Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/305

A.D. 1712.] marriages, performed by the episcopal church and other dissenters in Scotland. The general assembly protested against these alterations, declaring the establishment of presbyterianism was part and parcel of the deed of union, and that no parliaments whatever had any power to interfere with those particulars. But the British parliament paid no attention to this remonstrance, or to those made by the Scottish members. They went on to pass an other act for the discontinuing the courts of judicature during the Christmas holidays. whilst these enactments certainly made very free with the articles of the union, they undoubtedly extended toleration, and, by a particular clause, deprived the kirk of its power of persecuting those who differed from it in a desirable manner.

On the 6th of January landed at Greenwich a very illustrious visitor to the court, but on a most unwelcome errand — namely, prince Eugene. The allies, justly alarmed at the ministerial revolution which had taken place in England, and at the obvious design of the tories to render abortive all the efforts of the whigs and the allies through the war, from mere party envy and malice, sent over Eugene to convince the queen and the government of the fatal consequences of such policy. That to discharge and disgrace Marlborough, and remove him from the army before the conditions of 1706 were obtained, would be most fatal to the interest and honour of the allies, of England not less than any. That to obtain proper terms from a man of Louis's subtle and serpentine character, it was necessary to press on all advantages in the field, and that Marlborough was the only man who could lead on the English army victoriously. The soldiers had confidence only under him; with him at their head they could do anything, without him they would lose their spirit, and the consequences might be ruinous. That if any reverse took place, Louis would instantly seize on it to raise his demands. That they had him now on his knees, and it was due to all parties to extort full satisfaction from him. He was to represent that England could not, without abandoning her honour, desert the allies at this crisis; that repeated treaties bound her solemnly to stand by them till their demands were righteously obtained; and that the emperor would take upon himself a larger proportion of the expense of the war, on condition that it was pushed to its legitimate result.

The fame which the prince had acquired in England, both by his distinguished military talents, and by the integrity and nobility of his character, made the allies hope much from his mission; but the very soundness of his moral qualities operated against his success. He was more of a warrior than a courtier. He was too noble to conceal his real sentiments, and to turn his back on his old friends merely because they happened to be out of favour with the court. There had always been a great friendship betwixt the prince and Marlborough; these two great generals had always done justice to each other's merits; there appeared no jealousies betwixt them, and when Eugene came to England, though Marlborough was dismissed from his command and disgraced, he still showed the same regard to him as ever, bore the same open testimony to his military genius and services, and visited at his house, and took the same delight in his company as if he were still in the full glow of royal favour. The people at largo received the prince with enthusiastic acclamations, and ran impetuously to any place where they could get a sight of the great captain whose fame had filled so long the gazettes. Both whigs and tories were equally zealous in outward marks of respect towards him; but the attentions of the tories were hollow, or only exerted to win him over to their views. The queen received him graciously, but court etiquette was wofully annoyed at his appearing in the royal presence in a tye-wig when full-bottomed wigs were all the fashion. Eugene did not conceal his contempt for this petty etiquette. He satirically said that he had sent to all his valets and footmen to see if they could lend him a periwig, never having had one in his life, but that none of them had such a thing. The queen smiled on him and complimented him, though only dreadfully chagrined at his breach of court custom; and the courtiers, instead of feeling the respect which was due to so great and honourable a man, were laughing at him behind his back, and quizzing his person and dress. Swift records — in a style worthy of his heartless and malicious temper — that he had seen prince Eugene at court, and that he was "plaguy yellow, and literally ugly besides." If the souls of those two men could have been seen in their true aspect instead of their outsides, what a frightful contrast there would have been betwixt the unassuming but great and generous Savoyard, and the spiteful and cantankerous hanger-on of Harley and St. John.

Harley paid, however, obsequious court to the prince as long as he hoped to win him over. He gave a magnificent dinner in his honour, and declared that he looked on that day as the happiest of his life, since he had the honour to see in his house the greatest captain of the age. The prince, who felt that this was a mean blow at Marlborough, replied with a polite but cutting sarcasm, which must have sunk deep in the bosom of the lord treasurer, "My lord, if I am the greatest captain of the age, I owe it to your lordship." That was to say, because he had deprived the really greatest captain of his command. The queen, on her part, though she was compelled to treat him graciously, and to order the preparation of costly gifts to him as the representative of the allies, regarded him as a most unwelcome guest, and in her private circle took no pains to conceal it. The whole tory party soon found that he was not a man to be seduced from his integrity, or brought to acquiesce in a course of policy which he felt and knew to be most disgraceful and disastrous to the peace of Europe; and being fully convinced of this, they let loose on the illustrious stranger all the filth and virulence of the press, that press which they themselves pretended to be so desirous of restraining and purifying. The vilest ballads were printed and hawked and sung about the streets, most scandalous to the memory of the prince's mother, Olympia Mancini, niece of cardinal Mazarin, who probably was no better than the ladies of her time, but whose faults, whatever they were, none but the most brutal of populaces would have endeavoured to cast in the face of this great son, then visiting the nation as the representative of the emperor, and the advocate of measures essential to the nation's real honour. So far from any means being taken to suppress these villainous attacks by the ministry