"Union Jack," bearing the red cross of St. George, and the diagonal white cross of St. Andrew-though as yet wanting the cross of St. Patrick-was appointed by proclamation to be the national flag, July 28.

The popular feeling of hatred to the union lasted in Scotland for many years, and all manner of evils were most absurdly ascribed to it; but statesmen had long seen its necessity on political grounds; and its advantages to the commerce and civilization of both countries, adding wealth to Scotland and energy to England, have been proved by the experience of years.

We now turn to foreign politics. Early in 1702 Marlborough went as ambassador to Holland, to concert measures against Louis XIV., and on his return war was declared against France and Spain, May 4. In July he took the command of the allies in Flanders, and reduced Venloo, Ruremonde, and Liège. He returned to England in November to receive the thanks of parliament and the patent of a duke, with a pension of £5,000 a year, which was afterwards made perpetual. The fleet, under Sir George Rooke, failed in an attack on Cadiz, but captured and destroyed several French men-of-war in the bay of Vigo. Admiral Benbow pursued the French West Indian fleet, and engaged them for five days, though they had fifteen ships, and his seven were reduced to two by the desertion of his captains, whom he lived long enough to punish before dying of his wounds at Kingston in Jamaica, Aug. 1702.

The campaign of 1703 was indecisive. In Southern Germany the French and Bavarians were successful against the Austrians; but Marlborough took Bonn on the Rhine, and the fall of the fortresses of Huy, Limburg, and Gueldres made him master of the line of the Meuse as a base for his operations in the following year. The duke of Savoy and the king of Portugal joined the alliance this year, and the nominal king of Spain, Charles III., paid a visit to England. The beginning of winter was marked by a tempest of unparalleled fierceness called the "Great Storm," Nov. 26 to Dec. 1. The royal navy lost twelve ships and fifteen hundred men; the damage in London was computed at £1,000,000; and, among much other loss of life, Bishop Kidder and his wife were killed by the fall of part of the episcopal palace at Wells.

In 1704 Marlborough concerted with Prince Eugene of Savoy a masterly scheme for the relief of the emperor. Carrying his army across the Rhine, Main, and Neckar, to the Danube, while Eugene secured the line of the Upper Rhine, he took Donauwerth, cutting in two the enemy's forces on the line of the Danube, and securing a bridge over the river. The armies of the Upper Rhine now came through the Black Forest to the aid of the main bodies; the French, under Marshal Tallard, joining the elector of Bavaria, and Eugene uniting his forces to Marlborough. The French and Bavarians took up a strong position on the heights of Hochstadt, behind the village of Blenheim, which lies on the south bank of the Danube, in Bavaria. To secure the village, Marshal Tallard weakened his centre, and upon that point Marlborough flung all his force, cut the line, pushed the right wing of the enemy into the Danube, or forced them to surrender, Tallard himself being among the prisoners. On the left the Bavarians held their ground against Eugene till the right was defeated, and then retreated to Ulm. The battle of Blenheim is one of the fifteen decisive battles of the world, and for its detailed description see Germany, pp. 406–410. This victory enabled the Imperial forces to overrun Bavaria, and to pursue the French into Alsace; while Marlborough went to Berlin to secure the aid of Prussia, and returned to London in December. His reception was most magnificent, and his rewards substantial. The manor of Woodstock was adorned, at the public cost, with the splendid mansion of Blenheim House, and granted to him and his heirs for ever. They hold it by the tenure of presenting to the sovereign annually, on the anniversary of the battle, a small flag embroidered with the fleur-delys of the Bourbons, which hangs in the armory of Windsor opposite the tricolor, which is annually presented for the manor of Strathfieldsaye in memory of Waterloo.

The English fleet took Gibraltar, while the shores of Spain witnessed the daring exploits of the Earl of Peterborough, who captured Barcelona, and reduced all Valencia and Catalonia under the authority of Charles III.

The timid policy of the Dutch kept Marlborough in the Netherlands in 1706, but gave him thus far the opportunity of winning the brilliant victory of Ramillies over Marshal Villeroy. The French were

expelled from Italy by Prince Eugene and the Duke of Savoy; and an Anglo-Portuguese army advanced to Madrid, but was driven out again by the Duke of Berwick.

In 1707 Majorca was retaken by Marshal Villars; but Eugene invaded France from Italy, and laid siege to Toulon. The town made good its defence against both the prince and a blockading fleet under Sir Cloudesley Shovel. That brave admiral, who had risen from before the mast, perished with four of his ships on some rocks off the Scilly Isles, on his voyage home. There were no decisive actions this year in Germany or Flanders.

The season of 1708 opened with an attempt of the Pretender to invade Scotland from Dunkirk; but his fleet was dispersed, after a panic had been created in London, and the Habeas Corpus Act suspended. In the Netherlands, Marlborough conducted one of his most brilliant and decisive campaigns, and won the great victory of Oudenarde over Marshal Vendôme, July 11, which made him master of all Flanders. Next year, with Prince Eugene, he followed up his success on the French frontier by the victory of Malplaquet over Villars, September 11, and the capture of Mons, October 20, 1709; and in the year after they made further progress in Artois and Picardy, March to June, 1710. The fleet had its full share in the honors of war. Sardinia and Minorca surrendered to Sir John Leake in 1708, and the French settlement of Port Royal in Acadia, now Nova Scotia, was taken in 1710, and named Annapolis in honor of the queen. In Spain there were great vicissitudes during these three years. The victories of Count Stahremberg, aided by General Stanhope, at Almenara, July 27, 1710, and Saragossa, Aug. 20, put Charles III. in possession of Madrid; but he was soon driven out by Marshal Vendôme, who forced Stanhope to surrender, Dec. 10, and defeated Stahremberg, Dec. 20. In the summer of 1711 Charles III. had scarcely a footing left him in Spain. He returned to Germany, Sept. 27, and was elected emperor by the title of Charles VI. Within a month afterwards, Oct. 1711, Marlborough, after obtaining some successes against Villars, took his final departure from Flanders, his enemies having obtained complete ascendency at court. This change demands a review of domestic politics.

In Anne's first new parliament, which met Oct.

20, 1702, the commons chose Robert Harley as speaker, and showed a violent Tory spirit, which was only kept in check by the lords. Later on, 1710, the parliament was Tory, and Anne's favorite was now Abigail Hill, who replaced the Duchess of Marlborough as "Mrs. Masham."

The rivalry of St. John, viscount Bolingbroke, and Harley, earl of Oxford, is a marked event in the reign. Marlborough and his duchess were disgraced, and dismissed from office and court. After the campaign of 1711 the elevation of Charles to the Imperial crown, the repeated overtures of Louis, and the exhaustion of all parties, furnished solid grounds for proposing peace; negotiations were opened, October 20, and Utrecht was named as the place where the conferences were to be held.

Marlborough retired from England, to return on the very day of the queen's death, August 1, 1714. He was received coldly by George I. He died June 16, 1722, and his duchess survived till 1744. The Peace of Utrecht was signed March 31, 1713; but subsequent experience has proved that the chance of excluding the Bourbons from the throne of Spain was not worth the prolongation of a war which had lasted for half a generation, and had cost England almost sixty-nine millions.

The short remainder of Anne's reign was occupied with the intrigues of the Jacobites on behalf of the Pretender, calling himself James III., to whose succession the queen herself was favorable. Sophia, the electress-dowager of Hanover, died June 8, 1714, at the age of eighty-three, and her son, George Louis, became heir under the Act of Settlement. Bolingbroke, who was in correspondence with James, succeeded in driving Oxford from office, July 27, 1714. But two days after, the queen, being seized with a fatal illness, sent for the Duke of Shrewsbury, who took prompt measures, in concert with Argyle and Somerset, to defeat the schemes of Bolingbroke. On July 30, Anne delivered the white staff of lord treasurer to Shrewsbury; and on Sunday, August 1, she expired at Kensington, in the fiftieth year of her age, and the thirteenth of her reign. Her easy temper and her faultless domestic life gained her the epithet of "the good queen Anne." Her weak and indolent temperament greatly contributed to the progress of that change by which the government of England has come to be directed by responsible ministers, rather than by

the wishes of the sovereign. Hers was the first reign undisturbed by rebellion, and unstained by executions for high treason, with the one insignificant exception of Gregg. She showed her attachment to the church by giving up the first-fruits and tenths, and making that provision for the aid of poor livings, which bears the name of “queen Anne's bounty." Among the new institutions of her reign was the establishment of a General Post Office for all the British dominions, 1710.

The time of Anne has been honored with the name of the Augustan Age of English literature, a name more truly descriptive than those who first used it were aware; for in England, as at Rome, it marks a period of great excellence indeed, but of decline from a nobler perfection. Alexander Pope stands at the head of the poets; while Addison and Swift are the greatest masters of prose, not only in this age, but in the whole course of English literature. The periodical essays, of which the Spectator is the great example, were the invention of this time. Most of the leading writers belong also to the reign of George I., and some reach into that of George II.

George Louis, 1714-1727, elector of Hanover (son of Ernest Augustus, duke of BrunswickLüneburg and elector of Hanover, and of Sophia, the youngest child of Frederick, elector palatine, and Elizabeth, daughter of James I.), was proclaimed by the title of George I. immediately upon the death of Queen Anne. His accession was unopposed, not only in England, but also in Scotland and Ireland; and he was acknowledged by Louis XIV. as well as by the other powers of Europe. He landed at Greenwich on Sept. 18, 1714, with his eldest son, afterwards George II. He was welcomed by the people as the representative of the great principle of a Protestant succession, though personally he had little to recommend him. The king was fifty-four years old, having been born May 28, 1660. In person and manner he was heavy, coarse, and awkward. His mind was uncultivated by literature or science, though he had, like nearly all his countrymen, a natural taste for music. His other tastes were low, and his society was composed of those who pandered to them. His wife, Sophia Dorothea of Zell, had been doomed to perpetual imprisonment for an alleged intrigue with Count Königsmark; while his mistresses came over to en

rich themselves in England. To these repulsive traits he added a total ignorance of the English language, customs, and feelings, which disabled him from presiding in his own council or cultivating the fovor of his people.

The Pretender, under the title of the Chevalier de St. George, attempted to regain the crown for the Stuarts and landed at Peterhead; but on the fatal anniversary of January 30, James slunk away from his army at Montrose, and got back to St. Germain's with his person safe and his honor lost. The escape of Lord Nithisdale, by the heroic devotion of his wife, is the sole pleasing incident of this rebellion.

Philip V. of Spain resolved on war, and seized Sardinia by the advice of his ambitious minister, Cardinal Alberoni, who intrigued with Charles XII. of Sweden, and the Czar, in favor of the Stuarts. The Pretender was received with royal honors at Madrid, and a fleet was equipped at Corunna to convey him to England, 1719. But this new Armada, like Philip II.'s, was knocked to pieces by storm. In 1720 Philip V. joined the Quadruple Alliance. Charles XII. died, and the queen of Sweden became the ally of George I.

The autumn of this year brought on a singular commercial crisis. The South Sea Company was formed by Harley in 1710, as a means of meeting a deficit of nearly £9,000,000 in the public services. The company took this debt upon itself, in consideration of a large annual payment as interest and the exclusive privilege of trading with the subjects of Spain in the South Seas. In 1719 they paid £7,500,000 for the unredeemable government annuities created during the war, and induced the annuitants to accept South Sea stock on very low terms. The transaction gave rise to a mania for the company's stock, which seemed almost epidemic, for there was just the same rage in Paris for the Mississippi scheme of Law; and all manner of bubble companies were launched. In September came the crash. The South Sea stock fell from 1,000 to 300. Thousands were ruined. The government were charged with aiding the delusion; and an attack, made on them in the House of Lords by the young Duke of Wharton, was repelled by Stanhope with such heat, that the effort caused an apoplexy, of which he died next day, Feb. 5, 1721. Robert Walpole now rose to the chief direction of affairs, which he retained for twenty years.

Sir