of five Whig peers-Somers, Halifax, Wharton, Orford, and Sunderland-who, forcing themselves into office, ousted from the cabinet Harley and St. John, the most active and powerful of the Tories. Then for two years Whiggery ruled supreme. But a fall was at hand.

Abigail Hill, the daughter of a bankrupt merchant and a cousin of the Duchess of Marlborough, had crept by cunning and courteous ways into the position of waiting-woman to Queen Anne. She was a thorough Tory, and professed the highest of High Church principles. That endeared her much to Anne, who had never been anything but a Tory at heart. Marrying in 1707 the son of Sir Francis Masham, Abigail broke with the Duchess of Marlborough, of whose imperious temper the queen was heartily tired. The duchess was furious on the discovery of her cousin's private marriage, which the queen had honoured with her presence, and was still more furious when she found that Abigail had supplanted her in Anne's confidence and favour. Through Abigail Hill, Harley, who was her cousin, made interest at court, to be turned to good account in the future. Thus the political destinies of England, with all that hung on them, lay narrowed into the compass of a quarrel between women. Day by day Mrs. Masham's influence increased, and the queen longed for the time when she would be able to snap for ever the Marlborough chains which she had once been used to kiss and fondle. Even the dismissal of Harley, which Marlborough and Godolphin had forced on by staying away from the meetings of council, proved to be only a temporary check to the rising of the Tory star. The Sacheverell prosecution gave them the final victory.

The rector of St. Saviour's, Southwark-Dr. Henry Sacheverell-preached two violent sermons in 1709; the one (August 15th) at the Derby Assizes, the other (November 5th, Guy Fawkes's Day) at St. Paul's, before the Lord Mayor and Corporation of London. On the text, "Perils from false brethren,"

he grounded a series of abusive and libellous statements concerning the government and the prelates. Godolphin was

singled out under the nickname of Volpone. The 1709 bishops who wished for toleration were branded as traitors to the church. The Revolution was an unrighteous change and an unpardonable offence. The doctrines of passive obedience and non-resistance should form part of every good man's creed. “The Church of England, the Church of Christ, was in deadly peril, making it necessary for her defenders at once to assume the whole armour of God." Two of the aldermen who listened to this tirade perceived its drift, and called out for the prosecution of the preacher. The Whigs resolved to make an example of the daring demagogue. In vain Somers lifted his calm judicial voice, advising a passionless consideration of the case. Marlborough, Sunderland his son-in-law, and Godolphin pressed angrily on with the preparations for impeachment.

Before the assembled Lords in Westminster Hall the trial opened on the 27th of February 1710. The doctor stood at the bar, attended by two clergymen, Smalridge and Atter1710 bury, both, especially the last, of a higher stamp than

himself. The proceedings opened with the reading of the charges, which stated the obnoxious points of the sermons. Most notable among the managers of the impeachment, who occupied a raised dais, was Mr. Robert Walpole, who had joined the Whig ministry two years before as Secretary at War, and whose speech was now marked with unusual point and force. After his counsel had spoken, Sacheverell read a well-concocted defence, with which the pen of Francis Atterbury is said to have had something to do. From Westminster Hall to the Temple, where he lodged, the culprit was escorted in his chair every evening by crowds of idle and dissolute fellows, yelling at the top of their voices in his honour. The windows were lined with Tory fashionables, and the

doctor's neck was sorely strained by the numberless bows he lavished as he went. Tired of huzzas, the mob proceeded to action, emptied the dissenting chapels for materials to make bonfires, and lighted up all London with the glare of broken pews and pulpits. So passed the night of the 28th, until the Guards were ordered out, and the riot was quelled. The queen, who had her box, from within the curtains of which she witnessed the trial, could hardly get along the streets for the shouting crowds, hoarsely hoping that she was for the doctor. After three weeks had gone by, the Lords found Sacheverell guilty by sixty-eight votes to fifty-two; and he received sentence at the bar from Lord Chancellor Cowper, who ordered that he should be suspended from preaching for three years, and that his two obnoxious sermons should be burned before the Royal Exchange in presence of the Lord Mayor and sheriffs (March 23). Sacheverell made the most of his triumph, for as such his party looked upon a sentence so slight. Oxford became spasmodic in acknowledgment of her, darling son's display of Toryism. Then Sacheverell began to travel and to dine with corporations and other public bodies. At last the hot fire burned itself out. To the doctor himself came, what he chiefly prized, preferment and notoriety: to the Whig ministry, disgrace, and consequent triumph to the Tories.

The new ministry was formed in August. Harley was made Chancellor of the Exchequer, and St. John Secretary of State, while Lord Somers yielded the Presidency of the Council to Rochester, and Cowper the Great Seal to Simon Harcourt. Already Sunderland had retired in favour of Dartmouth, and Godolphin had broken his treasurer's staff. How Marlborough remained, fluttering in an unfriendly gale, like the last rag of one of his own banners--how the Tories flung him finally aside and made the dubious treaty of Utrecht-how Abigail's cousin, Harley, after having escaped the knife of a French assassin, became Earl of Oxford, and the libertine St. John turned into

Viscount Bolingbroke-how jealousy arose between the rival statesmen when they had become rival peers—and how Queen Anne sided with the wilier and abler of the two, need not here be told in detail. The victory for the present rested with the Tory faction.

A short time before the death of Anne, a furious scoldingmatch took place in her private room between two persons who had helped each other up the ladder of distinction. Lady Masham and the Earl of Oxford bitterly reproached each other; and the dispute ended with a demand from the queen for Oxford's white staff-the badge of his treasurership. 1714 Anne died of apoplexy on the 1st of August 1714. The Whigs lost no time before sending off a special messenger for Elector George, and concentrating troops enough around London to meet any Jacobite stir that might arise. When the German prince, who had passed middle age, landed at Greenwich (September 18), he showed unmistakable signs of a preference for the Whigs. Marlborough, Sunderland, Somers, were greeted with smiles, while Ormond and Oxford were snubbed, and Bolingbroke was already bewailing the loss of office. The Earl of Halifax became First Lord of the Treasury; but the real head of the government was Lord Townshend : Marlborough once more commanded the forces. These forces were then receiving their pay from a minister of minor note, who soon became a power in the land. His name was Robert Walpole.

CHAPTER V.

SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.

Rise of Walpole-The 'Fifteen-Septennial Act-Swedish difficulty-Alberoni-Byng at Passaro-Glenshiel-The Peerage Bill-South Sea Scheme-Walpole's policy-Atterbury-Death of George the FirstTownshend resigns.

THE

'HE domineering, illiterate statesman, who by force of will, directed by a penetrating knowledge of mankind, managed to make himself the ruler of England during the greater part of the reigns of the first and the second George, was born in 1676 at the manor of Houghton in Norfolk, where his ancestors had long resided. Massingham, Eton, and King's College, Cambridge, combined to give him the little book-learning he possessed. He could quote Horace a little, but knew almost nothing of history. Knowing men, however, and being prompt in resolve and action, he held his ground marvellously in the face of an opposition which combined strength and brilliance in a very uncommon degree.

In 1700 he got a wife, an estate, and a seat in Parliamentthe two latter by his father's death. The member for Castle Rising displayed so much aptitude for business, and became in time so skilful a debater on the Whig side, that Godolphin and Marlborough welcomed him to their ranks as a most important ally. In 1705 he was made one of the council to Prince George, the Lord High Admiral. Three years later, when a Whig government was formed, Walpole was selected to be