The treachery was discovered by the Secretary himself, and such steps were taken to lessen the mischief as the case admitted. Much excitement naturally followed upon the publicity of the crime. The least scrupulous of Harley’s enemies conceived a hope that the traitor who had served the public enemy for a bribe might also be tempted to ruin his master for another and greater bribe. Means were found to convey to Gregg strong assurances of a certain escape, and of a wealthy exile, if he would but declare that he had copied the despatches, and forwarded the transcripts, by the Secretary’s direction. Pending the attempt, they circulated throughout the country a report that such a declaration had actually been made, and that the Secretary was to be impeached. But the clerk, instead of betraying his master, exposed his temptors. |Appendix to Gregg’s Trial, &c., in State Trials, vol. xii, pp. 694 seqq.| His first emphatic declaration of Harley’s innocence was repeated immediately before his death in these words:—‘As I shall answer it before the judgment seat of Christ, the gentleman aforesaid [i. e. Harley] was not privy to my writing to France, neither directly nor indirectly.’
Harley himself, and also his nearest friends, were wont to speak of this affair as one that had brought his life into real peril. It is certain that the incident and its consequences helped materially to make his continuance in office impossible. But he struggled hard.
Meanwhile, the dissensions in the Ministry were daily increasing. |Dismissed from Office. Feb., 1708.| They became so bitter as to lead to personal altercations at the Council Board, even when the Queen herself was present. On one such occasion (February, 1708) Godolphin and Marlborough went together to the Queen a little before the hour at which a Cabinet Council had been summoned. They told her they must quit her service, since they saw that she was resolved not to part with Harley. ‘She seemed,’ says Bishop Burnet, ‘not much concerned at the Lord Godolphin’s offering to lay down; and it was believed to be a part of Harley’s new scheme to remove him. But she was much touched with the Duke of Marlborough’s offering to quit, and studied, with some soft expressions, to divert him from that resolution; but he was firm; and she did not yield to them.’ |Burnet, History of his own Time, vol. v, pp. 343, 344 (edit. 1823).| So they both went away, without attending the Council, ‘to the wonder of the whole Court.’
When the Council met, it became part of Harley’s duty as Secretary to deliver to the Queen a memorial relating to the conduct of the war. The Duke of Somerset rose, as the Secretary was about to read it, and with the words ‘If Your Majesty suffers that fellow’ (pointing to Harley) ‘to treat affairs of the war without the General’s advice, I cannot serve you,’ abruptly left the Council. |Swift to Archbishop King, 12 Feb. 1708. Comp. Burnet, as above.| ‘The rest,’ according to Burnet, ‘looked so cold and sullen that the Cabinet Council was soon at an end.’
Whilst a result which—for the time—had thus become so plainly inevitable, remained still doubtful, Harley had imposed on himself the humiliating task of assuring the Duke of Marlborough of the honesty of his former professions of attachment. |Harley’s dismissal from the Secretaryship. Feb., 1708.| ‘I have never writ anything to you,’ said he, ‘but what I really thought and intended.’ And then he went on to say:—‘I have for near two years seen the storm coming upon me, and now I find I am to be sacrificed to sly insinuations and groundless jealousies.’ These words were written in September, 1707. On the 10th of February in the following year, Marlborough had, at length, the satisfaction of writing from St. James’ to a foreign correspondent:—‘Mr. Secretary Harley has this afternoon given up the seals of office to the Queen. Between ourselves he richly deserves what has befallen him.’[[35]] |Marlborough to Count Wratislaw, 10 Feb., 1708.| Among the two or three friends who went out with Harley was Henry St. John.
For the next two years and a half, Harley’s principal occupation was to prepare the way for a return, in kind, of the defeat thus inflicted upon him. |The intrigue against the Godolphin Ministry. 1708–1710.| Some of the steps by which he achieved his end are among the most familiar portions of our political history. But from the necessities of the case it has been, and probably it must continue to be, one of those portions in which the basis of truth can scarcely, by any researches that are now possible, be separated from the large admixture of falsehood built thereon by party animosities.
His own correspondence shows that strong hopes of success in the effort were entertained within eight months of his dismissal. It shows also that the channel employed, unsuccessfully, in 1708, was that which became an effectual one in 1710.
Early in October, Harley received from the Court an unsigned letter in which these passages occur:—‘The Queen stands her ground and refuses to enter into any capitulation with the [Whig Lords]. She has not hitherto consented to offer or hear of any terms. The Lord T[reasure]r desired she might allow him to treat with ’em, and the Duke of S[omerse]t was employed to persuade her, but she was inflexible. The Lord Treasurer offered to resign the Staff, but she would neither take the Staff nor advice from him, and he went to Newmarket without getting any powers or leave to treat.... |Harley Corresp. in MS. Harl. 7526, f. 237.| Your friend cannot answer for the event.... I will add no more but that your friend thinks your being here is very necessary, and that Her Majesty ... would be the better of assistance and good advice.’
It was not, however, until the 8th of August, 1710, that the Godolphin Ministry was dismissed. Two days afterwards, Harley was made Chancellor of the Exchequer; the Treasury being put into commission.
The Chancellorship of the Exchequer. 1710, August.