CHAPTER I. Reflections upon the Reign of Queen Anne.-Her Accession to the Throne.— Debasement of Religion.—Political Changes.-Triumph of Toryism.— Intemperance of Churchmen.-De Foe's Account of the Opening of the Reign. The Queen's Zeal for the Church.-Its Effect upon the Clergy.— Revival of May-poles.-De Foe's Account of the Excesses of the Times.— Violence of Churchmen Repressed by the Queen.—Discontent thereupon. -Some of the Ministers Desert the High Party.-Bad Spirit of the Commons.-War Declared.-Unsuccessful Expedition to Cadiz.—De Foe's Poem upon the Spanish Descent.-Dissolution of Parliament.—Meeting of a new one.- -Insult to the Memory of King William.—Satirized by Mr. Walsh.-Revival of the Royal Touch.-Origin of the Usage.-Anecdotes of its Practice in former Reigns.-De Foe's Solution of the Spell. 1702. THE succession of a new sovereign is always attended with important consequences to individuals, and not unfrequently to nations at large. This is more particularly the case when faction takes the lead, dividing a nation into parties with adverse interests and angry feelings, kept alive by the assistance of its governors: all that is noble and generous becomes sacrificed in the general calamity, which subverts friendships, is fatal to morals, and barbarizes a people. When party spirit forces asunder the restraints that hold together the peace of society, it sets no bounds to its malignity; it breaks out into falsehood and detraction, pollutes the seat of justice, and extinguishes all the kind and generous feelings of our nature: good sense is superseded by the dominion of passion, and a savageness of disposition takes the place of humanity. 2 DEBASEMENT OF RELIGION. That the reign we are now entering upon was strongly marked with this character, is unfortunately too much a matter of history to admit of any controversy. Men of real merit, if of different principles, were like objects seen through false mediums, and each distorted by the prejudices of the beholder. Even knowledge and learning suffered in the contest, each party having its array of writers, who partook of the common appetite for slander and falsehood. Amidst the violence of faction, private character was often unjustly assailed, and a sordid selfishness stifled the voice of patriotism. ANNE, the second daughter of James II. by his first wife, Anne Hyde, daughter of the Earl of Clarendon, was thirty-seven years of age when she ascended the throne. Her education had been superintended by Compton, bishop of London, who instilled into her mind his own high-church notions, which were fostered by her early connexions; so that there was every reason to expect, when she became queen, that she would value herself upon her zeal for the church. Nor did she disappoint the expectations that had been formed of her; although, in some instances, she found it necessary to restrain the intemperance of the party she patronized. Throughout the whole of this reign, more or less, the teachers of religion carried into the pulpit the weapons of hostility: not to wield them against the abettors of vice and irreligion, but against their brethren and neighbours of the same or of a different faith. This overflow of the bad passions in themselves, kindled a like animosity in their hearers, until the tranquillity of the country became disturbed, and even the civil authorities were placed at defiance. In this game of politics, for it is undeserving the name of religion, the clergy were no better than the tools of aspiring statesmen, who made them the stepping-stone to their own ambition; but its tendency was to revive those TRIUMPH OF TORYISM. 3 dangerous projects, which, at a former period, elevated the mitre above the crown. The injury which it inflicted upon religion, was to secularize the clergy, and divert them from the duties of their profession; to substitute pomp and grandeur for pastoral simplicity; to obscure the virtues of humility, meekness, and self-denial; and to erect a dominion over conscience, as adverse to just views of human nature, as to the spirit of kindness and forbearance which characterized the early messengers of christianity. This perversion of religion from its genuine objects, called for the denunciation pronounced upon a similar corruption by Constantine, and found in the legend of St. Sylvester, "This day a deadly poison is infused into the church." The queen was proclaimed upon Sunday the eighth of March, 1702, being the day that William died; and her coronation took place the 23d of the following April. In her first speech to the privy-council, she declared her resolution to adhere to the policy pursued by the late king; and the preparations for war continued unremitted. As an earnest of her policy, some of the bitterest enemies of William were now taken into favour; and "the dearer any one had been to the late king, so much the more violently was he attacked with various calumnies."* The Lords Somers and Halifax, who had been distinguished by his confidence, and not less by the eminency of their services, were early discarded from the privy-council; and within two months the whole of the Whigs were displaced, to make room for their opponents.(A) "Amongst all the queen's counsellors, the Earl of Marlborough was certainly the first in eminence as well as favour, next to the Prince of Den Cunningham's Great Britain, i. 259. (4) The Prince of Denmark was declared Generalissimo of all her Majesty's forces; the Privy seal was given to the Marquis of Normanby; the Earl of Nottingham and Sir Charles Hodges were appointed Secretaries of State; Lord Godolphin, Lord Treasurer; the Earl of Jersey, Lord Chamberlain; Sir Edward Seymour, Comptroller of the Household; Mr. |