but discovers on how slender a foundation the fate of ministers and of nations occasionally rests. Mrs. Masham, who, at this period, was only Miss Abigail Hill, had become enamoured, it seems, of a Mr. Masham, one of the Queen's pages, a gentleman considerably younger than herself. In a moment of weakness, Harley wrung from her, not only this delicate secret, but the fact that her attachment was apparently not reciprocated. He immediately caused the page to be sounded by an old courtier, in whose discretion he could confide. Masham was convinced by this person that future wealth and honours would follow his marriage with the favourite; and thus, apparently with little difficulty, he was transformed from the distant friend to the eager lover. The Queen herself was made an accomplice in the affair, and, eventually, to the triumphant satisfaction of both Harley and Mrs. Masham, consented to be present at a secret marriage, which was performed in the apartments of the Queen's physician, Dr. Arbuthnot.

Hitherto, the Duchess of Marlborough had affected to regard Mrs. Masham as the mere waiting-woman. The Duchess had been the means of establishing her humble kinswoman at court; and though reports could not fail to have reached her of the Queen's increasing partiality for her future rival, she was naturally unwilling to credit the fickleness of the one, or the ingratitude of the other. When, at length, however, the story of the secret marriage was related to

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her, accompanied, moreover, by convincing proofs of the Queen having transferred her affections to another, the jealousy and indignation of the spoiled and imperious Duchess knew no bounds. It was the first time that her royal mistress had withheld her confidence from her, or, indeed, had taken any step in which the Duchess was not consulted and made a party in the affair. After this period, the latter made repeated attempts to recover her lost influence over the Queen's affections, but her expostulations led only to recrimination, and recrimination produced disgust. Gradually, she became an object of positive aversion to her royal mistress ; with her influence over the Queen declined that of the Whig party; and in the end, when circumstances at length permitted the Queen to throw off the mask, and publicly discard her haughty favourite, it is needless to add, that the great Duke of Marlborough and the entire Whig party, were involved in the fall of this extraordinary woman.

In the meantime,-whether grateful to Harley for having procured her the man of her choice, or captivated by his specious arguments, and insinuating address, Mrs. Masham seems to have been fully persuaded by the designing statesman, that their mutual interests tended towards the same goal, and by degrees to have resigned herself entirely into his hands. It was not, indeed, till a later period, when she had leagued herself with Bolingbroke, and when Bo

lingbroke persuaded her, in his turn, to connive at the ruin of Harley, that Mrs. Masham seems to have been fully aware of the extraordinary power with which her bed-chamber influence had invested her. Harley, however, for a time at least, was sufficiently rewarded for the assiduous court which he paid to the new favourite. By her means he was frequently admitted to the most secret interviews with the Queen; and while alone with his royal mistress in her closet, was afforded the most favourable opportunities of improving her prejudices against the Whigs, and advancing his own project of creating a Tory administration, of which he himself was to be the

head.

For a considerable time, Harley, both as the minister and the closet companion, seems to have obtained an influence over the weak Queen, secondary only to that of Mrs. Masham. With an ingratiating address, an extraordinary knowledge of human nature, and, especially, an intimate acquaintance with the weaknesses of the Queen's character, it was his art to drop the discussion of politics before it became wearisome; to amuse her with the gossip and gallantries of the Court, and to pamper her with those fulsome flatteries, which seem to have been the cordial of her existence.

Harley and St. John were both finished adepts in dissimulation and intrigue; both were intimately acquainted with the machinery of Courts, and the motives of human action. The world,

unquestionably, regards St. John as the more complete dissembler; for, in addition to his graceful and insinuating manners, the reputation of which has not yet faded, he figures as a brilliant writer and a still more brilliant orator; his ambition, moreover, assumed a higher and more romantic character; while the meteor-like splendour of his rise and fall, was rendered the more vivid, from his being gifted with all those shining graces of mind and person which have been rarely, if ever, surpassed.

Nevertheless, it may be questioned whether, in their mutual course of intrigue and hypocrisy, Harley was, in fact, very far behind his gifted antagonist. Both commenced life with nearly the same advantages; both were cadets of ancient families, and both had, originally, been educated in the principles of the Dissenters. Regarding them, therefore, as competitors for power and fame, and as nicely matched in worldly advantages and in the arts of intrigue, it is curious to watch the progress of their several careers. In regard to actual success, the advantage was, unquestionably, on the side of Harley; who, not only intrigued himself into the post of first minister, but maintained his position against the genius of St. John, and of his numerous enemies, positively for three years, and nominally for four. Thus Harley attained to a greatness which Bolingbroke never achieved; and success is, generally speaking, the test of superiority. That Bolingbroke was the superior genius there can

be no question; but, at present, we are merely discussing the question of superiority in regard to the arts of intrigue.

The Queen, it may be remarked, especially prided herself on the countenance which she gave to religion and morality, and, consequently, it was an important point obtained by Harley, that his private character was as free from reproach, as that of St. John was tainted by libertinism and profane wit. Another advantage possessed by Harley in his intercourse with Queen Anne, was the art of accommodating his manners and conversation to the tastes and capacity of the particular person whom he addressed. With the Queen, according as the occasion suited, he could be the agreeable trifler, the delicate flatterer, or, to all appearance, the high-minded and disinterested politician. Bolingbroke says of his former associate, "Where anything was to be got, he could wriggle himself in: when any misfortune threatened him, he could find a way to wriggle himself out." Had Bolingbroke been permitted the same favourable opportunities of ingratiating himself with the Queen which were allowed to Harley, he would never have achieved the extraordinary influence over her mind, which his rival so successfully established. With a woman, indeed, of spirit and genius, his polished address, his fine person, and insidious philosophy, would probably have engendered a reciprocity of feeling, and insured his ultimate triumph. But it was far otherwise with a homely and insipid person like