A.D. 1709.

IMPEACHMENT OF DR. SACHEVEREL.

515

encamped in the plain, fronting the opening between the woods. At eight o'clock on the morning of the 11th of September, he commenced the attack. The right of the French was covered by a morass; but this obstacle was rapidly overcome by Marlborough's left wing; and that portion of the enemy was driven back. Villars was himself commanding the left wing of the French, and was to a great extent successful, till he was wounded. The French were dislodged from their wooded height after a most sanguinary struggle of four hours, when the conflict was renewed in the plain. At three o'clock they retreated, and the Allies encamped on the field of battle, amidst thirty thousand of their fellow-men dead or wounded.

During the period of this desperate fighting in the Netherlands, there was a Northern war as terrible and more decisive than the war of the Succession. Five months after Marlborough's visit to the camp at Alt Ranstadt, Charles set out with his army for the invasion of Russia. He traversed Poland, and he wintered at Grodno. In June he defeated the Russians upon the Beresina; and in December, he was again victorious at Smolensko. Peter was alarmed, and made proposals of peace. The Swede rejected them, and marched into the Ukraine, to effect a junction with the Cossack chief, Mazeppa. In the spring the Swedish army invested the strong town of Pultowa, on the Vorskla. The fortifications protected the military stores of Peter. The place commanded the passes to Moscow. In June the Czar advanced to the relief of Pultowa, with an army of about sixty thousand men. Charles had only twenty-four thousand, not half of whom were Swedes. He thought that nothing had changed since he had won the battle of Narva with a similar disparity of numbers. But during those nine years Peter had been forming armies, and teaching them how to fight. Charles despised the security of his entrenched lines, and on the 8th of July he marched out to attack the Russian redoubts. The two kings were in the battle; and the troops on both sides fought with desperation. In two hours ten thousand Swedes lay dead or wounded on the field; hundreds perished in the Vorskla and Borysthenes; the Swedish army was annihilated; and Charles, having swum over the Borysthenes with a few hundred followers, at length reached the Turkish frontier, and for five years was a troublesome fugitive in the dominions of the Sultan.

About a month after the Session of Parliament had been opened, in November, 1709, a member complained that two sermons preached by Dr. Sacheverel, one at Derby and one at St. Paul's, contained dangerous matter. Printed copies having been laid upon the table of the Commons, the House agreed in this opinion, and the preacher was ordered to attend at the bar the next day; when it was resolved that he should be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanours. This famous impeachment, which for a time absorbed all other public questions, may be regarded as an inexplicable demonstration of party madness, or a grand assertion of party principle. It is said that Harley was one of those who spirited Sacheverel to undertake an enterprise so suited to his vain and turbulent nature. If Swift is to be believed, the impeachment "arose from a foolish passionate pique of the earl of Godolphin." Neither Godolphin nor Harley cared very much for the great principles that were called forth in the proceedings against

Sacheverel. The preliminary debates, and other formal proceedings, occupied ten weeks before the day of trial came. The metropolis and the country were now in a ferment. On the 27th of February, Westminster Hall was filled with a gorgeous assembly. The queen was there in a private box. The Peers were seated in the centre of the Hall. The Commons were ranged on one side. A galaxy of ladies filled the other side. The crowd without the doors was unusually loud and noisy. The managers of the impeachment divided themselves into groups, each group to take the conduct of one of the four articles into which the charge was divided. The separate dogmas of the sermon on the 5th of November were taken as texts to refute the principles thus proclaimed as the bases of the Constitution. The first article set forth that Dr. Sacheverel in his sermon maintained, "That the necessary means to bring about the Revolution were unjustifiable; that his late majesty, in his Declaration, disclaimed the least imputation of Resistance; and that to impute resistance to the said Revolution, is to cast black and odious colours upon his late majesty and the said Revolution." "The managers of the impeachment," says Mr. Hallam, "had not only to prove that there was Resistance in the Revolution, which could not, of course, be sincerely disputed, but to assert the lawfulness, in great emergencies, or what is called in politics necessity, of taking arms against the law." They asserted that all the opposition to the measures of king William, and during the reign of the queen, had come "from those who had questioned the lawfulness of the Resistance made use of in the Revolution; that the principle of unlimited Non-Resistance had been revived by the professed and undisguised friends of the Pretender." The principle of Resistance, as justified by the Revolution, was necessarily held to be an exceptional case to the general doctrine of the subject's obedience. But, as Robert Walpole sagaciously observed, "The doctrine of unlimited, unconditional, Passive Obedience, was first invented to support arbitrary and despotic power, and was never promoted or countenanced by any government that had not designs some time or other of making use of it: what then can be the design of preaching this doctrine now, unasked, unsought for, in her majesty's reign, where the law is the only rule and measure of the power of the Crown, and of the obedience of the people?" The second article of the impeachment imputed to Sacheverel that he maintained that the toleration granted by law was unwarrantable, and that he was a false brother, with relation to God, religion, or the Church, who defends toleration or liberty of conscience. On the subject of the first article major-general Stanhope had pointed out very forcibly the natural and dangerous results of the extreme High Church doctrines which had so long been the cause of national disgust. The tendency of these principles was sufficiently exhibited in the events which followed the third day of the proceedings in Westminster Hall. "Sacheverel," says Burnet, "was lodged in the Temple, and came every day, with great solemnity, in a coach to the hall. Great crowds ran about his coach, with many shouts, expressing their concern for him in a very rude and tumultuous manner." On the third day, "money was thrown among them; and they were animated to such a pitch of fury, that they went to pull down some meeting houses, which was executed upon five of them, as far as burning all the

A. D. 1710.

SENTENCE ON DR. SACHEVEREL.

517

pews in them. This was directed by some of better fashion, who followed the mob in hackney-coaches, and were seen sending messages to them. The word upon which all shouted was the Church and Sacheverel." These outrages led to the trial for high-treason of Daniel Dammaree, a waterman; Francis Willis, a footman; and George Purchase, a sheriff's officer; who were charged that they, with a great multitude of men, armed and arrayed in a warlike manner, with colours flying, swords, clubs, and other weapons, did, on the 1st of March, make war against our lady the queen. The evidence upon the trials of these men showed that they were principals in a riotous destruction, or attempted destruction, of meeting-houses. All the judges agreed that the intention of the prisoners to pull down meetinghouses, and their partial destruction of several, was an overt act of levying war. The Riot Act, by which such offences may be met as felony, without resorting to the law of constructive treason, was not in existence in 1710. Two of the silly rioters were convicted, and were sentenced to the horrible penalties of high-treason. But they were reprieved, and afterwards

pardoned.

The third article of impeachment against Sacheverel was, that he had asserted, contrary to a Resolution of Parliament, that the Church was in a condition of great peril and adversity under her majesty's administration. In the fourth article he was charged with keeping up factions, instilling groundless jealousies, and exciting the queen's subjects to arms and violence. The defence of Sacheverel was conducted with great ability by sir Simon Harcourt and four other counsel, who were forced to make concessions which were thus alluded to by sir Joseph Jekyll: "My lords, the concessions are these, that necessity creates an exception to the general rule of submission to the prince: that such exception is understood or implied in the laws that require such submission: and that the case of the Revolution was a case of necessity. These are concessions so ample, and do so fully answer the drift of the Commons in this Article, and are to the utmost extent of their meaning in it, that I cannot forbear congratulating them upon this success of their impeachment; that in full Parliament this erroneous doctrine of Non-Resistance is given up and disclaimed." After very animated debates in the House of Lords, sixty-nine peers voted Dr. Sacheverel Guilty of the high crimes and misdemeanours charged on him by the impeachment of the House of Commons, and fifty-two found him Not Guilty. His sentence was, that he was enjoined not to preach during the term of three years, and that his two sermons should be burnt by the common hangman. This lenient sentence was received by Sacheverel's passionate adherents as a matter of national rejoicing. Bonfires and bellringing were universal. In some towns the health of Sacheverel was drunk with bended knees. This puppet of faction was rewarded by a presentation of a living in Wales, and, early in the summer, he went upon what is called his progress-ostensibly to take possession of his benefice. According to one set of authorities, he was everywhere welcomed with spontaneous enthusiasm. According to another mode of viewing the same circumstances, these demonstrations were entirely the work of his emissaries. Vast exertions were made throughout the country to get up addresses to the queen, "in which the absolute power of our princes was

asserted, and all resistance was condemned, under the designation of antimonarchical and republican principles." The Parliament was prorogued on the 5th of April, with the expression of this sentiment by the queen : "I could heartily wish that men would study to be quiet, and do their own business, rather than busy themselves in reviving questions and disputes of a very high nature, and which must be with an ill intention, since they can only tend to foment, but not to heal, our divisions and animosities."

CHAPTER XL.

THE negotiations for peace which were broken off in 1709 were renewed in 1710. Conferences were opened at Gertruydenberg. All the Allied powers concurred in pressing upon Louis the humiliating condition that he should assist in dethroning his grandson, and the negotiations were again broken off. The armies of France took the field with new strength. Marshal Villars, at the end of May, came with a great force to the relief of Douay, which was invested by the Allies under Marlborough and Eugene. Douay surrendered. But this campaign of Marlborough had no effect upon the state of affairs at home. There was no brilliant success to justify the war policy of the Whigs. The queen had now entirely given up the duchess. Marlborough's son-in-law, Lord Sunderland, was dismissed from his office of Secretary of State, the seals being given to Lord Dartmouth. The ascendancy of Mrs. Masham, and the manœuvres of Harley, were soon entirely triumphant. Godolphin was first dismissed, and his office was put in commission. Harley was then made Chancellor of the Exchequer. The queen announced to the Council that it was her pleasure there should be a dissolution of Parliament. The Whigs were all thrust from power. The Parliament was dissolved on the 26th of September, and the new Parliament assembled on the 25th of November. There was a great Tory preponderance, which Burnet attributes to the efforts of the clergy to influence the elections. There was a great change in the language of the queen's speech. The usual topic of congratulation for the conduct of the war in Flanders was no more adverted to, although the campaign had been successful in holding France in check. The queen adopted the language of Sacheverel in substituting "Indulgence" for "Toleration," in the usual promise to the Dissenters. When Marlborough returned to London in December, Anne took care to inform him that it was no accidental omission that no vote had been proposed in either House for his services in the campaign. Harley, and especially St. John, had made up their minds to humiliate him whom they called "the great man." He had to endure indignities from those he had been accustomed to command. The duchess was dismissed from all her offices, in spite of her husband's abject entreaties.

General Stanhope, who had returned to his command in Catalonia, with large reinforcements and an ample supply of money, had induced Charles

A.D. 1710.

THE ALLIES DEFEATED IN SPAIN.

519

once more to put himself at the head of an army, and to meet his rival Philip in the field. The battle of Almenara, on the 27th of July, was a victory for the Allied forces; and it was followed up by other successes. On the 20th of August another battle was fought under the walls of Saragossa. The Allies were here signally victorious, and their vanguard entered Madrid on the 21st of September. Here they lingered till the beginning of November, waiting for reinforcements from Portugal, which never came. The duke of Vendôme had arrived to take the command of the army of king Philip, and, with a powerful force, had marched to the Tagus to prevent the possible junction of the Portuguese with the other portions of the Allied army. Charles now determined to return himself to Catalonia, with an escort of two thousand horse. At the beginning of December the Allies began to retreat to Aragon. The same day Philip and Vendôme entered Madrid in triumph. The country was so destitute of supplies, chiefly through the hostility of the people, that the Allied army was forced to divide into three separate bodies, English, Germans, Spaniards and Portuguese, each taking different lines of march. Stanhope was posted at Brihuega, a small town on the river Taguna, when Vendôme, who with the king had joined the Spanish army, came up with the British portion of the Allies. Such was the disposition of the population that the English general had not the slightest intimation of the approach of the thousands of cavalry and infantry that he had now to fight singlehanded. He did his best. He threw up barricades and entrenchments in the town, and made the old Moorish wall which surrounded it a formidable defence. Through the next day the British fought with desperation against forces of four times their number. At seven in the evening their ammunition was nearly exhausted; and Stanhope then asked and obtained honourable terms of capitulation. The next day, the 10th of December, a great battle was fought at Villa Viciosa by Vendôme with the other portions of the Allied army under Staremberg. The fortunes of the combatants were long doubtful; the losses of each were very great. But Staremberg was at last forced to retreat towards Aragon. He was harassed and followed by partisan cavalry; sustained severe losses; was unable to defend Saragossa, where Philip established his court; and finally reached Barcelona, with forces dwindled to half their number. The cause of king Charles in Spain was henceforth hopeless. General Stanhope, his officers, and his men, remained prisoners in Spain till a little time before the peace of Utrecht.

Never was a victory more opportune to a government than was this defeat to the ministry of Harley and St. John. The Lords, now having a majority of the partisans of the ministry, entered into an examination of the whole history of the war, going not only back to the battle of Almanza, but to the time of the early exploits of Peterborough. They carried a vote that "the late ministers were justly to be blamed, for contributing to all our disasters in Spain ;" and the thanks of the House were given to the earl of Peterborough, for his great and eminent services,-given in terms which conveyed a covert reproach to another great general. On the previous 23rd of November, Swift's "Examiner," the literary organ of St. John and Harley, had made a savage attack upon Marlborough, and