"ner, though England, who in this national marriage must be "supposed to be the husband, might, in some instances, have "been unkind to the lady, yet she ought not presently to sue "for a divorce, the rather because she had very much mended "her fortune by this match." The Duke of Argyle said, "that "it was true he had a great hand in making the Union that แ "the chief reason that moved him to it was the securing the "Protestant succession, but that he was satisfied that might be "done as well now if the Union were dissolved; and that, if "it were not, he did not expect long to have either property "left in Scotland or liberty in England (1)!"

:

It does not appear that Bolingbroke-undoubtedly the greatest orator of the time-took any part in the debate. But his remarks upon the subject in a letter to the Duke of Shrewsbury may excite some serious reflections at the present period: "Your "Grace will wonder when I tell you that they intend to move "in our House, on Monday, to dissolve the Union. You may "be sure that all those whose spirits are naturally turbulent and "restless-all those who have languished under expectation, "and all those who have any personal resentment, take this oc"casion to add to the cry and to pursue their own views by "intermingling them in this cause...... We shall, I believe, ground "on this motion a bill to make it high treason, by any overt "act, to attempt the dissolution of the Union. If, after this, "we go on to show them all reasonable indulgence, and at the same time to show to them and to all mankind a firmness of "resolution and a steadiness of conduct, good will have come "out of evil, and we shall reap some benefit from this CONTRE"TEMPS (2)."

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To any one who considers either the nature of this question, or the usual feelings and conduct of the House of Lords, the division on Lord Findlater's motion will appear not a little surprising. Fifty-four peers voted for it, and exactly as many against it. Proxies vere then called for; and, there being 13 in the affirmative, and 17 in the negative, it was rejected by a majority of only four. But the fact is, that this subject, like every other in the session, was considered not so much on national as on party grounds. And if such a course could ever deserve indulgence, it would surely be at a crisis when the fate of the Hanover succession hung trembling in the balance, and with it the fate of the Protestant establishment, of the British Constitution,of every thing that we cherish as dear, or respect as venerable (3) !

(1) Parliamentary History, vol. vi. p. 1217. See also Lockhart's Comment. (p. 414-437.) for a very fall account of this proceeding.

(2) Bolingbroke's Correspond., vol. ii. p. 409. (3) A curious account of this division is given in a letter to Swift from Erasmus Lewis, at that

time M. P. for Lestwithiel. He tells us that both
the Tory peers who voted with the Lord Trea-
surer against the dissolution of the Union, and the
Scotch who voted for it, were "under agonies"
lest they themselves should be victorious!
"all the time I have been conversant in business,

"In

Another party matter was the favour shown by the House of Commons to Dr. Sacheverell. The sentence of the House of Lords, forbidding him to preach during the space of three years, expired on the 23d of March; and on the Sunday following he held forth, for the first time, at his own church of St. Saviour's, and, taking for his text the words, "Father, forgive them, for they "know not what they do (1)," drew an unseemly parallel between his own sufferings and the Redeemer's Passion. The House of Commons, anxious to show their disapprobation of the former proceedings against him, appointed him to the honour of preaching before them on the Restoration Day; and the Court was no less forward in conferring a rich benefice upon him. Never, perhaps, had any man attained a higher pitch of popularity. We are told, that as he passed to and from the House of Lords, on his trial, the by-standers used eagerly to press about him, and strive for the happiness of kissing his hands (2). We are told that, on his journey through Wales, even our princes in their progresses could scarcely have vied with his reception (3): that the day on which his sentence expired was celebrated, not only in London, but in several parts of the country, with extraordinary rejoicings (4). Would not all this appear to imply that he must have possessed some degree of talent or of merit? Yet the concurrent testimony of some of his friends, as well as of his enemies, represents him as utterly foolish, ignorant, ungrateful-his head reeling with vanity, his heart overflowing with gall (5). This venerated idol, when we come to try its substance, appears little more than a stock or a stone. But Sacheverell was considered as the representative of a popular party doctrine as the champion and the martyr of the High Church cause; and the multitude, which always looks to persons much more than to principles, can rarely be won over, until even the clearest maxim appears embodied in some favourite leader. The 7th of July had been appointed by the Queen as a day of public thanksgiving, for what she termed "the safe and honourable peace lately concluded." Both Houses went in procession to St. Paul's; and in the evening there were extensive illuminations blazing forth from the city, and magnificent fire-works played off

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"I never before observed both sides at the same "time acting parts which they thought contrary to their interests!" See Swift's Works, vol. xvi. p. 71.

(1) St. Luke, ch. xxiii. 34. On this sermon we find in Swift's Journal to Stella, April 2.: "I went "to Lord Treasurer's at six, where I found Dr. "Sacheverell, who told us that the bookseller "had given him 100l. for his sermon preached "last Sunday, and intended to print 30,000. I be"lieve he will be confoundedly bit, and will "hardly sell above half."

(2) Burnet's History, vol. ii. p. 542 fol. ed. (3) Ibid. p. 553.

(4) Tindal's History, vol. vi. p. 106.

(5) Sir Walter Scott truly observes: "Although "the Tory ministry was formed in consequence "of the ferment raised by this silly tool, the "eminent writers of their party seldom mention "him but with contempt." Note to Swift's Works, vol. vi. p. 250. As to Sacheverell's real principles, I have found the following entry in a "Minute "of what was resolved on by his Majesty and "Earl Bolingbroke," October 14. 1715 (Stuart Papers)," Sacheverell to make his way to the "King (on his landing) unless he can be more "useful in London."

from the river. The Queen, however, was prevented by illness from attending; and the Whigs kept aloof from a pageant which, in their eyes, must have appeared a profanation.

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On the 16th of the same month the Queen was so far recovered as to be able to prorogue Parliament in person. "My Lords and Gentlemen," she said, "at my coming to the Crown I found a 66 war prepared for me. God has blessed my arms with many vic66 tories, and at last has enabled me to make them useful by a safe “and honourable peace. I heartily thank you for the assistance you have given me therein, and I promise myself that, with your ́concurrence, it will be lasting. To this end I recommend it to you all to make my subjects truly sensible of what they gain by "the

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peace.

It is curious to contrast this address of Queen Anne with that of the Prince Regent, a century afterwards, on closing the session of 1814. We shall find that the shameful peace of Utrecht is commended with far higher praise than the triumphant peace of Paris. It was not necessary to ask statesmen " to make my subjects truly "sensible" of the glory of the latter. We may observe, also, that the Prince Regent, in alluding to the great victories of the war, pays a proper and natural tribute to " the consummate skill " and ability displayed by the great commander whose services you "have so justly acknowledged." In Queen Anne's speech, on the contrary, the Duke of Marlborough is meanly and enviously shut out from all notice. Did Harley and St. John really think that his glory depended on their notice, or that they could lower his fame by suppressing his praises?

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The Parliament, thus prorogued, was dissolved a few days afterwards. At this period the hopes of the leading Whigs seem to have been greatly depressed. The Hanoverian minister was told by Stanhope that "the greatest number of country gentle"men is rather against us than for us; and the General added his opinion, that "if things continue ever so short a time on the 66 present footing, the Elector will not come to the Crown unless he comes with an army (1)." The Whigs made, however, the most of their cause in their appeals at the elections. They inveighed, and not without success, against the Treaty of Commerce of their opponents. To show their concern for trade, and especially for the staple commodity of England, they in most places word pieces of wool in their hats; while on the other hand the Tories assumed green boughs, as seeking to identify themselves with the most popular event in English history-the Restoration (2).

It is a melancholy reflection for human nature, how easily and

(1) Schutz to Bothmar, Oct. 3. 1713. Macpherson, yol. ii. p. 505.

(2) Hist. of Europe, 1713 and 1714. I find from a letter in the Stuart Papers, that there were in

like manner symbols assumed on the Pretender's birth-day in 1716. The Jacobites wore white roses and the Whigs farthing warming-pans! (Letter of Mr. Thos. Innes, London, June 11, 1716.)

completely even the most intelligent classes of even the most intelligent people may sometimes be imposed upon. There seems some inherent proneness in mankind to great national delusions. The same men whom we find as individuals watchful and wary, not readily trusting professions, nor often misled by appearances, as a body will often swallow open-mouthed the most glaring absurdities and contradictions; and the press, which ought to be the detector of such delusions, will sometimes stoop to be their instrument. Thus, in the elections of 1713, it is certain that a very great majority of the English people were zealously attached to the rights of the House of Hanover. The Tory administration was well known to be on ill terms with that family, and was publicly accused of favouring the cause of its rival. We might, therefore, have presumed that the people of England must needs have taken one or the other course-have cooled in their zeal either for a Protestant King, or for Jacobite ministers. Yet, with wonderful blindness, they resolutely adhered to both; and, while devoutly praying for the Electress Sophia, as heir presumptive, while solemnly burning, on the 18th of November, amidst unanimous huzzas, figures of the Devil, the Pope, and the Pretender (1), they yet returned to Parliament a vast majority of friends to an administration which, in all its actions, studied the advantage of one at least of those three personages. The Whigs, it is true, were victorious in several places, and, on the whole, perhaps, were not losers by this election, as compared to the last; but they still formed but a feeble fraction of the House of Commons; while, in the House of Peers, on the other hand, they continued to exert a manifest ascendency.

The scope of this work appears to me to impose the necessity, and the period of a general election to afford the occasion, for my giving some details on the composition of both Houses at this period.

First, then, of the House of Lords. It comprised, at this period, one Prince of the Blood Royal, the Electoral Prince of Hanover, under the title of Duke of Cambridge; twenty-two other Dukes, two Marquesses, sixty-four Earls, ten Viscounts, and sixty-seven Barons. These, with twenty-six Spiritual and sixteen Scotch Representative Peers, made up a total of 207; several of whom, however, as Roman Catholics, could take no part in public business. In comparing these numbers with those at the accession of William the Fourth, we find them, at this latter period, amount to 390, including four Spiritual and twenty-eight Temporal Representative Peers from Ireland-an increase, certainly, not at all more than commensurate with the improvement of properties and the increase of population. In fact, the proportion between the Peers and the population will be found nearly the same at both periods.

(1) Hist. of Europe for 1713 and 1714, p. 203. The 18th of November was the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's accession.

Were such limits to be outstepped in any very great degree, the result could not fail to be felt injuriously by the landed interest, as withdrawing considerable proprietors from the representation of the counties, and throwing that representation into inferior hands.

Of the 207 Peerages which existed at the accession of George the First, not more than fifty-two remained unaltered at the death of George the Fourth. But the rest were by no means all extinctions. Many appear changed only from promotions in rankas, for example, the Earls of Exeter and Salisbury; and, on the other hand, several are continued in collateral branches, and under lower but more ancient titles, as was the case, for instance, with the Dukedom and Earldom of Shrewsbury. It may not be undeserving of notice as a singularity, that though, in 1714, the body of Peers was so much smaller than in 1830, a greater number of them held the rank of Dukes.

The House of Commons then, and throughout that century, consisted of 558 Members; 513 being sent from England, and 45 from Scotland. It is well worthy of observation, how large a number of the family interests and local ties which still exist, or, at least, which existed before Lord Grey's administration, were in force at this early period. We find, in this Parliament, a Drake returned for Amersham, a Grimston for St. Albans, a Whitmore for Bridgnorth, a Musgrave for Carlisle, a Cholmondeley for Cheshire, a Bathurst for Cirencester, a Bankes for Corffe Castle, a Lowther for Cumberland, a Wynn for Denbigh, a Mundy for Derby, a Foley for Droitwich, and another Foley for Hereford, a Hervey for Bury St. Edmund's, a Mostyn for Flint, an Eliot for St. Germains, a Berkeley for Gloucestershire, a Brownlow for Grantham, an A'Court for Heytesbury, Lord Hinchinbrook for Huntingdon, Sir Edward Knatchbull for Kent, a Sibthorp for Lincoln, a Walpole for Lynn, a Wentworth for Malton, a Bruce for Marlborough, a Vaughan for Merioneth, Thomas Cartwright for Northamptonshire, a Fitzwilliam for Peterborough, an Edgcombe for Plympton, a Fleetwood for Preston, a Cocks for Reigate, a Vernon for Stafford, a Cecil for Stamford, a Dowdeswell for Tewkesbury, a Greville for Warwick, and a Forester for Wenlock (1). These hereditary seats in Parliament, combining in some degree the permanence of Peerages with the popularity of Electionsthese feelings of mutual kindness, which bound together our wealthy gentry and their poorer neighbours, and brought them into frequent and friendly intercourse-these bulwarks against any sudden and overwhelming tide of popular delusion-appear to me to have been one of the main causes of the good working

(1) See a list of this House of Commons in the Parliamentary History, vol. vi. p. 1246. The list is, however, incorrect in some particulars; and

thus, for instance, does not contain the name of Steele. He was member for Stockbridge. (Hist of Europe for 1713 and 1714, p. 265.)