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1705.]

MARLBOROUGH FORCES THE FRENCH LINES.

303

The lord treasurer, he writes "is the only man in England capable of giving such advice as may keep you out of the hands of both parties, which may at last make you happy, if quietness can be had in a country where there is so much faction." *

The great operation of this campaign was the forcing of the French lines on the 17th of July. This formidable barrier between Dutch Brabant and the Austrian Netherlands, had been three years in construction. In part of their extent the lines followed the course of the river Gheet, and the river Demer; and, at various intervals, were fortified posts of considerable strength. Distributed along convenient parts of the lines was the French army of seventy thousand men. Marlborough maintained his usual secrecy, confiding his plans to no one but Auverquerque. He had determined to attack the lines by passing the Gheet near Leuwe-a part where the greatest difficulties appeared to present themselves. The weaker part of the lines was to the south of the Mehaigne; and thither D'Auverquerque was directed to march, "to give the enemy a jealousy that they were to be attacked on that side, and so oblige them to draw their greatest strength that way." The feint had its effect. Villeroy collected his main strength on that weak part where D'Auverquerque had crossed the Mehaigne. "But the bridges prepared over the Mehaigne served equally to bring back Auverquerque's troops to the left of that river, and to unite them to the army of Marlborough; and the movements being all made under cover of night, the object aimed at was attained before the enemy could discover which was the real point of attack. The lines were, however, of the most formidable description: for, besides the height of the ramparts and the largeness of the ditch, they were further defended by the difficulties of the ground over which they were to be approached; and by the river Gheet, which could not be crossed without laying bridges over it, and which was near enough to the lines to be defended by the fire from the parapet. All these obstacles would have been sufficient to have rendered the lines unassailable, though defended by a very inferior body against a whole army, but for the ability with which the attention and the main force of the enemy was diverted from the real point of attack, and the energy with which that attack was conducted."‡

During the day of the 17th Villeroy was employed in watching the movements of Auverquerque. At eight o'clock at night a detachment of Marlborough's army began its march towards the Little Gheet river; and at the same time Auverquerque recrossed the Mehaigne, and connected his vanguard with the rear of Marlborough. When the morning dawned, the English and Dutch were approaching the French works, concealed by a thick fog. They carried the castle of Wange, and without waiting for the construction of bridges, the troops scrambled through the marshy ground, crossed the Gheet, mounted its slippery banks, rushed into the trench, and were within the enemy's lines. They were encountered by the marquis d'Allegre with twenty battalions of infantry and fifty squadrons of horse. Marlborough himself headed a charge of cavalry, and for a short time, having only a trumpeter and a servant with him, was surrounded as the French repulsed

Coxe, vol. ii. p. 132.
Bulletin in Dispatches, vol. ii. p. 174.
Sir George Murray's Account, in Dispatches, vol. ii. p. 177.

304

RETREAT OF THE FRENCH.

[1705.

his charge. But the English troops rallied to his rescue; and a second charge left them masters of the lines. Villeroy came up too late, and had no resource but a retreat. Marlborough was anxious to pursue, but the Dutch thought a pursuit hazardous, and he encamped near Tirlemont.

L'Allegre

was taken prisoner, with four other general officers and a thousand men. Harley wrote to Marlborough, after the news of the success, "Your friends and servants here cannot be without concern upon your grace's account, when we hear how much you expose that precious life of yours upon all occasions, and that you are not contented to do the part of a great general, but you condescend to take your share as a common soldier." Harley's friend, Swift, ventured to insinuate, after a few years, that Marlborough wanted

courage.

Villeroy retreated beyond the Dyle, and there established a strong position near Louvain. Marlborough was prevented taking any immediate offensive measures through the constant interference of the deputies of the States. The English general was indignant, and sent an officer to the Hague, to represent "that unless the command be more absolute in one person, we shall hardly be able to do anything." Councils of war, he said, were called on every occasion, "which entirely destroys the secrecy and dispatch upon which all great undertakings depend." He wanted to force the passage of the Dyle; and he traversed ground which, somewhat more than a century after, became familiar to every Englishman. On the 27th of August he writes to the duke of Shrewsbury, "I had at the camp at Meldert with great difficulty brought together a provision of about ten days' bread; and having marched four days together through several defiles, and part of the Bois des Soignies, the army came the 18th instant into a spacious plain, with only the Yssche between us and the enemy. About noon we were formed in order of battle, and having visited the posts with M. D'Auverquerque, we had resolved upon making the attack, thinking there was no more to do but to order the troops to advance, when the Deputies of the States, having consulted their other generals, would not give their consent, so that I was with great regret obliged to quit the enterprise, which promised all imaginable success." There was a skirmish on the plain of Waterloo. But for the interference of the Dutch Deputies there might have been a decisive battle on that ground, of which Byron wrote, after the eventful day of the 18th of June, 1815, "Waterloo seems marked out for the scene of some great action, though this may be mere imagination." The opportunity was lost of anticipating the later glories of that plain. Marlborough wrote to Harley on the 2nd of September, entreating that the government should not take any formal notice at the Hague of his "late disappointment," for "I am persuaded if an opportunity should now offer before our leaving the field, the greatest part of the generals who were against engaging the enemy are so sensible of their error, that they would not obstruct anything that might be proposed for our advantage." He was looking forward to a new pleasure when he returned home. Mr. Vanbrugh had informed him that "the first stone at Woodstock" had been laid, and he compliments the architect upon his plans, saying, "the greatest satisfaction I enjoy on this side is from * Coxe, vol. ii. p. 149.

Dispatches, vol. ii. p. 197.

Ibid. p. 237.

1705.1

NEW PARLIAMENT--STATE OF PARTIES.

305

the hopes I have of finding the house in good forwardness at my return in the winter."

The Elections of 1705 roused up a bitterness of party-feeling that had rarely been equalled in England. It is difficult to look back upon these times and not to be moved to pity, if not to despise, the people that could be

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stirred into the most violent wrath against each other by the cry that was raised from the Land's End to Berwick. That cry was, "The Church in danger." The queen had manifested less disinclination to transfer a portion of her favour to the Whigs. The High-churchmen gave out the rallyingcry from their pulpits. The Jacobite and Tory pamphleteers told the nation "that the Church was to be given up; that the bishops were betraying it; that the Court would sell it to the Dissenters."+ The elections seem to have been managed in a most extraordinary way, if we may judge from Defoe's description of the election which he saw at Coventry. Mobs, drawn up in battle-array, were fighting in the streets; whilst freemen, or pretended freemen, went up to vote, without any examination of their qualifications-no list of voters-no oath tendered-no books kept. "The Dissenters" says Burnet, "who had been formerly much divided, were now united entirely in the interests of the government, and joined with the Whigs everywhere." It was seen that the Whigs would have a parliamentary majority; so Godolphin declared in their favour " more openly than he had done formerly." The duke of Newcastle was made Lord Privy Seal in the place of the duke of Buckingham. The incapable and violent sir Nathan Wright was removed

+ Dispatches, vol. ii. p. 207.

VOL. V.

+ Burnet, vol. v. p. 218.

X

306

REGENCY BILL-CRY OF THE CHURCH IN DANGER.

[1705.

from the office of Lord Keeper, and Mr. William Cowper was appointed to that high place.

When the Parliament met at the end of October, the contest of the Commons began with the election of Speaker. The Whig candidate, Mr. John Smith, had a majority. The queen's speech complained of the malicious insinuations that the Church was in danger. "I will always affectionately support and countenance the Church of England as by law established. I will invariably maintain the Toleration. I will do all I can to persuade my subjects to lay aside their divisions, and will study to make them all safe and easy." This was plainer language than had been spoken since the time when William uttered what he thought from that throne. The Tories were angry with the queen, and they took a course which they judged would annoy her. Anne looked with little real complacency upon the Act of Settlement. Lord Haversham, one of the Tory leaders, moved in the Lords, that the princess Sophia of Hanover should be invited to reside in England, as presumptive heir of the crown. The motion was negatived, although very strongly supported by Buckingham, Rochester, and other Tory peers. The queen was indignant, for "these very persons, having now lost that interest in her and their posts, were driving on that very motion which they had made her apprehend was the most fatal thing that could befall."* So queen Anne writes to the duchess of Marlborough, "I believe dear Mrs. Freeman and I shall not disagree as we have formerly done; for I am sensible of the services that those people have done me that you have a good opinion of, and will countenance them; and am thoroughly convinced of the malice and insolence of them that you have always been speaking against."

The question of the Succession being thus stirred again by the Tories, the Whigs proposed a measure which had some practical utility. They brought forward a Bill for appointing a Regency, which should carry on the government, in the case of the demise of the queen, until the arrival of her successor. The regents were to consist of the archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Keeper, the Lord Chief Justice, and four great officers of state. The bill was carried. Halifax moved in the Lords that an inquiry should be made into the alleged danger of the Church. After a long debate it was voted by a majority of sixty-one peers against thirty, that the Church was not in danger. The Lords and Commons then subsequently agreed in the following resolution: "Resolved by the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons in parliament assembled, that the Church of England, as by law established, which was rescued from the extremest danger by King William III., of glorious memory, is now, by God's blessing, under the happy reign of her majesty, in a most safe and flourishing condition, and whosoever goes about to suggest and insinuate, that the Church is in danger under her majesty's administration, is an enemy to the queen, the Church, and the kingdom." The queen then issued a proclamation, at the instance of Parliament, declaring that "we will proceed with the utmost severity the law should allow of, against the authors or spreaders of the said seditious and scandalous reports "-namely, that the Church is in danger. To us, at the distance of a century and a half, the whole affair seems ludicrous and beneath the gravity of parliamentary proceedings.

Burnet, vol. v. p. 227.

1706.]

MARLBOROUGH'S CAMPAIGN IN THE NETHERLANDS.

307

In three years more, we shall see the nation stirred to a temporary frenzy by the same spirit of ecclesiastical controversy, displaying itself in absurdity still more outrageous, as it now must appear. But, after all, we cannot regard these things with the eyes of our forefathers, and must judge the actors in them with that charity in which they appear to have been themselves deficient.

Godolphin and Marlborough are dining in perfect cordiality with Halifax, Cowper, and Sunderland, at Harley's house; and Harley drinks" to love and friendship and everlasting union, and wishes he had more Tokay to drink it in." Marlborough is setting his face against jobbery, with exemplary fortitude. Lord Albemarle wants a commission for some lower-school boy of Eton or Westminster. The queen, replies Marlborough, "has lately shown so much aversion to anything of that kind, upon notice taken in Parliament, of children's being commissioned in the troops, that she has given me repeated orders to the contrary."+ Disinterested is he also in the management of one of the corruptions of that day, which still flourishes in its original luxuriance, the sale of commissions. Mrs. Selwin is unreasonable enough to be "dissatisfied with the offer I have made Mr. Selwin of a company in the Guards, upon his laying down eight hundred pounds. . . . I could wish Mr. Selwin might have it for nothing, but there is a necessity of applying this sum at least in charity to the widows, and to satisfy other pretensions."‡ Such are the occupations of the great captain, before he gets out of England to his accustomed battle-ground. He goes at last, and is at the Hague on the 27th of April. His notion of a campaign in 1706 was to shift his ground; to go to the relief of the duke of Savoy, who was expecting to be besieged; and to co-operate with prince Eugene in freeing Italy from the French armies. This plan had the countenance of the English ministry. But the elector of Hanover would not consent that his troops should assist in Marlborough's project; and the Danes and Hessians also refused their co-operation. Meanwhile the French on the Upper Rhine had obtained some successes; and thus the Dutch again became alarmed for their own safety. Marlborough consented to remain in the command of the English and Dutch armies, provided that his power was unfettered. To this the States consented; and the troops began to march from the Hague on the 7th of May. They were to be joined by various garrisons, and to encamp near Maestricht. On the 15th Marlborough wrote to the duchess to inform her that, in all likelihood, he should make the whole campaign in the Netherlands-not such a campaign as would please him. "Let me say for myself that there is more credit in doing what is good for the public, than in preferring our private satisfaction and interest; for my being here in a condition of doing nothing that shall make a noise, has made me able to send ten thousand men to Italy, and to leave nineteen thousand more on the Rhine." § The great general scarcely saw the opportunity of "making a noise," that he would be able to insure in little more than a week after he had reluctantly turned away from the plan that would best promote his "private satisfaction and interest." On the 20th of May, he wrote to Harley to express his hope that he might bring the enemy to a battle, for the French had drawn all their garrisons together, had passed the

* Lord Cowper's "Diary"-Hardwicke Papers. Dispatches, vol. ii. p. 441.

Dispatches, vol. ii. p. 437. § Coxe, vol. ii. p. 335.

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