equity, that you will be pleased to employ the credit, which her majesty ought so justly to have with the emperor, to induce him at last to give me the requisite satisfaction, as well with regard to these recruits as to many other articles which I have long solicited at the imperial court, with much reason, but without any appearance of success.”

Marlborough had thus the satisfaction of forming the most advantageous arrangements with the principal members of the Grand Alliance for the ensuing campaign; and he would have proceeded without delay to attend his parliamentary duty in England, had not his presence been required at the Hague, to watch the negotiations for peace which the king of France had recently opened with the Dutch government.

CHAP. LXXVII.—THANKS OF PARLIAMENT. —1708, 1709.

THE Duke of Marlborough did not personally witness the struggle which terminated in the promotion of Somers, being detained at the Hague, by military and political business, till the session was nearly closed. The new parliament, which was the first elected since the Union, met on the 18th of November; and, as the queen was too much afflicted by her recent loss to attend in person, the session was opened by cominission. The choice of a speaker having been previously arranged, by a compromise between Godolphin and the Whigs, Sir Richard Onslow, a Whig of moderate principles, was called to the chair. The commissioners having approved the speaker, Lord Chancellor Cowper addressed the two houses in the name of the queen. He dwelt with a mixture of piety and exultation on the past successes of the allied arms, and the near prospect of an honourable and lasting accommodation, adding, "her majesty believes it impossible that the representatives of the British nation can submit to an insecure and dishonourable peace." After demanding adequate supplies for the war, he employed expressions calculated to quiet the minds of those who had carried

* This letter, as well as the preceding ones, are translated from the French originals.

on a clandestine correspondence with the court of St. Germain's, preparatory to a comprehensive act of grace, which was introduced in the course of the session.

The addresses of the two houses were perfectly in unison with the style of the speech, and the sentiments of the ministers. After condolence on the death of the prince, the Lords testified their readiness to give all proper support for the prosecution of the just and necessary war in which the nation was engaged; and in reference to the pending negotiations, concluded with repeating their former declaration, that no peace could be safe or honourable, till the whole monarchy of Spain was restored to the house of Austria. The Commons pledged themselves to grant such supplies as should enable the queen to obtain an honourable and lasting peace; and concluded with an assurance, that they would defend her title to the crown, disappoint the hopes and designs of the Pretender, together with his open and secret abettors, and maintain the Protestant succession, as by law established.

Arrangements were made for the scrutiny of the contested elections, and the partiality manifested in the decisions fully proved the ascendency of the Whigs. Meanwhile both houses entered into the consideration of the means for the prosecution of the war. An augmentation of 10,000 men was voted, and a supply of seven millions assigned for the service of the year.

Notwithstanding the powerful support which the government derived from the Whigs, neither the merits of the great commander, nor the zeal of his friends, could shield him from the attacks of factious opposition. The incidents connected with the action of Wynendale furnished an opportunity of which the Tories did not neglect to profit. The first information of that brilliant exploit, which appears to have been transmitted by some indirect channel, ascribed the principal merit of the achievement to General Cadogan, as the senior officer. This statement being hastily printed in the Gazette, General Webb was deeply offended, and published an explanatory narrative in support of his own fame. Every endeavour was used by government to counteract the consequences of their own mis-statement; the gallant general was honoured with the recommendation of the commander-in-chief, and the

rewards of his sovereign, and appears to have been satisfied with the reparation which he received. But the enemies of the duke accused him of envy towards a subordinate officer, as well as of partiality to his own favourite, and brought the question before parliament.

A motion was accordingly made by Sir Thomas Hanmer to remedy this act of injustice, by passing a public vote of thanks to General Webb, for his conduct in the action at Wynendale. On this occasion Mr. Bromley sarcastically remarked, "I do not disapprove the custom which has been recently introduced of returning thanks to those generals who have performed eminent services, especially when they receive these compliments as modestly as the worthy member to whom they are made, has now done. But I observe with grief that a certain commander, on whom not only the thanks of both houses, but also great rewards have been be stowed, appears yet to be unsatisfied.”

The friends of Marlborough were conscious that the omission of Major-general Webb's name in the official account, though a mere oversight, was an act of injustice, and therefore were not provoked by this cruel sarcasm to make any opposition: the motion, accordingly, passed unanimously. The Lords, however, acted with more dignity, in declining to take the matter into consideration; and both houses of parliament made ample amends by a congratulatory address to the queen on the victories of the great commander, in terms worthy of his stupendous successes.

Nor were the partisans of government and the friends of Marlborough satisfied with this reparation, however public and distinguished; for soon after the recess, the Commons passed a vote of thanks to the duke himself, "not only for his great and eminent services in the last successful campaign, but for his indefatigable zeal and perseverance in the common cause." This vote being transmitted to him abroad, by the speaker, he replied in a letter, dated Brussels, Feb. 13th.

"Sir; I am extremely sensible of the great honour which the House of Commons have done me in the vote you have been pleased to transmit me by their order. Nothing can give me more satisfaction than to find the services I have endeavoured to do the queen and my country so acceptable to the House of Commons and I beg the favour of you to

assure them, I shall never think any pains or perseverance too great if I may, by God's blessing, be instrumental in producing a safe and honourable peace for her majesty and my fellow-subjects."

Notwithstanding the triumphant result of the motion for an address of thanks, an opportunity was soon afterwards taken by the opposite party to attack the administration in general, and Godolphin and Marlborough in particular. On the customary discussion relative to the state of the nation, Lord Haversham adverted to the late invasion, accused the ministers of negligence or treachery, and commented with great severity on the conduct of the government towards Lord Griffin and the two sons of Lord Middleton, who, though taken in actual rebellion, had been screened from justice. He adverted also to the arrest of the duke of Hamilton and other suspected Jacobites, which he represented, not as a measure of prevention, but as a reprehensible artifice to secure the majority in the Scottish elections.

These accusations were evidently intended as a revival of the charges formerly advanced against the general and treasurer for their correspondence with the exiled family. But the Whigs did not suffer the attack to pass unrepelled. A statement of the conduct of government was submitted to the legislature by Secretary Boyle, and both houses concurred in an address, justifying the ministers, and declaring that much effectual care had been taken by those employed by her majesty, at the time of the intended invasion, to disappoint the designs of her enemies, both at home and abroad.

The result of these motions, and the zeal which the Whigs manifested in support of government, seemed to indicate a cordial union between them and the two ministers, as well as the tacit satisfaction of the sovereign in the recent appointments. But these auspicious appearances, which awakened the hopes of the treasurer, and tranquillised the mind of the general, were soon dissipated. The queen was indignant at the violence offered to her feelings and prejudices, by the compulsory promotion of the Whig chiefs; and turning on Godolphin the resentment which she had hitherto fostered against the obnoxious party, she treated him with unusual reserve; while she held forth every encouragement to those who were opposed to her government. The effects of this treatment appear in a letter from the treasurer

"Dec. 24. Christmas Eve, 1708.-By the last post I acknowledged the favour of yours of the 30th, by the messenger, with the good news of the surrender of Ghent, which I confess to you is very much allayed to me, by finding at the same time that the hopes I had of your coming over to us very soon after so happy an end of the campaign, are still adjourned to a farther time, of which time also there is no other certainty but that it is very remote. Now, I must beg leave to be so plain as to assure you, that though by all that has passed hitherto in this session of parliament, things may appear beyond sea to be upon a very good foot here as to the support of the war; yet with relation to the credit of the government and the administration at home, they are in a very uncertain and precarious condition, full of all manner of distractions and jealousies, which our people are but too apt to have of one another at all times. But what gives the greatest occasion for the present ferment at this time is, that the queen's intimacy and present conversation leans only to those who are enemies to all that are most useful to the public service. Now this does not only create endless jealousies of one another, among those who are best inclined; but it makes others, who are willing to support the government, and are friends to the administration, uncertain to whom they should apply, or upon whom they shall depend. This is certainly, as well as I am able to describe it, our present condition; and I know nothing so capable of remedying it as your being here, whose authority, when it appeared plainly, would be of so much weight as to extinguish much of this uneasiness, if not remedy the whole.

But I give you the trouble of all this rather to acquit myself in opening freely my thoughts to you, than with a view that you can be at liberty, just now, to comply with what I both wish and want so much. However, when you come to the Hague, things may turn so that even the States may think it more necessary for you to be here than there, at least not to constrain your own or your friends' desires. In case, therefore, of any room for your speedy coming over, I could not be at quiet, till I had endeavoured to show you nothing is of more consequence."

The numerous difficulties which Godolphin experienced in conducting the government, drew from him querulous complaints concerning the irksomeness of his situation, to which he gave vent in his letters; and his complaints were reechoed by his friend and colleague. After regretting the absence of the duke, he observes, in one of his letters: "Jan. 10. - I don't use to trouble you with complaints of my own circumstances, but so much advantage is taken of your absence, and I suffer so much, that I must give myself the vent of saying, the life of a slave in the galleys is paradise in comparison of mine: but at first the length of the campaign would not let you come, afterwards the States would not let you come, and now God Almighty won't let you. So I must yield to fate."