Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/314

300 arms and declare for king Charles under the most solemn engagements never to make peace without them. But now they had broken their faith in the most shameless manner, and left them to the vengeance of the French triumphant in Spain. Such on all sides were the facts which forced on the world the conviction of the perfidy of England, which had hitherto borne so fair a reputation.

Another dishonorable characteristic of the ministers of queen Anne at this period was that they were in secret zealous partisans of the pretender, and whilst openly professing a sacred maintenance of the protestant succession, were doing all in their power to undermine it. They had given mortal offence to the elector George of Hanover, the heir to the throne, by their treachery to the allies; and, as the health of the queen was most precarious from her excessive corpulence and gout, which was continually menacing a retreat to her stomach, this was equally a cause for their hastening the peace, however disgracefully, and for paving the way, if possible, for the return of the pretender at the queen's death. Bolingbroke was the great correspondent with St. Germains, as his letters in the Stuart Papers—which were obtained by George IV. from Rome, and which are now preserved at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor—abundantly show. But Oxford, although always more cunning and mysterious, was equally concerned in it; nor was the queen, if we may believe these remarkable papers, by any means averse to the succession of the pretender, notwithstanding his stubborn adhesion to popery. The Jacobite party was numerous, powerful, and indefatigable. They were in the ministry and in both houses of parliament. At this moment a public appointment was made which filled the whigs with consternation and rage. This was no other than that of the duke of Hamilton, one of the most notorious partisans of the pretender, one who had most zealously advocated his return to Scotland whilst he had appeared publicly to discourage it, to be ambassador to the court of Versailles. Prior was still there, and had all the requisites of a clever and painstaking envoy; but, being only a commoner and a poet, it did not suit the aristocratic notions of England that be should be accredited ambassador. Hamilton was appointed, and would thus have had the amplest opportunity of concerting the return of the Stuarts with the base ministers at home. But he was not destined to see Versailles. "The duke of Hamilton," says Burnet, "being now appointed to go to the court of France, gave melancholy speculations to those who thought him much in the pretender's interest. He was considered, not only in Scotland, but here, in England, as the head of his party; but a dismal accident put an end to his life a few days before he intended to have set out on his embassy."

The duke of Hamilton in early life had seduced the youngest daughter of Charles II., by the duchess of Cleveland, lady Barbara Fitzroy, a mere girl of seventeen, by whom he had a son, for which offence he had been thrown into the Tower by order of Mary II, and the poor victim was forced into a convent in France, where she soon died. In spite of this, Hamilton was always a favourite of queen Anne's, and, on his appointment to the court of France, she conferred on him the unprecedented honour of the order of the garter in addition to that of the thistle. When this was remarked to Anne, she replied that "Such a subject as the duke of Hamilton had a pre-eminent claim to every mark of distinction which a crowned head can confer; and henceforth I will wear both orders myself." It was also whispered that the heir of the duke, the earl of Arran, was to marry the sister of the pretender, the princess Louisa Stuart, the youngest daughter of James II., who is represented by all parties to have been a young lady of singularly fascinating and amiable character. Thus Hamilton would have had the strongest motives to promote the return of the pretender. But just before this the princess Louisa died of smallpox, and the duke's fate was at hand.

He and Lord Mohun, one of the most violent and dissipated men of the time, who is said by Swift to have been concerned in three murders—and two of which affairs we have had to record; the first being the disgraceful murder of Montfort, the player—had married sisters of the house of Gerrard, who were co-heiresses. Bitter quarrels and litigation regarding their property had long existed betwixt Hamilton and Mohun, and at a meeting concerning these matters, the fierce temper of Mohun led to mutual insults, followed by a challenge from Mohun. The parties met in a thickety place near the Serpentine brook, behind Kensington-palace, attended by colonel Hamilton as second to his kinsman the duke, and general Macartney as second to Mohun. The seconds as well as the principals fought, according to a fashion introduced from the court of France, where ten or a dozen combatants on a side were known to engage, and leave sometimes half that number dead on the spot. In this affray, both Hamilton and Mohun were killed; and as they were whig and tory, and the party feeling respecting Hamilton's appointment ran high, it was soon reported that the duke had been murdered by Macartney, whilst his second, colonel Hamilton, was supporting him after being stabbed by Mohun. Macartney fled, Colonel Hamilton remained on the spot, and was taken. He deposed that Macartney had stabbed the duke over his, colonel Hamilton's shoulder; and added, in proof, that the wound given by lord Mohun was by a Saxon blade, whilst the second wound was by a triangular blade—in fact, by his, colonel Hamilton's rapier, which he had laid on the ground to assist his wounded kinsman, and which Macartney snatched up. Dr. Garth, a tory, however, it should be recollected, gave evidence that the wounds were as colonel Hamilton described, and that one of them could not have been given by lord Mohun, but by somebody standing above the duke, as it slanted downwards.

The party warfare in the newspapers and journals was fierce and virulent. Swift declaimed against Mohun with his usual savageness, as a profligate dyed with three foul murders, and the tories generally maintained that Mohun and Macartney, as whigs, "had been incited to undertake the quarrel by a certain party of men who were no great friends to the government." The whigs, on the other hand, denied the charge, and contended that though Macartney might have given the finishing blow to Hamilton, as all four were fighting together, yet Macartney, finding himself left one against two, might have defended himself so desperately as to kill Hamilton in fair fight. Macartney escaped to the continent, where he remained till George I. ascended