Church and State." And secondly, "that whoever advised the bringing over the poor Palatines into this kingdom was an enemy to the Queen and kingdom.” It was desired to apply this last Resolution, in a specific manner, to the Earl of Sunderland, there being produced a letter on the subject addressed by him as Secretary of State to the Board of Trade. On further reflection however that intention was at last let fall. But the House eagerly carried through a Bill to repeal the Act for the general naturalization of all Protestants, which had passed two years before. Far different was the feeling of the Lords. When the Bill came up to their House it was rejected, even at its first reading, to the great joy of all the foreign Protestants.

While thus the two Houses were engaged in public business, the life of the Prime Minister was exposed to sudden danger. There was a certain French emigrant who called himself the Marquis de Guiscard, and who had several times been consulted by Marlborough and Godolphin on their projects of descent in Languedoc and Picardy. Finding his counsels neglected, and his pension reduced by Harley, he was provoked to a signal act of treachery. He wrote some secret letters to Paris, offering to make his peace and disclosing whatever he knew. But these letters being by good fortune intercepted, a Warrant for High Treason was issued against him by Secretary St. John; and on the 8th of March he was apprehended in St. James's Park. Being conveyed to the Cockpit and hopeless of a pardon, he indulged only the hope of revenge, and observing in the room where he waited a penknife on a standish, he contrived to take it up and secrete it unperceived by the messengers who watched him.

Being next brought before the Lords of the Council, he was shown his letters from Paris and convicted by his own hand-writing. Then wholly desperate, he desired, it was thought, to kill the Secretary of State who had signed the Warrant and produced the letters, but as St. John sat out of his reach, he suddenly stooped down over Harley, and with a cry J'EN VEUX DONC À TOI, drew out the penknife and stabbed him in the breast. The slender blade broke in the gash about half an inch from the handle, which Guiscard not perceiving redoubled the blow. When St. John saw the Prime Minister fall to the floor he cried out "The villain has killed Mr. Harley," and drawing his sword, as did also the Duke of Newcastle and some more, they dealt Guiscard several wounds. Other Lords of the Council with greater prudence secured themselves with chairs from the rage of the assassin; and others more prudent still ran out of the room to call for help. Messengers and door-keepers rushed in pell-mell, and one of the former, Wilcox by name, a very strong man, secured Guiscard at last by grappling with him and bringing him to the ground, Guiscard sustaining in his fall a heavy bruise in the back.

Harley, it is acknowledged, showed great firmness and magnanimity. As St. John wrote at the time, "I who have always admired him never did it so much. The suddenness of the blow, the sharpness of the wound, the confusion which followed, could neither change his countenance nor alter his voice." When the surgeon came to dress his wound he calmly desired to be told if it were mortal, that he might have time to settle his family affairs. And when after the examination the surgeon assured him that the wound was not dangerous,

he was just as little elated beyond his former composure.2

Guiscard meanwhile was conveyed a close prisoner to Newgate, where at first he sullenly refused a surgeon's aid. He was twice examined by a Committee of the Privy Council, but made no disclosures, and in all probability had none to make. On the 17th he died. of his wounds, or rather of his bruise, which had turned to a gangrene.

The wound of Harley, though slight in itself, brought on a fever which confined him for some time to his chamber. Indeed, as his enemies alleged, he took care for the sake of popular effect to remain in the surgeon's hands as long as possible. But, as it seems to me, no such artifice was needed. Even the first tidings of the outrage called forth the strongest expressions of sympathy. The two Houses combined in a joint Address to the Queen stating their concern at this" barbarous and villanous attempt;" insisting on the fact that Guiscard was "a French Papist;" and in conclusion urging Her Majesty" to give such directions as in your great wisdom shall seem most proper for causing Papists to be removed from the cities of London and Westminster." Accordingly the Queen did issue a Proclamation "strictly to put in execution the laws against Papists." two Houses on their part proceeded to pass a Bill making an attempt on the life of a Privy Councillor in the execution of his office to be felony without benefit of Clergy.

66

The

Harley as a party chief was beyond all doubt a gainer by his wound. Many of his followers, since he became

2 Bolingbroke's Correspondence, vol. i. p. 63. Complete History of Europe, 1711, p. 126.

Prime Minister, had begun to see or to suspect his real unfitness for the chief part in affairs-how dubious he was in his views and how dilatory in his conduct. Some already looked to the rising genius of St. John; many more relied on the veteran merit of the Queen's uncle the Earl of Rochester. At this period the most thoroughgoing of the Tories in the House of Commons were. wont to meet in what was termed the October Club, and there the Earl of Rochester had become a favorite toast. But all this was changed by the penknife of Guiscard. Once again was Harley proclaimed on all sides as the hero, nay the martyr, of his cause. Once again did the Tories not only applaud his actual elevation, but aspire for him to those higher honors that had come in view. Meanwhile, as the party now in full ascendant, they were steadily pursuing their favorite aim of adding strength to both the landed interest and the Established Church. As regards the former there was carried through the two Houses, even before the attack on Harley, a Bill making a qualification in land essential to a seat in Parliament; 300l. a year for a Burgess and 600l. for a Knight of the Shire. Scotland was excepted, on the ground that the estates were much smaller in that country. "The design of this Bill" says Bishop Burnet" was to exclude courtiers, military men, and merchants, from sitting in the House of Commons, in hopes that this being settled the land interest would be the prevailing consideration in all their consultations." But whatever the value of the object it has not been at all promoted by the Act. Nominal and fictitious qualifications were constantly granted, so that men engaged in trade, or otherwise unconnected with land, have at all times found an easy entrance to the House. Yet in spite of its hollow security this law has continued on

the Statute Book for nearly a century and a half, not having been repealed till 1858.3

As regards the Established Religion, the want of new churches in the growing suburbs of London had for some time past engaged the thoughts of Convocation. An Address upon the subject from its Upper House was presented to the Queen by the Archbishop of Canterbury; while Dr. Atterbury, as Prolocutor of the Lower House, waited with a similar petition on the Speaker. The result was a Message from the Queen to the House of Commons, which was brought down by Secretary St. John, and which warmly recommended the promotion of "so good and pious a work." The Commons showed equal zeal. As they declared in their reply: "Neither the long expensive war in which we are engaged, nor the pressure of heavy debts under which we labour, shall hinder us from granting to Your Majesty whatever is necessary to accomplish so excellent a design." Resolutions were passed accordingly for building fifty new churches within the Bills of Mortality, computing 4,750 souls to each church; and for the expenses, assigning that part of the Duty on Coals which had defrayed the reconstruction of St. Paul's.

St. John on the 20th of April brought down another Message from the Queen, referring to an event of grave concern which had just been announced from Germany. The Emperor Joseph was not yet thirty-three years of age. He had a strong constitution, and might expect a long life. But he was struck down by a malady so frequently fatal in that age, the small pox, which in this same month carried off the Dauphin, only son of Louis the Fourteenth. Joseph expired

3 Compare the Acts 9 Anne c. 5 and 21 & 22 Vict. c. 26.

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