had taken post behind the Senset, and occupied lines, extending from Bouchain on the Schelde, along the Senset and the Scarpe, to Arras, and thence along the Upper Scarpe to Canche, which were defended by redoubts and other works in such a manner as to render them in his own opinion impregnable, and which, by way of anticipated triumph, he called the ne plus ultra of Marlborough. By a complication of manœuvres, the finest, perhaps, ever practised by any general, Marlborough drew him out of these impregnable lines, and took possession of them without the loss of a man.*

Bouchain, the object Marlborough had in view by this masterly movement, was immediately invested. In the meantime, he despatched brigadier general Sutton to England, with an account of his having passed the French lines, which, to the junto that had now in their hands the government of Great Britain, was no very agreeable intelligence, as it reduced them. to the necessity of new inventions to detract from the merit of a man against whom they had already done their utmost. But their full hearts were speedily relieved by a lucky surmise, that it was a something worse than useless achievement, as he had by it only removed his camp from a plentiful situation to one where the troops would most certainly be starved. The enterprise Marlborough had undertaken was, indeed, to ordinary minds, very like an impracticable one. Bouchain was situate in a morass, fortified in the best possible manner, having an ample garrison of picked men, and Villars himself in the immediate neighbourhood with an army superior to that of the besiegers. But the genius of the British general, and the courage of his troops, triumphed over all these difficulties. In spite of all that Villars could do, in the short space of three weeks after the opening of the trenches, he had the mortification to see the fortress surrendered, and the garrison march out "with their hands in their pockets," prisoners of war.+

This was the last, and perhaps the most brilliant exploit

* Sommerville's History of Great Britain during the reign of Queen Anne, pp. 459, 440. Supplement to the History of Queen Anne, pp. 120-122. † Memoirs of Military Transactions, &c. by Captain Robert Parker, pp. 196, 197.

performed by the great duke of Marlborough. By the capture of Bouchain, he had opened a way into the very bowels of France, and no sooner were the breaches thereof repaired, than the opposite armies began to separate, the allied forces taking up their quarters in the frontier towns, that they might be ready for taking advantage of all their successes in the spring. Marlborough retired to the Hague, and about the middle of November, returned to England, where, instead of being welcomed with those honours which services so splendid called for, he was dismissed from all his employments, attacked with every species of vulgar abuse, and ordered to be prosecuted by her majesty's attorney-general, as a public peculator, The charges laid against him were, his having received a yearly premium paid by the contractors to the army for bread, and a perquisite of two and a half per cent. upon the pay of the foreign troops. These had all along been allowed to the commander-in-chief in the Low Countries, in aid of the ten thousand pounds which were yearly granted by parliament for secret services. That the party who preferred these charges had not the smallest belief that the actions charged were criminal, is evident from their bestowing upon the duke of Ormond the command of the same army, with the very same perquisites, without which, indeed, he refused to accept it,* but they served as an apology to the public, for the transference of the power and the perquisites into hands which certainly had not merited the one, nor given any good evidence of being qualified for effectively employing the other, and as texts to the herd of mercenary scribblers, which they kept in daily pay, upon which to found their infamous fabrications+ against a man who was the glory of his age and

* Supplement to the History of Queen Anne, p. 113.

+ One of their hirelings, or more probably one of themselves, asserts in a number of the Examiner, a scurrilous party paper, of which the shrewd, but heartless and unprincipled Dr. Swift, and the infidel Bolingbroke, were the two principal luminaries, "That the duke of Marlborough was naturally a very great coward. That all the victories and successes that attended him were owing to mere chance, and to those about him, for whenever he came to be engaged in action, he was always in a great hurry, and very much confounded upon every little emergency that happened, and would cry in great confusion to those about him, What shall we do now?""

country. Charges of a similar kind were preferred against Godolphin, which, no doubt, had a similar origin, as they came to the same conclusion-that is, were silently dropped. But if the ministry were embarrassed with success where they had hoped for disgrace, they had abundance of disgrace where they as earnestly hoped for success. One of their most frequent topics of declamation against the late ministry, was the alleged mismanagement of the war in Spain, where they contended it should have been carried on with the greatest vigour, and where, as they alleged, it had been overlooked. They accordingly pretended to turn their attention to this neglected quarter with more than ordinary interest. The duke of Argyle, who, from envy of his talents and singular success, had become a great declaimer against the duke of Marlborough, and, from the hope of emolument, a hanger-on upon the new ministry, was appointed generalissimo, to carry the terror and the triumph of their arms over that devoted country. When his grace, however, arrived in Spain, he found the troops in the most wretched condition, and the remittances promised him-though the commons had voted one million five hundred thousand pounds expressly for that service never reached him; in consequence of which, he was compelled to raise money upon his plate and personal credit, for their immediate wants, and in a short time returned to England, having done nothing.*

Mr. St. John, at the suggestion of some Indian chiefs, and for the benefit of brigadier Hill, the brother of Mrs. Masham,† the waiting-woman, to whom he and Harley owed their present elevation, had planned an expedition against Quebec, for the equipment of which, the queen was prevailed upon to sign a warrant for the payment of twenty-eight thousand pounds, though it had never been spoken of in parliament. Eleven line of battle ships, besides frigates and transports, having on board five thousand troops, sailed upon this expedition; but, from the lateness of the season, the ships not being adapted for the service upon which they were sent, the

Life of John, duke of Argyle, pp. 69, 70.

Memoirs of the four last years of Queen Anne, p. 118. Macpherson's History of Great Britain, p. 334.

want of provisions, and the total incapacity of the general under whose charge the whole was placed, it also returned, having, with the exception of the loss of eight ships, with all that were aboard them, accomplished nothing.*

Under all these mortifications, which they must have felt very keenly, they could yet console themselves, that they were making considerable progress towards a reconciliation with France, which was of the first importance to their present plans, and to their ulterior prospects. The projected peace was advancing apace, in the hands of Mr. St. John, lord Dartmouth, and Matthew Prior; the house of commons was every thing they could wish, their principal opponents being expelled, and though the house of lords was not quite so complacent, they already contemplated measures for rendering it equally subservient to their views, as we shall see in the sequel.f

But, to return more particularly to the affairs of Scotland --the parliament having been occupied as we have already related, had little time to bestow upon her, and that little was employed rather to her disadvantage than otherwise. The first object that came to be debated, in which she was more particularly interested, was a bill imposing a duty upon the exportation of linen, the debates upon which, were managed with great heat, and in a manner that showed distinctly that, on either side, national prejudices were yet far from being extinguished. Many members, indeed, spoke of Scotland as if she had been a conquered rather than an allied country. "Have not we," said Harley, "bought them [the Scots], and a right to tax them. And pray, for what did we give them the equivalent?" He was replied to with great warmth by the Scotish members, particularly by Lockhart of Carnwath, who, with all his faults, was certainly, in his own way, zealous for the honour of his country. The bill was, nevertheless, carried, in defiance of all opposition. An attempt was also made for promoting the trade of Scotland, by placing the transportation of naval stores from that country upon the same footing as from the American colonies, but it was not successful.

* Memoirs of the four last years of Queen Anne, p. 118. Burnet's History of his Own Times.

In the mean time the assembly of the church of Scotland convened at Edinburgh, upon the tenth of May, 1711, and after sermon by Mr. William Mitchell, late moderator, made choice of Mr. William Carstares, principal of the college of Edinburgh, as their moderator-the commissioner on this occasion was William, marquis of Annandale. Notwithstanding the violent encroachments which the episcopalians were in many places making upon the rights of the Scotish church, and the openly avowed intention of the Jacobites to have all these encroachments legalized, the letter of the queen was soft and soothing, breathing even more than her accustomed piety, and promising, on her part, every thing that could be desired. "We are," she says, "persuaded, from your prudent and calm proceedings in former assemblies, that at this time you will go on in the same way; and that you will take care to plant vacant churches with learned, diligent, and pious ministers; to promote religion, suppress vice and impiety, and prevent the growth of popery and atheism. And nothing shall be wanting on our part, to convince you of our royal intentions to protect and maintain you in the full possession of your rights and privileges, as by law established."* Taken in connexion with the spirit of her present administration, these professions on the part of the queen, with the Calderwoods, the Bruces, the Knoxes, and the Hendersons of former days, would most probably have been considered as intended to cajole, rather than to satisfy and confirm doubtful minds, and must have been by them treated accordingly; but the church of Scotland had now fallen into the hands of men of easy faith and accommodating tempers, under whose tutelage the assembly was made to reply with the most infantine simplicity. "The assurances that your majesty in your great goodness has been pleased to give us of your royal intentions, to protect and maintain us in the full possession of all our rights and privileges, as established by law, do make us easy amidst all the vain confidence of those amongst us, who separate from our communion, to whom the advantages we enjoy under your majesty's just and gracious

Queen's letter to the General Assembly, 1711.