entirely devoted to you, I know not till I receive your "orders and commands . . . . . . . I live in hopes that the 66 great and glorious Creator of the world, who does and "must direct all things, will direct you to make me the "happiest man upon the face of the earth, and enable me "to make my dearest, dearest Lady Marlborough, as she "is the wisest and best, the happiest of all women!"* This effusion, be it observed, was written only six months after her husband's decease. But both to Coningsby and Somerset the Duchess replied with a noble and becoming spirit. She declared that if she were only thirty instead of sixty she would not allow even the Emperor of the world to succeed in that heart which had been devoted to John, Duke of Marlborough.

The deaths in such rapid succession of Stanhope, Craggs, and Sunderland, and the expulsion of Aislabie, left Walpole entirely master of the field. The late schism between rival statesmen was closed up, as it were, with coffins; and although, as will be seen, there were still some dissensions in the Cabinet, these found no echo either in Parliament or in the country. No longer was the Whig party divided, no longer the House of Commons nearly balanced. The late elections had confirmed the Ministerial majority, and the Jacobites and Tories despairing of victories in Parliament rather turned their minds to projects of conspiracy or hopes of invasion. In the Session of 1724, for example, there was only one single public division in the House of Commons. From this time forward, therefore, and during a considerable period, the proceedings of Parliament seem no longer to require or admit the same minute detail as I have hitherto given them, nor shall I have to record either rebellion at home or great wars abroad. The twenty years of Walpole's administration (to their high honour be it spoken) afford comparatively few incidents to History. Of these years I shall therefore have much less to say than of the tumultuous periods both before and after them, nor let the reader imagine that my flow of narrative is altered because it glides more swiftly on smooth ground.

* To the Duchess of Marlborough, November 20.1722. Blenheim Papers and Coxe's Copies, vol. xliii.

66

CHAPTER XII.

THE Confusion and disaffection which followed the South Sea Scheme were of course highly favourable to the views of the Jacobites, and revived their drooping hopes, and still more were they cheered at the birth of an heir, even though at a time when there was nothing to inherit. The prospect of this event was first communicated to them in the spring of 1720: "It is the most acceptable "news," writes Bishop Atterbury, "which can reach the ""* ears of a good Englishman." Lord Oxford also was consulted as to the number and rank of the persons who should be invited as witnesses on this solemn occasion.† At length on the last day of the year the titular Queen of England, then residing at Rome, was delivered of a Prince, who received the names of Charles Edward Lewis Casimir, and became the hero of the enterprise of 1745. According to the fond fancy of the Jacobites, there appeared a star in the heavens at the moment of his birth ‡; and, what is rather more certain, seven Cardinals were present by order of the Pope.§ The Pretender's second son, Henry Benedict, Duke of York, and afterwards Cardinal, was not born till 1725.

At this period the Jacobites seem really to have deluded themselves so far as to believe that the hearts of nearly the whole nation, even down to the rabble, were with them. Thus James is told by Lord Lansdowne: "There were "great rejoicings in London upon the Lord Mayor's day, "whose name happening to be Stuart, the people made "the streets ring with no other cry but A Stuart! A "Stuart! High Church and Stuart! Every day pro

Letter to James, May 6. 1720. Appendix.

James to Lord Oxford, May 26. 1720. Appendix.

See the Lockhart Papers, vol. ii. p. 568.; and the Medals of the Stuarts in Exile, No. 53., in Sir H. Ellis's Catalogue.

§ St. Simon, Mem. vol. xviii. p. 338. A Te Deum was afterwards sung in the Pope's chapel, and in his presence.

To

"duces some new evidence of their inclination."* promote the favour of the multitude the Jacobites often made use of reasonings suited only to its capacity. Thus when the King's German mistresses were inveighed against, as they might justly be, it is gravely stated, amongst other grounds of complaint, that they are not sufficiently young and handsome! For instance, the letter of Decius in Mist's Journal, May 27. 1721, laments, that "we are ruined by trulls, nay, what is more vexa"tious, by old ugly trulls, such as could not find enter"tainment in the most hospitable hundreds of Old Drury!" This letter was warmly resented by the House of Commons on the motion of Lechmere, and Mr. Mist the printer was sentenced to fine and imprisonment; but his journal continued many years afterwards under the new and punning title of Fog's.

The affairs of James in England were at this time managed by a Junta, or Council of five persons, namely, as it would seem, the Earls of Arran and Orrery, Lords North and Gower, and the Bishop of Rochester. Between them and James an active correspondence was carried on, for the most part in cipher or with cant names, and generally by the hands of non-jurors, Roman Catholic priests, and other trusty persons that were constantly passing to and fro. There were also communications with Lord Oxford, probably through Erasmus Lewis, his former secretary, a man of fidelity and talent, but not much courage; at least I find his excessive caution a subject of good-humoured jest among his friends. It appears that the Council of Five was often discordant and wrangling in its deliberations, and this in the opinion of James showed the necessity of a single head, by which means, he says, his business would certainly be done with much more harmony and secrecy. He wrote to suggest that Lord Oxford should act as the chief; but that nobleman

66

* Lord Lansdowne to James, Nov. 17. 1721. Stuart Papers. "Lewis is in the country with Lord Bathurst, and has writ me 'a most dreadful story of a mad dog that bit their huntsman; since "which accident, I am told he has shortened his stirrups three bores; "they were not long before!" Dr. Arbuthnot to Swift, December

11. 1718.

James to Lord Lansdowne, April 13. 1722. Lansdowne

66

66
no man

had retired to the country, his irresolution had (if possible) increased, and his health was declining, and in fact he died in two years from this time. The old management therefore appears to have continued. Of the five, Lord Arran had all the mediocrity of his brother, Ormond, without any of his reputation. Lord Gower was a man of sense and spirit, and great local influence: "within my memory," writes Dr. King, was more es"teemed and reverenced." * Orrery was one of a family where genius had hitherto been a sort of heir-loom, and he had not degenerated. Parliamentary talents and military knowledge were centered in Lord North; he had served under Marlborough, and lost an arm at the battle of Blenheim, and, in the absence of Ormond, was acknowledged as the Jacobite general.

But by far the ablest of this Junta, and indeed not inferior in talent to any one of his contemporaries, was Francis Atterbury. Born in 1662, and educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, he distinguished himself at a very early age by a powerful defence of Luther, and on taking Orders commanded universal attention by his eloquence and active temper. It was by him that the Lower House of Convocation was mainly guided and governed; he was high in the confidence of Queen Anne's last Ministers, and in 1713 was promoted by them to the Deanery of Westminster and Bishoprick of Rochester. Few men have attained a more complete mastery of the English language; and all his compositions are marked with peculiar force, elegance, and dignity of style. A fine person and a graceful delivery added lustre to his eloquence, both in the pulpit and in the House of Lords. His haughty and aspiring mind constantly impelled him into violent measures, which were well supported by his abilities, but which seemed in some degree alien from his sphere. It is well observed by Mirabeau, in speaking of the Duke of Brunswick, that one great sign of a well regulated character is not merely to be equal to its daily task, but to be satisfied

about this time withdrew into France, where he remained for ten years.

* Anecdotes of his own Time, p. xlv.

with it, and not to step beyond it in search of fresh employment.* Atterbury, on the contrary, could never remain tranquil. He might be compared to the chivalrous Peterborough exclaiming to the Minister, - "You must

"find me work in the Old World or the New!"† His devotion to the Protestant faith was warm and pure; his labours for the Established Church no less praiseworthy; but his defence was of somewhat too fierce and turbulent a character; he thought less of personal worth than of party principles in others; and he was one of those of whom it has been wittily said, that out of their zeal for religion they have never time to say their prayers! Yet in private life no trace of his vehemence and bitterness appeared; his "softer hour" is affectionately remembered by Pope; and his own devoted love to his daughter, Mrs. Morice, sheds a milder light around his character. On the whole, he would have made an admirable Bishop had he been a less good partisan.

The political views of Atterbury were always steadily directed against the accession of the House of Hanover. When the Rebellion broke forth in 1715, a Declaration of Abhorrence of it was published by the other Prelates ; but Atterbury refused to sign it on the pretext of some reflections it contained against the High Church party. At no distant period from that time we find him in frequent correspondence with James, writing for the most part in a borrowed hand, and under counterfeit names, such as Jones, or Illington. Were we inclined to seek some excuse for his adherence to that cause, we might, perhaps, find it in his close study of Lord Clarendon's History, which had been edited by himself conjointly with Aldrich and Smalridge. I have always considered the publication of that noble work (it first appeared under Queen Anne) as one of the main causes of the second growth of

66

"Une marque d'un très bon esprit ce me semble, et d'un caractère supérieur, c'est moins encore qu'il suffit au travail de chaque jour que le travail de chaque jour lui suffit." Histoire Sécrète de Berlin, &c. vol. i. p. 30. ed. 1789.

† See his letter to Swift, April 18. 1711. On the style of this striking letter Swift remarks in his Journal, "He writes so well, "I have no mind to answer him; and so kind, that I must answer " him!"