of which was, perhaps, what obtained for her Majesty the reputation attributed to her by St. Simon, of being a sincere friend of his master the French king. The Duke, however, less prudent than Sir Thomas, or thinking himself warranted by Lord Bolingbroke, as he was, did not know how to keep within safe bounds, and a communication which he made to Maréchal Villars at this time was one of the grounds of impeachment against him in the next reign. No acceptable forecast could be made about the Pretender, who like his son was fitter for a novel than for real affairs; and

to be reckoned yours. I agree entirely with you, and I think it is the opinion of every man who serves the Queen, that we are now at the favourable crisis, and that no time ought to be lost in concluding our great work. My Lord Lexington is gone to Spain; the Cortes are appointed to meet the very beginning of next month, and I think the forms of the several acts necessary to complete the execution of the article for preventing the union of the two monarchies are so well settled and understood, that in very few weeks we may receive here and at Utrecht the exemplifications of them. In the meanwhile all other matters will be ripened, and I shall hope that two months would suffice to draw us clearly out of a ruinous war and intricate negotiation. I shall add nothing to this letter but my hearty wishes for your health and prosperity, and my sincere assurances that

"I am,
Sir,"

&c. &c. &c.

when Sir Thomas returned home he declared openly and finally in favour of the Hanoverian succession, and to enforce his determination did not scruple to oppose the articles of commerce with France in the Treaty of Utrecht, with which he had been at first, and on the other hand, very much concerned. For this he and his friends were called by Bolingbroke the Whimsical party, but I believe his views on the succession were no other than those of his sovereign Queen Anne, who knew in him tried loyalty to her family, coupled with the mature sense of a practical gentleThe Queen naturally leant towards her own relations, and had about the same regard for the Elector of Hanover that people usually entertain for distant cousins who are to come after them without their will; but she and her sister Queen Mary appear to have been the wisest of all the Stuarts,' and to have thoroughly understood the conditions on which alone any of their ill-fated house could carry on its reign. Many of the

man.

1 "Clarendon had law and sense," said Dryden, or, as Sir Walter Scott thinks, Lord Dorset, and perhaps it was from his line of their pedigree that these royal ladies derived their comparative advantages.

papers printed by Macpherson bear upon Sir Thomas's concern in these matters, but as this is a domestic and not a political history, I shall not repeat them, making only the following extract, which it must be owned, in the latter part, gives a curious account of the Speaker engaged in Parliamentary management, which we should think so censurable, while the Queen herself, and every statesman with his following, cast their thoughts towards an uncertain future in her declining days.

MACPHERSON, Stuart Papers, vol. ii. p. 420.

Sir Thomas Hanmer was sent over in 1712 to the Duke of Ormond (whose relation' and friend he was), in Flanders, and after that came to Paris, where he was received, by the King of France's orders, like a prince; never had a private man such honours paid to him. There he put the last hand to the treaty of commerce; which very treaty he afterwards, when Speaker, used his interest to throw out.

When that treaty was to come before the House,

1 The Duke of Ormond was cousin to the Countess of Arlington.

2 See also Boyer's "History of Queen Anne" for the character of the Queen's minister, which without ostensible credentials was attributed to Sir Thomas, while engaged in this affair.

and several debates had been held on it, just as the last debate for the final determination of the affair came on, the Earl of Oxford wrote a letter (as L. L. told me, April 23rd, 1724) to Mr. Bromley, telling him that he would by no means be an occasion of a breach among friends, that he would willingly let all the blame lie upon himself, and the treaty be given up rather than make a division. Nor would there have been a division in the House that day had not Sir Richard Vyvyan got up and said that he had studied the point of commerce. That he found the treaty admirably adapted for the advantage of England, and that he had grounded his motion on the best informations, and that he could not bear to see a matter given up out of compliment to anybody's notions when his country was to receive a prejudice by it; and he laid the foundation of a debate which lasted till two in the morning, being carried on purely on a country foot, and the treaty rejected by only about eight votes. Lord L. dined that day with Lord Oxford, who was surprised to hear that the House was sitting at nine o'clock, and could not imagine how it happened, nor did then take a step to carry the point; whereas, as Lord L. told me, had he but sent a note to his brother Ned or cousin Tom Harley, the Court interest, which was neuter, would have fallen in with the country, and the treaty would certainly have been ratified. So that this point was left, to the infinite prejudice of England, out of a compliment of the Earl of Oxford to Sir Thomas Hanmer.

Lord Stanhope says, in his history of Queen Anne, that Louis XIV. was with great difficulty

brought to agree to the articles of commerce in this Treaty, because he was advised that they would be injurious to French trade. The English Parliament threw them out as injurious to English trade. Even in these days our Australian States showed symptoms of a similar blindness, whatever to the contrary we could do; and so I suppose it will be long hence, when they are great and powerful nations.

St. Simon, whose attention was easily drawn to ceremonies and honours, especially to such as were paid to a gentleman not a duke, but who knew little of the King's mind at any time, and less about such things as related to St. Germain, speaks thus of Sir Thomas's French reception :

ST. SIMON, vol. x. p. 376.

Il parut à la cour un personnage singulier, qui y fut reçu avec des empressemens et des distinctions surprenantes. Le roi l'en combla, les ministres s'y surpassèrent, tout ce qui était de plus marqué à la cour se piqua de le festoyer. C'était un Anglais d'un peu plus de trente ans, de bonne mine et parfaitement bien fait, qui s'appelait le Chevalier Hanmer et qui était fort riche. Il avait épousé aussi la fille unique et héritière de milord Arlington secrétaire d'état, veuve du duc de Grafton, qui s'en était éprise et qui conserva de droit son nom et son rang de duchesse de Grafton, comme il se pratique toujours