English literature. This pamphlet, under the authority of her majesty's reference to libels, the lord Wharton complained of the very day the address referred to was voted by the lords; and, a few passages being read, it was immediately voted to be a false and malicious libel; and Morphew, the printer, and Barber, the publisher, together with their servants, were ordered into custody. After undergoing separate examinations, however, they were discharged without having made any discovery of the author. The author was, indeed, safely concealed under the care of the ministers themselves, some of whom there was good ground for believing had been, if not art and part in the writing his pamphlet, at least privy to its publication, but, by professing great zeal against the author, and showing apparently great alacrity in adopting measures for his discovery, they succeeded in screening him from that vengeance which his enemies had hoped to inflict upon him.* A more successful attack was, at the same time, made in the house of commons upon Sir Richard Steele, a member of that house, an author of great merit, and a distinguished champion of the whigs, on account of three several pamphlets, The Englishman, The Crisis, and A Letter to the Englishman, each of them subscribed by his name. Of some of these pamphlets Sir Richard was not the author, but instead of revoking or attempting to soften any thing in them, he added to the provocation, by the most pointed declamation against the measures of administration, and declared that he had written and published these pamphlets with the same cheerfulness and satisfaction with which he had abjured the pre * The queen herself went most cordially into the measures adopted for discovering the author of this pamphlet, from a strong prejudice which she entertained against Swift. This prejudice she had imbibed from Dr. Sharp, the late archbishop of York, who, when some one recommended Swift for a bishopric, advised her majesty first to make him a christian, and it was strengthened daily by the dutchess of Somerset, who supposed herself to have been ridiculed by Swift in his Windsor Prophecy. Dr. Sharp was not alone in his view of Swift's character. Dr. Smalridge, when Sacheveral attempted to flatter him, by supposing him the author of The Tale of a Tub, answered with indignation, "Not all that you or I have in the world, nor all we ever shall have, should hire me to write The Tale of a Tub."-Sheridan and Johnson's Lives of Swift. tender. He was supported by all the eloquence of the whigs, particularly by Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Walpole, who denounced, in a strain of the keenest invective, the lord treasurer Oxford, as the patron of all the seditious publications, that, to the endangering the protestant succession, had of late inundated the nation. The tories, confident in their numbers, spared themselves the trouble of elaborate replies, and the motions, finding the pamphlets seditious, and expelling Sir Richard the house, were carried by sweeping majorities. Though the tories were thus upon the whole still triumphant, from the now but ill dissembled enmity of Oxford and Bolingbroke, the interests of the pretender, it was feared by his friends, and by none more than the Scotish Jacobites, were not attended to with that watchful diligence which was necessary to bring them to a speedy and a favourable conclusion; and when they reflected upon the state of the queen's health, and the little probability of its being restored, they were filled with the most painful misgivings. It was, therefore, determined that lord Bolingbroke, for they began now to despair of Oxford, should be conversed with upon the subject, and urged to more energetic measures, which, if he declined to adopt, he was to receive the support of the party no longer. Mr. Lockhart of Carnwath and Sir John Packington were the deputies employed on this occasion. They were to represent particularly the shameful neglect of the army, that had hitherto been officered only by men of dangerous principles, and to insist upon its being purged with all convenient speed, and placed under the direction of persons known to be well affected to the church and the crown, "all which was done," says Lockhart, "in as plain and simple a manner as possible." Bolingbroke confessed "he was sufficiently sensible that a great deal of precious time had been lost, and many good opportunities neglected, and, for his own part, he was innocent thereof, and the whole blame lay upon lord Oxford; what that lord's private views might be, he could not divine; but he believed he had now, in a good measure, convinced the queen, that they were not such as she wisht and approved of, and would terminate in her own and her family's ruin, and he hoped that lord would not have it in his power to retard business as he had done."* At the same time, his lordship stated, that the utmost degree of prudence was necessary with the queen, who could not easily be persuaded to lay aside the good opinion she had entertained of my lord Oxford, and, therefore, they behoved still to have a little patience, lest he should fly off, and, joining with the whigs, add to the many difficulties that already lay in the way of their favourite object. His lordship's apology, however reasonable, was not at all palatable to the deputies, who either did not understand, or did not sympathize with him under his already multiplying embarrassments; and they threatened his lordship, though they would not desert the queen, with the adoption of such measures as they thought most conducible to their purposes, without regard to the views either of himself or lord Oxford. When they applied to their brethren, however, "they found so many, even honest, well-designing persons, wheedled over by my lord Bolingbroke, that they were constrained to suspend the execution of several material projects which they had formed."+ One of these projects was another attempt at dissolving the Union, which we find Lockhart pressing upon his four associates of whom we have already taken notice, as so successfully prosecuting their enterprises against the Scotish. church—as what was necessary for compelling the ministry to greater activity, and as what, in the present state of parties, with prudent management, they might easily obtain. Three of these gentlemen, however, Mr. Murray, Mr. Carnegy, and Sir Alexander Cuming, in prospect of advancing their own personal interests, "had been at a good deal of pains to ingratiate themselves with the lord Bolingbroke; they fawned upon and flattered him to an intolerable degree, and devoted themselves absolutely to him; which suiting with his vanity, they became his particular favourites, and, looking upon him as the rising sun, they expected mighty things from him, and gave themselves prodigious airs, as if nothing relating to Scotland should have its rise and proceed but from and by * Lockhart Papers, vol. i. pp. 441, 442. + Ibid. p. 442. themselves." The consequences of so much expectation were such as every reader will readily anticipate: " they opposed what Lockhart aimed at with a great deal of warmness; they said that my lord Bolingbroke was a good man and a wise man, and knew what was fit to be done and when to do it; that for any private set of men to pretend to drive the ministry, was taking too much upon them; that, for their parts, they would have no concern in such measures, and, if others did pursue them, they did not doubt but they would repent it."* An union of views, that had continued for so many years, was thus at once broken up; and that, too, at a time when unanimity was of the last importance. After a few weeks, however, they agreed to make one effort more in behalf of the Scotish episcopalians; and Lockhart, who had already given abundant proofs of his zeal, was again employed as the framer of a bill to be brought into parliament, "for resuming 'the bishops' revenues in Scotland, and applying the same towards the relief of the episcopal clergy, and the support of such ministers as should accept of, and lay claim to the benefits of the toleration act." Lockhart was at first rather shy; but, after being assured that the queen was sincere and hearty in the measure, looking upon the application of these revenues to other uses as nothing less than sacrilege, and that he might expect the hearty concurrence of both Bolingbroke and Marr, he seems to have entered upon the project with his usual warmth, and without any loss of time or trouble, as he had a bill lying by him to that effect, that he had intended to have brought forward several years previous to this. A difference, however, happily arose among them, respecting the extent of the resumption, some of them wishing, for the sake of their friends who enjoyed salaries there, to spare that which had been granted to the universities, while others, among whom was Lockhart himself, insisted that it should be an unlimited and unconditional resumption, very justly, in their own way, regarding that part which was bestowed upon the universities the most mischievously applied of the whole, "seeing these · universities at present were seminaries of rebellion and *Lockhart Papers, vol. i. p. 444. schism."* Owing to this difference of opinion, some of the party became, first scrupulous about the propriety of prosecuting the subject, then cold supporters of it, and at last its avowed enemies. Some of the nobility, too, had, in the meantime, represented it to the queen as a measure fraught with danger to the internal tranquillity of the country, which awakening her fears, she declared she would withold her assent to the bill, should it even pass both houses, and it was dropped, though with great reluctance. A plan was also brought forward for new modelling the Scotish militia, and assimilating it exactly to that of England. This also met with violent opposition from many of the Scotish members, who, by dexterously taking advantage of a thin house, succeeded in postponing the discussion to a day so distant, that the parliament was prorogued before its arrival, and the measure, of course, fell to the ground. During this session, the subject of the succession was often introduced, and addresses were carried in both houses, for having the pretender removed from Lorrain, where he had resided since, in terms of the peace, he had been obliged to leave France. It was, at the same time, proposed to set a price upon his person, dead or alive, which was violently opposed by the party supposed to be his friends; yet, not long after, the queen, of her own accord, and without any previous notice, moved in the council that a reward of five thousand pounds should be offered for his person, should he attempt to land in any part of her dominions; which the house of commons next day voted should be made one hundred thousand.+ What moved the queen to take such a course has never been fully explained. The probability is, that amidst the clamour of faction, which was every day becoming more appallingly terrific, and the extreme avidity manifested by both the aspirants to the succession, she was seized with the terror of having them both in England at the same time; in which case, she seems to have thought, that her own authority would be of very little consequence. It is impossible, indeed, to conceive • Lockhart Papers, vol. i. pp. 447, 448. + Supplement to the History of the Reign of Queen Anne, p. 303. Lockhart Papers, vol. i. p. 471. |