would evidently meet with popular approval, and Anne had therefore no hesitation in dismissing Godolphin and the Whigs. Harley became Chancellor of the Exchequer and virtually premier, St John was made Secretary of State.
The political problem, how, under all contingencies, to retain power, was somewhat complicated. The queen's health made the succession the main question. Now, the accession of the Elector meant the restoration of the Whigs to power. It was hardly possible for the Tory leaders to oust the Whig party from the graces of the House of Hanover, with whom their policy was so knit up. Prudence, therefore, as well as principle, made them lean towards the exiled House of Stuart, and for a time extreme Tory was synonymous with Jacobite. But the hopes of James to a great extent depended on the assistance of France, and consequently peace with France became their primary object. To attain it they were urged also by the loudly expressed wishes of a large section of the people, and by their hatred of the Whigs, with whom the war was identified. Active steps in the matter were taken mainly by St John, and in the beginning of 1712 he had at last brought affairs to such a pass that the duke of Ormond, who had superseded Marlborough, received secret orders not to attack the French, while private intimation of this order was sent to the French Government. Arrangements were then made with the French minister De Torcy, whereby the fundamental articles of the league with the allies were broken, Britain engaging to enter into a separate peace with France, receiving certain special advantages, and quietly abandoning some of the allies, as the Catalans. Nothing can possibly extenuate the baseness of these proceedings, and our judgment of them cannot be altered by our opinion as to the advisability of the peace. The Whig party were wholly unable to throw any obstacles in the way; their majority in the House of Lords had been swamped by the creation of twelve new peers; and Walpole had been impeached on a petty charge and committed to the Tower. Finally, St John, now Viscount Bolingbroke, visited Paris to push on negotiations so that peace might be announced to next Parliament. It has been said, though he himself denied it, that during this visit he had interviews with the Pretender. In April 1713 the famous treaty of Utrecht was signed, and the Parliament of that year had the articles read to them. This, however, had not the effect anticipated by Bolingbroke. There was a lurking feeling of discontent with regard to it, and the commercial articles, bearing on trade with France, excited great indignation among the mercantile classes.
Bolingbroke and the Tories seemed, however, to be at the zenith of their power; but the foundations of that power were unstable, and there was dissension among the leaders. Harley had become earl of Oxford, and Bolingbroke was indignant at receiving only the rank of viscount. His anger was increased on failing to receive the garter vacant by the death of Godolphin. The disputes between the former allies became open and violent. By unscrupulous bribery Bolingbroke managed to secure the interest of Mrs Masham, and through her wrought upon the queen. In the Parliament of 1714 he dealt the death blow to Oxford's power, by compelling him to vote upon the Schism Bill; and finally, on the 27th July, after a stormy discussion, which greatly excited the queen, Oxford was dismissed. Bolingbroke, however, had but a brief taste of power, for on the 30th the queen was seized with apoplexy. At the council held upon the emergency the dukes of Argyle and Somerset boldly presented themselves, and proposed and carried a resolution that the duke of Shrewsbury should be recommended as Lord Treasurer. Bolingbroke was obliged to yield. Anne was able to give assent; the Whig party had already made all their arrangements, and immediately on the queen's death (August 1) the Elector was proclaimed king, and special messengers were despatched to bring him over. Bolingbroke and his friends seemed bewildered; they were, indeed, thoroughly taken by surprise, and their half-formed schemes disconcerted. Atterbury alone urged Bolingbroke boldly to proclaim James, but either the courage of the latter failed, or, as is more probable, his intentions were not sufficiently definite. It is not an unreasonable supposition that, had a fair time been granted to him, he would have endeavoured to make favour with the House of Hanover. Any such hope was then out of the question; the duties of his office were transferred temporarily to Addison, and within the month in which the queen died he was formally dismissed. It was soon known that the new Parliament, who were mainly Whigs, intended to impeach Oxford and Bolingbroke for their share in the recent peace. From what we now know of the actual accusation, it is plain that it did not amount to high treason. Had there been nothing further it would have been the best plan to have stayed and faced the trial. This, accordingly, was done by Oxford; but Bolingbroke, after showing himself ostentatiously in public, fled over to France in disguise, even before the impeachment had been made in the House. In the letter he left behind him for Lord Lansdowne he gives as his excuse that he had certain and repeated informations from some who were in the secret of affairs that a resolution was taken to pursue him to the scaffold. In the famous letter to Sir Wm. Windham he takes somewhat different ground, and accounts for his flight from his intense dislike of Oxford, and his resolution not to be associated with him in any way. It was not till the 10th June that he was formally impeached; on 6th August he was attainted and summoned to appear before the 10th September. On the 16th September, he not having made his appearance, his name was struck off the list of peers, and sentence of banishment was passed. Long before this, however, Bolingbroke had thrown in his lot with the Pretender. He had secret interviews with the duke of Berwick immediately after his arrival in Paris, while professing the most loyal sentiments to Lord Stair, the British ambassador, and in the month of July he was formally installed as Secretary of State to the prince. Whatever plans he might have hoped to carry through in this capacity were thoroughly thwarted by the numberless irregular agents and advisers who swarmed about the petty court, and by the impracticable disposition of the prince himself. The expedition to Scotland, undertaken against Bolingbroke's advice, proved a complete failure; and in February 1716 he was dismissed with scant ceremony from the prince's service, while a formal impeachment was drawn up, accusing him of dilatoriness and want of energy. Rumour was busy with his name, and every species of treachery was imputed to him. The celebrated letter to Sir Wm. Windham, in many respects the best of his writings, was drawn up in the following year, and contains an elaborate sketch of the events of his political career and a justification of his proceedings. The letter may have been circulated to a slight extent in print or in manuscript, but it was undoubtedly not made public till 1753, two years after Bolingbroke's death. It is a skilful piece of work, written with great apparent candour, but inconsistent with known facts, and throwing no satisfactory light on the complicated transactions in which the writer had been involved. His efforts to ingratiate himself with the new dynasty in England were unavailing, and from this time onwards to his death he led a life of enforced inactivity. He was for ever debarred from the arena of political strife, and though he incessantly hovered round the outskirts, he was unable to effect an entrance. He plunged deeply into philosophical
