Upon the prince's death, November 1708, the two great lords so often mentioned, who had been for some years united with the low church party, and had long engaged to take them into power, were now in a capacity to make good their promises, which his highness had ever most strenuously opposed. The lord Somers was made president of the council, the earl of Wharton lieutenant of Ireland, and some others of the same stamp were put into considerable posts.

It should seem to me, that the duke and earl were not very willingly drawn to impart so much power to those of that party, who expected these removals for some years before, and were always put. off upon pretence of the prince's unwillingness to have them employed. And I remember, some months before his highness's death, my lord Somers, who is a person of reserve enough, complained to me, with great freedom, of the ingratitude of the duke and earl, who, after the service he and his friends had done them in making the Union, would hardly treat them with common civility. Neither shall I ever forget, that he readily owned to me, that the Union was of no other service to the nation, than by giving a remedy to that evil which my lord Godolphin had brought upon us, by persuading the queen to pass the Scotch act of security. But tọ return from this digression.

Upon the admission of these men into employments, the court soon ran into extremity of low church measures; and although, in the house of commons, Mr. Harley, sir Simon Harcourt, Mr. St. John, and some others, made great and bold stands

in

in defence of the constitution, yet they were always born down by a majority.

It was, I think, during this period of time, 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 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, " he would never 66 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 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 any one 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 undertake, "whenever she commanded, to seize the duke at the "head of his troops, and bring him away either dead " or alive."

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About this time happened the famous trial of Dr. Sacheverell, which 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 Somers, 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. However, the impeachment went on, in the form and manner which every body knows; and therefore there need not be any thing said of it here.

Mr. Harley, who came up to town during the time of the impeachment, was, by the intervention of Mrs. Masham, privately brought to the queen; and in some meetings, easily convinced her majesty of the dispositions of her people, as they appeared in the course of that trial, in favour of the church, and against the measures of those in her service. It was not without a good deal of difficulty, that Mr. Harley was able to procure this private access to the queen; the duchess of Marlborough, 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 otherwise 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

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 as to be convinced, by her majesty's frequent protestations to the contrary.

These suspicions, I say, made it hard for her majesty and Mr. Harley to have private interviews: neither had he made use of the opportunities he met with to open himself so much to her, as she seemed to expect, and desired; although Mrs. Masham, in right of her station in the bedchamber, had taken all proper occasions of pursuing what Mr. Harley had begun. In this critical juncture, the queen, hemmed in, and as it were imprisoned, by the duchess of Marlborough and her creatures, was at a loss how to proceed. 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 desir

ing his assistance." With this encouragement, he went more frequently, although still as private as possible*, to the back stairs; and from that time be

*As private as possible,' &c. It should be as privately as possible.'

gan

gan to have entire credit with the queen. He then told her of the dangers to her crown, as well as to the church and monarchy itself, from the counsels and actions of some of her servants: "That she ought gradually to lessen the exorbitant power of the duke and duchess of Marlborough, and the earl "of Godolphin, by taking the disposition of employments into her own hands: That it did not "become her to be a slave to a party, but to re"ward those who may deserve by their duty and loyalty, whether they were such as were called " of the high church or low church." In short, whatever views he had then in his own breast, or how far soever he intended to proceed, the turn of his whole discourse was intended, in appearance, only to put the queen upon what they called a moderating scheme; which, however, made so strong an impression upon her, that when this minister led by the necessity of affairs, the general disposition of the people, and probably by his own inclinations, put her majesty upon going greater lengths than she had first intended, it put him upon innumerable difficulties, and some insuperable; as we shall see in the progress of this change.

Her majesty, pursuant to Mr. Harley's advice, resolved to dispose of the first great employment that fell, according to her own pleasure, without consulting any of her ministers. To put this in execution, an opportunity soon happened, by the death of the earl of Essex, whereby the lieutenancy of the Tower became vacant. It was agreed be

*The disposition of employments,' &c. This word is not used in that sense; it ought to be, the disposal of employments.'

VOL. IV.

U

tween