The great topic, however, which engrossed almost the whole attention this Session, not only of Parliament, but of the whole nation, was not foreign affairs, not the general war, but a party war at home, which was carried on with the most extraordinary furor, and put the whole public into a flame. The ostensible cause of this vehement conflict was the publication of a couple of sermons by a clergyman, hitherto of no mark; the real cause was the determination of Harley and the Tories to damage the Whigs irremediably, and to drive them at once from the service of the State and the support of the people. They therefore seized with consummate tact on these sermons, which were, as printed, stupid though rabid performances; and which, had they not been adroitly steeped in party spirit—the most inflammable of all spirits—and set fire to, might soon have slept forgotten in the linings of trunks, or as wrappers of butter and cheese.

TWO-GUINEA PIECE OF ANNE.

On the 13th of December, 1709, Mr. Dolben, the son of the Archbishop of York, denounced, in the House of Commons, two sermons preached and published by Dr. Henry Sacheverell, Rector of St. Saviour's, in Southwark. The first of these sermons had been preached, on the 15th of August, at the assizes at Derby, before the Judge and Sheriff. The second had been preached, on the 5th of November, before the Lord Mayor and Corporation in St. Paul's Cathedral. In both these sermons he had made an attack, if not avowedly on the Government, on the principles on which the Throne and the whole Government were established. He professed the most entire doctrines of non-resistance and passive obedience, which, at the same time that they made him appear incapable, if he had the power, of over-turning any Government, led him to entirely sap and undermine the Government and title of the queen, by representing the resistance which had been made to the encroachments of the Stuarts, and especially to James II., as perfectly impious and treasonable, contrary to the laws of God and the political institutions of men. He reprobated the Revolution and all that flowed from it; and thus, pretending to passive obedience, he was, in the fullest sense, preaching resistance and a counter-revolution. Whilst crying non-resistance, he was, as far as in him lay, arming all those who were hostilely inclined to overturn the throne of Anne, as built only on rebellion and on maxims subversive of the divine right of kings. In his second sermon, which he called "Perils of False Brethren," he preached flamingly against the danger to the Church; danger from the false and democratic bishops who had been put in by the usurper William of Orange; danger from the Dissenters, whom he had by law tolerated, and made powerful in the State and against the true Church. With such a jubilant avidity was this war-note responded to by High Church clergy, High Church zealots of all sorts, and the Tories ready to rush to the assault on any promising occasion, that no less than forty thousand copies of these sermons are said to have been sold. "Nothing," says Dr. Johnson, "ever sold like it, except 'The Whole Duty of Man.'"

ROBERT HARLEY, EARL OF OXFORD. (After the Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller.)

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The motion made by Mr. Dolben in regard to Sacheverell in the House of Commons was seconded by Sir Peter King, one of the Aldermen of London, who had listened to the sermon in St. Paul's with astonishment and indignation. He denounced it as abounding with matter false, injurious, impious, and tending to sedition and schism in the Church. This had not been the case with all the City dignitaries on that occasion. Sir Gilbert Heathcote had indeed been equally astonished at it, and declared that the preacher ought to be called to account for it; but the Lord Mayor, Sir Samuel Garrard, had applauded it, and had allowed it to be published with his sanction. Neither was it the first of the kind which had been preached in London. One Francis Higgins had been haranguing on the same topics in the pulpits all over the metropolis, with the most outrageous declamations on the dangers of the Church. Sacheverell, however, had brought the fever to a crisis. The most violent paragraphs were read in the House of Commons, and voted scandalous and seditious libels. The doctor was summoned to the bar of the House, and, having acknowledged the authorship of the sermons, pleaded the encouragement which he had received from the Lord Mayor to print the one on "The Perils of False Brethren." Sir Samuel Garrard, who was a member of the House, now repudiated his encouragement, and the doctor being ordered to withdraw, it was resolved that he should be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanours at the bar of the Lords, and Mr. Dolben was ordered to conduct his impeachment. A committee was appointed to prepare the Articles, and Sacheverell was taken into custody.

When the impeachment was carried up to the Lords, Sacheverell petitioned to be admitted to bail, but this was refused. The Commons committed him to the custody of the Deputy-Usher of the Black Rod, but the Lords afterwards admitted him to bail. The Articles were carried up to the Lords on the 13th of January, 1710, and Sacheverell drew up an answer, in which he wholly denied some of the Articles, and endeavoured to justify himself in respect to the rest. The Commons made a reply, and declared themselves ready to prove the charge. A long delay, however, took place before the day of trial could be fixed. The queen was more than suspected of being favourable to Sacheverell, as influenced by Harley, Mrs. Masham, and the Tories. When the doctor appeared before the Commons, he was attended by Dr. Lancaster, the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, and above a hundred of the most distinguished clergymen of London and other towns, conspicuous amongst them being several of the queen's own chaplains. From the moment that Sacheverell was taken into custody by the Commons, the Church and Tory party had set all their engines to work to raise the populace. These agents were everywhere, distributing money, treating the mob to ale, and spreading the most alarming rumours—that the Puritans, the Presbyterians, and the Dissenters were all combined to pull down the Church and restore the old republican practices, and that the prosecution of Sacheverell was a trial of their strength. The pulpits resounded in all quarters with these alarms, with the intention of working up the people to a pitch of desperation, and they succeeded. The mob became furious, and paraded the streets and round the palace, crying, "God save the Queen and Dr. Sacheverell! Queen and High Church!"

Marlborough took his departure for Holland, and the trial of Sacheverell was fixed for the 27th of February in Westminster Hall. The managers for the Commons were the Lords William Paulet and Coningsby, Sir Thomas Parker, Sir Joseph Jekyl, Sir John Hollis, Sir John Holland, Sir James Montague, Sir Peter King (Recorder of London), Mr. Robert Eyre (Solicitor-General), Mr. James Stanhope, Mr. Robert Walpole, Mr. Spencer Cowper, Mr. John Smith, Mr. John Dolben, and Mr. William Thompson. The prisoner was defended by Sir Simon Harcourt and Mr. Constantine Phipps, and was attended by Drs. Smallridge and Atterbury. The Lord Chancellor Cowper demanded of the Lords whether it was their pleasure that Dr. Sacheverell should be called before them; and the answer being in the affirmative, he was placed at the bar, his friends Atterbury and Smallridge standing at his side. Silence being ordered, the doctor was asked whether he was ready to take his trial; to which he answered with great confidence that he was, and should always be ready to obey the laws of the land. The Articles of Impeachment were then read. They accused him of having publicly reflected on the late Revolution; of having suggested that it was brought about by odious and unjustifiable means; of having defamed the Act of Toleration, and cast scurrilous reflections on those who advocated religious toleration; of asserting that the Church was in great peril from her Majesty's Administration; of maintaining that the civil Constitution of the country was also in danger; of stigmatising many of the dignitaries of the Church—some of whom the queen herself had placed in their posts—as false brethren; and of libelling her Majesty's Ministers, and especially of branding the Lord High Treasurer with the name of "Volpone;" and, finally, with having, in discharge of his sacred office, wickedly wrested and perverted the Holy Scriptures.