same formalities as are shown towards the sovereign. With difficulty pursuing his way through the crowded streets, where every eye was eager to behold his person, and every tongue to hail his presence, he was conducted to Vintners' Hall, and partook of a splendid entertainment, given by the lord mayor and magistracy of the city.

The renewal of this public spectacle increased the popularity of the victorious general, and not only silenced the malice of his enemies, but gave additional zeal and energy to the administration of which he was the principal support.

Amidst these scenes of exultation and festivity, the important business of the state was not suffered to languish. The failure of all attempts to secure the Protestant succession, by the guarantee of the confederate powers, rendered the ministers doubly anxious to promote that object at home by the union with Scotland. As this was a domestic measure, and principally confided to Godolphin, it belongs rather to the province of the national historian than to that of the biographer. It is, therefore, sufficient to observe, that Marlborough, though engaged in military and diplomatic transactions, yet took a warm interest in an arrangement which he considered as involving, not merely the actual, but the future prosperity of England, and the permanent tranquillity of Europe. For this purpose he exerted his influence with the duke of Argyle, Lord Mar, and the Scottish nobility and gentry, and uniformly pressed Godolphin to employ no one in the administration of that country who was even suspected of disaffection, but in all cases to regard the paramount interests of England. A single extract from his correspondence, written at the time when the measure was yet in agitation, strikingly exhibits the warmth of his sentiments on a subject of such national moment.

To Lord Godolphin.

"Helchin, August 9. — What you say of both parties is so true, that I do, with all my soul, pity you. Care must be taken against the malice of the angry party; and notwithstanding their malicious affection of crying the church may be ruined by the Union, the Union must be supported; and I hope the reasonable men of the other party will not oppose the enlarging of the bottom, so that it may be able to support itself.

*

I had last night the honour of yours of the 13th, and am very glad to find that the commission has so unanimously agreed. I do with all my heart wish the parliament of both nations may do the same, so that her

majesty may have the glory of finishing this great work, for which she will not only deserve to be blessed in this, but also in future ages.

Before his departure for the Continent, the measure had been matured by Godolphin and the Whigs; and the commissioners, who had been already appointed in behalf of the two nations, had proceeded with such address and promptitude, that the difficulties arising from the leaven of Jacobitism in Scotland, as well as from the independent character of a high-spirited nation, were gradually overcome. The conditions were prepared for the deliberation of the English legislature early in the spring.

It may easily be imagined that an arrangement of this nature called forth all the hostility of the violent Tories, who found warm auxiliaries in the Jacobites. The arguments of Nottingham, Rochester, and their adherents, were, however, successfully combated by the treasurer and the Whig lords, in the House of Peers, and in the Commons by the ablest of the same party, as well as by the plausible eloquence of Harley and St. John, and the legal acuteness of Sir Simon Harcourt, who framed the bill of ratification. The combined efforts of the Whigs and moderate Tories vanquished all opposition, and it was carried through both houses with a vigour and despatch which has seldom distinguished any public measure of equal moment. Finally, on the 6th of March it received the sanction of the queen, who addressed the legislature in a speech strongly expressive of her satisfaction, declaring it a peculiar happiness that in her reign so full provision was made for the peace and quiet of her people, and for the security of the national religion, by so firm an establishment of the Protestant succession throughout Great Britain.

No national measure more deeply involved the welfare of the whole island; nor were the interests and even prejudices of two nations, once in the highest degree hostile, ever more happily combined. The act of security was repealed, and the same order of succession, in the Protestant line of Hanover, established in both kingdoms. The two legislatures were blended and consolidated, and the share assigned to Scotland in the national representation was so liberal as to make ample amends for the loss of her own independent parliament. Similar address was evinced in arranging the

delicate point of a religious establishment; and the permanence of the two distinctions of Protestantism, which existed in both countries, was secured by collateral provisions, rendering each system of worship independent and predominant in the respective kingdoms.

On points of trade, the subjects of both countries were admitted to the same privileges; the burden of taxation was regulated according to the means and revenues of each; and in matters of justice and police, care was equally taken that the prejudices of the Scots might not be shocked by the introduction of new laws and regulations, even though superior to their own.

*

The greatest blow was thus given to the hopes of the Stuart family, which had been struck since the revolution and it may be recorded as an answer to the numberless accusations and surmises against the principles of Marlboborough and Godolphin, that such a measure was accomplished by them, in opposition to the efforts of a powerful combination of Tories and Jacobites, both in England and Scotland, and under a queen who not only detested the Hanover line, but who was beginning to turn with renewed affection towards the surviving members of her unfortunate family.

Marlborough remained in England as long as the foreign affairs would permit, and assisted at several of the discussions which arose on the subject of the union. He had the satisfaction to observe the legislative provisions completed before his departure, and quitted England in full confidence that the same harmony which had proved of such advantage in the important transactions of this session, would continue to subsist between the Whigs and moderate Tories.

Scarcely, however, had he reached the Continent, before he received the unwelcome intelligence of a misunderstanding between Harley and the Whigs. Fears being justly entertained that advantage would be taken of the interval before the establishment of the Union, on the first of May,

Numerous volumes have been written on the Union, which it would be endless to specify. We may, however, refer the curious reader for the secret history of that transaction to the work of De Foe, the Stuart Papers, printed by Macpherson, for the year 1707, and the Lockhart Papers, recently published, which contain many curious particulars of this great event. But the most satisfactory, as well as candid ard im partial account, appears in Somerville's History of Queen Anne.

to evade the duties on import, which were then to be common to both countries, a law was proposed in the lower house to prevent the expected abuse. On the third reading of the bill, Harley introduced a clause, tending to render the provisions more complete by a retrospective effect. This regulation greatly offended the Scots in general, who regarded it as an infraction of the Union, and was no less obnoxious to the Whigs, either from national or personal motives. By the interest of the whole Tory party it was, however, carried through the House of Commons, but thrown out by the Whigs in the Lords. Harley still persisted in his design, and to give time for digesting a new regulation, the queen was induced to adopt a proposal for a temporary recess. Accordingly she repaired to the house on the 8th of April, and announced a prorogation till the 14th. On the resumption of business, the measure was again brought forward, and a new law passed the Commons; but as it created great disputes and difference of opinion, it was quietly withdrawn.

Marlborough received notice of this transaction from Harley, St. John, Godolphin, and Sunderland. The two former merely announced the fact, without a comment. Godolphin, though briefly, assigned it to the true cause. "The close," he observes, "of the best session of parliament that England ever saw, has been unhappily hindered by a broil between the two houses, which is not yet ended. It would be tedious to trouble you with all the particulars, but it is chiefly imputable, as most other ill accidents, to private animosities." But Sunderland bitterly inveighed against the duplicity of the secretary, in a tone which shows the incurable jealousy reigning between the two parties. "I believe," he says, "you will be surprised at this short prorogation. It is entirely occasioned by him who is the author of all the tricks played here. I need not name him, having done it in my last letter to you. I will only say, no man in the service of a government ever did act such a part. I wish those for whom he has acted it were ever capable of thinking him in the wrong, for I fear it may be, some time or other, too late. I don't write so full of professions to you as some do, but I am sure my heart is more sincere."

* Meaning Harley, who is often called in the Whig painphilets and ballads "the Trickster."

THE great advantages which the allies had gained in the preceding campaign were suddenly exposed to imminent danger, by the appearance of a new and extraordinary actor on the theatre of affairs. Charles XII., king of Sweden, at

an age when the mind scarcely begins to display its faculties, or the body its vigour, suddenly rose into distinction, as a hero and a statesman. Attacked at once by the three northern sovereigns, his latent energies were roused into action. The youthful warrior not only repelled the invaders, but turned the tide of war on his enemies, with an energy and success which had not been shown since the days of Alexander the Great, whose enterprising character he both studied and emulated. Gathering strength from exertion, and extending his views in proportion to his success, he first reduced the king of Denmark to sign a dishonourable peace; and then bursting into the Russian territories, on the shores of the Baltic, he defeated the czar, Peter, in a series of victories, which assume the character of romance. Turning next into Poland, he dethroned King Augustus, and gave the crown to Stanislaus Letzinski, a nobleman whom accident first offered to his notice. He next directed his course into Germany, and leading his invincible army into Saxony, the electoral territory of the dethroned monarch, forced him to resign the crown to Stanislaus, to renounce his alliance with Russia, and to grant quarters and accommodations to the army which had effected his humiliation, allowing him only the name and honours of a king. As if meditating new enterprises, he took up his quarters at Alt Ranstadt, and imperiously required the European powers to acknowledge Stanislaus, and to guarantee the treaty of peace concluded with Augustus.

The appearance of this military meteor, and the presence of a numerous and victorious army, attracted the attention of all the states who were engaged in the mighty struggle for the Spanish monarchy. It was evident that the accession of so considerable a force would give the preponderance to the party whose cause its chief should espouse. The king