HARLEY, ROBERT, Earl of OXFORD AND MORTIMER, the son of sir Edward Harley.
an active partisan of the parliament during the civil wars, and descended from an illus trious Herefordshire family, was b. in London in 1661: Harley entered parliament, being returned for the Cornish borough of Trecony, as a Whig; but he soon began to vote and speak against his party; and policy and ambition, rather than choice, made him an anti-dissenter and an ardent tory. lie shortly acquired a great reputation for his knowledge of parliamentary law and practice, a study not much pursued in those days; and in the parliament, which met under the chieftainship of Rochester and Godolphin, in Feb., 1701, he was, by a large majority, elected speaker. Harley retained his post, having been twice re-elected, till April, 1701, when he became secretary of state. The conviction of Barley's secretary for treasonable correspondence with France caused his master, though entirely exculpated, to resign his office in Feb., 1708. Harley remained out of power two years, long enough, with the assistance of Mrs. Masham, to completely undermine the power of the whigs. In Aug., 1710, Godolphin was dismissed, and Har ley was appointed to his post of chancellor of the exchequer, and brought back the tories. An event occurred which raised Harley to the acme of popularity. A French priest and spy, who assumed the title of marquis de Guischard, being brotOd before the council on Mar. 8, on the charge of treasonable correspondence with France, rushed upon Harley, and stabbed him with a penknife. Ilis life wits said to have been in danger, and recovering, he was congratulated by parliament on his escape.
created earl of Oxford and Mortimer, decorated with the garter, and in the following May appointed lord high treasurer of Great Britain. From this point, Barley's eonrse was downwards: he was not a man of business, and was destitute of that indispensable quality for a premier—decision of character. Macaulay had but a mean opinion of Harley as a statesman, yet he gives him, as a man, a higher characteir than could be given to any other politician of the time. The principal act of Harley's administra tion was the treaty of Utrecht: though England might haVe obtained better terms. she had nothing to gain from a continuance of the war; and the peace was. at all events, popular. Harley ceased to pay court to lady Masham, and the unscrupulous Bolingbrokd succeeded in getting him dismissed on July 27, 1714. Lord Oxford was dismissed on Tuesday—Bolingbroke became premier—and the queen died on Sunday. George I. was proclaimed, and Bolingbroke fled to France, but Oxford remained to meet his fate. He was sent to the Tower, and after two years' imprisonment brought to trial: the two houses quarreled as to the mode of procedure, and the commons having in anger refused to take any part in the trial, he was acquitted by the peers, and released. He spent the remainder of his life in retirement—the friend of scholars and men of letters—the founder of a collection and MSS. which perpetuates his name— and died May 21, 1724.