CHAP. XI. 1714. 22. Swift and the Tory writers in the press. decided majority before its close, in the Commons, Lords, and Queen's Council. He was no common man who, in the face of a large Whig majority at the commencement of the struggle, and despite the lustre of Marlborough's victories, could so take advantage of the mutations of fortune, the changes of public opinion, and the still more variable gales of court favour, as under such circumstances to accomplish such a success. It was not, however, either in Parliament or the Cabinet that the main strength of the party which overthrew Marlborough, and brought about the peace of Utrecht, was founded. It was the vast ability and sarcastic powers of their allies in the press which chiefly produced the result. The Tories were supported by a band of writers who, in the war of pamphlets, by which the contests of parties out of Parliament at that period were carried on, never have been exceeded as regards the versatility of their powers, and the thorough knowledge they possessed of the means of rousing and inflaming the general mind. SWIFT was the most powerful of that determined band; and never did intellectual gladiator bring to the deadly strife of envenomed rapiers, qualities more admirably adapted for success. Able, penetrating, and sagacious, possessed of great powers of argument— greater still of sarcasm-thoroughly acquainted with human nature, and unfettered by any of the delicacies which in men of more refined character often prevent the stirring of its passions, he knew how to excite the public mind by awakening their jealousy in regard to matters which came home to every understanding. Disregarding all remote considerations adapted only for the thoughtful, drawn from the balance of power, matters of foreign policy, or the ultimate danger of England, he XI. 1714. at once fastened on Marlborough the damning charge of CHAP. pecuniary cupidity; held forth the continuance of the war as entirely owing to his sordid thirst of gain, and all the wealth which flowed into the coffers of the great commander as wrung from the labours of hard-wrought Englishmen. Concealing and perverting what he knew was the truth of ancient history, he represented the Roman consul as rewarded for his victories by a triumph which cost less than £1000, and Marlborough enjoying £500,000 as the fruit of his laurels. He forgot to add, that such were the means of amassing a fortune which victory gave to the Roman proconsuls, that Cæsar, before obtaining the province of Gaul, was enabled on its prospect to contract £750,000 of debt. It may be conceived what effect such misrepresentations had upon a people already groaning under new taxes, terrified at the growth of the national debt, and inflamed with that envy which the rapid rise even of the most exalted merit scarce ever fails to produce in the great majority of men. The Whigs had able writers, too, on their side; but they were no match for their adversaries in the power of producing a present effect on the multitude, whatever they might be on the cultivated in future ages; and the elegant papers of Addison and Steele, in the Spectator and Freeholder, were but a poor set-off to the coarse invectives and withering sarcasms of Swift. 23. and princi High Tories in regard to Bolingbroke and Harley were Tory and monarchical in their ideas they belonged to the High Church party in Feelings religion, and in secret they dreamt of the restoration of ples of the the exiled dynasty. Being actuated by such principles, it is not surprising that they viewed with jealousy, and at last with open and undisguised aversion, the course of Marlborough's victories, and lent all the weight the war. CHAP. XI. 1714. of their talents and influence to aid in the propagation of the libels calculated to destroy him. Those triumphs, however glorious to England, however vital to its existence as an independent state, were all adverse to their political principles. They threatened to extinguish the monarchical and Roman Catholic principles in the person of Louis XIV., and raise to supremacy, in their stead, the morose doctrines of the Covenanters, the Solemn League and Covenant, the principles of the Dutch republicans. Queen Anne, with the usual instinct of crowned heads, when in secure possession of power, inclined to the same opinions. She felt the same repugnance to the Whigs, who had placed her after William on the throne, that Louis Philippe, in after times, did to Lafayette and the patriots of 1830, who had erected the throne of the Barricades. These principles and feelings were not confined to the leaders of the party and the sovereign on the throne: they pervaded the whole body of their followers, and took deep root in the noblest and most generous affections of the human heart. The warmest partisans of royalty in Great Britain It was these and Ireland were to be found in the French ranks: causes 24. turned Marlborough. which over- they embraced many of the most generous and exalted, because disinterested, persons in the British dominions. Their appearance excited profound sympathy and admiration wherever they appeared on the Continent.* * "Leurs aventures furent dignes des beaux jours de Sparte et d'Athènes. Ils étaient tous d'une naissance honorable; attachés à leurs chefs, et affectionnés les uns aux autres; irréprochables en tout. Ils se formaient en une compagnie de soldats au service de France. Ils furent passés en revue par le Roi à St Germain en Laye: le Roi salua les troupes par une inclination de la tête et le chapeau bas. Il révint, salua de nouveau, et fondit en larmes. Ils se mirent à genoux, baissants la tête contre la terre, puis se rélevants tout à la fois, ils lui firent le salut militaire. Ils furent envoyés delà à les frontières It The Pretender himself combated at Malplaquet against Marlborough in the midst of the chivalry of France. would be erroneous, therefore, to consider the intrigues and animosity which at length effected the downfal of Marlborough, and brought about the peace of Utrecht, as entirely the result of a revolution du Palais,-a bedchamber affair, in which the interests and glory of nations were sacrificed to the spite or the jealousies of women; and still more unjust would it be to stigmatise Bolingbroke and Harley as worthless adventurers, who were actuated in their opposition to the great hero of the age by mere personal envy or political hostility. Mrs Masham's bedchamber intrigue, and Bolingbroke's cabinet measures, were merely the form which a great principle, at all times strong in English society, and then peculiarly active, took in order to avert a danger with which, in their estimation, English institutions were threatened. And that principle is expressed in the words, "Fear God and honour the King." CHAP. 1714. 25. lations of tude in the It is evident, from what has been said, that the Tory party had much argument on their side in this great Great viocontroversy; and that though we, instructed by the moral rectievent, may now see very clearly that they erred on the mode of occasion, yet there is much to be said on their behalf; on Mariboand the strongest judgment, as well as the purest patriotism, might at the time have found it difficult to d'Espagne, ce que formait un marche de 900 milles. Partout où ils passaient ils tiraient des larmes des yeux des femmes, obtenaient le respect de quelques hommes, et en faisant rire d'autres par la moquerie qui s'attache au malheur. Ils étaient toujours les premiers dans une bataille, et les derniers dans une retraite. Ils manquerent souvent des choses les plus nécessaires à la vie, cependant on ne les entendit jamais se plaindre, excepté des souffrances de celui qu'ils regardaient comme leur souverain."-CHATEAUBRIAND, Mémoires sur le Duc de Berry, Œuvres, ii. 68. their attack rough. CHAP. XI. 1714. say on which side the scales of reason preponderated. But there is one point for which no apology can be made, and for which all the heat of party and all the reality of impending danger can afford no excuse. This was the manner in which they prosecuted their hostility against Marlborough and the war. They did not dispossess the one, and terminate the other, as they might have done, by a simple vote of the House of Commons. They did not venture for long on any open attack on either. They were afraid to measure their strength in open combat with the conqueror of Blenheim. They preferred the covert attacks of envy, malice, and uncharitableness. Their weapons, with the people, were malignant libels; at court, underhand bedchamber intrigues. They did not deprive the hero of his command, but they strove to thwart his measures so that they might prove unsuccessful. Openly they declared that any minister deserved to lose his head who should propose to abandon Spain and the Indies to a Bourbon prince in secret they were negotiating with Louis at that very moment a treaty of peace, the basis of which was that very relinquishment. Ostensibly they still paid to Marlborough the external marks of respect, but they ceased to admit him to their confidential counsels; they denied him the thanks of Parliament for his services; they encouraged the circulation of the most malignant falsehoods regarding his character; they did their utmost to load him with indignities and mortifications at Court. Their object seems to have been to induce him, through disgust at their ingratitude, to resign; and thus to have spared them the discredit of removing the greatest general of England from a command which he had held with so much glory. And |