1701. Death of

James II.

and unwise King James died, and, to the great indignation and astonishment of the English, Louis seemed to forget his recognition of William, and declared the young son of James to be King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. This great insult roused the English spirit to defiance; they crowded round William urging him to war. He wished for nothing better, but he never went to war again. His health had always been very bad, and now, though he was but fifty-one years old, he was visibly dying. He was riding on the turf at Hampton Court, when his horse stumbled over a mole-hill and threw him; though it was but a slight accident, the shock was William III. too much for him, and in a few weeks he died.

1702. Death of

Long afterwards the Jacobites used to drink a toast "to the little gentleman in black velvet, who did such good service in 1702," as though they thought the Great Revolution was all undone when King William died.

LECTURE LII.-WHIGS AND TORIES.

Peace of Utrecht.

Queen Anne and the Churchills. War with France. Battle of Blenheim. Negro slaves. Scotland. George of Hanover. Attempts of the Stuart princes.

Whigs and Tories.

1702. Anne.

1. As William and Mary left no children, the Princess Anne, sister to Mary, and a Protestant like her, succeeded to the throne. She was not an interesting character. Macaulay says that "when in good humour she was meekly stupid, and when in bad humour was sulkily stupid." She was, however, beloved by the people, for she was simple, affectionate, and good. She was, like most of her subjects, warmly attached to the Church of England, and above all, she was a true Englishwoman. The English nation, who have always been noted for their hatred of foreigners, and who had never loved William, though they could not fail to respect him, were heartily sick of the Dutch, and glad to be under a sovereign of their own blood again. Her husband, Prince of Denmark. George, was even less interesting than herself. description of his character, written while he was still living, ends with telling us, "He is very fat, loves news, his bottle, and the queen;" and that "he has neither many friends nor enemies in England." It seems he was too dull to make either. No one thought of making or even calling him king, and for a long time the real governors of both queen and country were two very clever people, the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. They had not vet reached the high titles of duke and duchess, though they are best known under them. Churchill was still on his

Prince George

The

A

Churchills. road of preferment from a simple page to the highest subject in the land, and was now an earl. The duchess had been for many years the queen's greatest friend. She was as clever as her mistress was stupid, and as overbearing as her mistress was meek. "The loyalty, the patience, the self-devo

tion were on the side of the mistress; the whims, the haughty airs, the fits of ill-temper were on the side of the waiting-woman."

2. The queen and her friend were so intimate that they dropped their titles, and gave each other the names of Mrs. Morley and Mrs. Freeman. The Duchess of Marlborough said that she chose to be called Mrs. Freeman to show how frank and bold she was. The two husbands, Prince George and the duke, were Mr. Morley and Mr. Freeman. The duke was a most remarkable man; he was wonderfully handsome and fascinating in his manners. His education had not been much attended to; he never found writing an easy task, and he said himself that all he knew of English history he had learnt from Shakespeare's plays; but by his own genius he rose to be the greatest soldier and commander of his age. He was noted for sweet temper and for humanity far greater than was common among soldiers and generals of those times. But he was not honourable. He had betrayed King James in the most base and ungrateful manner when his need was the sorest, and had been quite as ready to betray his new master, William, when he thought it for his own interest. Both he and his wife were avaricious, and even miserly. All the world knew of this weakness of his, and a story is told how at one time, when he was unpopular with the people, they mobbed another nobleman in mistake for the duke. "I will easily convince you," said this nobleman, "that I am not my Lord Marlborough. In the first place, I have only two guineas about me, and in the second place they are very much at your service." Everybody in England and abroad knew how completely Anne was under the dominion of the Churchills; and on the Continent it was believed that the handsome earl was her lover; but that was entirely wrong. Anne was always faithful to her husband, and the person she really loved was the duchess.

France.

3. As soon as King William was dead, leaving a great war with France just beginning, Marlborough becaine the principal. man in the country, and one of the principal men War with in Europe. The war went on for many years, and was very glorious to England. The object of it still was to prevent France, and the ever-encroaching Louis, from becoming too powerful. He was now attempting to add Spain to his other dominions by making his grandson king of that country. When he dismissed him to take possession of his crown he was reported to have said, "There are no more Pyrenees." The other nations of Europe, including England,

M M

were determined that the Pyrenees should not be obliterated, and that France and Spain should never be united. It was in the course of this war that the English got possession of Gibraltar, which they have kept ever since, and which is looked on as the key of the Mediterranean Sea.

1704. Battle of Blenheim.

4. But the most important of the fighting was not in Spain, nor did the Duke of Marlborough go there himself. Most of the German states took part in the war also; Prussia, Hanover, and some others, sided with England; Bavaria and Cologne took part with the French. Of all Marlborough's great victories, the most famous was that of Blenheim in Bavaria, the name of which is very familiar to us, partly through the palace which was built and presented to Marlborough by the nation, and named after his greatest triumph, partly by the charming little poem of Southey. "What good came of it at last?" says the child in that poem. it might almost be said to turn the fortunes of the whole war; though for that year the French forces were broken to pieces, and all the conquests they had made in Germany were taken back from them, and though they lost one of their most valuable allies, Bavaria, yet there were many people in England to ask the same question. The Tory party highly disapproved of the war, and thwarted the counsels of Marlborough in all the ways they could.

Though

5. One at least of their motives for this opposition was not a very noble one. They disapproved of the war with France because it made French wine so dear. "All the bottle companions," says one historian, "many physicians, and great numbers of the lawyers and inferior clergy, were united together in the faction against the Duke of Marlborough." "It was strange," says another, "how much the desire for French wine and the dearness of it alienated many men from the Duke of Marlborough's friendship."

6. There were other reasons against continuing the war which had great weight with the Tory party, one of which, perhaps, was that the King of France was the friend and protector of the old and exiled royal family. They came into power again at last; the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough fell into disfavour; the queen took another favourite, and peace was made with France. The great Duke was deprived of all his offices, retired to the Continent, and never saw his mistress again. After her death he was called back to England, raised to his former posts, and when he died was buried with

1713.

Treaty of

Utrecht.

great glory in Westminster Abbey. It was agreed upon in the peace made at the time of his disgrace that Spain and France should never be united, though the French prince was suffered to be King of Spain; that England should keep Gibraltar and the island of Minorca in the Mediterranean, and that she should receive a large French province in North America, which is now called Nova Scotia. The treaty of Utrecht, however, as this peace is called, was not to the real glory, though it was to the advantage, of England. In making it she deserted her allies in such a dishon ourable way that her own soldiers were bitterly ashamed, and she really for that time deserved the title, which causes an Englishman such cruel pain, of "Perfide Albion." One of the stipulations of the same treaty was, that England should have the right of supplying the Spanish colonies in America with negro slaves.

The slave

trade.

7. It was hundreds of years since slavery had seemed to be extinguished for ever; even the stern Conqueror William had seen the duty of putting down the Bristol slave trade; and one cannot but wonder, after so many centuries of Christianity and growing civilization, to find it again. in full force. The only explanation we can see is that the slaves now in question were not men of the same race and religion, but negroes and heathen. Even yet men were far from realizing what St. Paul had known so well, that "God had made of one blood all the nations of the earth;" and though they questioned whether it would be lawful to hold Christians in bondage, they had no such doubt about unbaptized Pagans.

8. The employment of negro slaves, wonderful to say, had beer. begun from motives of the truest humanity, and was encouraged by one of the most tender-hearted and pitiful of Christians. Seeing how cruelly the Spanish worked the native Americans in the silver mines, not long after the discovery of America, a priest named Las Casas, out of pure benevolence, recommended the employing of negroes, knowing that they were a much stronger race, and could endure hardships under which the poor Americans sank. Little did he foresee what he was setting on foot; the kidnapping, the tortures, the murders. This wicked trade brought great profits, and the English people were so dead to any feeling of pity for the wretched negroes, that this part of the Treaty of Utrecht seems to have pleased them almost better than any other.

9. Not only did the Tories gain the upper hand in the matter