Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/9

Finch one, to act as the advisers of Mary, and it fell to his lot to bring her the tidings of the battle of the Boyne. Nottingham, who was admitted to a greater share of the queen's confidence than any other English statesman, always said that if she survived her husband William she would bring about the restoration of her father James. He had, however, bitter enemies in parliament. He was hated by the extreme men of both sides, and was perhaps not much loved even by those who respected him. Much discontent was caused by the failure to follow up the victory of La Hogue in May 1692. The public threw the blame on Admiral Russell, the commander of the allied fleet, and Russell in turn threw the blame on Nottingham, from whom he received his orders. A parliamentary inquiry ended in nothing ; but Russell was acquitted of all blame by the House of Commons, though Nottingham was defended by the lords. The king found it necessary to do something ; he was very unwilling to part with Nottingham, and accordingly persuaded Russell to accept a post in the household, Admirals Killigrew and Delaval, both tories, being entrusted with the command of the Channel fleet. They thus became responsible for the disaster which happened to the convoy under the command of Sir George Rooke [q.v.] in the Bay of Lagos in June 1693, and when parliament met in November they were forced to retire. Russell was appointed first lord of the admiralty and commander of the Channel fleet, and Nottingham's resignation was inevitable. The king parted from him with great reluctance. He thanked him for his past services, and declared that he had no fault to find with him.

Nottingham remained out of office till the accession of Anne. Six weeks after William's death (8 March 1702) he was appointed secretary of state, with Sir Charles Hedges for his colleague. Though a consistent anti-Jacobite, Nottingham was a staunch tory. He upheld during the war of the Spanish succession the doctrine, thenceforward identified with the tory policy, that in a continental war we should act rather as auxiliaries than as principals, and that our operations should be exclusively maritime. This opinion, whenever the opportunity offered, Nottingham upheld in his place in parliament. But his heart was in the church question, to which he was ready to sacrifice even his party allegiance.

As soon as the new parliament assembled a bill for the prevention of occasional conformity was introduced in the House of Commons by St. John, no doubt after due consultation with the leader of the church party. Both the Corporation Act and the Test Act were designed to keep all places of public trust or authority in the hands of members of the church of England. And the question that arose during the last years of the seventeenth century was simply this, whether the evasion of the law by dissenters should be connived at or prevented. It was supposed that no honest dissenters would communicate according to the rites of the church of England merely to obtain a qualification for office, but it was found in practice that the large majority of them did so, and indeed had been in the habit of so communicating before the passing of the Test Act. Nottingham had shown both in 1679 and 1689 that he was no bigot, and it is possible that circumstances of which we know nothing may have contributed to make him prefer an attempt to enforce the test to the alternative policy of connivance at conduct which could hardly raise the reputation of the occasional conformists themselves. Three sessions running, 1702, 1703, and 1704, the bill was passed through the commons, and Nottingham exerted himself to the utmost to get it carried through the upper house. But it was all in vain, and the question was allowed to rest again for seven years.

Nottingham resigned in 1704, when he found it impossible to agree with his whig colleagues. He told the queen that she must either get rid of the whig members of the cabinet or accept his own resignation. Greatly to the minister's mortification she decided on the latter, and from this time Nottingham's zeal as a political tory began to cool, and the very next year he took his revenge on the court by persuading some of his tory friends to join with him in an address to the crown, begging that the Electress Sophia might be invited to reside in England. Anne, who was exceedingly sensitive on this point, never forgave Nottingham, and he in his turn continued to drift further and further away from his old associates. Against Harley he was supposed to nurture a special grudge. He had committed the grave offence of accepting the seals which Nottingham had thrown up, and the ex-secretary was quite willing to retaliate whenever an opportunity should occur.

In 1710 the trial of Sacheverell took place. Nottingham throughout took Sacheverell's side, and signed all the protests recorded by the opposition peers against the proceedings of his accusers.

His rupture with the court may be said to have been complete when, on the death of Lord Rochester, lord president of the council, in April 1711, the post was conferred on the Duke of Buckingham. The privy seal, which became vacant about the same time,