil-lamps could not be expected to 
 
238 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xii. 
 
 shine. The ordinary hackney coach was a jolting 
 and most uncomfortable vehicle, seldom furnished 
 with lamps. There were all manner of legal ordi- 
 nances for the Ucensing and management of the 
 hackney coaches, and the rates of fare were also 
 prescribed by legislative enactment. But the police 
 conditions did not then exist in the metropolis which 
 might have made obedience to these laws a settled 
 habit, and have provided satisfactorily for the com- 
 fort and convenience of street traffic. The private 
 coaches kept by the wealthy were usually very mag- 
 nificent equipages, and six horses to a carriage were 
 thought necessary for anyone who desired to im- 
 press the public with a sense of his distinction. 
 Four horses were very common, but the chariot, the 
 calash, and the chaise of more ordinary mortals 
 were considered to be well turned out with even two 
 horses. 
 
 The sedan chair was becoming a regular insti- 
 tution. It took its name from the town of Sedan, 
 in France, a name which has much more lately been 
 associated with an event of immense importance in 
 European history. The sedan chair had been in- 
 troduced into England more than a century before 
 Queen Anne's time. Some of the sedan chairs were 
 finely appointed and even splendidly ornamented 
 according to the taste and the means of their owners. 
 The pubhc sedan chairs were placed under legal 
 licence, and the amount of the fare was settled at 
 one shilling a mile. Any one who has studied the 
 literature of Queen Anne's time will remember that 
 
1702 THE SEDAN CHAIR. 239 
 
 the descriptive prefix ' Sedan ' soon fell altogether 
 out of use, and that the conveyances which we asso- 
 ciate so much with the ordinary life of those days 
 were in most cases spoken of simply as chairs. 
 
 The streets were even at that time very commonly 
 overcrowded with traffic, although the population 
 of London, of that limited London we are now 
 describing, was so small in proportion to that which 
 now occupies the same space. When once a town 
 completely outgrows the Hmits and conditions of 
 village hfe and obtains anything hke the size which 
 we are now inclined to regard as that of a city, the 
 traffic of its principal streets is by no means to be 
 measured in its proportions by the actual number of 
 its population. Even in the London of our own days 
 one may turn at any moment, here and there, from 
 a great thoroughfare almost unendurably crowded 
 with wheeled traffic, into long lines of quiet streets 
 where the sound of the wayfarer's step echoes to all 
 but complete lonehness. In Queen Anne's days this 
 striking contrast was much more frequent than in 
 ours. The main bulk of the traffic was confined to 
 the principal thoroughfares which led from one 
 conspicuous centre of life to another, and the mass of 
 the smaller streets were, after night had once set in, 
 almost as silent and lonely as an ordinary highway 
 far out in the country. As we have said, there was 
 nothing hke what we in modern times would call a 
 police force to watch over the safety of peaceful 
 pedestrians. The men appointed by the authorities 
 to guard the streets were simply the old-time 
 
240 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xn. 
 
 watchmen, the ' Watch ' as they were called — a set 
 of men appointed for the purpose with very little 
 regard to their capacity, physical, mental, or moral, 
 for the performance of such important duties. 
 
 The literature of the time is full of the terrible 
 doings of the Mohocks. The famous name of 
 these disturbers of the pubhc peace is supposed to 
 be taken from the Mohawk Indians, a tribe which 
 had its home in what is now the State of New York. 
 The Mohocks were, in fact, a race of street ruffians, 
 whose doings corresponded in many ways with those 
 of the modern Hooligans, only that the Mohocks were 
 recruited for the most part from a class much higher 
 than that which pesters the streets in London's 
 present days. The Mohocks were the ' bloods ' and 
 ' rakes ' of that generation, and were dissipated and 
 reckless scamps belonging to what are conventionally 
 termed the better classes of society. Their main 
 ambition and chief pastime in life appear to have 
 been to set the ordinary civic laws at defiance, and 
 win a fame for themselves by deeds of wanton and 
 utterly unprofitable violence in the streets at night. 
 A man acquired renown among his own set by 
 leading a band of this kind, and making night hideous 
 to the peaceful passengers in the streets. 
 
 A gang of the Mohocks would probably begin their 
 nightly game of recreation by attacking the watch- 
 men, pricking them with rapier points, fighting them 
 with fists and cudgels, overturning their watch boxes, 
 and driving them in utter confusion from the posi- 
 tions assigned to them in the discharge of their duties. 
 
1702-13 THE MOHOCKS. 241 
 
 After a roystering dinner-party it was the deliglit of 
 these young and middle-aged scamps to begin their 
 midnight revekies by this attack on the watch, and 
 when they had thus cleared a way for their sports, to 
 exercise their strength and their pugnacious ingenuity 
 in the terrifying and torturing of peaceful wayfarers. 
 They would stop an unarmed man and force him into 
 a fight from which he was sure to escape, if he could 
 escape at all, with mashed features and lacerated 
 limbs. They did not confine their heroic deeds of 
 conquest to male passengers by any means, but 
 appear to have found a pecuhar delight in molesting, 
 terrifying, and maltreating women. One of their 
 choice pastimes was to capture a woman, thrust her 
 into a barrel, and then playfuUy roU the barrel with 
 its human captive down Ludgate Hill or Holborn 
 HUl. They appear to have found it an occasional 
 variety in the course of their amusements to set a 
 woman on her head and thus exhibit her, an indecent 
 sight, for the amusement of themselves and their 
 fellows. Sometimes, if we may believe the stories 
 which were current and commonly received in those 
 days, the women thus tormented did not escape with 
 their shame only, but had to undergo wounds and 
 mutilations before their tormentors set them free to 
 return to their homes. The poems of Gay, the letters 
 of Swift, and many other memorials of the time, bear 
 testimony at aU events to the common belief in the 
 nature and the frequency of these outrageous bar- 
 barities. 
 
 From these contemporaneous testimonies the 
 
 VOL. I. R 
 
242 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xii. 
 
 reader might be led to believe that the streets of 
 London were much more dangerous at the time to 
 quiet and respectable wayfarers than would have 
 been a settlement of the genuine Mohawk Indians 
 to the peaceful and civilised traveller. We must, 
 however, make the greatest allowance for the 
 inevitable exaggeration of the stories which record 
 the night history of London life in the reign of Queen 
 Anne. Most of the writers of the time who picture 
 to us the doings of the Mohocks are only told on 
 hearsay, and we find but few descriptions given at 
 first sight, and from direct personal observation. 
 Indeed, if the accounts we read left us anything like 
 an accurate picture of street Ufe at that period, it is 
 plain that the ordinary inhabitants of London would 
 have found existence unendurable and would have 
 been compelled, if the law and the authorities could 
 not protect them, to form committees of pubhc safety 
 out of their own numbers, and to enforce order after 
 the fashion adopted in western settlements of the 
 American States at a time much nearer to our own. 
 
 It may be taken for granted that individual acts 
 or bouts of barbarity were at least multiplied, if 
 not actually magnified, by common report, and that 
 excesses which must even then have been exceptional 
 were given out as the ordinary events of every night 
 in the streets of the metropolis. But when all 
 allowance has been made for almost unavoidable 
 exaggeration, it is beyond doubt that the night life 
 of London was very often made witness to scenes 
 of wanton and brutal lawlessness which would 
 
1712 'EVIL-DISPOSED PEESONS.' 243 
 
 have been a disgrace even to the rudest times of 
 growing civilisation. The nuisance was at length 
 becoming so much a public scandal that Queen Anne 
 thought it necessary to issue a Eoyal Proclamation 
 against it. The proclamation set forth that the 
 Queen, ' being watchful for the Publick Good of Her 
 Loving Subjects,' had taken ' notice of the great and 
 unusual Eiots and Barbarities which have lately been 
 committed in the Night time, in the open Streets, in 
 several parts of the Cities of London and Westminster, 
 and parts adjacent, by numbers of Evil dispos'd 
 Persons, who have combined together to disturb the 
 Public Peace, and in an inhuman manner, without 
 any Provocation, have Assaulted and Wounded many 
 of her Majesty's good subjects.' 
 
 The Queen promised a reward to any one who 
 should bring to prosecution any oifender who could 
 be proved to be guilty of such practices. Perhaps 
 the very nature of this proclamation might suggest 
 that the disturbance of the public peace could not 
 have been quite so common as many contemporary 
 descriptions would make out ; for assuredly if the law 
 was openly defied by bands of armed ruffians every 
 night, there could hardly have been any need of 
 offering a reward for the detection of such offenders. 
 It was evidently only a case for strengthening the force, 
 whether civil or military, at the disposal of the authori- 
 ties for the protection of the streets and thus putting 
 down the outbreak of riot by the arm of the law. But 
 however that may be, the mere issue of the procla- 
 mation is conclusive as to the fact that an unusual 
 
 b2 
 
244 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xii. 
 
 degree of lawlessness did disfigure the London streets, 
 and that Queen Anne, who was a lover of peace and 
 good order, felt it necessary to take some decided 
 measure for the maintenance of pubUc safety in 
 London after dark. The trouble of course mainly 
 arose from the fact that there was no regularly 
 organised police force to guard the metropolis or any 
 of the large towns, and that the very appearance 
 and get-up of the night watchmen only tempted 
 young ' rakes ' and ' bloods ' into riotous behaviour, 
 which naturally became more riotous, more freakish, 
 and more barbarous, because of the impunity 
 accorded to it. Down to a much more modern date 
 in novels and stories which deal with London night 
 life — down, in fact, to the establishment of the 
 organised police force which owes its existence to 
 Sir Eobert Peel — we read of assaults upon watch- 
 men and upon peaceful citizens, as part of the 
 regular amusement of half- drunken revelry in the 
 midnight streets of the metropolis. 
 
 There were some street scenes which, although 
 equally characteristic of the times, were more whole- 
 some and graceful to look at than the amusements 
 of the Mohocks. The milkmaid festivals of early 
 May must have afforded pleasing and picturesque 
 sights for citizens of London who were not too 
 practical, or too grim, to enjoy such exhibitions. A 
 contemporary writer teUs us that ' On the 1st of May, 
 and the five or six Days following, all the pretty young 
 Country girls that serve the Town with Milk, dress 
 themselves up very neatly, and borrow abundance of 
 
1702 THE MILKMAIDS. 245 
 
 Silver Plate whereof they make a Pyramid, which 
 they adorn with Kibands and Flowers and carry upon 
 their Heads instead of their common Milk Pails.' The 
 writer further teUs us that ' in this Equipage, ac- 
 companied by some of their feUow Milk Maids, and 
 a Bagpipe or a Fiddle, they go from Door to Door, 
 dancing before the Houses of their Customers in the 
 midst of Boys and Girls that follow them in Troops, 
 and every Body gives them something.' The Maypole, 
 around which lads and lasses used to dance, and 
 around the very name of which so many pretty 
 poetic memories stiU linger, was not, at this time, 
 any longer seen in the streets of London, although it 
 was yet a cherished institution in most parts of the 
 country. But the Londoners had some reminder ot 
 the May Day celebration in the parade of the pretty 
 milkmaids, and that was, at least, better than no- 
 thing. 
 
 Hyde Park showed some pleasing sights every day. 
 The dinner hour of that age was very early, and 
 although the fashionable time for riding, driving, or 
 walking in the park was after dinner, it was still long 
 before sunset in most months of the year. The 
 Queen issued more than one set of regulations for 
 the better preservation of the walks and drives and 
 grasses in the park and for securing to visitors an 
 undisturbed enjoyment of the whole pleasaunce. 
 One of these regulations, which survives in part 
 down to our own time, declared that 'no stage 
 coach, hackney coach, chaise with one horse, cart, 
 waggon or funeral should pass through the park, and 
 
246 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xn. 
 
 no one should cut or lop any of the trees.' It was 
 ordered that wherever a road or path was taken 
 up for the purpose of repairs, a lantern should be 
 specially set on the interrupted spot in order to save 
 the wanderer from possible danger. When evening 
 was coming on all such lamps as the park could 
 boast were ordered to be Ughted, unless at the height 
 of summer-time or when there happened to be a full 
 moon. Indeed, it is mentioned as a matter of some 
 proper pride for all Londoners that the whole way 
 through Hyde Park to the Queen's Palace at 
 Kensington was provided with lanterns for illumi- 
 nating the path in the dark nights. The regular 
 illumining of the cities and towns of England, 
 even by such modes of lighting as were then in 
 existence, had not yet become so recognised an 
 institution but that the condition of Hyde Park might 
 be pointed to as a just source of special pride for 
 aU Londoners who lived within easy reach of her 
 Majesty's Palace. 
 
 What we have already said about the change in 
 the conditions of travel generally wiU apply with 
 equal force to the conditions of street traffic in the 
 reign of Queen Anne. The great changes did not 
 begin for England until the reign of Queen Victoria. 
 The street traffic in the days of Queen Anne might 
 have been described in very much the same terms 
 as those which were employed in the days of Juvenal 
 or even in much more distant times. All that 
 carriages and horses and the bearers of loads could 
 do was done just after the same fashion, and with 
 
1702 'THE MEDITATIVE PEDESTRIAN.' 247 
 
 the same accessories and consequences, as from 
 the earliest period of European civilisation. At 
 a later day the modern conditions of traffic sup- 
 plied and stimulated by the application of practical 
 science began to set in. Tramcars drawn first 
 by horses and then impelled by steam and by 
 electricity, motor-cars set in motion by the same 
 impulses, and the ever-present bicycle of our own 
 daily life were as completely unknown and un- 
 thought of in the reign of Queen Anne as they were 
 in the days of the Cassars or of the Antonines. The 
 meditative pedestrian is a personage who seems 
 doomed to vanish before the energetic movements of 
 modern civilisation. The pedestrian who would 
 think his thoughts out, and foUow meditatively 
 the musings of his fancy, could hardly pursue his 
 favourite pastime even along the country roads of 
 our modern times. A creature endowed or afflicted 
 with such tastes could not indulge them consecu- 
 tively or even safely where the modern bicycle or 
 the modern motor-car impels its reckless way. The 
 meditative pedestrian of the future will have to 
 follow the example of Gray and indulge his reflec- 
 tions within the Umits of the country churchyard. 
 Coleridge in the ' Ancient Mariner ' speaks of 
 
 One who on a lonely road 
 
 Walks on in fear and dread, 
 And having once turned round, goes on 
 
 And tiims no more his head. 
 
 The reason which Coleridge gives for this sudden 
 impulse of dogged determination is that the wayfarer 
 
248 THE EEIGN OP QUEEN ANNE. oh. xii. 
 
 knows a ' frightful fiend doth close behind him tread.' 
 The meditative pedestrian of our days has indeed no 
 such grisly terror to afiect his movements, but he 
 may, at any moment, find that the flying bicycle or 
 the motor-car is following far too closely in his wake, 
 and may have to give up his meditations and seek for 
 safety on the footpath, if there be one, or close to the 
 bordering hedge. These interruptions and dangers 
 to pedestrian contemplation were whoUy unknown in 
 the days of good Queen Anne, and came as little into 
 practical consideration as the sudden appearance of 
 the frightful fiend pictured in the verse of Coleridge. 
 There were some incidents of London life in 
 Queen Anne's reign which are not known to the life 
 of our modern cities. The duel was then a common 
 adventure even in the streets of London. We read, 
 for instance, of a duel which was fought out within 
 a short distance of the Theatre Eoyal, Drury Lane, 
 in which one of the combatants was severely wounded. 
 We are told of a duel in Lincoln's Inn Fields where 
 one of the dueUists was killed on the spot. There 
 were certain convenient places set apart by common 
 consent for the carrying out of these deadly 
 disputes. Lincoln's Inn Fields was a favourite scene 
 for such encounters, and so also were the fields 
 behind Montague House. We are told, as an 
 ordinary incident of London life, how a duel was 
 fought behind Montague House in which one of the 
 dueUists was done to death, and much about the 
 same time, of an arranged duel in St. James's Park 
 which ended in nothing worse than a severe wound 
 
1702 THE DUEL. 249 
 
 to one of the combatants. There were laws against 
 duelling then as later, and it even happened that 
 the laws were sometimes enforced and the duellists 
 made prisoners. StiU, the public opinion of the time 
 not merely recognised the duel and favoured its 
 accomplishment, as public opinion does still in many- 
 European countries, but regarded it as a mode of 
 settling a dispute which ought not to be rudely 
 interrupted by too watchful authorities ; which if 
 necessary ought to be carried to a conclusion on the 
 spot where the dispute began, with the approval of 
 all well-bred and gentlemanly observers. Thus it 
 happened in Queen Anne's days that the duellists 
 often declined to postpone the settlement of the 
 quarrel until one of the recognised scenes of battle 
 could be sought out, drew their swords just where 
 they were at the moment, and accomplished the 
 work there without any special wonder on the part 
 of the beholders. Some of these duels have an 
 established place in our history, and have been 
 reproduced in many a romance. Except where an 
 actual death was the result these extemporaneous 
 combats seem to have created no greater scandal 
 in those days than would an encounter of fisticuffs 
 between two street arabs outside one of the London 
 theatres in our own more peaceful times. 
 
 When we compare the conditions — so far as 
 peaceful pedestrians were concerned — of the street life 
 of London in those days and the street life of London 
 in our own, we shall probably come to the conclu- 
 sion that even the most devoted admirer of the good 
 
250 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xii. 
 
 old times, if any such admirer still exist, might own 
 that the electric trams and the motor-cars were 
 not quite such disagreeable and dangerous interrup- 
 tions as the Mohocks or even the duellists. Perhaps 
 the one great difference between the London of those 
 days and the London of ours — and the same remark 
 would apply to aU the great English cities and towns 
 of both periods alike — is that the disturbances of the 
 streets in our time are confined almost altogether to 
 the lower quarters, where rowdyism has its congenial 
 home, while in the former time they went on night 
 after night in the regions frequented by the higher 
 and wealthier classes, and, despite aU the complaints 
 and the denunciations of enlightened and educated 
 men, were allowed to have their way without any 
 attempt whatever at organised repression on the part 
 of the established authorities. 
 
 The river was then as now, and in proportion 
 to the daily wants of the population much more 
 then, than now, a highway of London life. It could 
 hardly have been called a silent highway even then, 
 and although there were no noises sent out by the 
 machinery of steamboats, it was probably a noisier 
 thoroughfare than it is at present. The passenger 
 traffic along the Thames was conducted by boats 
 and barges, and we are told that the shouting and 
 screaming of men who managed the boats and 
 barges created an incessant daily disturbance of 
 the river's natural quietude, which was a horror 
 to the ears of peaceful Londoners who had to avail 
 themselves of the Thames as a regular highway. At 
 
1702 RIVER LIFE. 251 
 
 that time the ordinary Londoner found the boat on 
 the river the readiest and quickest way of reaching his 
 destination at any convenient spot between Blackfriars 
 at the one end and Putney at the other. The river 
 boat, indeed, fulfilled to a great extent the duty which 
 is now accomplished by the hansom cab. There were 
 three kinds of boats — the boats which were sculled, 
 the boats which were rowed, and the barges. The 
 wayfarer who at any of the riverside stations called 
 for sculls found his appeal answered by a boat with 
 one man in it who sculled it up or down the stream. 
 If the passenger called for ' oars ' his cry was met by a 
 boat with two rowers in it. The barges were generally 
 owned by private individuals or by private companies, 
 and were often fitted up with some attempt at luxury 
 and ornament. They had usually a sort of canopy 
 erected over the stern which gave protection against 
 sun or rain, were provided with comfortable cushioned 
 seats, and were sometimes got up with magnificent 
 appointments. 
 
 The men who scuUed or rowed the ordinary 
 passenger boats appear to have been a very noisy 
 and demonstrative class of persons who had strong 
 lungs and a great power of repartee and invective. 
 When one of these little vessels happened to pass 
 another — and such meetings were naturally of almost 
 unceasing occurrence — it was the dear dehght of the 
 boatmen in either boat to greet the other with up- 
 roarious interchange of what would in later days 
 have been described as ' chafi".' The jokes were 
 generally of a distinctly personal character, and were 
 
252 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xii. 
 
 flavoured with oaths and execrations not recognised 
 as belonging to polite conversation. These up- 
 roarious interchanges of sarcasm and denunciation 
 were an amazement and a scandal to aU well-bred 
 and decorous citizens who had to make part of 
 the river traffic, and are described with astonishing 
 frankness by writers of the time, even by those who 
 felt the strongest objection to the style of language 
 employed. The language known as Billingsgate was 
 the vernacular of the Thames boatmen. 
 
 Blackfriars and Chelsea were the principal 
 stations of these boats, and they went down the river 
 as far as Greenwich or even Gravesend and up the 
 stream until the shouts of the boatmen woke the 
 echoes of some of the loveliest and most famous spots 
 of the upper Thames. The once well-known and 
 fashionable ' FoUy ' was a barge of enormous length 
 furnished with an immense saloon and moored 
 opposite Whitehall. This barge was a kind of 
 floating VauxhaU or Eanelagh, and was intended for 
 the use of fashionable people who gave briUiant 
 parties there, where music and dancing, dress and 
 drink, delighted the joyous company. In Queen 
 Anne's time, however, the ' Folly ' on the Thames 
 was undergoing the fate which in later days befel 
 VauxhaU and Eanelagh Gardens. It had ceased to 
 be the resort of fashion, and the ladies who fre- 
 quented it were usually of the class which would 
 have been described by the somewhat ill-applied 
 epithet of ' gay ' in later years. It was a mark of 
 fashion at one time to form one of the company 
 
1702 'ABOVE BRIDGE.' 253 
 
 who enjoyed themselves in the ' Folly,' but in Queen 
 Anne's reign it was fast becoming an evidence of 
 social outlawry for women to take part in the ' FoUy's ' 
 audacious festivities. 
 
 All the passenger boats on the Thames were 
 placed strictly under the regulations of the authori- 
 ties, so far, at least, as the fares for proportionate 
 distances were concerned, but the authorities would 
 not hold themselves bound to take any particular pains 
 for enforcing decorum in the language and conduct 
 of the watermen. The river banks, on the north side 
 especially, must have presented to the passenger as 
 he went up and down within the reach of the streets 
 and the houses, curious, and even startling, contrasts. 
 At one moment he caught sight of some stately pile 
 of buUdings, a palace, or a church, or some famous 
 national institution, and in the next moment he 
 passed some decaying, dingy wharf, some cluster of 
 tumble-down and poverty-stricken dwellings, some 
 evidences of a life of squalor and filth which 
 would have banished aU association with the beautiful 
 from the noblest stream. Parts of the river banks, 
 as the traveller fared eastward, were the refuge and 
 the Alsatia of a population of outcasts who could 
 find no abiding shelter even in the poorest quarters 
 of the metropolis where order and decency were stiU 
 maintained or, at least, held in respect. 
 
 Happily, in the regions higher up the river, the 
 regions which we should now describe as above bridge, 
 the banks on either side were safe from such desecra- 
 tion, and the beauty of hill and meadow, of luxuriant 
 
254 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xii. 
 
 oliage and of ' Thames' translucent wave,' as Pope 
 has pictured it, were seen by citizens and strangers 
 during the reign of Queen Anne very much as we 
 see them now during the reign of King Edward the 
 Seventh. ' Man marks the earth with ruin,' Byron 
 declares — ' his control stops with the shore.' But 
 Byron was thinking of the sea when he wrote those 
 hues — the shore does not stop man's power to ruin 
 when it is only the shore of a narrow and beautiful 
 stream. There is comfort, therefore, in the recollec- 
 tion that, for the poets, and the artists, and the 
 lovers of the picturesque in Queen Anne's day, 
 man's power to blot out the beauties of the Thames 
 stopped with the narrow limits of either end of a 
 city which was still of but moderate size when com- 
 pared with its more recent power of expansion. 
 For in Queen Anne's time the idea does not seem 
 to have found much recognition that it could be 
 any part of the business of the constituted author- 
 ities to trouble themselves for the preservation 
 of artistic beauty in the regions which came under 
 their rule. 
 
 London as a great metropolis is not even now 
 very rich in noble public buildings, but it was much 
 poorer still in the reign of Queen Anne. St. Paul's 
 was then but a new erection, and had only lately 
 been opened for pubUc service. The Monument, of 
 course, lifted to the skies that inscription which pro- 
 voked the indignant denunciation of Pope— the 
 inscription which declared that the Great Fire of 1666 
 was ' begun and carried on by the treachery and 
 
1702 HOSPITALS. 255 
 
 malice of the Popish faction.' Westminster Abbey 
 and Westminster Hall lent historical and architectural 
 magnificence to the quarter which they adorned, but 
 the vast pile of buildings which we know as West- 
 minster Palace belongs to a much later period of 
 English history and, Uke St. Paul's Cathedral, owes 
 its erection to the ravages of a great fire. If the 
 structure which we know as Buckingham Palace can 
 be considered an adornment to London, it did not 
 adorn the London of Queen Anne, for it had not yet 
 come into being after the demoUtion of Buckingham 
 House. St. James's Palace was then, as now, the 
 centre of Eoyal ceremonial and pageantry. Sir 
 Hans Sloane was only accumulating that vast collec- 
 tion which he left as a bequest to the country — the 
 collection now enshrined in the British Museum. 
 London even then had many hospitals. Bethlehem 
 or Bedlam was finished about a quarter of a century 
 before Anne's accession, and the figures which now 
 stand in the hall of the hospital, and are presentments 
 in stone of Eaving and Melancholy, were wrought 
 by the hand of OoUey Gibber's father. St. Bar- 
 tholomew's Hospital and St. Thomas's Hospital were 
 weU-known institutions, but Guy's Hospital had not 
 yet been established. 
 
 There were several prisons and Houses of 
 Correction, and the treatment of prisoners, whether 
 awaiting their trial or working out their sentences 
 or merely in confinement because they could not or 
 would not pay their debts, was of a nature which to 
 a modern reader would seem almost incredible if the 
 
256 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xn. 
 
 minute descriptions of contemporary observers did 
 not make it impossible for us to have any doubts on 
 the subject. The flogging even of women was a 
 regular part of the discipline practised in the criminal 
 prisons, and in the debtors' prisons an unfortunate 
 inmate might have been left to perish of starvation if 
 he had no friends to provide him with adequate food, 
 or if the mere charity of the outer public did not 
 come to his relief. The strange fact about the 
 management of the prisons, as about the condition of 
 the streets at night, was that its evils were thoroughly 
 understood, and were continually denounced by 
 intelligent observers who could not, with all their 
 efforts, succeed in accompUshing any reform. The 
 age had not yet grown up to a genuine understanding 
 of the true purposes of prison discipline ; the conscience 
 of the public had not yet been quickened to the idea 
 that any bad treatment could be too bad for a 
 prisoner, or that, good treatment of such a person 
 could result in any good either to him or to the 
 community from which he was an outcast. 
 
 A study of the great mass of literature which bears 
 upon the subject will show any one that there were 
 numbers of men and women in those days who were 
 fully enlightened as to the relations between the prin- 
 ciples of Christianity and the method of dealing even 
 with the worst offenders, while a study of the actual 
 facts must satisfy every one that the prison reformers 
 of that day were as hopelessly in advance of their age 
 as the opponents of negro slavery would have been 
 about the same period of history. At that time and 
 
1702 PRISONS. 257 
 
 for long after it was one of the amusements indulged 
 in by fashionable men and women to obtain a sight 
 of the interior of a London prison and of the horrors 
 practised there under the name of discipline. The 
 visitors who indulged in this pastime had for the 
 most part no more feeling of sympathy with the 
 sufferings of the victims than if these victims had 
 been captured wild beasts — only it has to be said 
 that at no period of our history could they have seen 
 captured wild beasts treated with anything hke the 
 same degree of brutahty which was exercised every 
 day upon the unhappy human beings whom the laws 
 had condemned to incarceration. 
 
 Yet at this time there was something hke a 
 newspaper pregs existing in England, Some of the 
 newspapers of the reign did actually comment with 
 just severity on the ordinary treatment of prisoners, 
 and the fact only shows how far the newspaper of 
 those days was from being able to exercise any 
 commanding influence over public opinion. The 
 newspaper of Queen Anne's reign can hardly be said 
 to have come within the range or the reach of the 
 general public. To the great bulk of the London 
 population a newspaper was but a luxury or an oddity 
 with which 'the man in the street,' as we should 
 now describe him, had really nothing whatever to do. 
 
 There were about a dozen newspapers pubhshed 
 in England, nearly all of them in London, when 
 Anne came to the throne, but most of these made 
 their appearance only three times in the week or less 
 often, and it was immediately after the opening of her 
 VQi^, I, » 
 
/ 
 
 258 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xn. 
 
 reign that the first English daily newspaper came into 
 existence. This remarkable publication, the herald 
 of the great daily press which was before long to 
 come, was called the ' Daily Courant.' Its superficial 
 extent was fourteen inches in length and eight inches 
 in breadth. Mr. Ashton, in his volumes on the Social 
 Life of Queen Anne's Eeign, to which reference has 
 been made more than once already, gives the readers 
 a facsimile of this enterprising first number. The 
 ' Daily Courant ' thus issued for the first time, bears 
 date Wednesday, March 11, 1702. It consists of 
 one leaf of paper, and is printed on one side only of 
 the leaf. It contains one advertisement, which is the 
 advertisement of the publication itself, and a few 
 scraps of news from the Continent. Home afiairs 
 are not favoured with any notice from this first 
 English daily newspaper. The advertisement at the 
 foot of the page which proclaims the journal's 
 mission, prides itself upon the fact that the Editor, 
 or Author as he is called, will not ' take upon him 
 to give any Comments or Conjectures of his own, but 
 will relate only Matter of Fact; supposing other 
 People to have Sense enough to make Eeflections 
 for themselves.' Finally it announces that the paper 
 ' is confined to half the compass to save the Public 
 at least half the Impertinences, of ordinary News 
 Papers.' 
 
 The resolve of this editor to abstain from giving 
 any comments or conjectures of his own, but to relate 
 only matter of fact, would naturally seem in our days 
 an extraordinary and unintelligible limitation of a 
 
1703 NEWSPAPERS. 259 
 
 newspaper's business. But it may be observed that 
 even down to our own time there have been public 
 men who fondly maintained that the true mission of 
 a newspaper was merely to record actual facts and to 
 leave its readers to form their own conclusions and 
 evolve their own opinions out of their heads without 
 submitting to any instruction or dictation on the 
 part of the newspaper editor. The once famous and 
 very powerful Manchester school of pohticians held 
 it at one time as a favourite doctrine that a news- 
 paper was an organ merely for the publication of 
 facts, and ought not otherwise to make any attempt 
 at forming or even guiding the opinions of its readers. 
 The Manchester school did not, indeed, continue 
 to maintain this opinion in the conduct of its news- 
 papers, and some of the most influential journals ever 
 published in England were founded by this school 
 and did their best, with great success, to create a 
 public opinion in the country. Some of the foremost 
 leaders of the school did to the very last uphold as a 
 private doctrine that the true business of a journal 
 was to convey actual information to its readers, and 
 then leave the readers to form their conclusions and 
 maintain their principles according to their own 
 judgment. 
 
 It is not necessary now to give a list of the 
 names or to describe the peculiarities of the news- 
 papers which existed, and some of which flourished, 
 during the reign of Queen Anne. Some of them 
 enjoyed but a short existence. One of them at 
 least is living to the present day, but it is the 
 
 b2 
 
260 THE EEION OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xn. 
 
 ' London Gazette,' whicli was founded before Queen 
 Anne came to the throne, and was then, as it is 
 now, merely the official organ of the government, 
 containing only announcements which belong to 
 the business and the sphere of administration, and 
 owe their special interest and importance to the 
 fact that they are published under ministerial 
 authority. There were some journals, hardly to 
 be described as newspapers in the modern sense, 
 ' Essay papers ' as they were generally called, which 
 helped emphatically to make the reign of Queen 
 Anne famous in hterature and will always be re- 
 membered in the history of English letters. These, 
 however, have a position and a renown of their own, 
 are unequalled in their way as illustrations of English 
 journalism, and these, with the men who made 
 them, wiU require fuUer notice in later pages of these 
 volumes. 
 
 The English daily or weekly paper as we know 
 it, with its mass of varied information gathered up 
 from the events passing in every part of the world, 
 can hardly be said to have been even foreshadowed 
 by the newspaper press which existed when Anne 
 was Queen. The sudden start of progress made by 
 practical science at a much later time created for 
 journalism much the same sort of revolution which 
 it created for travel. The lines of telegraph over 
 the land and under the water have been the touch 
 of science which made the whole world kin in the 
 matter of news, and called into being that journal- 
 ism which now belongs to every civilised country. 
 
1702 "THE DAILY COUEANT.' 261 
 
 The latest newspaper publislied in the opening 
 years of Queen Victoria's reign bears a greater 
 resemblance to the first attempt at a newspaper ever 
 issued since civilisation began to have a press, than 
 it does to any of the daily or weekly journals which 
 came into existence with the steamship and th^ rail- 
 way and the transmission of news by the agency 
 of the electric wire. Imagination itself in the days 
 of Queen Anne could not have pictured the growth 
 of that newspaper press which was to become one 
 of the common and every-day agencies of civilisation 
 in the days of Queen Victoria. What further work 
 of civihsation is to be done for travel, for the inter- 
 course of men, for the transmission of news, and for 
 the rapid interchange of ideas among the nations of 
 the world, it would be impossible for us as yet to 
 conjecture, but the new era had not dawned upon 
 humanity at the time when the ' Daily Courant ' was 
 accounted a venturous speculation just after the last 
 sovereign of the House of Stuart had come to the 
 English throne. 
 
262 THE EEiaN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xin. 
 
 CHAPTEE Xni 
 
 JONATHAN SWIFT 
 
 In the year of Blenheim two books were added 
 to literature which wiU be remembered in English 
 history for ever. One was called ' The Battle 
 of the Books,' and the other 'A Tale of a Tub.' 
 These works were published anonymously, but 
 the authorship was already known to some — ^was 
 rightly guessed even at the time by many, and was 
 soon made known to all the reading world. The 
 author was Jonathan Swift, whose fame is one of the 
 great glories of Queen Anne's reign. Swift was an 
 Irishman by birth — he was born in Dublin on 
 November 30, 1667. His parents on both sides were 
 EngUsh ; his father came of a Yorkshire family and 
 his mother was from Leicestershire. The father died 
 in his prime seven months after the birth of his son, 
 and the young Jonathan Swift was sent in his child- 
 hood to a school of some celebrity in Kilkenny. 
 When a youth he was sent to Trinity OoUege, Dublin, 
 where he studied for some years without distinguish- 
 ing himself particularly in any field of education. 
 He came over to England in 1688, and for a time 
 acted as secretary to Sir William Temple, a distant 
 connection of his mother, at Moor Park, in Surrey, 
 
1667 SWIFT'S BIRTH. 263 
 
 which has become famous in literature rather because 
 of Swift's association with it then and afterwards, 
 than because of Sir WiUiam Temple's really distin- 
 guished services as a diplomatist and success as a 
 writer of essays. 
 
 Jonathan Swift was in no sense an Irishman 
 except by the mere chance of his birth. His own 
 comment on his connection with Ireland was that 
 a man's being born in a stable does not make him 
 a horse. But he lived for a great part of his life 
 in Ireland, and after his first residence at Moor 
 Park he took orders in Dublin and obtained a living 
 in Ulster. He is identified in history with many an 
 effort made to obtain better legislative treatment for 
 the country of his birth than she had been obtaining 
 through successive English governments, and there 
 can be no doubt that while he was at heart a thorough 
 Enghshman, he felt the most generous sympathy with 
 the Irish people, and gave some of his finest intel- 
 lectual efforts to the service of a country which could 
 make him no practical return for his labours on her 
 behalf. 
 
 The publication of the works which have been 
 mentioned marked Swift out at once as a great 
 satirical and political writer, and he soon became 
 recognised as a perfect master of Enghsh prose. 
 Indeed, it may be questioned whether the whole 
 range of English literature can boast of any other 
 writer of prose who could be ranked as the equal of 
 Jonathan Swift. Mr. Gladstone was only endorsing 
 the opinion of aU the best critics of modern times 
 
264 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xiii. 
 
 when he again and again declared that Swift was the 
 greatest prose writer known to Enghsh literature. 
 We are not attempting here anything like a biography 
 of Swift or a description of his literary and political 
 masterpieces, some of the greatest of which did not 
 make their appearance in print until after the reign 
 of Queen Anne had come to its close. Swift's 
 life, character, and works have been the subject of 
 writings which would almost make a hbrary in 
 themselves. He was in a certain sense a puzzle 
 to his contemporaries, and is apparently a puzzle to 
 biographers, essayists, and critics in general down to 
 the present day. He had the faculty of arousing the 
 most devoted friendship, the most passionate affec- 
 tion, and the fiercest hatred. This was in keeping 
 with the nature and the temper of the man himself, 
 for his whole heart was exuberant in love and in 
 hate alike to persons and to parties. Even among 
 those who are absolutely in unison as to the genius 
 of Swift — and it is hardly possible to believe that 
 any quaKfied observer could have doubts as to his 
 genius — the most widely different opinions have been 
 formed and maintained through the succeeding gene- 
 rations as to his personal character. The obvious 
 truth is that Swift was one of those great men whose 
 nature and temperament mark them out as the sub- 
 jects of undying controversy. The more we study 
 the history of great men,|[the more we find that there 
 are some of them who have above all things the 
 qualities which make them absorbingly interesting, 
 while there are others whose greatness is universally 
 
1667-1702 SWIFTS CHARACTER. 265 
 
 acknowledged, but whose lives do not give occasion 
 for impassioned dispute. 
 
 The word 'interesting' seems but a feeble and 
 inadequate term to describe the qualities of men 
 thus born to be the subject of incessant contention, 
 to create schools of admirers and schools of oppo- 
 nents in each generation, and yet there is perhaps 
 no other word which can so distinctly convey the 
 pecuhar idea. There is no controversy about King 
 Alfred ; there are no hostile factions contending this 
 way and that way about the character of the man 
 Shakespeare ; there is no need of volume after 
 volume to assail or to defend John Milton ; and even 
 those who most entirely disagree with the pohtical 
 principles of Edmund Burke at this or that period of 
 his career are generally in complete agreement as to 
 the personal character of Burke himself. On the 
 other hand, we are always listening to fresh discus- 
 sions on the life and the motives of Julius Caesar ; on 
 the influences which inspired the genius of Dante ; 
 on the career of Eousseau ; on the real nature of 
 Napoleon Bonaparte. No man has given occasion to 
 warmer controversy of this kind than Jonathan Swift. 
 Men who thoroughly appreciated his genius, like 
 Macaulay and Thackeray, are believed by many of us 
 to have misread and unconsciously misinterpreted 
 the whole nature of the man. To this day we dis- 
 cuss with as much eagerness and with as much con- 
 flict of judgment the story of Swift's loves, as if it 
 were sope question of party politics destined and 
 open to eager debate. To judge from the recorded 
 
266 THE EEIGN OP QUEEN ANNE. ch. xni. 
 
 opinions of Swift's contemporaries, it would seem to 
 be quite possible for men of clear intelligence and 
 impartial purpose to have been brought into more or 
 less intercourse with him and to form utterly different 
 judgments as to his real character and his ruling 
 motives. 
 
 Swift's whole life was one of conflicting im- 
 pulses. The career into which he was forced by 
 circumstances would appear to have been the very 
 last suited to his temper and his intellect. He would 
 hav.e been a great man of letters if he had been 
 nothing else; he would have been a great politi- 
 cian if he had been nothing else ; but nature 
 had not intended him for the work qf a clergy- 
 man. He seems to have tried hard to do his 
 duty in that field of work for which he was so 
 iU fitted, but he could not compel his passionat;e 
 temperament to suit itself to the conditions of 
 such a calling, and he sought relief by giving free 
 vent to the stronger and fiercer parts of his nature, 
 by plunging into political controversy. His was 
 above all things an impatient spirit, and in many 
 parts of his life he reminds us of the old stories 
 told about men visited by demoniac possession. 
 His aspirations appear to have been always for 
 the elevation of humanity, but his impatient 
 spirit was constantly coming into play when the 
 imperfections of the humanity he saw around him 
 were forced upon his attention, and thus he often 
 cursed where his earlier inclination would have 
 been to pray. If we read considerately and charit- 
 
1702 SWIFT'S FASTIDIOUSNESS. 267 
 
 ably some of the writings which especially procured 
 for him the accusation of having a mind burning 
 with hatred for the whole human race, we shall per- 
 haps be brought to the conclusion that they were 
 but the indignant outpourings of a disappointed 
 heart, made rancorous by its disappointment. Swift 
 had an unduly sensitive nature, and the difference 
 between his ideal of humanity and the real humanity 
 which he saw everywhere around him was too much 
 for his endurance, and his mind could find apparently 
 no other relief than the very extravagance of de- 
 nunciation. 
 
 Let us take one illustration of this morbid im- 
 patience. Swift was by natural inclination and by 
 habitude given over to the ways of rigorous personal 
 cleanliness. The social life of Queen Anne's day would 
 be regarded by those who hve in our more fastidious 
 age, in our age of universal washing and bathing and 
 changing of linen, as a life absolutely wanting in the 
 elementary conditions of cleanliness and hygiene. It 
 may be safely affirmed, from the unconscious revela- 
 tions made by contemporary writers as to the 
 domestic habits of Queen Anne's reign, that a royal 
 prince or princess of that time would have been set 
 down as a personage of very dirty habits by a weU 
 brought up working man in the reign of Queen 
 Victoria. But Swift would have been regarded as a 
 man of scrupulous and fastidious cleanliness if he 
 were living at the present hour. He carried his 
 love of it so far that whenever he washed his 
 hands, which he did very often in the course of a 
 
268 THE REiaN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xra. 
 
 day, he usually took care to wash, his feet as well. 
 He became furious now and then because of the 
 personal habits of those he saw around him, and he 
 reheved his mind by satirical verses revelling in de- 
 scriptions which many a reader in our days would 
 find it impossible to get through because of the 
 utter loathing which they bring with them. Swift 
 has been denounced again and again for those really 
 abominable verses by critics who never seem to have 
 remembered that the verses only testified to the man's 
 inborn and ingrained horror of dirt. 
 
 The most devoted admirer of Swift must wish that 
 he had never written satires of this peculiar order, 
 but the harshest critic of Swift might at least do him 
 the justice to admit his perverted and fanatical zeal 
 in the cause of cleanliness. We have taken this one 
 illustration because it throws some light on the 
 character of Swift and on the manner in which he 
 has been unfairly judged by many of those who fully 
 recognise his genius. When he was a reformer he 
 became a reformer who knew nothing of compromise 
 and who scorned moderation of language. It may 
 probably be taken for granted that the whole of 
 Swift's life was to some degree afiected by that dis* 
 ordered mental tendency which showed itself at last 
 in downright madness. 
 
 Some of his biographers tell a strange story of an 
 adventure which befell him in his infancy. When he 
 was a year old " his nurse, who was a woman of 
 Whitehaven, being under an absolute necessity of 
 seeing one of her relations who was then extremely 
 
1668 AN EAELY ADVENTURE. 269 
 
 sick, and from wliom she expected a legacy, and 
 being extremely fond of the infant, she stole him 
 on shipboard unknown to his mother and uncle and 
 carried him with her to Whitehaven, where he 
 continued for almost three years. For when the 
 matter was discovered his mother sent orders by aU 
 means not to hazard a second voyage tUl he could 
 be better able to bear it.' This is a strange story, 
 but there seems to be no question as to its accuracy, 
 and it might, if we could know but aU, contain some 
 possible explanation as to the peculiarities of 
 temperament which marked so emphatically the hfe 
 of Swift. For three years after his first year of 
 infancy he was whoUy out of the care of his widowed 
 mother and was brought up under conditions of 
 which his famUy and friends could know little or 
 nothing. Who can teU what accident might not 
 have happened through carelessness or ignorance or 
 other such cause, which might have had a lasting 
 effect on the health and the temper of the child thus 
 curiously withdrawn from his home ? This earliest 
 adventure of Swift's might remind us of one of the 
 many stories told about children stolen by gipsies and 
 bearing with them through aU. their after hves some 
 effect or influence of the temporary removal from 
 parents and home. It must be said in the case of Swift, 
 as in that of some of the stolen children in romance, 
 that there was no lack of love or kindness to him on 
 the part of the woman who had carried him off. We 
 read that his nurse was very careful about giving 
 him such education as she could, and that before 
 
270 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xiii. 
 
 he returned to his mother's house he had actually 
 learned to spell. 
 
 The whole story has a sort of artistic fitness as 
 an opening to the hfe of a man whose career was 
 one of strange contrasts and unexplained moods. 
 Perhaps some ingenious and bold romancist might 
 find in it a suggestion for an entirely new theory 
 embodying and explaining the paradoxical character 
 of Swift's life. The bold romancist might start the 
 idea that the young Swift died almost immediately 
 after his removal to Whitehaven, and that the nurse, 
 driven almost to despair by the thought of having 
 to tell Mrs. Swift that her child was dead, became 
 possessed with the idea of substituting a changeling 
 for the dead child and bought an infant of some 
 gipsy mother, which she kept and brought up for 
 the three following years, and then carried back to 
 Dubhn and palmed off on Mrs. Swift as her boy, and 
 thus gave to English politics and literature the man 
 whose extraordinary career history has found it so 
 difficult to explain. 
 
 Swift's love affairs, each one so intense in its 
 character, have perplexed commentators and given 
 rise to all manner of theoretical explanations. That 
 he loved Stella seems beyond all manner of question. 
 Why then did he not marry, her, when he came to 
 know of his love for her and her love for him ? Or 
 if he did marry her, why did he hesitate in proclaim- 
 ing his marriage at once ? An explanation has been 
 invented by some which resembles the dark and 
 melancholy story made by Walter Scott a part of his 
 
1688-1716 SWIFT'S LOVE AFFAIRS. 271 
 
 immortal novel ' The Antiquary.' Is it possible that 
 Swift may have had the idea brought wrongfully into 
 his mind that there was some mysterious degree of 
 consanguinity between Stella and him, which would 
 have precluded him from loving her in the lover's 
 fashion, and that he may have discovered the mistake, 
 and only found himself free to marry her at a late 
 period of their association ? Biography has generally 
 declined to adopt Swift's own frank explanation as 
 to his unwillingness to enter on the married state, 
 and has sought otherwise some plausible theory to 
 account for his conduct. Did he really love 
 Vanessa ? And what was the nature of his feelings 
 towards Varina ? It is certain that Swift had in his 
 heart a deep capacity for love and even for passionate 
 love, and that he had a marvellous power to arouse 
 the warmest and tenderest affection in women. No 
 love stories ever told in romance are fuU of deeper 
 emotions than the authentic records, most of them 
 left by his own hand, of the love which Swift felt 
 towards some women and the love which they and 
 others felt for him. Was it that Swift was always 
 looking out for the one woman who could be his 
 perfect and complete affinity, and that his failure to 
 find any such may have been the explanation of 
 the passages in his hfe which have most taxed 
 the divining powers of his biographers ? We may 
 take it for granted that the explanation, if there 
 be any, wiU never now be forthcoming, but the 
 story of Swift's quest for a perfect love has given 
 to the world some of the" most deeply interesting, 
 
272 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xm. 
 
 perplexing, impassioned, and melanclioly chapters 
 in the life of any great man known to modern or to 
 ancient history. 
 
 ' A Tale of a Tub ' made its appearance, as has 
 been said, in 1704, the year of Blenheim. We now 
 know on Swift's own authority that the work had 
 occupied him ofi and on for a long time. The 
 greater part of the book was finished about eight 
 years before it was pubhshed. ' The author was 
 then young, his invention at the height, and his read- 
 ing fresh in his head.' The author in his preface 
 teUs us that 'Seamen have a custom, when they 
 meet a whale, to fling him out an empty tub by way 
 of amusement, to divert him from laying violent 
 hands upon the ship.' Then he goes on to say 
 'The whale was interpreted to be Hobbes's 
 Leviathian ; which tosses and plays with all schemes 
 of religion and government ; whereof a great many 
 are hollow, and dry, and empty, and noisy, and 
 wooden, and given to rotation. This is the 
 Leviathan, from whence the terrible wits of our age 
 are said to borrow their weapons. The ship in 
 danger is easily understood to be its old anti-type the 
 Commonwealth. But how to analyse the tub, was 
 a matter of difficulty; when, after long inquiry 
 and debate, the literal meaning was preserved ; and 
 it was decreed, that, in order to prevent these 
 Leviathans from tossing and sporting with the 
 Commonwealth, which of itself is too apt to 
 fluctuate, they should be diverted from that game by 
 a Tale of a Tub. And my genius being conceived to 
 
1704 'A TALE OF A TUB.' 273 
 
 lie not unhappily that way, I had the honour done 
 me to be engaged in the performance.' 
 
 The ' Tale of a Tub ' is introduced by more than 
 one preface, and is varied by several carefully set 
 out digressions. The prefaces and digressions are, 
 indeed, part of the whole essay and have their direct 
 bearing and influence upon its satirical meaning. 
 Every page of the work is a satire upon somebody or 
 something, on some school of thought, some group of 
 critics, some literary novelty proclaimed as a master- 
 piece, some political or religious phantasy, some 
 goblin called into shadowy existence to distract the 
 reasoning powers of men. To make its meaning 
 perfectly clear at all points to modern readers would 
 require a volume of annotations and explanations. 
 The whole form of this satire was then quite new to 
 the reading pubHc, and it is not too much to say of ' A 
 Tale of a Tub ' that it took the political and literary 
 world by storm. Those who knew Swift intimately 
 had no difficulty in making up their minds as to its 
 authorship, and the word was quickly passed from 
 mouth to mouth, so that there can hardly have been 
 a moment of actual secrecy concerning the origin of 
 the satire. 
 
 ' No man,' says the author in his concluding pages, 
 ' hath more nicely observed our cUmate than the 
 bookseller who bought the copy of this work. He 
 knows to a tittle what subjects will best go ofi 
 in a dry year and which it is proper to expose 
 foremost when the weather glass is fallen to much 
 rain.' Then he goes on to teU his readers of the 
 VOL. I. T 
 
274 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xiii. 
 
 various devices which the bookselleTj'and he agreed 
 upon adopting in order to make the work hit the 
 passing taste at the time of its publication, and how 
 it should be privately ascribed to this writer or to 
 that, ' naming whichever of the wits shaU happen to 
 be that week in vogue.' The title-page of the work 
 announces it as 'A Tale of a Tub,' 'written for the 
 universal improvement of mankind,' to which are added 
 'An Account of a Battle between the Ancient and 
 Modern Books in St. James Library and a Discourse 
 concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit.' 
 The narrative opens with the familiar ' Once upon a 
 time,' and teUs us that ' there was a man who had 
 three sons by one wife, and aU at a birth ; neither 
 could the midwife tell certainly which was the eldest.' 
 Then we learn that the father came to die while the 
 sons were very young, and on his death-bed called 
 his sons around him and delivered to them a parting 
 discourse, which may be quoted here at full length, 
 because, if we may put it so, it sets forth the terms of 
 the riddle which the reader has afterwards to make 
 out to the best of his capacity. 
 
 ' Sons, Because I have purchased no estate, nor 
 was born to any, I have long considered of some good 
 legacies to bequeath you ; and at last, with much 
 care as well as expense, have provided each of you 
 (here they are) a new coat. Now, you are to under- 
 stand, that these coats have two virtues contained 
 in them. One is, that, with good wearing, they will 
 last you fresh and sound as long as you live. The 
 other is, that they will grow in the same proportion 
 
1704 'PETER, MARTIN, AND JACK.' 275 
 
 with, your bodies, lengthening and widening of them- 
 selves, so as to be always fit. Here, let me see them 
 on you before I die. So, very weU ; pray, children, 
 wear them clean, and brush them often. You will 
 find in my will (here it is) full instructions in every 
 particular concerning the wearing and management 
 of your coats ; wherein you must be very exact, to 
 avoid the penalties I have appointed for every trans- 
 gression or neglect, upon which your future fortunes 
 wiU entirely depend. I have also commanded in my 
 win, that you should live together in one house like 
 brethren and friends ; for then you wiU be sure to 
 thrive, and not otherwise.' 
 
 Then the story teUs us that the good father died 
 and the three sons went out together to seek their 
 fortunes. Now it should be said that the sons were 
 called respectively Peter, Martin, and Jack, and perhaps 
 the intelligent reader will already begin to form some 
 idea as to the conditions of the riddle. Peter, who is 
 sometimes called Lord Peter, and later on assumes the 
 Imperial title, typifies the Pope. Martin represents the 
 Church of England, and Jack stands for the Protestant 
 Dissenters. An explanatory note in one of the early 
 editions of the narrative helps us to an easy under- 
 standing of the story by telling us that ' in the 
 character of Peter, we see the Pope seated on his 
 pontifical throne, and adorned with his triple crown. 
 In the picture of Martin, we view Luther and the 
 first Eeformers. And in the description of Jack, we 
 behold John Calvin and his disciples.' To clear the 
 ground stUl &irther the note tells us that ' the 
 
 T 2 
 
276 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xin. 
 
 author's arrows are chiefly directed against Peter and 
 Jack ' ; and that ' to Martin he shows all the indul- 
 gence that the laws of allegory will permit.' Further 
 it is explained to us — ' by the coats are meant the 
 doctrine and faith of Christianity, by the wisdom of 
 the Divine Founder, fitted to all times, places, and 
 circumstances.' 
 
 It might be thought at first that the writer of 
 the notes showed a curious simplicity in thus explain- 
 ing, at the very outset, the meaning of his author's 
 satirical parable. It might appear to some at 
 the first glance that there could be but little in- 
 terest in following out any further a puzzle which 
 had been thus prematurely unravelled. But the 
 truth is that the satirical wit and humour of Swift's 
 story continue to fascinate the reader, and to hold 
 him with undiminished power of fascination long 
 after he has completely mastered the meaning of the 
 riddle. Indeed, only a very dull reader could have 
 the slightest difficulty in guessing at the identity of 
 Peter, Martin, and Jack, and most readers may safely 
 be reckoned upon to follow the fortunes of these 
 personages with undiminished interest long after they 
 have obtained the most complete insight into the 
 purpose of the author's parable. What may be 
 called the double identity of each of the three 
 characters is so well maintained, that the reader may 
 for a considerable part of the narrative take it, if he 
 will, that he is only reading of three young men who 
 came up to London and were exposed to the tempta- 
 tions of a London life, without remembering, for the 
 
1704 THE TEEMS OF THE WILL. 277 
 
 moment, that he has three allegorical figures before 
 him. It is only when he goes over the early part of 
 the story for the second time that he fully realises 
 how weU every thought and action of the three fits 
 in with the allegorical meaning of the characters. 
 
 The brothers make the acquaintance of three 
 great ladies, the Duchess d' Argent, Mademoiselle de 
 Grands Titres, and Countess d'Orgueil, who, as the 
 careful annotator informs us, represent ' covetousness, 
 ambition, and pride, which were the three great 
 vices that the ancient Fathers inveighed against, as 
 the first corruptions of Christianity.' AU that part 
 of the story which immediately foUows this new 
 acquaintanceship might pass as a mere satire on the 
 follies and corruptions of town life and their demora- 
 lising effect on young men from the country. It 
 would be a very interesting story even from that 
 point of view. The three brothers are supposed to 
 be bound strictly by the conditions of life laid down 
 for them in their father's will, and we are told of 
 the wonderful devices by which Peter succeeded in 
 persuading Martin and Jack that any course of 
 conduct they desired to follow can be made to agree 
 exactly with the terms of the document. One of 
 these devices, if only it had been chronicled in more 
 modern days, might seem as if it were intended to 
 be a droll satire on a certain alleged discovery with 
 regard to the writings of William Shakespeare, which 
 created a great deal of controversy in the United 
 States and afterwards in England. The three ladies 
 already named to whom the brothers are paying 
 
278 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xni. 
 
 their addresses ' were ever at the very top of the 
 fashion, and abhorred all that were below it but 
 the breadth of a hair.' But it will be remembered 
 that the conditions of the father's will were very- 
 precise as to the wearing of the coats he had given 
 them, without the change of a single thread in them, 
 unless such change found sanction in the terms of 
 the document itself. 
 
 Now it so happened that before the brothers had 
 been a month in town the wearing of large shoulder- 
 knots came into fashion, and no one could be re- 
 ceived at the house of a great lady unless he came 
 ornamented with these evidences of social distinc- 
 tion. ' Our three brethren soon discovered their 
 "want by sad experience, meeting in their walks with 
 forty mortifications and indignities. If they went 
 to the play-house the door-keeper showed them 
 into the twelve-penny gallery.' 'If they stepped 
 to the " Eose " to take a bottle, the drawer would 
 cry, " Friend, we sell no ale." If they went to visit 
 a lady, a footman met them at the door, with " Pray 
 send up your message." In this unhappy case they 
 went immediately to consult their father's will ; read 
 it over and over, but not a word of the shoulder- 
 knot.' The question then arose what were they to 
 do ? The terms of the will were absolutely to be 
 obeyed, and yet they could not get into fashionable 
 society without the wearing of shoulder-knots. Now 
 then comes the device which might be taken as a 
 prophetic forecast of the ingenious discovery which 
 an American author, made thereby famous for a time, 
 
1704 THE CYPHER. 279 
 
 professed to have found in the text of Shakespeare. 
 Thus Swift tells the story : 
 
 'After much thought, one of the brothers, who 
 happened to be more book-learned than the other 
 two, said, he had found an expedient. " It is true," 
 said he, " there is nothing here in this wiU, totidem 
 verbis, making mention of shoulder-knots ; but I dare 
 conjecture, we may find them inclusive, or totidem 
 syUabis." This distinction was immediately approved 
 by all ; and so they fell again to examine. But their 
 evil star had so directed the matter, that the first 
 syllable was not to be found in the whole writing. 
 Upon which disappointment, he, who found the former 
 evasion, took heart, and said — "Brothers, there is yet 
 hope ; for though we cannot find them, totidem verbis 
 nor totidem syllabis, I dare engage we shall make them 
 out tertio modo or totidem Uteris." This discovery was 
 also highly commended ; upon which they fell once 
 more to the scrutiny, and picked out S, H, 0, U, L, 
 D, E, E, when the same planet, enemy to their repose, 
 had wonderfully contrived that a K was not to be 
 found. Here was a weighty difficulty ! But the 
 distinguishing brother, for whom we shall hereafter 
 find a name, now his hand was in, proved, by a very 
 good argument, that K was a modern illegitimate letter, 
 unknown to the learned ages, nor any where to be 
 found in ancient manuscripts. " 'Tis true " (said he) 
 " the word Calandse hath in Q.V.O. been sometimes 
 written with a K ; but erroneously ; for in the best 
 copies it has been ever spelt with a C. And, by con- 
 sequence, it was a gross mistake in our language to 
 
280 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xni. 
 
 spell knot with a K ; but that from henceforward he 
 would take care it should be written with a C." 
 Upon this all farther diflSculty vanished ; shoulder- 
 knots were made clearly out to be jure paterno, and 
 our three gentlemen swaggered with as large and as 
 flaunting ones as the best.' 
 
 'But as human happiness is of a very short duration, 
 so in those days were human fashions, upon which 
 it entirely depends. Shoulder-knots had their time ; 
 and we must now imagine them in their decline : for 
 a certain lord came just from Paris, with fifty yards 
 of gold lace upon his coat, exactly trimmed after 
 the court fashion of that month. In two days all 
 mankind appeared closed up in bars of gold lace. 
 Whoever durst peep abroad without his complement 
 of gold lace,' was 'ill received among the women. 
 What should our three knights do in this momentous 
 afiair? They had sufficiently strained a point al- 
 ready, in the affair of shoulder-knots. Upon recourse 
 to the wiU, nothing appeared there but cdtum silentium. 
 That of the shoulder-knots was a loose, flying, cir- 
 cumstantial point ; but this of gold lace seemed too 
 considerable an alteration without better warrant .... 
 and therefore required a positive precept. But about 
 this time it fell out, that the learned brother aforesaid 
 had read Aristotelis dialectica ; and especially that won- 
 derful piece de Interpretatione which has the faculty of 
 teaching its readers to find out a meaning in every- 
 thing but itself ; like commentators on the Revelations, 
 who proceed prophets without understanding a 
 syllable of the text. " Brothers," said he, " you are to 
 
1704 'NUNCUPATOEY AND SCRIPTOEY.' 281 
 
 be informed, that of wills duo sunt genera nuncupatory 
 and scriptory, that in the scriptory will here before 
 us, there is no precept or mention about gold lace, 
 conceditur: but, si idem affirmetur de nuneupatoria, 
 negatur. For, brothers, if you remember, we heard 
 a fellow say, when we were boys, that he heard my 
 father's man say, that he heard my father say, that 
 he would advise his sons to get gold-lace op their 
 coats, as soon as ever they could procure money to 
 buy it." " That is very true," cries the other. " I re- 
 member it perfectly well," said the third. And so, 
 without more ado, they got the largest gold lace in 
 the parish, and walked about as fine as lords.' 
 
 It is not necessary to our present purpose to fol- 
 low this satire to its conclusion. Enough has been 
 said to show its central idea and to illustrate the 
 manner in which that idea is adorned with literary 
 shape. The modern reader who sits down to study 
 this masterpiece of sarcastic humour must make up 
 his mind not to be too fastidious as to its phrases, 
 or to be too easily ofiended by any of its strictures. 
 The essay, in fact, has starthng irreverence on every 
 page of it, and it is not too much to say that there is 
 hardly any class of Christians which might not take 
 ofience at its caricatures of religious doctrine and 
 feehng. The one excuse to be made for its worst 
 irreverence is that Swift had for his main purpose to 
 draw a striking contrast between the professions and 
 the practices of too many proclaimed believers in 
 the several denominations of Christianity. Swift was 
 terribly in earnest about everything which he under- 
 
282 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xiii. 
 
 took, and he was filled with a detestation for any 
 manner of religious hypocrisy. This feeling carried 
 him so far as to make him seem often to regard the 
 man who did not quite and always act up to his 
 religious professions as if he were really no better 
 than a dehberate, and what might be called a pro- 
 fessional, hypocrite. There was certainly no charity 
 in his way of estimating his fellow-mortals when he 
 came thus to describe them for satirical purposes. 
 Judged by the test which he appears to have adopted 
 in the ' Tale of a Tub ' there would be little difference 
 between the man whose mode of life fails to be in 
 full harmony with his avowals of creed and principle 
 and the man whose whole existence is a living lie. 
 
 So much of excuse, if it be an excuse, has to be 
 made for the wild irreverence of many passages in 
 this remarkable production. The Eoman Catholics, 
 as might be expected, come off the worst in these 
 satirical descriptions, and it is easy to understand 
 that many Eoman Catholics would find it impossible 
 to appreciate the artistic cleverness of a satire so 
 repulsive to aU their reverential feelings. But, in- 
 deed, there is much in the whole essay for which 
 the beUevers in any form of Christianity would find 
 it hard to make allowance or excuse, and one can 
 understand that many a pure and pious Christian 
 might regard the worst errors of belief and the worst 
 worldly contrast between profession and action as less 
 offensive and dangerous in themselves than Swift's 
 manner of exposing and satirising them. Then, again, 
 it is hardly necessary to say that the literary style of 
 
1704 SWIFT'S PLAIN SPEAKING. 283 
 
 Swift's age allowed and was accustomed to a coarse- 
 ness of expression which would be impossible in 
 more modern times, and it is not always easy for a 
 later generation to distinguish between coarseness 
 of expression and impurity of purpose. 
 
 Cicero has observed in one of his letters that 
 certain phrases which had been considered quite 
 seemly and tolerable for writing and talk among even 
 the best educated in his younger days had since that 
 time come to be regarded as positively indecent, 
 though precisely the same ideas were meant to be 
 conveyed in the later days as in the earher, and he is 
 curious to know how far that process of supposed 
 refinement is to go, and whether mere fastidiousness 
 in the choice of words is to be the one supreme 
 merit in the expression of ideas. Each succeeding 
 age sets up, of course, its own standard of propriety 
 in speaking and writing, and the purest and healthiest 
 writers in Swift's time sometimes adopted a free- 
 dom of language which would be impossible in 
 more recent days. Yet we have had some schools of 
 literature in France, and even in England, during our 
 own age which never offended against the canons of 
 propriety in mere words, but nevertheless contrived 
 to emit sentiments and teachings which would have 
 seemed corrupt and loathsome to Pope, or Addison, 
 or even to Swift himself. We must judge the ' Tale 
 of a Tub ' as we should judge one of the plays of 
 Aristophanes or one of the satires of Juvenal. 
 
 The publication of the ' Tale of a Tub ' was one 
 of the events of the time To all readers of English 
 
284 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xin. 
 
 literature it became at once apparent that a great 
 master of satire had suddenly come up to claim his 
 place. When the authorship was made known it 
 brought upon Swift, naturally and necessarily, much 
 anger and denunciation from those who regarded the 
 satire as irreligious and blasphemous ; but it settled 
 Swift's rank in Hterature, and made it clear to the 
 world that the author of ' A Tale of a Tub ' was a 
 man destined to play a great part in politics as well 
 as in letters. During his frequent visits to London 
 Swift became an accepted member of the briUiant 
 company of authors and wits who used to meet 
 together and exchange ideas and repartees at 
 Button's Coffee-House. Swift's greatest achieve- 
 ments in literature were yet to come, but he was 
 already recognised as one of the foremost writers of 
 the age, and time since then has only added to his 
 fame. 
 
 ' The Battle of the Books ' belonged to a narrower 
 field of controversy, a field of controversy which has 
 but little interest even for the literary world of more 
 modern days. The essay is described on its title-page 
 as ' A full and true account of the battle fought last 
 Friday between the Ancient and the Modern Books in 
 St. James' Library.' It was composed and written 
 during one of Swift's residences with Sir WiUiam 
 Temple at Moor Park. Sir WiUiam Temple had 
 written an essay on the relative merits of ancient and 
 modern culture, and a passionate dispute arose upon 
 the subject in which Dr. Bentley and many other 
 distinguished scholars and authors took part. Swift's 
 
1704 'THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS.' 285 
 
 contribution sparkled with brilliant wit, and was 
 made amusing by droU and fantastic ideas. Swift 
 sets out bis humorous purpose in the opening pages 
 of the essay : 
 
 ' This quarrel first began, as I have heard it 
 affirmed by an old dweUer in the neighbourhood, 
 about a smaU spot of ground, lying and being upon 
 one of the two tops of the hill Parnassus ; the highest 
 and largest of which had, it seems, been, time out of 
 mind, in quiet possession of certain tenants called 
 the Ancients ; and the other was held by the Moderns. 
 But these dishking their present station, sent certain 
 ambassadors to the Ancients, complaining of a great 
 nuisance ; how the height of that part of Parnassus 
 quite spoiled the prospect of theirs, especially 
 towards the east; and therefore, to avoid a war, 
 offered them the choice of this alternative : Either 
 that the Ancients would please to remove themselves 
 and their effects down to the lower summity, whicK 
 the Moderns would graciously surrender to them, 
 and advance in their place ; or else that the said 
 Ancients will give leave to the Moderns to come with 
 shovels and mattocks, and level the said hill as low 
 as they shall think it convenient. To which the 
 Ancients made answer. How little they expected such 
 a message as this, from a colony whom they had 
 admitted, out of their own free grace, to so near a 
 neighbourhood : That as to their own seat, they were 
 Aborigines of it, and therefore to talk with them of a 
 removal or surrender, was a language they did not 
 understand : That if the height of the hill on their 
 
286 THE KEiaN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xiii. 
 
 side shortened the prospects of the Moderns, it was 
 a disadvantage they could not help ; but desired them 
 to consider, whether that injury (if it be any) were not 
 largely recompensed by the shade and shelter it affor- 
 ded them : That as to the levelling or digging down, it 
 was either foUy or ignorance to propose it, if they 
 did not know, how that side of the hiU was an entire 
 rock, which would break their tools and hearts with- 
 out any damage to itself: That they would therefore 
 advise the Moderns, rather to raise their own side of 
 the hUl, than dream of pulUng down that of the 
 Ancients; to the former of which they would not 
 only give license, but also largely contribute. All 
 this was rejected by the Modems, with much in- 
 dignation : who stiU insisted upon one of the two 
 expedients. And so this difference broke out into a 
 long and obstinate war ; maintained on the one part 
 by resolution, and by the courage of certain leaders 
 and allies ; but on the other, by the greatness of 
 their number, upon all defeats affording continual 
 recruits. In this quarrel, whole rivulets of ink have 
 been exhausted, and the virulence of both parties 
 enormously augmented.' 
 
 One sentence, or perhaps it should be said one 
 phrase, in 'The Battle of the Books' has already 
 passed into almost universal quotation and repetition. 
 The author introduces an ingenious account of the 
 discussion between the bee and the spider as to their 
 relative claims on the regard of the world, ^sop, 
 who happens to be a listener to the debate, decides 
 in favour of the bees, on the ground that, instead of 
 
1704 'SWEETNESS AND LIGHT.' 287 
 
 dirt and poison, they have rather chosen to fill their 
 hives with honey and wax — ' thus furnishing man- 
 kind with the two noblest of things, which are sweet- 
 ness and light.' Matthew Arnold adopted the phrase 
 ' sweetness and light ' and made it popular for his 
 generation, and for many generations to come. 
 Men are constantly quoting it who have no idea 
 what they are quoting from, just as men are con- 
 stantly repeating certain phrases from Horace, from 
 Dryden, and from Pope without remembering or 
 knowing where the phrases are originally to be found. 
 Sweetness and light may not seem to be appro- 
 priate as a motto for Swift. Light he had, indeed, to 
 an almost marvellous degree. He saw everything 
 clearly, no matter what mists of superstition, of 
 perverseness, of hypocrisy, or of conventionahty 
 might hang around it. As John Bright once said of 
 John Stuart Mill, ' he hved in light ' — but sweetness ? 
 One might at first be disposed to think that bitterness 
 was the essential and pervading property of Swift, 
 but perhaps if we study his letters to 'Stella and to 
 others of his friends we shall become wUling to 
 admit that in his strange combative aggressive nature 
 there was a rich store of sweetness as well. 
 
 Mr. Herbert Paul, in his thoughtful and brilliant 
 volume of essays 'Men and Letters,' has described 
 Swift as ' the Prince of Journalists.' The title is just, 
 and is historically appropriate. Swift might fairly 
 be called the creator of the modern leading-article. 
 Mr. Paul points out that ' he was also the father of 
 what is now called Society Verse.' The world will 
 
288 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xni. 
 
 readily adopt Mr. Paul's concise summary of Swift's 
 claims to our admiration. ' His value to posterity,' 
 says the concluding sentence of the essay on the 
 ' Prince of Journalists,' ' lies in his matchless humour, 
 his statesmanlike wisdom, his hatred of pretence and 
 sham, his intellectual integrity, and above all the sus- 
 tained perfection of his English style.' We are yet 
 only at the opening of Swift's career as a politician 
 and a man of letters. Much wUl have to be said 
 with regard to Swift as a party man ; with regard to 
 his change from one party to another ; with regard 
 to the motives which may be supposed to have 
 influenced him in the course he followed upon this or 
 that great question of public debate ; with regard to 
 the manner in which this or that man was treated by 
 him at various periods of his life. About his position 
 as a writer of English prose there can be no contro- 
 versy. He took his place at once in the foremost 
 rank, and the age of Queen Anne will have one of its 
 highest claims to historical importance in the fact 
 that it was the age which saw the opening of Swift's 
 literary career. 
 
289 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 RAMILLIES AND ALMANZA 
 
 The war meanwhile was going on and, for a time, 
 with, successive victories for the AJlies, one more 
 splendid or at all events more important in its results 
 than the other. The year 1706, was one in which 
 Marlborough was especially fortunate, and, as his 
 destiny would so often have it, by virtue entirely of 
 his own plans and his own instinctive knowledge of 
 the right moment and the right place for striking a 
 decisive blow, and in spite of increasing difficulties 
 put in his way by some of his allies. Every 
 reader must have observed the extraordinary flexi- 
 bility of Marlborough's mind. Again and again he 
 had formed plans which owing to the obstruction 
 caused by his own side of the field he found himself 
 compelled, for the hour at least, to modify or even 
 to abandon. But his genius, for all its bold concep- 
 tions and its vivid imagination, was above all things 
 practical, and the moment he found that one par- 
 ticular conception of his could not just then be 
 carried into effect, he was able to put it away for the 
 time, and to devise without delay the best use to be 
 made of the means actually within his reach. He 
 was not given to petulance, or to sulking, or to the 
 VOL. I. u 
 
290 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xiv. 
 
 "Waste of a single hour in futile lament because he 
 could not carry to instant success, or even attempt, 
 the very project which appeared to him the most 
 appropriate and the most commanding. It was one 
 of the special qualities of his genius that he could 
 make instant calculation as to his actual possibilities 
 and, to use a vulgar expression, ' cut his coat accord- 
 ing to his cloth.' 
 
 After the victory of Blenheim his immediate idea 
 was that he should move at once into Italy, but he 
 was not in the position of a general conamand- 
 ing one great national army bound to take its 
 orders from him and to march when and where he 
 could operate most successfully to bring the war 
 nearer to a triumphant close. His force was made 
 up, to a great extent, of small armies belonging 
 to his different allies, and he had to consult his 
 military colleagues, who were themselves necessarily 
 dependent upon the decision and the support of their 
 several governments. The forces of the United 
 Provinces represented a State which was beset by 
 the dread that its frontiers might at any moment 
 be left undefended and therefore at the mercy of 
 the Prench. That the army of Louis the Fourteenth 
 might overrun the Netherlands, and seize and hold 
 commanding positions there, was the idea which 
 above aU others occupied the attention of the Dutch 
 Government and made them reluctant to agree to 
 any scheme which might take Marlborough and his 
 troops too far afield. For this reason he had to 
 accept, very unwillingly indeed, the policy which 
 
1706 RAMILLIES. 291 
 
 prevented Mm from carrying into execution his own 
 favourite plans, and to put up with, the necessity 
 of accomplishing as much as he could on the some- 
 what narrow field the condition of affairs allowed to 
 him. He had at his command an army of about 
 60,000 mainly made up of Enghsh and Dutch troops. 
 The French army opposed to him was about equal 
 to his in numbers, and was under the command of 
 Marshal Villeroy. 
 
 Marshal ViUeroy seems to have got at a thorough 
 understanding of the difficulties and delays which 
 were obstructing the execution of Marlborough's 
 projects, and he had apparently become convinced 
 that a bold and dashing poUcy would be his surest 
 way to success. His hope probably was that, if he 
 were to make a sudden forward move upon the army 
 of the Allies, the forces of the Netherlands would 
 be likely to leave Marlborough to fight out the 
 battle for himself, and by this means he might be 
 enabled to secure a victory. The attempt was made 
 in the Province of Brabant. The village of EamUlies 
 was the central point of the scene where the two 
 opposing armies came into direct antagonism. Marl- 
 borough thoroughly understood the meaning of the 
 French stratagem. He adopted one of his favourite 
 plans, and concealed his real purpose by a move- 
 ment which seemed designed to concentrate his whole 
 attack on the left of the French line. The immediate 
 result of this movement — the very result which Marl- 
 borough hoped to gain — was that a sudden 'concen- 
 
 V 2 
 
292 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN AKNE. oh. xit. 
 
 tration of the French, troops was made on the spot 
 where Marlborough seemed determined to begin his 
 assault. Then the French commander found out that 
 he had aU unconsciously played into the hands of his 
 enemy. He found, too, that the English commander 
 was not left to fight with only his British troops 
 to foUow him. The forces of the Netherlands made 
 a gallant charge on the French line where it was 
 least strong in numbers, and for a while they car- 
 ried aU before them, for the Dutch then, as at all 
 other times, were splendid fighters when it came 
 to be their policy to fight. The second line of de- 
 fence on the French side was made up of some of 
 the best soldiers in France, and the Dutch soon had 
 the worst of it and were actually beginning to fall 
 back. 
 
 Then came Marlborough's golden hour of oppor- 
 tunity. He summoned up all the cavalry under 
 his command and himself led a splendid charge on 
 the confident and exulting French. It was now 
 altogether a cavalry battle. Marlborough was twice 
 in imminent danger at a critical moment of the fight. 
 He was recognised by some of the French dragoons, 
 who aU but succeeded in making him a prisoner, and 
 he had to fight his way through, as some command- 
 ing oflS.cer of the olden days might have done. In 
 the struggle his horse fell under him. ' Withdraw 
 my Lord — I'U help you to a horse,' are the words 
 addressed tp Shakespeare's Eichard the Third, when 
 sudden relief comes to him at a critical moment of 
 
1706 MARLBOROUGH'S VICTORY. 293 
 
 battle. But Marlborough could not withdraw, and 
 one of the officers who helped him to a horse had 
 his own head shot off by a cannon ball just at the 
 moment when he came to his commander's relief. 
 Marlborough was now safe, and he led the charge 
 as if nothing particular had happened. The French 
 force was utterly defeated, the French Hne was prac- 
 tically cut in two, and the village of Eamillies was 
 taken. The French, however, rallied and stiU held 
 a neighbouring village on their left. Marlborough 
 composedly called a halt and got his men again in 
 order. He commanded another advance, but the 
 battle was already practically over. The French 
 saw that the struggle was hopeless, their lines became 
 broken, something like a panic set in amongst many 
 of them, and a general dispersal of their troops was 
 the result. 
 
 The rest of the work was nothing but ■ a long 
 pursuit of the enemy by the cavalry whom Marl- 
 borough had brought to the final charge. The battle 
 itself, with all its incidents, had not occupied more 
 than three hours. Nearly the whole of the French 
 artillery became the capture of the English and the 
 Dutch. The loss of the French in killed, wounded 
 and prisoners amounted to some 15,000, while the 
 loss of the Allies was httle more than 3,000 men. 
 No victory could well have been more complete so 
 far as the forces actually engaged were concerned. 
 
 One of the most popular songs in the Irish 
 national literature of modern times, a song still 
 
294 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xiv. 
 
 familiar to Irish gatherings all over the world, tells 
 with pride that — 
 
 ■Wten on Eamillies' bloody field, 
 The baffled Frencli were forc'd to yield, 
 
 The victor Saxon backward reeled. 
 Before the charge of Clare's dragoons. 
 
 This ballad records the fact that one incident in 
 the fortunes of the battle of Eamillies was the gallant 
 effort made by an Irish regiment, serving on the side 
 of the French, to retrieve the fortunes of the day. 
 The same story might be told of many a battlefield 
 during the reign of William and of Anne, and later 
 still when Irish exiles, under the command of gallant 
 captains, driven from their own country by the 
 hostiUty of EngUsh laws and English systems, devoted 
 their lives to the vain effort to uphold the cause 
 of France against that of conquering England. The 
 story has its lesson, which the greatest English 
 legislators of more recent years have not failed to 
 understand and to act upon. The relations between 
 Great Britain and Ireland wiU become aU the better 
 and all the more productive of brotherhood and of 
 peace the more the lesson is taken to heart, under- 
 stood, and acted upon. 
 
 The comments of Bishop Burnet are always in- 
 teresting and important, if only because they come 
 from one who had personal observation of the 
 immediate effect produced by the events of the time, 
 and who was in frequent intercourse with some of 
 those who mainly helped to make its history. 
 Burnet, indeed, is naturally fond of teUing what this 
 
1706 BtrENET ON THE VICTORY. 295 
 
 or that great personage said to him about the day's 
 doings, and what he has to say about the battle of 
 Eamilhes becomes an important part of its history. 
 ' The duke of Marlborough said to me ' — these are 
 Burnet's words — ' the French army looked the best 
 of any he had ever seen ; but that their officers did 
 not do their part, nor show the courage that had 
 appeared among them on other occasions. And 
 when I asked him the difference between the actions 
 at Hockstedt and at EamiUies ; he said, the first 
 battle lasted between seven and eight hours, and we 
 lost above twelve thousand men in it ; whereas the 
 second lasted not above two hours, and we lost not 
 above two thousand five hundred men. Orders were 
 presently sent to the great cities, to draw the garrisons 
 out of them, that so the French might have again the 
 face of an army ; for their kiUed, their deserters, and 
 their prisoners, on this great day, were above twenty 
 thousand men. The duke of Marlborough lost no 
 time, but followed them close; Louvain, Mechlin, 
 and Brussels submitted, besides many lesser places ; 
 Antwerp made a show of standing out, but soon 
 followed the example of the rest ; Ghent and Bruges 
 did the same ; in all these King Charles was pro- 
 claimed. Upon this unexpected rapidity of success, 
 the duke of Marlborough went to the Hague, to 
 concert measures with the States, where he stayed 
 but a few days ; for they agreed to everything he 
 proposed, and sent him back with fuU powers. The 
 first thing he undertook was the siege of Ostend, a 
 place famous for its long siege in the last age. The 
 
296 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xiv. 
 
 natives of the place were disposed to return to the 
 Austrian family, and the French that were in it had 
 so lost all heart and spirit, that they made not the 
 resistance that was looked for. In ten days after 
 they sat down before it, and within four days after 
 the batteries were finished, they capitulated.' 
 
 The King of France saw as clearly as any one 
 could the immense importance of Marlborough's 
 successes, and he sent one of his greatest soldiers. 
 Marshal Venddme, to encounter the English com- 
 mander. Vend6me was not able to do anything to 
 retrieve, at that moment, the fortunes of the war ; for 
 the splendid victory of Eamillies had left in French 
 armies but little heart for a trial of strength with the 
 English commander. Place after place surrendered 
 to Marlborough. Of the surrender of Dendermonde 
 Marlborough himself says in his despatch : ' That 
 place could never have been taken but by the hand 
 of God, which gave us seven weeks without rain.' 
 Before the surrender King Louis had defiantly said 
 that, owing to its watery surroundings, only an army 
 of ducks could succeed in taking Dendermonde. The 
 sudden and timely cessation of rain enabled Marl- 
 borough's troops, although not web-footed, to accom- 
 plish their object. Then there happened what had 
 often happened before in the campaign and was to 
 happen again. Marlborough would have pushed his 
 conquests stUl further in the same direction but that 
 his Dutch allies were not ready, or were not willing, 
 to keep up the supplies which were necessary for the 
 accomplishment of his purpose. The campaign had 
 
1706 EUGENE IN ITALY. 297 
 
 been a splendid success so far as it had gone, and it 
 filled the minds of Englishmen at home with the full 
 hope that the whole struggle was about to draw to 
 an immediate end. These hopes, however, were not 
 realised. Europe had yet to wait some time, and 
 England had to undergo many disappointments, before 
 the final triumph was to bring about the restoration 
 of peace. 
 
 It was the desire of the Emperor and of the 
 Archduke Charles that Marlborough should be made 
 governor of all the region which he had thus invaded 
 and occupied. Marlborough himself was ready to 
 accept this important post, and the Government of 
 Queen Anne would have been quite willing to sanction 
 the appointment. But there was a strong feeling of 
 jealousy amongst the Dutch allies at the suggestion 
 that such a position should be assigned to an English 
 commander, and Marlborough, with that caution and 
 prudence which never left him even in the midst of 
 his greatest successes, thought that it would be un- 
 wise to give occasion to any feehng of dissatisfaction, 
 reasonable or unreasonable, among those on whom 
 he had to rely for support. Owing to his influence, 
 therefore, the proposition was not pressed any 
 further. 
 
 Prince Eugene was skilful enough and fortunate 
 enough to foUow up Marlborough's success by 
 another victory which might in its way be called 
 decisive. Eugene had gone into northern Italy with 
 men and supplies which, owing to the efforts of 
 Marlborough, had been made fairly adequate for the 
 
298 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xiv. 
 
 work they were desired to accomplish. Eugene's 
 appearance just now on the Italian battlefield was, to 
 say the least of it, timely. The Imperialists had just 
 sustained a severe defeat at the hands of Marshal 
 Vend6me. The French were laying siege to Turin, 
 which was held by the Duke of Savoy. The Duke 
 of Savoy saw clearly enough that, unless some sudden 
 relief took place, the city could not hold out, and as 
 he believed that the presence of himself and his Court 
 might only add to the difficulties of the besieged, he 
 withdrew from his capital, leaving the work of defence 
 in the hands of the best general he could find, but 
 having little faith in the possibility of successful 
 resistance. Eugene, when in the Tyrol, had received 
 fuU news concerning the gravity of the crisis, and 
 he marched at once to the relief of Turin. Events 
 were auspicious for Eugene just then. King Louis, 
 as we have already said, had been profoundly im- 
 pressed by Marlborough's latest achievements, and 
 had called back Vend6me from Italy, believing him 
 to be the only French general capable of encountering 
 Marlborough with any chance of success. Louis sent 
 the Duke of Orleans to command the French troops 
 in Italy in place of Vend6me. The Boyal Duke was 
 only put at the front of the French forces as a 
 princely and splendid figure-head, and Louis sent 
 Marshal Marsin, who had abeady had an opportunity 
 of encountering Eugene at the battle of Blenheim, to 
 do the actual business of generalship. 
 
 Eugene had to make his way across three rivers, 
 of which the Po was the greatest, in order to get to 
 
1706 THE RELIEF OF TUEIN. 299 
 
 the relief of Turin, but Eugene was a soldier of the 
 
 newer order whom difficulties did not deter and 
 
 whose war policy it was to bewilder his enemies by 
 
 the daring rapidity of his onward movements. Eugene 
 
 succeeded before long in effecting a junction with 
 
 the force under the command of the Duke of Savoy. 
 
 He came in good time, and only just in time. The 
 
 city was hard pressed after a siege which had lasted 
 
 for three months at least. The besiegers had already 
 
 forced their way twice within the fortifications^ They 
 
 had, indeed, been repulsed in both attempts, but 
 
 there was a great difference between the condition 
 
 of the besieged, who were wholly cut off from supphes 
 
 of war material and even of food, and that of the 
 
 besiegers, who up to the present had the open country 
 
 behind them. The number of the besieging forces 
 
 was distinctly greater than that of Eugene and his 
 
 ally, and they occupied a strong position. Eugene 
 
 made a splendid attack on the French, and, so far 
 
 as could be judged, the soldiers of King Louis were 
 
 not much the better for the leadership of Marshal 
 
 Marsin. Eugene won a complete victory ; the defeat 
 
 of the French became merely a disastrous rout. The 
 
 memories of Eamillies were stiU too fresh in the 
 
 minds of the French soldiers to allow them much 
 
 confidence in their resistance to EngUsh troops. 
 
 Their great hope had from the beginning rested on 
 
 the fact that Eugene was in command and not 
 
 Marlborough. Eugene soon showed that for the 
 
 winning of a battle he could be a fighting general 
 
 not inferior even to Marlborough himself, and he 
 
300 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN AJSTNE. oh. xiv. 
 
 taught the French on that memorable day the dis- 
 heartening lesson that the Allies did not depend 
 for their victories solely on the leadership of Marl- 
 borough. 
 
 That one battle delivered Turin, Eugene and 
 the Duke of Savoy entered the reheved city at once 
 amid the enthusiastic rejoicings of the inhabitants. 
 The relief of Turin was a fitting sequel to Blenheim 
 and EamiUies. The whole of Savoy was soon free of 
 the French. The whole of Piedmont was evacuated 
 except for some fortresses, Milan among the number, 
 which were one after another lost to the cause of 
 King Louis. The whole of North Italy was now in 
 the hands of the AUies. At the same time the 
 whole of the kingdom of Naples was barred against 
 the French by the AUies, and the English fleets 
 prevented the possibiUty of any movements in that 
 direction across the sea. Naples made a peace of her 
 own with the ImperiaUst forces, and thus secured 
 her separation from the monarchy of Spain. The 
 fame of Eugene has the weU-deserved fortune to be 
 associated for ever with the fame of Marlborough. 
 
 There came, however, a turn in the tide of 
 military affairs. This turning of the tide was most 
 sudden and most remarkable in the Spanish part of 
 the campaign. The successful policy of Peterborough 
 had brought the cause of the Allies to so commanding 
 a position in Spain that, at one moment, it might 
 have seemed as if the whole work of the campaign 
 was done. Just at that moment Peterborough got it 
 into his mind, not without some apparent reason, 
 
1706 PETEEBOEOUGH EEOALLEB. 301 
 
 that it was useless for him to try to carry out his 
 plans, and, in fact, that he could no longer be of any 
 service to the cause which thus far he had served so 
 weU. Queen Anne's Government at home, and many 
 of those who held high military authority under her 
 flag abroad, never seem to have appreciated or even 
 understood the character and the successes of Peter- 
 borough, He was not a man of a phable disposition, 
 and he was , not conciliatory, or even considerate, 
 towards his brother officers in the field. His 
 impetuous temper was put to frequent trial by the 
 receipt of instructions, more or less peremptory, from 
 the authorities at home which seemed to him unsuit- 
 able or impossible of execution. A change in the 
 arrangements of the campaign placed him under the 
 command of Lord Galway, and this was more than 
 Peterborough could bear. He made up his mind to 
 resign his position and quit the field altogether. He 
 left the camp and went to Genoa. The resolve was 
 an unhappy event for the cause of the AUies, and 
 even the greatest admirer of Peterborough would not 
 find it easy to justify such a determination at such a 
 crisis. He was recalled, and sailed for England in 
 September 1706. 
 
 We have abeady said that Peterborough had many 
 of Marlborough's briUiant quahties as a commander, 
 but that splendid patience which was one of Marl- 
 borough's chief characteristics was not one of Peter- 
 borough's gifts. In truth, the work of a commandiag 
 officer in the field on the side of the Allies was one 
 of peculiar and almost perpetual difficulties just then. 
 
302 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xiv. 
 
 There were almost always independent and contra- 
 dictory plans in operation. The Government of the 
 Emperor sometimes issued instructions of their own, 
 as if they were authorised to carry on their part ot 
 the war according to their own ideas and plans 
 altogether, and without any reference to the move- 
 ments and the purposes of the other States engaged 
 in the alliance. Some of Peterborough's ablest and 
 most promising designs were marred every now and 
 then by sudden instructions coming from Vienna 
 which rendered complete co-operation impossible. 
 Such a want of concerted action, such an absence of 
 unique authority, had, as we have already seen, pre- 
 vented many a stroke of Marlborough's finest pohcy, 
 and what was difl&cult for Marlborough became un- 
 endurable for Peterborough. It was Peterborough's 
 hard fate to see some of his successes reduced to 
 no account, and to see city after city which he had 
 captured and occupied restored in his absence to the 
 cause of France. His own Government at home 
 never appear to have quite understood him or placed 
 any confidence in his military capacity. It thus 
 happened that after some of his most remarkable 
 triumphs came what may be practically set down as 
 the close of his bright career. 
 
 Lord Galway, who succeeded Peterborough in 
 this division of the campaign, is well described by 
 Macaulay as ' an experienced veteran, a man who 
 was in war what Moliere's doctors were in medicine, 
 who thought it much more honourable to fail accord- 
 ing to rule than to succeed by innovation, and who 
 
1707 THE DUKE OF BERWICK. 303 
 
 would have been very much, ashamed of himself if 
 he had taken Monjuich by means so strange as those 
 which Peterborough employed.' This commander 
 opened the campaign of 1707 under conditions which 
 were very trying, even apart from the retirement or 
 removal of Peterborough. There had been a sudden 
 and unexpected rally of the CastiUans against the 
 advance of the Allies, whom the national pride of all 
 this region of Spain had now come to regard as 
 invaders and enemies. The occupation of the capital 
 and other cities by the Allies was followed almost 
 immediately by this sudden movement of national 
 reaction, and it would have taken a much better 
 general than Lord Galway to hold his own under 
 such difficulties. 
 
 The Duke of Berwick, the son of James the 
 Second and Arabella Churchill, was in command 
 of the French forces, and we can easily understand 
 how his close kinship with the house of Stuart 
 inspired him with an undying determination to do 
 his very best for the cause of the French King, whose 
 Court had been a sheltering place for the exiled 
 Stuarts, and whose public recognition of their cause 
 and its Uving representative had done so much to 
 bring about the war. In any case Berwick was a 
 man of far greater military capacity than Galway, 
 and the fact soon made itself evident in the field. 
 The two armies met on the battlefield of Almanza, 
 a name destined to be famous in the annals of the 
 war. Almanza is a town in Murcia, on the border of 
 Valencia, standing on a broad plain. The situation 
 
304 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xiv. 
 
 was in itself favourable to the Duke of Berwick, 
 because his cavalry was his strong force, and in this 
 arm of the service he was superior so far as numbers 
 were concerned to his antagonist. Lord Galway 
 began the attack. For a while the struggle went 
 on with doubtful success, but Galway's forces were 
 composed in part of Portuguese and Spanish cavalry, 
 and the Portuguese were unable to resist the im- 
 petuous charge of the French. Some of the Spanish 
 troops made but a poor fight of it, and perhaps 
 had little heart for the business which they were 
 expected to do. The English infantry, who held the 
 centre, were outnumbered and utterly overborne 
 by the French, and most of them had no option 
 but to surrender. The defeat became a complete 
 disaster, Galway lost most of his men, and had 
 to abandon all the artillery he had brought with 
 him. 
 
 Lord Galway, in a letter to Marlborough written 
 soon after the battle, described his defeat in the 
 frankest terms. ' I am under deep concern,' he 
 wrote, ' to be obliged to tell your lordship we were 
 entirely defeated. Both our wings were broke and 
 let in the enemy's horse, which surrounded our foot, 
 so that none could get off.' Galway himself had 
 received a severe wound on the forehead during the 
 battle. His dispatch to Marlborough declares that 
 he ' cannot but look upon the affairs of Spain as lost 
 by this bad disaster,' and adds, ' all the generals here 
 are of opinion that we cannot continue in this 
 kingdom.' Bishop Burnet, whose opinions on such 
 
1707 THE CAUSE OF THE DEFEAT. 305 
 
 subjects are worth quoting, because, such as they 
 were, he is sure to have obtained them from men 
 who bore a leading part in the event, ascribes the 
 defeat mainly to the fatal advice, representations, 
 and directions of the Archduke Charles, who had 
 been proclaimed King of Spain. Charles persisted in 
 dividing the force, ' when the whole together was not 
 equal to the enemy's,' and marched into Catalonia to 
 encounter an army of the French, which he declared 
 to be moving in that direction, and thus left only 
 about 16,000 men under Lord Galway. 
 
 ' A council of war had resolved to venture on a 
 battle, which the state of their affairs seemed to make 
 necessary : they could not subsist where they were, nor 
 be subsisted if they retired back into Valencia ; so on 
 the Idth of AprU, the two armies engaged in the plain 
 of Almanza. The English and Dutch beat the enemy, 
 and broke through twice ; but the Portuguese gave 
 way ; upon that the enemy, who were almost double 
 in number, both horse and foot, flanked them, and a 
 total rout followed in which about 10,000 were killed 
 or taken prisoners. The earl of Galway was twice 
 wounded ; once so near the eye, that for some time 
 it put him out of a capacity for giving orders ; but 
 at last he, with some other officers, made the best 
 retreat they could. Our fleet came happily on that 
 coast on the day that the battle was fought ; so he 
 was supplied from thence, and he put garrisons into 
 Denia and Alicant, and retired to the Ebro, with about 
 3,000 horse, dnd almost as many foot. The duke of 
 Orleans pursued the victory; Valencia submitted, 
 
 VOL. I. X 
 
306 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xiv. 
 
 and so did Saragoza; so that the principality of 
 Catalonia was all that remained in king Charles' 
 obedience.' 
 
 The defeat proved a most serious check to the 
 policy of the AUies. It had a disheartening effect on 
 the counsels of the Queen's administration. Queen 
 Anne herself, it need hardly be said, had never been 
 at heart in favour of the war. The whole pohcy of 
 the alliance was essentially the policy of William the 
 Third, and of the Whigs who supported his views. 
 When Anne succeeded to the throne the war was 
 popular everywhere throughout England, and it 
 would have been impossible for her to resist the 
 public spirit, or to prevent the opening of hostilities. 
 She had nothing for it but to carry out the poHcy 
 of WiUiam, although at heart she was a Tory and 
 hked nothing less than to make war against that 
 foreign sovereign in whose protection and support 
 the Stuarts saw their only hope of success. The 
 ministers were Tories, and even Marlborough and 
 Godolphin inclined to the Tory view of the whole 
 question. But the public feeling in favour of the 
 war was too strong for the Tories, and Marlborough 
 was about the last man in the world likely to fore- 
 go his chances of personal success and greatness 
 for the sake of any romantic fidelity to a political 
 cause. 
 
 The Tory ministers therefore had to maintain a 
 policy which distinctly belonged to the Whigs, and 
 they found themselves in the predicament which 
 English ministers have had to encounter in many 
 
1707 THE EFFECT OF ALMANZA. 307 
 
 instances since that time, of having to carry out their 
 predecessors' policy or give up their places. The 
 spirit of the war soon began to take possession of 
 them, and their natural ambition forced them into the 
 desire to make a better business of the Whig policy 
 than the Whigs could have done for themselves. 
 AU this went well enough so long as victory after 
 victory delighted the English public and made the 
 Government almost universally popular. We have 
 seen in more modern instances how the temper and 
 spirit of war can sweep away an administration from 
 what might have seemed to be its natural moorings, 
 and how the passion for mere success can subdue and 
 silence for the time all considerations of traditional 
 policy and all thought of constitutional consistency. 
 But when a sudden and serious defeat seemed to 
 portend a complete change in the whole course of 
 the campaign ; when the fruits of the most recent 
 victories appeared to be whoUy blighted by one great 
 failure, then indeed a change came over the mood 
 and temper of the administration. The armies of the 
 Allies had apparently gone so near to success that at 
 one moment it seemed as if nothing remained but to 
 make it an accomplished fact, and to dictate terms 
 of surrender to the defeated enemy. If Marlborough 
 had been at the head of the allied forces in Spain, or 
 if there could have been found another Marlborough 
 to take the command in Spain, the disaster of 
 Almanza could without doubt have been easily 
 retrieved. But there was no other Marlborough, and 
 at various points of the campaign there were already 
 
 X 2 
 
308 THE EBIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xiv. 
 
 indications that the first rush of victory had spent 
 its force. 
 
 'The battle of Almanza,' says Macaulay, 'de- 
 cided the fate of Spain. The loss was such as Marl- 
 borough or Eugene could scarcely have retrieved, 
 and was certainly not to be retrieved by Stanhope 
 and Staremberg.' But the war was stiU to drag on 
 for a long time, and other alternations of good or 
 evil fortune had to bring their moods of hope or 
 despondency before the day could arrive when peace 
 was to be accomplished at almost any price. 
 
309 
 
 CHAPTEE XV 
 
 THE FIEST PARLIAMENT OF THE UNION 
 
 The new Parliament of the United Kingdom was held 
 at Westminster on the 25th of October, 1707. The 
 Queen opened Parliament in the House of Lords, and 
 the members of the new House of Commons were 
 summoned to attend her. There was but little of 
 public demonstration. The event passed off quietly, 
 to all appearance a mere State ceremonial and 
 nothing more. The thoughts of the people were oc- 
 cupied for the most part with the events which were 
 passing on the battlefields of the Low Countries, 
 Germany, and Spain. But it soon began to appear 
 as if the work of establishing a thorough union 
 between two countries and two parliamentary sys- 
 tems was not a work quite easy of accomplish- 
 ment. The essential laws and practices of Scotland 
 had been secured to the Scottish people by the 
 express terms of the Act of Union. The religious 
 institutions of Scotland had been guaranteed by 
 declaration in the compact made between the two 
 countries. The laws and institutions of the two 
 ancient kingdoms thus made into one, differed most 
 widely in many of their actual principles as well 
 
310 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xv 
 
 as in all their forms and practices, and it was found 
 no easy task to carry out any new work of legis- 
 lation with due regard to the existing conditions 
 which had been recognised and guaranteed by the 
 Act of Union. The very phrases and terms belong- 
 ing to each system were constantly coming into 
 sudden antagonism, and there was something oc- 
 casionally ludicrous as well as serious in the attempts 
 which had to be made to bring them into a state of 
 seeming reconciUation. The difficulties were most 
 immediate, most practical, and most obvious where 
 questions of trade and commerce came into consider- 
 ation. Scotland had been in all matters of trading 
 and navigation a foreign State and often a competing 
 and rival State where England was concerned, and 
 the poUtical and constitutional necessities which had 
 naturally overborne all other considerations of the 
 moment in bringing about the Union, could not be 
 expected to overbear, all at once, the mass of con- 
 flicting interests which still existed and had to be 
 cautiously dealt with. 
 
 Then again there could be no doubt that a large 
 proportion of the Scottish gentry and the Scottish 
 people were yet far from being reconciled to the 
 new constitution, the new succession, and the new 
 foreign policy established in England. In the North 
 of Scotland especially large numbers of people of aU 
 classes, high and low, stiU held in their hearts a 
 strong sentiment of allegiance to the cause of the 
 dethroned and exiled Stuarts. Prance was relied 
 upon by such persons as the natural ally of the 
 
1707 THE FEELING IN SCOTLAND. 311 
 
 Stuart cause, and for many years to come Scotland 
 had to be regarded as the campaigning ground of 
 any new attempt to be made for the restoration 
 of the Stuart dynasty. The literature of Scotland, 
 prose as weU as poetry, bore testimony through 
 several successive generations to the feelings of 
 sympathy which existed here and there in the minds 
 of the Scottish people for the dethroned dynasty. 
 Nothing could bear more convincing testimony to the 
 necessity and the practical advantages of the Act of 
 Union than the fact that all these difficulties were 
 got over in the end, and that the Union gradually 
 became a reality in feeling as well as in terms. Any 
 attempt to establish the supremacy of England and 
 of the English Crown over the people of Scotland 
 by a mere decree would have proved an utter failure, 
 and would have converted the northern part of 
 the kingdom into a rebellious State perpetually 
 endeavouring to overthrow the predominance of the 
 southern kingdom. Thus the very difficulties which 
 at first seemed to make the work of thorough union 
 almost impossible were in fact the best securities 
 for its continuance and its success. In days much 
 nearer to our own Thomas Carlyle declared that 
 the thoroughness of the union between England and 
 Scotland had been mainly secured by the fact that 
 the Scotch had been the victors at the battle of 
 Bannockburn. Carlyle's meaning was, of course, 
 that in this event, which closed an important chapter 
 in the history of the two countries, the Scottish 
 people had given enduring evidence that they could 
 
312 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xv. 
 
 not be regarded as a conquered race subjected to 
 the imperious will and ways of the conqueror. 
 
 The British statesmen who helped to make the 
 Act of Union must have had this great fact always 
 in their minds, and must have known that Scotland 
 would have to be treated as an independent State 
 willing to agree to the terms of a suitable alliance, 
 and not as an inferior power which must, for the 
 sake of its own existence, consent to accept any 
 terms which the State of superior strength and 
 importance might, out of its favour and its good 
 will, be ready to offer for acceptance. In our own 
 times we have seen how the words ' predominant 
 partner ' became a phrase of rather ominous signifi- 
 cance when spoken by a highly placed British 
 statesman. The Scottish people at the time when 
 the Act of Union came to be passed would have been 
 little inclined to put up with the suggestion that 
 England was the predominant partner whose right it 
 was to dictate, according to its own judgment, the 
 conditions of the partnership. On such a principle, 
 we may safely affirm, no union could ever have been 
 made between the two kingdoms. The statesman- 
 ship of Queen Anne's days was wise enough to see 
 that if Scotland were to be a partner at all, she must be 
 treated as an equal partner, whose inclinations and 
 interests had to be consulted and cared for at every 
 stage of the new arrangement. Therefore, the 
 Scottish people were allowed from the beginning to 
 see that their own national institutions were not to 
 be interfered with in any way by the constitutional 
 
1707 NO PEEDOMINANT PARTNEK. 313 
 
 agreement which was intended to convert the two 
 countries into one United Kingdom. 
 
 The time cannot be far distant when it will be 
 clearly and universally understood that there is no 
 way of blending different nationalities into one 
 Imperial system but that which recognises the 
 complete independence, ,so far as local laws and 
 usages are concerned, of each of the populations 
 which are to make up the new empire. We use 
 the word ' empire ' in this case not as describing 
 merely some system which has a monarch at its 
 head, but as a term applying to any combination of 
 States into one system, whether monarchical or 
 republican. The common sense of the matter is very 
 clear. Each country or each State naturally under- 
 stands best what is suited to its history, its traditions, 
 its reUgious sentiments, its inherited usages, and its 
 ordinary ways of life. The work of the central 
 representative authority is to provide for the wel- 
 fare of the interests which are isommon to aU, for 
 the defence of the united countries against possible 
 dangers from enmity abroad, and for the main- 
 tenance of the elementary conditions which best 
 provide for the development and improvement of the 
 commonwealth. 
 
 The world has seen in the history of the House 
 of Hanover how the principle of the predominant 
 partner led to utter failure when applied to the 
 American Colonies of those days, and how at a later 
 period still the other and better principle created 
 the loyal, contented, and prospering Dominion of 
 
314 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. cb. xv, 
 
 Canada. Scotland has now, as she had before the 
 Act of Union, a whole code of civil and criminal law 
 widely, and in all its details, diflfering from that 
 which prevails in England. The mere fact that the 
 continuance of that system, so long as she saw fit to 
 continue it, was guaranteed by the conditions of the 
 Act of Union, has been the main cause of the success 
 and prosperity which attended that signal stroke of 
 statesmanship. The statesmen who brought about 
 the Act of Union may claim the praise of having 
 been in advance of their time, when they thus recog- 
 nised existing realities, and renounced all idea of 
 striving after a compact based upon an untenable 
 and impossible uniformity of system among peoples 
 of diflfering race, traditions, usages, and temperament. 
 Probably, at the time, the statesmen of Queen Anne's 
 reign did not enter into any such philosophical 
 considerations, but they saw that the union with 
 Scotland was essential to the safety of the two 
 countries, and that it could not possibly be brought 
 about except with the full and free consent of the 
 Scottish people. Even for this, however, they must 
 have their due meed of praise, for there were great 
 European statesmen living at that time who had 
 formed no higher conception of political principle 
 than the domination of the stronger and the submis- 
 sion of the weaker partner in the proposed alliance. 
 
 It was not at first a very easy matter to blend 
 into one working parliamentary system the procedure 
 and the purposes of the two representative bodies. 
 The Estates of Scotland had had a kind of work to 
 
1707 PAKLIAMENT AND THE CEOWN. 315 
 
 do which did not call for the same arrangements as 
 those found necessary for the maintenance and the 
 objects of the EngUsh Parliament. The principal 
 purpose of the Scottish Estates was to secure the 
 northern part of the island against the domination of 
 the English Crown and the English Houses of Legis- 
 lature. The work that had to be done was, for the 
 most part, strictly local work on the general objects 
 of which the Scottish Estates were abeady well 
 agreed, and the Estates were therefore in the 
 condition of an assembly which had to arrange for 
 the discharge of business about which no inherent 
 antagonisms existed. Their work was like that of 
 a representative association which had merely to 
 devise the best and most convenient methods of 
 putting into operative form the general wishes of 
 the community. They were not impeded by the 
 constant necessity of protecting their resolutions 
 against the interference of some authority which 
 was always ready to take advantage of any mistakes 
 or omissions arising in their legislative arrangements. 
 The English Parliament had to guard itself care- 
 fully, at every step, against the ever-encroaching 
 privileges of the Crown. The resolutions of the 
 English Parliament had to be drawn up with all the 
 critical precision which belonged to an Act of Parlia- 
 ment under a system which would have made the 
 slightest error in expression have the destroying 
 effect of a flaw in the Act, and thus render its whole 
 purpose inoperative and futile. The proceedings of 
 the English Parliament have, to this day, to be 
 
316 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xv. 
 
 protected by a number of forms which, must be taken 
 into account, must be strictly observed, must be 
 literally obeyed, if the whole work of legislation is 
 not to become worse than useless. The business, 
 therefore, of the Scottish members in the Union 
 Parliament was, above all things, to see that the 
 local interests of Scotland should not be injuriously 
 affected by the conditions new to them, under which 
 the Parliament of England had to carry on its 
 labours. 
 
 This fact alone rendered necessary a good deal 
 of give-and-take on both sides. Both began with 
 the general and cordial recognition of the fact that the 
 union of the two Parliaments was absolutely necessary 
 for the maintenance and welfare of both countries 
 alike. Therefore the English members were for the 
 most part quite willing that the purely local interests 
 of Scotland, so long as they did not absolutely 
 interfere with English interests, should be left to the 
 dealing and the management of the Scottish represen- 
 tatives. The Scottish members were, on the other 
 hand, willing to submit to the casual inconveniences 
 put in their way by the English forms of parlia- 
 mentary procedure so long as they were allowed the 
 practical management of their own affairs. It is 
 plain that if there had not been some comimon 
 understanding of this kind the work of satisfactory 
 legislation would have become impossible, for the 
 mere majority could always have overborne the wiU 
 of the minority, and thus have given the predominant 
 partner a complete mastery over the wishes and the 
 
1707 SCOTTISH BUSINESS IN PARLIAMENT. 317 
 
 interests of the partner wlio could not claim or assert 
 predominance. Down to our own days this principle 
 of reasonable compromise has been practically- 
 recognised and acknowledged in the English House 
 of Commons. The understanding was and is that 
 the affairs of Scotland should be left as much as 
 possible to the management of the Scottish represen- 
 tatives. Every English member had and has a 
 perfect right, so far as parliamentary procedure is 
 concerned, to interfere with and oppose any motion 
 which has to do with purely Scottish business, even 
 though it had the support of the whole body of 
 members who represent Scottish constituencies. But, 
 of course, if such a right were constantly or even 
 frequently acted on it is quite clear that the position 
 of the Scottish members would become unendurable. 
 The men who best understand, who alone could 
 thoroughly understand, the real interests of their 
 country would be liable at any moment to be over- 
 borne by some sudden opposition coming from a 
 larger number of English members, and the presence 
 of the Scottish representatives in the assembly would 
 be absolutely futile for the very purposes which they 
 were sent into Parliament to accomplish. 
 
 It is not usual, therefore, for English members to 
 interfere with the progress of any measure dealing 
 purely with Scottish local interests except in the 
 rare and extreme case where such measures might 
 come into antagonism with some great legislative 
 principle affecting the general interest of the whole 
 country, some principle which English members 
 
318 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xt. 
 
 were bound by their national duty to maintain. In 
 recent days it has been the usual practice of the 
 Scottish members to hold private councils of their 
 own when preparing some measure applying strictly 
 to the interests of their own country, and to come to 
 a general agreement as to its object and its form. In 
 these cases the common understanding is that the 
 English members should interfere as little as possible 
 with the legislative progress of the measure. Nothing 
 could be more harmonious and more satisfactory than 
 the manner in which this common and reasonable 
 understanding has been found to work for the bene- 
 fit of both countries and of the whole parliamentary 
 system. The fundamental difference between the prin- 
 ciples and practices of English and Scottish law which 
 for a long time were found very perplexing in the 
 business of legislation, render some such understand- 
 ing all the more needful. 
 
 The law of Scotland, like that of many or most 
 European countries, is founded mainly on the basis of 
 the old Eoman law, while that of England is a some- 
 what rough and wild-grown accretion of time and 
 chance, change of varying dynasties and systems, 
 of foreign innovations, and sudden temporary de- 
 vices. The deHghtful fictions of EngHsh legal pro- 
 cedure were wholly unknown to the Eoman law and 
 to the Scottish law which was derived from it. The 
 Scottish law set itself to carry out the objects it 
 sought to attain in the clearest and most direct 
 manner. It did not occur to Scottish legislation, for 
 instance, to fancy that there could be any advantage 
 
1707 'JOHN DOE AND RICHAED ROE.' 319 
 
 in the creation of imaginary characters like the once 
 familiar John Doe and Eichard Eoe, in order that a 
 simple law suit involving the interests of real and 
 living personages should be properly conducted to its 
 conclusion. English youths and maidens of the 
 present day have probably forgotten aU about 
 those fantastic creatures John Doe and Eichard Eoe, 
 whose names were at one time familiar to every one 
 who attended English courts of law or read the 
 published reports of EngHsh cases. Even the more 
 mature readers who belong to the present generation 
 will probably not remember that at one time such 
 picturesque creations of the legal fancy as Paul Pry 
 and Peter Thrustout were named in English legal 
 proceedings as personages seeking the protection of 
 Enghsh law in order to assert their claims against 
 real and Uving citizens or corporations. On the other 
 hand, many of the phrases and terms habitually used 
 in the law courts of Scotland were absolutely unin- 
 telligible to an Enghsh hstener, although in these 
 instances it was merely a question of different names 
 appUed to identical proceedings. 
 
 If any serious effort had been made to bring 
 about an actual assimilation between the legal 
 systems of the two countries, the difficulties would 
 have proved insurmountable and the union could 
 never have been accompUshed. The Scottish people 
 were absolutely devoted to the principles of their 
 own law, while the English people would probably 
 have thought that the end of the world was coming 
 if they had been expected to submit io any radical 
 
320 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xt. 
 
 alterations in their familiar and time-honoured ways 
 of conducting their legal business. Happily, it was 
 thoroughly understood on both sides that each 
 country was to have its own principles and its own 
 forms of legal procedure, and the law systems of the 
 two countries remain to this day absolutely indepen- 
 dent and even in many fundamental attributes quite 
 diflferent. The arrangements for the completion of 
 the union were satisfactorily carried on, each of 
 the countries fuUy understanding that there were 
 certain points on which a compromise was out of the 
 question. 
 
 There were, however, some serious obstacles to 
 be got over where the trading interests and usages 
 of the two kingdoms were concerned. England and 
 Scotland had long been rivals in trading activity, 
 and it proved, for some time, very hard to arrive 
 at a common understanding which should give to 
 the one country no unfair advantage over the other. 
 Scotland, so far as wealth and population came into 
 account, was the weaker partner of the two, and 
 therefore the Scottish people were naturally jealous 
 of any part of the new system which might seem 
 to give undue advantages to the stronger partner. 
 Scotland had always up to this time carried on 
 arrangements of her own for the promotion and 
 maintenance of her trade with foreign countries, and 
 many objections were raised to some of the arrange- 
 ments under the new system, which confined her 
 dealings within the same limits as those set up by 
 England for the regulation of her commerce with 
 
1707 TRADING INTEEESTS. 321 
 
 foreign States. John Hill Burton, in his History, 
 gives many interesting and some decidedly amusing 
 illustrations of the antagonism which arose out of 
 the effort to mould these rival claims into one com- 
 pact and uniform system. He tells us how 
 
 'After the Union had been carried and was 
 absolute law, there was still mischief in store for that 
 1st of May, 1707, when merchandise was to pass free 
 between the two countries — the great point that had 
 throughout been demanded by Scotland and resisted 
 by the trading interests of England.' Scotland had 
 had a system of very low customs duties, and under 
 the union she had to adopt the high customs duties 
 which prevailed in England, and had even received 
 under the Act of Union a large compensation in 
 money for the new burdens now to be imposed upon 
 her trade. The 1st of May, 1707, was the period 
 prescribed for the acceptance by Scotland of the 
 higher scale of duties, and therefore the interval was 
 turned to account by Scottish traders for the purpose 
 of making as much profit as possible meantime. 
 Burton, himself a Scotchman, frankly acknowledges 
 that the trading community of England had 'to 
 protest against extremely dishonest uses made of the 
 vast privileges so acquired by Scotland.' But he 
 points out that there was no remedy, because ' the 
 revolution in the trading organisation of the empire 
 gave opportunity for private persons to speculate on 
 the event as a source of profit, and they could not be 
 prohibited from drawing the profits realised by their 
 skiU.' The mercantile problem, as he points out, was 
 
 VOL. I. T 
 
322 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xv. 
 
 to import as much foreign merchandise as possible 
 into Scotland during the interval. The object was to 
 turn that interval to the greatest amount of profit 
 which could be extorted from it, and Burton de- 
 clares that, in all probability, ' a far greater amount 
 of English than of Scots money was thus embarked, 
 as the market was open to all speculators of both 
 countries, and England had at least twenty times the 
 capital of Scotland.' A large amount of the duties 
 of Scotland was actually farmed. ' The farming was 
 to come to an end on the 1st of May, and the natural 
 question with the farmers was how to gather in the 
 largest amount of customs duties before that time ? ' 
 ' So it came to pass that on the 1st of May a large 
 stock of goods had accumulated for the Enghsh 
 market, imported partly at the low Scots duties and 
 partly at less even than these.' 
 
 The accumulation of merchandise was easily made, 
 but the difficulty began when the fatal 1st of May 
 came round. Then arose the question how the 
 goods were to be got into England without having to 
 submit to the charge of the newly constituted rate of 
 duties. Of course, if the merchandise, thus put 
 together for a special speculative purpose, were to 
 pay the new and heavy rates of charge, then the 
 object of the whole game of speculation would be 
 completely frustrated. It was thought by those who 
 had started the game that it would be better, on 
 the whole, to fight out the question in one con- 
 centrated and decisive battle, than to undertake a 
 large number of individual struggles by sending in 
 
1707 A GAME OF SPECULATION. 323 
 
 the different consignments of merchandise in separate 
 lots and at various points of the customs frontier. 
 The impression was that the customs officers would 
 find it much more easy to enforce the high rates on 
 small accumulations of goods at various places, than 
 to conduct what might almost be called a great inter- 
 national struggle under new conditions on one battle- 
 field. Some time was lost by the speculative owners 
 of the goods in making up their minds how and 
 where to accept battle, and Defoe teUs us in his 
 ' History of the Union ' that the middle of June had 
 arrived before ' the fleet sailed for London, consist- 
 ing of about forty sail, mostly loaded with wine 
 and brandy.' The English custom-house officers, as 
 Burton teUs us, ' could see nothing in this but an 
 attempt on a large scale to smuggle foreign goods 
 through Scotland into England.' The EngHsh custom- 
 house officers, one may readily admit, could hardly 
 be expected to take any other view of the venture. 
 They acted on this very reasonable principle, and 
 simply laid an embargo on the whole fleet and aU 
 the goods it contained. Even here, the importers 
 were able to secure a sort of advantage. ' The 
 officers,' says Burton, ' would not permit the ships to 
 be unladen on bond or other security for the duties, 
 if any, that might be found exigible.' That was, in 
 fact, an accommodation usually allowed to importers 
 of goods on any occasions when the exact amount of 
 duty was open to question, in order that the amount 
 might be satisfactorily settled by the proper authori- 
 ties after a quiet discussion of the conflicting claims. 
 
 T 2 
 
324 THE EEIGN OP QTJEEN ANNE. ch. rv. 
 
 In ordinary cases the dispute was merely one 
 which might arise naturally between the customs 
 officials and the owners of merchandise acting in 
 perfect good faith and only anxious to secure them- 
 selves against accidental or mistaken overcharge. 
 But the vast mass of merchandise now claiming 
 entrance into England was regarded by the custom- 
 house officers as merely contraband. The goods, as 
 we have seen, consisted chiefly of wines and brandies, 
 and it was perfectly clear that wine and brandy are 
 not articles of Scotland's home manufacture. The 
 goods thus sought to be imported evidently came 
 from France, and Trance was then the national 
 enemy of England, actually engaged in war against 
 English armies on foreign fields of battle. This fact 
 naturally made the attempt of the importers seem 
 more audacious than ever to the customs officials, 
 and these officials, if left to themselves, would 
 probably have made short work of the whole dispute 
 by exacting the full amount of the duties on the 
 new goods, or absolutely prohibiting their importa- 
 tion, if they did not insist on dealing with them as 
 the property of a lawless band of smugglers. But 
 the higher authorities, the Government in London, 
 soon saw that the dispute was something too serious 
 to be settled in a moment according to the legal 
 principles of the custom-house. The Government, as 
 Burton justly observes, 'had the responsibility of 
 keeping the peace between Scotland and England, 
 and saving the treaty that had cost so much patience 
 and anxiety, from being scattered to the winds.' 
 
1707 CUSTOMS DUTIES. 325 
 
 The legal rights of the question were perfectly 
 clear. The new rate of customs duties to be imposed 
 on goods entering England from Scotland had been 
 settled by the Act of Union. But the carrying of 
 the Act had met with many difficulties, especially 
 coming from the rivalry of trade between these two 
 parts of the kingdom, and nothing could have been 
 more inauspicious than to arouse a general feeUng in 
 Scotland that the first effect of the union was to 
 exhibit the stronger partner fiUing his pockets at the 
 expense of the weaker. Such an exhibition would 
 have been particularly undesirable when the nature 
 of the goods sought to be imported gave fresh 
 evidence of the sort of trade sympathy between 
 Scotland and France. The Crown lawyers were 
 consulted on the subject, and set themselves to work 
 to devise some happy means by which anything like 
 an open antagonism between the two parts of the 
 kingdom could be avoided. The immediate result 
 was, in the words of Burton, that ' in some of the deep 
 recesses of the law of England a method was found 
 for warehousing and preserving the goods, reserving 
 the rights of aU parties concerned for deliberate 
 adjustment.' Then came a sort of conflict of opinion 
 between the officials of the custom-house and the 
 ministers of the Crown. The custom-house officers 
 argued that if the audacious attempt of the im- 
 porters were allowed to meet with any semblance of 
 success, a precedent would be established which 
 might lead to a complete practical exemption of 
 Scottish trading companies from the rates of excise 
 
326 THE EEiaN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xv. 
 
 imposed by law upon their Englisli rivals. But tlie 
 advisers of the Queen took a different view of the 
 crisis. They were of opinion that, if anything like 
 a reasonable, or to them endurable, settlement of 
 this existing dispute could be brought about, the 
 discouragement and difficulty put in the way of the 
 Scottish importers would prevent them from venturing 
 on such reckless experiments in the future. Defoe 
 tells us how the troublesome question was finally 
 brought to an arrangement. 
 
 ' That the merchants might be made easy, it was 
 proposed to them that they should land their goods 
 upon condition that they gave security to stand to 
 the judgment of the British Parhament. This was 
 thought but reasonable, and some complied with it 
 and had their ships unloaden ; others refused such 
 securities, and their goods lay longer and suffered 
 more. At length a medium was found out which 
 was to let all the merchants have possession of the.ir 
 goods, serving the possessors of the goods with a 
 writ of devenirunt out of the Exchequer. This is a 
 kind of writ which puts the matter in a form of 
 prosecution only, that in case of farther occasion the 
 Queen might recover her dues ; and so the merchants 
 had their goods, and the decision of it was left 
 to time and to the British Parliament. Thus it con- 
 tinued in a course of law, but not under prosecu- 
 tion, tiU. the meeting of the British Parliament, when, 
 by a vote of the House of Commons, the whole affair 
 was discharged, and all prosecutions ordered to be 
 stopped.' 
 
1707 THE tALLlES. 327 
 
 Thus the Government got out of the trouble, not 
 perhaps in the most dignified manner, but by the 
 adoption of the most prudent policy which could 
 have been devised under the trying conditions. 
 There was no further temptation to import vast 
 quantities of goods from Prance with the hope of 
 passing them through English custom-houses at the 
 low duties which existed before the union, and the 
 Government acted wisely, on the whole, in not regard- 
 ing the one great enterprise of trading speculation as 
 worth a serious disturbance of the friendly relations 
 between England and Scotland. With this settlement 
 ended the whole dispute, so far as customs duties 
 were concerned, between the two kingdoms now 
 united and made one. 
 
 In order to regulate and assimilate the methods 
 for collecting customs and excise duties in England 
 and Scotland a Commission of Excise and of Customs 
 was immediately established. The commission was 
 made up of men representing the two nationalities. 
 Burton gives us an amusing account of one effect 
 produced by the combination of English members 
 with Scottish in the commission. ' The new process 
 made the Scots acquainted with a curious testimony 
 to EngUsh persistency in ancient customs. It had 
 been found of old, when writing was a rare accom- 
 plishment, that when a sum of money represented a 
 claim on the Exchequer, the way of recording it so 
 that neither party had a possible chance of gaining 
 anything by maintaining the record to be inaccurate, 
 was to take a baton or bar of wood, smoothen one 
 
328 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xv. 
 
 side of it, cut into the wood the sum in question — 
 generally in Eoman figures — and then split the wood 
 through the figures, each party keeping one slip or 
 tally. When the two were brought in union and 
 fitted by the split there could be no question as to 
 the exact figures engraved on them. An importation 
 of vast bales of the materials for this kind of record 
 caused much amusement among the Scots, and was 
 perhaps a diversion from more dangerous excite- 
 ments.' 
 
 We may follow the story of the Exchequer 
 tallies. The system was not abolished until an 
 advanced period in the reign of George the Third, 
 and in the reign of William the Fourth it was 
 decreed that the accumulated tallies should be de- 
 stroyed. The tallies, however, had their revenge, for 
 they succeeded in destroying the Houses of Parlia- 
 ment. The antiquated calculating machines were 
 burnt in a stove in the House of Lords, but the stove, 
 becoming over-heated, set fire to the room in which 
 it stood, the fire spread with amazing rapidity, and 
 on the evening of October 16, 1834, the two Houses 
 of ParUament were completely destroyed. It was 
 well for England and for the world that Westminster 
 Hall and Westminster Abbey were saved from the 
 flames. 
 
 The only change made in the Scottish laws of 
 procedure was where the change merely affected 
 some action or practice to which a law common to 
 both countries might apply, without controverting 
 any of the legal principles or practices peculiar to 
 
1707 AKRE8T FOR DEBT. 329 
 
 Scotland, and hallowed by the traditions of the 
 Scottish people. One Civil Council was established 
 for the whole kingdom. The powers of Justices of 
 the Peace were made the same for England and Scot- 
 land. The law relating to high treason was made the 
 same for both countries. But in all cases, and these 
 were many and were often of great national impor- 
 tance, where the feelings of the Scottish people in 
 general made them strongly inclined to hold to their 
 own principles and practices of jurisprudence, the 
 national sentiment was justly and wisely allowed to 
 have its own way, and no attempt was made to coerce 
 Scotland into uniformity with the principles and 
 practices of English law. 
 
 There is an amusing passage in Walter Scott's 
 'Antiquary,' published more than a century after 
 the passing of the Act of Union, which humorously 
 illustrates a pecuharity of the Scottish law. 'The 
 Antiquary ' is conversing with his nephew Captain 
 Hector Mclntyre on some subject coimected with 
 the powers of a creditor over his debtor, and the 
 Antiquary teUs the young man — ' You must know 
 then once more, that nobody can be arrested in 
 Scotland for debt.' The young soldier, who has 
 evidently not been studying legal questions very 
 carefuUy, and whose personal observation has prob- 
 ably suggested to him instances of men apparently 
 subjected to some such uncomfortable process, 
 expresses his wonder at the Antiquary's laying down 
 of the law. Then the Antiquary explains himself 
 more fully. ' You suppose, now, a man's committed 
 
330 THE EEIGN OF QtJEEN ANNE. ea. xv. 
 
 to prison because he cannot pay Hs debt ? Quite 
 otherwise ; the truth is, the king is so good as to 
 interfere at the request of the creditor, and to send 
 the debtor his royal command to do him justice 
 within a certain time — fifteen days or six, as the case 
 may be. Well, the man resists and disobeys — what 
 foUows ? Why, that he be lawfully and rightfully 
 declared a rebel to our gracious sovereign, whose 
 command he has disobeyed, and that by three blasts 
 of a horn at the market-place of Edinburgh, the 
 metropolis of Scotland. And he is then legally 
 imprisoned, not on account of any civil debt, but 
 because of his ungrateful contempt of the Eoyal 
 mandate. What say you to that. Hector ? — there's 
 something you never knew before.' 'No, uncle,' 
 replies the nephew, ' but, I own, if I wanted money 
 to pay my debts, I would rather thank the king to 
 send me some, than to declare me a rebel for not 
 doing what I could not do.' ' Your education has 
 not led you to consider these things,' replied his 
 uncle ; ' you are incapable of estimating the elegance 
 of the legal fiction, and the manner in which it 
 reconciles that duress, which, for the protection of 
 commerce, it has been found necessary to extend 
 towards refractory debtors, with the most scrupulous 
 attention to the liberty of the subject.' ' The nephew, 
 however, is stiU unsatisfied, and can only suggest that 
 ' If a man must pay his debt or go to jaU, it signifies 
 but little whether he goes as a debtor or a rebel.' 
 
 The quotation from Scott's ' Antiquary ' may 
 serve appropriately to introduce a paragraph with 
 
1707 ABOLITION OF TOETURB. 331 
 
 which Biorton concludes his chapter on the Act 
 of Union. ' The Act contained a short clause that, 
 in association with the events that supplied Scott 
 with his great epic of " Old Mortahty," might be 
 calculated to raise a sensation of shame even in the 
 most patriotic of Scotsmen. It simply made it law 
 that " no person accused of any capital offence or 
 other crime in Scotland, shall suffer or be subject or 
 liable to any torture." ' 
 
 The Act of Union was now getting into good 
 working order. It has continued to work satis- 
 factorily and successfully down to the present time. 
 It has been a success mainly because it took account 
 of the inherent differences in tradition, usage and 
 national sentiment between the two countries. It 
 gave solemn recognition and legislative protection to 
 the religious principles and the national habits of the 
 partner who was not predominant and thus estab- 
 lished its claim to his cordial co-operation for the 
 common benefit with the predominant partner. If 
 any change should come to be made hereafter, we 
 may take it that it wiU be only a change accom- 
 plished for the convenience and the furtherance of 
 local legislation in both countries, and wiU indicate 
 no severance of national interests or feelings, but 
 only a general honest thought for the common good 
 of the Empire. 
 
332 THE EEION OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xvi. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVI 
 
 SACHBVEKBLL 
 
 The Comet of a Season is a familiar figure in history 
 and in romance. The phrase has become famous 
 since Byron applied it to Churchill, but the phrase 
 was not particularly apt when set out as the 
 summary description of a man of genius whose works 
 are likely still to outlast many seasons and many 
 generations. The common understanding of the 
 words is that they typify the career of some human 
 meteor flashing upon mortal vision for a short time 
 and then disappearing altogether from sight. The 
 Comet of a Season often brings with it commotion 
 and disturbance in human affairs, but it generally 
 passes away as suddenly as it came, leaving the 
 world uncertain how far it helped to create and how 
 far it served merely to forbode the temporary storm. 
 A straw can show which way the wind blows, but 
 there are human straws every now and then which 
 seem to have some strange power to call up the gale 
 of which their movement indicates the direction. 
 Such a comet was the once famous Dr. Sacheverell ; 
 such a human straw he may at least be called if the 
 phrase which Byron applied to Churchill seems too 
 
1674 'THE COMET OF A SEASON.' 333 
 
 glowing and too poetical to be taken as typical of his 
 career. 
 
 Henry Sacheverell was born in 1674, and was the 
 son of a High Church rector. He got his first share 
 of education at Marlborough grammar school, and 
 by the help of some of his father's friends he was sent 
 from thence to Magdalen College, Oxford. There he 
 had the great good fortune to make the acquaintance, 
 and indeed to obtain the friendship, of Joseph 
 Addison, and he must have been a youth of much 
 promise and of winning manners, for when SachevereU 
 was twenty years of age Addison dedicated one of 
 his books to. him, and called him in the dedication 
 ' My dearest Henry.' He entered the Church and 
 obtained a vicarage in Staffordshire. He soon began 
 to distinguish himself by delivering sermons and 
 printing them afterwards for the instruction of the 
 public, or at least of such of the pubhc as had got 
 into the way of reading published sermons. These 
 discourses were couched in well-chosen and graceful 
 English, were apt in their use of quotations, and 
 showed a certain faculty of studied if not spontaneous 
 eloquence. SachevereU, however, seems to have soon 
 made up his mind that he had some other business 
 in life besides the mere delivery of sermons on the 
 ordinary subjects of a High Church clergyman's 
 discourse. He determined apparently to identify 
 himself with the declaration of political as well as 
 religious doctrines which, for some time before, had 
 been allowed by virtue of a sort of recognised truce 
 to remain without emphatic expression. 
 
334 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xti. 
 
 Bishop Burnet says of him that ' Dr. Sacheverell 
 was a bold insolent man, with a very small measure 
 of religion, virtue, learning, or good sense, but he 
 resolved to force himself into popularity and prefer- 
 ment, by the most petulant railings at Dissenters 
 and Low Churchmen in several sermons and libels 
 written without either chasteness of style or liveUness 
 of expression ; aU was one unpractised strain of in- 
 decent and scurrilous language.' 
 
 If Burnet is just in this description of 
 SachevereU's style, his style must certainly have 
 greatly changed from that of the sermons by means 
 of which he first sought to bring himself into public 
 notice ; but it is easy to understand that such a 
 man, if determined to make his way, and finding the 
 language of moderation did not help him to ac- 
 comphsh his purpose quickly, would be very apt 
 to suit his general bearing and language to the 
 work of popularity-hunting which he had chosen 
 for himself. For a time even the vehement style 
 did not produce all the effect which Sacheverell 
 appears to have desired. Bishop Burnet says that 
 when he had pursued this method — the method 
 already described in Burnet's words — ' for several 
 years without effect, he was at last brought up by a 
 popular election to a church in Southwark, where 
 he began to make great reflections on the Ministry, 
 representing that the Church was in danger, being 
 neglected by those who governed, while they favoured 
 her most inveterate enemies.' 
 
 Now there was undoubtedly a strong and 
 
1709 A TEOUBLED SKY. 335 
 
 growing feeling at that time among a large body of 
 the public that the doctrines of the Whig party were 
 obtaining too wide an influence over the governing 
 classes, and that the cherished sentiments of Queen 
 Anne herself were compelled to give way to the 
 levelling counsels of those whom she had allowed to 
 act as her advisers. Men who were well known to 
 be Tories when they took office in the administration, 
 had been seen to act in thorough co-operation with 
 their Whig colleagues, and an impression was growing 
 up among large sections of the public that the 
 Whigs were generally pretty safe to have their way 
 in everything. The nation, in fact, had not yet quite 
 settled down to the principles established by the 
 popular revolution and by the reign of WiUiam the 
 Third. The doctrine of Divine Eight had been 
 deposed, indeed, but it had not been completely 
 disestablished. A large section of society every- 
 where, which had been privileged, influential, and 
 powerful under the old system, saw its privileges, its 
 influence, and its power passing away, and was not 
 willing to abandon without a struggle its claims 
 to its ancient position. We are not speaking now 
 merely of those who stiU had some faith left in the 
 forlorn cause of the Stuarts, and were willing to 
 make sacrifices and to run risks in an efibrt for their 
 restoration. There were large numbers who had no 
 real hope of any such counter-revolution, and who 
 had not the least idea of incurring sacrifice or risk 
 for its sake, but who yet detested in their hearts 
 the new system, and were ready to welcome with 
 
336 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. iti. 
 
 acclamation any voice which gave emphatic utterance 
 to their cherished feelings. 
 
 Then, again, the war had been dragging on for a 
 long time without any of the dazzling successes which 
 carried away the minds of many who at its opening 
 were not very enthusiastic about it. Among certain 
 sections of society it had, of course, always been un- 
 popular, because it brought the country into anta- 
 gonism with France on the battlefield, and France 
 was the only State from which the adherents of the 
 Stuart cause had any hope. But, apart from these, 
 there was a large proportion of the population who 
 had had little or no feeling in favour of the war when 
 it was first proclaimed, but who had been roused 
 into national sympathy and enthusiasm by the vic- 
 tories of Marlborough and Peterborough. As the 
 war dragged on and on, and there seemed no near 
 prospect of its termination, and of late there had been 
 no brilliant triumphs to dazzle the public, a feeling of 
 dissatisfaction and of disappointment had been grow- 
 ing up in many minds, and the war was beginning 
 to be regarded by large sections of the community 
 as a costly, futile, wearisome, and apparently endless 
 game, a national burden to be borne without hope 
 of recompense. Now the war was a Whig war from 
 the outset, and many among the poUtical opponents 
 of the Whigs were in a frame of mind to seek some 
 consolation for the national sacrifices in the thought 
 that they were brought about by the perverse policy 
 of their political antagonists. Under all these con- 
 ditions there was a large amount of sullen discon- 
 
1709 THE SEKMON AT ST. PAUL'S. 337 
 
 tent, brooding here, there, and everywhere, which 
 needed only some sudden impulse or temptation to 
 stir it up into outspoken and uproarious manifes- 
 tation. 
 
 Whether SachevereU had been carefuUy watch- 
 ing and estimating aU the various conditions which 
 might give him a favourable opportunity to become 
 a prophet and leader of public opinion, or whether 
 mere chance put the opportunity in his way and he 
 found it, is a question scarcely worth while taking 
 any time to discuss. The opportunity came, and it 
 was recognised and turned promptly to account. 
 There were two great commemoration days still 
 cherished by preachers in England, and stiU cele- 
 brated by special services. One of these was the 
 Thirtieth of January, the anniversary of the execu- 
 tion of Charles the Mrst. The other was the Fifth of 
 November, the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, 
 an event which has a sort of popular commemora- 
 tion, although after a somewhat burlesque fashion, 
 even in our day. SachevereU had the good fortune 
 to be chosen to preach the Fifth of November ser- 
 mon in the year 1709 from the pulpit of St. Paul's 
 Cathedral. 
 
 The preacher began with an elaborate, and what 
 would be thought a somewhat superfluous, denuncia- 
 tion of the Gunpowder Plot and of aU who were 
 concerned in it. It has been suggested by some 
 historians that SachevereU was anxious to make it 
 clear from the very first that his detestation of 
 Whiggery had not led or driven him into any weak 
 
 VOL. I. z 
 
338 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xvi. 
 
 or sentimental toleration for Popery. However that 
 may be, he certainly began his discourse with a 
 condemnation of the Church of Eome which might 
 have satisfied the sternest fanatics described in ' Old 
 Mortality.' The climax of his denunciation of the 
 plot itself was reached when he described it as ' a 
 conspiracy, so full of the most unheard-of malice, 
 most insatiable cruelty, most diabolical revenge, as 
 only could be hatched in the cabinet council of heU, 
 and brought forth in a conclave of Eomish Jesuits.' 
 On the other hand, the preacher was careful not to 
 indulge in any emphatic diatribes against the general 
 body of Dissenters. The full force of his denuncia- 
 tions was levelled against the men who, while pro- 
 fessing to be themselves members of the Church of 
 England, were yet willing for their ignoble purposes 
 to ' play fast and loose with faith ' to suit the enemies 
 of the Church, and to support measures of toleration 
 for ' Occasional Conformity.' 
 
 Sacheverell had taken his text from the Epistles 
 of St. Paul, where the Apostle speaks of the perils 
 through which he had gone. ' In journeyings often, 
 in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils 
 by mine o^i^n countrymen, in perils by the heathen, 
 in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in 
 perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.' 
 The perils by mine own countrymen and those among 
 false brethren were the dangers to the Church of 
 England on which SachevereU poured forth the full 
 flood of his eloquence. Was it, he asked indignantly, 
 the spirit and doctrine of the Church 'to assert 
 
1709 'POPERY IN MASQUEEADB.' 339 
 
 separation from her communion to be no schism ; or 
 if it was, that schism is no damnable sin ; that occa- 
 sional conformity is no hypocrisy, but rather for 
 the benefit of the Church ; that anyone may be an 
 occasional conformist with schismatics, and yet not 
 guilty of schism ; that a Christian may serve God 
 in any way or congregation of worship as well by 
 extemporary prayers as by a prescribed form and 
 liturgy; that conformity to the Church and eccle- 
 siastical authority are no parts of Eoorality and a 
 good life ; that the orders and ceremonies of the 
 Church are only carnal arbitrary obediences, to be 
 dispensed with as men please both by clergy and 
 laity ; that the censures and excommunications 
 of the Church are mere hruta fulmina ; canonical 
 obedience and absolution, spiritual tyranny and 
 usurpation ; — and, in a word, that the whole body 
 of the worship and discipline of the Church of 
 England is nothing else but priestcraft and Popery 
 in masquerade ? ' 
 
 Then the preacher went on to give this part of his 
 discourse a more direct application to the existing 
 conditioji of things and to the manner in which the 
 influence of her Majesty's Ministers was used for the 
 purpose of practically denying the doctrines of the 
 Church. He besought his audience, and he besought 
 them in the name of God, to consider ' what must be 
 the consequence of this scandalous fluctuation and 
 trimming betwixt the Church and Dissenters, both 
 in conscience and prudence.' Could the surrender, 
 he asked, of one point or article in the faith of the 
 
340 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xvi. 
 
 Ohurcli be allowed without violating and afiecting the 
 whole frame and body of it ? ' WUl not such a base 
 and time-serving compliance give the enemies of 
 our Church an occasion of blaspheming her as weak 
 and inconsistent ? ' Then he went on to insist that 
 nothing could be gained in form of genuine support 
 from the Dissenters by the renunciation of this or 
 that article of faith to suit their convenience. 
 
 Here Sacheverell made use of that argument 
 which has been familiar to the civilised world 
 against every measure of reform, religious or poli- 
 tical, proposed in favour of an oppressed minority 
 since legislative enactments began to be matters of 
 public discussion. We have had the same sort of 
 argument put forward again and again in our own 
 days, and applied to all manner of proposals for 
 civil and religious liberty. The Dissenters, he de- 
 clared, were not to be gained over by even the most 
 generous measures of reUef compatible with the safety 
 of existing institutions. 'A man,' he proclaimed, 
 ' must be very weak, or something worse, that thinks 
 or pretends that Dissenters are to be gained or 
 won over by any other grants and indulgences 
 than giving up our whole constitution ; and he that 
 recedes the least tittle from it to satisfy or ingra- 
 tiate with these clamorous, insatiate, and Church- 
 devouring malignants, knows not what spirit they 
 are of.' He reminded his hearers that Queen Eliza- 
 beth in her wisdom saw through all that sort of thing, 
 knew that it meant the overthrow of the monarchy 
 as well as of the Church, ' and, like a Queen of true 
 
1709 'WILY VOLPONES.' 341 
 
 resolution and pious zeal ' for Church and monarchy 
 alike, pronounced that such demands came from the 
 restless spirits of factious people ' and that no quiet 
 was to be expected from them tiU they were utterly 
 suppressed, which, like a prudent princess, she did by 
 wholesome severities, that the crown for many years 
 sat easy and flourishing upon her head.' He gave 
 emphasis to this part of his discourse by insisting 
 that if Elizabeth's successor. King James, had fol- 
 lowed her wise politics, his son would never have 
 fallen a martyr to their fury. 
 
 SachevereU pointed his moral by some tolerably 
 direct allusions to what was going on at that moment 
 in England, and by one phrase, at least, which had 
 a direct and intelligible, and indeed a perfectly 
 unmistakable, application to a living statesman. 
 Denouncing the men in power, whoever they might 
 be, who were utterly without zeal for religion in any 
 form of faith, he referred again to the passage which 
 he had made his text, and called upon his hearers 
 to remember ' in what moving and lively colour 
 does the holy Psalmist point out the crafty insidi- 
 ousness of such wily volpones ! ' This latter phrase 
 could not but have gone home to the minds and the 
 feelings of the large majority among the congregation 
 which SachevereU was then addressing. The word 
 had been taken from Ben Jonson's famous comedy 
 'Volpone,' in which it was meant to represent a 
 crafty and fox4ike nature. It had been applied to 
 Godolphin as a nickname intended to be at once 
 sarcastic and characteristic, and at the time when 
 
342 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xvi. 
 
 Sacheverell was delivering his discourse it had abeady 
 passed into the slang of the day. Comic verse had 
 got hold of it and made its application intelligible 
 even to him whom we should now describe as the 
 ' man in the street,' and we can easily imagine that 
 a thrill of amusement and satisfaction must have 
 passed through that listening crowd when SachevereU 
 thus gave it utterance. 
 
 It may easily be imagined that the storm which 
 was created by these utterances and allusions was 
 exactly the effect which SachevereU's ambition for 
 notoriety would have led him to welcome with 
 delight. SachevereU took every opportunity of im- 
 pressing on the public mind his desire to be a martyr, 
 his determination to be a martyr, even before it 
 was by any means certain that his efforts were 
 destined to be rewarded by the martyr's crown. He 
 advertised himself immediately by the publication 
 of his two sermons, both harping on the same string, 
 in cheap and popular pamphlet form, and he intro- 
 duced each of them by a dedication impressing the 
 meaning and pointing the moral of his utterances ; he 
 did not even allow it to be supposed that he had 
 adopted his plan of publication merely to remove 
 the whole argument out of the sphere of the Church 
 and the pulpit, and to accept battle as a political 
 gladiator on the ordinary field of fight. On the 
 contrary, he boldly asserted in the introductions to 
 his printed pamphlets the right of the pulpit to 
 perform a leading part in political controversy. 
 
 In the dedication to the ' Perils of False Brethren ' 
 
1709 DEDICATION TO THE LORD MAYOR 343 
 
 Sacheverell declared that ' "We are told by these men 
 who would fain shut both our ears and our mouths, in 
 order the more effectually to undermine and destroy 
 us, that the pulpit is not a place for politics ; and that 
 it is the business of a clergyman to preach peace and 
 not sound the trumpet in Sion — so expressly contrary 
 to the command of God to " cry aloud and spare not " ! ' 
 This sermon was dedicated to the Lord Mayor, and 
 the dedication announced that ' By your Lordship's 
 command this discourse ventures to appear in public, 
 in contempt of all those scandalous misrepresenta- 
 tions the malicious adversaries of our Church have 
 traduced it with, and that impartial sentence it had 
 the honour to receive from some of those acute and 
 wise judges who condemned it without sight or 
 hearing ; and it is set before the world, and 
 especially the affluent citizens of London, that they 
 may not be flattered into ruin, but seeing the fatal 
 consequences of these damnable false doctrines 
 which some seditious impostors have laboured to 
 poison them with, may forsake and detest them.' 
 These erring personages who thus endeavoured to 
 deceive the public were recommended by Sacheverell 
 to abandon their ignoble ways, and to adopt ' the 
 same open undaunted resolution' which the Lord 
 Mayor himself had displayed. 
 
 The Lord Mayor himself was apparently not 
 much gratified by the distinction thus conferred 
 upon him, and it was pubUcly asserted that the 
 printing of the sermon had not taken place, as 
 Sacheverell asserted, by command of the Lord 
 
344 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xn. 
 
 Mayor, and that other members of the Corporation 
 were entirely opposed to the doctrines proclaimed 
 by the preacher. Now, it was certain that the Lord 
 Mayor had given every countenance to the preacher, 
 and had expressed in very direct fashion his approval 
 of the sermon by publicly carrying off SachevereU 
 to dine with him at the Mansion House, when the 
 service of the day had come to an end. It is quite 
 possible that the Lord Mayor had not put any 
 command upon the preacher to publish the sermon, 
 and indeed the Lord Mayor in his official capacity 
 had no sort of authority to issue any such command. 
 The Lord Mayor happened to be then a member of 
 the House of Commons, and probably felt that he 
 might find himself in a very awkward predicament 
 if Parliament should order the impeachment of 
 SachevereU, and it should appear that Sir Samuel 
 Gerard, M.P., had, as Lord Mayor of London, 
 pledged his authority, whatever it was, to an 
 approval of the preacher's doctrines. The Lord 
 Mayor had many influential friends in the House of 
 Commons, and the question as to his responsibility 
 for the publication of the sermon was not allowed to 
 come to any direct issue. It may fairly be assumed 
 that he thoroughly approved of the preacher's 
 doctrines, and sanctioned their issue in pamphlet 
 form, but that he had not at the time quite under- 
 stood the seriousness of the responsibility which he 
 was taking on himself, and was only too glad to 
 escape out of the difficulty with as little of personal 
 controversy as possible. 
 
1709 'THE DEVIL'S CHAMPIONS.' 345 
 
 The first sermon preached at the Derby Assizes 
 on August 15 of the same year, on ' The Communi- 
 cation of Sin,' was dedicated ' To the Eight Worship- 
 ful George Sacheverell,' a near relation of the 
 preacher, ' High Sheriff of the County of Derby, and 
 to the Honourable Gentlemen of the Grand Jury.' 
 The dedication pointed more especially in this case 
 than even in the other to the direct identifica- 
 tion of the culprits against whom the preacher had 
 thundered from his pulpit. Without the dedication 
 the sermon might have been regarded merely as a 
 general declamation against evil-doers in whatever 
 class of society. The dedication, however, reUeved 
 the preacher from any imputation of having merely 
 wasted his breath in a vague and general denuncia- 
 tion of evil-doing. SachevereU took care to inform 
 his relative and the gentlemen of the Grand Jury 
 that the ofienders whom he mainly denounced were 
 the Whigs and the Low Churchmen who lent their 
 help and their patronage to the Dissenters. Such per- 
 sons, he declared, ' In commending, approving, or de- 
 fending any crime' ' become the guardians of iniquity, 
 and commence the devil's champions to fight his 
 battles and maintain his cause, and represent him in 
 the most detestable quality of his nature — a dehght 
 in the dishonour of God and the misery and ruin of 
 mankind.' There could be no mistake, therefore, as to 
 the direct purpose of this sermon, which otherwise 
 might have passed ofi" as a conventional and common- 
 place discourse against what Shakespeare's Eichard 
 the Third describes as ' the formal vice Iniquity.' 
 
346 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xti. 
 
 The question then arose for the Government 
 whether any steps ought to be taken by them, and 
 if any what steps, to answer the challenge — for it 
 could not be called by any other name — which had 
 been flung at them by Dr. SachevereU. The wisest 
 course, as we can all clearly see now, would have 
 been to pay no attention whatever to the preacher, 
 his sermons, or his pamphlets, to let them have their 
 blaze of fame and then sink into obscurity. Even if 
 this course was not taken, there might have been 
 proceedings instituted against SachevereU in the 
 ordinary courts of law, without recognising him as 
 an antagonist important enough to call for the action 
 of Government and Parhament. It was believed at 
 the time, and probably with good reason, that the 
 wisest of Queen Anne's advisers, Somers, was opposed 
 to the taking of any direct action by the Crown and 
 Parhament. This advice did not prevail, and it was 
 understood that Godolphin had set himself against it. 
 Some of Queen Anne's Ministers were no doubt 
 anxious to seize the opportunity of disclaiming any 
 sympathy with the views expressed by SachevereU. 
 These men probably thought that public opinion 
 was beginning to regard them as too weU inclined 
 to pander to the passions of the Tory mob, and 
 were eager to put it on evidence that they were 
 thoroughly sound constitutional statesmen of the new 
 order. There can be no doubt, moreover, that a large 
 proportion of the public was growing weary of the 
 long war with its recent lack of briUiant victories, 
 and some of the Queen's advisers may have felt that 
 
1709 THE IMPEACHMENT. S47 
 
 a crisis was approaching which could not but end 
 disastrously for them, and that they could not be 
 any the worse if they were now to make a stand 
 on something like a respectable constitutional prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 One cannot help believing that Queen Anne 
 herself must have felt in her heart a certain sym- 
 pathy with the doctrines proclaimed by the preacher. 
 Queen Anne was always a sincere believer in the 
 principle of Divine Eight, and although she was doing 
 her best to perform with integrity her part as a con- 
 stitutional sovereign under the new order of things, 
 she had no more natural inclination for the principles 
 of the Eevolution than she had for the Hanoverian 
 Succession. But whatever her secret feelings may 
 have been, she was able to control them, and when 
 the Ministry determined on the impeachment of 
 Sacheverell she put no difficulties in the way. It 
 was arranged, therefore, that the House of Commons 
 should move in the matter and obtain a decision for 
 the impeachment of Sacheverell before the House of 
 Lords. The whole question was raised in the House 
 of Commons on December 13, 1709. A resolution 
 was proposed and carried that Sacheverell should be 
 impeached before the House of Lords on a charge 
 of high crimes and misdemeanours, and a committee 
 was nominated to prepare the articles of impeach- 
 ment in due form. The promoters of the resolu- 
 tion had laid before the House two printed papers 
 which were deemed evidence enough to justify the 
 impeachment. The first of these was the famous 
 
348 THE REIGN OP QUEEN ANNE. ch. xvi. 
 
 sermon preached at St. Paul's, while the other was 
 merely the dedication of the sermon preached at 
 the Derby Assizes on August 15, 1709. John HiU 
 Burton explains that ' The object of bringing up the 
 dedication appears to have been, like the previous 
 convictions cited against an ordinary criminal, to 
 show that the great sermon was no single unpremedi- 
 tated outburst, but that its author, in a distant 
 province, when he addressed his own relations and 
 personal friends, scattered around him the same 
 perilous matter.' 
 
 The preamble to the articles of impeachment 
 made the charge against SachevereU distinctly one of 
 treason to the constitutional principles of the Eevolu- 
 tion and the Act of Settlement. The debate was long, 
 and would probably have been considered very 
 wearisome by any mere political or historical student 
 who happened to listen to it. It was one of those 
 debates which occur not infrequently even in our 
 own times on occasions of great public crisis when 
 the desire of every man who takes part in the dis- 
 cussion is rather to make his own position clear to 
 the outer world than to deal in arguments which 
 may affect the immediate and practical issue. Every 
 speaker seems to have acted on the assumption that 
 the debate gave him a heaven-sent opportunity of 
 showing how loyal he was to the Act of Settlement 
 and the Hanoverian Succession, or, on the other hand, 
 how incorruptibly devoted he was to the principles 
 of a supreme State Church and a divinely inspired 
 Sovereign. 
 
1709-10 THE DEBATE. 349 
 
 The debate dragged on for weeks and even 
 for montlis. Thackeray in one of his humorous 
 ballads has declared that even the trains on a certain 
 English line of railway come in at last. The dis- 
 cussion on the proposed impeachment of Sacheverell 
 came to an end at last, and then solemn preparations 
 were made for the arraignment of the accused man 
 before the House of Lords. Sacheverell might well 
 have thought himself a proud man as he followed 
 with mind or eye the progress of these prepara- 
 tions. Westminster Hall was to be the scene of the 
 great ceremonial, that same Hall whose vast and 
 majestic enclosure had witnessed the trial of William 
 Wallace, and the trial of Charles the First, and was 
 in a later generation to look upon the impeachment 
 of Warren Hastings, A court for the business of the 
 trial was constructed in the Hall, and a cabinet was 
 partitioned off for the reception of the Queen herself, 
 which she could enter without being seen by the 
 crowd. It was made known that Queen Anne took 
 a deep interest in the proceedings and desired to be 
 present at the trial as often as her other engagements 
 would allow. 
 
 The business of each day was opened by a solemn 
 procession of the Peers from their own House, and 
 the procession moved in regulated order, led by the 
 parliamentary officials, and after these the Peers 
 according to their rank and order, the nobles of 
 greatest rank closing up the procession of Peers. 
 When any question arose which involved some 
 disputed point of law or of procedure, the Peers did 
 
350 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. cH. xvi. 
 
 not discuss the subject in Westminster Hall itself, but 
 withdrew to their own House and returned to the 
 public court when they had made up their minds as 
 to their decision. The greatest public interest was 
 aroused by the knowledge of the fact that the Queen 
 intended to be present as often as possible during 
 the progress of the trial, and it was the opinion of 
 many that her presence was another tribute to the 
 popularity of the preacher, and was evidence of a 
 personal sympathy with the doctrines for the 
 utterance of which he was put upon his trial. 
 Bishop Burnet teUs us that each day as SachevereU 
 stood at the bar 'Many of the Queen's chaplains 
 stood about him, encouraging and magnifying him ; 
 and it was given out that the Queen herself 
 favoured him ; though, upon my first coming to 
 town, which was after the impeachment was brought 
 up to the Lords, she said to me that it was a bad 
 sermon, and that he deserved weU to be punished 
 for it.' 
 
 Whatever doubt there may be as to the sentiments 
 of the Sovereign, there could be no doubt whatever 
 as to the sentiments of the London mob. There 
 were processions every day of a less august and 
 ceremonious order than those which the Peers made 
 from their own Chamber to Westminster Hall and 
 back again, and these were the processions of the 
 crowds who accompanied SachevereU to and from 
 Westminster Hall. SachevereU lived in the Temple, 
 and he took care to pass through the Strand on his 
 way to and from Westminster Hall. He went in a 
 
1709-10 A TRIUMPHAL PROGRESS. 351 
 
 sort of state coach through the windows of which he 
 could easily be seen as he passed along. Such a 
 carriage would naturally have attracted public atten- 
 tion if it only contained a Lord Mayor or a foreign 
 Ambassador. But it was accompanied on the first 
 day of its movement by a crowd of especial friends 
 who conducted themselves as if they were the body- 
 guard of the preacher going to his trial. Of course 
 the whole population of that quarter of London 
 knew perfectly well that Sacheverell was about to 
 take his trial, and the very first day that his state 
 carriage made its appearance in the streets with its 
 escort of friends, there could be no doubt in the 
 mind of any passer-by that the accused preacher 
 was the occupant of this ostentatious vehicle. There- 
 fore, an enormous crowd, growing greater and greater 
 with every moment, soon gathered around and fol- 
 lowed SachevereU's coach, impeded its progress by 
 their mere multitude, and proclaimed to aU the in- 
 habitants of the quarter, by enthusiastic shouting 
 and cheering, that the hero of the hour was on his 
 way. Cheers for the High Church and Sacheverell, 
 from thousands and thousands of throats, awakened 
 the echoes even in far-distant streets, and brought 
 new crowds to try to force their way into the great 
 thoroughfares through which his triumphal proces- 
 sion had to pass. 
 
 One can easily imagine how these tumultuous 
 demonstrations in favour of Sacheverell began to 
 deepen and darken in their character and to become 
 more ferocious and dangerous with each succeeding 
 
352 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xvi. 
 
 day. The acclamations for the popular hero were 
 soon mingled with wild and vehement denunciations 
 of aU those who were supposed to be his enemies 
 and his persecutors. Public men, even prelates who 
 were believed by the mob to be in favour of 
 SachevereU's impeachment, were hooted, execrated, 
 and threatened with bodily injury as they endeav- 
 oured to make their way into "Westminster Hall, and 
 many a harmless passenger was knocked down and 
 beaten merely because he refused to pull off his hat, 
 or was slow about pulUng it off, as SachevereU's state 
 carriage passed along, or because he did not seem 
 to join with sufficient energy and good wiU in the 
 acclamations for the High Church and the idol of 
 the hour. The uproused and infuriate spirit of 
 the mob could not, however, content itself for very 
 long with cheers for SachevereU and curses or blows 
 for any unlucky bystander who did not seem to 
 engage quite readily in the demonstrations of hero- 
 worship. The passion of the crowd soon began to 
 need some more definite objects on which to expend 
 its fury. There was no need to look far or long 
 for such objects. Were there not to be seen in 
 all quarters of the town the chapels and meeting- 
 houses of the various Dissenting denominations, and 
 were not these most legitimate objects on which 
 to make effective demonstration of High Church 
 principles ? 
 
 Bishop Burnet tells us that ' There happened to 
 be a meeting-house near me, out of which they 
 drew everything that was in it, and burned it before 
 
1710 'SO GREAT A DISORDER.' 353 
 
 the door pf the house.' Indeed, the Bishop was 
 threatened with a similar illustration of mob fury, 
 for he tells us that ' They threatened to do the like 
 execution on my house ; but the noise of the riot 
 coming to Court, orders were sent to the Guards to 
 go about and disperse the multitudes, and secure the 
 public peace. As the Guards advanced the people 
 ran away, some few were only taken ; these were 
 afterwards prosecuted, but the party showed a 
 violent concern for them ; two of them were con- 
 demned as guilty of High Treason, small fines were 
 set on the rest, but no execution followed ; and after 
 some months, they were pardoned.' As Burnet goes 
 on to say, ' this remissness in punishing so great a 
 disorder was looked on as the preparing and encour- 
 aging men to new tumults.' Burnet declares that 
 the mob, in many of their outrages, were directed 
 ' by some of better fashion ' ' who followed the mob 
 in hackney coaches, and were seen sending messages 
 to them.' He mentions one little incident of which 
 he was a witness. ' Before my own door one, with a 
 spade, cleft the skuU of another, who would not shout 
 as they did.' 
 
 The tumult rose to extraordinary dimensions, and 
 at last took the form of an organised attack on all 
 the chapels and meeting-houses of the Dissenting 
 denominations which happened to be within reach. 
 Day after day these scenes were witnessed. It 
 became a regular part of what may be called the 
 pageantry of the occasion that, after the mob had 
 escorted SachevereU safely to Westminster Hall 
 
 VOL. I. A A 
 
354 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xvi. 
 
 they immediately turned back and sought out some 
 Dissenting chapel, in order to wreak their vengeance 
 on it. In New Court, near Drury Lane, there stood 
 the meeting-house of a conspicuous nonconformist 
 minister. The mob sacked the building completely ; 
 carried away all its furniture, and made a huge fire 
 of it in Lincoln's Inn Fields. This is only one 
 incident out of many which might be described as 
 the doings of that particular day. Just the same 
 story would have to be told of several other meeting- 
 houses in various quarters of the town. 
 
 Of course, it was not long before the news of 
 these outrageous disturbances reached the ears of the 
 Queen, and she seems to have behaved with much 
 sense and spirit. She sent for Lord Sunderland, one 
 of her Secretaries of State, and commanded him to 
 send her Guards horse and foot, at once, to disperse 
 the mob. It was nightfall when the conference took 
 place between the Queen and her Secretary of State, 
 and Sunderland, who did not seem very eager to act 
 in the business, made some excuse on the ground 
 that it would be dangerous to leave her Majesty's 
 Palace unguarded at such a moment. The Queen 
 quietly answered that God would be her guard, and 
 told the Secretary of State to do his duty. Whatever 
 the Queen's secret feelings may have been with regard 
 to the doctrines preached by Sacheverell, it is only 
 justice to her to say that she could be every inch a 
 Queen when it was needful to maintain the authority 
 of the laws and to put down the temporary rule of 
 a raging mob. Sunderland, however, seems to have 
 
1710 THE RIOTS SUPPRESSED. 355 
 
 found some dijfficulty in putting the Queen's orders 
 into execution. Some officers in command had 
 ap;^arently got the idea into their minds that there 
 was no very serious desire on the part of the authori- 
 ties to come down too severely on the supporters of 
 Sacheverellj and even stipulated that the orders 
 should be given by the Secretary of State in writing, 
 and that the officers should not be held responsible 
 for the consequences of energetic action. Lord 
 Sunderland would appear to have had a very reason- 
 able apprehension that the fury of the mob, if not 
 soon repressed, might become inspired by something 
 more than a purely religious zeal, and might not 
 content itself with a tax on Dissenting chapels and 
 meeting-houses. The Secretary of State, we read, 
 told one of the officers in command that he had 
 better send a body of troops to take care of the Bank. 
 01 course, when the military power was reaUy put 
 into operation the disturbances soon came to an end. 
 The Guards easily dispersed the crowds who were 
 making bonfires in Drury Lane and Lincohi's Inn 
 Fields with the wreckage of the Dissenting chapels. 
 Then they moved on to the City and found another 
 mob disporting itself at Blackfriars over another 
 work of destruction. The Guards charged this 
 crowd, wounding some of them with their sabres 
 and capturing others, and, as usually happens in such 
 cases, the majority of the rioters, finding that the 
 authorities were reaUy in earnest at last, scattered 
 themselves in flight and left the neighbourhood in 
 comparative quiet. We may anticipate the course 
 
 A A 2 
 
356 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANKE. ch. xvi. 
 
 of events so far as to say that no great pains were 
 taken to discover the real ringleaders of these riotous 
 outbreaks, and that the offenders against public law, 
 even when captured and convicted, were not visited 
 with any very severe penalties. The authorities 
 probably found themselves well contented when the 
 actual rioting was brought to a close, and were 
 not particularly anxious to trouble themselves 
 overmuch with elaborate perquisitions or prosecu- 
 tions. 
 
 Meanwhile the impeachment before the House of 
 Lords went along its formal way. The Queen's 
 Ministers were made the managers of the impeach- 
 ment, at least they had the nominal charge of the 
 proceedings. Sacheverell was defended by several 
 of the leading counsel of the day, and he was also 
 allowed to deliver a speech in his own defence. 
 There was no need for the production and examina- 
 tion of witnesses, for the sermons and dedications 
 contained aU the evidence that was necessary for the 
 purposes of the trial. The arguments on both sides 
 were, therefore, arguments as to the fuU and real 
 meaning of this or that impugned and defended 
 passage in the printed pamphlets. Sacheverell de- 
 livered a written speech in his own defence, which 
 according to Bishop Burnet ' he read with much bold 
 heat ; in which, with many solemn asseverations, he 
 justified his intentions towards the Queen and her 
 government; he spoke with respect, both of the 
 revolution and the Protestant succession ; he insisted 
 most on condemning aU resistance, under any pretence 
 
1710 TRIAL AND SENTENCE. 357 
 
 whatsoever, without mentioning the exception of 
 extreme necessity, as his counsel had done ; he said 
 it was the doctrine of the Church in which he was 
 bred up ; and added many pathetical expressions, 
 to move the audience to compassion.' Burnet adds 
 that ' It was very plain the speech was made for him 
 by others ; for the style was correct, and far different 
 from his own.' 
 
 When the actual trial was ended the House of 
 Lords set to debate the question of the impeach- 
 ment. The Bench of Bishops was divided on the 
 question, some of the prelates speaking, as Burnet puts 
 it, 'in excuse of SachevereU,' while Burnet himself 
 and several others took the opposite side. When 
 the division was taken on the distinct question of im- 
 peachment — in other words, whether SachevereU was 
 guilty or not guilty of the charges brought against 
 him — sixty-nine Peers voted for the condemnation 
 and fifty-two against it. Then came the question as to 
 the amount of punishment to be imposed upon the 
 convicted offender. It was proposed to suspend him 
 from preaching for one year, but another proposition 
 was made that the suspension should be extended to 
 six years. Finally, it was carried by vote that the 
 period of suspension should be only three years. A 
 motion was then made that SachevereU should be 
 declared incapable of any preferment during those 
 three years, and a division was taken which ended in 
 the proposed disquaUfication being rejected by the 
 very narrow majority of sixty votes against fifty-nine. 
 Then it was ordered that the sermon should be burnt 
 
858 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xvi. 
 
 in the presence of the Lord Mayor and the Sheriffs 
 of London. This order was carried out, but not in 
 the actual presence of the Lord Mayor. That 
 distinguished functionary, whose connection with the 
 original publication was, as we have already seen, a 
 matter not fully cleared up, seems to have made up 
 his mind that pro ^ac wee he was essentially a member 
 of the House of Commons and not a City magnate, 
 and he therefore excused himself from attendance at 
 the public cremation. 
 
 Then once again SachevereU became the hero of 
 the hour. The mildness of the judgment pronounced 
 against him gave his enthusiastic supporters not un- 
 reasonable ground for regarding the result as a 
 victory and not a defeat, and bonfires blazed and 
 windows were illuminated and shouting crowds 
 proclaimed the triumph of the preacher, not only in 
 the metropolis, but in various cities and towns, and 
 indeed aU over the whole country. Addresses of 
 congratulation poured in upon SachevereU from all 
 quarters, and wherever he travelled for some time to 
 come his journey was like a triumphal procession. 
 The sermons, their publication, and their impeach- 
 ment were destined yet to have important political 
 consequences, but SachevereU himself may be aUowed 
 to pass out of this history. Not many years after he 
 was selected by the House of Commons to preach a 
 sermon on a great public occasion, and received 
 the especial thanks of the House for his services. 
 He was appointed to a rich rectory in Holborn, and 
 although the passionate enthusiasm about him had 
 
1710 THE COMET FADES. 359 
 
 somewhat faded in the meantime, he must have 
 had good reason for being well content with the 
 practical results of his career. But so far as this 
 narrative is concerned that comet of a season had 
 ceased to blaze. 
 
360 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xtii. 
 
 CHAPTER XVn 
 
 'HABLEY, THE NATION'S GREAT SUPPOET ' 
 
 Meanwhile events were occurring which seemed at 
 one time destined to exercise a serious influence on 
 the career of Eobert Harley, One of these was the 
 event which is recorded as the treason of Gregg. 
 The story would be a curious one in itself even if it 
 had not led to a momentous crisis in the fortunes of 
 a successful Minister. A distinguished French exile, 
 TaUard, had been carrying on a secret correspon- 
 dence from London with the French Minister of War. 
 His letters were forwarded through the foreign de- 
 partment of the Secretary of State in London, and 
 it was understood that every care was taken to see 
 that the correspondence contained no matter which it 
 would have been unsuitable for the English Govern- 
 ment to send out. For some reason or other it ap- 
 pears that one of the letters bearing date the 28th of 
 November, 1707, became an object of suspicion on 
 its way through Holland, and was opened there. It 
 was found to carry in it the clearest evidence that a 
 clerk named Gregg, engaged in the foreign depart- 
 ment of the Secretary of State, had been inserting 
 letters of his own in some of the correspondence 
 before sealing it up. A letter from Gregg thus 
 
1707 THE TEEASON OF GREGG. 361 
 
 dispatched contained a distinct offer to place his 
 services at the disposal of the French Government 
 and the Stuart exiles in France for the supply of 
 secret information as to the purposes and plans of 
 the English Government. In order to prove that he 
 really could make himself the master of important 
 secret information, Gregg enclosed a copy of a letter 
 written in the Queen's own hand and addressed 
 to the German Emperor. The Queen's letter urged 
 upon the Emperor the importance of sending Prince 
 Eugene at once into Spain, and Gregg's copy of it, if 
 it had not been intercepted on its way, would have 
 reached the French Court at Versailles several days 
 before the letter itself could arrive in Vienna. Thus 
 the French Government, the Government of the 
 country with which England was at war, would have 
 obtained a knowledge of the military movements 
 contemplated by England before that policy could 
 have been made known and commended to the 
 Emperor her aUy. 
 
 Gregg had peculiar advantages for the carrying 
 out of his plans, inasmuch as the letters sent home 
 to France by French prisoners of war in the charge of 
 the English Government passed regularly through his 
 hands. It was, of course, only thought courteous 
 and fair that French prisoners should be allowed to 
 write to their friends at home, but at the same time 
 it was absolutely necessary that aU such letters 
 should come under the eyes of some accredited 
 English official in order that they might not convey 
 any information which could be of service to the 
 
362 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xvii. 
 
 French military authorities. Gregg had been hold- 
 ing a position of absolute confidence in the Secretary 
 of State's office, and if his plans had not been 
 discovered in time he might have enabled the French 
 Government to anticipate and to counteract many an 
 important movement which the ministers of Queen 
 Anne were preparing. In the very letter which 
 contained the copy of the Queen's missive, Gregg 
 gave many particulars about the manner in which 
 that document had been obtained from the Queen 
 and the alterations which had been made in the 
 original draft before it was finally copied out in 
 Anne's own handwriting. He seems to have made 
 up his mind that if he were to commit an act of 
 treason he might as well make it as complete in its 
 treason as he possibly could. Gregg was instantly 
 charged with high treason and put upon his trial. 
 He saw at once that the game was up, and he 
 promptly pleaded guilty. There could be no pos- 
 sible defence as the case actually stood, and although 
 he could not hope to escape extreme punishment by 
 the mere admission of his crime, he may perhaps 
 have had interest enough in the Stuart cause to 
 make him anxious that no prolonged judicial investi- 
 gation should lead to any further discovery as to his 
 plots and his accomplices. 
 
 The House of Lords intervened at this stage of 
 the proceedings and sent an address to the Queen 
 urging that for the future safety of the kingdom 
 everything should be done 'to find out the rise 
 and progress of this dangerous correspondence.' The 
 
1707 GEEGG'S ANTECEDENTS. 363 
 
 Lords requested that all the papers in the possession 
 of the Government which could help them in their 
 investigation should be laid before them, and their 
 request was at once complied with. The Lords then 
 appointed a committee of their own House to carry- 
 on the inquiry. Some of the information which 
 they received threw a startling light on the manner 
 in which business was conducted in one of the most 
 important departments of the Queen's administra- 
 tion. It came out that the man Gregg, who had 
 been employed in such delicate and confidential 
 work, was a person not merely without credit or 
 character, but had actually been a professional 
 criminal in his time, and had been put on his trial as 
 a coiner of false money and convicted of the crime. 
 His people were of the poorest and humblest class, 
 but he was a native of Scotland, and like most natives 
 of Scotland, even at that time, he had obtained a good 
 education to begin with. He had sought again and 
 again for employment in the office of the Secretary 
 of State, and at last had succeeded in obtaining it. 
 He was to some extent taken up by Harley, and it 
 was even stated that he had sometimes made him- 
 self very useful to Harley by pointing out defects 
 in the style of some of the dispatches which he had 
 been ordered to copy, and by correcting Harley's bad 
 French. 
 
 When the story of Gregg's early life became 
 known through the inquiry of the Lords' Committee, 
 it need hardly be said, a good many people in 
 England made invidious comment on his Scottish 
 
364 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xth. 
 
 birtiL, and declared that if he had not been a 
 Scotchman he would never have been so readily 
 admitted to ministerial patronage. At that time, as 
 at other times, there was a certain jealousy of 
 Scottish influence among many classes in England, 
 and it was a common doctrine that the canny Scot 
 could always find patronage which was denied to the 
 honest but unfavoured Englishman. The general 
 impression was not likely to lose much of its force 
 when it came out, in the course of the investigations, 
 that Gregg had been employed by the Secretary of 
 State as a confidential agent when the arrangements 
 for the union with Scotland were in progress, to 
 descend upon Scotland and find out how the public 
 opinion of that country was divided with regard to 
 the proposed union of the two kingdoms. Evidently 
 a man employed in such a capacity must have been 
 entrusted by the Secretary of State with the pursuit 
 of many private enquiries which the Government 
 would not have cared to submit fuUy to Parlia- 
 mentary and public notice. That such a man should 
 have been entrusted with the reading and forwarding 
 of aU letters sent by French prisoners of war and 
 other French exiles back to their own country, and 
 with the power of transmitting or detaining the 
 documents, seemed to bring Harley into something 
 like a direct responsibility for the actions of his 
 subordinate. The time was full of trouble. France 
 was actually at war with England, and while it would 
 hardly have been fair or even decent conduct to 
 prevent distinguished prisoners of war from keeping 
 
1707-8 GKEGG'S CONFESSION. 365 
 
 up any communication with their families, yet it 
 seemed quite evident that the man who had charge 
 of forwarding or withholding such letters might, if 
 he were so inclined, have allowed much news 
 to be carried to France which ought to have been 
 kept back in the interest of France's greatest enemy, 
 England. 
 
 When it became clear from actual facts, and even 
 from Gregg's own confession, that he had made use 
 of the opportunities given by the confidence reposed 
 in him to send to the French Court a copy of a 
 Eoyal letter addressed to the German Emperor, then 
 it was impossible that people should not ask them- 
 selves whether the Secretary of State was himself a 
 willing party to such a betrayal of State confidence. 
 The progress of the war with France had not for some 
 time been quite satisfactory to the people of Eng- 
 land. It was still believed, and indeed was stiU 
 known, that there were in Scotland, and especially 
 in the northern parts of the country, many men of 
 leading position who were devoted to the Stuart 
 cause. At one time a great alarm was aroused in 
 England by the news that a French fleet was actually 
 about to invade the English shores with the object 
 of compelling the English Government to bring 
 back Marlborough and a portion of his troops for 
 the defence of the island, and with the hope, it was 
 beheved by many, of creating a rising in Scotland on 
 behaK of the exiled Stuarts. The project came to 
 nothing, for the English Government had learned 
 enough about it to enable them to send a fleet 
 
366 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xtii. 
 
 to sea wHcli marred all the chances of the French ex- 
 pedition ; but the minds of men in England were much 
 disturbed by this new scheme on the part of King 
 Louis, and were ready to believe that treachery or 
 treason of some kind must have helped to create it. 
 
 Not very much came of the examination of Gregg 
 beyond what the intercepted letter and his own 
 confession had already made known to the public. 
 The peers who were nominated to conduct the 
 commission of enquiry must have been disappointed 
 if they expected to get any evidence of a great and 
 organised treasonable plot. The truth would seem 
 to be that Gregg had but lately begun his treacherous 
 work, that he was acting entirely on his own account, 
 and was not a member of any secret organisation. 
 He told the committee that the State papers used 
 to lie so carelessly on the desks and tables of the 
 Secretary's office that anybody going in or out of 
 the room might have read them if he pleased, and 
 that it was open to all the doorkeepers to make such 
 a study if they felt so inclined. He stated that 
 Harley's custom was to come to the office late on 
 certain nights and write his letters there, and that 
 when he had written them he took his departure at 
 once, and left the letters or other State papers to be 
 copied after he had gone. It was in this way, Gregg 
 declared, that he himself had come to see the Queen's 
 letter to the Emperor. He volunteered the informa- 
 tion that he might, if he had thought fit, have 
 communicated to the French Government some 
 important movements designed by England several 
 
1708 EXCUSES FOE HARLEY. 367 
 
 months before, but he told the committee that, as a 
 matter of fact, he had not then taken to his evil 
 practices and therefore did not make any treasonable 
 use of his opportunity. 
 
 Now it was generally known of Harley that he 
 was one of the most careless of men ; that he was 
 given to taking most things for granted, and when an 
 order of any kind had been issued by his department 
 he had got into the way of thinking that the order 
 would be properly carried out in due course, and that 
 there was no need for him to trouble himself any 
 further about its execution. He had often the air 
 and manner of a noon-day dreamer ; of a man whose 
 mind and thoughts are engaged on something quite 
 different from the matter actually in hand ; and this 
 was sometimes his way even when he was engaged 
 on the most important affairs of State. All this, it 
 should be said, was now pointed out and dwelt upon 
 not so much by Harley's enemies as by Harley's 
 friends, for it was thus that the friends went about to 
 explain the utter lack of system and of proper 
 watchfulness in the department over which he had 
 control. His friends, in fact, pleaded for him by 
 saying, ' You know what sort of a man Harley is ; 
 you know that he often becomes for the time a mere 
 John o' Dreams, and the greatest irregularities might 
 go on in his office and under his very eyes without 
 his knowing anything about them or having any 
 suspicion that such things might occur.' 
 
 This was the defence made by Harley's friends, 
 for the reason that Harley's enemies were beginning 
 
368 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xto. 
 
 to find a very different explanation of his conduct, 
 and were actually going the length of saying that 
 his heart was all the time with the cause of the 
 Stuarts and that he was only too willing to connive 
 at lending a helping hand to them and to the State 
 which had given them shelter and recognition. The 
 investigations of the committee were spread over 
 several weeks, and the report was then presented to 
 the House of Lords, who sent it on to the Queen, 
 in which was strongly urged upon her the necessity 
 of making Gregg a public example by exemplary 
 punishment. It should be stated that Gregg in 
 his confessions expressly declared that Harley had 
 nothing whatever to do with his treasonable prac- 
 tices and had no knowledge of their existence. The 
 Queen was naturally a very good-natured woman, 
 but she did not find it possible to resist the recom- 
 mendation of the Lords for the punishment of the 
 man convicted by the evidence, and upon his own 
 confession. Gregg was sentenced to death and exe- 
 cuted. ' He died,' Burton says, ' much better than 
 he had lived.' It is stated that Harley behaved with 
 generous charity to the widow of the unfortunate man 
 whom Harley's own negligence had probably tempted 
 into crime, and that he made her an allowance of fifty 
 pounds a year out of his own private means. 
 
 The Queen now found herself placed in a position 
 of great difficulty, Harley felt that after what had 
 happened he could not possibly continue just then to 
 hold office, and he made known to the Queen that he 
 must ask her permission to resign. Marlborough and 
 
1708 HAELEY RESIGNS. 369 
 
 Godolphin had already urged upon the Queen that 
 she could not retain Harley any longer in her ser- 
 vice, and they had called her attention to many 
 perilous irregularities, quite apart from the treason- 
 able practices of Gregg, which had been allowed to 
 go on in his department. Anne stiU desired to hold 
 by Harley, and for a while she positively refused to 
 give him up. Harley actually attended a meeting of 
 the Cabinet Council at which the Queen was present. 
 Marlborough was not present, and the Duke of 
 Somerset bluntly declared that it would be impossible 
 in his absence to discuss any question of foreign 
 policy with the slightest practical advantage. Other 
 members seemed to agree in his opinion, and such 
 a general feeling of dissatisfaction and unwilling- 
 ness prevailed that the meeting of the Council 
 soon came to an end, without any result other 
 than that which must have been wrought on the 
 Queen's own mind. Marlborough and Godolphin 
 had already informed the Queen that they could no 
 longer remain in her service if Harley were per- 
 mitted to retain his office. Perhaps she might have 
 held out to the last but for Harley's own resolve 
 that it would be impossible for him just then to 
 think of holding his place. That fact seems to 
 have decided her course, and when Marlborough 
 and Godolphin came to confer with her again and 
 repeated their announcement that they could not 
 possibly continue in her service if Harley were 
 retained in office, Anne informed them that her 
 mind had already been made up, and that Harley 
 
 VOL. I. B B 
 
370 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xvii. 
 
 could not continue to hold his place as one of her 
 advisers. 
 
 Other influences also were beginning to prevail 
 over the mind of the Queen. There were pecuHar 
 qualities in the temperament and character of Anne. 
 It sometimes seems as if she had a double sort of 
 nature — as if she were made up of two minds and two 
 hearts in the one human form. Her womanly sym- 
 pathies, her personal sympathies, were undoubtedly 
 with the Tories, and not only with the Tories but with 
 the Jacobites. That was, in fact, Anne the woman. 
 But then Anne the sovereign was quite a different 
 sort of person and had an understanding which 
 conformed entirely with the position of a constitu- 
 tional ruler. Anne the sovereign had intelligence 
 enough to understand that the days of Divine Eight 
 had quite gone by for England, and the days of con- 
 stitutional monarchy had come into being. Anne 
 the woman was a devout believer in the Divine Eight of 
 Kings, but Anne the queen was able to recognise and 
 accept estabUshed facts, and to see that an English 
 monarch could thenceforward only rule by popular 
 support, and by acting upon the advice of a 
 minister who might be supposed to study and represent 
 the public opinion of the country. The explanations 
 generally given of Anne's sudden changes in policy 
 and in advisers set her down merely as a woman 
 who had to be governed by the rule of some favourite 
 and was incapable of initiating any course of conduct 
 for herself. It is quite certain that Anne loved to 
 yield herself to the domination of some will more 
 
1708 A NEW INFLUENCE. 371 
 
 strong and masterly than her own, and that it was a 
 relief to her to give herself up, for the time at least, to 
 such a personal guidance. But this theory alone is 
 not enough to supply a full explanation of Anne's 
 occasional changes in policy and conduct. The 
 more fair, and on the whole the more reasonable, 
 explanation is that which we have suggested, that 
 Queen Anne the woman and Queen Anne the sovereign 
 had different inclinings, and that the sovereign some- 
 times had the better in the contest. 
 
 It would have been impossible that a woman 
 brought up as Anne had been brought up could by 
 any effort of growing observation and intelligence 
 shake herself completely free from all the traditions 
 of her ancestry, and the teachings and habitudes 
 of her early days. But, on the other hand, she 
 was with aU her weaknesses and her many errors 
 of judgment quite too intelligent and reasonable a 
 woman not to recognise, in her brighter and better 
 moods, the fact that a new system of monarchical 
 government had set in for the country which she was 
 called upon to rule. Even in her weakest moods she 
 had a far better understanding as to the duties of 
 a constitutional sovereign than was shown by any 
 monarch of the House of Hanover down to the days 
 when WUliam the Fourth saw himself compelled to 
 surrender his own most cherished convictions to the 
 advice of his ministers. It is beyond question, how- 
 ever, that in her repugnance to the course she took 
 with regard to Harley's resignation she was much 
 influenced by the advice and guidance of the 
 
 B B 2 
 
372 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xtii. 
 
 new favourite whom she had allowed to obtain 
 dominion over her. When the crisis came, and she 
 saw that it was necessary for her as a constitutional 
 sovereign she yielded to the pressure of the emer- 
 gency, but she never changed in her inclinations 
 towards Harley, and Harley probably felt he had 
 good reason to believe that the sun of court favour 
 for him was only undergoing a temporary eclipse, 
 and that it would before very long shine out more 
 brightly than ever. 
 
 We find it somewhat hard to understand at this 
 distance of time how Harley ever came to be 
 accounted a really great statesman. That he had 
 intellectual qualities may be taken for granted, 
 when we remember the praise he received from men 
 of genius and understanding who would never have 
 showered their compliments on him merely for the 
 reason that he had come to be a power in the State. 
 We cannot find any evidence that he represented 
 great political ideas or that he had any conception 
 of England's true national policy. He was a remark- 
 able and astute manager of parties and of Parlia- 
 mentary afiairs, but in the higher and nobler sense 
 of the word he does not seem to have been a 
 statesman at all. He could make his Tory principles 
 so far subservient to his political ends and personal 
 ambitions as to be willing to work in that sort of 
 coalition which, according to one of the cleverest of 
 later Parliamentary leaders, England always detests. 
 He could for immediate purposes cry content to that 
 which grieved his heart, if we may apply to him the 
 
1708 HAELEY-S CHAEACTER 373 
 
 expression which Shakespeare puts into the mouth 
 of a very different historical personage. He could 
 help to carry on a war with which he had no manner 
 of sympathy because his adoption of a policy which 
 in his heart he detested enabled him to hold office 
 and to direct affairs of State. Perhaps, if he 
 inwardly reasoned about the matter at all, he may 
 have come to the comfortable conclusion that, as the 
 war certainly had to go on, and as he was quite 
 powerless to stop it, it might as well go on under his 
 management as under that of anybody else. Even 
 when he seemed to go the whole way in recognising 
 the new state of things which had arisen and in 
 accepting the constitutional principle of government, 
 we know that he was aU the time stiU hoping 
 and waiting for some turn of affairs which might 
 enable him to help in bringing about a Stuart 
 restoration. 
 
 Harley was seen, no doubt, at his best among 
 those who knew him in private life and had little or 
 nothing to do with affairs of State. He was a lover 
 of books — perhaps it might be said rather a lover of 
 books than of reading — he had an appreciation of 
 art and enjoyed the conversation of scholars and 
 poets. In the company of such men the finer and 
 better quahties of his nature came out, and his 
 literary companions were not compelled to think of 
 the shifts and dodges, the private and ignoble in- 
 fluences, the swallowing not merely of formulas, as 
 Carlyle might have put it, but of actual principles in 
 order to maintain himself at least in power even 
 
374 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xvii. 
 
 while he could not maintain himself in office. For 
 the moment his rule had come to an end, but no 
 doubt he was enabled to assure the Queen that she 
 would not have to wait very long for his return to 
 office. So Queen Anne put up with the change of 
 affairs as well as she could, but did not attempt to 
 conceal from Marlborough and Godolphin that she 
 grieved at the condition of things which had com- 
 pelled her to yield to their representations. For the 
 present the words used by the Duke of Somerset at 
 that meeting of the Privy Council over which the 
 Queen had just presided gave a perfectly accurate 
 description of the crisis. There was no going on 
 without Marlborough and Godolphin. The war had 
 to be fought out, and Marlborough was the only 
 man who could conduct it to anything like success, 
 and Godolphin was the best manager of the national 
 resources who could be found in England at such a 
 time. So Marlborough and Godolphin had their 
 way, and Harley went out of power, but which of 
 the conflicting parties w^as to have the better fate 
 only the high gods, as Socrates said to his judges, 
 could teU. 
 
 Meanwhile, it is necessary to say something about 
 the new influence which had come over the moods 
 and actions of the Queen. The rule of the Duchess 
 of Marlborough was over. The favourite who had 
 now come into power was a very different sort 
 of creature. One can well understand the sway 
 which a woman hke the Duchess of Marlborough 
 obtained over the mind of the Queen, for a woman 
 
1708 A DECLINING INFLUENCE. 375 
 
 who could govern Marlborough himself may be set 
 down as capable of governing almost anyone. There 
 was no one with whom Sarah Jennings ever came into 
 companionship who did not feel the influence of her 
 charm, her humours, her versatility, and even her 
 audacious self-assertion. But the impulse to self- 
 assertion may easily be carried too far, more especi- 
 ally when the subject is dealing with a sovereign 
 princess, and this was the one defect which filled the 
 Duchess of Marlborough with faults. Hers was a 
 very passion of self-assertion, and it was coupled with 
 an extremely bad temper. Because she had ruled 
 the Queen so long she had got into the way of 
 believing that there was a sort of divine right sus- 
 taining her rule, and that Anne could not, under any 
 provocation, dare to rise in rebellion against her. 
 Because she had found Anne yielding, submissive, 
 and glad to be governed, she had got it into her head 
 that the Queen would put up with being bullied and 
 trampled on, and there her spirit of domination over- 
 leaped itself and fell on the other side. Anne was 
 ready to give up a good deal of her own way for the 
 sake of being made comfortable in her own way, but 
 she could not long submit to being made uncomfort- 
 able for nothing. The rule of the Duchess would 
 probably have come to a close before very long, in 
 any case ; for as soon as Queen Anne found that she 
 was being made constantly uncomfortable, the spirit 
 of revolt was certain to rise within her. In this 
 instance, however, a rival had come on the scene, and 
 the convenient entrance of a rival naturally suggested 
 
376 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xvn. 
 
 to Anne the possibility of relief from her state of 
 aggravated subjection. 
 
 There was a period of French history when the 
 King of France was said to have passed under the 
 successive reigns of three petticoats. In that sense, 
 Queen Anne may be said to have passed under the 
 reigns of two petticoats, the one typified by the 
 Duchess of Marlborough, and the other by the new 
 favourite, Mrs. Masham. The worst of it, for the 
 Duchess of Marlborough, was that she herself had 
 been the means of introducing to the Queen's notice 
 the very woman by whose influence she was destined 
 to be supplanted in the Queen's favour, and in the 
 right of dictating the policy and the movements 
 of the Queen. Abigail Hill, who afterwards became 
 Mrs. Masham, was a cousin of the Duchess, and a 
 very needy woman, and the Duchess thought she was 
 doing a good service to her own family when she ob- 
 tained for her poor relation employment in the Queen's 
 household. Abigail Hill was made bedchamber- 
 woman to the Queen, and nothing could have been 
 farther from the mind of the Duchess than any sus- 
 picion that this exercise of her personal influence 
 was ever likely to bring about a serious disadvantage 
 to herself. 
 
 Miss Hill appears to have been a woman of gentle 
 and genial manners, who made herself agreeable to 
 all with whom she came into contact, and showed 
 herself especially devoted to the promotion of Queen 
 Anne's personal ease and comfort. There must have 
 been something refreshing and delightful to the Queen 
 
1708 ABIGAIL HILL'S MARRIAGE. 377 
 
 in the close companionsliip of a woman who could 
 influence her without causing her any discomfort, 
 who had the faculty of guiding, when she seemed 
 only to be guided and to obey. Gradually and in- 
 sensibly the Queen found the close society of Miss 
 Hill becoming more and more essential to her daily 
 happiness, and it must have been the opening of a 
 new chapter of life to her to have a woman always 
 at her side, who could tell her what to do without 
 seeming to dictate to her, who could show her the 
 way to go without pushing her along that path, and 
 could prescribe a course of policy for her without 
 cramming the prescription down her throat. 
 
 Thus the companionship between Queen Anne and 
 her new friend grew and grew steadily for a long 
 time without exciting the least suspicion or jealousy 
 in the mind of the domineering Duchess. Sarah 
 Jennings would probably as soon have thought of 
 some respectable regimental officer becoming a 
 military rival of the Duke of Marlborough as of 
 Abigail Hill rising to be a rival of Marlborough's 
 Duchess in the favour of Queen Anne. The story 
 goes that the Duchess only began to realise the 
 actual condition of afiairs when she suddenly heard 
 that Abigail HiU had been privately married to a 
 gentleman of the Queen's household named Masham, 
 that Queen Anne herself had been present at the 
 marriage ceremony, and that it had all been done 
 without any appeal for the advice or the approval 
 of the Duchess herself. Mrs. Masham was not 
 merely a cousin of the Duchess of Marlborough, but 
 
378 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xtu. 
 
 was also a cousin of Eobert Harley — a fact wMch 
 came to have an important bearing on the political 
 history of the reign. 
 
 It may be said in passing that Mrs. Masham does 
 not seem to have always retained the gentle and 
 considerate temper which is understood to have been 
 for a long time her chief recommendation to the 
 favour of Queen Anne. One historical writer bluntly 
 describes her as ' vulgar and mean in her manners, 
 petulant and passionate.' But she probably knew 
 when and with whom to be petulant and passionate, 
 and she certainly did not make exhibition of petu- 
 lance or passion in her early intercourse with Queen 
 Anne. The Queen, indeed, had acquired so great a 
 dread of such qualities in a favourite that when it 
 was first proposed to her that Mr. Masham should be 
 raised to the peerage, she met the suggestion with a 
 flat refusal, declaring that she never intended to make 
 a peeress of Mrs. Masham, on the ground that if she 
 did so, she should only lose a useful servant and get 
 a grand lady in her place. Anne was afterwards 
 induced to change her mind in this instance, as in 
 many others, but the mere objection which she 
 raised to the suggestion was enough to show that 
 experience had filled her with a reasonable dread lest 
 in seeking for a confidential adviser and a faithful 
 servant she might only find a self-opinionated and 
 ostentatious ruler. It soon became clear enough 
 to those who were around the Court that the rule of 
 the Duchess of Marlborough was drawing to a close, 
 and that she was destined before long to be formally 
 
1708-9 THE DUCHESS DETHRONED. 379 
 
 supplanted by her poor relation who happened also 
 to be the cousin of Eobert Harley. 
 
 The force of events, therefore, private and public, 
 was working sUently in the one domain and very 
 noisily in the other — for the personal importance of 
 the statesman who had been put out of office. Then 
 came the SachevereU episode and the passionate 
 popular declarations in favour of Church and State, 
 and in favour likewise of the principle of non-resist- 
 ance. All these pubHc demonstrations aroused a 
 sympathetic echo in the mind and the heart of Queen 
 Anne. The Queen had accepted the war with 
 France only because it seemed at the time too widely 
 and intensely popular to give her any hope of success- 
 fully setting up her own wiU and her own principles 
 against it. Now she thought she found in the out- 
 burst of apparently unmingled public enthusiasm for 
 SachevereU a direct appeal to her to come forward and 
 put herself at the head of her people by asserting her 
 own predilections and maintaining her own favourite 
 advisers. 
 
 Harley was kept well informed as to the moods 
 and hopes of the Queen, and it was easy for him to 
 put on the manner of one who bears with truly 
 philosophical composure a retirement into political 
 exile. Nothing suited Harley's turn of mind better 
 than the opportunity of thus enacting the part of a 
 philospher and affecting utter indifference to the 
 loss of high office, when all the while he had good 
 reason for the comfortable conviction that it was 
 only a question of time, and not of very long time. 
 
380 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xvii. 
 
 when he should be invited once again to mount his 
 ministerial throne and make his enemies his foot- 
 stool. Lord Palmerston once described a certain 
 political crisis of his time as destined to make him 
 ' the inevitable.' Eobert Harley must have felt 
 before he had long been out of office that a crisis 
 was coming in the movement of events around him 
 which was destined to make him ' the inevitable.' 
 It was easy and must have been to him very delight- 
 ful, under such conditions and with such prospects, 
 to posture before his friends as one whose philosophic 
 temperament uplifts and sustains him above the 
 disappointments which might have broken the spirit 
 and bowed the head of a less serenely minded 
 statesman. 
 
 About this time, too, Bolingbroke was playing 
 the part of a philosopher in retirement. He had 
 followed the footsteps of Harley in retirement 
 more or less enforced from office. We find him 
 writing to a noble friend a letter in which he 
 discourses on recent events and on his present mood 
 of mind. ' My health,' he says, ' which you are so 
 kindly concerned for is extremely good. Those 
 opportunities of spoiling it are at a distance ; and to 
 own the truth, as I have them seldomer so I want 
 them less. You see, My Lord, one effect of my retreat. 
 The men of profound wisdom form to themselves a 
 scheme of life ; and every action is preceded by a 
 thought. We who are of a more ordinary size of 
 understanding act by chance at first and by habit 
 afterwards.' Bolingbroke, however, had much of the 
 
1709 BOLINGBROKE PHILOSOPHISES. 381 
 
 genius of a philosopher, and the mood of contented 
 retirement came as natural to him in its turn as the 
 active, unresting spirit of a leader of men in the 
 world of politics. He, too, could probably see, at 
 least as easily as Harley could, that the world of 
 politics was not likely to do without him for long. 
 
382 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xtiii. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVni 
 
 THE TRIUMPH OF THE TOKIBS 
 
 Queen Anne had to bear a heavy trial in the autumn 
 of 1708. Her husband, Prince George of Denmark, 
 had been suffering from a severe asthmatic malady, 
 and during his iUness the Queen nursed him with 
 constant and affectionate care. His iUness proved 
 mortal. The State lost nothing by the death of 
 Prince George, for he was at best only a harmless, 
 muddle-headed sort of man, who had been put to 
 hold high commands for which his capacity and 
 temperament gave him no qualification, and the most 
 that could be said in his favour was that he had not 
 done so much mischief to the State as might have 
 been done by a more meddlesome person placed in 
 the same position. The Queen loved him, however, 
 and indeed her affection for him was one of her few 
 strongly developed qualities. It may be mentioned 
 here that, after a decorous interval, addresses were 
 presented by both Houses of Parliament to the 
 widowed Queen requesting her to turn her thoughts 
 towards a second marriage, and that the Queen, in 
 graceful, touching, but decisive words, declared that 
 it was impossible for her to act on the recommenda- 
 tiou. 
 
1708 LORD SOMERS. 383 
 
 At this time tlie most eminent among the leaders 
 of the Whig party, the Whig Junto as it was called, 
 was undoubtedly Lord Somers. He was a man who 
 had risen from a comparatively humble position, but 
 his great natural capacity, his integrity, his reputa- 
 tion for benevolence and generosity, and his winning 
 manners had gained for him gradually a command- 
 ing place in pubUc life. His profession was that of 
 a barrister, and he had early attained to a high 
 position at the bar. He acted as one of the counsel 
 for the Seven Bishops in the momentous and 
 memorable trial, and after the Eevolution he became 
 SoUcitor- General, Attorney-General and Lord Keeper 
 of the Great Seal, and finally Lord Chancellor with 
 the title of Baron Somers of Evesham. There was 
 no statesman in whom WiUiam the Third showed a 
 greater confidence, but the position which he had 
 won in public affairs and the favour which his 
 Sovereign was showing to him naturally made him 
 many enemies, and some of the most powerful of 
 these succeeded in creating a party against him, and 
 made him an object of frequent attack. 
 
 Some charges were brought against him, and the 
 story of one of them, at least, is worth recalling here, 
 although it belongs to the history of the previous 
 reign. The extreme Tories and Jacobites, who found 
 Somers all the more formidable as an opponent 
 because of his moderation and his impartiahty, got 
 up an accusation in connection with an event for 
 which he had no moral responsibility whatever, and 
 concerning which, even if he could be shown to 
 
384 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xvui. 
 
 have had any responsibihty, the burden must have 
 been equally shared by other advisers of the King 
 and even by the Sovereign himself. There had 
 been some trouble about threatened piratical attacks 
 on British commerce by the Great Mogul, as the 
 Tartar or Indian sovereign was then called, and 
 King WiUiam was advised to charter privateer 
 vessels to defend the merchant shipping of Eng- 
 land. One of the men appointed to take the com- 
 mand of a privateer for this service was a Captain 
 Kidd, who has in later days been made the hero 
 of many a romance, and whose exploits, real or 
 imaginary, have delighted whole generations of boyish 
 readers. Now, the resources of the State were at 
 that time rather heavily overtaxed, and there was no 
 public money available for the expenses of the 
 privateering. The King offered to advance a sum 
 of money out of his own pocket, and Lord Somers, 
 with several others of his Majesty's advisers, agreed 
 to make up the necessary amount. As a matter of 
 fact it would appear that the King was not able 
 after all to contribute his share of the fund, but 
 Lord Somers and some of his colleagues made up 
 the money between them. Now comes the critical 
 point of the story. Captain Kidd, when he got his 
 vessel and his command, threw over the service of 
 King William, became a pirate on his own account, 
 sailed the seas in quest of prizes for himself, and 
 sailed likewise into a celebrity which has not even 
 yet wholly faded from his name. 
 
 An outcry was raised against Somers by the 
 
1701-8 SOMERS AND CAPTAIN KIDD. 385 
 
 extreme Jacobites and Tories not altogether unlike 
 that which assailed the career of Harley when the 
 discovery was made of Gregg's treasonable practices. 
 As in the case of Harley so in that of Somers, 
 the statesman was made a victim for the offences of 
 one in whom he, like others of his colleagues, had 
 mistakenly put his trust. An attempt was made 
 to impeach Somers on the ground that he had 
 become a patron of piracy. To the eyes of modern 
 readers such a proceeding would seem to be an 
 outrageous absurdity better suited for the realms of 
 comic opera than for the serious business of Parlia- 
 ment. But the party passions of the time found any 
 stone good enough to throw at a political opponent, 
 and the agitation against Somers seemed to become 
 reaUy formidable. There was nothing for it under 
 these conditions but that Somers should resign all his 
 public offices and meet the charges against him, if 
 charges there were to be, as an ordinary subject. 
 King WiUiam would have stood by him if he were to 
 follow his own inclination, just as Queen Anne would 
 have stood by Harley, but in the one case as in the 
 other the victimised statesman thought it better to 
 retire than to bring public trouble on his sovereign. 
 Several attempts were made in the House of Commons 
 to get up an impeachment against Somers on the 
 case of Captain Kidd, and on other charges which 
 merely amounted to a condemnation of the advice 
 he had given to his Sovereign in several great ques- 
 tions of policy. The impeachments, however, which 
 included other statesmen as well as Somers, came to 
 VOL, I. c c 
 
386 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xtiii. 
 
 nothing, and Somers out of office still remained a 
 leader of the Whig party and was always a power 
 in the State. His name remains through all time a 
 synonym for judicial and political integrity. For a 
 while he lived a quiet life withdrawn from any active 
 part in public affairs, but more lately he had returned 
 to his high place in politics. 
 
 Queen Anne felt well inclined to strengthen her 
 councils by calling to her aid the services of such a 
 man, and perhaps had then especially some faith in 
 the possibility of governing the country by means 
 of a ministry made up from the moderate men of 
 both parties. She probably regarded, Somers as 
 the most likely of living Whigs to help her with 
 her task, seeing that just at the moment there did 
 not seem to be any chance for a Tory government, 
 and she appointed Somers President of the Council. 
 The Ministry therefore was composed altogether of 
 Whigs, and to the ordinary observer it might well 
 have appeared as if the doors of office had been 
 peremptorily closed, for a long time, against all who 
 belonged to the Tory party. But, as we have already 
 seen, events were moving in different places and in 
 different ways, events wholly independent of each 
 other and not alike in character or in cause, which 
 were destined to encourage and enable the Queen to 
 effect a sort of constitutional coup d'etat of her 
 own, and recall to power the statesmen whose prin- 
 ciples and whose counsels were congenial with hers. 
 The reign of the Duchess of Marlborough was prac- 
 tically over and that of Mrs. Masham had set in. 
 
1709 MARLBOROUGH'S PROPOSAL. 387 
 
 The populace of London and of other great cities and 
 towns had made a hero and an idol of Sacheverell, and 
 notwithstanding aU that Marlborough's genius as a 
 commander could do, the war had lately been dragging 
 on without any splendid victories to boast of and 
 without any apparent prospect of soon coming to 
 an end. 
 
 Marlborough himself had helped directly, although 
 with no such purpose in his mind, to bring about the 
 total overthrow of the party with whom he had 
 lately been acting. He could not fail to see that the 
 mind of the Queen was working in the direction of a 
 complete change of ministry, and he probably feared 
 that with the loss of personal favour to his wife and 
 himself might come a change in the war policy 
 which he had been carrying out, through so many 
 difficulties, to the promise of a complete success. 
 He therefore made up his mind to lay before the 
 Queen and her advisers a proposal that his appoint- 
 ment as Commander-in-Chief should be converted 
 into a life office for him. His enemies naturally 
 suggested that this was but another illustration of 
 Marlborough's ambition and avarice alike, and that 
 he wanted to obtain a position which must give 
 him a practical mastery not only over the Queen 
 and her ministers but over the whole State and the 
 country. Now it is beyond dispute that in a kingdom 
 professing constitutional government it would be out 
 of the question to invest any private citizen, no 
 matter how splendid his services and how high his 
 position, with an appointment which would make 
 
 c 2 
 
388 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xviii. 
 
 him absolute master of the army and navy 
 during the whole term of his life. A soldier of 
 Marlborough's genius and success, if endowed with 
 such powers, would unquestionably become the 
 military dictator of the realm. Constitutional 
 government had not at that time developed itself so 
 fully as to offer any secure guarantee against the 
 ambition of a military dictator, and the recent 
 history of England itself told how a conquering 
 soldier might become the crowned Sovereign of the 
 realm. 
 
 We have it on the excellent authority of the 
 late Lord John Eussell that the dethroned Emperor 
 Napoleon during his temporary exile in Elba 
 had had his mind possessed with the idea that 
 the Duke of Wellington, if he should win any 
 more great battles, would be certain to seize the 
 crown of England and set it on his own head. 
 Lord John Eussell has told how in his conver- 
 sations with Napoleon in Elba, he found that 
 this idea had got fuU hold of the illustrious 
 exile's mind. Now in the days of Napoleon, such a 
 fancy was of course an utter chimera born of the 
 dethroned Emperor's experience of his own people 
 and ignorance of the conditions which had become 
 settled in England. But in the reign of Queen Anne 
 constitutionalism had not become so thoroughly 
 established a principle of government as to preclude 
 all possibility of a military dictator making himself 
 master of the State. Thus, at least, it appeared to 
 the political enemies of Marlborough, and even 
 
1709 MILITARY DICTATORSHIP. 389 
 
 among his political friends the general conviction 
 was that such a proposal could not possibly obtain 
 acceptance. The Lord Chancellor of the day, a 
 friend of Marlborough, told the Duke frankly that 
 his proposal was utterly unconstitutional and that 
 he as Lord Chancellor could not venture to put the 
 great seal to the patent which conferred such an 
 appointment. Yet, on the other hand, it seems only 
 fair to assume that Marlborough was not inspired 
 by mere love of power or love of money, but by a 
 genuine conviction that the appointment would be 
 for the good of the country. 
 
 Marlborough's mind was naturally set on the 
 successful completion of the war which he had 
 conducted thus far. He was a man of genius, and 
 he knew weU. that he and he alone could be relied 
 upon for the full accomplishment of the task which 
 he believed to be essential to the security and the 
 greatness of his country. He had seen over and 
 over again some of his best projects brought to 
 failure by the changes of political parties, and by 
 private influences at home, by the doubtful, hesitating 
 and laggard ways of this or that ally, by the inter- 
 vention of counsels over which he had no control, 
 and by the reactionary movements of pubhc opinion 
 both at home and abroad. He may well have felt 
 an earnest and unselfish conviction that, if the war 
 were to be brought to an end with anything like the 
 result for which it had been undertaken by his 
 country, he was the only man who could achieve 
 such a triumph, and that it would be impossible even 
 
390 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xvm. 
 
 for him to achieve it if he were liable at any moment 
 to be deprived of his command by a change of mood 
 in the Sovereign or in the Sovereign's advisers. 
 
 Throughout the whole course of the war Marl- 
 borough had had to do the work of a diplomatist 
 and a statesman, of an envoy and a political 
 negotiator, as well as of a general in command. He 
 was dispatched over and over again to this or that 
 foreign capital or foreign camp ; he was summoned 
 back to London again and again from the battlefield 
 itself ; we have ceased in this history to make any 
 record of his visits to London, and have taken it for 
 granted that the intelligence of our readers would 
 enable them to understand without specific explana- 
 tion that whenever Marlborough's counsels were 
 needed at home Marlborough would be there at the 
 right time to set them forth and to sustain them. 
 The proposal he made was undoubtedly one which 
 it would have been impossible for the Queen or 
 her advisers to accept, but it seems only justice 
 to the memory of a great man to assume that, what- 
 ever other errors his love of power and money may 
 have led him into, this mistake at least came of 
 general honest thought and common good to all. 
 Marlborough disregarded the advice of the friends 
 who warned him against pressing forward his 
 proposal and made his proposition to the Queen 
 herself. Queen Anne was probably at this time not 
 much inclined to listen with great favour to any 
 suggestion coming from Marlborough, but we may 
 credit her with a clear enough understanding as to 
 
1710 THE GENERAL ELECTION. 391 
 
 the duties of a constitutional sovereign to make her 
 refusal of such a demand quite certain. The Queen 
 promptly and absolutely refused her consent to the 
 scheme urged by Marlborough, and the dream of a 
 military dictatorship for life came to a sudden end. 
 
 By this time it must have become quite clear to 
 Marlborough's friends as well as to his enemies that 
 his influence over the Queen was losing its power. 
 The great soldier does not look to much advantage 
 in the persistent and futile efforts which he made 
 to retain the favour of the Queen for his wife. One 
 does not like to think of the almost unrivalled 
 commander soliciting, beseeching, and even begging 
 of his royal mistress that his wife should not be 
 dismissed from the places which she held in the 
 Queen's household. But the Queen was quite re- 
 solute this time, and indeed the new influence she 
 had accepted as her guiding power was strong 
 enough just then to sustain her in any exercise 
 of authority which came from its dictation. The 
 Duchess of Marlborough was dismissed from all 
 her offices, and the new favourite reigned supreme. 
 Then came on a general election, and almost all 
 the recent events, including of course the popular 
 triumphs of Dr. SachevereU, seemed as if specially 
 destined to rouse up and bring into action the strong 
 Tory feeling which filled the minds of so many 
 people aU over the country. A general election then 
 did not reflect even the passing feeling of the hour 
 with anything like the fidelity belonging to our time 
 of household suffrage and cheap newspapers. But it 
 
392 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xvin. 
 
 did at least serve to reflect faithfully enough the 
 political attitude of the limited class which alone 
 was endowed with the franchise, and the opinions 
 of those who were not thus favoured counted for 
 little in the estimation of sovereigns and statesmen. 
 Moreover the demonstrations of the unenfranchised 
 populace, the crowds in the streets, proclaimed that 
 the popular feeling was just then on the side of the 
 Tory electoral majority. 
 
 Queen Anne thought she now saw her way 
 clearly enough to accomplish an object which had 
 long been dear to her heart, and to surround herself 
 with Tory advisers. She did not at first desire to 
 make a clean sweep of all her Whig Ministers. She 
 was willing and even anxious that Somers should 
 retain his place, and she again and again urged 
 Lord Cowper to remain in his position as Lord 
 Chancellor. But both Somers and Cowper felt con- 
 vinced that they could not, in justice to their 
 colleagues, consent to be made exceptions to the 
 general decree of the royal policy. The Whig 
 leaders were resolute to stand or fall together, and 
 the result was that their ministry came at once to an 
 end, and that a new administration was formed which 
 had Harley and Bolingbroke to guide it. Harley 
 held the higher position of the two, and was in fact 
 what we should now call Prime Minister. In mental 
 powers he was not to be compared with Bolingbroke, 
 for Bolingbroke was a man of genius and, intellec- 
 tually at least, the greatest English statesman of his 
 time. 
 
1710 'A SOLEMN TEIFLEK.' 393 
 
 The name of Bolingbroke stands out as dis- 
 tinctly among the leading men of Queen Anne's 
 reign as does that of Marlborough himself. Judged 
 by an exalted moral standard, there is not much to 
 be said for Harley or Bolingbroke or Marlborough. 
 Each man was above all other things a self-seeker ; 
 with each man his own personal ambitions and his 
 own desires were the inspiring principles of action. 
 But with Bolingbroke and Marlborough these grave 
 defects were often lost to men's sight by the dazzling 
 genius which fascinated while it conquered. Harley 
 was just as much of a self-seeker as Bohngbroke or 
 Marlborough, but the prosaic and commonplace 
 composition of his intellect was not illumined by any 
 ray of genius. Macaulay sums him up as 'a solemn 
 trifler,' and the wonder which fills most readers when 
 they study his career, is a wonder how he could ever 
 have contrived to pass himself off with his contempo- 
 raries as a high-minded and intellectual statesman. 
 We see such men, however, rising to a prominent 
 and even a commanding position in almost every 
 political generation. With unUmited resources of 
 self-satisfaction, a faculty for endowing common- 
 places with an aspect of philosophic wisdom, and 
 with an unquestioning conviction of their own right 
 to a place in the front, such men have been Prime 
 Ministers before Harley was born and such men 
 have been Prime Ministers since Harley was laid in 
 the grave. 
 
 Soon after the change of ministry had been 
 accomplished Harley came in for what proved to be 
 
394 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xvni. 
 
 a stroke of good fortune, although fortune delivered 
 the stroke in a manner which at first seemed likely 
 to be fatal. An attempt was made upon his life, and 
 the mere attempt, although it only proved fatal to 
 the man who made it, obtained for Harley an 
 immense amount of sympathy and popularity. The 
 author of the murderous attack was a French refugee 
 named Guiscard, who was said to have been an 
 ecclesiastic in his own country, but was charged there 
 with grave offences, and being apparently unwilling 
 or unable to meet the accusations against him, had 
 contrived to escape from France. He managed to 
 pass himself off upon the Duke of Savoy as a man 
 capable of rendering great service to the cause of the 
 Allies. The Duke of Savoy recommended him to the 
 Court of Queen Anne, and Guiscard came over to 
 England and settled himself there for some time 
 in the hope of getting advancement. Queen Anne, 
 however, had no faith in Guiscard's sincerity and 
 was not inclined to enter into any arrangements with 
 him, and she steadily refused 1;,o admit him to speech 
 with her. 
 
 Guiscard became despondent and even desperate. 
 He tried to enter into negotiations with the Court 
 of France and undertook to render some signal 
 service to the French cause during his stay in 
 London. The terms of some of his letters made 
 it seem as if he meditated a design upon the Queen's 
 life, although it is hardly possible to suppose that 
 a man in his senses could have persuaded himself 
 that such a plot would be likely to find favour with 
 
1711 GUISCARD'S ATTEMPT. 395 
 
 anyone of influence at the French Court. Some of 
 his letters were opened at the post-office, according 
 to a practice which we have abeady seen was not 
 very uncommon in those days, and were submitted 
 to a council of ministers. Even the most lenient 
 interpretation which could be put on the meaning of 
 what he had written seemed to lay him open to a 
 serious criminal charge. The Cabinet Council at 
 once decided that he must be arrested, and a 
 messenger was instantly dispatched to seize on 
 him and bring him up for examination. The 
 messenger found him walking in St. James's Park, 
 and having carefully disarmed him, effected his arrest 
 and brought him to the council chamber. Bishop 
 Burnet's narrative of the events which followed is 
 clear and concise : 
 
 ' As ' Guiscard ' waited without, before he was 
 called in, he took up a penknife, which lay among 
 pens in a sta'ndish ; when he was questioned upon 
 his letter, he desired to speak in private with the 
 secretary St. John, who refused it ; and he being 
 placed out of his reach, whereas Harley sat near 
 him, he struck him in the breast with the penknife 
 again and again, tiU it broke ; and indeed wounded 
 him as much as could be done, with so small a 
 tool. The other councillors drew their swords, and 
 stabbed Guiscard in several places; and their 
 attendants being called in, they dragged him out. 
 Harley's wound was presently searched ; it appeared 
 to be a slight one, yet he was long in the surgeon's 
 hands; some imputed this to an iQ-habit of body; 
 
396 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xvm. 
 
 others thought it was an artifice, to make it seem 
 more dangerous than indeed it was. Guiscard's 
 wounds were deeper, and not easily managed ; for at 
 first he was sullen, and seemed resolved to die ; yet 
 after a day, he submitted himself to the surgeons ; 
 but did not complain of a wound in his back, till it 
 gangrened, and of that he died.' 
 
 Before the death of Guiscard, Bolingbroke writes 
 to a friend in the Queen's service abroad : ' Your Lord- 
 ship will see in the newspaper from my office a short 
 account of a villainous action which, I think, is not 
 to be paralleled in history. M. de Guiscard has four 
 wounds, but none of them mortal, as we hoped. The 
 chirurgeons believe that he will recover, there being 
 no bad symptoms as yet ; and it is a pity he should 
 die any other death than the most ignominious 
 which such an attempt deserves. Mr. Harley is in a 
 very good way at present, and, I hope, in not the 
 least danger of his life.' A few days after, Boling- 
 broke writes to the same friend a letter, in which he 
 tells him that ' Our friend Mr. Harley is quite out of 
 danger, his fever having this day entirely left him.' 
 Yet a little later, Bolingbroke writes that 'M. de 
 Guiscard is dead, and has thereby escaped being 
 made that public example which his viUanies de- 
 served.' 
 
 It was a common belief at the time, as we 
 have seen, among those who were not particularly 
 friendly to Harley, that the Tory leader was making 
 as much as he possibly could of the hurt which he 
 had received, and was putting on the ways of one in 
 
1711 A LUCKY STROKE FOR HAELEY. 397 
 
 a really dangerous condition, long after the physicians 
 had made it perfectly clear to him that the wound 
 was not of a nature likely to do him any serious 
 bodily harm. At the same time it was certain that 
 the attack made upon Harley had had an immense 
 effect in augmenting his popularity. He was re- 
 garded as the victim of a French political plot, and 
 this prevailing public impression came in with 
 peculiar advantage to him. The worst which had 
 been said against him and his friends was that, in 
 their secret hearts, they were opposed to the policy 
 of the war, and had in fact a sneaking kindness for 
 the Court of Prance, and now here comes a mis- 
 creant who appears to be in mysterious com- 
 munication with the French Court, and he singles 
 out Harley as the object of attempted assassination. 
 What does this prove, people asked, but that the 
 miscreant regarded Harley as the one most dangerous 
 enemy to the designs of France, and the main 
 support of the English State ? The thrust of de Guis- 
 card's stolen penknife had raised Harley at once to 
 the position of a popular hero. The Queen felt the 
 deepest interest in Harley's condition, and when his 
 danger was quite over, thought the time had come 
 to reward him with an especial mark of royal favour. 
 She created him Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, and 
 conferred upon him the office of Lord High 
 Treasurer. 
 
 Anne was not so eager to bestow a testimony 
 of her approval on Bolingbroke, partly, it may be 
 assumed, because she had no relish for the tendencies 
 
398 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xtiii. 
 
 of some of Bolingbroke's writings, which were scep- 
 tical, and indeed anti-Christian, in their tone. Still, 
 having conferred so great a reward upon Harley, she 
 could not weU leave his colleague long out in the 
 cold, and within a year after Harley's elevation she 
 conferred on Bolingbroke the title by which he is 
 now always known in history. He was created 
 Viscount Bolingbroke. It may be remarked here 
 that we have, throughout the earlier part of this 
 history, anticipated this long-delayed act of favour 
 on the Queen's part, and described the ' nobly pensive 
 St. John ' by that title which is for ever associated 
 with his career in the minds of all who read history. 
 It was said very often, at the time, that the marked 
 difference which Queen Anne had made in her way 
 of treating the two leading Tory statesmen did not 
 tend to increase the feeling of personal friendship 
 between the recipients of the two titles, but it may 
 be fairly assumed that a Sovereign seldom confers 
 royal favours without leading to a general belief that 
 one man thinks he has got too little, while his col- 
 league has got too much. 
 
 The events which have just been described had, 
 of course, a direct and an immense influence on the 
 conduct of the war. Many writers and students of 
 this part of English history have ascribed the change 
 of policy which was now brought about to the 
 triumph of Mrs. Masham over the Duchess of 
 Marlborough — to the rivalry in fact of the two 
 petticoats and the victory of the one. Now there 
 can be no possible doubt that Queen Anne's whole 
 
1711 ANNE'S KEAL SYMPATHIES. 399 
 
 nature craved for the guidance of some spirit more 
 resolute than her own, and that when the Duchess of 
 Marlborough made herself intolerable, the Queen was 
 only too ready to welcome any other influence which 
 could give her at least a relief and a change from the 
 old dominion. But we cannot help thinking that 
 somewhat too much is made of Anne's subjection 
 to her successive favourites and too little of her 
 own tendencies and inclinations. It must be borne in 
 mind that Queen Anne's sympathies never went with 
 the statesmen and the policy of the Whig party, and 
 it must be remembered, too, that when she accepted 
 the war policy, the men who, like Marlborough, had 
 to carry it into action avowed much the same Tory 
 principles which she cherished in her own mind and 
 heart. As the war went on Marlborough found that 
 he had to rely on the support of the Whigs, that at 
 certain periods such support was absolutely indispen- 
 sable to him, and his great and supreme object was 
 the successful prosecution of the war. But as the 
 war went on the Queen only liked it less and less, 
 and she soon began to regard Marlborough as 
 practically identified with the policy of the Whigs. 
 If nothing had occurred to make her believe that 
 that poUcy was not fully acceptable to the country, 
 she would probably have put up with Marlborough 
 just as she put up with the war itself. But when 
 events came which brought to her mind the hope 
 and behef that the Tory policy was after aU the 
 policy most welcome to the majority of Englishmen, 
 she probably would have sought for new advisers 
 
400 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xvra, 
 
 and new guides if Abigail Hill had never been 
 in existence- Queen Anne had come to believe 
 that the principles most dear to her own heart were 
 also the principles most dear to the country. She 
 was only too glad to seize the opportunity of 
 pleasing herself while yet keeping within the limits 
 imposed upon sovereign rule by the scheme of con- 
 stitutional government which came in with the 
 Eevolution. 
 
 The student of history may, therefore, be 
 advised not to accept in an unqualified sense the 
 general theory which ascribes the change in the 
 fortunes of parties and in the policy of the war 
 to the triumph of Lady Masham over the wife of 
 Marlborough. There is no more curious, amusing, 
 and sometimes humiliating chapter in English 
 history than that which tells how the rule of fa- 
 vourite number one asserted itself, demonstrated 
 itself, overworked itself, and finally worked itself 
 out, and how the rule of the second favourite came 
 to be established in its place. The story has too 
 much of the comic element in it to lose its hold 
 upon readers of any time since then, or of any time 
 to come, and it has supplied material for many 
 interesting volumes and created a literature of its 
 own. But much as we may find fault with those 
 peculiarities of Queen Anne's character and caprice 
 which led her to make herself the willing slave of 
 this or that feminine influence, there is no just 
 reason to believe that the policy of Queen Anne and 
 the direction of her reign were absolutely dictated 
 
1711 THE WAE DEAGS ON. 401 
 
 or created now by Sarah Jennings and now by Abigail 
 Hill. 
 
 Queen Anne was right in her assumption that 
 the country was growing more and more weary of 
 the long war. We know by modern experience how 
 a people much more widely educated than the 
 people over whom Queen Anne ruled, may be ex- 
 pected to become weary of a long war which seems 
 to promise no immediate end, and has ceased to 
 dazzle by a series of brilhant successes. The war 
 in which England was engaged during so great a 
 part of Queen Anne's reign was one which could 
 not possibly be said to have any direct interest for 
 the English people. The ordinary Englishman who 
 had nothing to do with camps or with courts might 
 well have been excused if he failed to s6e how it 
 greatly concerned the position and the prosperity of 
 England whether a prince of this foreign house or 
 that should ascend the throne of Spain. Perhaps 
 even the most accomphshed historical student of our 
 own days would not find it easy to persuade himself 
 that the question was one of vital interest for the 
 English people of any generation. There is, how- 
 ever, always something captivating to a spirited 
 people about the opening of a new war. The ex- 
 citement which it brings along with it carries men's 
 minds away from any prudential comparison of its 
 objects with its possible risks and its certain costs. 
 Then, when the struggle has fairly begun, the passion 
 of national feeling comes into play and men are, for 
 the time, ready enough to make any sacrifice for the 
 
 VOL. I. D D 
 
402 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xthi. 
 
 glory of the national flag. But if the war drags on 
 for year after year, and if the longer it drags on the 
 rarer become its moments of dazzling success, it is 
 inevitable that a large proportion of those in whose 
 name the war has been undertaken should begin to 
 count the cost, to lament the sacrifices, to ask them- 
 selves when the time of trouble is likely to end, and 
 what particular advantage is to come to them, let it 
 end how it may. 
 
 This was the questioning mood into which the 
 lapse of time and the lack of exciting successes had 
 brought a large proportion of the English people, 
 when Queen Anne began to form the conviction that 
 her best advisers were those who could help her to 
 foUow the teachings of her own instincts and to 
 bring the whole struggle to the earliest possible end. 
 With the triumph of the Tory party it must have 
 seemed clear to every reasonable observer that the 
 War of the Succession was destined to come to an 
 end before long, although even the keenest and best 
 qualified observer might have failed to form any 
 idea, or even any conjecture, as to the terms and the 
 conditions under which England was to shake herself 
 free of the contest and settle, for a time at least, into 
 a state of peace. 
 
403 
 
 CHAPTEE XIX 
 
 WHAT THE WAR WAS COMIJSTG TO 
 
 We broke off from the story of the war after the fatal 
 battle of Almanza had been fought and lost by the 
 forces engaged on the side of the Allies. The result of 
 that defeat left the Archduke Charles, the candidate of 
 the Alliance, in possession only of the province of 
 Catalonia in Spain, and in the merely nominal posses- 
 sion even of that province. The Catalonian population 
 stiU clung to the cause of the Archduke, but his forces 
 were small in number and very inadequately provided 
 with the means of carrying on a serious struggle. 
 The provinces of Valencia and Aragon had given 
 themselves completely up to the French occupation. 
 Indeed, the inhabitants of the town of Valencia had 
 made no attempt at resisting the approach of the 
 French, and had even thrown open its gates and 
 given a welcome to the invaders. If Spain were to 
 be recovered for the Allies, the struggle there must 
 begin all over again, and at the same time the 
 campaigns in the Low Countries and in Italy had to 
 be carried on. 
 
 Marlborough had formed a great idea for the 
 invasion of France herself in the south-east with the 
 object, at least, of compelling King Louis to withdraw 
 
 r D 2 
 
404 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xix. 
 
 some of his attention and some of his forces from 
 Spain. Marlborough's idea was that the point of 
 attack should be Toulon, and that the expedition 
 should be put under the command of his ablest co- 
 adjutor, Prince Eugene. There seemed some good 
 reason to believe that such an expedition under such 
 a commander would cause the Protestants in that 
 region of France to renew their movement of insur- 
 rection, and thus give a fresh chance to the invaders, 
 who professed to come in the name of religious 
 freedom. The policy of King Louis had converted 
 French Protestants everywhere into a hostile race, 
 and Marlborough might weU believe that his plan of 
 campaign must have the help of these allies. Of 
 course an important part of the scheme was that the 
 English fleet should co-operate in the attack. 
 
 The expedition was placed by Marlborough's 
 direction under the command of Prince Eugene and 
 the Duke of Savoy. But it was found very difficult 
 to prevail upon the Emperor to take any interest in 
 Marlborough's plan, and all the usual delays and 
 difficulties were put in its way. The trouble in this 
 instance, as in so many others, was that each of the 
 Allies had at every critical moment distinct and 
 different purposes in view. The Emperor was always 
 thinking of what seemed to him the immediate 
 interests of himself and his own realm, and was 
 disposed to regard every proposal made by England 
 or by the United Provinces, only as it bore on 
 those particular interests, and not as it involved the 
 joint business of the campaign. The Dutch Allies, 
 
1707 'GEORGE THE ELECTOR.' 405 
 
 as we have seen over and over again, were always 
 anxious to estimate every proposal according to its 
 bearing on what seemed to them the direct advan- 
 tages of their own country, while we may take it for 
 granted that the Imperialists and the Dutch Allies, 
 differing as they did on so many other points, were 
 often agreed in thinking that England had an eye 
 chiefly to her own aggrandisement, and was making 
 use of their co-operation for the mere benefit of her 
 own policy. 
 
 In this particular instance it was the doubtful 
 mood of the Emperor which marred the success of 
 Marlborough's plan. Eugene was so badly supplied 
 with the means of making a great attack that, find- 
 ing it impossible to carry on the siege of Toulon 
 with any effect, he had to make up his mind to the 
 abandonment of the attempt. The Imperialist army 
 itself — at least that part of the force which was 
 occupied on the Upper Ehine under the command of 
 a very incapable leader, the Margrave of Baireuth, 
 was surprised and completely defeated by a French 
 force under Marshal ViUars. Villars was thus en- 
 abled to make his way into the Palatinate and to 
 lay it waste as other commanders sent out by King 
 Louis had done before. One result of this defeat 
 inflicted on the Imperialist forces deserves to be 
 recorded as a curious and interesting historical 
 incident. On the urgent advice of Marlborough the 
 Emperor deprived the Margrave of Baireuth of the 
 command, and gave it to George, the Elector of 
 Hanover, the man to whom the Crown of England 
 
406 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xix. 
 
 was to pass on the death of the reigning Sovereign. 
 Not much change, however, in the fortunes of the war 
 was brought about by this change of command, even 
 though it took place on the advice of Marlborough, 
 and gave a chance of military distinction to the 
 future King of England. 
 
 England suffered a severe loss about this time, 
 but the loss was not inflicted by any successful effort 
 on the part of the enemy. A stormy sea and a rock 
 near the Scilly Isles closed, on a foggy night, the 
 brilliant career of the brave Admiral Sir Cloudesley 
 Shovel, who had co-operated with Peterborough in 
 the capture of Barcelona. Shovel's vessel went down 
 with its crew of some eight hundred men, and the 
 wrecks of that night cost about two thousand lives 
 to the British naval service. The dead body of the 
 gallant Admiral was flung high on the shore by the 
 waves, and was there seen by some fishermen, who 
 stripped the corpse of any article of value which took 
 their fancy and then dug hastily a grave for it in the 
 sands. Among the articles the plundering fishermen 
 had carried off was a valuable emerald ring which 
 was recognised by some in the nearest town as a 
 personal possession and ornament of Sir Cloudesley 
 Shovel. The fisher-folk who had found the body 
 were probably not worse than many of their friends 
 and neighbours who were accustomed to take ad- 
 vantage of any chance that a storm might bring them 
 when it tossed a stranger's corpse ashore. They had 
 not had any suspicion that they were plundering the 
 body of a great English admiral, and they gave up 
 
1707 SIR CLOUDESLEY SHOVEL. 407 
 
 the ring and revealed the place where they had laid 
 its owner beneath the sand. The corpse of the brave 
 seaman was dug up and carried to London, where it 
 received the well-merited ceremonial of a grand 
 funeral service and a tomb in Westminster Abbey. 
 When the Queen had to appoint a successor to 
 Shovel's position of Eear-Admiral of England, she 
 chose Sir John Leake. She spoke some words of 
 feeling which were at once a tribute to the dead 
 and to the living when she told Leake that she 
 knew no man so fit to repair the loss of the ablest 
 seaman in her service. 
 
 Some biographers record the fact that an unlucky 
 expression used in the prayer prepared by Arch- 
 bishop Tenison in this same year invoking a blessing 
 on the fleets and armies of England was the occasion 
 for some dismal and rather irreverent pleasantry. 
 The prayer besought Heaven to be ' the rock of our 
 might.' A facetious person threw off on the spur 
 of the moment the lines which we quote — lines which 
 are said, we hope not truly, to have been actually 
 laid upon Sir Cloudesley Shovel's grave : — 
 
 As Lambeth pray'd, so was the dire event, 
 
 Else we had wanted here a monument, 
 That to our fleet kind Heaven would be a rock ; 
 
 Nor did kind Heaven the wise petition mock : 
 To what the metropolitan did pen, 
 
 The bishop and clerks replied, Amen. 
 
 The feeling of discontent with the progress of the 
 war had been of late growing more and more in 
 England, and it began to affect the cohesive efficiency 
 of the Alliance. Marlborough became convinced that 
 
408 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. six. 
 
 the time had come when some decisive blow must 
 be struck if the Alliance was to be held together and 
 if the public of England were to be encouraged 
 to support the campaign. We have seen that 
 Marlborough had often endeavoured to arouse his 
 own Government and the other Governments of the 
 AUiance to the imperative necessity of adopting some 
 onward policy which might lead the way to a 
 successful close of the war. Again and again he had 
 striven to obtain the authority which might enable 
 him to carry his policy into effect, and again and 
 again his inspiration had been rendered futile by 
 objections, by delays, by counter-projects, by purposes 
 which would not agree with each other, and by lack 
 of faith in the possibility of complete success. 
 Perhaps there is no story of great military enterprise 
 in which the genius of one man shows itself so well 
 quahfied to accomplish all the desired results, if only 
 it had not been hampered, harassed, and frustrated 
 at every crisis by the interposition of some impedi- 
 ment on the part of those whose prompt co-operation 
 was indispensable to complete victory. The more 
 closely we study the events of this long war the more 
 clearly do we see that Marlborough was always right 
 in his policy, that he was always successful when 
 allowed to give that policy a fair chance of working 
 out its ends, and that he only failed when for one 
 reason or another some other policy was allowed to 
 prevail over that which was the birth of his genius 
 as a commander. 
 
 Marlborough now found that new difficulties 
 
1707-8 A TIME OF DOUBT. 409 
 
 were rising in his way. He had had warnings from 
 qualified advisers that the people of the United 
 Provinces were beginning to feel utterly weary of the 
 war, and were even turning their minds towards the 
 formation of plans which might end in their making 
 terms of peace on their own account. To some men 
 of influence in Holland it seemed possible that advan- 
 tageous terms for themselves might now be obtained 
 from the French Government if, at a time when 
 active operations in the field seemed to have come 
 almost to a standstill, the Dutch were to express a 
 willingness to enter upon terms of peaceful arrange- 
 ment for their own separate advantage. 
 
 A curiously expressive, although somewhat gro- 
 tesque, phrase was used within the memory of most of 
 us by a clever and audacious American adventurer in 
 finance and politics, to describe a crisis when there 
 seemed nothing left for everyone concerned in it 
 but to look out for his own safety. He declared 
 that the time had come for every man to drag his 
 own corpse out. Some of the Allies at the time 
 which we have now reached in the story of the war 
 were unconsciously anticipating the judgment of 
 the modern adventurer, and were making up their 
 minds that the hour had come for everyone to drag 
 his own corpse out. The trouble was not that the 
 spirit of brave comradeship was utterly wanting to 
 any of the Allies. No people had ever given more 
 splendid evidences of heroic determination to carry 
 on what might seem to be an unending struggle, 
 than the Dutch had given to the world not so long 
 
410 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xix. 
 
 before. The trouble was that no one common and 
 single-purpose inspired the counsels of the Alliance, that 
 each of its members was jealous or at least doubtful 
 about the objects and the policy of aU the others, 
 and the disheartening moment had arrived when 
 each began to think that if he did not promptly 
 endeavour to save himself, the others would antici- 
 pate his action and save themselves by deserting 
 him. 
 
 Other difficulties, too, began to show themselves 
 in that field of action which was more especially 
 Marlborough's own. The populations of the regions 
 which we should now describe as Belgium were by 
 no means satisfied with the dominion which the con- 
 ditions of the war enabled the Dutch to maintain 
 over them. The Dutch inhabitants may be de- 
 scribed as altogether Protestant, while the Belgian 
 populations were Catholic, and the differences of faith 
 and feeling which in later years led to the separation 
 of the two peoples were already beginning to make 
 their influence evident. The conduct of the war so 
 far as the United Provinces were concerned was 
 placed in the hands of Dutch commissioners, and the 
 Dutch commissioners were not in general very con- 
 ciliatory in their demeanour towards the Catholic 
 populations. On the other hand, the Catholic popu- 
 lations were disposed to resent the sort of dominion 
 asserted by the Dutch, and to see in some of the 
 movements of camps and armies a desire on the part 
 of the Dutch to make the interest, the comfort, and 
 the convenience of their own co-religionists a chief 
 
1708 OUDENAEDE. 411 
 
 consideration in their military arrangements. Some 
 of the Catholics had their minds filled with the dread 
 that as soon as the war came to an end with advan- 
 tage to the Allies, the Dutch would make themselves 
 absolute masters of the whole country which con- 
 tained the two populations, and it is said by some his- 
 torians that many leading men among the Dutch were 
 rather outspoken in their avowal of such a purpose. 
 
 The condition of growing disaffection among 
 the Catholic populations of the Low Countries to- 
 wards the Alliance was beginning to be well known 
 to the French, and the comparative inaction of the 
 AUies during recent months had roused a hope in 
 the statesmen of King Louis that the war spirit was 
 dying out among their leading and most formidable 
 opponents. The effect of aU this was that the 
 French determined to make a great effort at some 
 immediate success, and they were further inspired 
 to enterprise by the fact that Bruges and Ghent 
 gave the French troops a welcome into their walls. 
 There was something like trouble and disaffection 
 in Antwerp itself, but Marlborough had received 
 timely intimation of this growing danger, and was 
 ready by the interposition of his influence to prevent 
 it from becoming a reality. 
 
 The inspirited French resolved to take advantage 
 of what seemed to be in every way a golden oppor- 
 tunity by a strong attempt to obtain possession of 
 Oudenarde. This place was a fortress on the Scheldt, 
 very strong in itself and holding an important posi- 
 tion between Brabant and the French frontier-line. 
 
412 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xix. 
 
 If the French army could get possession of this for- 
 tress, it would, at all events, keep the way open for 
 them to retire into their own country in the event 
 of strategic reasons rendering that course desirable. 
 The army of the Allies, which was commanded by 
 Marlborough himself, was not so strong in numbers 
 as the French army, and the French, therefore, did 
 not seem to have any fear that Marlborough might 
 hasten up to interrupt their movements by beginning 
 the attack. The French army, however, suffered from 
 the disadvantage which was commonly imposed upon 
 French armies at that time ; it had a real and a 
 nominal commander. The nominal commander was 
 the Duke of Burgundy, a prince of the royal family, 
 but the real commander was the daring and brilliant 
 Duke of VendSme. The understanding in such an 
 arrangement as this was that the royal prince 
 should be the figurehead of the campaign, but 
 that he should take the advice and act upon the 
 suggestions of the general who had more experience 
 in military affairs, and who, in this case, had a 
 special genius for the work. In this instance the 
 two commanders did not get on very well together. 
 The nominal commander was not disposed to regard 
 his position as merely nominal, and had not wisdom 
 enough to see the immense superiority of Vend6me. 
 The Duke of Burgundy had, moreover, a strong 
 personal dislike to his companion-in-arms, a dislike 
 which may well be accounted for by Vend6me's 
 character and habits, but which came in with 
 unlucky influence where the great object ought to 
 
1708 EUGENE JOINS MAELBOROUGH. 413 
 
 have been to work out the best possible plan of 
 campaign. 
 
 In the meanwhile Marlborough obtained one espe- 
 cial advantage over his opponents, in the fact that he 
 was joined by a colleague with whom he could always 
 work in the happiest union of counsels and with the 
 most satisfactory results. This colleague was Prince 
 Eugene, who had no further work just then to do in 
 Italy, and who was therefore sent to join Marlborough. 
 Eugene was in command of a large Imperialist 
 force, but the plans of the Emperor were hindered 
 in their execution by the all too familiar delays, 
 and both Marlborough and Eugene soon began to 
 find that, if Eugene were not to come until he could 
 bring the whole force at his command along with 
 him, he might come too late to be of any immediate 
 assistance. There was some rapid exchange of com- 
 munications between the two commanders, and the 
 result was that Eugene left the main body of his 
 cavalry and infantry behind him, and accompanied 
 only by his personal Staff, came at the top of his 
 speed to Marlborough's camping ground. Marl- 
 borough was delighted to welcome the new arrival, 
 and he told Eugene, with truth as well as with 
 graciousness, that the mere presence of so brilliant 
 a soldier would be a fresh encouragement to the 
 whole army. 
 
 There was no feeling of jealousy or rivalry be- 
 tween Marlborough and Eugene. Each man recog- 
 nised to the full the military genius of the other; 
 each man thoroughly appreciated the help which he 
 
414 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xix. 
 
 must receive from the counsels of the other. Marl- 
 borough lost no time in explaining all his plans to 
 Eugene, and Eugene had no hesitation in approving 
 them and co-operating with them. The two generals 
 agreed that their march should be between the 
 French frontier and the French army, so as to cut 
 the French off from that line of retreat which it 
 might be supposed that Venddme would especially 
 desire to keep open in the event of any possible 
 discomfiture to his movements. This was indeed 
 somewhat of a daring policy on the part of 
 Marlborough, and if the purpose he had immediately 
 in view should by any chance be frustrated might 
 have led to a most serious disaster. But the policy 
 of Marlborough at a critical emergency was almost 
 always a policy of sudden daring, for no other man 
 could calculate so quickly and so accurately as he 
 the relative proportions of the risk to be run and 
 the advantage to be gained. Where Marlborough 
 saw that a stroke could successfully be made, it 
 might always be taken for granted that the risk 
 coiild safely be run for the sake of the advantage to 
 be thus, and thus only, obtained. 
 
 When the French commanders became aware of 
 the approach of the Allies they determined at once to 
 give up the siege of Oudenarde for the time. But 
 they were far from expecting an immediate and 
 direct attack from Marlborough, for they knew 
 that the allied forces had been kept on the march 
 for a long time and over a fatiguing country. 
 It did not come into their calculations that even 
 
1708 GEOEGE THE SEObND. 415 
 
 Marlborough would feel inclined to enter upon a 
 great engagement after a march of nearly twenty- 
 miles. The French therefore settled themselves in a 
 strong position with much rising ground between 
 them and their enemies, and we may presume that 
 the nominal and the real commander began to dispute 
 as to the best plan of operations. Marlborough 
 did in this, as in many other instances, the very 
 thing which his opponents had made up their miads 
 that he was likely not to do. He rushed into 
 action at once. Even before he had got his whole 
 forces into position, he ordered his cavalry to 
 charge, and the French commanders saw that the 
 game was a desperate one ; that they had no choice 
 left in the matter ; that they must either fight it out to 
 the end or give up the battle. Marlborough put his 
 English troops at the left and gave the command of 
 that part of his army to Eugene, in whom he weU 
 knew that the English soldiers had the most per- 
 fect confidence. He himself directed the centre of 
 the force, which had no English troops in it, but 
 was made up altogether of the other forces serving 
 the Grand Alliance. Marlborough no doubt felt 
 good reason to believe that the soldiers who were 
 not English would fight aU the better because 
 they had such a man, and not one of their own 
 commanders, to lead them in the field and show 
 them the way to victory. It should be mentioned 
 that in the first charge, that which may be called the 
 preliminary charge, George the Electoral Prince of 
 Hanover, who was afterwards to rule over England 
 
416 THE KBIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xix. 
 
 as King George the Second, showed himself, as he 
 did on a later battle-field, a brave and resolute 
 soldier. 
 
 In the first encounter of the two armies the 
 French attacked, with some apparent success, the 
 left wing of Marlborough's army, which for a while 
 seemed to be driven back, and the French pressed on 
 all the more persistently in the hope that they were 
 about to win a victory. Marlborough, according to 
 his usual fashion, turned this seeming disadvantage to 
 great account, and directed a rapid movement to cut 
 the French off from any possible retreat by occupying 
 the heights behind them. The movement was perfectly 
 successful, and the battle went on until nightfall. It 
 may almost be described as a regular hand-to-hand 
 fight, for the two armies were so close together that 
 the cannon was hardly employed on either side. 
 Eugene did his work spendidly, and the old Dutch 
 commander, Marshal Overkirk, whom Marlborough 
 had sent to cut off the French retreat, carried out his 
 orders with remarkable skiU and resolve, and fuUy 
 accomplished his purpose. Owing to the fact that 
 the day was one of hand-to-hand fighting for the 
 most part, and that the artillery was seldom used, the 
 slaughter on either side was not very great, but a 
 large number of the French were taken prisoners. 
 
 In those days the coming on of night usually 
 brought to a close the most hotly contested battle, 
 and when darkness came on the Allies were not quite 
 certain whether they had won an absolute victory, 
 and indeed were making resolute preparations for a 
 
1708 VICTOKY OF THE ALLIES. 417 
 
 renewal of the struggle with the return of light. 
 This day was July 11, 1708. The battle was not 
 renewed by the French on the following day — 
 Marlborough and Eugene had won their victory. 
 Vend6me, the real commander of the French, was 
 burning to renew the battle next day, but the 
 nominal commander, the Duke of Burgundy, was not 
 inclined for such a measure, and most of his generals 
 shared his disinclination. There was nothing for it 
 then but to order a retreat, and we learn on good 
 authority that Venddme was furious in his wrath 
 against this policy and expressed himself in words 
 which could hardly have been grateful to the feelings 
 of the Prince who was in nominal command. The 
 battle, it should be said, was fought splendidly by 
 the French soldiers, and it is to their honour that 
 when night came on the result might still have 
 been regarded as a drawn game. Most assuredly if 
 Vendome had had his way Marlborough and Eugene 
 would have had another day of hard fighting before 
 they could have claimed a victory. But the more 
 (iautious counsels of the nominal French commander 
 prevailed, and the field of Oudenarde was a lost 
 battle for King Louis of France. The Prince who 
 represented the lost cause of the Stuart family 
 fought at Oudenarde on the side of the French. 
 The representative of the dethroned and exiled 
 dynasty was in the one army — the representative of 
 the house now appointed for succession to the rule of 
 England was in the other. 
 
 Once again Marlborough desired to carry on a 
 
 VOL. I. BE 
 
418 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xix. 
 
 bold and forward policy. His idea was that the 
 AUies, disregarding every temptation to turn aside 
 for the capture of this or that strong place, should 
 march right on to Paris and dictate terms of peace 
 there. Eugene, however, was of opinion that the 
 fortress of Lille on the French frontier should be 
 captured and secured before the Allies set out to 
 make their way into the heart of hostile France. 
 Marlborough was always willing to give full conside- 
 ration to any counsels coming from so capable a 
 commander as Eugene, and there was a good deal to 
 be said for the practical wisdom of Eugene's pohcy. 
 In any case it would have been difficult for 
 Marlborough to persuade the Dutch commissioners 
 into an agreement with his views. The idea of 
 leaving not only the remains of a French army but 
 also the commanding fortress of Lille behind them, 
 when setting out upon their march into a country, 
 the whole population of which would be hostUe with 
 one mind and heart to the English invasion, seemed 
 to the Dutch commissioners an enterprise of the most 
 hopeless nature. Marlborough, therefore, readily con- 
 sented under aU the conditions to adopt Eugene's 
 scheme, and it was determined to lay siege at once 
 to the fortress of Lille. The command of the actual 
 siege operations was assigned to Eugene. Marl- 
 borough himself undertook the direction of the cover- 
 ing army which was to deal with any attempt for the 
 relief of the besieged place. It was of the utmost 
 importance that Marlborough should take charge of 
 this part of the work, for the French army, even after 
 
1708 THE SIEGE OF LILLE. 419 
 
 Oudenarde, was still in considerable strength, and it 
 had been joined more lately by the Duke of Berwick 
 with a large force under his command. It should be 
 said that Eugene's troops, which their commander 
 had left behind him in his eagerness to take part with 
 Marlborough, had by this time come into the field, 
 but the proportions of' the two contending armies 
 remained much the same as before, seeing that the 
 troops of Berwick on the one side had to be set off 
 against those of Eugene on the other. 
 
 The siege of LiUe began at once, and it may 
 truly be said that the eyes of all Europe were soon 
 turned upon it. In other fields of the great and 
 widespread war there had not been much important 
 fighting going on of late, and Lille became for the 
 time the centre of universal interest. The defence 
 of LiUe was splendidly maintained by the French, 
 and there were many incidents on both sides of the 
 struggle which afterwards gave rise to keen personal 
 and political controversy. Some brilliant displays 
 of daring and skiU were made by French officers 
 and soldiers to keep up supphes for the beleaguered 
 fortress, and even to keep the garrison in posses- 
 sion of the news of aU that was going on outside it. 
 For sixty days LUle held out, but at last it became 
 clear even, it is said, to King Louis himself and 
 those around him that a further loss of gallant lives 
 would be only a futile sacrifice. The garrison had 
 run so short of supplies that nothing was left to feed 
 on but scraps of horseflesh, and no gunpowder re- 
 mained with which to fire a shot of defiance at the 
 
 EB 2 
 
420 THE EEiaN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xix. 
 
 enemy. Eugene behaved with characteristic gallantry 
 and generosity. He allowed Marshal Bouffleurs, the 
 officer in command of the garrison, to name his own 
 conditions of surrender, and the conquerors and the 
 conquered parted on terms of reciprocal admira- 
 tion. 
 
 France was now reduced to a condition which 
 might almost be described as desperate. The 
 treasury was all but emptied ; the public debt was 
 increased by an enormous amount ; the drain upon 
 the population to fill the ranks of the army had left 
 most of the country places absolutely without culti- 
 vation, and there were threatenings, not vague or 
 remote, of a famine in the land. The Government 
 found it almost beyond their power to keep up the 
 pay of the soldiers in the field, and to add to all 
 other troubles, the winter was one of extraordinary 
 severity. King Louis began to think that there was 
 nothing left for him but to propose terms of peace to 
 the conquering Allies. The condition of inactivity 
 into which the allied armies appeared to have fallen 
 was now succeeded, so far as the French could judge, 
 by a sudden reaction of temper and an energetic 
 forward movement. Louis actually went so far as to 
 open negotiations with the Allies. He sent an am- 
 bassador to the Hague, by whom conditions of peace 
 were to be ofiered which at an earlier stage of the 
 campaigning would probably have seemed weU 
 worthy of consideration. The substance of his offers 
 was that his grandson Philip should give up all 
 claims to the crown of Spain itself, and should with- 
 
1708 LOUIS OFFERS TERMS. 421 
 
 draw from the Peninsula altogether, but with the 
 stipulation that Naples and Sicily, which were then 
 parts of the Spanish dominion, should be formed into 
 a separate kingdom, of which Philip was to be created 
 the sovereign. 
 
 Now it must be owned that this offer, if we con- 
 sent to view it for the moment from the French side 
 of the political field, might have seemed an ahnost 
 absolute concession to the overpowering strength 
 of the Allies. Spain itself was to be declared free of 
 all claim on the part of the Bourbon Prince, and 
 when the war began the especial declaration of pohcj'' 
 made by the Allies was that it would be impossible 
 for them to give their consent to any arrangement 
 which would practically make the kingdom of Spain 
 an integral part of the dominion of France. The 
 Allies had never professed any particular interest 
 about the manner in which the populations of Naples 
 and SicUy were to be governed, and an independent 
 kingdom of Naples and Sicily combined could hardly 
 be likely to offer any serious trouble to England or 
 Holland or the States of the Emperor. As to the feel- 
 ings of the Neapolitans and the Sicilians themselves, 
 no very formidable difficulty could be expected to 
 arise, for the arrangements of international diplomacy 
 in those days, and even in days much later, did not 
 usually profess to take account of the sentiments 
 entertained by mere populations. But the Allies 
 were not just then in a humour to be liberal in their 
 acceptance of conditions from an enemy whom 
 they believed to be reduced almost to the end of his 
 
422 THE KEIGN OP QUEEN ANNE. ch. xix. 
 
 resources. No one was better informed than Marl- 
 borough as to the degree of strain which the main- 
 tenance of the war had put upon the armies and the 
 exchequer of France. Marlborough, however, like 
 nearly all great soldiers, was not eager to prolong a 
 war merely for the excitement and the glory of war, 
 and he if left to himself would probably have gone 
 farther than many of his colleagues on battle-field or 
 in council to bring about a peaceful and speedy 
 settlement of the whole struggle. But under the 
 conditions which prevailed just then the proposals of 
 King Louis had no chance of acceptance. Each of 
 the allied powers had some separate advantage to 
 obtain for itself, and each was willing to support the 
 claims of all the others as long as this did not involve 
 giving up any part of its own demand. 
 
 Marlborough and Lord Townshend were appointed 
 as plenipotentiaries on the part of Queen Anne and 
 her Government. The English plenipotentiaries were 
 instructed to make very large demands. First and 
 foremost, it was insisted that the whole of the exist- 
 ing Spanish dominion must be set quite free from 
 any claim on the part of France. Then it was further 
 stipulated that France must completely change her 
 policy with regard to the exiled Stuarts, that she 
 must recognise the sovereignty of Queen Anne and 
 the rights of the Protestant succession, and that the 
 Stuart family must be banished from French soil. 
 Finally a condition was made that the French works 
 at Dunkirk, which were regarded as a menace to Eng- 
 land, must be at once demolished. Holland had 
 
1708 THE TERMS OF THE ALLIES. 423 
 
 some stipulations of her own to make, which were 
 not likely to be welcome to the French Government, 
 and it is said were thought somewhat too exact- 
 ing by Marlborough himself. The Dutch demanded 
 that they should be allowed to possess and main- 
 tain as fortresses a line of frontier towns, which 
 they declared to be necessary to the existence of 
 the United Provinces as a State, in order to secure 
 them against the risks of any future invasion on 
 the part of France. The Emperor, too, had terms 
 to make on his own account which sounded harshly 
 in the ears of the French negotiators. In fact, the 
 combined conditions of the Allies were such as 
 could only be offered with any hope of acceptance 
 to a State already beaten to its knees, and France 
 even yet did not feel herself reduced to that abject 
 condition. 
 
 One incident of the negotiations deserves special 
 mention, if only for the curious light it throws on 
 the processes of persuasion which European states- 
 men were ready, even at so recent a period, to employ 
 for the purpose of gaining their ends. The French 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. de Torcy, was sent to 
 conduct negotiations on the part of France. M. de 
 Torcy had some private interviews with Marlborough, 
 and has himself told with charming frankness that 
 he offered, with the authority of his Government, a 
 huge bribe to Marlborough, if the latter would only 
 help him to obtain a favourable consideration for 
 the terms offered by France. Now, it is quite certain 
 that during the course of his career Marlborough 
 
424 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. six. 
 
 was more than once accused by his enemies at home 
 and abroad of having accepted bribes, and even of 
 having been guilty of actual peculation. But in this 
 instance we may unhesitatingly acquit Marlborough 
 of any corrupt act, for M. de Torcy has himself 
 told the world that Marlborough would not listen to 
 the proposal. The enemies of Marlborough would 
 probably have insinuated that the great soldier knew 
 well how little chance there was for acceptance of 
 the French proposals, and therefore declined to run 
 the risk of entering into any such futile compact. 
 
 However that may be, it is certain that no 
 pressure brought to bear upon the Allies had the 
 effect of inducing them to make their conditions 
 more easy for King Louis to accept. Indeed, the 
 result of the discussions at the Hague was that the 
 AUies began to make their demands harder and 
 harder the longer the argument was kept up. By 
 the time M. de Torcy was able to return to the 
 Court of Versailles he had to bear with him an 
 ultimatum that the whole of the Spanish dominion 
 should be handed over as a kingdom to the Arch- 
 duke Charles, and that if this was not done within 
 two months King Louis must himself join with the 
 Allies in compelling his own grandson, by sheer force, 
 to renounce aU his claims to the Spanish throne, and 
 take himself, bag and baggage, out of Spain. This 
 latest condition was especially added because it was 
 seen that Philip had undoubtedly made himself 
 welcome to the Castilian population at least, and 
 that no efforts of mere diplomacy, even if supported 
 
1709 CONDITIONS MADE HARDEE. 425 
 
 and pressed on by King Louis himself, would be 
 likely to prevail on the King's grandson to renounce 
 his claim on the Spanish throne. 
 
 Bishop Burnet tells the story in his own way, and 
 some parts of his narrative are weU worth quoting. 
 ' The foundation of the whole treaty,' he says, ' was 
 the restoring of the whole Spanish monarchy to king 
 Charles, within two months : Torcy said, the time was 
 too short, and that perhaps it was not in the king of 
 France's power to bring that about : for the Spaniards 
 seemed resolved to stick to king Philip. It was, upon 
 this, insisted on, that the king of France should be 
 obliged to concur with the Allies, to force it by all 
 proper methods ; but this was not farther explained, 
 for the Allies were well assured, that if it was sin- 
 cerely intended by France, there would be no great 
 difficulty in bringing it about. This therefore being 
 laid down as the basis of the treaty, the other pre- 
 liminaries related to the restoring all the places in 
 the Netherlands, except Cambray and St. Omer ; the 
 demolishing or restoring of Dunkirk ; the restoring 
 of Strasbourg, Brisack and Huningen to the Empire ; 
 Newfoundland to England ; and Savoy to that duke, 
 besides his continuing possessed of all he then had in 
 his hands ; the acknowledging the king of Prussia's 
 royal dignity; and the electorate in the House of 
 Brunswick ; the sending the pretender out of France, 
 and. the owning the succession to the Crown of 
 England, as it was settled by law.' 
 
 Up to this time the representative of the French 
 King had put on the appearance of wiUingness to 
 
426 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xix. 
 
 enter into negotiations on the basis laid down by the 
 Allies, and hopeful persons among the AUies were 
 ready to beheve that the serious difficulties were 
 over, and that the ratification of the terms of peace 
 might soon be expected. No such hopes, we may 
 be sure, existed in the mind of Marlborough; no 
 such idea could have been in the mind of de Torcy, 
 although he put on the manner of a negotiator ready 
 to listen to any propositions tending towards peace. 
 When he was returning to Versailles to make known 
 the final decision of the Allies, he could have been 
 in little doubt about the decision of the French 
 King. It would in fact have been absolutely impos- 
 sible for King Louis to accept such terms without 
 a complete acknowledgment of utter defeat. The 
 King, it must be owned, exhibited on this occasion 
 a spirit not unkingly. Louis made up his mind at 
 once to reject any proposals founded on such a basis. 
 Some influence was brought to bear upon him in 
 his own family in order that a peace, even at this 
 price, might be obtained. It was said that the Duke 
 of Burgundy urged the King to accept the proffered 
 conditions on the ground that the continuance of 
 the war would mean the absolute ruin of France, 
 and Bishop Burnet seems to give credit to the state- 
 ment commonly believed that Madame de Maintenon 
 brought her influence to bear upon the King with 
 the same object in view. But that article in the 
 proposed treaty which would have bound France 
 to join with the Allies in expelling PhiUp from Spain 
 was too much for the King and most of his advisers. 
 
1709 MUTUAL DISTRUST. 427 
 
 ' The people in France,' says Burnet, ' were much 
 wrought on by this pretended indignity offered to 
 their monarch, to obhge him to force his grandson 
 to abandon Spain ; and even, here in England, there 
 wanted not many, who said it was a cruel hardship 
 put on the French king, to force him into such an 
 unnatural war.' Burnet himself does not profess to be 
 one of the Englishmen who held such opinions, and 
 he puts it in a cool and matter-of-fact sort of way 
 that if King Louis ' was guilty of the injustice of 
 putting him in possession of that kingdom, it was 
 but a reasonable piece of justice to undo what he 
 himself had done : and it was so visible, that king 
 Philip was maintained on that throne, by the counsels 
 and assistance of France, that no doubt was made, 
 but that, if the king of France had really designed 
 it, he could easily have obliged him to relinquish all 
 pretensions to that crown.' 
 
 Burnet goes on to provide illustrations from the 
 former history of dealings between England and 
 France, to show that it had been a common habit 
 among French sovereigns to open up negotiations 
 with EngUsh rulers without having any serious de- 
 sire that the negotiations should come to a peaceful 
 settlement, and only with the object of gaining time 
 so that hostilities might be renewed at a moment of 
 less advantage to England. We find in the history 
 of wars much more recent than the war of the 
 Spanish Succession, that the process of negotiations 
 on both sides of the quarrel tends to fill the disputing 
 parties with the conviction that the statesmanship 
 
428 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xix. 
 
 of the other side is always inspired by a perfidious 
 motive and conducted by a treacherous policy. 
 This is one of the evils of war, and not the least of 
 its evils, that the opponents are always ready to 
 credit each other with false pretences and treacherous 
 schemes, even in the conduct of negotiations which 
 profess, on both sides, to be initiated only with a 
 desire to procure an honourable peace. At the time 
 when so many English people at home and abroad 
 were assuring each other that the King of France 
 was merely pretending a willingness to enter into 
 some arrangement, while in his secret heart there was 
 no purpose but to secure delay and to gain time for 
 renewed and more advantageous action, the general 
 opinion in and around the Court of France was that 
 the Allies were playing just such a game and with 
 precisely similar motives. Looking back on the 
 whole transaction, the present generation of English- 
 men may fairly admit that King Louis could not, 
 under all the conditions, accept such terms as those 
 which the Allies sought to impose upon him. 
 
 Louis seems to have risen to the occasion 
 with a spirit and resolve which would have been 
 weU worthy of a better man. He declared to those 
 around him that, if he must fight, he would much 
 rather fight against the enemies of his country than 
 against a member of his own household. His de- 
 termination prevailed with the statesmen who were 
 his immediate advisers. He was not content with 
 the acceptance of his resolve by the members of his 
 own ministry, but he went so far as to address his 
 
1709 KING LOUIS' APPEAL. 429 
 
 appeal to the country at large. He had an address, 
 a sort of public proclamation, prepared which he 
 sent round to the governors of all the French 
 provinces, with the order that its contents should 
 be made known to the populations within their 
 jurisdiction. In this address he made very much 
 the same complaint as to the purposes and the action 
 of the AUies which the Allies were making at the 
 time about him. He assured his people that the 
 Allies did not really wish for peace, that their 
 object was to prolong the war, and to force their 
 way into the very heart of France. He declared 
 that the more he showed willingness to carry on a 
 sincere negotiation with the view to restoring peace, 
 the more determinedly did the Allies keep on rais- 
 ing their terms, so that every concession he offered 
 brought out from the other side only increased 
 demands and sharper exactions. Nothing was left 
 for him, he said, but to call upon his people to stand 
 by their country and by him, and to prove that 
 France had still strength and spirit enough to 
 encounter all the allied powers of Europe rather 
 than allow her soil to be occupied by foreign con- 
 querors. The appeal from the King brought an 
 echo from almost every part of France, and once 
 again new recruits from all provinces were filled 
 with alacrity to offer their services in the field for 
 what they believed to be the defence of their 
 country against foreign invasion. The negotiations 
 were over and the war was to begin again. 
 
 Some mention must be made of the help which 
 
430 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xix. 
 
 Marlborough received, during these negotiations 
 and at all periods of the war, from the counsels and 
 the efforts of the distinguished Dutch statesman 
 Anthony Heinsius. Heinsius, in the earlier part of 
 his career, had been inclined to favour the policy of 
 an aUiance with France against WiUiam the Third. 
 He studied the question, however, at the Court of 
 Versailles and there became convinced that Holland 
 could expect no real support or genuine friend- 
 ship from the French Court and French statesmen. 
 He became a close and a trusted friend of William 
 the Third, and in later days was a close and a trusted 
 friend of the new English Government and of 
 Marlborough. Heinsius was, at the time with which 
 we are now dealing, the Grand Pensionary of the 
 United Provinces. His position was very much Uke 
 that of an English Prime Minister, but at this time 
 Holland was passing through one of the intervals 
 when she had no actual Stadholder or sovereign 
 head of the State, and his influence was therefore all 
 the greater in directing the policy of his country. 
 Marlborough could trust him, and his influence was 
 ever on Marlborough's side. 
 
431 
 
 CHAPTEE XX 
 
 JONATHAN swift's VIEWS 
 
 All this time there was a keen, although not by any 
 means unprejudiced, observer taking close account 
 of the events which were passing in political life and 
 of the changes which were made in the ministry of 
 Queen Anne, and this observer followed the useful 
 and wholesome practice of making notes of the events 
 themselves and of the impressions which they pro- 
 duced on his mind. This observer was Jonathan 
 Swift, a man of intellectual gifts not surpassed in his 
 time, of some intellectual gifts not surpassed at any 
 time, a man of passion and of prejudice, of love and 
 of hate ; conscious of his own power, and, we may 
 do him the justice to believe, anxious always to make 
 the best use of it, but peculiarly subject to the 
 distorting and distracting influences of an over- 
 sensitive nature and a spirit which seldom brooked 
 the counsels of moderation. Swift, it should be said, 
 finds fault with himself for not having carried out 
 his system of note-taking with anything like the 
 regularity or fulness which he had always believed 
 to be necessary and had recommended to other 
 men. ' I was always too neghgent,' he says, ' in 
 taking hints or journals of every thing material as it 
 
432 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xx. 
 
 passed, whereof I omitted many that I cannot now 
 recollect, although I was convinced, by a thousand 
 instances, of the weakness of my memory.' Swift, 
 however, promptly finds a characteristic and sarcastic 
 excuse for his frequent failure to keep up the 
 practice which he believed to be right and had 
 blamed others for not keeping up : ' But, to say the 
 truth, the nearer knowledge any man has in the 
 affairs at Court, the less he thinks them of con- 
 sequence or worth regarding.' 
 
 The reader who reads Swift's ' Memoirs relating 
 to that change which happened in the Queen's Minis- 
 try in the year 1710,' written in October 1714, 
 will probably come to the conclusion that, whether 
 Swift was right or wrong in the judgments which he 
 formed as to the political events and personages of 
 his time, he does not seem to have omitted from his 
 notes or his recollections very much that was of 
 material import to the study of that historical period. 
 ' Having continued,' Swift tells us, ' for near the 
 space of four years, in a good degree of confidence 
 with the ministry then in being, although not with 
 so much power as was believed, or at least given 
 out, by my friends as well as by my enemies, es- 
 pecially the latter, in both Houses of Parliament ; 
 And this having happened during a very busy period 
 of negotiations abroad, and management or intrigue 
 at home, I thought it might probably, some years 
 hence, when the present scene shall have given place 
 to many new ones that will arise, be an entertain- 
 ment to those who will have any personal regard 
 
1710-14 SWIFT'S LIVING PICTUEES. ' 433 
 
 for me or my memory, to set down some particu- 
 larities which fell under my knowledge and obser- 
 vation, while I was supposed, whether truly or no, to 
 have part in the secret of affairs.' 
 
 These observations have a very keen and vivid 
 interest for the student of history. They coijae from 
 a man who played an important, if not always a very 
 conspicuous, part in the political events of his time ; 
 a man whose intellect was acknowledged, and whose 
 advice was confidently sought by some of the most 
 famous and influential men and women who belonged 
 to the Court of Queen Anne. Swift had a peculiarly 
 happy faculty of description, and he was master of 
 the art which can suggest a whole figure or a whole 
 character by a few easy and apparently quiet touches 
 of portraiture. One must not rely on Swift's de- 
 scription as in every case a fair and true picture 
 of the personage whose characteristics he touches 
 off for our instruction. The reader must form his 
 estimate of this or that statesman who belonged to 
 Swift's time by the help of observers and authorities 
 less prejudiced and less partial than Swift. But we 
 may take it for granted that when Swift ascribes 
 certain peculiarities to this or that public man, such 
 peculiarities must have formed a part of his character 
 or demeanour, however much they may have been 
 modified or overborne by other qualities of nature 
 and of temper. 
 
 Whether Swift is dealing with friends or enemies, 
 it will be found that he can generally put before 
 the reader a living picture of the man as he showed 
 
 VOL. I. F F 
 
434 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xx. 
 
 himself to the outer world, although not perhaps of 
 the man as he actually was in heart and in purpose. 
 One seems to move among the people whom Swift 
 describes, even when we cannot accept his judgment 
 as to their motives and characters. But there is a 
 charm about Swift's political pamphleteering, if we 
 may apply that word to such essays as that with 
 which we are now dealing, quite outside any ques- 
 tion as to the accuracy or inaccuracy of his pen- 
 portraits of other men. That charm consists in the 
 light they throw on Swift's own temperament, feelings, 
 and character. The more we read them, the more 
 we are impressed with the fact that their chief 
 interest for us is found in the opportunities they 
 give us of studying Swift himself. 
 
 'It may probably enough happen,' Swift writes in 
 this same essay, ' that those who shall at any time 
 hereafter peruse these papers, may think it not 
 suitable to the nature of them, that, upon occasion, 
 I sometimes make mention of myself; who, during 
 these transactions, and ever since, was a person with- 
 out titles or public employment. But, since the chief 
 leaders of the faction, then out of power, were pleased 
 in both Houses of Parliament to take every oppor- 
 tunity of showing their malice, by mentioning me 
 (and often by name) as one who was in the secret 
 of all affairs, and without whose advice or privity, 
 nothing was done, or employment disposed of, it will 
 not, perhaps, be improper to take notice of some 
 passages, wherein the public and myself were jointly 
 concerned ; not to mention that the chief cause of 
 
1710-14 SWIFT DEFENDS HIMSELF. 435 
 
 giving myself this trouble, is to satisfy my particular 
 friends ; and, at worst, if, after the fate of manu- 
 scripts, these papers shall, by accident or indiscretion, 
 fall into the public view, they will be no more liable 
 to censure than other memoirs, published for many 
 years past, in English, French, and Italian.' Then 
 Swift thinks it right to inform us, accepting the 
 possibility that his papers may somehow or other get 
 into the hands of readers, that ' The period of time 
 I design to treat on, wiU commence with September 
 1710, from which time, till within two months of the 
 Queen's death, I was never absent from court, except 
 about six weeks in Ireland.' 
 
 Very few readers are likely to find any fault with 
 Swift because he introduces his own personality into 
 some of these papers, and takes the opportunity of 
 defending himself against what he regards as the 
 malice of his enemies in both Houses of Parliament, 
 by telling us what he thinks of them and letting us 
 know what poor figures they made of themselves 
 in his impartial eyes. Whether we agree with his 
 judgments or not, we feel ourselves growing better 
 acquainted with at least the outer aspects of the 
 political struggle from the reading of these papers 
 than we should be likely to become from the study 
 of the most grave, erudite, and judicial volumes of 
 history. Swift is always himself, and never seems to 
 write with any consideration as to the most expedient 
 manner of putting a case, or the most plausible 
 method of persuading readers to accept his guidance. 
 We can see in these papers telling and ample iUus- 
 
 E P 2 
 
436 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xx. 
 
 tration of the genius which created the Travels of 
 Lemuel Gulliver. We do not stop to inquire whether 
 Gulliver really did full justice to the character of the 
 various personages great and small whom he en- 
 countered in his travels ; our interest is in the de- 
 scriptions themselves, and we do not care to ask 
 whether the narrator was always justified in his 
 likings and dislikings. We have in a certain sense 
 something of the same feeling about Swift's political 
 pamphlets, and the clearest evidence that he was 
 mistaken or even unfair in his estimate of this or that 
 particular man or woman, does not take away in the 
 slightest degree from the fascination exercised over us 
 by the description itself, and by the light which all 
 the descriptions throw on the moods and nature of 
 the writer. 
 
 Swift is careful to tell us that he had ' often with 
 great earnestness pressed the Earl of Oxford, then 
 Lord Treasurer, and my Lady Masham, who were the 
 sole persons which brought about that great change ' 
 in the Queen's household as well as in the kingdom, to 
 give him a particular account of aU that had happened 
 during that historical episode. He also assures us 
 that this anxiety on his part did not ' proceed from 
 curiosity, or the ambition of knowing and publishing 
 important secrets ; but, from a sincere honest design 
 of justifying the Queen, in the measures she then 
 took, and after pursued against a load of scandal 
 which would certainly be thrown on her memory, 
 with some appearance of truth.' Some appearance 
 of truth, it must be owned, does still adhere to the 
 
1710-14 HOW SWIFT DEFENDS THE QUEEN. 437 
 
 charges made against the Queen of acting too often 
 on purely personal impulses, and the appearance of 
 truth does not seem to be entirely removed even 
 after Swift has given his explanation. The reader is 
 often inclined to believe that Swift in his own mind 
 must have thought that there was a good deal of truth 
 in the accusations, and that certain sly touches given 
 every now and then in his descriptions seem as if 
 they were put in by a man who means us to 
 understand that he has really said aU he can on the 
 side of the defence, and that if there is nothing more 
 to be said it is no fault of his. The impression which 
 will certainly be conveyed to the mind of almost 
 every reader is that those sly touches are more 
 pecuHarly characteristic of Swift than some of the 
 grave statements and ingenious arguments with which 
 he accompHshes his work as a friendly but truthful 
 historian. 
 
 'What,' Swift asks, 'would be more easy to a 
 malicious pen than to charge the Queen with incon- 
 stancy, weakness, and ingratitude, in removing and 
 disgracing the Duke of Marlborough, who had so 
 many years commanded her armies with victory 
 and success ; in displacing so many great officers of 
 her Court and kingdom, by whose counsels she had 
 in all appearance so prosperously governed; in 
 extending the marks of her severity and displeasure 
 towards the wife and daughters, as well as relations 
 and allies, of that person she had so long employed 
 and so highly trusted ; and aU this by the private 
 intrigues of a woman of her bedchamber, in concert 
 
438 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xx. 
 
 with an artful man, who might be supposed to have 
 acted that bold part only from a motive of revenge 
 upon the loss of his employments, or of ambition to 
 come again into power ? ' 
 
 There might undoubtedly seem to the ordinary 
 observer, whether looking on with his own eyes at 
 that time or studying from books at the present day, 
 something more than mere malice to warrant the 
 adoption of such opinions, and we cannot but admit 
 that Swift was perfectly right when he endeavoured 
 to induce the Queen and those in her counsels to 
 furnish a fuU exposition of all the facts in their 
 knowledge which could tend to dissipate such a 
 delusion. ' These,' says Swift, ' were some of the 
 arguments I often made use of with great freedom, 
 both to the Earl of Oxford and my Lady Masham, to 
 incite them to furnish me with materials for a fair 
 account of that great transaction, to which they 
 always seemed as well disposed as myself. My Lady 
 Masham did hkewise assure me, that she had fre- 
 quently informed the Queen of my request, which 
 her Majesty thought very reasonable, and did appear 
 upon all occasions as desirous of preserving reputa- 
 tion with posterity, as might justly become a great 
 Prince to be.' 
 
 Swift was not able, with whatever effort and 
 perseverance, to carry his point with the Queen and 
 Oxford, and to inspire them with that due care for 
 their reputation which he believed, and they said 
 they believed, to be imperative under all the condi- 
 tions. Swift does not attempt much excuse for 
 
1710-14 SWIFT BEGINS HIS STORY. 439 
 
 this negligence on the part of his illustrious friends. 
 He expresses his sentiments very clearly. ' But, that 
 incurable disease, either of negUgence or procrasti- 
 nation, which influenced every action both of the 
 Queen and the Earl of Oxford, did in some sort infect 
 everyone who had credit or business in Court. 
 For, after soliciting near four years, to obtain a 
 point of so great importance to the Queen and 
 her servants, from whence I could propose nothing 
 but trouble, malice, and envy to myself, it was per- 
 petually put ofi".' In fact. Swift explains, he went 
 so far as to ofler to undertake the task of writing 
 the history of Anne's reign, and he was ready to 
 accept the office of historiographer, ' although of 
 inconsiderable value, and of which I might be sure 
 to be deprived upon the Queen's death.' Even this 
 offer, however, did not induce the Queen, Lord 
 Oxford and Xady Masham to take any serious interest 
 in the matter, and this indifference on their parts 
 is, he teUs us, ' the cause that I can give but an im- 
 perfect account of the first springs of that great 
 change at court, after the trial of Dr. Sacheverell, 
 my memory not serving me to retain all the facts 
 related to me ; but what I remember I shall here set 
 down.' 
 
 Swift begins his story by telling us that ' There was 
 not, perhaps, in all England, a person who under- 
 stood more artificially to disguise her passions ' than 
 Queen Anne. The reader will already have seen that 
 the essay in which this passage occurs was not 
 written till after the Queen's death, and without 
 
440 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xx. 
 
 ascribing to Swift any taint of servility or undue 
 loyalty, we may safely assume that his comments on 
 the Queen's peculiarities are all the more free and 
 frank because they were not to come under the eyes 
 of Anne herself. The impression which Swift formed 
 with regard to the Duchess of Marlborough's ascen- 
 dency over Anne was that it only continued in full 
 force while Anne was a Princess, and that by the time 
 she had come to the throne she was already growing 
 to be quite weary of the Duchess's domination. 
 Even during the later part of her life as a Princess, 
 Anne, according to Swift's opinion, was already 
 growing impatient of the imperious ways and rude 
 manners which she could not but observe in her 
 self-opinionated friend. ' This Princess,' he remarks, 
 ' was so exact an observer of forms, that she 
 seemed to have made it her study, and would often 
 descend so low, as to observe in her domestics of 
 either sex, who came in her presence, whether a 
 ruffle, a periwig, or the lining of a coat, were un- 
 suitable at certain times.' 
 
 The ascendency remained for a time one which, 
 as Swift tells us in his effective and characteristic 
 way, the Princess Anne 'had neither patience to 
 bear, nor spirit to subdue.' The Queen was also be- 
 ginning to feel a strong dislike towards the Earl of 
 Godolphin. One reason for this, according to Swift's 
 interpretation, was that the Duchess of Marlborough, 
 who had long been Godolphin's friend, got into the 
 way of prevailing upon him to solicit the Queen 
 'upon things very unacceptable to her,' and the 
 
1710-14 QUEEN ANNE AND MARLBOROUGH. 441 
 
 Queen liked the solicitations aU the less because 
 she felt sure that Godolphin was put on to them by 
 the overbearing Duchess. Swift further informs 
 us that Godolphin, 'although he endeavoured to 
 be as respectful as his nature would permit him, 
 was, upon aU occasions, much too arbitrary and 
 obtruding.' 
 
 To the Duke of Marlborough, we are told, the 
 Queen 'was wholly indifferent,' 'as her nature in 
 general prompted her to be,' and it may well be 
 something of a new sensation to a modern reader 
 to think of Marlborough as a personage to whom 
 anyone could be wholly indifferent. The indifference 
 soon changed into another sentiment, for we learn 
 that Marlborough's ' restless, impatient behaviour 
 turned her against him.' The Queen, we learn, ' had 
 not a stock of amity to serve above one object at a 
 time ; and further than a bare good or ill opinion, 
 which she soon contracted and changed, and very 
 often upon light grounds, she could hardly be said 
 either to love or to hate anybody.' ' She grew so 
 jealous upon the change of her servants, that often, 
 out of fear of being imposed upon, by an over- 
 caution she would impose upon herself.' This is a 
 telling touch of description whether it fairly applied 
 to the Queen or not, for one must have seen little 
 of real life who has not met again and again with 
 persons who, out of mere over-caution against being 
 imposed upon by others, have got into the way of 
 imposing upon themselves. Swift was not much 
 of a respecter of persons, even when these hap- 
 
442 THE KEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xx. 
 
 pened to be of royal rank, and his loyalty to the 
 Queen never led him into any desire to regard her 
 little weaknesses with greater deference than he 
 would have shown to those of any ordinary woman. 
 ' She took a deUght in refusing those who were 
 thought to have greatest power with her, even in 
 the most reasonable things, and such as were neces- 
 sary for her service ; nor would let them be done 
 tiU she fell into the humour of it herself.' For 
 such reasons as these Swift believes that the Queen 
 grew into a rooted dislike of the Duke and Duchess 
 of Marlborough and of Lord Godolphin, and ' This 
 I take to have been the principal ground of the 
 Queen's resolutions to make a change of some 
 officers both in her family and kingdom ; and that 
 these resolutions did not proceed from any real 
 apprehension she had of danger to the church or 
 monarchy.' 
 
 Thus does Swift quietly proceed to divest poor 
 Queen Anne of any credit for grave and public 
 purpose in her manner of dealing with those im- 
 mediately around her. She might have been totally 
 indifferent to Marlborough and might have allowed 
 him, with perfect unconcern on her part, to go on 
 conquering her enemies and extending her power, if 
 only he had not taken to pestering her over-much 
 with his suggestions and solicitations, even when 
 these might reasonably have seemed to him to be for 
 her own advantage. Swift wiU not allow us to be 
 under any delusion on that subject. His mind is 
 clear that, although the Queen had been strictly 
 
1710-14 THE QUEEN'S HUSBAND. 443 
 
 educated in the faith of the State Church ' and very- 
 much approved its doctrine and discipline, yet she 
 was not so ready to foresee any attempts against it 
 by the party then presiding. But, the fears that 
 most influenced her, were such as concerned her own 
 power and prerogative, which those nearest about 
 her were making daily enroachments upon, by their 
 undutiful behaviour and unreasonable demands.' 
 There was not much of the courtier's spirit in Swift, 
 and it seems very likely indeed that he had got at a 
 clear understanding of the woman herself, just as he 
 might have done if she had been the mistress of an 
 ordinary household who came now and then under 
 his keen observation. 
 
 Swift goes on to narrate an incident which hap- 
 pened about a twelvemonth before the death of 
 Prince George, the Queen's husband. ' This Prince 
 had long conceived an incurable aversion from that 
 party' — the party represented by the Duchess of 
 Marlborough — ' and was resolved to use his utmost 
 credit with the Queen, his wife, to get rid of them. 
 There fell out an incident which seemed to favour 
 this attempt ; for the Queen, resolving to bestow a 
 regiment upon Mr. HiU, brother to Mrs. Masham, 
 signified her pleasure to the Duke of Marlborough ; 
 who, in a manner not very dutiful, refused his con- 
 sent and retired in anger to the country. After some 
 heats, the regiment was given to a third person : But, 
 the Queen resented this matter so highly, which 
 she thought had been promoted by the Earl of 
 Godolphin, that she resolved immediately to remove 
 
444 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE ch. xx. 
 
 the latter. I was told, and it was then generally- 
 reported, that Mr. St. John carried a letter from 
 her Majesty to the Duke of Marlborough, signifying 
 her resolutions to take the staff from the Earl of 
 Godolphin, and that she expected his Grace's com- 
 pliance ; to which the Duke returned a very humble 
 answer.' 
 
 So far as this part of the story goes, it is not 
 difl&cult to find some excuse for the apparently 
 inconsistent course taken by the Duke of Marl- 
 borough. Marlborough was Commander-in-Chief of 
 the forces and the Duke, as Swift tells us, was soon 
 to embark for Flanders. Marlborough may well 
 have thought that the officering of his army was a 
 matter entirely for his own judgment and decision, 
 and that not even the personal influence of the 
 Queen ought to be allowed to dictate to him, while, 
 on the other hand, the disposal of the Queen's 
 political offices was a matter properly to be settled 
 by the Queen's own authority and one which he was 
 bound to meet with a respectful compliance. 
 
 Swift is very severe on the proposal made by 
 Marlborough himself that the command of the forces 
 entrusted to him should be converted into an 
 appointment to last during his lifetime. He turns 
 from other subjects to comment on the fact that 
 ' the Duke of Marlborough, whether by a motive of 
 ambition, or a love of money, or by the rash counsels 
 of his wife the Duchess, made that bold attempt of 
 desiring the Queen to give him a commission to be 
 general for life. Her Majesty's answer was, that she 
 
1710-14 MARLBOKOUGH AND ARGYLE. 445 
 
 would take time to consider it; and, in the mean 
 while, the Duke advised with the Lord Cowper, then 
 Chancellor, about the form in which the commission 
 should be drawn. The Chancellor, very much to his 
 honour, endeavoured to dissuade the Duke from 
 engaging in so dangerous an affair ; and protested 
 that he would never put the great seal to such a 
 commission. But the Queen was highly alarmed at 
 this extraordinary proceeding in the Duke, and 
 talked to a person whom she had then taken into 
 confidence as if she apprehended an attempt upon 
 the crown. The Duke of Argyle, and one or two 
 more Lords, were (as I have been told) in a very 
 private manner brought to the Queen. This Duke was 
 under great obligations to the Duke of Marlborough, 
 who had placed him in a high station in the army, 
 preferred many of his friends, and procured him 
 the Garter. But, his unquiet and ambitious spirit, 
 never easy while there was anyone above him, made 
 him, upon some trifling resentments, conceive an 
 inveterate hatred against his general. When he was 
 consulted what course should be taken upon the 
 Duke of Marlborough's request to be general for life ; 
 and whether any danger might be apprehended from 
 the refusal ; I was told, he suddenly answered, That 
 her Majesty need not be in pain ; for, he would under- 
 take, whenever she commanded, to seize the Duke at 
 the head of his troops, and bring him away either 
 dead or alive.' 
 
 Swift does not seem inclined to give much credit 
 to the Duke of Argyle for a declaration which the 
 
446 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xx. 
 
 ordinary observer might well regard as dictated by 
 loyalty and public spirit. He prepares us for the 
 Duke's heroic utterance by taking care to let us 
 know that Argyle had already conceived an in- 
 veterate hatred against his general. It is one of 
 Swift's prevailing peculiarities that he loves to spoil 
 anything like a melodramatic attitude or situation. 
 He is a sceptic as to the sincerity of heroics, and he 
 delights to show us what very ordinary and selfish 
 creatures are most of those great personages with 
 whom history brings us into contact. Swift may 
 have been right enough about the motive which 
 mainly inspired the Duke of Argyle's declaration, 
 and it is quite possible that the same critical way of 
 examining into realities might have knocked much 
 of the grandeur out of many of the noble speeches 
 recorded by Thucydides or Livy. We must take 
 Swift as we find him, and not make it a cause of com- 
 plaint against the author of ' Gulliver's Travels ' that 
 he does not deal with his living figures as the author 
 of 'Telemaque' might have done. It is perhaps 
 something of a comfort to remember that Swift, too, 
 had his favourite heroes, and that he saw in Harley, for 
 instance, exalted and even sublime quaUties of mind 
 and heart for which history from that time to this 
 has certainly not given that statesman full credit. 
 Yet, even when dealing with some passages in 
 Harley 's career, the peculiar genius of Swift leads 
 him now and then to exhibit his chosen hero under 
 conditions which might almost be called ridiculous. 
 When commenting on ' The Famous Trial of Dr. 
 
1710-14 HAELEY AND GODOLPHIN. 447 
 
 Sacheverell,' Swift observes that the impeachment 
 ' arose from a foolish passionate pique of the Earl of 
 Godolphin, whom this Divine was supposed, in a 
 sermon, to have reflected on under the name of 
 Volpone, as my Lord Sommers, a few months after, 
 confessed to me ; and, at the same time, that he 
 had earnestly, and in vain, endeavoured to dissuade 
 the Earl from that attempt.' 
 
 Now Mr. Harley comes upon the stage. Harley 
 arrived in town during the time of the impeachment, 
 and by the intervention of Mrs. Masham he was 
 brought into private conference with Queen Anne. 
 'It was not,' we learn from Swift, ' without a good deal 
 of difficulty, that Mr. Harley was able to procure 
 this private access to the Queen, the Duchess of Marl- 
 borough, by her emissaries, watching all the avenues 
 to the back-stairs, and upon all occasions discovering 
 their jealousy of him ; whereof he told me a passage, 
 no otherways worth relating, than as it gives an idea 
 of an insolent, jealous minister, who would wholly 
 engross the power and favour of his Sovereign. Mr. 
 Harley, upon his removal from the secretary's office, 
 by the intrigues of the Duke of Marlborough and 
 the Earl of Godolphin, as I have above related, 
 going out of town, was met by the latter of these 
 two Lords near Kensington Gate. The Earl, in a 
 high fit of jealousy, goes immediately to the Queen, 
 reproaches her for privately seeing Mr. Harley, and 
 was hardly so civil to be convinced with her 
 Majesty's frequent protestations to the contrary.' 
 
 Ordinary human beings might well imagine that 
 
4:48 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. oh. xx. 
 
 the Queen could have taken some measures to im- 
 press, even upon the Duke of Marlborough and 
 Lord Godolphin, that she had a right to see anybody- 
 she pleased at any time and in any way convenient 
 to her. But Swift proceeds to inform us that the 
 suspicions entertained by these two eminent persons 
 made it hard for the Queen and Harley to have any 
 private interview. It might be a case of Eomeo and 
 Juliet, or of the Nouvelle H^loise and her lover, for 
 all that the reader could gather from Swift's descrip- 
 tion of the difficulties and dangers interposed in the 
 way of these meetings. 'The Queen, hemmed in, 
 and as it were imprisoned, by the Duchess of Marl- 
 borough and her creatures, was at a loss how to 
 proceed.' Sometimes, indeed, the situation had its 
 ludicrous aspects. ' One evening, a letter was brought 
 to Mr. Harley, all dirty, and by the hand of a very 
 ordinary messenger ; he read the superscription, 
 and saw it was the Queen's writing ; he sent for the 
 messenger, who said, he knew not whence the letter 
 came, but that it was delivered him by an under 
 gardener, I forget whether of Hampton Court or 
 Kensington. The letter mentioned the difficulties her 
 Majesty was under, blaming him for not speaking 
 with more freedom, and more particularly ; and 
 desiring his assistance. With this encouragement 
 he went more frequently, although stiU as private 
 as possible, to the back-stairs ; and from that time 
 began to have entire credit with the Queen.' It 
 certainly was no part of Swift's purpose to throw 
 ridicule on the principle and the conditions of 
 
1710-14 WHiaS AND TORIES. 449 
 
 royalty, but there is not much in ' Gulliver's Travels,' 
 and in the descriptions of Court intrigue which 
 they occasionally contain, more thoroughly ridicu- 
 lous than this story of the dirty letter delivered by 
 the under gardener and of the great statesman 
 sneaking his way to the back-stairs. 
 
 Nothing could come in more appropriately in our 
 study of the politics of Queen Anne's reign than to 
 learn something of Swift's first efforts to come to a 
 thorough understanding of the difference between the 
 principles of the Whigs and those of the Tories. He 
 teUs us when and how the consideration of this dif- 
 ference first began to occupy his attention, ' having 
 formerly employed myself in other, and, I think, 
 much better speculations.' He sets out some of his 
 difficulties with the clearness which belongs to his 
 intellect and his style and at the same time with an 
 ingenuous simplicity which hardly seems to be a 
 part of his nature. 
 
 'I talked often upon the subject with Lord 
 Sommers ; told him, that having been long conversant 
 with the Greek and Eoman authors, and therefore 
 a lover of liberty, I found myself much inclined to 
 be what they called a Whig in politics ; and that, 
 besides, I thought it impossible upon any other 
 principle to defend or submit to the Eevolution. But 
 as to religion I confessed myself to be an High church- 
 man, and that I did not conceive how anyone, who 
 wore the habit of a clergyman, could be otherwise : 
 That I had observed very well with what insolence 
 
 VOL. I. & G 
 
450 THE REIGN OP QUEEN ANNE. oh. xk. 
 
 and haughtiness some Lords of the High-church 
 party treated not only their own chaplains, but all 
 other clergymen whatsoever, and thought this was 
 sufficiently recompensed by their professions of zeal 
 to the church. That I had likewise observed how 
 the Whig Lords took a direct contrary measure, 
 treated the persons of particular clergymen with 
 -great courtesy, but showed much ill-wiU and con- 
 tempt for the order in general : That I knew it was 
 necessary for their party, to make their bottom as 
 wide as they could, by taking all denominations of 
 Protestants to be members of their body: That I 
 would not enter into the mutual reproaches made 
 by the violent men on either side; but, that the 
 connivance, or encouragement, given by the Whigs 
 to those writers of pamphlets, who reflected upon 
 the whole body of the clergy, without any ex- 
 ception, would unite the church as one man to oppose 
 them.' 
 
 Swift appears to have made an analysis of certain 
 conditions then existing in the two great parties with 
 something like scientific precision. The Tories held 
 to a certain dogma, and assumed that their accep- 
 tance of it relieved them from the necessity of taking 
 too much trouble to put it into practice in their daily 
 intercourse with their fellow-men, and especially with 
 those who were not exactly their feUows in rank. 
 The Whigs, on the other hand, had taken on them- 
 selves the assertion of unfamiliar doctrines, and were 
 anxious to recommend themselves and their doctrines, 
 as far as they could, by making themselves person- 
 
1710-14 'THE EXAMINEE.' 451 
 
 ally agreeable to individual members of that order 
 ■which they were accused of a desire to disparage. 
 We soon learn in the course of this essay how Swift 
 was induced to occupy himself as a writer for a 
 political newspaper. 
 
 'Upon the rise of this ministry, the principal 
 persons in power thought it necessary, that some 
 weekly paper should be published, with just re- 
 flections upon former proceedings, and defending 
 the present measures of her Majesty. This was 
 begun about the time of the Lord Godolphin's re- 
 moval, under the name of the Examiner. About a 
 dozen of these papers, written with much spirit and 
 sharpness, some by Mr. Secretary St. John, since 
 Lord Bolingbroke ; others by Dr. Atterbury, since 
 Bishop of Eochester ; and others again by Mr. Prior, 
 Dr. Friend, &c., were published with great applause. 
 But these gentlemen, grown weary of the work, or 
 otherways employed, the determination was, that I 
 should continue it, which I did accordingly about 
 eight months. But my stile being soon discovered, 
 and having contracted a great number of enemies, I 
 let it fall into other hands, who held it up in some 
 manner until her Majesty's death.' 
 
 ' The Examiner ' may be described as the first of the 
 entirely political newspapers which began to exercise 
 an efiect upon parties and the public in the reign of 
 Queen Anne. Its earliest number made its appear- 
 ance on August 3, 1710, and it bore as its fuU de- 
 scription ' The Examiner, or Eemarks upon Papers 
 
 e e 2 
 
452 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xx. 
 
 and Occurrences,' but of course it was always known 
 in ordinary conversation as ' The Examiner.' This 
 precursor of the political journalism which has been 
 an ever-growing power down to our own time, gave 
 itself out almost avowedly as an inspired organ of 
 ministerial opinion, and professed to teU the public 
 what her Majesty's advisers intended to do, and how 
 her Majesty's advisers believed that loyal subjects 
 ought to think, speak, and act. We shall hear more 
 of this paper and of other new and remarkable enter- 
 prises in the field of journalism before this history 
 advances much farther. 
 
 Swift has something to say about the once famous 
 October Club. This name, he teUs, was ' a fantastic 
 appellation, found out to distinguish a number of 
 country gentlemen, and their adherents, who pro- 
 fessed in the greatest degree what was called the 
 High-church principle. They grew in number to 
 almost a third part of the House, held their meetings 
 at certain times and places, and there concerted 
 what measures they were to take in parliament. 
 They professed their jealousy of the court and 
 ministry: declared, upon aU occasions, their desire 
 of a more general change, as well as of a strict 
 enquiry into former mismanagement : and seemed to 
 expect, that those in power should openly avow the 
 old principles in church and state. I was then of 
 opinion, and stiU continue so, that if this body of 
 men could have remained some time united, they 
 would put the crown under a necessity of acting 
 in a more steady and strenuous manner. But Mr. 
 
1710-14 HAELEY AND BOLINGBEOKE. 453 
 
 Harley, who best knew the disposition of the Queen, 
 was forced to break their measures ; which he did 
 by that very obvious contrivance of dividing them 
 among themselves, and rendering them jealous of 
 each other. The ministers gave everywhere out, 
 that the October-club were their friends, and acted 
 by their directions ; to confirm which Mr. Secretary 
 
 St. John and Mr. B , afterwards Chancellor of the 
 
 Exchequer, publicly dined with them at one of their 
 meetings. Thus were eluded all the consequences of 
 that assembly ; although a remnant of them, who 
 conceived themselves betrayed by the rest, did after- 
 wards meet under the denomination of the March- 
 club, but without any effect.' 
 
 These extracts from Swift's commentaries on the 
 events of the time may be brought to a close by 
 the remarks which he makes on the beginning of 
 the misunderstanding between Harley and Boling- 
 broke, to which allusion has been made in a former 
 chapter. 
 
 'I have some very good reasons to know that 
 the first misunderstanding between Mr. Harley and 
 Mr. St. John, which afterwards had such unhappy 
 consequences upon the public affairs, took its rise 
 during the time that the former lay ill of his wounds, 
 and his recovery doubtful.' This, of course, refers to 
 the injuries sustained by Harley from de Guiscard's 
 penknife. ' Mr. St. John affected to say in several 
 companies, that Guiscard intended the blow against 
 him ; which, if it were true, the consequence must 
 be, that Mr. St. John had all the merit, while Mr. 
 
454 THE EEIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. ch. xx. 
 
 Harley remained with nothing but the danger and 
 the pain. But, I am apt to think, Mr. St. John was 
 either mistaken, or misinformed. However, the 
 matter was thus represented in the weekly paper 
 called the Examiner, which Mr. St. John perused 
 before it was printed, but made no alteration in that 
 passage. This management was looked upon, at 
 least as a piece of youthful indiscretion in Mr. St. 
 John ; and, perhaps, was represented in a worse view 
 to Mr. Harley : Neither am I altogether sure, that 
 Mr. St. John did not entertain some prospect of suc- 
 ceeding as first minister, in case of Mr. Harley's 
 death ; which, during his illness, was frequently 
 apprehended. And I remember very well, that upon 
 visiting Mr. Harley, as soon as he was in a condition 
 to be seen, I found several of his nearest relations 
 talk very freely of some proceedings of Mr. St. John ; 
 enough to make me apprehend, that their friendship 
 would not be of any long continuance.' 
 
 Swift's commentaries form an interesting and a 
 peculiar part of the history of that time. To say the 
 least of it, they have the effect of rubbing the gilt 
 off the showy and ornamental parts of Court life 
 and political combinations. Swift shows us how very 
 like ordinary men and women were the great lead- 
 ing figures in that historical drama. We see the 
 petty likings and dislikings, the small vanities, the 
 mean rivalries and jealousies, the self-seeking motives 
 which the satirist familiarly illustrates in the persons 
 of commonplace men and women, animating and 
 governing the august lives of sovereigns and princes. 
 
1710-14 NOT A HEEO-WOESHIPPER. 465 
 
 and the stately careers of peers and political leaders. 
 Nobody was a hero to Swift, and yet the famous 
 repartee to that proverb will not apply, for Swift, 
 assuredly, had not the soul of the valet whom it de- 
 scribes as incapable of appreciating the heroic. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 PRIKTBD ET 
 
 BPOTTISWOODH AND 00. LTD., NEW-3TEEET SgUAEB 
 
 LOBTOK