66 nor is any thing I write the least secret, even to a Whig "footman. The Queen is pretty well at present; but the "least disorder she has puts us all in alarm, and when "it is over we act as if she were immortal. Neither is "it possible to persuade people to make any preparation “against an evil day. . . am sure you would have "prevented a great deal of ill if you had continued among but people of my level must be content to have "their opinion asked, and to see it not followed." 66 us; I Bolingbroke himself was no less loud in his complaints. "If my grooms, he says, "did not live a happier life "than I have done this great while, I am sure they "would quit my service."* His breach with the Lord Treasurer, which had long been widening, was now open and avowed. Their common friend, Swift, made indeed another effort for their reconciliation, and induced them to meet at Lady Masham's, when he preached union to them warmly, but in vain. Finding his remonstrances fruitless, and unwilling to take part against either of his patrons, he declared that he would leave town, and cease his counsels. Bolingbroke whispered him, "You are in "the right," whilst the Lord Treasurer said, as usual, "All will do well." Swift adhered to his intention, and retired into Berkshire, and with him departed the last hopes of Oxford.t Another former friend of the Lord Treasurer had become not less active in striving for his downfal than she had been in promoting his power. Lady Masham, still the ruling favourite of the Queen, was now the close confederate of Bolingbroke and the Jacobites. In July, she was so far impelled by her resentment as to tell Oxford to his face, "You never did the Queen any service, nor are you capable of doing her any ;" and what is more surprising, Oxford bore this taunt with silence and submission, and made no reply, and went to sup with her at her house the same evening! Such meanness never yet averted a fall. 66 *Letter to Swift, July 13. 1714. †The best account of this celebrated quarrel is to be found in one of Swift's later letters to the second Lord Oxford, June 14. 1737. (Works, vol. xix. p. 158.) There is something very mournful and affecting in the tone of those recollections of his friends. Erasmus Lewis to Swift, July 17. 1714. Oxford had refused the 1714. LORD OXFORD DISMISSED. 87 What had Oxford to oppose to these bedchamber intrigues? Nothing. His own artifices had become too refined for success, and too frequent for concealment. His character was understood. His popularity was gone. His support, or, at least, connivance, of the Schism Act, had alienated his remaining friends amongst the Puritans. Nay, even the public favour and high expectations with which he entered office, had, from their re-action, turned against him. The multitude seldom fails to expect impossibilities from a favourite statesman; such, for instance, as that he should increase the revenue by repealing taxes; and, therefore, no test of popularity is half so severe as power. We also find it positively asserted by Marshal Berwick, in his Memoirs, that the Court of St. Germain's had intimated to the Queen, through the channel of the Duke of Ormond and of Lady Masham, its wish to see the Lord Treasurer removed.* It is the more likely that Ormond was employed in this communication, since it appears that, in the preceding April, he had offered to receive a letter from the Pretender to the Queen, and to put it into the hands of Her Majesty, which Oxford had always declined to do. Thus, then, all the pillars which had hitherto upheld his tottering authority were sapped and subverted, and on the 27th of July came the long-expected crisis of his fall. Her Majesty had that afternoon detailed to the other members of the Council some of the grounds of her displeasure with Oxford; and it is remarkable, that even his confidant and creature Erasmus Lewis appears to admit their just foundation. After a lady a job of some money out of the Asiento contract; of course after that he "could do no service to the Queen!" * Mem. vol. ii. p. 133. A little before this time (June 9.) Oxford had addressed a long letter to the Queen, which was printed in the report of the Committee of Secrecy next year. It is artful and submissive, but seems to have produced no effect. † Gaultier to Torcy, April 25. 1714. "The Queen has told all the Lords the reasons of her parting "with him (Oxford), namely: That he neglected all business; that he "was very seldom to be understood; that when he did explain him"self she could not depend upon the truth of what he said; that he 66 never came to her at the time she appointed; that he often came "drunk; lastly, to crown all, that he behaved himself towards her personal altercation, carried on in the Queen's presence, and continued till two in the morning, Anne resumed the White Staff; and the whole power of the State with the choice of the new administration were left in the hands of Bolingbroke. The first step of the new Prime Minister was an attempt to cajole his political opponents. On the very day after Oxford's dismissal, he entertained at dinner, at his house in Golden Square, Stanhope, Walpole, Pulteney, Craggs, and the other most eminent Whig members of the House of Commons*; but he altogether failed either to conciliate or delude them. The Whigs positively required, as a security for the Protestant Succession, that the Pretender should be removed from Lorraine; whilst Bolingbroke confessed that such a banishment of her brother would never be sanctioned by the Queen. It is difficult to conceive how Bolingbroke could possibly have anticipated any other issue to these overtures than disappointment; and they are the more surprising, since, on the same day, he had an interview with the chief agent of France and the Pretender, whom he assured of his undiminished regard †, and since he was, in fact, steadily proceeding to the formation of a purely Jacobite administration. His projected arrangements were as follows: The Seals of Secretary, and the sole management of Foreign Affairs, were to remain with himself; whilst, to prevent his being overshadowed by any new Lord Treasurer, that department was to be put into commission, with Sir William Wyndham at its head. The Privy Seal was to be transferred to Atterbury; Bromley was to continue the other Secretary of State; and the Earl of Mar, the third for Scotland; the Duke of Ormond, Commanderin-Chief; the Duke of Buckingham, Lord President; and Lord Harcourt, Chancellor. To fill up the other inferior - Pudet hæc oppro "with bad manners, indecency, and disrespect. "bria nobis, &c. I am distracted with the thoughts of this and the "pride of the conqueror." To Swift, July 27. 1714. *Political State, Aug. 1714, p. 83. † “Il m'a assuré qu'il était dans les mêmes sentimens à l'égard "de Montgoulin (the Pretender) pourvu qu'il prit les mésures qui "conviendraient aux honnêtes gens du pays." Gaultier to Torcy, Aug. 7. 1714, N. S. 1714. INTENDED CABINET OF BOLINGBROKE. 89 appointments was considered a matter of great difficulty, there being very few whom Bolingbroke thought sufficiently able to be useful, or sufficiently zealous to be trusted.* But the Cabinet he intended (for it was never nominated), consisting, as it did, of scarcely any but Jacobites, and comprising not a few who afterwards openly attached themselves to the Pretender, and were attainted of high treason, can leave no doubt as to his ultimate design, and must convince us that, had the Queen lived only three months longer, our religion and liberties would have been exposed to most imminent peril. In the midst of his triumph, the new Prime Minister found his exultation dashed with alarms at the approaching re-appearance of Marlborough on the political scene. That illustrious man had early in the spring determined to return to England so soon as the Session should be closed, and was already at Ostend, awaiting a favourable wind. His motives for coming over at this period have been often canvassed, but never very clearly explained. On the one hand, we find, from the despatches of the Hanoverian agents, that his journey had not been undertaken in concert with them.† On the other hand, the common rumour of his secret cabals and intended junction with Bolingbroke is utterly disproved by the evidence of Bolingbroke himself, who, in his most private correspondence, expresses his apprehensions at this journey, and hints that it proceeded from some intrigues of Lord Oxford. How far may we believe this latter suspicion "The sterility of good and able men is incredible." Erasmus Lewis to Swift, July 27. 1714. 66 † Bothmar to Robethon, July 16. O. S. 1714. "It is surprising "that the Duke of Marlborough comes over at such a crisis, and does not rather wait until it is seen which of the two competitors will 66 carry it with the Queen. Lord Sunderland himself does not under"stand this." 66 "Lord Marlborough's people give out that he is coming over, and "I take it for granted that he is so; whether on account of the ill "figure he makes abroad, or the good one he hopes to make at home, I shall not determine. But I have reason to think that some people, "who would rather move heaven and earth than either part with "their power or make a right use of it, have lately made overtures to him, and have entered into some degree of concert with his "creatures." To Lord Strafford, July 14. 1714. 66 to be truly founded? It is certain that, at the close of 1713, Oxford had written to the Duke in most flattering terms, and obtained a grant of 10,000l. to carry on the works at Blenheim. It is no less certain, however, that the confidential letters of the Duchess, during June and July, 1714, speak of Oxford with undiminished aversion.* On the whole, I am inclined to think that Marlborough had had some private communication with the Lord Treasurer, but had not committed himself in any even the slightest degree; that he was returning to England to see and judge for himself of the prospect of affairs; and that he did not feel himself so far pledged to his former colleagues as to be entirely debarred from any new political connection. But a mightier arm than even that of Marlborough was now stretched forth to arrest the evil designs of Bolingbroke. The days, nay, even the hours, of Queen Anne were numbered. Her Majesty's spirits had been so much agitated by the altercation in her presence, on the night of the 27th, as greatly to affect her health; and she herself said to one of her physicians, with that instinct of approaching dissolution so often and so strangely found before any danger is apparent, that she should not outlive it. The imposthume in her leg being checked, her gouty humour flew to her brain; she was seized with an apoplectic fit early in the morning of Friday the 30th, and immediately sank into a hopeless state of stupefaction. It may easily be supposed what various emotions such an event at such a crisis would occasion; yet it is a very remarkable proof of the bad opinion commonly entertained of Her Majesty's counsels, and of the revolutionary result anticipated from them, that the funds rose considerably on the first tidings of her danger, and fell again on a report of her recovery.† Bolingbroke and the Jacobites, stunned and bewildered by this sudden crisis, were unable to mature their plans so rapidly as it required. The Whigs, on their part, were found much better prepared; having already, under the guidance of Stanhope, entered amongst themselves *See Coxe's Life, vol. vi. p. 299. |