Note 190 — Chapter VII

Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, Secretary of State to Queen Anne, had, on the accession of George the First, been impeached for his share in the treaty of Utrecht, and fled. Sir Robert Walpole (strongly against the inclination of his brother Horace, Lord Townshend, and others of his friends) obtained his pardon, though Lord Bolingbroke and his advocates afterwards pretended that the Minister had no hand in it. The day after his return he dined at Chelsea, to thank Sir Robert; but his confusion and uneasiness were so great, that he had like to have been choked with the first bit he ate, and was forced to rise from table. He soon endeavoured to supplant Sir Robert, by the assistance of his enemy the Duchess of Kendal, who obtained an audience for him in the late King’s closet, where he presented a representation against Sir Robert, which the King immediately afterwards delivered to Sir Robert, and repeated the conversation to him. A parallel case happened afterwards to the same Minister. Lord Stair endeavoured to supplant him with Queen Caroline, and even was so hardy as to make love to her, which not succeeding, he wrote a long letter to her, and went the next morning for an answer. She sent him out word by her Chamberlain, Lord Grantham, that she had given his letter to Sir Robert Walpole, and had ordered him to deliver her answer. Lord Stair saw his situation, and set out next morning for Scotland.