Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/325

A.D. 1714.] Dr. Swift was a Christian before she made him a bishop? The queen, in alarm, demanded what he meant; and the archbishop pulled out Swift's "Tale of a Tub," and pointed out the coarse and ribald attacks which the author had made on all forms of religion, not sparing the church to which he belonged. The queen read these profane gibes with horror; and the hope of a mitre vanished for ever from the polemic divine. When the duchess saw the effect, she clenched it by stepping forward, and, falling on her knees, presented to her the "Windsor Prophecy," imploring her royal mistress "not to prefer to the sacred office of a bishop of souls a man capable of disseminating such false witness against an innocent lady." The affair was decided. Lady Masham, who was present, hurried to Swift with the recital of all that had passed, and he poured out his venomous revenge in fresh calumnies in vain. Yet, after all, though disappointed in making their libellous scribe a bishop, Oxford and Bolingbroke succeeded in procuring for him the deanery of St. Patrick's, Dublin, to which the queen, though he was no Christian in her opinion, was willing to banish him.

The attempt of the whigs in the lords to unearth the new vituperative dean, though it had failed, stimulated the tories in the commons to retaliation. Richard Steele, author of the "Tatler," an eloquent and able writer, had not sought to screen himself from the responsibility of the honest truths in the " Crisis," as Swift had screened himself from the consequences of his untruths, and a whole host of tories assailed him in the commons, of which he was a member. Amongst these were Thomas Harley, the brother of Oxford, Foley, the auditor, a relative of 0xford's, and Sir William Wyndham, the chancellor of the exchequer. They flattered themselves with an easy triumph over him, for Steele, though popular as a writer, was new to the house of commons, and had broken down in his first essay at speaking there; but he now astonished them by the vigour, wit, and sarcasm of his defence. He was ably supported, too, by Robert Walpole, who had again obtained a seat in this new parliament. He asked why the author was answerable in parliament for a book written in his private capacity? If he were amenable to the law, why was he not left to the law? Why was parliament, which used to be the scourge of evil ministers, now converted into a scourge for the subject? "From what fatality," he said, "does it arise, that what is written in favour of the protestant succession, and what was countenanced by the late ministry, is deemed a libel by the present administration? General invectives in the pulpit against any particular sin have never been deemed a reflection on individuals, unless the darling sin of those individuals happens to be the vice against which the preacher inveighs. It becomes then a fair inference, from the irritability and resentment of the present administration against its defender, that their darling sin is to obstruct and prevent the protestant succession."

These were hard blows, and they were followed up by lord Finch, son of the tory lord Nottingham, from gratitude to Steele, who had defended the reputation of his sister, lady Charlotte Finch, in the "Guardian." Lord Finch justified Steele's abuse of the peace of Utrecht. "We may," he said, speaking of that peace, "if we please, give it fine epithets, but epithets do not change the nature of things. We may, if we please, call it honourable, but I am sure it is accounted scandalous in Holland, Germany, Portugal, and over all Europe, except France and Spain. We may call it advantageous, but all the trading part of the nation find it to be otherwise; and if it be really advantageous, it must be so to the ministry that made it." Sir William Wyndham denied that it was advantageous to ministers. "Then," retorted Finch, "it is plain that it is advantageous to no one but our late enemies." Nothing, however, could shield Steele, as Swift's being anonymous had shielded him. Steele was pronounced by the votes of a majority of two hundred and forty-five to one hundred and fifty-two, to be guilty of a scandalous libel, and was expelled the house. During the debate Addison had sate by the side of Steele, and, though he was no orator to champion him in person, had suggested continual toiling arguments.

The war of faction still went on furiously. In the lords there was a violent debate on an address recommended by Wharton, Cowper, Halifax, and others, on the old subject of removing the pretender from Lorraine; and they went so far as to recommend that a reward should be offered to any person who should bring the pretender, dead or alive, to her majesty. This was so atrocious, considering the relation of the pretender to the queen, that it was negatived, and another clause, substituting a reward for bringing him to justice should he attempt to land in Great Britain or Ireland. Though in the commons as well as in the lords it was decided that the protestant succession was in no danger, an address insisting on the removal of the pretender from Lorraine was carried. Anne received these addresses in anything but a gratified humour. She observed in reply, that "it really would be a strengthening to the succession of the house of Hanover if an end were put to these groundless fears and jealousies which had been so industriously promoted. I do not," she said, "at tins time see any necessity for such a proclamation. Whenever I judge it necessary, I shall give my orders to have it issued." The whigs were as active to bring over the electoral prince of Hanover as they were to drive the pretender further off. With the prince in England, a great party would be gathered about him; and all those who did not pay court to him and promote the interests of his house would be marked men in the next reign. Nothing could be more hateful than such a movement to both the queen and her ministers. Anne had a perfect horror of the house of Hanover; and of the ministers, Bolingbroke, at least, was staking his whole future on paving the way of the pretender to the throne. When the whigs, therefore, instigated baron Schutz, the Hanoverian envoy, to apply to the lord chancellor Harcourt for a writ of summons for the electoral prince, who had been created a British peer by the title of the duke of Cambridge, the chancellor was thrown into the greatest embarrassment. He pleaded that he must first consult the queen, who, on her part, was seized with equal consternation. The court was equally afraid of granting the writ and of refusing it. If it granted it, the prince would soon be in England, and the queen would see her courtiers miming to salute the rising sun; the Jacobites, with Bolingbroke at their head, would commit suicide on