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BOOK 1,

Chap. V.

THE COLLECTOR OF LEIAN MSS. Marlborough

THE HAR

to Harley;

1704.

Speakership; and in part, also, to the friendship of MARL BOROUGH. On receiving the news of his appointment the Duke wrote to him, from the Camp :-' I am sensible of the advantage I shall reap by it, in having so good a friend near Her Majesty's person to present in the truest light my faithful endeavours for her service.' But their intercourse, 13 June, if it ever attained to true cordiality at all, was cordial for a very short time. Brief confidence was followed by long distrust. HARLEY strove to strengthen himself by the use of channels of Court influence which were utterly inimical to the MARLBOROUGH connection. His efforts to make himself independent of that connection did not, however, lessen the prodigality of his assurances of friendship and fidelity.

His political position thus became that of a man who was exposed to the attacks of many bitter enemies among the statesmen with whom he had begun his career, without being able to rely upon any hearty support from those with whom he now shared the conduct of affairs. He might count, indeed, on assailants from the ranks both of the extreme Whigs and the extreme Tories, whilst from most of his own colleagues of the intermediate party he would have to meet the greater danger of a lukewarm defence. In such a position the attack was not likely to be long waited for.

Easiness of nature, and a tendency to alternate fits of close application with fits of indolence, always characterised him. And those qualities had an incidental consequence which opened to his opponents a tempting opportunity. HARLEY was habitually less careful of official papers than it behoved a Secretary of State to be.* He was also at all times prone to place a premature and undue confidence in

* See the details in Lords' Report on Gregg's case; reprinted in State Trials, vol. xiv, cols. 1378 seqq.

Book I, Chap. V. THE COL

his dependants. In 1707, William GREGG, one of the clerks in his office, abused his confidence by secretly copying some letters of the highest importance and by selling the LEIAN MSS. copies to the Court of France.

LECTOR OF

THE HAR

THE CRIME
OF WILLIAM

GREGG, AND
MADE OF IT

THE USE

BY HARLEY'S

ENEMIES.

Appendix to

to Gregg's

Trial, &c., in State Trials, vol. xii,

The treachery was discovered by the Secretary himself, and such steps were taken to lessen the mischief as the case admitted. Much excitement naturally followed upon the publicity of the crime. The least scrupulous of HARLEY'S enemies conceived a hope that the traitor who had served the public enemy for a bribe might also be tempted to ruin his master for another and greater bribe. Means were found to convey to GREGG strong assurances of a certain escape, and of a wealthy exile, if he would but declare that he had copied the despatches, and forwarded the transcripts, by the Secretary's direction. Pending the attempt, they circulated throughout the country a report that such a declaration had actually been made, and that the Secretary was to be impeached. But the clerk, instead of betraying his master, exposed his temptors. His first emphatic declaration of HARLEY'S innocence was repeated immediately before his death in these words: :--'As I shall answer it before the judgment seat of Christ, the gentleman aforesaid [i. e. HARLEY] was not privy to my writing to

pp. 691 seqq. France, neither directly nor indirectly.'

DISMISSED

FROM OF-
FICE.
Feb., 1708.

HARLEY himself, and also his nearest friends, were wont to speak of this affair as one that had brought his life into real peril. It is certain that the incident and its consequences helped materially to make his continuance in office impossible. But he struggled hard.

Meanwhile, the dissensions in the Ministry were daily increasing. They became so bitter as to lead to personal altercations at the Council Board, even when the Queen herself was present. On one such occasion (February,

Chap. V.
THE COL-

THE HAR

LEIAN MSS.

1708) GODOLPHIN and MARLBOROUGH went together to the BOOK I, Queen a little before the hour at which a Cabinet Council had been summoned. They told her they must quit her LECTOR OF service, since they saw that she was resolved not to part with HARLEY. 'She seemed,' says Bishop BURNET, 'not much concerned at the Lord GODOLPHIN's offering to lay down; and it was believed to be a part of HARLEY's new scheme to remove him. But she was much touched with the Duke of MARLBOROUGH'S offering to quit, and studied, with some soft expressions, to divert him from that resolution; but he was firm; and she did not yield to them.' So they both went away, without attending the Council, to vol. v, pp. the wonder of the whole Court.'

Burnet,

History of

his own Time,

343, 344
(edit. 1823).

When the Council met, it became part of HARLEY's duty as Secretary to deliver to the Queen a memorial relating to the conduct of the war. The Duke of SOMERSET rose, as the Secretary was about to read it, and with the words 'If Your Majesty suffers that fellow' (pointing to HARLEY) 'to treat affairs of the war without the General's advice, I King, 12 Feb. cannot serve you,' abruptly left the Council. The rest, Comp. according to BURNET, 'looked so cold and sullen that the Burnet, as Cabinet Council was soon at an end.'

Whilst a result which-for the time-had thus become so plainly inevitable, remained still doubtful, HARLEY had imposed on himself the humiliating task of assuring the Duke of MARLBOROUGH of the honesty of his former professions of attachment.

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Swift to

Archbishop

1708.

above.

I have never writ anything to HARLEY'S really thought and intended.'

DISMISSAL
FROM THE
SECRETARY-

SHIP.

you,' said he, ‘but what I And then he went on to say 'I have for near two years seen the storm coming upon me, and now I find I am to Feb., 1708. be sacrificed to sly insinuations and groundless jealousies.' These words were written in September, 1707. On the

BOOK I, Chap. V. THE COL

LECTOR OF THE HAR

10th of February in the following year, MARLBOROUGH had, at length, the satisfaction of writing from St. James' to a foreign correspondent: Mr. Secretary HARLEY has this LEJAN MSS. afternoon given up the seals of office to the Queen. Between Marlborough ourselves he richly deserves what has befallen him.'* Among the two or three friends who went out with HARLEY was 10 b.,1708. Henry ST. JOHN.

to Count Wratislaw,

THE INTRIGUE

GODOLPHIN

MINISTRY.

1708-1710.

For the next two years and a half, HARLEY'S principal occupation was to prepare the way for a return, in kind, of AGAINST THE the defeat thus inflicted upon him. Some of the steps by which he achieved his end are among the most familiar portions of our political history. But from the necessities of the case it has been, and probably it must continue to be, one of those portions in which the basis of truth can scarcely, by any researches that are now possible, be separated from the large admixture of falsehood built thereon by party animosities.

His own correspondence shows that strong hopes of success in the effort were entertained within eight months of his dismissal. It shows also that the channel employed, unsuccessfully, in 1708, was that which became an effectual one in 1710.

* In the interval between June, 1707 (after the Union with Scotland), and February, 1708, the following entries occur in the Council Books:

'1 July, 1707. The Rt. Hon. Robert Harley, one of Her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, delivered up the old signet of officewhich was thereupon broken before Her Majesty and received a new one by the Queen's command.' The entry is followed by the note:This order was thus drawn by Mr. Harley's particular direction.' (Register of Privy Council, Anne, vol. iii, p. 395.)

8 January, 1707. The Rt. Hon. R. Harley, . . . having this day presented to Her Majesty in her Privy Council a new signet with supporters, Her Majesty was pleased to deliver it back to him, whereupon he returned to Her Majesty the old signet, which was immediately defaced,' &c. (Ib., p. 485.)

Book I,
THE COL

Chap. V.

LECTOR OF

THE HAR

Early in October, HARLEY received from the Court an unsigned letter in which these passages occur :-' The Queen stands her ground and refuses to enter into any capitulation with the [Whig Lords]. She has not hitherto con- LEIAN MSS. sented to offer or hear of any terms. The Lord T[reasure]r desired she might allow him to treat with 'em, and the Duke of S[OMERSET was employed to persuade her, but she was inflexible. The Lord Treasurer offered to resign

the Staff, but she would neither take the Staff nor advice from him, and he went to Newmarket without getting any powers or leave to treat. . . . Your friend cannot answer for the event. . . . I will add no more but that your friend thinks your being here is very necessary, and that Her Majesty. . . . would be the better of assistance and good advice.'

It was not, however, until the 8th of August, 1710, that the GODOLPHIN Ministry was dismissed. Two days afterwards, HARLEY was made Chancellor of the Exchequer ; the Treasury being put into commission.

Harley

Corresp. in

Ms. Harl.

7526, f. 237.

THE CHAN

CELLORSHIP

oF THE

EXCHEQUER.

He entered upon that office amidst enormous obstacles. His enemies were unable to deny that his exertions to overcome the difficulties in his path were marked by financial 1710, ability, and by a large measure of temporary success. as little can it be denied that the immediate triumph laid the groundwork of public troubles to come.

But August.

His own account of the situation of affairs, and of the methods taken to improve it, must, of course, be read with the due allowance. The pith of it lies in these sentences:

The army was in the field. There was no money in the Treasury. None of the remitters would contract again. The Bank had recently refused to lend the Lord Treasurer GODOLPHIN a hundred thousand pounds. The Army and Navy Services were in debt nearly eleven millions. The

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