affected his principles as a Whig, and which, I am told, was directly against his private judgment. How he has since been treated as an apostate and betrayer of his friends, by some of the leaders and their deputies among you, I hope your lordship is ashamed to reflect on: nor do I take such open and sudden declarations to be very wise, unless you already despair of his return, which, I think, after such usage, you justly may. For the rest, I doubt your lordship's friends have missed every end they proposed to themselves in rejecting that bill. My lord treasurer's credit is not any way lessened in the House of Commons. In your own House, you have been very far from making a division among the queen's friends; as appeared manifestly a few days ago, when you lost your vote by so great a majority, and disappointed those who had been encouraged to hire places, upon certain expectations of seeing a parade to the Tower. * Lastly, it may probably happen, that those who opposed an inquisition into the grants, will be found to have hardly done any very great service to the present possessors. To charge those grants with six years purchase to the public, and then to confirm the title by parliament, would, in effect, be no real loss to the owners, because, by such a confirmation, they would rise in value proportionably, and differ as

"We got a great victory last Wednesday [May 28] in the House of Lords, by a majority, I think, of twenty-eight; and the Whigs had desired their friends to take places, to see lord treasurer carried to the Tower." Journal to Stella, May 31, 1712.— The motion was, "To address her majesty, that she would be pleased to send orders to her general [the Duke of Ormond] to act, in concert with her allies, offensively against France, in order to obtain a safe and honourable peace."

The

much as the best title can from the worst. adverse party knew very well, that nothing beyond this was intended; but they cannot be sure what may be the event of a second inspection, which the resentment of the House of Commons will probably render more severe, and which you will never be able to avert when your number lessens, as it certainly must; and when the expedient is put in practice, without a tack, of making those grants part of a supply. From whence it is plain, that the zeal against that bill arose, in a great measure, from some other cause, than a tenderness to those who were to suffer by it.

I shall conclude, my lord, with putting you in mind, that you are a subject of the queen, a peer of the realm, and a servant of your country; and, in any of these capacities, you are not to consider what you dislike in the persons of those who are in the administration, but the manner of conducting themselves while they are in: and then I do not despair but your own good sense will fully convince you, that the prerogative of prince, without which her government cannot subsist; the honour of your house, which has been always the great assertor of that prerogative; and the welfare of your country, are too precious to be made a sacrifice to the malice, the interest, and the ambition, of a few party leaders.

your

VOL. IV.

A

SUPPOSED

LETTER FROM THE PRETENDER

TO

ANOTHER WHIG LORD.

Swift, never omitting any opportunity of venting his satire upon the Earl of Wharton, made him the party addressed in this supposed letter, by which he meant to retort upon the Whigs the charge of being favourable to the Pretender's interest. "I was with my friend Lewis to-day, getting materials for a little mischief." Journal to Stella, May 28, 1712.

"Things are now in the way of being soon in the extremes of well or ill: I hope and believe the first. Lord Wharton is gone out of town in a rage; and curses himself and friends for ruining themselves in defending Lords Marlborough and Godolphin, and taking Nottingham into their favour. He swears he will meddle no more during this reign; a pretty speech at sixty-six ; and the queen is near twenty years younger, and now in very good health! Read the Letter to a Whig Lord." Ibid. June 17. "To-day, there will be another Grub: A Letter from the Pretender to a Whig Lord. Grub-street has but ten days to live; then an act of parliament takes place that ruins it, by taxing every halfsheet at a halfpenny." Ibid. July 19.

MY LORD WHARTON,

St Germains, July 8, 1712.

I THANK you heartily for your letter; and you may be firmly assured of my friendship. In an

LETTER FROM THE PRETENDER, &C. 275

*

swer to what you hint, that some of our friends suspect; I protest to you, upon the word of a king, and my Lord Middleton will be my wits ness, that I never held the least correspondence with any one person of Tory party. I observe, as near as I can, the instructions of the king my father; among whose papers there is not one lét ter, as I remember, from any Tory, except two lords and a lady, † who, as you know, have been for some years past devoted to me and the Whigs. I approve of the scheme you sent me, signed by our friends. I do not find 24's name to it: perhaps he may be sick, or in the country. ‡ Middleton will be satisfied to be groom of the stole: and if you have Ireland, 11 may have the staff, provided 15 resigns his pretensions; in which case, he shall have six thousand pounds a-year for life, and a dukedom. I am content 13 should be secretary and a lord; and I will pay his debts when I am able. ||

I confess, I am sorry your general pardon has so many exceptions; but you and my other friends are judges of that. It was with great difficulty I

* The second Earl of Middleton. He was secretary of state for Scotland in 1682, conjoined with the Earl of Murray; and, in 1684, was made one of the principal secretaries of state for England in room of Godolphin. Lord Middleton followed the fortune of James II. and died an exile in France.

† The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, with Lord Godolphin, were, in King William's reign, suspected of having correspondence with St Germains.

The same Whig lord seems to be alluded to, who, in the preceding letter, is said to have been guilty of a suspicious absence from the House, when his party pushed the rejection of the bill for resumption of king William's grants, and who seems to be lord Sunderland.

§ Portland and Godolphin seem to be meant.

Walpole, perhaps.

276 LETTER FROM THE PRETENDER, &C.

prevailed on the queen to let me sign the commission for life, though her majesty is entirely reconciled.* If 2 will accept the privy seal, which you tell me is what would please him, the salary should be doubled: I am obliged to his good intentions, how ill soever they may have succeeded. † All other parts of your plan I entirely agree with; only as to the party that opposes us, your proposal about Zt may bring an odium upon my government: he stands the first excepted; and we shall have enough against him in a legal way. I wish you would allow me twelve more domestics of my own religion; and I will give you what security you please, not to hinder any designs you have of altering the present established worship. Since I have so few employments left me to dispose of, and that most of our friends are to hold theirs for life, I hope you will all be satisfied with so great a share of power. I bid you heartily farewell, and am your assured friend.

* This obviously alludes to Marlborough's commission as general for life, which it was said he demanded of queen Anne.

+ Probably meaning Nottingham, and his promise to bring over a body of high-churchmen to the party of the Whigs.

We are to suppose, that the plan submitted to the Chevalier de St George by the Whigs, had included some violence against the person of Oxford.