Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/192

178 people he saw about the queen's house, her living must be very expensive, and as for him, he wanted for nothing, and had fifty pounds out at interest.

Anne worthily endeavoured to put down the practice of buying and selling the places in her household. The practice had been imported from France at the restoration, like many another vice; but it had been more than ever prevalent since the revolution. As every one bought his or her place, every one claimed to sell them, and did sell them as openly as eggs in a market. By this means the monarch was totally deprived of the choice of his servants, and, bad as courts are generally, he must know that there was no claim whatever to virtue or faithful duty in such a mercenary crew. Anne, by order of council, put an end to the practice, as far as an order in council could do it; but Cunningham, the historian, tells us that it had the effect only of confining the custom to one person—namely, lady Marlborough. "Within the palace itself was a busy market of all the offices of government. The queen's own relations were kept at a distance, and all things were transacted by the sole authority of one woman, to whom there was no access but by the golden road."

Lady Marlborough boasts that this virtuous order was issued at her suggestion, as, indeed, she pretends was every other good thing, so long as she held the favour of the queen. And there can be little doubt of the fact in this case, as it so completely threw the sale of the whole into her hands, which, like those of her husband, were never insensible to the touch of gold. She was now at the pinnacle of her long desired glory, and ruled supreme over both nation and sovereign. She complained that Anne never made her a present of so much as a diamond or a fan. If that had been true it would have conferred no disgrace on Anne, after she had given to her husband a dukedom, the fine royal estate of Woodstock, ten thousand pounds a year as general-in-chief; and when parliament having refused Marlborough, before he had fought the battle of Blenheim, five thousand pounds a year, she gave him two thousand a year out of her privy purse, which was indignantly refused until the five thousand pounds a year was at length granted by parliament, when the queen's two thousand pounds was also claimed, and had. Under these circumstances, had she given no present whatever to lady Marlborough, she could not be taxed with penuriousness; but whatever the facts, the places which Anne gave to the duchess of Marlborough amounted to five thousand six hundred pounds a year. She had the means of making untold sums by her position and influence, the queen being wholly in her hands, and she made ample use of the opportunity. So far from its being true, even, that the queen did not give her presents, she presented her not with a mere solitary diamond or two, but with a miniature portrait of her husband, the duke, set in diamonds, and covered with a plate diamond valued at eight thousand pounds. Whatever she saw and asked for she had. She was not contented with the rangership of the great and little park at Windsor, but she asked the queen for the gift of the ranger's lodge, got it, and then gave it to a brother of the duke of Marlborough's for his life.

The queen met her new parliament on the 20th of October, which turned out to be so completely tory as to carry all before it in that direction. The government had no occasion to make much exertion to obtain that result; it was enough that the queen's decided leaning to the tories was known. This party had diligently spread the feeling that they were the whigs who had supported the late king in plunging the nation into foreign wars, and had taken advantage of it to grow rich themselves on the taxes levied in consequence. Toryism, therefore, came forward in the new parliament furious against the late king, who had been especially a whig king. Harley was chosen speaker. The tone of the queen's speech, though apparently maintaining a royal dignity and impartiality, was virtually of the same kind, for it began by desiring the commons to make a strict examination of the public accounts, and to punish all who should be found to have been guilty of corruption and peculation. This was but the tory animus still directed against the whig ministers who had been in power under William. At the same time, as is always the case, these virtuous statesmen, after having condemned their rivals, were ready to rush into the same policy and the same abuses. They condemned the foreign war, and yet the queen called on the commons to provide funds for its vigorous maintenance, and we shall see that these tory ministers and tory parliament were just as lavish of the public money for this purpose as the censured whigs had been. The queen regretted the failure of the attack on Cadiz, and condemned the excesses at St. Mary's. The news of the success at Vigo Bay had not yet arrived.

Addresses of congratulation on the brilliant success of the British arms under Marlborough were presented by both houses, which they said "retrieved" the ancient honour and glory of the English nation. This word "retrieved" roused all the spleen of the whigs, who knew that it was meant as a censure on them and king William, who they contended had maintained the honour of the English nation, by joining the great confederacy by which the security of the queen's throne at that moment was established, and by training our soldiers to their ancient pitch of discipline and valour.They moved that the word "maintained" should be substituted for "retrieved," but it was carried against them, amid the most unmeasured abuse of the memory of the late king, Marlborough being cried to the skies at his expense.

The tories next showed their strength in calling in question various elections of whig members, and carried the inquiry against them with the most open and impudent partiality. The borough of Hindon, near Salisbury, was declared guilty of bribery, and a bill introduced for its disfranchisement. Howe was declared duly elected for Gloucestershire, though the majority was clearly the other way. Sir John Packington exhibited a complaint against the bishop of Worcester and his son for having interfered to defeat his election, and the commons prayed the queen to remove the bishop from his office of lord almoner to her majesty, and that the attorney-general should prosecute the son; and though the lords, where a strong whig influence existed, sent up a counter-address, the queen expressed plainly her right to appoint or dismiss her own officers, and accordingly dismissed the bishop.

The commons then voted the supplies, and in practice justified the whigs, by being as lavish for the war as they had been. They voted forty thousand seamen, and the same