CHAP. X. 1714. 11. March 1714. London to secure the restoration of the Stuart line, and destroy the Hanoverian succession, excited a very serious disquietude at the courts both of Hanover and Mission of the Hague. Oxford, aware of this growing feeling, and to the court alarmed at its probable effects, despatched a relative of of Hanover; his own, Mr Harley, to Hanover, to counteract its effects. No sooner was he informed of this step than Marlborough sent Mr Molyneux, an Irish gentleman of fortune in the Whig interest, to the Electoral court to watch over his proceedings, and in his own correspondence did his utmost to make that court sensible of the danger which impended over them. So entirely successful was this mission that Mr Molyneux, in ten days 1 Mr Moly after his arrival, was able to inform the Duke of Marlborough, "of the perfect regard and affection which this court preserves for both your merits, which on a thousand occasions I have had the pleasure to perceive, as well in the Electoral Princess and of the whole court."1 neux to Marlborough, May 18, 1714. Coxe, vi. 276. The object of Mr Harley's journey to Hanover was to obtain a written declaration from that court that they were satisfied with the ministry, and had a good understanding with the Queen of England. He failed, * "It is so evident that the Queen's ministers are determined to place the Pretender on the throne, that it would be losing one's time to produce proofs of it. Their greatest desire and their only view, in Mr Harley's embassy, is to obtain some declaration from the Elector which may impose upon the nation, and make it believe your court is satisfied with them. If you fall into this snare, it will render all the efforts of your friends of no avail; but we rely on the great prudence of His Electoral Highness. In my humble opinion, it would be proper to use despatch, and that the prince should set out before Lord Paget, Mr Harley's successor, arrives. This journey of the Prince, attended with the success which there is reason to expect from it, cannot fail to give the Elector new influence over all Europe, as he will secure to himself the crown of Great Britain, which will attach the Emperor, Holland, and the court of Prussia, and render him the arbiter of the north of Europe."-Marlborough to Robethon, May 5, 1714; Coxe, vi. 269, 270. X. 1714. 12. of the court of the Elec however, in obtaining any such declaration; and, in- CHAP. stead, got only an answer, bearing "that they thought it would be mutually good for both their interests that some one of this house should have the honour to pay Indecision his court to the Queen of England"-the very thing of Hanover, which the English Government most wished to avoid. and death This was the only step, however, which the court of Han- tress Sophia. over could be prevailed on to take to support the pretensions of the Elector; and the Prince did not set out even after Baron Schutz had arrived with the writ, summoning him to attend his duty in the English Parliament. They felt the usual indecision of weak and ordinary minds at the approach of a crisis which required a vigorous and decisive step to be taken. Vehement and animated debates were held in the Council of State at Hanover, on the course to be adopted, but they terminated in nothing but indecision; and so gloomy did the prospect appear that Mr Molyneux wrote to Marlborough that "the Prince would not go over, and the succession meets with more difficulties at Hanover than it does in London." So violent was the crisis, and so painful the Mr Molystate of suspense to those principally concerned, that it Marlboproved fatal to the aged Electress, who died on the 8th 9, 1714. June, at the age of eighty-four, of an affection of the 282, 283. heart, universally regretted.1 The death of the Electress considerably diminished neux to rough, June Coxe, vi. 13. conduct of at this crisis. the difficulties of the Elector, and left him, comparatively Prudent speaking, unfettered to pursue his own line of conduct. the Elector Directed by Marlborough's counsels, it was prudent and judicious in the highest degree. Still placing his entire confidence and chief reliance on the great general and the Whigs, he was yet careful to avoid a rupture with the Tory Ministry, and to do nothing openly which might VOL. II. R CHAP. X. 1714. 1 Coxe, vi. 283-286. 14. Oxford, and irritate the Queen, or strengthen the adverse party in England. Upon this principle he refused to allow his son, the hereditary Prince, to go over to take his seat in the English House of Peers, and declined spending any money, or entering into any cabals, to strengthen his interest in Great Britain. Judging wisely that he had better appear to be invited to take the crown than openly to grasp it, he assumed the air of being indifferent to the succession, and left the management of his interests entirely to his supporters and adherents in England. Oxford, to foment a jealousy between him and Marlborough, did not fail to make him acquainted with the whole particulars of the connection, in former days, of the latter with the Stuarts. But the Elector had sense enough to perceive that these days were past; that Marlborough's line was now irrevocably taken in favour of the Hanoverian succession; and he continued to repose in him the same implicit confidence he had hitherto done.1 Events, however, succeeded each other with a rapidity Dismissal of which was not contemplated either by the court of Boling- Hanover or their adherents in this country. Oxford, trusted with who had climbed to the dizzy heights of power by his broke in the forma tion of a ministry. consummate art, and by successively paying court to the leaders of the most opposite parties, had lost his influence from the same cause. Duplicity can only prevail for a season; truth and sincerity alone succeed in the end. Oxford had alienated Lady Masham by his opposition to the grant of a pension, and other emoluments which she was anxious to obtain; and Bolingbroke, by declining to engage with him in measures for the restoration of the exiled family. By his duplicity, and a secret correspondence carried on through the medium of Torcy and Gualtier, he had long blinded the court of St CHAP. Germains; but as the decisive moment approached, and X. it became necessary, from the Queen's rapidly declining 1714. health, to take measures to secure a restoration, the exiled family became convinced that he was insincere, and that their whole reliance should be placed on Bolingbroke.* They therefore, through the medium of Berwick and De Torcy, made such vigorous representations to Queen Anne on the absolute necessity of removing Oxford that she at last consented to dismiss him. This was not done, however, without many misgivings and a severe mental contest in the breast of the sovereign, which was not diminished by a most violent and indecorous scene that took 1 Berwick's place, on the occasion of his receiving his congé, between Mem. 222him and Bolingbroke, which was prolonged till two in Petitot. the morning. On this occasion, Oxford said he should 287, 288. leave some people as low as he had found them; and * "Oxford nous amusait, et il était difficile d'y remédier; car de rompre avec lui, c'auroit été détruire tout, vu qu'il avait le pouvoir en main, et gouvernait absolument la Reine Anne. Il fallut donc feindre de se fier à lui; mais nous ne laissions pas de travailler sous main avec le Duc d'Ormond, et nombre d'autres, afin de venir à bout de cette affaire par leur moyen, si Oxford nous manquait. Enfin, voyant le temps s'ecouler sans qu'il parut aucun plan de la part d'Oxford, et d'ailleurs apprenant que la santé de la Reine Anne devenait de jour en jour plus mauvaise, je soupçonnais plus que jamais que le Trésorier nous trompait, d'autant plus que je savois qu'il avait écrit à l'Electeur d'Hanover, et qu'il venait d'envoyer à cette cour son cousin Harley. Je m'ouvrais donc à M. De Torcy, Ministre des Affaires Etrangères, et par qui passait tout mon commerce avec Gautier et avec Oxford. Il tomba d'accord avec moi que la conduite du Trésorier était fort extraordinaire, et nous résolumes de lui écrire, pour lui réprésenter que la Reine Anne pouvait manquer à toute heure, et qu' ainsi il était nécessaire qu'il nous fit savoir les mésures qu'il avait prises, en ce cas, pour les interêts du Roi Jacques, aussi bien que les démarches que ce Prince devoit faire. La réponse fut, que si la Reine venait à mourir, les affaires du Roi Jacques, et les leurs, étoient perdues sans ressource. Convaincus de ce que nous leurs mandions continuellement, ils s'évertuèrent, et par le moyen de Madame Masham ils déterminèrent la Reine à renvoyer le Trésorier, n'étant pas possible de conduire l'affaire à bien, tant qu'il seroit en place."-BERWICK'S Mem. 223-225-edit. Petitot. 225-edit. Coxe, vi. СНАР. X. 1714. 15. the agitation of the Queen was so excessive that it tended to accelerate her death. From this moment Bolingbroke, though not yet officially installed in the office of premier, was regarded broke tries with reason as the real head of the administration; and Boling to form a ministry; and his if the Queen had survived for any considerable time, it measures to is probable that he would have succeeded in the great bring in James. object of his life—the restoration of the Stuart family. The Tories were in the highest spirits on his elevation, and confidently anticipated from it the speedy seating of the exiled family on the throne. Though he at first was courteous towards the Whigs, and assured Walpole, Stanhope, and the other leaders of that party, at a dinner given to them on the following day, of his desire to secure the Hanoverian succession, he yet declared that he did not venture to propose to the Queen to remove her brother from Lorraine, where he was on the verge of France anxiously awaiting the turn of events. In two days Bolingbroke had nearly the whole cabinet filled up with decided Jacobites. Lord Harcourt was to be Lord-Chancellor; the Duke of Ormond, Commander-in-chief; the Duke of Buckingham, President of the Council; the Earl of Strafford, First Lord of the Admiralty; the Earl of Mar, Secretary of State for Scotland; Bolingbroke, Secretary of Foreign Affairs; the Treasury in Commission, with Sir W. Wyndham at its head. No doubt could remain, from the composition of 1 Walpole's Mem.c. viii. this projected cabinet, that, if it had remained any time 287, 289. in power, the Stuarts would have been seated on the throne.1 Coxe, vi. But the hand of fate was on the curtain, and the angel of death defeated the whole objects for which the Queen's ministers had laboured so assiduously, and for |