1719. Dubois CHAP. to travel to Paris, lay his mission before the Regent, and then proceed to the Hague. The Regent, however, on receiving the communication of Scotti, positively refused him passports to continue his journey, declaring that he must previously consult the Emperor and the King of England. wrote accordingly to Stanhope at Hanover. the British Minister, knowing the restless temper. and ambitious views of Alberoni, and how little reliance could be placed on his professions and promises, thought that the time for negotiation with him had gone by, and said in his answer to Dubois*, "We shall act wrong if we do not consolidate the "peace by the removal of the minister who has "kindled the war; and as he will never consent "to peace till he finds his ruin inevitable, from the "continuance of the war, we must make his disgrace "an absolute condition of the peace. For, as his "unbounded ambition has been the sole cause of the "war which he undertook, in defiance of the most "solemn engagements, and in breach of the most "solemn promises, if he is compelled to accept "peace he will only yield to necessity, with the re"solution to seize the first opportunity of ven 66 geance. It is not to be imagined that he will "ever lose sight of his vast designs, or lay aside "the intention of again bringing them forward "whenever the recovery of his strength, and the * Stanhope to Dubois, Hanover, August 22. 1719. wicke Papers, and Coxe. Original in French. .X. 1719. "remissness of the allied powers, may flatter him CHAP. "with the hopes of better success. He is skilled "in procuring all the connections necessary for the "accomplishment of his schemes. He will be "careful to cultivate those connections, and in due "time he will employ them so much the more dan 66 66 66 gerously for your nation and ours, inasmuch as "his past imprudences will render him more cir"cumspect, and his past failures more ardent. He "himself has warned us against the dangers of a "deceitful peace; he is incapable of consenting to any other; he thinks it no reproach to do any "thing to which his strength is equal; and we ought to thank God that he did not more exactly "calculate his power, and his undertakings. He acknowledges no other peace but exhaustion and "weakness; and when, therefore, he is reduced to "these, let us not allow him to recover, Let us "exact from Philip his dismissal from Spain. We "cannot propose to his Majesty any condition “which will be more advantageous both for him"self and his people. Let us hold forth this "example to Europe, as a means of intimidating "any turbulent minister who breaks the most so"lemn treaties, and attacks the persons of princes "in the most scandalous manner. When Cardinal "Alberoni is once driven from Spain, the Spaniards "will never consent to his again coming into ad"ministration; even their Catholic Majesties will "have suffered too much from his pernicious coun"sels to desire his return. In a word, any peace X. 1719. CHAP. "made by the Cardinal will be only an armi"stice of uncertain duration; nor can we depend "upon any treaty till we make it with a Spanish "minister whose system is directly opposite to "that of Alberoni, as well in regard to France "in particular, as to Europe in general." This determination, backed by that of France, produced, as might be expected, a powerful effect at Madrid. However great the genius of the Prime Minister, men felt that it might be purchased too dearly by the prolongation of an unequal and disastrous war. His old friends began to drop from him; his enemies to renew and redouble their attacks. The confessor of Philip, finding that Alberoni wished to supplant him and appoint another to his office, immediately discovered that the Cardinal was a very dangerous Minister. ASSA FETA, moved by some womanish resentments*, began to shake his influence with her royal misThe grandees looked down with ignorant pride on the son of a gardener, and could neither forgive his origin below nor his elevation above them. Several of their order even went so far as to enter into a concert of measures with the Regent, who on his part well knew that though it might be unsafe to trust their friendships, he could rely on The Alberoni, during the last few months of his power, had grown more and more imperious. "Muchos hombres,” says San Phelipe," dignos de la mayor atencion, salian ajados de su "presencia ........ Decian algunos que menores trabajos "havian padecido en tan dilatada guerra que en estas violencias "de un Estrangero." (Coment., vol. ii. p. 234.) their sincerity of hatred.* But the finishing stroke CHAP. to the power of the mighty minister came from an English hand, from one of the most singular and striking characters of that or of any age. Charles Lord Mordaunt, born in 1658, became in 1689 Earl of Monmouth by creation, and in 1697 Earl of Peterborough by descent. As a military man his character stands deservedly high, as a diplomatist also he possessed great merit; but as a politician it seems scarcely possible to award him any praise. In that department, his splendid genius was utterly obscured and eclipsed by his wayward temper. Vain, selfish, and ungovernable, always in a quarrel and on journey, — he was never thoroughly trusted by any party, nor perseveringly active at any place. His *conduct in Fenwick's conspiracy appears to have been most unjustifiable, and provoked even the mild and cautious Somers into expressions of undisguised contempt: "As to my Lord Monmouth, "his discourses are so various, and if those were "of the same tenor, his resolutions are SO a changeable, that what he will do must be left to "chance. His main business is to get out of the "Tower, and in order to that he is ready to do any thing." But it might not be difficult to confirm the least favourable features of his portrait from the words, not of his enemies, but of his * "Sensit (Artabanus) vetus regnandi, falsos in amore, odia "non fingere." (Tacit. Annal. lib. vi. c. 44.) + Lord Somers to the Duke of Shrewsbury, January 26. 1696, printed in the Shrewsbury correspondence. X. 1719. X. 1719. CHAP. personal and political friends. "I can assure "you," writes Bolingbroke to the Ambassador at the Hague," that all I found by the letters sent "by the courier from Lord Peterborough was "that his head was extremely hot, and confused "with various indigested schemes." And again, "I "may tell your Excellency, in confidence, that I have "a letter of twenty sheets from Lord Peterborough, "wherein the whole world is parcelled out, as if "with a FIAT and the breath of his mouth it could "be accomplished."* In the same correspondence we find Prior sneering at Lord Peterborough's fondness for Quixotic enterprises. "I do not "question but he will take Bender on his way "home from Vienna."+ Pope observes," He has "too much wit as well as courage to make a solid “general.”‡ “I love the hang-dog dearly,' is the dubious praise of Swift. § His friends suffered from his weaknesses, and his servants profited by them. On one occasion, when he was abroad, his steward pulled down, without his knowledge, a wing of his country house; sold the materials for his own profit; and, not satisfied with this, actually sent my Lord a bill for repairs! | Yet sometimes Lord Peterborough showed economy, like every thing else, by fits and in extremes. "It is a "comical sight," writes a lady from Bath in 1725, * Letters to Lord Raby, May 8. and May 18. 1711. § Journal to Stella, January 10. 1713. (Works, vol. xii. |