resigned his offices on being created a peer. Henceforth he
continued to take a leading part in English politics — becoming
First Lord of the Treasury in 17 14 for the second time, acting
consistently with the Whig party.
FRIENDSHIP WITH MONTAGUE 27
age, and Montague had already won a conspicuous
parliamentary position by his brilliant talents, and
by his remarkable financial ability. But the ease
and courtesy of Harley's manner, and a temper
rarely ruffled, concealed a mind watchful and re-
sourceful, ever active in schemes to effectuate its
aims, until, somewhat after middle age, a career
which had been one of continuous work and of
constant anxiety, and the lassitude which comes
from health, lessened his mental vigour. His
father and brother were of a franker and more
open nature, and were sometimes unable to under-
stand a character and a capacity which were
gradually giving him a political position scarcely
realised by his relatives.
CHAPTER II
SPEAKER AND SECRETARY OF STATE
1701-1705
Harley elected Speaker of the House of Commons-
State OF Political Parties— England and France— Harley
again elected Speaker in Last Parliament of William in.
—Accession of Anne — Declaration of War with France
— Harley Speaker in Parliament of 1702 — Effect of the
War on Domestic Politics— Secretary of State— Occasional
Conformity Bill— Harley's Management of the House of
Commons— His Political Position— Harley and Godolphin.
The second period of Harley's life begins with the
year 1701, when on loth February he was elected
Speaker in the fourth Parliament of William in.^
The office had in the first instance been offered to
the veteran Tory leader, Sir Edward Seymour; but
the very day he declined it, Godolphin nominated
Harley.^ By his opposition, temperate though it
was, to the proposals of the King in regard to a
standing army in the previous Parliament, Harley
had gained favour with the Tories, while his know-
ledge of parliamentary business, his family con-
^ His opponent was Sir Thomas Onslow, who was defeated by
one hundred and twenty votes.— Pari. Hist.y vol. v. p. 1232.
2 Harley Papers^ ii. 14.
SPEAKER OF HOUSE OF COMMONS 29
nections, and his admitted moderation of opinion,
caused his candidature to be regarded favourably
in nearly every part of the House. Evelyn notes
the fact in a suggestive sentence: "The old
Speaker laid aside, and Mr. Harley, an able
gentleman, chosen." In the words of an impartial
and experienced observer, we have the best indica-
tion of the real opinion of Harley among those who
were not political partisans, and the best evidence
of the influential position to which he had already
risen.
The evolution of two well-defined parliamentary
and political parties out of two radical and national
divisions was now in progress. To the one
belonged the clergy of the Established Church, the
majority of landowners and country gentry, and
many of the peers ; to the other the Nonconformists
and the inhabitants of the towns, whether engaged
in commerce or professions. The first, which was
once the Royalist party, acquiesced — many of them
reluctantly — in the Revolution ; the other assisted
and welcomed it, but in order to complete it had
to support the foreign policy of William in. The
Whigs thus became the War party. The death
of the King (8th March 1702), however, removed
a strong individual force from the conduct of public
affairs, while the fact that his successor was a
woman increased the influence of the change,
hastening the transference of the executive power
30 ROBERT HARLEY
from the Sovereign to a select body of the chief
politicians who were becoming the Cabinet. Greater
responsibility was thrown on leading statesmen,
who were necessarily obliged to seek support from
their adherents in the country and from the
representatives of it in Parliament. Thus from
the beginning of the eighteenth century the two
political bodies became more compact, the members
in Parliament less individual, and more organised
in a course of continuous political action session by
session. In other words, a purely dual party system
was in process of formation, definite though im-
perfect, not easy to reckon with but often of re-
markable force. Religious freedom and toleration
were the basis of the Whig party, as support of
the Church of England and of clericalism was that
of the Tories ; again, the right of the people to
choose their own sovereign underlay Whig prin-
ciples, as the divine right of kings was believed
in by many Tories. But in no other respect were
the characteristics of the two parties, which are so
conspicuous later in the eighteenth and in the
nineteenth centuries, then visible. The Whigs in
the reign of William iii. were the Court party, as
the Tories were in that of Anne and of George in. ;
but on the other hand, the Whigs were throughout
the reign of Anne the War party, as the Tories were
the Peace party. The Whigs found most support
in the towns, and the Tories in the country ; but
STATE OF PARTIES IN 1701-2 31
though the difference gradually tended to the
liberalism of the one and the conservatism of the
other, it did not in the age of Anne affect their
action in regard to social or commercial questions.
There was, in fact, except as to religious toleration,
little to remind us of the parties of a later time.
The favour with which the Whigs regarded the
Hanoverian succession, and the sympathy of the
Tories, though not universally — since the Whim-
sical or Hanoverian Tories are constantly in
evidence — for the Pretender, were the result of a
past national struggle, and were abnormal features
of party distinctions, though, as Harleys life
markedly exemplifies, they were invaluable for the
purposes of political warfare. While, therefore, it
is convenient in the age of Anne to designate the
two adverse parties by names which have grown
familiar, and which even then had sufficient signi-
fication, we must be careful to realise that they
had not the exact meaning of more modern times.
Nor should the posthumous influence on English
parties of William iii., and of his policy, the basis
of which was an Anglo- Dutch alliance against
France, be overlooked. The Dutch, too, were
Protestants, with whom the Dissenters were in
sympathy, and the French Protestant emigres
were active members of the Whig party, anta-
gonistic to the existing government in France.
On the other hand, the preference of the Church
32 ROBERT HARLEY
of England and of many of the Tories was for
a friendship with France, where the divine right
of kings still flourished. Sentiment plays a larger
part in international affairs than statesmen are
willing to admit, and it had a considerable effect
in shaping the views of the two great English
parties upon foreign affairs during the reign
of Anne. For from 1710 the peace policy of
Harley's ministry was adhered to not only because
the people desired the cessation of the war, but
because it was a French and therefore a Tory
policy. Friendship for France, as much as its
benefit to England, was the basis of Bolingbroke's
commercial treaty, and friendship for Holland —
the direct legacy of William — was in a measure a
cause of the virulent opposition of the Whigs to
the Treaty of Utrecht, and especially to the negotia-
tions which preceded it.
The action of parties was frequently uncertain,
and was complicated by the sovereign's consider-
able personal influence ; but it reflected and was
influenced by the opinion of the constituencies,
undemocratic though they were, which in their turn
were addressed by writers on behalf of the party
leaders, who were the forerunners of the modern
party journalists, and of whose increasing influence
no one was so perceptive or appreciative as Harley.
At the moment of its election in the first year
of the eighteenth century, the House of Commons
ENGLAND AND FRANCE 33
represented the state of opinion of the majority of
the people, a majority which was eagerly desirous
of peace and of relief from the burdens of war, but
only of a peace which should not involve a disturb-
ance of the new constitution and of the Protestant
religion. The ignorance of Louis xiv. and his
advisers of the sensitiveness on these two points
of the English people, produced a rapid change
of public opinion on the question of peace. In
November 1700 the French King had, on the death
of Charles 11. of Spain, repudiated the Partition
Treaties of 1698 and of 1700, by which the
kingdom of Spain was to be so divided on the
death of its existing ruler as not to fall to the lot
of the Bourbons. With utter disregard for these
international engagements, which were made to
preserve the peace of Europe, Louis accepted for his
grandson, the Duke of Anjou, the crown which by
the will of the late sovereign was bequeathed to the
Dauphin's son. This act would probably have had
no great effect on English opinion, nor have pro-
duced a European war, had not Louis towards the
end of 1 701, with the assent of the Spanish authori-
ties, taken possession of the line of Spanish fortresses
which bordered the Netherlands, and ten days
after the Triple Alliance was signed (7th September
1701), on the death of James 11., recognised the
Pretender as King of England. The Tory Parlia-
ment, which during its brief and stormy existence
3
34 ROBERT HARLEY
had impeached the Whig leaders, Portland, Somers,
Halifax, and Orford, and had committed the Kentish
petitioners to prison, no longer representing the
feeling of the country, was dissolved by the King
in November, and was replaced by one in which
the Whigs were in a majority. The general
election of November-December 1701 was fought
on the issue of confidence or no confidence not in
a Ministry responsible to the country, but in the
King, who was his own Prime Minister, and the
country gave him the answer he desired. When
the sixth and last Parliament of William in.
assembled (30th December 1701), Harley was
again chosen Speaker, but only by fourteen votes,
over Sir Thomas Littleton, the candidate of the
Court, and William opened the new session by a
speech which became a political testament. Not
only did he formulate a foreign policy by which
England was to take her part as a continental
power, but also, under, it is said, the advice of
Somers, he recommended domestic divisions which
affected parties for many years after his death.
** Let there be no other distinction heard of among
us for the future but of those who are for the
Protestant religion and the present Establishment,
and of those who mean a Popish prince and a
French Government." This was at the moment
an effective war-cry, for it rallied to the Govern-
ment that great mass of non-party men who would
SPEAKER FOR THIRD TIME 35
not tolerate the return of the Stuarts, or any risk
to the Protestant reHgion, but it helped to create a
parliamentary party system by accentuating national
divisions during the whole of Harley s political
career.
It was not until the 4th of May 1702, almost
two months after the death of William, that war
was declared. The new Parliament, which met on
20th October 1 702, was Tory, and Harley for the
third time became Speaker. The change of party
predominance in the House of Commons was
remarkable but not surprising, since the Tories
were not for the time being opposed to a popular
war, and there had rapidly sprung up a feeling
of personal loyalty to the new sovereign, which
stirred the Conservative forces in the constitu-
encies. Godolphin gathered under his leadership
a Tory Cabinet, which presently resolved itself into
a Whig administration ; but at first, though the war
was a Whig war, and was waged to carry out the
principles of European policy, which had seemed
good to the late King and to his Whig friends, it
had the approval of the Tories and of the people.
But it introduced into English politics, at the
moment when political and parliamentary parties
were assuming their modern form, a factor at
once extraordinary and powerful, affecting Harley
more than any other statesman. By temperament
and by opinion he was averse to England becom-
36 ROBERT HARLEY
ing involved in European complications, costly
both in money and life. Thus the war was a
practical reason for a closer alliance between
Harley and the Tory party, which presently
became for the next few years the Peace party.
But in internal politics there were two cardinal
divisions in existence from the beginning to
the end of the reign of Anne. The Whigs,
except on one singular and abnormal occasion,
were the defenders of religious freedom and
toleration, and they were unanimously and strenu-
ously in favour of the Hanoverian succession.
The Tories, on the other hand, were the Church
party, were full of sectarian bitterness, and some
were unquestionably Jacobites. Had there been
no war Harley s natural place would have been
with the Whigs, but the war prevented this political
connection, and was the cause of introducing into
his career curious and remarkable complications.
Once the new war was commenced, the national
strength was spent upon it : it engrossed the
attention of the country and of Parliament, the
thoughts of Godolphin and his Ministers. Such was
the state of affairs whilst Harley during his third
term occupied the Chair of the House of Commons
— a place to which his moderation both of opinion
and in debate, the absence of party bias which was
so conspicuous in his character and speeches, and
his knowledge of the practice of Parliament,
APPOINTED SECRETARY OF STATE 37
rightly entitled him. In this position he remained
until April 1705. A year previously, however, he
had become also Secretary of State with apparent
reluctance and under some pressure from Marl-
borough, who recognised in him a politician posit-
ively loving parliamentary business, and free from
that party bias which the soldier so thoroughly
detested.
*' I am sensibly concerned," wrote the general
in 1703, **at what you mention of the heats that
continue between the two parties, and should esteem
it the greatest happiness of my life if I could any
way contribute towards the allaying them. Upon
this occasion you will give me leave to be so free as
to tell you that what you write confirms me very
much in the desire I have for some time had, of
retiring from these uneasy and troublesome broils." ^
Harley thus joined the Government almost as
a non-party man. At most he was a moderate
Tory, not in principle, but to some extent because,
in addition to causes already stated, both his father
and he had opposed what they regarded as the
extravagant financial policy of the late King,^ which
1 Longleat MSS., Hist. MSS. Com., p. 56.
2 " Sir E. Harley ... in this and the succeeding Parliaments con-
stantly opposed the extravagant ways they were then taking for
running the nation into debt, and the suspension of the Habeas
Corpus Act. This drew upon him and his family the implacable
rage of the Lord Wharton, Lord Somers, and the other Whigs of
their party." — Memoirs of the Harley family, by Edward Harley,
Auditor of the Exchequer. Harley Papers^ iii. 645.
38 ROBERT HARLEY
was supported by the Whigs, who in domestic
politics were the friends of civil and religious
freedom. He superseded the overbearing and
bigoted Nottingham, and he had so high a reputa-
tion for sobriety of thought and action, that Go-
dolphin might reasonably expect that by securing
him as a member of his administration he had
definitely attached to his middle party one who,
if nominally a Tory, would carry with him the
moderate members of that party without offending
the Whigs, on w^hom he could most steadily rely.
Nor would Godolphin have been disappointed
if he had not underestimated the violence of
partisanship and the bitterness of party hostility,
as well as the influence of the Queen. An
uncertain and obscure political factor, she was
neither stupid nor spiritless. She was impressed
with the idea of the sovereign's personal responsi-
bility, but she was greatly under the influence of
those around her. Her mind was neither resolute
nor quick ; she was affected by constant ill-health,
and the only consistent political motive which
influenced her was a predilection for the High
Church party, which necessarily produced a dislike
of the Whigs, identified as they were with the
Nonconformists. It is needless to attempt to
apportion minutely how much of each political
action of the Queen belonged to her initiative or
to the advice and the support of her immediate
HARLEY AND GODOLPHIN 39
friends ; but whether moved by her own volition
or by those around her, she had an important
influence on the course of events.
The accession of Harley to the Cabinet gave
Godolphin more than a painstaking and zealous
member of his administration, for Harley at once
became the most trusted and the most intimate
of his colleagues, upon whose judicious advice in
regard to home and foreign affairs, and to many
delicate personal matters, it was his practice con-
stantly to rely. Godolphin's confidence in Harley
necessarily increased Marlborough's trust in the
new Secretary of State, and there is no stronger
confutation of the erroneous view which has often
been taken of Harley 's capacity, than the un-
bounded trust in his zeal and abilities which was
shown by Godolphin and Marlborough from 1704
to 1707. Harley 's tone towards Godolphin during
this period, as indicated by his correspondence,
was one of an almost too subservient humility,
which may well have led Godolphin to think that
Harley would never differ from him on any vital
point of policy ; while, on the other hand, Godol-
phin's unconcealed reliance on him may easily have
deceived even so sagacious a man as Harley, and
caused him to believe that he was too valuable
a colleague to be dismissed from Godolphin's
administration.^ He underrated Harley's political
1 Longleat MSS., Hist. MSS. Com., p. 51.
40 ROBERT HARLEY
foresight and firmness, and he could not forecast
the influence of the war on popular feeling.
Harley took office in May, amid universal con-
gratulation. ** The superiority of your genius,"
wrote the Duke of Shrewsbury, a nobleman second
to none in the country in influence and sound
judgment, **will make that easy to you which
others have found vexatious." ^
In August (1704) Marlborough fought the
battle of Blenheim. When the civilised world
was ringing with his victory, the Tories could not
hope for popular support in any attacks that they
might make on the General or on the policy of the
administration which supported him.
Blenheim gave renewed confidence to the
Whigs, and enabled Harley easily to rally round
him the moderate Tories. His parliamentary tact
was needed by the Ministry, for the extreme mem-
bers of the Tory party, elated by their success at
the last general election, and relying on the High
Church predilections of the Queen, had thrown
aside any assumption of religious toleration, and
early in the new Parliament carried through the
House of Commons a Bill to prevent Occasional
Conformity. That practice was certainly not
theoretically admirable, and it was one which
De Foe, friend though he was of the Dissenters,
was constantly criticising. But it was the result
1 Longleat MSS., Hist. MSS. Com., p. 57.
OCCASIONAL CONFORMITY BILL 41
of intolerant legislation, and it was the only means
by which a Dissenter was eligible for various civil
offices ; by taking the Sacrament once he complied
with legal conditions. But the Bill, in December
1702, was ultimately lost. Neither Lords nor
Commons would surrender their amendments ;
conference after conference was in vain. To the
annoyance of many of the more reasonable Tories,
the most virulent of the party, actuated by an
extraordinary sectarian bitterness, and a positive
personal animosity to the Dissenters, in the follow-
ing session (25th November 1703) introduced and
carried a Bill on similar lines, but more moderate
in detail, through the House of Commons. It was
of course rejected by the Lords. Such were then
the strange complexities of party warfare, that it
was supported by Godolphin and opposed by the
majority of the Bishops. But the subject was not
allowed to slumber, and presently the headstrong
Tories decided (1704) to **tack" an Occasional
Conformity to a Land Tax Bill, with the object of
obliging the House of Lords — unable by constitu-
tional usage to reject money Bills — to pass the
purely political measure. Harley's conduct now
justified Marlborough's selection, for it was he
who took the chief share in defeating this
manoeuvre in the House of Commons. The
House of Lords was certain to throw out, directly
or indirectly, the Occasional Conformity Bill alone ;
42 ROBERT HARLEY
joined to a money Bill it might not be so easy.
Thus this step of the High Churchmen was objec-
tionable to Harley from every point of view : as a
friend of the Dissenters and of political moderation,
and as a lover of parliamentary precedent. ** I
hope everybody will do you the justice to attribute
the greatest share of it (the rejection of this motion
to * tack'), to your prudent management and zeal for
the public " ; ^ so wrote Marlborough to Harley.
And yet even this obvious action gave rise to
rumours of deceit. The Tories, it was said, took
this parliamentary course on the advice of the
Speaker — advice given only, it was asserted, in
order to decoy them into a snare.^
Blenheim — as has been said — smoothed Harley s
official and parliamentary path ; he would be the
first to see its influence on public opinion. Six years
later it was the unpopularity of the war — of which
he was equally aware — that enabled him to super-
sede Godolphin. In following the fortunes of the
statesmen of the age of Anne, personal contests
and Court intrigues have been too much considered.
Larger causes were affecting the course of English
politics : the progress of the European war, the
unrecognised strength of the English party system,
^ 1 6th December 1704, Coxe's Marlborough^ ii. 69. Longleat
MS., Hist. MSB. Com., p. 65.
^ Pari. Hist.y vol. vi. p. 359. The "tack" was rejected by
251 to 134 votes, Harley voting in the majority. Pari Hist.y vol.
vi. p. 368.
HIS POLITICAL MODERATION 43
the powerful factor which existed in the sovereign's
individual will, and the intense determination of
the people never to accept a Roman Catholic
sovereign, or to allow any attack on the Established
Church.
For eleven months Harley was both Speaker
and Secretary of State — offices to modern ideas
so incompatible. As Speaker he was on the best
of terms with Godolphin and with Marlborough,
and was gaining a unique influence both in Parlia-
ment and the country. But in the beginning as
in the end of his official life the same things were
said of him. When he became Secretary of State
he was called a ''trimmer" by those who disliked
him, and he was taunted with having ** caressed"
both parties. When, ten years later, he ceased to
be Lord Treasurer, the same accusation, uttered
with greater emphasis, was heard from one end
of England to the other : It was caused by an
adherence to a particular course of political conduct,
which was based on a reliance, not on the moderate
members of one party only, but on the hope
that he might have their support, and at the
same time by his moderation of political opinion
gain some favour with their opponents. It was
an elaborate and a continuous attempt to recognise
and yet to nullify the newly developing party
system by a man to whom it was repugnant.
Harley never attempted to form a middle party ;
44 ROBERT HARLEY
he took parties as they were, and endeavoured to
pursue a course of conduct which was necessarily
insincere and calculated to dupe both sides. This
remarkable political position, which he had secured
with so much skill and tact, is well illustrated by
a singularly frank letter written in 1704 by his
friend, Stanley West, at the very moment that his
management of the House of Commons was so
pleasing to Marlborough.
" For want of other information, be pleased to
give me leave to acquaint you with my observation
of people's opinion of your Honour. You have a
happier fate attending you than any in the present
Ministry, or in former either. You are entirely
master of two opposite parties. Both think you to
be theirs, and confide in you as such, to promote
their several different interests. Whatever dis-