Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/345

 it (Four Last Years of Queen Anne), and it illustrates the prevailing excitement. Parliament met 6 Dec, when Nottingham, who had joined the whigs on consideration of their accepting the Occasional Conformity Bill, moved that no peace would be safe which left Spain and the Indus to the Bourbons. Marlborough defended himself against the imputation of desiring war, and the motion was carried by 64 to 52 in the House of Lords. The House of Commons rejected a similar motion by 232 to 106. After voting an address to the oueen (20 Dec.) the lords adjourned on 21 Dec. The queen gave signs of wavering, and Shrewsbury made advances to Marlborough, when the ministers determined on a vigorous move. The report of the commissioners charging Marlborough with the appropriation of public money was ordered to be laid before the House of Commons. On 31 Dec. 1711 the queen made an order dismissing Marlborough from all his employments, in order 'that the matter might under an impartial investigation.' Another decisive step followed. The whig junto had virtually begun the system of party government, and their expulsion as a single body had made the fact evident. But they still commanded the upper house, while the tories commanded in the commons. It had to be settled which house should be supreme, and this was virtually decided by the creation of the twelve tory peers who, on the meeting of parliament after Christmas, gave a majority to the ministry. The accusation against Marlborough was again brought up in the commons. Resolutions were passed, and an order was obtained from the queen for his prosecution by the attorney-general. The ministers made inquiries, but the prosecution was ultimately dropped, and the failure of his enemies when in power to justify their accusation is sufficient proof that no case could be made out. The withdrawal of the English troops from the operations under Eugene produced violent debates in the lords. Halifax on 28 May moved an address condemning this proceeding, and Marlborough was violently attacked by the tories. Lord Poulet accused him of sending his officers to slaughter in order to profit oy the sale of their commissions. Marlborough remained silent, but sent a challenge to his accuser by Lord Mohun. Lady Poulet secured the queen's interference, and the duel was stopped.

On 16 Sept. 1712 Godolphin died at Marlborough's house at St. Albans. Soon afterwards Marlborough resolved to leave England. There has been some speculation as to his motives. Marlborough was in a position of singular isolation, especially after Godolphin's death. The ministers and their party were his bitter enemies; his connection with the whigs had always been due to external pressure, not to genuine sympathy, and, with the exception of Somers, the great lords were personally disagreable to him. He had probably less public sympathy than any successful general. If he had contributed to the national glory, his motives had not been unselfish. The splendid rewards of rank and wealth which had been bestowed upon him were a main object of his desires, and he was, therefore, sufficiently paid by receiving them without deserving the gratitude due to men animated, like Wellington, by a sense of duty or, like Nelson, by enthusiastic patriotism. The attacks in the press, led by Swift in the 'Examiner,' had struck the weak point. It was believed that he had prolonged the war for purposes of self-aggrandisement and for the gratification of a boundless avarice. The suit brought against him for the recovery of the sums received as percentage was still pending, and a sum of 30,000l. was claimed as arrears for works at Blenheim, for which he was considered to be personally responsible, the payments from the civil list having been stopped. It was not wonderful that he could prefer the continent, where he would be welcomed by his old allies in proportion to the coldness of his treatment oy the country which had deserted them, and where he might hope to take part in diplonlatic arrangements bearing upon the English succession. Dalrymple records a very questionable story that Oxford got possession of a copy of the letter about the Brest expedition, and used it in terrorem (Memoirs, pt. ii. bk. iii. p. 62).

Marlborough obtained a passport 30 Oct. 1712, vested nis estates in his sons-in-law as trustees, and consigned 60,000l. to Cadogan to be invested in the Dutch funds. On 28 Nov. he sailed for Ostend. He stayed some time at Aix-la-Chapelle. The duchess joined him in the beginning of 1713, and they settled at Frankfort. In May he visited his principality at Mindelheim. Returning to Frankfort he had to meet a new charge of having mustered defective troops as complete in order to receive the pay. To this he made a satisfactory reply, stating that the sums were used to obtain recruits. At the end of July he moved to Antwerp. On the conclusion of peace between the emperor and France at Bastadt in the spring of 1713, Mindelheim again became part of the Bavarian territories, and Marlborough vainly demanded an indemnity. He retained the rank of prince, without holding a fief.

Durmg 1713-14 he held various communications with the court of Hanover, and made