thoughts, that, on the contrary, he was truly zealous to make it general; and he had the happiness to succeed therein in as great a degree as was ever known, when so many confederates were concerned: nor was the said Earl less zealous in supporting, to the utmost of his abilities, the honour and reputation of his late royal mistress; which was so far from being prostituted, or suffering any diminution, by his negociations, that her majesty did, through the whole course of those negociations, and to the very hour of her death, maintain as great and glorious a character as any of her royal predecessors, or as she herself had done in any former part of her reign. And as to all other matters and things in the said Articles contained, and not herein before particularly answered, the said Earl saith, he is not guilty of them, or any of them, in the manner and form as the same are charged upon him in and by the said Articles; and humbly submits himself to your lordships' STRAFFORD. On the 17th, the Lords sent down this Answer to the Commons, by whom, on the 28th, it was read, and the Committee of Secrecy ordered to prepare a Replication to it. On the 12th of June, the Committee of Secrecy reported that they had prepared the following Replication: extent, the great length and intricacy, of the negociations, wherein he was engaged by his late sovereign's express commands; to which he did the more cheerfully submit, being joined in the most considerable parts thereof with a reverend prelate, whose long residence abroad, and experience in the methods of treating with foreign princes and states, bad abundantly quaJified him for the discharge of so important a trust: However, the said Earl, on his part, may, in any respect, have been unequal to the province assigned him; yet sure he is, that he always endeavoured to acquit himself therein with the utmost integrity; and cannot but express a just detestation of the many evil intentions wherewith he is loaded by the said Articles: And as he humbly apprehends, the several facts, mentioned in the Articles, if they could be proved, will not appear criminal, abstracted from the ill motives and designs from which they are supposed to proceed; so he is fully persuaded, your lordships will distinguish between the actions themselves, and the inten-judgment. tions wherewith they are charged to be done; and he assures himself, that your lordships will judge of the sincerity of his intentions by the tenor of all his letters and papers, and not by any particular passages selected from them; and is secure in your lordships' justice, that no strained construction of any such passages will be made by your lordships to his prejudice: he cannot but think himself extremely unfortunate in falling under the displeasure of the honourable "The Commons have considered the AnHouse of Commons; nor could he receive the swer of Thomas earl of Strafford to the Articles first intimation of it without the greatest sur- of Impeachment exhibited against him by the prise not being conscious to himself that he knights, citizens, and burgesses, in parliament had transgressed any known law, he was not assembled; and do aver their Charge against without hopes, having spent the best and the said Thomas earl of Strafford, for High greatest part of his life abroad in the army, and Crimes and Misdemeanors, to be true; and that in several embassies, always endeavouring to the said Earl is guilty of all and singular the promote the welfare of his country, that he Articles and Charges therein respectively conmight, at his return, have met with its appro-tained, in such manner as he stands impeached: bation, as a recompence for his long and faith- and that the Commons will be ready to prove ful services: however, he comforts himself with their charge against him, at such convenient this reflection, that every step of his proceed-time as shall be appointed for that purpose." ings in the late negociation was laid before her majesty and received her royal approbation : nor will it, he conceives, be judged improper, if he observes to your lordships, that the States General, in their letter to her majesty, a little before the signing the peace, acknowledged they could not enough commend her plenipotentiaries for the assistance they had given them in their Treaty with France; and that all the allies gave frequent marks of their esteem for the said Earl, and his colleague, on account of the many services they had received from them. The said Earl is confident it will appear to your lordships, that although he did, with the utmost application, pursue the good of his own country preferable to that of any other nation whatsoever; yet he was never wanting to promote the advantage of the allies, particularly of the States General, where it did not interfere with the interest of Great Britain. A separate Treaty of Peace was so far from his To which the House agreed, and the same was delivered to the Lords on the 14th of the same month. After which, I find not in the Journal any mention of farther proceedings in the matter. But it is observable, that on Aug. 18th, 1715, lord Strafford protested against the rejection of the motion, to enquire whether lord Bolingbroke had been summoned, and in what manner, and against the passing of the Bills for the Attainder of Bolingbroke and Ormond. [See pp. 1003, 1013, of this Volume.] In the debates in the House of Lords, upon the Bill against Atterbury, [see the Proceedings against him, A. D. 1723], Strafford spoke on behalf of the bishop, and in opposition to the Bill. See something relative to the Proceedings against lord Strafford in Coxe's Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole. 455. Proceedings against ROBERT Earl of OXFORD,* before the House of Lords, upon an Impeachment for High Treason, and other High Crimes and Misdemeanors: 3 GEORGE I. "This person had been chosen Speaker successively to three parliaments, was afterwards secretary of state, and always in great esteem with the queen for his wisdom and fidelity. The late ministry, about two years before their fall, had prevailed with her majesty, much against her inclination, to dismiss him from her service; for which they cannot be justly blamed, since he had endeavoured the same thing against them, and very narrowly failed; which makes it the more extraordinary, that he should succeed in a second attempt, against those very adversaries, who had such fair warning by the first. He is firm and steady in his resolutions, not easily diverted from them after he has once possessed himself of an opinion that they are right; nor very communicative where he can act by himself, being taught by experience, "That a secret is seldom safe in more than one breast." That which occurs to other men after mature deliberation, offers to him as his first thoughts; so that he decides immediately what is best to be done, and therefore is seldom at a loss upon sudden exigencies. He thinks it a more easy and safe rule in politics, to watch incidents as they come, and then turn them to the advantage of what he pursues, than to pretend to foresee them at a great distance. Fear, cruelty, avarice, and pride, are wholly strangers to his nature; but he is not without ambition. There is one thing peculiar in his temper, which 1 altogether disapprove, and do not remember to have heard or met with in any other man's character: I mean an easiness and indifference under any imputation, although he be ever so innocent, and although the strongest probabilities and appearances are against him; so that I have known him often suspected by his nearest friends, for some months, in points of the highest importance, to a degree that they were ready to break with him, and only undeceived by time and accident. His detractors, who charge him with cunning, are but ill ac the House of Lords, setting forth his long confinement, submitting his case to their lordships' consideration, and praying that his imprisonment might not be indefinite. Upon this Petition some of the Lords urged, that the Impeachment was ipso facto destroyed quainted with his character; for, in the sense they take the word, and as it is usually understood, I know no man to whom that mean talent could be with less justice applied, as the conduct of affairs, while he has been at the helm, does clearly demonstrate, very contrary to the nature and principles of cunning, which is always employed in serving little turns, proposing little ends, and supplying daily exigencies, by little shifts and expedients. But to rescue a prince out of the hands of insolent subjects, bent upon such designs as must probably end in the ruin of the government; to find out means for paying such exorbitant debts as this nation hath been involved in, and reduce it to a better management; to make a potent enemy offer advantageous terms of peace, and deliver up the most important fortress of his kingdom as a security; and this against all the opposition mutually raised and inflamed by parties and allies: such performances can only be called cunning by those, whose want of understanding, or of candour, puts them upon finding ill names for great qualities of the mind, which themselves do neither possess, nor can form any just conception of. However, it must be allowed, that an obstinate love of secrecy in this minister, seems, at distance, to have some resemblance of cunning; for he is not only very retentive of secrets, but appears to be so too; which I number among his defects. He has been blamed by his friends, for refusing to discover his intentions, even in those points where the wisest man may have need of advice and assistance; and some have censured him upon that account, as if he were jealous of power: but he has been heard to answer, "That be seldom did otherwise, without cause to repent." "However, so undistinguished a caution cannot, in my opinion, he justified, by which the owner loses many advantages, and whereof all men who deserve to be confided in, may, with some reason, complain. His love of procrastination (wherein doubtless nature has her share) may probably be increased by the same means; but this is an imputation laid upon many other great ministers, who, like men under too heavy a load, let fall that which is of the least consequence, and go back to fetch it when their shoulders are free; for, time is earl's trial, which after some debates was fixed for the 13th of June, and afterwards at the desire of the House of Commons was deferred till Monday the 24th, on which day the Lords came from their House at 12 o'clock in their robes, and went into the Court in Westminsterhall, in their usual order. and determined, since he was not brought to trial the same session in which he was impeached, and that the prorogation was an actual Supersedeas to the whole proceedings; however, the vote of the House passed to the contrary, and the earl of Nottingham, who had insisted strenuously upon it, entered his protestation against it. This being over-ruled, the duke of Buckingham moved to appoint a short day for the The Lords being seated in their places, (and the Commons in a committee of the whole House being in their seats, and the Managers given in the Letter to sir William Wyndham by Swift's friend Bolingbroke: occasions, where his station obliged him to speak of business, was absolutely unintelligible.-Whether this man ever had any determined view, besides that of raising his family, is, I believe, a problematical question in the world. My opinion is, that he never had any other." often gained, as well as lost, by delay, which, at worst, is a fault on the securer side. Neither probably is this minister answerable for half "Whilst this was doing, Oxford looked on, the clamour raised against him upon that ar- as if he had not been a party to all which had ticle: his endeavours are wholly turned upon passed; broke now and then a jest, which sathe general welfare of his country, but perhaps voured of the inns of court and the bad comwith too little regard to that of particular per-pany in which he had been bred and on those sons; which renders him less amiable, than he would otherwise have been, from the goodness of his humour, and agreeable conversation in a private capacity, and with few dependers. Yet some allowance may perhaps be given to this failing, which is one of the greatest he has; since he cannot be more careless of other men's fortunes, than he is of his own. He is master of a very great and faithful memory; which is of mighty use in the management of public affairs: and I believe there are few examples to be produced, in any age, of a person who has passed through so many employments in the state, endowed with a greater share both of divine and human learning. "I am persuaded that foreigners, as well as those at home who live too remote from the scene of business to be rightly informed, will not be displeased with this account of a person, who, in the space of two years, has been so highly instrumental in changing the face of affairs in Europe, and has deserved so well of bis own prince and country." And in the True Narrative* of what passed at the examination of the marquis de Guiscard,' among other praises of Harley, is the following:France records her Richelien, Mazarin, and Louvois. We talk with veneration of the Cecils. But posterity shall boast of Harley as a prodigy, in whom the spring is pure as the stream; not troubled by ingratitude or avarice, nor its beauty deformed by the feature of any vice. The coming age will envy ours a minister of such accumulated worth." A very different representation of Oxford is *Of this "True Narrative," Swift informs Stella, that he had not time to do it himself, and that he was afraid of disobliging Mr. Harley or Mr. St. John in one critical point about it, and so would not do it himself. The Narrative, it appears, was composed by Swift's orders, and from his materials, by one of his underspur-leathers' (as I think he denominates his humbler fellow-labourers in the vineyard of Tory pamphleteering) Mrs. Manley, who wrote the Atalantis,' no very creditable associate, or very honourable panegyrist. Bolingbroke, in a letter written to Swift himtuously of Harley. The inconsistencies of self in the year 1734, speaks very contempSwift's own expressions at different times concerning Harley are the natural consequence of Swift's political tergiversation. Harley had been created earl of Oxford on the 11th of May 1711. Of this advancement Burnet writes as follows: "The ministers now found, how hard it was to restore credit, and by consequence to carry on the war; Mr. Harley's wound gave the queen the occasion, which she seemed to be waiting for; upon his recovery she had created him an earl, by a double title, of Oxford and Mortimer. Preambles to Patents of Honour usually carry in them a short account of the dignity of the family, and of the services of the person advanced; but his preamble was very pompous, and set him out in the most extravagant characters that flatterers could invent; in particular it said, that he had redeemed the nation from robbery, had restored vice in a course of many years; all this was credit, and had rendered the public great serset out in too fulsome rhetoric, and being prepared by his own direction, pleased him so much, that whereas all other patents had been only read in the House of Lords, this was printed. He was at the same time made lord treasurer, and became the chief, if not sole minister, for every thing was directed by him. It soon appeared that his strength lay in managing parties, and in engaging weak people by rewards and promises, to depend upon him; but that he neither thoroughly understood the business of the treasury, nor the conduct of foreign affairs. But he trusted to his interest in the queen and in the favourite." The Preamble to Harley's Patent was composed, (I conjecture in Latin and in English) for the House being also in places appointed | to the table, proclamation was again made for for them;) the House was resumed. keeping silence. Then Proclamation was made as follows: Serjeant at Arms. O Yes, O Yes, O Yes! Our sovereign lord the king doth strictly charge and command all manner of persons to keep silence on pain of imprisonment. Then the commission for appointing a Lord High-Steward was (after three reverences made in coming up from the clerk's table) presented to the Lord High-Steward sitting upon the wool-sack, by the clerk of the crown in Chancery on his knee; and the same being brought by Swift. It is published in English in Swift's Works, vol: 4, p. 223. (Nichols's 12mo edition), as follows: "PREAMBLE TO MR. HARLEY'S PATENT. "The Reasons which induced her Majesty to create the Right Honourable Robert Harley a Peer of Great Britain; being a translation of the preamble to his Palent, dated May 11, 1711.* "Whatever favour may be merited from a just prince, by a mau born of an illustrious and very ancient family,† fitted by nature for all great things, and by all sorts of learning qualified for greater; constantly employed in the study of state affairs, and with the greatest praise, and no small danger, exercising variety of offices in the government; so much does our well-beloved and very faithful counsellor Robert Harley, deserve at our hands: he, who in three successive parliaments was unanimously chosen speaker; and, at the same time that be filled the chair, was our principal secretary of state: in no wise unequal to either province. Places, so seemingly disagreeing were easily reconciled by one, who knew how with equal weight and address to moderate and govern the minds of men: one who could preserve the rights of the people, without infringing the prerogative of the crown; and who thoroughly understood how well government could consist with liberty. This double *"First printed in 4to. in Latin and English, by Morphew, in 1711. "This noble family is descended from the ancient house of the de Harlais in France. Their common ancestors were probably a family of that name resident in Shropshire long before the Conquest. "Robert Harley, esq. eldest son of sir Edward Harley, was born in London, Dec. 5, 1661. He was educated at Shilton, a private school in Oxfordshire, remarkable for producing, at the same time, a lord high treasurer (the earl of Oxford), a lord high chancellor (lord Harcourt), a lord chief justice of the common pleas (lord Trevor) and ten members of the House of Commons, who were all contemporaries as well at school as in parlia ment. L. H. Steward. (William lord Cowper.) My lords, his majesty's commission is about to be in the usual manner, and all others are likewise read; your lordships are desired to attend to it to stand up uncovered while the commission is reading. Then the said commission was read (all the Lords and others standing up uncovered) as follows: "GEORGIUS R. "Georgius, Dei Gratia, Magne Britanniæ, Francis et Hiberniæ Rex, Fidei Defensor, &c. task being performed; after some respite, he bore the weight of our exchequer as chancellor, and thereby prevented the farther plundering of the nation; and also provided for the settling of a new trade to the South Seas; and (by rescuing public credit) so opportunely relieved the languishing condition of the treasury, as to deserve thanks from the parliament, blessings from the citizens, and from us (who never separate our own interests from the public) no small approbation. Therefore we decree to the man that has so eminently deserved of us and of all our subjects, those honours which were so long since due to him and his family; being induced thereto by our own good pleasure, and the suffrage of all Great Britain: for we take it as an admonition, that he should not in vain be preserved, whom the states of our realm have testified to be obnoxious to the hatred of wicked men, upon account of his most faithful services to us, and whom they have congratulated upon his escape from the rage of a flagitious parricide. We gladly indulge their wishes, that he, who comes thus recommended to us by so honourable a vote of both Houses of Parliament, should have his seat among the peers, to many of whom his family has been long allied; and that he, who is himself learned, and a patron of learning, should happily take his title from that city, where letters so gloriously flourish. Now know ye," &c. The censure of pompous extravagant flattery and fulsome rhetoric' which as we have seen had been passed on this preamble by Burnet, (possibly he knew not by whom it was composed) would not fail to exasperate the political animosity of Swift, who accordingly in return has persecuted the loose and careless style of the bishop with a ludicrous childish minuteness of unrelenting vigilance and inveterate malignity. Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, menMr. Park, in his edition of lord Orford's tions that there is in the British Museum a tract entitled, An Account of the Conduct of Robert Earl of Oxford, 1715, 8vo. by whom Mr. Park supposes it to have been composed. See more concerning lord Oxford in Gregg's Case, vol. 14, p. 1371. See, too, the preceding Cases of Bolingbroke, Ormond, and Strafford. Prædilecto et fideli consiliario nostro Willielmo Domino Cowper, Cancellario nostro Magnæ Britanniæ, Salutem. Cum Robertus Comes de Oxon' et Comes Mortimer, coram nobis in parliamento per milites, cives et burgenses in parliamento nostro assemblat' de alta Proditione et aliis atrocissimis Criminibus et Offensis per ipsum Robertum Comitem Oxon' et Comitem Mortimer commiss' et perpetrat' in nomine ipsorum militum, civium et burgensium et nomine communium regni nostri Magnæ Britanniæ impetit' et accusat' existit. Nos considerantes quod justitia est virtus excellens et altissimo complacens, volentesq; quod prædictus Robertus Comes de Oxon' et Comes Mortimer de et pro proditione et aliis criminibus et offensis unde ipse ut præfertur impetitus et accusatus existit coram nobis in præsenti Parliamento nostro, secundum legem et consuetudinem bujus regni nostri Magnæ Britanniæ, et secundum consuetud. Parliamenti audiatur, examinetur, sententietur et adjudicetur, cæteraq; omnia quæ in hac parte pertinent debito modo exerceantur et exequantur; ac pro eo quod proceres et magnates in præsenti parliamento nostro assemblat' nobis humilime supplicaverunt ut Senescallum Magna Britanniæ pro hac vice constituere dignaremur: Nos de fidelitate, prudentiâ, providâ circumspectione et in dustriâ vestris plurimum confidentes, ordinavimus et constituimus vos ex hac causa Senescallum Magna Britanniæ ad officium illud, cum omnibus eidem officio in hac parte debit' et pertinen' hac vice gerend' occupand' et exercend' et ideo vobis mandamus quod circa præmissa diligentur intendatis et omnia quæ in hac parte ad officium Senescalli Magnæ Britanniæ pertinent et requiruntur hac vice faciatis, exerceatis et exequamini cum effectu. In cujus rei testimonium has literas nostras fieri fecimus patentes. Teste meipso apud West' vicesimo quarto die Junii, anno regni nostri tertio. "Per ipsum Regem propriâ manu signat' "WRIGHTE." Then the herald and Black-Rod, making three reverences as they came up, presented, kneeling, the staff to the Lord High-Steward; who thereupon standing up, made a reverence to the Lords; and then, being attended by the herald, Black-Rod, and purse-bearer carrying the purse, proceeded to the chair placed on the second step of the throne. Who having again made a reverence to the Lords, he seated himself in the said chair, and gave the staff to the Black-Rod on his right-hand, and the purse-bearer standing on his left. Serj at Arms. O Yes, &c. (as before.) L. H. Steward. Make proclamation for the lieutenant of the Tower of London to bring the prisoner to the bar. Serj. at Arms. O Yes, O Yes, O Yes! Lieutenant of the Tower of London, bring forth your prisoner to the bar, according to the order of the House of Lords to you directed. Then the earl of Oxford came to the bar, and kneeled for some time. L. H. Steward. Your lordship may rise. Then the earl of Oxford rose up. Serj. at Arms. O Yes, &c. (as before.) L. H. Steward. Clerk, read the Articles of Impeachment. The Clerk read the Articles, as followeth : ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT of High TreaSON, AND OTHER HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, AGAINST ROBERT EARL OF OXFORD AND EARL MOR TIMER. Whereas many solemn treaties and alliances have been formerly entered into between the crown of England, and other princes and potentates of Europe, for their mutual safety, and from the considerations of the common danger, which threatened all Christendom, from the immoderate growth of the power of France. And whereas the preventing the monarchy of Spain from coming into the hands of the House of Bourbon, has for many years been a fundamental principle and maxim of union among the allies, in order to preserve a just balance of power in Europe: And to that end, as the designs of France on the monarchy of Spain have from time to time appeared, new treaties and express stipulations have been entered into amongst the allies, to strengthen themselves against that approaching danger: And, on this foundation, a treaty for an intended partition, whereby a small part only of the dominions of the crown of Spain was allotted to the House of Bourbon, was condemned by the wisdom of parliament, as being highly prejudicial, and fatal in its consequences to England, and the peace of Europe: And whereas the duke of Anjou, grandson to the king of France, on the demise of Charles the second, king of Spain, took possession, of the entire monarchy of Spain, whoreby the balance of power, the Protestant religion, and the liberties of Europe were threatened with immediate danger; whereupon Leopold, then emperor of Germany, his late majesty king William the third, of ever glorious memory, and the States General of the United Provinces, finding at that most critical juncture, that a strict conjunction and alliance between themselves was become necessary, for repelling the greatness of the common danger, from so great an accession of power to the then common enemy, did, in the year of our Lord 1701, make, form, and conclude a new treaty and alliance, whereby it was agreed, that there shall be and continue between the said confederates, his sacred imperial majesty, his sacred royal majesty of Great Britain, and the lords the States General of the United Provinces, a constant, perpetual, and inviolable friendship and correspondence, and that each party shall be obliged to promote the advantages of the other, and prevent all inconveniencies and dangers that might happen to them, as far as lies in |