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THE

ANTI-JACOBIN

Review and Magazine;

&c. &c. &c.

FOR APRIL, 1799.

MAGNA EST VERITAS ET PREVALEBIT.

ORIGINAL CRITICISM.

ART. I. The Hiftory of Great Britain, during the Reign of Queen Anne; with a Differtation concerning the Danger of the Proteftant Succeffion; and an Appendix, containing original Papers. By Thomas Somerville, D. D. F. R.S. C. one of his Majefty's Chaplains in Ordinary, and Minister at Jedburgh. 4to. Pp. 674. Price 11. Is. Cadell and Davies, Strand, London.

No period of English hiftory, antecedent to the present

reign, is more important to a British, or, indeed, any European, reader, than the Hiftory of Anne. The ambition and power of France had been rapidly increafing during a period of near fixty years, from the deftruction of the Spanish infantry at Rocroc, in 1643, to the acceffion of a French Prince to the Spanish throne in 1700. The character of the French Monarch, of his counsellors, of his various civil and military officers, operating on the vivacity, activity, and enterprize of his fubjects, had extended the dominion and influence of France fo far as to be inconfiftent with the fecurity of Europe. The state of neighbouring nations; the conduct and character of neighbouring Princes, combined in promoting the ambitious and unjuft projects of France. Spain, enfeebled by long wars, and impoverished by expenditure, which there was not national induftry to fupply,

NO. X. VOL. II.

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governed

governed by weak Princes and weak Minifters, funk, afterthe peace of the Pyrenées, into a fecondary kingdom. Auftria, by no means recovered from the confequences of Guftavus's victories, and alfo engaged in war with Turkey, was unable, effectually, to check the encroachments of France. Nothing lefs than a general combination of European powers could arreft the progrefs of Gallic encroachment and injuftice. The genius and courage of William, conducted with that wifdom, without which talents and vigour are often pernicious instead of being beneficial, faved his own country from French invaders, and ultimately, though not immediately, effected the deliverance of Europe. The profligate corruption, and the indolent debauchery of Charles the Second, rendered him the tool of France, who ought to have taken the lead in a confederacy, to reduce her power, and punish her infolence. While England kept aloof, William faw that no continental efforts would be fully adequate to the preservation of the balance of power. The weakness and bigotry of the priest-ridden James were as unfavourable to the wife and politic confederacy as the unprincipled meanness of his brother. When James's total deviation from the conduct befitting a King of England, and his abdication of the throne, placed the crown on the head of his daughter, and another defcendant of his father, Britain acceded to the grand alliance. William deftroyed the naval power of France, obftructed her career by land, and made her, at the peace of Ryfwick, lefs powerful than at the commencement of hoftilities. The elevation, however, of his grandfon to the Spanish throne extended the power and influence of the House of Bourbon to a greater degree than in any of the most splendid epochs of Louis's reign. To oppofe a power, now comprehending France and Spain, likely, by land, to overwhelm the empire and hereditary dominions of Auftria, and, by fea, to become equal to the combined navies of Britain and the States General, William formed a fecond confederacy, but died as the execution of his plans was commencing.

To head a combination for repreffing the ambition, reducing the power, humbling the infolence of France, aided and fupported by her dependent ally, was reserved for

Anne.

Dr. Somerville, in his preface, informs us of the reafons which have induced him to treat of this important period of British hiftory:

"The reign of QUEEN ANNE comprehends a greater variety of interefting events than any period of the British history of equal duration. Though many volumes upon this fubject are already in

the

the hands of the public, there is ftill opportunity for refuming it, with the profpect of promoting ufeful inftruction.

"The accounts of this reign, written by contemporary authors, are often rendered tedious and unpleasant from the intrufion of occurrences which are frivolous and uninterefting in our own day. The frequent and abrupt tranfitions from one fubject to another, occafioned by a ftrict adherence to chronological arrangement, destroy that unity and connection which are effential to the clearness and dignity of genuine hiftory. But what, above all, renders the earlier hiftories of this reign exceptionable is, their being tinged with the party fpirit, which then arofe to the highest pitch of intemperance and malignity nor are later authors entirely free from these objections; fome have fervilely followed the track of their predeceffors; and none, perhaps, have obtained fufficient information for correcting their mistakes, and fupplying their defects.

"After the most careful perufal of all the printed materials relating to my fubject, and a large ftore of original papers which have not been seen by former writers, I have attempted to prefent to the public an exact, impartial, and connected detail of the moft important events and tranfactions during the reign of Queen Anne."

Dr. Somerville goes on, in the preface, to describe the manufcripts which he has confulted. To the Duchess of Buccleugh he is indebted for a collection of original manufcripts, by the Duke of Shrewsbury, containing feveral state papers, and fome hundred letters, moftly political, and written by persons who were confpicuous actors in public life during the reigns of King Charles II. King James II. King William, and Queen Anne.

The Earl of Hardwicke communicated to him copies of letters from the Earl of Godolphin, Mr. Harley, Lord Halifax, and the Duke of Marlborough. The letters of the Earl of Godolphin and Mr. Harley gave him "an insight into the difputes of the cabinet, which produced the changes in administration at the end of the year 1707; those from Lord Halifax refer to his embaffy to the court of Hanover in 1706, and the project of the barrier treaty; the Duke of Marlborough's, dated 1711, to the ftate of the war, and the defence of his own conduct."

From the Townfhend, Orford, and Walpole papers he has been furnished with authentic documents, concerning important tranfactions, external and internal.

"The Townshend papers contain almost the whole correspondence between the British Cabinet and the Plenipotentiaries, relative to the negociations at the Hague, 1709, and at Gertruidenberg, 1710, and to the scheme and progrefs of the barrier treaty. They contain allo a part of the correfpondence between Mr. St. John, Lord Townshend, Mr.

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Mr. Boyle, and Lord Dartmouth, upon the fubject of the armed neutrality, and the conduct of the allies during the war, and, occafionally, illuftrative coincident political transactions.

"The Orford and Walpole collection confifts of extracts from the journals of the residents at foreign courts, and feveral of their letters, difclofing circumftances refpecting the ftate of the confederacy, and the temper and interefts of its members, which have not hitherto been known or attended to. The letters of Generals Stanhope, Carpenter, and Wade, and extracts from their journals in Spain, alfo included in this collection, throw great light upon military affairs in that quarter."

Thefe papers he procured through Mr. Coxe, to whose liberality he pays a handsome compliment. "He alfo," he fays, "favoured me with copies of a few letters from the Earl of Peterborough, written from Vienna and Venice in 1711, and anecdotes and mifcellaneous papers, which have been useful in the profecution of my defign.

But materials of peculiar importance, at the present time, are those which relate to the Union between the two kingOf the fources of his information and the grounds of his conclufions, on this fubject, he gives the following ac

count:

"To the late Sir John Clerk, of Pennywick, I owe great obliga tions, for accefs to the manufcripts compofed by his grandfather, Sir John Clerk. Sir John was a member of the Scottish Parliament at the time of the Union, and devoted himself, with affiduous application, to the study of the momentous queftion then in agitation. To the accomplishments of a scholar and antiquary he added an accurate knowledge of the hiftory and conftitution of Scotland. He was highly efteemed, and much confulted, by the Duke of Queensbury, her Majesty's Commiffioner in the Scottish Parliament, and publifhed fome excellent treatifes for explaining the fcheme of the Union, and refuting the objections of its ignorant and factious oppofers. Befides thefe publications, Sir John left feveral valuable manufcripts. Thofe which I have infpected, as particularly fuitable to my purpose, are fhort journals of the proceedings of the Scottish Parliament, while the Union was depending; obfervations on Lockhart's Memoirs; and a teftamentary memorial, for the instruction of his own family, giving a concife and perfpicuous account of the treaty, and, after the experience of more than thirty years, comparing its effects with the prefages and expectations, both of its abettors and its oppofers, at the time of its formation. From thefe materials, fraught with private anccdotes, and marked defcriptions of the conduct of parties, and the characters and intrigues of their leaders, I am able to treat of Scottish affairs with greater precifion and certainty than former hiftorians, who, for want of better fources of information, have implicitly relied upon annals and materials, of which the authors are unknown.

"To

To obtain the prefent information concerning parliamentary proceedings in Scotland, I have had recourfe to the original records, in the Register Office, at Edinburgh; and for an account of ministerial tranfactions there, to the minutes of the Scottish Privy Council, depofited in the ofice of the jufticiary court. With refpect to the important ftate affairs of both kingdoms, I have been furnished with copies of the original vouchers, from the Paper Office, in London."

In fpeaking of the plan of his work, he gives the following account of his mode of treating military operations :—

"Military events form fo large and splendid a part of the English history, at the beginning of this century, that I have found it difficult to restrain my accounts of them within the limits confiftent with the plan of a general history.

"I have stated, at the beginning of each campaign, the principal circumstances affecting the grand alliance and the force of the bellige rent powers. I have fhortly mentioned their operations in every quarter, and thofe of the British army more fully; and endeavoured to give fuch a defcription of the principal occurrences of the war, in each fucceffive campaign, as will enable the reader to estimate the balance of fuccefs at the clofe of it. From the limitations and restrictions observed in conducting this branch of my history, the intermediate movements and manœuvres of the contending armies are often neceffarily omitted, and great events, which are divided by a wide interval of time and place, follow, in immediate fucceffion, in the narrative. This imperfection the reader will, therefore, impute, not to ignorance, or careleffnefs, but to a ftudied compreffion, in order to adjuft, in due proportion, the details of the complicated and diverfified facts which belong to the period of which I treat.”

The hiftory opens with the acceffion of Queen Anne, which, though fatisfactory to the nation at large in other refpects, afforded to the Whigs fome grounds of apprehen

fion.

The Queen was known to be a Tory, and it was feared the would have that averfion from interference in continental politics which, though not in effect neceffarily refulting from Tory principles, during a confiderable time made a part of the Tory character. The official arrangements made by the Queen juftified the apprehenfions of the Whigs; the principal places, civil and military, were conferred upon their antagonists. Lords Somers and Halifax, who had been diftinguished by the confidence of King William, were difmiffed from the Privy Council, and it was fufpected that, in the progrefs of change, all the perfons who had been patronized by the Whig administration would be deprived of every favour dependent on the court. Though the Whigs themfelves were depreffed, yet the political measures most agreeable

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