CHAP. VIII. 1710. receive from England makes me every minute wish to be a hermit. Yesterday being thanksgiving day, I was in devotion, and earnestly hope God will forgive what is past, and strengthen our hearts; so that, for the time to come, we may bear with patience the ingratitude we have met with, which He no doubt, in due time, will punish; for we, I fear, have too justly merited His anger, but noways have deserved this usage of the 1 Marlbo- Queen. We must look upon this correction as a favour, Godolphin if it atones for our past actions. As I would not be Duchess, a favourite were I in power, my daily prayers shall be, that you and I may be so strengthened by His grace v. 266-268.' that the remainder of our lives might be spent in doing 251, 252. good, by which we might at last be acceptable to rough to and the June 29 and July 7, 1710. Coxe, Conduct, 62. rough's Parliament dissolved. Him."1 Marlborough, at this juncture, though absent with the Marlbo- army in Flanders, was too clear-sighted not to perceive anxiety lest how the current of public opinion was running in Engshould be land, and of the danger of the national policy being entirely altered, and the whole fruits of his victories lost, if a dissolution were to take place in the present excited state of the public mind. His opinion on this subject was often and very earnestly expressed :-"I think," said he, "the importance of preserving this Parliament is of so much consequence to the Queen and nation, that I would omit nothing that could be in my power; for I am as sure as I can be of anything in this world, that, if Marlbo- this Parliament be broke, the Queen's glory and interest Godolphin, is lost both in Holland and the Empire, the fatal con1710. Coxe, sequences of which you can best judge; so that, let me, Mem. of Sir as a faithful friend, beg of you that, if you can help this ii. 31. fatal step, you will do it; 2 if not, that you will give rough to July 5, v. 272. R. Walpole, demonstrations of its being done contrary to your advice; so that, when they return to their wits, the true authors may meet with their reward!" CHAP. VIII. 1710. 63. quences changes in administration in England. The event soon showed how correctly Marlborough had divined the consequences of these changes in the Conse cabinet, both in England and on the Continent. By the of these Tories, the dismissal of Sunderland was naturally hailed as the signal of victory. They accordingly exerted themselves in procuring addresses from the cities and counties in favour of the new policy, and with such effect that they flowed in in a perfect torrent. The Whigs could muster only a very few, and these extremely feeble in comparison. In these addresses, the doctrines of passive obedience and non-resistance were openly advanced, and the most determined resolution to support the Queen and the Church against all republican, traitorous, and schismatic opponents. The Jacobites about the palace congratulated the Queen on being at length rescued from the domineering party which had so long oppressed her and the nation. "Your Majesty," said the Duke of Beaufort, "is now Queen indeed." To such a length did the ferment spread, that the monied men in the city took the alarm: the funds were rapidly depressed; and credit was so violently shaken that a deputation from the Bank of England, headed by the governor, waited on the Queen to represent the dangerous effect on public credit which would ensue if any further changes were made in the cabinet. Her Majesty said in answer to the address: "I have for some time resolved to remove the Earl of Sunderland for certain reasons of state. I have no present intention to make any further changes; but should I alter any of my ministers, it shall be no prejudice to the Bank or the common cause."1 277-279. This answer, though sufficiently vague, was regarded as 1 Coxe, v. СНАР. VIII. 1710. 64. Effect on the Continent, and the Empe ror's letter to Marlbo rough. 1 Conduct, 255-257. Coxe, v. 281-283. a pledge that the foreign policy of the nation should not be altered, and allayed the uneasiness in the city of London. It was not, however, so easy a matter to extinguish the apprehensions entertained in Holland and Germany as to the consequences to be apprehended from the changes in the English cabinet, and so decisive a step as the dismissal of the Duke of Marlborough's son-in-law. Such was the alarm spread in Holland and at Vienna, that the Queen was under the necessity of directing Lord Townsend to represent to the States that the step which had excited so much alarm was not intended to lessen the credit of the Duke of Marlborough, that it was also Her Majesty's intention not to make any further changes, and that she was determined to prosecute the war with the same vigour as before. A similar assurance was transmitted by the Lord Chamberlain to the Emperor. But these assurances were far from neutralising the effect produced on the Continent by the decisive act which had taken place; and the States in consequence presented a solemn remonstrance through their minister, M. Vryberg, against any further changes in the ministry, or dissolution of Parliament. And the Emperor's apprehensions were so far from being allayed, and his dread that Marlborough would resign the command of the army was such, that he addressed to him a most flattering letter, in which he earnestly besought him not to abandon a post which he had filled with so much glory, and to disappoint his enemies by continuing to exert himself for the common cause and the general liberty of Europe.1* * "I am grieved at this change in the ministry having commenced with the dismission of Lord Sunderland, as he has in every stage of the war proved CHAP. VIII. 1710. 65. altercation Duchess Queen. Marlborough's anxiety about the dismissal of Lord Sunderland was much aggravated by its renewing those female jars and reproaches between the Duchess and Queen Anne, which, as he had foretold, only made Renewed matters worse.* Although, since the last fatal interview, between the all personal intercourse between these two illustrious per- and the sonages had ceased, yet the violence of the Duchess's temper would not permit her to abstain from every species of communication as her husband had so strongly recommended. When the dismissal of Lord Sunderland was in agitation, she took advantage of the transmission of an official letter from the Duke to the Lord-Treasurer to send a private, but very acrimonious remonstrance, from herself to the Queen. She there recapitulated with historic truth, but injudicious warmth, her husband's great services both to her Majesty and the country; expatiated on the former intimacy which had subsisted between them-in proof of which she enclosed some of himself an able, skilful, and faithful minister of the Queen and the common cause. Although I learn that this blow has, in consequence of his affinity to you, deeply affected your mind, I cannot be induced to credit a report that your Highness is meditating to resign your military command, and to retire from court. What could happen more fatal to the public welfare, and more pernicious to the Allies? What counsel could your Highness adopt more detrimental to yourself, than, in the midst of your triumphs, and almost at the conclusion of the war, to desert the common cause-to throw away the merit of your former services-to excite the anger of the Queen-to give scope to the vengeance of your enemies? Can your affectionate heart even for a moment indulge the thought of such terrible calamities both to the public weal and your welfare, by which the whole fruits of the war, acquired with such labour and glory, would be exposed to the utmost peril; and the almost desperate cause of the enemy, to the eternal reproach of your name, would resume new strength, not to be overcome by future exertion ?"-Emperor Joseph to Marlborough, July 16, 1710; Coxe, v. 282-283. * "It has always been my observation in disputes, especially in those of kindness and friendship, that all reproaches, though ever so just, serve to no end but to make the breach wider."-Marlborough to the Duchess, Jan. 1710; Conduct, 244. VIII. 1710. CHAP. the Queen's early letters to herself, and concluded by ascribing the melancholy change which had taken place to the influence of Mrs Masham and the Duke of Somerset. She enclosed also a letter from Somerset to 1 Conduct, herself in former days, in which the Queen was treated v. 287, 288. with very little respect, but which she requested to get 254. Coxe, Duchess of Marl borough to Queen Anne, June 7, 1710. 66. Queen Anne's an Duchess, back, "as for nonsense, ingratitude, and good spelling, she considered it as worthy of preservation as a great curiosity, and as being the production of so eminent a politician."1 It was not to be expected that so intemperate and ill-judged an effusion should produce any other effect swer to the but the widening, if possible, a breach which had already become too large for closing. The Queen returned no answer till the 12th, the very day before Sunderland's dismissal, when she wrote a short note, concluding with the words—" But I shall trouble you with a very short answer, looking upon it to be a continuation of the illusage I have so often met with, which shows me very plainly what I am to expect for the future. I do not return the letters, knowing they can be of no use to you, but must desire all my strange scrawls may be sent back to me, it being impossible they can now be agreeable to you." The Duchess wrote in reply that it was "her duty to make every exertion to prevent the extremities to which her Majesty was driving the Duke of Marlborough, at the very moment when he was hourly venturing his life in her service. She held out an indirect threat of the dreadful account which the new favourite might be required to render for her advice to ruin a man who had won six pitched battles and ten sieges; observed that the Queen's refusal to return her letters would make her take better care of the rest; |