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faces and board by the head. The greater part of the Spaniards' crew (he reports) was prepared to repel boarders, but stood for a few moments, as it were, transfixed to the deck by the apparition of so many diabolical-looking figures emerging from the white smoke of the bow-guns; whilst our other men, who boarded from the waist, rushed on them from behind before they could recover from their surprise at the unexpected phenomenon.' 'In this and other successes against odds, I have no hesitation in saying that success in no slight degree depended on out-of-the way devices, which the enemy not suspecting, were in some measure thrown off their guard.'

Lord Peterborough proceeded on the same principle and obtained the most surprising successes by setting overwhelming odds at defiance, by deliberately encountering apparently desperate but really well-considered and carefully calculated risks. In dealing with Spaniards he was as ready as Cochrane to turn their national peculiarities to good account. Their superstitious credulity was such, that, a few hours before the French army entered Zaragossa, in 1707, and was actually in sight, the people were persuaded by the governor that it was a mere apparition raised by magic, and the priests in procession performed the office of exorcism from the walls according to the most approved forms.

Peterborough's stunning surprises and make-believe tactics never failed. With twelve hundred men he undertook to raise the siege of a place, San Mateo, besieged by 7000. He sent two spies, one of whom was to be captured with a letter to the commander of the garrison announcing his approach at the head of a very large army; the other to go over to the enemy and carry the same intelligence under the guise of treachery. He could rely on their obedience, for, says Dr. Freind, my lord never made use of any Spaniards without getting the whole family in his possession to be answerable for them he employed.' The Spaniard fell into the trap, and, on seeing English outposts advancing on the summits of the hills above his camp as he was led to expect by the spies, he at once raised the siege in confusion after spiking his guns; and thus (says Lord Stanhope) did Peterborough's twelve hundred men, driving seven thousand before them, enter in triumph the walls of San Mateo. He followed in pursuit till he had only 200 cavalry in a condition to proceed; with these, after cutting a detachment to pieces, he appeared before Nules, a strongly walled town garrisoned by a thousand

armed citizens. He rode up to the gate, after running the gauntlet of a fire of musketry, and demanded to speak with the chief magistrate or a priest. On some priests appearing, he told them that he would allow only six minutes, and that unless he was admitted within that time he would bring up his artillery (having none), batter down the gate, and put the whole population to the sword. The town was instantly surrendered without a blow.

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The capture of Barcelona was his masterpiece. His army consisted of 7000 men; and ten times that number was required to invest so large a place in form. The hopelessness of the undertaking was almost selfevident, when it struck him that the strong fort or citadel of Montjuich, which commands the city, might prove accessible to a surprise; the more so that it was deemed impregnable if assailed first. He accordingly re-embarked all his heavy guns, and both publicly and privately announced his intention of raising the siege. One night when the inhabitants of Barcelona were celebrating their expected release with festivities, he suddenly presented himself at the quarters of his colleague, the Prince of Darmstadt (with whom he was not on speaking terms) at the head of 1200 foot and 200 horse, and told his Serene Highness that he was on his way to make an attempt upon the enemy. may now, if you please, be a judge of our behaviour, and see whether my officers and soldiers really deserve the bad character which you of late have so readily imputed to them.' The Prince immediately called for his horse and joined the party, which arrived by a circuitous route unperceived before the fort. As it was still two hours before daylight, a night attack was taken for granted by both officers and men, when Peterborough explained to them that his plan required daylight, as its only chance of success depended on the Spaniards being tempted into the outward ditch, when his soldiers might leap in upon them, drive them back, and enter the works along with them. All fell out as he anticipated; the first attack made him master of the bastion; and following up his success by a marvellous exertion of coolness, readiness, and personal ascendancy, he speedily became master of the fort. Barcelona held out till intelligence reached him that he would be supported by an insurrectionary party within the walls. He instantly mounted his horse, rode up to one of the gates attended by some officers, and demanded admittance. The guard, frightened or surprised, admitted him, and he came just in time to rescue a beautiful lady, the Duchess

of Popoli, whom he met flying with dishevelled hair from the populace. The formal surrender of the city followed.

Instance upon instance might be accumulated of this extraordinary man's genius, energy, versatility, and magnanimity; but he marred all by an insatiable vanity and an ungovernable temper. He offended and repelled all whom he should have conciliated and attracted; the intensity of his own selflove made him utterly careless about wounding the self-love of others; and he was so little a respecter of persons that the very king he came to serve, and did serve so effectually, could hardly endure the sight of him, and thwarted instead of forwarding his plans. He had no greater difficulties in the shape of jealousy, or dilatory and divided counsels, to encounter than Marlborough; and with a tithe of Marlborough's temper and tact he might have performed really great, as well as startling and brilliant, actions in Spain; but he persevered in being impracticable till he abandoned the field of his exploits in a pet; writing on his way home, I have overcome all my enemies but lies, and these I have papers enough with me to defeat. To return with a grievance, instead of the clustering honours of a conqueror confirmed by royal gratitude, was a lame and impotent conclusion at the best. If he and General Stanhope had co-operated like Marlborough and Eugene-and it was not Stanhope's fault that they did not-the war of the Succession might have proved as unfavourable to France as the campaigns in Germany and the Low Countries.*

The political and parliamentary history of the period, with its bearings on the military and constitutional history, is accurately sketched and curiously illustrated by Lord Stanhope. In reference to the events of November, 1710, he writes:

Thus fell the great Whig administration of Queen Anne. Considering its high fame in history it is remarkable for how short a period it endured. The changes in Godolphin's government bringing it round from Tory to Whig took place, as we have seen, by slow degrees; but the latter party can scarcely be thought to have gained an entire ascendancy until the resignation of Harley in the spring of 1708. According then to this computation the Whigs were dominant for a period of but two years and a half. So far as regards the great battles of this war, the two parties, looking only to their tenure of power, are entitled to divide the credit between them. The Tories held office during Blenheim and Ramillies; the Whigs

*The exploits of Lord Peterborough are attested by Captain George Carleton and Dr. Freind, personally present.

held office during Oudenarde and Malplaquet. But as regards the policy which led to these successes the praise, as I conceive, belongs almost wholly to the Whigs. It was that warwhich King William had pursued with more policy aimed at the ambition of Louis XIV. spirit than success-that policy which Somers and Somers' friends had consistently maintained--that policy brought at last to a triumphant issue by the genius of Marlborough and Eugene.'

Whatever weakened the power of Louis, lessened the chances of the exiled family and proportionally dispirited their adherents and well-wishers.

The successes of Marlbo

rough were therefore received by the Jacobite Tories of his day much as, towards the commencement of the Peninsular War, the successes of Wellington were received by the Whigs. To understand the contest of parties, it should be remembered that governments were then frequently composed of the most heterogeneous materials; that Whigs and Tories were constantly found sitting in the same Cabinet: that the Prime Minister's power was limited, and that he was not expected to resign simply because he was outvoted or overruled. It was usual for the sovereign to attend the debates in the House of Lords, to preside at meetings of the Cabinet, and to bestow or refuse offices from motives of personal preference or dislike. The Queen, therefore, easily held the balance of parties, except when public opinion was exceptionally aroused; and the narrowness of her understanding placed her completely under the control of favourites. She had always a natural hankering for her nearest relatives-the Stuarts; but so long as her dear Freeman (the Duchess of Marlborough) remained her closest companion, the Tories were obliged to rest content with a divided empire; it was only when Abigail Hill, Lady Masham, gained the ascendant, that the Whigs and their policy finally and conclusively kicked the beam. The ministerial crisis in 1708 may be taken as a specimen. Godolphin (the Lord-Treasurer) and Marlborough had resolved to get rid of Harley, and had intimated their wishes to the Queen, who, set him. A Cabinet had been summoned for on by her Abigail, was bent on retaining the 8th February:

'That same morning Godolphin and Marlborough waited on the Queen to state that Harley still continuing in office they could not attend the Cabinet nor take any further part as Her Majesty's Ministers. Anne allowed them to depart and went to the Cabinet as usual. There Harley produced his papers as Secretary of State and began to open the business of his department. But around him he

the lazar-house.'

saw grim faces and he heard half-muttered | apostate politician, the ribald priest, the complaints. As he paused the Duke of Somer- perjured lover, a heart burning with hatred set rose and said, "I do not see how we can against the whole human race, a mind richly deliberate to any purpose when neither the stored with images from the dunghill and General nor the Treasurer are present." This observation he repeated twice, and with some vehemence, while the other Ministers expressed their agreement by their looks. The Queen remained silent but presently withdrew, leaving the business of the day undone.'

The matter remained undecided till the 11th, when, Harley having in good earnest pressed the Queen to accept his resignation, she, with much hesitation and still more reluctance,' complied. St. John and Harcourt retired with him, and the brief reign of the Whigs, fixed by Lord Stanhope at two years and a half, began. Pausing at the meeting of Parliament, on the 15th November, 1709, he says:

'Parties seemed at rest and the dominion of the Whigs might be thought securely established. They had struck down the Tories. They had overpowered the Queen. They had dictated their own terms to the Treasurer and the General-in-Chief. They had conquered the last remaining stronghold in the administration by the appointment of Lord Orford and his Admiralty Board. Yet so strange are the vicissitudes of Fortune that in almost the very same month in which the Gazette announced this final conquest, this new Admiralty Board, they took a resolution upon another subject which at no long interval produced the eclipse of their party and the downfall of their power.'

This resolution was one to give Sacheverel, a foolish Doctor of Divinity, who had preached a foolish sermon in support of divine right and passive obedience, the coveted notoriety of an impeachment by the House of Commons and a trial by the House of Lords. These proceedings set the whole kingdom in a flame. The cries of Church and State,' and 'The Church in Danger,' became the popular cries; the Whig ministry went down before the storm, and in the ensuing election a decided majority declared for the Tory ministry by which they had been replaced. It was in the height of this contest, before the popular verdict had been pronounced, that the men of letters joined heart and hand with the politicians. Talents,' says Lord Macaulay, such as had seldom before been displayed in political controversy, were enlisted in the service of the hostile parties. On one side was Steele, gay, lively, drunk with animal spirits and with factious animosity, and Addison, with his polished satire, his inexhaustible fertility of fancy, and his graceful simplicity of style. In the front of the opposite ranks appeared a fiercer spirit, the

Swift is

This is a characteristic passage. painted in these repulsive characters, without one qualifying phrase of admiration or regret, because he took part against the gods of Lord Macaulay's idolatry, the Whigs. With regard to the 'apostate politician,' with whom alone we have to deal in this place, his apostasy mainly consisted in changing one set of friends or companions for another. On the great question of the hour-the Church and State question-he agreed with the Tories; and on his first arrival in London (September, 1710), before he had seen Harley or St. John, he refused to pledge Lord Halifax, who proposed as a toast The Resurrection of the Whigs,' unless he would add and their Reformation.' No doubt the branch of their conduct and policy which most needed reformation in his eyes was their treatment of himself. He had been inconsiderately neglected, and the temptation to make them feel the full value of what they had thrown away, to taste, in short, the sweetest description of revenge, was irresistible, when his pride could be simultaneously gratified with his vindictiveness. It is strange that, whilst accumulating opprobrious epithets to stigmatise him, Lord Macaulay makes no mention of the Dean's weakness, little removed from vulgar vanity, in affecting an overdone and unbecoming familiarity with the great. The sole payment he would at first accept for his services was social intimacy with the party leaders, in which he could indulge any passing whim or fancy without restraint; and they humoured him to the top of his bent. Within a month after his arrival he sets down in the 'Journal to Stella,' I stand with the new people better than ever I did with the old, and forty times more caressed.' He complacently records how he sent the Lord Treasurer (Harley) into the House of Commons to call out the Secretary of State (St. John) only to let him know that he (Swift) would not dine with him if he dined late. There was more sense and equal freedom in his remark when St. John showed him the bill of fare: Pooh, pooh, show me your bill of company.'

His talent for popular poetry was first laid under contribution; and 'Sid Hamet's Rod' (a satire on Godolphin) was followed up by a variety of lampoons in prose and verse, which produced a marked effect on the public mind. But his aid was most

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needed and most effectively bestowed in the conduct of the Examiner,' a weekly organ of the new ministry, to which Prior, Freind, King, and St. John himself were contributors. It was in the fourteenth week of its existence that Swift undertook the editorship, which he retained for a space of seven months (from 10th November, 1710, to 14th June, 1711), during which time, says Scott, in the language of Homer, he bore the battle upon his single shield, and, by the vigour of his attack and dexterity of his defence, inspired his own party with courage, and terrified or discomfited those champions who stepped from the enemy's ranks for the purpose of assailing him.' It is a mistake, however, into which Dr. Johnson, and apparently Lord Macaulay, fell, to suppose that Swift ever came into personal conflict with Addison. The Whig Examiner,' to which Addison was a contributor, ceased three weeks before Swift entered the field of journalism; and Addison took no part in the Medley,' which then became the organ of the Whigs.

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It was during the fiercest war of faction, and for a political purpose, that 'Cato' was brought upon the stage. Four acts had long been finished, when, as ironically observed by Johnson, 'those who affected to think liberty in danger affected likewise to think that a stage-play might preserve it; and Addison was importuned in the name of the tutelary deities of Britain to show his courage and his zeal by finishing his design.' Although the house was carefully packed, the author came to the ordeal with hesitation and trepidation. The danger was soon over. The whole nation was on fire with faction. The Whigs applauded every line in which Liberty was mentioned as a satire on the Tories; and the Tories echoed every clap to show that the satire was unfelt. The story of Bolingbroke is well known. He called Booth to his box, and gave him fifty guineas for defending the cause of Liberty so well against a perpetual dictator. The Whigs, said Pope, design a second present when they can accompany it with as good a sentence.'

The distinctive essential policy of Harley and St. John's administration was a peace-at-any-price policy. The prolonga tion of the war was not simply opposed to their Tory principles and Jacobite tendencies; it involved the continuance of Marlborough in a position, as commanderin-chief, which, favoured by circumstances, might enable him at any moment to regain or restore the lost influence of the Whigs. Negotiations, therefore, were secretly set on foot, and the pen of Swift was employed to

pave the way for what were likely to prove unpopular concessions to France, by expatiating on the sacrifices incurred by England and the ungrateful return she got for them from her allies. This was the burthen of his Conduct of the Allies,' which sold with unprecedented rapidity, and produced a corresponding effect. The Duke saw his danger, and hurried home to make, if possible, his own and his wife's peace with the Queen, or come to some sort of compromise with the ministry. The Duchess had tried what could be done by bullying, and it was now his turn to try whether prostration and humiliation would serve their ends. The Queen had peremptorily required the surrender of the Gold Key, which the Duchess held as Mistress of the Robes. In an audience obtained with difficulty, the Duke actually threw himself upon his knees to pray that her Majesty would relent; and the only answer he got was that she would have the Gold Key, and that within two days; adding, when he broached a personal grievance, 'I will talk of no other business till I have the Key.' On his informing his exemplary helpmate, whose temper had got him into the scrape, that the Queen insisted on the Key, she tore it with a violent action from her side and threw it into the middle of the room, bidding him take it up and carry it to whom he pleased.

She was dismissed from all her offices, but the Duke retained his, and commanded in another campaign, which, although not marked by any memorable action, caused no diminution of his fame. It was not until he was no longer wanted and the preliminaries of peace were under discussion, that the crowning and long-meditated affront was put upon him, mainly through Harley. On the 31st December, 1711, the Queen appeared at the Council, and ordered an entry to the effect that he was dismissed from all his employments in order that a dishonouring charge brought against him might have an impartial examination ! The same Gazette which made known this entry announced the creation of the twelve peers, of whom Lord Wharton, on their first joining in a division, inquired whether they were to vote singly or by their foreman. Samuel Masham, the husband of the favourite, was one. He was ennobled contrary to the royal wish. 'I never,' said the Queen, had any design to make a great lady of her, and I should lose a useful servant about my person, for it would give offence to have a peeress lie upon the floor and do several other inferior offices.' Her Majesty consented, on condition that the new peeress should remain her dresser. Yet this woman

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overthrew Marlborough, Somers, and Godol- | the essayists-the Tatler,' the 'Spectator,' phin, and set up Harley and St. John. and the Guardian -the influence of which When, again, Harley and St. John quarrel- on taste and style in English literature was led, it was she who cast the balance, and eminently beneficial, although we cannot gave St. John his shortlived triumph. The agree with Lord Stanhope that all the Earl of Orford was removed on Tuesday, modern improvements in prose fiction can the Queen died on Sunday. What a world be traced to them :is this, and how does fortune banter us!' wrote Bolingbroke to Swift. The Queen died on the 1st August, 1714; and as if by the waving of a magician's wand, the whole state of public affairs was suddenly reversed.

The best illustration of Paley's famous pigeon theory is the English monarchy under Queen Anne. All that was valuable in Church or State hung for thirteen years on the bodily and mental state of a dull corpulent woman, worn out with childbearing, fond of flattery, crammed with prejudices, who (as Swift said) had not a stock of amity to serve above one object at a time, and (he might have added) invariably chose that one object ill. In May, 1714, he wrote to Lord Peterborough: 'The Queen is pretty well at present; but the least disorder she has puts us all in alarm, and when it is over, we act as if she was immortal.' Immediately on her death, Atterbury proposed to Bolingbroke to proclaim James at Charing Cross, offering to head the procession in his lawn sleeves, and when Bolingbroke shrank from so desperate an enterprise, the Bishop is reported to have exclaimed, with an oath: 'There is the best cause in Europe lost for want of spirit.' The cause was lost when (the day before the Queen's death) the Dukes of Argyll and Somerset forced their way into the Council Chamber and wrested the executive government out of Bolingbroke's grasp.

The chapter in which Lord Stanhope puts forth all his strength is the concluding one, entitled The Age of Anne;' and he here deals with topics on which no man is better qualified to speak with information and authority:

of

merit. In the very short but light and grace'But the Spectator has yet another claim of ful stories, or the vivid sketches of character which it comprises, lies perhaps the germ of the modern novel. There was scarce any work deserving of that name in its higher sense when Queen Anne commenced her reign. There was scarce anything beyond licentious tales like those of Mrs. Behn, or interminable Versailles, though in name the manners of romances, describing in fact the manners of Persia and Babylon, as above all in the Grand Cyrus translated from the French Mademoiselle de Scudery. It was reserved for Addison especially to show the English people how prose-fictions may be made most interesting without any admixture of loose scenes, or story. Not that the existing defects were at being drawn out in all the pomp of Eastern once removed. We find them still subsist, though greatly mitigated, in the next ensuing age. We find ample traces of the former English grossness in "Roderick Random" and "Tom Jones." We find as ample traces of the former French LONGUEURS in the six volumes of Sir Charles Grandison" and the seven of "Clarissa Harlowe." But passing by these instances and looking to the English novelwriters of the present century, we may perhaps acknowledge that Addison and others in Queen Anne's reign laid the slight foundation on which so vast a superstructure has been raised.'

almost every European literature long prior Light and graceful stories existed in jects to Boccacio or the to the Spectator.' If Lord Stanhope obContes de la Reine Marguerite,' what does he say to the stories interspersed by Cervantes and Le Sage in their masterpieces, which again must have had a good deal to do with the progress of prose fiction?* We cannot con

'Certainly it was an illustrious period, a period not easily paralleled elsewhere, that could combine the victories of Marlborough with in 1707, Scott says: To relieve the reader from *Speaking of Le Diable Boiteux,' published the researches of Newton-the statesmanship of uniformity, Le Sage has introduced several narSomers with the knight-errantry of Peter- ratives in the Spanish taste, such as the "Hisborough-the publication of Clarendon's History of the Count de Belflor," and the novel tory with the composition of Burnet's-the called the Force of Friendship." Cervantes eloquence of Bolingbroke in Parliament and of had set the example of varying a long narrative, Atterbury in the pulpit, with the writings in by the introduction of such novels or historiettes. prose and verse of Swift and Addison, of Pope -Life of Le Sage. Addison was rather a and Prior.' copyist than an originator in this respect. This theory of the origin of the modern novel may have been suggested by Lord Macaulay in his

The researches of Newton, the statesmanship of Somers, the writings in prose and verse of Swift, Pope, and Prior, cannot be wholly appropriated for this period. But what can be exclusively claimed for it are

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essay on Addison: We have not the least doubt that, if Addison had written a novel on an extensive plan, it would have been superior to any that we possess. As it is, he is entitled to be considered not only as the greatest of the English

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