he appear to have reposed entire confidence.in a character so opposite to his own. Yet Mordaunt reaped the reward of his zeal, being in 1688created Earl of Monmouth, lord of the bedchamber, and first commissioner of the treasury, which last office he did not long retain. He accompanied William in his campaign of 1692; and in 1697 succeeded to the title, which he has so highly distinguished, by the death of his uncle Henry, the second Earl of Peterborough.

In the first year of Queen Anne's reign, Peterborough was to have been sent out as Governor General of Jamaica, but the appointment did not take place. In 1705 he was appointed General and Commander in Chief of the forces sent to Spain, upon the splendid and almost romantic service of placing Charles of Austria on the throne of that monarchy. The wonders which he there wrought, are no where' more fully detailed than in the simple pages of Carleton.* Barcelona was

*See also the "Earl of Peterborough's conduct in Spain," by Dr John Freind. London, 1707.

taken by a handful of men, and afterwards relieved in the face of a powerful enemy, whom Peterborough compelled to decamp, leaving their battering artillery, ammunition, stores, provisions, and all their sick and wounded men. He drove before him, and finally expelled from Spain, the Duke of Anjou, with his army of twenty-five thousand French, although his own forces never amounted to half that number. All difficulties sunk before the creative power of his genius. Doomed as he was, by the infatuated folly of Charles, and by the private envy of his enemies at home, to conduct a perilous expedition, in a country ill affected to the cause, without supplies, stores, artillery, reinforcements, or money; he created substitutes for all these deficiencies,-even for the last of them. He took walled towns with dragoons, and stormed the caskets of the bankers of Genoa, without being able to offer them security. He gained possession of Catalonia, of the kingdoms of Valencia, Arragon, and Majorca, with part of Murcia and Castile, and thus opened the way for the Earl of Galway's marching to Madrid with

ments.

out a blow. Nor was his talent at conciliating the natives less remarkable than his military achieveWith the feeling of a virtuous, and the prudence of a wise man, he restrained the excesses of his troops, respected the religion, the laws, even the prejudices of the Spaniards; and, heretic as he was, became more popular amongst them than the Catholic prince, whom he was essaying to place on their throne. Yet, as Swift has strongly expressed it, "the only General, who, by a course of conduct and fortune almost miraculous, had nearly put us into possession of the kingdom of Spain, was left wholly unsupported, exposed to the envy of his rivals, disappointed by the caprices of a young unexperienced prince, under the guidance of a rapacious German ministry, and at last called home in discontent."* The cause of this strange step it would be tedious here to investigate. One ostensible reason was, that Peterborough's parts were of too lively and mercurial a quality, and that his letters shewed more wit than became a General; a common-place objection,

* Conduct of the Allies.

raised by the dull malignity of common-place minds against those whom they see discharging with ease and indifference the tasks which they themselves execute (if at all) with the sweat of their brow, and in the heaviness of their heart. It is no uncommon error of judgment to maintain à priori, that a thing cannot possibly be well done, which has taken less time in doing than the person passing sentence had anticipated, There is also a certain hypocrisy in business, whether civil or military, as well as in religion, which they will do well to observe, who, not satisfied with discharging their duty, desire also the good report of men. To the want of that grave, serious, businesslike deportment, which admits of no levity in the exercise of its office; but especially to the envy excited by his success, Britain owed the recal of the Earl of Peterborough from Spain, during the full career of his victories. The command of the troops devolved on the Earl of Galway; a thorough-bred soldier, as he was called; a sound-headed, steady, solid General, who proceeded, with all decency, decorum, and formal attention to the discipline

of war, to lose the battle of Almanza, and to ruin the whole expedition to Spain.

In June 1710-11, the thanks of the House of Peers were returned to the Earl of Peterborough for his services in Spain; and the chancellor used these remarkable words in expressing them:"Had your Lordship's wise counsels, particularly your advice at the council of war in Valentia, been pursued in the following campaign, the fatal battle of Almanza, and our greatest misfortunes which have since happened in Spain, had been prevented, and the design upon Toulon might have happily succeeded."

In the years 1710 and 1711, the Earl was employed in embassies to Turin, and other courts of Italy, and finally at Vienna. He returned from the German capital with such expedition, that none of his servants were able to keep up with him, but remained scattered in the different towns where he had severally out-stripped them. He out-rode, upon this same occasion, several expresses which he had himself dispatched to announce his motions. Swift at this time received