CHAPTER I.

THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE.

THE reign of the last sovereign of the House of Stuart An illuswas distinguished in war, in letters, and in statesman- trious age ship; but this narrative is concerned with its legislative developments alone. The greatest of these was the Union with Scotland, which has been described in detail in the previous chapter. The important Act by which Anne became the first sovereign of Great Britain, combined with the brilliant victories of Marlborough abroad, shed a special lustre upon that brief but glorious age which has justly been called Augustan.

Parlia

Anne was desirous of being known as a thoroughly The English queen. She began her first speech in Parlia- Queen and ment-March 11th, 1702-by saying, "I cannot too ment. much lament my own unhappiness in succeeding so immediately after the loss of a king who was the great support not only of these kingdoms, but of all Europe," and the concluding passage contained this expression : "as I know my own heart to be entirely English." The prosecution of the war against France, and the Union with Scotland, were the chief points of the royal speech. Before the Revolution the Parliaments of England were held to expire immediately upon the death of the sovereign; but the act passed 7 and 8 William III. to obviate the evils of a disputed succession enabled the

CHAP. I. Parliament which existed at a demise of the crown to The Reign continue during a period of six months. Consequently

of Queen

Anne.

Session of 1702.

A bishop

reproved.

.

this Parliament of Anne was the first in our annals that
was entitled to sit and vote after the demise of the crown.
It acted prudently, and made no attempt to embarrass
the Government or withhold the supplies. Anne was
crowned on April 23rd, and she immediately named.
the Princess Sophia as next in succession to the throne.
The members of both Houses were sworn, as required
by the new Abjuration Bill. Parliament passed a bill
for examining the public accounts, as well as an act
granting to the Queen for life the same revenue that
William
Anne became still more popular
house of Peers that, as her sub-
Jang under heavy taxation, she should
apart £100,000 from her civil list to be applied to
the public service in the current year. Godolphin, whose
eldest son had married Marlborough's eldest daughter,
was named Lord Treasurer, thus taking supreme control
of the finances. War with France and Spain having
been declared, and other business transacted, Parliament
was prorogued on May 25th and finally dissolved on
July 2nd.

The ensuing elections gave the Tories and the Anglicans the upper hand in the new Parliament. The two Houses met on October 20th, 1702, and Mr. Harley was for the third time elected Speaker. The Commons in their address spoke of Marlborough's wonderful success in the Low Countries, which had "signally retrieved the ancient honour and glory of the English nation." The Whigs took umbrage at the word "retrieved," which they regarded as a cruel stab at the memory of King William, and they proposed the word "maintained " instead; but "retrieved" was affirmed by 180 to 80 votes. This division was the keynote to the whole session. The Tory majority eagerly received a petition from Sir John Packington, Tory member for Worcestershire, complaining that Dr. Lloyd, Bishop of Worcester, had unduly interfered in his election. The Commons

of Queen

Anne.

voted the Bishop's conduct to be "unchristian," and at their instigation the Queen dismissed him from his post The Reign as Lord Almoner, though not without protest in the House of Lords. Votes of thanks were passed to Marlborough, Ormond, and Rooke; liberal supplies were granted, and 40,000 seamen, 33,000 foot-soldiers, and 7,000 horse, were voted as the English forces for the

war.

borough.

Marlborough was now created a duke, and the Queen Honours granted him for the term of her own life a pension of for Marl £5,000 a year, derived from the Post-office revenue. She likewise sent a message to the House of Commons desiring that this pension might be settled for ever on the title. As the Duke already had £10,000 a year from the Dutch as commander-in-chief of their troops, and the Duchess held no fewer than four lucrative Court offices, the proposal to settle the pension on the dukedom for ever met with no favour. Sir Christopher Musgrave was amongst those who most strongly condemned it, and the Commons voted an address to her Majesty fully recognising the Duke's great services, but adding, with "inexpressible grief," their apprehensions of "making a precedent for future alienations of the revenue of the Crown, which has been so much reduced by the exorbitant grants of the last reign." Anne was much annoyed that she was thus "maliciously hindered" by Parliament from showering further honours and gifts upon her favourites.

One of the principal measures of the session was the Prince proposal, made in committee of the Commons, to confer George's Annuity on the Prince Consort, in case he should survive the Bill. Queen, a grant fixed at the enormous amount of £100,000 a year-a sum double that which any queen of England ever had in jointure. The Commons passed the bill, with a clause declaring that Prince George should not be liable in any future reign to the incapacity of holding employments which was imposed upon foreigners by the Act of Settlement. The peers were now up in arms, regarding this as a "tack" upon a money bill-a pro

CHAP. I. The Reign

of Queen Anne.

The Occasional Conformity Bill.

ceeding which they had already condemned by a Standing Order as "unparliamentary," and tending "to the destruction of the constitution of this Government."1 Heated debates ensued, but eventually the bill for the Prince's annuity passed with the obnoxious clause. Protests against it, however, were signed by such eminent peers as Devonshire and Somerset, and by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop Burnet, and other prelates appointed by King William. Marlborough supported it, but, to his extreme annoyance, the Earl of Sunderland, the husband of his second daughter, not only opposed it by his vote, but signed a protest against it.

Another important measure, and one of wide political scope, was the bill for preventing occasional conformity. It was a private measure, one of its introducers being Henry St. John, now rapidly acquiring fame, but it had the sympathy of the Queen. Her husband, Prince George, was placed in a delicate position by this bill, seeing that he was himself an occasional Conformist. The bill was designed to prevent Dissenters from complying with the provisions of the Test Act simply to qualify themselves for office or membership of a corporation. The Tories were already powerful in the counties, and hoped by this measure to strike at the Whig ascendency in the towns. The bill provided that any one who attended a Dissenting meeting-house after having taken the Sacrament and test for office of trust or the magistracy of corporations, should be immediately dismissed and heavily fined. This arbitrary measure passed the Commons, but was rejected by the Lords, although the Queen put great pressure upon the peers to pass it. It was rejected for a second time in 1703, and again in 1704. On the latter occasion the more violent Tories, headed by Nottingham, ineffectually endeavoured to carry it by tacking" it to the Land Tax Bill. At length, in 1711, Nottingham formed an unprincipled coalition with the Whigs, when the latter agreed to support the Occasional

1 Lords' Journals, December 9th, 1702.

Conformity Bill, and it accordingly became law, the money fine being reduced from £100 to £40. This graceless act, which is condemned by all our best historians, remained in force until 1719, when General Stanhope introduced a measure under the ingenious title of a "Bill for strengthening the Protestant interest," by which the Occasional Conformity Act and the Schism Act were abolished, but from which he was obliged to exclude the Test Act. Before the close of the session of 1702-3 a bill was passed which, among other things, made it high treason to endeavour to defeat the succession as now limited by statute. The affair of the famous Kentish Petition was also finally, though somewhat impotently, disposed of by the humble submission at the bar of the House of Commons of its framer, Mr. Colepepper. Action against him was stayed by an address to the Queen.

CHAP. I. The Reign

of Queen Anne.

storm in

When Parliament met on November 9th, 1703, the Great accession of the King of Portugal and the Duke of Savoy England. to the Grand Alliance was made known, but the House of Commons was at the same time told that further subsidies would be required. Public business was interrupted by the most terrible storm ever experienced in England. It began on the night of November 26th, and great loss of life was sustained, as well as immense damage to property. The Commons presented an address to the Queen lamenting the diminution of the royal navy caused by the storm, and beseeching her to give orders for the building of some new ships. This was done, and a proclamation was issued for a general fast, which was observed on January 19th ensuing. This was the only instance, as Macaulay has remarked, in which a tempest was made the occasion of a Parliamentary address or a public fast. In December the Commons cheerfully voted the supplies of men necessary for the war, together with a sum of £1,800,000 for expenses. Considerable excitement arose at this time over the Queensberry Plot, details of which have been given in the account of the Parliament of Scotland.