XI. CHAP. debate on the treaty of commerce on June 18, he passed over at the head of his group to the opposition, and the confirmation of the eighth and ninth articles of the treaty was defeated by nine votes. The defeat of the capital articles of the treaty of commerce heightened the growing antagonism between Bolingbroke and the treasurer. In pursuance of his policy of controlling parliament by a personal following, independent so far as might be of party lines, Oxford had, since the autumn of 1711, been renewing relations with the whig leaders.1 When his advances proved fruitless, he resolved to pay addresses to the Hanover tories-the "whimsicals," as Bolingbroke contemptuously called them. He was ready to pay their price, the sacrifice of Bolingbroke's treaty of commerce. Before the fatal division he had let it be known that he "gave up the point". It was not the least of Bolingbroke's vexations that the Dutch, to whom he entertained an antipathy almost morbid, exulted openly at a blunder in commercial politics which promised to result in advantage to their own trade with France.2 The time had now arrived, in Bolingbroke's judgement, to make a stand against a policy of truckling which was ineffective for constructive politics. His conception of a government by a parliamentary majority must take its place. He demanded of Oxford a change of system. A clearance must be made of whigs and weak-kneed officials. Oxford himself must undertake no more than he could effectively perform. He was "too jealous". If we are to believe a report conveyed to Oxford, the treasurer was to have terms put upon him and a junto". Oxford affected to surrender. Atterbury had in June, 1713, been nominated to the see of Rochester as a compliment to the leader of the High Church party in convocation. Wyndham, Bolingbroke's personal friend, became chancellor of the exchequer in November. But these concessions the treasurer did his best to counterbalance. He reduced Bolingbroke's patronage by nominating the Earl of Mar to the 1 Portland MSS., v., 108 (November 9, 1711), 254 (December 6, 1712), and Hist. MSS. Comm., 7th Rep., App., p. 508 (March 24, 1713). [Viscount Bolingbroke to the Earl of Oxford], June, 1713, Portland MSS., v., 299; De Foe to the same, October 22, 1713, ibid., p. 351. Viscount Bolingbroke to the Lord Treasurer, July 27, 1713, Portland MSS., v., 311, and December 17, 1713, ibid., p. 373. 1713 CHANGES IN THE MINISTRY. 209 XI. secretaryship for Scotland, the duties of which Bolingbroke CHAP. had hitherto attempted to engross; Lord Findlater was appointed keeper of the great seal of Scotland. This appears to have given umbrage to Bolingbroke's ally Lord Harcourt, who had been made lord chancellor in the previous April. Bromley, a high churchman, displaced Dartmouth as secretary of state. Though this group of appointments had the effect of irritating the Bolingbroke faction, nevertheless, as a year later Oxford confessed to Swift, his power had departed from him. In fact, his health was breaking. His natural procrastination grew upon him. His correspondence is full of appeals and remonstrances about his inattention to letters. "He seemed," wrote Bolingbroke, "to be sometimes asleep and sometimes at play. He neglected the thread of business." 2 1 Portland MSS., v., 467. “These things,” wrote Erasmus Lewis, Lord Dartmouth's secretary, "make Lord Bol- stare." September 10, 1713, Dartmouth MSS., p. 318, Hist. MSS. Comm., 11th Rep., App., pt. v. 2 Portland MSS., v., 466, 468; Edward Harley's Memoirs, ibid., p. 661. 3 Ibid., p. 466. XII. CHAPTER XII. THE SUCCESSION IN DANGER. CHAP. THE life of the parliament was now approaching a close, and the public thanksgiving for peace on July 7, 1713, suggested to the ministerial party that they could "never go to their elections with more advantage”1 than at that moment. On August 8 the dissolution was proclaimed. It was useless for the whigs to decry the peace, but they made what they could of the treaty of commerce, wearing wool in their hats as a sign of concern for the staple industries of the country threatened with extinction by French competition. Although the tory majority was reduced, it still remained formidable. Lord Lansdown, active as a ministerial whip, boasted that he had carried ten to one in the numerous and venal Cornish boroughs,2 presumably by means which introduced into the political vocabulary of the tory party the term to "cornwallise". elections for the Scots peers, important in the state of relations between the two countries, also went for the government. The new majority in the commons, inasmuch as it was largely inspired with the temper of Bolingbroke, weakened Oxford's position in parliament. At court he began to be sensible that the favour of Lady Masham was being transferred to his rival. Bolingbroke enlisted her avarice by promising her a share in the lucrative Asiento business. It is stated by Edward Harley that a "great sum" was also shared by her for procuring the signature of the queen to articles varying the treaty of commerce with Spain.1 1 W. Bromley to [the Earl of Oxford], July 24, Portland MSS., v., 308. The Sir Robert Price, baron of the exchequer, to the Earl of Oxford, September 3: "If he could have cornwallised it by scattering some guineas illegally," etc. Ibid., p. 326. 4 Portland MSS., v., 661. 1713 INTRIGUES WITH THE PRETENDER. 211 XII. These intrigues were suspended by the alarming illness CHAP. of the queen. Her health, which had been poor in the spring of 1713, had much improved during the autumn, but on Christmas eve she was attacked by an aguish fever, of such severity that her death was looked for. The tories, in Oxford's words, were "out of their wits". On the other side, Swift tells us, there was "a great hurrying of chairs and coaches to and from the Earl of Wharton's house" and "the expressions of joy appeared very frequent and loud among many of that party". Upon her recovery, which took place at the end of January, Bolingbroke artfully painted the impatience of the whigs for her death. Her resentment determined her to abandon Oxford's policy, hitherto favoured by her, of combining both parties in the service of the crown. Henceforth she was prepared to indorse the programme of government by party supremacy advocated by Bolingbroke and his friends. The ill-dissembled exultation of the whigs had been stimulated by their apprehensions. An atmosphere of Jacobitism pervaded the court. As early as May, 1713, Oxford had expressed to Gaultier his willingness to dispatch a confidential emissary to James.1 He had renewed the proposal during the queen's illness,2 but dropped it when the fears which had inspired it were allayed. But Bolingbroke was not of a temperament to indulge in empty intrigue. He was intimate with Ormonde who, as captain-general, was active in "discarding the army". In 1713 Ormonde was nominated lord warden of the Cinque Ports, which gave him command of the defences of the southern coasts. Utterly misled as to the state of public opinion in England, Berwick conceived an absurd scheme for the sudden appearance of James by the side of the queen at the opening of the new parliament. But the advice of Oxford was all of a negative character. In Bolingbroke's words: 'He (James) was to attempt nothing; his partisans were to lie still; Oxford undertook for all". Ormonde had begun a correspondence with the pretender in September, 1713. When the queen's life was in danger, in the January following, he had pressed Oxford to take measures to insure James's suc 1 Duke of Berwick to James, May 12, Stuart Papers, i., 264. 2 Same to same, January 9, 1714, ibid., p. 291. 3 Same to same, August 18, 1713, ibid., p. 272. CHAP. cession; but he had to be contented with the usual vague XII. promises. The queen's illness, however, did not pass away without leaving a definite impress upon the policy of the ministry. Schütz, then Hanoverian envoy, disclosed plainly enough the elector's preference for the whigs. What prospect of employment was there for Bolingbroke if George ascended the throne? Early in December, 1713, Iberville was accredited French envoy-extraordinary to London. Thenceforth he served as the intermediary through whom the secretary discussed plans for a restoration. Up to this time, it seems to have been assumed that the pretender would make no difficulty about religion. It was scarcely intelligible to Oxford that James should refuse to dissemble his faith or to Bolingbroke that he should hesitate to renounce it. Bolingbroke told Iberville plainly that people would rather accept a Turk than a Catholic. A draught declaration renouncing his Church was dictated by Oxford to Gaultier. James, with a spirit which did him credit, flatly refused to sign it. But he endeavoured to soften his refusal by letters to the queen, to Oxford, to Bolingbroke, and to Poulett. He wrote another letter to Gaultier to be shewn to his friends generally. But he only succeeded in making his position worse. He offered nothing more than “reasonable security" for protestantism. The suspicion caused by this attitude quickly spread. Before many weeks Gaultier announced secessions of the tories. At a meeting convened by Bolingbroke of members of both houses of parliament, it was decided that nothing short of conformity should win their support. Bolingbroke himself lies under no suspicion of indulgence in the luxury of religious antipathy. Personally, he was willing to accept James whether he conformed or not. Yet he was not going to run his head into a noose out of deference to the pretender's conscience. James, on his side, was unconscious of the revulsion of feeling caused by his attitude; but on April 10 Iberville reported to Louis XIV. his conviction that the Hanoverian heir would ascend the throne without a voice being raised in the pretender's favour. In his capacity of secretary of state Bolingbroke was also engaged in shaping a continental policy for the tory party. It had 1 Stuart Papers, i., 293. |