Galway, in yielding the post of her Majesty’s troops to the Portuguese in Spain, acted contrary to the honour of the Imperial Crown of Great Britain.” On a division, there voted 64 for it, and 44 against it. The minority were either so indignant at the tyranny of the majority, or so sarcastic as to John Bull’s notion that all other nations are beneath the English, that some expressions were found in their protest which enabled the majority to order that this protest be expunged.
Wodrow notes, in his Analecta, January 1711:—
“By a letter, dated the close of this month, from London, I find that the House of Lords carry everything before them against the old ministry. Galway is challenged for giving the post of honour to the Portuguese though he had it in commission that they should command; and this they carry by twenty votes, whereof eighteen are our Scots lords. So the Whigs in England come to see their great mistake in the Union. For it’s plain the crown may manage our Scots elections as they please; £20,000 or £30,000 will make them every way as they will.”
Sec. 17. — The Earl of Galway again in Retirement.
A pamphlet was published in defence of “The Earl of Galway’s conduct in Portugal and Spain,” but it was not by himself. It was a reprint of facts, as published in the periodical “Annals of Queen Anne,” and may have been edited by the annalist, Abel Boyer. Officers had probably corresponded with him during the war, and now assisted him in editing and prefacing his compilation. The preface represents Lord Galway as justifying his silence on the occasion by quoting a sentence from St. Evremond:—
“Those in whose power it is to do all they please are not so severe upon us as otherwise they might be, when they see us patiently submit to their decisions; opposition only inflames their resentment without lessening their power; but upon a change either of interest or of humour, a man is extolled to the skies for that very thing which occasioned his disgrace.”
Lord Galway again settled at Rookley. He now resigned his Colonelcy of the Dutch Guards. In March of this year, Louis XIV. gave the Ruvigny estate in France to Cardinal Polignac, but our hero had freely and finally surrendered it long ago.
His return to live among his affectionate relations was soon clouded by a severe bereavement. The Duke of Bedford, only son of Lady Russell, died on the 26th May (1711), in his thirty-first year. The fatal disease being small-pox, she had insisted upon being the only relative in attendance. As soon as possible she wrote to her cousin:—
“Alas! my dear Lord Galway, my thoughts are yet all disorder, confusion, and amazement; and I think I am very incapable of saying or doing what I should. I did not know the greatness of my love to his person, till I could see it no more. There was nothing uncomfortable in his death, but the losing him. His God was, I verily believe, ever in his thoughts. Towards his last hours he called upon Him, and complained he could not pray his prayers. To what I answered he said he wished for more time to make up his accounts with God. Then with remembrance to his sisters, and telling me how good and kind his wife had been to him, and that he should have been glad to have expressed himself to her, said something to me of my double kindness to his wife, and so died away.
“There seemed no reluctancy to leave this world, patient and easy the whole time, and, I believe, knew his danger; but loath to grieve those by him, delayed what he might have said. But why all this? The decree is past. I do not ask your prayers; I know you offer them with sincerity to our Almighty God for Your afflicted kinswoman,
“R. Russell.”
“June, 1711.”
The poor mother was, on the 31st October of the same year, bereaved of her daughter Catherine, Duchess of Rutland.”[1] The Duke having in the ensuing summer made an offer of marriage to the lady who became his second wife, Lady Russell felt some natural emotion, and confided it to her kinsman. From her letter dated 5th August 1712, I need extract only the preface, — “My Lord, I have been for some weeks often resolved, and as soon unresolved, if I would or would not
- ↑ Lady Elizabeth Manners, one of the daughters of this Duchess, became Viscountess Galway in 1727, her husband, Joan Monckton, Esq., being then made a Peer with the title of Viscount Galway — from whom have descended a line of Viscounts, Peers of Ireland, and Members of the British House of Commons.
