to the House of Lords—of which she strongly disapproved. Leibniz, though he heartily applauded this step, was not responsible for it; and with the death of the old Electress his political influence and favour at Hanover were likewise at an end. For the Elector George Lewis, who soon afterwards, on Queen Anne s decease, ascended the English Throne as King George I, Leibniz was, as has been well said, nothing more than an admirable instrument when argumentative memorials were required in support of the interests of his dynasty. His advice was not valued, or wanted, by George and his ministers; when he tendered some very sound counsel through the Electoral Princess as to the expediency of forming a ministry out of both parties instead of Whigs and none but Whigs, the excellent Caroline was instructed to inform him that such matters could be best managed on the spot. She was the youngest of the three high-minded and high-spirited women who enjoyed and valued his friendship; but neither she nor the old Electress Sophia can be said to have had a will of her own in politics, and Queen Sophia Charlotte, who had one in all things, could not in this sphere often exercise it except indirectly. And Caroline had special reasons for not importuning her father-in-law, King George I, who disliked her almost as much as he disliked his son, her husband. When Leibniz indicated that he would gladly serve as historiographer royal in England he was plainly told to finish the historiographical task he had undertaken at home.
I am glad, almost, that time prevents me from dwelling on an episode in the career of Leibniz—unhappily it was the closing episode—which reflects little credit on Bernstorff and on Bernstorff's master. I would say that it reflects little credit on the earlier successors of George I, but that it would be perhaps unreasonable to expect any of them after George II to have remembered Leibniz or the great historical undertaking which his father and his father s ministers had for years urged, ordered—more than ordered—the great scholar to
