It is evident, too, that the qualities for which he was already reviled by extreme partisans on both sides were—in their measure—real qualifications, both for the office of Speaker and for the special task of that day. The party leaders who were then most eagerly followed were men bent on crushing their adversaries as well as conquering them. It was inevitable that by such men Harley’s moderation towards opponents should be regarded as more cajolery. And of that unhappy quality he was destined, at a later day, to acquire but too much.
The Secretaryship of State, 1704.
On the 27th of April, 1704, Mr. Speaker Harley was sworn of the Privy Council. On the 18th of May he received the seals as one of the Principal Secretaries of State. |Privy Council Register, Anne, vol. ii, p. 102.| He had scarcely entered on the duties of his office before he was busied with precautionary measures in Scotland against an anticipated Jacobite insurrection, as well as with a large share of the foreign correspondence. But just at that busy time he found means to begin—though he could not then complete—an act of charity which is memorable both on the recipient’s account and on the score of some well-known political consequences which eventually grew thereout.
At the time when Harley became a member of the Godolphin administration Daniel De Foe lay in Newgate, under a conviction for seditious libel, committed in the publication of his famous tract, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters. |Harley’s protection of De Foe, 1704.| The new Secretary sent a confidential person to the prison with instructions to visit De Foe, and to ask him, in the Minister’s name, ‘What can I do for you?’ De Foe’s characteristic reply must be given in his own words:—‘In return for this kind and generous message I immediately took pen and ink, and writ the story of the blind man in the Gospel, ... to whom our blessed Lord put the question, “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” who—as if he had made it strange that such a question should be asked, or as if he had said, “Lord, dost thou see that I am blind, and yet ask me what thou shalt do for me?”—my answer is plain in my misery, “Lord that I may receive my sight.” I needed not to make the application.’
De Foe, Appeal to Honour and Justice, p. 11.
De Foe then adds:—‘From this time, as I learned afterwards, this noble person made it his business to have my case represented to Her Majesty, and methods taken for my deliverance.’ But the bigots who had caused a malicious prosecution succeeded in delaying the successful issue of the Secretary’s efforts during four months. With Harley the sufferer had had no previous acquaintance. The one designation under which he ever afterwards spoke of him was ‘my first benefactor.’ And the gratitude was lifelong.
In part, Harley owed his new office to the personal credit which he had won with the Queen during his Speakership; and in part, also, to the friendship of Marlborough. On receiving the news of his appointment the Duke wrote to him, from the Camp:—‘I am sensible of the advantage I shall reap by it, in having so good a friend near Her Majesty’s person to present in the truest light my faithful endeavours for her service.’ |Marlborough to Harley; 13 June, 1704.| But their intercourse, if it ever attained to true cordiality at all, was cordial for a very short time. Brief confidence was followed by long distrust. Harley strove to strengthen himself by the use of channels of Court influence which were utterly inimical to the Marlborough connection. His efforts to make himself independent of that connection did not, however, lessen the prodigality of his assurances of friendship and fidelity.
His political position thus became that of a man who was exposed to the attacks of many bitter enemies among the statesmen with whom he had begun his career, without being able to rely upon any hearty support from those with whom he now shared the conduct of affairs. He might count, indeed, on assailants from the ranks both of the extreme Whigs and the extreme Tories, whilst from most of his own colleagues of the intermediate party he would have to meet the greater danger of a lukewarm defence. In such a position the attack was not likely to be long waited for.
Easiness of nature, and a tendency to alternate fits of close application with fits of indolence, always characterised him. And those qualities had an incidental consequence which opened to his opponents a tempting opportunity. Harley was habitually less careful of official papers than it behoved a Secretary of State to be.[[34]] He was also at all times prone to place a premature and undue confidence in his dependants. In 1707, William Gregg, one of the clerks in his office, abused his confidence by secretly copying some letters of the highest importance and by selling the copies to the Court of France.
The Crime of William Gregg, and the use made of it by Harley’s enemies.