William's policy had not been bounded by his Island Kingdom. It
included the cause of Protestant Europe. An apparently invincible King
sat on the throne of France, gradually drawing all adjacent Kingdoms
into his dominion. When in defiance of past pledges he placed his
grandson upon the vacant throne of Spain, and declared that the
Pyrenees should exist no more, even Catholic Austria revolted, and
beginning to fear Louis more than Protestantism, new combinations were
formed, England still holding aloof, and striving to keep out of the
Alliance. But that all-absorbing King had long ago fixed his eye upon
England as his future prey, and when he refused to recognize Anne as
lawful Queen and declared his intention of placing the "Pretender," son
of King James, {132} upon the throne, there could be no more
hesitation. This Jupiter who had removed the Pyrenees, might wipe out
the English Channel too! Hitherto the name Whig had stood for the
adherents to the war policy, and Tory for its opponents. Now, all was
changed. Even the stupid Anne and her Tory friends saw that William's
policy must be her policy if she would keep her Kingdom.
Fortunate was it for England, and for Europe at this time that a
"Marlborough" had climbed to distinction by a slender, and not too
reputable ladder. This man, John Churchill, who a few years ago had
been unknown, without training, almost without education, was by pure
genius fitted to become, upon the death of William, the guiding spirit
of the Grand Alliance.
He had none of the qualities possessed by William, and all the
qualities that leader had not. He had no moral grandeur, no stern
adherence to principles. Whig and Tory were alike to him, and he
followed whichever seemed to lead to success, and to the richest
rewards. He was perfectly sordid in his aims, invincible in his good
{133} nature, with a careless, easy _bonhomie_ which captured the
hearts of Europeans, who called him "the handsome Englishman." As
adroit in managing men as armies, as wise in planning political moves
as campaigns, using tact and diplomacy as effectually as artillery, he
assumed the whole direction of the European war; managed every
negotiation, planned every battle, and achieved its great and
overwhelming success.
"Blenheim" turned the tide of French victory, and broke the spell of
Louis' invincibility. The loss at that battle was something more than
men and fortresses. It was _prestige_, and that self-confidence which
had made the great King believe that nothing could resist his purposes.
It was a new sensation for him to bend his neck, and to say that he
acknowledged Anne Queen of England.
Marlborough received as his reward the splendid estate upon which was
built the palace of "Blenheim." Then, when in the sunshine of peace
England needed him no more, Anne quarrelled with his wife, her {134}
adored friend, and cast him aside as a rusty sword no longer of use.
But for years Europe heard the song "Malbrook s'en va-t-en guerre," and
his awe-inspiring name was used to frighten children in France and in
England.
His passionate love for his wife, Sarah Churchill, ran like a golden
thread of romance through Marlborough's stormy career. On the eve of
battle, and in the first flush of victory, he must first and last write
her; and he would more willingly meet 20,000 Frenchmen than his wife's
displeasure! Indeed Sarah seems to have waged her own battles very
successfully with her tongue, and also to have had her own diplomatic
triumphs. Through Anne's infatuation for her, she was virtually ruler
while the friendship lasted. But to acquire ascendancy over Anne was
not much of an achievement.
It is said that there was but one duller person than the Queen in her
Kingdom, and that was the royal Consort, George, Prince of Denmark.
Happy was it for England that of the seventeen children born into this
royal household, not one survived. {135} The succession, in the
absence of direct heirs, was pledged to George, Elector of Hanover, a
remote descendant of James I.
It was during Anne's reign that English literature assumed a new
character. The stately and classic form being set aside for a style
more familiar, and which concerned itself with the affairs of everyday
life. Letters shone with a mild splendor, while Steele, Sterne, Swift,
Defoe and Fielding were writing, and Addison's "Spectator" was on every
breakfast-table.
In the year 1714 Anne died, and George I., of the House of Hanover, was
King of England,--an England which, thanks to the great soldier and
Duke, would never more be molested by the intriguing designs of a
French King, and which held in her hand Gibraltar, the key to the
Mediterranean.
King George I. was a German grandson of Elizabeth, sister of Charles I.
Deeply attached to his own Hanover, this stupid old man came slowly and
reluctantly to assume his new honors. He could not speak English; and
as he smoked his long pipe, his homesick soul was soothed by the ladies
{136} of his Court, who cut caricature figures out of paper for his
amusement, while Robert Walpole relieved him of affairs of State. As
ignorant of the politics of England as of its language, Walpole
selected the King's Ministers and determined the policy of his
Government; establishing a precedent which has always been followed.
Since that time it has been the duty of the Prime Minister to form the
Ministry; and no sovereign since Anne has ever appeared at a Cabinet
Council, nor has refused assent to a single Act of Parliament.
Such a King was merely a symbol of Protestantism and of Constitutional
Government. But this stream of royal dulness which set in from Hanover
in 1714, came as a great blessing at the time. It enabled England to
be ruled for thirty years by the party which had since the usurpation
of James I. stood for the rights of the people. Walpole created a Whig
Government. The Whigs had never wavered from certain principles upon
which they had risen to power. There must be no tampering with
justice, nor with the freedom of the press, {137} nor any attempt to
rule independently of Parliament. Thirty years of rule under these
principles converted them into an integral part of the national life.
The habit of loyalty to them was so established by this long ascendancy
of the Whig party, that Englishmen forgot that such things could
be;--forgot that it was possible to infringe upon the sacred liberties
of the people.
However much "Whig" and "Tory" have seemed to change since we first
hear of them in the time of James I., they have in fact remained
essentially the same; the Whigs always tending to limit the power of
the crown, and the Tories to limit that of the people. At the time of
Walpole the Tories had been the supporters of the Pretender and of the
High Church party, the Whigs of the policy of William and
Protestantism. Their predecessors were the "Roundheads" and
"Cavaliers," and their successors to-day are found in the "Liberals"
and "Conservatives."
There was at last peace abroad and prosperity at home. The latter was
interrupted for a time in 1720 by the speculative {138} madness created
by the "South-Sea Bubble." Men were almost crazed by the rise in the
value of shares from L100 to L1,000; and then plunged into despair and
ruin when they suddenly dropped to nothing. The suffering caused by
this wreck of fortunes was great. But industries revived, and
prosperity and wealth returned with little to disturb them again until
the death of George I. in 1727; when another George came over from
Hanover to occupy the English throne.
George II. had one advantage over his father. He did speak the English
language. Nor was he content to smoke his pipe and entrust his Kingdom
to his Ministers, which was a doubtful advantage for the nation. But
his clever wife, Queen Caroline, believed thoroughly in Walpole, and
when she was controlled by the Minister, and then in turn herself
controlled the policy of the King, that simple gentleman supposed that
he,--George II.,--was ruling his own Kingdom. His small, narrow mind
was incapable of statesmanship; but he was a good soldier. Methodical,
stubborn and passionate, {139} he was a King who needed to be carefully
watched, and adroitly managed, to keep him from doing harm.
There was a young "Pretender" in these days (Charles Edward Stuart),
who was conspiring with Louis XV., as his father had done with Louis
XIV., to get to the English throne. We see him flitting about Europe
from time to time, landing here and there on the British Coast--until
when finally defeated at "Culloden Moor," 1746, this wraith of the
House of Stuart disappears--dying obscurely in Rome; and "Wha'll be
King but Charlie," and "Over the Water to Charlie," linger only as the
echo of a lost cause.
There was a time of despondency when England seemed to be annexed to
Hanover, following her fortunes, and sharing her misfortunes in the
"seven years' war" over the Austrian succession, as if the Great
Kingdom were a mere dependency to the little Electorate; and all to
please the stubborn King. Desiring peace above all things England was
no sooner freed from one entanglement, than she was plunged into
another.
{140}
In India, the English "Merchant Company," chartered by Elizabeth in
1600, had expanded to a power. One of the native Princes, jealous of
these foreign intruders in Bengal, and roused, it was said, by the
French to expel them, committed that deed at which the world has
shuddered ever since. One hundred and fifty settlers and traders, were
thrust into an air-tight dungeon--in an Indian midsummer. Maddened
with heat and with thirst, most of them died before morning, trampling
upon each other in frantic efforts to get air and water. This is the
story of the "Black Hole of Calcutta;" which led to the victories of
Clive, and the establishment of English Empire in India, 1767.
Two years later a quarrel over the boundaries of their American
Colonies brought the French and English into direct conflict. Gen.
Wolfe, the English Commander, was killed at the moment of victory in
scaling the walls of Quebec. Montcalm, the French commander, being
saved the humiliation of seeing the loss of Canada (1760), by sharing
the same fate.
{141}
The dream of French Empire in America was at an end; and with the
cession of Florida by Spain, England was mistress of the eastern half
of the Continent from Nova Scotia to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the
Atlantic to the Mississippi. So since the days of Elizabeth, and from
seed dropped by her hand, an Eastern and a Western Empire had been
added to that island Kingdom, whose highest dream had been to get back
some of her lost provinces in France. Instead of that it was to be her
destiny to girdle the Earth, so that the Sun in its entire course
should never cease to shine upon British Dominions.
Side by side with the aspiration which uplifts a nation, there is
always a tendency toward degradation, which can only be arrested by the
infusion of a higher spiritual life. Strong alcoholic liquors had
taken the place of beer in England (to avoid the excessive tax imposed
upon it) and the grossest intemperance prevailed in the early part of
this reign. John Wesley introduced a regenerative force when he went
about among the people preaching "Methodism," a pure {142} and simple
religion. Not since Augustine had the hearts of men been so touched,
and a new life and new spirit came into being, better than all the
prosperity and territorial expansion of the time.
Walpole had passed from view long before the stirring changes we have
alluded to. A new hand was guiding the affairs of State; the hand of
William Pitt.
{143}