stical, observed, that their
address was injurious to the late queen's memory, and would serve only
to increase those unhappy divisions that distracted the kingdom. In the
lower house, sir William Wyndham, Mr. Bromley, Mr. Ship-pen, general
Ross, sir William Whitelock, and other members, took exceptions to
passages of the same nature in the address which the commons had
prepared. They were answered by Mr. Walpole, Mr. Pulteney, and Mr.
secretary Stanhope. These gentlemen took occasion to declare, that
notwithstanding the endeavours which had been used to prevent a
discovery of the late mismanagements, by conveying away several papers
from the secretary's office, yet the government had sufficient evidence
left to prove the late ministry the most corrupt that ever sat at the
helm; that those matters would soon be laid before the house, when it
would appear that a certain English general had acted in concert with,
if not received orders from, mareschal de Villars. Lord Bolingbroke, who
had hitherto appeared in public, as usual, with remarkable serenity, and
spoke in the house of lords with great freedom and confidence, thought
it was now high time to consult his personal safety. He accordingly
withdrew to the continent, leaving a letter which was afterwards printed
in his justification. In this paper, he declared he had received certain
and repeated informations, that a resolution was taken to pursue him to
the scaffold; that if there had been the least reason to hope for a fair
and open trial, after having been already prejudged, unheard, by the
two houses of parliament, he should not have declined the strictest
examination. He challenged the most inveterate of his enemies to produce
any one instance of criminal correspondence, or the least corruption in
any part of the administration in which he was concerned. He said, if
his zeal for the honour and dignity of his royal mistress, and the true
interest of his country, had any where transported him to let slip
a warm and unguarded expression, he hoped the most favourable
interpretation would be put upon it. He affirmed that he had served her
majesty faithfully and dutifully in that especially which she had most
at heart, relieving her people from a bloody and expensive war; and that
he had always been too much an Englishman to sacrifice the interest of
his country to any foreign ally whatsoever.

{1715}

In the midst of all this violence against the late ministers, friend