dship to the
Duke." From Berlin he went, loaded with honours and presents, to
Hanover, where jealousies of a different kind, but not less dangerous,
had arisen in consequence of the apprehensions there entertained, that
the Whigs were endeavouring to thwart the eventual succession of the
House of Hanover to the throne of England. Marlborough's address,
however, here also succeeded in overcoming all difficulties; and,
after a sojourn of only a few days, he departed in the highest favour
both with the Elector and his mother. From thence he hastened to the
Hague, where he remained a fortnight, and succeeded in a great degree
in removing those difficulties, and smoothing down those jealousies,
which had proved so injurious to the common cause in the preceding
campaign. He prevailed on the Dutch to reject separate offers of
accommodation, which had been made to them by the French government.
Having thus put all things on as favourable a footing as could be
hoped for on the Continent, he embarked for England in the beginning
of January 1705--having overcome greater difficulties, and obtained
greater advantages, in the course of this winter campaign, with his
divided allies, than he ever did during a summer campaign with the
enemy.

Every one, how cursorily soever he may be acquainted with Wellington's
campaigns, must be struck with the great similarity between the
difficulties which thus beset the Duke of Marlborough, in the earlier
periods of his career, and those which at a subsequent period so long
hampered the genius and thwarted the efforts of England's greatest
general. Slangenberg's jealousy as an exact counterpart of that of
Cuesta at Talavera; the timidity of the Dutch authorities was
precisely similar to that of the Portuguese regency; the difficulty of
appeasing the jealousy of Austria and Prussia, identical with that
which so often compelled Wellington to hurry from the field to Lisbon
and Cadiz. Such is the selfishness of human nature that it seems
impossible to get men, actuated by different interests, to concur in
any measures for the general good but under the pressure of immediate
danger, so threatening as to be obvious to every understanding, or by
the influence of ability and address of the very highest order. It is
this which in every age has caused the weakness of the best-cemented
confederacies, and so often enabled single powers, not possessing a
fourth part of their material resources, to triumph over