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312 their own plans now in active agitation for bringing in the pretender. If they refused it, it would rouse the whole whig party, and the cry would spread like lightning through the nation that the protestant succession was betrayed. Schutz was consulted by the leading whigs, Devonshire, Somerset, Nottingham, Somers, Argyll, Cowper, Hallifax, Wharton, and Townshend, to press the chancellor for the writ. He did So, and, was answered that the writ was ready sealed, and was lying for him whenever he chose to call for it; but at the same time he was informed that her majesty was greatly incensed at the manner in which the writ had been asked for; that she conceived that it should have first been mentioned to her, and that she would have given the necessary orders. But every one knew that it was not the manner, but the fact of desiring the delivery of the writ which was the offence.

The earl of Oxford—who had enough to do to support himself against the united influence of Bolingbroke and lady Masham, both of them bent on bringing in the pretender, and therefore of getting Oxford out—wrote to the court of Hanover, making the most solemn assurances of his zeal for the house of Hanover, reminding the elector that he had the chief hand in settling the succession in that line, and should continue firm to it to the last; that the queen had given to both the house of Hanover and to the English nation such repeated proof of her attachment to the protestant succession, that the nation wholly relied upon it. And he then went on to assert what he knew was most false—that lady Masham was as entirely for their succession as he was. As for Oxford himself, it was known that he was constantly vacillating from one side to the other. He was for the strongest side if he could know which it was, and would at this moment, no doubt, have joined the whigs and Hanoverian tories—a section of the tories which had long been for that house—but that he was aware that Bolingbroke and lady Masham could immediately bring to light his correspondence and tamperings with the court of St. Germains. He could not go completely over to the pretender's cause like Bolingbroke, because he had not the courage and decision, and because he knew that now Bolingbroke and lady Masham had for outbid him. He was, therefore, compelled to play a shuffling game to hold office as long as he could cling to it, and watch for some lucky opportunity to extricate himself, if possible, from the miserable and degrading dilemma into which his want of high principle or ordinary courage had led him. But as for lady Masham, whom he now represented to be so staunch for the house of Hanover, in order to allay the fears of that house, he knew that she was out and out for the pretender, and deep in all Bolingbroke's plans.

Schutz, encouraged by the whigs, still pressed for the writ, but did not obtain it till after several days of shuffling and hiding by the lord chancellor. Meantime, it was resolved to send lord Paget to Hanover, to remove from that court any jealousies created by the evident reluctance to grant the writ, and at the same time to represent the impolicy of the electoral prince coming to England under the present excitement of party. Oxford declared in his letters that he wished, least of all things, to see the prince only the prince of a party in England, and that he was sure that any kindness shown by the electoral house in sparing the queen's feelings, which were agitated by the violent contentions, would have the greatest effect in binding her to their cause—as if the cause of the succession at this time depended in any degree on the favour or disfavour of the queen, and not on the most solemn acts of parliament, and the strong protestant feeling of the nation.

To make all sure, Oxford had already hastened his brother Thomas Harley over to Hanover, and he now instructed him to use all his influence in preventing the coming over of the prince. But Schutz wrote as strongly, warning the court to be on their guard against Harley, and by all means to send the prince over, as that was the only thing, according to the whole whig party, which could secure the house of Hanover against the designs of the pretender's friends. Lord Townshend also wrote in confirmation of Schutz's advice. He congratulated the court of Hanover on having ordered Schutz to take bolder and more active measures; that their friends in England had thought them too easy in their policy, and thus allowed the pretender's partisans too great advantages; that their show of activity had encouraged their own friends, and had been unmistakably well received by the public. "Monsieur Schutz," he says, "will acquaint you with the consternation our ministers were under upon this occasion, and the fright the chancellor was in lest it should be thought he had denied the writ. They were so sensible that this step, if it be followed by the immediate coming of the prince, will so effectually ruin their designs, and tend so directly to the securing the succession from all future danger, that you may depend upon their making use of all arts and contrivances imaginable to prevent his coming. Neither threats nor flattery will be spared. They are so intent and so bent upon prevailing with you to stop the prince, that they will not rely upon Mr. Harley's dexterity, but have determined to send you my lord Paget. You must, therefore, be prepared to be very vigorously attacked by way pf message. They see the spirit of the people here seems so high in your favour, that they have no hopes of bringing either them or parliament up to anything that may discourage the prince's coming. They are, therefore, forced to turn all their views towards you, and are reduced to the miserable necessity of trying whether they can persuade your court to betray itself."

But every engine of the English court was put in motion to prevent the coming of the electoral prince. Oxford had an interview with Schutz, in which he repeated that it was his making the application for the writ to the chancellor instead of the queen that had done all the mischief; that her majesty, had it not been for this untoward incident, would have invited the prince to come over and spend the summer in England—forgetting, as Schutz observed, that the minute before he had assured him that the queen was too much afraid of seeing any of that family here. He advised Schutz—who could not be convinced that he had done anything irregular in his application, quoting numerous proofs to show that it was the accustomed mode of applying for writs—to avoid appearing again at court; but Schutz, not appearing disposed to follow that advice, immediately received a positive order to the same effect from the queen through another channel Schutz, therefore, lost no time in