the evidences and arguments, all the
facts and all the passages of correspondence, necessary to make out a
case against the accused statesmen. It carried with it, beyond
question, the complete historical condemnation of Oxford and
Bolingbroke in all that related to the Treaty of Utrecht. Never was it
more conclusively established for the historian that Ministers of State
had used the basest means to bring about the basest objects. It was
made clear as light that the national interests and the national honor
had been sacrificed for partisan and for personal purposes. Objects in
themselves criminal for statesmen to aim at had been sought by means
which would have been shameful even if employed for justifiable ends.
Had Bolingbroke and Oxford been endeavoring to save the State by the
arts which they employed to sacrifice it, their conduct would have
called for the condemnation of all honest men. But as regards the
transactions with James Stuart there was ample ground shown for
suspicion, there was good reason to conjecture or to infer, but there
was no positive evidence of intended treason. A historian reading over
the report would in all probability come to the conclusion that Oxford
and Bolingbroke had been plotting with James Stuart, but he would not
see in it satisfactory grounds for an impeachment. No jury would
convict on such evidence; no jury probably would even leave the box for
the purpose of considering their verdict. In the course of the events
that were soon to follow it was placed beyond any doubt that
Bolingbroke and Oxford had all along been trying to arrange for the
return of the Stuarts. They were not driven to throw themselves in
despair into the Stuart cause by reason of harsh proceedings taken
against them by their enemies in England; they had been "pipe-laying,"
to use an expressive {108} American word, for the Stuart restoration
during all the closing years of Queen Anne's reign. The reader must
decide for himself as to the degree of moral or political guilt
involved in such transactions. It has to be remembered that nearly
half--some still say more than half--of the population of these
countries was in favor of such a restoration, and that Anne herself
unquestionably leaned to the same view. What is certain is that Oxford
and Bolingbroke were planning for it. But what seems equally clear is
that the report of the Secret Committee did not contain satisfactory
evidence on which to sustain