A PARTY FORMED AGAINST MARLBOROUGH.

The queen’s private favour was now shifted to a new object. The duchess of Marlborough was supplanted by Mrs. Masham, her own kinswoman, whom she had rescued from indigence and obscurity. This favourite succeeded to that ascendancy over the mind of her sovereign which the duchess had formerly possessed. She was more humble, pliable, and obliging than her first patroness, who had played the tyrant, and thwarted the queen in some of her most respected maxims. Her majesty’s prepossession in favour of the tories and high-churchmen was no longer insolently condemned and violently opposed. The new confidant conformed to all her prejudices, and encouraged all her designs with assent and approbation. In political intrigues she acted as associate, or rather auxiliary, to Mr. Secretary Harley, who had insinuated himself into the queen’s good graces, and determined to sap the credit of the duke of Marlborough and the earl of Godolphin. His aim was to unite the tory interest under his own auspices, and expel the whigs from the advantages they possessed under the government. His chief coadjutor in this scheme was Henry St. John, afterwards lord Bolingbroke, a man of warm imagination and elegant taste, penetrating, eloquent, ambitious, and enterprising, whose talents were rather specious than solid, and whose principles were loose and fluctuating. He was at first contented to act in an inferior capacity, subservient to the designs of the secretary; but, when he understood the full extent of his own parts and influence, he was fired with the ambition of eclipsing his principal, and from the sphere of his minister raised himself to the character of his rival These politicians, with the assistance of sir Simon Har court, a colleague of uncommon ability and credit, exerted their endeavours to rally and reconcile the disunited tories, who were given to understand that the queen could no longer bear the tyranny of the whigs: that she had been always a friend in her heart to the tory and high-church party; and that she would now exhibit manifest proof of her inclination. She accordingly bestowed the bishoprics of Chester and Exeter upon sir William Dawes and Dr. Blackall, who though otherwise of unblemished characters, had openly condemned the revolution.

The people in general began to be sick of the whig ministry, whom they had formerly caressed. To them they imputed the burdens under which they groaned; burdens which they had hitherto been animated to bear by the pomp of triumph and uninterrupted success. At present they were discouraged by the battle of Almanza, the miscarriage of the expedition against Toulon, the loss of sir Cloudesley Shovel, and the fate of four ships of the line, destroyed or taken by a squadron under the command of messieurs Forbin and Du Guai Trouin, two of the most enterprising sea-officers in the French service. No new advantage had been obtained in the Netherlands: France, instead of sinking under the weight of the confederacy, seemed to rise with fresh vigour from every overthrow: the English traders had lately sustained repeated losses for want of proper convoys; the coin of the nation was visibly diminished, and the public credit began to decline. The tories did not fail to inculcate and exaggerate these causes of discontent, and the ministry were too remiss in taking proper steps for the satisfaction of the nation. Instead of soothing, by gentle measures and equal administration, the Scots, who had expressed such aversion to the union, they treated them in such a manner as served to exasperate the spirits of that people. A stop was put to their whole commerce for two months before it was diverted into the new channel. Three months elapsed before the equivalent was remitted to that kingdom, and it was afterwards applied with the most shameful partiality. Seizures of wines and other merchandise imported from thence into England, were made in all the northern parts with an affectation of severity and disdain: so that the generality of the Scottish nation loudly exclaimed against the union and the government. The Jacobites were again in commotion. They held conferences: they maintained a correspondence with the court of St. Germains: a great number of the most rigid whigs entered so far into their measures as to think a revolution was absolutely necessary to preserve the liberties, independence, and commerce of their country: the pretender’s birth-day was publicly celebrated in many different parts of the kingdom, and everything seemed to portend an universal revolt. Ireland continued quiet under the administration of the earl of Pembroke, whom the queen had appointed lord-lieutenant of that kingdom. A parliament having met at Dublin in the month of July, presented addresses of congratulation to her majesty on the late union of the two kingdoms. The commons having inspected the public accounts, resolved, that the kingdom had been put to excessive charge, by means of great arrears of rent returned by the late trustees, as due out of the forfeited estates, which returns were false and unjust; and that an humble representation should be laid before her majesty on this subject. They passed another laudable resolution in favour of their own manufactures. They granted the necessary supplies, and having finished several bills for the royal assent, were prorogued on the twenty-ninth day of October.