1920 MACPHERSON AND THE NAIRNE PAPERS 375 former, in the Memorial already noticed, stated that Marlborough was plotting for his restoration and meant to cause a resolution to be carried in parliament for the dismissal of all foreigners. If the Prince of Orange had consented to that proposal, they would have had him in their power. If he had rejected it, he would have made the parliament declare against him : and, at the same time, lord Churchill with the army was to declare for the parliament ; the fleet was to do the same, and I was to be recalled. Unfortunately for James some indiscreet Jacobites, believing that Marlborough was plotting in favour of Anne, betrayed the scheme to Portland.-^ Burnet's account, written in 1693, is as follows : About the end of the session of parliament in England the king called for Marlborough's commissions and dismissed him out of his service ; the king said to myself upon it that he had very good reason to believe that he had made his peace with king James and was engaged in a correspondence with France ; it is certain he was doing all he could to set on a faction in the army and nation against the Dutch and to lessen the king.^ The third piece of evidence of real value is a letter, dated 9 February, from Sir Charles Lyttelton to Lord Hatton : What you seem not to hear of about the reason of Lord Marlborough's disgrace I thought I had given you a good account of, because it all came from Lord Carmarthen, Lord Nottingham and Lord Marlborough himself ; and all agreed in this, that the King, besides other things of high mis- demeanour, said he had held correspondence with King James.^ These three accounts make it clear that William had received information that Marlborough was engaged in Jacobite intrigues. He may also have had reason to suspect that Anne had written to her father, since there was a rumour to that effect.^ He probably caused Marlborough to be arrested when he had more reliable evidence, for warrants to seize the Jacobite agents Bulkley, Lloyd, and Middleton, with whom Marlborough had
- Original Papers, i. 440. That English Jacobites believed Marlborough was
plotting for Anne and not for James is mentioned by Blanchard in his letter of ^ ^ January ^^^^^ j^^gg Comm. vii, pt. i, p. 220). Contemporary historians, 5 February knowing that Portland was concerned, believed that Marlborough's rudeness to the Dutchman was a cause of his disgrace : Ralph, The Other Side of the Question, p. 61, quoting Lediard's biography of Marlborough. Cf. Coxe, Life of Marlborough, 1. 46, ed. 1818. It is noteworthy that Macaulay thought that the Jacobites, and not James, had correctly divined Marlborough's plans, v. 2117-24 (ch. xviii).
- See Miss H. C. Foxcroft, Supplement to Burnet, p. 373 ; cf. pp. 368-9, and the
printed version in Burnet's History of My Ovm Time, ii. 90.
- Hatton Correspondence, ii. 170-1. The contractions are expanded.
- Hist. MSS. Comm., Portland Papers, iii. 489. Edward Harley to Sir Edward
Harley, 16 February 1692
