They took their places at the council-table, and St. John and
Ormond must have begun to feel that all was over. The intrusion of the
Whig peers was a daring and a significant step in itself, but when the
Duke of Shrewsbury welcomed their appearance and accepted their
co-operation, it was clear to the Jacobites that all was part of a
prearranged scheme, to which resistance would now be in vain. The new
visitors to the council called for the reports of the royal physician,
and having received and read them, suggested that the Duke of Shrewsbury
should be recommended to the Queen as Lord High Treasurer. St. John did
not venture to resist the proposal; he could only sit with as much
appearance of composure as he was enabled to maintain, and accept the
suggestion of his enemies. A deputation of the peers, with the Duke of
Shrewsbury among them, at once sought and obtained an interview with the
dying Queen. She gave the Lord High Treasurer's staff into Shrewsbury's
hand, and bade him, it is said, in that voice of singular sweetness and
melody which was almost her only charm, to use it for the good of her
people.

The office of Lord High Treasurer is now always put into what is called
commission; its functions are managed by several ministers, of whom the
First Lord of the Treasury is one, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer
{46} another. In all recent times the First Lord of the Treasury has
usually been Prime-minister, and his office therefore corresponds fairly
enough with that which was called the office of Lord High Treasurer in
earlier days. It was clear that when the Duke of Shrewsbury became Lord
High Treasurer at such a junction he would stand firmly by the Protestant
succession, and would oppose any kind of scheming in the cause of the
exiled Stuarts.

[Sidenote: 1714--Whigs in possession]

Some writers near to that time, and Mr. Lecky among more recent
historians, are of opinion that it was not either of the intruding dukes
who proposed that Shrewsbury should be appointed Treasurer. Mr. Lecky is
even of opinion that it may have been Bolingbroke himself who made the
suggestion. That seems to us extremely probable. All accounts agree in
confirming the idea that Bolingbroke was taken utterly by surprise when
the great Whig dukes entered the council-chamber. The moment he saw that
Shrewsbury welcomed them he probably made up his mind to the fact that an
entirely new condition of things had arisen, and tha