SECTION V. ANNE'S THIRD PARLIAMENT.

1708-1710.

1. Limitations put on the English and Scotch_peerage, 1709. Queensberry, for the part he had taken in the Union, was appointed secretary of state for Scotland, and created a peer of England. He nevertheless claimed to vote as a Scottish peer at the election of representative peers of Scotland, and as his influence was very great, the peers of Scotland petitioned the House of Lords concerning their right of voting. After warm debates, it was resolved that no peer of Great Britain, whether English or Scotch, sitting in the House by right of a new peerage, should retain his vote in Scotland. In the House of Commons, it was resolved that the eldest sons of Scotch peers should be incapable of sitting in the House of Commons. This gave great offence in Scotland, and has since been rescinded.

2. Act for preserving the privileges of ambassadors, 1709. The Muscovite ambassador having been arrested for a debt of £100, the other foreign ambassadors demanded satisfaction for the great affront put upon the representatives of a sovereign prince and great nation. Peter the Great of Russia would have been content if the laceman, the sheriffs, and all concerned had only been hanged, and it was no small difficulty to persuade the Czar that Anne could not inflict even that mild punishment, without the authority of law. An ample apology was made, with which Peter was forced to be content. To prevent the like in future, a bill was passed which declared the persons and property of ambassadors absolutely free from process, for any civil cause; and that the prosecutors of such suits should be deemed violators of the laws of nations, and thereby subject themselves to severe penalties.

3. Dr. Sacheverell's sermons voted scandalous and seditious, 1709. Dr. Sacheverell, rector of St. Saviour's, Southwark, whom Smollett calls "a clergyman of narrow intellects and overheated imagination", had at the summer assizes at Derby, and on the 5th of Nov. when preaching before the lord-mayor and corporation, in St. Paul's cathedral, taken occasion to defend the doctrine of non-resistance, and to inveigh against the Toleration Act and Dissenters. He spoke of the Revolution as an unrighteous change, and declared the Church of England in danger, as well from false friends as deadly enemies. Some of the aldermen complained that the sermon contained many things that were false and impious, and that the Rev. Dr. ought to be called to account. Sacheverell however printed his discourse, with a de

dication to the lord-mayor; the Tories promoted its circulation, and forty-thousand copies were sold. The two sermons being brought before the notice of the House, and the most violert passages read, both were voted scandalous and seditious libels. Meanwhile, the matter was laid before the council, Godolphin, who had been abused in the sermon under the name of Volpone, argued for severe measures, and the council agreed to his prosecution. Somers, with a part of the council, was for leaving the Dr. to be dealt with in the ordinary courts, but Marlborough and Godolphin's party succeeded in obtaining a resolution for his impeachment. The Commons therefore ordered that he should be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanours, and appointed a committee to draw up articles.

4. Impeachment of Dr. Sacheverell, 1710. The trial of Sacheverell was held in Westminster Hall, and lasted three weeks, in the midst of intense popular excitement. Several meeting houses were destroyed, the houses of dissenters plundered, and those of some Whig chiefs threatened, as was also the Bank of England. The guards were ordered out to disperse the rioters, and the trained bands of Westminster continued in arms during the whole trial. When the court was formed the following articles of impeachment were read. 1. That Dr. Sacheverell, in his sermon, had publicly reflected upon the late Revolution, and suggested that the means used to bring it about were odious and unjustifiable. 2. That he had opposed and defamed the toleration granted to Dissenters, and had cast scurrilous reflections upon those who favored and defended liberty of conscience. 3. That he had seditiously suggested that the Church of England was in great peril under her majesty's administration. 4. That he had suggested to the people that the constitution, as well ecclesiastical as civil, was in danger of destruction; and had reproachfully called those, whom her majesty had promoted to high stations in church and state, spurious and false brethren; that he had plainly called the lord high treasurer of the kingdom Volpone; and had also given opprobious names to the rest of the ministers; and in the exercise of a sacred function, had wickedly wrested and perverted the Holy Scriptures.

The Lords found Sacheverell guilty, by a majority of sixty-eight to fifty-two. Three days after, the Dr. being on his knees at the bar, the lord chancellor pronounced the judgment :-" You, Henry Sacheverell, doctor in divinity, shall be, and you are hereby enjoined not to preach during the term of three years next ensuing; and your two printed sermons shall be burnt before the Royal Exchange, at one o'clock in the afternoon, by the common hangman, in the presence of the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs of

London." The Lords likewise voted, that the executioner should commit to the same fire the famous decree passed in the convocation of the University of Oxford, asserting the absolute authority and indefeasible right of princes. Great dissatisfaction was expressed by the Commons at the slight punishment awarded after so much parade; it was said that in truth the Dr. was benefited rather than otherwise, by receiving pay without work, and being at leisure to travel the country.

5. The Whig Ministry dismissed, 1710. The trial of Sacheverell aroused the country, and addresses from all parts of the kingdom were presented to the queen, in favour of the tenets held by the suspended doctor. They were favorably received by Anne, who earnestly desired the formation of a ministry of which Harley should be the leader. Almost as soon as the parliament was dismissed, the Duke of Shrewsbury, one of the great promoters of the Revolution, but who had joined the Tories in voting in favor of Sacheverell, was made lord-chamberlain, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Godolphin. Marlborough too, had offended the queen by refusing to give a regiment to Mr. Hill, the brother of Mrs. Masham, who was indeed the prime mover in the changes about to take place. Sunderland, Marlborough's son-in-law, was turned out, and his office of secretary of state given to Lord Dartmouth, a Jacobite. In a few weeks, Godolphin received orders to break his staff, and the Treasury was put in commission under the direction of Harley, appointed to be chancellor of the exchequer. Somers was replaced in the presidency of the council by the Earl of Rochester; the staff of lord-steward passed from the Duke of Devonshire to the Duke of Buckingham; and Mr. St. John took Mr. Boyle's office as secretary. The great seal held by Cowper was given to Sir Simon Harcourt, the lieutenancy of Ireland fell to the Duke of Ormond, and Robert Walpole was displaced by Mr. George Granville. In a short time no Whigs were to be found, except in a few of the lower offices Marlborough alone, by the earnest request of his friends, remained at the head of the army. The victory of the Tories was completed by the dissolution of parliament. This revolution in the ministry wrought a complete change in the foreign policy of England, and led to private negotiations being opened with France, which ended in the peace of Utrecht.

SECTION VI. ANNE'S FOURTH PARLIAMENT.

1710-1714.

1. The elections go in favor of the Tories. The fervor of the nation had been kept up by the clergy, the effect of which was seen in the elections for the new parliament. But few per

sons were returned but such as had distinguished themselves by their zeal against the Whig administration. Mr. Bromley, member for the University of Oxford, was elected in lieu of the late Speaker, Mr. Onslow. The queen in her speech declared herself resolved to support the Church of England; to preserve the British Constitution according to the Union; to maintain the indulgences by law allowed to scrupulous consciences; and to employ none but such as were heartily attached to the Protestant succession in the House of Hanover. It was soon evident that the tone of the parliament had changed, for an attempt to vote the thanks of the House of Lords to Marlborough for his services, met with a defeat.

2. Property Qualification Bill, 1710. By this bill it was enacted, that no person should be deemed qualified for representing a county in parliament, unless he had a real estate in land of £600 a year; nor a borough, unless he had a real estate in land of £300 a year. From the operation of this qualification bill were excepted, "the eldest sons of peers, and of persons qualified to be knights of shires, and the members for the two universities". The notorious evasion of this act led to its repeal in 1858. Burnet speaking of the bill of 1710, says, "the design of this was to exclude courtiers, military men, and merchants from sitting in the House of Commons, in hopes that this being settled, the landed interest would be the prevailing consideration in all their consultations. They did not extend these disqualifications to Scotland; it being pretended that, estates there being generally small, it would not be easy to find men so qualified capable to serve. was thought to strike at an essential part of the constitution, touching the freedom of elections; and it had been, as often as it was attempted, opposed by the ministry, though it had a fair appearance of securing liberty when all was lodged with men of estates: yet our gentry was become so ignorant and so corrupt, that many apprehended the ill effects of this; and that the interest of trade, which indeed supports that of land, would neither be understood nor regarded."

This

3. Marlborough charged with peculation, 1711. adherence of Marlborough to the Whig party, determined Oxford and St. John to strike the lord-general to the earth. This was done by ministers charging the Duke in the House of Commons, with having appropriated more than half a million of the public money, by taking and keeping two-and-a-half per cent. out of the pay of the foreign troops maintained by England, and £63,000 from Solomon de Medina, the contractor for bread to the army. In answer to this charge, Marlborough replied, "This is no more than what has been allowed as a perquisite to the general, or

commander-in-chief of the army, in the Low Countries, even before the Revolution; and I do assure you, at the same time, that whatever sums I have received on that account, have been constantly employed for the service of the public, in keeping up secret correspondence, and in getting intelligence of the enemies' motions and designs." In the early part of the year following, Anne informed her council, that as the commissioners of public accounts had laid an information against the Duke, she thought it right to dismiss him from all his employments. His place in the army was supplied by the Duke of Ormond.

4. Creation of Twelve Peers, 1712. The ministry, uneasy that the majority in the House of Lords was against them, succeeded in persuading the queen to do, what Tory writers say "nothing but necessity could justify". In order to turn the scale, twelve new peers were created at once. Among other inconsiderable names was that of Samuel Masham, whose only merit was that he was the husband of the queen's favorite, Abigail Hill. The Tories were now triumphant, and a resolution passed to institute proceedings against the Duke of Marlborough. His secretary Cardonel was expelled the House, and so was Robert Walpole, for receiving "trifling perquisites" to the amount of £1,000 from the contractors for forage for the troops in North Britain.

5. The Treaty of Utrecht discussed, 1712. The queen had informed both Houses in 1711, that plenipotentiaries were met at Utrecht, and some sharp passages took place in the Commons, showing resentment against the Dutch for retarding the negotiations, and attacking the Barrier Treaty concluded by Lord Townsend in 1709. When the terms of the treaty were announced to the parliament in 1712, the Commons voted an address of confidence and thanks, but the Lords were not so full of rapture. A strong opposition headed by Lord Wharton proved a failure, upon which the Whig peers entered a protest. Thereupon the Tories moved that it should be expunged as being violent and indecorous. The protest was struck out of the journals; it was however printed and widely circulated. In 1713, the queen in her opening speech announced that the treaty of peace was signed.

In the discussions which took place, it was urged in favor of the treaty, that the kingdom was impoverished by continuous augmented taxation, the annual burden being now three times greater than before the Revolution, and the national debt so increased, as to make the mere interest to exceed the ancient revenues of the crown: that under this pressure men would come to hate a Revolution which had been the occasion of so great a burden: that the war in Spain was not attended with success, and there was no prospect of improvement: that even though France and Spain should be ruled by branches of the same family, it was probable that their policy would differ: