mutual animosity. Oxford wrote a letter to the queen, containing a detail of the public transactions; in the course of which he endeavoured to justify his own conduct, and expose the turbulent and ambitious spirit of his rival. On the other hand, Bolingbroke charged the treasurer with having invited the duke of Marlborough to return from his voluntary exile, and maintained a private correspondence with the house of Hanover. The duke of Shrewsbury likewise complained of his having presumed to send orders to him in Ireland, without the privity of her majesty and the council. In all probability his greatest crime was his having given umbrage to the favourite, lady Masham. Certain it is, on the twenty seventh day of July, a very acrimonious dialogue passed between that lady, the chancellor, and Oxford, in the queen's presence. The treasurer affirmed he had been wronged, and abused by lies and misrepresentations, but he threatened vengeance, declaring he would leave some people as low as he had found them when they first attracted his notice. In the mean time he was removed from his employment; and Bolingbroke seemed to triumph in the victory he had obtained. He laid his account with

being admitted as chief minister into the administration of affairs; and is said to have formed a design of a coalition with the duke of Marlborough, who at this very time embarked at Ostend for England. Probably, Oxford had tried to play the same game, but met with a repulse from the duke, on account of the implacable resentment which the dutchess had conceived against that minister.

§ XLIII. Whatever schemes might have been formed, the fall of the treasurer was so sudden, that no plan was established for supplying the vacancy occasioned by his disgrace. The confusion that incessantly ensued at court, and the fatigue of attending a long cabinet council on this event, had such an effect upon the queen's spirits and constitution, that she declared she should not outlive it, and was immediately seized with a lethargic disorder. Notwithstanding all the medicines which the physicians could prescribe, the distemper gained ground so fast, that next day, which was the thirtieth of July, they despaired of her life. Then the committee of the council assembled at the Cockpit, adjourned to Kensington. The dukes of Somerset and Argyle, VOL. II. Z

informed of the desperate situation in which she lay, repaired to the palace; and, without being summoned, entered the council chamber. The members were suprised at their appearance; but the duke of Shrewsbury thanked them for their readiness to give their assistance at such a critical juncture, and desired they would take their places. The physicians having declared that the queen was still sensible, the council unanimously agreed to recommend the duke of Shrewsbury as the fittest person to fill the place of lord treasurer. When this opinion was intimated to the queen, she said, they could not have recommended a person she liked better than the duke of Shrewsbury. She delivered to him, the white staff, bidding him use it for the good of her people. He would have returned the lord chamberlain's staff, but she desired he would keep them both: so that he was at one time possessed of the three greatest posts in the kingdom, under the titles of lord treasurer, lord chamberlain, and lord lieutenant of Ireland. No nobleman

The

in England better deserved such distinguishing marks of his sovereign's favour. He was modest, liberal, disinter ested, and a warm friend to his country. Bolingbroke's ambition was defeated by the vigour which the dukes of Somerset and Argyle exerted on this occasion. They proposed, that all privy counsellors in or about London should be invited to attend, without distinction of party. motion was approved; and lord Somers, with many other whig members, repaired to Kensington. The council being thus reinforced, began to provide for the security of the kingdom. Orders were immediately despatched to four regiments of horse and dragoons quartered in remote counties, to march up to the neighbourhood of London and Westminster. Seven of the ten British battalions in the Netherlands were directed to embark at Ostend for Eng land, with all possible expedition: an embargo was laid upon all shipping; and directions given for equipping all the ships of war that could be soonest in a condition for service. They sent a letter to the elector of Brunswick, signifying that the physicians had despaired of the queen's life; informing him of the measures they had taken; and desiring he would, with all convenient speed, repair to Holland, where he should be attended by a British squadron, to

convey him to England, in case of her majesty's decease. At the same time they despatched instructions to the earl of Strafford, to desire the states general would be ready to perform the guarantee of the protestant succession. The heralds at arms were kept in waiting with a troop of horseguards, to proclaim the new king as soon as the throne should become vacant. Precautions were taken to secure the seaports; to overawe the jacobites in Scotland; and the command of the fleet was bestowed upon the earl of Berkley.

§ XLIV. The queen continued to doze in a lethargic insensibility, with very short intervals, till the first day of August in the morning, when she expired, in the fiftieth year of her age, and in the thirteenth of her reign. Anne Stuart, queen of Great Britain, was in her person of the middle size, well proportioned. Her hair was of the dark brown colour, her complexion ruddy; her features were regular, her countenance was rather round than oval, and her aspect more comely than majestic. Her voice was clear and melodious, and her presence engaging. Her capacity was naturally good, but not much cultivated by learning; nor did she exhibit any marks of extraordinary genius, or personal ambition. She was certainly deficient in that vigour of mind by which a prince ought to preserve his independence, and avoid the snares and fetters of sycophants and favourites; but whatever her weakness in this particular might have been, the virtues of her heart were never called in question. She was a pattern of conjugal affection and fidelity, a tender mother, a warm friend, an indulgent mistress, a munificent patron, a mild and merciful prince, during whose reign no subject's blood was shed for treason. She was zealously attached to the church of England from conviction rather than from prepossession, unaffectedly pious, just, charitable, and compassionate. She felt a mother's fondness for her people, by whom she was universally beloved with a warmth of affection which even the prejudice of party could not abate. In a word, if she was not the greatest, she was certainly one of the best and most unblemished sovereigns that ever sat upon the throne of England; and well deserved the expressive, though simple epithet of "The good Queen Anne."

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

I. State of parties in Great Britain. § II. King George proclaimed. III. The Civil list granted to his Majesty by the Parliament. IV. The Electoral Prince created Prince of Wales. V. The King arrives in England. § VI. The Tories totally excluded from the Royal favour. § VII. Pretender's manifesto. § VIII. New Parliament. § IX. Substance of the King's first speech. § X.. Lord Bolingbroke withdraws himself to France. § XI. Sir William Wyndham reprimanded by the Speaker. § XII. Committee of Secrecy. XIII. Sir John Norris sent with a fleet to the Baltic. § XIV. Discontent of the nation. § XV. Report of the Secret Committee.

XVI. Resolutions to impeach Lord Bolingbroke, the Earl of Oxford, the Duke of Ormond, and the Earl of Strafford. XVII. The Earl of Oxford sent to the Tower. The Proclamation act. § XVIII. The King declares to both Houses, that a Rebellion is begun. § XIX. The Duke of Ormond and Lord Bolingbroke attainted. § XX. Intrigues of the Jacobites. § XXI. Death of Lewis XIV. XXII. The Earl of Mar sets § up the Pretender's standard in Scotland. § XXIII. Divers members of the Lower House taken into custody. 6 XXIV. The Pretender proclaimed in the North of England by the Earl of Derwentwater and Mr. Foster. § XXV. Mackintosh crosses the Frith of Forth into Lothian, and joins the English insurgents. § XXVI. Who are attacked at Preston, and surrender at discretion. § XXVII. Battle at Dunblain. § XXVIII. The Pretender arrives in Scotland. § XXIX. He retires again to France. § XXX. Proceedings of the Irish Parliament. XXXI. The Rebel Lords are impeached, and plead guilty. XXXII. The Earl of Derwentwater

and Lord Kenmuir are beheaded. XXXIII. Trials of Rebels. § XXXIV. Act for septennial Parliaments. § XXXV. Duke of Argyle disgraced. § XXXVI. Triple alliance between England, France, and Holland. § XXXVII. Count Gyllenburgh, the Swedish Minister in London, arrested. § XXXVIII. Account of the Oxford riot. § XXXIX. The King demands an extraordinary supply of the Commons. § XL. Division in the ministry. § XLI. The Commons pass the South Sea Act, the Bank Act, and the General Fund Act. § XLII. Trial of the Earl of Oxford. Act of indemnity. § XLIII. Proceedings in the Convocation with regard to Dr. Hoadley, Bishop of Bangar.

I. IT may be necessary to remind the reader of the state of party at this important juncture. The jacobites had been fed with hopes of seeing the succession altered by the earl of Oxford. These hopes he had conveyed to them in a distant, undeterminate, and mysterious manner, without any other view than that of preventing them from taking violent measures to embarrass his administration. At least, if he actually entertained at one time any other design, he had, long before his disgrace, laid it wholly aside, probably from an apprehension of the danger with which it must have been attended, and seemed bent upon making a merit of his zeal for the house of Hanover: but his conduct was so equivocal and unsteady, that he ruined himself in the opinion of one party, without acquiring the confidence of the other. The friends of the pretender derived fresh hopes from the ministry of Bolingbroke. Though he had never explained himself on this subject, he was supposed to favour the heir of blood, and known to be an implacable enemy to the whigs, who were the most zealous advocates for the protestant succession. The jacobites promised themselves much from his affection, but more from his resentment; and they believed the majority of tories would join them on the same maxims. All Bolingbroke's schemes of power were defeated by the promotion of the duke of Shrewsbury to the office of treasurer; and all his hopes blasted by the death of the queen, on whose personal favour he depended. The resolute bc