commission in the guards, and the young soldier served with som distinction at Tangier and in the Low Countries, during the reign c Charles II. The peace of Nimeguen brought him back to England where he found employment in courting Sarah Jennings, to whor he was married in 1681, both of them retaining positions in the duca household. In 1682 at the solicitation of his patron, he was raised to a Scotch barony (Lord Eyemouth), and made colonel in the guards. When James succeeded to the throne he was created Baron Churchil and soon rendered his patron effective service in the suppression ci Monmouth's insurrection. His subsequent desertion of his royal master, who had bestowed on him both honors and confidence, is one of the foul blots in the character of Churchill. For his treachery b was rewarded with the title of Earl of Marlborough, besides other honors, and yet like most of the public men of the Revolutionary period, he intrigued with the exiled king. William quite understood him, employing him at one time and at another depriving him of his posts and even of his liberty; and notwithstanding all, William when dying is said to have recommended Marlborough to his successor, the fittest person " to lead the armies and direct her councils".

The influence of the Duchess over Anne, perhaps more than William's advice, led to the Earl's being appointed to command the allied armies in the Succession War. That Marlborough was suc cessful under so many adverse influences, is a proof of his consum mate ability. Besides the almost insurmountable difficulty in effecting a real united action, with confederated forces under different commanders, each having notions which he held with great pertinacity there was the opposition of the Dutch field-deputies, and further, the high military character of the French army, while that of the Eng lish was yet to be formed. Marlborough nevertheless was eminently successful, and won as much honor to the English nation, as he di to himself, and at the same time proved that the English are capable of meeting their enemies in the field as well as by sea. The spirit thus infused into the nation was more than a compensation for the outlay of the war. The moral advantage of it in subsequent times cannot be calculated. It is not necessary to repeat the glorious vic tories won, nor the spite of the Tories against the great Duke, which ended first in his disgrace and then in his being compelled to seek a refuge on the continent.

Marlborough was on his way to England when Anne died; landing at Dover, he proceeded to London which he entered in triumph with a procession formed to do him honor. George I. restored him to his dignities and put him in office, but no great confidence was ever placed in him. In military tactics Marlborough was the greatest general of the age, and in diplomacy not inferior to many who made it a special profession. In private life his morals were exemplary, and his temper gentle and affectionate. The treachery of the Duke stains his character, though in this he did the same that was done by nearly all the public men of his day, with a view, as they said, to save themselves in the event of a reactionary movement being successful. The charge of peculation has been already noticed. More perhaps was made of this than was just, it is however not to be denied that his desire of wealth was greater than befitted a man of his rank and emoluments.

1660-1744.

SARAH JENNINGS, DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH. Sarah was the daughter of Richard Jennings, a gentleman of Sundridge, in Hertfordshire. At an early age she was placed in the household of the Duchess of York, where she became the favorite of her daughter the Princess Anne. In 1681 she married John Churchill, and from her influence over the mind of Anne became as famous as her husband, though in another sphere. The queen, mainly through her influence, was persuaded to adopt the foreign policy of the Whigs during more than half her reign, indeed so great was the power of the Marlboroughs, that they may be said to have governed England, and determined the course of affairs in Europe during that period. Anne was not altogether easy under the imperious control of her old companion, and Harley turned this to his advantage by means of Mrs. Masham, a near relative, and a bed-chamber woman to the queen. As soon as the Duchess knew that her rival had private interviews with her royal mistress, she set herself to enquire into the "mystery", and was not long in discovering that her cousin had become 'an absolute favorite". Some fencing took place, at first the queen denied it, then gathering firmness from the secret assurances of Harley, that he would take her out of the chains of the Marlboroughs and make a queen of her, she openly adopted Abigail as the successor of Sarah.

This change turned the course of events both in England and on the continent, and led to the disgrace of the Duke himself. Within six months of the death of Marlborough, the Duchess being then past sixty, two noblemen became her suitors, tempted as is said by her enormous wealth. To their letters she replied with spirit, that if she were only thirty instead of sixty, she would not allow the emperor of the world to succeed to that heart which had been devoted to John, Duke of Marlborough. Her death took place in 1744, having outlived both friends and enemies. Her wealth enabled her to leave several large legacies-one of £10,000 to the elder Pitt, in consideration of "the noble defence he had made for the support of the laws of England, and to prevent the ruin of his country". This extraordinary woman was not without considerable personal attractions, but was more distinguished for her irreproachable purity in an age of licentiousness. But her temper was almost without control, and the cause of her breach with the queen, and of no small inquietude to her husband. She had a clear head, and a powerful will, took a share in the councils on public transactions with advantage to the country, and was frequently consulted by the ministers.

ABIGAIL HILL, MRS. MASHAM. Abigail was the daughter of Francis Hill, a London merchant, who had married the sister of the father of the Duchess of Marlborough. The father failing in business, Abigail was taken into the service of her cousin, Lady Churchill, by whose influence she subsequently obtained the place of waiting maid to the Princess Anne. Her high-church principles, low cunning, and general complaisance made her a favorite with her mistress, and enabled her ultimately to supplant her patron. In 1707 she married Mr. Masham the queen's page. It was this marriage that brought about the rupture between the queen and the duchess, for the latter on inquiry found that her royal mistress had not only sanctioned the marriage, but had been present at its celebration.

Harley and Mrs. Masham from this time intrigued till the government was really in their hands. For her part in these transactions, her husband was included in the twelve peers made in 1712, and Abigail now became Lady Masham. After the death of Anne, she lived in retirement till her decease in 1734. Hallam in speaking of these two remarkable women says, "It is rather a humiliating proof of the sway which the feeblest prince enjoys even in a limited monarchy, that the fortunes of Europe should have been changed by nothing more noble than the insolence of one waiting-woman, and the cunning of another. It is true that this was effected by throwing the weight of the crown into the scale of a powerful faction; yet the house of Bourbon would probably not have reigned beyond the Pyrenees, but for Sarah and Abigail at queen Anne's toilet."

ROBERT HARLEY, EARL OF OXFORD. 1661-1724. Robert Harley descended from an ancient family of Hereford; his grandfather was master of the Mint to Charles I. and his father governor of Dunkirk after the Restoration. The Harleys were formerly considered one of the heads of the Presbyterian party, and took the field on the side of the parliament in the early part of the civil war, but when the Independents gained the ascendancy, they changed sides and helped to bring about the Restoration. At the time of the Revolution, Robert and his father raised a troop of horse and took possession of Worcester for the Prince of Orange. After the accession of William, Harley sat in the House supporting the Whig principles of his family, but in a while he hesitated, and then passed over to the Tory side. By that party he was three times elected to the Speaker's chair. In 1704, he was made secretary of state, through the influence it is said of Abigail Hill, to whom he had rendered service in recommending her to the favorable notice of Samuel Masham, the object of her affections. Four years later, Harley was obliged to resign in consequence of the treason of one of his clerks.

On the fall of the Whigs in 1710, Harley was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the year following created a peer. A few days after he was appointed Lord Treasurer, and so continued till within three days of the end of the reign, when he was dismissed through the influence of his former patron, whose hate he had excited by want of readiness in securing to her a handsome annuity granted by the queen. It is unnecessary to repeat the part taken by Harley in the peace of Utrecht, for which both he and Bolingbroke were impeached in 1715. After being imprisoned two years in the Tower, he was at his own request brought to trial before the Lords, the Com mons not appearing to prosecute he was discharged. From this period he lived in retirement devoting himself to the collection of books and manuscripts. His collection of the latter was greatly enlarged by his son, and being purchased by the parliament, forms now the well-known Harleian collection in the British Museum. That he was the patron of literature is in favor of Harley, but he was a poor statesman, and like his contemporaries engaged in treacherous correspondence with the exiled Stuarts.

HENRY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE. 1678-1751. Henry was the son of Henry St. John of Battersea, and Mary, daughter of the Earl of Warwick. After an early education in the puritanical principles of his mother, he was sent to Eton, and thence to Christ

Church, Oxford. In 1701 he entered parliament, and attached himself to the Tory administration of Rochester and Godolphin. He was already intimate with Harley, and when his friend was made secretary of state, St. John was brought in as secretary at war, which post he retained till the formation of a Whig ministry in 1708. At the restoration of the Tories to power in 1710, he was made secretary of state, with the direction of foreign affairs. It was during this period of office, that he bore the chief part in negotiating the peace of Utrecht. In 1712 he was called to the House of Lords, and soon after a rivalry grew up between him and his old friend Harley; aided by Lady Masham he subsequently effected the removal of his rival. His purpose was now to form a cabinet of Jacobites and restore the exiled family, but the unexpected death of the queen, before the affair was ripe, rendered it abortive. In 1715 he was impeached, for his share in the peace, along with Harley, and being alarmed fled to the continent. The Pretender appointed him his secretary of state, from which post he was dismissed on the ground of neglect of duty. By means of a bribe of £11,000 to the Duchess of Kendal, the king's mistress, he received permission to return to England, which he did in 1724, and received back his property by grant of parliament, but not his peerage. Being shut out of parliament, he vented his temper against the ministry by means of the press. Bolingbroke was an extensive writer, but his works are now little read, neither it is said, is there much in them worth reading, for his knowledge was inaccurate, and his reasoning for the most part specious. His style is thought to have considerable merit, being a happy medium between that of the scholar and that of the man of society". It may be added, that Bolingbroke was an unbeliever and a man of detestable private character.

JAMES FITZJAMES, DUKE OF BERWICK. 1670-1734. James Fitzjames was the natural son of James, Duke of York, by Arabella Churchill, sister to the Duke of Marlborough. At the age of seven he was sent to France, and educated in a college of the Jesuits; he returned to England about the time of his father's accession, and though a mere youth, led a charge of cavalry at Sedgemoor. In 1686 he set out for Vienna to serve against the Turks, and distinguished himself at the siege of Buda. The year following his father created him Duke of Berwick, and appointed him colonel of the Oxford Blues. After the Revolution he served with his father in Ireland, and when obliged to retire to the continent, he joined the French army against his uncle Marlborough, whose prisoner he became in 1693. In 1703, the Duke was naturalised as a subject of France, and appointed to the command of the French forces in Spain, from which country he was recalled in the next year. In 1706 he was made a marshal and again sent to command in Spain, where in the year following he won the decisive battle of Almanza, for which Philip created him Duke of Liria and Xerica. He afterwards served on the Rhine, in Flanders, and in 1709, in Provence and Dauphiny, in defending the frontiers against the Duke of Savoy. This defence against a superior force is considered a master piece of strategy. A long military career was ended by a cannon ball, which struck off his head, while engaged in the trenches at the siege of Philipsberg. Both the public and private character of the Duke are said to have

been exemplary. By his first wife, a daughter of the Earl of Clanricarde, he had one son to whom he tranferred his titles and estates in Spain; by his second wife he left children, the descendants of which hold the dukedom of Fitzjames in France, the title of Berwick having been dropped on the Duke's death in 1734.

FRANCOIS EUGENE, PRINCE OF SAVOY. 1663-1736. Francis Eugene was descended in the third degree from the ducal House of Savoy. His father was Count of Soissons, and Paris the place of his birth. Francis was educated for the church, but some wrong done to his family by Louis XIV. led him to enter the Imperial service, and renounce his allegiance to France. His first campaign was against the Turks at the siege of Vienna, in 1683, and such were his bravery and talent that in 1691 he commanded the Imperial forces in Piedmont. In 1697, in command of the army in Hungary, he won a great victory over the Turks at Zeuta. When the war of the Spanish Succession broke out, Eugene headed the Imperialists in Italy, and after various successes lost the battle of Luzara in 1702; he now returned to Vienna and was appointed president of the council of war. In 1704 he headed the Imperialists at Blenheim, and in 1706 won the decisive battle of Turin. He had a share in the victories of Oudenarde and Malplaquet. His next successes were against the Turks, whom he defeated at the celebrated battle of Peterwaradin in 1716, and in the year following obliged the enemy to surrender Belgrade. Eugene was as remarkable for modesty of character as for his ability as a general, the former as much as the latter contributed to the successes in the Succession War, for it rarely happens that two generals of pretty equal fame, work together as he and Marlborough did. Like Marlborough he originated no new tactics, but owed his success to quickness of perception, decision, and great skill in making the best of given circumstances.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

OBJECTIONS MADE BY THE SCOTS TO THE UNION OF THE TWO COUNTRIES. Sir Walter Scott writes: "In Scotland it [the Union] was regarded with an almost universal feeling of discontent and dishonor. The Jacobite party, who had entertained great hopes of eluding the act for settling the kingdom upon the family of Hanover, beheld themselves entirely blighted; the Whigs or Presbyterians, found themselves forming part of a nation in which prelacy was an institution of the state; the Country party who had nourished a vain but honorable idea of maintaining the independence of Scotland, now saw it, with all its symbols of ancient sovereignty, sunk and merged under the government of England. All the different professions and classes of men, each saw something in the obnoxious treaty, which affected their own interest.

"The nobles of an ancient and proud land, which they were wont to manage at their pleasure, were now stripped of their legislative privilege, unless in so far as exercised, like the rights of a petty corporation, by a handful of delegates; the smaller barons and gentry shared their humiliation, their little band of representatives being too few, and their voices too feeble, to produce any weight in the British House of Commons, to which a small portion was admitted. The