FRIENDSHIP WITH MONTAGUE 27

age, and Montague had already won a conspicuous parliamentary position by his brilliant talents, and by his remarkable financial ability. But the ease and courtesy of Harley's manner, and a temper rarely ruffled, concealed a mind watchful and resourceful, ever active in schemes to effectuate its aims, until, somewhat after middle age, a career which had been one of continuous work and of constant anxiety, and the lassitude which comes from health, lessened his mental vigour. His father and brother were of a franker and more open nature, and were sometimes unable to understand a character and a capacity which were gradually giving him a political position scarcely realised by his relatives.

CHAPTER II

SPEAKER AND SECRETARY OF STATE

1701-1705

HARLEY ELECTED SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONSSTATE OF POLITICAL PARTIES-ENGLAND AND FRANCE HARLEY AGAIN ELECTED SPEAKER IN LAST PARLIAMENT of William III. -ACCESSION OF ANNE-DECLARATION OF WAR WITH FRANCE -HARLEY SPEAKER IN PARLIAMENT OF 1702-EFFECT OF THE WAR ON DOMESTIC POLITICS-SECRETARY OF STATE-OCCASIONAL CONFORMITY BILL-HARLEY'S MANAGEMENT OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS-HIS POLITICAL POSITION-HARLEY AND GODOLPHIN.

THE second period of Harley's life begins with the year 1701, when on 10th February he was elected Speaker in the fourth Parliament of William III.1 The office had in the first instance been offered to the veteran Tory leader, Sir Edward Seymour; but the very day he declined it, Godolphin nominated Harley. By his opposition, temperate though it was, to the proposals of the King in regard to a standing army in the previous Parliament, Harley had gained favour with the Tories, while his knowledge of parliamentary business, his family con

2

1 His opponent was Sir Thomas Onslow, who was defeated by one hundred and twenty votes.-Parl. Hist., vol. v. p. 1232. 2 Harley Papers, ii. 14.

SPEAKER OF HOUSE OF COMMONS 29 nections, and his admitted moderation of opinion, caused his candidature to be regarded favourably in nearly every part of the House. Evelyn notes the fact in a suggestive sentence: "The old Speaker laid aside, and Mr. Harley, an able gentleman, chosen." In the words of an impartial and experienced observer, we have the best indication of the real opinion of Harley among those who were not political partisans, and the best evidence of the influential position to which he had already risen.

The evolution of two well-defined parliamentary and political parties out of two radical and national divisions was now in progress. To the one belonged the clergy of the Established Church, the majority of landowners and country gentry, and many of the peers; to the other the Nonconformists and the inhabitants of the towns, whether engaged in commerce or professions. The first, which was once the Royalist party, acquiesced-many of them reluctantly-in the Revolution; the other assisted and welcomed it, but in order to complete it had to support the foreign policy of William III. Whigs thus became the War party. The death of the King (8th March 1702), however, removed a strong individual force from the conduct of public affairs, while the fact that his successor was a woman increased the influence of the change, hastening the transference of the executive power

The

from the Sovereign to a select body of the chief politicians who were becoming the Cabinet. Greater responsibility was thrown on leading statesmen, who were necessarily obliged to seek support from their adherents in the country and from the representatives of it in Parliament. Thus from the beginning of the eighteenth century the two political bodies became more compact, the members in Parliament less individual, and more organised in a course of continuous political action session by session. In other words, a purely dual party system was in process of formation, definite though imperfect, not easy to reckon with but often of remarkable force. Religious freedom and toleration were the basis of the Whig party, as support of the Church of England and of clericalism was that of the Tories; again, the right of the people to choose their own sovereign underlay Whig principles, as the divine right of kings was believed in by many Tories. But in no other respect were the characteristics of the two parties, which are so conspicuous later in the eighteenth and in the nineteenth centuries, then visible. The Whigs in the reign of William III. were the Court party, as the Tories were in that of Anne and of George III.; but on the other hand, the Whigs were throughout the reign of Anne the War party, as the Tories were the Peace party. The Whigs found most support in the towns, and the Tories in the country; but

STATE OF PARTIES IN 1701-2 31

though the difference gradually tended to the liberalism of the one and the conservatism of the other, it did not in the age of Anne affect their action in regard to social or commercial questions. There was, in fact, except as to religious toleration, little to remind us of the parties of a later time. The favour with which the Whigs regarded the Hanoverian succession, and the sympathy of the Tories, though not universally-since the Whimsical or Hanoverian Tories are constantly in evidence for the Pretender, were the result of a past national struggle, and were abnormal features of party distinctions, though, as Harley's life markedly exemplifies, they were invaluable for the purposes of political warfare. While, therefore, it is convenient in the age of Anne to designate the two adverse parties by names which have grown familiar, and which even then had sufficient signification, we must be careful to realise that they had not the exact meaning of more modern times. Nor should the posthumous influence on English parties of William III., and of his policy, the basis of which was an Anglo-Dutch alliance against France, be overlooked. The Dutch, too, were Protestants, with whom the Dissenters were in sympathy, and the French Protestant emigrés were active members of the Whig party, antagonistic to the existing government in France. On the other hand, the preference of the Church