meet me in this friendly way of composing our difference, by which only we can hope for those good effects which will make us both happy, yourself more glorious than all the other parts of your life, and your memory dear to all posterity."*

At the same time that he addressed the above to the queen, he transmitted orders to his friends in England to support, with all their influence, her present administration; and, that he might not be wanting in any probable mean of advancing his interest, wrote also the following explanation of his views with regard to religion:-" In answer to yours, I cannot, at this distance, and in my present circumstances, enter into disputes of religion; but those of the church of England have no reason to doubt of my favour and protection, after the early assurances I gave them in my instructions, bearing date the third of March, 1702, which you have seen, and I am resolved to make good. I knew my grandfather, and my father too had always a good opinion of the principles of the church of England relating to monarchy; and experience sufficiently showeth, that the crown was never struck at but she felt the blow; and though some of her chief professors have failed in their duty, we must not measure the principles of a church by the actions of some particulars.

"Plain dealing is best in all things, especially in matters of religion; and, as I am resolved never to dissemble in religion, so I shall never tempt others to do it; and, as well as I am satisfied of the truth of my own religion, yet I shall never look worse upon any persons, because in this they chance to differ from me; nor shall I refuse, in due time and place, to hear what they have to say upon this subject. But they must not take it ill if I use the same liberty I allow to others to adhere to the religion, which I in my conscience think the best; and I may reasonably expect that liberty of conscience for myself which I deny to none."*

What entertainment the queen gave to the above letter has never, so far as we know, been explained. That she had some inclinations towards her brother in his exiled and helpless condition can hardly be doubted; but when the narrow

ness of her intellect, and the timidity of her character is considered, the measures proposed were certainly too bold for her to adopt without much consideration, and a far more decisive manifestation of public feeling in favour of James than had yet been given. Nor do we find that this address, so remarkable for moderation, and which some of his warmest friends had so long solicited him in vain to emit, produced any sensible effect in his favour.

In the meantime, the ministry were pursuing diligently their pacific plans. Prior, the poet, had been sent to Paris in the month of July, and returned in the month of August, accompanied by Monsieur Mesnager and the Abbe Gualtier, with whom, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the emperor and the states, and a vehement memorial from the elector of Hanover, preliminaries of peace were signed in the month of September, and it was determined to open a general congress at Utrecht in the beginning of the ensuing year. The parliament was opened on the 7th of December by a speech from the queen, in which she informed them, that, "notwithstanding the arts of those that delighted in war, the place and the time for treating of a general peace was appointed." She still, however, professed to hold the interests of the allies as inseparable from her own; and, as they had expressed the utmost confidence in her, she would do her utmost to procure them satisfaction. She, at the same time, professed great zeal for the protestant religion, and the liberties of the nation, and promised, on the return of peace, to pay a particular attention to the encouragement of trade.+

The commons re-echoed the speech in the most cordial manner, but the lords still continued refractory, and, after a long and keen debate, introduced a clause into the address, stating "their conviction, that no peace could be either safe or honourable for Great Britain, or for Europe, if Spain and the West Indies were allotted to any branch of the house of Bourbon."

The duke of Hamilton, who was now become a particular

* Macpherson's History of Great Britain, vol. iv. p. 234.

+ Sommerville's History of Great Britain during the reign of Queen Anne, p. 449.

favourite with the queen, having, with a view to strengthen the tories in the upper house, where they were still in danger of being baffled by superior numbers, been created a peer of Great Britain, by the title of baron Dutton, in Cheshire, and duke of Brandon, in Suffolk, came forward this session and claimed his seat accordingly, which occasioned the most acrimonious opposition. Counsel was heard for the duke and for the queen, and though Queensberry had been already admitted into the house, (under a protest, indeed, by some lords,) in perfectly similar circumstances, and though the whole Scotish peers supported him, and the whole weight of court influence was thrown into his scale, the duke was rejected by a vote of the house, fifty-seven voting against, and fifty-two for him.* Against this decision a dissent was entered by the Scotish lords, December the twentieth, and they withdrew from the house. This procedure greatly alarmed the queen, and, on the seventeenth of January following, she sent a message to the lords, requesting their advice in settling this matter to the satisfaction of the kingdom. The lords, upon this, passed some resolutions, which, though, for the present, they produced no alteration with regard to admission into that house, pacified the Scotish lords so far that they returned to their stations.

Foiled in the attempt to strengthen their interest in the upper house, by the introduction of the duke of Hamilton as a British peer, the ministry had recourse to a yet bolder measure, that of creating twelve new peers in one day, the

* Douglas, eighth duke of Hamilton, and fifth duke of Brandon, having presented a petition to the king for a summons to parliament as duke of Brandon, his majesty ordered a reference to the house of lords, by whom, after hearing counsel, the opinion of the twelve judges was required. They unanimously agreed, 6th of June, 1782, that his grace was entitled to such summons, and that his majesty was not restrained by the 23d article of Union, from creating Scotish peers, peers of Great Britain. The house of lords therefore resolved, that his grace, Douglas, duke of Hamilton and Brandon, was entitled to be summoned to parliament. The same being reported to the king, his majesty, on the 11th of June, 1782, caused a summons to be issued accordingly, and his grace, as duke of Brandon, took his seat in the house of peers, of which his family had been for so many years deprived. -Peerage of Scotland, vol. i. pp. 723, 724.

thirty-first of December,* by which they were enabled effectually to overcome all opposition. Such a stretch of prerogative was not at all calculated to sooth the strong suspicions that were already entertained of their secret purposes; but though exclaimed against, as most extravagant, by reasonable, or moderate, men of all parties, as there was none of the twelve belonging to the Scotish peerage, it could not be pronounced illegal, and probably, considering the necessity of the case, the projectors of the measure thought this negative quality sufficient for their justification. It is a precedent, however, which no minister has yet arisen, and it is to be hoped, no one ever will arise bold enough to imitate. The British peerage is a very noble institution, and the house of peers forms a most august tribunal, and one that has been eminently useful in preserving to the nation those blessings which have been purchased with its best blood; but should the time ever come, when, to further party views and support prerogative, its members are multiplied by the dozen, its respectability must cease, and its utility become more than doubtful.

The duke of Queensberry, who was secretary of state for Scotland, and to whom the superintendence of Scotish affairs ever since the Union had principally been confided, being now dead, the duke of Argyle and the earl of Marr affected to have the disposal and management of all things relating to that country. The secretaryship, however, as there was no possibility of adjusting matters between the earls of Marr and Ilay, who both laid claim to it, was for the present allowed to lie dormant. The pretensions of these noblemen, Argyle and Marr, being strenuously urged on both sides, and there being no one that could hold the balance even between them, occasioned, in a short time, an entire alienation of affection, and the adoption of a course of conduct, which was in the

• The first question upon which these lords were called to vote was for an adjournment, which the whigs were anxious to prevent, when the lord Wharton, who was more remarkable for wit than for good morals, " treated them as a petty jury, and asked whether they proposed to vote individually, or to convey their decision by their foreman." Coxe's Life of Marlborough, vol. iii. p. 483.

end fatal to the family of the latter, and to the cause which in an evil hour he espoused.*

Like the session that preceded it, great part of this was spent in following out those plans that had been laid for criminating the late ministry, upon the successful issue of which, the stability of the present was evidently supposed, in a great measure, to depend; and the Scotish Jacobites, in the meantime, aided by the English tories, followed up their purposes against the church of Scotland, with a steady and fatal effect. Far from being satisfied with their triumph in the case of Mr. Greenshields, they had determined upon obtaining an ample toleration for the episcopalians in the former session, and had been diverted from their purpose, of which the ministry did not at that time approve, only by a promise from the queen, to lay it as an injunction upon her ministers to procure it for them in this, together with the restoration of patronages, which, by an act of the Scotish parliament in the reign of king William, had been taken away. So secretly too were their plans concerted, that, excepting a few of their confidential friends, the world knew nothing of any such design, till the motion for toleration was made in the house of commons, January twenty-first, 1712, where it was carried without almost any opposition, though to the premier Harley, now lord Oxford, it does not appear to have been at all palatable. This bill, at the same time that it gave full freedom to the episcopalians in the exercise of their worship, with all its rites and ceremonies, withdrew the civil sanction from the decisions of the church of Scotland, thus robbing her, as Burnet remarks, of that "which in most places is looked on as the chief, if not the only strength of church power."+

Though the Jacobites had not made their specific objects generally known to the public, there was abundant room for concluding, that their views upon, and their feelings towards the Scotish church, were of the most hostile description. The commission of the General Assembly, of course, despatched

*Lockhart Papers, vol. i. p. 334. † Ibid. vol. i. pp. 378, 379. History of his Own Times, vol. i. [fol. ed.] p. 594.