Cassell's History of England, Vol. 3 (of 8) / From the Great Rebellion to the Fall of Marlborough.

by Anonymous

This gentle sentence was regarded by the people and the Tories as a real triumph. It was proof of the decline of the Whig party, and of the fear of offending the public. The event was celebrated by Sacheverell's mob-friends by bonfires, and by the inhabitants of London and Westminster by illuminations. There was plenty of beer supplied to the populace from some quarter, and every one passing along was compelled to drink the health of Dr. Sacheverell, the "champion of the Church." Sacheverell himself went from house to house in a state of triumph to thank the lords and gentlemen who had taken his side. From some of these, as the Duke of Argyll, he met with a rebuff; but the great doctor, with a roaring mob at his heels, was generally flatteringly received, and he took care to boast that after his sentence it was clear that the Whigs were down and the Church was saved. The University of Oxford, which had received a snub from the Lords by their ordering its famous decree asserting the absolute authority and indefeasible right of princes, to be burnt with Sacheverell's sermons, was loud in professed triumph and sympathy with the doctor. The House of Commons was indignant at the lenity of his treatment, and declared that his sentence was an actual benefit to him, by exempting him from the duties of his living, and enabling him to go about fomenting sedition.

The queen prorogued Parliament on the 5th of April, expressing her concern for the occasion which had occupied so much of the Session. She declared that no prince could have a more zealous desire for the welfare of the Church than she had, and that it was mischievous in wicked and malicious libels to pretend that the Church was in danger; and she trusted that men would now study to be quiet, and mind their own business, instead of busying themselves to revive questions of a very high nature, and which could only be with an ill intention. But every one knew all the while that Anne was only too pleased at the demonstrations which had been made through Sacheverell; that they had damaged the Whigs essentially, and brought the day near when she could safely send them adrift, and liberate herself for ever from them and the Marlboroughs. Mrs. Masham now ruled triumphantly, and disposed of commissions and offices as royally as ever the duchess had done. It was openly said in the army that fighting was not the road to promotion, but carrying Mrs. Masham's lapdogs, or putting a heavy purse into the hand of Mrs. Abigail Earwig. The Duchess of Marlborough did not abate her exertions to recover favour, but they were in vain; and the great Marlborough complained in a letter to the queen that all his victories for her Majesty's honour could not shield him from the malice of a bedchamber-woman.

Indeed, the display of the queen's bias now became rapid and open. The Duke of Shrewsbury, who had now joined the Tories, returned from his long residence at Rome, where he had married an Italian lady, and had taken the part of Sacheverell in the trial. The queen immediately dismissed the Marquis of Kent, a staunch Whig, from the office of Lord Chamberlain, and, much to the grief and consternation of the Lord Treasurer, Godolphin, bestowed it on Shrewsbury. There was great alarm among the Whigs, and Walpole recommended the instant and entire resignation of the whole Cabinet as the only means to intimidate the queen and her secret advisers; but Harley is said to have persuaded the rest of the Ministers that the only object was to get rid of Godolphin, Marlborough, and his son-in-law Sunderland. The rumour of Sunderland's dismissal became general, and not without foundation. The queen had an extreme dislike to him, not only because of his belonging to Marlborough's clique, but on account of his blunt and outspoken manners. He was perfectly undisguised in his expressions of dislike for Mrs. Masham, and of his resolve, if possible, to turn her out of the palace; but, with the queen's devotion to that lady, he could have taken no surer way of getting himself out. The Duchess of Marlborough, who could not now obtain access to the queen, yet wrote to her, imploring her to defer any intention of removing Lord Sunderland till the duke's return; but the queen forthwith gave Sunderland his dismissal, and appointed Lord Dartmouth, an actual Jacobite, in his place. Anne endeavoured to qualify Lord Sunderland's dismissal by offering him a retiring pension, but he rejected it with disdain; and such was the fear that the Duke of Marlborough, on this act of disrespect to him, would throw up the command of the army, that all the leading Ministers—including Cowper, Somers, Halifax, Devonshire, Godolphin, and Orford—wrote to him, imploring him to retain his command, as well for the security of the Whig Government as for his own glory and the good of the country. The Allies on the Continent were equally alarmed at this indication of the declining favour of Marlborough, and France was just as elated at it. But nothing could now stay the fall of the Whigs. Anne, indeed, ordered Mr. Secretary Boyle to write to the Allied sovereigns and to the States-General to assure them that nothing was farther from her thoughts than the removal of the Duke of Marlborough from his command, and that she still proposed to conduct her government by the same party. The hollowness of these assurances was immediately shown by her also dismissing Godolphin from the Treasury, and appointing Harley Chancellor of the Exchequer. Harley thereupon proposed to Lord Chancellor Cowper and Walpole to make a coalition, but they rejected the overture; and as a Tory Cabinet could not expect to carry on with a Whig House of Commons, a dissolution was determined upon, and Parliament was dissolved accordingly, and writs were issued for a new election.

The nomination of the Tory Cabinet immediately followed. Lord Rochester, the queen's High Church and deep-drinking uncle, was made President of the Council in place of Somers; the Duke of Buckingham succeeded the Duke of Devonshire as Lord Steward; St. John succeeded Mr. Secretary Boyle; Sir Simon Harcourt, as Lord Chancellor, superseded Lord Cowper; the Duke of Ormonde took the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland from Lord Wharton; the Duke of Somerset had anticipated these changes by throwing up his post of Master of the Horse, and the Earl of Orford was removed from the Admiralty, and that office was put in commission. In the room of Walpole, George Granville was made Secretary at War. Here was a clean sweep of all the Whigs, except some subordinate officials, who clung to office as long as it was permitted. Dr. Sacheverell had done a mighty work for the Tories, and, having a living in Wales conferred on him, he made quite a triumphant progress thither in May, during all the heat and violence of the elections, still labouring in his vocation of self-glorification, and of damaging the Whig cause as much as he could, in which he was energetically supported by his patrons.

On the Continent war and negotiation were going on at the same time whilst the Sacheverell fever had been raging at home. Early in the spring Louis XIV., sensible of the miserable condition of his kingdom, had again made overtures for peace. The Ministers of the two parties met at first on board a yacht at Maardyk, but the French preferred the wretched little town of Gertruydenberg for their sojourn, where they complained of the miserable accommodations they obtained. The Dutch States-General had sent a pressing request that Marlborough might be allowed to go to Holland in time to give his advice in these negotiations, and the two Houses of Parliament seconded this request. The queen readily consented, though it was suspected the whole was done at the suggestion of Marlborough himself, to show how essential his services were deemed by the Allies. Though Marlborough hastened to the Hague in consequence, he did not in any way appear openly in the matter, but appeared busy with Prince Eugene in setting early on foot the campaign. The French ambassadors represented themselves as being not only most meanly entertained, but as meanly and narrowly watched—their letters being opened, and their propositions met by haughty discourtesy. Certainly, if we were to regard the concessions made by Louis XIV. on this occasion as honestly offered, the Allies had never a fairer opportunity of closing the war triumphantly, and were most culpable in refusing them. Louis offered to give up all Spain, and the Indies, East and West; to acknowledge Charles king of undivided Spain; to give no support to Philip, but to claim for him only Sicily and Naples. When it was objected that Naples was already in the possession of Austria, and could not be given up, the ambassadors waived the claim of Naples, and contented themselves with Sicily and Sardinia for Philip. As a security for Philip evacuating Spain, they offered to give up four cautionary towns in Flanders; to restore Strasburg and Brisac; to destroy all their fortifications on the Rhine from Basle to Philippsburg; to level all the fortifications of Dunkirk; and to surrender to the Dutch Maubeuge, Condé, Furnes, Menin, Ypres, Tournai, and Lille.

Surely nothing could be more complete. By gaining all these advantages the Allies gained everything they had been fighting for. They wanted not only an agreement for the surrender of Spain, but a sufficient guarantee for it; and this guarantee they demanded in the shape of an engagement that Louis should help them with actual money and arms to expel Philip from Spain if he refused to evacuate it, and really to place Austria in possession of it. This was certainly putting the sincerity of Louis to sufficient test, and Louis failed under it. He contended that it would be monstrous and unnatural to take arms against his own grandson, but that he would contribute money for this purpose—which, to ordinary intellects, looks quite as monstrous. He offered, according to his able Prime Minister De Torcy, to pay five hundred thousand livres a month towards this object, or even to raise it to a million of money if the Allies would not be satisfied with less. But as the Allies, in the first place, knew that Louis had not money to meet the demands of his own Government, and, in the second place, that Philip had sent an express declaration to the Allies, when this question was mooted before, that he stood on his rightful claim through the will of Charles II., the late King of Spain, and would recognise no pretensions of any party to deal with his patrimony—they declined the offer, and declared they would be contented with nothing less than the actual possession of the country. They knew that at the very time that these negotiations were going on, Philip was making fresh and strenuous exertions to drive Charles from Spain; that he had appealed to Louis to send him the Duc de Vendôme to take the command in that country, with which request Louis promptly complied. They knew that France had only to close the passes of the Pyrenees, and, under the pretence of protecting her own frontiers from the armies in Spain, shut out all attack on Philip, except by sea.

On this rock, therefore, the whole negotiation was wrecked. Louis had flattered himself that Marlborough, distracted by the state of affairs in England, would be anxious to make peace, in order that he might be on the spot to resist the fall of the Whig party at home, and with it of his influence. But the wiser De Torcy reasoned very differently. He saw that the party of Marlborough was already ruined, and for him to return home would be to return to insignificance, mortification, and insult. His only safety and strength lay in the continuance of the war; on the chance of reaping new victories, and, therefore, new humiliation to his enemies. And in this De Torcy was correct. Marlborough did not appear in the matter. Lord Townshend for England, and Count Zinzendorff for the Emperor, were consulted by the States-General on all the points of the treaty; but the Pensionary Heinsius, the devoted friend of Marlborough and Eugene, kept them au fait on the whole subject, and influenced the States-General as they dictated. The result was that, after the negotiations had continued from the 19th of March to the 21st of July, during which there was a rapid and frequent interchange of messages with Versailles, the conference broke up.

The campaign had not paused for the issue of the conference. Eugene and Marlborough left the Hague on the 15th of March, and assembled their troops, which quartered on the Meuse, at Tournai. The confederate army amounted to sixty thousand men, with which they invested Douay, and, Eugene remaining to carry on the siege, Marlborough advanced to Vitry, where he encamped. Marshal Villars—at the head of an army numerous and well appointed, considering the distresses of France, and all the more numerous because men, destitute of the means of livelihood, flocked to the royal banners—passed the Scheldt and encamped at Bouchain, declaring that he would engage the Allies; but he thought better of it. His aim was to embarrass the siege of Douay, in which there was a strong French garrison, commanded by General Albergotti. The defence was vigorous, Albergotti making frequent sallies, and altogether the Allies suffered severely before the town. It was compelled, however, to capitulate on the 26th of June. Eugene and Marlborough, being again united, contemplated forcing the lines of the enemy between Arras and Miramont, but finding them too strong, they resolved to besiege Béthune, which in spite of the menacing attitude of Marshal Villars, who marched out of his entrenchments as if going to attack them, surrendered on the 29th of August. They afterwards took also the inconsiderable towns of Aire and Verrant, and there the campaign ended. The armies broke up and retired to winter quarters.

This was a poor result after the grand schemes of storming Boulogne and marching upon Paris. The fact was, that the anxious condition of affairs at home completely paralysed Marlborough. He was no longer the man he had been. His mind was dragged different ways, and was harassed with anxieties. He could no longer concentrate his attention on one great plan of warfare, and the consequence was, that his action was spiritless and indecisive. He seemed to have lost the secret of success, and met with annoyances which his vigilance and promptitude had hitherto prevented. On one occasion a great supply of powder and other stores was intercepted by the enemy, though under the guard of twelve hundred foot and four hundred and eighty horse. In a word he was discouraged, divided in his own mind, and the spell of victory, or rather of high enterprise, was broken.