CHAP. Political not published till thirteen years after his death. It reflects, in a very marked manner, the spirit of animosity by which he was actuated after his defection from the Whig party, and the imputations he casts upon prince Eugene, Marlborough, Burnet, and other distinguished characters are of the darkest kind. His portraits of his friends, Ormond, Bolingbroke, and Harley, on the other His minor hand, are equally exaggerated in their praise. But Pamphlets. notwithstanding these demerits, the fragment is well deserving of perusal. The same may be said of his pamphlet On the Conduct of the Allies, which materially modified the national policy in relation to the war,-of his Tale of a Tub, which, as a satire on religious parties, may be compared with Dryden's Hind and the Panther, -of the Drapier's Letters,3 which rescued Ireland from the infliction of a national slight,—and of his Inquiry into the Behaviour of the Queen's last Ministry, written June, 1715. Swift's criticisms of lord Clarendon's History and Burnet's Own Times should also be noted.5 Bolingbroke's Works and dence. BOLINGBROKE, in his Letter to Sir W. Wyndham, gives his version of the circumstances under which he Correspon had assisted to negotiate the Peace of Utrecht, and brings a heavy indictment against the political conduct of his rival, Oxford. His Idea of a Patriot King (1738) and Letter on the State of Parties at the Accession of George I. embody his views in relation to a subsequent period. The principal source of information as regards 1 Works of Swift. By Sir W. Scott, vol. ii. 2 Ibid. vol. x. On this see the criticisms in Abbey and Overton's English Church in the Eighteenth Century, i. 450-2. 3 Ibid. vol. vi. 4 Ibid. vol. v. Ibid. vol. xii. • The Works of the Right Honourable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke. 5 vols. Edited by David Mallet. 4to, 1754. his public career is, however, his Letters and Correspon- CHAP. dence.1 IX. When compared with Swift and Bolingbroke, the other contemporary annalists appear in point of ability almost contemptible. BOYER, the author of the Life of Boyer. Temple, published in 1753 his History of the Reign of Queen Anne ;3 and OLDMIXON, a violent and unscru- Oldmixon. pulous Whig partisan, satirised by Pope in the Dunciad, published in 1730-35 his History of England during the Reigns of William and Mary, Anne and George I. Neither of these works, however, though the result of some research and labour, is entitled to more than an occasional reference on the part of the student. A Continuation of Rapin's History of England, attributed to TINDAL, and containing the period from the death Tindal's of Charles I. to that of George II., was published in Continua 1757; the work is partly original and partly a compila- Rapin. tion, but it deserves the praise of having been written without party spirit, and of being a temperate and candid narrative of carefully ascertained facts, although destitute of those higher merits which attest original historic power.4 tion of Saltoun. The two Discourses of FLETCHER OF SALTOUN,5 Fletcher of on the state of affairs in Scotland, composed in 1698, together with his Speech upon the State of the Nation (1701) and speeches delivered in the parliament at Edin 1 Letters and Correspondence, public and private, of Lord Bolingbroke. With State Papers, Explanatory Notes, and a Translation of the Foreign Letters. By G. Parke. 2 vols. 1798. 2 A work founded or the Annals (by the same writer), and published in parts during queen Anne's reign. The first edition of the Continuation, which terminated with the reign of George I., was published in 1747. 4 According to Burton (Reign of Queen Anne. ii. 324) Tindal's Continuation has perhaps been more amply founded on by later historians, as an authority, than any other book referring to the period it covers.' 5 The Political Works of Andrew Fletcher, Esq. 1737. CHAP. IX. burgh in 1707, are well deserving of perusal as shewing the aspect under which the union of the two countries presented itself to those who opposed the measure. Fletcher was a man of great oratorical power and singularly independent habits of thought, who denounced with almost equal vigour the policy of both Whigs and Tories; at the same time, he was wanting in discernment in questions of national economy, and while a democrat in principle was a staunch protectionist in his views of international commerce. The reigns of the first two Georges, which have been compared to those of the Antonines, were singularly wanting in events calculated to call forth historic genius. Berkeley, writing in 1728, denounced the age as 'barren of every glorious theme; and LORD HERVEY'S Memoirs 2 and HORACE WALPOLE'S Letters to Sir Horace Walpole's Mann3 must rank as two of the best authorities. Of Hervey's Memoirs and Letters. 1 these the first supplies a remarkably close and minute picture of court life and intrigue during the reign of George II., drawn by one, of whose opportunities for observation and accuracy of description there can be no doubt; the latter, familiar to every reader through Macaulay's well-known critique, supply an almost continuous chronicle of the last twenty years of the same reign, and in the earlier letters the details of Sir Robert's fall from power are described with much animation. The coincidence of statement between the two works are 1 Hearne, writing six years later (1734), laments that nothing is now hardly read but Burnett's romance or libel, called by him The History of his own Times. 'Tis read by men, women, and children.' Reliqu. Hearn. ii. 200. 2 Memoirs of the Reign of George II., from his Accession to the Death of Queen Caroline. By John, Lord Hervey. Edited by J. W. Croker. 2 vols. 1848. 3 Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, to Horace Mann. 4 vols. London: 1843-4. la. Kersland. often remarkable, and a like similarity is observable in СНАР. Walpole's Memoirs, which belong mainly to our next period. A more general resemblance to be noted is the cynicism and spirit of detraction in their estimate of their contemporaries which characterise both writers. The Memoirs of KER OF KERSLAND,' who was Ker of employed as a secret agent of the British Government in the earlier years of the eighteenth century, illustrate the undercurrent of the political life of the time. KING'S collection of Anecdotes contains a noteworthy King's sketch of the Pretender by a zealous Jacobite of the Anecdotes. period, together with interesting recollections of the chief members of the Jacobite party, and also of some of the leading literary men of the age, especially of Pope and Atterbury. DR. Duc de Berwick. i Foreign Affairs.-The Memoirs of the DUKE OF Memoirs of BERWICK, a natural son of James II., are partly autobiographical, and furnish a record of a brilliant military career on the part of one who was for a long time closely associated with the history of English affairs on the Continent. For the period 1697 to 1700, a collection of the Letters of William III. and Louis XIV. and of their ministers, edited by Grimblot, will be found useful in connexion The Memoirs of John Ker, of Kersland, in North Britain, Eqs.: containing his secret Transactions and Negotiations in Scotland, England, the Courts of Vienna, Hanover, and other Foreign Parts. With an Account of the Rise and Frogress of the Ostend Company in the Austrian Netherlands. Published by himself. London, 1726. 2 Political and Literary Anecdotes of his own Times. By Dr. William King, Principal of St. Mary's Hall, Oxon. 2nd edit. 1819. 3 Mémoires du Maréchal de Berwick, écrits par lui-même; avec une suite abrégée de 1716 jusqu'à sa mort en 1734. Forming volumes 65 and 66 in Collections des Mémoires relatifs à l'histoire de France,' edited by Petitot and Monmerque. Letters of William III. and Louis XIV. and of their Ministers, illustrative of the domestic and foreign politics of England from the Peace of Letters of 1. &c. William CHAP. IX. Marlborough Despatches. The Somerville's Reign of both with the domestic and the foreign policy of England. In the year 1842 a collection of the Marlborough Despatches' was discovered at Hensington, near Woodstock, and subsequently printed. Earl Stanhope, however, is of opinion that they were neither written nor dictated by the Duke, but prepared by his secretaries, and subsequently merely signed by him. They contain but little that is of historical interest. A full account of the special literature illustrative of the character and life of the duchess of Marlborough is given in Burton's History of the Reign of Queen Anne, i. 28-30. Non-Contemporary Writer.-The publication of the sources described at the commencement of this chapter suggested to a Presbyterian minister, named SOMERVILLE, the idea of writing a History of the Reign of Queen Anne which should at once represent a fuller command of the facts, and at the same time be free from party spirit. His work appeared at the close of the last century, but was attended with little success and failed even to attract the criticism of the chief literary organs of the day. The Preface, however, will be found useful from the account there given of the sources from whence the writer's materials were drawn; and the Appendix is of value as containing an abridgment of the Articles of the Union and other original documents. (c.) Writers of the Present Century.-Material service was rendered in the first quarter of this century towards making the political history of the present period better known, by the writings of Archdeacon COXE (the editor Ryswick to the Accession of Philip V. of Spain. Edited by P. Grimblot. 1 The Letters and Despatches of John, Duke of Marlborough, 1702-12. Edited by Sir George Murray. 1845. |