Accession of queen Anne-Her declaration to the Privy Council-Parliament continues sittingPreponderance of Tories-Marlborough sent as envoy to the States-General-War declaredMarlborough's first Campaign-Expedition to Cadiz-Vigo-New Parliament-Tory majority -Bill against Occasional Conformity-Defoe's Shortest Way with the Dissenters-Marlborough created a Duke-Revolt in the Cévennes-Marlborough's second Campaign-The Methuen Treaty with Portugal-Occasional Conformity Bill again rejected by the LordsAylesbury Election Case-The Great Storm-Oaths of Witnesses-Queen Anne's BountyTouching for the Evil-May-Poles.

"I felt

"WHEN the king came to die," says the duchess of Marlborough, nothing of that satisfaction which I once thought I should have had upon this occasion; and my lord and lady Jersey's writing and sending perpetually to give an account as his breath grew shorter and shorter, filled me with horror." It is the common story of royal death-beds. "As soon as the breath was out of king William," as lord Dartmouth affirms, "by which all expectations from him were at an end, the bishop of Salisbury drove hard to bring the first tidings to St. James's; where he prostrated himself at the new queen's feet, full of joy and duty." From Edward III. to William III., -from William III. to George IV.,-it was ever the same:

"Gone to salute the rising morn."

That Anne should have dropped a tear for her brother-in-law was scarcely to be expected. Friends they had never been. Since the death of Mary they had avoided all unseemly differences. Anne, subjected to the will of a

*Note on Burnet, vol. v. p. 1.

258

QUEEN ANNE'S DECLARATION TO THE PRIVY COUNCIL.

[1702. domineering favourite, who hated William upon the well-known principle that we hate those whom we have injured, could form no independent opinion of his merits as a king. She regarded him as a disagreeable man, generally sullen, and rarely civil. His appointment of Marlborough in the summer of 1700 to an employment of high trust, had probably disposed the new queen to make no hesitation in accepting the great principles of foreign policy which William had rendered triumphant by his unshrinking constancy. It has been attributed to the foresight of the "master workman" in the Grand Alliance, that. he appointed Marlborough to the command of the troops sent to the assistance of the States-General, because he knew that in the event of his own demise, the favourite of his successor would be the chief moving power in English affairs. "The king proposed, by this early step, to engage the eari so much in the war, as to make it his particular interest to pursue it with vigour in the succeeding reign." There was not an hour lost in declaring the policy that the new sovereign was counselled to pursue. On the evening of king William's death, queen Anne, when the Privy Council were assembled as is usual on the demise of the Crown, thus spoke upon the vital question which was the foremost in the public thought: "I think it proper, upon this occasion of my first speaking to you, to declare my own opinion of the importance of carrying on all the preparations we are making to oppose the great power of France; and I shall lose no time in giving our allies all assurances, that nothing shall be wanting on my part to pursue the true interest of England, together with theirs, for the support of the common cause." +

By a Statute of 1696, which had regard to the dangers of invasion or conspiracy, it was provided that Parliament should not be dissolved by the demise of the Crown, but might sit for six months after, unless prorogued or dissolved. The queen went to the House of Lords on the 11th of March. She spoke of the late king as having been "the great support, not only of these kingdoms, but of all Europe." She said of herself, "I know my own heart to be entirely English." Words were thus put into Anne's mouth which gave that praise to William which could not be withheld, and stirred up prejudices against his memory which her Tory advisers were ready to keep alive. With regard to foreign affairs she repeated the sentiments she had addressed to the Privy Council. Within five days the earl of Marlborough received the Order of the Garter, and was made Captain-general of the forces. He probably would not have received such immediate and signal honour and preferment if he had not, with his consummate adroitness, made the queen consider that he belonged to the party for which she intended her chief rewards. "As soon as she was seated on the throne," says the wife of Marlborough, “the Tories, whom she usually called by the agreeable name of the Church-party, became the distinguished objects of the royal favour."-"I am firmly

* Onslow. Note on Burnet, vol. v. p. 7.

+ Burnet takes occasion to mention that "she pronounced this, as she did all her other speeches, with great weight and authority, and with a softness of voice and sweetness in the pronunciation, that added much life to all she spoke." Dartmouth says that Anne was taught to speak by Mrs. Barry. Onslow relates that he heard her speak from the throne, and that "it was a sort of charm." The rare faculty, it might seem, has descended as a royal inheritance to the next queen-regnant.

7 & 8 Gul. III. c. 17.