CHAP. X. 1714. master, was at a stand; and this noble pile, this proud monument of a nation's gratitude, would have remained a modern ruin to this day, had it not been completed from the private funds of the hero whose services it was intended to commemorate. But the Duke of Marlborough, as well as the Duchess, were too much interested in the work to allow it to remain unfinished. He left by his will fifty thousand pounds to complete the building, which was still in a very unfinished state at the time of his death, and the duty was faithfully performed by the Duchess after his decease. From the accounts of the total expense, preserved at Blenheim, it appears that, out of three hundred thousand pounds which the whole edifice cost, no less than sixty thousand pounds was provided from the private funds of the Duke 369-372. of Marlborough.1 The removal of Marlborough from power and command, and his departure for the Continent, did not appease, but rather tended to increase, the dissensions at were very often forced to apply part of their personal pay to complete their companies; for which reason, frequent applications were made to me, by all the general officers of the foot, to obtain some consideration for the captains on account of this extraordinary expense. I, however, always withstood it, to prevent increasing the charge of the army in Flanders, which would have been the unavoidable consequence of giving anything like recruit-money by Parliament. That the public has gained very considerably by the method I put this matter in, is a truth not only proved by facts, and witnessed by all the officers in the army, but of a nature that it carries self-evidence along with it; for, upon reckoning the recruits to cost four or five pounds a-man, and the vacancy from whence that sum is to arise, at sixpence a-day, and considering the regiments came complete into the field, and that several of the men died, and were killed at the latter end of the campaign, it will appear that the fund of non-effective money was not sufficient for the recruiting, and the captains, consequently, under a necessity of supplying what was wanting out of their personal pay; for a particular state of which I refer to any one colonel it may be thought fit to examine."-Coxe, vol. vi. p. 231-2-3 1 Coxe, vi. CHAP. X. 1714. 6. between Lady Ma sham and of Somerset. Queen Anne's court, and in her cabinet. Success brought its usual and attendant divisions to the victorious party. Mrs Masham and the Duchess of Somerset were the Dissension heads of the contending coteries in the former; Oxford and Bolingbroke of the opposite parties in the latter. the Duchess Mrs (who had lately been created Lady) Masham was the principal agent on behalf of the exiled family, and become was the channel by which continual representations were f made to the Queen from the courts of Versailles and St Germains. She worked not without success on the family affections of the sovereign, her natural preference of her own line over that of the Hanover family— to whom the succession opened by Act of Parliamentand her now openly-avowed adoption of Tory principles in government. On the other hand, the Duchess of Somerset, who might be called the head of the Tory Protestant party at court, worked not less assiduously in magnifying the dangers to the Reformed faith, and the risk of fresh convulsions, not only if the exiled family were restored, but if any decisive steps were taken towards their restoration. The Queen, who was now advanced in years, and declining in health, long floated in a state of uncertainty between these contending parties her secret partialities impelling her one way, her reason and judgment inclining another; and to the mental anxiety which this conflict produced, her death at no distant period is in a great degree to be ascribed.1 1 Coxe, vi. 7. ford and The cabinet, as is usual in such cases, contained And of Ox- within itself the heads of the rival parties whose oppoBoling- site opinions distracted the royal breast and divided the cabinet. the nation. Harley, now Earl of Oxford, was the head of the one; St John, now Viscount Bolingbroke, the broke in X. 1714. Ichief of the other. Oxford was prime-minister, and CHAP. enjoyed the chief confidence of the sovereign; and he was sincerely attached to the Protestant succession, although in the struggle for power, and to secure a majority in Parliament for the separate peace, he had not scrupled to pay court to the Jacobites in Great Britain, and even to enter for a time into the views of the court of St Germains. He was honest in intention, and comparatively pure in morals; but ambitious, unscrupulous in the scramble for power, subtle, and gifted with extraordinary powers of dissimulation. While his public measures seemed to favour the interests of the Tories, he was indefatigable in his efforts to court the Whigs, and support the Elector of Hanover, whom he regarded as the real and constitutional heir to the throne. Bolingbroke, on the other hand, brilliant in conversation, powerful in eloquence, fascinating in manner, but dissipated in morals and reckless in conduct, was rapidly gaining ground, though in the subordinate situation of Foreign Secretary, on the astute Premier, both by his great abilities, and by the entire coincidence of his feelings and principles with the confirmed partialities of the sovereign. He was devoted heart and soul to the cause of the exiled family, and looked confidently forward to their restoration. He was intrusted with the secret designs of the court of St Germains, and was daily rendering their party in Great Britain more formidable by his frank conciliating manners, and the undisguised 253, 254. preference evinced for him by his royal mistress.1 The new Parliament, as is usual on the eve of a political crisis or civil convulsion, exhibited a strange confusion of parties, and rendered it difficult to say to which side, if an emergency arose, the majority would incline. 1 Coxe, vi. CHAP. X. 1714. 8. Strange mixture of parties in the Houses of Parliament. 1 Bolingbroke to Lord Straf ford, Cor resp. ii. 494. Lockhart, ii. 478. The Tories had a considerable majority-not less, if they were united, than a third of the whole House; but they were split into two sections-those who favoured, and those who opposed, the Hanoverian succession; and this division would, of course, range them on opposite sides on the demise of the reigning sovereign. The Scotch Jacobites, both in the Lords and Commons, would, of course, unite with the latter of these section; and they were of importance, from their courage, their fidelity, and their command of the warlike mountaineers of Caledonia. The Whigs were consistent and united, and the steady friends of the Hanoverian succession; but they were out of power-were in a minority, since the last election and creation of Peers, in both Houses-and in a still smaller minority of the whole empire. In these circumstances, it was difficult to say to which party, on the question of the succession opening, victory would incline. Bolingbroke sketched the real state of parties with his usual graphic felicity, in these words,-" In both Houses there are the best dispositions I ever saw; but I am sorry to tell you their plans are unimproved: the Whigs pursue their plan in good order, and in concert. The Tories stand at gaze, expect the Court to lead them on, and the Court seems in a lethargy. The minority, and that minority unpopular, must get the better of the majority, who have the sense of the nation on their side. All that can be done is doing to prevail on our friend, the Lord-Treasurer, to alter his measures; to renew a confidence with the Tories, and a spirit in them; and to give a regular motion to all the wheels of government. I am sanguine enough to hope that we shall prevail. You shall hear from me again the moment I see through the present confused workings of Court and Party."1 X. 1714. Contradic mea sures the Legislature rupture. This strange and unsatisfactory state of parties was CHAP. strongly evinced in the measures of Parliament during the session of 1714. At one time the Commons passed, by a majority of seventy-six to sixty-four, a resolution, that the Protestant succession was not in danger; imme- try of th diately after, they gave the most decisive proof of their in contem sense of the reality of the danger, by carrying in the plation of a Peers an address to the Queen, praying her to renew her application for the removal of the Pretender from Lorraine, and to issue a proclamation, offering a reward of £5000 for apprehending and bringing to justice the same Prince, if he should land in Great Britain. Meanwhile the Queen was silently, but most effectively, taking measures for the succession of her brother to the throne of England. The Jacobite clubs increased in number and boldness, even in the metropolis, at which the Pretender's health was openly proposed, without any notice being taken of the proceedings; the army was gradually remodelled, and colonels appointed to regiments, and governors to commands, notoriously in the Jacobite interest. The ferment in the public mind was rapidly increasing, when it was brought to a perfect climax by the Electoral Prince of Hanover, who had been created Duke of Cambridge, applying, by advice of the Whigs, for a writ summoning him to attend and take his place in Parliament, accompanied by the still more ominous declaration that he might be expected in England in person before the writ was issued. The Queen was violently agitated, and the Jacobite party thrown into consternation, by this unexpected motion; but as there was no pretext, far less a legal ground, on vi. 1335which it could be refused, it was at length reluctantly vi. 259-261. conceded; and Baron Schutz, the Hanoverian mini 1 Parl. Hist. 1338. Coxe, |