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  England; Part 6

England; Part 6

There were two ministries during Anne's reign. The first was under the leadership of Godolphin, who was in close alliance with Marlborough. Of the latter something has been said already. Of the former Charles II once remarked that "little Sidney Godolphin was never in the way and never out of the way", He seems to have been a shrewd statesman, though his personality has left curiously little impression. At first the members of the Government were drawn from both parties, but the growing hostility of the Tories to the war led to the ministry becoming increasingly, and in 1708 completely, of a Whig complexion. Go dolphin's ministry has justly been called "one of the most glorious in English history", for under its rule occurred the great achievements of Marlborough and of Peterborough, the captures of Gibraltar and Minorca, and the Union with Scotland.

Godolphin's Ministry came to an abrupt termination in 1710. The causes were many. The war was becoming unpopular, and it was urged with some force that Great Britain should have accepted the terms of peace offered by Louis XIV in 1706, and the still more favourable offers of 1709. Moreover, Marlborough was ambitious to be made Captain-General of the British forces for life-an ambition which frightened Englishmen into thinking that he wished to be a second Cromwell and which therefore brought unpopularity on the Whig ministers though they had not supported the proposal Then, again, the queen became hostile to the ministry. Though she was a person of no intellectual attainments, and appears to have had little influence in the actual administration of her Government, she was extremely popular with all classes for her kindness of heart, and because, as she said of herself, she was "perfectly English" (The queen had no taste for literature and music, and for some years never heard even her own band play. But she was fond of hunting, and in her later years used to follow the stagnunt in Windsor Forest in an open chaise drawn by one horse, "which she drives herself", wrote Swift, " and drives furiously, like Jehu"). She disliked a purely Whig ministry, and she could not forgive the Whigs for their attacks upon her husband, Prince George of Denmark, whilst he was alive, or for their suggestion, soon after his death, that she should take thoughts of a second husband. Moreover, the queen was very subject to the influence of those of her own sex. For some time the influence of the Duchess of Marl-borough had been supreme. The duchess was a very self-willed, masterful, and somewhat quarrelsome lady; about 1708 she quarrelled with the queen, as she did subsequently with her son-in-law, her granddaughter, and even her doctors (The duchess got a portrait of her granddaughter, blackened its face, and hung it up with the inscription: "She is much blacker within". In 1740 she had lain a great while ill, without speaking. Her physicians said: " She must be blistered, or she will die." She then called out: " I won't be blistered, and I won't die." And, as a matter of fact, she was not blistered, end she did not die-till four years later). Mrs. Masham, who had strong Tory connections, succeeded to the first place in the queen's affections, and the change was ominous for Godolphin's ministry.

Chronology
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