that ever Great Britain knew was overturned by each of them underhand acting counter to each other.
2dly. The jealousies of the Junto Lords were now turn'd into certainties, and their cover'd opposition into an open and inveterate one against his Grace, his two brothers, and all his other relations and friends except my Lady Duchess, Lord Sunderland, and Lord Godolphin, and such as with them join'd in the mad measures of the Junto Lords.
3dly. And lastly, by his having forced the Queen to part with Harley, when she concluded (and 't is to be fear'd she had too much reason to do so) that his Grace was privy to all the crimes objected to him, he lost all his interest with her Majesty.
And tho', by the virtue of the House of Commons singly, things were kept in a right channel, notwithstanding all the factions, divisions, and dangerous intrigues that had for some time been in agitation amongst us, 'till the fatal year 1710, yet then the antipathies of the several persons and parties were grown to such a height against each other that they seem'd determined to sacrifice all other considerations, sacred and civil, to their respective passions and resentments. And this fire of destruction could now be no longer smother'd, but broke into an open flame in the following manner.
The Queen, who, from the moment she parted with Harley, had held a private correspondence with him by Mrs. Masham's means, now was known to see him every day. And the first publick instance that he chose to show the world his power with the Queen was, persuading her Majesty to give Collll Hill, Mrs. Masham's brother, (a very young officer in the army,) my Lord Essex's old Regiment of Dragoons, wch was designed by Lord Marlborough for Meredith, one of his favourites; and this was done without so much as consulting his Grace about it. And as the man this was done for, Mrs. Masham's brother, and the manner it was done in, were demonstrations to my Lord Duke, not only who was the adviser of her Majesty, but that her Majesty intended, by following that advice, to let his Grace see that his interest was lost with her; and therefore, by this affront, she design'd to put upon him this dilemma—either of quiting his command of the army, or serving on, under the heavy load of disgrace Harley and Mrs. Masham had thought fit to lay upon him.
If 'twere possible to add to my Lady Marlborough's fury, this matter, thus circumstanced, made her passions yet more wild; and being govern'd by one Manwaring at this time, even more than by either Lord Godolphin or Lord Sunderland, he being a creature of the Junto's and more particularly of Lord Sommers's,
