Lawrence, by which some of the transports were destroyed, the general called a council of war, and a resolution to return home was agreed upon. Hill reached Portsmouth in October, and when scarcely in port, the admiral's ship, the Edgar a seventy-four, blew up with all hands, thus giving a sad finale to an expedition already sufficiently unfortunate.

(d) Negotiations opened between England and France. From the commencement of the year, the Tories had been engaged in preliminaries designed to lead to a peace, influenced, as one of their own writers says, by a desire to mortify the Whigs and the Dutch, and to save their country from a ruinous war. The first agent employed was the Abbé Gaultier, a man of profligate character and by repute a spy. After Gaultier had made more than one journey to and fro between London and Paris, Queen Anne was pressed by her ministers to join with the Abbé, Prior, the poet, one of her own subjects and a man in whom she might place confidence. Prior therefore went to Paris with the Abbé, carrying a paper importing that he was entrusted and authorised to communicate the demands of the queen, and bring back an answer. In November the preliminary articles were signed, and communicated to the ambassadors of Holland and the Emperor. Greatly as these powers were dissatisfied, they found themselves obliged to consent to a congress, to meet at Utrecht on the 1st of January, to treat for a general peace.

(11) THE WAR IN 1712. (a) Ormond's campaign in the Netherlands. Marlborough was now displaced and in the course of the year withdrew to the continent. The Duke of Ormond took command of the British forces in Flanders, though with particular instructions not to hazard an engagement. The States General however determined to act on the offensive, and Keppel the Dutch Earl of Albemarle marched upon Arras, and reduced its magazines to ashes. In conjunction with Eugene, Ormond passed the Scheldt, and lent some assistance towards investing the town of Quesnoy. During the operations of the siege, a copy of the articles to which Louis had agreed was sent to Eugene, and the Dutch deputies, with an intimation that as Ormond was to occupy Dunkirk immediately as a pledge from France, he could no longer cover the siege of Quesnoy. Great confusion now arose among the confederated forces, the German auxiliaries in the pay of Britain refusing to follow the Duke, without orders from their respective sovereigns, declaring they would rather perish than desert the allies. Ormond with the British now separated from Eugene and took the road to Dunkirk, which place he reached full of vexation and disgust, for the Dutch refused him a passage through several towns which they held, and Villars actually offered him a retreat in France, if his difficulties made it necessary. This transaction is held by many to have branded the British name with infamy and disgrace. By reason of the defection of the British and the want of union among the remaining confederates, Villars took courage and crossing the Scheldt, achieved some measure of success, which Louis declared were visible marks of the protection of God, who knew the rectitude of his intentions.

(b) The plenipotentiaries meet at Utrecht. The conferences opened Jan. 29. England was represented by Robinson, bishop of Bristol, and the Earl of Strafford; Holland by the Deputies Buys

and Vanderdussen; France by Marshal d'Huxelles and the Abbé Polignac; the other allies also sent representatives though with reluctance. It was of course the object of the powers whose arms had been allied with ours, to put hindrances in the way of a settlement till the original purpose was secured. This led first to delays, and then to St. John, now Viscount Bolingbroke, being sent incog. to Paris, to remove all obstructions to the treaty between England and France. A suspension of arms by sea and land for four months was agreed to, to which the allies were to be invited to accede. Bolingbroke now returned, leaving Prior as resident minister at the court of France. The Duke of Savoy was the first to give way, and Portugal followed, being forced thereto by an army of twenty thousand men. Philip of Spain swore to observe the renunciation, and the French princes did the same with respect to the crown of Spain. The States General, alarmed by the defection of Savoy and Portugal, and tempted by a more advantageous barrier, at length signified their acquiesence. Austria and the Empire would not submit, though the treaty was not finally signed till the end of March in the next year, and then the Emperor was allowed till the 18th of June for consideration.

3. Results of the War of the Spanish Succession, (1) THE TREATY OF UTRECHT. 1713. By this treaty, France engaged to acknowledge the Protestant succession of the House of Hanover, and to abandon the cause of the Pretender, not suffering him to return to his dominions, or in any way to assist him; that the crowns of France and Spain should never be united; that the fortifications of Dunkirk be demolished and the harbor filled up; that Hudson's Bay remain with the English, and that Nova Scotia, and the islands of St. Christopher and Newfoundland, belong of right to Great Britain, the French however to have liberty to dry fish, and to fish within certain limits; and that commissioners meet in London to settle matters of commerce.

By this treaty, Spain was to cede to England, Minorca and Gibraltar; afterwards England obtained the Assiento or contract for supplying the Spanish colonies in South America, with four thousand eight hundred negroes from Africa, annually for thirty years. (This contract had formerly been held by Portugal, but latterly by France); to cede to the Emperor, Naples. Milan, Sardinia, and the Spanish Netherlands; to cede Sicily to the Duke of Savoy, who was to take the title of king. [That the Duke of Savoy obtained so much from this treaty, is attributed to the fact of his being next in the order of succession to the English throne, after the Pretender. Anne's minister, Bolingbroke, therefore espoused his interests, as being one of the blood-royal of England.]

(2) THE BARRIER TREATY. 1713. The purpose of this was to strengthen the frontiers of Holland. In 1701 when the

Grand Alliance was formed, the Dutch showed the necessity of such a barrier to their existence. Anne, on the Protestant succession in England being guaranteed by the States, engaged to procure for them the right of garrisoning certain places in the Spanish Netherlands for their safety. The Dutch undertook to support the garrisons, and the English, in case the barrier should be attacked, to furnish ten thousand men and twenty ships of war, and if this was not sufficient, England would declare war against the aggressor. A treaty to this effect was concluded in 1709 by Lord Townsend. In the early part of 1713, a new barrier treaty was concluded between the ministers of Great Britain and the States General, which gave to the Dutch, in addition to the places already held by them in Flanders, Namur, Charleroi, Luxemberg, and Newport. This stipulation between England and Holland became a part of the treaty of Utrecht. [This arI rangement gave great offence to Austria, as it put that power to the expense of keeping up fortresses, which another power occupied. They were all demolished by the Emperor Joseph II. after the marriage of his sister Maria Antoinette with Louis XVI.; this as Alison shows, prepared the way for the French to overrun Flanders in 1793.]

(3) TREATY OF RADSTADT AND Baden. 1714. The Emperor not meeting with success, gave way in 1714, and a treaty was concluded at Rastadt between Charles VI. and the sovereigns who had been parties to the peace of Utrecht. By this treaty, the Emperor acquired Belgium, Lombardy, Naples, and Sardinia, and agreed to acknowledge the Electorate of Hanover, and reinstate in their dignities the Electors of Cologne and Bavaria. The treaty was confirmed at the peace of Baden, "by which the German empire obtained merely the confirmation of the treaties concluded at Munster, Nimeguen, and Ryswick".

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.

QUEEN ANNE. 1664-1714. Anne was the second daughter of James II. and Anne Hyde, the daughter of the chancellor. In consequence of her ill health she was sent quite young to France, where she lived with her grandmother Henrietta Maria, at St. Columbe; when Henrietta died she resided for a time with her aunt the Duchess of Orleans. Her mother died a Roman Catholic in 1671, and two years later when her father married Mary of Modena, Charles II. compelled his brother James to allow Compton, bishop of London to be Anne's preceptor. Having the excuse of weak eyes, Anne did but little reading, she however learnt to play the guitar, and became an early proficient at cards and gossip with Sarah Jennings. In 1680 Prince George, afterwards George I. of England, came to this country to seek her hand in marriage, but for causes not

well understood was unsuccessful. To put an end to an attachment, which she is said to have had for Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, she was married to Prince George of Deninark in 1683; Charles settled on her the handsome income of £20,000, and a residence at Whitehall. During the reign of her father, Anne seems not to have been in favor at court, indeed it could scarcely be expected, if her dislike to Mary, her mother-in-law, was as great as is represented. It is certain that after the birth of the Pretender, her leanings were towards the country party.

Anne, as soon as she knew that her husband had gone over to the Prince of Orange, lost no time in making a flight from the capital, and under the escort of bishop Compton and Lord Dorset, set out for Nottingham. The accession of William did not however prove to her immediate advantage. The king professed himself unable to understand how the Princess could dispose of a revenue of £30,000 per annum, and her sister Mary became estranged on account of a dispute growing out of their respective claims on the apartments at Whitehall. This ripened into positive hostility, Anne was driven to leave Whitehall, and William deprived her of the guards which had been part of her establishment, and of certain honors which had been paid to her rank at Bath and elsewhere. After the death of her sister Mary, with whom it is doubtful whether any reconciliation took place, she wrote a letter of condolence to the king, and a better understanding was established. Anne, after her accession to the throne, continued under the influence of the Marlboroughs, till the imperious Duchess was supplanted by Mrs. Masham, a change which brought with it the fall of the Whig ministry. The Tories seeking to forward the queen's views with regard to the succession of her brother the Pretender, made an inglorious peace, and by dissension among themselves hastened her death.

Smollett thus characterises Queen Anne: "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 vigor of mind by which a prince ought to preserve his independence, and avoid the snares and fetters of sycophants and favorites; 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, and a mild and merciful prince." Lord Mahon is much less favorable: She [Anne] was a very weak woman, full of prejudices, fond of flattery, always governed blindly by some female favorite, and as Swift bitterly observes, had not a stock of amity to serve above one object at a time"". Can it be necessary to waste words upon the mind of a woman, who could give as a reason-a lady's reason-for dismissing a Cabinet Minister, that he had appeared before her in a tie-wig instead of a full-bottom? Is it not evident that in such a case we must study the advisers and not the character of the sovereign -that we must look to the setting rather than to the stone?

These sketches are undoubtedly true in the main, though it may nevertheless be true, that Anne lacked some of the virtues placed to her credit by one writer, and was not quite so imbecile as is affirmed by the other. It was her misfortune to have been imperfectly edu

cated, and at an early period of her life to fall under the influence of so strong-willed a woman as Sarah Jennings, whose control over the mind of the Princess was little less than despotic. Hence it should not be very difficult to account for some of the most questionable acts of Anne with respect to her father. Admitting her defects as a sovereign prince, there must have been some few virtues to obtain for her the title of "good Queen Anne". Neither can it be denied that her court had some claim to be called refined and virtuous, or that the condition of the Church was not improved by her granting, what before had been wasted among courtiers, to the augmentation of the stipends of the poorer clergy.

GEORGE, PRINCE OF DENMARK. 1653-1708. George, the husband of Queen Anne, was the youngest son of Frederick III. of Denmark, and brother of Christian V., Frederick's successor. At the battle of Lunden in 1676, he distinguished himself by his bravery, and by the rescue of his brother from the Swedes who had made him prisoner. When it was known that Charles II., to gratify the national wish, desired to marry his niece to a Protestant, and that Anne's first suitor, the Prince of Hanover, had been recalled from England by his father, Christian of Denmark made overtures on behalf of his brother George. These proved successful, and the marriage took place 1683. James II. on his accession made him a privy councillor, though he no wise distinguished himself, except by deserting to the Prince of Orange on the plea of his zeal for the Protestant religion. When William became king, Prince George was naturalised by act of parliament, and created Duke of Cumberland. He attended in his place in the peers during the reigns of William and Anne, and in the former reign occasionally voted against the court. On the accession of Anne, her husband became generalissimo of all the queen's forces by sea and land. His post was however but nominal, for Marlborough held the actual command of the army, and the admiralty was managed by a council appointed to assist the Prince. He sometimes complained of his little influence, the truth was he could be little trusted, for his capacity for business, naturally limited enough, was rendered less so by his indolence. Charles II. is said to have declared, that he had tried the Prince drunk and sober, but there was nothing in him, and Lord Dartmouth says, "After thirty years living in England, he died of eating and drinking, without any man's thinking himself obliged to him".

The family of Anne was a very numerous one-nearly a score, but the whole died in infancy, except William created Duke of Gloucester, born 1689. His death took place in 1700, and made a new settlement of the crown necessary.

JOHN CHURCHILL, DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH. 1650-1722. This celebrated general was born at Ashe in Devon, and came of an ancient family whose fortunes had severely suffered by their devotion to the cause of Charles I. At the Restoration the father received some compensation for his losses in the shape of small appointments for himself and his children. Arabella his daughter became maid of honor to the Duchess of York, and her brother John, page to the Duke. Arabella eventually became the mistress of the Duke of York, and to this it is said her brother owed his early advancement. To gratify his desire for a military life, his patron obtained for him a