ΙΣ.

34.

libels with

Marlbo

As the new ministers anticipated the most energetic CHAP. opposition from Marlborough, to a treaty which threatened to deprive the nation of the whole fruit of its sacri- 1711. fices and his victories, they resorted to the most disgraceful Infamous means to thwart his opposition and lessen his influence. which To accomplish this object, they scrupled not to make use rough of the utmost licentiousness and the most envenomed assailed by shafts of the press, and let loose the whole artillery of a malignant party, clothed in the style and language best calculated to inflame and pervert the public mind. The nature and effect of their calumnies may be judged of by the following passage from Smollett-a historian decidedly hostile to the fame of the illustrious general:

66

Marlborough, who but a few months before had been so highly extolled and caressed by the representatives of the people, was now become the object of Parliamentary hatred and censure, though no sensible alteration had happened in his conduct or success. That hero, who had retrieved the glory of the British arms-won so many battles-subdued such a number of towns and districts-humbled the pride and checked the ambition of France-secured the liberty of Europe, and, as it were, chained victory to his chariot wheels-was in a few weeks dwindled into an object of contempt and derision. He was ridiculed in libels, and reviled in private conversation. Instances were everywhere repeated of his fraud, avarice, and extortion; of his indolence,

the Tories.

cruelty, ambition, and misconduct. Even his courage 1 Smollett, was called in question; and this consummate general c. 10, § 20. was represented as the lowest of mankind.1

When this was the view taken of the military achievements and character of the illustrious hero, it was not to be supposed that the campaign of 1711, fruitful as it had

CHAP.

35.

misrepre

sentation about the campaign of 1711.

been in great and glorious deeds, was to pass over withIX. out the usual amount of malignant misrepresentation. 1711. It was not, accordingly, spared on the occasion. The Malignant passage of the French lines-perhaps the most' marvellous exploit in the whole war, and which St John himself admitted had outdone all Marlborough's former achievements-was called "the crossing of the kennel; and whatever honour might attach to the enterprise was ascribed to the Count of Hompesch, who led the vanguard. The siege of Bouchain was stigmatised as an inexorable sacrifice of sixteen thousand men for no other object but the capture of a dovecot. Marlborough, who, like many other great men, was unfortunately of a very sensitive disposition, felt these lampoons with a degree of anguish which appears certainly somewhat strange in a warrior advanced in years, and long habituated to the crosses and vexations of public life.1*

1 Coxe, V. 119, 120.

36. Marlborough's letter to

It was at first insinuated that they were only in defence against attacks which had emanated from Dr Hans, Marlborough's chaplain; but this was decidedly these libels. disproved. Harley, on being applied to on the subject

Oxford on

of these libels by the Duke, expressed the utmost abhorrence of them, and an earnest wish that their author could be discovered and punished. "I do assure your Grace," said he in reply," that I abhor the practice of libels, as mean and disingenuous. I have made it so

*

"The authors of these papers, as well on the one side as the other, are not only my enemies, but they are yours, my lord—they are enemies to the Queen, and poison to her subjects; and it would be worth the while to make a strict search after them, that the punishment they deserve may be inflicted upon them. But all the remedy, all the ease, I can at present expect under this mortification is, that you, my lord, would do me the favour to believe me in noway the abettor or encourager of what has given me a mortal wound; but I will endeavour to bear up under it.”—Marlborough to Lord Oxford, Oct. 19, 1711; Coxe, v. 122.

CHAP.

IX.

1711.

familiar to myself by some years' experience, that, as I know I am every week, if not every day, in some libel or another, so I would willingly compound that all the ill-natured scribblers should have license to write ten times more against me, upon condition they would write 1 Lord Oxagainst nobody else. I do assure your Grace, I neither Marlbo know, nor desire to know, any of the authors; and as heartily wish this barbarous war at an end, I shall be very ready to take my part in suppressing them." 1

I

ford to

rough, Oct.

19, 1711. 122, 123.

Coxe, v.

37.

of the Tories

tacks on

rough.

The object, however, of the Tories, in spreading these libels against Marlborough, was too important to be Real object easily relinquished; and accordingly, notwithstanding in these atthe disclaimer of their chief, they persevered in them Marlbowith the most unrelenting virulence. They were already far engaged, without his knowledge or concurrence, in a clandestine negotiation for peace; and the credit, even the existence of the ministry, was staked on its being favourably received by the nation. They dreaded therefore the denunciation by the great general, who had so gloriously conducted the war, of a peace which should abandon all its advantages, and leave the enemy in possession of the vantage-ground so threatening to Europe, which had been the object of contention from its commencement. They were in the utmost alarm at the thoughts of the victor of Blenheim denouncing a peace which could only have been justified if the Allies had been defeated on that glorious field. The national feelings might be roused-the public indignation directed to a wrong quarter. Impressed with this idea, and being well aware how easy it is to raise a general outcry against a public man on the most slender foundation, in anything connected with money transactions,2 they re- 123. solved to assail the absent general directly on this sub

2 Coxe, vi.

IX.

CHAP. ject. By so doing, they hoped he might be awed into silence on the peace; or, if he still persisted, discredited; and the course pursued for these ends was this:

1711.

38.

Charges brought

against

Marlborough of

having em

bezzled public

money.

1 Coxe, vi. 124-126.

39. Marlborough's de

tation of the

charge.

A board, consisting of Parliamentary commissioners, had been sitting for some time to inquire into certain alleged abuses in the application of the public money in the war in Flanders. They had examined Sir Solomon Medina, contractor for the supply of bread and breadwaggons for the forces in the Netherlands in the pay of the British Government, and he deponed that he had privately paid into the hands of the Duke of Marlborough, from 1707 to 1710 inclusive, annual sums amounting in all to £63,319. This deposition being mysteriously whispered, eagerly sought after, and industriously circulated by the partisans of Government as a state secret, soon became generally known both at home and abroad, and was anxiously laid hold of by the partisans of Administration and the enemies of Marlborough. No sooner did he hear of these calumnies than Marlborough transmitted from the Hague, through Mr Craggs, a brief but decisive refutation of the charge in the following terms :-1

"GENTLEMEN,-Having been informed, upon my arrival here yesterday, that Sir Solomon Medina had cisive refu- acquainted you with my having received several sums of money from him, that it may make the less impression upon you, I would lose no time in letting you know that this is no more than what has always been allowed as a perquisite to the general or commander-in-chief of the army in the Low Countries, both before the Revolution and since; and I do assure you, at the same time, that whatever sums I have received on that account have constantly been applied for the service of the public, in

IX.

1711.

keeping secret correspondence, and getting intelligence of CHAP. the enemy's motives and designs; and it has fallen so short that I take leave to acquaint you with another article that has been applied to the same use, and which arises from her Majesty's warrant, whereof the enclosed is a copy, though this does not properly relate to the public accounts, being a free gift from the foreign troops. You will have observed by the several establishments, that, before the late King's death, when the Parliament voted 40,000 men for the quota of England, in the Low Countries, 21,612 were to be foreigners, and the rest English for the last they gave £10,000 a-year for intelligence, and other contingencies, without account; but his Majesty being sensible, by the experience of the last war, that this sum would not every way answer that service, and being unwilling to apply for any more to the Parliament, he was pleased to order that the foreign troops should contribute 24 per cent towards it; and I being then his ambassador and commander-in-chief abroad, he directed me to propose it to them, with an assurance that they should have no other stoppage made from their pay. This they readily agreed to; and her Majesty was afterwards pleased to confirm it by her warrant, upon my acquainting her with the use it was intended for; and it has accordingly been applied, from time to time, for intelligence and secret service, with such success that, next to the blessing of God on the bravery of our troops, we may, in a great measure, attribute most of the advantages of the war in this country to the timely and good advices procured with the help of this money. And now, gentlemen, as I have laid the whole matter very fairly before you, and that I hope you will allow I have served my Queen and