“As to private interest,” remarks the Duchess, “the Whigs could have done nothing for my advantage more than the Tories. I needed not the assistance of either to ingratiate me with the Queen; she had, both before and since her accession, given the most unquestionable proofs that she considered me, not only as a most faithful servant, but as her dear friend.[[409]]
“It is plain, therefore,” continues the Duchess, “that I could have no motive of private interest to bias me in favour of the Whigs; everybody must see that had I consulted that oracle about the choice of a party, it would certainly have directed me to go with them to the stream of my mistress’s inclination and prejudice. This would have been the surest way to secure my favour with her.”[[410]]
She appears, nevertheless, from one of the Queen’s letters, never to have abated in her zeal for the Whig principles, on account of the Queen’s often avowed predilections for the Tories. “Your poor, unfortunate, faithful Morley,” writes Anne, who, after the death of the Duke of Gloucester, added the last epithet to those terms of affection which she generally used, “would not have you differ in opinion with her in the least thing. And upon my word, my dear Mrs. Freeman,” she adds, “you are mightily mistaken in your notion of a Tory. For the character you give of them does not belong to them, but to the church. But I will say no more on this subject, but only beg, for my poor sake, that you would not show more countenance to those you seem to have so much inclination for than for the church party.”[[411]] Such was the style in which the Queen of England addressed her subject, about a year after her accession. But it is probable that even at this time Anne began to fear, rather than to love this female keeper of her royal conscience.
The world, at least the court world, all contributed, of course, to intoxicate, by interested adulation, the haughty, rather than vain mind of the groom of the stole and keeper of the privy purse. The Whigs, whom Lady Marlborough declared she regarded as her personal enemies, paid her but little respect, but the Tories were ready to overwhelm her with compliments, upon any little service, paid or unpaid, which she might condescend to perform for one of their party. Lord Rochester, whom the Countess never forgave for having recommended Queen Anne to send her to St. Albans during the disputes between the two royal sisters,[[412]] condescended to write her a “very fine piece,” when a vacancy occurred in the Queen’s household, and when it was his desire that his daughter,[[413]] Lady Dalkeith, first cousin to her Majesty, should be made one of the ladies of the bedchamber. “I confess,” says the Duchess, “indeed, I was not a little surprised at this application from his lordship. I thank God, I have experience enough of my own temper to be very sure I can forgive any injury, when the person from whom I have received it shows anything like repentance. But could I ever be so unfortunate as to persecute another without cause, as my Lord Rochester did me, I am confident that even want of bread could not induce me to ask a favour of that person; but surely his lordship had something very uncommon in his temper.”[[414]]
The appointment was not given to Lady Dalkeith, on the pretext that the number of ladies fixed by the Queen had been exceeded during the lifetime of the deceased lady whom Lady Dalkeith had wished to succeed; to which was added the declaration, that upon the first vacancy the list was to be reduced to ten, which number the Queen considered sufficient.
This, probably, was merely an excuse. The Duchess, indeed, declares that she could have forgiven his lordship’s ill-treatment of herself, if she had thought that he sought to promote the Queen’s true interest. “But the gibberish of that party,” as she calls it, “about non-resistance, and passive obedience, and hereditary right, I could not think it forebode any good to my mistress, whose title rested on a different foundation.” She therefore naturally desired to keep Lord Rochester, a high churchman from hereditary principles, and his family, as much from the Queen’s presence as she possibly could; whilst she endeavoured by all possible means to work upon the opinions of the well-disposed, but shallow and obstinate Anne.
It is not such minds as those either of the Queen or the favourite, that are open to conviction. “I did,” says the Duchess, “speak very freely and very frequently to her Majesty upon the subject of Whig and Tory, according to my conception of their different views and principles.”[[415]] The Queen had, indeed, assured her that she could not give her a greater proof of her friendship than in speaking plainly to her on all things; and of this proof the Countess was ever disposed to give her Majesty the full experience and benefit.
The Queen had not long ascended the throne, before an order in council was issued, to “prohibit the selling of places within her Majesty’s household.” But this, it was observed, was not done, until Lady Marlborough had disposed of a considerable number.[[416]] Indeed, from the testimony of various historians, this practice, on the Countess’s part, appears to have been notorious; yet how can her noble professions be made to agree with her alleged shameless corruption?
“If I had power to dispose of places,” she writes to Lord Godolphin, “the first rule I would have would be, to have those that were proper for the business; the next, those that deserved upon any occasion; and whenever there was room, without hurting the public, I think one would with pleasure give employments to those who were in so unhappy a condition as to want them.”[[417]]
Upon the disinterestedness or the cupidity of Lady Marlborough’s disposition, and respecting the sincerity of her professions, posterity is far more likely to put a fair and just construction than were her jealous and party-inflamed contemporaries.