Chapter XVI: The Reign of Anne (1)

Accession of the Queen--Meeting of the Houses of
Parliament--Scotland and Ireland--Power of Marlborough--The
Revenue--Tory Colour of the Ministry--The Coronation--Declaration
of War--Marlborough goes to the Seat of War--General Aspect of
Affairs--Marlborough's Difficulties--His Campaign--Operations by
Sea--Meeting of Parliament--Supply--Marlborough's Dukedom--The
Occasional Conformity Bill--Dismissal of Rochester--Opening of the
Campaign of 1703--Fall of Bonn--Failure to take Antwerp--Savoy
and Portugal join the Allies--Visit of the Archduke Charles to
England--The Storm--Jacobite Conspiracy--Ashby versus White--Queen
Anne's Bounty--Marlborough's Great Plans--The States-General
hoodwinked--His March--Dismay of the French--Junction with
Eugene--Advance on the Danube--Assault of the Schellenberg--The
Prince of Baden's Conceit--Approach of Tallard--The Eve of
Blenheim--The Battle--Conclusion of the Campaign--Marlborough's
Diplomacy--Capture of Gibraltar--Battle of Malaga--Proceedings
in Parliament--The Campaign of 1705--Attempt to recover
Gibraltar--Peterborough's Exploits in Spain--Proposal to Invite
the Electress Sophia to England--Consequent Legislation--Battle
of Ramillies--Eugene relieves Turin--Disasters in Spain--Meeting
of the Commissioners for the Union--Condition of the
Treaty--Opposition in Scotland--Riots in Edinburgh--Conduct of the
Opposition--The Measure carried by Bribery--Its Discussion in the
English Parliament--The Royal Assent given.

When Anne succeeded to the throne she was in her thirty-eighth year. She was fat, indolent, and good-natured. She had long been under the complete management of the imperious Lady Marlborough, and through her Marlborough expected to be the real ruler of the country. Through them the queen had imbibed a deep-rooted hatred of the Whigs, whom they had taught her to regard as the partisans of King William, and the real authors of all the indignities and mortifications which she had endured during his reign. The Tories therefore calculated confidently on recovering full power under her, and had resolved to place Marlborough at the head of the army. The queen, on her part, had a great leaning towards the Tories, as the enemies of the Whigs and the friends of the Church, to which she was strongly attached. The endeavours which had been made in her father's time to make a Catholic of her, and in her brother-in-law's time to level the distinctions between Church and Dissent, had only rooted more deeply her predilection for the Church; nor did the fact of her husband being a Lutheran, and maintaining his Lutheran chapel and minister in the palace, at all diminish this feeling.

No sooner was the king dead than Lord Jersey and other courtiers who had been eagerly watching the shortening of his breath hastened to bring the news to Anne, who, with Lady Marlborough, sat on that Sunday morning waiting for the message which should announce her queen; and Bishop Burnet, among others, conveyed the sad tidings to her. Though it was Sunday, both Houses of Parliament met, for they were empowered still to sit by an Act passed in William's reign, and the death of William was announced to the Commons by Mr. Secretary Vernon. There was much speechifying, Mr. Granville saying, "We have lost a great king, and got a most gracious queen." Both Houses then proceeded to the palace with addresses of felicitation, and were graciously received. The Privy Council also waited on the queen, who assured them of her determination to maintain the laws, liberties, and religion of the country, to secure the succession in the Protestant line, and the Church and State as by law established. The Privy Council having taken the oaths, she caused a proclamation to be issued, signifying her pleasure that all persons in office should continue to hold their respective posts till further orders.

On the 11th of March she went in state to the House of Lords. She was accompanied in her coach by her consort, the Prince of Denmark, and Marlborough carried the Sword of State before her. Lady Marlborough occupied the place close behind the queen. Anne had a remarkably rich and touching voice, and it had been cultivated, at the suggestion of her uncle, Charles II., for elocutionary delivery, as especially important for a monarch. She concluded her speech with these words:--"As I know my own heart to be entirely English, I can sincerely assure you that there is not anything that you can expect or desire from me which I shall not be ready to do for the happiness and prosperity of England, and you shall always find me a strict and religious observer of my word." Not only did she receive the thanks of both Houses for her gracious assurances, but congratulatory addresses from the City of London, from the bishop and clergy of London, from the various bodies of Dissenters, and the different counties and chief towns of the kingdom.

Some difficulty had been expected in Scotland from the Jacobites, but all passed over easily, the Jacobites thinking that as Anne had no issue, the Stuarts would be sure to enjoy "their ain again" on her death. The Secretaries of State for Scotland, and such of the Scottish Privy Councillors who were in London, waited on her, read to her their "Claim of Rights," and tendered her the Coronation Oath with many professions of loyalty; and this ceremony being completed, the Earl of Marchmont, the Chancellor of Scotland, was dispatched to represent the queen in the General Assembly of the Kirk which was about to meet. In Ireland the natives were so rigorously ruled that they excited no alarm.

The queen announced the coronation for the 23rd of April, and took up her abode at Windsor, as St. James's was completely hung with black, and was too gloomy for living in. She also took immediate possession of William's favourite residence at Kensington, which George of Denmark had always coveted. William's remains were unceremoniously transferred to "the Prince's Chamber" at Westminster, and the Dutch colony, as the attendants of William were called, were routed out, to their great indignation. Before a week had expired Anne accomplished what she had so often attempted in vain--she conferred the Order of the Garter on Marlborough. He was appointed Captain-General of the English army, both at home and abroad, and, soon after, Master of the Ordnance. The Prince of Denmark was made Lord High Admiral, with the title of Generalissimo of the Forces; but as he was both ignorant of and indisposed to the management of both naval and military affairs, Marlborough was the real Commander-in-Chief of the forces.

The Commons voted her Majesty the same revenue as King William had enjoyed, and pledged themselves to the repudiation of the pretended Prince of Wales, and to the defence of her Majesty's person and the Protestant succession. On the 30th of March the queen went to the House of Lords and ratified the Act for the revenue and for her household, and generously relinquished one hundred thousand pounds of the income granted. At the same time she passed a Bill continuing the Commission for examination of the public accounts; but these necessary inquiries were always defeated by the principal persons who were deep in the corruption. The villainy was almost universal, and, therefore, was carefully screened from efficient search.

In naming her Ministers the Tory bias of the queen at once showed itself. Godolphin, the family ally of the Marlboroughs, was appointed Lord Treasurer; Nottingham was made principal Secretary of State, and was allowed to name Sir Charles Hedges as the other Secretary in place of Mr. Vernon; Rochester, the queen's uncle, was made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; the Duke of Somerset, Lord President of the Council, was dismissed to make way for the Earl of Pembroke, who could scarcely rank as a Tory, but disclaimed being a Whig: the Earl of Bradford was made Treasurer of the Household through the influence of Rochester; the Marquis of Normanby received the Privy Seal--a reward for his happy flattery; and the Earl of Jersey retained his post of Chamberlain for his assiduous transmission of the news of William's "shortening breath." Sir Nathaniel Wright remained Lord Keeper; and Sharp, Archbishop of York, became the queen's adviser in all ecclesiastical matters. The only Whigs who retained office were the Duke of Devonshire, Lord High Steward, and Mr. Boyle, Chancellor of the Exchequer; and, on Shrewsbury's refusing the post of Master of the Horse, the Duke of Somerset, though displaced as Lord President, was induced to accept that office. The Prince of Denmark appointed a council for himself, into which he introduced none but Tories. At the head of this board, which was deemed wholly illegal, but which was not called in question by Parliament from respect to the queen, he placed Sir George Rooke, a most decided antagonist to the Whigs, and made him President of the Commission for Managing the Fleet.

On the 23rd of April the coronation took place, being St. George's Day. The queen was so corpulent and so afflicted with gout that she could not stand more than a few minutes at a time, and was obliged to be removed from one situation to another during this fatiguing ceremony in an open chair. Tenison, the Archbishop of Canterbury, officiated, and the whole ceremony and banquet did not end till eight in the evening. Everybody, say the newspapers, was satisfied, even the thieves, who managed to carry off the whole of the plate used at the banquet in Westminster Hall, together with a rich booty of table-linen and pewter.

During March and April there was a continual arrival of ambassadors-extraordinary to congratulate her Majesty on her accession. Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, most of the German States, and particularly those of Zell and Hanover, sent their envoys; and there was a strong discussion in the Council on the necessity of declaring war against France. Marlborough and his faction were, of course, for war, in which he hoped to win both glory and affluence; but Rochester and the majority of the Council, including the Dukes of Somerset and Devon, and the Earl of Pembroke, strongly opposed it, on the ground that the quarrel really concerned the Continental States and not us, and that it was sufficient on our part to act as auxiliaries, and not as the principal. The queen, however, being determined by the Marlborough influence to declare war, laid her intentions before Parliament, which supported her, and accordingly war was proclaimed on the 4th of May, the Emperor and the States-General issuing their proclamations at the same time. Louis was charged with having seized on the greater part of the Spanish dominions, with the design of destroying the liberties of Europe, and with grossly insulting the queen by declaring the pretended Prince of Wales the real king of Great Britain and Ireland. When these charges were read over by De Torcy to Louis, he broke out into keen reproaches against the Queen of England, and vowed that he would "make Messieurs the Dutch repent of their presumption." He delayed his counter-declaration till the 3rd of July. The Commons presented an address to her Majesty, praying her Majesty to unite with the Emperor and the States to prohibit all intercourse with France and Spain, and at the same time to promote commerce in other directions; and the Lords addressed her, praying her to sanction the fitting out of privateers to make reprisals on the enemies' ships, which interrupted our trade, and also to grant charters to all persons who should seize on any of the French and Spanish territories in the Indies. The queen thanked them for their zeal, and prorogued Parliament on the 25th of May.

We may now turn our attention to the progress of the war. When the States-General received the news of the death of William, they were struck with the utmost consternation. They appeared to be absolutely paralysed with terror and dismay. There was much weeping, and amid vows and embraces they passed a resolution to defend their country with their lives. The arrival of the address of the Queen of England to her Privy Council roused their spirits, and this was followed by a letter from the Earl of Marlborough, addressed to the Pensionary Fagel, assuring the States of the queen's determination to continue the alliance and assistance against the common enemy. The queen herself addressed to the States a letter confirming these assurances, and despatched it by Mr. Stanhope, who was again appointed Ambassador at the Hague. Marlborough himself, who left England on the 12th of May to assume his foreign command, arriving directly afterwards in the character not only of Commander-in-Chief of the British forces, with a salary of ten thousand pounds a year, but of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, assured the States that the Queen of England was resolved to maintain all the alliances, and resist the encroachments of the French in the same spirit as the late king.

War had been going on some time on the Rhine before Marlborough arrived there, and still longer before he was prepared to join in it. In Germany many negotiations had been going on to induce the petty States to act as contingents of the Empire, or to keep them from joining the French against their own nation. The House of Brunswick had engaged to bring to the allied army ten thousand men; Prussia had engaged to co-operate, and Saxe-Gotha and Wolfenbüttel to abandon the French. The Electors of Bavaria and Cologne, who had, most traitorously to the Empire, aided France in her attempts to enslave Germany, pretended now to stand neutral, but the neutrality was hollow; and the position of affairs in Poland effectually prevented the northern Powers of Germany from sending assistance to the Allies in Flanders. Charles XII., still pursuing the Elector of Saxony as King of Poland, threatened to invade Saxony. He marched first to Warsaw, and ordered the Cardinal-Primate to summon a Diet to choose another king, and Augustus, the Saxon King, posted himself at Cracow. This state of affairs overawed Prussia, and beyond the Alps the condition of Savoy and Milan, where the French were strong, tended to prevent a full concentration of force in the Netherlands against France.

The position of the contending forces on the Rhine and in the Netherlands was this:--The Prince of Saarbrück, at the head of twenty-five thousand men, Dutch, Prussians, and Badenese, was besieging Kaiserwerth. Athlone and Cohorn were covering the siege of Kaiserwerth, Athlone (Ginkell) lying between the Rhine and the Meuse, Cohorn with ten thousand at the mouth of the Scheldt. On the other hand, Tallard, with thirteen thousand men on the opposite side of the Rhine, annoyed the besiegers of Kaiserwerth with his artillery, and managed to throw into the town fresh troops, ammunition, and supplies. Count Delamotte and the Spanish Marquis of Bedmar covered the western frontier of the Spanish Netherlands, and the Prince of Baden was posted on the Upper Rhine.

Whilst in this position Cohorn marched into the Netherlands, destroyed the French lines between the forts of Donat and Isabella, and levied contributions on the chatellany of Bruges; but Bedmar and Delamotte advancing, he cut the dykes, inundated the country, and retired under the walls of Sluys. Meanwhile the Duke of Burgundy, taking the command of the army of Boufflers at Zanten, near Cleves, formed a design to surprise Nimeguen in conjunction with Tallard, who suddenly quitted his post near Kaiserwerth, and joined Burgundy. Nimeguen was without a garrison, and ill supplied with artillery, and must have fallen an easy prey, had not Athlone, perceiving the object of the enemy, by a masterly march got the start of them, and posted himself under the walls of the town before the arrival of the French guards.

Marlborough all this time was undergoing his first experience of the difficulties of acting at the head of a miscellaneous body of allies, and with the caution of Dutch burgomasters. He had blamed William severely for his slow movements, and now he was himself hampered by the same obstructions. It was the end of June before he could bring into order the necessary arrangements for taking the field. Nor could he have effected this so soon had not the near surprise of Nimeguen alarmed the Dutch for their frontiers, and quickened their movements. The fall of Kaiserwerth was another circumstance in his favour. He collected the forces which had been engaged there, marched the English troops up from Breda, and in the beginning of July found himself at Nimeguen at the head of sixty thousand men. Even then he did not find himself clear of difficulties. His bold plans were checked by the presence of two field deputies which the Dutch always sent along with their generals, and who would not permit him to undertake any movement until they had informed the States-General of it and received their sanction. Thus it was not the general in the field, but the States-General at a distance, who really directed the evolutions of the war; and the only wonder is, that a general in such absurd leading-strings could effect anything at all. Besides this standing nuisance, Marlborough found Athlone, the Prince of Saarbrück, and the other chief generals, all contending for equal authority with him, and refusing to submit to his commands; and when the States-General freed him, by a positive order, from this difficulty, the Hanoverians refused to march without an order from Bothmar, their Ambassador at the Hague. Instead of sending to Bothmar, Marlborough summoned him to the camp, as the proper place for him if he was to direct the movements of the Hanoverian troops, and got rid of this obstacle only to find the Prussians raising the same difficulties.

It was not till the 7th of July that he crossed the Waal and encamped at Druckenburg, a little south of Nimeguen. It was the 16th when he crossed the Meuse and posted himself at Overhasselt, with the French forces in front at the distance of two leagues and a half, entrenched between Goch and Gedap. Here, in a letter to Godolphin, he complained that still the fears of the Dutch hampered his movements. He then recrossed the river at Grave, and reached Gravenbroek, where he was joined by the British train of artillery from Holland. Thus prepared, he advanced on the French; on the 2nd of August was at Petit Brugel in their front; but they retired before him, leaving Spanish Guelderland in his power. He determined to bring the French to an engagement, but was restrained by the fears of the Dutch deputies; but, fortunately for him, the French generals had their fears too, and the Duke of Burgundy, finding Marlborough pressing on him in spite of his obstructions, resigned his command rather than risk a defeat, and returned to Versailles, leaving the command to Boufflers. The deputies of the States, encouraged by these symptoms, recommended Marlborough to clear the French from Spanish Guelderland, where the places which they still held on the Meuse interrupted the commerce of that river. Though the Dutch were merely looking at their own interests in this design, Marlborough was glad to attack the enemy anywhere. He despatched General Schultz to reduce the town and castle of Werk, and in the beginning of September laid siege to Venloo, which, on the 28th of the month, surrendered. Fort St. Michael, at Venloo, was stormed by the impetuous Lord Cutts, unrivalled at that work, at the head of the English volunteers, amongst whom the young Earl of Huntingdon greatly distinguished himself. He next invested and reduced Ruremond and the fort of Stevensweert; and Boufflers, confounded by the rapid successes of Marlborough, retiring on Liége, the English general followed him, reduced the place, stormed the citadel, and seized in it three hundred thousand florins in gold, and a million florins in bills on the substantial merchants of the city, who promptly paid the money. This terminated the campaign. Marlborough had wonderfully raised his reputation, won the entire confidence of the States, and, having seen the French retire behind their lines, he distributed his troops into winter quarters, and projected his journey homewards.

The operations at sea had not been so decisive as those of Marlborough on land. On the 12th of May Sir John Munden, sent out to intercept the French fleet convoying the Viceroy of Mexico from Corunna to the West Indies, chased fourteen sail of French ships into Corunna, but, judging the fortifications too strong to attack them there, put out to sea, and soon afterwards returned home for provisions, to the great indignation of the people. Munden was tried by court-martial and acquitted, but the Prince of Denmark dismissed him from the service notwithstanding. King William having planned the reduction of Cadiz, the queen was now advised to put the project into execution. Sir George Rooke was sent out with a squadron of fifty ships of the line, besides frigates, fire-ships, and smaller vessels, and carrying the Duke of Ormond with a land force of fourteen thousand men. The fleet sailed from St. Helens near the end of June, and anchored on the 12th of August within two leagues of Cadiz. The governor of fort St. Catherine was summoned to surrender, but he refused; and on the 15th the Duke of Ormond landed under a fire from the batteries, and soon took the forts of St. Catherine and St. Mary. He issued a proclamation declaring that they came, not to make war on the Spaniards, but to free Spain from the yoke of France, and that the people and their property should be protected. But the English soldiers paid no regard to the proclamation, but got drunk in the wine stores and committed great excesses. Some of the general officers were found as eager as the soldiers for pillaging; and the inhabitants, resenting their sufferings, held aloof. To complete the mischief, the land and sea commanders, as has been too commonly the case, fell to quarrelling. Ormond wanted to storm the Isla de Leon; Rooke deemed it too hazardous. An attempt was made to batter Matagorda fort, but failed, and the troops were re-embarked.

As the fleet was returning from its inglorious enterprise, it was met by Captain Hardy, who informed the commander that the galleons from the West Indies had entered Vigo Bay under convoy of a French squadron. A council of war was immediately summoned, and it was resolved to tack about and proceed to Vigo. They appeared before the place on the 11th of October. The passage into the harbour they found strongly defended by forts and batteries on both sides, and the passage closed by a strong boom of iron chains, topmasts, and cables. The admirals shifted their flags into smaller vessels, for neither first nor second rates could enter. Five-and-twenty English and Dutch ships of the line of lesser size, with their frigates, fire-ships, and ketches, now prepared to make the attempt to force the boom and burn the fleet, and the Duke of Ormond prepared the way by landing two thousand eight hundred men six miles from Vigo, and marching on the harbour, where he attacked and carried a strong fort and a platform of forty pieces of cannon at its mouth. The moment the British colours were seen flying on the fort the fleet put itself in motion. Admiral Hopson led the way in the _Torbay_, and, running with all sail set, dashed against the boom and burst through it. He was followed by the whole squadron under a tremendous fire from the ships and batteries; but both ships and batteries were soon silenced, the batteries by the soldiers on land, the ships by the fleet. They captured eight ships of war and six galleons; the rest were set fire to by themselves or the French, to prevent them from falling into the hands of the English. The Spaniards had lost no time in removing as much of the plate and merchandise as they could; but the Allies seized on seven millions of pieces of eight in plate and other goods, and the Spaniards are supposed to have saved twice as much. Sir George Rooke left Sir Cloudesley Shovel, who had just arrived, to bring home the prizes, and sailed for England with the rest of the fleet and troops in triumph, complaining that Cadiz, too, might have been taken had Ormond done his duty, and Ormond retorting the blame upon him.

Had this terminated the usual campaign it might have been considered, to a certain extent, a success; but an expedition, sent out to cruise in the waters of the West Indies, under the brave old Benbow, had a worse fate. He came up with a French fleet under Du Casse, steering along the shore of Santa Martha, and though he had ten sail of the line, and the enemy only the same, he found himself deserted by most of his captains, under the plea that the enemy was too strong. Benbow, upbraiding their cowardice, attacked the whole fleet with only two vessels. The battle lasted, off and on, from the 19th of August to the 24th, some others of the ships occasionally joining him. On the last day his leg was shattered by a chain-shot, and he was wounded in the face and in the arm; yet he caused himself to be placed on the quarter-deck in a cradle, and continued issuing his orders to the last. Seeing it in vain to contend longer, he returned to Jamaica, and ordered a court-martial to be held. The reason assigned for the disobedience of the officers was the rough conduct of Benbow, who was one of the old boisterous school of seamen, but brave and honest. The disgrace thus inflicted on his command, combining with his shattered condition, soon also brought him to his grave.

Marlborough returned to England in November, and was received with great applause. Notwithstanding some sharp criticisms on his campaign, the public saw clearly enough that he was a far superior general to William, and augured great things from his future command. The queen met her new Parliament on the 20th of October, which turned out to be so completely Tory as to carry all before it in that direction. The Government had no occasion to make much exertion to obtain that result; it was enough that the queen's decided leaning to the Tories was known. Addresses of congratulation on the brilliant success of the British arms under Marlborough were presented by both Houses, which, they said, "retrieved" the ancient honour and glory of the English nation. This word "retrieved" roused all the spleen of the Whigs, who knew that it was meant as a censure on them and King William, who, they contended, had maintained the honour of the English nation by joining the great confederacy by which the security of the queen's throne at that moment was established, and by training our soldiers to their ancient pitch of discipline and valour. They moved that the word "maintained" should be substituted for "retrieved," but it was carried against them, amid the most unmeasured abuse of the memory of the late king, Marlborough being cried to the skies at his expense.

The Tories next showed their strength in calling in question various elections of Whig members, and carried the inquiry against them with the most open and impudent partiality.

The Commons then voted the supplies, and in practice justified the Whigs, by being as lavish for the war as they had been. They voted forty thousand seamen, and the same number of land forces, to act along with the Allies. They granted eight hundred and thirty-three thousand eight hundred and twenty-six pounds for their maintenance; three hundred and fifty thousand pounds for Guards and garrisons; seventy thousand nine hundred and seventy-three pounds for ordnance; and fifty-one thousand eight hundred and forty-three pounds for subsidies to the Allies--altogether, one million three hundred and six thousand six hundred and forty-two pounds for the war alone, independent of the usual national expenses, and these soon required an increase. The queen demanded of the Commons a further provision for her husband, the Prince of Denmark, in case of her decease. Howe moved that one hundred thousand pounds a year should be settled on the prince in case he should be the survivor. No objection was offered to the amount, but strenuous opposition was given to a clause in the Bill exempting the prince from the provision in the Act of Settlement, which prevented any foreigner, even though naturalised, from holding any employments under the Crown; but the Court was bent on carrying this, and did so.

Having secured her husband, Anne then sent a message to the Commons to inform them that she had created the Earl of Marlborough a duke for his eminent services, and praying them to settle five thousand pounds a year on him to enable him to maintain his new dignity. This was so glaring a case of favouritism that the Commons, with all their loyalty, expressed their decided disapprobation. The outcry was so great that the Marlboroughs declined what they saw no means of getting--the grant--and the queen intimated that fact to the House; but she immediately offered her favourites two thousand pounds a year out of her privy purse, which, with affected magnanimity, they also declined, hoping yet to obtain, at some more favourable crisis, the Parliamentary grant; and, after that really happened, they then claimed the queen's offer too. But the opposition of the Tories, whom Marlborough had been serving with all his influence in Parliament, alienated him from that party, and he went over to the Whigs.

What galled Marlborough as much as anything was that he had been in the House of Lords strongly supporting one of the most illiberal attempts of the Tories to destroy the effect of the Act of Toleration. The extreme Tories regarded the Church as entitled to confer all favours, and they were determined to give it a power by which all corporations and elections should be thrown into the hands of the Government. For this purpose Mr. Bromley, Mr. Annesley, and Mr. St. John, who, as a man of notoriously unorthodox principles, ought at least to have been tolerant, brought in the Occasional Conformity Bill. They complained that Dissenters and other disaffected persons took the oaths, and often went again to the Dissenting meetings; that this was a gross piece of hypocrisy, and left the Church exposed to much danger from them. They proposed, therefore, to insist that all who had taken the Sacrament and test for offices of trust, or for the magistracy of corporations, and afterwards went to any meeting of the Dissenters, should forfeit their employments, pay a fine of one hundred pounds, and five pounds for every day that they continued to hold their office after having been at a Dissenters' meeting, as well as be disabled from holding any other employment till after a year's conformity. The Bill was carried in the Tory Commons by an overwhelming majority; but it was as strongly opposed in the Lords, where the Whigs were not disposed to pull down the greatest trophy of their legislation. The Bishops generally voted against the Bill, and Burnet was extremely active against it. Probably few of them were actuated by a sense of the monstrosity of the Test and Corporation Acts, which compelled all to take the Sacrament, whether opposed to it in that form or not, and thus shut out the honest and pious, and let in those who had neither honesty nor religion. But they saw that it would again let loose all the detestable race of spies and informers from which the country was now happily free, and would, in reality, only injure instead of benefiting the Church, by making her an object of general hatred. The Tories themselves affected great veneration for the Toleration Act, whilst they would thus have stifled all toleration.

The queen and the whole Court exerted themselves to force the Bill through the Upper House, as they had done that for the prince's salary. Marlborough argued vehemently for it, but the Whig lords hit upon a way of defeating it by seeming to comply. They agreed to its passing on condition that all who took the test, and then went to conventicles, should simply be deprived of their employments and be fined twenty pounds. They knew that the Commons would not allow the slightest interference of the Lords with the money part of the Bill, and this proved to be the case. The Lords searched their rolls, and showed numerous cases in which they had altered fines, but the Commons refused to admit any such power. A conference in the Painted Chamber was held, but with a like result, and after long contention the Bill was, happily for the nation, dropped.

A Bill was next brought in to allow another year of grace to all who had not taken the oath abjuring the pretended Prince of Wales. The Tories contended that the Jacobite party had now come over to the queen; but it was shown on the other side that this was but a specious deception; that the agents of St. Germains were in as full activity as ever; were constantly coming and going; and whilst they appeared to favour the queen, it was only to get as strong a party as possible into the House, eventually to abolish both the abjuration and the Protestant Succession Bill: that to this end they now advised all persons to take the Abjuration Bill, and to be able to get into Parliament or power. The Bill was carried in the Commons; but the Lords again tacked two clauses to it, one declaring it high treason to endeavour to alter the succession as settled in the Princess Sophia, and the other to impose the oath on the Irish. These were not money clauses; whoever refused them must appear disinclined to the Protestant succession. The Commons were completely entrapped, and, to the surprise of everybody, they accepted the clauses, and thus the Bill, which was originally favourable to the Jacobites, became much more rigid against them. The queen sent the Lord Keeper, on the 27th of February, 1703, to prorogue Parliament.

Lord Rochester was now entirely removed from the queen's councils. His near relationship to the queen, and his being accounted the champion of the Church, made him presume in the Council, where he was blustering and overbearing. He was disappointed in not being placed at the head of the Treasury, and quarrelled continually with Lord Godolphin. He had now voted against Marlborough's grant of five thousand pounds a year, and thus incurred the mortal hatred of the all-powerful Lady Marlborough. It was clear that Rochester must give way, or the Council must be rent by continual feuds. He was opposed to the war--another cause of hostility from the Marlboroughs--to whom it was money, fame, and everything. He received such intimations from the queen as caused him to retire into the country in disgust. As he refused all summonses to attend the Council, her Majesty ordered him to proceed to his government in Ireland, where his presence was much needed. He replied with great insolence that he would not go to Ireland, and the post of Lord-Lieutenant was conferred on the Duke of Ormond. Still declining to attend the Council, the queen ordered that he should no more be summoned, and thus terminated Anne's connection with her relatives by the mother's side. The elder brother of Rochester, Lord Clarendon, had been excluded the Court for refusing the abjuration of the pretended Prince of Wales, and his son, Lord Cornbury, little better than an idiot, was sent to govern the North American colonies, that he might be out of the way, a system of colonial management by which these colonies were at length entirely estranged. Rochester survived this disgrace but a very few weeks.

It was proposed between the Emperor of Germany and the Allies that the campaign of 1703 should be opened with effect, and by measures which should go far to paralyse France. The Archduke Charles, the Emperor's second son, was to declare himself King of Spain, to propose for the hand of the Infanta of Portugal, and to proceed to that country to prosecute his claims on Spain by the assistance of the English and Dutch fleets. Meanwhile the Emperor promised to take the field with such a force as to drive the Elector of Bavaria, the active and able ally of France, out of his dominions. But Louis, as usual, was too rapid in his movements for the slow Germans. He ordered Marshal Villars, who lay with thirty thousand men at Strasburg, to pass the Rhine, and advance into Bavaria to the support of the Elector. The war was thus skilfully diverted by Louis from the Rhine into the very neighbourhood of the Emperor. On the other hand, Marlborough, who was the soul of the war on the Lower Rhine, had been detained by his exertions to counteract the efforts of Louis XIV. in another quarter. Insurrections had broken out amongst Louis's Protestant subjects in the Cevennes, who had been barbarously oppressed. Marlborough, who cared more for the paralysing of Louis than for the interests of Protestantism, strongly proposed in the Council that assistance should be sent to the mountaineers of the Cevennes. This was fighting Louis with his own weapons, who was exciting insurrection in Hungary and Bohemia amongst the subjects of the Emperor. Nottingham and others of the Council as strongly opposed this measure, on the principle of not exciting subjects against their legitimate sovereign; but Marlborough prevailed. Arms and ammunition were forwarded to the Cevennes, and direct communications were ordered to be opened with the insurgents, which would have compelled Louis to detain a large force for the subjugation of these rebels, which otherwise would have gone to the Rhine; but these aids never reached the unfortunate mountaineers.

Marlborough reached the Hague on the 17th of March, much earlier still than William used to arrive there. Nor had the war paused for his arrival. He had stimulated the Prussians to be in action much earlier. In February they had reduced the fortress of the Rhineberg, and then proceeded to blockade Guelders, the last place in the power of France on the frontiers of Spanish Guelderland. It was fortunate, for the unity of command, that Athlone and Saarbrück, Marlborough's jealous rivals, were both dead; so that now Marlborough had only the Dutch camp deputies as clogs on his movements, but they were quite sufficient often to neutralise his most spirited projects. He found Villeroi and Boufflers posted on the frontiers of the Spanish Netherlands, and his design was to attack and drive them out of Flanders and Brabant. But here, in the very commencement, he was obliged by the States-General to give up his own views to theirs. They desired an immediate attack on Bonn, persuading themselves that the Elector of Cologne would rather capitulate than risk the ruin of the town. Marlborough went reluctantly but not inertly into this plan, foreseeing that it would waste much precious time, and prevent him from falling on Villeroi and Boufflers at the right moment, when the attempt to support the Elector of Bavaria had drawn many of their forces away into Germany. He was the more chagrined the more he saw of the want of energy in the Allies. He proceeded to Nimeguen to arrange with Cohorn the plan of the siege of Bonn. He visited and inspected the garrisons at Venloo, Ruremond, Maestricht, and the other places which he took in the previous campaign on the Meuse. Arriving at Cologne, he found preparations made for a siege, but in a most negligent manner; and Cohorn especially excited his disgust by proposing to defer the siege of this place till the end of summer. But Marlborough knew too well the necessity of preventing an attack from that quarter; ordered the place to be invested, and then marched on Bonn with forty battalions, sixty squadrons, and a hundred pieces of artillery. The trenches were opened on the 3rd of May, and it was assaulted from three different quarters at once; on one side by the forces under the hereditary prince of Hesse-Cassel, on another by those under Cohorn, and on the third by Lieutenant-General Fagel. The city capitulated on the 15th, and the commander, the Marquis D'Allegré, and his garrison were conducted to Luxemburg. During the siege continually arrived the news of the successes of the Elector of Bavaria, and the failures of the Imperial troops; and Villeroi and Boufflers advanced, took Tongres, and menaced the Allies from that quarter with forty thousand men.

FROM THE PAINTING BY W. WISSING AND J. VANDERVAART.]

No sooner was Bonn reduced than Marlborough determined to prosecute his original plan of driving the French from Flanders. He now dispatched Cohorn, Spaar, and Opdam to commence operations at Bergen-op-Zoom, whilst he addressed himself to dislodge Villeroi and Boufflers from Tongres. In order to divide the energies of the French, a part of his plan was that the powerful English and Dutch fleet was to keep the coast of that country in alarm from Calais to Dieppe, and actually to make a descent on the land near the latter port. But the French resolved to cut off the division of Opdam from the main army. Boufflers, with twenty thousand men, surprised him, and the Dutch falling into confusion, Opdam believed the day lost, and fled to Breda.

Opdam's miscarriage had greatly deranged Marlborough's plan of attack on Antwerp. Spaar and Cohorn were already near Antwerp with their united forces, but the check received by Opdam's division delayed the simultaneous advance. Villeroi lay in the path of Marlborough near St. Job, and declared that he would wait for him; but the moment the duke advanced to Hoogstraat to give him battle, he set fire to his camp and retreated within his lines with all haste. Boufflers had joined Bedmar in Antwerp, and Marlborough advanced and laid siege to Huy, which surrendered on the 27th of August. He now called a council of war to decide the plan of attack on Antwerp, and was well supported by the Danish, Hanoverian, and Hessian generals, but again found opposition from the Dutch officers and the deputies of the States, who deemed the attempt too dangerous. They recommended him to attempt the reduction of Limburg, by which they would acquire a whole province; and despairing now of accomplishing his great object, the reduction of Antwerp, this campaign--having the Dutch officers, the Dutch deputies, and the Dutch Louvestein faction all working against him--he turned aside to Limburg, and reduced it in a couple of days. This acquisition put into the power of the Allies the whole country from Cologne, including Liége; and Guelders being afterwards stormed by the Prussian General Lottum, the whole of Spanish Guelderland remained theirs.

Elsewhere the war went in favour of the French, and the affairs of the Emperor never appeared more gloomy; instead of recovering Spain, Louis was fast depriving him of his Empire. He was supporting against him the rebellious Hungarians, who were in arms under Prince Ragotski, and who had plenty of oppressions to complain of. Suddenly, however, some gleams of light shot across his gloom. The Duke of Savoy, who seldom remained true to one side long, grew alarmed at the French being masters of the Milanese, and was induced to open communications with the Emperor. But the secret negotiations were speedily discovered by the French, and the Duke of Vendôme received orders to disarm the Savoyards who were in his army; to demand that the troops of Savoy should be reduced to the scale of 1696, and that four principal fortresses should be put into the hands of France. But the Duke of Savoy was by no means inclined to submit to these demands. He treated them as insults to an ally, and ordered the arrest of the French ambassador and several officers of his nation. Louis, astonished at the decision of these proceedings, wrote the duke a most menacing letter, informing him that as neither honour, interest, religion, nor the oaths of alliance were regarded by him, he should leave the Duke of Vendôme to deal with him, who would give him four-and-twenty hours to determine his course in. This imperious letter only hastened the duke's alienation. He concluded the treaty with Vienna, and answered Louis's letter by a defiance. He acknowledged the Archduke Charles King of Spain, and despatched envoys to Holland and England. Queen Anne immediately sent an ambassador to Turin; and a body of Imperial horse under Visconti, followed by fifteen thousand foot under Count Staremberg, issued from the Modenese, and in the midst of the most stormy weather and through miry roads marched to join the Duke of Savoy at Canelli. The French harassed them fearfully on the march, but could not prevent their junction, by which Piedmont was placed in security.

In the same way, Portugal had declared for the Emperor. The fear of having Louis in possession of Spain had operated with Portugal, as similar causes had operated with Savoy. The King of Portugal agreed to give his daughter to the Archduke Charles, on condition that the right to the throne of Spain was transferred to him. England and Holland were to support the Portuguese and the new King of Spain from the sea. The treaty was concluded at Lisbon, and a fleet of forty-nine sail, under Sir Cloudesley Shovel, lay off Lisbon to protect the coasts from the French. Charles was to be conveyed to Lisbon by a powerful fleet, having on board twelve thousand soldiers, who were, on landing, to be joined by twenty-eight thousand Portuguese. The allied fleets had done nothing of importance during this summer.

The Archduke Charles, having assumed the title of King of Spain, set out from Vienna about the middle of September, and reached Düsseldorf on the 16th of October, where he was met by the Elector Palatine and the Duke of Marlborough, who was commissioned by Queen Anne to offer his congratulations. Marlborough accompanied Charles of Austria to the Hague, where they were both received with high honours by the States-General. Marlborough then hastened over to England to be ready to receive the royal guest on his way to Portugal. On the 26th of December the new King of Spain arrived at Spithead in the Dutch squadron sent to convey him. The queen dispatched the Dukes of Somerset and Marlborough to conduct him to Windsor, and Prince George met him on the way at Petworth, the seat of the Duke of Somerset, and conducted him to Windsor on the 29th. The king was entertained in great state for three days at Windsor, during which time he was politic enough to ingratiate himself with the Duchess of Marlborough. When the duchess presented the bason and napkin after supper to the queen for her to wash her hands, the king gallantly took the napkin and held it himself, and on returning it to the queen's great favourite, he presented her with a superb diamond ring.

After three days the king returned to Portsmouth, and on the 4th of January, 1704, he embarked on board the fleet commanded by Sir George Rooke, for Portugal, accompanied by a body of land forces under the Duke of Schomberg. The voyage was, however, a most stormy one, and when the fleet had nearly reached Cape Finisterre, it was compelled to put back to Spithead, where it remained till the middle of February. His next attempt was more successful, and he landed in Lisbon amid much popular demonstration, though the Court itself was sunk in sorrow by the death of the Infanta, whom he went to marry.

Before the arrival of Charles in England, it had been visited by one of the most terrible storms on record. The tempest began on the 27th of November, 1703, attended by such thunder and lightning as had never been experienced by living man. The Thames overflowed its banks, and was several feet deep in Westminster Hall. The houses in London seemed shaken from their foundations, and many actually fell, burying the inhabitants in their ruins. The loss in London alone was estimated at a million sterling, and the storm raged with equal fury in other places. Bristol was a great sufferer; but the greatest destruction fell on the fleet. Thirteen ships of war were lost, and fifteen hundred seamen, including Rear-Admiral Beaumont, who foundered in the Downs. Many of the oldest trees in the parks were torn up, and the lead on the churches was rolled up in scrolls. This unparalleled storm raged most fiercely along the southern and western counties, being scarcely felt in the northern ones. The Bishop of Bath and Wells, with his wife, was killed in the episcopal palace by the fall of a stack of chimneys.

The queen opened Parliament on the 9th of November. She spoke of the new treaties with the Duke of Savoy and the King of Portugal as subjects of congratulation; and on the 12th the Lords presented an address to the queen, expressing their satisfaction at her having entered into these treaties, and even displayed a zeal beyond them. The Commons on their part voted fifty-eight thousand soldiers and forty thousand sailors as the standard of the army and navy, and they granted the requisite supplies with the utmost readiness. No sooner was this patriotic demonstration made, than the Commons again introduced the Occasional Conformity Bill, and carried it by a large majority, on pretence that the Church was in danger; but the Lords attacked it with greater animosity than ever, and threw it out.

At this moment the nation became alarmed with the rumour of a conspiracy amongst the Jacobites in Scotland. When the queen, on the 17th of December, went to the Lords to give her assent to the Land Tax Bill, she informed them that she had made discoveries of a seditious nature in Scotland, which, as soon as it could be done with prudence, she assured them should be laid before them. The Lords, in their loyalty, were not disposed to wait for these disclosures, but appointed a Committee to inquire into the plot, and even went so far as to take some of the parties implicated out of the hands of the queen's messengers, to examine them themselves.

The year 1704 opened amid these inquiries. The Queen laid before the House of Lords the papers concerning the Highland plot, with one exception, which the Earl of Nottingham asserted could not yet be made public without tending to prevent further discovery. This only stimulated the Lords, who addressed the queen, praying that the whole of the papers might be submitted to them. The queen replied that she did not expect to be pressed in this manner, but she ordered the papers in question to be delivered to them under seal. The Peers pursued the inquiry with renewed vigour, and soon issued a report that it appeared to them that there had been a dangerous conspiracy, instigated by Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, carried on for raising a rebellion in Scotland, and invading that kingdom with French forces, in order to subvert her Majesty's Government and bring in the pretended Prince of Wales, and that they were of opinion that nothing had given so much encouragement to this conspiracy as the Scots not coming into the Hanover succession as fixed in England. They therefore besought the queen to procure the settlement of the Crown of Scotland on the Princess Sophia, and when that was done they would use all their influence for a union of the two kingdoms.