1718.

THE COURT OF HANOVER.

59

casions, showed but little readiness to second the exertions of its friends in England. The Dowager Electress was still living at the advanced age of eighty-two, and sometimes appeared jealous of the attention of her son to affairs in which she, as the next heir, considered herself chiefly concerned. From age she was slow and dilatory, as much as the Elector from temper. Both of them displayed, also, either an illjudged parsimony, or a surprising poverty, in refusing to lay out small sums, from time to time, according to the advice and entreaties of their English correspondents. In vain was it urged upon them that a very moderate expense might secure some doubtful elections or determine some wavering friends.* In vain did Marlborough especially beseech the Elector not to spare his money, and offer to assist him with a loan of 20,000l. So far from being able or willing to enter into such expenses, the Elector, at this very period, was himself soliciting a pension for his mother from Queen Anne.**

Such means as calling in an armed force and buying mercenary partisans the sword and the purse-appear strange expedients for securing a succession which was not only the regular and appointed course of law, but rooted in the hearts of three fourths of the English people at that period. Yet let us not too rashly condemn the statesmen who had recourse to these expedients. Let us remember how firmly established was the administration against which they had to strive; how fearful the dangers from which they finally delivered us! Nor let it be forgotten that no suspicion of any personal lucre or advantage to themselves, nor of illegal violence against their opponents, ever attached to their counsels, either for the application of money or for the landing of troops.

* Baron Schutz to Bothmar, Dec. 11. 1718. Halifax and Sunderland pressed that day for 2000l. "to carry the elections of the Common Council "of London;" and Stanhope added, "We are all sure that being masters "of the Common Council, London will present to Parliament any address "we choose!"

** See Somerville's Queen Anne, p. 556.

The broken health of the Queen, at this period, was another circumstance that stimulated both parties to exertion, as showing the importance of time. Her Majesty's constitution had in early life been injured by repeated miscarriages. Having of late years grown large and unwieldy, she could no longer take her former exercise of hunting, whilst she still continued to indulge somewhat too freely at her table; and she became subject to fits of the gout, which gradually grew more and more frequent and severe. Other ailments also intervened. On the 24th of December, she was seized with an inflammatory fever, and for several days remained alarmingly ill. Meanwhile various reports spread abroad, and, as usual, the less that was known the more there was rumoured. Even Her Majesty's death was more than once asserted. The monied men were seized with a panic. The funds fell. A run was made upon the Bank, and a deputation hastened up in fear and trembling to the Lord Treasurer, to request his advice and assistance. Under his direction, the Queen wrote a letter to the Lord Mayor announcing her recovery*; and a short time afterwards still more satisfactorily confirmed her own account, by arriving in London and opening Parliament in person.

The alarm, however, caused by Anne's undoubted jealousy of Hanover, and supposed predilection towards St. Germain's, was not so easily appeased. The ground for it, in fact, grew daily stronger. One of the first objects of Lord Bolingbroke and Mrs. Masham had been to remove as much as possible from Court all warm partisans of the Hanover Succession. None of these were left about Her Majesty, except the Duke and Duchess of Somerset, who afforded no handle for dismissal. The Duke was Master of the Horse, a well-meaning man, but of shy proud habits and slender understanding; insomuch that, on one occasion, we find Marlborough justifying himself as from a serious imputation, from any idea of having trusted or employed him in affairs of

* See this letter, dated February 1., in Tindal (vol. vi. p. 186.).

.1713.)

THE DUCHESS OF SOMERSET.

61

importance.* The Duchess, on the other hand, was a bold, imperious woman, with all that firmness of mind which her husband wanted. It was found that she was accustomed to ply the timid conscience of the Queen with hints on the terrors of Popery and the duty of securing the Protestant establishment. The floodgates of party virulence were instantly opened upon her; and a Protestant clergyman led the van against the inconvenient Protestant zealot. In his "Windsor Prophecy," Swift poured forth some most vehement invectives against the Duchess, reproaching her with having red hair, and with having connived at the murder of her first husband. It is difficult to guess which of these two accusations the Duchess resented most deeply, the latter being without a shadow of foundation, while the former, unhappily, could not be denied. To tell the truth of a lady's person is sometimes still more unpardonable than to spread falsehoods about her character. Certain it is, however, that the Duchess of Somerset became Swift's most deadly enemy, and, by her influence with her Royal mistress, was one of the principal means of excluding him from higher church preferment.

It may easily be supposed that however strong might have been Anne's Jacobite predilections, she found it necessary to conceal them with great care; and this was especially the case, since in her mind they were so frequently struggling with natural timidity and conscientious fears for the Established Church. Yet, in more than one instance, her family feelings burst through the veil which usually surrounded them. One of these is related by Lockhart of Carnwath. That zealous Jacobite having brought up what he terms a "high monarchical" address from the county of Edinburgh, was told by the Queen that she did not doubt his

* "I beg you will have so kind an opinion of me as to believe I can't "be so indiscreet as to employ the Duke of Somerset in any thing that is of consequence." To the Duchess, July 19. 1708. Swift says of Somerset, that he "had not a grain of judgment; hardly common sense." Works vol. x. p. 300.

affection to her person, and hoped that he would not concur in any design to bring over the Prince of Hanover during her lifetime. Somewhat surprised at this sudden mark of confidence, "I told her," says Lockhart, "that Her Majesty "might judge from the address I had read, that I should not "be acceptable to my constituents if I gave my consent for "bringing over any of that family, either now or at any time "hereafter. At this," adds Lockhart, "she smiled, and I "withdrew, and then she said to the Duke of Hamilton she "believed I was an honest man and a fair dealer."*

ALTHOUGH the scope of this work does not lead me to notice, in detail, the merely local affairs of Scotland or Ireland, I must not omit that both the sister countries were then in a state of extraordinary ferment. In both, the Jacobite leaven was working far more strongly than in England; and it can scarcely be doubted, but that in Scotland that party comprised a majority, not only as to numbers, but also as to property. The Whig Ministers had constantly kept a very apprehensive eye upon the Highland chiefs, whom they knew to have generally most disaffected principles, and always most devoted followers. I may even assert, that the fierce and nearly fatal struggle which finally took place in 1745 had been clearly foreseen and anticipated, even in the reign of Queen Anne; and it has been a matter of just reproach to Walpole, that, preferring present ease to future safety, he did not, during his twenty years of peace and power, bring forward any measures to break the discipline and avert the danger of these military bodies. So early as 1708, Stanhope had introduced a bill for that object, but had not been able to carry it through. The administration which came to the helm in 1710 was, as may well be supposed, by no means inclined to destroy these useful and ever ready weapons of the Jacobites; on the contrary, it even secretly assisted them with money. Their own Solicitor General for Scotland, Sir James Steuart, declared in the House of Commons, that, to his certain knowledge, 3000l. or 4000 7. had been yearly remitted to the most decided of the Higland clans.* For this discovery Steuart was dismissed from office, but it formed the subject of a keen attack from the Duke of Argyle in the House of Lords. Oxford admitted the fact; but said in his defence that he * Parl. Hist. vol. vi. p. 1275., and Lockhart's Comment. p. 459.