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  England; Part 7

England; Part 7

Above all, Anne was a strong supporter of the Church of England; and it was the cry of "the Church in danger" that finally brought about the downfall of the Whigs. A certain Doctor Sacheverell, whose chief recommendations to favour were a fine presence and a good voice, preached a sermon before the Lord Mayor, in which he advocated Passive Obedience, said that the Church was in danger of schism, and attacked the ministers, calling them amongst other things "wiley Volpones", in allusion to a nickname of Godolphin. The Government was foolish enough to take notice of the sermon and impeached the doctor. There was great popular excitement. The queen, on her journey to the trial at Westminster Hall, was greeted with shouts of " We hope Your Majesty is for the Church and Doctor Sacheverell". Sacheverell became a popular hero and was acclaimed by cheering mobs, and after the trial was over-as a result of which he was sentenced to a light punishment (He was forbidden to preach for three years-a possibly agreeable punishment. Dr Sacheverell received £100 from an enterprising publisher for the first sermon which he preached after the three years were over, and 30,000 copies of it were printed) -he had a triumphal progress through the provinces on his way to Shropshire (The Sacheverell case is interesting as being one of the earliest political movements in which ladies took an active share, and the ladies were enthusiastic admirers of the doctor. “ Matters of government and affairs of State", wrote a contemporary, "are become the province of the ladies. They have hardly leisure to live, little time to eat and sleep, and none at all to say their prayers.” The Duchess of Marlborough, however, did not agree with her own sex in the matter-she described Sacheverell as an "ignorant and impudent incendiary"). The queen then took action. The Whigs were dismissed and the Tories were called to office. Parliament . was dissolved and in the new House of Commons there was a large Tory majority.

The Tory ministry lasted for the remainder of the queen's reign. Its leaders were Harley* who became Earl of Oxford, and St. John, who became Viscount Bolingbroke. The former was a man of considerable personal courage and a great patron of literature-his famous collection of manuscripts, now in possession of the British Museum, is priceless. But as a politician he was irresolute in his decisions and dilatory in their execution. He was shifty in his dealings with his Tory colleagues, and not infrequently intrigued with his political opponents. He has been called the "mole" in the politics of that day, because he was always burrowing. Bolingbroke has been described as a " brilliant knave". No one will deny his brilliancy. Swift said that he was the greatest young man he knew. Pope went further and declared him to be the greatest man in the world, whilst Pitt said that he would rather recover one of his speeches than "all the gaps in Greek and Roman lore". His style provided a model for Gibbon the historian, and his political ideas were not without their influence upon statesmen who lived so recently as Disraeli. His knavery is more open to doubt, but it is unquestionable that his actions and policy were not so disinterested and straightforward as he makes them out to be ("Ah, Harry," his father is reported to have said to him after he went to the House of Lords, “ I always said you would be hanged, but now you are made a peer, I suppose you'll be beheaded"). Bolingbroke was impetuous, and a strong party man; and he soon supplanted Harley in the affections of the Tories. " Members ", said Bolingbroke of the House of Commons, "grow fond like hounds of the man who shows them sport, and by whose holloa they are wont to be encouraged." And Harley was too fond of running with the hare to be able to cheer on his followers.

Chronology
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