1711.]

MARLBOROUGH DISMISSED FROM ALL HIS OFFICES.

379

But lord-treasurer and secretary kept their places, and with their majority in the Commons, and their better management of the queen-who had been somewhat impatient of their attempts to govern her-they turned their thoughts to the mode in which they could best damage and destroy their adversaries. Marlborough was the first victim. The "falcon " Churchill, was "hawk'd at and killed" by "the mousing owl," Harley. On the 31st of December, the following entry was made in the minutes of the Cabinet Council: "Being informed that an information against the duke of Marlborough was laid before the House of Commons, by the Commissioners of the public accounts, her majesty thought fit to dismiss him from all his employments, that the matter might undergo an impartial investigation." The prelude to "an impartial investigation" was to load the object of it with disgrace. On the 1st of January, Swift enters in his Journal, "Marlborough is turned out of all . . . . . If the ministry be not sure of a peace, I shall wonder at this step, and do not approve it at best. The queen and lordtreasurer mortally hate the duke of Marlborough, and to that he owes his fall, more than to his other faults . . . . . Opinion is a mighty matter in war, and I doubt the French think it impossible to conquer an army that he leads, and our soldiers think the same; and how far even this step may encourage the French to play tricks with us, no one knows." The one-sided pamphleteer could think impartially in the private record of his feelings and opinions.

.....

The information against the duke of Marlborough would, in another generation, have properly consigned a great public servant to the lowest depth of ignominy, and have called for exemplary punishment. He was an avaricious man; he clutched at all the gold he could safely touch, and he kept it tightly buttoned up, to his own undisguised satisfaction. Peterborough measured his character pretty accurately, when, being mistaken by a truculent mob for Marlborough in the wane of his popularity, he exclaimed, "I am not the duke, and I will prove it. I have only five guineas in my pocket, and you shall have them." But Marlborough was too cautious to seize upon perquisites and appropriate funds for which he had not strict precedent. The charges against him were under two heads, and were declared established by large majorities in the House of Commons: 1. "That the taking several sums of money, annually, by the duke of Marlborough from the contractors for furnishing the bread and bread waggons in the Low Countries, was unwarrantable and illegal." This charge against him came to the knowledge of the duke before he returned to England in November, and he at once wrote to the Commissioners of public accounts, not denying the information which sir Solomon de Medina had given them, that he had made such payments, but saying, "this is no more but what has been allowed as a perquisite to the general, or commander-in-chief, of the army in the Low Countries, even before the Revolution, and since." He added his assurance that whatever had been so received had been "constantly employed for the service of the public, in keeping secret correspondence, and getting intelligence of the enemy's motions and designs." The second resolution of the Commons was, "that the deduction of 2 per cent. from the pay of the foreign troops in her majesty's service, is

380

open one.

NEW PEERS CREATED.

[1712. public money, and ought to be accounted for." Marlborough, in his letter to the Commissioners, had anticipated this second charge, by informing them that, as the plenipotentiary of William III., he had negotiated with the foreign states, that 2 per cent. should be deducted from the pay of their troops, to cover all charges for secret service; and that when he succeeded to the command, the queen, by warrant, authorized his receipt of the same per-centage, which he had strictly applied "for procuring timely and good advices." The question of Marlborough's criminality may long remain an But we cannot have a stronger proof of the growth of good government, than the certainty that no such temptation to dishonesty could now be presented to any high public servant; and that no one who has now the conduct of civil or military affairs would incur the fearful responsibility of disbursing large sums of money without being accountable for them. Marlborough's defence was certainly very incomplete, as judged by the opinions of our own times; but it seems to have satisfied all but the furious partizans of the ministry to whom his high influence, especially in foreign courts, was a serious obstacle to their policy. When the queen dismissed him by an insulting letter, he boldly replied he would not "join in the counsel of a man who, in my opinion, puts your majesty upon all manner of extremities. And it is not my opinion only, but the opinion of all mankind, that the friendship of France must needs be destructive to your majesty, there being in that court a root of enmity, irreconcileable to your majesty's government, and the religion of these kingdoms." *

The discomfiture of the ministry in the House of Lords was stopped from going farther, by a bold but dangerous manœuvre. They created twelve new peers. Lord Dartmouth has given an interesting account of what came to his knowledge with regard to this measure:-"I was never so much surprised as when the queen drew a list of twelve lords out of her pocket, and ordered me to bring warrants for them; there not having been the least intimation before it was to be put in execution. I asked her, if she designed to have them all made at once. She asked me, if I had any exceptions to the legality of it. I said, no; but doubted very much of the expediency, for I feared it would have a very ill effect in the House of Lords, and no good one in the kingdom. She said, she had made fewer lords than any of her predecessors, and I saw the duke of Marlborough and the Whigs were resolved to distress her as much as they could, and she must do what she could to help herself. I told her, I wished it proved a remedy to what she so justly complained of, but I thought it my duty to tell her my apprehensions, as well as execute her commands. She thanked me, and said, she liked it as little as I did, but did not find that anybody could propose a better expedient. I asked lord Oxford afterwards, what was the real inducement for taking so odious a course, when there were less shocking means to have acquired the same end. He said, the Scotch lords were grown so extravagant in their demands, that it was high time to let them see they were not so much wanted as they imagined; for they were now come to expect a reward for every vote they gave." There was no decided notice taken of this proceeding in the House of Lords. Lord Wharton took occasion to say one of

Coxe, vol. vi. p. 154.

+ Note on Burnet, vol. vi. p. 87.

1712]

NEGOTIATIONS AT UTRECHT.

881

the humourous things recorded of an age of humourists. He asked one of the twelve new peers whether they voted by their foreman.

The opposition of the Peers being in some degree disarmed by this new creation, and the Commons being decidedly with the ministry, the queen sent a message to Parliament on the 17th of January, which contained the important announcement that "her majesty's plenipotentiaries are arrived at Utrecht; and have begun, in pursuance of their instructions, to concert the most proper ways of procuring a just satisfaction to all in alliance with her, according to their several Treaties, and particularly with relation to Spain and the West Indies."

882

TABLE OF TREATIES.

[1326 to 1731.

NOTE TO CHAPTER XXIV.

The constant references in historical works to the Treaties between nations, which are briefly mentioned as "The Peace of Ryswick," "The Partition Treaties," "The Peace of Utrecht," &c., &c., have induced us to reprint the following Table, which appeared in the "Companion to the Almanac for 1831," a work edited by the author of the "Popular History of England." The present Table is brought down to the Alliance of Vienna, 1731, and it will be continued to a more recent period, in a subsequent Volume.

A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE of the more IMPORTANT TREATIES between the principal civilized Nations; with Notices of the WARS and other Events with which they are connected: from the beginning of the Fourteenth Century.

EDWARD II.

1326 War between England and France, on the subject of a fortress in Guienne, which Edward II. claimed as his of right.

EDWARD III.

1327 Peace between Robert Bruce and Edward III. The independence of Scotland acknowledged.

1336 Edward III. renews his pretensions to the crown of France, and enters into a league with the revolted Flemings.

1356 The German Constitution, known by the name of the Golden Bull, sanc

tioned; and the mode of electing the emperor determined.

1360 May 8: peace concluded with France, at Bretigny near Chartres, whereby England retained Gascony and Guienne, acquired Saintonge, Agenois, Perigord, Limosin, Bigorre, Angoumois, and Rovergne, and renounced her pretensions to Maine, Anjou, Touraine, and Normandy; England was also to receive 3,000,000 crowns, and to release king John, who had been long prisoner in London.

1370 War recommenced between France and England.

RICHARD II.

1381 Peace ratified between Venice and Genoa.

1385 The French united with the Scotch against England, upon which Richard II. invaded Scotland and burnt Edinburgh.

1390 Sultan Bajazet ratified a treaty with the Greek emperor, John Palæologus.

HENRY IV.

1412 Henry IV. of England leagued with the duke of Orleans, regent of France, in order to oppose the duke of Burgundy.

HENRY V.

1415 August: Henry V. of England commences war against France.

1420 May 21: Treaty of Troyes between England, France, and Burgundy, whereby it was stipulated that Henry V. should marry Catherine, daughter of

1326 to 1731.]

TABLE OF TREATIES.

383

Charles VI., be appointed regent of France, and after the death of Charles should inherit the crown.

HENRY VI.

1423 Treaty between England and Burgundy.

1435 September 22: Treaty of Arras between France and Burgundy. Several towns annexed to the duchy of Burgundy.

1439 The Pragmatic Sanction settled in France, regulating the election of bishops, and moderating the power of the pope.

1453 The first alliance entered into between the French and Swiss.

EDWARD IV.

1464 A league, designated "For the public good," formed between the dukes of Burgundy, Brittany, and Bourbon, and others, against Louis XI. of France.

1465 Treaty of Conflans, between Louis XI. and the chiefs of the above league. Normandy ceded to the duke of Berri.

1468 Louis XI., having placed himself in the power of the duke of Burgundy, was forced to sign a treaty at Peronne, confirming those of Arras and Conflans, with some other stipulations.

1474 Peace concluded between Edward IV. of England and Louis XI. of France.

1475 The Peace of Picquigni.

1475 Charles the Bold, of Burgundy, concluded a treaty with the French king, but speedily afterwards leagued against him with Edward IV. of England, and the duke of Brittany. Louis XI., on the other hand, entered into a treaty with the Switzers, and succeeded ultimately in becoming an ally of England, which unexpected change determined the duke of Burgundy to conclude a truce at Vervins for nine years.

1476 Charles of Burgundy commenced war against the Switzers, in which he eventually lost his life.

1482 The Treaty of Arras, between Maximilian of Austria, the husband of Mary of Burgundy, and Louis XI. of France, whereby Margaret, daughter of the former, was espoused to the dauphin, son of the latter, with Artois and Burgundy as a dowry.

1482 Peace concluded at Edinburgh between England and Scotland.

HENRY VII.

1494 War commenced by France for the possession of Naples, bequeathed to the king by Charles du Maine, which was opposed by the pope, the emperor, the king of Spain, the Venetians, and the duke of Milan-France being ultimately forced to abandon her claim.

1497 Treaty between England and Scotland, by which Perkin Warbeck was compelled to quit the latter kingdom.

1501 Treaty between Louis XII. of France and Ferdinand of Spain, for the kingdom of Naples; this partition, however, gave rise to a war between those powers, and eventually Naples remained in possession of Spain. 1508 December 10: the League of Cambray against the Republic of Venice, comprising the pope, the emperor, and the kings of France and Spain. Venice forced to cede to Spain her possessions in the kingdom of Naples.