1711.

passed up-
on the Earl

of Galway.

the sixteen Scottish peers, came to a resolution, BOOK VI.
"that the earl of Peterborough had given a very
faithful, just, and honorable account of the coun-,
cils of war in Valencia; and that the adoption of
the opinion of the earl of Galway and general Censure
Stanhope for the prosecution of offensive mea-
sures was the unhappy occasion of the battle of
Almanza, and our consequent misfortunes in
Spain:" and the earl of Peterborough was thanked
for his great and eminent services. But a strong
protest was entered against this resolution, signed
by thirty-six peers, in which their lordships most
justly remark, that the advice thus censured was,
in the then circumstances, fit and proper to be
given; and that the loss of the battle of Almanza
was to be attributed to subsequent causes wholly
foreign to the advice in question.

the Life of

by de Guis

A singular incident occurred at this time which Attempt on contributed much to raise the credit and popu- Mr. Harley larity of the new minister, Mr. Harley. A per- card. son calling himself the marquis de Guiscard, a French refugee, who had been refused, or, as other accounts state, deprived of a pension by Mr. Harley, being subsequently apprehended on a just suspicion of carrying on a treasonable correspondence with France, and examined before the council board, made a sudden and desperate attempt to stab him in the breast with a pen-knife. Fortunately, the knife lighting on the bone broke

1

BOOK VI. short, and the hurt was comparatively slight, 1711. Guiscard was secured, not without some diffi

culty, and after receiving several wounds, of which he soon after died in prison. On this event an act passed to make an attempt on the life of a privy counsellor to be felony; and both houses of parliament joined in an address to the queen, expressing "their great concern for this barbarous and villainous attempt on the person of Mr. Harley, whose fidelity to her majesty, and zeal for her service, had drawn upon him the hatred of all the abettors of popery and faction." Another circumstance very favourable to the views Rochester. of Mr. Harley was the sudden death at this period of the earl of Rochester, a nobleman of great ambition, abilities, and popularity; between whom and Harley strong symptoms of jealousy and comMr. Harley petition had already appeared. Immediately conof Oxford, sequent to this event, Mr. Harley was raised to High Trea- the dignity of lord high treasurer, and created earl of Oxford and earl Mortimer-two of the noblest titles in English heraldry.

Death of

the Earl of

created earl

and Lord

surer.

Proceedings of the

On the 12th of June, 1711, the queen came to the house, and, in a speech containing fresh assurances of her earnest concern for the protestant succession, prorogued the parliament.

The convocation, which met at the same time Convoca- with the parliament, chose the famous Atterbury Whiston.prolocutor. Soon after, the queen sent them a

against

licence under the great seal, to sit and do business BOOK VI. in as ample a manner as was ever granted since 1711. the Reformation. By this licence they were empowered to enter upon such consultations as the present state of the church required, and especially of such matters as she should lay before them. Immediately a committee was appointed to draw up a representation of the present state of religion and the church, which contained a most virulent declamation against the government from the time of the Revolution. This was ascribed to the pen of Atterbury; but the bishops disapproving the terms in which it was framed, a contest between the two houses, as usual, ensued*. But their attention was soon diverted to another topic. Whiston, the famous mathematical professor at Cambridge, had recently published a book, in which he attempted to revive and defend the ancient Arian heresy; for which he was expelled the university. Upon this, he wrote a vindication of his doctrine. and dedicated it to the CONVOCATION; for which astonishing instance of effrontery, the orthodox sons of the church determined to make him feel the effects of their resentment. But the archbishop Tennison, a mild and tolerant prelate, stated it as a doubt whether this assembly had any clear warrant for proceed

* Burnet, vol. iv. p. 324.

1711.

BOOK VI. ing criminally against a man for heresy. The judges being consulted, were divided in opinion; eight affirming, with some hesitation, that they could; and four with great confidence, that they could not proceed in such a case. With the ter

Death of

ror Joseph,

April 6:

rible penalties of a præmunire in prospect, it was necessary therefore to act very cautiously: and their lordships satisfied themselves with extracting certain propositions from the book in question, which they censured as false and heretical; in which the lower house concurred. This the archbishop transmitted to the queen for her assent, who promised to consider of it; but she did not send any answer during the sitting of the convo-cation. Neither at their next meeting in the ensuing winter did the expected answer appear. And two bishops being at length deputed to ask for it, she declared, that she could not tell what was become of the archbishop's paper. So a new extract of the censure was again sent to her: but no answer ever arrived, and Whiston's affair remained undecided;-Harley and St. John, the new ministers, probably regarding the whole proceeding with secret dislike and contempt.

About this period died Joseph, emperor of the the Empe Romans-an event of great political importance, as it manifestly afforded a fair opening to renew the overtures for a general peace, which was now suspected to be not less the object of the eager

Dauphin.

litics on the

wishes of the court of London than of that of Ver- BOOK VI. sailles. In the month of April this year also de- 1711. ceased the dauphin of France, only son of the and of the king, in the 50th year of his age. His eldest son the duke of Burgundy succeeded to the rank and title of dauphin, which he did not retain many months, dying, to the great grief of the French nation, early in the ensuing year. The general State of po state of politics on the continent had undergone Continent. little alteration since the great and decisive battle of Pultowa. By his incessant intrigues and machinations at the Porte, the king of Sweden had prevailed upon the grand seignor, Achmet III., to declare war against Muscovy. And the czar, advancing with great indiscretion and dangerous contempt of his enemy, far into the Turkish territories, was surrounded by the grand vizir in his camp near the banks of the Pruth, his supplies of provision cut off, and he himself reduced to the necessity of purchasing a peace by the sacrifice of Asoph and his other conquests. In Germany, the king of Denmark unsuccessfully attempted the sieges of Stralsund and Wismar, and he incurred the infamy of violating the peace, without as yet obtaining any sort of advantage by the renewal of the war.

in Flanders.

In the month of May, 1711, the duke of Marl- Campaign borough appeared for the last time at the head of the grand army in Flanders-prince Eugene