be true, also, that he was a sycophant, and fawned on his sovereign, when out of power; and that he neglected her in a very unwarrantable manner as soon as she had assisted him in accomplishing his ends. Personal neglect is rarely forgiven by a woman, and never, perhaps, by a woman and a Queen. But accusations such as these, even if true, are evidence rather of bad manners and bad taste, and of a foolish and perhaps insolent security in office, than of incompetency or any criminal designs. It may be doubted, indeed, whether any measure was carried, during Oxford's administration, which in any degree affords reason for believing that he was ever wilfully heedless of the interests of his sovereign, and the liberty and happiness of the subject; or neglected the welfare of his country for his own.

There is extant a letter addressed by Oxford to Swift, which is especially curious, as having been written on the morning of the very day which his enemies had fixed upon to drive him from power. In this letter Oxford freely confesses, that for the last twelve months bis influence had been merely nominal; and, moreover, prognosticates that the next morning he would be a private person. His anticipations did not deceive him. On the evening of that day, the four most remarkable political personages of the day, namely, the Queen, Oxford, Bolingbroke, and Mrs. Masham, met together in the same apartment, for the last time. The Queen was present as the dispenser of power; Oxford as the ruined and humbled statesman; and Boling

broke and Mrs. Masham as the elated and insolent victors. Within the short space of three days the Queen was a corpse, and Mrs. Masham a neglected and despised woman: within a few more days Bolingbroke was an exile and a proscribed man, and Oxford in the Tower.

At this memorable meeting, Oxford, (either allowing his feelings of hatred and indignation to triumph over his better judgment and habitual calmness of language and manner, or else, aware that his fate was sealed, and that now for the last time it was in his power to address himself personally to his sovereign,) gave vent to an almost indecent ebullition of rage and abuse. Aware that his motives had been misinterpreted, and his conduct misrepresented, he made a futile attempt to exculpate himself in the eyes of his sovereign, which was angrily retorted upon by Bolingbroke and Mrs. Masham. Argument led to recrimination; recrimination to reproaches; and reproaches to threats and personal invectives. Oxford boldly asserted that he had been made the victim of misrepresentation and lies. Regardless of the Queen's presence, he accused Mrs. Masham of being the inventor of the paltry scandal which had occasioned his fall; and the same evening, when he was required to deliver up his staff of office, he indulged in an idle and unworthy ebullition of puerile rage, vowing vengeance on those who had procured his ruin; and adding, that "he would leave some persons as low as he had found them." On the 27th of

July, 1714, Oxford resigned his post of Lord High Treasurer, and on the 1st of August following, the Queen expired.

The accession of George the First to the throne of England completed the political ruin of the Earl of Oxford. Although there existed no reasonable grounds for presuming him to have been implicated in the intrigues of the Jacobites for restoring the House of Stuart, yet he had been too closely connected with men who were known to have entertained those dangerous designs, not to render him an object of dislike and suspicion to the new sovereign. Moreover, in addition to the personal prejudices of George the First, he had to contend against the implacable hatred and malice of his old associates, the Whigs. It was unlikely that a party, which he had first deceived and deserted and afterwards ruined, should hesitate to retaliate on their arch-enemy, now that they were afforded an inviting opportunity for depriving him of the power to work them further annoyance.

Oxford, however, seems to have been blind to the danger which awaited him, and to have anticipated the accession of the House of Hanover as offering him a favourable opportunity of retrieving the position which he had lost. As it had been for some years a part of his temporizing policy to negotiate secretly with the Electoral family, he imagined that a long series of vows and professions must have securely purchased the gratitude of the new sovereign; and not only

boasted of the credit which he was to enjoy under the new dynasty, but appears to have foolishly and confidently promised places and patronage to his former friends. To Lord Cowper he is said to have awarded the Chancellorship; to Lord Dartmouth, the Privy Seal; and to Mr. Bromley, the post of Secretary of State.

Bolingbroke, in detailing these evidences of Oxford's weakness, dwells with an evident and unworthy satisfaction on the mortification and discomfiture which awaited his too sanguine opponent. "When the King arrived," he says,

"Oxford went to Greenwich with an affectation of pomp and of favour. Against his suspicious character, he was once in his life the bubble of his credulity; and this delusion betrayed him into a punishment more severe, in my sense, than all that has happened to him since, or than perpetual exile. He was affronted in the manner in which he was presented to the King. The meanest subject would have been received with goodness; the most obnoxious with an air of indifference; but he was received with the most distinguishing contempt.. This treatment he had in the face of the nation. The King began his reign, in this instance, by punishing the ingratitude, the perfidy, the insolence which had been shown to his predecessor. Oxford fled from Court covered with shame; the object of the derision of the Whigs, and of the indignation of the Tories."

On the 10th of June, 1715, Mr., afterwards Sir

Robert Walpole, as chairman of the Secret Committee for collecting evidence against the late ministry, stood up in the House of Commons, and impeached Henry Lord Viscount Bolingbroke of high treason. After a short discussion, in which only two individuals came forward as the supporters of that extraordinary man, Lord Coningsby also stood up in his place. "The worthy chairman,” he said, “has impeached the hand, but I impeach the head; he has impeached the clerk, and I the justice; he has impeached the scholar, and I the master. I impeach Robert, Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer of high treason, and other high crimes and misdemeanours." The motion, as in the case of Bolingbroke, was agreed to without a division, and the next day, on Oxford presenting himself in the House of Lords, his brother peers are said to have avoided him as if he had been infectious. A few days afterwards, Lord Coningsby, attended by several Whig members of the House of Commons, formally impeached him of high treason at the bar of the House of Lords. A discussion took place, in which Oxford himself bore a part, which terminated by the Peers ordering his committal to safe custody. He attempted to defend himself, in a speech distinguished by a decent dignity of language and demeanour, and apparently with a proud consciousness of the purity of his motives; but it was evident that his enemies had prejudged him, and that they were determined, if possible, to bring him to the block. "My Lords," he con