the directors of the Bank, so far as to assure her majesty that public credit would be entirely ruined by this change in the ministry. The Dutch moved heaven and earth with memorials and threats, should a change take place. However, the queen went forward in her designs: soon after, the earl of Godolphin was divested of his office, and the treasury put in commission, subjected to the direction of Harley, who was also appointed chancellor of the exchequer. The earl of Rochester was declared president of the council, in the room of lord Somers. The staff of lord-steward being taken from the duke of Devonshire, was given to the duke of Buckingham; and Mr. Boyle was removed from the secretary's office, to make way for Mr. Henry St. John. The lord-chancellor having resigned the great seal, it was first put in commission, and then given to sir Simon Harcourt. The earl of Wharton surrendered his commission of lord lieutenant of Ireland; and that employment was conferred upon the duke of Ormond. Mr. Granville was appointed secretary of war, in the room of Mr. Robert Walpole; and, in a word, there was not one Whig left in the offices of the state, except the duke of Marlborough. He was still continued the reluctant general of the army; but he justly considered himself as a ruin entirely undermined, and just ready to fall.

But the triumph was not complete until the parliament had confirmed and approved the queen's choice. The queen, in her speech, recommended the prosecution of the war with vigour. The two houses were ardent in their expressions of zeal and unanimity. They exhorted her to discountenance all such principles and measures as had so lately threatened her royal crown and dignity. This was but an opening to what soon followed. The duke of Marlborough, who but a few months before had been so highly extolled and caressed by the representatives of the people, was now become the object of their hatred and reproach. His avarice was justly upbraided; his protracting the war was said to arise from that motive. Instances were every where given of his fraud and extortion. These might be true; but party had no moderation, and eveu his courage and conduct were called in question. To mortify the duke still more, the thanks of the house of commons were voted to the earl of Peterborough for his services in Spain,

when they were refused to the duke for those in Flanders; and the lord-keeper, who delivered them to Peterborough, took occasion to drop some reflections against the mercenary disposition of his rival.

In this ebullition of party resentment, Harley, who first raised the ferment, still kept the appearance of moderation, and even became suspected by his more violent associates as a luke-warm friend to the cause. An accident increased his confidence with his own party, and fixed him for a tine securely in the queen's favour. One Guiscard, a French officer who had made some useful informations relative to the affairs A. D. of France, thought himself ill rewarded for his services 1711. to the crown by a precarious pension of four hundred pounds a year. He had often endeavoured to gain access to the queen, but was still repulsed either by Harley or St. John, Enraged at these disappointments, he attempted to make his peace with the court of France, and offered his services in a letter to one Moreau, a banker in Paris. His letters, however, were intercepted, and a warrant issued out to apprehend him for high-treason. Conscious of his guilt, and knowing that the charge could be proved against him, he did not decline his fate, but resolved to sweeten his death by vengeance. Being conveyed before the council convened at the Cock-pit, he perceived a penknife lying upon the table, and took it up without being observed by any of the attendants. When questioned before the members of the council, he endeavoured to evade his examination, and entreated to speak with Mr. Secretary St. John in private. His request being refused, he said, "That's hard! not one word!" Upon which, as St. John was out of reach, he stepped up to Mr. Harley, and crying out, "Have at thee then!" he stabbed him in the breast with the penknife which he had concealed. The blade of the knife broke upon the rib, without entering the cavity of the breast; nevertheless he repeated the blow with such violence that Harley fell to the ground. St. John, perceiving what had happened, instantly drew his sword; and others following his example, Guiscard was wounded in several places. But he still continued to strike and defend himself, till at last he was overpowered by the messengers and servants, and conveyed from the council-chamber, which he had filled with terror and

confusion. His wounds, though dangerous, were not mortal; but he died of a gangrene, occasioned by the bruises which he had sustained. This unsuccessful attempt served to establish the credit of Harley; and, as he appeared the enemy of France, no doubt was made of his being the friend of England.

This accident served to demonstrate the political rectitude of the ministry, with respect to the state. A bill which they brought in, and passed through both houses, served to assure the nation of their fidelity to the church. This was an act for building fifty new churches in the city and suburbs of London, and a duty on coal was appropriated for this purpose.

Nothing now remained of the Whig system, upon which this reign was begun, but the war, which continued to rage as fiercely as ever, and which increased in expense every year as it went on. It was the resolution of the present ministry to put an end to it at any rate, as it had involved the nation in debt almost to bankruptcy, and as it promised, instead of humbling the enemy, only to become habitual to the constitution. However, it was a very delicate point for the ministry, at present, to stem the tide of popular prejudice in favour of its continuance. The nation had been intoxicated with a childish idea of military glory, and panted for triumphs of which they neither saw nor felt the benefit. The pleasure of talking at their entertainments and meetings of their distant conquests, and of extolling the bravery of their acquaintance, was all the return they were likely to receive for a diminished people, and an exhausted exchequer. The first doubts of the expediency of continuing the war were introduced into the house of commons. The members made a remonstrance to the queen, which they complained loudly of the former administration. They said, that in tracing the causes of the national debt, they had discovered great frauds and embezzlements of the public money. They affirmed that irreparable mischief would have ensued, if the former ministers had been suffered to continue in office; and they thanked the queen for their dismission.

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Having thus prepared the nation, it only now remained to remove the duke of Marlborough from his post, as he would endeavour to traverse all their negotiations. But here again a difficulty started; this step could not be taken without giving offence to the Dutch, who placed entire confidence in him:

they were obliged, 'therefore, to wait for some convenient occasion. But, in the mean time, the duke headed his army in Flanders, and led on his forces against marshal Villars, who seemed resolved to hazard a battle. His last attempt in the field is said, by those who understand the art of war, to have excelled every former exploit. He contrived his measures so, that he induced the enemy, by marching and countermarching, to resign, without a blow, a strong line of entrenchments, of which he unexpectedly took possession. The capture of Bouchain followed this enterprise, which capitulated after a siege of twenty days; and this was the last military exploit that the duke of Marlborough performed. And now, by a continuance of conduct and success, by ever advancing, and never losing an advantage, by gaining the enemy's posts without fighting, and the confidence of his own soldiers without generosity, the duke ended his campaigns, by leaving the allies in possession of a vast tract of country. They had reduced under their command Spanish Guelderland, Limbourg, Brabant, Flanders, and Hainault; they were masters of the Scarpe, and the capture of Bouchain had opened them a way into the very bowels of France. Upon his return from this campaign, he was accused of having taken a bribe of six thousand pounds a year from a Jew, who contracted to supply the army with bread; and the queen thought proper to dismiss him from all his employments.

This was the pretext of which his enemies made use; but his fall had been predetermined: and, though his receiving such a bribe was not the real cause of his removal, yet candour must confess that it ought to have been so. The desire of accumulating money was a passion that attended this general in all his triumphs; and by this he threw a stain upon his character, which all his great abilities have not been able to remove. He not only received this gratuity from Medina the Jew, but he was also allowed ten thousand pounds a year from the queen; to this he added a deduction of two and a half per cent. from the pay of the foreign troops maintained by England; and all this over and above his ordinary pay as general of the British forces. Many excuses might have been given for his acceptance of these sums: but a great character ought not to stand in need of any excuse.

CHAPTER XIX.

ANNE. (CONTINUed.)

A. D. 1711-1714.

WAR seems, in general, more adapted to the temper and the courage of the Whigs than the Tories. The former, restless active, and ungovernable, seem to delight in the struggle; the latter, submissive, temperate, and weak, more willingly cultivate the arts of peace, and are content in prosperity. Through the course of the English history, France seems to have been the peculiar object of the hatred of the Whigs; and a constitutional war with that country seems to have been their aim. On the contrary, the Tories have been found to regard that nation with no such opposition of principle; and a peace with France has generally been the result of a Tory administration. For some time, therefore, before the dismission of Marlborough, a negotiation for peace had been carried on between the court of France and the new ministry. They had a double aim in bringing this about. It would serve to mortify the Whigs, and it would free their country from a ruinous and unnecessary war.

The motives of every political measure, where faction enters, are partly good and partly evil. The present ministers were, without doubt, actuated as well by hatred on one hand, as impelled by a love of their country on the other. They hoped to obtain such advantages, in point of commerce, for the subjects of Great Britain, as would silence all detraction. They were not so mindful of the interests of the Dutch, as they knew that people to be but too attentive to those interests themselves. In order, therefore, to come as soon as possible to the end in view, the earl of Jersey, who acted in concert with Oxford, sent a private message to the court of France, importing the queen's earnest desire for peace, and her wish for a renewal of the conference. This intimation was delivered by one Gaultier, an obscure priest, who was chaplain to the imperial ambassador, and a spy for the French. The message was received with