a The game was suddenly interrupted, though only for a hile. An attempt to assassinate HARLEY gave him newed hold upon power and popularity. But its unexcted consequences embittered the jealousies which already enaced his administration with ruin. Book I, Chap. V. LECTOR OF THE HARLEIAN MSS. GUISCARD'S ATTEMPT ON HARLEY. Antoine de GUISCARD was a French adventurer, whose prite life had been marked by great profligacy. He had taken obscure part in the insurrection of the Cevennes-rather 1711, a recruiting agent than as a combatant. In that charac- March. - he had met with encouragement to raise a refugee giment in England. Hopes had also been held out to n that a British auxiliary contingent would be landed on southern coast of France. In the course, however, of ne preliminary inquiries into the position of the insurtionists, it was found that such an invasion would have le chance of any useful result, and the project was ndoned. Meanwhile, a pension of £400 a year had en bestowed on the emissary. But ere long it was discovered that GUISCARD had fited by opportunities, afforded him in the course of the cussions about the proposed expedition, to make himself versant with many particulars of military and naval irs, and that it was his habit to send advices into nce. Some of his letters were seized. Their writer arrested on the 8th of March, 1711, and was taken, mediately, before a Committee of the Privy Council. When Der illicit intercourse with France th, one of his letters was closely pressed n addressed himself mission to speak with You are here before you may have to say Воок 1, Chap. V. THE COL LECTOR OF THE HAR must be said to all of us.' The man persisted in refusing to reply to any further questions, unless his request was granted. Seeing that nothing more could then be obtained LEIAN MSS. from him, the Lord President rose to ring the bell for a messenger, that the prisoner might be removed in custody. At that moment the prisoner pulled a penknife from his pocket, turned towards HARLEY, near to whom he stood, and stabbed him in the breast. He repeated the stroke, and then rushed towards ST. JOHN. But between the с HARLEY'S wound was so severe that for was a belief that it would prove mortal. gering illness. Before his recovery, his 'Tis another several days there It entailed a linassailant died in * Swift's account of their first interview after Harley's partial recovery merits quotation :- I went in the evening,' he notes on the 5th of April, to see Mr. Harley. Mr. Secretary was just going out of the door, but I made him come back; and there was the old Saturday club, Lord Keeper [Harcourt], Lord Rivers, Mr. Secretary, Mr. Harley, and I; the first time since his stabbing. Mr. Secretary went away, but I stayed till nine, and made Mr. Harley show me his breast and tell all his story. I measured and found that the penknife would have killed him, if it had gone but half the breadth of my thumb-nail lower; so near was he to death. I was so curious as to ask him what .... prison. The coroner's inquest ascribed GUISCARD's death to bruises received from one of the messengers who strove to bind him, but SWIFT tells us that he died of the swordwounds. peerage BOOK I, Chap. V. LECTOR OF THE HAR- Journal to Stella, BECOMES LORD HIGH TREASURER. H. of Com- Council Register, That keen observer had seen, long before this attempted assassination, the latent personal jealousies between HARLEY and ST. JOHN. He had recognised in those jealousies the gravest peril of HARLEY'S government. GUISCARD'S crime had now made HARLEY the most popular man in the country, and it had doubled his favour with the Queen. On his recovery, he received the congratulations of the House of Commons, expressed with more than usual Journals of emphasis. By the Queen he was raised to the (24 May, 1711) as Earl of OXFORD and Earl MORTIMER. Five days afterwards (29 May) he was made Lord High Treasurer. His elevation intensified the jealousy of St. Anne, vol. v, JOHN into something which already closely resembled hatred, although years were to elapse before the mask could be quite thrown aside. It is amusing to read the philosophical reflection with which the Secretary sent the news to Lord OSSORY: Our friend Mr. HARLEY is now Earl of OXFORD and High Treasurer. This great advancement is what the labour he has gone through, the danger he has run, and the services he has performed, seem to deserve. But he stands on slippery ground, and envy is always near the great to fling up their heels on the least trip which they make.' The Earl of OXFORD had not long obtained the Treasurer's staff before he received some characteristic exhortations from the Jacobite section of his Tory supporters of the were his thoughts while they were carrying him home in the chair. He said he concluded himself a dead man.'-Journal to Stella, as before, pp. 255, 256. p. 249. St. John to Lord Ossory; (Corresp. i, 148). ! BOOK I, Chap. V. THE COL LECTOR OF THE HAR use which he ought to make of it. ATTERBURY came to him, on the part of some of the Treasurer's particular friends,' to acquaint him how uneasy they were that he had LEIAN MSS. neither dissolved the Parliament, nor removed from office nearly so many Whigs as those particular friends wished to see removed. I know very well,' replied the Earl, 'the men from whom that message comes, and I am also very sensible of the difficulties I have to struggle with. If, in addition, I must communicate all my measures, it will be necessary for me to assure Her Majesty that I can no longer do her any service.' OXFORD AND THE OCTOBER CLUB. These hot-headed politicians had already formed their famous October Club.' They were about a hundred and fifty in number, and for a few months their proceedings made a great noise. The Treasurer found means to deal with them in a more effectual fashion than that in which they had endeavoured to deal with the administration. By silent, quiet steps, in a little time,' says a writer who watched the process and aided it, he so effectually separated these gentlemen, that in less than six months the name of " October Club" was forgotten in the world. . . . With so much address was this attempt overthrown, that he lost not the men, though he put them by their White Staff. design.' De Foe, Secret Ilistory of the Those brief sentences indicate, I think, the fatality of the position in which OXFORD now placed himself. He had ardently desired to gain the control of affairs, at a period of exceptional difficulty. And, at the best, his capacity and energies would have been barely equal to the task in times of exceptional ease. Some of the very qualities, both of mind and heart, which made him beloved by those who lived with him, weakened him as a statesman. He was surrounded by adepts in political intrigue, some of whom combined with an experience not less than his own, far greater powers of mind, an unbending will, and an utter unscrupulousness as to the use of means. He vainly flattered himself that he could beat these men at their own weapons. His temporary success laid a foundation for his eventual ruin. Book I, Chap. V. LECTOR OF THE HAR LEIAN MSS. THE COURT To gain the aid of the Jacobite Tories in Parliament he OXFORD AND held out hopes which it was never his intention to realise. He carried on an indirect correspondence with the Stuart Court in a way sufficiently adroit to induce that Court to instruct its adherents to support the negotiations for the Peace with France. He would commit himself to nothing until Peace was made. The conclusion of a Peace was the one measure on which he was firmly bent. He had contended that the true interests of Britain demanded the ending of an exhausting war many years before. And whatever the demerits and shortcomings of the Treaty of Utrecht, it had at least the merit of making the quiet succession of the House of Hanover possible. In March, 1713, the French agent in England, the Abbé GAUTIER, wrote to the Marquis de TORCY an account of an interview he had obtained with the Lord Treasurer ::—' M. Vanderberg' [i. e. Lord OXFORD], he says, 'sent for me, seven or eight days ago, to tell me something of importance. Indeed, he opened his mind to me, making me acquainted with his feelings towards Montgourlin [i. e. the Pretender], and the desire he had to do him service, as soon as the Peace shall be concluded. . . . It will not be difficult, because the Queen is of his opinion. But, in the mean time, it is essential that Montgourlin should make up his mind; that he should declare that it is not his intention o continue to reside where he now is. He must say, pubicly, and especially before his family, that when the Peace |