INACTIVE CAMPAIGN in the NETHERLANDS.
The duke of Marlborough returning from Saxony, assembled the allied army at Anderlach near Brussels, about the middle of May; and, understanding that the elector of Bavaria and the duke de Vendôme, who commanded the French forces, had quitted their lines, he advanced to Soignies with a design to engage them in the plain of Fleuras. But receiving certain intelligence that the enemy were greatly superior to the allies in number, by the help of drafts from all the garrisons, he retreated towards Brussels, and took post at Mildert; while the French advanced to Gemblours. Both armies lay inactive until the enemy sent off a large detachment towards Provence. Then the duke of Marlborough and general D’Auverquerque resolved to attack them in their fortified camp at Gemblours. But they retreated with such celerity from one post to another, that the confederates could not come up with them until they were safely encamped with their right at Pont-a-Tresin, and their left under the cannon of Lisle, covered with the river Schelde, and secured by intrenchments. The allies chose their camp at Helchin, and foraged under the cannon of Tournay, within a league of the enemy; but nothing could induce them to hazard an engagement; and both armies went into winter quarters in the latter end of October. The duke of Marlborough set out for Franckfort, where he conferred with the electors of Mentz, Hanover, and Palatine, about the operations of the next campaign: then he returned to the Hague, and having concerted the necessary measures with the deputies of the states-general, embarked for England in the beginning of November.
A PARTY FORMED AGAINST MARLBOROUGH.
The queen’s private favour was now shifted to a new object. The duchess of Marlborough was supplanted by Mrs. Masham, her own kinswoman, whom she had rescued from indigence and obscurity. This favourite succeeded to that ascendancy over the mind of her sovereign which the duchess had formerly possessed. She was more humble, pliable, and obliging than her first patroness, who had played the tyrant, and thwarted the queen in some of her most respected maxims. Her majesty’s prepossession in favour of the tories and high-churchmen was no longer insolently condemned and violently opposed. The new confidant conformed to all her prejudices, and encouraged all her designs with assent and approbation. In political intrigues she acted as associate, or rather auxiliary, to Mr. Secretary Harley, who had insinuated himself into the queen’s good graces, and determined to sap the credit of the duke of Marlborough and the earl of Godolphin. His aim was to unite the tory interest under his own auspices, and expel the whigs from the advantages they possessed under the government. His chief coadjutor in this scheme was Henry St. John, afterwards lord Bolingbroke, a man of warm imagination and elegant taste, penetrating, eloquent, ambitious, and enterprising, whose talents were rather specious than solid, and whose principles were loose and fluctuating. He was at first contented to act in an inferior capacity, subservient to the designs of the secretary; but, when he understood the full extent of his own parts and influence, he was fired with the ambition of eclipsing his principal, and from the sphere of his minister raised himself to the character of his rival These politicians, with the assistance of sir Simon Har court, a colleague of uncommon ability and credit, exerted their endeavours to rally and reconcile the disunited tories, who were given to understand that the queen could no longer bear the tyranny of the whigs: that she had been always a friend in her heart to the tory and high-church party; and that she would now exhibit manifest proof of her inclination. She accordingly bestowed the bishoprics of Chester and Exeter upon sir William Dawes and Dr. Blackall, who though otherwise of unblemished characters, had openly condemned the revolution.
The people in general began to be sick of the whig ministry, whom they had formerly caressed. To them they imputed the burdens under which they groaned; burdens which they had hitherto been animated to bear by the pomp of triumph and uninterrupted success. At present they were discouraged by the battle of Almanza, the miscarriage of the expedition against Toulon, the loss of sir Cloudesley Shovel, and the fate of four ships of the line, destroyed or taken by a squadron under the command of messieurs Forbin and Du Guai Trouin, two of the most enterprising sea-officers in the French service. No new advantage had been obtained in the Netherlands: France, instead of sinking under the weight of the confederacy, seemed to rise with fresh vigour from every overthrow: the English traders had lately sustained repeated losses for want of proper convoys; the coin of the nation was visibly diminished, and the public credit began to decline. The tories did not fail to inculcate and exaggerate these causes of discontent, and the ministry were too remiss in taking proper steps for the satisfaction of the nation. Instead of soothing, by gentle measures and equal administration, the Scots, who had expressed such aversion to the union, they treated them in such a manner as served to exasperate the spirits of that people. A stop was put to their whole commerce for two months before it was diverted into the new channel. Three months elapsed before the equivalent was remitted to that kingdom, and it was afterwards applied with the most shameful partiality. Seizures of wines and other merchandise imported from thence into England, were made in all the northern parts with an affectation of severity and disdain: so that the generality of the Scottish nation loudly exclaimed against the union and the government. The Jacobites were again in commotion. They held conferences: they maintained a correspondence with the court of St. Germains: a great number of the most rigid whigs entered so far into their measures as to think a revolution was absolutely necessary to preserve the liberties, independence, and commerce of their country: the pretender’s birth-day was publicly celebrated in many different parts of the kingdom, and everything seemed to portend an universal revolt. Ireland continued quiet under the administration of the earl of Pembroke, whom the queen had appointed lord-lieutenant of that kingdom. A parliament having met at Dublin in the month of July, presented addresses of congratulation to her majesty on the late union of the two kingdoms. The commons having inspected the public accounts, resolved, that the kingdom had been put to excessive charge, by means of great arrears of rent returned by the late trustees, as due out of the forfeited estates, which returns were false and unjust; and that an humble representation should be laid before her majesty on this subject. They passed another laudable resolution in favour of their own manufactures. They granted the necessary supplies, and having finished several bills for the royal assent, were prorogued on the twenty-ninth day of October.
MEETING OP THE FIRST BRITISH PARLIAMENT.
It was on the twenty-third of the same month that the first parliament of Great Britain assembled at Westminster, when the queen in her speech to both houses palliated the miscarriages in Provence and in Spain: represented the necessity of making further efforts against the common enemy; and exhorted them to be upon their guard against those who endeavoured to sow jealousies in the commonwealth. The commons in their address expressed the continuance of their former zeal and devotion to her majesty’s government; but, in the house of lords, the earl of Wharton expatiated upon the scarcity of money, the decay of trade, and the mismanagement of the navy. He was seconded by lord Somers and the leaders of the tory party, who proposed that, previous to every measure, they should consider the state of the nation. The design of Wharton and Somers was to raise the earl of Orford once more to the head of the admiralty; and the tories, who did not perceive their drift, hoped, in the course of the inquiry, to fix the blame of all mismanagement upon the whig ministers. A day being fixed for this examination, the house received a petition from the sheriffs and merchants of London, complaining of great losses by sea for want of cruisers and convoys, and the complaints were proved by witnesses. The report was sent to the lord-admiral, who answered all the articles separately: then the tories moved for an address, in which the blame of the miscarriages might be laid upon the ministry and cabinet-council; but the motion was overruled: the queen was presented with a bare representation of the facts, and desired that she would take the proper measures for preventing such evils for the future. The commons made some progress in an inquiry of the same nature, and brought in a bill for the better securing the trade of the kingdom. They cheerfully granted the supplies for the service of the ensuing year. They prepared another bill for repealing the Scottish act of security, and that about peace and war, which had excited such jealousy in the English nation. They resolved that there should be but one privy-council in the kingdom of Great Britain: that the militia of Scotland should be put on the same footing with that of England: that the powers of the justices of the peace should be the same through the whole island: that the lords of justiciary in Scotland should go circuits twice in the year; that the writs for electing Scottish members to serve in the house of commons should be directed, and returns made, in the same manner as practised in England. An act being formed on these resolutions, they brought in a bill for preserving the trade with Portugal: then they considered the state of the war in Spain.