of the grossest kind was offered to the Duke, and in the most public manner. Earl Poulet, in vindicating the Duke of Ormond, who had succeeded to the command, for taking the field with Eugene, while he was at the same time in secret communication with Villars, and had secret orders not to fight, said of him, ' that he did not resemble a certain general, who led his troops to the slaughter to cause a great number of officers to be knocked on the head in a battle, or against stone walls, in order to fill his pockets by disposing of their commissions." Marlborough heard him in silence, but as soon as the house rose sent a message to him by Lord Mohun, inviting him to take the air in the country, Earl Poulet could not conceal from his lady the uncomfortable emotions which this message excited, and the duel was prevented by a direct order from the Queen to Marlborough, enjoining him to proceed no farther in the affair. It is sufficient punishment for this slanderer, that he is remembered in history for this, and for this only; so easily may the coarsest and meanest mind purchase for itself a perpetuity of disgrace!

For the sake of avoiding daily insults and further persecution, Marlborough determined upon leaving England. The death of Godolphin released him from the strongest tie which bound him to his then ungrateful country, for he was unwilling to leave his old tried friend, labouring under the severest sufferings of a mortal disease. A passport was obtained by means of Harley, or Oxford, as he must now be called, in opposition to some of his colleagues. Base as Oxford's conduct was, he was not so bad as Bolingbroke; he had not the same hatred to Marlborough, (perhaps because his obligations to him, great as they were, had not been quite so great,) and it is not unlikely that he may have thought it desirable for the sake of the Protestant succession, to which he was sincerely attached, and which Bolingbroke was plotting to set aside, that Marlborough should be out of his enemies' reach, and in a situation where he might act in its support, when occasion should require. The restoration of the Stuart line indeed appeared so possible, from the principles of Bolingbroke and the favourite, now Lady Masham, and from the irreconcileable dislike with which the Queen regarded the house of Hanover, that Marlborough thought it prudent, before he left England, to invest 50,000l. in the Dutch funds as a means of subsistence in case of that event. As this great commander had received the highest proofs of royal favour both from his own sovereign and from foreign princes, he was fated

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* Godolphin, the lord treasurer in those days of peculation, which had been so loudly censured in parliament, and even from the throne, was so far from having enriched himself, that the property which he left did not exceed 12,000l.

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also to have some experience of royal ingratitude. The government of the Spanish Netherlands had been more than once offered to him, and pressed upon him by the Archduke Charles, and he had been prevented from accepting it only by the jealousy of the Dutch. When he perceived that his disgrace was impending, he asked for this appointment, and the Archduke evaded a compliance with his request. Nor was this the only instance of ingratitude from that thankless quarter. The principality of Mindelheim, which had been conferred on him after the battle of Blenheim, was restored at the peace to Bavaria, and though an equivalent was promised to Marlborough, it was never granted, nor did he ever obtain any compensation for the loss.

When he embarked at Dover, as a private individual, the Captain of the packet had sufficient English feeling to receive him with a voluntary salute. No other honour was paid him upon leaving his native country; but as the illustrious exile entered the harbour of Ostend he was welcomed with a salute of artillery from the town, forts and shipping. And along the whole road to Aix-la-Chapelle, though he endeavoured to avoid notice by taking the most private ways, he was entertained with the highest marks of respect and affection, by governors, garrisons, magistrates and people of all ranks. A finer tribute was never paid to true greatness. They blessed him as their deliverer, and mingling exclamations against the English cabinet with their expressions of admiration and gratitude towards him, many of them shed tears of indignant feeling, and said it were better to `be born in Lapland than in England, for that no nation had ever fallen so unaccountably from such a height of glory and esteem into such contempt and degradation. He dwelt some time at Aix-la-Chapelle; but from an apprehension that his person was not safe there, he went to Maestricht; there the Duchess joined him they proceeded to Frankfort, and after a few months removed to Antwerp, as a safer place while the war continued in Germany. From thence he corresponded with Hanover, and with the leaders of the Hanoverian interest in England, and there he held himself in readiness to transport troops to England on the demise of the Queen, engaging to use his endeavours to secure the fidelity of the troops at Dunkirk and to embark at their. head. The danger to which the Protestant succession was at that time exposed is believed to have proved fatal to the Electress Sophia, a remarkable personage, who at the age of eighty-four retained an unusual strength both of body and mind, and used to say, that if she could but live to have Sophia Queen of England engraven on her tomb, she should die content. Had she lived three months longer, that wish would have been gratified.

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As the crisis drew nearer, it was deemed advisable that Marlborough should return where his presence might be of great importance. Among the calumnies with which his memory has been loaded, is the absurd charge, that he was at this time corresponding with the Pretender, and intriguing with Bolingbroke to secure his succession. This falsehood also is now effectually refuted; and it appears from their own acknowledgment, that the ministers who were plotting for that purpose were frightened out of their wits' at the news of his intended return. That return would have exposed him to a renewal of persecution, and to every mortification and every injury which it was in the power of the Queen and her ministers to inflict,-but when the vessel wherein he had embarked approached the coast near Dover, it was boarded by a messenger with news of the Queen's decease, and the undisputed accession of George I. This monarch, though he duly appreciated the services of Marlborough, and respected him accordingly, never forgave him for not having communicated to him the intended operations of that campaign in which Brabant and Flanders had been recovered. He restored him to his offices, but did not avail himself of his advice, as for his own sake and that of the country he should have done; for had the opinion of this consummate statesman been taken, a combined administration would have been formed, to include some of the moderate tories who had supported the protestant succes'sion at the moment when their services were most essential. It was a more favourable opportunity than had ever before occurred for bringing upright men of different parties to act together for the general good.

Marlborough lived eight years after his return, happy in the enjoyment of that leisure and tranquillity which he had always desired. It is not true, as Johnson has taught us to believe, that the tears of dotage flowed from his eyes. In the year 1716 he had two paralytic strokes, but recovered both his strength and faculties, except that there were a few words which he could not distinctly articulate. In other respects, however, he was so little impaired, that he continued to attend Parliament, and to perform the business of his office as Captain-General and Master of the Ordnance, till within six months of his death. He wished to resign those offices, but was induced by Sunderland's intreaties and the king's particular desire to retain them. At length a return of the disorder proved fatal: he lay for some days aware of approaching dissolution, and, in full possession of his senses, he quietly expired on the 16th of June 1722, in the 72d year of his age. The Duchess, though sixty-two when she was thus left a widow,

still possessed some attractions of person, and proposals of marriage were made to her by Lord Coningsby, and by the Duke of Somerset. In her reply to the latter she declined the connection as unsuitable to her time of life, and added, that if she was only thirty instead of threescore, she would not permit even the Emperor of the world to succeed in that heart which had been devoted to John Duke of Marlborough. She survived her husband two and twenty years, and lived to see the magnificent pile of Blenheim completed according to his directions. Queen Anne had promised to build this proud monument of national glory at her own expense, if Marlborough had not had it finished at his own, it would have remained in its ruins, a striking monument of her fickleness, and of the meanness of her ministers.

If Mr. Coxe by the publication of these volumes had rendered no other service to historical literature than that of clearing Marlborough's character from the imputations with which it has been stained, that service alone would entitle him to the gratitude of all good Englishmen. Madame Sévigné has said Le monde n'a point de longues injustices: it were better to say there will be no injustice in the next world,—for that which is committed in this, is often but too lasting in its effects. During a whole century Marlborough has been represented in books both at home and abroad, as a consummate general indeed, but as being devoid of honour and of principle, an intriguer, a traitor, a peculator, and so careless of human life and of human sufferings, that for the sake of his own sordid interests he wantonly prolonged a war which, but for his ambition and his avarice, might many times have been brought to an end. These foul charges were urged against him by persons who knew that they were false-men whom he had patronized and brought forward; and for some of whom he had exerted himself disinterestedly, even so as to offend the whigs with whom he acted. His enemies gave these falsehoods the sanction of authority when they were in power, because it was necessary to sacrifice Marlborough before they could sacrifice the interests of their country, and betray the Protestant succession which they designed to do. And the calumnies which thus originated have prevailed to this day, because they have found their way from libels into history, and still more because they were propagated in the writings of Swift, a principal actor in the moral assassination which was planned and perpetrated by his party. Swift was beyond all comparison the ablest writer of that age: but his conduct upon this occasion, like some other of his actions, can only be explained by supposing that the malady which rendered him at last so pitiable a spectacle

a spectacle of human weakness, affected his heart long before it overthrew his intellect.

It is no light wrong to the dead that an honourable name should thus long have been defamed: it is no light injury to the living. What ingenuous mind is there that has not felt sorrow and humiliation for the obliquity and meanness by which the character of Marlborough has hitherto seemed to be degraded? Who is there that has not felt that whatever derogated from the admiration which he would otherwise have merited, was to be regretted as a national evil?-for the reputation of such men as Marlborough, as Nelson, (and let us be allowed to add the only name worthy to be classed with them,) as Wellington, belong to their country. In such names nations have much of their permanent glory, and no small part of their strength: the slanderer, therefore, who detracts from their fame and asperses! their memory commits a moral treason, and as far as he succeeds, inflicts a wound upon his native land; but sooner or later, truth prevails, and his infamy then is in proportion to the merit which he has calumniated. If the spirit of faction did not destroy all sense of shame as well as of honesty, and stultify men while it depraves them, these Memoirs of Marlborough would be more efficacious than any other history, that of our own times excepted, in showing such calumniators what kind of reputation they are purchasing for themselves.

Marlborough's character is now laid open to the world, without reserve, from the most unquestionable documents. His early correspondence with James is the only blot, and for that offence, all circumstances being fairly considered, there are few persons who would fling the first stone. After what has already been said upon that subject, it may suffice to observe, that William, who best understood the circumstance, and was the person most offended, entirely excused him; trusted him himself, and recommended him to the full confidence of his successor. Mr. Coxe allows that he was parsimonious; frugality had been a necessary virtue during the first part of his life, and the habit continued after the necessity had ceased, to this and to nothing more does the charge of parsimony amount. He was not profuse, but he never spared when it was proper that he should spend. In his loans to government, in his buildings and improvements, and in transactions of a public nature, no man was more munificent. The soldiers would not have loved a penurious man, and it is certain that no general ever more entirely possessed the love as well as the confidence of his men. Chelsea pensioner, at the election of 1737, was threatened with the loss of his pension if he would not vote for Lord Vere at Windsor.

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