was laid before the House of Commons by the Commissioners of the Public Accounts, Her Majesty thought fit to dismiss him from all his employments that the matter might have an impartial examination." Her Majesty wrote with her own hand to the Duke announcing to him his dismissal, and further complaining of "the treatment she had met with." The Duke's answer, conveyed to the Queen through his daughter Lady Sunderland, was couched in terms of great dignity and moderation.

So bold a stroke required another still bolder to sustain it. The same Gazette of the 31st of December, which anounced that the Queen had dismissed the Duke of Marlborough from all his employments, made known also the creation of twelve new Peers. By this COUP D'ETAT it was intended to overrule, or rather to invert, the majority in the Upper Chamber and to secure from opposition a Peace on the terms proposed. It is the only time in our annals that a stretch of the prerogative in this direction has been actually effected, though not the only time that it has been threatened and intended. In 1712 it seems to have excited less emotion than might at present be supposed. The Whigs were already so indignant at some late transactions that their wrath would scarce admit any further increase; and the Tories were so far wrought upon by the injuries which they-deemed themselves to have sustained, as to consider almost any measures justifiable so that it kept their party in power.

To form this phalanx of new Peers, the Ministers proceeded as follows. First they called up by Writ the eldest sons of two Earls, Northampton and Ailesbury. Next in the same spirit they conferred a barony on the eldest son of a Peer less high in rank than the preceding, Lord Paget, and another barony on the eldest son of a

Scottish Peer the Earl of Kinnoul. Viscount Windsor in the Irish peerage obtained the title of Lord Mountjoy in the English. Two Baronets, Sir Thomas Mansell and Sir Thomas Willoughby, became respectively Lord Mansell and Lord Middleton. Sir Thomas Trevor, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, became Lord Trevor, and George Granville, of Stow in Cornwall, Lord Lansdowne. Thomas Foley was created Lord Foley, Allan Bathurst, Lord Bathurst, and Samuel Masham, husband of the favourite, Lord Masham.

In this last case the Queen might be supposed to have gratified her own predilection. But such was not the fact. Lord Dartmouth tells us that he was the person sent to suggest to her that Mrs. Masham's husband should be one of the new Peers. Her Majesty, it was found, by no means relished the proposal. "I never had any design," she said, "to make a great lady of her, and I should lose a useful servant about my person; for it would give offence to have a Peeress lie upon the floor and do several other inferior offices." At last however the Queen relented, but only upon condition that her new Ladyship should remain a dresser. 2

Masham in fact was only a makeshift. The person first designed for a peerage in his place was Sir Miles Wharton, a country gentleman of old descent. But Sir Miles with noble spirit declined the offer. "This looks," he said, "like serving a turn. Peers used to be made for services which they have done, but I should be made for services that I am to do."

On the 2nd of January, when the House of Lords met again, the twelve new Peers came to take the oaths. "It was apprehended," so Swift writes, "the Whigs

2 Lord Dartmouth's note to Burnet's History, vol. vi. p. 36.

would have raised some difficulties, but nothing happened." Nor is it easy to see how in point of strict law any objection could be made. Immediately after the oaths there was a Message delivered from the Queen to the effect, that having matters of great importance to communicate to both Houses of Parliament, she desired the Lords to adjourn immediately to the 14th, the same day to which the Commons had adjourned themselves. So unusual a measure as a Message of Adjournment to one House only gave rise to a keen debate, and the adjournment was carried by a majority of no more than thirteen, including the twelve new Peers. On this occasion, seeing their number the same as of a petty Jury, Lord Wharton sarcastically asked them whether I they would vote singly or by their foreman.

CHAPTER XV

Ir was just after this crisis of affairs, that is, on the 6th of January, that Prince Eugene arrived in London. His presence a few weeks before might perhaps have produced a strong effect, but, like most other measures of the House of Austria at this period, it was delayed too long. He found Marlborough, whom he desired to befriend, already discarded; he found the majority in the House of Lords on which he reckoned already overwhelmed. The Government had much disapproved and endeavoured to prevent his coming; but when he came, he was received, outwardly at least, with every token of attention and respect. At his first audience of Her Majesty, when he delivered a letter from the Emperor, there were present Oxford and St. John only. Anne, who during the last few months had suffered renewed and increasing attacks of gout, said to him in answer: 'I am sorry that the state of my health will not allow me to speak with your Highness as often as I wish, but ”—and here she pointed to the two Ministers

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"I have ordered these gentlemen to receive your proposals whenever you think fit." At a subsequent audience she made the Prince the present of a sword richly set with diamonds to the value of 4,5001.

Eugene soon found however that he made no progress. He could neither alter the intended terms of

peace, nor avert the coming Congress. All his movements, all his conversations, were jealously watched. Nor did his high character shield him. He was exposed in secret to calumnious charges brought to the notice of the Government, in part by a Jesuit spy and intriguer named Plunket, and in part by anonymous accusers. He was said to be conspiring with Marlborough and the Whig chiefs to raise an 'insurrection in the streets-fire the City-and seize the person of the Queen. Even the midnight brawls of some drunken revellers of this period, who called themselves Mohocks, were held forth as signs and tokens of this pretended plot.' The Ministers did not discountenance these shameful rumours so fully as they might; they went so far as to examine Plunket before the Cabinet Council, and on the Queen's birthday to double the customary guards. At last, after some weeks' stay, Eugene perceiving that his presence did not promote his objects and served only to embitter his opponents, took his leave, and went back much chagrined to the Hague.

On the 14th of January the Queen was suffering from gout, and unable, as she had intended, to make her Speech to Parliament. On the 17th, her illness still continuing, she sent her communication as a Message to both Houses. It was mainly to announce that the Congress was now on the point of opening; and that Her Majesty's plenipotentiaries had already arrived at Utrecht. These were the Bishop of Bristol, Lord Privy Seal, and the Earl of Strafford. France had sent the Maréchal d'Huxelles, the Abbé de Polignac, and

1 For Plunket see especially Spectators of March 27 and April Macpherson's State Papers, vol. ii. 8, 1712.

p. 451; and for the Mohocks the