CHAP. VIII. 1710. 1 Coxe, v. 277-279. 64. Effect on the Conti nent, and the Empe to Marl borough. 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 moneyed 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." This answer, though sufficiently vague, was regarded as a pledge that the foreign policy of the nation should not be altered, and allayed the apprehension in the city of London.1 It was not, however, so easy a matter to allay the apprehensions entertained in Holland and Germany as to the consequences to be apprehended from the changes ror's letter 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, and that it was also Her Majesty's intention not to make any further changes, and 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 CHAP. VIII. 1710. 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 255-257. enemies by continuing to exert himself for the common 281-283. cause and the general liberty of Europe.1 * 1 Conduct, Coxe, v. 65. altercation Marlborough's anxiety about the dismissal of Lord Sunderland was much aggravated by its renewing those Renewed female jars and reproaches between the Duchess and between the Queen Anne, which, as he had foretold, only made and the matters worse. Although, since the last fatal interview, "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 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. Duchess Queen. СНАР. all personal intercourse between these two illustrious personages had ceased, yet the violence of the Duchess's 1710. 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 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 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." 1 254. Coxe, Duchess of Anne, June 66. Queen Anne's an Duchess, June 12. 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 ill usage I have so often met with, which shows me very plainly what I am to expect for the future. I do not CHAP. VIII. 1710. 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; and concluded with these words: "My concern for Lord Marlborough's honour and reputation in the world, and the great trouble he expresses on this occasion, brings me to beg of your Majesty on my knees, that you would only defer this thing till there is peace, or an end of the campaign; and after such an expression your 1 Conduct, Majesty can have no doubt of my ever entering into Anne to anything that can displease you." To this letter the MarlboQueen returned no answer; the next day Sunderland 12,1710. was dismissed, and all correspondence between them 281-290. thereafter ceased.1 254. Queen Duchess of rough, June Coxe, v. 67. sures of divide the Though secure of cordial support from the throne in his attempt to dispossess the Whigs, Harley was yet Artful measagacious enough to see that it was necessary to proceed Harley to cautiously, and that a precipitate step might prove fatal Whigs. to the design. A union in the cabinet, joined to the great name and influence of the Duke of Marlborough, had more than once already caused a similar effort to miscarry. Impressed with these ideas, he proceeded step by step; and his first care was to sow disunion CHAP. VIII. 1710. among the Whig noblemen, from whom the most strenuous opposition might be anticipated. This was no difficult matter, now that the real inclinations of the sovereign had by a decisive act been made known; it is surprising how readily courtiers find pretences for veering round to the known wishes of the sovereign. The address of Shrewsbury, the influence of Somerset, were successfully employed by this arch-diplomatist to produce dissension among their former friends. Orford was expecting the garter, which he hoped to obtain from the influence of the Duke of Shrewsbury. "Wharton," as Maynwaring said, "had been long nibbling with Mrs. Masham;" the Duke of Newcastle was on the most friendly terms with her and Harley, and hoped to retain his situation as Lord Privy Seal through their influence. Halifax was the first who threw off the mask; he was won by his appointment as one of the joint plenipotentiaries at the Hague, in opposition to the strenuous advice of Marlborough.* Even Somers, who was the most conscientious of the Whig leaders, and had long been a firm friend of Marlborough, began to waver in his fidelity, and listened respectfully to the representations of the Queen that the influence of the Marlborough family had become too great, and that it was desirable to form a government in which he himself and the leading Whigs might form a part, but from which the connections of the great family might be excluded. In "By the account Mr Craggs gives me of England, I think everything that is bad may be expected. Lord Halifax being employed in the manner he is seems to me very extraordinary, for I cannot comprehend how it should be agreeable either to the Whigs or Tories, or that he himself at this juncture should care to be thus employed; but so many extraordinary things happen every day that I wonder at nothing."-Marlborough to the Duchess, July 24, 1710; CoXE, v. 298. |