oppositionists, which showed itself immediately on the opening of parliament. When the parliament met on the 25th of October, it was found that a strong majority of whigs had been returned; and, in the struggle for the speakership, the nominee of the tories, Mr. Bromley, was rejected, and that of the whigs, Mr. John Smith, was appointed by a majority of two hundred and fifty to two hundred and seven. The speech of the queen was said to be the composition of the new lord keeper, Cowper, but to have undergone considerable revision in the council. In this the whig policy shone strongly forth. She expressed her determination to continue the war till the Bourbon prince was driven from the throne of Spain, and the Austrian one firmly established. She went over the old ground of the balance of power, and asserted that no peace with France was of any avail so long as that power could corrupt any of the allies and turn them against the rest; which was tantamount to saying, no peace with France was of any use at all. She complimented the duke of Savoy on his stanch resistance to France under great discouragements, and she informed them that she had appointed commissioners to treat for a union with Scotland; but, she added, "there is another union I think myself obliged to recommend to you in the most earnest and affectionate manner; I mean a union of minds and affections amongst ourselves." She then again strongly exhorted the two houses to mutual concession for the public advantage—most salutary advice, but, in a great measure, lost on the ears of furious factions. She alluded to the report that the church of England was in danger, and especially to a violent pamphlet called "The Memorial of the Church of England." She declared that whoever accused her of not being the strenuous supporter of the rights of the church were enemies both to her and the kingdom, and conceived designs that they dared not to avow. At the same time she declared her resolution to maintain inviolate the principle of toleration—a clear whig enunciation, and in great contrast to the endeavours of the late parliament, which she herself had unequivocally favoured, to crush the liberties of the dissenters by the occasional conformity bill.
In the addresses of both houses there was, for the first time for years, a perfect consonance on this topic. Both lords and commons denounced as incendiaries all who raised the cry of the church being in danger. The opposition did not venture to touch on this topic, but selected one certainly open to animadversion—the conduct of the late campaign on the Moselle and in the Netherlands. This opposition was led on in the lords by lord Haversham, who represented that we were spending enormous sums for the benefit of the emperor, and yet the imperial troops deserted us at the most critical moments. Instead of being the first to lead the way, as the cause was their own, they paralysed our efforts and endangered our whole army by breaking their most important and most solemn engagements. He instanced the non-appearance of the prince of Baden on the Moselle, according to agreement, by which the duke of Marlborough's whole plan of operations had been rendered abortive, and the credit of our army damaged. He instanced, in the next place, the conduct of the Dutch, who had completely tied the duke's hands when he was ready to annihilate the whole French army at Waterloo, and thus to finish the war at a single blow; but, he observed, "The Dutch held our hands and would not let us give the deciding blow. Therefore, let our supplies be never so full and speedy, let our management be never so great and frugal, yet, if it be our misfortune to have allies that are as slow and backward as we are zealous and forward—that hold our hands, and suffer us not to take an opportunity that offers—that are coming into the field when we are going into winter quarters—I cannot see what we are reasonably to expect in this war."
In all this there was only too much truth, and little less in what he added, that the Dutch were practising a selfish policy through the war, and were enriching themselves at our expense. "There is a word," he said, "that we are very fond of, which we call the balance of power; but the Dutch, who are a very wise people, have a double view, and take as much care of the balance of trade as they did of the balance of power, and are as much afraid of our power by sea as of the power of France by land; that trade begets wealth, and wealth power; and that it is very hard for England that, while the Dutch live at peace under the protection of our arms, if we would have any part of trade with them, we must have it under the protection of French passes; that the Dutch, indeed, complain of poverty, but I cannot see how they have been out of pocket one shilling by this war, for they get more by remittances from England than all the money that goes out of Holland to Portugal, Savoy, and the German princes."
Having given our allies a castigation by no means undeserved, at the same time not allowing the duke of Marlborough to escape without his share of the blame, Haversham came to the gist of his speech, which was that, for the security of the protestant succession, of the church, &e., the house should address the queen, praying her to invite over the heir-presumptive to the crown, that is, the electress Sophia of Hanover. The tories trusted that, if they could get over the princess Sophia and her son George, they should be able to play off one court against the other; that, though the whigs had got possession of the queen, they should then be able to ingratiate themselves with the successor, and thus prepare to supersede the whigs altogether in the new reign. At the same time, they should be favouring the popular feeling regarding the protestant succession, and annoying the queen, who had dismissed them from her favour. There had been for some time a party called the Hanoverian tories, who were bent on securing their interest with that house, and the Jacobites joined this party, hoping, under cover of a pretence for the protestant succession, they might yet find an occasion for securing the interests of the pretender. But this was a hazardous policy for both parties; for, as Anne was mortally jealous of her successor, as is generally the case with princes, the tories only more completely lost all chance of regaining her favour; and, as the electress Sophia, knowing Anne's feeling, was obliged to disclaim all wish to come to England during the queen's life, she was thus, in fact, obliged to disclaim the efforts of the tories. Sophia, indeed, wrote to the queen herself, informing her that an agent from the discontented party in England had come to her court to invite herself and the electoral prince, her son George, into England,
