WYON'S HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE.* IT has
been said that Queen Anne was, from an historic point
of view, the name rather of a period than of a person, and more or less that is certainly true. Yet Anne was a sovereign especially qualified by her defects for a time when important changes were desirable and their accomplishment practicable. A more energetic disposition, or one caring less for the welfare of her subjects, would have checked the enactment of the Union with Scotland, and left the Duke of Marlborough so fettered by Tory ties that his superiority over contemporaries in military genius could not have declared itself. Her obstinacy in trifling matters, her petty resentments, and the selfishness that grew into sullen- ness were as nothing in the sunshine of the broader and more endearing characteristics of her nature. "Never, perhaps," says Mr. Wyon, "did sovereign express in more forcible or more pathetic terms the inclination to meet all the reasonable demands of subjects "than did Queen Anne on the opening of Parliament in July, 1705. "Whatever could be in reason demanded of her for rectifying abuses and for quieting the minds of her subjects she was disposed to concede, and to this effect she had empowered her Commissioner to give unquestionable proofs of her deter- mination to maintain the Government both in Church and State as by law established, and to consent to such laws as should be found wanting to the security of both."
And at the close of her reign, when her health was broken and she was tortured with gout, her conciliatory spirit and sense of duty remained strong and unchanged. When Parliament met, after the treaty of peace had arrived in London, she insisted on being carried to the House of Peers and reading her speech, and when alluding to the standing army it would be requisite in future to maintain, she said, "Make yourselves safe, and I shall be satis- fied. I require no other protection than the loyalty and affection of my people." Unlike the House of Commons of the preceding century, it was usual for Members not on the front benches, and who were less independent than their leaders, to adopt the per- sonal inclination of their Sovereign as the guide of their political conduct.
Such conciliation and co-operation could hardly have been looked for in the grand-daughter of Charles I., and in one who herself by no means undervalued the Stuart doctrine of the divine nature of royalty. It is not unlikely she felt something of the incongruity, for she took particular trouble to let it be known that her private inclinations corresponded with her public pro- fessions, and that while nothing was more hateful to her than double-dealing, nothing was more pleasing than that her subjects should give her credit for sincerity, and act according to her re- commendations. However, so stormy and agitated was the political atmosphere, that even Anne's friendly messages often fell upon. ears that would not hear, and. failed to produce the result she desired. Had other hands than hers held the reins of Govern- ment in such critical times, it is more than probable that a long, bitter struggle would have set in, and that Scotland, instead of Flanders, would have been the seat of war and a second Flodden, the poor and hardly earned substitute for Blenheim. Queen
* maws of Great Britain daring the Reipn of Queen, Anne. By Frederick William Wpm 9 vols. London Chapman and Hail. Isle.
Anne's reign was little else than a succession of contrarieties. Party conflicts and personal ends never ceased to disturb the atmosphere of foreign, as of domestic policy. Political feeling ran high, yet the national voice asserted itself above the differences -of Sovereign and Parliament. Though her Majesty was a Tory and detested the Whigs, the greater glories of her reign may be traced to the policy of the latter. She once observed that she knew the Whigs to be rogues and the
Tories fools, yet under the guidance of either the country throve, and became at length the arbiter of Europe. Her Majesty wanted peace, but the people, with Marlborough's triumphs and Louis XIV.'s humiliation ever in their thoughts, 'ceased not to clamour for war, and Parliament voted supplies with extraordinaryalacrity. Her Majesty detested the House of Hanover, and wished for a Stuart successor ; but though a Stuart herself, she set a higher value on the Protestant succession and the observance of her accession oaths. That the could make a determination and keep it as well as any of her family, is evident in her pertinacious dismissal of the Duchess of Marlborough, and the abrupt dissolution of Parliament, against the protests of Cowper, and in full view of the difficulty of forming a new administration. "She had considered the matter well," she said, 4' and did not wish to hear any debate upon it. It was her pleasure that the writs should be issued immediately." So, too, on a previous occasion she wrote, and more forcibly, to Lord Godolphin,—" Whoever of the Whigs thinks I am to be hectored and frightened into a compliance, though I am a woman, is mightily mistaken in me. I thank God I have a soul above that, and am too much concerned for my reputation to do any- thing to forfeit it." This shows she had some temper in her nature, though it was not often indulged. Her prevailing sense of duty declares itself in an undated letter,—" As long as I live, it shall be my endeavour to make my country and my friends easy, and though those that come after me may be more capable of so great a trust as it has pleased God to put into my poor bands, I am sure they can never discharge it more faith- fully than her that is sincerely your humble servant, A. R." Divided in her affection for her country, her brother, Pro- testantistn, and her own prerogative, the Queen was perplexed as to the course she should pursue ; but it happened that out of political chaos there grew up the anomaly of an Administration triumphant beyond precedent, at a time when unsupported and distrusted by the reigning Sovereign ; of a country raised on the Continent to an importance hitherto unknown, through the un- checked success of a victorious commander ; of a people over- burdened with taxation, yet clamouring for war ; and of a Sove- reign popular, but helpless, unable to consult those whom most she trusted, to change her Ministers, or to stop the war. Her de- sires and principles were known to be above suspicion, and people, feeling she bad their interests at heart, were content to wait, and ere long they saw the spectacle of a nation prospering in spite of itself.
Mr. Wyon's remarks upon the conduct and policy of the Duke of Marlborough in his secret intercourse and connection with the Pretender are full of common-sense, and he tries to make it .dear that the motive was nothing stronger than one of prudence and self-protection. It was impossible in the then state of feeling for the Duke to guess who might be Anne's successor. With the hasty but unsuspected reaction of the recent Restoration before him, Marlborough could be surprised at nothing that might happen, and with characteristic caution, knew he would best maintain his personal power and influence by keeping on con- ciliatory terms with all candidates, and he therefore flattered in turn the representatives of the Houses of Stuart and Hanover. But he did not treat them with equal favour, for he was con- vinced it was for the welfare of the country, and actually the -desire of the majority, that the succession to the Throne should be a Protestant one. Mr. Wyon considers it certain he meant nothing by his professions in the Stuart cause. "His hopes were ;fixed as ardently as those of any Whig upon the succession of the Electoral family, and while for the Stuarts he had nothing but kind messages, for the Hanoveriana he was willing to employ his whole influence, and even, if need were, his money." We know also how vigorous and sincere were his efforts to have everything in readiness to repel the projected invasion of Scotland by the 'Chevalier St. George and his French protectors.
Mr. 'Wyon has performed a difficult task with credit to himself, though he may not have succeeded in producing a book that will captivate the public. No one has found it easy to sift and weigh the motley materials of this reign, or to arrange and narrate its history in a worthy manner. Though Mr. Wyon's
work lacks eloquence and enthusiasm, he is painstaking and im- partial. His narrative runs on smoothly, too smoothly in fact, from end to end, seldom unbending for anecdote, and guilt- less of literary inspiration, and his two thick volumes will, we think, be pronounced heavy reading. They will not interfere in any way with Lord Stanhope's excellent History of England during Queen Anne's Reign, which, less than half the size, omits nothing of importance, and is written with a far stronger and more graphic pen. Mr. Wyon's work goes into more detail, and whilst every event is greatly expanded and incidental circum- stances introduced, it is not encumbered with irrelevant matter. Students will appreciate it more than candidates for competitive examination, but the introduction of maps and plans of the numerous campaigns would have made more easy reading a book already overweighted. We do not think on the whole Mr. Wyon's work one of sufficient character, or individuality, or any other special qualification to secure for it a permanent place among the books on Queen Anne's reign, though it may give the general reader a fair idea of the history of the period.
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