sion, trade, and fisheries of Newfoundland, invaded by the French. The French refugees also entreated her majesty to assist their brethren the protestants of the south of France, who were horribly persecuted by the government and the priests. The Russians also entreated the queen's good offices with the king of Sweden on behalf of their minister, count Patkull, who had been treacherously surrendered to Charles XII. by Augustus of Saxony on making peace with that monarch; but the queen's interference was not successful, for the Swedish king put the count to death, contrary to the usages of civilised nations.
The convocation all this time had continued its wranglings, and the lower house, whilst the union with Scotland was under discussion by parliament, intimating its intention to urge the commons to resist it at the instance of the queen, the archbishop prorogued it, much to its indignation. On the 24th of April, 1707, the queen prorogued the parliament, informing them that she would continue the lords and commons already assembled as members in the first British parliament, which would be summoned to meet on the 23rd of October. The Scots on the completion of the union repaired to London, where they were received with much courtesy by the queen. The duke of Queensberry was met by a great body of noblemen and gentlemen in coaches and on horseback, and conducted into London. The title of duke was conferred on the earls of Roxburgh and Montrose; and that the change of government might not appear too abrupt in Scotland, the queen appointed a new privy council, to be in force till the meeting of the first British parliament.
During this session, too, the ministry had been growing more completely whig. Through the influence of lady Marlborough rather than of the duke, who was strongly averse to the free principles and free language of his son-in-law, the earl of Sunderland, that nobleman was made one of the secretaries of state in the place of Sir Charles Hedges. This change was equally repugnant to Harley, the other secretary, who was now the only tory minister left in the cabinet. The three tory commissioners of the board of trade—Prior, the poet, being one—were removed, and three whigs were introduced. Sir James Montague, the brother of the earl of Halifax, was made solicitor-general; and Sir George Rooke and the few remaining tory privy councillors had their names erased. Harley was thus left, apparently without support, a tory in a cabinet all besides himself whig. But Harley was that kind of man that he not only managed to maintain his place, but eventually ruined and scattered the whole whig party. He was a man of low stature, rather deformed, of a heavy countenance, and of awkward manner. He was by no means a man of genius, though he affected the company of such men. Pope, Swift, Bolingbroke, Arbuthnot, and Prior were his friends and associates. His intellect was narrow and commonplace, but it was persevering; and though he was a wretched and confused speaker, yet he continually acquired more and more influence in the house of commons, and ultimately raised himself to the peerage, and for many years to the chief direction of the national affairs. The secret of this was that he had made himself thoroughly master of the laws and practices of parliament, and on all disputed questions could clear up the point past dispute, so that he came to be regarded as far more profound than he was. He had the art, too, of reticence of mind; of keeping his plans to himself, and of wearing a mysterious and reserved air, as though he were charged with deep and momentous secrets. In short, he was a thorough, plodding, scheming, and persisting politician, and thus contrived to secure much influence by a very ordinary show of understanding. No man, says Mackay, "knew better all the tricks of the house." He was brought up a regular roundhead and whig; helped with his father to bring in king William, and then took a deep hatred to him, because he did not consider himself sufficiently favoured by him. While professing still to be a whig, he was constantly found acting with the tories, and at length became, by imperceptible degrees, an arrant tory. Yet, adds Mackay, though "bred a presbyterian, he joins with the church in everything. He never fails to have a clergyman of each sort at his table on Sunday; his family go generally to the meeting." Such was the man destined, with his ally, St. John, to grind to powder the whole closely-compacted whig party; to become the prime minister of England, and, by the peace of Utrecht, to wipe out all the results of the victories of Marlborough, and of the blood and money expended by England in almost every quarter of Europe.
The duke of Marlborough, relying on the support of the whig cabinet which the influence of his contriving wife had created, set out in the month of April for the continent. The condition to which his successes had reduced France was such that the allies were in the highest spirits. The French treasury was exhausted; and, in the absence of real money, Louis endeavoured to supply the deficiency by mint bills, in imitation of the bank of England bills; but they were already at a discount of fifty-three per cent. The lands lay uncultivated, manufacturers were at a pause for want of capital, the people were perishing with famine, and nothing could be more deplorable than the state of France. Nothing could have saved Louis at this crisis but want of unity amongst the allies, and already the artful Louis had contrived to get in the wedge of disunion. The emperor, allured by the prospect of the evacuation of Italy, and of seizing Naples for himself, had come to a secret understanding with the French king, which was equally treacherous and suicidal; for the direct result, as any man but the stolid emperor would have foreseen, was to liberate the French forces from the north of Italy, to reinforce those in the Netherlands and those endeavouring to drive his brother Charles from Spain.
Marlborough, on his part, did everything that he could to keep the allies together, and to combine them into a victorious strength; but it had always been his misfortune, as it had been that of William, to have to suffer from their regard rather to their own petty jealousies than to the grand object in view. He set out directly from the Hague to visit Hanover, and stimulate the young elector to active assistance. He then set out to pay a visit to Charles XII. of Sweden, who was encamped at Alt Ranstadt, only a few marches from the court of Hanover. The Swedish military madman, neglecting the Czar Peter, who was making continual inroads on his Finnish and Esthonian territories, and was now actually laying the foundations of a new capital
