those of the Princess, yet, during a long course of
years, she was so far from being displeased with me for openly speaking
my sentiments, that she sometimes professed a desire, and even added her
command, that it should be always continued, promising never to be
offended at it, but to love me the better for my frankness."

CHAPTER II.

STATE OF PARTIES IN ACTION ON THE ACCESSION OF ANNE--HARLEY AND
BOLINGBROKE AIM AT OVERTHROWING THE SWAY OF THE DUCHESS--ABIGAIL HILL
BECOMES THE INSTRUMENT OF THE DUCHESS'S DOWNFALL.

THE year following that in which the Duke d'Anjou succeeded to the
throne of Spain saw Anne Queen of England.

On her accession Queen Anne had found three parties in action--the
Tories, the Whigs, and the Jacobites. The first asserting the
sovereignty of the royal prerogative; the second the extension of public
liberty; the last demanding the exclusion of the Protestant George of
Hanover, designated by the Commons as the Queen's heir, and the recall
of the Chevalier St. George, the Romanist son of James II., then an
exile in France, where Louis XIV. had welcomed him under the title of
James III.

Of these three parties, the last, who were desirous of a revolution with
a change of dynasty, naturally found themselves excluded from public
affairs; the Queen, facile and conciliating, divided the power of the
State between the two others, and chose a ministry comprising the most
eminent men among both Whigs and Tories.

Those statesmen jointly carried on the government for four years, after
which the opposition of their sentiments and interests became so violent
that it divided them. The Tories, representing the landed interest,
which had suffered during the war, clamoured for peace with all their
might; the Whigs, on the contrary, representing the monied interest,
had lent their funds to the State, and desired the continuance of
hostilities, as it enhanced the value of their capital. The Whigs
triumphed in this first struggle. They ejected, in the first instance,
three Tories from the Ministry, and afterwards obtained the dismissal of
all the rest--Mansel, Harley, and Bolingbroke, and then ruled without
division. They reckoned amongst their ranks the most illustrious men of
the day: Marlborough, the great soldier; the skilful financier,
Godolphin; the formidable speaker, Robert Walpole; the army, public
opinion, parliament, and even the very heart of the Queen, through the
Duchess of Marl