tion, not only of those who were openly hostile to James, but even of those who were connected with him by blood. 9. Parallel be tween his treachery and In what does this conduct differ from that of Labedoyère, who, at the head of the garrison of Grenoble, deserted to Napoleon when sent out to oppose him? or Lavalette, who employed his influence, as post- that of Ney. master under Louis XVIII., to forward the imperial conspiracy? or Marshal Ney, who, after promising at the Tuileries to bring the ex-emperor back in an iron cage, no sooner reached the royal camp at Melun, than he issued a proclamation calling on the troops to desert the Bourbons, and mount the tricolor cockade? Nay, is not Churchill's conduct, in a moral point of view, worse than that of Ney? for the latter abandoned the trust reposed in him by a new master, forced upon an unwilling nation, to rejoin his old benefactor and companion in arms; but the former betrayed the trust reposed in him by his old master and tried benefactor, to range himself under the banner of a competitor for the throne to whom he was bound neither by duty nor obligation. And yet, such is often the inequality of crimes and punishments in this world, that Churchill was raised to the pinnacle of greatness by the very conduct which consigned Ney, with justice, so far as his conduct is concerned, to an ignominious death. "Treason ne'er prospers; for when it does, History forgets its first and noblest duty when it fails, by its distribution of praise and blame, to counterbalance, so far as its verdict can, this inequality, which, for inscrutable but doubtless wise purposes, Providence has permitted in this transient scene. Charity forbids us to scrutinize such conduct too severely. It is the deplorable consequence of a successful revolution, even when commenced for the most necessary purposes, to obliterate the ideas of man on right and wrong, and to leave no other test in the general case for public conduct but success its first effect, to place men in such trying circumstances that nothing but the most confirmed and resolute virtue can pass unscathed through the ordeal. He knew the human heart well who commanded us in our daily prayers to supplicate not to be led into temptation, even before asking for deliverance from evil. Let no man be sure, however much, on a calm survey, he may condemn the conduct of Marlborough and Ney, that in similar circumstances he would not have done the same. * 10. Honors and stowed on in favor of The magnitude of the service rendered by Churchill to the Prince of Orange immediately appeared in the commands be commands conferred upon him. Hardly was he Churchill. He settled at William's headquarters when he was dissigns the Act of Association patched to London to assume the command of the Horse Guards; and, while there, he signed, on the 20th of December, 1688, the famous Act of Association in favor of the Prince of Orange. Shortly after, he was named lieutenant-general of the armies of William, and immediately made a new organization of the troops, under officers whom he could trust, which proved of the utmost service to William William. * Marlborough, on leaving the king, sent the following letter to him: "SIR,-Since men are seldom suspected of sincerity when they act contrary to their interests, and though my dutiful behavior to your majesty in the worst of times (for which I acknowledge my poor services much overpaid) may not be sufficient to incline you to a charitable interpretation of my actions, yet I hope the great advantage I enjoy under your majesty, which I can not expect to enjoy under any other government, may reasonably convince your majesty and the world that I am actuated by a higher principle when I offer that violence to my inclination and interest as to desert your majesty at a time when your affairs seem to challenge the strictest obedience from all your subjects, much more from one who lies under such obligations to your majesty. This, sir, could proceed from nothing but the inviolable dictates of my conscience, and a necessary concern for my religion (which no good man can oppose), and with which, I am instructed, nothing can come in competition. Heaven knows with what partiality my dutiful regard for your majesty has hitherto represented those unhappy dangers which inconsiderate and self-interested men have framed against your majesty's true interest and the Protestant religion; but as I can no longer join with such to give a pretense by conduct to bring them to effect, so I will always, with the hazard of my life and fortune (so much your majesty's due), endeavor to preserve your royal person and lawful rights with all the tender concern and dutiful respect that becomes me."-Lord Churchill to James IL, Nov. 12, 1688. Ledyard, i., 75. on the unstable throne on which he was soon after seated. He was present at most of the long and momentous debates which took place in the House of Peers on the question on whom the crown should be conferred, and at first inclined to a regency; but with a commendable delicacy he absented himself on the night of the decisive vote on the vacancy of the throne. He voted, however, on the 6th of February for the resolution which settled the crown on William and Mary; and he assisted at their coronation, under the title of Earl of Marlborough, to which he had shortly before been elevated by William. 11. England having, on the accession of the new monarch, joined the continental league against France, Marlborough received the command of the British auxilia His first serv ices in for eign war un der William. ry force in the Netherlands, and by his courage and ability contributed in a remarkable manner to the victory of Walcourt. In 1690 he received orders to return from Flanders in order to assume a command in Ireland, then agitated by a general insurrection in favor of James; but, actuated by some remnant of attachment to his old benefactor, he eluded on various pretenses complying with the order till the battle of the Boyne had extinguished the hopes of the dethroned monarch, when he came over and made himself master of Cork and Kinsale. In 1691 he was sent again into Flanders, in order to act under the immediate orders of William, who was then, with heroic constancy, contending with the still superior forces of France; but hardly had he landed there when he was arrested, deprived of all his commands, and sent to the Tower of London, along with several of the noblemen of distinction in the British Senate. Discreditable Upon this part of the history of Marlborough there hangs a veil of mystery, which all the papers brought to 12. light in more recent times have not entirely remov- intrigues soon ed. At the time, his disgrace was by many attrib- after with the uted to some cutting sarcasms in which he had in- family. dulged on the predilection of William for the continental troops, exiled royal and especially the Dutch; by others, to intrigues conducted by Lady Marlborough and him, to obtain for the Princess Anne a larger pension than the king was disposed to allow her. But neither of these causes is sufficient to explain the fall and arrest of a man so eminent as Marlborough, and who had rendered such important services to the newly-established monarch. It would appear, from what has transpired in later times, that a much more serious cause had produced the rupture between him and William. The charge brought against him at the time, but not prosecuted, as it was found to rest on false or insufficient evidence, was that of having, along with Lords Salisbury, Cornbury, the Bishop of Rochester, and Sir Basil Ferebrace, signed the scheme of an association for the restoration of James. Sir John Fenwick, who was executed for a treasonable correspondence with James II. shortly after Marlborough's arrest, declared that he was privy to the design, had received the pardon of the exiled monarch, and had engaged to procure for him the adhesion of the army. The papers, published by Coxe, rather corroborate the view that he was privy to it; and it is supported by those found at Rome in the possession of Cardinal York.* That Marlborough, * "About a fortnight ago, I wrote a letter to acquaint you with what I had observed of some people, in hopes Mr. Arden would have called upon me as he promised; but I did not care to send it by the post, so it was burned. We had yesterday Sir John Fenwick at the house, and I think it all went as you could wish. I do not send you the particulars, knowing you must have it more exactly from others; but I should be wanting if I did not let you know that Lord Rochester has behaved himself, on all this occasion, like a friend. In a conversation he had with me, he expressed himself as a real servant of yours; and I think it would not be amiss if you took notice of it to him. If you think me capable of any commands, I shall endeavor to approve myself what I am, with much truth," &c.-Marlborough to the Duke of Shrewsbury (a Catholic leader and Royalist). Wednesday night, no date. Shrewsbury Papers, and CoXE, i., 85. During the interval between the liberation of Marlborough and the death of Queen Mary, we find him, in conjunction with Godolphin and many others, maintaining a clandestine intercourse with the exiled family. On the 2d of May, 1694, only a few days before he offered his services to King William, he communicated to James, through Colonel Sackville, intelligence of an expedition then fitting out for the purpose of destroying the fleet in Brest har ed from prison, and ere long restored He is liberat disgusted with the partiality of William for his Dutch troops, and irritated at the open severity of his government, should have repented of his abandonment of his former sovereign and benefactor, is highly probable. But it can scarcely be taken as an apology for one act of treason that he meditated the commission of another. It only shows how perilous, in public as in private life, is any deviation from the path of integrity, that it impelled such a man into so tortuous and disreputable a path. But Marlborough was a man whose services were too valuable to the newly-established dynasty to be per- 13. mitted to remain long in disgrace. He was soon liberated from the Tower, as no sufficient evidence of his alleged accession to the conspiracy had been to favor. obtained. Several years elapsed, however, before he emerged from the privacy into which he prudently retired on his liberation from confinement. Queen Mary having been carried off by the small-pox on the 17th of January, 1696, Marlborough wisely abstained from even taking part in the debates which followed in Parliament, during which some of the malcontents dropped hints as to the propriety of conferring the crown on his immediate patroness, the Princess Anne. prudent reserve, together with the absence of any decided proofs at the time of Marlborough's correspondence with James, seems to have at length weakened William's resentment, and by degrees he was taken back into favor. The peace of Ryswick, signed on the 20th of September, 1697, having consolidated the power of that monarch, Marlborough was, on the 19th of June, 1698, made preceptor of the young Duke of Gloucester, his nephew, son of the Princess Anne, and heir-presumptive to the throne; and this appointment, which at once restored his credit at court, was accompanied by the gracious expression, "My lord, make my nephew to resembor."-Coxe's Marlborough, i., 75. "Marlborough's conduct to the Stuarts," says Lord Mahon, "was a foul blot on his memory. To the last he persevered in those deplorable intrigues. In October, 1713, he protested to a Jacobite agent he would rather have his hands cut off than do any thing to prej. udice King James."-MAHON, i., 21, 22. D This |