point of fact, was not to be acquainted with it till the patent had passed the great seal. To Shrewsbury's honor he resisted these private overtures; and no ambitious hope could wean him from that which he conceived to be integrity. The King then applied to him directly through Russell and Wharton. No ground was gained by these gentlemen; and the Earl continually eluded all attempts at a personal interview with his master. It was not until the principal posts of government had been filled by Whigs, that Shrewsbury allowed himself to be convinced of William's sincerity. In the spring of 1694, he accepted the seals, was installed Knight of the Garter, sworn in lord lieutenant of Anglesey, Flintshire, and Merionethshire, and advanced to the dignities of Marquess of Alton, and Duke of Shrewsbury.

William always doubted Marlborough's good faith; and, as we since have proof, not without sufficient reason. Yet when we recollect the mighty change which, within ten years, this singularly great man was to effect in the face of Europe, it is not without surprise that we find him pressed upon the King's attention by the new minister, with the cold praise of being one whom he "cannot but think is capable of being very serviceable." But the King gave little encouragement to warmer commendations, for in reply he contents himself with stating, "I can say no more, than that I do not think it for the good of my service to entrust him with the command of my troops."

We must leave the siege of Namur to Uncle Toby, who, we really think, is a better historian than the conqueror himself. One of the King's letters, during the investment of the citadel, is dated from a field which had not then been consecrated by English valour. The "Camp of WATERLOO, August 11, 1695." It was the protection of Brussels, which induced him to occupy this post after his final triumph, when the castle, defended by fourteen thousand men, was captured in the sight of one hundred thousand more. Shrewsbury, who well knew the nature of that many-headed monster Popularity, advised William to profit by the moment, and dissolve the parliament during the ferment of public joy, his words are plain and impressive, "I know that in reality two months hence your Majesty will not be less great, nor we less obliged; but whether the same warmth and zeal will then appear so universal, as now, is, with all humility, submitted by your Majesty's dutiful subject," &c.

It is truly pitiable to find the King stopped in his victorious career by the difficulty of obtaining supplies. Public credit was at the lowest ebb in England, and the deficiency

2

of the revenue in 1696, cramped the operations of the campaign." In the name of God," he writes on one occasion, "determine quickly to find some credit for the troops here, or we are ruined." And again, "The letter from the Lords Justices of the 14th (July,) has quite overcome me, and I know not where I am, since at present I see no resource which can prevent the army from mutiny, or total desertion; for it is more impossible to find here, than in England, money sufficient for their subsistence; so that if you cannot devise expedients to send contributions, or procure credit, all is lost, and I must go to the Indies."

The situation of the allies at this period was indeed most distressing. The expedients for raising money in England had failed; the coinage was alarmingly depreciated, and the discount on government securities was 60 per cent. Victor Amadeus had completely justified the character which Lord Galway gave of him, in his first letter to the Duke of Shrewsbury, as a prince "very penetrating and very difficult to be penetrated;" by outwitting the good easy ambassador, and negotiating a separate peace without communication with any of his allies. Under the pretext of a religious vow, the wily Duke set off for Loretto; and arranged the preli minaries with France during his pilgrimage. After a long series of artifices, which might have been expected to excite more suspicion than they occasioned, either in the envoy or the cabinet of England, the Duke assumed the direction of the French and Piedmontese troops in Italy; and presented the singular spectacle of a general, who, in the course of the same campaign, held the chief command of two opposite and hostile armies.

Peace was highly desirable for England. The burdens to which France had been subjected were not light; and the approaching demise of the King of Spain, determined Louis, at all rates, to put an end to the war, in order that he might direct his undivided strength to the succession in that country, which had ever been the leading object of his hopes and ambition. The congress at Ryswick was the result of these wishes; but the unwieldy movements of the assembled diplomatists portended but a slow progress to the negotiation: and William adopted a mode of treating revolting to all principles of the constitution of the country which he governed, little to be defended even on the ground of immediate policy, and productive, in the end, of nothing more than a short truce, which foreran the dangerous and digraceful treaty of partition.

To this transaction the ostensible negotiators and the

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acting ministry, were both equally strangers. Lord Villiers, one of the plenipotentiaries, writes to the Duke of Shrewsbury, "did I know any certainty of the conditions, it should be no secret to your Grace." The Duke in reply thanks him for the pains he gives himself to inform one," who is more ignorant than you can believe." The correspondence during the negotiation is occupied by little more than the detail of such ludicrous and unimportant punctilios as it was the fashion of those days should always take precedence of the great interests of nations. Even when William had adopted his plan of confidential communication, Lord Portland met Boufflers, without his coadjutors being privy to the nature or the reasons of their conference. The Mareschal de Boufflers," says Lord Villiers, in another despatch,“ has lately had a meeting with my Lord Portland, near Halle. I am told it was about the peace, though I do not know the particulars; as soon as I do I shall certainly communicate them to your Grace." "I should certainly deliver my opinion in the sense you wish," are the words of the Duke at a somewhat later period, "but having never had any thing communicated to me, (except M. de Boufflers's article which my Lord Portland sent me) I know not how to be so impertinent as to thrust myself into a business of so secret a nature.” The blame of the peace of Ryswick must be applied by the historian, to the monarch who conducted and concluded it, solely by his own personal negotiation: but in the eyes of their country, at the season of its completion, it rested upon the ministers who were responsible, even to their heads, for an act over which they were not permitted to exercise any control. We cannot wonder that Shrewsbury was mortified at his exclusion from the secret; but we do wonder that when he discovered this exclusion, he retained the shadow of power for a single moment.

It is probable, indeed, that his mortification on this occasion essentially contributed to increase the dislike which he had always expressed to official life, and which many circumstances, connected both with his public and private situation, were not likely to diminish. The false and flagitious charges of Sir John Fenwick, though not for a moment admitted, made a deep impression upon a spirit too nicely sensitive of its honour, not to be hurt at the possibility of suspicion. The mysterious, not to say malignant, conduct of Monmouth, (better known as the Earl of Peterborough) in this vexatiously protracted business, materially increased his uneasiness. The feuds of the cabinet, the imperfect confidence reposed by the King in either of the contending parties, and the ef

fects produced by a serious bodily injury, received from a fall in hunting, all urged him to seek release from a preeminence which had become insufferably irksome: and his correspondence at this time, whether with the King or his friends, contain little but importunate desires of privacy, or bitter complaints at his inability to obtain permission to retire. The post of chamberlain was vacant by Lord Sunderland's unexpected resignation, and William auxiously pressed this honourable appointment upon Shrewsbury's acceptance. But even an office like this, which gave constant access to the royal person, without the labour or responsibility of executive duties, was obstinately declined; and at the close of 1698 the King most reluctantly consented to receive the seals without commuting them for any other badge.

The state of feeling among public men at this period, carries with it sufficient conviction, if such were needed, that power is not happiness. Sunderland on his retirement. permitted himself to say, that there was no rack like what he had suffered in "being ground between Lord Monmouth and Lord Wharton." Lord Tankerville, when solicited to accept the first seat at the board of Admiralty, used an expression somewhat homely, but strongly indicative of disgust," that he would prefer being drawn through a horsepond." "Had I a son," says Shrewsbury himself, “I had rather breed him a cobler than a courtier, a bangman than a statesman." It seemed as if the inveterate enmity of the contending factions forbade the hope of any exertion for the public good; and that the narrowness and asperity of the party in power for the moment, sought not so much to aggrandize the country which it governed, as to procure the downfall of its political opponents.

The urgency with which the King continued to press his suit forced Shrewsbury once more from his brief retirement: and ten months after he ceased to be secretary he became chamberlain. He accepted the office, but cautiously abstained from any interference in the violent and stormy discussions which occupied the year 1699. His time was chiefly spent in the country. One visit in the spring of 1700 he paid by especial command to the palace at Hampton Court. It was to decline the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland. Wearied out with the hopeless task of attempting to effect conciliation, he renewed his entreaties for dismission, and finally quitted office under William in June 1700.

The prospect of still farther troubles induced him to resolve upon retirement to the Continent. He had scarcely set foot in Versailles before he was exposed to overtures of a

novel kind. The Duc de Lauzun, an old acquaintance, sought to entangle him in a conversation on the merits of the exiled family, and expressed a wish that he would find an opportunity of seeing the Prince of Wales. Shrewsbury extricated himself with dexterity, and effectually turned the subject, by saying he had no great curiosity; but if he must see his Royal Highness, he had much rather it were there than in England. After a short tour in France, he fixed his permanent residence at Rome; and bence, on the accession of Queen Anne, rejected the overtures of Marlborough and Godolphin, who wished to strengthen themselves by his appointment to the Mastership of the Horse. His choice of the papal city for an abode, was made the basis of a charge of apostacy, and his early education in the Romish, persuasion for a while gave currency to the malicious rumour. Two manly letters which he wrote, one to Lord Somers, the other to Dr. Talbot, Bishop of Oxford, satisfied his friends, and effectually dissipated the false impression which had gone abroad. But the existence of the suspicion was too harassing to permit him to remain in a spot by which it had been caused; and he prepared for a return to England. He was not unaccompanied. At Augsburgh, he celebrated his nuptials with the Marchioness of Paleotti, an Italian widow of high rank, who gave him the highest proof of his influence, and her own affection, by a solemn abjuration of popery before their union. It was the Duke's misfortune, even in private life, to be exposed to malicious calumnies. An assertion was made, that he had been forced into this marriage by the brothers of the lady; and the Duke of Marlborough's reply to the announcement which Shrewsbury sent of his change of situation has been cited as a proof that, in declaring it, he felt that some apology was necessary for the step. Now Marlborough's words are these; after returning thanks for the communication, he proceeds, "I confess I was not a little surprized at what you are pleased to tell me, though I agree entirely with you, that we ought to marry to please ourselves and not others." Shrewsbury was five and forty years of age when he married a foreigner, who like himself had been educated in, and had abandoned, the Romish faith. Looking to these particulars, he might think it necessary to declare his connexion to his friends in a tone which wore the appearance of apology; but beyond this there is no just ground for supposing that he felt ashamed of an honourable alliance. His lady on the maternal side was descended from Dudley, Earl of Leicester: her father was of distin guished rank among the Bolognese nobility,