On the 8th of March 1711 an accident happened to Harley which in the end proved very serviceable to his schemes of ambition : a French emigrant, who called himself the Marquis de Guiscard (he was in fact an abbe, and brother of the Count de Ouitcard), having been appre hended on a charge of high treason and brought for examination to the cockpit, suddenly seized a penknife and struck at the minister.
Harley's wound was very slight, but he took care to remain as long as possible in the surgeon's hands. In May following he was appointed lord high treasurer, being about the same time created Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, and invested with the Order of the Garter. As the victories of Marlborough constituted the glory of the Godolphia administration, the peace of Utrecht, concluded May 5th 1713, is the event for which that of Harley is chiefly memorable. It was after this that the jealousy between the premier and Bolingbroke assumed the character of an open rivalry, although it is believed to have been fer menting in secret for years before. The ambitious and intriguing dispositions of the men, both it is probable equally unprincipled, made it impossible that they should long continuo to act together after their one common object, the achievement of peace with France, ceased to unite their efforts. Bolingbroke had now the art to gain the favourite, Lady Methane, whose influence Harley, on the other hand, seems to have erroneously calculated that he was by this time sufficieutly established to despise. It was soon proved that he was wrong : on the 27th of July 1714 the lord treasurer received his dismissal. It is said that a few days before he had excited the determined vengeance of Lady Masham by demurring to a grant of an annuity of 1500/. a year which she had obtained from the queen. The queen's death, three days after, put an end for ever to the political existence of both Oxford and Bolingbroke. In August 1715 both were impeached by the House of Commons. When St. John made his escape to Franco, Harley was committed to the Tower, and there he lay for nearly two years. At last, in June 1717, ho was on his own petition brought to trial before the House of Lords; but the Commons not appearing to prosecute their impeachment, the prisoner was on the 1st of July acquitted and discharged. During his confinement the Earl of Oxford
wrote to James offering his services, and, after his acquittal, wo find from the Stuart papers that he was consulted by James and by some of the leading Jacobites; and at one time James appears to have desired that his affairs should be placed under the direction of a single head instead of a council, and he expressed his wish that Lord Oxford should assume that office : but nothiug further appears to have been done in the matter. Henceforth the Earl of Oxford lived in retirement till his death, May 21st 1724. He was succeeded in his titles and estates by Edward, his eldest son by his first marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Foley, Esq., whose brother was made Baron Foley in 1711, being one of the twelve peers then introduced in a body into the House of Lords.
Lord Oxford showed his attachment to literature both by his patronage of Swift, Popo, and others, nad by the extensive and valuable library of printed books and manuscripts which lie spared no pains or expense to collect; the manuscripts were purchased by parliament (26th of Geo. 1V.) and now form the well-known Harlcian collection in the British Museum. His own writings do not ahow much literary talent. They are, a Latter to Swift on Correcting and Improving the English Tongue; an Essay on Public Credit; an Essay on Loans ; and a Vin dication of the Rights of the Commons of England. He has given an account of his own administration in a letter to the queen, written a few days before his dismissal, which is printed in Tindal's History and elsewhere. On this subject also may be consulted the Duchess of Marlborough's Account of her own Life, and the anonymous reply to that work by Jamea Ralph, entitled The Other Side of the Question' (8vo, London, 1742), many of the materials of which had evidently been supplied by the Oxford family. The proceedings on the trial of Lord Oxford are in the 'State Trials.'