The domestic policy of Robert Harley and the Tory Party from 1710 to 1714

Abstract

This policy has been considered in special detail with regard to financial administration generally and Harley's achievements in the way of a revival of credit and trade particularly. The treatment of the commercial policy, inasmuch as it touches foreign policy, must necessarily be inadequate, since there exists an enormous mass of unexplored material concerned with the Utrecht negotiations. The chapter on spies, informers and pamphleteers, together with Appendix I, throws some interesting sidelights on the administration of Justice at this period, as well as bearing out what other writers have said on the main theme. The uncalendared State Papers Domestic reveal a wealth of information on these points. "Ministerial Relations and Intrigues" supports with intricate detail the theory that the Cabinet divisions were the essential cause of the 1714 debacle, while the chapter on the Church illustrates this point further, emphasises the immense political importance of that body and throws, perhaps, a new light on the relations between Harley, Harcourt and Atterbury. The Succession Question has been considered with regard first to the Stuarts and then to Hanover and the Ministry's relations with Marlborough. The conclusion drawn is that the Tories were not Jacobite. The trimming policy of Harley in Scotland and his essential non-Jacobitisim have been deduced from a variety of documents and other sources, the Portland Papers particularly illustrating the political, and the Treasury Papers the financial side of Harley's work. The chapter on Ireland has been based to a large extent on well-explored sources, but a close examination of these four years has again revealed Harley as ultimately a Trimmer, in his appointment of Phipps to build up the High church interest and his subsequent sending of Shrewsbury, too late, to mitigate the extremism that the Chancellor had provoked.