THE WHIG MINISTRY DISGRACED.

In England, the effects of those intrigues which had been formed against the whig ministers began to appear. The trial of Sacheverel had excited a popular spirit of aversion to those who favoured the dissenters. From all parts of the kingdom addresses were presented to the queen, censuring all resistance as a rebellious doctrine, founded upon anti-monarchial and republican principles. At the same time counter-addresses were procured by the whigs, extolling the revolution and magnifying the conduct of the present parliament. The queen began to express her attachment to the tories, by mortifying the duke of Marlborough. Upon the death of the earl of Essex, she wrote to the general desiring that the regiment which had been commanded by that nobleman should be given to Mr. Hill, brother to Mrs. Masham, who had supplanted the duchess of Marlborough in the queen’s friendship, and was, in effect, the source of this political revolution. The duke represented to her majesty in person, the prejudice that would redound to the service from the promotion of such a young officer over the heads of a great many brave men, who had exhibited repeated proofs of valour and capacity. He expostulated with his sovereign on this extraordinary mark of partial regard to the brother of Mrs. Masham, which he could not help considering as a declaration against himself and his family, who had so much cause to complain of that lady’s malice and ingratitude. To this remonstrance the queen made no other reply, but that he would do well to consult his friends. The earl of Godolphin enforced his friend’s arguments, though without effect; and the duke retired in disgust to Windsor. The queen appeared at council without taking the least notice of his absence, which did not fail to alarm the whole whig faction. Several noblemen ventured to speak to her majesty on the subject, and explain the bad consequences of disobliging a man who had done such eminent services to the nation. She told them his services were still fresh in her memory; and that she retained all her former kindness for his person. Hearing, however, that a popular clamour was raised, and that the house of commons intended to pass some votes that would be disagreeable to her and her new counsellors, she ordered the earl of Godolphin to write to the duke to dispose of the regiment as he should think proper, and return to town immediately. Before he received this intimation, he had sent a letter to the queen desiring she would permit him to retire from business. In answer to this petition, she assured him his suspicions were groundless, and insisted upon his coming to council. The duchess demanded an audience of her majesty, on pretence of vindicating her own character from some aspersions. She hoped to work upon the queen’s tenderness, and retrieve the influence she had lost. She protested, argued, wept, and supplicated; but the queen was too well pleased with her own deliverance from the tyranny of the other’s friendship, to incur such slavery for the future. All the humiliation of the duchess served only to render herself the more contemptible. The queen heard her without exhibiting the least sign of emotion, and all she would vouchsafe, was a repetition of these words—“You desired no answer, and you shall have none;” alluding to an expression in a letter she had received from the duchess. As an additional mortification to the ministry, the office of lord chamberlain was transferred from the duke of Kent to the duke of Shrewsbury, who had lately voted with the tories, and maintained an intimacy of correspondence with Mr. Harley. The interest of the duke of Marlborough was not even sufficient to prevent the dismissal of his own son-in-law, the earl of Sunderland, from the post of secretary of state, in which he was succeeded by lord Dartmouth.

The queen was generally applauded for thus asserting her just prerogative, and setting herself free from an arbitrary cabal, by which she had been so long kept in dependence. The duke of Beaufort went to court on this occasion, and told her majesty he was extremely glad that he could now salute her queen in reality. The whole whig party were justly alarmed at these alterations. The directors of the bank represented to her majesty the prejudice that would undoubtedly accrue to public credit from a change of the ministry. The emperor and the states-general interposed in this domestic revolution. Their ministers at London presented memorials, explaining in what manner foreign affairs would be influenced by an alteration in the British ministry. The queen assured them, that, whatever changes might be made, the duke of Marlborough should be continued in his employments. In the month of August the earl of Godolphin was divested of his office, and the treasury put in commission, subjected to the direction of Harley, appointed chancellor of the exchequer and under-treasurer. The earl of Rochester was declared president of the council in the room of lord Somers; the staff of lord steward being taken from the duke of Devonshire, was given to the duke of Buckingham; and Mr. Boyle was removed from the secretary’s office to make way for Mr. Henry St. John. The lord chancellor having resigned the great seal, it was first put in commission, and afterwards given to sir Simon Harcourt. The earl of Wharton surrendered his commission of lord-lieutenant of Ireland, which the queen conferred on the duke of Ormond. The earl of Orford withdrew himself from the board of admiralty; and Mr. George Granville was appointed secretary of war in the room of Mr. Eobert Walpole. The command of the forces in Portugal was bestowed upon the earl of Portmore; the duke of Hamilton was appointed lord-lieutenant of the county palatine of Lancaster. In a word, there was not one whig left in any office of state, except the duke of Marlborough, who would have renounced his command, had not he been earnestly dissuaded by his particular friends from taking such a step as might have been prejudicial to the interests of the nation. That the triumph of the tories might be complete, the queen dissolved the whig parliament, after such precautions were taken as could not fail to influence the new election in favour of the other party.

To this end nothing so effectually contributed as did the trial of Sacheverel, who was used as an instrument and tool to wind and turn the passions of the vulgar. Having been presented to a benefice in North Wales, he went in procession to that country with all the pomp and magnificence of a sovereign prince. He was sumptuously entertained by the university of Oxford, and different noblemen, who, while they worshipped him as the idol of their faction, could not help despising the object of their adoration. He was received in several towns by the magistrates of the corporation in their formalities, and often attended by a body of a thousand horse. At Bridgenorth he was met by Mr. Creswell, at the head of four thousand horse, and the like number of persons on foot, wearing white knots edged with gold, and three leaves of gilt laurel in their hats. The hedges were for two miles dressed with garlands of flowers, and lined with people; and the steeples covered with streamers, flags, and colours. Nothing was heard but the cry of “The church and Dr. Sacheverel.” The clergy were actuated by a spirit of enthusiasm, which seemed to spread like a contagion through all ranks and degrees of people, and had such an effect upon the elections for the new parliament, that very few were returned as members but such as had distinguished themselves by their zeal against the whig administration. Now the queen had the pleasure to see all the offices of state, the lieutenancy of London, the management of corporations, and the direction of both houses of parliament, in the hands of the tories. When these met on the twenty-fifth day of November, Mr. Bromley was chosen speaker without opposition. The queen, in her speech, recommended the prosecution of the war with vigour, especially in Spain. She declared herself resolved to support the church of England; to preserve the British constitution according to the union; to maintain the indulgence by law allowed to scrupulous consciences; and to employ none but such as were heartily attached to the protestant succession in the house of Hanover. The lords, in their address, promised to concur in all reasonable measures towards procuring an honourable peace. The commons were more warm and hearty in their assurances, exhorting her majesty to discountenance all such principles and measures as had lately threatened her royal crown and dignity—measures which, whenever they might prevail, would prove fatal to the whole constitution, both in church and state. After this declaration they proceeded to consider the estimates, and cheerfully granted the supplies for the ensuing year, part of which was raised by two lotteries. In the house of peers, the earl of Scarborough moved that the thanks of the house should be returned to the duke of Marlborough; but the duke of Argyle made some objections to* the motion, and the general’s friends, dreading the consequence of putting the question, postponed the consideration of this proposal until the duke should return from the continent. The earl of Peterborough was appointed ambassador-extraordinary to the Imperial court; the earl of Rivers was sent in the same quality to Hanover; Mr. Richard Hill was nominated envoy-extraordinary to the United Provinces, as well as to the council of state appointed for the government of the Spanish Netherlands, in the room of lieutenant-general Cadogan. Meredith, Macartney, and Honey wood, were deprived of their regiments, because in their cups they had drank confusion to the enemies of the duke of Marlborough.