were the prospects which the close of the season opened out elsewhere. In Spain, where the command of the British contingent had devolved on the duke of Argyle, the summer was wasted in inactivity; for the departure of Charles to ascend the Austrian throne, which the death of his brother rendered vacant, seemed to paralyse all exertion. In Portugal, if we except the recapture of Miranda de Douro by the combined troops under lord Portmore, no enterprise of moment was attempted; while on the Rhine, not less than in the districts adjoining to the Alps, the campaign may be said to have been one of demonstration alone.The duke of Savoy did indeed make an effort, by pushing upon the frontiers of Provence, where he was ably and vigilantly opposed by marshal Berwick: but as autumn drew on, both his zeal and energy relaxed, and he fell back, without striking a blow, to his old positions. Thus, through a total want of confidence which the confederates began to experience each in the other, and all in Great Britain, was the season permitted to pass unprofitably away; which, had a different spirit prevailed, must have consummated the downfal of Bourbon supremacy, and the permanent establishment of a balance of power in Europe.

With the close of this campaign ended what, in strict propriety of speech, deserves to be accounted the professional life of Marlborough. To narrate at length the remainder of his career, may seem to belong to another besides his military biographer; yet is the story so interesting in itself, as well as so redolent of moral instruction, that to offer of it something more than a meagre outline of dates, may, perhaps, be permitted even here. We are the more encouraged in adopting this course, from the recollection that our proceeding can in no degree interfere with any other department, at least, in this series of works. When Marlborough ceased to be a British general, he ceased also to be a British statesman; it is in his private capacity, therefore, as a man who had played his part on the stage of public life and quitted it, that we must henceforth regard him. In that light we now purpose to follow his fortunes.

Something has been said at various stages of this memoir, of the virulence with which the hero of Blenheim was assailed by a host of prejudiced and vindictive writers, who abhorred the man because they disliked his political principles. In proportion as the power of the tories attained to consistency, the ferocity of these attacks became more and more flagrant; while there were enlisted on the same side charges more serious than any which even Swift had ventured to bring forward. The intelligence that his recent victories were treated with contempt; that the forcing of the enemy's lines was called "the passing of the kennel;" that whatever credit belonged to it was attributed to general Hompesch; and that the capture of Bouchain itself was stigmatised as a wan

ton sacrifice of 16,000 men: this Marlborough received with comparative indifference. From the commencement to the conclusion of his active careor, he had been more or less accustomed to find his merits decried; and hence, though naturally sensitive to a degree quite extraordinary, he had learned to bear such injustice with philosophy. But he was now doomed to suffer wrong in a quarter where hitherto the voice of scandal itself had not assailed him. It was more than insinuated that, in summing up the accounts of the army, an excess of expenditure to the amount of 33,1691had been detected; and that, as none of the contractors could explain how so large an outlay should have taken place, the general must answer for it at his peril. Marlborough was stung to the quick by this fragrant attack upon his honour. He lost not a moment in vindicating himself from the infamous charge, by producing a warrant, under the sign manual of the queen, for sums applicable to secret services, from year to year, more than commensurate to the supposed deficiency; and so conclusive were the terms of his defence, that, unscrupulous as his enemies were, not one among them ventured at that moment to renew their accusations either orally or in writing.

When the painful necessity of defending his moral character overtook him, Marlborough was already at the Hague, whither he had returned, on his way to England, early in November. On the 14th of that month, he quitted the seat of the Dutch government, and, embarking at Brill, reached Greenwich on the 17th, where he immediately landed. As it was the anniversary of the inauguration of queen Elizabeth, a day on which the populace were accustomed to parade the streets in a tumultuous manner, effigies of the pope, the devil, and the pretender being carried before them, and eventually burned; Marlborough, unwilling that his enemies should discover in his conduct even the shadow of imprudence, remained at Greenwich in a species of seclusion till the morrow. He then proceeded to Hampton Court, that he might pay his respects to the queen; after which, with the best judgment and most honourable feeling, he waited, one after another, on the ministers. Yet all this circumspection availed not tɔ hinder his name from being joined with those of the other whig leaders, in a ridiculous story, scarce credited at the moment, of conspiracies and plots. The truth was, that the tories, apprehensive of a burst of religious zeal, put a stop to the customary processions, and seized the effigies; while their libellous adherents invented and gave publicity to statements, the very absurdity of which has long ago consigned them to oblivion.

Meanwhile the most strenuous efforts were made both by lord Oxford and St. John, to win over Marlborough into an approval of their general policy. Every inducement which they accounted likely to avail, was held out to him; but Marl

borough, conscious that a coalition with them must for ever degrade him in his own eyes and in those of posterity, steadily resisted their attempts. The whigs had already taken their ground, in condemning the terms of the projected peace; and as these were not less objectionable to Marlborough than to them, he made no delay in assuming his place among their body. In this he was promptly followed by Godolphin, lord Nottingham himself not long afterwards adopting a similar course, till the opposition became in the end so formidable, as to threaten the ministry with destruction. It was in vain that a charge of monstrous peculation was brought forward against the late government. That was ably met by a pamphlet from the pen of sir Robert Walpole, in which the writer distinctly showed that the defalcations which the tories would have laid to the charge of their predecessors, had been accumulating since the reign of Charles II., and that the entire balance against the late cabinet came not up to four millions, for every shilling of which a voucher could be produced. The consequence was, that Oxford and his friends, failing on the ground where they imagined themselves most secure, found it no easy matter to bear up against the furious invectives by which their foreign policy was assailed; and as the whigs brought to their aid the ministers both of the states-general and the elector of Hanover, the issue appeared, at one moment, more than doubtful. Nor can it be disputed that, in departing from the original basis of the coalition, the tory administration did sacrifice their country's honour. It was a fundamental article in the treaty of alliance, that a prince of the house of Bourbon should not sit on the throne of Spain. To attain that object, more than any other, all the blood and treasure expended in a ten years' war had been supplied; and now lord Oxford consented to open a negotiation with Louis, on the bare understanding that the latter would use every reasonable effort to hinder the crowns of France and Spain from being united on the same head. No wonder, then, that the declamations of the whigs, ably seconded, as they were, by the remonstrances of foreign powers, should have produced & strong effect in the country; or that the ministers, driven to their last shift, should have determined to throw the most flagrant wrong into the scale, rather than permit matters to follow the inclination which they must have otherwise assumed.

Things were in this state when the parliament met, of which the first proceedings held out no favourable augury to the cabinet. Though supported in the house of commons by a majority more than usually preponderate, in the lords they found themselves defeated on the first motion for addressing the queen, chiefly through the manly eloquence of Marlborough. Mortified at this result, and still further perplexed by the doubledealing of Somerset and others, on whom they had counted, they strove to compensate for their

political weakness, by working, both publicly and in private, on the personal fears and prejudices of the sovereign. They reminded her that she had but to choose between themselves and a faction which, if it had enslaved her before, would, when restored to influence, prove doubly tyrannical. They threatened her with a renewal of the duchess of Marlborough's impertinences; assured her that the whigs desired nothing so much as to take vengeance for the disgrace which they had temporarily suffered; and throwing out certain mysterious hints affecting the present and future condition of her own family, they succeeded at last in luring the queen into the toils. Not a moment was then lost in effecting the disgrace of Marlborough. When he presented himself at court, he was received with marked coldness, and the charge of peculation being revived and brought forward in a more tangible shape, the house of commons was instructed judicially to entertain it. By and by, a report came out, by which it was made to appear, that there was a very large deficiency in the general's accounts; and as the necessity of putting him on his trial was gravely asserted, the queen was persuaded to dismiss him from all his employments, under the pretext of leaving the avenues of public justice open. Finally, twelve new peers were created, by whose aid a majority in the upper house was secured, and Oxford and St. John were enabled a little longer to carry on the government, to mislead their mistress, and to disgrace their country.

The foundation of the charge brought by the queen's ministers against the most illustrious man of his age and country, rested, in the first instance, on the deposition of sir Solomon Medina, one of the principal contractors for supplying the allied armies with bread. This person stated, "that from 1707 to 1711, he had paid to the duke of Marlborough, for his own use, on the different contracts for the army the sum of 332,425 guilders; that he was obliged to supply twelve or fourteen wagons gratis, for the use of the duke himself; that on each contract he had presented Mr. Cardonel, his grace's secretary, with a gratuity of 500 ducats; and that he had paid Mr. Sweet, deputy-paymaster at Amsterdam, a separate allowance of one per cent. on all the moneys he received." The same individual further deposed "that Antonio Alvarez Machado, the preceding contractor, had advanced the like sums, in the same manner, from 1702 to 1706;" and the commissioners appointed to investigate this case, computed from these data that the duke of Marlborough had received and embezzled in the space of ten years, 664,851 guilders, four stivers, making in sterling money, as has already been stated, 63,3191. 33. 7d.

But the malice of Marlborough's enemies ended not here. He was likewise accused of having illegally appropriated to his own use the sum of 282,3661, by deducting two and a half per cent.

from the pay of the foreign auxiliaries, on a warrant unnecessarily concealed, and giving no account to the public as to the mode in which it was expended.

Such is the substance of that infamous report, which, in defiance of his grace's letter written from the Hague, the commissioners of public accounts laid before the house of commons; and it was on such ground as this that queen Anne consented to strip of all his public employments, a man who, whatever his conduct might have been to others, had during a long life served her with the utmost fidelity and success.

Our limits will not permit us to give of these disgraceful transactions the full account which, as matters of history, they deserve. We must content ourselves with stating, that though it was distinctly shown that the very same perquisites had been enjoyed by king William; though the ministers of the foreign powers averred that the percentage was a free gift awarded by their masters; though the royal warrant authorising him to accept the gratuity was produced by Marlborough's friends, and evidence was adduced that a very large share at least of the moneys arising out of it had been expended in procuring intelligence; a majority of 270 against 165 was found in this packed house of commons base enough to determine, first, "that the taking several sums of money, annually, by the duke of Marlborough from the contractors for furnishing the bread and bread-wagons, in the Low Countries, was unwarrantable and illegal ;" and, next, " that a deduction of two and a half per cent. from the pay of the foreign troops in her majesty's service, is public money, and ought to be accounted for." The resolutions being communicated to the queen, she replied, "that she had a great regard for whatever was presented to her by the commons, and would do her part to redress whatever they complained of." This was followed by an order to the attorney-general to prosecute the duke of Marlborough; and preparations for putting him on his trial in the court of queen's bench were immediately and ostentatiously made.

The conduct of the duke all this while was such as became his high renown and extraordinary merits. His dismissal from the queen's service, conveyed in a letter written by herself, he received not without indignation, yet he replied to it in a calm and dignified tone. To the suggestions of those who urged him, in imitation of lord Somers, to vindicate himself before the house of commons, he turned a deaf ear. The only step, indeed, which he conceived it not derogatory to his own character to take, was to sanction the compilation of an authentic narrative of his case, and to permit its publication. Never did any document carry upon its face stronger marks of truth; never was any party pamphlet more generally read and approved. The house of commons itself, though severely and justly censured, dared not vote the

statement a libel, and not a member endeavoured, because not a member was able, to answer it Nor were the ministers more fortunate in the minute investigation which they instituted as to the mode in which the general had disposed of vacant commissions. They found, that while numerous abuses had existed, and had even been considered as justifiable, during the reign of king William, Marlborough had never acted except with openness and propriety; and their failure here tended not a little to weaken the force of their grand charge, not only with the public at large, but among the most prejudiced of their own adher

ents.

The events thus described took place during the month of December, 1711: on the 5th of January, 1712, prince Eugene, the illustrious colleague of Marlborough, arrived in London. He was the bearer of a strong remonstrance from the emperor against the peace which the British cabinet seemed bent on concluding; and his presence, though it served not to divert the ministers from their design, seriously incommoded and displeased them. His honourable conduct towards his old companion in arms gave in particular excessive umbrage to the cabinet, by whom a direct attempt had been made to separate him from Marlborough's society; and he became in the end exposed, together with his friend and the whig leaders, to the foulest and most unfounded calumnies. Fresh stories were got up of intended conspiracies, in which Eugene and Marlborough were to be the chief actors. The queen was to be seized, the capital set on fire, Oxford and his associates put to death, and the elector of Hanover advanced to the throne. We blush for the credulity of our countrymen, both then and at a later period, when we find that the credibility of this tale depended entirely on the assertion of Plunket the jesuit spy, that it was believed at the moment, and found a place as true in the written memorials of such men as Swift and Macpherson.

Disgusted with the conduct of those in power, and hopeless of effecting a change, Eugene returned to the Continent on the 17th of March. He had remained long enough in London to witness the commencement of those invidious attacks by which the commons strove, with too much success, to alienate the feelings of the English people from their allies; and he quitted it under the humiliating impression that, if the war should be carried on at all, it must be conducted without any aid either in men or money from England.

With the events which followed upon this radical change of system in the king's councils, every reader of English history is acquainted. Neither the equivocations of Louis, nor the remonstrances of the confederate powers, could divert Oxford and his colleagues from their purpose, which they continued to pursue with unabated constancy, even after the death of the dauphin had rendered it next to impossible that the crown of France and

Spain should not devolve upon the same individual Peace they were determined to have, let its attainment cost what it might; and to accomplish that end, they consented to receive assurances, which the French monarch himself, while in the act of affording them, confessed that circumstances might render altogether nugatory. In like manner, though they despatched the duke of Ormond to succeed Marlborough in the command of their army, they secretly instructed him not to undertake any hostile operation, because a treaty was then in progress, of which the conclusion might hourly be expected, provided neither a defeat nor a victory intervened to cast insuperable obstacles in the way. The consequence was, that Eugene, after arranging an admirable plan of campaign, found himself paralysed at the very moment when it behoved him to strike, Ormond positively refusing to take part in a battle, and consenting, not without demur, to assist in the siege of Quesnoy.

Powerful as the ministers were in both houses of parliament, they could not succeed in suppressing a burst of indignation which attested the impression made on the minds of all honourable men by conduct so unprincipled as well as unexpected. Out of doors, one feeling, and one feeling only, seemed to prevail; while in the lords a keen debate arose, in which lord Halifax, the duke of Marlborough, the duke of Argyle, and earl Poulett, bore each a very conspicuous share. The latter nobleman, indeed, so completely transgressed the rules of decency and order, that he left to the hero of Blenheim but one resource in order to vindicate his personal honour from reproach. After defending the measures of government, lord Poulett went on to say, that "no one could doubt the duke of Ormond's bravery; but he does not resemble a certain general, who led troops to the slaughter, to cause a great number of officers to be knocked on the head in a battle, to fill his pocket by disposing of their commissions." On many previous occasions Marlborough had been compelled to bear up against the libellous insinuations of party writers, who accused him of protracting the war for the basest purposes; but an insult so gross and so personal as this had never till now been offered to him by one of his peers. He received it with perfect composure, did not so much as reply to it, but immediately on quitting the house sent lord Mohun to demand, in the language of the day, that earl Poulett "would take the air with him in the country." Lord Poulett became alarmed. He could not conceal his agitation, nor the cause of it, from his lady; and intimation of the affair being communicated to the secretary of state, the earl was placed under arrest. Finally, the queen interfering, and laying her commands on Marlborough that he would not prosecute the matter further, an apparent reconciliation took place; and the most illustrious man of his age was saved the mortification of appearing VOL. V.-9

in the field, as the personal antagonist of one whose very name would have been long ago forgotten but for this act of atrocious iniquity and

meanness.

With the disastrous and discreditable results of the campaign of 1712 we are no farther concerned than as they afford the best evidence of the extent of loss which the allied armies suffered by the removal from his post of their old and trusty com. mander. Betrayed by the English, on whom he had heretofore been accustomed to rely, Eugene sustained one defeat after another, till all the fortresses which the genius of Marlborough had wrested from them were recovered by the enemy. To these disasters it is indeed true that Ormond was not a witness; for, in obedience to instructions communicated from home, he had already drawn off with his native army to Dunkirk: but he left the auxiliaries behind, because these brave men chose to sacrifice their arrears of pay rather than be partakers in the disgrace to which their comrades were made subject. Meanwhile the peace, which it had been the object of the tories to conclude, was negotiated amid a thousand delays and difficulties; difficulties originating not more in the opposition of the whigs and their friends, than in the duplicity and wiliness of the French court. It had the effect at once of giving energy to Louis, and paralysing the efforts of the allies in all quarters; because the weaker powers were, one after another, prevailed upon, either by bribes or menaces, to follow the example of England, and accede to an armistice. Utrecht was accordingly fixed upon as a convenient point for the meeting of a congress; during which, articles of a general pacification might be drawn up, and signed by the ministers of the belligerent crowns.

Though stripped of all the influence which depends on office, Marlborough was still a thorn in the sides of the tory ministers; and the most ungenerous methods were devised for the purpose of rendering his situation irksome, and distracting his attention from public business. The press, scarcely less venal then than now, poured out a torrent of mercenary libels on his reputation. He was particularly accused of setting the example of party duels; and the quarrel which occurred between the duke of Hamilton and lord Mohun, with all its distressing consequences, was, in defiance of truth and common sense, laid to his door. Steps were taken to carry into effect the prosecution recommended by the house of commons; and the workmen employed at Blenheim were again encouraged to sue him for the payment of their wages. We have already taken occasion to observe, that nature had endowed this great man with a temperament peculiarly sensitive; we are not therefore surprised to find that these things cut him to the heart. Still, he bore them, if not without suffering, at least without complaint, so long as his friend Godolphin leaned upon him for those comforts which an ungrateful country denied him. But

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Godolphin, who had long laboured under a distressing and mortal complaint, died at last in the duke's house at St. Alban's. From that time Marlborough's resolution seems to have been taken; and he set himself at once to the task of carrying it into effect.

Having vested his estates in the hands of his sons-in-law, as trustees, and consigned 50,000l. to the care of his friend general Cadogan, with instructions to lodge it in the Dutch funds, Marlborough applied to the government, through the medium of Maynwaring, for a passport which might enable him to travel. It will scarcely be credited that even this miserable boon was not conceded without difficulty and hesitation. We learn from two letters addressed by the minister to Maynwaring, that attempts were made to deter her majesty from acceding to the request of her ancient favourite; and that, had not Oxford been actuated by a better spirit than swayed some of his colleagues, they might have proved successful. On the 31st of October, however, the deed in request was transmitted, and Marlborough made no delay in acting upon it. He took leave of his family and friends; and on the 27th of November, in the sixty-sixth year of his age, became a voluntary exile. Nor ought the fact to be concealed, however disgraceful to the country, that this illustrious man was permitted to take his passage in a common packet-boat, without any of those honours being paid to which his high rank and eminent services were entitled. He embarked at Dover under no discharge of cannon from the batteries; indeed, the only salute offered was that which the feelings of the master of the vessel prompted him, of his own accord, to pay.

If the feelings of Marlborough were wounded by the indifference to his departure displayed at home, the reception which awaited him abroad could not fail of bringing some degree of consolation along with it. So soon as the vessel entered the harbour of Ostend, and the knowledge that it bore so illustrious a freight obtained publicity, every thing was done which the authorities and the people could devise in order to testify the satisfaction experienced by all classes. The artillery from the town, the forts, and the shipping, thundered forth a welcome; guards of citizens thronged the quay, and the streets and avenues which led to it; the garrison stood to its arms; and the governor in person, followed by the principal military and civil functionaries, waited upon the landing-place to receive him. Thus attended, he was led, through the midst of applauding thousands, to the house of the chief magistrate, where he was sumptuously entertained, and treated with all the respect usually shown to crowned heads alone. Nor was his reception dissimilar in any one of the places through which he found it necessary to pass on his way to Aix la Chapelle. Parties of horse patrolled the country between Antwerp, and Maestricht, to warn the inhabitants of

the several towns and villages of the coming of their illustrious guest; and the shouts of the populace, the waving of handkerchiefs, nay, the very outpouring of tears, marked, wherever he went, the estimation in which he was held. At Aix la Chapelle, moreover, he was visited daily by persons of the highest rank from the neighbouring provinces, of whom one, the duke de Lesdiguières, was so much delighted, that on his return home he said to the abbot de Guilestre, "I can now say that I have seen the man who is equal to the marshal de Turenne in conduct, to the prince of Condé in courage, and superior to the marshal de Luxembourg in success."

Marlborough had quitted England alone; for what cause does not exactly appear; and he continued to reside in a species of incognito at Aix la Chapelle for some time. From this point he communicated both with prince Eugene and his friends at home; receiving from the former continued assurances of esteem, and from the latter information of events as they befell: but he was compelled, early in February, 1713, to withdraw to Maestricht, in consequence of a rumoured conspiracy to seize his person. Here the duchess joined him; when the danger, if such there ever was, having blown over, he removed to Frankfort on the Maine, where he fixed his temporary abode. But though blessed with her society, which to the last he valued more than any other thing upon earth, even here he was not permitted to repose in peace. Fresh charges were continually brought against him at homeas, that he had caused the troops to be mustered as complete when they were defective; that he bribed the commissioners to share in the guilt; and then pocketed the excess of pay issued. Of all this he was duly informed through a channel which might be regarded as demi-official; and hence he could not refuse, however irksome to himself, to refute the calumnies, and to overwhelm the calumniators with shame.

Among other excursions in which he indulged, one carried him to Mindelheim, the principality which the emperor had conferred upon him, and which he had been permitted by his own sovereign to accept. This occurred in the month of May,1713; and the inhabitants of the district showed,by the enthusiasm with which they received him, that to the order of things which he deemed it right to establish, theywere not opposed. But Marlborough was doomed to suffer wrong at the hands of every potentate whom he had served, those who derived the chief benefit from his services proving the most ungrateful; and to this general rule the emperor, in spite of the best exertions of Eugene, formed no exception. The treaty of Utrecht led to his dismissal by his native sovereign from the honours and offices which he had so long held under the British crown: the pacification of Baden stripped him of his principality of Mindelheim. After vainly opposing himself, single handed, to the power of France, the emperor was reduced to the necessity