cult to escape error and misdirection. The old landmarks
had been swept away; and, in the general flood, statesmen
had little that was fixed, tried, and accredited, to guide them.

To these distractions the Duke of Marlborough, under the
influence of circumstances for which he was not wholly ac-
countable, was more exposed than any of his contemporaries.
By paternal example he was a Tory; the claims of gratitude
and personal connexion bound him to King James; while
religious convictions made him a firm member of the Church
of England. The last determined his defection from his first
royal patron, and his adherence to the Prince of Orange: the
former was the source of his alleged duplicity and vacilla-
tion. Whether he was selfish and treacherous in his prefer-
ences the reader is left to form his own opinion. In text or
editorial elucidations, the requisite evidence has been col-
lected and faithfully submitted.

But it is less the political than the military history of the
Duke of Marlborough that forms the lustrous portion of his
annals. His administrative abilities were vast, and what he
did in a civil capacity is both important and interesting; but
it is as a general that the British hero stands proudly pre-
eminent. He may have erred in his personal predilections, or
in the intrigues of politicians; but as the leader of armies
he made no mistakes. There he was unrivalled: always self-
possessed, without weakness or oversight; indefatigable in
effort, unerring in conception, prompt, resistless, and inexor-
able in execution.

For proof of Marlborough's extraordinary genius in war,
it is only necessary to study his brilliant campaign in
Germany in 1704. History hardly offers a parallel to it in
originality of design, vigour and success in execution; unless
it be Napoleon's first triumphant campaign in Italy: that,
indeed, was a wonderful exhibition of skill and heroism, and
displayed that rare union of civil and military science by which
a great kingdom is suddenly overrun and organised. Marl-

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