bition. "Harley," says Burnet, "not being considered at the Revolution as he thought he deserved, set himself to oppose the Court in everything, and to find fault with the whole administration." Though educated in the staunchest Whig principles, as soon as his interests required a sacrifice of those principles, he leagued himself with the Tories; and though a Presbyterian, and, indeed, suspected of a tendency to Puritanism, contrived to obtain the confidence of the highchurch party, while, at the same time, he had art enough to continue in favour with the Dissenters. It was owing to this temporizing policy, and to the dexterity with which he insinuated himself into the good graces of two very opposite parties, that when King William, at the close of his reign, surrounded himself with a Tory ministry, Harley had influence enough to get himself elected Speaker of the House of Commons. This high situation he held during three successive Parliaments.

Harley seems to have been eminently well qualified to fill the office of Speaker. Both Burnet and Lockhart agree, that his natural talents were of a high order, his learning great, and his application extraordinary.

On the accession of Queen Anne, the political rise of Harley was almost as rapid as he himself could have wished. Without entering into the complicated politics of the earlier part of that reign, it may be necessary to observe, that, at this period, the Tories were nominally in power.

Some few of the Whigs, indeed, continued to fill the same situations which they held at the close of the last reign, but every office which became vacant was conferred upon the Tories. Such was the early position of that famous coalition of which Marlborough and Godolphin, who, at this period, must be regarded as Tories, were at the head, and which was generally known as the Godolphin administration.

By degrees, however, the Whigs recovered a share of their former influence; it became evident that they must speedily triumph over their enemies; and, accordingly, Marlborough and Godolphin began to think it time to sacrifice their principles to their interests; and, instead of falling with the Tories, determined, if possible, to become the leaders of the Whigs. The intentions of these two celebrated men became shortly too evident to be mistaken; and several of the highchurch and ultra-Tories resigned their places in disgust. It was on the occasion of this defection in 1704, that Harley, who owed his political importance less to his genius than to his convenient connexion alike with Whigs, Tories, and Dissenters, was raised to the office of Secretary of State. He had sufficient influence, moreover, to bring into power with him Henry St. John, afterwards the celebrated Lord Bolingbroke, who, at the same time, was appointed Secretary at War. St. John, then a very young man, with a foresight superior to that of more experienced politicians, seems to have been fully alive to the

great abilities and intriguing genius of Harley, and to have attached himself to him as the person most likely to assist him in his views of personal aggrandizement. Harley, on his part, seems to have conceived a reciprocal admiration for the genius of St. John, and to have gladly availed himself of those splendid abilities, which, at this period, were in their youthful promise. Such was the nature of the early and celebrated friendship between Harley and St. John, which, it is needless to add, was, afterwards, converted into hostility as memorable.

A desire to strengthen themselves, by conciliating the Whig party, seems to have been the secret motive which induced Marlborough and Godolphin to admit Harley to a share of power. Harley, however, had now made his grand move; he was not exactly the person to remain a submissive tool in the hands of others; his intriguing and ambitious nature began to display itself;-nor was it long before his colleagues had sufficient reason to repent of their folly in admitting him to a share of the government. Almost from the moment of his accession to office, we may trace the commencement of those celebrated court intrigues, which constitute the peculiar feature of the reign of Queen Anne.

The same circumstance which elevated Harley to the pinnacle of greatness, was, eventually, the cause of his fall. This was his connexion with the celebrated Mrs. Masham, his distant relative and convenient tool. Whether that lady were ever in the state of indigence represented by her

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enemy, the Duchess of Marlborough-whether there was any truth in her Grace's picture of the ragged boy," or that Mrs. Masham was ever a suppliant to her for pecuniary relief-cannot now, with any correctness, be ascertained. Certain it is, however, that Harley neglected his relation when his assistance might have been of service to her, and assiduously paid his court to her when her star rose in the ascendant. With his usual tact and foresight, he was one of the first to discover the secret intercourse between the Queen and Mrs. Masham, and the increasing influence exercised by the bedchamber-woman over her royal mistress. He immediately conceived the project of destroying the power of the Duke of Marlborough, by undermining the imperious Duchess in the affections of her royal mistress. With this view, he instigated Mrs. Masham to complete her triumph over her rival: he fed her with the most fulsome

* Mrs. Masham's brother, afterwards General John Hill. "Jack Hill," says the Duchess, "whom the bottlemen, afterwards, called honest Jack, was a tall boy, whom I clothed, for he was all in rags, and put to school at St. Alban's to one Mr. James, who had been an usher under Dr. Busby of Westminster; and whenever I went to St. Alban's I sent for him, and was as kind to him as if he had been my own child. After he had learned what he could there, a vacancy happening of page of honour to the Prince of Denmark, his Highness was pleased, at my request, to take him. I afterwards got my Lord Marlborough to make him Groom of the Bedchamber to the Duke of Gloucester; and though my Lord always said, that Jack Hill was good for nothing, yet, to oblige me, he made him his aid-de-camp, and afterwards gave him a regiment."-Conduct of the Duchess of Marlborough, p. 159.

flattery, and assisted her on all occasions with his influence and advice.

Harley, in pursuing his favourite schemes of personal aggrandizement, seems to have been little scrupulous in regard to the means which he resorted to, and to have been perfectly indifferent, so that he gained his ends, whether the train of his chicanery was laid in the bed-chamber or the senate. Not that he can be accused of any grave political offence, nor even of a direct falsehood; but his life was, after all, but a long equivoque, and his history comprises little more than a curious disentanglement of unworthy intrigue. Conscious, apparently, that he possessed neither the commanding eloquence nor the lofty genius which are usually the stepping-stones to great political power, he seems to have been determined to supply the want of high intellectual superiority, by arming himself with the weapons of artifice and dissimulation. With this object he unscrupulously availed himself of female influence and intrigue, and, to use an expression of Lord Wharton, had been long "nibbling" with the new favourite, Mrs. Masham. By degrees, he brought himself to be regarded by her as an agreeable companion; but it was evident that his object still remained unattained, unless he could contrive to insinuate himself into her confidence, and, if possible, lay her under a personal obligation to himself. The manner in which the wily statesman accomplished his purpose, not only affords remarkable evidence of his talent for intrigue,