THE SACHEVEREL ÉPISODE.

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man, who, in a sermon at St. Paul's, had audaciously advocated the doctrine of Non-Resistance. Somers, Eyre,

the Solicitor General, and Marlborough strongly disapproved of a measure which, as they foresaw, would result in elevating an obscure divine to the honours of martyrdom, and Walpole urged their views upon Godolphin with his usual acumen. But the Treasurer, inspired, as Macaulay says, with all the zeal of a newborn Whig, and exasperated by the nickname of Volpone which Dr. Sacheverel had borrowed from Ben Jonson's comedy and applied to him, would not be persuaded. The impeachment was brought, and the apprehensions of Somers and Marlborough were realized. The populace sided with Sacheverel, and all the clergy of England made haste to espouse his cause. In all the principal churches prayers were offered up for him as for a persecuted saint, and the drum ecclesiastic was loudly beaten in his favour. The London 'prentices joined in the cry of "High Church and Dr. Sacheverel!" The Queen, after some vacillation, announced herself on the same side. The bold divine was declared guilty.* But his conviction was practically a victory. The sentence pronounced upon him was no punishment. "All this bustle and fatigue," exclaimed Godolphin, "ends in no more but a suspension of three years from the pulpit, and burning his sermons at the old Exchange!" The Treasurer had no right to feel disappointed, for his more prudent colleagues had warned him of the probable result of his injudicious action. "Well might he rue," says Lord Stanhope, "an impeachment so unpopular in its progress

*The vote of the Peers was 69 against 52.

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A CONTEMPORARY BALLAD.

and so ridiculous in its result.

Well might he repent

his own rashness in overruling the sagacity of Somers, and attempting at any hazard to silence the buzz of a single insignificant priest. The fable of the bear that hurled a heavy stone at the head of its sleeping master on purpose to crush a fly upon his cheek is a type of the service which Godolphin on this occasion rendered to his party."*

* A ballad writer of the time satirizes the Sacheverel craze in some amusing verses (Wilkins's Political Ballads, ii. 84) :—

These nations had always some token

Of madness, by turns and by fits,
Their senses were shattered and broken,

But now they're quite out of their wits.

Can any man say the Lord Mayor,

Of Parliament likewise a member,

"On the

(This was Sir Samuel Garrard, at whose request the sermon, Perils from False Brethren," was published («), and to whom it was dedicated),

Did wisely to set up a bear

To preach on the fifth of November?

Was the Doctor less touched in his brain
To stuff his harangue with gunpowder;

Or Dolben, who fired the train,

And made it crack louder and louder?

(It was John Dolben, son of the Archbishop of York, who moved the impeachment in the Commons, and carried the Bill up to the Lords.)

(a) So Sacheverel asserted; but the Lord Mayor contradicted him.

WALPOLE LEARNS A LESSON.

23

One good effect it had on Walpole's future career. It undoubtedly rendered him chary of attacks upon the Church. It showed him how great was the strength of the clerical party, and how weak, comparatively, that of the Dissenters. Hence he was as unwilling, throughout his administration, to meddle in ecclesiastical questions as was the late Lord Melbourne.

The abortive prosecution of Sacheverel brought back

But our Senate hath outdone 'em all,

By their solemn and grave proceeding,
On a pageant in Westminster Hall,

Where the Nation lies almost a-bleeding.

In such a nice and critical state,

When of weighty affairs there were several,
To spend their sweet lungs in debate

About Hoadley and Henry Sacheverel.

(Bishop Hoadley, then simply rector of St. Peter-le-Poor, Broad Street, London, had ably attacked the Passive-Obedience doctrine in his sermons and pamphlets, for which he received the thanks of the House of Commons, and was formally recommended to the Queen for preferment.)

Of the danger that threaten'd the nation,
From the scandalous terms of Volpone,

Thrown on the man of high station,

Who so freely supplies us with money.

So as the rare frolic went round,

It seiz'd at last upon the people;

Who swore they would pull to the ground,
The churches that wanted a steeple.

They rebell'd in the Doctor's defence,

Who so coldly had cried their pow'r down,

And freely gave up their pretence,

To fight for the Church and the Crown.

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DISMISSAL OF THE WHIG MINISTRY.

the Tories to power. It had called forth a manifestation of popular feeling which emboldened the Queen, already prepared for such a measure by the backstairs cabals of Harley and St. John, the former the most subtle as the latter was the most brilliant of the politicians of the day, to dismiss the Whig administration, recall the Tories to power, and dissolve Parliament. The election turned in favour of the new government. The name of Marlborough had lost its power; and the host of pamphleteers whom Harley and St. John employed, reinforced by the genius of Swift, were constantly engaged in misrepresenting the objects of the war and in defaming the character of the disgraced ministers. The High Church party were not less active. They circulated squibs, lampoons, invectives, with an ardour worthy of a better cause.

"Join, Churchmen, join, no longer separate,

Lest you repent it when it is too late.

Low Church is no Church."

The result of all these efforts was that Treaty of Utrecht, by which, in the view of many, England voluntarily resigned the position to which the genius of Marlborough had raised her;† by which, in the view of

*Sunderland, the Secretary of State, was dismissed in June; Godolphin in August, and the remaining ministers in September.

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The treaty was by no means popular with the country, and supplied the ballad-mongers with abundant material. Here is a verse from A New Song":

"A treaty's on foot, look about, English boys,

Stop a bad peace as soon as you can ;

A peace which our Hanover's title destroys,

And shakes the high Throne of our glorious Queen Anne.

NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE.

25

others, she obtained all the concessions she could reasonably expect. As the head of a mechanical majority, the new government was able to carry everything before it; and negotiations for peace were hurried on with an almost breathless rapidity. The motives which compelled Harley and St. John to adopt this course were many,-but the most powerful seem to have been their desire to humiliate Marlborough, and their anxiety to prepare the way for the return of the Pretender.

The latter, through the failure of the Queen's health,

Over, over, Hanover, over,

Haste and assist our Queen and our State;
Haste over, Hanover, fast as you can over,

Put in your claims, before 'tis too late.

Take also a quotation, from "The Soldiers' Lamentation for the Loss of their General" :

The following verses are from "Nothing but Truth" :

"This Queen, when she had saved thus

All Europe from its fate,

She thought she must save France, too,

And thought 'twas not too late,

When to U-trick we did go, did go, did go,

When to U-trick we did go.

Let no one e'er reproach her,
That borrow or that gain

Invited her to Battail,

For then she gave up Spain,

When to U-trick we did go, etc.