There is no doubt that Anne was well convinced that the pretender was her own brother; that she was tormented in her mind, as her latter days drew on, with the reflection that she had joined in the base scheme of branding his birth as spurious, and was occupying the throne which was his proper claim so far as hereditary right was concerned. And although the nation had determined against hereditary right, and had justly excluded his father and himself from the throne on account of their adhesion to a faith which was hostile to the best interests of the country, yet Anne, surrounded by those who were zealously endeavouring to bring in this brother again, was haunted with secret remorse and pangs of conscience for what she only regarded as her usurpation. She would, in fact, have gladly given her consent to his being her successor could she have prevailed on him to become protestant; but, as she failed in this endeavour, it was not likely that she would ever be persuaded to adopt Berwick's chimerical scheme. She would not adopt it, because she was as firmly attached to the English church as her brother was to the Roman; and she would not adopt it, even had he consented to proselytise, for the reason stated—because she loved her power, and would not risk it for any consideration whilst she retained a spark of existence.
There was still another obstacle—the unsatisfactory conduct of Oxford, who had professed great zeal for the pretender till he got the peace of Utrecht signed, because this secured him the vote of the Jacobites, but who since then had trifled with them, and never could be brought to any positive decision. Berwick had sent over the abbé Gualtier to endeavour to bring Oxford to a point. Gualtier soon informed his employer that Oxford was actively corresponding with the house of Hanover, and, therefore, Berwick and De Torcy wrote a joint letter to him, putting the plain question, what measures he had taken to secure the interests of the pretender in case of the death of the queen, which no one could now suppose to be far off. Oxford, with unwonted candour this time, replied that, if the queen died soon, the affairs of the prince and of the cabinet too were ruined without resource. This satisfied them that he had never really been in earnest in the pretender's cause, or he would long ago have taken measures for his advantage, or would have told them that he found it impossible. They determined, therefore, to throw the interests of the Jacobites into the party of Bolingbroke, and this was another step in Oxford's fall. They managed to set lady Masham warmly against him, and this undermined him more than ever with the queen.
Berwick wrote to many of the Jacobites, and amongst them to Ormonde, telling them that now was the time to bestir themselves; that as the queen could not last long, they ought to be prepared with their measures; that it was necessary to awake from their lethargy, and not be taken by surprise; for if the queen died before they were ready, all was lost for ever; that their own interests were identical with those of the pretender; that there was no longer time for hesitation; they must choose betwixt his restoration and their own ruin. The pretender himself was all activity, for he was watched both from London and Hanover. In May he was at Plombiëres, drinking the waters; but on the 1st of June, being informed that the electoral prince was about to embark for England, he suddenly returned to Bar-le-duc. It was reported by the secret agents that the duke of Berwick was there incognito, and that something of great interest was evidently in agitation. What it was, however, was kept profoundly secret; but there were whispers of the pretender's speedy departure with his immediate followers.
The scene grew every day more busy as the queen became more obviously failing. Harley, at Hanover, was plying the elector and his family with reasons why the prince ought not to go to England. The elector himself appeared quite of the same opinion, but not so the electress or her son. The electress, who was now nearly eighty-four, and who was undoubtedly a woman of a very superior character, still had that trace of earthly ambition in her, that she used frequently to say she should die contented if she could only once for a little while feel the crown of England on her head. She was the youngest daughter of Elizabeth of Bohemia, who had ruined her husband by a similar longing after a far less resplendent diadem. When pressed by Harley, the electress and her son presented him with a memorial, which he was desired to forward to the queen. In this they announced, on the good authority of their own agent, that the pretender was preparing an expedition to land in Scotland, where he was expected, calculating on the great deficiency of troops in Great Brittan. Under these circumstances they represented the necessity of a member of the electoral family residing in England to give encouragement to the friends of the protestant religion, and that a pension and establishment should be granted by parliament as the nearest heir to the crown; that whilst the nation had been burdened with a war, their electoral highnesses had refrained from putting forward their natural claims, but that, as peace was now happily restored, they trusted that her majesty would order during this session of parliament a provision so just and customary, which was, indeed, but the legitimate consequence of all that she had already done for them. They concluded by requesting that her majesty would be pleased to grant the usual titles of the princes of the blood to such of the electoral family as had not yet received them.
The arrival of this memorial threw Anne into great agitation, and an aggravation of her complaints. She seems to have renewed her favour towards Oxford, as more influential with the Hanover family; and Cadogan wrote to the court of Hanover, as well as its own secretary, Galke, that Oxford now boasted that he could turn out Bolingbroke; and the lord treasurer's adherents did not hesitate to talk of Bolingbroke's design of bringing in the pretender. The baron de Wassenaer Duvensuerde wrote to Oxford from Hanover, urging him to take the necessary step of inducing the queen to permit the electoral prince to come over, declaring that all the friends of the protestant succession deemed this absolutely necessary; that the prince was inviolably attached to the queen, her ministers, and the constitution, and would take no measures which could in any way give uneasiness to her majesty. Meantime there were the most continual and urgent demands from the whigs in England that the prince should use his right—whether the queen willed it or not—come over, and act upon his writ.
