a change of some officers both in her family and kingdom; and that these resolutions did not proceed from any real apprehension she had of danger to the church or monarchy. For, although she had been strictly educated in the former, and very much approved its doctrine and discipline, yet she was not so ready to foresee any attempts against it by the party then presiding. But the fears that most influenced her were such as concerned her own power and prerogative, which those nearest about her were making daily encroachments upon, by their undutiful behaviour and unreasonable demands.

The deportment of the duchess of Marlborough, while the prince lay expiring, was of such a nature, that the queen, then in the heights of grief, was not able to bear it; but, with marks of displeasure in her countenance, she ordered the duchess to withdraw, and send Mrs. Masham to her.

I forgot to relate an affair that happened, as I remember, about a twelvemonth before prince George's death. This prince had long conceived an incurable aversion from that party, and was resolved to use his utmost credit with the queen, his wife, to get rid of them. There fell out an incident which seemed to favour this attempt; for the queen, resolving to bestow a regiment upon Mr. Hill, brother to Mrs. Masham, signified her pleasure to the duke of Marlborough; who, in a manner not very dutiful, refused his consent, and retired in anger to the country. After some heats, the regiment was given to a third person. But the queen resented this matter so highly, which she thought had been promoted by the earl of Godolphin, that she resolved immediately to remove the latter. I was told, and it was then generally reported, that Mr. St. John carried a letter from her majesty to the duke of Marlborough, signifying her resolutions to take the staff from the earl of Godolphin, and that she expected his grace's compliance; to which the duke returned a very humble answer. I cannot engage for this passage, it having never come into my head to ask Mr. St. John about it. But the account Mr. Harley and he gave me was, That the duke of Marlborough, and the earl of Godolphin had concerted with them upon a moderating scheme, wherein some of both parties should be employed, but with a more favourable aspect towards the church. That a meeting was appointed for completing this work. That, in the meantime, the duke and duchess of Marlborough, and the earl of Godolphin, were secretly using their utmost efforts with the queen to turn Mr. Harley (who was then secretary of state) and all his friends out of their employments. That the queen, on the other side, who had a great opinion of Mr. Harley's integrity and abilities, would not consent, and was determined to remove the earl of Godolphin. This was not above a month before the season of the year when the duke of Marlborough was to embark for Flanders; and the very night in which Mr. Harley and his friends had appointed to meet his grace and the earl of Godolphin, George Churchill, the duke's brother, who was in good credit with the prince, told his highness, that the duke was firmly determined to lay down his command, if the earl of Godolphin went out, or Mr. Harley and his friends were suffered to continue in. The prince, thus intimidated by Churchill, reported the matter to the queen; and, the time and service pressing, her majesty was unwillingly forced to yield. The two great lords failed the appointment; and the next morning, the duke at his levee said aloud in a careless manner, to those who stood round him, that Mr. Harley was turned out.

Upon the prince's death, November, 1708, the two great lords so often mentioned, who had been for some years united with the low-church party, and had long engaged to take them into power, were now in a capacity to make good their promises, which his highmess had ever most strenuously opposed. The lord Sommers was made president of the council, the earl of Wharton lieutenant of Ireland, and some others of the same stamp were put into considerable posts.

It should seem to me, that the duke and earl were not very willingly drawn to impart so much power to those of that party, who expected these removals for some years before, and were always put off upon pretence of the prince's unwillingness to have them employed. And I remember, some months before his highness's death, my lord Sommers, who is a person of reserve enough, complained to me with great freedom of the ingratitude of the duke and earl, who, after the service he and his friends had done them in making the union, would hardly treat them with common civility. Neither shall I ever forget, that he readily owned to me, that the union was of no other service to the nation, than by giving a remedy to that evil, which my lord Godolphin had brought upon us, by persuading the queen to pass the Scotch act of security. But to return from this digression.

Upon the admission of these men into employments, the court soon ran into extremity of low-church measures; and although, in the house of commons, Mr. Harley, sir Simon Harcourt, Mr. St. John, and some others, made great and bold stands in defence of the constitution, yet they were always borne down by a majority.

It was, I think, during this period of time, that the duke of Marlborough, whether by a motive of ambition, or a love of money, or by the rash counsels of his wife the duchess, made that bold attempt of desiring the queen to give him a commission to be general for life. Her majesty's answer was, that she would take time to consider of it; and, in the meanwhile, the duke advised with the lord Cowper, then chancellor, about the form in which the commission should be drawn. The chancellor, very much to his honour, endeavoured to dissuade the duke from engaging in so dangerous an affair; and protested he would never put the great seal to such a commission.

But the queen was highly alarmed at this extraordinary proceeding in the duke, and talked to a person whom she had then taken into confidence, as if she apprehended an attempt upon the crown. The duke of Argyle, and one or two more lords, were (as I have been told) in a very private manner brought to the queen. This duke was under great obligations to the duke of Marlborough, who had placed him in a high station in the army, preferred many of his friends, and procured him the garter. But, his unquiet and ambitious spirit, never easy while there was any one above him, made him, upon some trifling resentments, conceive an inveterate hatred against his general. When he was consulted what course should be taken upon the duke of Marlborough's request to be general for life; and whether any danger might be apprehended from the refusal; I was told, he suddenly answered, that her majesty need not be in pain; for he would undertake, whenever she commanded, to seize the duke at the head of his troops, and bring him away either dead or alive.

About this time happened the famous trial of Dr. Sacheverel, which arose from a foolish passionate pique of the earl of Godolphin, whom this divine was supposed, in a sermon, to have reflected on under the name of Volpone, as my lord Sommers, a few months after, confessed to me; and at the same time, that he had earnestly and in vain endeavoured, to dissuade the earl from that attempt. However, the im peachment went on in the form and manner which everybody knows, and therefore there need not be anything said of it here.

Mr. Harley, who came up to town during the time of the impeachment, was, by the intervention of Mrs. Masham, privately brought to the queen, and, in some meetings, easily convinced her majesty of the dispositions of her people, as they appeared in the course of that trial in favour of the church, and against the measures of those in her service. It was not without a good deal of difficulty, that Mr. Harley was able to procure this private access to the queen; the duchess of Marl

borough, by her emissaries, watching all the avenues to the back-stairs, and upon all occasions discovering their jealousy of him; whereof he told me a passage, no otherways worth relating, than as it gives an idea of an insolent, jealous minister, who would wholly engross the power and favour of his sovereign. Mr. Harley, upon his removal from the secretary's office, by the intrigues of the duke of Marlborough and earl of Godolphin, as I have above related, going out of town, was met by the latter of these two lords near Kensington-gate. The earl, in a high fit of jealousy, goes immediately to the queen, reproaches her for privately seeing Mr. Harley, and was hardly so civil as to be convinced with her majesty's frequent protestations to the contrary.

He

The suspicions, I say, made it hard for her majesty and Mr. Harley to have private interviews; neither had he made use of the opportunities he met with to open himself so much to her, as she seemed to expect, and desired; although Mrs. Masham, in right of her station in the bed-chamber, had taken all proper occasions of pursuing what Mr. Harley had begun. In this critical juncture, the queen, hemmed in, and as it were imprisoned, by the duchess of Marlborough and her creatures, was at a loss how to proceed. One evening a letter was brought to Mr. Harley, all dirty, and by the hands of a very ordinary messenger; he read the superscription, and saw it was the queen's writing; he sent for the messenger, who said, he knew not whence the letter came, but that it was delivered him by an under-gardener, I forget whether of Hampton Court or Kensington. The letter mentioned the difficulties her majesty was under, blaming him for not speaking with more freedom, and more particularly; and desiring his assistance. With this encouragement he went more frequently, although still as private as possible, to the back-stairs; and from that time began to have entire credit with the queen. then told her of the dangers to her crown, as well as to the church and monarchy itself, from the counsels and actions of some of her servants. That she ought gradually to lessen the exorbitant power of the duke and duchess of Marlborough, and the earl of Godolphin, by taking the disposition of employments into her own hands. That it did not become her to be a slave to a party; but to reward those who may deserve by their duty and loyalty, whether they were such as were called of the high-church or low-church. In short, whatever views he had then in his own breast, or how far soever he intended to proceed, the turn of his whole discourse was intended, in appearance, only to put the queen upon what they called a moderating scheme; which however made so strong an impression upon her, that when this minister, led by the necessity of affairs, the general disposition of the people, and probably by his own inclinations, put her majesty upon going greater lengths than she had first intended, it put him upon innumerable difficulties, and some insuperable; as we shall see in the progress of this change.

Her majesty, pursuant to Mr. Harley's advice, resolved to dispose of the first great employment that fell, according to her own pleasure, without consulting any of her ministers. To put this in execution, an opportunity soon happened by the death of the earl of Essex, whereby the lieutenancy of the Tower became vacant. It was agreed between the queen and Mr. Harley, that the earl Rivers should go immediately to the duke of Marlborough, and desire his grace's good offices with the queen, to procure him that post. The earl went accordingly, was received with abundance of professions of kindness by the duke, who said the lieutenancy of the Tower was not worth his lordship's acceptance, and desired him to think of something else. The earl still insisted, and the duke still continued to put him off; at length lord Rivers desired his grace's consent to let him go himself and beg this favour of the queen, and hoped he might tell her majesty his grace had no objection to him. All this the duke readily agreed to, as a matter of no consequence. The

earl went to the queen, who immediately gave orders for his commission. He had not long left the queen's presence, when the duke of Marlborough, suspecting nothing that would happen, went to the queen, and told her, the lieutenancy of the Tower falling void by the death of the earl of Essex, he hoped her majesty would bestow it upon the duke of Northumberland, and give the Oxford regiment, then commanded by that duke, to the earl of Hertford; the queen said he was come too late; that she had already granted the lieutenancy to earl Rivers, who had told her that he [the duke] had no objection to him. The duke, much surprised at this new manner of treatment, and making complaints in her majesty's presence, was however forced to submit.

The queen went on by slow degrees. Not to mention some changes of lesser moment, the duke of Kent was forced to compound for his chamberlain's staff, which was given to the duke of Shewsbury, while the earl of Godolphin was out of town, I think at Newmarket: his lordship, on the first news, came immediately up to court; but the thing was done, and he made as good a countenance to the duke of Shrewsbury as he was capable of. The circumstances of the earl of Sunderland's removal, and the reasons alleged, are known enough. His ungovernable temper had overswayed him to fail in his respects to her majesty's person.

Meantime both parties stood at gaze, not knowing to what these steps would lead, or where they would end. The earl of Wharton, then in Ireland, being deceived by various intelligence from hence, endeavoured to hide his uneasiness as well as he could. Some of his sanguine correspondents had sent him word, that the queen began to stop her hand, and the church party to despond. At the same time the duke of Shrewsbury happened to send him a letter filled with great expressions of civility the earl was so weak upon reading it, as to cry out, before two or three standers-by, "D— him, he is making fair weather with me; but, by G―d, I will have his head."

But these short hopes were soon blasted, by taking the treasurer's staff from the earl of Godolphin; which was done in a manner not very gracious, her majesty sending him a letter, by a very ordinary messenger, commanding him to break it. The treasury was immediately put into commission, with earl Powlet at the head; but Mr. Harley, who was one of the number, and at the same time made chancellor of the exchequer, was already supposed to preside behind the curtain.

Upon the fall of that great minister and favourite, that whole party became dispirited, and seemed to expect the worst that could follow. The earl of Wharton immediately desired and obtained leave to come for England, leaving that kingdom, where he had behaved himself with the utmost profligateness, injustice, arbitrary proceedings, and corruption, with the hatred and detestation of all good men, even of his own party.

SACHEVERELL.

A sudden conflict rises from the swell
Of a proud slavery met by tenets strained
In liberty's behalf. Tears true or feigned
Spread through all ranks; and lo! the sentinel
Who loudest rang his pulpit 'larum bell,
Stands at the bar-absolved by female eyes,
Mingling their glances with grave flatteries
Lavished on him-that England may rebel
Against her ancient virtue. HIGH and Low,
Watchwords of party, on all tongues are rife;

As if a church, though sprung from heaven, must owe
To opposites and fierce extremes her life-

Not to the golden mean and quiet flow

Of truths that soften hatred, temper strife.

WORDSWORTH.

THE QUARRELS OF QUEEN ANNE'S MINISTERS.

SWIFT.

The divisions between these two great men (Oxford and Bolingbroke) began to split the court into parties; Harcourt, lord chancellor, the dukes of Shrewsbury and Argyle, sir William Windham, and one or two more, adhered to the secretary; the rest were either neuters or inclined to the treasurer, whether from policy or gratitude, although they all agreed to blame and lament his mysterious and procrastinating manner in acting; which the state of affairs, at that time, could very ill admit, and must have rendered the earl of Oxford inexcusable, if the queen's obstinate temper had not put him under the necessity of exerting those talents, wherewith, it must be confessed, his nature was already too well provided.

This minister had stronger passions than the secretary, but kept them under stricter government: my lord Bolingbroke was of a nature frank and open; and, as men of great genius are superior to common rules, he seldom gave himself the trouble of disguising or subduing his resentments, although he was ready enough to forget them. In matters of state, as the earl was too reserved, so, perhaps, the other was too free; not from any incontinency of talk, but from the mere contempt of multiplying secrets; although the graver counsellors imputed this liberty of speech to vanity, or lightness. And, upon the whole, no two men could differ more in their diversions, their studies, their ways of transacting business, their choice of company, or manner of conversation.

The queen, who was well informed of these animosities among her servants, of which her own dubious management had been the original cause, began to find, and lament, the ill consequences of them in her affairs, both at home and abroad; and to lay the blame upon her treasurer, whose greatest fault, in his whole ministry, was too much compliance with his mistress, by which his measures were often disconcerted, and himself brought under suspicion by his friends.

I am very confident that this alteration in the queen's temper, towards the earl of Oxford, could never have appeared, if he had not thought fit to make one step in politics which I have not been able to apprehend. When the queen first thought of making a change among her servants, after Dr. Sacheverel's trial, my lady Masham was very much heard and trusted upon that point; and it was by her intervention Mr. Harley was admitted into her majesty's presence. That lady was then in high favour with her mistress; which, I believe, the earl was not so very sedulous to cultivate or preserve, as if he had it much at heart, nor was altogether sorry when he saw it under some degree of declination. The reasons for this must be drawn from the common nature of mankind, and the incompatibility of power: but the juncture was not favourable for such a refinement, because it was early known to all, who had but looked into the court, that this lady must have a successor, who, upon pique and principle, would do all in her power to obstruct his proceedings. My lady Masham was a person of a plain sound understanding, of great truth and sincerity, without the least mixture of falsehood or disguise; of an honest boldness and courage, superior to her sex; firm and disinterested in her friendship, and full of love, duty, and veneration for the queen, her mistress: talents as seldom found or sought for in a court, as unlikely to thrive while they are there; so that nothing could then be more unfortunate to the public, than a coldness between this lady and the first minister; nor a greater mistake in the latter, than to suffer, or connive, at the lessening of her credit, which he quickly saw removed very disadvantageously to another object,* and wanted the effects of, when his own was sunk in the only domestic affair for which I ever knew him under any concern.

**

* The duchess of Somerset.

D D