On the thirtieth day of December, one thousand seven hundred and eleven, the Duke of Marlborough was removed from all his employments: the Duke of Ormonde succeeding him as general, both here and in Flanders. This proceeding of the court (as far as it related to the Duke of Marlborough) was much censured both at home and abroad, and by some who did not wish ill to the present situation of affairs. There were few examples of a commander being disgraced, after an uninterrupted course of success for many years against a formidable enemy, and this before a period was put to the war: those who had least esteem for his valour and conduct, thought it not prudent to remove a general, whose troops were perpetually victorious, while he was at their head; because this had infused into his soldiers an opinion that they should always conquer, and into the enemy that they should always be beaten; than which, nothing is to be held of greater moment, either in the progress of a war, or upon the day of battle; and I have good grounds to affirm, that these reasons had sufficient weight with the Queen and ministry to have kept the Duke of Marlborough in his post, if a way could have been found out to have done it with any assurance of safety to the nation. It is the misfortune of princes, that the effects of their displeasure make usually much more noise than the causes: thus, the sound of the Duke's fall was heard farther than many of the reasons which made it necessary; whereof, though some were visible enough, yet others lay more in the dark. Upon the Duke's last return from Flanders, he had fixed his arrival to town (whether by accident or otherwise) upon the seventeenth of November, called Queen Elizabeth's day, when great numbers of his creatures and admirers had thought fit to revive an old ceremony among the rabble, of burning the Pope in effigy; for the performance of which, with more solemnity, they had made extraordinary preparations.[76] From the several circumstances of the expense of this intended pageantry, and of the persons who promoted it, the court, apprehensive of a design to inflame the common people, thought fit to order, that the several figures should be seized as popish trinkets; and guards were ordered to patrol, for preventing any tumultuous assemblies. Whether this frolic were only intended for an affront to the court, or whether it had a deeper meaning, I must leave undetermined. The Duke, in his own nature, is not much turned to be popular; and in his flourishing times, whenever he came back to England upon the close of a campaign, he rather affected to avoid any concourse of the _mobile_, if they had been disposed to attend him; therefore, so very contrary a proceeding at this juncture, made it suspected as if he had a design to have placed himself at their head. "France," "Popery," "The Pretender," "Peace without Spain," were the words to be given about at this mock parade; and if what was