To increase the power of the Tory landlords in the House of Commons, and diminish that of the Whig supporters in the boroughs, an Act was introduced—and the Commons were weak enough to pass it—making it necessary that every candidate for Parliament in the counties should possess six hundred a year in real property, and for a borough seat three hundred; and this law lasted to our time, when, however, it was repealed.

But in spite of the triumphant position of the Tories, Harley found his individual position far from enviable. His caution made him inimical to the more violent Tories, who were impatient to exercise their power without restraint; of which his colleague St. John, at once ambitious and unprincipled, artfully availed himself to undermine the man by whom he had risen. But an incident occurred to excite a fresh interest in Harley, and give a new impetus to his power. Amongst the horde of foreigners—Germans, Italians, French, and Poles—who contrived to draw English money by acting as spies on their own governments, and very frequently on the English one too, was the so-called Marquis of Guiscard. This man had been in receipt of five hundred pounds a year. He had obtained the salary, it is said, through St. John, being a devoted companion of that accomplished scoundrel in his dissipations. Harley doubted the value of his services, and reduced the pension to four hundred pounds a year; and St. John is also said to have suffered him to endure the curtailment without much remonstrance, and then, to avoid Guiscard's importunities, refused to see him. Guiscard immediately offered his services to the French Government as a spy on the English Court, through a letter to one Moreau, a banker of Paris. The letter was intercepted, and Guiscard arrested. On being brought before the Privy Council he desired to speak in private to St. John, whom, it is suspected, he intended to assassinate, but St. John refused his demand. He then exclaimed, "That is hard! not one word!" and suddenly stepping up to Harley, he cried, "Have at thee, then!" and stabbed him with his penknife. The knife, striking against the breastbone, broke near the handle; but the excited foreigner struck him again with such force that Harley fell to the ground covered with blood. St. John, seeing Harley fall, exclaimed, "The villain has killed Mr. Harley!" drew his sword, and ran him through. The whole Council was up and in confusion. All drew their swords and surrounded the murderous prisoner. He was wounded in various places, and knocked down by blows from the hands of others. The doorkeepers and messengers rushed in at the noise, and Guiscard was dragged to prison. He died in Newgate of his wounds; and such was the curiosity of the populace to see his body that the turnkey kept it in pickle, and made a good sum by showing him for several days.

Harley's wound was not serious, but it served to make a political hero and martyr of him; Guiscard being represented as a Papist, and instigated from France to destroy this champion of England and the Church. On Harley's appearance in the House of Commons he was congratulated on his happy escape in a most eulogistic speech by the Speaker; and an Act was passed, making it felony without benefit of clergy to attempt the life of a Privy Councillor. The Earl of Rochester dying at this juncture, left Harley entirely at the head of the Cabinet, and he was immediately raised to the peerage, first as Baron Wigmore, and then as Earl of Oxford and Mortimer. He was, moreover, appointed Lord Treasurer, much to his own gratification and glory, but little to the furtherance of the national business, for he was naturally inert and indecisive, whilst all around him was a scandalous scene of corruption, intrigue, and neglect.

Marlborough had set out for Holland in the month of February. He assembled his army at Orchies, between Lisle and Douay, about the middle of April, and Marshal Villars encamped between Cambray and Arras. The duke soon after passed the Scarpe, and took post between Douay and Bouchain, where he was joined by his faithful comrade-in-arms Prince Eugene; but that great general was soon compelled to leave him to repel the French forces which were directed against Germany on the Upper Rhine. The army of Marshal Villars was a very numerous one, and he had defended his lines with redoubts and other works so formidably that he thought he would at last checkmate Marlborough. These lines extended from Bouchain, on the Scheldt, along the Sanset and the Scarpe to Arras, and thence along the Upper Scarpe to Cambray. But Marlborough did not despair of entering them by stratagem, if not by force. He ordered a great quantity of fascines to be prepared, and made a pretence of a direct attack on the lines where he was; but he at the same time secretly despatched Generals Cadogan and Hompesch to surprise the passage of the Sanset at Arleux. Brigadier Sutton was also despatched with the artillery and pontoons to lay bridges over the canals near Goulezen, and over the Scarpe at Vitry. By the time that these operations could be effected, Marlborough suddenly quitted his position at nine in the evening, marched the whole of his army through the night, and by five in the morning had crossed the Scarpe at Vitry. There, receiving the information that Hompesch had secured the passes of the Sanset and the Scheldt, Marlborough continued his march on Arleux; and, after a march of ten leagues without halting, was encamped on the Scheldt between Estrun and Ois. Thus, by this unexampled dexterity and exertion, he was completely within the boasted impregnable lines of Villars. This general, on becoming aware of his opponent's motions, pursued him with headlong haste, but he arrived too late to prevent his design; and, whilst the Duke of Marlborough was extolled as a general of consummate ability, Villars was ridiculed even by his own officers for suffering himself to be outwitted.

The Dutch deputies this time, so far from retarding the duke's enterprise, were desirous that he should at once attack Villars; but he would not hazard a battle whilst his men were fatigued by their enormous march. He determined, on the contrary, to commence the siege of Bouchain. The place was remarkably strong, and difficult of access from its situation in a marsh; yet, by the 10th of August, 1711, he had compelled it to surrender, the garrison of six thousand becoming prisoners of war. With this exploit Marlborough closed his brilliant career. His enemies at home—Oxford, St. John, Dartmouth, and the Tories in general—had fondly hoped that this campaign he was going to certain defeat and disgrace; but, in spite of all his disadvantages, he had placed the Allied armies, by this conquest of Bouchain, on the highway to Paris. The Allies were in possession of the Meuse, almost as far as the Sambre; of the Scheldt from Tournai; and of the Lys as far as it was navigable. They had reduced Spanish Guelderland, Limburg, Brabant, and Flanders, with the greatest part of Hainault, and were in a position, by one more vigorous campaign, to carry the war to the very gates of Louis's capital. Such a triumph, however, the malice of the Tories had determined that Britain and the world should not witness. After the capture of Bouchain, the Allied armies went into quarters in the frontier towns, ready for the campaign of the spring; and in the middle of November Marlborough returned to England.

THE FRACAS IN THE PRIVY COUNCIL. (See p. [600].)

[[See larger version]]

In Spain, whither the Duke of Argyll had been sent to command the English forces, nothing had been done, from the want of everything to carry on the war, and the expedition of Mrs. Masham's brother Jack Hill to Quebec had met with the fate which might have been expected. This expedition had been planned by Colonel Nicholson, who had taken possession of Nova Scotia and garrisoned Port Royal. He had brought to England four American Indians to excite attention, and represented the great advantages which would accrue from the conquest of Canada and the expulsion of the French from that part of the world. The idea was excellent, and, had it been carried out with ability, might have anticipated the policy of Lord Chatham and the victory of Wolfe; but the Ministers were not hearty in the cause. Harley is said to have been averse from it, and St. John to have advocated it because he saw that it would gratify Mrs. Masham. In an ill-advised hour, therefore, the command of this important expedition was confided to a man against whose total unfitness for command of every sort Marlborough had earnestly warned them. At Boston, in New England, the expedition was joined by two regiments of colonists and about four thousand men, consisting of American planters, Palatines, and Indians, encamped at Albany, in order to march by land into Canada, whilst the fleet advanced up the St. Lawrence. The squadron had already entered the river when, on the 21st of August, it was assailed by a violent tempest. Eight transports were driven aground and wrecked, and eight hundred men perished—some by drowning, others by the tomahawks of the Indians and the muskets of the French colonists. The damage, however, was of no important extent to a really able commander; but the poor witless Hill, thrust into responsibility by favouritism, was utterly confounded. The fleet put back to Spanish River Bay, where a council was held, and, as the forces were only victualled for six weeks, it was determined to return home.

But whilst Marlborough had been ably preparing the way in Flanders for finishing the war in triumph, and compelling the King of France to make such a peace as should secure the peace of Europe and indemnify England for all that she had suffered and expended for that object, the Tory Ministers and the queen had been as busy undermining and rendering abortive his plans and exertions. They were determined to make peace at any cost, so that the Whigs should receive nothing but reproaches from the nation for having led it into so long and bloody a war without any real results. The Tories were to render the war useless, and the Whigs to bear the blame of it.