Mr. Harley was now brought into the ministry, under the auspices of the Marlborough family,* being thought "a very proper person to manage the House of Commons, upon which so much always depends;" but, notwithstanding all this, her majesty's gratitude appears to have been but of short duration; for those sentiments professed by her family, in respect to government, continually recurred; and, in regard to religion, she appears to have been to the full as inexorable as either her father or grandfather, notwithstanding the one lost his kingdom and the other his head, chiefly on this very account.

"The Whigs," says the favourite," were soon alarmed again by the queen's choice of two high church divines, to fill two vacant bishoprics. Several of them were disposed to think themselves betrayed by the ministry; whereas the truth was, that the queen's inclination to the Tories being now soothed by the flatteries and insinuations of her private counsellors, had began to make it irksome to her to consult with her ministers on any promotions, either in the church or the state. The first artifice of those counsellors was to instil into the queen notions of the high prerogative of acting without her ministers; and, as they expressed it, of being QUEEN INDEED. And the nomination of persons to bishoprics, against the judgment and remonstrances of her majesty, being what they knew her genius would fall in with more readily than with any thing else they could propose, they began with that; and they took care that those remonstrances should be interpreted by the world and resented by herself, as hard usage, a denial of common civility, and even the making her no queen." It was with great difficulty that Lord Marlborough, in the full career of victory, could obtain the divinitychair at Oxford for Dr. Potter, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury; Dr. Smallbridge, recommended by the Tories, being his competitor.

But, by this time, a rival to the reigning favourite had been recently selected by the queen; this was no other than Mrs. Hill,+ a bedchamber-woman, formerly patronized by the Duchess of Marlborough, and influenced by Mr. Harley, her cousin, who made her the first step of the ladder of that ambition, by which he attained the peerage and the premiership. Her majesty now took an active interest in whatsoever concerned this lady; was present at the secret marriage between her and Mr. Masham, afterwards made a general by her; bestowed a fortune on that occasion, from the privy-purse; and conferred a regiment, soon after, on Brigadier Hill, the brother of the new minion. She re

The Tories.

† Miss Hill, according to our modern phraseology; the prefix of Mrs. being then used, I believe, indifferently to maidens and married women.

paired often to the queen, when the Prince of Denmark was asleep, and kept up a private correspondence between Mr. Harley and her majesty, which soon ended in the utter disgrace of the Whigs, the triumph of the Tories, and the retreat of the Marlborough family.

Mean while her majesty temporised and dissembled. The old favourite had a very powerful party at court; and her husband was maintaining the glory of the English name on the continent, by means of a series of unexampled victories. He was indeed created a duke, and a pension was conferred on him, while a palace was ordered to be erected at the public expense, immediately after the brilliant action at Blenheim; but his influence appears to have diminished in the exact proportion of his public services!. The new duchess too was received but coldly at court, and mortified about the setting of the queen's diamonds, on a thanksgiving day for one of her own husband's victories!

Harley indeed was dismissed for a while, on the united representation of the Whig cabinet; but he still visited his relation, Mrs. Masham, at the palace, and by her means regulated the conduct of her majesty. At length she positively refused to communicate with the Duchess of Marlborough but by writing; and the latter could neither by tears or entreaties be prevailed upon to listen to what she had to say.

That her majesty possessed some of the duplicity which has been alledged against Charles I. is very apparent; for at the very time she was about to disgrace the Whigs from power, she charged Mr. Secretary Boyle to assure the foreign courts that their fears on this head were groundless; and she dismissed Lord Godolphin the very day after she had earnestly begged he would continue in her service!

A complaint in parliament, about certain perquisites that the Duke of Marlborough had received when Generalissimo, at length furnished the queen with a popular pretext for his dismission from all his enployments, which was effected by a letter written by her own hand. The duchess attributes both this and her own disgrace to two causes: first, her grace's opposition to the Tories, coupled with her disregard for high-church* notions;

This lady, who to a beautiful person added a masculine mind, expresses herself as follows: "The word CHURCH had never any charms for me in the mouths of those who made the most noise with it; for I could not perceive that they gave any other distinguished proof of their regard for the thing, than a frequent use of the word, like a spell to enchant weak minds, and a persecuting zeal against dissenters, and against those real friends of the church, who would not admit that persecution was agreeable to its doctrines. And as to state-affairs, many of these churchmen seemed to me to have no fixed principles at all; having endeavoured, during the last reign, to undermine that very government which they had contributed to establish".

and secondly, her unrelenting inveteracy against Mrs. Masham. Her majesty however acted nobly as to pecuniary matters, and thus gratified one of the leading passions of the ex-favourite. Whatever sums and gratifications she claimed were allowed to be taken from the privy-purse, before its management was resigned to her hated rival, "Mrs. Abigail Hill," now Mrs. Masham; after this the queen gave her a quietus, by means of the following document:

Feb. 1, 1710

"I have examined these accounts, and allow of them ANNE R."

Mr. Harley, who had now become Earl at Oxford, at length, in his turn, lost her majesty's favour; and the star of Bolingbroke acquired the ascendant. But the disputes between these rival ministers brought on a fit of the gout in December 1713; and it was not until March following that her majesty could repair to the House of Lords in person.

On the 27th of July, 1714, she dismissed Harley; but from this moment the mind of her majesty was extremely agitated, and being at length exhausted by excessive fatigue, chagrin, and vexation, she sunk gradually into a lethargy; and this last and best of the Stewarts, closed her eyes forever, on Sunday, August 1, 1714, in the fiftieth year of her age, and the thirteenth of her reign.

By means of an act of parliament, which operates silently, but efficaciously, at this very day, queen Anne gave a most convincing proof of her attachment to the church of England; for on the anniversary of her birth-day, in 1704, she presented it with a noble donation, by the surrender of the first fruits and tenths, for the better support of the poor clergy.

On the other hand, she cordially detested the church of Rome; for many of the most offensive and cruel acts against the Irish Catholics were passed in her reign, and with her connivance. To the Tories her majesty was alike attached from a love of power, and the early prejudices of education; and she detested the Whigs, partly on account of their love of revolution principles, and partly from their forcing her to part with Sir Charles Hedges, while Secretary of State, at one time, and Harley at another; the domination too of the Duchess of Marlborough, which at length appeared odious and intolerable, rendered her still more averse from a party constantly patronised and protected by this high-spirited dame, until the hour of her death.

The invasion of Scotland by the Pretender, as he was then called, for a time soured her disposition against her own family; But nature at length acquired the preponderance, and her majes

ty would have willingly made her brother her successor had she been able to achieve such a perilous undertaking. To this she was still further induced, in some measure, by her hatred to the house of Hanover, as well as by the intrigues of Bolingbroke, seconded by Mrs. Masham. It will scarcely be believed, that not only he and Oxford, but even Godolphin and Marlborough, kept up a secret correspondence with the court of St. Germaines. Notwithstanding all this, a price was proposed to be set on the head of the Chevalier de St. George, and her majesty actually consented to it, in case he should land in Great Britain or Ireland. It appears, from Macpherson's State Papers*, that he addressed a letter to the queen a little before her death, urging her to do him justice; but it is not recorded that any answer was ever received by him.

MISCELLANEOUS,

A REMEDY FOR APOPLEXY.

M. SAGE has lately stated in a memoir read to the National Institute at Paris, the efficacy of flour volatile alkali, in cases of severe apoplexy. "For at least 40 years," says he, "I have had opportunities of witnessing the efficacy of volatile alkali, taken internally, as an immediate remedy for the apoplexy, if employed on the first appear. ance of the disease. One of the keepers of my cabinet, aged 72 years, robust, though thin and very sedate, was seized, while fasting, with an apoplexy. He fell down deprived of sense. When raised up, he had the rattles in his throat; his eyes were closed, his face pallid, and his teeth fixt together. I drew out his under lip so as to answer the purpose of a spout, into which was poured a spoonful of water, containing 25 or 30 drops of flour volatile alkali. At the same time two slips of paper, the edges of which were wetted with volatile alkali, were introduced into his nostrils. The teeth were speedily separated, and the eyes opened. A second dose of alkali was instantly poured down the throat. The rattles ceased; speech and recollection returned. In the course of an hour the patient recovered sufficient to proceed without assistance about 300 paces to his own chamber. In another hour he got up, asked for something to eat, and has since experienced no return of the disorder." He reports another instance in the person of one of his friends, who was a great eater, and was struck with the apoplexy while at table. "The volatile alkali excited a vomiting; and after that had abated, the patient took 20 drops of volatile alkali in half a glass of wine. His senses returned, and in two hours he was able to walk in his garden."

* Vol ii.

Female Duelling.-The famous duel between two French ladies, occasioned by mutual jealousy of each other, is no longer without à parallel. We must, however, enter our protest against the practice; for should it become general, the hearts of the rougher sex may be exposed, first to a fatal glance from a love-sick fair, and ultimately to a fatal bullet from an angry one. The following is the story as given in the Newspapers:" A curious report is in circulation in the fashionable world. Two ladies in high life, having had a dispute at the Prince's fete, a challenge actually ensued, and the parties proceeded to Kensington Gardens, with their female seconds, who took with them a brace of pistols each, in their ridicules- The seconds having charged, by mistake put in the balls first. The Amazons afterwards took their ground, but missed fire, when their difference was adjusted by the interference of their mutual friends."

Flight of Flamingoes.Bamberg, July 15. On the 25th of last month towards evening, we were witnesses of the passage of a numerous column of foreign birds, of the most splendid plumage. The last rays of the setting sun added still greater brilliancy to their colour, of which the glowing red dazzled the eye. These birds were nearly equal in size to a swan; their necks were much longer than the neck of that bird, which is a bird of passage, in its wild state. It is likely that this was a troop of Flamingoes; of which kind some have lately been seen in the neighbourhood of Strasburgh. Birds of this species, which inhabit the hottest parts of Africa and of South America, have never before been seen so far north. The extraordinary and long continued heat of the present summer, has no doubt been the means of attracting them into our regions.

*.* This is a curious fact in natural history. It justifies the opinion that birds may roam over many degrees of latitude in a short space of time; and that their species may spread into many, and distant countries without difficulty. The instinct by which these Flamingoes were led to seek a congenial temperature in a distant clime, with the cause of their seeking it so far north, deserves the attention of philosophers. There is still much to be learned on the actuating principles of nature, notwithstanding modern discoveries: to this a faithful record of facts, may by accumulation essentially contribute.

Musical Elephant.-At Mentz, there is now exhibited an elephant of surprising intelligence. The musicians of the theatre gave him a concert. The first piece produced a deep sensation; but a solo on the horn, transported him. He was much agitated, beat time with his trunk, and accompanied the instrument with certain sounds.

Flying.—The art of rising and moving in the air by means of wings, continues to engage the attention of a number of persons in Germany. At Vienna, the watchmaker Degen, aided by a liberal subscription, is occupied in perfecting his discovery. He has recently ta ken several public flights in the Prater. At Berlin, Claudius, a wealthy manufacturer of oil-cloth, is engaged in like pursuits: he rises in the air without difficulty, and can move in a direct line at the rate of