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diff --git a/2613-0.txt b/2613-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..28a7953 --- /dev/null +++ b/2613-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,26020 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 2613 *** + + + + +THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES II, + +VOLUME IV (of 5) + +(Chapters XVIII-XXII) + +by Thomas Babington Macaulay + +Philadelphia + +Porter & Coates + + + + +CONTENTS: + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +William's Voyage to Holland +William's Entrance into the Hague +Congress at the Hague +William his own Minister for Foreign Affairs +William obtains a Toleration for the Waldenses; Vices inherent in the Nature of Coalitions +Siege and Fall of Mons +William returns to England; Trials of Preston and Ashton +Execution of Ashton +Preston's Irresolution and Confessions +Lenity shown to the Conspirators +Dartmouth +Turner; Penn +Death of George Fox; his Character +Interview between Penn and Sidney +Preston pardoned +Joy of the Jacobites at the Fall of Mons +The vacant Sees filled +Tillotson Archbishop of Canterbury +Conduct of Sancroft +Difference between Sancroft and Ken +Hatred of Sancroft to the Established Church; he provides for the episcopal Succession among the Nonjurors +The new Bishops +Sherlock Dean of Saint Paul's +Treachery of some of William's Servants +Russell +Godolphin +Marlborough +William returns to the Continent +The Campaign of 1691 in Flanders +The War in Ireland; State of the English Part of Ireland +State of the Part of Ireland which was subject to James +Dissensions among the Irish at Limerick +Return of Tyrconnel to Ireland +Arrival of a French Fleet at Limerick; Saint Ruth +The English take the Field +Fall of Ballymore; Siege and Fall of Athlone +Retreat of the Irish Army +Saint Ruth determines to fight +Battle of Aghrim +Fall of Galway +Death of Tyrconnel +Second Siege of Limerick +The Irish desirous to capitulate +Negotiations between the Irish Chiefs and the Besiegers +The Capitulation of Limerick +The Irish Troops required to make their Election between their Country and France +Most of the Irish Troops volunteer for France +Many of the Irish who had volunteered for France desert +The last Division of the Irish Army sails from Cork for France +State of Ireland after the War + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +Opening of the Parliament +Debates on the Salaries and Fees of Official Men +Act excluding Papists from Public Trust in Ireland +Debates on the East India Trade +Debates on the Bill for regulating Trials in Cases of High Treason +Plot formed by Marlborough against the Government of William +Marlborough's Plot disclosed by the Jacobites +Disgrace of Marlborough; Various Reports touching the Cause of Marlborough's Disgrace. +Rupture between Mary and Anne +Fuller's Plot +Close of the Session; Bill for ascertaining the Salaries of the Judges rejected +Misterial Changes in England +Ministerial Changes in Scotland +State of the Highlands +Breadalbane employed to negotiate with the Rebel Clans +Glencoe +William goes to the Continent; Death of Louvois +The French Government determines to send an Expedition against England +James believes that the English Fleet is friendly to him +Conduct of Russell +A Daughter born to James +Preparations made in England to repel Invasion +James goes down to his Army at La Hogue +James's Declaration +Effect produced by James's Declaration +The English and Dutch Fleets join; Temper of the English Fleet +Battle of La Hogue +Rejoicings in England +Young's Plot + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +Foreign Policy of William +The Northern Powers +The Pope +Conduct of the Allies +The Emperor +Spain +William succeeds in preventing the Dissolution of the Coalition +New Arrangements for the Government of the Spanish Netherlands +Lewis takes the Field +Siege of Namur +Lewis returns to Versailles +Luxemburg +Battle of Steinkirk +Conspiracy of Grandval +Return of William to England +Naval Maladministration +Earthquake at Port Royal +Distress in England; Increase of Crime +Meeting of Parliament; State of Parties +The King's Speech; Question of Privilege raised by the Lords +Debates on the State of the Nation +Bill for the Regulation of Trials in Cases of Treason +Case of Lord Mohun +Debates on the India Trade +Supply +Ways and Means; Land Tax +Origin of the National Debt +Parliamentary Reform +The Place Bill +The Triennial Bill +The First Parliamentary Discussion on the Liberty of the Press +State of Ireland +The King refuses to pass the Triennial Bill +Ministerial Arrangements +The King goes to Holland; a Session of Parliament in Scotland + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +State of the Court of Saint Germains +Feeling of the Jacobites; Compounders and Noncompounders +Change of Ministry at Saint Germains; Middleton +New Declaration put forth by James +Effect of the new Declaration +French Preparations for the Campaign; Institution of the Order of Saint Lewis +Middleton's Account of Versailles +William's Preparations for the Campaign +Lewis takes the Field +Lewis returns to Versailles +Manoeuvres of Luxemburg +Battle of Landen +Miscarriage of the Smyrna Fleet +Excitement in London +Jacobite Libels; William Anderton +Writings and Artifices of the Jacobites +Conduct of Caermarthen +Now Charter granted to the East India Company +Return of William to England; Military Successes of France +Distress of France +A Ministry necessary to Parliamentary Government +The First Ministry gradually formed +Sunderland +Sunderland advises the King to give the Preference to the Whigs +Reasons for preferring the Whigs +Chiefs of the Whig Party; Russell +Somers +Montague +Wharton +Chiefs of the Tory Party; Harley +Foley +Howe +Meeting of Parliament +Debates about the Naval Miscarriages +Russell First Lord of the Admiralty; Retirement of Nottingham +Shrewsbury refuses Office +Debates about the Trade with India +Bill for the Regulation of Trials in Cases of Treason +Triennial Bill +Place Bill +Bill for the Naturalisation of Foreign Protestants +Supply +Ways and Means; Lottery Loan +The Bank of England +Prorogation of Parliament; Ministerial Arrangements; Shrewsbury Secretary of State +New Titles bestowed +French Plan of War; English Plan of War +Expedition against Brest +Naval Operations in the Mediterranean +War by Land +Complaints of Trenchard's Administration +The Lancashire Prosecutions +Meeting of the Parliament; Death of Tillotson +Tenison Archbishop of Canterbury; Debates on the Lancashire Prosecutions +Place Bill +Bill for the Regulation of Trials in Cases of Treason; the Triennial Bill passed +Death of Mary +Funeral of Mary +Greenwich Hospital founded + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +Effect of Mary's Death on the Continent +Death of Luxemburg +Distress of William +Parliamentary Proceedings; Emancipation of the Press +Death of Halifax +Parliamentary Inquiries into the Corruption of the Public Offices +Vote of Censure on the Speaker +Foley elected Speaker; Inquiry into the Accounts of the East India Company +Suspicious Dealings of Seymour +Bill against Sir Thomas Cook +Inquiry by a joint Committee of Lords and Commons +Impeachment of Leeds +Disgrace of Leeds +Lords Justices appointed; Reconciliation between William and the Princess Anne +Jacobite Plots against William's Person +Charnock; Porter +Goodman; Parkyns +Fenwick +Session of the Scottish Parliament; Inquiry into the Slaughter of Glencoe +War in the Netherlands; Marshal Villeroy +The Duke of Maine +Jacobite Plots against the Government during William's Absence +Siege of Namur +Surrender of the Town of Namur +Surrender of the Castle of Namur +Arrest of Boufflers +Effect of the Emancipation of the English Press +Return of William to England; Dissolution of the Parliament +William makes a Progress through the Country +The Elections +Alarming State of the Currency +Meeting of the Parliament; Loyalty of the House of Commons +Controversy touching the Currency +Parliamentary Proceedings touching the Currency +Passing of the Act regulating Trials in Cases of High Treason +Parliamentary Proceedings touching the Grant of Crown Lands in Wales to Portland +Two Jacobite Plots formed +Berwick's Plot; the Assassination Plot; Sir George Barclay +Failure of Berwick's Plot +Detection of the Assassination Plot +Parliamentary Proceedings touching the Assassination Plot +State of Public Feeling +Trial of Charnock, King and Keyes +Execution of Charnock, King and Keyes +Trial of Friend +Trial of Parkyns +Execution of Friend and Parkyns +Trials of Rookwood, Cranburne and Lowick +The Association +Bill for the Regulation of Elections +Act establishing a Land Bank + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +Military Operations in the Netherlands +Commercial Crisis in England +Financial Crisis +Efforts to restore the Currency +Distress of the People; their Temper and Conduct +Negotiations with France; the Duke of Savoy deserts the Coalition +Search for Jacobite Conspirators in England; Sir John Fenwick +Capture of Fenwick +Fenwick's Confession +Return of William to England +Meeting of Parliament; State of the Country; Speech of William at the Commencement of the Session +Resolutions of the House of Commons +Return of Prosperity +Effect of the Proceedings of the House of Commons on Foreign Governments +Restoration of the Finances +Effects of Fenwick's Confession +Resignation of Godolphin +Feeling of the Whigs about Fenwick +William examines Fenwick +Disappearance of Goodman +Parliamentary Proceedings touching Fenwick's Confession +Bill for attainting Fenwick +Debates of the Commons on the Bill of Attainder +The Bill of Attainder carried up to the Lords +Artifices of Monmouth +Debates of the Lords on the Bill of Attainder +Proceedings against Monmouth +Position and Feelings of Shrewsbury +The Bill of Attainder passed; Attempts to save Fenwick +Fenwick's Execution; Bill for the Regulating of Elections +Bill for the Regulation of the Press +Bill abolishing the Privileges of Whitefriars and the Savoy +Close of the Session; Promotions and Appointments +State of Ireland +State of Scotland +A Session of Parliament at Edinburgh; Act for the Settling of Schools +Case of Thomas Aikenhead +Military Operations in the Netherlands +Terms of Peace offered by France +Conduct of Spain; Conduct of the Emperor +Congress of Ryswick +William opens a distinct Negotiation +Meetings of Portland and Boufflers +Terms of Peace between France and England settled +Difficulties caused by Spain and the Emperor +Attempts of James to prevent a general Pacification +The Treaty of Ryswick signed; Anxiety in England +News of the Peace arrives in England +Dismay of the Jacobites +General Rejoicing +The King's Entry into London +The Thanksgiving Day + + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + William's Voyage to Holland--William's Entrance into the Hague--Congress + at the Hague--William his own Minister for Foreign Affairs--William + obtains a Toleration for the Waldenses; Vices inherent in the Nature of + Coalitions--Siege and Fall of Mons--William returns to England; Trials + of Preston and Ashton--Execution of Ashton--Preston's Irresolution + and Confessions--Lenity shown to the Conspirators--Dartmouth--Turner; + Penn--Death of George Fox; his Character--Interview between Penn and + Sidney--Preston pardoned--Joy of the Jacobites at the Fall of Mons--The + vacant Sees filled--Tillotson Archbishop of Canterbury--Conduct of + Sancroft--Difference between Sancroft and Ken--Hatred of Sancroft to the + Established Church; he provides for the episcopal Succession among the + Nonjurors--The new Bishops--Sherlock Dean of Saint Paul's--Treachery + of some of William's Servants--Russell--Godolphin--Marlborough--William + returns to the Continent--The Campaign of 1691 in Flanders--The War + in Ireland; State of the English Part of Ireland--State of the Part + of Ireland which was subject to James--Dissensions among the Irish at + Limerick--Return of Tyrconnel to Ireland--Arrival of a French Fleet at + Limerick; Saint Ruth--The English take the Field--Fall of Ballymore; + Siege and Fall of Athlone--Retreat of the Irish Army--Saint Ruth + determines to fight--Battle of Aghrim--Fall of Galway--Death + of Tyrconnel--Second Siege of Limerick--The Irish desirous to + capitulate--Negotiations between the Irish Chiefs and the Besiegers--The + Capitulation of Limerick--The Irish Troops required to make their + Election between their Country and France--Most of the Irish Troops + volunteer for France--Many of the Irish who had volunteered for + France desert--The last Division of the Irish Army sails from Cork for + France--State of Ireland after the War + +ON the eighteenth of January 1691, the King, having been detained some +days by adverse winds, went on board at Gravesend. Four yachts had +been fitted up for him and for his retinue. Among his attendants were +Norfolk, Ormond, Devonshire, Dorset, Portland, Monmouth, Zulestein, and +the Bishop of London. Two distinguished admirals, Cloudesley Shovel +and George Rooke, commanded the men of war which formed the convoy. The +passage was tedious and disagreeable. During many hours the fleet was +becalmed off the Godwin Sands; and it was not till the fifth day that +the soundings proved the coast of Holland to be near. The sea fog was +so thick that no land could be seen; and it was not thought safe for +the ships to proceed further in the darkness. William, tired out by the +voyage, and impatient to be once more in his beloved country, determined +to land in an open boat. The noblemen who were in his train tried to +dissuade him from risking so valuable a life; but, when they found that +his mind was made up, they insisted on sharing the danger. That danger +proved more serious than they had expected. It had been supposed that +in an hour the party would be on shore. But great masses of floating +ice impeded the progress of the skiff; the night came on; the fog grew +thicker; the waves broke over the King and the courtiers. Once the +keel struck on a sand bank, and was with great difficulty got off. The +hardiest mariners showed some signs of uneasiness. But William, through +the whole night, was as composed as if he had been in the drawingroom at +Kensington. "For shame," he said to one of the dismayed sailors "are +you afraid to die in my company?" A bold Dutch seaman ventured to spring +out, and, with great difficulty, swam and scrambled through breakers, +ice and mud, to firm ground. Here he discharged a musket and lighted +a fire as a signal that he was safe. None of his fellow passengers, +however, thought it prudent to follow his example. They lay tossing in +sight of the flame which he had kindled, till the first pale light of a +January morning showed them that they were close to the island of Goree. +The King and his Lords, stiff with cold and covered with icicles, gladly +landed to warm and rest themselves. [1] + +After reposing some hours in the hut of a peasant, William proceeded to +the Hague. He was impatiently expected there for, though the fleet which +brought him was not visible from the shore, the royal salutes had been +heard through the mist, and had apprised the whole coast of his arrival. +Thousands had assembled at Honslaerdyk to welcome him with applause +which came from their hearts and which went to his heart. That was one +of the few white days of a life, beneficent indeed and glorious, but +far from happy. After more than two years passed in a strange land, the +exile had again set foot on his native soil. He heard again the language +of his nursery. He saw again the scenery and the architecture which were +inseparably associated in his mind with the recollections of childhood +and the sacred feeling of home; the dreary mounds of sand, shells and +weeds, on which the waves of the German Ocean broke; the interminable +meadows intersected by trenches; the straight canals; the villas bright +with paint and adorned with quaint images and inscriptions. He had lived +during many weary months among a people who did not love him, who did +not understand him, who could never forget that he was a foreigner. +Those Englishmen who served him most faithfully served him without +enthusiasm, without personal attachment, and merely from a sense of +public duty. In their hearts they were sorry that they had no choice but +between an English tyrant and a Dutch deliverer. All was now changed. +William was among a population by which he was adored, as Elizabeth had +been adored when she rode through her army at Tilbury, as Charles the +Second had been adored when he landed at Dover. It is true that the old +enemies of the House of Orange had not been inactive during the absence +of the Stadtholder. There had been, not indeed clamours, but mutterings +against him. He had, it was said, neglected his native land for his +new kingdom. Whenever the dignity of the English flag, whenever the +prosperity of the English trade was concerned, he forgot that he was a +Hollander. But, as soon as his well remembered face was again seen, +all jealousy, all coldness, was at an end. There was not a boor, not +a fisherman, not an artisan, in the crowds which lined the road from +Honslaerdyk to the Hague, whose heart did not swell with pride at the +thought that the first minister of Holland had become a great King, +had freed the English, and had conquered the Irish. It would have been +madness in William to travel from Hampton Court to Westminster without +a guard; but in his own land he needed no swords or carbines to defend +him. "Do not keep the people off;" he cried: "let them come close to +me; they are all my good friends." He soon learned that sumptuous +preparations were making for his entrance into the Hague. At first he +murmured and objected. He detested, he said, noise and display. The +necessary cost of the war was quite heavy enough. He hoped that his kind +fellow townsmen would consider him as a neighbour, born and bred +among them, and would not pay him so bad a compliment as to treat him +ceremoniously. But all his expostulations were vain. The Hollanders, +simple and parsimonious as their ordinary habits were, had set their +hearts on giving their illustrious countryman a reception suited to his +dignity and to his merit; and he found it necessary to yield. On the day +of his triumph the concourse was immense. All the wheeled carriages +and horses of the province were too few for the multitude of those who +flocked to the show. Many thousands came sliding or skating along the +frozen canals from Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leyden, Haarlem, Delft. At ten +in the morning of the twenty-sixth of January, the great bell of the +Town House gave the signal. Sixteen hundred substantial burghers, well +armed, and clad in the finest dresses which were to be found in +the recesses of their wardrobes, kept order in the crowded streets. +Balconies and scaffolds, embowered in evergreens and hung with tapestry, +hid the windows. The royal coach, escorted by an army of halberdiers +and running footmen, and followed by a long train of splendid equipages, +passed under numerous arches rich with carving and painting, amidst +incessant shouts of "Long live the King our Stadtholder." The front of +the Town House and the whole circuit of the marketplace were in a blaze +with brilliant colours. Civic crowns, trophies, emblems of arts, of +sciences, of commerce and of agriculture, appeared every where. In one +place William saw portrayed the glorious actions of his ancestors. There +was the silent prince, the founder of the Batavian commonwealth, passing +the Meuse with his warriors. There was the more impetuous Maurice +leading the charge at Nieuport. A little further on, the hero might +retrace the eventful story of his own life. He was a child at his +widowed mother's knee. He was at the altar with Diary's hand in his. He +was landing at Torbay. He was swimming through the Boyne. There, too, +was a boat amidst the ice and the breakers; and above it was most +appropriately inscribed, in the majestic language of Rome, the saying of +the great Roman, "What dost thou fear? Thou hast Caesar on board." The +task of furnishing the Latin mottoes had been intrusted to two men, +who, till Bentley appeared, held the highest place among the classical +scholars of that age. Spanheim, whose knowledge of the Roman medals was +unrivalled, imitated, not unsuccessfully, the noble conciseness of those +ancient legends which he had assiduously studied; and he was assisted by +Graevius, who then filled a chair at Utrecht, and whose just reputation +had drawn to that University multitudes of students from every part of +Protestant Europe. [2] When the night came, fireworks were exhibited on +the great tank which washes the walls of the Palace of the Federation. +That tank was now as hard as marble; and the Dutch boasted that nothing +had ever been seen, even on the terrace of Versailles, more brilliant +than the effect produced by the innumerable cascades of flame which +were reflected in the smooth mirror of ice. [3] The English Lords +congratulated their master on his immense popularity. "Yes," said he; +"but I am not the favourite. The shouting was nothing to what it would +have been if Mary had been with me." + +A few hours after the triumphal entry, the King attended a sitting of +the States General. His last appearance among them had been on the day +on which he embarked for England. He had then, amidst the broken words +and loud weeping of those grave Senators, thanked them for the kindness +with which they had watched over his childhood, trained his young mind, +and supported his authority in his riper years; and he had solemnly +commended his beloved wife to their care. He now came back among them +the King of three kingdoms, the head of the greatest coalition that +Europe had seen during a hundred and eighty years; and nothing was heard +in the hall but applause and congratulations. [4] + +But this time the streets of the Hague were overflowing with the +equipages and retinues of princes and ambassadors who came flocking +to the great Congress. First appeared the ambitious and ostentatious +Frederic, Elector of Brandenburg, who, a few years later, took the +title of King of Prussia. Then arrived the young Elector of Bavaria, +the Regent of Wirtemberg, the Landgraves of Hesse Cassel and Hesse +Darmstadt, and a long train of sovereign princes, sprung from the +illustrious houses of Brunswick, of Saxony, of Holstein, and of Nassau. +The Marquess of Gastanaga, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, repaired +to the assembly from the viceregal Court of Brussels. Extraordinary +ministers had been sent by the Emperor, by the Kings of Spain, Poland, +Denmark, and Sweden, and by the Duke of Savoy. There was scarcely room +in the town and the neighbourhood for the English Lords and gentlemen +and the German Counts and Barons whom curiosity or official duty had +brought to the place of meeting. The grave capital of the most thrifty +and industrious of nations was as gay as Venice in the Carnival. The +walks cut among those noble limes and elms in which the villa of the +Princes of Orange is embosomed were gay with the plumes, the stars, +the flowing wigs, the embroidered coats and the gold hilted swords of +gallants from London, Berlin and Vienna. With the nobles were mingled +sharpers not less gorgeously attired than they. At night the hazard +tables were thronged; and the theatre was filled to the roof. Princely +banquets followed one another in rapid succession. The meats were +served in gold; and, according to that old Teutonic fashion with which +Shakspeare had made his countrymen familiar, as often as any of the +great princes proposed a health, the kettle drums and trumpets sounded. +Some English lords, particularly Devonshire, gave entertainments +which vied with those of Sovereigns. It was remarked that the German +potentates, though generally disposed to be litigious and punctilious +about etiquette, associated, on this occasion, in an unceremonious +manner, and seemed to have forgotten their passion for genealogical and +heraldic controversy. The taste for wine, which was then characteristic +of their nation, they had not forgotten. At the table of the Elector +of Brandenburg much mirth was caused by the gravity of the statesmen of +Holland, who, sober themselves, confuted out of Grotius and Puffendorf +the nonsense stuttered by the tipsy nobles of the Empire. One of those +nobles swallowed so many bumpers that he tumbled into the turf fire, and +was not pulled out till his fine velvet suit had been burned. [5] + +In the midst of all this revelry, business was not neglected. A formal +meeting of the Congress was held at which William presided. In a short +and dignified speech, which was speedily circulated throughout Europe, +he set forth the necessity of firm union and strenuous exertion. The +profound respect with which he was heard by that splendid assembly +caused bitter mortification to his enemies both in England and in +France. The German potentates were bitterly reviled for yielding +precedence to an upstart. Indeed the most illustrious among them paid to +him such marks of deference as they would scarcely have deigned to pay +to the Imperial Majesty, mingled with the crowd in his antechamber, and +at his table behaved as respectfully as any English lord in waiting. +In one caricature the allied princes were represented as muzzled bears, +some with crowns, some with caps of state. William had them all in +a chain, and was teaching them to dance. In another caricature, he +appeared taking his ease in an arm chair, with his feet on a cushion, +and his hat on his head, while the Electors of Brandenburg and Bavaria, +uncovered, occupied small stools on the right and left; the crowd of +Landgraves and Sovereign dukes stood at humble distance; and Gastanaga, +the unworthy successor of Alva, awaited the orders of the heretic tyrant +on bended knee. [6] + +It was soon announced by authority that, before the beginning of summer, +two hundred and twenty thousand men would be in the field against +France. [7] The contingent which each of the allied powers was +to furnish was made known. Matters about which it would have been +inexpedient to put forth any declaration were privately discussed by +the King of England with his allies. On this occasion, as on every other +important occasion during his reign, he was his own minister for +foreign affairs. It was necessary for the sake of form that he should be +attended by a Secretary of State; and Nottingham had therefore followed +him to Holland. But Nottingham, though, in matters concerning the +internal government of England, he enjoyed a large share of his master's +confidence, knew little more about the business of the Congress than +what he saw in the Gazettes. + +This mode of transacting business would now be thought most +unconstitutional; and many writers, applying the standard of their own +age to the transactions of a former age, have severely blamed William +for acting without the advice of his ministers, and his ministers +for submitting to be kept in ignorance of transactions which deeply +concerned the honour of the Crown and the welfare of the nation. Yet +surely the presumption is that what the most honest and honourable men +of both parties, Nottingham, for example, among the Tories, and Somers +among the Whigs, not only did, but avowed, cannot have been altogether +inexcusable; and a very sufficient excuse will without difficulty be +found. + +The doctrine that the Sovereign is not responsible is doubtless as old +as any part of our constitution. The doctrine that his ministers are +responsible is also of immemorial antiquity. That where there is +no responsibility there can be no trustworthy security against +maladministration, is a doctrine which, in our age and country, few +people will be inclined to dispute. From these three propositions it +plainly follows that the administration is likely to be best conducted +when the Sovereign performs no public act without the concurrence and +instrumentality of a minister. This argument is perfectly sound. But we +must remember that arguments are constructed in one way, and governments +in another. In logic, none but an idiot admits the premises and denies +the legitimate conclusion. But in practice, we see that great and +enlightened communities often persist, generation after generation, in +asserting principles, and refusing to act upon those principles. It +may be doubted whether any real polity that ever existed has exactly +corresponded to the pure idea of that polity. According to the pure idea +of constitutional royalty, the prince reigns and does not govern; and +constitutional royalty, as it now exists in England, comes nearer than +in any other country to the pure idea. Yet it would be a great error +to imagine that our princes merely reign and never govern. In the +seventeenth century, both Whigs and Tories thought it, not only the +right, but the duty, of the first magistrate to govern. All parties +agreed in blaming Charles the Second for not being his own Prime +Minister; all parties agreed in praising James for being his own Lord +High Admiral; and all parties thought it natural and reasonable that +William should be his own Foreign Secretary. + +It may be observed that the ablest and best informed of those who +have censured the manner in which the negotiations of that time were +conducted are scarcely consistent with themselves. For, while they blame +William for being his own Ambassador Plenipotentiary at the Hague, they +praise him for being his own Commander in Chief in Ireland. Yet where is +the distinction in principle between the two cases? Surely every reason +which can be brought to prove that he violated the constitution, when, +by his own sole authority, he made compacts with the Emperor and +the Elector of Brandenburg, will equally prove that he violated the +constitution, when, by his own sole authority, he ordered one column to +plunge into the water at Oldbridge and another to cross the bridge of +Slane. If the constitution gave him the command of the forces of the +State, the constitution gave him also the direction of the foreign +relations of the State. On what principle then can it be maintained that +he was at liberty to exercise the former power without consulting any +body, but that he was bound to exercise the latter power in conformity +with the advice of a minister? Will it be said that an error in +diplomacy is likely to be more injurious to the country than an error +in strategy? Surely not. It is hardly conceivable that any blunder which +William might have made at the Hague could have been more injurious to +the public interests than a defeat at the Boyne. Or will it be said that +there was greater reason for placing confidence in his military than in +his diplomatic skill? Surely not. In war he showed some great moral and +intellectual qualities; but, as a tactician, he did not rank high; and +of his many campaigns only two were decidedly successful. In the talents +of a negotiator, on the other hand, he has never been surpassed. Of the +interests and the tempers of the continental courts he knew more than +all his Privy Council together. Some of his ministers were doubtless men +of great ability, excellent orators in the House of Lords, and versed +in our insular politics. But, in the deliberations of the Congress, +Caermarthen and Nottingham would have been found as far inferior to him +as he would have been found inferior to them in a parliamentary debate +on a question purely English. The coalition against France was his work. +He alone had joined together the parts of that great whole; and he alone +could keep them together. If he had trusted that vast and complicated +machine in the hands of any of his subjects, it would instantly have +fallen to pieces. + +Some things indeed were to be done which none of his subjects would have +ventured to do. Pope Alexander was really, though not in name, one of +the allies; it was of the highest importance to have him for a friend; +and yet such was the temper of the English nation that an English +minister might well shrink from having any dealings, direct or indirect, +with the Vatican. The Secretaries of State were glad to leave a matter +so delicate and so full of risk to their master, and to be able +to protest with truth that not a line to which the most intolerant +Protestant could object had ever gone out of their offices. + +It must not be supposed however that William ever forgot that his +especial, his hereditary, mission was to protect the Reformed Faith. +His influence with Roman Catholic princes was constantly and strenuously +exerted for the benefit of their Protestant subjects. In the spring of +1691, the Waldensian shepherds, long and cruelly persecuted, and weary +of their lives, were surprised by glad tidings. Those who had been in +prison for heresy returned to their homes. Children, who had been +taken from their parents to be educated by priests, were sent back. +Congregations, which had hitherto met only by stealth and with extreme +peril, now worshipped God without molestation in the face of day. Those +simple mountaineers probably never knew that their fate had been a +subject of discussion at the Hague, and that they owed the happiness +of their firesides, and the security of their humble temples to the +ascendency which William exercised over the Duke of Savoy. [8] + +No coalition of which history has preserved the memory has had an abler +chief than William. But even William often contended in vain against +those vices which are inherent in the nature of all coalitions. No +undertaking which requires the hearty and long continued cooperation +of many independent states is likely to prosper. Jealousies inevitably +spring up. Disputes engender disputes. Every confederate is tempted to +throw on others some part of the burden which he ought himself to bear. +Scarcely one honestly furnishes the promised contingent. Scarcely one +exactly observes the appointed day. But perhaps no coalition that ever +existed was in such constant danger of dissolution as the coalition +which William had with infinite difficulty formed. The long list of +potentates, who met in person or by their representatives at the Hague, +looked well in the Gazettes. The crowd of princely equipages, attended +by manycoloured guards and lacqueys, looked well among the lime trees +of the Voorhout. But the very circumstances which made the Congress +more splendid than other congresses made the league weaker than other +leagues. The more numerous the allies, the more numerous were the +dangers which threatened the alliance. It was impossible that twenty +governments, divided by quarrels about precedence, quarrels about +territory, quarrels about trade, quarrels about religion, could long +act together in perfect harmony. That they acted together during several +years in imperfect harmony is to be ascribed to the wisdom, patience and +firmness of William. + +The situation of his great enemy was very different. The resources of +the French monarchy, though certainly not equal to those of England, +Holland, the House of Austria, and the Empire of Germany united, were +yet very formidable; they were all collected in a central position; they +were all under the absolute direction of a single mind. Lewis could do +with two words what William could hardly bring about by two months of +negotiation at Berlin, Munich, Brussels, Turin and Vienna. Thus France +was found equal in effective strength to all the states which were +combined against her. For in the political, as in the natural world, +there may be an equality of momentum between unequal bodies, when the +body which is inferior in weight is superior in velocity. + +This was soon signally proved. In March the princes and ambassadors +who had been assembled at the Hague separated and scarcely had they +separated when all their plans were disconcerted by a bold and skilful +move of the enemy. + +Lewis was sensible that the meeting of the Congress was likely to +produce a great effect on the public mind of Europe. That effect he +determined to counteract by striking a sudden and terrible blow. While +his enemies were settling how many troops each of them should furnish, +he ordered numerous divisions of his army to march from widely distant +points towards Mons, one of the most important, if not the most +important, of the fortresses which protected the Spanish Netherlands. +His purpose was discovered only when it was all but accomplished. +William, who had retired for a few days to Loo, learned, with surprise +and extreme vexation, that cavalry, infantry, artillery, bridges of +boats, were fast approaching the fated city by many converging routes. +A hundred thousand men had been brought together. All the implements +of war had been largely provided by Louvois, the first of living +administrators. The command was entrusted to Luxemburg, the first of +living generals. The scientific operations were directed by Vauban, the +first of living engineers. That nothing might be wanting which could +kindle emulation through all the ranks of a gallant and loyal army, the +magnificent King himself had set out from Versailles for the camp. Yet +William had still some faint hope that it might be possible to raise the +siege. He flew to the Hague, put all the forces of the States General in +motion, and sent pressing messages to the German Princes. Within three +weeks after he had received the first hint of the danger, he was in the +neighbourhood of the besieged city, at the head of near fifty thousand +troops of different nations. To attack a superior force commanded by +such a captain as Luxemburg was a bold, almost a desperate, enterprise. +Yet William was so sensible that the loss of Mons would be an almost +irreparable disaster and disgrace that he made up his mind to run the +hazard. He was convinced that the event of the siege would determine +the policy of the Courts of Stockholm and Copenhagen. Those Courts had +lately seemed inclined to join the coalition. If Mons fell, they would +certainly remain neutral; they might possibly become hostile. "The +risk," he wrote to Heinsius, "is great; yet I am not without hope. I +will do what can be done. The issue is in the hands of God." On the +very day on which this letter was written Mons fell. The siege had been +vigorously pressed. Lewis himself, though suffering from the gout, had +set the example of strenuous exertion. His household troops, the finest +body of soldiers in Europe, had, under his eye, surpassed themselves. +The young nobles of his court had tried to attract his notice by +exposing themselves to the hottest fire with the same gay alacrity with +which they were wont to exhibit their graceful figures at his balls. His +wounded soldiers were charmed by the benignant courtesy with which he +walked among their pallets, assisted while wounds were dressed by the +hospital surgeons, and breakfasted on a porringer of the hospital broth. +While all was obedience and enthusiasm among the besiegers, all was +disunion and dismay among the besieged. The duty of the French lines was +so well performed that no messenger sent by William was able to cross +them. The garrison did not know that relief was close at hand. The +burghers were appalled by the prospect of those horrible calamities +which befall cities taken by storm. Showers of shells and redhot bullets +were falling in the streets. The town was on fire in ten places at once. +The peaceful inhabitants derived an unwonted courage from the excess +of their fear, and rose on the soldiers. Thenceforth resistance was +impossible; and a capitulation was concluded. The armies then retired +into quarters. Military operations were suspended during some weeks; +Lewis returned in triumph to Versailles; and William paid a short visit +to England, where his presence was much needed. [9] + +He found the ministers still employed in tracing out the ramifications +of the plot which had been discovered just before his departure. Early +in January, Preston, Ashton and Elliot had been arraigned at the Old +Bailey. They claimed the right of severing in their challenges. It was +therefore necessary to try them separately. The audience was numerous +and splendid. Many peers were present. The Lord President and the two +Secretaries of State attended in order to prove that the papers +produced in Court were the same which Billop had brought to Whitehall. A +considerable number of judges appeared on the bench; and Holt presided. +A full report of the proceedings has come down to us, and well deserves +to be attentively studied, and to be compared with the reports of other +trials which had not long before taken place under the same roof. The +whole spirit of the tribunal had undergone in a few months a change so +complete that it might seem to have been the work of ages. Twelve years +earlier, unhappy Roman Catholics, accused of wickedness which had never +entered into their thoughts, had stood in that dock. The witnesses for +the Crown had repeated their hideous fictions amidst the applauding hums +of the audience. The judges had shared, or had pretended to share, the +stupid credulity and the savage passions of the populace, had exchanged +smiles and compliments with the perjured informers, had roared down +the arguments feebly stammered forth by the prisoners, and had not +been ashamed, in passing the sentence of death, to make ribald jests on +purgatory and the mass. As soon as the butchery of Papists was over, the +butchery of Whigs had commenced; and the judges had applied themselves +to their new work with even more than their old barbarity. To these +scandals the Revolution had put an end. Whoever, after perusing the +trials of Ireland and Pickering, of Grove and Berry, of Sidney, Cornish +and Alice Lisle, turns to the trials of Preston and Ashton, will be +astonished by the contrast. The Solicitor General, Somers, conducted the +prosecutions with a moderation and humanity of which his predecessors +had left him no example. "I did never think," he said, "that it was the +part of any who were of counsel for the King in cases of this nature +to aggravate the crime of the prisoners, or to put false colours on the +evidence." [10] Holt's conduct was faultless. Pollexfen, an older man +than Holt or Somers, retained a little,--and a little was too much,--of +the tone of that bad school in which he had been bred. But, though he +once or twice forgot the austere decorum of his place, he cannot +be accused of any violation of substantial justice. The prisoners +themselves seem to have been surprised by the fairness and gentleness +with which they were treated. "I would not mislead the jury, I'll assure +you," said Holt to Preston, "nor do Your Lordship any manner of injury +in the world." "No, my Lord;" said Preston; "I see it well enough that +Your Lordship would not." "Whatever my fate may be," said Ashton, "I +cannot but own that I have had a fair trial for my life." + +The culprits gained nothing by the moderation of the Solicitor General +or by the impartiality of the Court; for the evidence was irresistible. +The meaning of the papers seized by Billop was so plain that the dullest +juryman could not misunderstand it. Of those papers part was fully +proved to be in Preston's handwriting. Part was in Ashton's handwriting +but this the counsel for the prosecution had not the means of proving. +They therefore rested the case against Ashton on the indisputable facts +that the treasonable packet had been found in his bosom, and that he had +used language which was quite unintelligible except on the supposition +that he had a guilty knowledge of the contents. [11] + +Both Preston and Ashton were convicted and sentenced to death. +Ashton was speedily executed. He might have saved his life by making +disclosures. But though he declared that, if he were spared, he would +always be a faithful subject of Their Majesties, he was fully resolved +not to give up the names of his accomplices. In this resolution he was +encouraged by the nonjuring divines who attended him in his cell. It +was probably by their influence that he was induced to deliver to the +Sheriffs on the scaffold a declaration which he had transcribed +and signed, but had not, it is to be hoped, composed or attentively +considered. In this paper he was made to complain of the unfairness of a +trial which he had himself in public acknowledged to have been eminently +fair. He was also made to aver, on the word of a dying man, that he knew +nothing of the papers which had been found upon him. Unfortunately his +declaration, when inspected, proved to be in the same handwriting with +one of the most important of those papers. He died with manly fortitude. +[12] + +Elliot was not brought to trial. The evidence against him was not quite +so clear as that on which his associates had been convicted; and he was +not worth the anger of the government. The fate of Preston was long in +suspense. The Jacobites affected to be confident that the government +would not dare to shed his blood. He was, they said, a favourite at +Versailles, and his death would be followed by a terrible retaliation. +They scattered about the streets of London papers in which it was +asserted that, if any harm befell him, Mountjoy, and all the other +Englishmen of quality who were prisoners in France, would be broken +on the wheel. [13] These absurd threats would not have deferred the +execution one day. But those who had Preston in their power were not +unwilling to spare him on certain conditions. He was privy to all the +counsels of the disaffected party, and could furnish information of the +highest value. He was informed that his fate depended on himself. The +struggle was long and severe. Pride, conscience, party spirit, were on +one side; the intense love of life on the other. He went during a time +irresolutely to and fro. He listened to his brother Jacobites; and his +courage rose. He listened to the agents of the government; and his heart +sank within him. In an evening when he had dined and drunk his claret, +he feared nothing. He would die like a man, rather than save his neck by +an act of baseness. But his temper was very different when he woke the +next morning, when the courage which he had drawn from wine and company +had evaporated, when he was alone with the iron grates and stone walls, +and when the thought of the block, the axe and the sawdust rose in his +mind. During some time he regularly wrote a confession every forenoon +when he was sober, and burned it every night when he was merry. [14] +His nonjuring friends formed a plan for bringing Sancroft to visit +the Tower, in the hope, doubtless, that the exhortations of so great a +prelate and so great a saint would confirm the wavering virtue of the +prisoner. [15] Whether this plan would have been successful may be +doubted; it was not carried into effect; the fatal hour drew near; and +the fortitude of Preston gave way. He confessed his guilt, and named +Clarendon, Dartmouth, the Bishop of Ely and William Penn, as his +accomplices. He added a long list of persons against whom he could not +himself give evidence, but who, if he could trust to Penn's assurances, +were friendly to King James. Among these persons were Devonshire and +Dorset. [16] There is not the slightest reason to believe that either +of these great noblemen ever had any dealings, direct or indirect, +with Saint Germains. It is not, however, necessary to accuse Penn of +deliberate falsehood. He was credulous and garrulous. The Lord Steward +and the Lord Chamberlain had shared in the vexation with which their +party had observed the leaning of William towards the Tories; and they +had probably expressed that vexation unguardedly. So weak a man as Penn, +wishing to find Jacobites every where, and prone to believe whatever he +wished, might easily put an erroneous construction on invectives such as +the haughty and irritable Devonshire was but too ready to utter, and on +sarcasms such as, in moments of spleen, dropped but too easily from the +lips of the keenwitted Dorset. Caermarthen, a Tory, and a Tory who had +been mercilessly persecuted by the Whigs, was disposed to make the most +of this idle hearsay. But he received no encouragement from his master, +who, of all the great politicians mentioned in history, was the least +prone to suspicion. When William returned to England, Preston was +brought before him, and was commanded to repeat the confession which +had already been made to the ministers. The King stood behind the Lord +President's chair and listened gravely while Clarendon, Dartmouth, +Turner and Penn were named. But as soon as the prisoner, passing from +what he could himself testify, began to repeat the stories which Penn +had told him, William touched Caermarthen on the shoulder and said, "My +Lord, we have had too much of this." [17] This judicious magnanimity +had its proper reward. Devonshire and Dorset became from that day more +zealous than ever in the cause of the master who, in spite of calumny +for which their own indiscretion had perhaps furnished some ground, had +continued to repose confidence in their loyalty. [18] + +Even those who were undoubtedly criminal were generally treated with +great lenity. Clarendon lay in the Tower about six months. His guilt +was fully established; and a party among the Whigs called loudly and +importunately for his head. But he was saved by the pathetic entreaties +of his brother Rochester, by the good offices of the humane and +generous Burnet, and by Mary's respect for the memory of her mother. The +prisoner's confinement was not strict. He was allowed to entertain +his friends at dinner. When at length his health began to suffer from +restraint, he was permitted to go into the country under the care of a +warder; the warder was soon removed; and Clarendon was informed that, +while he led a quiet rural life, he should not be molested. [19] + +The treason of Dartmouth was of no common dye. He was an English seaman; +and he had laid a plan for betraying Portsmouth to the French, and had +offered to take the command of a French squadron against his country. It +was a serious aggravation of his guilt that he had been one of the very +first persons who took the oaths to William and Mary. He was arrested +and brought to the Council Chamber. A narrative of what passed there, +written by himself, has been preserved. In that narrative he admits that +he was treated with great courtesy and delicacy. He vehemently asserted +his innocence. He declared that he had never corresponded with Saint +Germains, that he was no favourite there, and that Mary of Modena in +particular owed him a grudge. "My Lords," he said, "I am an Englishman. +I always, when the interest of the House of Bourbon was strongest here, +shunned the French, both men and women. I would lose the last drop of +my blood rather than see Portsmouth in the power of foreigners. I am not +such a fool as to think that King Lewis will conquer us merely for the +benefit of King James. I am certain that nothing can be truly imputed +to me beyond some foolish talk over a bottle." His protestations seem +to have produced some effect; for he was at first permitted to remain in +the gentle custody of the Black Rod. On further inquiry, however, it was +determined to send him to the Tower. After a confinement of a few weeks +he died of apoplexy; but he lived long enough to complete his disgrace +by offering his sword to the new government, and by expressing in +fervent language his hope that he might, by the goodness of God and of +Their Majesties, have an opportunity of showing how much he hated the +French. [20] + +Turner ran no serious risk; for the government was most unwilling to +send to the scaffold one of the Seven who had signed the memorable +petition. A warrant was however issued for his apprehension; and his +friends had little hope that he would escape; for his nose was such as +none who had seen it could forget; and it was to little purpose that he +put on a flowing wig and that he suffered his beard to grow. The pursuit +was probably not very hot; for, after skulking a few weeks in England, +he succeeded in crossing the Channel, and remained some time in France. +[21] + +A warrant was issued against Penn; and he narrowly escaped the +messengers. It chanced that, on the day on which they were sent in +search of him, he was attending a remarkable ceremony at some distance +from his home. An event had taken place which a historian, whose object +is to record the real life of a nation, ought not to pass unnoticed. +While London was agitated by the news that a plot had been discovered, +George Fox, the founder of the sect of Quakers, died. + +More than forty years had elapsed since Fox had begun to see visions and +to cast out devils. [22] He was then a youth of pure morals and grave +deportment, with a perverse temper, with the education of a labouring +man, and with an intellect in the most unhappy of all states, that is +to say, too much disordered for liberty, and not sufficiently disordered +for Bedlam. The circumstances in which he was placed were such as could +scarcely fail to bring out in the strongest form the constitutional +diseases of his mind. At the time when his faculties were ripening, +Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, were striving for +mastery, and were, in every corner of the realm, refuting and reviling +each other. He wandered from congregation to congregation; he heard +priests harangue against Puritans; he heard Puritans harangue against +priests; and he in vain applied for spiritual direction and consolation +to doctors of both parties. One jolly old clergyman of the Anglican +communion told him to smoke tobacco and sing psalms; another advised +him to go and lose some blood. [23] The young inquirer turned in disgust +from these advisers to the Dissenters, and found them also blind guides. +[24] After some time he came to the conclusion that no human being was +competent to instruct him in divine things, and that the truth had been +communicated to him by direct inspiration from heaven. He argued that, +as the division of languages began at Babel, and as the persecutors of +Christ put on the cross an inscription in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, the +knowledge of languages, and more especially of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, +must be useless to a Christian minister. [25] Indeed, he was so far +from knowing many languages, that he knew none; nor can the most corrupt +passage in Hebrew be more unintelligible to the unlearned than his +English often is to the most acute and attentive reader. [26] One of the +precious truths which were divinely revealed to this new apostle was, +that it was falsehood and adulation to use the second person plural +instead of the second person singular. Another was, that to talk of the +month of March was to worship the bloodthirsty god Mars, and that to +talk of Monday was to pay idolatrous homage to the moon. To say Good +morning or Good evening was highly reprehensible, for those phrases +evidently imported that God had made bad days and bad nights. [27] A +Christian was bound to face death itself rather than touch his hat +to the greatest of mankind. When Fox was challenged to produce any +Scriptural authority for this dogma, he cited the passage in which it is +written that Shadrach, Meshech and Abednego were thrown into the fiery +furnace with their hats on; and, if his own narrative may be trusted, +the Chief Justice of England was altogether unable to answer this +argument except by crying out, "Take him away, gaoler." [28] Fox +insisted much on the not less weighty argument that the Turks never show +their bare heads to their superiors; and he asked, with great animation, +whether those who bore the noble name of Christians ought not to surpass +Turks in virtue. [29] Bowing he strictly prohibited, and, indeed, +seemed to consider it as the effect of Satanical influence; for, as he +observed, the woman in the Gospel, while she had a spirit of infirmity, +was bowed together, and ceased to bow as soon as Divine power had +liberated her from the tyranny of the Evil One. [30] His expositions of +the sacred writings were of a very peculiar kind. Passages, which had +been, in the apprehension of all the readers of the Gospels during +sixteen centuries, figurative, he construed literally. Passages, which +no human being before him had ever understood in any other than a +literal sense, he construed figuratively. Thus, from those rhetorical +expressions in which the duty of patience under injuries is enjoined he +deduced the doctrine that selfdefence against pirates and assassins is +unlawful. On the other hand, the plain commands to baptize with water, +and to partake of bread and wine in commemoration of the redemption of +mankind, he pronounced to be allegorical. He long wandered from place to +place, teaching this strange theology, shaking like an aspen leaf in his +paroxysms of fanatical excitement, forcing his way into churches, +which he nicknamed steeple houses interrupting prayers and sermons with +clamour and scurrility, [31] and pestering rectors and justices with +epistles much resembling burlesques of those sublime odes in which the +Hebrew prophets foretold the calamities of Babylon and Tyre. [32] He +soon acquired great notoriety by these feats. His strange face, his +strange chant, his immovable hat and his leather breeches were known all +over the country; and he boasts that, as soon as the rumour was heard, +"The Man in Leather Breeches is coming," terror seized hypocritical +professors, and hireling priests made haste to get out of his way. [33] +He was repeatedly imprisoned and set in the stocks, sometimes justly, +for disturbing the public worship of congregations, and sometimes +unjustly, for merely talking nonsense. He soon gathered round him a body +of disciples, some of whom went beyond himself in absurdity. He has told +us that one of his friends walked naked through Skipton declaring the +truth. [34] and that another was divinely moved to go naked during +several years to marketplaces, and to the houses of gentlemen and +clergymen. [35] Fox complains bitterly that these pious acts, prompted +by the Holy Spirit, were requited by an untoward generation with +hooting, pelting, coachwhipping and horsewhipping. But, though he +applauded the zeal of the sufferers, he did not go quite to their +lengths. He sometimes, indeed, was impelled to strip himself partially. +Thus he pulled off his shoes and walked barefoot through Lichfield, +crying, "Woe to the bloody city." [36] But it does not appear that he +ever thought it his duty to appear before the public without that decent +garment from which his popular appellation was derived. + +If we form our judgment of George Fox simply by looking at his own +actions and writings, we shall see no reason for placing him, morally +or intellectually, above Ludowick Muggleton or Joanna Southcote. But it +would be most unjust to rank the sect which regards him as its founder +with the Muggletonians or the Southcotians. It chanced that among +the thousands whom his enthusiasm infected were a few persons whose +abilities and attainments were of a very different order from his own. +Robert Barclay was a man of considerable parts and learning. William +Penn, though inferior to Barclay in both natural and acquired abilities, +was a gentleman and a scholar. That such men should have become the +followers of George Fox ought not to astonish any person who remembers +what quick, vigorous and highly cultivated intellects were in our own +times duped by the unknown tongues. The truth is that no powers of mind +constitute a security against errors of this description. Touching God +and His ways with man, the highest human faculties can discover little +more than the meanest. In theology the interval is small indeed between +Aristotle and a child, between Archimedes and a naked savage. It is not +strange, therefore, that wise men, weary of investigation, tormented by +uncertainty, longing to believe something, and yet seeing objections to +every thing, should submit themselves absolutely to teachers who, with +firm and undoubting faith, lay claim to a supernatural commission. Thus +we frequently see inquisitive and restless spirits take refuge from +their own scepticism in the bosom of a church which pretends to +infallibility, and, after questioning the existence of a Deity, bring +themselves to worship a wafer. And thus it was that Fox made some +converts to whom he was immeasurably inferior in every thing except the +energy of his convictions. By these converts his rude doctrines were +polished into a form somewhat less shocking to good sense and good +taste. No proposition which he had laid down was retracted. No indecent +or ridiculous act which he had done or approved was condemned; but what +was most grossly absurd in his theories and practices was softened down, +or at least not obtruded on the public; whatever could be made to appear +specious was set in the fairest light; his gibberish was translated into +English; meanings which he would have been quite unable to comprehend +were put on his phrases; and his system, so much improved that he would +not have known it again, was defended by numerous citations from Pagan +philosophers and Christian fathers whose names he had never heard. +[37] Still, however, those who had remodelled his theology continued +to profess, and doubtless to feel, profound reverence for him; and his +crazy epistles were to the last received and read with respect in Quaker +meetings all over the country. His death produced a sensation which was +not confined to his own disciples. On the morning of the funeral a +great multitude assembled round the meeting house in Gracechurch Street. +Thence the corpse was borne to the burial ground of the sect near +Bunhill Fields. Several orators addressed the crowd which filled the +cemetery. Penn was conspicuous among those disciples who committed the +venerable corpse to the earth. The ceremony had scarcely been finished +when he learned that warrants were out against him. He instantly took +flight, and remained many months concealed from the public eye. [38] + +A short time after his disappearance, Sidney received from him a strange +communication. Penn begged for an interview, but insisted on a promise +that he should be suffered to return unmolested to his hiding place. +Sidney obtained the royal permission to make an appointment on these +terms. Penn came to the rendezvous, and spoke at length in his own +defence. He declared that he was a faithful subject of King William and +Queen Mary, and that, if he knew of any design against them, he would +discover it. Departing from his Yea and Nay, he protested, as in the +presence of God, that he knew of no plot, and that he did not believe +that there was any plot, unless the ambitious projects of the French +government might be called plots. Sidney, amazed probably by hearing +a person, who had such an abhorrence of lies that he would not use the +common forms of civility, and such an abhorrence of oaths that he would +not kiss the book in a court of justice, tell something very like a lie, +and confirm it by something very like an oath, asked how, if there were +really no plot, the letters and minutes which had been found on Ashton +were to be explained. This question Penn evaded. "If," he said, "I could +only see the King, I would confess every thing to him freely. I would +tell him much that it would be important for him to know. It is only +in that way that I can be of service to him. A witness for the Crown I +cannot be for my conscience will not suffer me to be sworn." He assured +Sidney that the most formidable enemies of the government were the +discontented Whigs. "The Jacobites are not dangerous. There is not a man +among them who has common understanding. Some persons who came over from +Holland with the King are much more to be dreaded." It does not appear +that Penn mentioned any names. He was suffered to depart in safety. No +active search was made for him. He lay hid in London during some months, +and then stole down to the coast of Sussex and made his escape to +France. After about three years of wandering and lurking he, by the +mediation of some eminent men, who overlooked his faults for the sake +of his good qualities, made his peace with the government, and again +ventured to resume his ministrations. The return which he made for the +lenity with which he had been treated does not much raise his character. +Scarcely had he again begun to harangue in public about the unlawfulness +of war, when he sent a message earnestly exhorting James to make an +immediate descent on England with thirty thousand men. [39] + +Some months passed before the fate of Preston was decided. After several +respites, the government, convinced that, though he had told much, he +could tell more, fixed a day for his execution, and ordered the sheriffs +to have the machinery of death in readiness. [40] But he was again +respited, and, after a delay of some weeks, obtained a pardon, which, +however, extended only to his life, and left his property subject to all +the consequences of his attainder. As soon as he was set at liberty +he gave new cause of offence and suspicion, and was again arrested, +examined and sent to prison. [41] At length he was permitted to retire, +pursued by the hisses and curses of both parties, to a lonely manor +house in the North Riding of Yorkshire. There, at least, he had not to +endure the scornful looks of old associates who had once thought him +a man of dauntless courage and spotless honour, but who now pronounced +that he was at best a meanspirited coward, and hinted their suspicions +that he had been from the beginning a spy and a trepan. [42] He employed +the short and sad remains of his life in turning the Consolation +of Boethius into English. The translation was published after the +translator's death. It is remarkable chiefly on account of some very +unsuccessful attempts to enrich our versification with new metres, and +on account of the allusions with which the preface is filled. Under +a thin veil of figurative language, Preston exhibited to the public +compassion or contempt his own blighted fame and broken heart. He +complained that the tribunal which had sentenced him to death had dealt +with him more leniently than his former friends, and that many, who +had never been tried by temptations like his, had very cheaply earned +a reputation for courage by sneering at his poltroonery, and by bidding +defiance at a distance to horrors which, when brought near, subdue even +a constant spirit. + +The spirit of the Jacobites, which had been quelled for a time by the +detection of Preston's plot, was revived by the fall of Mons. The joy of +the whole party was boundless. The nonjuring priests ran backwards and +forwards between Sam's Coffee House and Westminster Hall, spreading +the praises of Lewis, and laughing at the miserable issue of the +deliberations of the great Congress. In the Park the malecontents wore +their biggest looks, and talked sedition in their loudest tones. The +most conspicuous among these swaggerers was Sir John Fenwick, who had, +in the late reign, been high in favour and in military command, and +was now an indefatigable agitator and conspirator. In his exultation he +forgot the courtesy which man owes to woman. He had more than once +made himself conspicuous by his impertinence to the Queen. He now +ostentatiously put himself in her way when she took her airing; and, +while all around him uncovered and bowed low, gave her a rude stare +and cocked his hat in her face. The affront was not only brutal, but +cowardly. For the law had provided no punishment for mere impertinence, +however gross; and the King was the only gentleman and soldier in the +kingdom who could not protect his wife from contumely with his sword. +All that the Queen could do was to order the parkkeepers not to admit +Sir John again within the gates. But, long after her death, a day came +when he had reason to wish that he had restrained his insolence. He +found, by terrible proof, that of all the Jacobites, the most desperate +assassins not excepted, he was the only one for whom William felt an +intense personal aversion. [43] + +A few days after this event the rage of the malecontents began to +flame more fiercely than ever. The detection of the conspiracy of which +Preston was the chief had brought on a crisis in ecclesiastical +affairs. The nonjuring bishops had, during the year which followed their +deprivation, continued to reside in the official mansions which had +once been their own. Burnet had, at Mary's request, laboured to effect +a compromise. His direct interference would probably have done more harm +than good. He therefore judiciously employed the agency of Rochester, +who stood higher in the estimation of the nonjurors than any statesman +who was not a nonjuror, and of Trevor, who, worthless as he was, had +considerable influence with the High Church party. Sancroft and his +brethren were informed that, if they would consent to perform their +spiritual duty, to ordain, to institute, to confirm, and to watch over +the faith and the morality of the priesthood, a bill should be brought +into Parliament to excuse them from taking the oaths. [44] This offer +was imprudently liberal; but those to whom it was made could not +consistently accept it. For in the ordination service, and indeed in +almost every service of the Church, William and Mary were designated +as King and Queen. The only promise that could be obtained from the +deprived prelates was that they would live quietly; and even this +promise they had not all kept. One of them at least had been guilty of +treason aggravated by impiety. He had, under the strong fear of being +butchered by the populace, declared that he abhorred the thought +of calling in the aid of France, and had invoked God to attest the +sincerity of this declaration. Yet, a short time after, he had been +detected in plotting to bring a French army into England; and he had +written to assure the Court of Saint Germains that he was acting in +concert with his brethren, and especially with Sancroft. The Whigs +called loudly for severity. Even the Tory counsellors of William owned +that indulgence had been carried to the extreme point. They made, +however, a last attempt to mediate. "Will you and your brethren," said +Trevor to Lloyd, the nonjuring Bishop of Norwich, "disown all connection +with Doctor Turner, and declare that what he has in his letters imputed +to you is false?" Lloyd evaded the question. It was now evident that +William's forbearance had only emboldened the adversaries whom he had +hoped to conciliate. Even Caermarthen, even Nottingham, declared that it +was high time to fill the vacant sees. [45] + +Tillotson was nominated to the Archbishopric, and was consecrated +on Whitsunday, in the church of St. Mary Le Bow. Compton, cruelly +mortified, refused to bear any part in the ceremony. His place was +supplied by Mew, Bishop of Winchester, who was assisted by Burnet, +Stillingfleet and Hough. The congregation was the most splendid that +had been seen in any place of worship since the coronation. The Queen's +drawingroom was, on that day, deserted. Most of the peers who were in +town met in the morning at Bedford House, and went thence in procession +to Cheapside. Norfolk, Caermarthen and Dorset were conspicuous in the +throng. Devonshire, who was impatient to see his woods at Chatsworth +in their summer beauty, had deferred his departure in order to mark his +respect for Tillotson. The crowd which lined the streets greeted the new +Primate warmly. For he had, during many years, preached in the City; and +his eloquence, his probity and the singular gentleness of his temper +and manners, had made him the favourite of the Londoners. [46] But the +congratulations and applauses of his friends could not drown the roar of +execration which the Jacobites set up. According to them, he was a thief +who had not entered by the door, but had climbed over the fences. He was +a hireling whose own the sheep were not, who had usurped the crook of +the good shepherd, and who might well be expected to leave the flock +at the mercy of every wolf. He was an Arian, a Socinian, a Deist, an +Atheist. He had cozened the world by fine phrases, and by a show of +moral goodness: but he was in truth a far more dangerous enemy of the +Church than he could have been if he had openly proclaimed himself a +disciple of Hobbes, and had lived as loosely as Wilmot. He had taught +the fine gentlemen and ladies who admired his style, and who were +constantly seen round his pulpit, that they might be very good +Christians, and yet might believe the account of the Fall in the book +of Genesis to be allegorical. Indeed they might easily be as good +Christians as he; for he had never been christened; his parents were +Anabaptists; he had lost their religion when he was a boy; and he had +never found another. In ribald lampoons he was nicknamed Undipped John. +The parish register of his baptism was produced in vain. His enemies +still continued to complain that they had lived to see fathers of the +Church who never were her children. They made up a story that the Queen +had felt bitter remorse for the great crime by which she had obtained a +throne, that in her agony she had applied to Tillotson, and that he had +comforted her by assuring her that the punishment of the wicked in +a future state would not be eternal. [47] The Archbishop's mind was +naturally of almost feminine delicacy, and had been rather softened than +braced by the habits of a long life, during which contending sects and +factions had agreed in speaking of his abilities with admiration and of +his character with esteem. The storm of obloquy which he had to face for +the first time at more than sixty years of age was too much for him. His +spirits declined; his health gave way; yet he neither flinched from his +duty nor attempted to revenge himself on his persecutors. A few days +after his consecration, some persons were seized while dispersing libels +in which he was reviled. The law officers of the Crown proposed to +institute prosecutions; but he insisted that nobody should be punished +on his account. [48] Once, when he had company with him, a sealed packet +was put into his hands; he opened it; and out fell a mask. His friends +were shocked and incensed by this cowardly insult; but the Archbishop, +trying to conceal his anguish by a smile, pointed to the pamphlets which +covered his table, and said that the reproach which the emblem of the +mask was intended to convey might be called gentle when compared with +other reproaches which he daily had to endure. After his death a bundle +of the savage lampoons which the nonjurors had circulated against him +was found among his papers with this indorsement: "I pray God forgive +them; I do." [49] + +The temper of the deposed primate was very different. He seems to have +been under a complete delusion as to his own importance. The immense +popularity which he had enjoyed three years before, the prayers and +tears of the multitudes who had plunged into the Thames to implore his +blessing, the enthusiasm with which the sentinels of the Tower had drunk +his health under the windows of his prison, the mighty roar of joy +which had risen from Palace Yard on the morning of his acquittal, +the triumphant night when every window from Hyde Park to Mile End had +exhibited seven candles, the midmost and tallest emblematical of him, +were still fresh in his recollection; nor had he the wisdom to perceive +that all this homage had been paid, not to his person, but to that +religion and to those liberties of which he was, for a moment, the +representative. The extreme tenderness with which the new government had +long persisted in treating him seems to have confirmed him in his +error. That a succession of conciliatory messages was sent to him from +Kensington, that he was offered terms so liberal as to be scarcely +consistent with the dignity of the Crown and the welfare of the State, +that his cold and uncourteous answers could not tire out the royal +indulgence, that, in spite of the loud clamours of the Whigs, and of +the provocations daily given by the Jacobites, he was residing, fifteen +months after deprivation, in the metropolitan palace, these things +seemed to him to indicate not the lenity but the timidity of the ruling +powers. He appears to have flattered himself that they would not dare to +eject him. The news, therefore, that his see had been filled threw him +into a passion which lasted as long as his life, and which hurried him +into many foolish and unseemly actions. Tillotson, as soon as he +was appointed, went to Lambeth in the hope that he might be able, by +courtesy and kindness, to soothe the irritation of which he was the +innocent cause. He stayed long in the antechamber, and sent in his name +by several servants; but Sancroft would not even return an answer. +[50] Three weeks passed; and still the deprived Archbishop showed no +disposition to move. At length he received an order intimating to him +the royal pleasure that he should quit the dwelling which had long +ceased to be his own, and in which he was only a guest. He resented this +order bitterly, and declared that he would not obey it. He would stay +till he was pulled out by the Sheriff's officers. He would defend +himself at law as long as he could do so without putting in any plea +acknowledging the authority of the usurpers. [51] The case was so clear +that he could not, by any artifice of chicanery, obtain more than a +short delay. When judgment had been given against him, he left the +palace, but directed his steward to retain possession. The consequence +was that the steward was taken into custody and heavily fined. Tillotson +sent a kind message to assure his predecessor that the fine should not +be exacted. But Sancroft was determined to have a grievance, and would +pay the money. [52] + +From that time the great object of the narrowminded and peevish old +man was to tear in pieces the Church of which he had been the chief +minister. It was in vain that some of those nonjurors, whose virtue, +ability and learning were the glory of their party, remonstrated against +his design. "Our deprivation,"--such was the reasoning of Ken,--"is, +in the sight of God, a nullity. We are, and shall be, till we die or +resign, the true Bishops of our sees. Those who assume our titles and +functions will incur the guilt of schism. But with us, if we act as +becomes us, the schism will die; and in the next generation the unity of +the Church will be restored. On the other hand, if we consecrate Bishops +to succeed us, the breach may last through ages, and we shall be justly +held accountable, not indeed for its origin, but for its continuance." +These considerations ought, on Sancroft's own principles, to have had +decisive weight with him; but his angry passions prevailed. Ken quietly +retired from the venerable palace of Wells. He had done, he said, with +strife, and should henceforth vent his feelings not in disputes but in +hymns. His charities to the unhappy of all persuasions, especially to +the followers of Monmouth and to the persecuted Huguenots, had been so +large that his whole private fortune consisted of seven hundred pounds, +and of a library which he could not bear to sell. But Thomas Thynne, +Viscount Weymouth, though not a nonjuror, did himself honour by offering +to the most virtuous of the nonjurors a tranquil and dignified asylum in +the princely mansion of Longleat. There Ken passed a happy and honoured +old age, during which he never regretted the sacrifice which he had made +to what he thought his duty, and yet constantly became more and more +indulgent to those whose views of duty differed from his. [53] + +Sancroft was of a very different temper. He had, indeed, as little to +complain of as any man whom a revolution has ever hurled down from an +exalted station. He had at Fressingfield, in Suffolk, a patrimonial +estate, which, together with what he had saved during a primacy of +twelve years, enabled him to live, not indeed as he had lived when he +was the first peer of Parliament, but in the style of an opulent country +gentleman. He retired to his hereditary abode; and there he passed +the rest of his life in brooding over his wrongs. Aversion to the +Established Church became as strong a feeling in him as it had been in +Martin Marprelate. He considered all who remained in communion with her +as heathens and publicans. He nicknamed Tillotson the Mufti. In the room +which was used as a chapel at Fressingfield no person who had taken +the oaths, or who attended the ministry of any divine who had taken +the oaths, was suffered to partake of the sacred bread and wine. A +distinction, however, was made between two classes of offenders. A +layman who remained in communion with the Church was permitted to be +present while prayers were read, and was excluded only from the highest +of Christian mysteries. But with clergymen who had sworn allegiance to +the Sovereigns in possession Sancroft would not even pray. He took care +that the rule which he had laid down should be widely known, and, both +by precept and by example, taught his followers to look on the most +orthodox, the most devout, the most virtuous of those who acknowledged +William's authority with a feeling similar to that with which the +Jew regarded the Samaritan. [54] Such intolerance would have been +reprehensible, even in a man contending for a great principle. But +Sancroft was contending merely for a name. He was the author of the +scheme of Regency. He was perfectly willing to transfer the whole kingly +power from James to William. The question which, to this smallest and +sourest of minds, seemed important enough to justify the excommunicating +of ten thousand priests and of five millions of laymen was, whether the +magistrate to whom the whole kingly power was transferred should assume +the kingly title. Nor could Sancroft bear to think that the animosity +which he had excited would die with himself. Having done all that he +could to make the feud bitter, he determined to make it eternal. A list +of the divines who had been ejected from their benefices was sent by him +to Saint Germains with a request that James would nominate two who might +keep up the episcopal succession. James, well pleased, doubtless, to see +another sect added to that multitude of sects which he had been taught +to consider as the reproach of Protestantism, named two fierce and +uncompromising nonjurors, Hickes and Wagstaffe, the former recommended +by Sancroft, the latter recommended by Lloyd, the ejected Bishop of +Norwich. [55] Such was the origin of a schismatical hierarchy, which, +having, during a short time, excited alarm, soon sank into obscurity and +contempt, but which, in obscurity and contempt, continued to drag on a +languid existence during several generations. The little Church, without +temples, revenues or dignities, was even more distracted by internal +disputes than the great Church, which retained possession of cathedrals, +tithes and peerages. Some nonjurors leaned towards the ceremonial of +Rome; others would not tolerate the slightest departure from the Book +of Common Prayer. Altar was set up against altar. One phantom prelate +pronounced the consecration of another phantom prelate uncanonical. At +length the pastors were left absolutely without flocks. One of these +Lords spiritual very wisely turned surgeon; another left what he had +called his see, and settled in Ireland; and at length, in 1805, the last +Bishop of that society which had proudly claimed to be the only true +Church of England dropped unnoticed into the grave. [56] + +The places of the bishops who had been ejected with Sancroft were filled +in a manner creditable to the government. Patrick succeeded the traitor +Turner. Fowler went to Gloucester. Richard Cumberland, an aged divine, +who had no interest at Court, and whose only recommendations were his +piety and erudition, was astonished by learning from a newsletter which +he found on the table of a coffeehouse that he had been nominated to +the See of Peterborough. [57] Beveridge was selected to succeed Ken; +he consented; and the appointment was actually announced in the London +Gazette. But Beveridge, though an honest, was not a strongminded man. +Some Jacobites expostulated with him; some reviled him; his heart +failed him; and he retracted. While the nonjurors were rejoicing in +this victory, he changed his mind again; but too late. He had by his +irresolution forfeited the favour of William, and never obtained a mitre +till Anne was on the throne. [58] The bishopric of Bath and Wells +was bestowed on Richard Kidder, a man of considerable attainments and +blameless character, but suspected of a leaning towards Presbyterianism. +About the same time Sharp, the highest churchman that had been zealous +for the Comprehension, and the lowest churchman that felt a scruple +about succeeding a deprived prelate, accepted the Archbishopric of York, +vacant by the death of Lamplugh. [59] + +In consequence of the elevation of Tillotson to the See of Canterbury, +the Deanery of Saint Paul's became vacant. As soon as the name of +the new Dean was known, a clamour broke forth such as perhaps no +ecclesiastical appointment has ever produced, a clamour made up of yells +of hatred, of hisses of contempt, and of shouts of triumphant and half +insulting welcome; for the new Dean was William Sherlock. + +The story of his conversion deserves to be fully told; for it throws +great light on the character of the parties which then divided the +Church and the State. Sherlock was, in influence and reputation, though +not in rank, the foremost man among the nonjurors. His authority and +example had induced some of his brethren, who had at first wavered, +to resign their benefices. The day of suspension came; the day of +deprivation came; and still he was firm. He seemed to have found, in the +consciousness of rectitude, and in meditation on the invisible world, +ample compensation for all his losses. While excluded from the pulpit +where his eloquence had once delighted the learned and polite inmates +of the Temple, he wrote that celebrated Treatise on Death which, during +many years, stood next to the Whole Duty of Man in the bookcases of +serious Arminians. Soon, however, it began to be suspected that his +resolution was giving way. He declared that he would be no party to +a schism; he advised those who sought his counsel not to leave their +parish churches; nay, finding that the law which had ejected him from +his cure did not interdict him from performing divine service, he +officiated at Saint Dunstan's, and there prayed for King William and +Queen Mary. The apostolical injunction, he said, was that prayers should +be made for all in authority, and William and Mary were visibly in +authority. His Jacobite friends loudly blamed his inconsistency. How, +they asked, if you admit that the Apostle speaks in this passage of +actual authority, can you maintain that, in other passages of a similar +kind, he speaks only of legitimate authority? Or how can you, without +sin, designate as King, in a solemn address to God, one whom you +cannot, without sin, promise to obey as King? These reasonings were +unanswerable; and Sherlock soon began to think them so; but the +conclusion to which they led him was diametrically opposed to the +conclusion to which they were meant to lead him. He hesitated, however, +till a new light flashed on his mind from a quarter from which there was +little reason to expect any thing but tenfold darkness. In the reign of +James the First, Doctor John Overall, Bishop of Exeter, had written an +elaborate treatise on the rights of civil and ecclesiastical governors. +This treatise had been solemnly approved by the Convocations +of Canterbury and York, and might therefore be considered as an +authoritative exposition of the doctrine of the Church of England. A +copy of the manuscript was in Sancroft's possession; and he, soon after +the Revolution, sent it to the press. He hoped, doubtless, that the +publication would injure the new government; but he was lamentably +disappointed. The book indeed condemned all resistance in terms as +strong as he could himself have used; but one passage which had escaped +his notice was decisive against himself and his fellow schismatics. +Overall, and the two Convocations which had given their sanction to +Overall's teaching, pronounced that a government, which had originated +in rebellion, ought, when thoroughly settled, to be considered as +ordained by God and to be obeyed by Christian men. [60] Sherlock read, +and was convinced. His venerable mother the Church had spoken; and he, +with the docility of a child, accepted her decree. The government which +had sprung from the Revolution might, at least since the battle of the +Boyne and the flight of James from Ireland, be fairly called a settled +government, and ought therefore to be passively obeyed till it should +be subverted by another revolution and succeeded by another settled +government. + +Sherlock took the oaths, and speedily published, in justification of his +conduct, a pamphlet entitled The Case of Allegiance to Sovereign Powers +stated. The sensation produced by this work was immense. Dryden's Hind +and Panther had not raised so great an uproar. Halifax's Letter to +a Dissenter had not called forth so many answers. The replies to the +Doctor, the vindications of the Doctor, the pasquinades on the Doctor, +would fill a library. The clamour redoubled when it was known that the +convert had not only been reappointed Master of the Temple, but had +accepted the Deanery of Saint Paul's, which had become vacant in +consequence of the deprivation of Sancroft and the promotion of +Tillotson. The rage of the nonjurors amounted almost to frenzy. Was it +not enough, they asked, to desert the true and pure Church, in this her +hour of sorrow and peril, without also slandering her? It was easy to +understand why a greedy, cowardly hypocrite should refuse to take the +oaths to the usurper as long as it seemed probable that the rightful +King would be restored, and should make haste to swear after the battle +of the Boyne. Such tergiversation in times of civil discord was nothing +new. What was new was that the turncoat should try to throw his own +guilt and shame on the Church of England, and should proclaim that she +had taught him to turn against the weak who were in the right, and to +cringe to the powerful who were in the wrong. Had such indeed been +her doctrine or her practice in evil days? Had she abandoned her Royal +Martyr in the prison or on the scaffold? Had she enjoined her children +to pay obedience to the Rump or to the Protector? Yet was the government +of the Rump or of the Protector less entitled to be called a settled +government than the government of William and Mary? Had not the battle +of Worcester been as great a blow to the hopes of the House of Stuart as +the battle of the Boyne? Had not the chances of a Restoration seemed as +small in 1657 as they could seem to any judicious man in 1691? In spite +of invectives and sarcasms, however, there was Overall's treatise; there +were the approving votes of the two Convocations; and it was much easier +to rail at Sherlock than to explain away either the treatise or the +votes. One writer maintained that by a thoroughly settled government +must have been meant a government of which the title was uncontested. +Thus, he said, the government of the United Provinces became a +settled government when it was recognised by Spain, and, but for that +recognition, would never have been a settled government to the end +of time. Another casuist, somewhat less austere, pronounced that a +government, wrongful in its origin, might become a settled government +after the lapse of a century. On the thirteenth of February 1789, +therefore, and not a day earlier, Englishmen would be at liberty to +swear allegiance to a government sprung from the Revolution. The history +of the chosen people was ransacked for precedents. Was Eglon's a settled +government when Ehud stabbed him? Was Joram's a settled government when +Jehe shot him? But the leading case was that of Athaliah. It was indeed +a case which furnished the malecontents with many happy and pungent +allusions; a kingdom treacherously seized by an usurper near in blood +to the throne; the rightful prince long dispossessed; a part of the +sacerdotal order true, through many disastrous years, to the Royal +House; a counterrevolution at length effected by the High Priest at the +head of the Levites. Who, it was asked, would dare to blame the heroic +pontiff who had restored the heir of David? Yet was not the government +of Athaliah as firmly settled as that of the Prince of Orange? + +Hundreds of pages written at this time about the rights of Joash and the +bold enterprise of Jehoiada are mouldering in the ancient bookcases of +Oxford and Cambridge. While Sherlock was thus fiercely attacked by +his old friends, he was not left unmolested by his old enemies. Some +vehement Whigs, among whom Julian Johnson was conspicuous, declared that +Jacobitism itself was respectable when compared with the vile doctrine +which had been discovered in the Convocation Book. That passive +obedience was due to Kings was doubtless an absurd and pernicious +notion. Yet it was impossible not to respect the consistency and +fortitude of men who thought themselves bound to bear true allegiance, +at all hazards, to an unfortunate, a deposed, an exiled oppressor. But +the theory which Sherlock had learned from Overall was unmixed baseness +and wickedness. A cause was to be abandoned, not because it was unjust, +but because it was unprosperous. Whether James had been a tyrant or had +been the father of his people was quite immaterial. If he had won the +battle of the Boyne we should have been bound as Christians to be his +slaves. He had lost it; and we were bound as Christians to be his foes. +Other Whigs congratulated the proselyte on having come, by whatever +road, to a right practical conclusion, but could not refrain from +sneering at the history which he gave of his conversion. He was, they +said, a man of eminent learning and abilities. He had studied the +question of allegiance long and deeply. He had written much about it. +Several months had been allowed him for reading, prayer and reflection +before he incurred suspension, several months more before he incurred +deprivation. He had formed an opinion for which he had declared himself +ready to suffer martyrdom; he had taught that opinion to others; and he +had then changed that opinion solely because he had discovered that it +had been, not refuted, but dogmatically pronounced erroneous by the two +Convocations more than eighty years before. Surely, this was to renounce +all liberty of private judgment, and to ascribe to the Synods of +Canterbury and York an infallibility which the Church of England had +declared that even Oecumenical Councils could not justly claim. If, it +was sarcastically said, all our notions of right and wrong, in matters +of vital importance to the well being of society, are to be suddenly +altered by a few lines of manuscript found in a corner of the library at +Lambeth, it is surely much to be wished, for the peace of mind of humble +Christians, that all the documents to which this sort of authority +belongs should be rummaged out and sent to the press as soon as +possible; for, unless this be done, we may all, like the Doctor when he +refused the oaths last year, be committing sins in the full persuasion +that we are discharging duties. In truth, it is not easy to believe +that the Convocation Book furnished Sherlock with any thing more than a +pretext for doing what he had made up his mind to do. The united force +of reason and interest had doubtless convinced him that his passions and +prejudices had led him into a great error. That error he determined to +recant; and it cost him less to say that his opinion had been changed by +newly discovered evidence, than that he had formed a wrong judgment with +all the materials for the forming of a right judgment before him. The +popular belief was that his retractation was the effect of the tears, +expostulations and reproaches of his wife. The lady's spirit was high; +her authority in the family was great; and she cared much more about her +house and her carriage, the plenty of her table and the prospects of her +children, than about the patriarchal origin of government or the meaning +of the word Abdication. She had, it was asserted, given her husband no +peace by day or by night till he had got over his scruples. In letters, +fables, songs, dialogues without number, her powers of seduction and +intimidation were malignantly extolled. She was Xanthippe pouring water +on the head of Socrates. She was Dalilah shearing Samson. She was Eve +forcing the forbidden fruit into Adam's mouth. She was Job's wife, +imploring her ruined lord, who sate scraping himself among the ashes, +not to curse and die, but to swear and live. While the ballad makers +celebrated the victory of Mrs. Sherlock, another class of assailants +fell on the theological reputation of her spouse. Till he took the +oaths, he had always been considered as the most orthodox of divines. +But the captious and malignant criticism to which his writings were now +subjected would have found heresy in the Sermon on the Mount; and he, +unfortunately, was rash enough to publish, at the very moment when the +outcry against his political tergiversation was loudest, his thoughts +on the mystery of the Trinity. It is probable that, at another time, his +work would have been hailed by good Churchmen as a triumphant answer +to the Socinians and Sabellians. But, unhappily, in his zeal against +Socinians and Sabellians, he used expressions which might be construed +into Tritheism. Candid judges would have remembered that the true path +was closely pressed on the right and on the left by error, and that it +was scarcely possible to keep far enough from danger on one side without +going very close to danger on the other. But candid judges Sherlock was +not likely to find among the Jacobites. His old allies affirmed that he +had incurred all the fearful penalties denounced in the Athanasian Creed +against those who divide the substance. Bulky quartos were written to +prove that he held the existence of three distinct Deities; and some +facetious malecontents, who troubled themselves very little about the +Catholic verity, amused the town by lampoons in English and Latin on his +heterodoxy. "We," said one of these jesters, "plight our faith to one +King, and call one God to attest our promise. We cannot think it strange +that there should be more than one King to whom the Doctor has sworn +allegiance, when we consider that the Doctor has more Gods than one to +swear by." [61] + +Sherlock would, perhaps, have doubted whether the government to which he +had submitted was entitled to be called a settled government, if he had +known all the dangers by which it was threatened. Scarcely had Preston's +plot been detected; when a new plot of a very different kind was formed +in the camp, in the navy, in the treasury, in the very bedchamber of +the King. This mystery of iniquity has, through five generations, been +gradually unveiling, but is not yet entirely unveiled. Some parts which +are still obscure may possibly, by the discovery of letters or diaries +now reposing under the dust of a century and a half, be made clear to +our posterity. The materials, however, which are at present accessible, +are sufficient for the construction of a narrative not to be read +without shame and loathing. [62] + +We have seen that, in the spring of 1690, Shrewsbury, irritated by +finding his counsels rejected, and those of his Tory rivals followed, +suffered himself, in a fatal hour, to be drawn into a correspondence +with the banished family. We have seen also by what cruel sufferings of +body and mind he expiated his fault. Tortured by remorse, and by disease +the effect of remorse, he had quitted the Court; but he had left behind +him men whose principles were not less lax than his, and whose hearts +were far harder and colder. + +Early in 1691, some of these men began to hold secret communication with +Saint Germains. Wicked and base as their conduct was, there was in it +nothing surprising. They did after their kind. The times were troubled. +A thick cloud was upon the future. The most sagacious and experienced +politician could not see with any clearness three months before him. +To a man of virtue and honour, indeed, this mattered little. His +uncertainty as to what the morrow might bring forth might make him +anxious, but could not make him perfidious. Though left in utter +darkness as to what concerned his interests, he had the sure guidance +of his principles. But, unhappily, men of virtue and honour were not +numerous among the courtiers of that age. Whitehall had been, during +thirty years, a seminary of every public and private vice, and +swarmed with lowminded, doubledealing, selfseeking politicians. These +politicians now acted as it was natural that men profoundly immoral +should act at a crisis of which none could predict the issue. Some +of them might have a slight predilection for William; others a slight +predilection for James; but it was not by any such predilection that the +conduct of any of the breed was guided. If it had seemed certain that +William would stand, they would all have been for William. If it had +seemed certain that James would be restored, they would all have been +for James. But what was to be done when the chances appeared to be +almost exactly balanced? There were honest men of one party who would +have answered, To stand by the true King and the true Church, and, if +necessary, to die for them like Laud. There were honest men of the other +party who would have answered, To stand by the liberties of England and +the Protestant religion, and, if necessary, to die for them like Sidney. +But such consistency was unintelligible to many of the noble and the +powerful. Their object was to be safe in every event. They therefore +openly took the oath of allegiance to one King, and secretly plighted +their word to the other. They were indefatigable in obtaining +commissions, patents of peerage, pensions, grants of crown land, under +the great seal of William; and they had in their secret drawers promises +of pardon in the handwriting of James. + +Among those who were guilty of this wickedness three men stand +preeminent, Russell, Godolphin and Marlborough. No three men could +be, in head and heart, more unlike to one another; and the peculiar +qualities of each gave a peculiar character to his villany. The treason +of Russell is to be attributed partly to fractiousness; the treason of +Godolphin is to be attributed altogether to timidity; the treason of +Marlborough was the treason of a man of great genius and boundless +ambition. + +It may be thought strange that Russell should have been out of humour. +He had just accepted the command of the united naval forces of England +and Holland with the rank of Admiral of the Fleet. He was Treasurer +of the Navy. He had a pension of three thousand pounds a year. Crown +property near Charing Cross, to the value of eighteen thousand pounds, +had been bestowed on him. His indirect gains must have been immense. +But he was still dissatisfed. In truth, with undaunted courage, with +considerable talents both for war and for administration, and with a +certain public spirit, which showed itself by glimpses even in the +very worst parts of his life, he was emphatically a bad man, insolent, +malignant, greedy, faithless. He conceived that the great services which +he had performed at the time of the Revolution had not been adequately +rewarded. Every thing that was given to others seemed to him to be +pillaged from himself. A letter is still extant which he wrote to +William about this time. It is made up of boasts, reproaches and sneers. +The Admiral, with ironical professions of humility and loyalty, begins +by asking permission to put his wrongs on paper, because his bashfulness +would not suffer him to explain himself by word of mouth. His grievances +were intolerable. Other people got grants of royal domains; but he could +get scarcely any thing. Other people could provide for their dependants; +but his recommendations were uniformly disregarded. The income which +he derived from the royal favour might seem large; but he had poor +relations; and the government, instead of doing its duty by them, had +most unhandsomely left them to his care. He had a sister who ought to +have a pension; for, without one, she could not give portions to her +daughters. He had a brother who, for want of a place, had been reduced +to the melancholy necessity of marrying an old woman for her money. +Russell proceeded to complain bitterly that the Whigs were neglected, +that the Revolution had aggrandised and enriched men who had made the +greatest efforts to avert it. And there is reason to believe that this +complaint came from his heart. For, next to his own interests, those +of his party were dear to him; and, even when he was most inclined to +become a Jacobite, he never had the smallest disposition to become a +Tory. In the temper which this letter indicates, he readily listened +to the suggestions of David Lloyd, one of the ablest and most active +emissaries who at this time were constantly plying between France and +England. Lloyd conveyed to James assurances that Russell would, when a +favourable opportunity should present itself, try to effect by means of +the fleet what Monk had effected in the preceding generation by means +of the army. [63] To what extent these assurances were sincere was a +question about which men who knew Russell well, and who were minutely +informed as to his conduct, were in doubt. It seems probable that, +during many months, he did not know his own mind. His interest was to +stand well, as long as possible, with both Kings. His irritable and +imperious nature was constantly impelling him to quarrel with both. His +spleen was excited one week by a dry answer from William, and the +next week by an absurd proclamation from James. Fortunately the most +important day of his life, the day from which all his subsequent years +took their colour, found him out of temper with the banished King. + +Godolphin had not, and did not pretend to have, any cause of complaint +against the government which he served. He was First Commissioner of the +Treasury. He had been protected, trusted, caressed. Indeed the favour +shown to him had excited many murmurs. Was it fitting, the Whigs had +indignantly asked, that a man who had been high in office through the +whole of the late reign, who had promised to vote for the Indulgence, +who had sate in the Privy Council with a Jesuit, who had sate at the +Board of Treasury with two Papists, who had attended an idolatress to +her altar, should be among the chief ministers of a Prince whose title +to the throne was derived from the Declaration of Rights? But on William +this clamour had produced no effect; and none of his English servants +seems to have had at this time a larger share of his confidence than +Godolphin. + +Nevertheless, the Jacobites did not despair. One of the most zealous +among them, a gentleman named Bulkeley, who had formerly been on terms +of intimacy with Godolphin, undertook to see what could be done. He +called at the Treasury, and tried to draw the First Lord into political +talk. This was no easy matter; for Godolphin was not a man to put +himself lightly into the power of others. His reserve was proverbial; +and he was especially renowned for the dexterity with which he, through +life, turned conversation away from matters of state to a main of cocks +or the pedigree of a racehorse. The visit ended without his uttering a +word indicating that he remembered the existence of King James. + +Bulkeley, however, was not to be so repulsed. He came again, and +introduced the subject which was nearest his heart. Godolphin then asked +after his old master and mistress in the mournful tone of a man who +despaired of ever being reconciled to them. Bulkeley assured him that +King James was ready to forgive all the past. "May I tell His Majesty +that you will try to deserve his favour?" At this Godolphin rose, said +something about the trammels of office and his wish to be released from +them, and put an end to the interview. + +Bulkeley soon made a third attempt. By this time Godolphin had +learned some things which shook his confidence in the stability of the +government which he served. He began to think, as he would himself have +expressed it, that he had betted too deep on the Revolution, and that +it was time to hedge. Evasions would no longer serve his turn. It was +necessary to speak out. He spoke out, and declared himself a devoted +servant of King James. "I shall take an early opportunity of resigning +my place. But, till then, I am under a tie. I must not betray my trust." +To enhance the value of the sacrifice which he proposed to make, he +produced a most friendly and confidential letter which he had lately +received from William. "You see how entirely the Prince of Orange trusts +me. He tells me that he cannot do without me, and that there is no +Englishman for whom he has so great a kindness; but all this weighs +nothing with me in comparison of my duty to my lawful King." + +If the First Lord of the Treasury really had scruples about betraying +his trust, those scruples were soon so effectually removed that he +very complacently continued, during six years, to eat the bread of one +master, while secretly sending professions of attachment and promises of +service to another. + +The truth is that Godolphin was under the influence of a mind far more +powerful and far more depraved than his own. His perplexities had +been imparted to Marlborough, to whom he had long been bound by such +friendship as two very unprincipled men are capable of feeling for each +other, and to whom he was afterwards bound by close domestic ties. + +Marlborough was in a very different situation from that of William's +other servants. Lloyd might make overtures to Russell, and Bulkeley to +Godolphin. But all the agents of the banished Court stood aloof from +the traitor of Salisbury. That shameful night seemed to have for ever +separated the perjured deserter from the Prince whom he had ruined. +James had, even in the last extremity, when his army was in full +retreat, when his whole kingdom had risen against him, declared that +he would never pardon Churchill, never, never. By all the Jacobites the +name of Churchill was held in peculiar abhorrence; and, in the prose and +verse which came forth daily from their secret presses, a precedence in +infamy, among all the many traitors of the age, was assigned to him. In +the order of things which had sprung from the Revolution, he was one of +the great men of England, high in the state, high in the army. He +had been created an Earl. He had a large share in the military +administration. The emoluments, direct and indirect, of the places +and commands which he held under the Crown were believed at the Dutch +Embassy to amount to twelve thousand pounds a year. In the event of a +counterrevolution it seemed that he had nothing in prospect but a garret +in Holland, or a scaffold on Tower Hill. It might therefore have been +expected that he would serve his new master with fidelity, not +indeed with the fidelity of Nottingham, which was the fidelity of +conscientiousness, not with the fidelity of Portland, which was the +fidelity of affection, but with the not less stubborn fidelity of +despair. + +Those who thought thus knew but little of Marlborough. Confident in his +own powers of deception, he resolved, since the Jacobite agents would +not seek him, to seek them. He therefore sent to beg an interview with +Colonel Edward Sackville. + +Sackville was astonished and not much pleased by the message. He was a +sturdy Cavalier of the old school. He had been persecuted in the days of +the Popish plot for manfully saying what he thought, and what every body +now thinks, about Oates and Bedloe. [64] Since the Revolution he had +put his neck in peril for King James, had been chased by officers with +warrants, and had been designated as a traitor in a proclamation to +which Marlborough himself had been a party. [65] It was not without +reluctance that the stanch royalist crossed the hated threshold of the +deserter. He was repaid for his effort by the edifying spectacle of such +an agony of repentance as he had never before seen. "Will you," said +Marlborough, "be my intercessor with the King? Will you tell him what +I suffer? My crimes now appear to me in their true light; and I shrink +with horror from the contemplation. The thought of them is with me day +and night. I sit down to table; but I cannot eat. I throw myself on my +bed; but I cannot sleep. I am ready to sacrifice every thing, to brave +every thing, to bring utter ruin on my fortunes, if only I may be free +from the misery of a wounded spirit." If appearances could be trusted, +this great offender was as true a penitent as David or as Peter. +Sackville reported to his friends what had passed. They could not but +acknowledge that, if the arch traitor, who had hitherto opposed to +conscience and to public opinion the same cool and placid hardihood +which distinguished him on fields of battle, had really begun to feel +remorse, it would be absurd to reject, on account of his unworthiness, +the inestimable services which it was in his power to render to the +good cause. He sate in the interior council; he held high command in +the army; he had been recently entrusted, and would doubtless again be +entrusted, with the direction of important military operations. It was +true that no man had incurred equal guilt; but it was true also that no +man had it in his power to make equal reparation. If he was sincere, +he might doubtless earn the pardon which he so much desired. But was he +sincere? Had he not been just as loud in professions of loyalty on the +very eve of his crime? It was necessary to put him to the test. Several +tests were applied by Sackville and Lloyd. Marlborough was required to +furnish full information touching the strength and the distribution of +all the divisions of the English army; and he complied. He was required +to disclose the whole plan of the approaching campaign; and he did so. +The Jacobite leaders watched carefully for inaccuracies in his reports, +but could find none. It was thought a still stronger proof of his +fidelity that he gave valuable intelligence about what was doing in the +office of the Secretary of State. A deposition had been sworn against +one zealous royalist. A warrant was preparing against another. These +intimations saved several of the malecontents from imprisonment, if +not from the gallows; and it was impossible for them not to feel some +relenting towards the awakened sinner to whom they owed so much. + +He however, in his secret conversations with his new allies, laid no +claim to merit. He did not, he said, ask for confidence. How could he, +after the villanies which he had committed against the best of Kings, +hope ever to be trusted again? It was enough for a wretch like him to be +permitted to make, at the cost of his life, some poor atonement to the +gracious master, whom he had indeed basely injured, but whom he had +never ceased to love. It was not improbable that, in the summer, he +might command the English forces in Flanders. Was it wished that he +should bring them over in a body to the French camp? If such were the +royal pleasure, he would undertake that the thing should be done. But +on the whole he thought that it would be better to wait till the next +session of Parliament. And then he hinted at a plan which he afterwards +more fully matured, for expelling the usurper by means of the English +legislature and the English army. In the meantime he hoped that James +would command Godolphin not to quit the Treasury. A private man could +do little for the good cause. One who was the director of the national +finances, and the depository of the gravest secrets of state, might +render inestimable services. + +Marlborough's pretended repentance imposed so completely on those who +managed the affairs of James in London that they sent Lloyd to France, +with the cheering intelligence that the most depraved of all rebels had +been wonderfully transformed into a loyal subject. The tidings filled +James with delight and hope. Had he been wise, they would have excited +in him only aversion and distrust. It was absurd to imagine that a man +really heartbroken by remorse and shame for one act of perfidy would +determine to lighten his conscience by committing a second act of +perfidy as odious and as disgraceful as the first. The promised +atonement was so wicked and base that it never could be made by any man +sincerely desirous to atone for past wickedness and baseness. The truth +was that, when Marlborough told the Jacobites that his sense of guilt +prevented him from swallowing his food by day and taking his rest at +night, he was laughing at them. The loss of half a guinea would have +done more to spoil his appetite and to disturb his slumbers than all the +terrors of an evil conscience. What his offers really proved was that +his former crime had sprung, not from an ill regulated zeal for the +interests of his country and his religion, but from a deep and incurable +moral disease which had infected the whole man. James, however, partly +from dulness and partly from selfishness, could never see any immorality +in any action by which he was benefited. To conspire against him, to +betray him, to break an oath of allegiance sworn to him, were crimes for +which no punishment here or hereafter could be too severe. But to murder +his enemies, to break faith with his enemies was not only innocent but +laudable. The desertion at Salisbury had been the worst of crimes; +for it had ruined him. A similar desertion in Flanders would be an +honourable exploit; for it might restore him. + +The penitent was informed by his Jacobite friends that he was forgiven. +The news was most welcome; but something more was necessary to restore +his lost peace of mind. Might he hope to have, in the royal handwriting, +two lines containing a promise of pardon? It was not, of course, for +his own sake that he asked this. But he was confident that, with such +a document in his hands, he could bring back to the right path some +persons of great note who adhered to the usurper, only because they +imagined that they had no mercy to expect from the legitimate King. They +would return to their duty as soon as they saw that even the worst of +all criminals had, on his repentance, been generously forgiven. The +promise was written, sent, and carefully treasured up. Marlborough had +now attained one object, an object which was common to him with Russell +and Godolphin. But he had other objects which neither Russell nor +Godolphin had ever contemplated. There is, as we shall hereafter +see, strong reason to believe that this wise, brave, wicked man, was +meditating a plan worthy of his fertile intellect and daring spirit, and +not less worthy of his deeply corrupted heart, a plan which, if it had +not been frustrated by strange means, would have ruined William without +benefiting James, and would have made the successful traitor master of +England and arbiter of Europe. + +Thus things stood, when, in May 1691, William, after a short and busy +sojourn in England, set out again for the Continent, where the regular +campaign was about to open. He took with him Marlborough, whose +abilities he justly appreciated, and of whose recent negotiations with +Saint Germains he had not the faintest suspicion. At the Hague several +important military and political consultations were held; and, on every +occasion, the superiority of the accomplished Englishman was felt by +the most distinguished soldiers and statesmen of the United Provinces. +Heinsius, long after, used to relate a conversation which took place at +this time between William and the Prince of Vaudemont, one of the ablest +commanders in the Dutch service. Vaudemont spoke well of several +English officers, and among them of Talmash and Mackay, but pronounced +Marlborough superior beyond comparison to the rest. "He has every +quality of a general. His very look shows it. He cannot fail to achieve +something great." "I really believe, cousin," answered the King, "that +my Lord will make good every thing that you have said of him." + +There was still a short interval before the commencement of military +operations. William passed that interval in his beloved park at Loo. +Marlborough spent two or three days there, and was then despatched to +Flanders with orders to collect all the English forces, to form a camp +in the neighbourhood of Brussels, and to have every thing in readiness +for the King's arrival. + +And now Marlborough had an opportunity of proving the sincerity of those +professions by which he had obtained from a heart, well described by +himself as harder than a marble chimneypiece, the pardon of an offence +such as might have moved even a gentle nature to deadly resentment. He +received from Saint Germains a message claiming the instant performance +of his promise to desert at the head of his troops. He was told that +this was the greatest service which he could render to the Crown. His +word was pledged; and the gracious master who had forgiven all past +errors confidently expected that it would be redeemed. The hypocrite +evaded the demand with characteristic dexterity. In the most respectful +and affectionate language he excused himself for not immediately obeying +the royal commands. The promise which he was required to fulfil had not +been quite correctly understood. There had been some misapprehension +on the part of the messengers. To carry over a regiment or two would +do more harm than good. To carry over a whole army was a business which +would require much time and management. [66] While James was murmuring +over these apologies, and wishing that he had not been quite so +placable, William arrived at the head quarters of the allied forces, and +took the chief command. + +The military operations in Flanders recommenced early in June and +terminated at the close of September. No important action took place. +The two armies marched and countermarched, drew near and receded. During +some time they confronted each other with less than a league between +them. But neither William nor Luxemburg would fight except at an +advantage; and neither gave the other any advantage. Languid as the +campaign was, it is on one account remarkable. During more than a +century our country had sent no great force to make war by land out of +the British isles. Our aristocracy had therefore long ceased to be +a military class. The nobles of France, of Germany, of Holland, were +generally soldiers. It would probably have been difficult to find in the +brilliant circle which surrounded Lewis at Versailles a single Marquess +or Viscount of forty who had not been at some battle or siege. But the +immense majority of our peers, baronets and opulent esquires had never +served except in the trainbands, and had never borne a part in any +military exploit more serious than that of putting down a riot or of +keeping a street clear for a procession. The generation which had fought +at Edgehill and Lansdowne had nearly passed away. The wars of Charles +the Second had been almost entirely maritime. During his reign therefore +the sea service had been decidedly more the mode than the land service; +and, repeatedly, when our fleet sailed to encounter the Dutch, such +multitudes of men of fashion had gone on board that the parks and the +theatres had been left desolate. In 1691 at length, for the first time +since Henry the Eighth laid siege to Boulogne, an English army appeared +on the Continent under the command of an English king. A camp, which was +also a court, was irresistibly attractive to many young patricians +full of natural intrepidity, and ambitious of the favour which men +of distinguished bravery have always found in the eyes of women. To +volunteer for Flanders became the rage among the fine gentlemen who +combed their flowing wigs and exchanged their richly perfumed snuffs at +the Saint James's Coffeehouse. William's headquarters were enlivened +by a crowd of splendid equipages and by a rapid succession of sumptuous +banquets. For among the high born and high spirited youths who repaired +to his standard were some who, though quite willing to face a battery, +were not at all disposed to deny themselves the luxuries with which they +had been surrounded in Soho Square. In a few months Shadwell brought +these valiant fops and epicures on the stage. The town was made merry +with the character of a courageous but prodigal and effeminate coxcomb, +who is impatient to cross swords with the best men in the French +household troops, but who is much dejected by learning that he may find +it difficult to have his champagne iced daily during the summer. He +carries with him cooks, confectioners and laundresses, a waggonload of +plate, a wardrobe of laced and embroidered suits, and much rich tent +furniture, of which the patterns have been chosen by a committee of fine +ladies. [67] + +While the hostile armies watched each other in Flanders, hostilities +were carried on with somewhat more vigour in other parts of Europe. +The French gained some advantages in Catalonia and in Piedmont. Their +Turkish allies, who in the east menaced the dominions of the Emperor, +were defeated by Lewis of Baden in a great battle. But nowhere were the +events of the summer so important as in Ireland. + +From October 1690 till May 1691, no military operation on a large scale +was attempted in that kingdom. The area of the island was, during the +winter and spring, not unequally divided between the contending races. +The whole of Ulster, the greater part of Leinster and about one third +of Munster had submitted to the English. The whole of Connaught, the +greater part of Munster, and two or three counties of Leinster were held +by the Irish. The tortuous boundary formed by William's garrisons ran +in a north eastern direction from the bay of Castlehaven to Mallow, and +then, inclining still further eastward, proceeded to Cashel. From +Cashel the line went to Mullingar, from Mullingar to Longford, and from +Longford to Cavan, skirted Lough Erne on the west, and met the ocean +again at Ballyshannon. [68] + +On the English side of this pale there was a rude and imperfect order. +Two Lords Justices, Coningsby and Porter, assisted by a Privy Council, +represented King William at Dublin Castle. Judges, Sheriffs and +Justices of the Peace had been appointed; and assizes were, after a long +interval, held in several county towns. The colonists had meanwhile +been formed into a strong militia, under the command of officers who had +commissions from the Crown. The trainbands of the capital consisted of +two thousand five hundred foot, two troops of horse and two troops +of dragoons, all Protestants and all well armed and clad. [69] On the +fourth of November, the anniversary of William's birth, and on the +fifth, the anniversary of his landing at Torbay, the whole of this force +appeared in all the pomp of war. The vanquished and disarmed natives +assisted, with suppressed grief and anger, at the triumph of the +caste which they had, five months before, oppressed and plundered with +impunity. The Lords Justices went in state to Saint Patrick's Cathedral; +bells were rung; bonfires were lighted; hogsheads of ale and claret were +set abroach in the streets; fireworks were exhibited on College Green; a +great company of nobles and public functionaries feasted at the Castle; +and, as the second course came up, the trumpets sounded, and Ulster King +at Arms proclaimed, in Latin, French and English, William and Mary, by +the grace of God, King and Queen of Great Britain, France, and Ireland. +[70] + +Within the territory where the Saxon race was dominant, trade and +industry had already begun to revive. The brazen counters which bore the +image and superscription of James gave place to silver. The fugitives +who had taken refuge in England came back in multitudes; and, by their +intelligence, diligence and thrift, the devastation caused by two years +of confusion and robbery was soon in part repaired. Merchantmen heavily +laden were constantly passing and repassing Saint George's Channel. +The receipts of the custom houses on the eastern coast, from Cork to +Londonderry, amounted in six months to sixty-seven thousand five hundred +pounds, a sum such as would have been thought extraordinary even in the +most prosperous times. [71] + +The Irish who remained within the English pale were, one and all, +hostile to the English domination. They were therefore subjected to +a rigorous system of police, the natural though lamentable effect of +extreme danger and extreme provocation. A Papist was not permitted to +have a sword or a gun. He was not permitted to go more than three miles +out of his parish except to the market town on the market day. Lest he +should give information or assistance to his brethren who occupied the +western half of the island, he was forbidden to live within ten miles of +the frontier. Lest he should turn his house into a place of resort +for malecontents, he was forbidden to sell liquor by retail. One +proclamation announced that, if the property of any Protestant should be +injured by marauders, his loss should be made good at the expense of his +Popish neighbours. Another gave notice that, if any Papist who had not +been at least three months domiciled in Dublin should be found there, he +should be treated as a spy. Not more than five Papists were to assemble +in the capital or its neighbourhood on any pretext. Without a protection +from the government no member of the Church of Rome was safe; and the +government would not grant a protection to any member of the Church of +Rome who had a son in the Irish army. [72] + +In spite of all precautions and severities, however, the Celt found many +opportunities of taking a sly revenge. Houses and barns were frequently +burned; soldiers were frequently murdered; and it was scarcely possible +to obtain evidence against the malefactors, who had with them the +sympathies of the whole population. On such occasions the government +sometimes ventured on acts which seemed better suited to a Turkish than +to an English administration. One of these acts became a favourite theme +of Jacobite pamphleteers, and was the subject of a serious parliamentary +inquiry at Westminster. Six musketeers were found butchered only a few +miles from Dublin. The inhabitants of the village where the crime had +been committed, men, women, and children, were driven like sheep into +the Castle, where the Privy Council was sitting. The heart of one of the +assassins, named Gafney, failed him. He consented to be a witness, was +examined by the Board, acknowledged his guilt, and named some of his +accomplices. He was then removed in custody; but a priest obtained +access to him during a few minutes. What passed during those few minutes +appeared when he was a second time brought before the Council. He had +the effrontery to deny that he had owned any thing or accused any body. +His hearers, several of whom had taken down his confession in writing, +were enraged at his impudence. The Lords justices broke out; "You are +a rogue; You are a villain; You shall be hanged; Where is the Provost +Marshal?" The Provost Marshal came. "Take that man," said Coningsby, +pointing to Gafney; "take that man, and hang him." There was no gallows +ready; but the carriage of a gun served the purpose; and the prisoner +was instantly tied up without a trial, without even a written order for +the execution; and this though the courts of law were sitting at the +distance of only a few hundred yards. The English House of Commons, some +years later, after a long discussion, resolved, without a division, that +the order for the execution of Gafney was arbitrary and illegal, but +that Coningsby's fault was so much extenuated by the circumstances in +which he was placed that it was not a proper subject for impeachment. +[73] + +It was not only by the implacable hostility of the Irish that the Saxon +of the pale was at this time harassed. His allies caused him almost as +much annoyance as his helots. The help of troops from abroad was indeed +necessary to him; but it was dearly bought. Even William, in whom +the whole civil and military authority was concentrated, had found it +difficult to maintain discipline in an army collected from many lands, +and composed in great part of mercenaries accustomed to live at free +quarters. The powers which had been united in him were now divided and +subdivided. The two Lords justices considered the civil administration +as their province, and left the army to the management of Ginkell, who +was General in Chief. Ginkell kept excellent order among the auxiliaries +from Holland, who were under his more immediate command. But his +authority over the English and the Danes was less entire; and +unfortunately their pay was, during part of the winter, in arrear. They +indemnified themselves by excesses and exactions for the want of that +which was their due; and it was hardly possible to punish men with +severity for not choosing to starve with arms in their hands. At length +in the spring large supplies of money and stores arrived; arrears +were paid up; rations were plentiful; and a more rigid discipline was +enforced. But too many traces of the bad habits which the soldiers had +contracted were discernible till the close of the war. [74] + +In that part of Ireland, meanwhile, which still acknowledged James as +King, there could hardly be said to be any law, any property, or any +government. The Roman Catholics of Ulster and Leinster had fled westward +by tens of thousands, driving before them a large part of the cattle +which had escaped the havoc of two terrible years. The influx of food +into the Celtic region, however, was far from keeping pace with the +influx of consumers. The necessaries of life were scarce. Conveniences +to which every plain farmer and burgess in England was accustomed could +hardly be procured by nobles and generals. No coin was to be seen except +lumps of base metal which were called crowns and shillings. Nominal +prices were enormously high. A quart of ale cost two and sixpence, a +quart of brandy three pounds. The only towns of any note on the western +coast were Limerick and Galway; and the oppression which the shopkeepers +of those towns underwent was such that many of them stole away with the +remains of their stocks to the English territory, where a Papist, though +he had to endure much restraint and much humiliation, was allowed to +put his own price on his goods, and received that price in silver. +Those traders who remained within the unhappy region were ruined. +Every warehouse that contained any valuable property was broken open by +ruffians who pretended that they were commissioned to procure stores for +the public service; and the owner received, in return for bales of cloth +and hogsheads of sugar, some fragments of old kettles and saucepans, +which would not in London or Paris have been taken by a beggar. + +As soon as a merchant ship arrived in the bay of Galway or in the +Shannon, she was boarded by these robbers. The cargo was carried away; +and the proprietor was forced to content himself with such a quantity +of cowhides, of wool and of tallow as the gang which had plundered him +chose to give him. The consequence was that, while foreign commodities +were pouring fast into the harbours of Londonderry, Carrickfergus, +Dublin, Waterford and Cork, every mariner avoided Limerick and Galway as +nests of pirates. [75] + +The distinction between the Irish foot soldier and the Irish Rapparee +had never been very strongly marked. It now disappeared. Great part of +the army was turned loose to live by marauding. An incessant predatory +war raged along the line which separated the domain of William from +that of James. Every day companies of freebooters, sometimes wrapped in +twisted straw which served the purpose of armour, stole into the English +territory, burned, sacked, pillaged, and hastened back to their +own ground. To guard against these incursions was not easy; for the +peasantry of the plundered country had a strong fellow feeling with the +plunderers. To empty the granary, to set fire to the dwelling, to drive +away the cows, of a heretic was regarded by every squalid inhabitant +of a mud cabin as a good work. A troop engaged in such a work might +confidently expect to fall in, notwithstanding all the proclamations +of the Lords justices, with some friend who would indicate the richest +booty, the shortest road, and the safest hiding place. The English +complained that it was no easy matter to catch a Rapparee. Sometimes, +when he saw danger approaching, he lay down in the long grass of the +bog; and then it was as difficult to find him as to find a hare sitting. +Sometimes he sprang into a stream, and lay there, like an otter, with +only his mouth and nostrils above the water. Nay, a whole gang of +banditti would, in the twinkling of an eye, transform itself into a +crowd of harmless labourers. Every man took his gun to pieces, hid the +lock in his clothes, stuck a cork in the muzzle, stopped the touch hole +with a quill, and threw the weapon into the next pond. Nothing was to be +seen but a train of poor rustics who had not so much as a cudgel among +them, and whose humble look and crouching walk seemed to show that their +spirit was thoroughly broken to slavery. When the peril was over, when +the signal was given, every man flew to the place where he had hid his +arms; and soon the robbers were in full march towards some Protestant +mansion. One band penetrated to Clonmel, another to the vicinity of +Maryborough; a third made its den in a woody islet of firm ground, +surrounded by the vast bog of Allen, harried the county of Wicklow, and +alarmed even the suburbs of Dublin. Such expeditions indeed were not +always successful. Sometimes the plunderers fell in with parties of +militia or with detachments from the English garrisons, in situations in +which disguise, flight and resistance were alike impossible. When this +happened every kerne who was taken was hanged, without any ceremony, on +the nearest tree. [76] + +At the head quarters of the Irish army there was, during the winter, no +authority capable of exacting obedience even within a circle of a mile. +Tyrconnel was absent at the Court of France. He had left the supreme +government in the hands of a Council of Regency composed of twelve +persons. The nominal command of the army he had confided to Berwick; but +Berwick, though, as was afterwards proved, a man of no common courage +and capacity, was young and inexperienced. His powers were unsuspected +by the world and by himself; [77] and he submitted without reluctance +to the tutelage of a Council of War nominated by the Lord Lieutenant. +Neither the Council of Regency nor the Council of War was popular at +Limerick. The Irish complained that men who were not Irish had been +entrusted with a large share in the administration. The cry was loudest +against an officer named Thomas Maxwell. For it was certain that he was +a Scotchman; it was doubtful whether he was a Roman Catholic; and he had +not concealed the dislike which he felt for that Celtic Parliament which +had repealed the Act of Settlement and passed the Act of Attainder. +[78] The discontent, fomented by the arts of intriguers, among whom +the cunning and unprincipled Henry Luttrell seems to have been the most +active, soon broke forth into open rebellion. A great meeting was held. +Many officers of the army, some peers, some lawyers of high note and +some prelates of the Roman Catholic Church were present. It was resolved +that the government set up by the Lord Lieutenant was unknown to the +constitution. Ireland, it was said, could be legally governed, in the +absence of the King, only by a Lord Lieutenant, by a Lord Deputy or by +Lords Justices. The King was absent. The Lord Lieutenant was absent. +There was no Lord Deputy. There were no Lords Justices. The Act by +which Tyrconnel had delegated his authority to a junto composed of his +creatures was a mere nullity. The nation was therefore left without any +legitimate chief, and might, without violating the allegiance due to +the Crown, make temporary provision for its own safety. A deputation was +sent to inform Berwick that he had assumed a power to which he had +no right, but that nevertheless the army and people of Ireland would +willingly acknowledge him as their head if he would consent to govern by +the advice of a council truly Irish. Berwick indignantly expressed his +wonder that military men should presume to meet and deliberate without +the permission of their general. They answered that there was no +general, and that, if His Grace did not choose to undertake the +administration on the terms proposed, another leader would easily be +found. Berwick very reluctantly yielded, and continued to be a puppet in +a new set of hands. [79] + +Those who had effected this revolution thought it prudent to send a +deputation to France for the purpose of vindicating their proceedings. +Of the deputation the Roman Catholic Bishop of Cork and the two +Luttrells were members. In the ship which conveyed them from Limerick +to Brest they found a fellow passenger whose presence was by no means +agreeable to them, their enemy, Maxwell. They suspected, and not without +reason, that he was going, like them, to Saint Germains, but on a very +different errand. The truth was that Berwick had sent Maxwell to watch +their motions and to traverse their designs. Henry Luttrell, the least +scrupulous of men, proposed to settle the matter at once by tossing the +Scotchman into the sea. But the Bishop, who was a man of conscience, +and Simon Luttrell, who was a man of honour, objected to this expedient. +[80] + +Meanwhile at Limerick the supreme power was in abeyance. Berwick, +finding that he had no real authority, altogether neglected business, +and gave himself up to such pleasures as that dreary place of banishment +afforded. There was among the Irish chiefs no man of sufficient weight +and ability to control the rest. Sarsfield for a time took the lead. But +Sarsfield, though eminently brave and active in the field, was little +skilled in the administration of war, and still less skilled in civil +business. Those who were most desirous to support his authority were +forced to own that his nature was too unsuspicious and indulgent for +a post in which it was hardly possible to be too distrustful or too +severe. He believed whatever was told him. He signed whatever was set +before him. The commissaries, encouraged by his lenity, robbed and +embezzled more shamelessly than ever. They sallied forth daily, guarded +by pikes and firelocks, to seize, nominally for the public service, but +really for themselves, wool, linen, leather, tallow, domestic utensils, +instruments of husbandry, searched every pantry, every wardrobe, every +cellar, and even laid sacrilegious hands on the property of priests and +prelates. [81] + +Early in the spring the government, if it is to be so called, of +which Berwick was the ostensible head, was dissolved by the return of +Tyrconnel. The Luttrells had, in the name of their countrymen, implored +James not to subject so loyal a people to so odious and incapable a +viceroy. Tyrconnel, they said, was old; he was infirm; he needed much +sleep; he knew nothing of war; he was dilatory; he was partial; he was +rapacious; he was distrusted and hated by the whole nation. The Irish, +deserted by him, had made a gallant stand, and had compelled the +victorious army of the Prince of Orange to retreat. They hoped soon to +take the field again, thirty thousand strong; and they adjured their +King to send them some captain worthy to command such a force. Tyrconnel +and Maxwell, on the other hand, represented the delegates as mutineers, +demagogues, traitors, and pressed James to send Henry Luttrell to +keep Mountjoy company in the Bastille. James, bewildered by these +criminations and recriminations, hesitated long, and at last, with +characteristic wisdom, relieved himself from trouble by giving all the +quarrellers fair words and by sending them all back to have their fight +out in Ireland. Berwick was at the same time recalled to France. [82] + +Tyrconnel was received at Limerick, even by his enemies, with decent +respect. Much as they hated him, they could not question the validity +of his commission; and, though they still maintained that they had +been perfectly justified in annulling, during his absence, the +unconstitutional arrangements which he had made, they acknowledged that, +when he was present, he was their lawful governor. He was not altogether +unprovided with the means of conciliating them. He brought many gracious +messages and promises, a patent of peerage for Sarsfield, some +money which was not of brass, and some clothing, which was even more +acceptable than money. The new garments were not indeed very fine. But +even the generals had long been out at elbows; and there were few of the +common men whose habiliments would have been thought sufficient to dress +a scarecrow in a more prosperous country. Now, at length, for the first +time in many months, every private soldier could boast of a pair of +breeches and a pair of brogues. The Lord Lieutenant had also been +authorised to announce that he should soon be followed by several ships, +laden with provisions and military stores. This announcement was most +welcome to the troops, who had long been without bread, and who had +nothing stronger than water to drink. [83] + +During some weeks the supplies were impatiently expected. At last, +Tyrconnel was forced to shut himself up; for, whenever he appeared in +public, the soldiers ran after him clamouring for food. Even the beef +and mutton, which, half raw, half burned, without vegetables, without +salt, had hitherto supported the army, had become scarce; and the common +men were on rations of horseflesh when the promised sails were seen in +the mouth of the Shannon. [84] + +A distinguished French general, named Saint Ruth, was on board with his +staff. He brought a commission which appointed him commander in chief of +the Irish army. The commission did not expressly declare that he was to +be independent of the viceregal authority; but he had been assured by +James that Tyrconnel should have secret instructions not to intermeddle +in the conduct of the war. Saint Ruth was assisted by another general +officer named D'Usson. The French ships brought some arms, some +ammunition, and a plentiful supply of corn and flour. The spirits of the +Irish rose; and the Te Deum was chaunted with fervent devotion in the +cathedral of Limerick. [85] + +Tyrconnel had made no preparations for the approaching campaign. But +Saint Ruth, as soon as he had landed, exerted himself strenuously to +redeem the time which had been lost. He was a man of courage, activity +and resolution, but of a harsh and imperious nature. In his own country +he was celebrated as the most merciless persecutor that had ever +dragooned the Huguenots to mass. It was asserted by English Whigs that +he was known in France by the nickname of the Hangman; that, at Rome, +the very cardinals had shown their abhorrence of his cruelty; and +that even Queen Christina, who had little right to be squeamish about +bloodshed, had turned away from him with loathing. He had recently held +a command in Savoy. The Irish regiments in the French service had formed +part of his army, and had behaved extremely well. It was therefore +supposed that he had a peculiar talent for managing Irish troops. But +there was a wide difference between the well clad, well armed and well +drilled Irish, with whom he was familiar, and the ragged marauders whom +he found swarming in the alleys of Limerick. Accustomed to the splendour +and the discipline of French camps and garrisons, he was disgusted by +finding that, in the country to which he had been sent, a regiment of +infantry meant a mob of people as naked, as dirty and as disorderly +as the beggars, whom he had been accustomed to see on the Continent +besieging the door of a monastery or pursuing a diligence up him. With +ill concealed contempt, however, he addressed himself vigorously to the +task of disciplining these strange soldiers, and was day and night in +the saddle, galloping from post to post, from Limerick to Athlone, from +Athlone to the northern extremity of Lough Rea, and from Lough Rea back +to Limerick. [86] + +It was indeed necessary that he should bestir himself; for, a few days +after his arrival, he learned that, on the other side of the Pale, +all was ready for action. The greater part of the English force was +collected, before the close of May, in the neighbourhood of Mullingar. +Ginkell commanded in chief. He had under him the two best officers, +after Marlborough, of whom our island could then boast, Talmash and +Mackay. The Marquess of Ruvigny, the hereditary chief of the refugees, +and elder brother of the brave Caillemot, who had fallen at the Boyne, +had joined the army with the rank of major general. The Lord Justice +Coningsby, though not by profession a soldier, came down from Dublin, to +animate the zeal of the troops. The appearance of the camp showed that +the money voted by the English Parliament had not been spared. The +uniforms were new; the ranks were one blaze of scarlet; and the train of +artillery was such as had never before been seen in Ireland. [87] + +On the sixth of June Ginkell moved his head quarters from Mullingar. On +the seventh he reached Ballymore. At Ballymore, on a peninsula almost +surrounded by something between a swamp and a lake, stood an ancient +fortress, which had recently been fortified under Sarsfield's direction, +and which was defended by above a thousand men. The English guns were +instantly planted. In a few hours the besiegers had the satisfaction of +seeing the besieged running like rabbits from one shelter to another. +The governor, who had at first held high language, begged piteously for +quarter, and obtained it. The whole garrison were marched off to Dublin. +Only eight of the conquerors had fallen. [88] + +Ginkell passed some days in reconstructing the defences of Ballymore. +This work had scarcely been performed when he was joined by the Danish +auxiliaries under the command of the Duke of Wirtemberg. The whole army +then moved westward, and, on the nineteenth of June, appeared before the +walls of Athlone. [89] + +Athlone was perhaps, in a military point of view, the most important +place in the island. Rosen, who understood war well, had always +maintained that it was there that the Irishry would, with most +advantage, make a stand against the Englishry. [90] The town, which was +surrounded by ramparts of earth, lay partly in Leinster and partly +in Connaught. The English quarter, which was in Leinster, had once +consisted of new and handsome houses, but had been burned by the Irish +some months before, and now lay in heaps of ruin. The Celtic quarter, +which was in Connaught, was old and meanly built. [91] The Shannon, +which is the boundary of the two provinces, rushed through Athlone in +a deep and rapid stream, and turned two large mills which rose on the +arches of a stone bridge. Above the bridge, on the Connaught side, +a castle, built, it was said, by King John, towered to the height of +seventy feet, and extended two hundred feet along the river. Fifty or +sixty yards below the bridge was a narrow ford. [92] + +During the night of the nineteenth the English placed their cannon. On +the morning of the twentieth the firing began. At five in the afternoon +an assault was made. A brave French refugee with a grenade in his hand +was the first to climb the breach, and fell, cheering his countrymen to +the onset with his latest breath. Such were the gallant spirits which +the bigotry of Lewis had sent to recruit, in the time of his utmost +need, the armies of his deadliest enemies. The example was not lost. The +grenades fell thick. The assailants mounted by hundreds. The Irish gave +way and ran towards the bridge. There the press was so great that some +of the fugitives were crushed to death in the narrow passage, and others +were forced over the parapets into the waters which roared among the +mill wheels below. In a few hours Ginkell had made himself master of the +English quarter of Athlone; and this success had cost him only twenty +men killed and forty wounded. [93] + +But his work was only begun. Between him and the Irish town the Shannon +ran fiercely. The bridge was so narrow that a few resolute men might +keep it against an army. The mills which stood on it were strongly +guarded; and it was commanded by the guns of the castle. That part of +the Connaught shore where the river was fordable was defended by works, +which the Lord Lieutenant had, in spite of the murmurs of a powerful +party, forced Saint Ruth to entrust to the care of Maxwell. Maxwell had +come back from France a more unpopular man than he had been when he +went thither. It was rumoured that he had, at Versailles, spoken +opprobriously of the Irish nation; and he had, on this account, been, +only a few days before, publicly affronted by Sarsfield. [94] On the +twenty-first of June the English were busied in flinging up batteries +along the Leinster bank. On the twenty-second, soon after dawn, the +cannonade began. The firing continued all that day and all the following +night. When morning broke again, one whole side of the castle had been +beaten down; the thatched lanes of the Celtic town lay in ashes; and one +of the mills had been burned with sixty soldiers who defended it. [95] + +Still however the Irish defended the bridge resolutely. During several +days there was sharp fighting hand to hand in the strait passage. The +assailants gained ground, but gained it inch by inch. The courage of the +garrison was sustained by the hope of speedy succour. Saint Ruth had at +length completed his preparations; and the tidings that Athlone was +in danger had induced him to take the field in haste at the head of an +army, superior in number, though inferior in more important elements of +military strength, to the army of Ginkell. The French general seems to +have thought that the bridge and the ford might easily be defended, till +the autumnal rains and the pestilence which ordinarily accompanied them +should compel the enemy to retire. He therefore contented himself with +sending successive detachments to reinforce the garrison. The immediate +conduct of the defence he entrusted to his second in command, D'Usson, +and fixed his own head quarters two or three miles from the town. He +expressed his astonishment that so experienced a commander as Ginkell +should persist in a hopeless enterprise. "His master ought to hang him +for trying to take Athlone; and mine ought to hang me if I lose it." +[96] + +Saint Ruth, however, was by no means at ease. He had found, to his great +mortification, that he had not the full authority which the promises +made to him at Saint Germains had entitled him to expect. The Lord +Lieutenant was in the camp. His bodily and mental infirmities had +perceptibly increased within the last few weeks. The slow and uncertain +step with which he, who had once been renowned for vigour and agility, +now tottered from his easy chair to his couch, was no unapt type of the +sluggish and wavering movement of that mind which had once pursued its +objects with a vehemence restrained neither by fear nor by pity, neither +by conscience nor by shame. Yet, with impaired strength, both physical +and intellectual, the broken old man clung pertinaciously to power. If +he had received private orders not to meddle with the conduct of the +war, he disregarded them. He assumed all the authority of a sovereign, +showed himself ostentatiously to the troops as their supreme chief, and +affected to treat Saint Ruth as a lieutenant. Soon the interference of +the Viceroy excited the vehement indignation of that powerful party in +the army which had long hated him. Many officers signed an instrument by +which they declared that they did not consider him as entitled to their +obedience in the field. Some of them offered him gross personal insults. +He was told to his face that, if he persisted in remaining where he was +not wanted, the ropes of his pavilion should be cut. He, on the other +hand, sent his emissaries to all the camp fires, and tried to make a +party among the common soldiers against the French general. [97] + +The only thing in which Tyrconnel and Saint Ruth agreed was in dreading +and disliking Sarsfield. Not only was he popular with the great body +of his countrymen; he was also surrounded by a knot of retainers whose +devotion to him resembled the devotion of the Ismailite murderers to +the Old Man of the Mountain. It was known that one of these fanatics, a +colonel, had used language which, in the mouth of an officer so high in +rank, might well cause uneasiness. "The King," this man had said, "is +nothing to me. I obey Sarsfield. Let Sarsfield tell me to kill any +man in the whole army; and I will do it." Sarsfield was, indeed, too +honourable a gentleman to abuse his immense power over the minds of +his worshippers. But the Viceroy and the Commander in Chief might not +unnaturally be disturbed by the thought that Sarsfield's honour was +their only guarantee against mutiny and assassination. The consequence +was that, at the crisis of the fate of Ireland, the services of the +first of Irish soldiers were not used, or were used with jealous +caution, and that, if he ventured to offer a suggestion, it was received +with a sneer or a frown. [98] + +A great and unexpected disaster put an end to these disputes. On the +thirtieth of June Ginkell called a council of war. Forage began to be +scarce; and it was absolutely necessary that the besiegers should either +force their way across the river or retreat. The difficulty of effecting +a passage over the shattered remains of the bridge seemed almost +insuperable. It was proposed to try the ford. The Duke of Wirtemberg, +Talmash, and Ruvigny gave their voices in favour of this plan; and +Ginkell, with some misgivings, consented. [99] + +It was determined that the attempt should be made that very afternoon. +The Irish, fancying that the English were about to retreat, kept guard +carelessly. Part of the garrison was idling, part dosing. D'Usson was at +table. Saint Ruth was in his tent, writing a letter to his master filled +with charges against Tyrconnel. Meanwhile, fifteen hundred grenadiers; +each wearing in his hat a green bough, were mustered on the Leinster +bank of the Shannon. Many of them doubtless remembered that on that day +year they had, at the command of King William, put green boughs in their +hats on the banks of the Boyne. Guineas had been liberally scattered +among these picked men; but their alacrity was such as gold cannot +purchase. Six battalions were in readiness to support the attack. +Mackay commanded. He did not approve of the plan; but he executed it as +zealously and energetically as if he had himself been the author of it. +The Duke of Wirtemberg, Talmash, and several other gallant officers, to +whom no part in the enterprise had been assigned, insisted on serving +that day as private volunteers; and their appearance in the ranks +excited the fiercest enthusiasm among the soldiers. + +It was six o'clock. A peal from the steeple of the church gave the +signal. Prince George of Hesse Darmstadt, and Gustavus Hamilton, the +brave chief of the Enniskilleners, descended first into the Shannon. +Then the grenadiers lifted the Duke of Wirtemberg on their shoulders, +and, with a great shout, plunged twenty abreast up to their cravats in +water. The stream ran deep and strong; but in a few minutes the head of +the column reached dry land. Talmash was the fifth man that set foot +on the Connaught shore. The Irish, taken unprepared, fired one confused +volley and fled, leaving their commander, Maxwell, a prisoner. The +conquerors clambered up the bank over the remains of walls shattered by +a cannonade of ten days. Mackay heard his men cursing and swearing as +they stumbled among the rubbish. "My lads," cried the stout old Puritan +in the midst of the uproar, "you are brave fellows; but do not swear. +We have more reason to thank God for the goodness which He has shown +us this day than to take His name in vain." The victory was complete. +Planks were placed on the broken arches of the bridge and pontoons +laid on the river, without any opposition on the part of the terrified +garrison. With the loss of twelve men killed and about thirty wounded +the English had, in a few minutes, forced their way into Connaught. +[100] + +At the first alarm D'Usson hastened towards the river; but he was +met, swept away, trampled down, and almost killed by the torrent of +fugitives. He was carried to the camp in such a state that it was +necessary to bleed him. "Taken!" cried Saint Ruth, in dismay. "It cannot +be. A town taken, and I close by with an army to relieve it!" Cruelly +mortified, he struck his tents under cover of the night, and retreated +in the direction of Galway. At dawn the English saw far off, from the +top of King John's ruined castle, the Irish army moving through the +dreary region which separates the Shannon from the Suck. Before noon the +rearguard had disappeared. [101] + +Even before the loss of Athlone the Celtic camp had been distracted by +factions. It may easily be supposed, therefore, that, after so great a +disaster, nothing was to be heard but crimination and recrimination. The +enemies of the Lord Lieutenant were more clamorous than ever. He and his +creatures had brought the kingdom to the verge of perdition. He would +meddle with what he did not understand. He would overrule the plans of +men who were real soldiers. He would entrust the most important of all +posts to his tool, his spy, the wretched Maxwell, not a born Irishman, +not a sincere Catholic, at best a blunderer, and too probably a traitor. +Maxwell, it was affirmed, had left his men unprovided with ammunition. +When they had applied to him for powder and ball, he had asked whether +they wanted to shoot larks. Just before the attack he had told them to +go to their supper and to take their rest, for that nothing more would +be done that day. When he had delivered himself up a prisoner, he had +uttered some words which seemed to indicate a previous understanding +with the conquerors. The Lord Lieutenant's few friends told a very +different story. According to them, Tyrconnel and Maxwell had suggested +precautions which would have made a surprise impossible. The French +General, impatient of all interference, had omitted to take those +precautions. Maxwell had been rudely told that, if he was afraid, he had +better resign his command. He had done his duty bravely. He had stood +while his men fled. He had consequently fallen into the hands of the +enemy; and he was now, in his absence, slandered by those to whom his +captivity was justly imputable. [102] On which side the truth lay it +is not easy, at this distance of time, to pronounce. The cry against +Tyrconnel was, at the moment, so loud, that he gave way and sullenly +retired to Limerick. D'Usson, who had not yet recovered from the hurts +inflicted by his own runaway troops, repaired to Galway. [103] + +Saint Ruth, now left in undisputed possession of the supreme command, +was bent on trying the chances of a battle. Most of the Irish officers, +with Sarsfield at their head, were of a very different mind. It was, +they said, not to be dissembled that, in discipline, the army of Ginkell +was far superior to theirs. The wise course, therefore, evidently was +to carry on the war in such a manner that the difference between the +disciplined and the undisciplined soldier might be as small as possible. +It was well known that raw recruits often played their part well in a +foray, in a street fight or in the defence of a rampart; but that, on a +pitched field, they had little chance against veterans. "Let most of our +foot be collected behind the walls of Limerick and Galway. Let the rest, +together with our horse, get in the rear of the enemy, and cut off his +supplies. If he advances into Connaught, let us overrun Leinster. If he +sits down before Galway, which may well be defended, let us make a push +for Dublin, which is altogether defenceless." [104] Saint Ruth might, +perhaps, have thought this advice good, if his judgment had not +been biassed by his passions. But he was smarting from the pain of a +humiliating defeat. In sight of his tent, the English had passed a rapid +river, and had stormed a strong town. He could not but feel that, though +others might have been to blame, he was not himself blameless. He had, +to say the least, taken things too easily. Lewis, accustomed to be +served during many years by commanders who were not in the habit of +leaving to chance any thing which could be made secure by wisdom, would +hardly think it a sufficient excuse that his general had not expected +the enemy to make so bold and sudden an attack. The Lord Lieutenant +would, of course, represent what had passed in the most unfavourable +manner; and whatever the Lord Lieutenant said James would echo. A +sharp reprimand, a letter of recall, might be expected. To return +to Versailles a culprit; to approach the great King in an agony of +distress; to see him shrug his shoulders, knit his brow and turn his +back; to be sent, far from courts and camps, to languish at some dull +country seat; this was too much to be borne; and yet this might well +be apprehended. There was one escape; to fight, and to conquer or to +perish. + +In such a temper Saint Ruth pitched his camp about thirty miles from +Athlone on the road to Galway, near the ruined castle of Aghrim, and +determined to await the approach of the English army. + +His whole deportment was changed. He had hitherto treated the Irish +soldiers with contemptuous severity. But now that he had resolved +to stake life and fame on the valour of the despised race, he became +another man. During the few days which remained to him he exerted +himself to win by indulgence and caresses the hearts of all who were +under his command. [105] He, at the same time, administered to his +troops moral stimulants of the most potent kind. He was a zealous Roman +Catholic; and it is probable that the severity with which he had treated +the Protestants of his own country ought to be partly ascribed to the +hatred which he felt for their doctrines. He now tried to give to the +war the character of a crusade. The clergy were the agents whom he +employed to sustain the courage of his soldiers. The whole camp was in +a ferment with religious excitement. In every regiment priests were +praying, preaching, shriving, holding up the host and the cup. While the +soldiers swore on the sacramental bread not to abandon their colours, +the General addressed to the officers an appeal which might have moved +the most languid and effeminate natures to heroic exertion. They were +fighting, he said, for their religion, their liberty and their honour. +Unhappy events, too widely celebrated, had brought a reproach on the +national character. Irish soldiership was every where mentioned with a +sneer. If they wished to retrieve the fame of their country, this was +the time and this the place. [106] + +The spot on which he had determined to bring the fate of Ireland to +issue seems to have been chosen with great judgment. His army was drawn +up on the slope of a hill, which was almost surrounded by red bog. In +front, near the edge of the morass, were some fences out of which a +breastwork was without difficulty constructed. + +On the eleventh of July, Ginkell, having repaired the fortifications +of Athlone and left a garrison there, fixed his headquarters at +Ballinasloe, about four miles from Aghrim, and rode forward to take a +view of the Irish position. On his return he gave orders that ammunition +should be served out, that every musket and bayonet should be got ready +for action, and that early on the morrow every man should be under arms +without beat of drum. Two regiments were to remain in charge of the +camp; the rest, unincumbered by baggage, were to march against the +enemy. + +Soon after six, the next morning, the English were on the way to Aghrim. +But some delay was occasioned by a thick fog which hung till noon +over the moist valley of the Suck; a further delay was caused by the +necessity of dislodging the Irish from some outposts; and the afternoon +was far advanced when the two armies at length confronted each other +with nothing but the bog and the breastwork between them. The English +and their allies were under twenty thousand; the Irish above twenty-five +thousand. + +Ginkell held a short consultation with his principal officers. Should +he attack instantly, or wait till the next morning? Mackay was for +attacking instantly; and his opinion prevailed. At five the battle +began. The English foot, in such order as they could keep on treacherous +and uneven ground, made their way, sinking deep in mud at every step, to +the Irish works. But those works were defended with a resolution such as +extorted some words of ungracious eulogy even from men who entertained +the strongest prejudices against the Celtic race. [107] Again and again +the assailants were driven back. Again and again they returned to the +struggle. Once they were broken, and chased across the morass; but +Talmash rallied them, and forced the pursuers to retire. The fight had +lasted two hours; the evening was closing in; and still the advantage +was on the side of the Irish. Ginkell began to meditate a retreat. The +hopes of Saint Ruth rose high. "The day is ours, my boys," he cried, +waving his hat in the air. "We will drive them before us to the walls of +Dublin." But fortune was already on the turn. Mackay and Ruvigny, with +the English and Huguenot cavalry, had succeeded in passing the bog at +a place where two horsemen could scarcely ride abreast. Saint Ruth at +first laughed when he saw the Blues, in single file, struggling through +the morass under a fire which every moment laid some gallant hat and +feather on the earth. "What do they mean?" he asked; and then he +swore that it was pity to see such fine fellows rushing to certain +destruction. "Let them cross, however;" he said. "The more they are, +the more we shall kill." But soon he saw them laying hurdles on the +quagmire. A broader and safer path was formed; squadron after squadron +reached firm ground: the flank of the Irish army was speedily turned. +The French general was hastening to the rescue when a cannon ball +carried off his head. Those who were about him thought that it would +be dangerous to make his fate known. His corpse was wrapped in a cloak, +carried from the field, and laid, with all secresy, in the sacred ground +among the ruins of the ancient monastery of Loughrea. Till the fight was +over neither army was aware that he was no more. To conceal his death +from the private soldiers might perhaps have been prudent. To conceal it +from his lieutenants was madness. The crisis of the battle had arrived; +and there was none to give direction. Sarsfield was in command of the +reserve. But he had been strictly enjoined by Saint Ruth not to stir +without orders; and no orders came. Mackay and Ruvigny with their horse +charged the Irish in flank. Talmash and his foot returned to the attack +in front with dogged determination. The breastwork was carried. The +Irish, still fighting, retreated from inclosure to inclosure. But, as +inclosure after inclosure was forced, their efforts became fainter +and fainter. At length they broke and fled. Then followed a horrible +carnage. The conquerors were in a savage mood. For a report had been +spread among them that, during the early part of the battle, some +English captives who had been admitted to quarter had been put to the +sword. Only four hundred prisoners were taken. The number of the slain +was, in proportion to the number engaged, greater than in any other +battle of that age. But for the coming on of a moonless night, made +darker by a misty rain, scarcely a man would have escaped. The obscurity +enabled Sarsfield, with a few squadrons which still remained unbroken, +to cover the retreat. Of the conquerors six hundred were killed, and +about a thousand wounded. + +The English slept that night on the field of battle. On the following +day they buried their companions in arms, and then marched westward. +The vanquished were left unburied, a strange and ghastly spectacle. Four +thousand Irish corpses were counted on the field of battle. A hundred +and fifty lay in one small inclosure, a hundred and twenty in another. +But the slaughter had not been confined to the field of battle. One who +was there tells us that, from the top of the hill on which the Celtic +camp had been pitched, he saw the country, to the distance of near four +miles, white with the naked bodies of the slain. The plain looked, he +said, like an immense pasture covered by flocks of sheep. As usual, +different estimates were formed even by eyewitnesses. But it seems +probable that the number of the Irish who fell was not less than seven +thousand. Soon a multitude of dogs came to feast on the carnage. These +beasts became so fierce, and acquired such a taste for human flesh, +that it was long dangerous for men to travel this road otherwise than in +companies. [108] + +The beaten army had now lost all the appearance of an army, and +resembled a rabble crowding home from a fair after a faction fight. One +great stream of fugitives ran towards Galway, another towards Limerick. +The roads to both cities were covered with weapons which had been flung +away. Ginkell offered sixpence for every musket. In a short time so many +waggon loads were collected that he reduced the price to twopence; and +still great numbers of muskets came in. [109] + +The conquerors marched first against Galway. D'Usson was there, and +had under him seven regiments, thinned by the slaughter of Aghrim and +utterly disorganized and disheartened. The last hope of the garrison +and of the Roman Catholic inhabitants was that Baldearg O'Donnel, the +promised deliverer of their race, would come to the rescue. But Baldearg +O'Donnel was not duped by the superstitious veneration of which he +was the object. While there remained any doubt about the issue of the +conflict between the Englishry and the Irishry, he had stood aloof. +On the day of the battle he had remained at a safe distance with his +tumultuary army; and, as soon as he had learned that his countrymen had +been put to rout, he fled, plundering and burning all the way, to the +mountains of Mayo. Thence he sent to Ginkell offers of submission +and service. Ginkell gladly seized the opportunity of breaking up +a formidable band of marauders, and of turning to good account the +influence which the name of a Celtic dynasty still exercised over the +Celtic race. The negotiation however was not without difficulties. The +wandering adventurer at first demanded nothing less than an earldom. +After some haggling he consented to sell the love of a whole people, and +his pretensions to regal dignity, for a pension of five hundred pounds a +year. Yet the spell which bound his followers to hire was not altogether +broken. Some enthusiasts from Ulster were willing to fight under the +O'Donnel against their own language and their own religion. With a small +body of these devoted adherents, he joined a division of the English +army, and on several occasions did useful service to William. [110] + +When it was known that no succour was to be expected from the hero whose +advent had been foretold by so many seers, the Irish who were shut up in +Galway lost all heart. D'Usson had returned a stout answer to the +first summons of the besiegers; but he soon saw that resistance was +impossible, and made haste to capitulate. The garrison was suffered +to retire to Limerick with the honours of war. A full amnesty for past +offences was granted to the citizens; and it was stipulated that, within +the walls, the Roman Catholic priests should be allowed to perform +in private the rites of their religion. On these terms the gates were +thrown open. Ginkell was received with profound respect by the Mayor and +Aldermen, and was complimented in a set speech by the Recorder. D'Usson, +with about two thousand three hundred men, marched unmolested to +Limerick. [111] + +At Limerick, the last asylum of the vanquished race, the authority of +Tyrconnel was supreme. There was now no general who could pretend that +his commission made him independent of the Lord Lieutenant; nor was the +Lord Lieutenant now so unpopular as he had been a fortnight earlier. +Since the battle there had been a reflux of public feeling. No part of +that great disaster could be imputed to the Viceroy. His opinion indeed +had been against trying the chances of a pitched field, and he could +with some plausibility assert that the neglect of his counsels had +caused the ruin of Ireland. [112] + +He made some preparations for defending Limerick, repaired the +fortifications, and sent out parties to bring in provisions. The +country, many miles round, was swept bare by these detachments, and +a considerable quantity of cattle and fodder was collected within the +walls. There was also a large stock of biscuit imported from France. +The infantry assembled at Limerick were about fifteen thousand men. +The Irish horse and dragoons, three or four thousand in number, were +encamped on the Clare side of the Shannon. The communication between +their camp and the city was maintained by means of a bridge called the +Thomond Bridge, which was protected by a fort. These means of defence +were not contemptible. But the fall of Athlone and the slaughter of +Aghrim had broken the spirit of the army. A small party, at the head of +which were Sarsfield and a brave Scotch officer named Wauchop, cherished +a hope that the triumphant progress of Ginkell might be stopped by those +walls from which William had, in the preceding year, been forced to +retreat. But many of the Irish chiefs loudly declared that it was +time to think of capitulating. Henry Luttrell, always fond of dark and +crooked politics, opened a secret negotiation with the English. One of +his letters was intercepted; and he was put under arrest; but many +who blamed his perfidy agreed with him in thinking that it was idle to +prolong the contest. Tyrconnel himself was convinced that all was lost. +His only hope was that he might be able to prolong the struggle till +he could receive from Saint Germains permission to treat. He wrote to +request that permission, and prevailed, with some difficulty, on his +desponding countrymen to bind themselves by an oath not to capitulate +till an answer from James should arrive. [113] + +A few days after the oath had been administered, Tyrconnel was no more. +On the eleventh of August he dined with D'Usson. The party was gay. The +Lord Lieutenant seemed to have thrown off the load which had bowed down +his body and mind; he drank; he jested; he was again the Dick Talbot +who had diced and revelled with Grammont. Soon after he had risen from +table, an apoplectic stroke deprived him of speech and sensation. On the +fourteenth he breathed his last. The wasted remains of that form which +had once been a model for statuaries were laid under the pavement of the +Cathedral; but no inscription, no tradition, preserves the memory of the +spot. [114] + +As soon as the Lord Lieutenant was no more, Plowden, who had +superintended the Irish finances while there were any Irish finances to +superintend, produced a commission under the great seal of James. This +commission appointed Plowden himself, Fitton and Nagle, Lords justices +in the event of Tyrconnel's death. There was much murmuring when the +names were made known. For both Plowden and Fitton were Saxons. The +commission, however, proved to be a mere nullity. For it was accompanied +by instructions which forbade the Lords justices to interfere in the +conduct of the war; and, within the narrow space to which the dominions +of James were now reduced, war was the only business. The government +was, therefore, really in the hands of D'Usson and Sarsfield. [115] + +On the day on which Tyrconnel died, the advanced guard of the English +army came within sight of Limerick. Ginkell encamped on the same ground +which William had occupied twelve months before. The batteries, on which +were planted guns and bombs, very different from those which William had +been forced to use, played day and night; and soon roofs were blazing +and walls crashing in every corner of the city. Whole streets were +reduced to ashes. Meanwhile several English ships of war came up the +Shannon and anchored about a mile below the city. [116] + +Still the place held out; the garrison was, in numerical strength, +little inferior to the besieging army; and it seemed not impossible +that the defence might be prolonged till the equinoctial rains should a +second time compel the English to retire. Ginkell determined on striking +a bold stroke. No point in the whole circle of the fortifications was +more important, and no point seemed to be more secure, than the Thomond +Bridge, which joined the city to the camp of the Irish horse on the +Clare bank of the Shannon. The Dutch General's plan was to separate the +infantry within the ramparts from the cavalry without; and this plan he +executed with great skill, vigour and success. He laid a bridge of +tin boats on the river, crossed it with a strong body of troops, drove +before him in confusion fifteen hundred dragoons who made a faint show +of resistance, and marched towards the quarters of the Irish horse. The +Irish horse sustained but ill on this day the reputation which they had +gained at the Boyne. Indeed, that reputation had been purchased by +the almost entire destruction of the best regiments. Recruits had been +without much difficulty found. But the loss of fifteen hundred excellent +soldiers was not to be repaired. The camp was abandoned without a blow. +Some of the cavalry fled into the city. The rest, driving before them +as many cattle as could be collected in that moment of panic, retired to +the hills. Much beef, brandy and harness was found in the magazines; and +the marshy plain of the Shannon was covered with firelocks and grenades +which the fugitives had thrown away. [117] + +The conquerors returned in triumph to their camp. But Ginkell was not +content with the advantage which he had gained. He was bent on cutting +off all communication between Limerick and the county of Clare. In a +few days, therefore, he again crossed the river at the head of several +regiments, and attacked the fort which protected the Thomond Bridge. In +a short time the fort was stormed. The soldiers who had garrisoned it +fled in confusion to the city. The Town Major, a French officer, who +commanded at the Thomond Gate, afraid that the pursuers would enter with +the fugitives, ordered that part of the bridge which was nearest to the +city to be drawn up. Many of the Irish went headlong into the stream and +perished there. Others cried for quarter, and held up handkerchiefs +in token of submission. But the conquerors were mad with rage; their +cruelty could not be immediately restrained; and no prisoners were made +till the heaps of corpses rose above the parapets. The garrison of the +fort had consisted of about eight hundred men. Of these only a hundred +and twenty escaped into Limerick. [118] + +This disaster seemed likely to produce a general mutiny in the besieged +city. The Irish clamoured for the blood of the Town Major who +had ordered the bridge to be drawn up in the face of their flying +countrymen. His superiors were forced to promise that he should be +brought before a court martial. Happily for him, he had received a +mortal wound, in the act of closing the Thomond Gate, and was saved by +a soldier's death from the fury of the multitude. [119] The cry for +capitulation became so loud and importunate that the generals could not +resist it. D'Usson informed his government that the fight at the +bridge had so effectually cowed the spirit of the garrison that it was +impossible to continue the struggle. [120] Some exception may perhaps +be taken to the evidence of D'Usson; for undoubtedly he, like every +Frenchman who had held any command in the Irish army, was weary of his +banishment, and impatient to see Paris again. But it is certain that +even Sarsfield had lost heart. Up to this time his voice had been for +stubborn resistance. He was now not only willing, but impatient to +treat. [121] It seemed to him that the city was doomed. There was no +hope of succour, domestic or foreign. In every part of Ireland the +Saxons had set their feet on the necks of the natives. Sligo had fallen. +Even those wild islands which intercept the huge waves of the Atlantic +from the bay of Galway had acknowledged the authority of William. The +men of Kerry, reputed the fiercest and most ungovernable part of the +aboriginal population, had held out long, but had at length been routed, +and chased to their woods and mountains. [122] A French fleet, if a +French fleet were now to arrive on the coast of Munster, would find +the mouth of the Shannon guarded by English men of war. The stock of +provisions within Limerick was already running low. If the siege were +prolonged, the town would, in all human probability, be reduced either +by force or by blockade. And, if Ginkell should enter through the +breach, or should be implored by a multitude perishing with hunger +to dictate his own terms, what could be expected but a tyranny more +inexorably severe than that of Cromwell? Would it not then be wise +to try what conditions could be obtained while the victors had still +something to fear from the rage and despair of the vanquished; while +the last Irish army could still make some show of resistance behind the +walls of the last Irish fortress? + +On the evening of the day which followed the fight at the Thomond +Gate, the drums of Limerick beat a parley; and Wauchop, from one of the +towers, hailed the besiegers, and requested Ruvigny to grant Sarsfield +an interview. The brave Frenchman who was an exile on account of his +attachment to one religion, and the brave Irishman who was about +to become an exile on account of his attachment to another, met and +conferred, doubtless with mutual sympathy and respect. [123] Ginkell, +to whom Ruvigny reported what had passed, willingly consented to an +armistice. For, constant as his success had been, it had not made him +secure. The chances were greatly on his side. Yet it was possible that +an attempt to storm the city might fail, as a similar attempt had failed +twelve months before. If the siege should be turned into a blockade, +it was probable that the pestilence which had been fatal to the army of +Schomberg, which had compelled William to retreat, and which had all but +prevailed even against the genius and energy of Marlborough, might soon +avenge the carnage of Aghrim. The rains had lately been heavy. The whole +plain might shortly be an immense pool of stagnant water. It might be +necessary to move the troops to a healthier situation than the bank +of the Shannon, and to provide for them a warmer shelter than that of +tents. The enemy would be safe till the spring. In the spring a French +army might land in Ireland; the natives might again rise in arms from +Donegal to Kerry; and the war, which was now all but extinguished, might +blaze forth fiercer than ever. + +A negotiation was therefore opened with a sincere desire on both sides +to put an end to the contest. The chiefs of the Irish army held several +consultations at which some Roman Catholic prelates and some eminent +lawyers were invited to assist. A preliminary question, which perplexed +tender consciences, was submitted by the Bishops. The late Lord +Lieutenant had persuaded the officers of the garrison to swear that they +would not surrender Limerick till they should receive an answer to the +letter in which their situation had been explained to James. The Bishops +thought that the oath was no longer binding. It had been taken at a time +when the communications with France were open, and in the full belief +that the answer of James would arrive within three weeks. More than +twice that time had elapsed. Every avenue leading to the city was +strictly guarded by the enemy. His Majesty's faithful subjects, by +holding out till it had become impossible for him to signify his +pleasure to them, had acted up to the spirit of their promise. [124] + +The next question was what terms should be demanded. A paper, containing +propositions which statesmen of our age will think reasonable, but which +to the most humane and liberal English Protestants of the seventeenth +century appeared extravagant, was sent to the camp of the besiegers. +What was asked was that all offences should be covered with oblivion, +that perfect freedom of worship should be allowed to the native +population, that every parish should have its priest, and that Irish +Roman Catholics should be capable of holding all offices, civil and +military, and of enjoying all municipal privileges. [125] + +Ginkell knew little of the laws and feelings of the English; but he +had about him persons who were competent to direct him. They had a week +before prevented him from breaking a Rapparee on the wheel; and they now +suggested an answer to the propositions of the enemy. "I am a stranger +here," said Ginkell; "I am ignorant of the constitution of these +kingdoms; but I am assured that what you ask is inconsistent with +that constitution; and therefore I cannot with honour consent." He +immediately ordered a new battery to be thrown up, and guns and mortars +to be planted on it. But his preparations were speedily interrupted by +another message from the city. The Irish begged that, since he could not +grant what they had demanded, he would tell them what he was willing to +grant. He called his advisers round him, and, after some consultation, +sent back a paper containing the heads of a treaty, such as he had +reason to believe that the government which he served would approve. +What he offered was indeed much less than what the Irish desired, but +was quite as much as, when they considered their situation and the +temper of the English nation, they could expect. They speedily notified +their assent. It was agreed that there should be a cessation of arms, +not only by land, but in the ports and bays of Munster, and that a fleet +of French transports should be suffered to come up the Shannon in peace +and to depart in peace. The signing of the treaty was deferred till +the Lords justices, who represented William at Dublin, should arrive +at Ginkell's quarters. But there was during some days a relaxation of +military vigilance on both sides. Prisoners were set at liberty. The +outposts of the two armies chatted and messed together. The English +officers rambled into the town. The Irish officers dined in the camp. +Anecdotes of what passed at the friendly meetings of these men, who had +so lately been mortal enemies, were widely circulated. One story, in +particular, was repeated in every part of Europe. "Has not this last +campaign," said Sarsfield to some English officers, "raised your opinion +of Irish soldiers?" "To tell you the truth," answered an Englishman, "we +think of them much as we always did." "However meanly you may think of +us," replied Sarsfield, "change Kings with us, and we will willingly try +our luck with you again." He was doubtless thinking of the day on which +he had seen the two Sovereigns at the head of two great armies, William +foremost in the charge, and James foremost in the flight. [126] + +On the first of October, Coningsby and Porter arrived at the English +headquarters. On the second the articles of capitulation were discussed +at great length and definitely settled. On the third they were signed. +They were divided into two parts, a military treaty and a civil treaty. +The former was subscribed only by the generals on both sides. The Lords +justices set their names to the latter. [127] + +By the military treaty it was agreed that such Irish officers and +soldiers as should declare that they wished to go to France should be +conveyed thither, and should, in the meantime, remain under the command +of their own generals. Ginkell undertook to furnish a considerable +number of transports. French vessels were also to be permitted to pass +and repass freely between Britanny and Munster. Part of Limerick was to +be immediately delivered up to the English. But the island on which the +Cathedral and the Castle stand was to remain, for the present, in the +keeping of the Irish. + +The terms of the civil treaty were very different from those which +Ginkell had sternly refused to grant. It was not stipulated that the +Roman Catholics of Ireland should be competent to hold any political or +military office, or that they should be admitted into any corporation. +But they obtained a promise that they should enjoy such privileges in +the exercise of their religion as were consistent with the law, or as +they had enjoyed in the reign of Charles the Second. + +To all inhabitants of Limerick, and to all officers and soldiers in +the Jacobite army, who should submit to the government and notify their +submission by taking the oath of allegiance, an entire amnesty was +promised. They were to retain their property; they were to be allowed +to exercise any profession which they had exercised before the troubles; +they were not to be punished for any treason, felony, or misdemeanour +committed since the accession of the late King; nay, they were not to +be sued for damages on account of any act of spoliation or outrage which +they might have committed during the three years of confusion. This was +more than the Lords justices were constitutionally competent to +grant. It was therefore added that the government would use its utmost +endeavours to obtain a Parliamentary ratification of the treaty. [128] + +As soon as the two instruments had been signed, the English entered the +city, and occupied one quarter of it. A narrow, but deep branch of +the Shannon separated them from the quarter which was still in the +possession of the Irish. [129] + +In a few hours a dispute arose which seemed likely to produce a renewal +of hostilities. Sarsfield had resolved to seek his fortune in the +service of France, and was naturally desirous to carry with him to the +Continent such a body of troops as would be an important addition to the +army of Lewis. Ginkell was as naturally unwilling to send thousands +of men to swell the forces of the enemy. Both generals appealed to the +treaty. Each construed it as suited his purpose, and each complained +that the other had violated it. Sarsfield was accused of putting one of +his officers under arrest for refusing to go to the Continent. Ginkell, +greatly excited, declared that he would teach the Irish to play tricks +with him, and began to make preparations for a cannonade. Sarsfield +came to the English camp, and tried to justify what he had done. The +altercation was sharp. "I submit," said Sarsfield, at last: "I am in +your power." "Not at all in my power," said Ginkell, "go back and do +your worst." The imprisoned officer was liberated; a sanguinary contest +was averted; and the two commanders contented themselves with a war of +words. [130] Ginkell put forth proclamations assuring the Irish that, if +they would live quietly in their own land, they should be protected and +favoured, and that if they preferred a military life, they should be +admitted into the service of King William. It was added that no man, +who chose to reject this gracious invitation and to become a soldier of +Lewis, must expect ever again to set foot on the island. Sarsfield and +Wauchop exerted their eloquence on the other side. The present aspect +of affairs, they said, was doubtless gloomy; but there was bright sky +beyond the cloud. The banishment would be short. The return would be +triumphant. Within a year the French would invade England. In such +an invasion the Irish troops, if only they remained unbroken, would +assuredly bear a chief part. In the meantime it was far better for them +to live in a neighbouring and friendly country, under the parental care +of their own rightful King, than to trust the Prince of Orange, who +would probably send them to the other end of the world to fight for his +ally the Emperor against the Janissaries. + +The help of the Roman Catholic clergy was called in. On the day on +which those who had made up their minds to go to France were required +to announce their determination, the priests were indefatigable in +exhorting. At the head of every regiment a sermon was preached on the +duty of adhering to the cause of the Church, and on the sin and danger +of consorting with unbelievers. [131] Whoever, it was said, should enter +the service of the usurpers would do so at the peril of his soul. The +heretics affirmed that, after the peroration, a plentiful allowance of +brandy was served out to the audience, and that, when the brandy had +been swallowed, a Bishop pronounced a benediction. Thus duly prepared +by physical and moral stimulants, the garrison, consisting of about +fourteen thousand infantry, was drawn up in the vast meadow which lay +on the Clare bank of the Shannon. Here copies of Ginkell's proclamation +were profusely scattered about; and English officers went through the +ranks imploring the men not to ruin themselves, and explaining to them +the advantages which the soldiers of King William enjoyed. At length the +decisive moment came. The troops were ordered to pass in review. +Those who wished to remain in Ireland were directed to file off at +a particular spot. All who passed that spot were to be considered as +having made their choice for France. Sarsfield and Wauchop on one side, +Porter, Coningsby and Ginkell on the other, looked on with painful +anxiety. D'Usson and his countrymen, though not uninterested in the +spectacle, found it hard to preserve their gravity. The confusion, +the clamour, the grotesque appearance of an army in which there could +scarcely be seen a shirt or a pair of pantaloons, a shoe or a stocking, +presented so ludicrous a contrast to the orderly and brilliant +appearance of their master's troops, that they amused themselves by +wondering what the Parisians would say to see such a force mustered on +the plain of Grenelle. [132] + +First marched what was called the Royal regiment, fourteen hundred +strong. All but seven went beyond the fatal point. Ginkell's countenance +showed that he was deeply mortified. He was consoled, however, by seeing +the next regiment, which consisted of natives of Ulster, turn off to a +man. There had arisen, notwithstanding the community of blood, language +and religion, an antipathy between the Celts of Ulster and those of +the other three provinces; nor is it improbable that the example and +influence of Baldearg O'Donnel may have had some effect on the people of +the land which his forefathers had ruled. [133] In most of the regiments +there was a division of opinion; but a great majority declared for +France. Henry Luttrell was one of those who turned off. He was rewarded +for his desertion, and perhaps for other services, with a grant of the +large estate of his elder brother Simon, who firmly adhered to the cause +of James, with a pension of five hundred pounds a year from the Crown, +and with the abhorrence of the Roman Catholic population. After living +in wealth, luxury and infamy, during a quarter of a century, Henry +Luttrell was murdered while going through Dublin in his sedan chair; +and the Irish House of Commons declared that there was reason to suspect +that he had fallen by the revenge of the Papists. [134] Eighty years +after his death his grave near Luttrellstown was violated by the +descendants of those whom he had betrayed, and his skull was broken +to pieces with a pickaxe. [135] The deadly hatred of which he was the +object descended to his son and to his grandson; and, unhappily, nothing +in the character either of his son or of his grandson tended to mitigate +the feeling which the name of Luttrell excited. [136] + +When the long procession had closed, it was found that about a thousand +men had agreed to enter into William's service. About two thousand +accepted passes from Ginkell, and went quietly home. About eleven +thousand returned with Sarsfield to the city. A few hours after the +garrison had passed in review, the horse, who were encamped some miles +from the town, were required to make their choice; and most of them +volunteered for France. [137] + +Sarsfield considered the troops who remained with him as under an +irrevocable obligation to go abroad; and, lest they should be tempted to +retract their consent, he confined them within the ramparts, and ordered +the gates to be shut and strongly guarded. Ginkell, though in his +vexation he muttered some threats, seems to have felt that he could not +justifiably interfere. But the precautions of the Irish general were +far from being completely successful. It was by no means strange that a +superstitious and excitable kerne, with a sermon and a dram in his head, +should be ready to promise whatever his priests required; neither was it +strange that, when he had slept off his liquor, and when anathemas were +no longer ringing in his ears, he should feel painful misgivings. He +had bound himself to go into exile, perhaps for life, beyond that dreary +expanse of waters which impressed his rude mind with mysterious terror. +His thoughts ran on all that he was to leave, on the well known peat +stack and potatoe ground, and on the mud cabin, which, humble as it was, +was still his home. He was never again to see the familiar faces round +the turf fire, or to hear the familiar notes of the old Celtic songs. +The ocean was to roll between him and the dwelling of his greyheaded +parents and his blooming sweetheart. Here were some who, unable to bear +the misery of such a separation, and, finding it impossible to pass the +sentinels who watched the gates, sprang into the river and gained the +opposite bank. The number of these daring swimmers, however, was not +great; and the army would probably have been transported almost entire +if it had remained at Limerick till the day of embarkation. But many of +the vessels in which the voyage was to be performed lay at Cork; and +it was necessary that Sarsfield should proceed thither with some of his +best regiments. It was a march of not less than four days through a +wild country. To prevent agile youths, familiar with all the shifts of +a vagrant and predatory life, from stealing off to the bogs, and woods +under cover of the night, was impossible. + +Indeed, many soldiers had the audacity to run away by broad daylight +before they were out of sight of Limerick Cathedral. The Royal regiment, +which had, on the day of the review, set so striking an example of +fidelity to the cause of James, dwindled from fourteen hundred men to +five hundred. Before the last ships departed, news came that those who +had sailed by the first ships had been ungraciously received at Brest. +They had been scantily fed; they had been able to obtain neither pay nor +clothing; though winter was setting in, they slept in the fields with no +covering but the hedges. Many had been heard to say that it would have +been far better to die in old Ireland than to live in the inhospitable +country to which they had been banished. The effect of those reports was +that hundreds, who had long persisted in their intention of emigrating, +refused at the last moment to go on board, threw down their arms, and +returned to their native villages. [138] + +Sarsfield perceived that one chief cause of the desertion which was +thinning his army was the natural unwillingness of the men to leave +their families in a state of destitution. Cork and its neighbourhood +were filled with the kindred of those who were going abroad. Great +numbers of women, many of them leading, carrying, suckling their +infants, covered all the roads which led to the place of embarkation. +The Irish general, apprehensive of the effect which the entreaties and +lamentations of these poor creatures could not fail to produce, put +forth a proclamation, in which he assured his soldiers that they should +be permitted to carry their wives and families to France. It would be +injurious to the memory of so brave and loyal a gentleman to suppose +that when he made this promise he meant to break it. It is much more +probable that he had formed an erroneous estimate of the number of those +who would demand a passage, and that he found himself, when it was +too late to alter his arrangements, unable to keep his word. After the +soldiers had embarked, room was found for the families of many. But +still there remained on the water side a great multitude clamouring +piteously to be taken on board. As the last boats put off there was a +rush into the surf. Some women caught hold of the ropes, were dragged +out of their depth, clung till their fingers were cut through, and +perished in the waves. The ships began to move. A wild and terrible wail +rose from the shore, and excited unwonted compassion in hearts steeled +by hatred of the Irish race and of the Romish faith. Even the stern +Cromwellian, now at length, after a desperate struggle of three years, +left the undisputed lord of the bloodstained and devastated island, +could not hear unmoved that bitter cry, in which was poured forth all +the rage and all the sorrow of a conquered nation. [139] + +The sails disappeared. The emaciated and brokenhearted crowd of those +whom a stroke more cruel than that of death had made widows and orphans +dispersed, to beg their way home through a wasted land, or to lie down +and die by the roadside of grief and hunger. The exiles departed, to +learn in foreign camps that discipline without which natural courage is +of small avail, and to retrieve on distant fields of battle the honour +which had been lost by a long series of defeats at home. In Ireland +there was peace. The domination of the colonists was absolute. The +native population was tranquil with the ghastly tranquillity of +exhaustion and of despair. There were indeed outrages, robberies, +fireraisings, assassinations. But more than a century passed away +without one general insurrection. During that century, two rebellions +were raised in Great Britain by the adherents of the House of Stuart. +But neither when the elder Pretender was crowned at Scone, nor when the +younger held his court at Holyrood, was the standard of that House set +up in Connaught or Munster. In 1745, indeed, when the Highlanders were +marching towards London, the Roman Catholics of Ireland were so quiet +that the Lord Lieutenant could, without the smallest risk, send several +regiments across Saint George's Channel to recruit the army of the Duke +of Cumberland. Nor was this submission the effect of content, but of +mere stupefaction and brokenness of heart. The iron had entered into the +soul. The memory of past defeats, the habit of daily enduring insult +and oppression, had cowed the spirit of the unhappy nation. There were +indeed Irish Roman Catholics of great ability, energy and ambition; but +they were to be found every where except in Ireland, at Versailles and +at Saint Ildefonso, in the armies of Frederic and in the armies of Maria +Theresa. One exile became a Marshal of France. Another became Prime +Minister of Spain. If he had staid in his native land he would have been +regarded as an inferior by all the ignorant and worthless squireens who +drank the glorious and immortal memory. In his palace at Madrid he had +the pleasure of being assiduously courted by the ambassador of George +the Second, and of bidding defiance in high terms to the ambassador of +George the Third. [140] Scattered over all Europe were to be found +brave Irish generals, dexterous Irish diplomatists, Irish Counts, Irish +Barons, Irish Knights of Saint Lewis and of Saint Leopold, of the White +Eagle and of the Golden Fleece, who, if they had remained in the house +of bondage, could not have been ensigns of marching regiments or freemen +of petty corporations. These men, the natural chiefs of their race, +having been withdrawn, what remained was utterly helpless and passive. +A rising of the Irishry against the Englishry was no more to be +apprehended than a rising of the women and children against the men. +[141] + +There were indeed, in those days, fierce disputes between the mother +country and the colony; but in those disputes the aboriginal population +had no more interest than the Red Indians in the dispute between Old +England and New England about the Stamp Act. The ruling few, even when +in mutiny against the government, had no mercy for any thing that +looked like mutiny on the part of the subject many. None of those Roman +patriots, who poniarded Julius Caesar for aspiring to be a king, +would have had the smallest scruple about crucifying a whole school of +gladiators for attempting to escape from the most odious and degrading +of all kinds of servitude. None of those Virginian patriots, who +vindicated their separation from the British empire by proclaiming it to +be a selfevident truth that all men were endowed by the Creator with an +unalienable right to liberty, would have had the smallest scruple about +shooting any negro slave who had laid claim to that unalienable right. + +And, in the same manner, the Protestant masters of Ireland, while +ostentatiously professing the political doctrines of Locke and Sidney, +held that a people who spoke the Celtic tongue and heard mass could have +no concern in those doctrines. Molyneux questioned the supremacy of +the English legislature. Swift assailed, with the keenest ridicule and +invective, every part of the system of government. Lucas disquieted the +administration of Lord Harrington. Boyle overthrew the administration +of the Duke of Dorset. But neither Molyneux nor Swift, neither Lucas nor +Boyle, ever thought of appealing to the native population. They would +as soon have thought of appealing to the swine. [142] At a later period +Henry Flood excited the dominant class to demand a Parliamentary reform, +and to use even revolutionary means for the purpose of obtaining that +reform. But neither he, nor those who looked up to him as their chief, +and who went close to the verge of treason at his bidding, would consent +to admit the subject class to the smallest share of political power. The +virtuous and accomplished Charlemont, a Whig of the Whigs, passed a long +life in contending for what he called the freedom of his country. But +he voted against the law which gave the elective franchise to Roman +Catholic freeholders; and he died fixed in the opinion that the +Parliament House ought to be kept pure from Roman Catholic members. +Indeed, during the century which followed the Revolution, the +inclination of an English Protestant to trample on the Irishry was +generally proportioned to the zeal which he professed for political +liberty in the abstract. If he uttered any expression of compassion for +the majority oppressed by the minority, he might be safely set down as a +bigoted Tory and High Churchman. [143] + +All this time hatred, kept down by fear, festered in the hearts of the +children of the soil. They were still the same people that had sprung +to arms in 1641 at the call of O'Neill, and in 1689 at the call of +Tyrconnel. To them every festival instituted by the State was a day of +mourning, and every public trophy set up by the State was a memorial of +shame. We have never known, and can but faintly conceive, the feelings +of a nation doomed to see constantly in all its public places the +monuments of its subjugation. Such monuments every where met the eye +of the Irish Roman Catholics. In front of the Senate House of their +country, they saw the statue of their conqueror. If they entered, they +saw the walls tapestried with the defeats of their fathers. At length, +after a hundred years of servitude, endured without one vigorous or +combined struggle for emancipation, the French revolution awakened a +wild hope in the bosoms of the oppressed. Men who had inherited all the +pretensions and all the passions of the Parliament which James had held +at the Kings Inns could not hear unmoved of the downfall of a wealthy +established Church, of the flight of a splendid aristocracy, of the +confiscation of an immense territory. Old antipathies, which had never +slumbered, were excited to new and terrible energy by the combination +of stimulants which, in any other society, would have counteracted each +other. The spirit of Popery and the spirit of Jacobinism, irreconcilable +antagonists every where else, were for once mingled in an unnatural +and portentous union. Their joint influence produced the third and +last rising up of the aboriginal population against the colony. The +greatgrandsons of the soldiers of Galmoy and Sarsfield were opposed to +the greatgrandsons of the soldiers of Wolseley and Mitchelburn. The Celt +again looked impatiently for the sails which were to bring succour from +Brest; and the Saxon was again backed by the whole power of England. +Again the victory remained with the well educated and well organized +minority. But, happily, the vanquished people found protection in +a quarter from which they would once have had to expect nothing but +implacable severity. By this time the philosophy of the eighteenth +century had purifed English Whiggism from that deep taint of intolerance +which had been contracted during a long and close alliance with the +Puritanism of the seventeenth century. Enlightened men had begun to feel +that the arguments by which Milton and Locke, Tillotson and Burnet, had +vindicated the rights of conscience might be urged with not less force +in favour of the Roman Catholic than in favour of the Independent or +the Baptist. The great party which traces its descent through the +Exclusionists up to the Roundheads continued during thirty years, in +spite of royal frowns and popular clamours, to demand a share in all +the benefits of our free constitution for those Irish Papists whom the +Roundheads and the Exclusionists had considered merely as beasts of +chase or as beasts of burden. But it will be for some other historian to +relate the vicissitudes of that great conflict, and the late triumph of +reason and humanity. Unhappily such a historian will have to relate that +the triumph won by such exertions and by such sacrifices was immediately +followed by disappointment; that it proved far less easy to eradicate +evil passions than to repeal evil laws; and that, long after every +trace of national and religious animosity had been obliterated from the +Statute Book, national and religious animosities continued to rankle +in the bosoms of millions. May he be able also to relate that wisdom, +justice and time gradually did in Ireland what they had done in +Scotland, and that all the races which inhabit the British isles were at +length indissolubly blended into one people! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + Opening of the Parliament--Debates on the Salaries and Fees of Official + Men--Act excluding Papists from Public Trust in Ireland--Debates on the + East India Trade--Debates on the Bill for regulating Trials in Cases + of High Treason--Plot formed by Marlborough against the Government of + William--Marlborough's Plot disclosed by the Jacobites--Disgrace + of Marlborough; Various Reports touching the Cause of Marlborough's + Disgrace.--Rupture between Mary and Anne--Fuller's Plot--Close of + the Session; Bill for ascertaining the Salaries of the Judges + rejected--Misterial Changes in England--Ministerial Changes in + Scotland--State of the Highlands--Breadalbane employed to negotiate + with the Rebel Clans--Glencoe--William goes to the Continent; Death of + Louvois--The French Government determines to send an Expedition + against England--James believes that the English Fleet is friendly to + him--Conduct of Russell--A Daughter born to James--Preparations made + in England to repel Invasion--James goes down to his Army at La + Hogue--James's Declaration--Effect produced by James's Declaration--The + English and Dutch Fleets join; Temper of the English Fleet--Battle of La + Hogue--Rejoicings in England--Young's Plot + +ON the nineteenth of October 1691, William arrived at Kensington from +the Netherlands. [144] Three days later he opened the Parliament. The +aspect of affairs was, on the whole, cheering. By land there had been +gains and losses; but the balance was in favour of England. Against the +fall of Mons might well be set off the taking of Athlone, the victory +of Aghrim, the surrender of Limerick and the pacification of Ireland. At +sea there had been no great victory; but there had been a great display +of power and of activity; and, though many were dissatisfied because +more had not been done, none could deny that there had been a change for +the better. The ruin caused by the foibles and vices of Torrington had +been repaired; the fleet had been well equipped; the rations had been +abundant and wholesome; and the health of the crews had consequently +been, for that age, wonderfully good. Russell, who commanded the naval +forces of the allies, had in vain offered battle to the French. The +white flag, which, in the preceding year, had ranged the Channel +unresisted from the Land's End to the Straits of Dover, now, as soon as +our topmasts were descried twenty leagues off, abandoned the open sea, +and retired into the depths of the harbour of Brest. The appearance of +an English squadron in the estuary of the Shannon had decided the fate +of the last fortress which had held out for King James; and a fleet +of merchantmen from the Levant, valued at four millions sterling, +had, through dangers which had caused many sleepless nights to the +underwriters of Lombard Street, been convoyed safe into the Thames. +[145] The Lords and Commons listened with signs of satisfaction to a +speech in which the King congratulated them on the event of the war +in Ireland, and expressed his confidence that they would continue to +support him in the war with France. He told them that a great naval +armament would be necessary, and that, in his opinion, the conflict +by land could not be effectually maintained with less than sixty-five +thousand men. [146] + +He was thanked in affectionate terms; the force which he asked was +voted; and large supplies were granted with little difficulty. But when +the Ways and Means were taken into consideration, symptoms of discontent +began to appear. Eighteen months before, when the Commons had been +employed in settling the Civil List, many members had shown a very +natural disposition to complain of the amount of the salaries and fees +received by official men. Keen speeches had been made, and, what was +much less usual, had been printed; there had been much excitement out of +doors; but nothing had been done. The subject was now revived. A report +made by the Commissioners who had been appointed in the preceding +year to examine the public accounts disclosed some facts which excited +indignation, and others which raised grave suspicion. The House seemed +fully determined to make an extensive reform; and, in truth, nothing +could have averted such a reform except the folly and violence of the +reformers. That they should have been angry is indeed not strange. The +enormous gains, direct and indirect, of the servants of the public went +on increasing, while the gains of every body else were diminishing. +Rents were falling; trade was languishing; every man who lived either on +what his ancestors had left him or on the fruits of his own industry +was forced to retrench. The placeman alone throve amidst the general +distress. "Look," cried the incensed squires, "at the Comptroller of the +Customs. Ten years ago, he walked, and we rode. Our incomes have been +curtailed; his salary has been doubled; we have sold our horses; he has +bought them; and now we go on foot, and are splashed by his coach and +six." Lowther vainly endeavoured to stand up against the storm. He +was heard with little favour by the country gentlemen who had not long +before looked up to him as one of their leaders. He had left them; he +had become a courtier; he had two good places, one in the Treasury, the +other in the household. He had recently received from the King's own +hand a gratuity of two thousand guineas. [147] It seemed perfectly +natural that he should defend abuses by which he profited. The taunts +and reproaches with which he was assailed were insupportable to his +sensitive nature. He lost his head, almost fainted away on the floor +of the House, and talked about righting himself in another place. [148] +Unfortunately no member rose at this conjuncture to propose that the +civil establishment of the kingdom should be carefully revised, that +sinecures should be abolished, that exorbitant official incomes should +be reduced, and that no servant of the State should be allowed to exact, +under any pretence, any thing beyond his known and lawful remuneration. +In this way it would have been possible to diminish the public burdens, +and at the same time to increase the efficiency of every public +department. But unfortunately those who were loudest in clamouring +against the prevailing abuses were utterly destitute of the qualities +necessary for the work of reform. On the twelfth of December, some +foolish man, whose name has not come down to us, moved that no person +employed in any civil office, the Speaker, Judges and Ambassadors +excepted, should receive more than five hundred pounds a year; and this +motion was not only carried, but carried without one dissentient voice. +[149] + +Those who were most interested in opposing it doubtless saw that +opposition would, at that moment, only irritate the majority, and +reserved themselves for a more favourable time. The more favourable +time soon came. No man of common sense could, when his blood had cooled, +remember without shame that he had voted for a resolution which made no +distinction between sinecurists and laborious public servants, between +clerks employed in copying letters and ministers on whose wisdom +and integrity the fate of the nation might depend. The salary of the +Doorkeeper of the Excise Office had been, by a scandalous job, raised +to five hundred a year. It ought to have been reduced to fifty. On the +other hand, the services of a Secretary of State who was well qualified +for his post would have been cheap at five thousand. If the resolution +of the Commons bad been carried into effect, both the salary which ought +not to have exceeded fifty pounds, and the salary which might without +impropriety have amounted to five thousand, would have been fixed at +five hundred. Such absurdity must have shocked even the roughest and +plainest foxhunter in the House. A reaction took place; and when, after +an interval of a few weeks, it was proposed to insert in a bill of +supply a clause in conformity with the resolution of the twelfth of +December, the Noes were loud; the Speaker was of opinion that they had +it; the Ayes did not venture to dispute his opinion; the senseless +plan which had been approved without a division was rejected without a +division; and the subject was not again mentioned. Thus a grievance so +scandalous that none of those who profited by it dared to defend it +was perpetuated merely by the imbecility and intemperance of those who +attacked it. [150] + +Early in the Session the Treaty of Limerick became the subject of a +grave and earnest discussion. The Commons, in the exercise of that +supreme power which the English legislature possessed over all the +dependencies of England, sent up to the Lords a bill providing that no +person should sit in the Irish Parliament, should hold any Irish office, +civil, military or ecclesiastical, or should practise law or medicine +in Ireland, till he had taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, and +subscribed the Declaration against Transubstantiation. The Lords were +not more inclined than the Commons to favour the Irish. No peer was +disposed to entrust Roman Catholics with political power. Nay, it seems +that no peer objected to the principle of the absurd and cruel rule +which excluded Roman Catholics from the liberal professions. But it was +thought that this rule, though unobjectionable in principle, would, +if adopted without some exceptions, be a breach of a positive compact. +Their Lordships called for the Treaty of Limerick, ordered it to be read +at the table, and proceeded to consider whether the law framed by +the Lower House was consistent with the engagements into which the +government had entered. One discrepancy was noticed. It was stipulated +by the second civil article, that every person actually residing in any +fortress occupied by an Irish garrison, should be permitted, on taking +the Oath of Allegiance, to resume any calling which he had exercised +before the Revolution. It would, beyond all doubt, have been a violation +of this covenant to require that a lawyer or a physician, who had been +within the walls of Limerick during the siege, should take the Oath +of Supremacy and subscribe the Declaration against Transubstantiation, +before he could receive fees. Holt was consulted, and was directed to +prepare clauses in conformity with the terms of the capitulation. + +The bill, as amended by Holt, was sent back to the Commons. They at +first rejected the amendment, and demanded a conference. The conference +was granted. Rochester, in the Painted Chamber, delivered to the +managers of the Lower House a copy of the Treaty of Limerick, and +earnestly represented the importance of preserving the public faith +inviolate. This appeal was one which no honest man, though inflamed by +national and religious animosity, could resist. The Commons reconsidered +the subject, and, after hearing the Treaty read, agreed, with some +slight modifications, to what the Lords had proposed. [151] + +The bill became a law. It attracted, at the time, little notice, but +was, after the lapse of several generations, the subject of a very +acrimonious controversy. Many of us can well remember how strongly the +public mind was stirred, in the days of George the Third and George the +Fourth, by the question whether Roman Catholics should be permitted to +sit in Parliament. It may be doubted whether any dispute has produced +stranger perversions of history. The whole past was falsified for +the sake of the present. All the great events of three centuries long +appeared to us distorted and discoloured by a mist sprung from our own +theories and our own passions. Some friends of religious liberty, not +content with the advantage which they possessed in the fair conflict +of reason with reason, weakened their case by maintaining that the law +which excluded Irish Roman Catholics from Parliament was inconsistent +with the civil Treaty of Limerick. The First article of that Treaty, it +was said, guaranteed to the Irish Roman Catholic such privileges in the +exercise of his religion as he had enjoyed in the time of Charles +the Second. In the time of Charles the Second no test excluded Roman +Catholics from the Irish Parliament. Such a test could not therefore, +it was argued, be imposed without a breach of public faith. In the year +1828, especially, this argument was put forward in the House of Commons +as if it had been the main strength of a cause which stood in need of no +such support. The champions of Protestant ascendency were well pleased +to see the debate diverted from a political question about which they +were in the wrong, to a historical question about which they were in +the right. They had no difficulty in proving that the first article, +as understood by all the contracting parties, meant only that the Roman +Catholic worship should be tolerated as in time past. That article was +drawn up by Ginkell; and, just before he drew it up, he had declared +that he would rather try the chance of arms than consent that Irish +Papists should be capable of holding civil and military offices, of +exercising liberal professions, and of becoming members of municipal +corporations. How is it possible to believe that he would, of his own +accord, have promised that the House of Lords and the House of Commons +should be open to men to whom he would not open a guild of skinners or +a guild of cordwainers? How, again, is it possible to believe that the +English Peers would, while professing the most punctilious respect +for public faith, while lecturing the Commons on the duty of observing +public faith, while taking counsel with the most learned and upright +jurist of the age as to the best mode of maintaining public faith, have +committed a flagrant violation of public faith and that not a single +lord should have been so honest or so factious as to protest against +an act of monstrous perfidy aggravated by hypocrisy? Or, if we could +believe this, how can we believe that no voice would have been raised in +any part of the world against such wickedness; that the Court of Saint +Germains and the Court of Versailles would have remained profoundly +silent; that no Irish exile, no English malecontent, would have uttered +a murmur; that not a word of invective or sarcasm on so inviting a +subject would have been found in the whole compass of the Jacobite +literature; and that it would have been reserved for politicians of the +nineteenth century to discover that a treaty made in the seventeenth +century had, a few weeks after it had been signed, been outrageously +violated in the sight of all Europe? [152] + +On the same day on which the Commons read for the first time the bill +which subjected Ireland to the absolute dominion of the Protestant +minority, they took into consideration another matter of high +importance. Throughout the country, but especially in the capital, +in the seaports and in the manufacturing towns, the minds of men were +greatly excited on the subject of the trade with the East Indies; a +fierce paper war had during some time been raging; and several grave +questions, both constitutional and commercial, had been raised, which +the legislature only could decide. + +It has often been repeated, and ought never to be forgotten, that our +polity differs widely from those politics which have, during the last +eighty years, been methodically constructed, digested into articles, and +ratified by constituent assemblies. It grew up in a rude age. It is not +to be found entire in any formal instrument. All along the line which +separates the functions of the prince from those of the legislator there +was long a disputed territory. Encroachments were perpetually committed, +and, if not very outrageous, were often tolerated. Trespass, merely as +trespass, was commonly suffered to pass unresented. It was only when the +trespass produced some positive damage that the aggrieved party stood on +his right, and demanded that the frontier should be set out by metes +and bounds, and that the landmarks should thenceforward be punctiliously +respected. + +Many of those points which had occasioned the most violent disputes +between our Sovereigns and their Parliaments had been finally decided by +the Bill of Rights. But one question, scarcely less important than +any of the questions which had been set at rest for ever, was still +undetermined. Indeed, that question was never, as far as can now be +ascertained, even mentioned in the Convention. The King had undoubtedly, +by the ancient laws of the realm, large powers for the regulation of +trade; but the ablest judge would have found it difficult to say what +was the precise extent of those powers. It was universally acknowledged +that it belonged to the King to prescribe weights and measures, and to +coin money; that no fair or market could be held without authority from +him; that no ship could unload in any bay or estuary which he had not +declared to be a port. In addition to his undoubted right to grant +special commercial privileges to particular places, he long claimed a +right to grant special commercial privileges to particular societies and +to particular individuals; and our ancestors, as usual, did not think +it worth their while to dispute this claim, till it produced serious +inconvenience. At length, in the reign of Elizabeth, the power of +creating monopolies began to be grossly abused; and, as soon as it +began to be grossly abused, it began to be questioned. The Queen wisely +declined a conflict with a House of Commons backed by the whole nation. +She frankly acknowledged that there was reason for complaint; she +cancelled the patents which had excited the public clamours; and her +people, delighted by this concession, and by the gracious manner in +which it had been made, did not require from her an express renunciation +of the disputed prerogative. + +The discontents which her wisdom had appeased were revived by the +dishonest and pusillanimous policy which her successor called Kingcraft. +He readily granted oppressive patents of monopoly. When he needed the +help of his Parliament, he as readily annulled them. As soon as the +Parliament had ceased to sit, his Great Seal was put to instruments +more odious than those which he had recently cancelled. At length that +excellent House of Commons which met in 1623 determined to apply a +strong remedy to the evil. The King was forced to give his assent to a +law which declared monopolies established by royal authority to be null +and void. Some exceptions, however, were made, and, unfortunately, were +not very clearly defined. It was especially provided that every Society +of Merchants which had been instituted for the purpose of carrying on +any trade should retain all its legal privileges. [153] The question +whether a monopoly granted by the Crown to such a company were or were +not a legal privilege was left unsettled, and continued to exercise, +during many years, the ingenuity of lawyers. [154] The nation, however, +relieved at once from a multitude of impositions and vexations which +were painfully felt every day at every fireside, was in no humour to +dispute the validity of the charters under which a few companies to +London traded with distant parts of the world. + +Of these companies by far the most important was that which had been, on +the last day of the sixteenth century, incorporated by Queen Elizabeth +under the name of the Governor and Company of Merchants of London +trading to the East Indies. When this celebrated body began to exist, +the Mogul monarchy was at the zenith of power and glory. Akbar, the +ablest and best of the princes of the House of Tamerlane, had just +been borne, full of years and honours, to a mausoleum surpassing in +magnificence any that Europe could show. He had bequeathed to his +posterity an empire containing more than twenty times the population and +yielding more than twenty times the revenue of the England which, under +our great Queen, held a foremost place among European powers. It is +curious and interesting to consider how little the two countries, +destined to be one day so closely connected, were then known to each +other. The most enlightened Englishmen looked on India with ignorant +admiration. The most enlightened natives of India were scarcely aware +that England existed. Our ancestors had a dim notion of endless bazaars, +swarming with buyers and sellers, and blazing with cloth of gold, with +variegated silks and with precious stones; of treasuries where diamonds +were piled in heaps and sequins in mountains; of palaces, compared with +which Whitehall and Hampton Court were hovels; of armies ten times as +numerous as that which they had seen assembled at Tilbury to repel +the Armada. On the other hand, it was probably not known to one of the +statesmen in the Durbar of Agra that there was near the setting sun a +great city of infidels, called London, where a woman reigned, and +that she had given to an association of Frank merchants the exclusive +privilege of freighting ships from her dominions to the Indian seas. +That this association would one day rule all India, from the ocean to +the everlasting snow, would reduce to profound obedience great provinces +which had never submitted to Akbar's authority, would send Lieutenant +Governors to preside in his capital, and would dole out a monthly +pension to his heir, would have seemed to the wisest of European or +of Oriental politicians as impossible as that inhabitants of our globe +should found an empire in Venus or Jupiter. + +Three generations passed away; and still nothing indicated that the East +India Company would ever become a great Asiatic potentate. The Mogul +empire, though undermined by internal causes of decay, and tottering +to its fall, still presented to distant nations the appearance of +undiminished prosperity and vigour. Aurengzebe, who, in the same +month in which Oliver Cromwell died, assumed the magnificent title of +Conqueror of the World, continued to reign till Anne had been long on +the English throne. He was the sovereign of a larger territory than +had obeyed any of his predecessors. His name was great in the farthest +regions of the West. Here he had been made by Dryden the hero of a +tragedy which would alone suffice to show how little the English of that +age knew about the vast empire which their grandchildren were to conquer +and to govern. The poet's Mussulman princes make love in the style +of Amadis, preach about the death of Socrates, and embellish their +discourse with allusions to the mythological stories of Ovid. The +Brahminical metempyschosis is represented as an article of the Mussulman +creed; and the Mussulman Sultanas burn themselves with their husbands +after the Brahminical fashion. This drama, once rapturously applauded by +crowded theatres, and known by heart to fine gentlemen and fine ladies, +is now forgotten. But one noble passage still lives, and is repeated by +thousands who know not whence it comes. [155] + +Though nothing yet indicated the high political destiny of the East +India Company, that body had a great sway in the City of London. The +offices, which stood on a very small part of the ground which the +present offices cover, had escaped the ravages of the fire. The India +House of those days was a building of timber and plaster, rich with +the quaint carving and lattice-work of the Elizabethan age. Above the +windows was a painting which represented a fleet of merchantmen tossing +on the waves. The whole edifice was surmounted by a colossal wooden +seaman, who, from between two dolphins, looked down on the crowds of +Leadenhall Street. [156] In this abode, narrow and humble indeed when +compared with the vast labyrinth of passages and chambers which now +bears the same name, the Company enjoyed, during the greater part of the +reign of Charles the Second, a prosperity to which the history of trade +scarcely furnishes any parallel, and which excited the wonder, the +cupidity and the envious animosity of the whole capital. Wealth and +luxury were then rapidly increasing. The taste for the spices, the +tissues and the jewels of the East became stronger day by day. Tea, +which, at the time when Monk brought the army of Scotland to London, had +been handed round to be stared at and just touched with the lips, as a +great rarity from China, was, eight years later, a regular article of +import, and was soon consumed in such quantities that financiers began +to consider it as a fit subject for taxation. The progress which was +making in the art of war had created an unprecedented demand for the +ingredients of which gunpowder is compounded. It was calculated that all +Europe would hardly produce in a year saltpetre enough for the siege +of one town fortified on the principles of Vauban. [157] But for the +supplies from India, it was said, the English government would be unable +to equip a fleet without digging up the cellars of London in order +to collect the nitrous particles from the walls. [158] Before the +Restoration scarcely one ship from the Thames had ever visited the Delta +of the Ganges. But, during the twenty-three years which followed the +Restoration, the value of the annual imports from that rich and populous +district increased from eight thousand pounds to three hundred thousand. + +The gains of the body which had the exclusive possession of this +fast growing trade were almost incredible. The capital which had been +actually paid up did not exceed three hundred and seventy thousand +pounds; but the Company could, without difficulty, borrow money at six +per cent., and the borrowed money, thrown into the trade, produced, +it was rumoured, thirty per cent. The profits were such that, in 1676, +every proprietor received as a bonus a quantity of stock equal to that +which he held. On the capital, thus doubled, were paid, during five +years, dividends amounting on an average to twenty per cent. annually. +There had been a time when a hundred pounds of the stock could be +purchased for sixty. Even in 1664 the price in the market was only +seventy. But in 1677 the price had risen to two hundred and forty-five; +in 1681 it was three hundred; it subsequently rose to three hundred and +sixty; and it is said that some sales were effected at five hundred. +[159] + +The enormous gains of the Indian trade might perhaps have excited little +murmuring if they had been distributed among numerous proprietors. +But while the value of the stock went on increasing, the number of +stockholders went on diminishing. At the time when the prosperity of the +Company reached the highest point, the management was entirely in the +hands of a few merchants of enormous wealth. A proprietor then had a +vote for every five hundred pounds of stock that stood in his name. It +is asserted in the pamphlets of that age that five persons had a sixth +part, and fourteen persons a third part of the votes. [160] More than +one fortunate speculator was said to derive an annual income of ten +thousand pounds from the monopoly; and one great man was pointed out on +the Royal Exchange as having, by judicious or lucky purchases of stock, +created in no long time an estate of twenty thousand a year. This +commercial grandee, who in wealth and in the influence which attends +wealth vied with the greatest nobles of his time, was Sir Josiah Child. +There were those who still remembered him an apprentice, sweeping one +of the counting houses of the City. But from a humble position his +abilities had raised him rapidly to opulence, power and fame. At the +time of the Restoration he was highly considered in the mercantile +world. Soon after that event he published his thoughts on the philosophy +of trade. His speculations were not always sound; but they were the +speculations of an ingenious and reflecting man. Into whatever errors +he may occasionally have fallen as a theorist, it is certain that, as +a practical man of business, he had few equals. Almost as soon as he +became a member of the committee which directed the affairs of the +Company, his ascendency was felt. Soon many of the most important posts, +both in Leadenhall Street and in the factories of Bombay and Bengal, +were filled by his kinsmen and creatures. His riches, though expended +with ostentatious profusion, continued to increase and multiply. He +obtained a baronetcy; he purchased a stately seat at Wanstead; and there +he laid out immense sums in excavating fishponds, and in planting whole +square miles of barren land with walnut trees. He married his daughter +to the eldest son of the Duke of Beaufort, and paid down with her a +portion of fifty thousand pounds. [161] + +But this wonderful prosperity was not uninterrupted. Towards the close +of the reign of Charles the Second the Company began to be fiercely +attacked from without, and to be at the same time distracted by internal +dissensions. The profits of the Indian trade were so tempting, that +private adventurers had often, in defiance of the royal charter, fitted +out ships for the Eastern seas. But the competition of these interlopers +did not become really formidable till the year 1680. The nation was then +violently agitated by the dispute about the Exclusion Bill. Timid men +were anticipating another civil war. The two great parties, newly named +Whigs and Tories, were fiercely contending in every county and town of +England; and the feud soon spread to every corner of the civilised world +where Englishmen were to be found. + +The Company was popularly considered as a Whig body. Among the members +of the directing committee were some of the most vehement Exclusionists +in the City. Indeed two of them, Sir Samuel Barnardistone and Thomas +Papillon, drew on themselves a severe persecution by their zeal against +Popery and arbitrary power. [162] Child had been originally brought into +the direction by these men; he had long acted in concert with them; and +he was supposed to hold their political opinions. He had, during many +years, stood high in the esteem of the chiefs of the parliamentary +opposition, and had been especially obnoxious to the Duke of York. [163] +The interlopers therefore determined to affect the character of loyal +men, who were determined to stand by the throne against the insolent +tribunes of the City. They spread, at all the factories in the East, +reports that England was in confusion, that the sword had been drawn +or would immediately be drawn, and that the Company was forward in the +rebellion against the Crown. These rumours, which, in truth, were not +improbable, easily found credit among people separated from London by +what was then a voyage of twelve months. Some servants of the Company +who were in ill humour with their employers, and others who were zealous +royalists, joined the private traders. At Bombay, the garrison and the +great body of the English inhabitants declared that they would no longer +obey any body who did not obey the King; they imprisoned the Deputy +Governor; and they proclaimed that they held the island for the Crown. +At Saint Helena there was a rising. The insurgents took the name of +King's men, and displayed the royal standard. They were, not without +difficulty, put down; and some of them were executed by martial law. +[164] + +If the Company had still been a Whig Company when the news of these +commotions reached England, it is probable that the government would +have approved of the conduct of the mutineers, and that the charter on +which the monopoly depended would have had the fate which about the same +time befell so many other charters. But while the interlopers were, at +a distance of many thousands of miles, making war on the Company in the +name of the King, the Company and the King had been reconciled. When the +Oxford Parliament had been dissolved, when many signs indicated that +a strong reaction in favour of prerogative was at hand, when all the +corporations which had incurred the royal displeasure were beginning to +tremble for their franchises, a rapid and complete revolution took place +at the India House. Child, who was then Governor, or, in the modern +phrase, Chairman, separated himself from his old friends, excluded +them from the direction, and negotiated a treaty of peace and of close +alliance with the Court. [165] It is not improbable that the near +connection into which he had just entered with the great Tory house of +Beaufort may have had something to do with this change in his politics. +Papillon, Barnardistone, and their adherents, sold their stock; their +places in the committee were supplied by persons devoted to Child; and +he was thenceforth the autocrat of the Company. The treasures of the +Company were absolutely at his disposal. The most important papers +of the Company were kept, not in the muniment room of the office in +Leadenhall Street, but in his desk at Wanstead. The boundless power +which he exercised at the India House enabled him to become a favourite +at Whitehall; and the favour which he enjoyed at Whitehall confirmed +his power at the India House. A present of ten thousand guineas was +graciously received from him by Charles. Ten thousand more were accepted +by James, who readily consented to become a holder of stock. All who +could help or hurt at Court, ministers, mistresses, priests, were kept +in good humour by presents of shawls and silks, birds' nests and atar +of roses, bulses of diamonds and bags of guineas. [166] Of what the +Dictator expended no account was asked by his colleagues; and in truth +he seems to have deserved the confidence which they reposed in him. +His bribes, distributed with judicious prodigality, speedily produced a +large return. Just when the Court became all powerful in the State, +he became all powerful at the Court. Jeffreys pronounced a decision in +favour of the monopoly, and of the strongest acts which had been done +in defence of the monopoly. James ordered his seal to be put to a new +charter which confirmed and extended all the privileges bestowed on +the Company by his predecessors. All captains of Indiamen received +commissions from the Crown, and were permitted to hoist the royal +ensigns. [167] John Child, brother of Sir Josiah, and Governor of +Bombay, was created a baronet by the style of Sir John Child of Surat: +he was declared General of all the English forces in the East; and he +was authorised to assume the title of Excellency. The Company, on the +other hand, distinguished itself among many servile corporations by +obsequious homage to the throne, and set to all the merchants of the +kingdom the example of readily and even eagerly paying those customs +which James, at the commencement of his reign, exacted without the +authority of Parliament. [168] + +It seemed that the private trade would now be utterly crushed, and that +the monopoly, protected by the whole strength of the royal prerogative, +would be more profitable than ever. But unfortunately just at this +moment a quarrel arose between the agents of the Company in India +and the Mogul Government. Where the fault lay is a question which was +vehemently disputed at the time, and which it is now impossible to +decide. The interlopers threw all the blame on the Company. The Governor +of Bombay, they affirmed, had always been grasping and violent; but his +baronetcy and his military commission had completely turned his head. +The very natives who were employed about the factory had noticed the +change, and had muttered, in their broken English, that there must be +some strange curse attending the word Excellency; for that, ever since +the chief of the strangers was called Excellency, every thing had gone +to ruin. Meanwhile, it was said, the brother in England had sanctioned +all the unjust and impolitic acts of the brother in India, till at +length insolence and rapine, disgraceful to the English nation and to +the Christian religion, had roused the just resentment of the native +authorities. The Company warmly recriminated. The story told at +the India House was that the quarrel was entirely the work of the +interlopers, who were now designated not only as interlopers but as +traitors. They had, it was alleged, by flattery, by presents, and by +false accusations, induced the viceroys of the Mogul to oppress and +persecute the body which in Asia represented the English Crown. And +indeed this charge seems not to have been altogether without foundation. +It is certain that one of the most pertinacious enemies of the Childs +went up to the Court of Aurengzebe, took his station at the palace gate, +stopped the Great King who was in the act of mounting on horseback, and, +lifting a petition high in the air, demanded justice in the name of the +common God of Christians and Mussulmans. [169] Whether Aurengzebe paid +much attention to the charges brought by infidel Franks against each +other may be doubted. But it is certain that a complete rupture took +place between his deputies and the servants of the Company. On the +sea the ships of his subjects were seized by the English. On land the +English settlements were taken and plundered. The trade was suspended; +and, though great annual dividends were still paid in London, they were +no longer paid out of annual profits. + +Just at this conjuncture, while every Indiaman that arrived in the +Thames was bringing unwelcome news from the East, all the politics of +Sir Josiah were utterly confounded by the Revolution. He had flattered +himself that he had secured the body of which he was the chief against +the machinations of interlopers, by uniting it closely with the +strongest government that had existed within his memory. That government +had fallen; and whatever had leaned on the ruined fabric began to +totter. The bribes had been thrown away. The connections which had been +the strength and boast of the corporation were now its weakness and its +shame. The King who had been one of its members was an exile. The +judge by whom all its most exorbitant pretensions had been pronounced +legitimate was a prisoner. All the old enemies of the Company, +reinforced by those great Whig merchants whom Child had expelled from +the direction, demanded justice and vengeance from the Whig House of +Commons, which had just placed William and Mary on the throne. No voice +was louder in accusation than that of Papillon, who had, some years +before, been more zealous for the charter than any man in London. [170] +The Commons censured in severe terms the persons who had inflicted death +by martial law at Saint Helena, and even resolved that some of those +offenders should be excluded from the Act of Indemnity. [171] The great +question, how the trade with the East should for the future be carried +on, was referred to a Committee. The report was to have been made on +the twenty-seventh of January 1690; but on that very day the Parliament +ceased to exist. + +The first two sessions of the succeeding Parliament were so short and +so busy that little was said about India in either House. But, out +of Parliament, all the arts both of controversy and of intrigue were +employed on both sides. Almost as many pamphlets were published about +the India trade as about the oaths. The despot of Leadenhall Street was +libelled in prose and verse. Wretched puns were made on his name. He was +compared to Cromwell, to the King of France, to Goliath of Gath, to the +Devil. It was vehemently declared to be necessary that, in any Act which +might be passed for the regulation of our traffic with the Eastern seas, +Sir Josiah should be by name excluded from all trust. [172] + +There were, however, great differences of opinion among those who agreed +in hating Child and the body of which he was the head. The manufacturers +of Spitalfields, of Norwich, of Yorkshire, and of the Western counties, +considered the trade with the Eastern seas as rather injurious than +beneficial to the kingdom. The importation of Indian spices, indeed, was +admitted to be harmless, and the importation of Indian saltpetre to be +necessary. But the importation of silks and of Bengals, as shawls were +then called, was pronounced to be a curse to the country. The effect of +the growing taste for such frippery was that our gold and silver went +abroad, and that much excellent English drapery lay in our warehouses +till it was devoured by the moths. Those, it was said, were happy days +for the inhabitants both of our pasture lands and of our manufacturing +towns, when every gown, every hanging, every bed, was made of materials +which our own flocks had furnished to our own looms. Where were now +the brave old hangings of arras which had adorned the walls of lordly +mansions in the days of Elizabeth? And was it not a shame to see a +gentleman, whose ancestors had worn nothing but stuffs made by English +workmen out of English fleeces, flaunting in a calico shirt and a pair +of silk stockings? Clamours such as these had, a few years before, +extorted from Parliament the Act which required that the dead should +be wrapped in woollen; and some sanguine clothiers hoped that the +legislature would, by excluding all Indian textures from our ports, +impose the same necessity on the living. [173] + +But this feeling was confined to a minority. The public was, indeed, +inclined rather to overrate than to underrate the benefits which might +be derived by England from the Indian trade. What was the most effectual +mode of extending that trade was a question which excited general +interest, and which was answered in very different ways. + +A small party, consisting chiefly of merchants resident at Bristol and +other provincial seaports, maintained that the best way to extend trade +was to leave it free. They urged the well known arguments which prove +that monopoly is injurious to commerce; and, having fully established +the general law, they asked why the commerce between England and India +was to be considered as an exception to that law. Any trader ought, they +said, to be permitted to send from any port a cargo to Surat or Canton +as freely as he now sent a cargo to Hamburg or Lisbon. [174] In our time +these doctrines may probably be considered, not only as sound, but +as trite and obvious. In the seventeenth century, however, they were +thought paradoxical. It was then generally held to be a certain, and +indeed an almost selfevident truth, that our trade with the countries +lying beyond the Cape of Good Hope could be advantageously carried on +only by means of a great Joint Stock Company. There was no analogy, +it was said, between our European trade and our Indian trade. Our +government had diplomatic relations with the European States. If +necessary, a maritime force could easily be sent from hence to the mouth +of the Elbe or of the Tagus. But the English Kings had no envoy at the +Court of Agra or Pekin. There was seldom a single English man of war +within ten thousand miles of the Bay of Bengal or of the Gulf of Siam. +As our merchants could not, in those remote seas, be protected by +their Sovereign, they must protect themselves, and must, for that +end, exercise some of the rights of sovereignty. They must have forts, +garrisons and armed ships. They must have power to send and receive +embassies, to make a treaty of alliance with one Asiatic prince, to wage +war on another. It was evidently impossible that every merchant should +have this power independently of the rest. The merchants trading to +India must therefore be joined together in a corporation which could act +as one man. In support of these arguments the example of the Dutch was +cited, and was generally considered as decisive. For in that age the +immense prosperity of Holland was every where regarded with admiration, +not the less earnest because it was largely mingled with envy and +hatred. In all that related to trade, her statesmen were considered as +oracles, and her institutions as models. + +The great majority, therefore, of those who assailed the Company +assailed it, not because it traded on joint funds and possessed +exclusive privileges, but because it was ruled by one man, and because +his rule had been mischievous to the public, and beneficial only to +himself and his creatures. The obvious remedy, it was said, for the +evils which his maladministration had produced was to transfer the +monopoly to a new corporation so constituted as to be in no danger of +falling under the dominion either of a despot or of a narrow oligarchy. +Many persons who were desirous to be members of such a corporation, +formed themselves into a society, signed an engagement, and entrusted +the care of their interests to a committee which contained some of the +chief traders of the City. This society, though it had, in the eye of +the law, no personality, was early designated, in popular speech, as +the New Company; and the hostilities between the New Company and the Old +Company soon caused almost as much excitement and anxiety, at least +in that busy hive of which the Royal Exchange was the centre, as the +hostilities between the Allies and the French King. The headquarters of +the younger association were in Dowgate; the Skinners lent their stately +hall; and the meetings were held in a parlour renowned for the fragrance +which exhaled from a magnificent wainscot of cedar. [175] + +While the contention was hottest, important news arrived from India, +and was announced in the London Gazette as in the highest degree +satisfactory. Peace had been concluded between the great Mogul and the +English. That mighty potentate had not only withdrawn his troops from +the factories, but had bestowed on the Company privileges such as it had +never before enjoyed. Soon, however, appeared a very different version +of the story. The enemies of Child had, before this time, accused him +of systematically publishing false intelligence. He had now, they said, +outlied himself. They had obtained a true copy of the Firman which had +put an end to the war; and they printed a translation of it. It +appeared that Aurengzebe had contemptuously granted to the English, in +consideration of their penitence and of a large tribute, his forgiveness +for their past delinquency, had charged them to behave themselves better +for the future, and had, in the tone of a master, laid on them his +commands to remove the principal offender, Sir John Child, from power +and trust. The death of Sir John occurred so seasonably that these +commands could not be obeyed. But it was only too evident that the +pacification which the rulers of the India House had represented +as advantageous and honourable had really been effected on terms +disgraceful to the English name. [176] + +During the summer of 1691, the controversy which raged on this subject +between the Leadenhall Street Company and the Dowgate Company kept the +City in constant agitation. In the autumn, the Parliament had no sooner +met than both the contending parties presented petitions to the House +of Commons. [177] The petitions were immediately taken into serious +consideration, and resolutions of grave importance were passed. The +first resolution was that the trade with the East Indies was beneficial +to the kingdom; the second was that the trade with the East Indies +would be best carried on by a joint stock company possessed of +exclusive privileges. [178] It was plain, therefore, that neither those +manufacturers who wished to prohibit the trade, nor those merchants at +the outports who wished to throw it open, had the smallest chance of +attaining their objects. The only question left was the question +between the Old and the New Company. Seventeen years elapsed before that +question ceased to disturb both political and commercial circles. It was +fatal to the honour and power of one great minister, and to the peace +and prosperity of many private families. The tracts which the rival +bodies put forth against each other were innumerable. If the drama of +that age may be trusted, the feud between the India House and Skinners' +Hall was sometimes as serious an impediment to the course of true love +in London as the feud of the Capulets and Montagues had been at Verona. +[179] Which of the two contending parties was the stronger it is not +easy to say. The New Company was supported by the Whigs, the Old Company +by the Tories. The New Company was popular; for it promised largely, +and could not be accused of having broken its promises; it made no +dividends, and therefore was not envied; it had no power to oppress, +and had therefore been guilty of no oppression. The Old Company, though +generally regarded with little favour by the public, had the immense +advantage of being in possession, and of having only to stand on the +defensive. The burden of framing a plan for the regulation of the India +trade, and of proving that plan to be better than the plan hitherto +followed, lay on the New Company. The Old Company had merely to find +objections to every change that was proposed; and such objections there +was little difficulty in finding. The members of the New Company were +ill provided with the means of purchasing support at Court and in +Parliament. They had no corporate existence, no common treasury. If +any of them gave a bribe, he gave it out of his own pocket, with little +chance of being reimbursed. But the Old Company, though surrounded +by dangers, still held its exclusive privileges, and still made its +enormous profits. Its stock had indeed gone down greatly in value since +the golden days of Charles the Second; but a hundred pounds still sold +for a hundred and twenty-two. [180] After a large dividend had been paid +to the proprietors, a surplus remained amply sufficient, in those +days, to corrupt half a cabinet; and this surplus was absolutely at the +disposal of one able, determined and unscrupulous man, who maintained +the fight with wonderful art and pertinacity. + +The majority of the Commons wished to effect a compromise, to retain the +Old Company, but to remodel it, to impose on it new conditions, and to +incorporate with it the members of the New Company. With this view it +was, after long and vehement debates and close divisions, resolved that +the capital should be increased to a million and a half. In order to +prevent a single person or a small junto from domineering over the whole +society, it was determined that five thousand pounds of stock should +be the largest quantity that any single proprietor could hold, and that +those who held more should be required to sell the overplus at any price +not below par. In return for the exclusive privilege of trading to the +Eastern seas, the Company was to be required to furnish annually five +hundred tons of saltpetre to the Crown at a low price, and to export +annually English manufactures to the value of two hundred thousand +pounds. [181] + +A bill founded on these resolutions was brought in, read twice, and +committed, but was suffered to drop in consequence of the positive +refusal of Child and his associates to accept the offered terms. He +objected to every part of the plan; and his objections are highly +curious and amusing. The great monopolist took his stand on the +principles of free trade. In a luminous and powerfully written paper he +exposed the absurdity of the expedients which the House of Commons had +devised. To limit the amount of stock which might stand in a single name +would, he said, be most unreasonable. Surely a proprietor whose whole +fortune was staked on the success of the Indian trade was far more +likely to exert all his faculties vigorously for the promotion of that +trade than a proprietor who had risked only what it would be no great +disaster to lose. The demand that saltpetre should be furnished to the +Crown for a fixed sum Child met by those arguments, familiar to our +generation, which prove that prices should be left to settle themselves. +To the demand that the Company should bind itself to export annually two +hundred thousand pounds' worth of English manufactures he very properly +replied that the Company would most gladly export two millions' worth +if the market required such a supply, and that, if the market were +overstocked, it would be mere folly to send good cloth half round the +world to be eaten by white ants. It was never, he declared with much +spirit, found politic to put trade into straitlaced bodices, which, +instead of making it grow upright and thrive, must either kill it or +force it awry. + +The Commons, irritated by Child's obstinacy, presented an address +requesting the King to dissolve the Old Company, and to grant a charter +to a new Company on such terms as to His Majesty's wisdom might seem +fit. [182] It is plainly implied in the terms of this address that +the Commons thought the King constitutionally competent to grant an +exclusive privilege of trading to the East Indies. + +The King replied that the subject was most important, that he would +consider it maturely, and that he would, at a future time, give the +House a more precise answer. [183] In Parliament nothing more was said +on the subject during that session; but out of Parliament the war was +fiercer than ever; and the belligerents were by no means scrupulous +about the means which they employed. The chief weapons of the New +Company were libels; the chief weapons of the Old Company were bribes. + +In the same week in which the bill for the regulation of the Indian +trade was suffered to drop, another bill which had produced great +excitement and had called forth an almost unprecedented display of +parliamentary ability, underwent the same fate. + +During the eight years which preceded the Revolution, the Whigs had +complained bitterly, and not more bitterly than justly, of the hard +measure dealt out to persons accused of political offences. Was it not +monstrous, they asked, that a culprit should be denied a sight of his +indictment? Often an unhappy prisoner had not known of what he was +accused till he had held up his hand at the bar. The crime imputed to +him might be plotting to shoot the King; it might be plotting to poison +the King. The more innocent the defendant was, the less likely he was +to guess the nature of the charge on which he was to be tried; and how +could he have evidence ready to rebut a charge the nature of which +he could not guess? The Crown had power to compel the attendance of +witnesses. The prisoner had no such power. If witnesses voluntarily came +forward to speak in his favour, they could not be sworn. Their testimony +therefore made less impression on a jury than the testimony of the +witnesses for the prosecution, whose veracity was guaranteed by the most +solemn sanctions of law and of religion. The juries, carefully selected +by Sheriffs whom the Crown had named, were men animated by the fiercest +party spirit, men who had as little tenderness for an Exclusionist of a +Dissenter as for a mad dog. The government was served by a band of able, +experienced and unprincipled lawyers, who could, by merely glancing over +a brief, distinguish every weak and every strong point of a case, +whose presence of mind never failed them, whose flow of speech was +inexhaustible, and who had passed their lives in dressing up the worse +reason so as to make it appear the better. Was it not horrible to see +three or four of these shrewd, learned and callous orators arrayed +against one poor wretch who had never in his life uttered a word in +public, who was ignorant of the legal definition of treason and of the +first principles of the law of evidence, and whose intellect, unequal +at best to a fencing match with professional gladiators, was confused by +the near prospect of a cruel and ignominious death? Such however was the +rule; and even for a man so much stupefied by sickness that he could not +hold up his hand or make his voice heard, even for a poor old woman who +understood nothing of what was passing except that she was going to be +roasted alive for doing an act of charity, no advocate was suffered to +utter a word. That a state trial so conducted was little better than a +judicial murder had been, during the proscription of the Whig party, a +fundamental article of the Whig creed. The Tories, on the other +hand, though they could not deny that there had been some hard cases, +maintained that, on the whole, substantial justice had been done. +Perhaps a few seditious persons who had gone very near to the frontier +of treason, but had not actually passed that frontier, might have +suffered as traitors. But was that a sufficient reason for enabling the +chiefs of the Rye House Plot and of the Western Insurrection to elude, +by mere chicanery, the punishment of their guilt? On what principle +was the traitor to have chances of escape which were not allowed to the +felon? The culprit who was accused of larceny was subject to all the +same disadvantages which, in the case of regicides and rebels, were +thought so unjust; ye nobody pitied him. Nobody thought it monstrous +that he should not have time to study a copy of his indictment, that his +witnesses should be examined without being sworn, that he should be +left to defend himself, without the help of counsel against the best +abilities which the Inns of Court could furnish. The Whigs, it seemed, +reserved all their compassion for those crimes which subvert government +and dissolve the whole frame of human society. Guy Faux was to be +treated with an indulgence which was not to be extended to a shoplifter. +Bradshaw was to have privileges which were refused to a boy who had +robbed a henroost. + +The Revolution produced, as was natural, some change in the sentiments +of both the great parties. In the days when none but Roundheads and +Nonconformists were accused of treason, even the most humane and upright +Cavaliers were disposed to think that the laws which were the safeguard +of the throne could hardly be too severe. But, as soon as loyal Tory +gentlemen and venerable fathers of the Church were in danger of being +called in question for corresponding with Saint Germains, a new light +flashed on many understandings which had been unable to discover the +smallest injustice in the proceedings against Algernon Sidney and Alice +Lisle. It was no longer thought utterly absurd to maintain that some +advantages which were withheld from a man accused of felony might +reasonably be allowed to a man accused of treason. What probability +was there that any sheriff would pack a jury, that any barrister would +employ all the arts of sophistry and rhetoric, that any judge would +strain law and misrepresent evidence, in order to convict an innocent +person of burglary or sheep stealing? But on a trial for high treason +a verdict of acquittal must always be considered as a defeat of +the government; and there was but too much reason to fear that many +sheriffs, barristers and judges might be impelled by party spirit, or by +some baser motive, to do any thing which might save the government from +the inconvenience and shame of a defeat. The cry of the whole body +of Tories was that the lives of good Englishmen who happened to be +obnoxious to the ruling powers were not sufficiently protected; and +this cry was swelled by the voices of some lawyers who had distinguished +themselves by the malignant zeal and dishonest ingenuity with which they +had conducted State prosecutions in the days of Charles and James. + +The feeling of the Whigs, though it had not, like the feeling of the +Tories, undergone a complete change, was yet not quite what it had been. +Some, who had thought it most unjust that Russell should have no counsel +and that Cornish should have no copy of his indictment, now began to +mutter that the times had changed; that the dangers of the State were +extreme; that liberty, property, religion, national independence, were +all at stake; that many Englishmen were engaged in schemes of which the +object was to make England the slave of France and of Rome; and that +it would be most unwise to relax, at such a moment, the laws against +political offences. It was true that the injustice with which, in the +late reigns, State trials had been conducted, had given great scandal. +But this injustice was to be ascribed to the bad kings and bad judges +with whom the nation had been cursed. William was now on the throne; +Holt was seated for life on the bench; and William would never exact, +nor would Holt ever perform, services so shameful and wicked as those +for which the banished tyrant had rewarded Jeffreys with riches and +titles. This language however was at first held but by few. The Whigs, +as a party, seem to have felt that they could not honourably defend, in +the season of their prosperity, what, in the time of their adversity, +they had always designated as a crying grievance. A bill for regulating +trials in cases of high treason was brought into the House of Commons, +and was received with general applause. Treby had the courage to make +some objections; but no division took place. The chief enactments were +that no person should be convicted of high treason committed more than +three years before the indictment was found; that every person indicted +for high treason should be allowed to avail himself of the assistance of +counsel, and should be furnished, ten days before the trial, with a copy +of the indictment, and with a list of the freeholders from among whom +the jury was to be taken; that his witnesses should be sworn, and that +they should be cited by the same process by which the attendance of the +witnesses against him was secured. + +The Bill went to the Upper House, and came back with an important +amendment. The Lords had long complained of the anomalous and iniquitous +constitution of that tribunal which had jurisdiction over them in cases +of life and death. When a grand jury has found a bill of indictment +against a temporal peer for any offence higher than a misdemeanour, the +Crown appoints a Lord High Steward; and in the Lord High Steward's +Court the case is tried. This Court was anciently composed in two very +different ways. It consisted, if Parliament happened to be sitting, of +all the members of the Upper House. When Parliament was not sitting, the +Lord High Steward summoned any twelve or more peers at his discretion +to form a jury. The consequence was that a peer accused of high treason +during a recess was tried by a jury which his prosecutors had packed. +The Lords now demanded that, during a recess as well as during a +session, every peer accused of high treason should be tried by the whole +body of the peerage. + +The demand was resisted by the House of Commons with a vehemence and +obstinacy which men of the present generation may find it difficult to +understand. The truth is that some invidious privileges of peerage +which have since been abolished, and others which have since fallen +into entire desuetude, were then in full force, and were daily used. +No gentleman who had had a dispute with a nobleman could think, without +indignation, of the advantages enjoyed by the favoured caste. If His +Lordship were sued at law, his privilege enabled him to impede the +course of justice. If a rude word were spoken of him, such a word as +he might himself utter with perfect impunity, he might vindicate his +insulted dignity both by civil and criminal proceedings. If a barrister, +in the discharge of his duty to a client, spoke with severity of the +conduct of a noble seducer, if an honest squire on the racecourse +applied the proper epithets to the tricks of a noble swindler, the +affronted patrician had only to complain to the proud and powerful body +of which he was a member. His brethren made his cause their own. The +offender was taken into custody by Black Rod, brought to the bar, flung +into prison, and kept there till he was glad to obtain forgiveness by +the most degrading submissions. Nothing could therefore be more natural +than that an attempt of the Peers to obtain any new advantage for their +order should be regarded by the Commons with extreme jealousy. There is +strong reason to suspect that some able Whig politicians, who thought it +dangerous to relax, at that moment, the laws against political offences, +but who could not, without incurring the charge of inconsistency, +declare themselves adverse to any relaxation, had conceived a hope that +they might, by fomenting the dispute about the Court of the Lord High +Steward, defer for at least a year the passing of a bill which they +disliked, and yet could not decently oppose. If this really was their +plan, it succeeded perfectly. The Lower House rejected the amendment; +the Upper House persisted; a free conference was held; and the question +was argued with great force and ingenuity on both sides. + +The reasons in favour of the amendment are obvious, and indeed at first +sight seem unanswerable. It was surely difficult to defend a system +under which the Sovereign nominated a conclave of his own creatures to +decide the fate of men whom he regarded as his mortal enemies. And could +any thing be more absurd than that a nobleman accused of high treason +should be entitled to be tried by the whole body of his peers if his +indictment happened to be brought into the House of Lords the minute +before a prorogation, but that, if the indictment arrived a minute after +the prorogation, he should be at the mercy of a small junto named by the +very authority which prosecuted him? That any thing could have been said +on the other side seems strange; but those who managed the conference +for the Commons were not ordinary men, and seem on this occasion to have +put forth all their powers. Conspicuous among them was Charles Montague, +who was rapidly attaining a foremost rank among the orators of that age. +To him the lead seems on this occasion to have been left; and to his pen +we owe an account of the discussion, which gives a very high notion +of his talents for debate. "We have framed"--such was in substance his +reasoning,--"we have framed a law which has in it nothing exclusive, +a law which will be a blessing to every class, from the highest to +the lowest. The new securities, which we propose to give to innocence +oppressed by power, are common between the premier peer and the humblest +day labourer. The clause which establishes a time of limitation for +prosecutions protects us all alike. To every Englishman accused of +the highest crime against the state, whatever be his rank, we give the +privilege of seeing his indictment, the privilege of being defended +by counsel, the privilege of having his witnesses summoned by writ of +subpoena and sworn on the Holy Gospels. Such is the bill which we sent +up to your Lordships; and you return it to us with a clause of which the +effect is to give certain advantages to your noble order at the expense +of the ancient prerogatives of the Crown. Surely before we consent to +take away from the King any power which his predecessors have possessed +for ages, and to give it to your Lordships, we ought to be satisfied +that you are more likely to use it well than he. Something we must risk; +somebody we must trust; and; since we are forced, much against our will, +to institute what is necessarily an invidious comparison, we must own +ourselves unable to discover any reason for believing that a prince is +less to be trusted than an aristocracy. + +"Is it reasonable, you ask, that you should be tried for your lives +before a few members of your House, selected by the Crown? Is it +reasonable, we ask in our turn, that you should have the privilege of +being tried by all the members of your House, that is to say, by your +brothers, your uncles, your first cousins, your second cousins, your +fathers in law, your brothers in law, your most intimate friends? You +marry so much into each other's families, you live so much in each +other's society, that there is scarcely a nobleman who is not connected +by consanguinity or affinity with several others, and who is not on +terms of friendship with several more. There have been great men +whose death put a third or fourth part of the baronage of England into +mourning. Nor is there much danger that even those peers who may be +unconnected with an accused lord will be disposed to send him to the +block if they can with decency say 'Not Guilty, upon my honour.' For +the ignominious death of a single member of a small aristocratical body +necessarily leaves a stain on the reputation of his fellows. If, indeed, +your Lordships proposed that every one of your body should be compelled +to attend and vote, the Crown might have some chance of obtaining +justice against a guilty peer, however strongly connected. But you +propose that attendance shall be voluntary. Is it possible to doubt what +the consequence will be? All the prisoner's relations and friends will +be in their places to vote for him. Good nature and the fear of making +powerful enemies will keep away many who, if they voted at all, would +be forced by conscience and honour to vote against him. The new system +which you propose would therefore evidently be unfair to the Crown; and +you do not show any reason for believing that the old system has been +found in practice unfair to yourselves. We may confidently affirm that, +even under a government less just and merciful than that under which we +have the happiness to live, an innocent peer has little to fear from +any set of peers that can be brought together in Westminster Hall to +try him. How stands the fact? In what single case has a guiltless head +fallen by the verdict of this packed jury? It would be easy to make out +a long list of squires, merchants, lawyers, surgeons, yeomen, artisans, +ploughmen, whose blood, barbarously shed during the late evil times, +cries for vengeance to heaven. But what single member of your House, +in our days, or in the days of our fathers, or in the days of our +grandfathers, suffered death unjustly by sentence of the Court of +the Lord High Steward? Hundreds of the common people were sent to +the gallows by common juries for the Rye House Plot and the Western +Insurrection. One peer, and one alone, my Lord Delamere, was brought +at that time before the Court of the Lord High Steward; and he was +acquitted. But, it is said, the evidence against him was legally +insufficient. Be it so. So was the evidence against Sidney, against +Cornish, against Alice Lisle; yet it sufficed to destroy them. But, +it is said, the peers before whom my Lord Delamere was brought were +selected with shameless unfairness by King James and by Jeffreys. Be it +so. But this only proves that, under the worst possible King, and under +the worst possible High Steward, a lord tried by lords has a better +chance for life than a commoner who puts himself on his country. We +cannot, therefore, under the mild government which we now possess, feel +much apprehension for the safety of any innocent peer. Would that we +felt as little apprehension for the safety of that government! But it is +notorious that the settlement with which our liberties are inseparably +bound up is attacked at once by foreign and by domestic enemies. We +cannot consent at such a crisis to relax the restraints which have, it +may well be feared, already proved too feeble to prevent some men of +high rank from plotting the ruin of their country. To sum up the whole, +what is asked of us is that we will consent to transfer a certain power +from their Majesties to your Lordships. Our answer is that, at this +time, in our opinion, their Majesties have not too much power, and your +Lordships have quite power enough." + +These arguments, though eminently ingenious, and not without real force, +failed to convince the Upper House. The Lords insisted that every peer +should be entitled to be a Trier. The Commons were with difficulty +induced to consent that the number of Triers should never be less than +thirty-six, and positively refused to make any further concession. The +bill was therefore suffered to drop. [184] + +It is certain that those who in the conference on this bill represented +the Commons, did not exaggerate the dangers to which the government was +exposed. While the constitution of the Court which was to try peers for +treason was under discussion, a treason planned with rare skill by a +peer was all but carried into execution. + +Marlborough had never ceased to assure the Court of Saint Germains that +the great crime which he had committed was constantly present to his +thoughts, and that he lived only for the purpose of repentance and +reparation. Not only had he been himself converted; he had also +converted the Princess Anne. In 1688, the Churchills had, with little +difficulty, induced her to fly from her father's palace. In 1691, they, +with as little difficulty, induced her to copy out and sign a letter +expressing her deep concern for his misfortunes and her earnest wish to +atone for her breach of duty. [185] At the same time Marlborough held +out hopes that it might be in his power to effect the restoration of +his old master in the best possible way, without the help of a single +foreign soldier or sailor, by the votes of the English Lords and +Commons, and by the support of the English army. We are not fully +informed as to all the details of his plan. But the outline is known to +us from a most interesting paper written by James, of which one copy is +in the Bodleian Library, and another among the archives of the French +Foreign Office. + +The jealousy with which the English regarded the Dutch was at this time +intense. There had never been a hearty friendship between the nations. +They were indeed near of kin to each other. They spoke two dialects of +one widespread language. Both boasted of their political freedom. Both +were attached to the reformed faith. Both were threatened by the same +enemy, and would be safe only while they were united. Yet there was no +cordial feeling between them. They would probably have loved each other +more, if they had, in some respects, resembled each other less. They +were the two great commercial nations, the two great maritime nations. +In every sea their flags were found together, in the Baltic and in the +Mediterranean, in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Straits of Malacca. +Every where the merchant of London and the merchant of Amsterdam were +trying to forestall each other and to undersell each other. In Europe +the contest was not sanguinary. But too often, in barbarous countries, +where there was no law but force, the competitors had met, burning with +cupidity, burning with animosity, armed for battle, each suspecting +the other of hostile designs and each resolved to give the other no +advantage. In such circumstances it is not strange that many violent +and cruel acts should have been perpetrated. What had been done in those +distant regions could seldom be exactly known in Europe. Every thing +was exaggerated and distorted by vague report and by national prejudice. +Here it was the popular belief that the English were always blameless, +and that every quarrel was to be ascribed to the avarice and inhumanity +of the Dutch. Lamentable events which had taken place in the Spice +Islands were repeatedly brought on our stage. The Englishmen were +all saints and heroes; the Dutchmen all fiends in human shape, lying, +robbing, ravishing, murdering, torturing. The angry passions which these +pieces indicated had more than once found vent in war. Thrice in the +lifetime of one generation the two nations had contended, with equal +courage and with various fortune, for the sovereignty of the German +Ocean. The tyranny of James, as it had reconciled Tories to Whigs and +Churchmen to Nonconformists, had also reconciled the English to the +Dutch. While our ancestors were looking to the Hague for deliverance, +the massacre of Amboyna and the great humiliation of Chatham had seemed +to be forgotten. But since the Revolution the old feeling had revived. +Though England and Holland were now closely bound together by treaty, +they were as far as ever from being bound together by affection. Once, +just after the battle of Beachy Head, our countrymen had seemed disposed +to be just; but a violent reaction speedily followed. Torrington, who +deserved to be shot, became a popular favourite; and the allies whom +he had shamefully abandoned were accused of persecuting him without a +cause. The partiality shown by the King to the companions of his youth +was the favourite theme of the sewers of sedition. The most lucrative +posts in his household, it was said, were held by Dutchmen; the House +of Lords was fast filling with Dutchmen; the finest manors of the Crown +were given to Dutchmen; the army was commanded by Dutchmen. That it +would have been wise in William to exhibit somewhat less obtrusively his +laudable fondness for his native country, and to remunerate his early +friends somewhat more sparingly, is perfectly true. But it will not be +easy to prove that, on any important occasion during his whole reign, +he sacrificed the interests of our island to the interests of the United +Provinces. The English, however, were on this subject prone to fits of +jealousy which made them quite incapable of listening to reason. One of +the sharpest of those fits came on in the autumn of 1691. The antipathy +to the Dutch was at that time strong in all classes, and nowhere +stronger than in the Parliament and in the army. [186] + +Of that antipathy Marlborough determined to avail himself for the +purpose, as he assured James and James's adherents, of effecting a +restoration. The temper of both Houses was such that they might not +improbably be induced by skilful management to present a joint address +requesting that all foreigners might be dismissed from the service of +their Majesties. Marlborough undertook to move such an address in the +Lords; and there would have been no difficulty in finding some gentleman +of great weight to make a similar motion in the Commons. + +If the address should be carried, what could William do? Would he yield? +Would he discard all his dearest, his oldest, his most trusty friends? +It was hardly possible to believe that he would make so painful, so +humiliating a concession. If he did not yield, there would be a rupture +between him and the Parliament; and the Parliament would be backed by +the people. Even a King reigning by a hereditary title might well shrink +from such a contest with the Estates of the Realm. But to a King whose +title rested on a resolution of the Estates of the Realm such a contest +must almost necessarily be fatal. The last hope of William would be in +the army. The army Marlborough undertook to manage; and it is highly +probable that what he undertook he could have performed. His courage, +his abilities, his noble and winning manners, the splendid success which +had attended him on every occasion on which he had been in command, had +made him, in spite of his sordid vices, a favourite with his brethren +in arms. They were proud of having one countryman who had shown that he +wanted nothing but opportunity to vie with the ablest Marshal of France. +The Dutch were even more disliked by the English troops than by the +English nation generally. Had Marlborough therefore, after securing the +cooperation of some distinguished officers, presented himself at the +critical moment to those regiments which he had led to victory in +Flanders and in Ireland, had he called on them to rally round him, to +protect the Parliament, and to drive out the aliens, there is strong +reason to think that the call would have been obeyed. He would then have +had it in his power to fulfil the promises which he had so solemnly made +to his old master. + +Of all the schemes ever formed for the restoration of James or of his +descendants, this scheme promised the fairest. That national pride, that +hatred of arbitrary power, which had hitherto been on William's side, +would now be turned against him. Hundreds of thousands who would have +put their lives in jeopardy to prevent a French army from imposing a +government on the English, would have felt no disposition to prevent an +English army from driving out the Dutch. Even the Whigs could scarcely, +without renouncing their old doctrines, support a prince who obstinately +refused to comply with the general wish of his people signified to him +by his Parliament. The plot looked well. An active canvass was made. +Many members of the House of Commons, who did not at all suspect that +there was any ulterior design, promised to vote against the foreigners. +Marlborough was indefatigable in inflaming the discontents of the army. +His house was constantly filled with officers who heated each other into +fury by talking against the Dutch. But, before the preparations +were complete, a strange suspicion rose in the minds of some of the +Jacobites. That the author of this bold and artful scheme wished to pull +down the existing government there could be little doubt. But was it +quite certain what government he meant to set up? Might he not depose +William without restoring James? Was it not possible that a man so wise, +so aspiring, and so wicked, might be meditating a double treason, such +as would have been thought a masterpiece of statecraft by the great +Italian politicians of the fifteenth century, such as Borgia would have +envied, such as Machiavel would have extolled to the skies? + +What if this consummate dissembler should cheat both the rival kings? +What if, when he found himself commander of the army and protector of +the Parliament, he should proclaim Queen Anne? Was it not possible +that the weary and harassed nation might gladly acquiesce in such a +settlement? James was unpopular because he was a Papist, influenced +by Popish priests. William was unpopular because he was a foreigner, +attached to foreign favourites. Anne was at once a Protestant and an +Englishwoman. Under her government the country would be in no danger of +being overrun either by Jesuits or by Dutchmen. That Marlborough had the +strongest motives for placing her on the throne was evident. He could +never, in the court of her father, be more than a repentant criminal, +whose services were overpaid by a pardon. In her court the husband of +her adored friend would be what Pepin Heristal and Charles Martel had +been to the Chilperics and Childeberts. He would be the chief director +of the civil and military government. He would wield the whole power +of England. He would hold the balance of Europe. Great kings and +commonwealths would bid against each other for his favour, and exhaust +their treasuries in the vain hope of satiating his avarice. The +presumption was, therefore, that, if he had the English crown in his +hands, he would put in on the head of the Princess. What evidence there +was to confirm this presumption is not known; but it is certain that +something took place which convinced some of the most devoted friends +of the exiled family that he was meditating a second perfidy, surpassing +even the feat which he had performed at Salisbury. They were afraid +that if, at that moment, they succeeded in getting rid of William, the +situation of James would be more hopeless than ever. So fully were +they persuaded of the duplicity of their accomplice, that they not only +refused to proceed further in the execution of the plan which he had +formed, but disclosed his whole scheme to Portland. + +William seems to have been alarmed and provoked by this intelligence +to a degree very unusual with him. In general he was indulgent, +nay, wilfully blind to the baseness of the English statesmen whom he +employed. He suspected, indeed he knew, that some of his servants were +in correspondence with his competitor; and yet he did not punish them, +did not disgrace them, did not even frown on them. He thought meanly, +and he had but too good reason for thinking meanly, of the whole of that +breed of public men which the Restoration had formed and had bequeathed +to the Revolution. He knew them too well to complain because he did not +find in them veracity, fidelity, consistency, disinterestedness. The +very utmost that he expected from them was that they would serve him as +far as they could serve him without serious danger to themselves. If he +learned that, while sitting in his council and enriched by his bounty, +they were trying to make for themselves at Saint Germains an interest +which might be of use to them in the event of a counterrevolution he was +more inclined to bestow on them the contemptuous commendation which was +bestowed of old on the worldly wisdom of the unjust steward than to call +them to a severe account. But the crime of Marlborough was of a very +different kind. His treason was not that of a fainthearted man desirous +to keep a retreat open for himself in every event, but that of a man of +dauntless courage, profound policy and measureless ambition. William was +not prone to fear; but, if there was anything on earth that he feared, +it was Marlborough. To treat the criminal as he deserved was indeed +impossible; for those by whom his designs had been made known to the +government would never have consented to appear against him in the +witness box. But to permit him to retain high command in that army which +he was then engaged in seducing would have been madness. + +Late in the evening of the ninth of January the Queen had a painful +explanation with the Princess Anne. Early the next morning Marlborough +was informed that their Majesties had no further occasion for his +services, and that he must not presume to appear in the royal presence. +He had been loaded with honours, and with what he loved better, riches. +All was at once taken away. + +The real history of these events was known to very few. Evelyn, who +had in general excellent sources of information, believed that the +corruption and extortion of which Marlborough was notoriously guilty had +roused the royal indignation. The Dutch ministers could only tell +the States General that six different stories were spread abroad by +Marlborough's enemies. Some said that he had indiscreetly suffered +an important military secret to escape him; some that he had spoken +disrespectfully of their Majesties; some that he had done ill offices +between the Queen and the Princess; some that he had been forming cabals +in the army; some that he had carried on an unauthorised correspondence +with the Danish government about the general politics of Europe; and +some that he had been trafficking with the agents of the Court of Saint +Germains. [187] His friends contradicted every one of these stories, and +affirmed that his only crime was his dislike of the foreigners who were +lording it over his countrymen, and that he had fallen a victim to the +machinations of Portland, whom he was known to dislike, and whom he had +not very politely described as a wooden fellow. The mystery, which from +the first overhung the story of Marlborough's disgrace, was darkened, +after the lapse of fifty years, by the shameless mendacity of his widow. +The concise narrative of James dispels the mystery, and makes it clear, +not only why Marlborough was disgraced, but also how several of the +reports about the cause of his disgrace originated. [188] + +Though William assigned to the public no reason for exercising his +undoubted prerogative by dismissing his servant, Anne had been informed +of the truth; and it had been left to her to judge whether an officer +who had been guilty of a foul treason was a fit inmate of the palace. +Three weeks passed. Lady Marlborough still retained her post and her +apartments at Whitehall. Her husband still resided with her; and still +the King and Queen gave no sign of displeasure. At length the haughty +and vindictive Countess, emboldened by their patience, determined to +brave them face to face, and accompanied her mistress one evening to the +drawingroom at Kensington. This was too much even for the gentle Mary. +She would indeed have expressed her indignation before the crowd which +surrounded the card tables, had she not remembered that her sister was +in a state which entitles women to peculiar indulgence. Nothing was +said that night; but on the following day a letter from the Queen was +delivered to the Princess. Mary declared that she was unwilling to give +pain to a sister whom she loved, and in whom she could easily pass over +any ordinary fault; but this was a serious matter. Lady Marlborough must +be dismissed. While she lived at Whitehall her lord would live there. +Was it proper that a man in his situation should be suffered to make the +palace of his injured master his home? Yet so unwilling was His Majesty +to deal severely with the worst offenders, that even this had been +borne, and might have been borne longer, had not Anne brought the +Countess to defy the King and Queen in their own presence chamber. "It +was unkind," Mary wrote, "in a sister; it would have been uncivil in an +equal; and I need not say that I have more to claim." The Princess, +in her answer, did not attempt to exculpate or excuse Marlborough, but +expressed a firm conviction that his wife was innocent, and implored +the Queen not to insist on so heartrending a separation. "There is no +misery," Anne wrote, "that I cannot resolve to suffer rather than the +thoughts of parting from her." + +The Princess sent for her uncle Rochester, and implored him to carry her +letter to Kensington, and to be her advocate there. Rochester declined +the office of messenger, and, though he tried to restore harmony between +his kinswomen, was by no means disposed to plead the cause of the +Churchills. He had indeed long seen with extreme uneasiness the absolute +dominion exercised over his younger niece by that unprincipled pair. +Anne's expostulation was sent to the Queen by a servant. The only +reply was a message from the Lord Chamberlain, Dorset, commanding Lady +Marlborough to leave the palace. Mrs. Morley would not be separated from +Mrs. Freeman. As to Mr. Morley, all places where he could have his three +courses and his three bottles were alike to him. The Princess and her +whole family therefore retired to Sion House, a villa belonging to the +Duke of Somerset, and situated on the margin of the Thames. In London +she occupied Berkeley House, which stood in Piccadilly, on the site +now covered by Devonshire House. [189] Her income was secured by Act of +Parliament; but no punishment which it was in the power of the Crown +to inflict on her was spared. Her guard of honour was taken away. The +foreign ministers ceased to wait upon her. When she went to Bath the +Secretary of State wrote to request the Mayor of that city not to +receive her with the ceremonial with which royal visitors were usually +welcomed. When she attended divine service at Saint James's Church she +found that the rector had been forbidden to show her the customary marks +of respect, to bow to her from his pulpit, and to send a copy of his +text to be laid on her cushion. Even the bellman of Piccadilly, it was +said, perhaps falsely, was ordered not to chaunt her praises in his +doggrel verse under the windows of Berkeley House. [190] + +That Anne was in the wrong is clear; but it is not equally clear that +the King and Queen were in the right. They should have either dissembled +their displeasure, or openly declared the true reasons for it. +Unfortunately, they let every body see the punishment, and they let +scarcely any body know the provocation. They should have remembered +that, in the absence of information about the cause of a quarrel, the +public is naturally inclined to side with the weaker party, and that +this inclination is likely to be peculiarly strong when a sister is, +without any apparent reason, harshly treated by a sister. They should +have remembered, too, that they were exposing to attack what was +unfortunately the one vulnerable part of Mary's character. A cruel fate +had put enmity between her and her father. Her detractors pronounced +her utterly destitute of natural affection; and even her eulogists, +when they spoke of the way in which she had discharged the duties of the +filial relation, were forced to speak in a subdued and apologetic tone. +Nothing therefore could be more unfortunate than that she should a +second time appear unmindful of the ties of consanguinity. She was now +at open war with both the two persons who were nearest to her in blood. +Many who thought that her conduct towards her parent was justified by +the extreme danger which had threatened her country and her religion, +were unable to defend her conduct towards her sister. While Mary, who +was really guilty in this matter of nothing more than imprudence, was +regarded by the world as an oppressor, Anne, who was as culpable as her +small faculties enabled her to be, assumed the interesting character of +a meek, resigned sufferer. In those private letters, indeed, to which +the name of Morley was subscribed, the Princess expressed the sentiments +of a fury in the style of a fishwoman, railed savagely at the whole +Dutch nation, and called her brother in law sometimes the abortion, +sometimes the monster, sometimes Caliban. [191] But the nation heard +nothing of her language and saw nothing of her deportment but what was +decorous and submissive. The truth seems to have been that the rancorous +and coarseminded Countess gave the tone to Her Highness's confidential +correspondence, while the graceful, serene and politic Earl was suffered +to prescribe the course which was to be taken before the public eye. +During a short time the Queen was generally blamed. But the charm of her +temper and manners was irresistible; and in a few months she regained +the popularity which she had lost. [192] + +It was a most fortunate circumstance for Marlborough that, just at the +very time when all London was talking about his disgrace, and trying to +guess at the cause of the King's sudden anger against one who had +always seemed to be a favourite, an accusation of treason was brought by +William Fuller against many persons of high consideration, was strictly +investigated, and was proved to be false and malicious. The consequence +was that the public, which rarely discriminates nicely, could not, at +that moment, be easily brought to believe in the reality of any Jacobite +conspiracy. + +That Fuller's plot is less celebrated than the Popish plot is rather the +fault of the historians than of Fuller, who did all that man could do +to secure an eminent place among villains. Every person well read in +history must have observed that depravity has its temporary modes, which +come in and go out like modes of dress and upholstery. It may be doubted +whether, in our country, any man ever before the year 1678 invented and +related on oath a circumstantial history, altogether fictitious, of +a treasonable plot, for the purpose of making himself important by +destroying men who had given him no provocation. But in the year 1678 +this execrable crime became the fashion, and continued to be so during +the twenty years which followed. Preachers designated it as our peculiar +national sin, and prophesied that it would draw on us some awful +national judgment. Legislators proposed new punishments of terrible +severity for this new atrocity. [193] It was not however found necessary +to resort to those punishments. The fashion changed; and during the last +century and a half there has perhaps not been a single instance of this +particular kind of wickedness. + +The explanation is simple. Oates was the founder of a school. His +success proved that no romance is too wild to be received with faith by +understandings which fear and hatred have disordered. His slanders were +monstrous; but they were well timed; he spoke to a people made credulous +by their passions; and thus, by impudent and cruel lying, he raised +himself in a week from beggary and obscurity to luxury, renown and +power. He had once eked out the small tithes of a miserable vicarage by +stealing the pigs and fowls of his parishioners. [194] He was now lodged +in a palace; he was followed by admiring crowds; he had at his mercy +the estates and lives of Howards and Herberts. A crowd of imitators +instantly appeared. It seemed that much more might be got, and that +much less was risked, by testifying to an imaginary conspiracy than by +robbing on the highway or clipping the coin. Accordingly the Bedloes, +Dangerfields, Dugdales, Turberviles, made haste to transfer their +industry to an employment at once more profitable and less perilous than +any to which they were accustomed. Till the dissolution of the Oxford +Parliament Popish plots were the chief manufacture. Then, during seven +years, Whig plots were the only plots which paid. After the Revolution +Jacobite plots came in; but the public had become cautious; and though +the new false witnesses were in no respect less artful than their +predecessors, they found much less encouragement. The history of the +first great check given to the practices of this abandoned race of men +well deserves to be circumstantially related. + +In 1689, and in the beginning of 1690, William Fuller had rendered to +the government service such as the best governments sometimes require, +and such as none but the worst men ever perform. His useful treachery +had been rewarded by his employers, as was meet, with money and with +contempt. Their liberality enabled him to live during some months like +a fine gentleman. He called himself a Colonel, hired servants, clothed +them in gorgeous liveries, bought fine horses, lodged in Pall Mall, and +showed his brazen forehead, overtopped by a wig worth fifty guineas, in +the antechambers of the palace and in the stage box at the theatre. +He even gave himself the airs of a favourite of royalty, and, as if he +thought that William could not live without him, followed His Majesty +first to Ireland, and then to the Congress of Princes at the Hague. +Fuller afterwards boasted that, at the Hague, he appeared with a retinue +fit for an ambassador, that he gave ten guineas a week for an apartment, +and that the worst waistcoat which he condescended to wear was of silver +stuff at forty shillings a yard. Such profusion, of course, brought him +to poverty. Soon after his return to England he took refuge from the +bailiffs in Axe Yard, a place lying within the verge of Whitehall. His +fortunes were desperate; he owed great sums; on the government he had no +claim; his past services had been overpaid; no future service was to be +expected from him having appeared in the witness box as evidence for the +Crown, he could no longer be of any use as a spy on the Jacobites; and +by all men of virtue and honour, to whatever party they might belong, he +was abhorred and shunned. + +Just at this time, when he was in the frame of mind in which men are +open to the worst temptations, he fell in with the worst of tempters, +in truth, with the Devil in human shape. Oates had obtained his liberty, +his pardon, and a pension which made him a much richer man than nineteen +twentieths of the members of that profession of which he was the +disgrace. But he was still unsatisfied. He complained that he had now +less than three hundred a year. In the golden days of the Plot he had +been allowed three times as much, had been sumptuously lodged in the +palace, had dined on plate and had been clothed in silk. He clamoured +for an increase of his stipend. Nay, he was even impudent enough to +aspire to ecclesiastical preferment, and thought it hard that, while so +many mitres were distributed, he could not get a deanery, a prebend, or +even a living. He missed no opportunity of urging his pretensions. He +haunted the public offices and the lobbies of the Houses of Parliament. +He might be seen and heard every day, hurrying, as fast as his uneven +legs would carry him, between Charing Cross and Westminster Hall, +puffing with haste and self importance, chattering about what he had +done for the good cause, and reviling, in the style of the boatmen on +the river, all the statesmen and divines whom he suspected of doing him +ill offices at Court, and keeping him back from a bishopric. When he +found that there was no hope for him in the Established Church, he +turned to the Baptists. They, at first, received him very coldly; but +he gave such touching accounts of the wonderful work of grace which had +been wrought in his soul, and vowed so solemnly, before Jehovah and the +holy angels, to be thenceforth a burning and shining light, that it was +difficult for simple and well meaning people to think him altogether +insincere. He mourned, he said, like a turtle. On one Lord's day he +thought he should have died of grief at being shut out from fellowship +with the saints. He was at length admitted to communion; but before +he had been a year among his new friends they discovered his true +character, and solemnly cast him out as a hypocrite. Thenceforth he +became the mortal enemy of the leading Baptists, and persecuted them +with the same treachery, the same mendacity, the same effrontery, the +same black malice which had many years before wrought the destruction +of more celebrated victims. Those who had lately been edified by his +account of his blessed experiences stood aghast to hear him crying out +that he would be revenged, that revenge was God's own sweet morsel, +that the wretches who had excommunicated him should be ruined, that they +should be forced to fly their country, that they should be stripped to +the last shilling. His designs were at length frustrated by a righteous +decree of the Court of Chancery, a decree which would have left a +deep stain on the character of an ordinary man, but which makes no +perceptible addition to the infamy of Titus Oates. [195] Through all +changes, however, he was surrounded by a small knot of hotheaded and +foulmouthed agitators, who, abhorred and despised by every respectable +Whig, yet called themselves Whigs, and thought themselves injured +because they were not rewarded for scurrility and slander with the best +places under the Crown. + +In 1691, Titus, in order to be near the focal point of political +intrigue and faction, had taken a house within the precinct of +Whitehall. To this house Fuller, who lived hard by, found admission. The +evil work which had been begun in him, when he was still a child, by the +memoirs of Dangerfield, was now completed by the conversation of Oates. +The Salamanca Doctor was, as a witness, no longer formidable; but he was +impelled, partly by the savage malignity which he felt towards all whom +he considered as his enemies, and partly by mere monkeylike restlessness +and love of mischief, to do, through the instrumentality of others, +what he could no longer do in person. In Fuller he had found the corrupt +heart, the ready tongue and the unabashed front which are the first +qualifications for the office of a false accuser. A friendship, if that +word may be so used, sprang up between the pair. Oates opened his house +and even his purse to Fuller. The veteran sinner, both directly and +through the agency of his dependents, intimated to the novice that +nothing made a man so important as the discovering of a plot, and that +these were times when a young fellow who would stick at nothing and +fear nobody might do wonders. The Revolution,--such was the language +constantly held by Titus and his parasites,--had produced little good. +The brisk boys of Shaftesbury had not been recompensed according to +their merits. Even the Doctor, such was the ingratitude of men, was +looked on coldly at the new Court. Tory rogues sate at the council +board, and were admitted to the royal closet. It would be a noble feat +to bring their necks to the block. Above all, it would be delightful +to see Nottingham's long solemn face on Tower Hill. For the hatred with +which these bad men regarded Nottingham had no bounds, and was probably +excited less by his political opinions, in which there was doubtless +much to condemn, than by his moral character, in which the closest +scrutiny will detect little that is not deserving of approbation. Oates, +with the authority which experience and success entitle a preceptor to +assume, read his pupil a lecture on the art of bearing false witness. +"You ought," he said, with many oaths and curses, "to have made more, +much more, out of what you heard and saw at Saint Germains. Never was +there a finer foundation for a plot. But you are a fool; you are a +coxcomb; I could beat you; I would not have done so. I used to go to +Charles and tell him his own. I called Lauderdale rogue to his face. I +made King, Ministers, Lords, Commons, afraid of me. But you young men +have no spirit." Fuller was greatly edified by these exhortations. It +was, however, hinted to him by some of his associates that, if he meant +to take up the trade of swearing away lives, he would do well not to +show himself so often at coffeehouses in the company of Titus. "The +Doctor," said one of the gang, "is an excellent person, and has done +great things in his time; but many people are prejudiced against him; +and, if you are really going to discover a plot, the less you are seen +with him the better." Fuller accordingly ceased to frequent Oates's +house, but still continued to receive his great master's instructions in +private. + +To do Fuller justice, he seems not to have taken up the trade of a false +witness till he could no longer support himself by begging or swindling. +He lived for a time on the charity of the Queen. He then levied +contributions by pretending to be one of the noble family of Sidney. He +wheedled Tillotson out of some money, and requited the good Archbishop's +kindness by passing himself off as His Grace's favourite nephew. But +in the autumn of 1691 all these shifts were exhausted. After lying in +several spunging houses, Fuller was at length lodged in the King's Bench +prison, and he now thought it time to announce that he had discovered a +plot. [196] + +He addressed himself first to Tillotson and Portland; but both Tillotson +and Portland soon perceived that he was lying. What he said was, +however, reported to the King, who, as might have been expected, treated +the information and the informant with cold contempt. All that remained +was to try whether a flame could be raised in the Parliament. + +Soon after the Houses met, Fuller petitioned the Commons to hear what he +had to say, and promised to make wonderful disclosures. He was brought +from his prison to the bar of the House; and he there repeated a long +romance. James, he said, had delegated the regal authority to six +commissioners, of whom Halifax was first. More than fifty lords and +gentlemen had signed an address to the French King, imploring him to +make a great effort for the restoration of the House of Stuart. Fuller +declared that he had seen this address, and recounted many of the names +appended to it. Some members made severe remarks on the improbability of +the story and on the character of the witness. He was, they said, one of +the greatest rogues on the face of the earth; and he told such things +as could scarcely be credited if he were an angel from heaven. Fuller +audaciously pledged himself to bring proofs which would satisfy the most +incredulous. He was, he averred, in communication with some agents of +James. Those persons were ready to make reparation to their country. +Their testimony would be decisive; for they were in possession of +documentary evidence which would confound the guilty. They held back +only because they saw some of the traitors high in office and near the +royal person, and were afraid of incurring the enmity of men so powerful +and so wicked. Fuller ended by asking for a sum of money, and by +assuring the Commons that he would lay it out to good account. [197] +Had his impudent request been granted, he would probably have paid his +debts, obtained his liberty, and absconded; but the House very wisely +insisted on seeing his witnesses first. He then began to shuffle. +The gentlemen were on the Continent, and could not come over without +passports. Passports were delivered to him; but he complained that they +were insufficient. At length the Commons, fully determined to get at the +truth, presented an address requesting the King to send Fuller a blank +safe conduct in the largest terms. [198] The safe conduct was sent. Six +weeks passed, and nothing was heard of the witnesses. The friends of the +lords and gentlemen who had been accused represented strongly that +the House ought not to separate for the summer without coming to some +decision on charges so grave. Fuller was ordered to attend. He pleaded +sickness, and asserted, not for the first time, that the Jacobites +had poisoned him. But all his plans were confounded by the laudable +promptitude and vigour with which the Commons acted. A Committee was +sent to his bedside, with orders to ascertain whether he really had +any witnesses, and where those witnesses resided. The members who were +deputed for this purpose went to the King's Bench prison, and found him +suffering under a disorder, produced, in all probability, by some emetic +which he had swallowed for the purpose of deceiving them. In answer to +their questions he said that two of his witnesses, Delaval and Hayes, +were in England, and were lodged at the house of a Roman Catholic +apothecary in Holborn. The Commons, as soon as the Committee had +reported, sent some members to the house which he had indicated. That +house and all the neighbouring houses were searched. Delaval and Hayes +were not to be found, nor had any body in the vicinity ever seen such +men or heard of them. The House, therefore, on the last day of the +session, just before Black Rod knocked at the door, unanimously resolved +that William Fuller was a cheat and a false accuser; that he had +insulted the Government and the Parliament; that he had calumniated +honourable men, and that an address should be carried up to the throne, +requesting that he might be prosecuted for his villany. [199] He was +consequently tried, convicted, and sentenced to fine, imprisonment and +the pillory. The exposure, more terrible than death to a mind not lost +to all sense of shame, he underwent with a hardihood worthy of his +two favourite models, Dangerfield and Oates. He had the impudence to +persist, year after year, in affirming that he had fallen a victim to +the machinations of the late King, who had spent six thousand pounds +in order to ruin him. Delaval and Hayes--so this fable ran--had been +instructed by James in person. They had, in obedience to his orders, +induced Fuller to pledge his word for their appearance, and had then +absented themselves, and left him exposed to the resentment of the House +of Commons. [200] The story had the reception which it deserved, and +Fuller sank into an obscurity from which he twice or thrice, at long +intervals, again emerged for a moment into infamy. + +On the twenty-fourth of February 1692, about an hour after the Commons +had voted Fuller an impostor, they were summoned to the chamber of the +Lords. The King thanked the Houses for their loyalty and liberality, +informed them that he must soon set out for the Continent, and commanded +them to adjourn themselves. He gave his assent on that day to many +bills, public and private; but when the title of one bill, which had +passed the Lower House without a single division and the Upper House +without a single protest, had been read by the Clerk of the Crown, the +Clerk of the Parliaments declared, according to the ancient form, that +the King and the Queen would consider of the matter. Those words had +very rarely been pronounced before the accession of William. They have +been pronounced only once since his death. But by him the power of +putting a Veto on laws which had been passed by the Estates of the Realm +was used on several important occasions. His detractors truly asserted +that he rejected a greater number of important bills than all the Kings +of the House of Stuart put together, and most absurdly inferred that the +sense of the Estates of the Realm was much less respected by him than by +his uncles and his grandfather. A judicious student of history will +have no difficulty in discovering why William repeatedly exercised a +prerogative to which his predecessors very seldom had recourse, and +which his successors have suffered to fall into utter desuetude. + +His predecessors passed laws easily because they broke laws easily. +Charles the First gave his assent to the Petition of Right, and +immediately violated every clause of that great statute. Charles the +Second gave his assent to an Act which provided that a Parliament should +be held at least once in three years; but when he died the country had +been near four years without a Parliament. The laws which abolished +the Court of High Commission, the laws which instituted the Sacramental +Test, were passed without the smallest difficulty; but they did +not prevent James the Second from reestablishing the Court of High +Commission, and from filling the Privy Council, the public offices, the +courts of justice, and the municipal corporations with persons who had +never taken the Test. Nothing could be more natural than that a King +should not think it worth while to withhold his assent from a statute +with which he could dispense whenever he thought fit. + +The situation of William was very different. He could not, like those +who had ruled before him, pass an Act in the spring and violate it +in the summer. He had, by assenting to the Bill of Rights, solemnly +renounced the dispensing power; and he was restrained, by prudence as +well as by conscience and honour, from breaking the compact under which +he held his crown. A law might be personally offensive to him; it might +appear to him to be pernicious to his people; but, as soon as he had +passed it, it was, in his eyes, a sacred thing. He had therefore a +motive, which preceding Kings had not, for pausing before he passed such +a law. They gave their word readily, because they had no scruple about +breaking it. He gave his word slowly, because he never failed to keep +it. + +But his situation, though it differed widely from that of the princes of +the House of Stuart, was not precisely that of the princes of the House +of Brunswick. A prince of the House of Brunswick is guided, as to the +use of every royal prerogative, by the advice of a responsible ministry; +and this ministry must be taken from the party which predominates in the +two Houses, or, at least, in the Lower House. It is hardly possible to +conceive circumstances in which a Sovereign so situated can refuse +to assent to a bill which has been approved by both branches of the +legislature. Such a refusal would necessarily imply one of two things, +that the Sovereign acted in opposition to the advice of the ministry, or +that the ministry was at issue, on a question of vital importance, with +a majority both of the Commons and of the Lords. On either supposition +the country would be in a most critical state, in a state which, if +long continued, must end in a revolution. But in the earlier part of +the reign of William there was no ministry. The heads of the executive +departments had not been appointed exclusively from either party. +Some were zealous Whigs, others zealous Tories. The most enlightened +statesmen did not hold it to be unconstitutional that the King should +exercise his highest prerogatives on the most important occasions +without any other guidance than that of his own judgment. His refusal, +therefore, to assent to a bill which had passed both Houses indicated, +not, as a similar refusal would now indicate, that the whole machinery +of government was in a state of fearful disorder, but merely that there +was a difference of opinion between him and the two other branches +of the legislature as to the expediency of a particular law. Such a +difference of opinion might exist, and, as we shall hereafter see, +actually did exist, at a time when he was, not merely on friendly, but +on most affectionate terms with the Estates of the Realm. + +The circumstances under which he used his Veto for the first time have +never yet been correctly stated. A well meant but unskilful attempt +had been made to complete a reform which the Bill of Rights had left +imperfect. That great law had deprived the Crown of the power of +arbitrarily removing the judges, but had not made them entirely +independent. They were remunerated partly by fees and partly by +salaries. Over the fees the King had no control; but the salaries he had +full power to reduce or to withhold. That William had ever abused this +power was not pretended; but it was undoubtedly a power which no prince +ought to possess; and this was the sense of both Houses. A bill was +therefore brought in by which a salary of a thousand a year was strictly +secured to each of the twelve judges. Thus far all was well. But +unfortunately the salaries were made a charge on the hereditary revenue. +No such proposition would now be entertained by the House of Commons, +without the royal consent previously signified by a Privy Councillor. +But this wholesome rule had not then been established; and William could +defend the proprietary rights of the Crown only by putting his negative +on the bill. At the time there was, as far as can now be ascertained, no +outcry. Even the Jacobite libellers were almost silent. It was not till +the provisions of the bill had been forgotten, and till nothing but its +title was remembered, that William was accused of having been influenced +by a wish to keep the judges in a state of dependence. [201] + +The Houses broke up; and the King prepared to set out for the Continent. +Before his departure he made some changes in his household and in +several departments of the government; changes, however, which did not +indicate a very decided preference for either of the great political +parties. Rochester was sworn of the Council. It is probable that he +had earned this mark of royal favour by taking the Queen's side in the +unhappy dispute between her and her sister. Pembroke took charge of the +Privy Seal, and was succeeded at the Board of Admiralty by Charles Lord +Cornwallis, a moderate Tory; Lowther accepted a seat at the same board, +and was succeeded at the Treasury by Sir Edward Seymour. Many Tory +country gentlemen, who had looked on Seymour as their leader in the war +against placemen and Dutchmen, were moved to indignation by learning +that he had become a courtier. They remembered that he had voted for +a Regency, that he had taken the oaths with no good grace, that he had +spoken with little respect of the Sovereign whom he was now ready to +serve for the sake of emoluments hardly worthy of the acceptance of a +man of his wealth and parliamentary interest. It was strange that the +haughtiest of human beings should be the meanest, that one who seethed +to reverence nothing on earth but himself should abase himself for the +sake of quarter day. About such reflections he troubled himself very +little. He found, however, that there was one disagreeable circumstance +connected with his new office. At the Board of Treasury he must sit +below the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The First Lord, Godolphin, was a +peer of the realm; and his right to precedence, according to the rules +of the heralds, could not be questioned. But every body knew who was the +first of English commoners. What was Richard Hampden that he should +take the place of a Seymour, of the head of the Seymours? With much +difficulty, the dispute was compromised. Many concessions were made +to Sir Edward's punctilious pride. He was sworn of the Council. He +was appointed one of the Cabinet. The King took him by the hand and +presented him to the Queen. "I bring you," said William, "a gentleman +who will in my absence be a valuable friend." In this way Sir Edward was +so much soothed and flattered that he ceased to insist on his right +to thrust himself between the First Lord and the Chancellor of the +Exchequer. + +In the same Commission of Treasury in which the name of Seymour +appeared, appeared also the name of a much younger politician, who had +during the late session raised himself to high distinction in the House +of Commons, Charles Montague. This appointment gave great satisfaction +to the Whigs, in whose esteem Montague now stood higher than their +veteran chiefs Sacheverell and Littleton, and was indeed second to +Somers alone. + +Sidney delivered up the seals which he had held during more than a year, +and was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Some months elapsed before +the place which he had quitted was filled up; and during this interval +the whole business which had ordinarily been divided between two +Secretaries of State was transacted by Nottingham. [202] + +While these arrangements were in progress, events had taken place in a +distant part of the island which were not, till after the lapse of +many months, known in the best informed circles of London, but which +gradually obtained a fearful notoriety, and which, after the lapse of +more than a hundred and sixty years, are never mentioned without horror. + +Soon after the Estates of Scotland had separated in the autumn of 1690, +a change was made in the administration of that kingdom. William was +not satisfied with the way in which he had been represented in the +Parliament House. He thought that the rabbled curates had been hardly +treated. He had very reluctantly suffered the law which abolished +patronage to be touched with his sceptre. But what especially displeased +him was that the Acts which established a new ecclesiastical polity had +not been accompanied by an Act granting liberty of conscience to those +who were attached to the old ecclesiastical polity. He had directed his +Commissioner Melville to obtain for the Episcopalians of Scotland an +indulgence similar to that which Dissenters enjoyed in England. [203] +But the Presbyterian preachers were loud and vehement against lenity +to Amalekites. Melville, with useful talents, and perhaps with fair +intentions, had neither large views nor an intrepid spirit. He shrank +from uttering a word so hateful to the theological demagogues of his +country as Toleration. By obsequiously humouring their prejudices he +quelled the clamour which was rising at Edinburgh; but the effect of his +timid caution was that a far more formidable clamour soon rose in +the south of the island against the bigotry of the schismatics who +domineered in the north, and against the pusillanimity of the government +which had not dared to withstand that bigotry. On this subject the High +Churchman and the Low Churchman were of one mind, or rather the Low +Churchman was the more angry of the two. A man like South, who had +during many years been predicting that, if ever the Puritans ceased to +be oppressed, they would become oppressors, was at heart not ill pleased +to see his prophecy fulfilled. But in a man like Burnet, the great +object of whose life had been to mitigate the animosity which the +ministers of the Anglican Church felt towards the Presbyterians, the +intolerant conduct of the Presbyterians could awaken no feeling but +indignation, shame and grief. There was, therefore, at the English Court +nobody to speak a good word for Melville. It was impossible that in +such circumstances he should remain at the head of the Scottish +administration. He was, however, gently let down from his high position. +He continued during more than a year to be Secretary of State; but +another Secretary was appointed, who was to reside near the King, and to +have the chief direction of affairs. The new Prime Minister for Scotland +was the able, eloquent and accomplished Sir John Dalrymple. His father, +the Lord President of the Court of Session, had lately been raised to +the peerage by the title of Viscount Stair; and Sir John Dalrymple was +consequently, according to the ancient usage of Scotland, designated +as the Master of Stair. In a few months Melville resigned his +secretaryship, and accepted an office of some dignity and emolument, but +of no political importance. [204] + +The Lowlands of Scotland were, during the year which followed the +parliamentary session of 1690, as quiet as they had ever been within the +memory of man; but the state of the Highlands caused much anxiety to the +government. The civil war in that wild region, after it had ceased to +flame, had continued during some time to smoulder. At length, early in +the year 1691, the rebel chiefs informed the Court of Saint Germains +that, pressed as they were on every side, they could hold out no longer +without succour from France. James had sent them a small quantity of +meal, brandy and tobacco, and had frankly told them that he could do +nothing more. Money was so scarce among them that six hundred pounds +sterling would have been a most acceptable addition to their funds, +but even such a sum he was unable to spare. He could scarcely, in such +circumstances, expect them to defend his cause against a government +which had a regular army and a large revenue. He therefore informed them +that he should not take it ill of them if they made their peace with +the new dynasty, provided always that they were prepared to rise in +insurrection as soon as he should call on them to do so. [205] + +Meanwhile it had been determined at Kensington, in spite of the +opposition of the Master of Stair, to try the plan which Tarbet had +recommended two years before, and which, if it had been tried when +he recommended it, would probably have prevented much bloodshed and +confusion. It was resolved that twelve or fifteen thousand pounds should +be laid out in quieting the Highlands. This was a mass of treasure which +to an inhabitant of Appin or Lochaber seemed almost fabulous, and which +indeed bore a greater proportion to the income of Keppoch or Glengarry +than fifteen hundred thousand pounds bore to the income of Lord Bedford +or Lord Devonshire. The sum was ample; but the King was not fortunate in +the choice of an agent. [206] + +John Earl of Breadalbane, the head of a younger branch of the great +House of Campbell, ranked high among the petty princes of the mountains. +He could bring seventeen hundred claymores into the field; and, ten +years before the Revolution, he had actually marched into the Lowlands +with this great force for the purpose of supporting the prelatical +tyranny. [207] In those days he had affected zeal for monarchy and +episcopacy; but in truth he cared for no government and no religion. +He seems to have united two different sets of vices, the growth of +two different regions, and of two different stages in the progress of +society. In his castle among the hills he had learned the barbarian +pride and ferocity of a Highland chief. In the Council Chamber at +Edinburgh he had contracted the deep taint of treachery and corruption. +After the Revolution he had, like too many of his fellow nobles, joined +and betrayed every party in turn, had sworn fealty to William and Mary, +and had plotted against them. To trace all the turns and doublings of +his course, during the year 1689 and the earlier part of 1690, would +be wearisome. [208] That course became somewhat less tortuous when the +battle of the Boyne had cowed the spirit of the Jacobites. It now seemed +probable that the Earl would be a loyal subject of their Majesties, till +some great disaster should befall them. Nobody who knew him could trust +him; but few Scottish statesmen could then be trusted; and yet Scottish +statesmen must be employed. His position and connections marked him out +as a man who might, if he would, do much towards the work of quieting +the Highlands; and his interest seemed to be a guarantee for his zeal. +He had, as he declared with every appearance of truth, strong personal +reasons for wishing to see tranquillity restored. His domains were so +situated that, while the civil war lasted, his vassals could not tend +their herds or sow their oats in peace. His lands were daily ravaged; +his cattle were daily driven away; one of his houses had been burned +down. It was probable, therefore, that he would do his best to put an +end to hostilities. [209] + +He was accordingly commissioned to treat with the Jacobite chiefs, and +was entrusted with the money which was to be distributed among them. He +invited them to a conference at his residence in Glenorchy. They came; +but the treaty went on very slowly. Every head of a tribe asked for a +larger share of the English gold than was to be obtained. Breadalbane +was suspected of intending to cheat both the clans and the King. The +dispute between the rebels and the government was complicated with +another dispute still more embarrassing. The Camerons and Macdonalds +were really at war, not with William, but with Mac Callum More; and +no arrangement to which Mac Callum More was not a party could really +produce tranquillity. A grave question therefore arose, whether +the money entrusted to Breadalbane should be paid directly to the +discontented chiefs, or should be employed to satisfy the claims +which Argyle had upon them. The shrewdness of Lochiel and the arrogant +pretensions of Glengarry contributed to protract the discussions. But +no Celtic potentate was so impracticable as Macdonald of Glencoe, known +among the mountains by the hereditary appellation of Mac Ian. [210] + +Mac Ian dwelt in the mouth of a ravine situated not far from the +southern shore of Lochleven, an arm of the sea which deeply indents the +western coast of Scotland, and separates Argyleshire from Invernesshire. +Near his house were two or three small hamlets inhabited by his tribe. +The whole population which he governed was not supposed to exceed two +hundred souls. In the neighbourhood of the little cluster of villages +was some copsewood and some pasture land; but a little further up the +defile no sign of population or of fruitfulness was to be seen. In the +Gaelic tongue Glencoe signifies the Glen of Weeping; and in truth that +pass is the most dreary and melancholy of all the Scottish passes, +the very Valley of the Shadow of Death. Mists and storms brood over it +through the greater part of the finest summer; and even on those rare +days when the sun is bright, and when there is no cloud in the sky, the +impression made by the landscape is sad and awful. The path lies along +a stream which issues from the most sullen and gloomy of mountain pools. +Huge precipices of naked stone frown on both sides. Even in July the +streaks of snow may often be discerned in the rifts near the summits. +All down the sides of the crags heaps of ruin mark the headlong paths of +the torrents. Mile after mile the traveller looks in vain for the smoke +of one hut, for one human form wrapped in plaid, and listens in vain for +the bark of a shepherd's dog or the bleat of a lamb. Mile after mile the +only sound that indicates life is the faint cry of a bird of prey from +some stormbeaten pinnacle of rock. The progress of civilisation, which +has turned so many wastes into fields yellow with harvests or gay with +apple blossoms, has only made Glencoe more desolate. All the science +and industry of a peaceful age can extract nothing valuable from that +wilderness; but, in an age of violence and rapine, the wilderness itself +was valued on account of the shelter which it afforded to the plunderer +and his plunder. Nothing could be more natural than that the clan to +which this rugged desert belonged should have been noted for predatory +habits. For, among the Highlanders generally, to rob was thought at +least as honourable an employment as to cultivate the soil; and, of +all the Highlanders, The Macdonalds of Glencoe had the least productive +soil, and the most convenient and secure den of robbers. Successive +governments had tried to punish this wild race; but no large force +had ever been employed for that purpose; and a small force was easily +resisted or eluded by men familiar with every recess and every outlet of +the natural fortress in which they had been born and bred. The people of +Glencoe would probably have been less troublesome neighbours if they +had lived among their own kindred. But they were an outpost of the +Clan Donald, separated from every other branch of their own family, and +almost surrounded by the domains of the hostile race of Diarmid. [211] +They were impelled by hereditary enmity, as well as by want, to live +at the expense of the tribe of Campbell. Breadalbane's property had +suffered greatly from their depredations; and he was not of a temper to +forgive such injuries. When, therefore, the Chief of Glencoe made his +appearance at the congress in Glenorchy, he was ungraciously received. +The Earl, who ordinarily bore himself with the solemn dignity of a +Castilian grandee, forgot, in his resentment, his wonted gravity, forgot +his public character, forgot the laws of hospitality, and, with angry +reproaches and menaces, demanded reparation for the herds which had +been driven from his lands by Mac Ian's followers. Mac Ian was seriously +apprehensive of some personal outrage, and was glad to get safe back to +his own glen. [212] His pride had been wounded; and the promptings of +interest concurred with those of pride. As the head of a people who +lived by pillage, he had strong reasons for wishing that the country +might continue to be in a perturbed state. He had little chance of +receiving one guinea of the money which was to be distributed among +the malecontents. For his share of that money would scarcely meet +Breadalbane's demands for compensation; and there could be little +doubt that, whoever might be unpaid, Breadalbane would take care to +pay himself. Mac Ian therefore did his best to dissuade his allies from +accepting terms from which he could himself expect no benefit; and his +influence was not small. His own vassals, indeed, were few in number; +but he came of the best blood of the Highlands; he had kept up a close +connection with his more powerful kinsmen; nor did they like him +the less because he was a robber; for he never robbed them; and that +robbery, merely as robbery, was a wicked and disgraceful act, had never +entered into the mind of any Celtic chief. Mac Ian was therefore held in +high esteem by the confederates. His age was venerable; his aspect was +majestic; and he possessed in large measure those intellectual qualities +which, in rude societies, give men an ascendency over their fellows. +Breadalbane found himself, at every step of the negotiation, thwarted +by the arts of his old enemy, and abhorred the name of Glencoe more and +more every day. [213] + +But the government did not trust solely to Breadalbane's diplomatic +skill. The authorities at Edinburgh put forth a proclamation exhorting +the clans to submit to King William and Queen Mary, and offering pardon +to every rebel who, on or before the thirty-first of December 1691, +should swear to live peaceably under the government of their Majesties. +It was announced that those who should hold out after that day would be +treated as enemies and traitors. [214] Warlike preparations were made, +which showed that the threat was meant in earnest. The Highlanders were +alarmed, and, though the pecuniary terms had not been satisfactorily +settled, thought it prudent to give the pledge which was demanded of +them. No chief, indeed, was willing to set the example of submission. +Glengarry blustered, and pretended to fortify his house. [215] "I will +not," said Lochiel, "break the ice. That is a point of honour with me. +But my tacksmen and people may use their freedom." [216] His tacksmen +and people understood him, and repaired by hundreds to the Sheriff to +take the oaths. The Macdonalds of Sleat, Clanronald, Keppoch, and +even Glengarry, imitated the Camerons; and the chiefs, after trying to +outstay each other as long as they durst, imitated their vassals. + +The thirty-first of December arrived; and still the Macdonalds of +Glencoe had not come in. The punctilious pride of Mac Ian was doubtless +gratified by the thought that he had continued to defy the government +after the boastful Glengarry, the ferocious Keppoch, the magnanimous +Lochiel had yielded: but he bought his gratification dear. + +At length, on the thirty-first of December, he repaired to Fort William, +accompanied by his principal vassals, and offered to take the oaths. To +his dismay he found that there was in the fort no person competent to +administer them. Colonel Hill, the Governor, was not a magistrate; +nor was there any magistrate nearer than Inverary. Mac Ian, now fully +sensible of the folly of which he had been guilty in postponing to the +very last moment an act on which his life and his estate depended, set +off for Inverary in great distress. He carried with him a letter from +Hill to the Sheriff of Argyleshire, Sir Colin Campbell of Ardkinglass, a +respectable gentleman, who, in the late reign, had suffered severely for +his Whig principles. In this letter the Colonel expressed a goodnatured +hope that, even out of season, a lost sheep, and so fine a lost sheep, +would be gladly received. Mac Ian made all the haste in his power, and +did not stop even at his own house, though it lay nigh to the road. But +at that time a journey through Argyleshire in the depth of winter was +necessarily slow. The old man's progress up steep mountains and along +boggy valleys was obstructed by snow storms; and it was not till +the sixth of January that he presented himself before the Sheriff at +Inverary. The Sheriff hesitated. His power, he said, was limited by the +terms of the proclamation, and he did not see how he could swear a +rebel who had not submitted within the prescribed time. Mac Ian begged +earnestly and with tears that he might be sworn. His people, he said, +would follow his example. If any of them proved refractory, he would +himself send the recusant to prison, or ship him off for Islanders. His +entreaties and Hill's letter overcame Sir Colin's scruples. The oath +was administered; and a certificate was transmitted to the Council at +Edinburgh, setting forth the special circumstances which had induced the +Sheriff to do what he knew not to be strictly regular. [217] + +The news that Mac Ian had not submitted within the prescribed time was +received with cruel joy by three powerful Scotchmen who were then at the +English Court. Breadalbane had gone up to London at Christmas in order +to give an account of his stewardship. There he met his kinsman Argyle. +Argyle was, in personal qualities, one of the most insignificant of +the long line of nobles who have borne that great name. He was the +descendant of eminent men, and the parent of eminent men. He was the +grandson of one of the ablest of Scottish politicians; the son of one of +the bravest and most truehearted of Scottish patriots; the father of one +Mac Callum More renowned as a warrior and as an orator, as the model of +every courtly grace, and as the judicious patron of arts and letters, +and of another Mac Callum More distinguished by talents for business and +command, and by skill in the exact sciences. Both of such an ancestry +and of such a progeny Argyle was unworthy. He had even been guilty +of the crime, common enough among Scottish politicians, but in him +singularly disgraceful, of tampering with the agents of James while +professing loyalty to William. Still Argyle had the importance +inseparable from high rank, vast domains, extensive feudal rights, +and almost boundless patriarchal authority. To him, as to his cousin +Breadalbane, the intelligence that the tribe of Glencoe was out of the +protection of the law was most gratifying; and the Master of Stair more +than sympathized with them both. + +The feeling of Argyle and Breadalbane is perfectly intelligible. +They were the heads of a great clan; and they had an opportunity of +destroying a neighbouring clan with which they were at deadly feud. +Breadalbane had received peculiar provocation. His estate had been +repeatedly devastated; and he had just been thwarted in a negotiation +of high moment. Unhappily there was scarcely any excess of ferocity +for which a precedent could not be found in Celtic tradition. Among all +warlike barbarians revenge is esteemed the most sacred of duties and the +most exquisite of pleasures; and so it had long been esteemed among the +Highlanders. The history of the clans abounds with frightful tales, +some perhaps fabulous or exaggerated, some certainly true, of vindictive +massacres and assassinations. The Macdonalds of Glengarry, for example, +having been affronted by the people of Culloden, surrounded Culloden +church on a Sunday, shut the doors, and burned the whole congregation +alive. While the flames were raging, the hereditary musician of the +murderers mocked the shrieks of the perishing crowd with the notes of +his bagpipe. [218] A band of Macgregors, having cut off the head of an +enemy, laid it, the mouth filled with bread and cheese, on his sister's +table, and had the satisfaction of seeing her go mad with horror at the +sight. They then carried the ghastly trophy in triumph to their chief. +The whole clan met under the roof of an ancient church. Every one in +turn laid his hand on the dead man's scalp, and vowed to defend the +slayers. [219] The inhabitants of Eigg seized some Macleods, bound them +hand and foot, and turned them adrift in a boat to be swallowed up by +the waves or to perish of hunger. The Macleods retaliated by driving the +population of Eigg into a cavern, lighting a fire at the entrance, and +suffocating the whole race, men, women and children. [220] It is much +less strange that the two great Earls of the house of Campbell, animated +by the passions of Highland chieftains, should have planned a Highland +revenge, than that they should have found an accomplice, and something +more than an accomplice, in the Master of Stair. + +The Master of Stair was one of the first men of his time, a jurist, a +statesman, a fine scholar, an eloquent orator. His polished manners and +lively conversation were the delight of aristocratical societies; and +none who met him in such societies would have thought it possible that +he could bear the chief part in any atrocious crime. His political +principles were lax, yet not more lax than those of most Scotch +politicians of that age. Cruelty had never been imputed to him. Those +who most disliked him did him the justice to own that, where his schemes +of policy were not concerned, he was a very goodnatured man. [221] There +is not the slightest reason to believe that he gained a single pound +Scots by the act which has covered his name with infamy. He had no +personal reason to wish the Glencoe men ill. There had been no feud +between them and his family. His property lay in a district where their +tartan was never seen. Yet he hated them with a hatred as fierce and +implacable as if they had laid waste his fields, burned his mansion, +murdered his child in the cradle. + +To what cause are we to ascribe so strange an antipathy? This question +perplexed the Master's contemporaries; and any answer which may now be +offered ought to be offered with diffidence. [222] The most probable +conjecture is that he was actuated by an inordinate, an unscrupulous, a +remorseless zeal for what seemed to him to be the interest of the state. +This explanation may startle those who have not considered how large a +proportion of the blackest crimes recorded in history is to be ascribed +to ill regulated public spirit. We daily see men do for their party, for +their sect, for their country, for their favourite schemes of political +and social reform, what they would not do to enrich or to avenge +themselves. At a temptation directly addressed to our private cupidity +or to our private animosity, whatever virtue we have takes the alarm. +But, virtue itself may contribute to the fall of him who imagines that +it is in his power, by violating some general rule of morality, to +confer an important benefit on a church, on a commonwealth, on mankind. +He silences the remonstrances of conscience, and hardens his heart +against the most touching spectacles of misery, by repeating to himself +that his intentions are pure, that his objects are noble, that he is +doing a little evil for the sake of a great good. By degrees he comes +altogether to forget the turpitude of the means in the excellence of the +end, and at length perpetrates without one internal twinge acts which +would shock a buccaneer. There is no reason to believe that Dominic +would, for the best archbishopric in christendom, have incited +ferocious marauders to plunder and slaughter a peaceful and industrious +population, that Everard Digby would for a dukedom have blown a large +assembly of people into the air, or that Robespierre would have murdered +for hire one of the thousands whom he murdered from philanthropy. + +The Master of Stair seems to have proposed to himself a truly great and +good end, the pacification and civilisation of the Highlands. He was, by +the acknowledgment of those who most hated him, a man of large views. He +justly thought it monstrous that a third part of Scotland should be in +a state scarcely less savage than New Guinea, that letters of fire +and sword should, through a third part of Scotland, be, century after +century, a species of legal process, and that no attempt should be made +to apply a radical remedy to such evils. The independence affected by a +crowd of petty sovereigns, the contumacious resistance which they were +in the habit of offering to the authority of the Crown and of the Court +of Session, their wars, their robberies, their fireraisings, their +practice of exacting black mail from people more peaceable and more +useful than themselves, naturally excited the disgust and indignation of +an enlightened and politic gownsman, who was, both by the constitution +of his mind and by the habits of his profession, a lover of law +and order. His object was no less than a complete dissolution and +reconstruction of society in the Highlands, such a dissolution and +reconstruction as, two generations later, followed the battle of +Culloden. In his view the clans, as they existed, were the plagues of +the kingdom; and of all the clans, the worst was that which inhabited +Glencoe. He had, it is said, been particularly struck by a frightful +instance of the lawlessness and ferocity of those marauders. One of +them, who had been concerned in some act of violence or rapine, had +given information against his companions. He had been bound to a tree +and murdered. The old chief had given the first stab; and scores +of dirks had then been plunged into the wretch's body. [223] By the +mountaineers such an act was probably regarded as a legitimate exercise +of patriarchal jurisdiction. To the Master of Stair it seemed that +people among whom such things were done and were approved ought to be +treated like a pack of wolves, snared by any device, and slaughtered +without mercy. He was well read in history, and doubtless knew how great +rulers had, in his own and other countries, dealt with such banditti. +He doubtless knew with what energy and what severity James the Fifth had +put down the mosstroopers of the border, how the chief of Henderland had +been hung over the gate of the castle in which he had prepared a banquet +for the King; how John Armstrong and his thirty-six horsemen, when they +came forth to welcome their sovereign, had scarcely been allowed time +to say a single prayer before they were all tied up and turned off. Nor +probably was the Secretary ignorant of the means by which Sixtus the +Fifth had cleared the ecclesiastical state of outlaws. The eulogists +of that great pontiff tell us that there was one formidable gang which +could not be dislodged from a stronghold among the Apennines. Beasts of +burden were therefore loaded with poisoned food and wine, and sent by a +road which ran close to the fastness. The robbers sallied forth, seized +the prey, feasted and died; and the pious old Pope exulted greatly when +he heard that the corpses of thirty ruffians, who had been the terror +of many peaceful villages, had been found lying among the mules and +packages. The plans of the Master of Stair were conceived in the spirit +of James and of Sixtus; and the rebellion of the mountaineers furnished +what seemed to be an excellent opportunity for carrying those plans +into effect. Mere rebellion, indeed, he could have easily pardoned. On +Jacobites, as Jacobites, he never showed any inclination to bear hard. +He hated the Highlanders, not as enemies of this or that dynasty, but as +enemies of law, of industry and of trade. In his private correspondence +he applied to them the short and terrible form of words in which the +implacable Roman pronounced the doom of Carthage. His project was no +less than this, that the whole hill country from sea to sea, and the +neighbouring islands, should be wasted with fire and sword, that the +Camerons, the Macleans, and all the branches of the race of Macdonald, +should be rooted out. He therefore looked with no friendly eye on +schemes of reconciliation, and, while others were hoping that a little +money would set everything right, hinted very intelligibly his opinion +that whatever money was to be laid out on the clans would be best laid +out in the form of bullets and bayonets. To the last moment he continued +to flatter himself that the rebels would be obstinate, and would thus +furnish him with a plea for accomplishing that great social revolution +on which his heart was set. [224] The letter is still extant in which +he directed the commander of the forces in Scotland how to act if the +Jacobite chiefs should not come in before the end of December. There is +something strangely terrible in the calmness and conciseness with which +the instructions are given. "Your troops will destroy entirely the +country of Lochaber, Lochiel's lands, Keppoch's, Glengarry's and +Glencoe's. Your power shall be large enough. I hope the soldiers will +not trouble the government with prisoners." [225] + +This despatch had scarcely been sent off when news arrived in London +that the rebel chiefs, after holding out long, had at last appeared +before the Sheriffs and taken the oaths. Lochiel, the most eminent man +among them, had not only declared that he would live and die a true +subject to King William, but had announced his intention of visiting +England, in the hope of being permitted to kiss His Majesty's hand. In +London it was announced exultingly that every clan, without exception, +had submitted in time; and the announcement was generally thought most +satisfactory. [226] But the Master of Stair was bitterly disappointed. +The Highlands were then to continue to be what they had been, the shame +and curse of Scotland. A golden opportunity of subjecting them to the +law had been suffered to escape, and might never return. If only the +Macdonalds would have stood out, nay, if an example could but have been +made of the two worst Macdonalds, Keppoch and Glencoe, it would have +been something. But it seemed that even Keppoch and Glencoe, marauders +who in any well governed country would have been hanged thirty years +before, were safe. [227] While the Master was brooding over thoughts +like these, Argyle brought him some comfort. The report that Mac Ian had +taken the oaths within the prescribed time was erroneous. The Secretary +was consoled. One clan, then, was at the mercy of the government, and +that clan the most lawless of all. One great act of justice, nay of +charity, might be performed. One terrible and memorable example might be +given. [228] + +Yet there was a difficulty. Mac Ian had taken the oaths. He had taken +them, indeed, too late to be entitled to plead the letter of the royal +promise; but the fact that he had taken them was one which evidently +ought not to have been concealed from those who were to decide his fate. +By a dark intrigue, of which the history is but imperfectly known, but +which was, in all probability, directed by the Master of Stair, the +evidence of Mac Ian's tardy submission was suppressed. The certificate +which the Sheriff of Argyleshire had transmitted to the Council at +Edinburgh, was never laid before the board, but was privately submitted +to some persons high in office, and particularly to Lord President +Stair, the father of the Secretary. These persons pronounced the +certificate irregular, and, indeed, absolutely null; and it was +cancelled. + +Meanwhile the Master of Stair was forming, in concert with Breadalbane +and Argyle, a plan for the destruction of the people of Glencoe. It was +necessary to take the King's pleasure, not, indeed, as to the details +of what was to be done, but as to the question whether Mac Ian and his +people should or should not be treated as rebels out of the pale of +the ordinary law. The Master of Stair found no difficulty in the royal +closet. William had, in all probability, never heard the Glencoe men +mentioned except as banditti. He knew that they had not come in by the +prescribed day. That they had come in after that day he did not know. If +he paid any attention to the matter, he must have thought that so fair +an opportunity of putting an end to the devastations and depredations +from which a quiet and industrious population had suffered so much ought +not to be lost. + +An order was laid before him for signature. He signed it, but, if Burnet +may be trusted, did not read it. Whoever has seen anything of public +business knows that princes and ministers daily sign, and indeed +must sign, documents which they have not read; and of all documents +a document relating to a small tribe of mountaineers, living in a +wilderness not set down in any map, was least likely to interest a +Sovereign whose mind was full of schemes on which the fate of Europe +might depend. [229] But, even on the supposition that he read the order +to which he affixed his name, there seems to be no reason for blaming +him. That order, directed to the Commander of the Forces in Scotland, +runs thus: "As for Mac Ian of Glencoe and that tribe, if they can be +well distinguished from the other Highlanders, it will be proper, for +the vindication of public justice, to extirpate that set of thieves." +These words naturally bear a sense perfectly innocent, and would, but +for the horrible event which followed, have been universally understood +in that sense. It is undoubtedly one of the first duties of every +government to extirpate gangs of thieves. This does not mean that every +thief ought to be treacherously assassinated in his sleep, or even that +every thief ought to be publicly executed after a fair trial, but +that every gang, as a gang, ought to be completely broken up, and that +whatever severity is indispensably necessary for that end ought to be +used. If William had read and weighed the words which were submitted +to him by his Secretary, he would probably have understood them to +mean that Glencoe was to be occupied by troops, that resistance, if +resistance were attempted, was to be put down with a strong hand, that +severe punishment was to be inflicted on those leading members of the +clan who could be proved to have been guilty of great crimes, that some +active young freebooters, who were more used to handle the broad sword +than the plough, and who did not seem likely to settle down into quiet +labourers, were to be sent to the army in the Low Countries, that others +were to be transported to the American plantations, and that those +Macdonalds who were suffered to remain in their native valley were to be +disarmed and required to give hostages for good behaviour. A plan very +nearly resembling this had, we know, actually been the subject of much +discussion in the political circles of Edinburgh. [230] There can be +little doubt that William would have deserved well of his people if he +had, in this manner, extirpated not only the tribe of Mac Ian, but every +Highland tribe whose calling was to steal cattle and burn houses. + +The extirpation planned by the Master of Stair was of a different kind. +His design was to butcher the whole race of thieves, the whole damnable +race. Such was the language in which his hatred vented itself. He +studied the geography of the wild country which surrounded Glencoe, and +made his arrangements with infernal skill. If possible, the blow must +be quick, and crushing, and altogether unexpected. But if Mac Ian should +apprehend danger and should attempt to take refuge in the territories of +his neighbours, he must find every road barred. The pass of Rannoch must +be secured. The Laird of Weems, who was powerful in Strath Tay, must +be told that, if he harbours the outlaws, he does so at his peril. +Breadalbane promised to cut off the retreat of the fugitives on one +side, Mac Callum More on another. It was fortunate, the Secretary wrote, +that it was winter. This was the time to maul the wretches. The nights +were so long, the mountain tops so cold and stormy, that even the +hardiest men could not long bear exposure to the open air without a roof +or a spark of fire. That the women and the children could find shelter +in the desert was quite impossible. While he wrote thus, no thought that +he was committing a great wickedness crossed his mind. He was happy in +the approbation of his own conscience. Duty, justice, nay charity and +mercy, were the names under which he disguised his cruelty; nor is it by +any means improbable that the disguise imposed upon himself. [231] + +Hill, who commanded the forces assembled at Fort William, was not +entrusted with the execution of the design. He seems to have been a +humane man; he was much distressed when he learned that the government +was determined on severity; and it was probably thought that his heart +might fail him in the most critical moment. He was directed to put a +strong detachment under the orders of his second in command, Lieutenant +Colonel Hamilton. To Hamilton a significant hint was conveyed that he +had now an excellent opportunity of establishing his character in the +estimation of those who were at the head of affairs. Of the troops +entrusted to him a large proportion were Campbells, and belonged to a +regiment lately raised by Argyle, and called by Argyle's name, It was +probably thought that, on such an occasion, humanity might prove +too strong for the mere habit of military obedience, and that little +reliance could be placed on hearts which had not been ulcerated by a +feud such as had long raged between the people of Mac Ian and the people +of Mac Callum More. + +Had Hamilton marched openly against the Glencoe men and put them to the +edge of the sword, the act would probably not have wanted apologists, +and most certainly would not have wanted precedents. But the Master of +Stair had strongly recommended a different mode of proceeding. If the +least alarm were given, the nest of robbers would be found empty; and +to hunt them down in so wild a region would, even with all the help that +Breadalbane and Argyle could give, be a long and difficult business. +"Better," he wrote, "not meddle with them than meddle to no purpose. +When the thing is resolved, let it be secret and sudden." [232] He was +obeyed; and it was determined that the Glencoe men should perish, not +by military execution, but by the most dastardly and perfidious form of +assassination. + +On the first of February a hundred and twenty soldiers of Argyle's +regiment, commanded by a captain named Campbell and a lieutenant named +Lindsay, marched to Glencoe. Captain Campbell was commonly called in +Scotland Glenlyon, from the pass in which his property lay. He had every +qualification for the service on which he was employed, an unblushing +forehead, a smooth lying tongue, and a heart of adamant. He was also one +of the few Campbells who were likely to be trusted and welcomed by the +Macdonalds; for his niece was married to Alexander, the second son of +Mac Ian. + +The sight of the red coats approaching caused some anxiety among the +population of the valley. John, the eldest son of the Chief, came, +accompanied by twenty clansmen, to meet the strangers, and asked what +this visit meant. Lieutenant Lindsay answered that the soldiers came as +friends, and wanted nothing but quarters. They were kindly received, and +were lodged under the thatched roofs of the little community. Glenlyon +and several of his men were taken into the house of a tacksman who was +named, from the cluster of cabins over which he exercised authority, +Inverriggen. Lindsay was accommodated nearer to the abode of the old +chief. Auchintriater, one of the principal men of the clan, who governed +the small hamlet of Auchnaion, found room there for a party commanded by +a serjeant named Barbour. Provisions were liberally supplied. There was +no want of beef, which had probably fattened in distant pastures; nor +was any payment demanded; for in hospitality, as in thievery, the Gaelic +marauders rivalled the Bedouins. During twelve days the soldiers lived +familiarly with the people of the glen. Old Mac Ian, who had before felt +many misgivings as to the relation in which he stood to the government, +seems to have been pleased with the visit. The officers passed much of +their time with him and his family. The long evenings were cheerfully +spent by the peat fire with the help of some packs of cards which had +found their way to that remote corner of the world, and of some French +brandy which was probably part of James's farewell gift to his Highland +supporters. Glenlyon appeared to be warmly attached to his niece and her +husband Alexander. Every day he came to their house to take his morning +draught. Meanwhile he observed with minute attention all the avenues by +which, when the signal for the slaughter should be given, the Macdonalds +might attempt to escape to the hills; and he reported the result of his +observations to Hamilton. + +Hamilton fixed five o'clock in the morning of the thirteenth of February +for the deed. He hoped that, before that time, he should reach Glencoe +with four hundred men, and should have stopped all the earths in which +the old fox and his two cubs,-so Mac Ian and his sons were nicknamed +by the murderers,--could take refuge. But, at five precisely, whether +Hamilton had arrived or not, Glenlyon was to fall on, and to slay every +Macdonald under seventy. + +The night was rough. Hamilton and his troops made slow progress, and +were long after their time. While they were contending with the wind and +snow, Glenlyon was supping and playing at cards with those whom he +meant to butcher before daybreak. He and Lieutenant Lindsay had engaged +themselves to dine with the old Chief on the morrow. + +Late in the evening a vague suspicion that some evil was intended +crossed the mind of the Chief's eldest son. The soldiers were evidently +in a restless state; and some of them uttered strange cries. Two men, +it is said, were overheard whispering. "I do not like this job;" one of +them muttered, "I should be glad to fight the Macdonalds. But to kill +men in their beds--" "We must do as we are bid," answered another voice. +"If there is any thing wrong, our officers must answer for it." John +Macdonald was so uneasy that, soon after midnight, he went to Glenlyon's +quarters. Glenlyon and his men were all up, and seemed to be getting +their arms ready for action. John, much alarmed, asked what these +preparations meant. Glenlyon was profuse of friendly assurances. "Some +of Glengarry's people have been harrying the country. We are getting +ready to march against them. You are quite safe. Do you think that, if +you were in any danger, I should not have given a hint to your brother +Sandy and his wife?" John's suspicions were quieted. He returned to his +house, and lay down to rest. + +It was five in the morning. Hamilton and his men were still some miles +off; and the avenues which they were to have secured were open. But the +orders which Glenlyon had received were precise; and he began to execute +them at the little village where he was himself quartered. His host +Inverriggen and nine other Macdonalds were dragged out of their beds, +bound hand and foot, and murdered. A boy twelve years old clung round +the Captain's legs, and begged hard for life. He would do any thing; +he would go any where; he would follow Glenlyon round the world. Even +Glenlyon, it is said, showed signs of relenting; but a ruffian named +Drummond shot the child dead. + +At Auchnaion the tacksman Auchintriater was up early that morning, and +was sitting with eight of his family round the fire, when a volley +of musketry laid him and seven of his companions dead or dying on the +floor. His brother, who alone had escaped unhurt, called to Serjeant +Barbour, who commanded the slayers, and asked as a favour to be allowed +to die in the open air. "Well," said the Serjeant, "I will do you that +favour for the sake of your meat which I have eaten." The mountaineer, +bold, athletic, and favoured by the darkness, came forth, rushed on the +soldiers who were about to level their pieces at him, flung his plaid +over their faces, and was gone in a moment. + +Meanwhile Lindsay had knocked at the door of the old Chief and had asked +for admission in friendly language. The door was opened. Mac Ian, +while putting on his clothes and calling to his servants to bring some +refreshment for his visitors, was shot through the head. Two of his +attendants were slain with him. His wife was already up and dressed in +such finery as the princesses of the rude Highland glens were accustomed +to wear. The assassins pulled off her clothes and trinkets. The rings +were not easily taken from her fingers but a soldier tore them away with +his teeth. She died on the following day. + +The statesman, to whom chiefly this great crime is to be ascribed, had +planned it with consummate ability: but the execution was complete in +nothing but in guilt and infamy. A succession of blunders saved three +fourths of the Glencoe men from the fate of their chief. All the moral +qualities which fit men to bear a part in a massacre Hamilton and +Glenlyon possessed in perfection. But neither seems to have had much +professional skill; Hamilton had arranged his plan without making +allowance for bad weather, and this in a country and at a season when +the weather was very likely to be bad. The consequence was that the fox +earths, as he called them, were not stopped in time. Glenlyon and his +men committed the error of despatching their hosts with firearms instead +of using the cold steel. The peal and flash of gun after gun gave +notice, from three different parts of the valley at once; that murder +was doing. From fifty cottages the half naked peasantry fled under cover +of the night to the recesses of their pathless glen. Even the sons of +Mac Ian, who had been especially marked out for destruction, contrived +to escape. They were roused from sleep by faithful servants. John, +who, by the death of his father, had become the patriarch of the tribe, +quitted his dwelling just as twenty soldiers with fixed bayonets marched +up to it. It was broad day long before Hamilton arrived. He found the +work not even half performed. About thirty corpses lay wallowing in +blood on the dunghills before the doors. One or two women were seen +among the number, and, a yet more fearful and piteous sight, a little +hand, which had been lopped in the tumult of the butchery from some +infant. One aged Macdonald was found alive. He was probably too infirm +to fly, and, as he was above seventy, was not included in the orders +under which Glenlyon had acted. Hamilton murdered the old man in cold +blood. The deserted hamlets were then set on fire; and the troops +departed, driving away with them many sheep and goats, nine hundred +kine, and two hundred of the small shaggy ponies of the Highlands. + +It is said, and may but too easily be believed, that the sufferings of +the fugitives were terrible. How many old men, how many women with babes +in their arms, sank down and slept their last sleep in the snow; how +many, having crawled, spent with toil and hunger, into nooks among the +precipices, died in those dark holes, and were picked to the bone by the +mountain ravens, can never be known. But it is probable that those who +perished by cold, weariness and want were not less numerous than those +who were slain by the assassins. When the troops had retired, the +Macdonalds crept out of the caverns of Glencoe, ventured back to the +spot where the huts had formerly stood, collected the scorched +corpses from among the smoking ruins, and performed some rude rites of +sepulture. The tradition runs that the hereditary bard of the tribe took +his seat on a rock which overhung the place of slaughter, and poured +forth a long lament over his murdered brethren, and his desolate home. +Eighty years later that sad dirge was still repeated by the population +of the valley. [233] + +The survivors might well apprehend that they had escaped the shot +and the sword only to perish by famine. The whole domain was a waste. +Houses, barns, furniture, implements of husbandry, herds, flocks, +horses, were gone. Many months must elapse before the clan would be +able to raise on its own ground the means of supporting even the most +miserable existence. [234] + +It may be thought strange that these events should not have been +instantly followed by a burst of execration from every part of the +civilised world. The fact, however, is that years elapsed before the +public indignation was thoroughly awakened, and that months elapsed +before the blackest part of the story found credit even among the +enemies of the government. That the massacre should not have been +mentioned in the London Gazettes, in the Monthly Mercuries which were +scarcely less courtly than the Gazettes, or in pamphlets licensed by +official censors, is perfectly intelligible. But that no allusion to it +should be found in private journals and letters, written by persons free +from all restraint, may seem extraordinary. There is not a word on the +subject in Evelyn's Diary. In Narcissus Luttrell's Diary is a remarkable +entry made five weeks after the butchery. The letters from Scotland, he +says, described that kingdom as perfectly tranquil, except that there +was still some grumbling about ecclesiastical questions. The Dutch +ministers regularly reported all the Scotch news to their government. +They thought it worth while, about this time, to mention that a collier +had been taken by a privateer near Berwick, that the Edinburgh mail had +been robbed, that a whale, with a tongue seventeen feet long and seven +feet broad, had been stranded near Aberdeen. But it is not hinted in +any of their despatches that there was any rumour of any extraordinary +occurrence in the Highlands. Reports that some of the Macdonalds had +been slain did indeed, in about three weeks, travel through Edinburgh up +to London. But these reports were vague and contradictory; and the very +worst of them was far from coming up to the horrible truth. The Whig +version of the story was that the old robber Mac Ian had laid an +ambuscade for the soldiers, that he had been caught in his own snare, +and that he and some of his clan had fallen sword in hand. The Jacobite +version, written at Edinburgh on the twenty-third of March, appeared in +the Paris Gazette of the seventh of April. Glenlyon, it was said, had +been sent with a detachment from Argyle's regiment, under cover of +darkness, to surprise the inhabitants of Glencoe, and had killed +thirty-six men and boys and four women. [235] In this there was nothing +very strange or shocking. A night attack on a gang of freebooters +occupying a strong natural fortress may be a perfectly legitimate +military operation; and, in the obscurity and confusion of such an +attack, the most humane man may be so unfortunate as to shoot a woman +or a child. The circumstances which give a peculiar character to the +slaughter of Glencoe, the breach of faith, the breach of hospitality, +the twelve days of feigned friendship and conviviality, of morning +calls, of social meals, of healthdrinking, of cardplaying, were not +mentioned by the Edinburgh correspondent of the Paris Gazette; and we +may therefore confidently infer that those circumstances were as yet +unknown even to inquisitive and busy malecontents residing in the +Scottish capital within a hundred miles of the spot where the deed had +been done. In the south of the island the matter produced, as far as +can now be judged, scarcely any sensation. To the Londoner of those days +Appin was what Caffraria or Borneo is to us. He was not more moved by +hearing that some Highland thieves had been surprised and killed than we +are by hearing that a band of Amakosah cattle stealers has been cut +off, or that a bark full of Malay pirates has been sunk. He took it for +granted that nothing had been done in Glencoe beyond what was doing in +many other glens. There had been a night brawl, one of a hundred night +brawls, between the Macdonalds and the Campbells; and the Campbells had +knocked the Macdonalds on the head. + +By slow degrees the whole truth came out. From a letter written at +Edinburgh about two months after the crime had been committed, it +appears that the horrible story was already current among the Jacobites +of that city. In the summer Argyle's regiment was quartered in the south +of England, and some of the men made strange confessions, over their +ale, about what they had been forced to do in the preceding winter. The +nonjurors soon got hold of the clue, and followed it resolutely; their +secret presses went to work; and at length, near a year after the crime +had been committed, it was published to the world. [236] But the world +was long incredulous. The habitual mendacity of the Jacobite libellers +had brought on them an appropriate punishment. Now, when, for the first +time, they told the truth, they were supposed to be romancing. They +complained bitterly that the story, though perfectly authentic, was +regarded by the public as a factious lie. [237] So late as the year +1695, Hickes, in a tract in which he endeavoured to defend his darling +tale of the Theban legion against the unanswerable argument drawn +from the silence of historians, remarked that it might well be doubted +whether any historian would make mention of the massacre of Glencoe. +There were in England, he said, many thousands of well educated men who +had never heard of that massacre, or who regarded it as a mere fable. +[238] + +Nevertheless the punishment of some of the guilty began very early. +Hill, who indeed can hardly be called guilty, was much disturbed. +Breadalbane, hardened as he was, felt the stings of conscience or the +dread of retribution. A few days after the Macdonalds had returned to +their old dwellingplace, his steward visited the ruins of the house of +Glencoe, and endeavoured to persuade the sons of the murdered chief to +sign a paper declaring that they held the Earl guiltless of the blood +which had been shed. They were assured that, if they would do this, all +His Lordship's great influence should be employed to obtain for them +from the Crown a free pardon and a remission of all forfeitures. +[239] Glenlyon did his best to assume an air of unconcern. He made his +appearance in the most fashionable coffeehouse at Edinburgh, and talked +loudly and self-complacently about the important service in which he +had been engaged among the mountains. Some of his soldiers, however, who +observed him closely, whispered that all this bravery was put on. He +was not the man that he had been before that night. The form of his +countenance was changed. In all places, at all hours, whether he waked +or slept, Glencoe was for ever before him. [240] + +But, whatever apprehensions might disturb Breadalbane, whatever spectres +might haunt Glenlyon, the Master of Stair had neither fear nor remorse. +He was indeed mortified; but he was mortified only by the blunders of +Hamilton and by the escape of so many of the damnable breed. "Do right, +and fear nobody;" such is the language of his letters. "Can there be +a more sacred duty than to rid the country of thieving? The only thing +that I regret is that any got away." [241] + +On the sixth of March, William, entirely ignorant, in all probability, +of the details of the crime which has cast a dark shade over his glory, +had set out for the Continent, leaving the Queen his viceregent in +England. [242] + +He would perhaps have postponed his departure if he had been aware +that the French Government had, during some time, been making great +preparations for a descent on our island. [243] An event had taken place +which had changed the policy of the Court of Versailles. Louvois was +no more. He had been at the head of the military administration of his +country during a quarter of a century; he had borne a chief part in the +direction of two wars which had enlarged the French territory, and had +filled the world with the renown of the French arms; and he had lived +to see the beginning of a third war which tasked his great powers to the +utmost. Between him and the celebrated captains who carried his plans +into execution there was little harmony. His imperious temper and +his confidence in himself impelled him to interfere too much with the +conduct of troops in the field, even when those troops were commanded +by Conde, by Turenne or by Luxemburg. But he was the greatest Adjutant +General, the greatest Quartermaster General, the greatest Commissary +General, that Europe had seen. He may indeed be said to have made a +revolution in the art of disciplining, distributing, equipping and +provisioning armies. In spite, however, of his abilities and of his +services, he had become odious to Lewis and to her who governed Lewis. +On the last occasion on which the King and the minister transacted +business together, the ill humour on both sides broke violently forth. +The servant, in his vexation, dashed his portfolio on the ground. The +master, forgetting, what he seldom forgot, that a King should be a +gentleman, lifted his cane. Fortunately his wife was present. She, with +her usual prudence, caught his arm. She then got Louvois out of the +room, and exhorted him to come back the next day as if nothing had +happened. The next day he came; but with death in his face. The King, +though full of resentment, was touched with pity, and advised Louvois to +go home and take care of himself. That evening the great minister died. +[244] + +Louvois had constantly opposed all plans for the invasion of England. +His death was therefore regarded at Saint Germains as a fortunate event. +[245] It was however necessary to look sad, and to send a gentleman +to Versailles with some words of condolence. The messenger found the +gorgeous circle of courtiers assembled round their master on the terrace +above the orangery. "Sir," said Lewis, in a tone so easy and cheerful +that it filled all the bystanders with amazement, "present my +compliments and thanks to the King and Queen of England, and tell them +that neither my affairs nor theirs will go on the worse by what has +happened." These words were doubtless meant to intimate that the +influence of Louvois had not been exerted in favour of the House of +Stuart. [246] One compliment, however, a compliment which cost France +dear, Lewis thought it right to pay to the memory of his ablest +servant. The Marquess of Barbesieux, son of Louvois, was placed, in his +twenty-fifth year, at the head of the war department. The young man was +by no means deficient in abilities, and had been, during some years, +employed in business of grave importance. But his passions were strong; +his judgment was not ripe; and his sudden elevation turned his head. His +manners gave general disgust. Old officers complained that he kept them +long in his antechamber while he was amusing himself with his spaniels +and his flatterers. Those who were admitted to his presence went away +disgusted by his rudeness and arrogance. As was natural at his age, he +valued power chiefly as the means of procuring pleasure. Millions of +crowns were expended on the luxurious villa where he loved to forget +the cares of office in gay conversation, delicate cookery and foaming +champagne. He often pleaded an attack of fever as an excuse for not +making his appearance at the proper hour in the royal closet, when +in truth he had been playing truant among his boon companions and +mistresses. "The French King," said William, "has an odd taste. +He chooses an old woman for his mistress, and a young man for his +minister." [247] + +There can be little doubt that Louvois, by pursuing that course which +had made him odious to the inmates of Saint Germains, had deserved well +of his country. He was not maddened by Jacobite enthusiasm. He well knew +that exiles are the worst of all advisers. He had excellent information; +he had excellent judgment; he calculated the chances; and he saw that a +descent was likely to fail, and to fail disastrously and disgracefully. +James might well be impatient to try the experiment, though the odds +should be ten to one against him. He might gain; and he could not lose. +His folly and obstinacy had left him nothing to risk. His food, his +drink, his lodging, his clothes, he owed to charity. Nothing could be +more natural than that, for the very smallest chance of recovering the +three kingdoms which he had thrown away, he should be willing to stake +what was not his own, the honour of the French arms, the grandeur and +the safety of the French monarchy. To a French statesman such a wager +might well appear in a different light. But Louvois was gone. His +master yielded to the importunity of James, and determined to send an +expedition against England. [248] + +The scheme was, in some respects, well concerted. It was resolved that +a camp should be formed on the coast of Normandy, and that in this +camp all the Irish regiments which were in the French service should be +assembled under their countryman Sarsfield. With them were to be joined +about ten thousand French troops. The whole army was to be commanded by +Marshal Bellefonds. + +A noble fleet of about eighty ships of the line was to convoy this +force to the shores of England. In the dockyards both of Brittany and of +Provence immense preparations were made. Four and forty men of war, some +of which were among the finest that had ever been built, were assembled +in the harbour of Brest under Tourville. The Count of Estrees, with +thirty-five more, was to sail from Toulon. Ushant was fixed for the +place of rendezvous. The very day was named. In order that there might +be no want either of seamen or of vessels for the intended expedition, +all maritime trade, all privateering was, for a time, interdicted by a +royal mandate. [249] Three hundred transports were collected near the +spot where the troops were to embark. It was hoped that all would be +ready early in the spring, before the English ships were half rigged or +half manned, and before a single Dutch man of war was in the Channel. +[250] + +James had indeed persuaded himself that, even if the English fleet +should fall in with him, it would not oppose him. He imagined that +he was personally a favourite with the mariners of all ranks. His +emissaries had been busy among the naval officers, and had found some +who remembered him with kindness, and others who were out of humour +with the men now in power. All the wild talk of a class of people not +distinguished by taciturnity or discretion was reported to him with +exaggeration, till he was deluded into a belief that he had more friends +than enemies on board of the vessels which guarded our coasts. Yet he +should have known that a rough sailor, who thought himself ill used by +the Admiralty, might, after the third bottle, when drawn on by artful +companions, express his regret for the good old times, curse the new +government, and curse himself for being such a fool as to fight for +that government, and yet might be by no means prepared to go over to the +French on the day of battle. Of the malecontent officers, who, as James +believed, were impatient to desert, the great majority had probably +given no pledge of their attachment to him except an idle word +hiccoughed out when they were drunk, and forgotten when they were sober. +One those from whom he expected support, Rear Admiral Carter, had indeed +heard and perfectly understood what the Jacobite agents had to say, had +given them fair words, and had reported the whole to the Queen and her +ministers. [251] + +But the chief dependence of James was on Russell. That false, arrogant +and wayward politician was to command the Channel Fleet. He had never +ceased to assure the Jacobite emissaries that he was bent on effecting +a Restoration. Those emissaries fully reckoned, if not on his entire +cooperation, yet at least on his connivance; and there could be no doubt +that, with his connivance, a French fleet might easily convoy an army to +our shores. James flattered himself that, as soon as he had landed, he +should be master of the island. But in truth, when the voyage had ended, +the difficulties of his enterprise would have been only beginning. Two +years before he had received a lesson by which he should have profited. +He had then deceived himself and others into the belief that the English +were regretting him, were pining for him, were eager to rise in arms +by tens of thousands to welcome him. William was then, as now, at a +distance. Then, as now, the administration was entrusted to a woman. +Then, as now, there were few regular troops in England. Torrington had +then done as much to injure the government which he served as Russell +could now do. The French fleet had then, after riding, during several +weeks, victorious and dominant in the Channel, landed some troops on +the southern coast. The immediate effect had been that whole counties, +without distinction of Tory or Whig, Churchman or Dissenter, had risen +up, as one man, to repel the foreigners, and that the Jacobite party, +which had, a few days before, seemed to be half the nation, had crouched +down in silent terror, and had made itself so small that it had, during +some time, been invisible. What reason was there for believing that +the multitude who had, in 1690, at the first lighting of the beacons, +snatched up firelocks, pikes, scythes, to defend, their native soil +against the French, would now welcome the French as allies? And of the +army by which James was now to be accompanied the French formed the +least odious part. More than half of that army was to consist of Irish +Papists; and the feeling, compounded of hatred and scorn, with which the +Irish Papists had long been regarded by the English Protestants, had +by recent events been stimulated to a vehemence before unknown. The +hereditary slaves, it was said, had been for a moment free; and that +moment had sufficed to prove that they knew neither how to use nor how +to defend their freedom. During their short ascendency they had done +nothing but slay, and burn, and pillage, and demolish, and attaint, and +confiscate. In three years they had committed such waste on their native +land as thirty years of English intelligence and industry would scarcely +repair. They would have maintained their independence against the world, +if they had been as ready to fight as they were to steal. But they had +retreated ignominiously from the walls of Londonderry. They had fled +like deer before the yeomanry of Enniskillen. The Prince whom they +now presumed to think that they could place, by force of arms, on the +English throne, had himself, on the morning after the rout of the Boyne, +reproached them with their cowardice, and told them that he would never +again trust to their soldiership. On this subject Englishmen were of one +mind. Tories, Nonjurors, even Roman Catholics, were as loud as Whigs in +reviling the ill fated race. It is, therefore, not difficult to guess +what effect would have been produced by the appearance on our soil of +enemies whom, on their own soil, we had vanquished and trampled down. + +James, however, in spite of the recent and severe teaching of +experience, believed whatever his correspondents in England told him; +and they told him that the whole nation was impatiently expecting him, +that both the West and the North were ready to rise, that he would +proceed from the place of landing to Whitehall with as little +opposition as when, in old times, he returned from a progress. Ferguson +distinguished himself by the confidence with which he predicted a +complete and bloodless victory. He and his printer, he was absurd enough +to write, would be the two first men in the realm to take horse for His +Majesty. Many other agents were busy up and down the country, during the +winter and the early part of the spring. It does not appear that they +had much success in the counties south of Trent. But in the north, +particularly in Lancashire, where the Roman Catholics were more numerous +and more powerful than in any other part of the kingdom, and where there +seems to have been, even among the Protestant gentry, more than the +ordinary proportion of bigoted Jacobites, some preparations for an +insurrection were made. Arms were privately bought; officers were +appointed; yeomen, small farmers, grooms, huntsmen, were induced to +enlist. Those who gave in their names were distributed into eight +regiments of cavalry and dragoons, and were directed to hold themselves +in readiness to mount at the first signal. [252] + +One of the circumstances which filled James, at this time, with +vain hopes, was that his wife was pregnant and near her delivery. He +flattered himself that malice itself would be ashamed to repeat any +longer the story of the warming pan, and that multitudes whom that story +had deceived would instantly return to their allegiance. He took, on +this occasion, all those precautions which, four years before, he had +foolishly and perversely forborne to take. He contrived to transmit to +England letters summoning many Protestant women of quality to assist at +the expected birth; and he promised, in the name of his dear brother the +Most Christian King, that they should be free to come and go in safety. +Had some of these witnesses been invited to Saint James's on the morning +of the tenth of June 1688, the House of Stuart might, perhaps, now be +reigning in our island. But it is easier to keep a crown than to regain +one. It might be true that a calumnious fable had done much to bring +about the Revolution. But it by no means followed that the most complete +refutation of that fable would bring about a Restoration. Not a single +lady crossed the sea in obedience to James's call. His Queen was safely +delivered of a daughter; but this event produced no perceptible effect +on the state of public feeling in England. [253] + +Meanwhile the preparations for his expedition were going on fast. He +was on the point of setting out for the place of embarkation before the +English government was at all aware of the danger which was impending. +It had been long known indeed that many thousands of Irish were +assembled in Normandy; but it was supposed that they had been assembled +merely that they might be mustered and drilled before they were sent +to Flanders, Piedmont, and Catalonia. [254] Now, however, intelligence, +arriving from many quarters, left no doubt that an invasion would be +almost immediately attempted. Vigorous preparations for defence were +made. The equipping and manning of the ships was urged forward with +vigour. The regular troops were drawn together between London and the +sea. A great camp was formed on the down which overlooks Portsmouth. The +militia all over the kingdom was called out. Two Westminster regiments +and six City regiments, making up a force of thirteen thousand fighting +men, were arrayed in Hyde Park, and passed in review before the Queen. +The trainbands of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey marched down to the coast. +Watchmen were posted by the beacons. Some nonjurors were imprisoned, +some disarmed, some held to bail. The house of the Earl of Huntingdon, a +noted Jacobite, was searched. He had had time to burn his papers and to +hide his arms; but his stables presented a most suspicious appearance. +Horses enough to mount a whole troop of cavalry were at the mangers; +and this evidence, though not legally sufficient to support a charge of +treason, was thought sufficient, at such a conjuncture, to justify the +Privy Council in sending him to the Tower. [255] Meanwhile James had +gone down to his army, which was encamped round the basin of La +Hogue, on the northern coast of the peninsula known by the name of the +Cotentin. Before he quitted Saint Germains, he held a Chapter of the +Garter for the purpose of admitting his son into the order. Two noblemen +were honoured with the same distinction, Powis, who, among his brother +exiles, was now called a Duke, and Melfort, who had returned from Rome, +and was again James's Prime Minister. [256] Even at this moment, when it +was of the greatest importance to conciliate the members of the Church +of England, none but members of the Church of Rome were thought worthy +of any mark of royal favour. Powis indeed was an eminent member of the +English aristocracy; and his countrymen disliked him as little as they +disliked any conspicuous Papist. But Melfort was not even an Englishman; +he had never held office in England; he had never sate in the English +Parliament; and he had therefore no pretensions to a dignity peculiarly +English. He was moreover hated by all the contending factions of all the +three kingdoms. Royal letters countersigned by him had been sent both to +the Convention at Westminster and to the Convention at Edinburgh; and, +both at Westminster and at Edinburgh, the sight of his odious name and +handwriting had made the most zealous friends of hereditary right hang +down their heads in shame. It seems strange that even James should have +chosen, at such a conjuncture, to proclaim to the world that the men +whom his people most abhorred were the men whom he most delighted to +honour. + +Still more injurious to his interests was the Declaration in which he +announced his intentions to his subjects. Of all the State papers +which were put forth even by him it was the most elaborately and +ostentatiously injudicious. When it had disgusted and exasperated all +good Englishmen of all parties, the Papists at Saint Germains pretended +that it had been drawn up by a stanch Protestant, Edward Herbert, who +had been Chief Justice of the Common Pleas before the Revolution, and +who now bore the empty title of Chancellor. [257] But it is certain that +Herbert was never consulted about any matter of importance, and that +the Declaration was the work of Melfort and of Melfort alone. [258] +In truth, those qualities of head and heart which had made Melfort the +favourite of his master shone forth in every sentence. Not a word was +to be found indicating that three years of banishment had made the King +wiser, that he had repented of a single error, that he took to himself +even the smallest part of the blame of that revolution which had +dethroned him, or that he purposed to follow a course in any respect +differing from that which had already been fatal to him. All the +charges which had been brought against him he pronounced to be utterly +unfounded. Wicked men had put forth calumnies. Weak men had believed +those calumnies. He alone had been faultless. He held out no hope that +he would consent to any restriction of that vast dispensing power to +which he had formerly laid claim, that he would not again, in defiance +of the plainest statutes, fill the Privy Council, the bench of justice, +the public offices, the army, the navy, with Papists, that he would not +reestablish the High Commission, that he would not appoint a new set of +regulators to remodel all the constituent bodies of the kingdom. He did +indeed condescend to say that he would maintain the legal rights of the +Church of England; but he had said this before; and all men knew what +those words meant in his mouth. Instead of assuring his people of his +forgiveness, he menaced them with a proscription more terrible than any +which our island had ever seen. He published a list of persons who had +no mercy to expect. Among these were Ormond, Caermarthen, Nottingham, +Tillotson and Burnet. After the roll of those who were doomed to death +by name, came a series of categories. First stood all the crowd +of rustics who had been rude to His Majesty when he was stopped at +Sheerness in his flight. These poor ignorant wretches, some hundreds in +number, were reserved for another bloody circuit. Then came all persons +who had in any manner borne a part in the punishment of any Jacobite +conspirator; judges, counsel, witnesses, grand jurymen, petty jurymen, +sheriffs and undersheriffs, constables and turnkeys, in short, all +the ministers of justice from Holt down to Ketch. Then vengeance was +denounced against all spies and all informers who had divulged to the +usurpers the designs of the Court of Saint Germains. All justices of +the peace who should not declare for their rightful Sovereign the moment +that they heard of his landing, all gaolers who should not instantly set +political prisoners at liberty, were to be left to the extreme rigour of +the law. No exception was made in favour of a justice or of a gaoler +who might be within a hundred yards of one of William's regiments, and +a hundred miles from the nearest place where there was a single Jacobite +in arms. + +It might have been expected that James, after thus denouncing vengeance +against large classes of his subjects, would at least have offered a +general amnesty to the rest. But of general amnesty he said not a +word. He did indeed promise that any offender who was not in any of the +categories of proscription, and who should by any eminent service merit +indulgence, should receive a special pardon. But, with this exception, +all the offenders, hundreds of thousands in number, were merely informed +that their fate should be decided in Parliament. + +The agents of James speedily dispersed his Declaration over every part +of the kingdom, and by doing so rendered a great service to William. +The general cry was that the banished oppressor had at least given +Englishmen fair warning, and that, if, after such a warning, they +welcomed him home, they would have no pretence for complaining, though +every county town should be polluted by an assize resembling that +which Jeffreys had held at Taunton. That some hundreds of people,--the +Jacobites put the number so low as five hundred,--were to be hanged +without mercy was certain; and nobody who had concurred in the +Revolution, nobody who had fought for the new government by sea or +land, no soldier who had borne a part in the conquest of Ireland, no +Devonshire ploughman or Cornish miner who had taken arms to defend his +wife and children against Tourville, could be certain that he should +not be hanged. How abject too, how spiteful, must be the nature of a man +who, engaged in the most momentous of all undertakings, and aspiring to +the noblest of all prizes, could not refrain from proclaiming that he +thirsted for the blood of a multitude of poor fishermen, because, +more than three years before, they had pulled him about and called him +Hatchetface. If, at the very moment when he had the strongest motives +for trying to conciliate his people by the show of clemency, he could +not bring himself to hold towards them any language but that of an +implacable enemy, what was to be expected from him when he should be +again their master? So savage was his nature that, in a situation +in which all other tyrants have resorted to blandishments and fair +promises, he could utter nothing but reproaches and threats. The only +words in his Declaration which had any show of graciousness were those +in which he promised to send away the foreign troops as soon as his +authority was reestablished; and many said that those words, when +examined, would be found full of sinister meaning. He held out no hope +that he would send away Popish troops who were his own subjects. His +intentions were manifest. The French might go; but the Irish would +remain. The people of England were to be kept down by these thrice +subjugated barbarians. No doubt a Rapparee who had run away at Newton +Butler and the Boyne might find courage enough to guard the scaffolds on +which his conquerors were to die, and to lay waste our country as he had +laid waste his own. + +The Queen and her ministers, instead of attempting to suppress James's +manifesto, very wisely reprinted it, and sent it forth licensed by the +Secretary of State, and interspersed with remarks by a shrewd and severe +commentator. It was refuted in many keen pamphlets; it was turned into +doggrel rhymes; and it was left undefended even by the boldest and most +acrimonious libellers among the nonjurors. [259] + +Indeed, some of the nonjurors were so much alarmed by observing the +effect which this manifesto produced, that they affected to treat it as +spurious, and published as their master's genuine Declaration a paper +full of gracious professions and promises. They made him offer a free +pardon to all his people with the exception of four great criminals. +They made him hold out hopes of great remissions of taxation. They +made him pledge his word that he would entrust the whole ecclesiastical +administration to the nonjuring bishops. But this forgery imposed on +nobody, and was important only as showing that even the Jacobites were +ashamed of the prince whom they were labouring to restore. [260] + +No man read the Declaration with more surprise and anger than Russell. +Bad as he was, he was much under the influence of two feelings, which, +though they cannot be called virtuous, have some affinity to virtue, and +are respectable when compared with mere selfish cupidity. Professional +spirit and party spirit were strong in him. He might be false to his +country, but not to his flag; and, even in becoming a Jacobite, he had +not ceased to be a Whig. In truth, he was a Jacobite only because he was +the most intolerant and acrimonious of Whigs. He thought himself and his +faction ungratefully neglected by William, and was for a time too much +blinded by resentment to perceive that it would be mere madness in the +old Roundheads, the old Exclusionists, to punish William by recalling +James. The near prospect of an invasion, and the Declaration in which +Englishmen were plainly told what they had to expect if that invasion +should be successful, produced, it should seem, a sudden and entire +change in Russell's feelings; and that change he distinctly avowed. "I +wish," he said to Lloyd, "to serve King James. The thing might be done, +if it were not his own fault. But he takes the wrong way with us. Let +him forget all the past; let him grant a general pardon; and then I will +see what I can do for him." Lloyd hinted something about the honours +and rewards designed for Russell himself. But the Admiral, with a spirit +worthy of a better man, cut him short. "I do not wish to hear anything +on that subject. My solicitude is for the public. And do not think that +I will let the French triumph over us in our own sea. Understand this, +that if I meet them I fight them, ay, though His Majesty himself should +be on board." + +This conversation was truly reported to James; but it does not appear to +have alarmed him. He was, indeed, possessed with a belief that Russell, +even if willing, would not be able to induce the officers and sailors of +the English navy to fight against their old King, who was also their old +Admiral. + +The hopes which James felt, he and his favourite Melfort succeeded in +imparting to Lewis and to Lewis's ministers. [261] But for those hopes, +indeed, it is probable that all thoughts of invading England in the +course of that year would have been laid aside. For the extensive plan +which had been formed in the winter had, in the course of the spring, +been disconcerted by a succession of accidents such as are beyond the +control of human wisdom. The time fixed for the assembling of all the +maritime forces of France at Ushant had long elapsed; and not a single +sail had appeared at the place of rendezvous. The Atlantic squadron was +still detained by bad weather in the port of Brest. The Mediterranean +squadron, opposed by a strong west wind, was vainly struggling to pass +the pillars of Hercules. Two fine vessels had gone to pieces on the +rocks of Ceuta. [262] Meanwhile the admiralties of the allied powers +had been active. Before the end of April the English fleet was ready to +sail. Three noble ships, just launched from our dockyards, appeared +for the first time on the water. [263] William had been hastening the +maritime preparations of the United Provinces; and his exertions had +been successful. On the twenty-ninth of April a fine squadron from the +Texel appeared in the Downs. Soon came the North Holland squadron, +the Maes squadron, the Zealand squadron. [264] The whole force of the +confederate powers was assembled at Saint Helen's in the second week +of May, more than ninety sail of the line, manned by between thirty and +forty thousand of the finest seamen of the two great maritime nations. +Russell had the chief command. He was assisted by Sir Ralph Delaval, +Sir John Ashley, Sir Cloudesley Shovel, Rear Admiral Carter, and Rear +Admiral Rooke. Of the Dutch officers Van Almonde was highest in rank. + +No mightier armament had ever appeared in the British Channel. There was +little reason for apprehending that such a force could be defeated in a +fair conflict. Nevertheless there was great uneasiness in London. It was +known that there was a Jacobite party in the navy. Alarming rumours had +worked their way round from France. It was said that the enemy reckoned +on the cooperation of some of those officers on whose fidelity, in this +crisis, the safety of the State might depend. Russell, as far as can now +be discovered, was still unsuspected. But others, who were probably less +criminal, had been more indiscreet. At all the coffee houses admirals +and captains were mentioned by name as traitors who ought to be +instantly cashiered, if not shot. It was even confidently affirmed that +some of the guilty had been put under arrest, and others turned out of +the service. The Queen and her counsellors were in a great strait. It +was not easy to say whether the danger of trusting the suspected persons +or the danger of removing them were the greater. Mary, with many painful +misgivings, resolved, and the event proved that she resolved wisely, +to treat the evil reports as calumnious, to make a solemn appeal to the +honour of the accused gentlemen, and then to trust the safety of her +kingdom to their national and professional spirit. + +On the fifteenth of May a great assembly of officers was convoked at +Saint Helen's on board the Britannia, a fine three decker, from which +Russell's flag was flying. The Admiral told them that he had received a +despatch which he was charged to read to them. It was from Nottingham. +The Queen, the Secretary wrote, had been informed that stories deeply +affecting the character of the navy were in circulation. It had +even been affirmed that she had found herself under the necessity of +dismissing many officers. But Her Majesty was determined to believe +nothing against those brave servants of the State. The gentlemen who +had been so foully slandered might be assured that she placed entire +reliance on them. This letter was admirably calculated to work on those +to whom it was addressed. Very few of them probably had been guilty of +any worse offence than rash and angry talk over their wine. They were as +yet only grumblers. If they had fancied that they were marked men, they +might in selfdefence have become traitors. They became enthusiastically +loyal as soon as they were assured that the Queen reposed entire +confidence in their loyalty. They eagerly signed an address in +which they entreated her to believe that they would, with the utmost +resolution and alacrity, venture their lives in defence of her rights, +of English freedom and of the Protestant religion, against all foreign +and Popish invaders. "God," they added, "preserve your person, direct +your counsels, and prosper your arms; and let all your people say Amen." +[265] + +The sincerity of these professions was soon brought to the test. A +few hours after the meeting on board of the Britannia the masts +of Tourville's squadron were seen from the cliffs of Portland. One +messenger galloped with the news from Weymouth to London, and roused +Whitehall at three in the morning. Another took the coast road, and +carried the intelligence to Russell. All was ready; and on the morning +of the seventeenth of May the allied fleet stood out to sea. [266] + +Tourville had with him only his own squadron, consisting of forty-four +ships of the line. But he had received positive orders to protect the +descent on England, and not to decline a battle. Though these orders had +been given before it was known at Versailles that the Dutch and +English fleets had joined, he was not disposed to take on himself the +responsibility of disobedience. He still remembered with bitterness the +reprimand which his extreme caution had drawn upon him after the fight +of Beachy Head. He would not again be told that he was a timid and +unenterprising commander, that he had no courage but the vulgar courage +of a common sailor. He was also persuaded that the odds against him were +rather apparent than real. He believed, on the authority of James and +Melfort, that the English seamen, from the flag officers down to the +cabin boys, were Jacobites. Those who fought would fight with half +a heart; and there would probably be numerous desertions at the most +critical moment. Animated by such hopes he sailed from Brest, steered +first towards the north east, came in sight of the coast of Dorsetshire, +and then struck across the Channel towards La Hogue, where the army +which he was to convoy to England had already begun to embark on board +of the transports. He was within a few leagues of Barfleur when, before +daybreak, on the morning of the nineteenth of May, he saw the great +armament of the allies stretching along the eastern horizon. He +determined to bear down on them. By eight the two lines of battle were +formed; but it was eleven before the firing began. It soon became plain +that the English, from the Admiral downward, were resolved to do their +duty. Russell had visited all his ships, and exhorted all his crews. +"If your commanders play false," he said, "overboard with them, and +with myself the first." There was no defection. There was no slackness. +Carter was the first who broke the French line. He was struck by a +splinter of one of his own yard arms, and fell dying on the deck. He +would not be carried below. He would not let go his sword. "Fight the +ship," were his last words: "fight the ship as long as she can swim." +The battle lasted till four in the afternoon. The roar of the guns +was distinctly heard more than twenty miles off by the army which was +encamped on the coast of Normandy. During the earlier part of the day +the wind was favourable to the French; they were opposed to half of the +allied fleet; and against that half they maintained the conflict with +their usual courage and with more than their usual seamanship. After a +hard and doubtful fight of five hours, Tourville thought that enough had +been done to maintain the honour of the white flag, and began to draw +off. But by this time the wind had veered, and was with the allies. They +were now able to avail themselves of their great superiority of force. +They came on fast. The retreat of the French became a flight. Tourville +fought his own ship desperately. She was named, in allusion to Lewis's +favourite emblem, the Royal Sun, and was widely renowned as the finest +vessel in the world. It was reported among the English sailors that she +was adorned with an image of the Great King, and that he appeared there, +as he appeared in the Place of Victories, with vanquished nations in +chains beneath his feet. The gallant ship, surrounded by enemies, lay +like a great fortress on the sea, scattering death on every side from +her hundred and four portholes. She was so formidably manned that all +attempts to board her failed. Long after sunset, she got clear of her +assailants, and, with all her scuppers spouting blood, made for the +coast of Normandy. She had suffered so much that Tourville hastily +removed his flag to a ship of ninety guns which was named the Ambitious. +By this time his fleet was scattered far over the sea. About twenty of +his smallest ships made their escape by a road which was too perilous +for any courage but the courage of despair. In the double darkness of +night and of a thick sea fog, they ran, with all their sails spread, +through the boiling waves and treacherous rocks of the Race of Alderney, +and, by a strange good fortune, arrived without a single disaster at +Saint Maloes. The pursuers did not venture to follow the fugitives into +that terrible strait, the place of innumerable shipwrecks. [267] + +Those French vessels which were too bulky to venture into the Race of +Alderney fled to the havens of the Cotentin. The Royal Sun and two other +three deckers reached Cherburg in safety. The Ambitious, with twelve +other ships, all first rates or second rates, took refuge in the Bay of +La Hogue, close to the headquarters of the army of James. + +The three ships which had fled to Cherburg were closely chased by an +English squadron under the command of Delaval. He found them hauled +up into shoal water where no large man of war could get at them. He +therefore determined to attack them with his fireships and boats. The +service was gallantly and successfully performed. In a short time the +Royal Sun and her two consorts were burned to ashes. Part of the crews +escaped to the shore; and part fell into the hands of the English. [268] + +Meanwhile Russell with the greater part of his victorious fleet had +blockaded the Bay of La Hogue. Here, as at Cherburg, the French men of +war had been drawn up into shallow water. They lay close to the camp +of the army which was destined for the invasion of England. Six of them +were moored under a fort named Lisset. The rest lay under the guns of +another fort named Saint Vaast, where James had fixed his headquarters, +and where the Union flag, variegated by the crosses of Saint George +and Saint Andrew, hung by the side of the white flag of France. Marshal +Bellefonds had planted several batteries which, it was thought, would +deter the boldest enemy from approaching either Fort Lisset or Fort +Saint Vaast. James, however, who knew something of English seamen, was +not perfectly at ease, and proposed to send strong bodies of soldiers on +board of the ships. But Tourville would not consent to put such a slur +on his profession. + +Russell meanwhile was preparing for an attack. On the afternoon of the +twenty-third of May all was ready. A flotilla consisting of sloops, of +fireships, and of two hundred boats, was entrusted to the command +of Rooke. The whole armament was in the highest spirits. The rowers, +flushed by success, and animated by the thought that they were going +to fight under the eyes of the French and Irish troops who had been +assembled for the purpose of subjugating England, pulled manfully and +with loud huzzas towards the six huge wooden castles which lay close to +Fort Lisset. The French, though an eminently brave people, have always +been more liable to sudden panics than their phlegmatic neighbours the +English and Germans. On this day there was a panic both in the fleet and +in the army. Tourville ordered his sailors to man their boats, and would +have led them to encounter the enemy in the bay. But his example and his +exhortations were vain. His boats turned round and fled in confusion. +The ships were abandoned. The cannonade from Fort Lisset was so feeble +and ill directed that it did no execution. The regiments on the beach, +after wasting a few musket shots, drew off. The English boarded the +men of war, set them on fire, and having performed this great service +without the loss of a single life, retreated at a late hour with the +retreating tide. The bay was in a blaze during the night; and now and +then a loud explosion announced that the flames had reached a powder +room or a tier of loaded guns. At eight the next morning the tide came +back strong; and with the tide came back Rooke and his two hundred +boats. The enemy made a faint attempt to defend the vessels which were +near Fort Saint Vaast. During a few minutes the batteries did some +execution among the crews of our skiffs; but the struggle was soon +over. The French poured fast out of their ships on one side; the English +poured in as fast on the other, and, with loud shouts, turned the +captured guns against the shore. The batteries were speedily silenced. +James and Melfort, Bellefonds and Tourville, looked on in helpless +despondency while the second conflagration proceeded. The conquerors, +leaving the ships of war in flames, made their way into an inner basin +where many transports lay. Eight of these vessels were set on fire. +Several were taken in tow. The rest would have been either destroyed or +carried off, had not the sea again begun to ebb. It was impossible to do +more, and the victorious flotilla slowly retired, insulting the hostile +camp with a thundering chant of "God save the King." + +Thus ended, at noon on the twenty-fourth of May, the great conflict +which had raged during five days over a wide extent of sea and shore. +One English fireship had perished in its calling. Sixteen French men of +war, all noble vessels, and eight of them three-deckers, had been sunk +or burned down to the keel. The battle is called, from the place where +it terminated, the battle of La Hogue. [269] + +The news was received in London with boundless exultation. In the fight +on the open sea, indeed, the numerical superiority of the allies had +been so great that they had little reason to boast of their success. But +the courage and skill with which the crews of the English boats had, +in a French harbour, in sight of a French army, and under the fire of +French batteries, destroyed a fine French fleet, amply justified the +pride with which our fathers pronounced the name of La Hogue. That we +may fully enter into their feelings, we must remember that this was +the first great check that had ever been given to the arms of Lewis the +Fourteenth, and the first great victory that the English had gained over +the French since the day of Agincourt. The stain left on our fame by the +shameful defeat of Beachy Head was effaced. This time the glory was all +our own. The Dutch had indeed done their duty, as they have always done +it in maritime war, whether fighting on our side or against us, whether +victorious or vanquished. But the English had borne the brunt of the +fight. Russell who commanded in chief was an Englishman. Delaval who +directed the attack on Cherburg was an Englishman. Rooke who led the +flotilla into the Bay of La Hogue was an Englishman. The only two +officers of note who had fallen, Admiral Carter and Captain Hastings of +the Sandwich, were Englishmen. Yet the pleasure with which the good news +was received here must not be ascribed solely or chiefly to national +pride. The island was safe. The pleasant pastures, cornfields and +commons of Hampshire and Surrey would not be the seat of war. The houses +and gardens, the kitchens and dairies, the cellars and plate chests, the +wives and daughters of our gentry and clergy would not be at the mercy +of Irish Rapparees, who had sacked the dwellings and skinned the cattle +of the Englishry of Leinster, or of French dragoons accustomed to live +at free quarters on the Protestants of Auvergne. Whigs and Tories joined +in thanking God for this great deliverance; and the most respectable +nonjurors could not but be glad at heart that the rightful King was not +to be brought back by an army of foreigners. + +The public joy was therefore all but universal. During several days the +bells of London pealed without ceasing. Flags were flying on all the +steeples. Rows of candles were in all the windows. Bonfires were at +all the corners of the streets. [270] The sense which the government +entertained of the services of the navy was promptly, judiciously and +gracefully manifested. Sidney and Portland were sent to meet the fleet +at Portsmouth, and were accompanied by Rochester, as the representative +of the Tories. The three Lords took down with them thirty-seven thousand +pounds in coin, which they were to distribute as a donative among the +sailors. [271] Gold medals were given to the officers. [272] The remains +of Hastings and Carter were brought on shore with every mark of honour. +Carter was buried at Portsmouth, with a great display of military pomp. +[273] The corpse of Hastings was brought up to London, and laid, with +unusual solemnity, under the pavement of Saint James's Church. The +footguards with reversed arms escorted the hearse. Four royal state +carriages, each drawn by six horses, were in the procession; a crowd +of men of quality in mourning cloaks filled the pews; and the Bishop of +Lincoln preached the funeral sermon. [274] While such marks of respect +were paid to the slain, the wounded were not neglected. Fifty surgeons, +plentifully supplied with instruments, bandages, and drugs, were sent +down in all haste from London to Portsmouth. [275] It is not easy for us +to form a notion of the difficulty which there then was in providing at +short notice commodious shelter and skilful attendance for hundreds of +maimed and lacerated men. At present every county, every large town, +can boast of some spacious palace in which the poorest labourer who has +fractured a limb may find an excellent bed, an able medical attendant, a +careful nurse, medicines of the best quality, and nourishment such as an +invalid requires. But there was not then, in the whole realm, a single +infirmary supported by voluntary contribution. Even in the capital the +only edifices open to the wounded were the two ancient hospitals of +Saint Thomas and Saint Bartholomew. The Queen gave orders that in both +these hospitals arrangements should be made at the public charge for +the reception of patients from the fleet. [276] At the same time it +was announced that a noble and lasting memorial of the gratitude which +England felt for the courage and patriotism of her sailors would soon +rise on a site eminently appropriate. Among the suburban residences of +our kings, that which stood at Greenwich had long held a distinguished +place. Charles the Second liked the situation, and determined to rebuild +the house and to improve the gardens. Soon after his Restoration, he +began to erect, on a spot almost washed by the Thames at high tide, a +mansion of vast extent and cost. Behind the palace were planted long +avenues of trees which, when William reigned, were scarcely more than +saplings, but which have now covered with their massy shade the summer +rambles of several generations. On the slope which has long been the +scene of the holiday sports of the Londoners, were constructed flights +of terraces, of which the vestiges may still be discerned. The Queen now +publicly declared, in her husband's name, that the building commenced by +Charles should be completed, and should be a retreat for seamen disabled +in the service of their country. [277] + +One of the happiest effects produced by the good news was the calming +of the public mind. During about a month the nation had been hourly +expecting an invasion and a rising, and had consequently been in an +irritable and suspicious mood. In many parts of England a nonjuror could +not show himself without great risk of being insulted. A report that +arms were hidden in a house sufficed to bring a furious mob to the door. +The mansion of one Jacobite gentleman in Kent had been attacked, and, +after a fight in which several shots were fired, had been stormed and +pulled down. [278] Yet such riots were by no means the worst symptoms of +the fever which had inflamed the whole society. The exposure of Fuller, +in February, had, as it seemed, put an end to the practices of that vile +tribe of which Oates was the patriarch. During some weeks, indeed, the +world was disposed to be unreasonably incredulous about plots. But in +April there was a reaction. The French and Irish were coming. There was +but too much reason to believe that there were traitors in the island. +Whoever pretended that he could point out those traitors was sure to be +heard with attention; and there was not wanting a false witness to avail +himself of the golden opportunity. + +This false witness was named Robert Young. His history was in his own +lifetime so fully investigated, and so much of his correspondence has +been preserved, that the whole man is before us. His character is indeed +a curious study. His birthplace was a subject of dispute among three +nations. The English pronounced him Irish. The Irish, not being +ambitious of the honour of having him for a countryman, affirmed that he +was born in Scotland. Wherever he may have been born, it is impossible +to doubt where he was bred; for his phraseology is precisely that of +the Teagues who were, in his time, favourite characters on our stage. He +called himself a priest of the Established Church; but he was in truth +only a deacon; and his deacon's orders he had obtained by producing +forged certificates of his learning and moral character. Long before the +Revolution he held curacies in various parts of Ireland; but he did +not remain many days in any spot. He was driven from one place by the +scandal which was the effect of his lawless amours. He rode away from +another place on a borrowed horse, which he never returned. He settled +in a third parish, and was taken up for bigamy. Some letters which he +wrote on this occasion from the gaol of Cavan have been preserved. He +assured each of his wives, with the most frightful imprecations, that +she alone was the object of his love; and he thus succeeded in inducing +one of them to support him in prison, and the other to save his life by +forswearing herself at the assizes. The only specimens which remain to +us of his method of imparting religious instruction are to be found in +these epistles. He compares himself to David, the man after God's own +heart, who had been guilty both of adultery and murder. He declares +that he repents; he prays for the forgiveness of the Almighty, and then +intreats his dear honey, for Christ's sake, to perjure herself. Having +narrowly escaped the gallows, he wandered during several years about +Ireland and England, begging, stealing, cheating, personating, forging, +and lay in many prisons under many names. In 1684 he was convicted at +Bury of having fraudulently counterfeited Sancroft's signature, and was +sentenced to the pillory and to imprisonment. From his dungeon he wrote +to implore the Primate's mercy. The letter may still be read with all +the original bad grammar and bad spelling. [279] The writer acknowledged +his guilt, wished that his eyes were a fountain of water, declared that +he should never know peace till he had received episcopal absolution, +and professed a mortal hatred of Dissenters. As all this contrition +and all this orthodoxy produced no effect, the penitent, after swearing +bitterly to be revenged on Sancroft, betook himself to another device. +The Western Insurrection had just broken out. The magistrates all over +the country were but too ready to listen to any accusation that might be +brought against Whigs and Nonconformists. Young declared on oath that, +to his knowledge, a design had been formed in Suffolk against the life +of King James, and named a peer, several gentlemen, and ten Presbyterian +ministers, as parties to the plot. Some of the accused were brought to +trial; and Young appeared in the witness box; but the story which he +told was proved by overwhelming evidence to be false. Soon after the +Revolution he was again convicted of forgery, pilloried for the fourth +or fifth time, and sent to Newgate. While he lay there, he determined to +try whether he should be more fortunate as an accuser of Jacobites than +he had been as an accuser of Puritans. He first addressed himself to +Tillotson. There was a horrible plot against their Majesties, a plot as +deep as hell; and some of the first men in England were concerned in it. +Tillotson, though he placed little confidence in information coming +from such a source, thought that the oath which he had taken as a Privy +Councillor made it his duty to mention the subject to William. William, +after his fashion, treated the matter very lightly. "I am confident," he +said, "that this is a villany; and I will have nobody disturbed on such +grounds." After this rebuff, Young remained some time quiet. But when +William was on the Continent, and when the nation was agitated by the +apprehension of a French invasion and of a Jacobite insurrection, a +false accuser might hope to obtain a favourable audience. The mere oath +of a man who was well known to the turnkeys of twenty gaols was not +likely to injure any body. But Young was master of a weapon which is, of +all weapons, the most formidable to innocence. He had lived during +some years by counterfeiting hands, and had at length attained such +consummate skill in that bad art that even experienced clerks who +were conversant with manuscript could scarcely, after the most minute +comparison, discover any difference between his imitations and the +originals. He had succeeded in making a collection of papers written by +men of note who were suspected of disaffection. Some autographs he had +stolen; and some he had obtained by writing in feigned names to ask +after the characters of servants or curates. He now drew up a paper +purporting to be an Association for the Restoration of the banished +King. This document set forth that the subscribers bound themselves in +the presence of God to take arms for His Majesty, and to seize on the +Prince of Orange, dead or alive. To the Association Young appended the +names of Marlborough, of Cornbury, of Salisbury, of Sancroft, and of +Sprat, Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster. + +The next thing to be done was to put the paper into some hiding place in +the house of one of the persons whose signatures had been counterfeited. +As Young could not quit Newgate, he was forced to employ a subordinate +agent for this purpose. He selected a wretch named Blackhead, who +had formerly been convicted of perjury and sentenced to have his ears +clipped. The selection was not happy; for Blackhead had none of the +qualities which the trade of a false witness requires except wickedness. +There was nothing plausible about him. His voice was harsh. Treachery +was written in all the lines of his yellow face. He had no invention, no +presence of mind, and could do little more than repeat by rote the lies +taught him by others. + +This man, instructed by his accomplice, repaired to Sprat's palace at +Bromley, introduced himself there as the confidential servant of an +imaginary Doctor of Divinity, delivered to the Bishop, on bended knee, +a letter ingeniously manufactured by Young, and received, with the +semblance of profound reverence, the episcopal benediction. The servants +made the stranger welcome. He was taken to the cellar, drank their +master's health, and entreated them to let him see the house. They could +not venture to show any of the private apartments. Blackhead, therefore, +after begging importunately, but in vain, to be suffered to have one +look at the study, was forced to content himself with dropping the +Association into a flowerpot which stood in a parlour near the kitchen. + +Every thing having been thus prepared, Young informed the ministers that +he could tell them something of the highest importance to the welfare of +the State, and earnestly begged to be heard. His request reached them +on perhaps the most anxious day of an anxious month. Tourville had just +stood out to sea. The army of James was embarking. London was agitated +by reports about the disaffection of the naval officers. The Queen was +deliberating whether she should cashier those who were suspected, or try +the effect of an appeal to their honour and patriotism. At such a moment +the ministers could not refuse to listen to any person who professed +himself able to give them valuable information. Young and his accomplice +were brought before the Privy Council. They there accused Marlborough, +Cornbury, Salisbury, Sancroft and Sprat of high treason. These great +men, Young said, had invited James to invade England, and had promised +to join him. The eloquent and ingenious Bishop of Rochester had +undertaken to draw up a Declaration which would inflame the nation +against the government of King William. The conspirators were bound +together by a written instrument. That instrument, signed by their +own hands, would be found at Bromley if careful search was made. Young +particularly requested that the messengers might be ordered to examine +the Bishop's flowerpots. + +The ministers were seriously alarmed. The story was circumstantial; and +part of it was probable. Marlborough's dealings with Saint Germains were +well known to Caermarthen, to Nottingham, and to Sidney. Cornbury was +a tool of Marlborough, and was the son of a nonjuror and of a notorious +plotter. Salisbury was a Papist. Sancroft had, not many months before, +been, with too much show of reason, suspected of inviting the French to +invade England. Of all the accused persons Sprat was the most unlikely +to be concerned in any hazardous design. He had neither enthusiasm +nor constancy. Both his ambition and his party spirit had always been +effectually kept in order by his love of ease and his anxiety for his +own safety. He had been guilty of some criminal compliances in the hope +of gaining the favour of James, had sate in the High Commission, had +concurred in several iniquitous decrees pronounced by that court, and +had, with trembling hands and faltering voice, read the Declaration of +Indulgence in the choir of the Abbey. But there he had stopped. As soon +as it began to be whispered that the civil and religious constitution +of England would speedily be vindicated by extraordinary means, he had +resigned the powers which he had during two years exercised in defiance +of law, and had hastened to make his peace with his clerical brethren. +He had in the Convention voted for a Regency; but he had taken the oaths +without hesitation; he had borne a conspicuous part in the coronation of +the new Sovereigns; and by his skilful hand had been added to the Form +of Prayer used on the fifth of November those sentences in which the +Church expresses her gratitude for the second great deliverance wrought +on that day. [280] Such a man, possessed of a plentiful income, of a +seat in the House of Lords, of one agreeable house among the elms +of Bromley, and of another in the cloisters of Westminster, was very +unlikely to run the risk of martyrdom. He was not, indeed, on perfectly +good terms with the government. For the feeling which, next to +solicitude for his own comfort and repose, seems to have had the +greatest influence on his public conduct, was his dislike of +the Puritans; a dislike which sprang, not from bigotry, but from +Epicureanism. Their austerity was a reproach to his slothful and +luxurious life; their phraseology shocked his fastidious taste; and, +where they were concerned, his ordinary good nature forsook him. +Loathing the nonconformists as he did, he was not likely to be +very zealous for a prince whom the nonconformists regarded as their +protector. But Sprat's faults afforded ample security that he would +never, from spleen against William, engage in any plot to bring back +James. Why Young should have assigned the most perilous part in an +enterprise full of peril to a man singularly pliant, cautious and +selfindulgent, it is difficult to say. + +The first step which the ministers took was to send Marlborough to the +Tower. He was by far the most formidable of all the accused persons; and +that he had held a traitorous correspondence with Saint Germains was a +fact which, whether Young were perjured or not, the Queen and her chief +advisers knew to be true. One of the Clerks of the Council and several +messengers were sent down to Bromley with a warrant from Nottingham. +Sprat was taken into custody. All the apartments in which it could +reasonably be supposed that he would have hidden an important document +were searched, the library, the diningroom, the drawingroom, the +bedchamber, and the adjacent closets. His papers were strictly examined. +Much food prose was found, and probably some bad verse, but no treason. +The messengers pried into every flowerpot that they could find, but to +no purpose. It never occurred to them to look into the room in which +Blackhead had hidden the Association: for that room was near the offices +occupied by the servants, and was little used by the Bishop and his +family. The officers returned to London with their prisoner, but without +the document which, if it had been found, might have been fatal to him. + +Late at night he was brought to Westminster, and was suffered to +sleep at his deanery. All his bookcases and drawers were examined; and +sentinels were posted at the door of his bedchamber, but with strict +orders to behave civilly and not to disturb the family. + +On the following day he was brought before the Council. The examination +was conducted by Nottingham with great humanity and courtesy. The +Bishop, conscious of entire innocence, behaved with temper and firmness. +He made no complaints. "I submit," he said, "to the necessities of State +in such a time of jealousy and danger as this." He was asked whether +he had drawn up a Declaration for King James, whether he had held +any correspondence with France, whether he had signed any treasonable +association, and whether he knew of any such association. To all these +questions he, with perfect truth, answered in the negative, on the +word of a Christian and a Bishop. He was taken back to his deanery. He +remained there in easy confinement during ten days, and then, as nothing +tending to criminate him had been discovered, was suffered to return to +Bromley. + +Meanwhile the false accusers had been devising a new scheme. Blackhead +paid another visit to Bromley, and contrived to take the forged +Association out of the place in which he had hid it, and to bring +it back to Young. One of Young's two wives then carried it to the +Secretary's Office, and told a lie, invented by her husband, to explain +how a paper of such importance had come into her hands. But it was not +now so easy to frighten the ministers as it had been a few days before. +The battle of La Hogue had put an end to all apprehensions of invasion. +Nottingham, therefore, instead of sending down a warrant to Bromley, +merely wrote to beg that Sprat would call on him at Whitehall. The +summons was promptly obeyed, and the accused prelate was brought face +to face with Blackhead before the Council. Then the truth came out fast. +The Bishop remembered the villanous look and voice of the man who had +knelt to ask the episcopal blessing. The Bishop's secretary confirmed +his master's assertions. The false witness soon lost his presence of +mind. His cheeks, always sallow, grew frightfully livid. His voice, +generally loud and coarse, sank into a whisper. The Privy Councillors +saw his confusion, and crossexamined him sharply. For a time he answered +their questions by repeatedly stammering out his original lie in the +original words. At last he found that he had no way of extricating +himself but by owning his guilt. He acknowledged that he had given an +untrue account of his visit to Bromley; and, after much prevarication, +he related how he had hidden the Association, and how he had removed it +from its hiding place, and confessed that he had been set on by Young. + +The two accomplices were then confronted. Young, with unabashed +forehead, denied every thing. He knew nothing about the flowerpots. +"If so," cried Nottingham and Sidney together, "why did you give +such particular directions that the flowerpots at Bromley should be +searched?" "I never gave any directions about the flowerpots," said +Young. Then the whole board broke forth. "How dare you say so? We all +remember it." Still the knave stood up erect, and exclaimed, with an +impudence which Oates might have envied, "This hiding is all a trick got +up between the Bishop and Blackhead. The Bishop has taken Blackhead off; +and they are both trying to stifle the plot." This was too much. There +was a smile and a lifting up of hands all round the board. "Man," cried +Caermarthen, "wouldst thou have us believe that the Bishop contrived +to have this paper put where it was ten to one that our messengers had +found it, and where, if they had found it, it might have hanged him?" + +The false accusers were removed in custody. The Bishop, after warmly +thanking the ministers for their fair and honourable conduct, took his +leave of them. In the antechamber he found a crowd of people staring at +Young, while Young sate, enduring the stare with the serene fortitude +of a man who had looked down on far greater multitudes from half the +pillories in England. "Young," said Sprat, "your conscience must tell +you that you have cruelly wronged me. For your own sake I am sorry that +you persist in denying what your associate has confessed." "Confessed!" +cried Young; "no, all is not confessed yet; and that you shall find +to your sorrow. There is such a thing as impeachment, my Lord. When +Parliament sits you shall hear more of me." "God give you repentance," +answered the Bishop. "For, depend upon it, you are in much more danger +of being damned than I of being impeached." [281] + +Forty-eight hours after the detection of this execrable fraud, +Marlborough was admitted to bail. Young and Blackhead had done him an +inestimable service. That he was concerned in a plot quite as criminal +as that which they had falsely imputed to him, and that the government +was to possession of moral proofs of his guilt, is now certain. But his +contemporaries had not, as we have, the evidence of his perfidy before +them. They knew that he had been accused of an offence of which he was +innocent, that perjury and forgery had been employed to ruin him, and +that, in consequence of these machinations, he had passed some weeks in +the Tower. There was in the public mind a very natural confusion between +his disgrace and his imprisonment. He had been imprisoned without +sufficient cause. Might it not, in the absence of all information, be +reasonably presumed that he had been disgraced without sufficient cause? +It was certain that a vile calumny, destitute of all foundation, had +caused him to be treated as a criminal in May. Was it not probable, +then, that calumny might have deprived him of his master's favour in +January? + +Young's resources were not yet exhausted. As soon as he had been carried +back from Whitehall to Newgate, he set himself to construct a new +plot, and to find a new accomplice. He addressed himself to a man named +Holland, who was in the lowest state of poverty. Never, said Young, was +there such a golden opportunity. A bold, shrewd, fellow might easily +earn five hundred pounds. To Holland five hundred pounds seemed fabulous +wealth. What, he asked, was he to do for it? Nothing, he was told, +but to speak the truth, that was to say, substantial truth, a little +disguised and coloured. There really was a plot; and this would have +been proved if Blackhead had not been bought off. His desertion had made +it necessary to call in the help of fiction. "You must swear that you +and I were in a back room upstairs at the Lobster in Southwark. Some men +came to meet us there. They gave a password before they were admitted. +They were all in white camlet cloaks. They signed the Association in our +presence. Then they paid each his shilling and went away. And you must +be ready to identify my Lord Marlborough and the Bishop of Rochester as +two of these men." "How can I identify them?" said Holland, "I never saw +them." "You must contrive to see them," answered the tempter, "as soon +as you can. The Bishop will be at the Abbey. Anybody about the Court +will point out my Lord Marlborough." Holland immediately went to +Whitehall, and repeated this conversation to Nottingham. The unlucky +imitator of Oates was prosecuted, by order of the government, for +perjury, subornation of perjury, and forgery. He was convicted and +imprisoned, was again set in the pillory, and underwent, in addition to +the exposure, about which he cared little, such a pelting as had seldom +been known. [282] After his punishment, he was, during some years, lost +in the crowd of pilferers, ringdroppers and sharpers who infested the +capital. At length, in the year 1700, he emerged from his obscurity, +and excited a momentary interest. The newspapers announced that Robert +Young, Clerk, once so famous, had been taken up for coining, then that +he had been found guilty, then that the dead warrant had come down, and +finally that the reverend gentleman had been hanged at Tyburn, and had +greatly edified a large assembly of spectators by his penitence. [283] + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + Foreign Policy of William--The Northern Powers--The Pope--Conduct of + the Allies--The Emperor--Spain--William succeeds in preventing the + Dissolution of the Coalition--New Arrangements for the Government of + the Spanish Netherlands--Lewis takes the Field--Siege of Namur--Lewis + returns to Versailles--Luxemburg--Battle of Steinkirk--Conspiracy + of Grandval--Return of William to England--Naval + Maladministration--Earthquake at Port Royal--Distress in England; + Increase of Crime--Meeting of Parliament; State of Parties--The King's + Speech; Question of Privilege raised by the Lords--Debates on the + State of the Nation--Bill for the Regulation of Trials in Cases of + Treason--Case of Lord Mohun--Debates on the India Trade--Supply--Ways + and Means; Land Tax--Origin of the National Debt--Parliamentary + Reform--The Place Bill--The Triennial Bill--The First Parliamentary + Discussion on the Liberty of the Press--State of Ireland--The King + refuses to pass the Triennial Bill--Ministerial Arrangements--The King + goes to Holland; a Session of Parliament in Scotland + +WHILE England was agitated, first by the dread of an invasion, and then +by joy at the deliverance wrought for her by the valour of her seamen, +important events were taking place on the Continent. On the sixth of +March the King had arrived at the Hague, and had proceeded to make his +arrangements for the approaching campaign. [284] + +The prospect which lay before him was gloomy. The coalition of which he +was the author and the chief had, during some months, been in constant +danger of dissolution. By what strenuous exertions, by what ingenious +expedients, by what blandishments, by what bribes, he succeeded in +preventing his allies from throwing themselves, one by one, at the feet +of France, can be but imperfectly known. The fullest and most authentic +record of the labours and sacrifices by which he kept together, during +eight years, a crowd of fainthearted and treacherous potentates, +negligent of the common interest and jealous of each other, is to +be found in his correspondence with Heinsius. In that correspondence +William is all himself. He had, in the course of his eventful life, to +sustain some high parts for which he was not eminently qualified; and, +in those parts, his success was imperfect. As Sovereign of England, he +showed abilities and virtues which entitle him to honourable mention in +history; but his deficiencies were great. He was to the last a stranger +amongst us, cold, reserved, never in good spirits, never at his ease. +His kingdom was a place of exile. His finest palaces were prisons. He +was always counting the days which must elapse before he should +again see the land of his birth, the clipped trees, the wings of the +innumerable windmills, the nests of the storks on the tall gables, and +the long lines of painted villas reflected in the sleeping canals. He +took no pains to hide the preference which he felt for his native soil +and for his early friends; and therefore, though he rendered great +services to our country, he did not reign in our hearts. As a general +in the field, again, he showed rare courage and capacity; but, from +whatever cause, he was, as a tactician, inferior to some of his +contemporaries, who, in general powers of mind, were far inferior to +him. The business for which he was preeminently fitted was diplomacy, in +the highest sense of the word. It may be doubted whether he has ever had +a superior in the art of conducting those great negotiations on which +the welfare of the commonwealth of nations depends. His skill in this +department of politics was never more severely tasked or more signally +proved than during the latter part of 1691 and the earlier part of 1692. + +One of his chief difficulties was caused by the sullen and menacing +demeanour of the Northern powers. Denmark and Sweden had at one time +seemed disposed to join the coalition; but they had early become cold, +and were fast becoming hostile. From France they flattered themselves +that they had little to fear. It was not very probable that her armies +would cross the Elbe, or that her fleets would force a passage through +the Sound. But the naval strength of England and Holland united might +well excite apprehension at Stockholm and Copenhagen. Soon arose +vexatious questions of maritime right, questions such as, in almost +every extensive war of modern times, have arisen between belligerents +and neutrals. The Scandinavian princes complained that the legitimate +trade between the Baltic and France was tyrannically interrupted. Though +they had not in general been on very friendly terms with each other, +they began to draw close together, intrigued at every petty German +court, and tried to form what William called a Third Party in Europe. +The King of Sweden, who, as Duke of Pomerania, was bound to send three +thousand men for the defence of the Empire, sent, instead of them, his +advice that the allies would make peace on the best terms which they +could get. [285] The King of Denmark seized a great number of Dutch +merchantships, and collected in Holstein an army which caused no small +uneasiness to his neighbours. "I fear," William wrote, in an hour of +deep dejection, to Heinsius, "I fear that the object of this Third Party +is a peace which will bring in its train the slavery of Europe. The day +will come when Sweden and her confederates will know too late how great +an error they have committed. They are farther, no doubt, than we from +the danger; and therefore it is that they are thus bent on working our +ruin and their own. That France will now consent to reasonable terms +is not to be expected; and it were better to fall sword in hand than to +submit to whatever she may dictate." [286] + +While the King was thus disquieted by the conduct of the Northern +powers, ominous signs began to appear in a very different quarter. It +had, from the first, been no easy matter to induce sovereigns who hated, +and who, in their own dominions, persecuted, the Protestant religion, +to countenance the revolution which had saved that religion from a great +peril. But happily the example and the authority of the Vatican had +overcome their scruples. Innocent the Eleventh and Alexander the Eighth +had regarded William with ill concealed partiality. He was not indeed +their friend; but he was their enemy's enemy; and James had been, and, +if restored, must again be, their enemy's vassal. To the heretic nephew +therefore they gave their effective support, to the orthodox uncle only +compliments and benedictions. But Alexander the Eighth had occupied the +papal throne little more than fifteen months. His successor, Antonio +Pignatelli, who took the name of Innocent the Twelfth, was impatient to +be reconciled to Lewis. Lewis was now sensible that he had committed +a great error when he had roused against himself at once the spirit of +Protestantism and the spirit of Popery. He permitted the French Bishops +to submit themselves to the Holy See. The dispute, which had, at one +time, seemed likely to end in a great Gallican schism, was accommodated; +and there was reason to believe that the influence of the head of the +Church would be exerted for the purpose of severing the ties which bound +so many Catholic princes to the Calvinist who had usurped the British +throne. + +Meanwhile the coalition, which the Third Party on one side and the Pope +on the other were trying to dissolve, was in no small danger of falling +to pieces from mere rottenness. Two of the allied powers, and two only, +were hearty in the common cause; England, drawing after her the other +British kingdoms; and Holland, drawing after her the other Batavian +commonwealths. England and Holland were indeed torn by internal +factions, and were separated from each other by mutual jealousies +and antipathies; but both were fully resolved not to submit to French +domination; and both were ready to bear their share, and more than +their share, of the charges of the contest. Most of the members of the +confederacy were not nations, but men, an Emperor, a King, Electors, +Dukes; and of these men there was scarcely one whose whole soul was in +the struggle, scarcely one who did not hang back, who did not find some +excuse for omitting to fulfil his engagements, who did not expect to be +hired to defend his own rights and interests against the common enemy. +But the war was the war of the people of England and of the people of +Holland. Had it not been so, the burdens which it made necessary would +not have been borne by either England or Holland during a single year. +When William said that he would rather die sword in hand than humble +himself before France, he expressed what was felt, not by himself alone, +but by two great communities of which he was the first magistrate. With +those two communities, unhappily, other states had little sympathy. +Indeed those two communities were regarded by other states as rich, +plaindealing, generous dupes are regarded by needy sharpers. England and +Holland were wealthy; and they were zealous. Their wealth excited the +cupidity of the whole alliance; and to that wealth their zeal was +the key. They were persecuted with sordid importunity by all their +confederates, from Caesar, who, in the pride of his solitary dignity, +would not honour King William with the title of Majesty, down to the +smallest Margrave who could see his whole principality from the cracked +windows of the mean and ruinous old house which he called his palace. It +was not enough that England and Holland furnished much more than their +contingents to the war by land, and bore unassisted the whole charge of +the war by sea. They were beset by a crowd of illustrious mendicants, +some rude, some obsequious, but all indefatigable and insatiable. One +prince came mumping to them annually with a lamentable story about his +distresses. A more sturdy beggar threatened to join the Third Party, and +to make a separate peace with France, if his demands were not granted. +Every Sovereign too had his ministers and favourites; and these +ministers and favourites were perpetually hinting that France was +willing to pay them for detaching their masters from the coalition, and +that it would be prudent in England and Holland to outbid France. + +Yet the embarrassment caused by the rapacity of the allied courts was +scarcely greater than the embarrassment caused by their ambition and +their pride. This prince had set his heart on some childish distinction, +a title or a cross, and would do nothing for the common cause till his +wishes were accomplished. That prince chose to fancy that he had been +slighted, and would not stir till reparation had been made to him. +The Duke of Brunswick Lunenburg would not furnish a battalion for the +defence of Germany unless he was made an Elector. [287] The Elector +of Brandenburg declared that he was as hostile as he had ever been +to France; but he had been ill used by the Spanish government; and he +therefore would not suffer his soldiers to be employed in the defence +of the Spanish Netherlands. He was willing to bear his share of the war; +but it must be in his own way; he must have the command of a distinct +army; and he must be stationed between the Rhine and the Meuse. [288] +The Elector of Saxony complained that bad winter quarters had been +assigned to his troops; he therefore recalled them just when they should +have been preparing to take the field, but very coolly offered to send +them back if England and Holland would give him four hundred thousand +rixdollars. [289] + +It might have been expected that at least the two chiefs of the House +of Austria would have put forth, at this conjuncture, all their strength +against the rival House of Bourbon. Unfortunately they could not be +induced to exert themselves vigorously even for their own preservation. +They were deeply interested in keeping the French out of Italy. Yet they +could with difficulty be prevailed upon to lend the smallest assistance +to the Duke of Savoy. They seemed to think it the business of England +and Holland to defend the passes of the Alps, and to prevent the armies +of Lewis from overflowing Lombardy. To the Emperor indeed the war +against France was a secondary object. His first object was the war +against Turkey. He was dull and bigoted. His mind misgave him that +the war against France was, in some sense, a war against the Catholic +religion; and the war against Turkey was a crusade. His recent campaign +on the Danube had been successful. He might easily have concluded an +honourable peace with the Porte, and have turned his arms westward. But +he had conceived the hope that he might extend his hereditary dominions +at the expense of the Infidels. Visions of a triumphant entry into +Constantinople and of a Te Deum in Saint Sophia's had risen in his +brain. He not only employed in the East a force more than sufficient to +have defended Piedmont and reconquered Loraine; but he seemed to think +that England and Holland were bound to reward him largely for neglecting +their interests and pursuing his own. [290] + +Spain already was what she continued to be down to our own time. Of the +Spain which had domineered over the land and the ocean, over the Old +and the New World, of the Spain which had, in the short space of twelve +years, led captive a Pope and a King of France, a Sovereign of Mexico +and a Sovereign of Peru, of the Spain which had sent an army to the +walls of Paris and had equipped a mighty fleet to invade England, +nothing remained but an arrogance which had once excited terror and +hatred, but which could now excite only derision. In extent, indeed, the +dominions of the Catholic King exceeded those of Rome when Rome was +at the zenith of power. But the huge mass lay torpid and helpless, and +could be insulted or despoiled with impunity. The whole administration, +military and naval, financial and colonial, was utterly disorganized. +Charles was a fit representative of his kingdom, impotent physically, +intellectually and morally, sunk in ignorance, listlessness and +superstition, yet swollen with a notion of his own dignity, and quick to +imagine and to resent affronts. So wretched had his education been that, +when he was told of the fall of Mons, the most important fortress in +his vast empire, he asked whether Mons was in England. [291] Among the +ministers who were raised up and pulled down by his sickly caprice, was +none capable of applying a remedy to the distempers of the State. In +truth to brace anew the nerves of that paralysed body would have been a +hard task even for Ximenes. No servant of the Spanish Crown occupied a +more important post, and none was more unfit for an important post, than +the Marquess of Gastanaga. He was Governor of the Netherlands; and in +the Netherlands it seemed probable that the fate of Christendom would +be decided. He had discharged his trust as every public trust was +then discharged in every part of that vast monarchy on which it was +boastfully said that the sun never set. Fertile and rich as was the +country which he ruled, he threw on England and Holland the whole charge +of defending it. He expected that arms, ammunition, waggons, provisions, +every thing, would be furnished by the heretics. It had never occurred +to him that it was his business, and not theirs, to put Mons in a +condition to stand a siege. The public voice loudly accused him of +having sold that celebrated stronghold to France. But it is probable +that he was guilty of nothing worse than the haughty apathy and +sluggishness characteristic of his nation. + +Such was the state of the coalition of which William was the head. There +were moments when he felt himself overwhelmed, when his spirits +sank, when his patience was wearied out, and when his constitutional +irritability broke forth. "I cannot," he wrote, "offer a suggestion +without being met by a demand for a subsidy." [292] "I have refused +point blank," he wrote on another occasion, when he had been importuned +for money, "it is impossible that the States General and England can +bear the charge of the army on the Rhine, of the army in Piedmont, and +of the whole defence of Flanders, to say nothing of the immense cost of +the naval war. If our allies can do nothing for themselves, the sooner +the alliance goes to pieces the better." [293] But, after every short +fit of despondency and ill humour, he called up all the force of his +mind, and put a strong curb on his temper. Weak, mean, false, selfish, +as too many of the confederates were, it was only by their help that +he could accomplish what he had from his youth up considered as his +mission. If they abandoned him, France would be dominant without a rival +in Europe. Well as they deserved to be punished, he would not, to punish +them, acquiesce in the subjugation of the whole civilised world. He set +himself therefore to surmount some difficulties and to evade others. The +Scandinavian powers he conciliated by waiving, reluctantly indeed, and +not without a hard internal struggle, some of his maritime rights. [294] +At Rome his influence, though indirectly exercised, balanced that of the +Pope himself. Lewis and James found that they had not a friend at the +Vatican except Innocent; and Innocent, whose nature was gentle and +irresolute, shrank from taking a course directly opposed to the +sentiments of all who surrounded him. In private conversations with +Jacobite agents he declared himself devoted to the interests of the +House of Stuart; but in his public acts he observed a strict neutrality. +He sent twenty thousand crowns to Saint Germains; but he excused himself +to the enemies of France by protesting that this was not a subsidy for +any political purpose, but merely an alms to be distributed among poor +British Catholics. He permitted prayers for the good cause to be read in +the English College at Rome; but he insisted that those prayers should +be drawn up in general terms, and that no name should be mentioned. +It was in vain that the ministers of the Houses of Stuart and Bourbon +adjured him to take a more decided course. "God knows," he exclaimed on +one occasion, "that I would gladly shed my blood to restore the King of +England. But what can I do? If I stir, I am told that I am favouring the +French, and helping them to set up an universal monarchy. I am not +like the old Popes. Kings will not listen to me as they listened to +my predecessors. There is no religion now, nothing but wicked, worldly +policy. The Prince of Orange is master. He governs us all. He has got +such a hold on the Emperor and on the King of Spain that neither of them +dares to displease him. God help us! He alone can help us." And, as the +old man spoke, he beat the table with his hand in an agony of impotent +grief and indignation. [295] + +To keep the German princes steady was no easy task; but it was +accomplished. Money was distributed among them, much less indeed than +they asked, but much more than they had any decent pretence for asking. +With the Elector of Saxony a composition was made. He had, together with +a strong appetite for subsidies, a great desire to be a member of the +most select and illustrious orders of knighthood. It seems that, instead +of the four hundred thousand rixdollars which he had demanded, he +consented to accept one hundred thousand and the Garter. [296] His prime +minister Schoening, the most covetous and perfidious of mankind, +was secured by a pension. [297] For the Duke of Brunswick Lunenburg, +William, not without difficulty, procured the long desired title of +Elector of Hanover. By such means as these the breaches which had +divided the coalition were so skilfully repaired that it appeared still +to present a firm front to the enemy. William had complained bitterly to +the Spanish government of the incapacity and inertness of Gastanaga. +The Spanish government, helpless and drowsy as it was, could not be +altogether insensible to the dangers which threatened Flanders and +Brabant. Gastanaga was recalled; and William was invited to take upon +himself the government of the Low Countries, with powers not less than +regal. Philip the Second would not easily have believed that, within +a century after his death, his greatgrandson would implore the +greatgrandson of William the Silent to exercise the authority of a +sovereign at Brussels. [298] + +The offer was in one sense tempting; but William was too wise to accept +it. He knew that the population of the Spanish Netherlands was firmly +attached to the Church of Rome. Every act of a Protestant ruler was +certain to be regarded with suspicion by the clergy and people of those +countries. Already Gastanaga, mortified by his disgrace, had written to +inform the Court of Rome that changes were in contemplation which would +make Ghent and Antwerp as heretical as Amsterdam and London. [299] It +had doubtless also occurred to William that if, by governing mildly +and justly, and by showing a decent respect for the ceremonies and the +ministers of the Roman Catholic religion, he should succeed in obtaining +the confidence of the Belgians, he would inevitably raise against +himself a storm of obloquy in our island. He knew by experience what it +was to govern two nations strongly attached to two different Churches. A +large party among the Episcopalians of England could not forgive him +for having consented to the establishment of the presbyterian polity in +Scotland. A large party among the Presbyterians of Scotland blamed him +for maintaining the episcopal polity in England. If he now took under +his protection masses, processions, graven images, friaries, nunneries, +and, worst of all, Jesuit pulpits, Jesuit confessionals and Jesuit +colleges, what could he expect but that England and Scotland would join +in one cry of reprobation? He therefore refused to accept the government +of the Low Countries, and proposed that it should be entrusted to the +Elector of Bavaria. The Elector of Bavaria was, after the Emperor, the +most powerful of the Roman Catholic potentates of Germany. He was young, +brave, and ambitious of military distinction. The Spanish Court was +willing to appoint him, and he was desirous to be appointed; but much +delay was caused by an absurd difficulty. The Elector thought it beneath +him to ask for what he wished to have. The formalists of the Cabinet of +Madrid thought it beneath the dignity of the Catholic King to give what +had not been asked. Mediation was necessary, and was at last successful. +But much time was lost; and the spring was far advanced before the new +Governor of the Netherlands entered on his functions. [300] + +William had saved the coalition from the danger of perishing by +disunion. But by no remonstrance, by no entreaty, by no bribe, could +he prevail on his allies to be early in the field. They ought to have +profited by the severe lesson which had been given them in the preceding +year. But again every one of them lingered, and wondered why the rest +were lingering; and again he who singly wielded the whole power of +France was found, as his haughty motto had long boasted, a match for +a multitude of adversaries. [301] His enemies, while still unready, +learned with dismay that he had taken the field in person at the head of +his nobility. On no occasion had that gallant aristocracy appeared with +more splendour in his train. A single circumstance may suffice to give +a notion of the pomp and luxury of his camp. Among the musketeers of his +household rode, for the first time, a stripling of seventeen, who soon +afterwards succeeded to the title of Duke of Saint Simon, and to whom we +owe those inestimable memoirs which have preserved, for the delight and +instruction of many lands and of many generations, the vivid picture of +a France which has long passed away. Though the boy's family was at that +time very hard pressed for money, he travelled with thirty-five horses +and sumpter mules. The princesses of the blood, each surrounded by a +group of highborn and graceful ladies, accompanied the King; and +the smiles of so many charming women inspired the throng of vain and +voluptuous but highspirited gentlemen with more than common courage. In +the brilliant crowd which surrounded the French Augustus appeared the +French Virgil, the graceful, the tender, the melodious Racine. He had, +in conformity with the prevailing fashion, become devout, had given +up writing for the theatre; and, having determined to apply himself +vigorously to the discharge of the duties which belonged to him as +historiographer of France, he now came to see the great events which +it was his office to record. [302] In the neighbourhood of Mons, Lewis +entertained the ladies with the most magnificent review that had ever +been seen in modern Europe. A hundred and twenty thousand of the finest +troops in the world were drawn up in a line eight miles long. It may be +doubted whether such an army had ever been brought together under the +Roman eagles. The show began early in the morning, and was not over +when the long summer day closed. Racine left the ground, astonished, +deafened, dazzled, and tired to death. In a private letter he ventured +to give utterance to an amiable wish which he probably took good care +not to whisper in the courtly circle: "Would to heaven that all these +poor fellows were in their cottages again with their wives and their +little ones!" [303] + +After this superb pageant Lewis announced his intention of attacking +Namur. In five days he was under the walls of that city, at the head +of more than thirty thousand men. Twenty thousand peasants, pressed in +those parts of the Netherlands which the French occupied, were compelled +to act as pioneers. Luxemburg, with eighty thousand men, occupied a +strong position on the road between Namur and Brussels, and was prepared +to give battle to any force which might attempt to raise the siege. +[304] This partition of duties excited no surprise. It had long been +known that the great Monarch loved sieges, and that he did not love +battles. He professed to think that the real test of military skill was +a siege. The event of an encounter between two armies on an open plain +was, in his opinion, often determined by chance; but only science could +prevail against ravelins and bastions which science had constructed. His +detractors sneeringly pronounced it fortunate that the department of +the military art which His Majesty considered as the noblest was one in +which it was seldom necessary for him to expose to serious risk a life +invaluable to his people. + +Namur, situated at the confluence of the Sambre and the Meuse, was one +of the great fortresses of Europe. The town lay in the plain, and had +no strength except what was derived from art. But art and nature had +combined to fortify that renowned citadel which, from the summit of a +lofty rock, looks down on a boundless expanse of cornfields, woods and +meadows, watered by two fine rivers. The people of the city and of the +surrounding region were proud of their impregnable castle. Their boast +was that never, in all the wars which had devastated the Netherlands, +had skill or valour been able to penetrate those walls. The neighbouring +fastnesses, famed throughout the world for their strength, Antwerp and +Ostend, Ypres, Lisle and Tournay, Mons and Valenciennes, Cambray and +Charleroi, Limburg and Luxemburg, had opened their gates to conquerors; +but never once had the flag been pulled down from the battlements of +Namur. That nothing might be wanting to the interest of the siege, +the two great masters of the art of fortification were opposed to +each other. Vauban had during many years been regarded as the first of +engineers; but a formidable rival had lately arisen, Menno, Baron of +Cohorn, the ablest officer in the service of the States General. The +defences of Namur had been recently strengthened and repaired under +Cohorn's superintendence; and he was now within the walls. Vauban was in +the camp of Lewis. It might therefore be expected that both the attack +and the defence would be conducted with consummate ability. + +By this time the allied armies had assembled; but it was too late. [305] +William hastened towards Namur. He menaced the French works, first from +the west, then from the north, then from the east. But between him and +the lines of circumvallation lay the army of Luxemburg, turning as he +turned, and always so strongly posted that to attack it would have been +the height of imprudence. Meanwhile the besiegers, directed by the skill +of Vauban and animated by the presence of Lewis, made rapid progress. +There were indeed many difficulties to be surmounted and many hardships +to be endured. The weather was stormy; and, on the eighth of June, +the feast of Saint Medard, who holds in the French Calendar the same +inauspicious place which in our Calendar belongs to Saint Swithin, the +rain fell in torrents. The Sambre rose and covered many square miles on +which the harvest was green. The Mehaigne whirled down its bridges to +the Meuse. All the roads became swamps. The trenches were so deep in +water and mire that it was the business of three days to move a gun from +one battery to another. The six thousand waggons which had accompanied +the French army were useless. It was necessary that gunpowder, bullets, +corn, hay, should be carried from place to place on the backs of the war +horses. Nothing but the authority of Lewis could, in such circumstances, +have maintained order and inspired cheerfulness. His soldiers, in truth, +showed much more reverence for him than for what their religion had made +sacred. They cursed Saint Medard heartily, and broke or burned every +image of him that could be found. But for their King there was nothing +that they were not ready to do and to bear. In spite of every obstacle +they constantly gained ground. Cohorn was severely wounded while +defending with desperate resolution a fort which he had himself +constructed, and of which he was proud. His place could not be supplied. +The governor was a feeble man whom Gastanaga had appointed, and whom +William had recently advised the Elector of Bavaria to remove. The +spirit of the garrison gave way. The town surrendered on the eighth day +of the siege, the citadel about three weeks later. [306] + +The history of the fall of Namur in 1692 bears a close resemblance +to the history of the fail of Mons in 1691. Both in 1691 and in 1692, +Lewis, the sole and absolute master of the resources of his kingdom, was +able to open the campaign, before William, the captain of a coalition, +had brought together his dispersed forces. In both years the advantage +of having the first move decided the event of the game. At Namur, as at +Mons, Lewis, assisted by Vauban conducted the siege; Luxemburg covered +it; William vainly tried to raise it, and, with deep mortification, +assisted as a spectator at the victory of his enemy. + +In one respect however the fate of the two fortresses was very +different. Mons was delivered up by its own inhabitants. Namur might +perhaps have been saved if the garrison had been as zealous and +determined as the population. Strange to say, in this place, so long +subject to a foreign rule, there was found a patriotism resembling that +of the little Greek commonwealths. There is no reason to believe that +the burghers cared about the balance of power, or had any preference +for James or for William, for the Most Christian King or for the Most +Catholic King. But every citizen considered his own honour as bound up +with the honour of the maiden fortress. It is true that the French did +not abuse their victory. No outrage was committed; the privileges of the +municipality were respected, the magistrates were not changed. Yet the +people could not see a conqueror enter their hitherto unconquered castle +without tears of rage and shame. Even the barefooted Carmelites, who +had renounced all pleasures, all property, all society, all domestic +affection, whose days were all fast days, who passed month after month +without uttering a word, were strangely moved. It was in vain that Lewis +attempted to soothe them by marks of respect and by munificent bounty. +Whenever they met a French uniform they turned their heads away with a +look which showed that a life of prayer, of abstinence and of silence +had left one earthly feeling still unsubdued. [307] + +This was perhaps the moment at which the arrogance of Lewis reached the +highest point. He had achieved the last and the most splendid military +exploit of his life. His confederated foes, English, Dutch and German, +had, in their own despite, swelled his triumph, and had been witnesses +of the glory which made their hearts sick. His exultation was boundless. +The inscriptions on the medals which he struck to commemorate his +success, the letters by which he enjoined the prelates of his kingdom +to sing the Te Deum, were boastful and sarcastic. His people, a people +among whose many fine qualities moderation in prosperity cannot be +reckoned, seemed for a time to be drunk with pride. Even Boileau, +hurried along by the prevailing enthusiasm, forgot the good sense and +good taste to which he owed his reputation. He fancied himself a lyric +poet, and gave vent to his feelings in a hundred and sixty lines of +frigid bombast about Alcides, Mars, Bacchus, Ceres, the lyre of Orpheus, +the Thracian oaks and the Permessian nymphs. He wondered whether Namur, +had, like Troy, been built by Apollo and Neptune. He asked what power +could subdue a city stronger than that before which the Greeks lay ten +years; and he returned answer to himself that such a miracle could be +wrought only by Jupiter or by Lewis. The feather in the hat of Lewis +was the loadstar of victory. To Lewis all things must yield, princes, +nations, winds, waters. In conclusion the poet addressed himself to the +banded enemies of France, and tauntingly bade them carry back to their +homes the tidings that Namur had been taken in their sight. Before many +months had elapsed both the boastful king and the boastful poet were +taught that it is prudent as well as graceful to be modest in the hour +of victory. + +One mortification Lewis had suffered even in the midst of his +prosperity. While he lay before Namur, he heard the sounds of rejoicing +from the distant camp of the allies. Three peals of thunder from a +hundred and forty pieces of cannon were answered by three volleys from +sixty thousand muskets. It was soon known that these salutes were fired +on account of the battle of La Hogue. The French King exerted himself to +appear serene. "They make a strange noise," he said, "about the burning +of a few ships." In truth he was much disturbed, and the more so because +a report had reached the Low Countries that there had been a sea fight, +and that his fleet had been victorious. His good humour however was soon +restored by the brilliant success of those operations which were under +his own immediate direction. When the siege was over, he left Luxemburg +in command of the army, and returned to Versailles. At Versailles +the unfortunate Tourville soon presented himself, and was graciously +received. As soon as he appeared in the circle, the King welcomed him in +a loud voice. "I am perfectly satisfied with you and with my sailors. We +have been beaten, it is true; but your honour and that of the nation are +unsullied." [308] + +Though Lewis had quitted the Netherlands, the eyes of all Europe were +still fixed on that region. The armies there had been strengthened by +reinforcements drawn from many quarters. Every where else the military +operations of the year were languid and without interest. The Grand +Vizier and Lewis of Baden did little more than watch each other on the +Danube. Marshal Noailles and the Duke of Medina Sidonia did little more +than watch each other under the Pyrenees. On the Upper Rhine, and +along the frontier which separates France from Piedmont, an indecisive +predatory war was carried on, by which the soldiers suffered little +and the cultivators of the soil much. But all men looked, with anxious +expectation of some great event, to the frontier of Brabant, where +William was opposed to Luxemburg. + +Luxemburg, now in his sixty-sixth year, had risen, by slow degrees, +and by the deaths of several great men, to the first place among the +generals of his time. He was of that noble house of Montmorency which +united many mythical and many historical titles to glory, which boasted +that it sprang from the first Frank who was baptized into the name of +Christ in the fifth century, and which had, since the eleventh century, +given to France a long and splendid succession of Constables and +Marshals. In valour and abilities Luxemburg was not inferior to any of +his illustrious race. But, highly descended and highly gifted as he was, +he had with difficulty surmounted the obstacles which impeded him in the +road to fame. If he owed much to the bounty of nature and fortune, he +had suffered still more from their spite. His features were frightfully +harsh, his stature was diminutive; a huge and pointed hump rose on his +back. His constitution was feeble and sickly. Cruel imputations had been +thrown on his morals. He had been accused of trafficking with sorcerers +and with vendors of poison, had languished long in a dungeon, and had at +length regained his liberty without entirely regaining his honour. [309] +He had always been disliked both by Louvois and by Lewis. Yet the war +against the European coalition had lasted but a very short time when +both the minister and the King felt that the general who was personally +odious to them was necessary to the state. Conde and Turenne were no +more; and Luxemburg was without dispute the first soldier that France +still possessed. In vigilance, diligence and perseverance he was +deficient. He seemed to reserve his great qualities for great +emergencies. It was on a pitched field of battle that he was all +himself. His glance was rapid and unerring. His judgment was clearest +and surest when responsibility pressed heaviest on him and when +difficulties gathered thickest around him. To his skill, energy and +presence of mind his country owed some glorious days. But, though +eminently successful in battles, he was not eminently successful in +campaigns. He gained immense renown at William's expense; and yet there +was, as respected the objects of the war, little to choose between the +two commanders. Luxemburg was repeatedly victorious; but he had not the +art of improving a victory. William was repeatedly defeated; but of all +generals he was the best qualified to repair a defeat. + +In the month of July William's headquarters were at Lambeque. About six +miles off, at Steinkirk, Luxemburg had encamped with the main body +of his army; and about six miles further off lay a considerable force +commanded by the Marquess of Boufflers, one of the best officers in the +service of Lewis. + +The country between Lambeque and Steinkirk was intersected by +innumerable hedges and ditches; and neither army could approach the +other without passing through several long and narrow defiles. Luxemburg +had therefore little reason to apprehend that he should be attacked in +his entrenchments; and he felt assured that he should have ample notice +before any attack was made; for he had succeeded in corrupting an +adventurer named Millevoix, who was chief musician and private secretary +of the Elector of Bavaria. This man regularly sent to the French +headquarters authentic information touching the designs of the allies. + +The Marshal, confident in the strength of his position and in the +accuracy of his intelligence, lived in his tent as he was accustomed +to live in his hotel at Paris. He was at once a valetudinarian and a +voluptuary; and, in both characters, he loved his ease. He scarcely ever +mounted his horse. Light conversation and cards occupied most of his +hours. His table was luxurious; and, when he had sate down to supper, it +was a service of danger to disturb him. Some scoffers remarked that +in his military dispositions he was not guided exclusively by military +reasons, that he generally contrived to entrench himself in some place +where the veal and the poultry were remarkably good, and that he was +always solicitous to keep open such communications with the sea as +might ensure him, from September to April, a regular supply of Sandwich +oysters. + +If there were any agreeable women in the neighbourhood of his camp, they +were generally to be found at his banquets. It may easily be supposed +that, under such a commander, the young princes and nobles of France +vied with one another in splendour and gallantry. [310] + +While he was amusing himself after his wonted fashion, the confederate +princes discovered that their counsels were betrayed. A peasant picked +up a letter which had been dropped, and carried it to the Elector of +Bavaria. It contained full proofs of the guilt of Millevoix. William +conceived a hope that he might be able to take his enemies in the snare +which they had laid for him. The perfidious secretary was summoned to +the royal presence and taxed with his crime. A pen was put into his +hand; a pistol was held to his breast; and he was commanded to write on +pain of instant death. His letter, dictated by William, was conveyed to +the French camp. It apprised Luxemburg that the allies meant to send out +a strong foraging party on the next day. In order to protect this party +from molestation, some battalions of infantry, accompanied by artillery, +would march by night to occupy the defiles which lay between the armies. +The Marshal read, believed and went to rest, while William urged forward +the preparations for a general assault on the French lines. + +The whole allied army was under arms while it was still dark. In the +grey of the morning Luxemburg was awakened by scouts, who brought +tidings that the enemy was advancing in great force. He at first treated +the news very lightly. His correspondent, it seemed, had been, as usual, +diligent and exact. The Prince of Orange had sent out a detachment to +protect his foragers, and this detachment had been magnified by fear +into a great host. But one alarming report followed another fast. All +the passes, it was said, were choked with multitudes of foot, horse +and artillery, under the banners of England and of Spain, of the +United Provinces and of the Empire; and every column was moving towards +Steinkirk. At length the Marshal rose, got on horseback, and rode out to +see what was doing. + +By this time the vanguard of the allies was close to his outposts. About +half a mile in advance of his army was encamped a brigade named from the +province of Bourbonnais. These troops had to bear the first brunt of the +onset. Amazed and panicstricken, they were swept away in a moment, and +ran for their lives, leaving their tents and seven pieces of cannon to +the assailants. + +Thus far William's plans had been completely successful but now fortune +began to turn against him. He had been misinformed as to the nature of +the ground which lay between the station of the brigade of Bourbonnais +and the main encampment of the enemy. He had expected that he should be +able to push forward without a moment's pause, that he should find the +French army in a state of wild disorder, and that his victory would be +easy and complete. But his progress was obstructed by several fences +and ditches; there was a short delay; and a short delay sufficed to +frustrate his design. Luxemburg was the very man for such a conjuncture. +He had committed great faults; he had kept careless guard; he had +trusted implicitly to information which had proved false; he had +neglected information which had proved true; one of his divisions was +flying in confusion; the other divisions were unprepared for action. +That crisis would have paralysed the faculties of an ordinary captain; +it only braced and stimulated those of Luxemburg. His mind, nay his +sickly and distorted body, seemed to derive health and vigour from +disaster and dismay. In a short time he had disposed every thing. The +French army was in battle order. Conspicuous in that great array were +the household troops of Lewis, the most renowned body of fighting men +in Europe; and at their head appeared, glittering in lace and embroidery +hastily thrown on and half fastened, a crowd of young princes and lords +who had just been roused by the trumpet from their couches or their +revels, and who had hastened to look death in the face with the gay and +festive intrepidity characteristic of French gentlemen. Highest in +rank among these highborn warriors was a lad of sixteen, Philip Duke of +Chartres, son of the Duke of Orleans, and nephew of the King of France. +It was with difficulty and by importunate solicitation that the gallant +boy had extorted Luxemburg's permission to be where the fire was +hottest. Two other youths of royal blood, Lewis Duke of Bourbon, and +Armand Prince of Conti, showed a spirit worthy of their descent. With +them was a descendant of one of the bastards of Henry the Fourth, Lewis +Duke of Vendome, a man sunk in indolence and in the foulest vice, yet +capable of exhibiting on a great occasion the qualities of a great +soldier. Berwick, who was beginning to earn for himself an honourable +name in arms, was there; and at his side rode Sarsfield, whose courage +and ability earned, on that day, the esteem of the whole French army. +Meanwhile Luxemburg had sent off a pressing message to summon Boufflers. +But the message was needless. Boufflers had heard the firing, and, like +a brave and intelligent captain, was already hastening towards the point +from which the sound came. + +Though the assailants had lost all the advantage which belongs to a +surprise, they came on manfully. In the front of the battle were the +British commanded by Count Solmes. The division which was to lead the +way was Mackay's. He was to have been supported, according to William's +plan, by a strong body of foot and horse. Though most of Mackay's +men had never before been under fire, their behaviour gave promise of +Blenheim and Ramilies. They first encountered the Swiss, who held a +distinguished place in the French army. The fight was so close and +desperate that the muzzles of the muskets crossed. The Swiss were driven +back with fearful slaughter. More than eighteen hundred of them appear +from the French returns to have been killed or wounded. Luxemburg +afterwards said that he had never in his life seen so furious a +struggle. He collected in haste the opinion of the generals who +surrounded him. All thought that the emergency was one which could be +met by no common means. The King's household must charge the English. +The Marshal gave the word; and the household, headed by the princes +of the blood, came on, flinging their muskets back on their shoulders. +"Sword in hand," was the cry through all the ranks of that terrible +brigade: "sword in hand. No firing. Do it with the cold steel." After +a long and desperate resistance the English were borne down. They never +ceased to repeat that, if Solmes had done his duty by them, they would +have beaten even the household. But Solmes gave them no effective +support. He pushed forward some cavalry which, from the nature of the +ground, could do little or nothing. His infantry he would not suffer to +stir. They could do no good, he said, and he would not send them to +be slaughtered. Ormond was eager to hasten to the assistance of his +countrymen, but was not permitted. Mackay sent a pressing message to +represent that he and his men were left to certain destruction; but all +was vain. "God's will be done," said the brave veteran. He died as +he had lived, like a good Christian and a good soldier. With him fell +Douglas and Lanier, two generals distinguished among the conquerors of +Ireland. Mountjoy too was among the slain. After languishing three years +in the Bastile, he had just been exchanged for Richard Hamilton, and, +having been converted to Whiggism by wrongs more powerful than all the +arguments of Locke and Sidney, had instantly hastened to join William's +camp as a volunteer. [311] Five fine regiments were entirely cut to +pieces. No part of this devoted band would have escaped but for the +courage and conduct of Auverquerque, who came to the rescue in the +moment of extremity with two fresh battalions. The gallant manner +in which he brought off the remains of Mackay's division was long +remembered with grateful admiration by the British camp fires. The +ground where the conflict had raged was piled with corpses; and those +who buried the slain remarked that almost all the wounds had been given +in close fighting by the sword or the bayonet. + +It was said that William so far forgot his wonted stoicism as to utter +a passionate exclamation at the way in which the English regiments +had been sacrificed. Soon, however, he recovered his equanimity, and +determined to fall back. It was high time; for the French army was every +moment becoming stronger, as the regiments commanded by Boufflers came +up in rapid succession. The allied army returned to Lambeque unpursued +and in unbroken order. [312] + +The French owned that they had about seven thousand men killed and +wounded. The loss of the allies had been little, if at all, greater. The +relative strength of the armies was what it had been on the preceding +day; and they continued to occupy their old positions. But the moral +effect of the battle was great. The splendour of William's fame grew +pale. Even his admirers were forced to own that, in the field, he +was not a match for Luxemburg. In France the news was received with +transports of joy and pride. The Court, the Capital, even the peasantry +of the remotest provinces, gloried in the impetuous valour which had +been displayed by so many youths, the heirs of illustrious names. It was +exultingly and fondly repeated all over the kingdom that the young Duke +of Chartres could not by any remonstrances be kept out of danger, that +a ball had passed through his coat that he had been wounded in the +shoulder. The people lined the roads to see the princes and nobles who +returned from Steinkirk. The jewellers devised Steinkirk buckles; the +perfumers sold Steinkirk powder. But the name of the field of battle was +peculiarly given to a new species of collar. Lace neckcloths were then +worn by men of fashion; and it had been usual to arrange them with great +care. But at the terrible moment when the brigade of Bourbonnais was +flying before the onset of the allies, there was no time for foppery; +and the finest gentlemen of the Court came spurring to the front of the +line of battle with their rich cravats in disorder. It therefore +became a fashion among the beauties of Paris to wear round their necks +kerchiefs of the finest lace studiously disarranged; and these kerchiefs +were called Steinkirks. [313] + +In the camp of the allies all was disunion and discontent. National +jealousies and animosities raged without restraint or disguise. The +resentment of the English was loudly expressed. Solmes, though he was +said by those who knew him well to have some valuable qualities, was not +a man likely to conciliate soldiers who were prejudiced against him as +a foreigner. His demeanour was arrogant, his temper ungovernable. Even +before the unfortunate day of Steinkirk the English officers did not +willingly communicate with him, and the private men murmured at his +harshness. But after the battle the outcry against him became furious. +He was accused, perhaps unjustly, of having said with unfeeling levity, +while the English regiments were contending desperately against great +odds, that he was curious to see how the bulldogs would come off. +Would any body, it was asked, now pretend that it was on account of his +superior skill and experience that he had been put over the heads of so +many English officers? It was the fashion to say that those officers +had never seen war on a large scale. But surely the merest novice was +competent to do all that Solmes had done, to misunderstand orders, to +send cavalry on duty which none but infantry could perform, and to look +on at safe distance while brave men were cut to pieces. It was too much +to be at once insulted and sacrificed, excluded from the honours of war, +yet pushed on all its extreme dangers, sneered at as raw recruits, and +then left to cope unsupported with the finest body of veterans in the +world. Such were the complains of the English army; and they were echoed +by the English nation. + +Fortunately about this time a discovery was made which furnished both +the camp at Lambeque and the coffeehouses of London with a subject of +conversation much less agreeable to the Jacobites than the disaster of +Steinkirk. + +A plot against the life of William had been, during some months, +maturing in the French War Office. It should seem that Louvois had +originally sketched the design, and had bequeathed it, still rude, to +his son and successor Barbesieux. By Barbesieux the plan was perfected. +The execution was entrusted to an officer named Grandval. Grandval was +undoubtedly brave, and full of zeal for his country and his religion. +He was indeed flighty and half witted, but not on that account the less +dangerous. Indeed a flighty and half witted man is the very instrument +generally preferred by cunning politicians when very hazardous work is +to be done. No shrewd calculator would, for any bribe, however enormous, +have exposed himself to the fate of Chatel, of Ravaillac, or of Gerarts. +[314] + +Grandval secured, as he conceived, the assistance of two adventurers, +Dumont, a Walloon, and Leefdale, a Dutchman. In April, soon after +William had arrived in the Low Countries, the murderers were directed +to repair to their post. Dumont was then in Westphalia. Grandval and +Leefdale were at Paris. Uden in North Brabant was fixed as the place +where the three were to meet and whence they were to proceed together +to the headquarters of the allies. Before Grandval left Paris he paid +a visit to Saint Germains, and was presented to James and to Mary of +Modena. "I have been informed," said James, "of the business. If you and +your companions do me this service, you shall never want." + +After this audience Grandval set out on his journey. He had not the +faintest suspicion that he had been betrayed both by the accomplice who +accompanied him and by the accomplice whom he was going to meet. +Dumont and Leefdale were not enthusiasts. They cared nothing for the +restoration of James, the grandeur of Lewis, or the ascendency of the +Church of Rome. It was plain to every man of common sense that, whether +the design succeeded or failed, the reward of the assassins would +probably be to be disowned, with affected abhorrence, by the Courts +of Versailles and Saint Germains, and to be torn with redhot pincers, +smeared with melted lead, and dismembered by four horses. To vulgar +natures the prospect of such a martyrdom was not alluring. Both these +men, therefore, had, almost at the same time, though, as far as appears, +without any concert, conveyed to William, through different channels, +warnings that his life was in danger. Dumont had acknowledged every +thing to the Duke of Zell, one of the confederate princes. Leefdale +had transmitted full intelligence through his relations who resided in +Holland. Meanwhile Morel, a Swiss Protestant of great learning who +was then in France, wrote to inform Burnet that the weak and hotheaded +Grandval had been heard to talk boastfully of the event which would soon +astonish the world, and had confidently predicted that the Prince of +Orange would not live to the end of the next month. + +These cautions were not neglected. From the moment at which Grandval +entered the Netherlands, his steps were among snares. His movements were +watched; his words were noted; he was arrested, examined, confronted +with his accomplices, and sent to the camp of the allies. About a week +after the battle of Steinkirk he was brought before a Court Martial. +Ginkell, who had been rewarded for his great services in Ireland with +the title of Earl of Athlone, presided; and Talmash was among the +judges. Mackay and Lanier had been named members of the board; but they +were no more; and their places were filled by younger officers. + +The duty of the Court Martial was very simple; for the prisoner +attempted no defence. His conscience had, it should seem, been suddenly +awakened. He admitted, with expressions of remorse, the truth of all +the charges, made a minute, and apparently an ingenuous, confession, and +owned that he had deserved death. He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn +and quartered, and underwent his punishment with great fortitude and +with a show of piety. He left behind him a few lines, in which he +declared that he was about to lose his life for having too faithfully +obeyed the injunctions of Barbesieux. + +His confession was immediately published in several languages, and was +read with very various and very strong emotions. That it was genuine +could not be doubted; for it was warranted by the signatures of some of +the most distinguished military men living. That it was prompted by the +hope of pardon could hardly be supposed; for William had taken pains to +discourage that hope. Still less could it be supposed that the prisoner +had uttered untruths in order to avoid the torture. For, though it was +the universal practice in the Netherlands to put convicted assassins to +the rack in order to wring out from them the names of their employers +and associates, William had given orders that, on this occasion, the +rack should not be used or even named. It should be added, that the +Court did not interrogate the prisoner closely, but suffered him to tell +his story in his own way. It is therefore reasonable to believe that his +narrative is substantially true; and no part of it has a stronger air of +truth than his account of the audience with which James had honoured him +at Saint Germains. + +In our island the sensation produced by the news was great. The Whigs +loudly called both James and Lewis assassins. How, it was asked, was it +possible, without outraging common sense, to put an innocent meaning on +the words which Grandval declared that he had heard from the lips of +the banished King of England? And who that knew the Court of Versailles +would believe that Barbesieux, a youth, a mere novice in politics, and +rather a clerk than a minister, would have dared to do what he had done +without taking his master's pleasure? Very charitable and very ignorant +persons might perhaps indulge a hope that Lewis had not been an +accessory before the fact. But that he was an accessory after the fact +no human being could doubt. He must have seen the proceedings of the +Court Martial, the evidence, the confession. If he really abhorred +assassination as honest men abhor it, would not Barbesieux have been +driven with ignominy from the royal presence, and flung into the +Bastile? Yet Barbesieux was still at the War Office; and it was not +pretended that he had been punished even by a word or a frown. It was +plain, then, that both Kings were partakers in the guilt of Grandval. +And if it were asked how two princes who made a high profession of +religion could have fallen into such wickedness, the answer was that +they had learned their religion from the Jesuits. In reply to these +reproaches the English Jacobites said very little; and the French +government said nothing at all. [315] + +The campaign in the Netherlands ended without any other event deserving +to be recorded. On the eighteenth of October William arrived in England. +Late in the evening of the twentieth he reached Kensington, having +traversed the whole length of the capital. His reception was cordial. +The crowd was great; the acclamations were loud; and all the windows +along his route, from Aldgate to Piccadilly, were lighted up. [316] + +But, notwithstanding these favourable symptoms, the nation was +disappointed and discontented. The war had been unsuccessful by land. +By sea a great advantage had been gained, but had not been improved. The +general expectation had been that the victory of May would be followed +by a descent on the coast of France, that Saint Maloes would he +bombarded, that the last remains of Tourville's squadron would be +destroyed, and that the arsenals of Brest and Rochefort would be laid in +ruins. This expectation was, no doubt, unreasonable. It did not follow, +because Rooke and his seamen had silenced the batteries hastily thrown +up by Bellefonds, that it would be safe to expose ships to the fire of +regular fortresses. The government, however, was not less sanguine than +the nation. Great preparations were made. The allied fleet, having been +speedily refitted at Portsmouth, stood out again to sea. Rooke was sent +to examine the soundings and the currents along the shore of Brittany. +[317] Transports were collected at Saint Helens. Fourteen thousand +troops were assembled on Portsdown under the command of Meinhart +Schomberg, who had been rewarded for his father's services and his +own with the highest rank in the Irish peerage, and was now Duke of +Leinster. Under him were Ruvigny, who, for his good service at Aghrim, +had been created Earl of Galway, La Melloniere and Cambon with their +gallant bands of refugees, and Argyle with the regiment which bore +his name, and which, as it began to be rumoured, had last winter done +something strange and horrible in a wild country of rocks and snow, +never yet explored by any Englishman. + +On the twenty-sixth of July the troops were all on board. The +transports sailed, and in a few hours joined the naval armament in the +neighbourhood of Portland. On the twenty-eighth a general council of war +was held. All the naval commanders, with Russell at their head, declared +that it would be madness to carry their ships within the range of the +guns of Saint Maloes, and that the town must be reduced to straits by +land before the men of war in the harbour could, with any chance of +success, be attacked from the sea. The military men declared with equal +unanimity that the land forces could effect nothing against the town +without the cooperation of the fleet. It was then considered whether it +would be advisable to make an attempt on Brest or Rochefort. Russell +and the other flag officers, among whom were Rooke, Shovel, Almonde +and Evertsen, pronounced that the summer was too far spent for either +enterprise. [318] We must suppose that an opinion in which so many +distinguished admirals, both English and Dutch, concurred, however +strange it may seem to us, was in conformity with what were then the +established principles of the art of maritime war. But why all these +questions could not have been fully discussed a week earlier, why +fourteen thousand troops should have been shipped and sent to sea, +before it had been considered what they were to do, or whether it would +be possible for them to do any thing, we may reasonably wonder. The +armament returned to Saint Helens, to the astonishment and disgust +of the whole nation. [319] The ministers blamed the commanders; the +commanders blamed the ministers. The recriminations exchanged between +Nottingham and Russell were loud and angry. Nottingham, honest, +industrious, versed in civil business, and eloquent in parliamentary +debate, was deficient in the qualities of a war minister, and was not +at all aware of his deficiencies. Between him and the whole body of +professional sailors there was a feud of long standing. He had, some +time before the Revolution, been a Lord of the Admiralty; and his own +opinion was that he had then acquired a profound knowledge of maritime +affairs. This opinion however he had very much to himself. Men who +had passed half their lives on the waves, and who had been in battles, +storms and shipwrecks, were impatient of his somewhat pompous lectures +and reprimands, and pronounced him a mere pedant, who, with all his book +learning, was ignorant of what every cabin boy knew. Russell had always +been froward, arrogant and mutinous; and now prosperity and glory +brought out his vices in full strength. With the government which he +had saved he took all the liberties of an insolent servant who believes +himself to be necessary, treated the orders of his superiors with +contemptuous levity, resented reproof, however gentle, as an outrage, +furnished no plan of his own, and showed a sullen determination to +execute no plan furnished by any body else. To Nottingham he had a +strong and a very natural antipathy. They were indeed an ill matched +pair. Nottingham was a Tory; Russell was a Whig. Nottingham was a +speculative seaman, confident in his theories. Russell was a practical +seaman, proud of his achievements. The strength of Nottingham lay in +speech; the strength of Russell lay in action. Nottingham's demeanour +was decorous even to formality; Russell was passionate and rude. Lastly +Nottingham was an honest man; and Russell was a villain. They now became +mortal enemies. The Admiral sneered at the Secretary's ignorance of +naval affairs; the Secretary accused the Admiral of sacrificing the +public interests to mere wayward humour; and both were in the right. +[320] + +While they were wrangling, the merchants of all the ports in the kingdom +raised a cry against the naval administration. The victory of which the +nation was so proud was, in the City, pronounced to have been a positive +disaster. During some months before the battle all the maritime +strength of the enemy had been collected in two great masses, one in +the Mediterranean and one in the Atlantic. There had consequently been +little privateering; and the voyage to New England or Jamaica had been +almost as safe as in time of peace. Since the battle, the remains of +the force which had lately been collected under Tourville were dispersed +over the ocean. Even the passage from England to Ireland was insecure. +Every week it was announced that twenty, thirty, fifty vessels belonging +to London or Bristol had been taken by the French. More than a hundred +prices were carried during that autumn into Saint Maloes alone. It +would have been far better, in the opinion of the shipowners and of the +underwriters, that the Royal Sun had still been afloat with her thousand +fighting men on board than that she should be lying a heap of ashes +on the beach at Cherburg, while her crew, distributed among twenty +brigantines, prowled for booty over the sea between Cape Finisterre and +Cape Clear. [321] + +The privateers of Dunkirk had long been celebrated; and among them, John +Bart, humbly born, and scarcely able to sign his name, but eminently +brave and active, had attained an undisputed preeminence. In the country +of Anson and Hawke, of Howe and Rodney, of Duncan, Saint Vincent and +Nelson, the name of the most daring and skilful corsair would have +little chance of being remembered. But France, among whose many +unquestioned titles to glory very few are derived from naval war, still +ranks Bart among her great men. In the autumn of 1692 this enterprising +freebooter was the terror of all the English and Dutch merchants who +traded with the Baltic. He took and destroyed vessels close to the +eastern coast of our island. He even ventured to land in Northumberland, +and burned many houses before the trainbands could be collected to +oppose him. The prizes which he carried back into his native port were +estimated at about a hundred thousand pounds sterling. [322] About the +same time a younger adventurer, destined to equal or surpass Bart, Du +Guay Trouin, was entrusted with the command of a small armed vessel. The +intrepid boy,--for he was not yet twenty years old,--entered the estuary +of the Shannon, sacked a mansion in the county of Clare, and did not +reimbark till a detachment from the garrison of Limerick marched against +him. [323] + +While our trade was interrupted and our shores menaced by these rovers, +some calamities which no human prudence could have averted increased the +public ill humour. An earthquake of terrible violence laid waste in less +than three minutes the flourishing colony of Jamaica. Whole plantations +changed their place. Whole villages were swallowed up. Port Royal, the +fairest and wealthiest city which the English had yet built in the New +World, renowned for its quays, for its warehouses, and for its stately +streets, which were said to rival Cheapside, was turned into a mass of +ruins. Fifteen hundred of the inhabitants were buried under their own +dwellings. The effect of this disaster was severely felt by many of the +great mercantile houses of London and Bristol. [324] + +A still heavier calamity was the failure of the harvest. The summer had +been wet all over Western Europe. Those heavy rains which had impeded +the exertions of the French pioneers in the trenches of Namur had been +fatal to the crops. Old men remembered no such year since 1648. No +fruit ripened. The price of the quarter of wheat doubled. The evil was +aggravated by the state of the silver coin, which had been clipped to +such an extent that the words pound and shilling had ceased to have +a fixed meaning. Compared with France indeed England might well be +esteemed prosperous. Here the public burdens were heavy; there they were +crushing. Here the labouring man was forced to husband his coarse barley +loaf; but there it not seldom happened that the wretched peasant +was found dead on the earth with halfchewed grass in his mouth. Our +ancestors found some consolation in thinking that they were gradually +wearing out the strength of their formidable enemy, and that his +resources were likely to be drained sooner than theirs. Still there was +much suffering and much repining. In some counties mobs attacked the +granaries. The necessity of retrenchment was felt by families of every +rank. An idle man of wit and pleasure, who little thought that his +buffoonery would ever be cited to illustrate the history of his times, +complained that, in this year, wine ceased to be put on many hospitable +tables where he had been accustomed to see it, and that its place was +supplied by punch. [325] + +A symptom of public distress much more alarming than the substitution +of brandy and lemons for claret was the increase of crime. During +the autumn of 1692 and the following winter, the capital was kept in +constant terror by housebreakers. One gang, thirteen strong, entered +the mansion of the Duke of Ormond in Saint James's Square, and all but +succeeded in carrying off his magnificent plate and jewels. Another gang +made an attempt on Lambeth Palace. [326] When stately abodes, guarded by +numerous servants, were in such danger, it may easily be believed that +no shopkeeper's till or stock could be safe. From Bow to Hyde Park, from +Thames Street to Bloomsbury, there was no parish in which some quiet +dwelling had not been sacked by burglars. [327] Meanwhile the great +roads were made almost impassable by freebooters who formed themselves +into troops larger than had before been known. There was a sworn +fraternity of twenty footpads which met at an alehouse in Southwark. +[328] But the most formidable band of plunderers consisted of two and +twenty horsemen. [329] It should seem that, at this time, a journey of +fifty miles through the wealthiest and most populous shires of England +was as dangerous as a pilgrimage across the deserts of Arabia. The +Oxford stage coach was pillaged in broad day after a bloody fight. [330] +A waggon laden with fifteen thousand pounds of public money was stopped +and ransacked. As this operation took some time, all the travellers who +came to the spot while the thieves were busy were seized and guarded. +When the booty had been secured the prisoners were suffered to depart +on foot; but their horses, sixteen or eighteen in number, were shot or +hamstringed, to prevent pursuit. [331] The Portsmouth mail was robbed +twice in one week by men well armed and mounted. [332] Some jovial Essex +squires, while riding after a hare, were themselves chased and run down +by nine hunters of a different sort, and were heartily glad to find +themselves at home again, though with empty pockets. [333] + +The friends of the government asserted that the marauders were all +Jacobites; and indeed there were some appearances which gave colour to +the assertion. For example, fifteen butchers, going on a market day to +buy beasts at Thame, were stopped by a large gang, and compelled first +to deliver their moneybags, and then to drink King James's health in +brandy. [334] The thieves, however, to do them justice, showed, in +the exercise of their calling, no decided preference for any political +party. Some of them fell in with Marlborough near Saint Albans, +and, notwithstanding his known hostility to the Court and his recent +imprisonment, compelled him to deliver up five hundred guineas, which he +doubtless never ceased to regret to the last moment of his long career +of prosperity and glory. [335] + +When William, on his return from the Continent, learned to what an +extent these outrages were carried, he expressed great indignation, and +announced his resolution to put down the malefactors with a strong hand. +A veteran robber was induced to turn informer, and to lay before the +King a list of the chief highwaymen, and a full account of their habits +and of their favourite haunts. It was said that this list contained not +less than eighty names. [336] Strong parties of cavalry were sent out +to protect the roads; and this precaution, which would, in ordinary +circumstances, have excited much murmuring, seems to have been generally +approved. A fine regiment, now called the Second Dragoon Guards, which +had distinguished itself in Ireland by activity and success in the +irregular war against the Rapparees, was selected to guard several of +the great avenues of the capital. Blackheath, Barnet, Hounslow, became +places of arms. [337] In a few weeks the roads were as safe as usual. +The executions were numerous for, till the evil had been suppressed, the +King resolutely refused to listen to any solicitations for mercy. [338] +Among those who suffered was James Whitney, the most celebrated captain +of banditti in the kingdom. He had been, during some months, the terror +of all who travelled from London either northward or westward, and was +at length with difficulty secured after a desperate conflict in which +one soldier was killed and several wounded. [339] The London Gazette +announced that the famous highwayman had been taken, and invited all +persons who had been robbed by him to repair to Newgate and to see +whether they could identify him. To identify him should have been easy; +for he had a wound in the face, and had lost a thumb. [340] He, however, +in the hope of perplexing the witnesses for the Crown, expended a +hundred pounds in procuring a sumptuous embroidered suit against the +day of trial. This ingenious device was frustrated by his hardhearted +keepers. He was put to the bar in his ordinary clothes, convicted and +sentenced to death. [341] He had previously tried to ransom himself by +offering to raise a fine troop of cavalry, all highwaymen, for service +in Flanders; but his offer had been rejected. [342] He had one resource +still left. He declared that he was privy to a treasonable plot. Some +Jacobite lords had promised him immense rewards if he would, at the head +of his gang, fall upon the King at a stag hunt in Windsor Forest. There +was nothing intrinsically improbable in Whitney's story. Indeed a design +very similar to that which he imputed to the malecontents was, only +three years later, actually formed by some of them, and was all but +carried into execution. But it was far better that a few bad men should +go unpunished than that all honest men should live in fear of being +falsely accused by felons sentenced to the gallows. Chief Justice Holt +advised the King to let the law take its course. William, never much +inclined to give credit to stories about conspiracies, assented. The +Captain, as he was called, was hanged in Smithfield, and made a most +penitent end. [343] + +Meanwhile, in the midst of discontent, distress and disorder, had begun +a session of Parliament singularly eventful, a session from which dates +a new era in the history of English finance, a session in which some +grave constitutional questions, not yet entirely set at rest, were for +the first time debated. + +It is much to be lamented that any account of this session which can +be framed out of the scanty and dispersed materials now accessible must +leave many things obscure. The relations of the parliamentary factions +were, during this year, in a singularly complicated state. Each of the +two Houses was divided and subdivided by several lines. To omit minor +distinctions, there was the great line which separated the Whig party +from the Tory party; and there was the great line which separated the +official men and their friends and dependents, who were sometimes +called the Court party, from those who were sometimes nicknamed the +Grumbletonians and sometimes honoured with the appellation of the +Country party. And these two great lines were intersecting lines. For +of the servants of the Crown and of their adherents about one half were +Whigs and one half Tories. It is also to be remembered that there was, +quite distinct from the feud between Whigs and Tories, quite distinct +also from the feud between those who were in and those who were out, a +feud between the Lords as Lords and the Commons as Commons. The spirit +both of the hereditary and of the elective chamber had been thoroughly +roused in the preceding session by the dispute about the Court of the +Lord High Steward; and they met in a pugnacious mood. + +The speech which the King made at the opening of the session was +skilfully framed for the purpose of conciliating the Houses. He came, he +told them, to ask for their advice and assistance. He congratulated them +on the victory of La Hogue. He acknowledged with much concern that the +operations of the allies had been less successful by land than by sea; +but he warmly declared that, both by land and by sea, the valour of his +English subjects had been preeminently conspicuous. The distress of his +people, he said, was his own; his interest was inseparable from theirs; +it was painful to him to call on them to make sacrifices; but from +sacrifices which were necessary to the safety of the English nation and +of the Protestant religion no good Englishman and no good Protestant +would shrink. [344] + +The Commons thanked the King in cordial terms for his gracious speech. +[345] But the Lords were in a bad humour. Two of their body, Marlborough +and Huntingdon, had, during the recess, when an invasion and an +insurrection were hourly expected, been sent to the Tower, and were +still under recognisances. Had a country gentleman or a merchant been +taken up and held to bail on even slighter grounds at so alarming a +crisis, the Lords would assuredly not have interfered. But they were +easily moved to anger by any thing that looked like an indignity offered +to their own order. They not only crossexamined with great severity +Aaron Smith, the Solicitor of the Treasury, whose character, to say the +truth, entitled him to little indulgence, but passed; by thirty-five +votes to twenty-eight, a resolution implying a censure on the judges of +the King's Bench, men certainly not inferior in probity, and very far +superior in legal learning, to any peer of the realm. The King thought +it prudent to soothe the wounded pride of the nobility by ordering the +recognisances to be cancelled; and with this concession the House was +satisfied, to the great vexation of the Jacobites, who had hoped that +the quarrel would be prosecuted to some fatal issue, and who, finding +themselves disappointed, vented their spleen by railing at the tameness +of the degenerate barons of England. [346] + +Both Houses held long and earnest deliberations on the state of the +nation. The King, when he requested their advice, had, perhaps, not +foreseen that his words would be construed into an invitation to +scrutinise every part of the administration, and to offer suggestions +touching matters which parliaments have generally thought it expedient +to leave entirely to the Crown. Some of the discontented peers proposed +that a Committee, chosen partly by the Lords and partly by the Commons, +should be authorised to inquire into the whole management of public +affairs. But it was generally apprehended that such a Committee would +become a second and more powerful Privy Council, independent of the +Crown, and unknown to the Constitution. The motion was therefore +rejected by forty-eight votes to thirty-six. On this occasion the +ministers, with scarcely an exception, voted in the majority. A protest +was signed by eighteen of the minority, among whom were the bitterest +Whigs and the bitterest Tories in the whole peerage. [347] + +The Houses inquired, each for itself, into the causes of the public +calamities. The Commons resolved themselves into a Grand Committee +to consider of the advice to be given to the King. From the concise +abstracts and fragments which have come down to us it seems that, in +this Committee, which continued to sit many days, the debates wandered +over a vast space. One member spoke of the prevalence of highway +robbery; another deplored the quarrel between the Queen and the +Princess, and proposed that two or three gentlemen should be deputed to +wait on Her Majesty and try to make matters up. A third described the +machinations of the Jacobites in the preceding spring. It was notorious, +he said, that preparations had been made for a rising, and that arms and +horses had been collected; yet not a single traitor had been brought to +justice. [348] + +The events of the war by land and sea furnished matter for several +earnest debates. Many members complained of the preference given to +aliens over Englishmen. The whole battle of Steinkirk was fought over +again; and severe reflections were thrown on Solmes. "Let English +soldiers be commanded by none but English generals," was the almost +universal cry. Seymour, who had once been distinguished by his hatred of +the foreigners, but who, since he had been at the Board of Treasury, +had reconsidered his opinions, asked where English generals were to +be found. "I have no love for foreigners as foreigners; but we have no +choice. Men are not born generals; nay, a man may be a very valuable +captain or major, and not be equal to the conduct of an army. Nothing +but experience will form great commanders. Very few of our countrymen +have that experience; and therefore we must for the present employ +strangers." Lowther followed on the same side. "We have had a long +peace; and the consequence is that we have not a sufficient supply of +officers fit for high commands. The parks and the camp at Hounslow were +very poor military schools, when compared with the fields of battle +and the lines of contravallation in which the great commanders of the +continental nations have learned their art." In reply to these arguments +an orator on the other side was so absurd as to declare that he could +point out ten Englishmen who, if they were in the French service, would +be made Marshals. Four or five colonels who had been at Steinkirk took +part in the debate. It was said of them that they showed as much modesty +in speech as they had shown courage in action; and, from the very +imperfect report which has come down to us, the compliment seems to have +been not undeserved. They did not join in the vulgar cry against the +Dutch. They spoke well of the foreign officers generally, and did full +justice to the valour and conduct with which Auverquerque had rescued +the shattered remains of Mackay's division from what seemed certain +destruction. But in defence of Solmes not a word was said. His severity, +his haughty manners, and, above all, the indifference with which he had +looked on while the English, borne down by overwhelming numbers, were +fighting hand to hand with the French household troops, had made him so +odious that many members were prepared to vote for an address requesting +that he might be removed, and that his place might be filled by Talmash, +who, since the disgrace of Marlborough, was universally allowed to +be the best officer in the army. But Talmash's friends judiciously +interfered. "I have," said one of them, "a true regard for that +gentleman; and I implore you not to do him an injury under the notion of +doing him a kindness. Consider that you are usurping what is peculiarly +the King's prerogative. You are turning officers out and putting +officers in." The debate ended without any vote of censure on Solmes. +But a hope was expressed, in language not very parliamentary, that what +had been said in the Committee would be reported to the King, and that +His Majesty would not disregard the general wish of the representatives +of his people. [349] + +The Commons next proceeded to inquire into the naval administration, and +very soon came to a quarrel with the Lords on that subject. That there +had been mismanagement somewhere was but too evident. It was hardly +possible to acquit both Russell and Nottingham; and each House stood +by its own member. The Commons had, at the opening of the session, +unanimously passed a vote of thanks to Russell for his conduct at +La Hogue. They now, in the Grand Committee of Advice, took into +consideration the miscarriages which had followed the battle. A motion +was made so vaguely worded that it could hardly be said to mean any +thing. It was understood however to imply a censure on Nottingham, and +was therefore strongly opposed by his friends. On the division the Ayes +were a hundred and sixty-five, the Noes a hundred and sixty-four. [350] + +On the very next day Nottingham appealed to the Lords. He told his story +with all the skill of a practised orator, and with all the authority +which belongs to unblemished integrity. He then laid on the table a +great mass of papers, which he requested the House to read and consider. +The Peers seem to have examined the papers seriously and diligently. The +result of the examination was by no means favourable to Russell. Yet +it was thought unjust to condemn him unheard; and it was difficult to +devise any way in which their Lordships could hear him. At last it was +resolved to send the papers down to the Commons with a message which +imported that, in the opinion of the Upper House, there was a case +against the Admiral which he ought to be called upon to answer. With the +papers was sent an abstract of the contents. [351] + +The message was not very respectfully received. Russell had, at that +moment, a popularity which he little deserved, but which will not +surprise us when we remember that the public knew nothing of his +treasons, and knew that he was the only living Englishman who had won a +great battle. The abstract of the papers was read by the clerk. Russell +then spoke with great applause; and his friends pressed for an immediate +decision. Sir Christopher Musgrave very justly observed that it was +impossible to pronounce judgment on such a pile of despatches without +perusing them; but this objection was overruled. The Whigs regarded the +accused member as one of themselves; many of the Tories were dazzled by +the splendour of his recent victory; and neither Whigs nor Tories were +disposed to show any deference for the authority of the Peers. The +House, without reading the papers, passed an unanimous resolution +expressing warm approbation of Russell's whole conduct. The temper of +the assembly was such that some ardent Whigs thought that they might +now venture to propose a vote of censure on Nottingham by name. But the +attempt failed. "I am ready," said Lowther,--and he doubtless expressed +what many felt,--"I am ready to support any motion that may do honour to +the Admiral; but I cannot join in an attack on the Secretary of State. +For, to my knowledge, their Majesties have no more zealous, laborious +or faithful servant than my Lord Nottingham." Finch exerted all his +mellifluous eloquence in defence of his brother, and contrived, without +directly opposing himself to the prevailing sentiment, to insinuate +that Russell's conduct had not been faultless. The vote of censure on +Nottingham was not pressed. The vote which pronounced Russell's conduct +to have been deserving of all praise was communicated to the Lords; and +the papers which they had sent down were very unceremoniously returned. +[352] The Lords, much offended, demanded a free conference. It was +granted; and the managers of the two Houses met in the Painted Chamber. +Rochester, in the name of his brethren, expressed a wish to be informed +of the grounds on which the Admiral had been declared faultless. To this +appeal the gentlemen who stood on the other side of the table answered +only that they had not been authorised to give any explanation, but that +they would report to those who had sent them what had been said. [353] + +By this time the Commons were thoroughly tired of the inquiry into the +conduct of the war. The members had got rid of much of the ill humour +which they had brought up with them from their country seats by the +simple process of talking it away. Burnet hints that those arts of which +Caermarthen and Trevor were the great masters were employed for the +purpose of averting votes which would have seriously embarrassed the +government. But, though it is not improbable that a few noisy pretenders +to patriotism may have been quieted with bags of guineas, it would +be absurd to suppose that the House generally was influenced in this +manner. Whoever has seen anything of such assemblies knows that the +spirit with which they enter on long inquiries very soon flags, and that +their resentment, if not kept alive by injudicious opposition, cools +fast. In a short time every body was sick of the Grand Committee of +Advice. The debates had been tedious and desultory. The resolutions +which had been carried were for the most part merely childish. The King +was to be humbly advised to employ men of ability and integrity. He was +to be humbly advised to employ men who would stand by him against James. +The patience of the House was wearied out by long discussions ending in +the pompous promulgation of truisms like these. At last the explosion +came. One of the grumblers called the attention of the Grand Committee +to the alarming fact that two Dutchmen were employed in the Ordnance +department, and moved that the King should be humbly advised to dismiss +them. The motion was received with disdainful mockery. It was remarked +that the military men especially were loud in the expression of +contempt. "Do we seriously think of going to the King and telling him +that, as he has condescended to ask our advice at this momentous crisis, +we humbly advise him to turn a Dutch storekeeper out of the Tower? +Really, if we have no more important suggestion to carry up to the +throne, we may as well go to our dinners." The members generally were +of the same mind. The chairman was voted out of the chair, and was not +directed to ask leave to sit again. The Grand Committee ceased to exist. +The resolutions which it had passed were formally reported to the House. +One of them was rejected; the others were suffered to drop; and the +Commons, after considering during several weeks what advice they should +give to the King, ended by giving him no advice at all. [354] + +The temper of the Lords was different. From many circumstances it +appears that there was no place where the Dutch were, at this time, so +much hated as in the Upper House. The dislike with which an Englishman +of the middle class regarded the King's foreign friends was merely +national. But the dislike with which an English nobleman regarded them +was personal. They stood between him and Majesty. They intercepted from +him the rays of royal favour. The preference given to them wounded him +both in his interests and in his pride. His chance of the Garter was +much smaller since they had become his competitors. He might have been +Master of the Horse but for Auverquerque, Master of the Robes but for +Zulestein, Groom of the Stole but for Bentinck. [355] The ill humour of +the aristocracy was inflamed by Marlborough, who, at this time, affected +the character of a patriot persecuted for standing up against the Dutch +in defence of the interests of his native land, and who did not foresee +that a day would come when he would be accused of sacrificing the +interests of his native land to gratify the Dutch. The Peers determined +to present an address, requesting William not to place his English +troops under the command of a foreign general. They took up very +seriously that question which had moved the House of Commons to +laughter, and solemnly counselled their Sovereign not to employ +foreigners in his magazines. At Marlborough's suggestion they urged the +King to insist that the youngest English general should take precedence +of the oldest general in the service of the States General. It was, they +said, derogatory to the dignity of the Crown, that an officer who held +a commission from His Majesty should ever be commanded by an officer +who held a similar commission from a republic. To this advice, evidently +dictated by an ignoble malevolence to Holland, William, who troubled +himself little about votes of the Upper House which were not backed by +the Lower, returned, as might have been expected, a very short and dry +answer. [356] + +While the inquiry into the conduct of the war was pending, the Commons +resumed the consideration of an important subject which had occupied +much of their attention in the preceding year. The Bill for the +Regulation of Trials in cases of High Treason was again brought in, but +was strongly opposed by the official men, both Whigs and Tories. Somers, +now Attorney General, strongly recommended delay. That the law, as +it stood, was open to grave objections, was not denied; but it was +contended that the proposed reform would, at that moment, produce more +harm than good. Nobody would assert that, under the existing government, +the lives of innocent subjects were in any danger. Nobody would deny +that the government itself was in great danger. Was it the part of wise +men to increase the perils of that which was already in serious peril +for the purpose of giving new security to that which was already +perfectly secure? Those who held this language were twitted with their +inconsistency, and asked why they had not ventured to oppose the bill +in the preceding session. They answered very plausibly that the events +which had taken place during the recess had taught an important lesson +to all who were capable of learning. The country had been threatened at +once with invasion and insurrection. No rational man doubted that many +traitors had made preparations for joining the French, and had collected +arms, ammunition and horses for that purpose. Yet, though there was +abundant moral evidence against these enemies of their country, it had +not been possible to find legal evidence against a single one of them. +The law of treason might, in theory, be harsh, and had undoubtedly, in +times past, been grossly abused. But a statesman who troubled himself +less about theory than about practice, and less about times past than +about the time present, would pronounce that law not too stringent but +too lax, and would, while the commonwealth remained in extreme jeopardy, +refuse to consent to any further relaxation. In spite of all opposition, +however, the principle of the bill was approved by one hundred and +seventy-one votes to one hundred and fifty-two. But in the committee it +was moved and carried that the new rules of procedure should not come +into operation till after the end of the war with France. When the +report was brought up the House divided on this amendment, and ratified +it by a hundred and forty-five votes to a hundred and twenty-five. The +bill was consequently suffered to drop. [357] Had it gone up to the +Peers it would in all probability have been lost after causing another +quarrel between the Houses. For the Peers were fully determined that +no such bill should pass, unless it contained a clause altering the +constitution of the Lord High Steward's Court; and a clause altering +the constitution of the Lord High Steward's Court would have been less +likely than ever to find favour with the Commons. For in the course of +this session an event took place which proved that the great were only +too well protected by the law as it stood, and which well deserves to be +recorded as a striking illustration of the state of manners and morals +in that age. + +Of all the actors who were then on the English stage the most graceful +was William Mountford. He had every physical qualification for his +calling, a noble figure, a handsome face, a melodious voice. It was not +easy to say whether he succeeded better in heroic or in ludicrous parts. +He was allowed to be both the best Alexander and the best Sir Courtly +Nice that ever trod the boards. Queen Mary, whose knowledge was very +superficial, but who had naturally a quick perception of what was +excellent in art, admired him greatly. He was a dramatist as well as a +player, and has left us one comedy which is not contemptible. [358] + +The most popular actress of the time was Anne Bracegirdle. There were on +the stage many women of more faultless beauty, but none whose features +and deportment had such power to fascinate the senses and the hearts +of men. The sight of her bright black eyes and of her rich brown cheek +sufficed to put the most turbulent audience into good humour. It was +said of her that in the crowded theatre she had as many lovers as she +had male spectators. Yet no lover, however rich, however high in rank, +had prevailed on her to be his mistress. Those who are acquainted with +the parts which she was in the habit of playing, and with the epilogues +which it was her especial business to recite, will not easily give her +credit for any extraordinary measure of virtue or of delicacy. She +seems to have been a cold, vain and interested coquette, who perfectly +understood how much the influence of her charms was increased by the +fame of a severity which cost her nothing, and who could venture to +flirt with a succession of admirers in the just confidence that no flame +which she might kindle in them would thaw her own ice. [359] Among those +who pursued her with an insane desire was a profligate captain in the +army named Hill. With Hill was closely bound in a league of debauchery +and violence Charles Lord Mohun, a young nobleman whose life was one +long revel and brawl. Hill, finding that the beautiful brunette was +invincible, took it into his head that he was rejected for a more +favoured rival, and that this rival was the brilliant Mountford. The +jealous lover swore over his wine at a tavern that he would stab the +villain. "And I," said Mohun, "will stand by my friend." From the tavern +the pair went, with some soldiers whose services Hill had secured, to +Drury Lane where the lady resided. They lay some time in wait for her. +As soon as she appeared in the street she was seized and hurried to +a coach. She screamed for help; her mother clung round her; the whole +neighbourhood rose; and she was rescued. Hill and Mohun went away vowing +vengeance. They swaggered sword in hand during two hours about the +streets near Mountford's dwelling. The watch requested them to put up +their weapons. But when the young lord announced that he was a peer, +and bade the constables touch him if they durst, they let him pass. So +strong was privilege then; and so weak was law. Messengers were sent to +warn Mountford of his danger; but unhappily they missed him. He came. A +short altercation took place between him and Mohun; and, while they were +wrangling, Hill ran the unfortunate actor through the body, and fled. + +The grand jury of Middlesex, consisting of gentlemen of note, found a +bill of murder against Hill and Mohun. Hill escaped. Mohun was taken. +His mother threw herself at William's feet, but in vain. "It was a cruel +act," said the King; "I shall leave it to the law." The trial came on +in the Court of the Lord High Steward; and, as Parliament happened to be +sitting, the culprit had the advantage of being judged by the whole +body of the peerage. There was then no lawyer in the Upper House. It +therefore became necessary, for the first time since Buckhurst had +pronounced sentence on Essex and Southampton, that a peer who had never +made jurisprudence his special study should preside over that grave +tribunal. Caermarthen, who, as Lord President, took precedence of all +the nobility, was appointed Lord High Steward. A full report of the +proceedings has come down to us. No person, who carefully examines that +report, and attends to the opinion unanimously given by the judges in +answer to a question which Nottingham drew up, and in which the facts +brought out by the evidence are stated with perfect fairness, can doubt +that the crime of murder was fully brought home to the prisoner. Such +was the opinion of the King who was present during the trial; and such +was the almost unanimous opinion of the public. Had the issue been tried +by Holt and twelve plain men at the Old Bailey, there can be no doubt +that a verdict of Guilty would have been returned. The Peers, however, +by sixty-nine votes to fourteen, acquitted their accused brother. One +great nobleman was so brutal and stupid as to say, "After all the fellow +was but a player; and players are rogues." All the newsletters, all the +coffeehouse orators, complained that the blood of the poor was shed with +impunity by the great. Wits remarked that the only fair thing about the +trial was the show of ladies in the galleries. Letters and journals +are still extant in which men of all shades of opinion, Whigs, Tories, +Nonjurors, condemn the partiality of the tribunal. It was not to be +expected that, while the memory of this scandal was fresh in the public +mind, the Commons would be induced to give any new advantage to accused +peers. [360] + +The Commons had, in the meantime, resumed the consideration of another +highly important matter, the state of the trade with India. They had, +towards the close of the preceding session, requested the King to +dissolve the old Company and to constitute a new Company on such terms +as he should think fit; and he had promised to take their request into +his serious consideration. He now sent a message to inform them that +it was out of his power to do what they had asked. He had referred the +charter of the old Company to the Judges, and the judges had pronounced +that, under the provisions of that charter, the old Company could not +be dissolved without three years' notice, and must retain during those +three years the exclusive privilege of trading to the East Indies. He +added that, being sincerely desirous to gratify the Commons, and finding +himself unable to do so in the way which they had pointed out, he had +tried to prevail on the old Company to agree to a compromise; but that +body stood obstinately on its extreme rights; and his endeavours had +been frustrated. [361] + +This message reopened the whole question. The two factions which divided +the City were instantly on the alert. The debates in the House were +long and warm. Petitions against the old Company were laid on the table. +Satirical handbills against the new Company were distributed in the +lobby. At length, after much discussion, it was resolved to present +an address requesting the King to give the notice which the judges had +pronounced necessary. He promised to bear the subject in mind, and to +do his best to promote the welfare of the kingdom. With this answer the +House was satisfied, and the subject was not again mentioned till the +next session. [362] + +The debates of the Commons on the conduct of the war, on the law of +treason and on the trade with India, occupied much time, and produced no +important result. But meanwhile real business was doing in the Committee +of Supply and the Committee of Ways and Means. In the Committee of +Supply the estimates passed rapidly. A few members declared it to +be their opinion that England ought to withdraw her troops from the +Continent, to carry on the war with vigour by sea, and to keep up only +such an army as might be sufficient to repel any invader who might elude +the vigilance of her fleets. But this doctrine, which speedily became +and long continued to be the badge of one of the great parties in the +state, was as yet professed only by a small minority which did not +venture to call for a division. [363] + +In the Committee of Ways and Means, it was determined that a great part +of the charge of the year should be defrayed by means of an impost, +which, though old in substance, was new in form. From a very early +period to the middle of the seventeenth century, our Parliaments had +provided for the extraordinary necessities of the government chiefly by +granting subsidies. A subsidy was raised by an impost on the people of +the realm in respect of their reputed estates. Landed property was the +chief subject of taxation, and was assessed nominally at four shillings +in the pound. But the assessment was made in such a way that it not only +did not rise in proportion to the rise in the value of land or to +the fall in the value of the precious metals, but went on constantly +sinking, till at length the rate was in truth less than twopence in the +pound. In the time of Charles the First a real tax of four shillings in +the pound on land would probably have yielded near a million and a half; +but a subsidy amounted to little more than fifty thousand pounds. [364] + +The financiers of the Long Parliament devised a more efficient mode of +taxing estates. The sum which was to be raised was fixed. It was then +distributed among the counties in proportion to their supposed wealth, +and was levied within each county by a rate. The revenue derived +from these assessments in the time of the Commonwealth varied from +thirty-five thousand pounds to a hundred and twenty thousand pounds a +month. + +After the Restoration the legislature seemed for a time inclined +to revert, in finance as in other things, to the ancient practice. +Subsidies were once or twice granted to Charles the Second. But it +soon appeared that the old system was much less convenient than the +new system. The Cavaliers condescended to take a lesson in the art +of taxation from the Roundheads; and, during the interval between the +Restoration and the Revolution, extraordinary calls were occasionally +met by assessments resembling the assessments of the Commonwealth. After +the Revolution, the war with France made it necessary to have recourse +annually to this abundant source of revenue. In 1689, in 1690 and in +1691, great sums had been raised on the land. At length in 1692 it was +determined to draw supplies from real property more largely than ever. +The Commons resolved that a new and more accurate valuation of estates +should be made over the whole realm, and that on the rental thus +ascertained a pound rate should be paid to the government. + +Such was the origin of the existing land tax. The valuation made in +1692 has remained unaltered down to our own time. According to that +valuation, one shilling in the pound on the rental of the kingdom +amounted, in round numbers, to half a million. During a hundred and six +years, a land tax bill was annually presented to Parliament, and was +annually passed, though not always without murmurs from the country +gentlemen. The rate was, in time of war, four shillings in the pound. In +time of peace, before the reign of George the Third, only two or three +shillings were usually granted; and, during a short part of the prudent +and gentle administration of Walpole, the government asked for only one +shilling. But, after the disastrous year in which England drew the +sword against her American colonies, the rate was never less than four +shillings. At length, in the year 1798, the Parliament relieved itself +from the trouble of passing a new Act every spring. The land tax, at +four shillings in the pound, was made permanent; and those who were +subject to it were permitted to redeem it. A great part has been +redeemed; and at present little more than a fiftieth of the ordinary +revenue required in time of peace is raised by that impost which was +once regarded as the most productive of all the resources of the State. +[365] + +The land tax was fixed, for the year 1693, at four shillings in the +pound, and consequently brought about two millions into the Treasury. +That sum, small as it may seem to a generation which has expended a +hundred and twenty millions in twelve months, was such as had never +before been raised here in one year by direct taxation. It seemed +immense both to Englishmen and to foreigners. Lewis, who found it almost +impossible to wring by cruel exactions from the beggared peasantry of +France the means of supporting the greatest army and the most gorgeous +court that had existed in Europe since the downfall of the Roman empire, +broke out, it is said, into an exclamation of angry surprise when he +learned that the Commons of England had, from dread and hatred of +his power, unanimously determined to lay on themselves, in a year of +scarcity and of commercial embarrassment, a burden such as neither they +nor their fathers had ever before borne. "My little cousin of Orange," +he said, "seems to be firm in the saddle." He afterwards added: +"No matter, the last piece of gold will win." This however was a +consideration from which, if he had been well informed touching the +resources of England, he would not have derived much comfort. Kensington +was certainly a mere hovel when compared to his superb Versailles. The +display of jewels, plumes and lace, led horses and gilded coaches, which +daily surrounded him, far outshone the splendour which, even on great +public occasions, our princes were in the habit of displaying. But +the condition of the majority of the people of England was, beyond all +doubt, such as the majority of the people of France might well have +envied. In truth what was called severe distress here would have been +called unexampled prosperity there. + +The land tax was not imposed without a quarrel between the Houses. +The Commons appointed commissioners to make the assessment. These +commissioners were the principal gentlemen of every county, and were +named in the bill. The Lords thought this arrangement inconsistent with +the dignity of the peerage. They therefore inserted a clause providing +that their estates should be valued by twenty of their own order. The +Lower House indignantly rejected this amendment, and demanded an instant +conference. After some delay, which increased the ill humour of the +Commons, the conference took place. The bill was returned to the Peers +with a very concise and haughty intimation that they must not presume +to alter laws relating to money. A strong party among the Lords was +obstinate. Mulgrave spoke at great length against the pretensions of +the plebeians. He told his brethren that, if they gave way, they would +abdicate that authority which had belonged to the baronage of England +ever since the foundation of the monarchy, and that they would have +nothing left of their old greatness except their coronets and ermines. +Burnet says that this speech was the finest that he ever heard in +Parliament; and Burnet was undoubtedly a good judge of speaking, and +was neither partial to Mulgrave nor zealous for the privileges of the +aristocracy. The orator, however, though he charmed his hearers, did not +succeed in convincing them. Most of them shrank from a conflict in which +they would have had against them the Commons united as one man, and the +King, who, in case of necessity, would undoubtedly have created fifty +peers rather than have suffered the land tax bill to be lost. Two strong +protests, however, signed, the first by twenty-seven, the second by +twenty-one dissentients, show how obstinately many nobles were prepared +to contend at all hazards for the dignity of their caste. Another +conference was held; and Rochester announced that the Lords, for the +sake of the public interest, waived what they must nevertheless assert +to be their clear right, and would not insist on their amendment. [366] +The bill passed, and was followed by bills for laying additional duties +on imports, and for taxing the dividends of joint stock companies. + +Still, however, the estimated revenue was not equal to the estimated +expenditure. The year 1692 had bequeathed a large deficit to the year +1693; and it seemed probable that the charge for 1693 would exceed by +about five hundred thousand pounds the charge for 1692. More than two +millions had been voted for the army and ordnance, near two millions for +the navy. [367] Only eight years before fourteen hundred thousand pounds +had defrayed the whole annual charge of government. More than four times +that sum was now required. Taxation, both direct and indirect, had been +carried to an unprecedented point; yet the income of the state still +fell short of the outlay by about a million. It was necessary to devise +something. Something was devised, something of which the effects are +felt to this day in every part of the globe. + +There was indeed nothing strange or mysterious in the expedient to which +the government had recourse. It was an expedient familiar, during two +centuries, to the financiers of the Continent, and could hardly fail to +occur to any English statesman who compared the void in the Exchequer +with the overflow in the money market. + +During the interval between the Restoration and the Revolution the +riches of the nation had been rapidly increasing. Thousands of busy +men found every Christmas that, after the expenses of the year's +housekeeping had been defrayed out of the year's income, a surplus +remained; and how that surplus was to be employed was a question of some +difficulty. In our time, to invest such a surplus, at something more +than three per cent., on the best security that has ever been known in +the world, is the work of a few minutes. But in the seventeenth century +a lawyer, a physician, a retired merchant, who had saved some thousands +and who wished to place them safely and profitably, was often greatly +embarrassed. Three generations earlier, a man who had accumulated wealth +in a profession generally purchased real property or lent his savings on +mortgage. But the number of acres in the kingdom had remained the same; +and the value of those acres, though it had greatly increased, had by no +means increased so fast as the quantity of capital which was seeking for +employment. Many too wished to put their money where they could find it +at an hour's notice, and looked about for some species of property which +could be more readily transferred than a house or a field. A capitalist +might lend on bottomry or on personal security; but, if he did so, he +ran a great risk of losing interest and principal. There were a few +joint stock companies, among which the East India Company held the +foremost place; but the demand for the stock of such companies was far +greater than the supply. Indeed the cry for a new East India Company +was chiefly raised by persons who had found difficulty in placing their +savings at interest on good security. So great was that difficulty that +the practice of hoarding was common. We are told that the father of Pope +the poet, who retired from business in the City about the time of the +Revolution, carried to a retreat in the country a strong box containing +near twenty thousand pounds, and took out from time to time what was +required for household expenses; and it is highly probable that this was +not a solitary case. At present the quantity of coin which is hoarded +by private persons is so small that it would, if brought forth, make no +perceptible addition to the circulation. But, in the earlier part of the +reign of William the Third, all the greatest writers on currency were of +opinion that a very considerable mass of gold and silver was hidden in +secret drawers and behind wainscots. + +The natural effect of this state of things was that a crowd of +projectors, ingenious and absurd, honest and knavish, employed +themselves in devising new schemes for the employment of redundant +capital. It was about the year 1688 that the word stockjobber was first +heard in London. In the short space of four years a crowd of companies, +every one of which confidently held out to subscribers the hope of +immense gains, sprang into existence; the Insurance Company, the Paper +Company, the Lutestring Company, the Pearl Fishery Company, the +Glass Bottle Company, the Alum Company, the Blythe Coal Company, the +Swordblade Company. There was a Tapestry Company which would soon +furnish pretty hangings for all the parlours of the middle class and +for all the bedchambers of the higher. There was a Copper Company which +proposed to explore the mines of England, and held out a hope that they +would prove not less valuable than those of Potosi. There was a Diving +Company which undertook to bring up precious effects from shipwrecked +vessels, and which announced that it had laid in a stock of wonderful +machines resembling complete suits of armour. In front of the helmet was +a huge glass eye like that of a cyclop; and out of the crest went a +pipe through which the air was to be admitted. The whole process was +exhibited on the Thames. Fine gentlemen and fine ladies were invited +to the show, were hospitably regaled, and were delighted by seeing the +divers in their panoply descend into the river and return laden with +old iron, and ship's tackle. There was a Greenland Fishing Company which +could not fail to drive the Dutch whalers and herring busses out of the +Northern Ocean. There was a Tanning Company which promised to furnish +leather superior to the best that was brought from Turkey or Russia. +There was a society which undertook the office of giving gentlemen a +liberal education on low terms, and which assumed the sounding name of +the Royal Academies Company. In a pompous advertisement it was announced +that the directors of the Royal Academies Company had engaged the best +masters in every branch of knowledge, and were about to issue twenty +thousand tickets at twenty shillings each. There was to be a lottery; +two thousand prizes were to be drawn; and the fortunate holders of the +prizes were to be taught, at the charge of the Company, Latin, Greek, +Hebrew, French, Spanish, conic sections, trigonometry, heraldry, +japanning, fortification, bookkeeping and the art of playing the +theorbo. Some of these companies took large mansions and printed their +advertisements in gilded letters. Others, less ostentatious, were +content with ink, and met at coffeehouses in the neighbourhood of the +Royal Exchange. Jonathan's and Garraway's were in a constant ferment +with brokers, buyers, sellers, meetings of directors, meetings +of proprietors. Time bargains soon came into fashion. Extensive +combinations were formed, and monstrous fables were circulated, for +the purpose of raising or depressing the price of shares. Our country +witnessed for the first time those phenomena with which a long +experience has made us familiar. A mania of which the symptoms were +essentially the same with those of the mania of 1720, of the mania of +1825, of the mania of 1845, seized the public mind. An impatience to +be rich, a contempt for those slow but sure gains which are the proper +reward of industry, patience and thrift, spread through society. The +spirit of the cogging dicers of Whitefriars took possession of the grave +Senators of the City, Wardens of Trades, Deputies, Aldermen. It was +much easier and much more lucrative to put forth a lying prospectus +announcing a new stock, to persuade ignorant people that the dividends +could not fall short of twenty per cent., and to part with five thousand +pounds of this imaginary wealth for ten thousand solid guineas, than to +load a ship with a well chosen cargo for Virginia or the Levant. Every +day some new bubble was puffed into existence, rose buoyant, shone +bright, burst, and was forgotten. [368] + +The new form which covetousness had taken furnished the comic poets +and satirists with an excellent subject; nor was that subject the +less welcome to them because some of the most unscrupulous and most +successful of the new race of gamesters were men in sad coloured clothes +and lank hair, men who called cards the Devil's books, men who thought +it a sin and a scandal to win or lose twopence over a backgammon board. +It was in the last drama of Shadwell that the hypocrisy and knavery of +these speculators was, for the first time, exposed to public ridicule. +He died in November 1692, just before his Stockjobbers came on the +stage; and the epilogue was spoken by an actor dressed in deep mourning. +The best scene is that in which four or five stern Nonconformists, +clad in the full Puritan costume, after discussing the prospects of +the Mousetrap Company and the Fleakilling Company, examine the question +whether the godly may lawfully hold stock in a Company for bringing over +Chinese ropedancers. "Considerable men have shares," says one austere +person in cropped hair and bands; "but verily I question whether it +be lawful or not." These doubts are removed by a stout old Roundhead +colonel who had fought at Marston Moor, and who reminds his weaker +brother that the saints need not themselves see the ropedancing, and +that, in all probability, there will be no ropedancing to see. "The +thing," he says, "is like to take; the shares will sell well; and then +we shall not care whether the dancers come over or no." It is important +to observe that this scene was exhibited and applauded before one +farthing of the national debt had been contracted. So ill informed were +the numerous writers who, at a later period, ascribed to the national +debt the existence of stockjobbing and of all the immoralities connected +with stockjobbing. The truth is that society had, in the natural course +of its growth, reached a point at which it was inevitable that there +should be stockjobbing whether there were a national debt or not, and +inevitable also that, if there were a long and costly war, there should +be a national debt. + +How indeed was it possible that a debt should not have been contracted, +when one party was impelled by the strongest motives to borrow, and +another was impelled by equally strong motives to lend? A moment had +arrived at which the government found it impossible, without exciting +the most formidable discontents, to raise by taxation the supplies +necessary to defend the liberty and independence of the nation; and, at +that very moment, numerous capitalists were looking round them in vain +for some good mode of investing their savings, and, for want of such +a mode, were keeping their wealth locked up, or were lavishing it on +absurd projects. Riches sufficient to equip a navy which would sweep the +German Ocean and the Atlantic of French privateers, riches sufficient +to maintain an army which might retake Namur and avenge the disaster of +Steinkirk, were lying idle, or were passing away from the owners into +the hands of sharpers. A statesman might well think that some part of +the wealth which was daily buried or squandered might, with advantage to +the proprietor, to the taxpayer and to the State, be attracted into the +Treasury. Why meet the extraordinary charge of a year of war by seizing +the chairs, the tables, the beds of hardworking families, by compelling +one country gentleman to cut down his trees before they were ready for +the axe, another to let the cottages on his land fall to ruin, a third +to take away his hopeful son from the University, when Change Alley was +swarming with people who did not know what to do with their money and +who were pressing every body to borrow it? + +It was often asserted at a later period by Tories, who hated the +national debt most of all things, and who hated Burnet most of all men, +that Burnet was the person who first advised the government to contract +a national debt. But this assertion is proved by no trustworthy +evidence, and seems to be disproved by the Bishop's silence. Of all men +he was the least likely to conceal the fact that an important fiscal +revolution had been his work. Nor was the Board of Treasury at that time +one which much needed, or was likely much to regard, the counsels of a +divine. At that Board sate Godolphin the most prudent and experienced, +and Montague the most daring and inventive of financiers. Neither of +these eminent men could be ignorant that it had long been the practice +of the neighbouring states to spread over many years of peace the +excessive taxation which was made necessary by one year of war. In Italy +this practice had existed through many generations. France had, during +the war which began in 1672 and ended in 1679, borrowed not less than +thirty millions of our money. Sir William Temple, in his interesting +work on the Batavian federation, had told his countrymen that, when he +was ambassador at the Hague, the single province of Holland, then ruled +by the frugal and prudent De Witt, owed about five millions sterling, +for which interest at four per cent. was always ready to the day, and +that when any part of the principal was paid off the public creditor +received his money with tears, well knowing that he could find no other +investment equally secure. The wonder is not that England should have at +length imitated the example both of her enemies and of her allies, but +that the fourth year of her arduous and exhausting struggle against +Lewis should have been drawing to a close before she resorted to an +expedient so obvious. + +On the fifteenth of December 1692 the House of Commons resolved itself +into a Committee of Ways and Means. Somers took the chair. Montague +proposed to raise a million by way of loan; the proposition was +approved; and it was ordered that a bill should be brought in. The +details of the scheme were much discussed and modified; but the +principle appears to have been popular with all parties. The moneyed men +were glad to have a good opportunity of investing what they had hoarded. +The landed men, hard pressed by the load of taxation, were ready to +consent to any thing for the sake of present ease. No member ventured to +divide the House. On the twentieth of January the bill was read a third +time, carried up to the Lords by Somers, and passed by them without any +amendment. [369] + +By this memorable law new duties were imposed on beer and other liquors. +These duties were to be kept in the Exchequer separate from all other +receipts, and were to form a fund on the credit of which a million was +to be raised by life annuities. As the annuitants dropped off, their +annuities were to be divided among the survivors, till the number of +survivors was reduced to seven. After that time, whatever fell in was to +go to the public. It was therefore certain that the eighteenth century +would be far advanced before the debt would be finally extinguished. The +rate of interest was to be ten per cent. till the year 1700, and after +that year seven per cent. The advantages offered to the public creditor +by this scheme may seem great, but were not more than sufficient to +compensate him for the risk which he ran. It was not impossible that +there might be a counterrevolution; and it was certain that, if there +were a counterrevolution, those who had lent money to William would lose +both interest and principal. + +Such was the origin of that debt which has since become the greatest +prodigy that ever perplexed the sagacity and confounded the pride of +statesmen and philosophers. At every stage in the growth of that debt +the nation has set up the same cry of anguish and despair. At every +stage in the growth of that debt it has been seriously asserted by wise +men that bankruptcy and ruin were at hand. Yet still the debt went on +growing; and still bankruptcy and ruin were as remote as ever. When the +great contest with Lewis the Fourteenth was finally terminated by the +Peace of Utrecht, the nation owed about fifty millions; and that +debt was considered, not merely by the rude multitude, not merely by +foxhunting squires and coffeehouse orators, but by acute and profound +thinkers, as an incumbrance which would permanently cripple the body +politic; Nevertheless trade flourished; wealth increased; the nation +became richer and richer. Then came the war of the Austrian Succession; +and the debt rose to eighty millions. Pamphleteers, historians and +orators pronounced that now, at all events, our case was desperate. +Yet the signs of increasing prosperity, signs which could neither be +counterfeited nor concealed, ought to have satisfied observant and +reflecting men that a debt of eighty millions was less to the England +which was governed by Pelham than a debt of fifty millions had been to +the England which was governed by Oxford. Soon war again broke forth; +and, under the energetic and prodigal administration of the first +William Pitt, the debt rapidly swelled to a hundred and forty millions. +As soon as the first intoxication of victory was over, men of theory and +men of business almost unanimously pronounced that the fatal day had now +really arrived. The only statesman, indeed, active or speculative, who +did not share in the general delusion was Edmund Burke. David Hume, +undoubtedly one of the most profound political economists of his time, +declared that our madness had exceeded the madness of the Crusaders. +Richard Coeur de Lion and Saint Lewis had not gone in the face of +arithmetical demonstration. It was impossible to prove by figures that +the road to Paradise did not lie through the Holy Land; but it was +possible to prove by figures that the road to national ruin was through +the national debt. It was idle, however, now to talk about the road; we +had done with the road; we had reached the goal; all was over; all +the revenues of the island north of Trent and west of Reading were +mortgaged. Better for us to have been conquered by Prussia or Austria +than to be saddled with the interest of a hundred and forty millions. +[370] And yet this great philosopher--for such he was--had only to open +his eyes, and to see improvement all around him, cities increasing, +cultivation extending, marts too small for the crowd of buyers and +sellers, harbours insufficient to contain the shipping, artificial +rivers joining the chief inland seats of industry to the chief seaports, +streets better lighted, houses better furnished, richer wares exposed to +sale in statelier shops, swifter carriages rolling along smoother roads. +He had, indeed, only to compare the Edinburgh of his boyhood with +the Edinburgh of his old age. His prediction remains to posterity, a +memorable instance of the weakness from which the strongest minds +are not exempt. Adam Smith saw a little and but a little further. +He admitted that, immense as the burden was, the nation did actually +sustain it and thrive under it in a way which nobody could have +foreseen. But he warned his countrymen not to repeat so hazardous an +experiment. The limit had been reached. Even a small increase might +be fatal. [371] Not less gloomy was the view which George Grenville, +a minister eminently diligent and practical, took of our financial +situation. The nation must, he conceived, sink under a debt of a hundred +and forty millions, unless a portion of the load were borne by the +American colonies. The attempt to lay a portion of the load on the +American colonies produced another war. That war left us with an +additional hundred millions of debt, and without the colonies whose help +had been represented as indispensable. Again England was given over; +and again the strange patient persisted in becoming stronger and more +blooming in spite of all the diagnostics and prognostics of State +physicians. As she had been visibly more prosperous with a debt of a +hundred and forty millions than with a debt of fifty millions, so she, +as visibly more prosperous with a debt of two hundred and forty millions +than with a debt of a hundred and forty millions. Soon however the wars +which sprang from the French Revolution, and which far exceeded in cost +any that the world had ever seen, tasked the powers of public credit to +the utmost. When the world was again at rest the funded debt of England +amounted to eight hundred millions. If the most enlightened man had been +told, in 1792, that, in 1815, the interest on eight hundred millions +would be duly paid to the day at the Bank, he would have been as hard of +belief as if he had been told that the government would be in possession +of the lamp of Aladdin or of the purse of Fortunatus. It was in truth +a gigantic, a fabulous debt; and we can hardly wonder that the cry of +despair should have been louder than ever. But again that cry was found +to have been as unreasonable as ever. After a few years of exhaustion, +England recovered herself. Yet, like Addison's valetudinarian, who +continued to whimper that he was dying of consumption till he became so +fat that he was shamed into silence, she went on complaining that she +was sunk in poverty till her wealth showed itself by tokens which made +her complaints ridiculous. The beggared, the bankrupt society not +only proved able to meet all its obligations, but, while meeting those +obligations, grew richer and richer so fast that the growth could almost +be discerned by the eye. In every county, we saw wastes recently turned +into gardens; in every city, we saw new streets, and squares, and +markets, more brilliant lamps, more abundant supplies of water; in the +suburbs of every great seat of industry, we saw villas multiplying fast, +each embosomed in its gay little paradise of lilacs and roses. While +shallow politicians were repeating that the energies of the people were +borne down by the weight of the public burdens, the first journey was +performed by steam on a railway. Soon the island was intersected by +railways. A sum exceeding the whole amount of the national debt at the +end of the American war was, in a few years, voluntarily expended by +this ruined people in viaducts, tunnels, embankments, bridges, stations, +engines. Meanwhile taxation was almost constantly becoming lighter +and lighter; yet still the Exchequer was full. It may be now affirmed +without fear of contradiction that we find it as easy to pay the +interest of eight hundred millions as our ancestors found it, a century +ago, to pay the interest of eighty millions. + +It can hardly be doubted that there must have been some great fallacy +in the notions of those who uttered and of those who believed that long +succession of confident predictions, so signally falsified by a long +succession of indisputable facts. To point out that fallacy is the +office rather of the political economist than of the historian. Here +it is sufficient to say that the prophets of evil were under a double +delusion. They erroneously imagined that there was an exact analogy +between the case of an individual who is in debt to another individual +and the case of a society which is in debt to a part of itself; and this +analogy led them into endless mistakes about the effect of the system +of funding. They were under an error not less serious touching the +resources of the country. They made no allowance for the effect produced +by the incessant progress of every experimental science, and by the +incessant efforts of every man to get on in life. They saw that the debt +grew; and they forgot that other things grew as well as the debt. + +A long experience justifies us in believing that England may, in the +twentieth century, be better able to bear a debt of sixteen hundred +millions than she is at the present time to bear her present load. But +be this as it may, those who so confidently predicted that she must +sink, first under a debt of fifty millions, then under a debt of eighty +millions then under a debt of a hundred and forty millions, then under a +debt of two hundred and forty millions, and lastly under a debt of eight +hundred millions, were beyond all doubt under a twofold mistake. They +greatly overrated the pressure of the burden; they greatly underrated +the strength by which the burden was to be borne. + +It may be desirable to add a few words touching the way in which the +system of funding has affected the interests of the great commonwealth +of nations. If it be true that whatever gives to intelligence an +advantage over brute force and to honesty an advantage over dishonesty +has a tendency to promote the happiness and virtue of our race, it can +scarcely be denied that, in the largest view, the effect of this system +has been salutary. For it is manifest that all credit depends on two +things, on the power of a debtor to pay debts, and on his inclination +to pay them. The power of a society to pay debts is proportioned to the +progress which that society has made in industry, in commerce, and in +all the arts and sciences which flourish under the benignant influence +of freedom and of equal law. The inclination of a society to pay +debts is proportioned to the degree in which that society respects the +obligations of plighted faith. Of the strength which consists in extent +of territory and in number of fighting men, a rude despot who knows +no law but his own childish fancies and headstrong passions, or a +convention of socialists which proclaims all property to be robbery, may +have more than falls to the lot of the best and wisest government. But +the strength which is derived from the confidence of capitalists such a +despot, such a convention, never can possess. That strength,--and it +is a strength which has decided the event of more than one great +conflict,--flies, by the law of its nature, from barbarism and fraud, +from tyranny and anarchy, to follow civilisation and virtue, liberty and +order. + +While the bill which first created the funded debt of England was +passing, with general approbation, through the regular stages, the +two Houses discussed, for the first time, the great question of +Parliamentary Reform. + +It is to be observed that the object of the reformers of that generation +was merely to make the representative body a more faithful interpreter +of the sense of the constituent body. It seems scarcely to have +occurred to any of them that the constituent body might be an +unfaithful interpreter of the sense of the nation. It is true that those +deformities in the structure of the constituent body, which, at length, +in our own days, raised an irresistible storm of public indignation, +were far less numerous and far less offensive in the seventeenth century +than they had become in the nineteenth. Most of the boroughs which were +disfranchised in 1832 were, if not positively, yet relatively, much more +important places in the reign of William the Third than in the reign +of William the Fourth. Of the populous and wealthy manufacturing towns, +seaports and watering places, to which the franchise was given in the +reign of William the Fourth, some were, in the reign of William the +Third, small hamlets, where a few ploughmen or fishermen lived under +thatched roofs; some were fields covered with harvests, or moors +abandoned to grouse; With the exception of Leeds and Manchester, there +was not, at the time of the Revolution, a single town of five thousand +inhabitants which did not send two representatives to the House of +Commons. Even then, however, there was no want of startling anomalies. +Looe, East and West, which contained not half the population or half the +wealth of the smallest of the hundred parishes of London, returned +as many members as London. [372] Old Sarum, a deserted ruin which the +traveller feared to enter at night lest he should find robbers lurking +there, had as much weight in the legislature as Devonshire or Yorkshire. +[373] Some eminent individuals of both parties, Clarendon, for example, +among the Tories, and Pollexfen among the Whigs, condemned this system. +Yet both parties were, for very different reasons, unwilling to alter +it. It was protected by the prejudices of one faction and by the +interests of the other. Nothing could be more repugnant to the genius of +Toryism than the thought of destroying at a blow institutions which +had stood through ages, for the purpose of building something more +symmetrical out of the ruins. The Whigs, on the other hand, could not +but know that they were much more likely to lose than to gain by a +change in this part of our polity. It would indeed be a great mistake +to imagine that a law transferring political power from small to large +constituent bodies would have operated in 1692 as it operated in 1832. + +In 1832 the effect of the transfer was to increase the power of the town +population. In 1692 the effect would have been to make the power of the +rural population irresistible. Of the one hundred and forty-two members +taken away in 1832 from small boroughs more than half were given to +large and flourishing towns. But in 1692 there was hardly one large and +flourishing town which had not already as many members as it could, with +any show of reason, claim. Almost all therefore that was taken from the +small boroughs must have been given to the counties; and there can be +no doubt that whatever tended to raise the counties and to depress the +towns must on the whole have tended to raise the Tories and to depress +the Whigs. From the commencement of our civil troubles the towns had +been on the side of freedom and progress, the country gentlemen and +the country clergymen on the side of authority and prescription. If +therefore a reform bill, disfranchising small constituent bodies and +giving additional members to large constituent bodies, had become law +soon after the Revolution, there can be little doubt that a decided +majority of the House of Commons would have consisted of rustic baronets +and squires, high Churchmen, high Tories, and half Jacobites. With such +a House of Commons it is almost certain that there would have been a +persecution of the Dissenters; it is not easy to understand how there +could have been an union with Scotland; and it is not improbable that +there would have been a restoration of the Stuarts. Those parts of +our constitution therefore which, in recent times, politicians of +the liberal school have generally considered as blemishes, were, five +generations ago, regarded with complacency by the men who were most +zealous for civil and religious freedom. + +But, while Whigs and Tories agreed in wishing to maintain the existing +rights of election, both Whigs and Tories were forced to admit that +the relation between the elector and the representative was not what it +ought to be. Before the civil wars the House of Commons had enjoyed +the fullest confidence of the nation. A House of Commons, distrusted, +despised, hated by the Commons, was a thing unknown. The very words +would, to Sir Peter Wentworth or Sir Edward Coke, have sounded like +a contradiction in terms. But by degrees a change took place. The +Parliament elected in 1661, during that fit of joy and fondness which +followed the return of the royal family, represented, not the deliberate +sense, but the momentary caprice of the nation. Many of the members were +men who, a few months earlier or a few months later, would have had +no chance of obtaining seats, men of broken fortunes and of dissolute +habits, men whose only claim to public confidence was the ferocious +hatred which they bore to rebels and Puritans. The people, as soon as +they had become sober, saw with dismay to what an assembly they had, +during their intoxication, confided the care of their property, their +liberty and their religion. And the choice, made in a moment of frantic +enthusiasm, might prove to be a choice for life. As the law then stood, +it depended entirely on the King's pleasure whether, during his reign, +the electors should have an opportunity of repairing their error. +Eighteen years passed away. A new generation grew up. To the fervid +loyalty with which Charles had been welcomed back to Dover succeeded +discontent and disaffection. The general cry was that the kingdom was +misgoverned, degraded, given up as a prey to worthless men and more +worthless women, that our navy had been found unequal to a contest with +Holland, that our independence had been bartered for the gold of France, +that our consciences were in danger of being again subjected to the yoke +of Rome. The people had become Roundheads; but the body which alone +was authorised to speak in the name of the people was still a body of +Cavaliers. It is true that the King occasionally found even that House +of Commons unmanageable. From the first it had contained not a few true +Englishmen; others had been introduced into it as vacancies were made by +death; and even the majority, courtly as it was, could not but feel some +sympathy with the nation. A country party grew up and became formidable. +But that party constantly found its exertions frustrated by systematic +corruption. That some members of the legislature received direct bribes +was with good reason suspected, but could not be proved. That the +patronage of the Crown was employed on an extensive scale for the +purpose of influencing votes was matter of notoriety. A large proportion +of those who gave away the public money in supplies received part of +that money back in salaries; and thus was formed a mercenary band on +which the Court might, in almost any extremity, confidently rely. + +The servility of this Parliament had left a deep impression on the +public mind. It was the general opinion that England ought to be +protected against all risk of being ever again represented, during a +long course of years, by men who had forfeited her confidence, and who +were retained by a fee to vote against her wishes and interests. The +subject was mentioned in the Convention; and some members wished to deal +with it while the throne was still vacant. The cry for reform had ever +since been becoming more and more importunate. The people, heavily +pressed by taxes, were naturally disposed to regard those who lived on +the taxes with little favour. The war, it was generally acknowledged, +was just and necessary; and war could not be carried on without large +expenditure. But the larger the expenditure which was required for the +defence of the nation, the more important it was that nothing should +be squandered. The immense gains of official men moved envy and +indignation. Here a gentleman was paid to do nothing. There many +gentlemen were paid to do what would be better done by one. The coach, +the liveries, the lace cravat and diamond buckles of the placeman were +naturally seen with an evil eye by those who rose up early and lay down +late in order to furnish him with the means of indulging in splendour +and luxury. Such abuses it was the especial business of a House of +Commons to correct. What then had the existing House of Commons done in +the way of correction? Absolutely nothing. In 1690, indeed, while the +Civil List was settling, some sharp speeches had been made. In 1691, +when the Ways and Means were under consideration, a resolution had +been passed so absurdly framed that it had proved utterly abortive. The +nuisance continued, and would continue while it was a source of profit +to those whose duty was to abate it. Who could expect faithful and +vigilant stewardship from stewards who had a direct interest in +encouraging the waste which they were employed to check? The House +swarmed with placemen of all kinds, Lords of the Treasury, Lords of +the Admiralty, Commissioners of Customs, Commissioners of Excise, +Commissioners of Prizes, Tellers, Auditors, Receivers, Paymasters, +Officers of the Mint, Officers of the household, Colonels of regiments, +Captains of men of war, Governors of forts. We send up to Westminster, +it was said, one of our neighbours, an independent gentleman, in +the full confidence that his feelings and interests are in perfect +accordance with ours. We look to him to relieve us from every burden +except those burdens without which the public service cannot be +carried on, and which therefore, galling as they are, we patiently and +resolutely bear. But before he has been a session in Parliament we +learn that he is a Clerk of the Green Cloth or a Yeoman of the Removing +Wardrobe, with a comfortable salary. Nay, we sometimes learn that he has +obtained one of those places in the Exchequer of which the emoluments +rise and fall with the taxes which we pay. It would be strange indeed if +our interests were safe in the keeping of a man whose gains consist in a +percentage on our losses. The evil would be greatly diminished if we had +frequent opportunities of considering whether the powers of our agent +ought to be renewed or revoked. But, as the law stands, it is not +impossible that he may hold those powers twenty or thirty years. While +he lives, and while either the King or the Queen lives, it is not likely +that we shall ever again exercise our elective franchise, unless there +should be a dispute between the Court and the Parliament. The more +profuse and obsequious a Parliament is, the less likely it is to give +offence to the Court. The worse our representatives, therefore, the +longer we are likely to be cursed with them. + +The outcry was loud. Odious nicknames were given to the Parliament. +Sometimes it was the Officers' Parliament; sometimes it was the Standing +Parliament, and was pronounced to be a greater nuisance than even a +standing army. + +Two specifics for the distempers of the State were strongly recommended, +and divided the public favour. One was a law excluding placemen from +the House of Commons. The other was a law limiting the duration of +Parliaments to three years. In general the Tory reformers preferred +a Place Bill, and the Whig reformers a Triennial Bill; but not a few +zealous men of both parties were for trying both remedies. + +Before Christmas a Place Bill was laid on the table of the Commons. That +bill has been vehemently praised by writers who never saw it, and who +merely guessed at what it contained. But no person who takes the trouble +to study the original parchment, which, embrowned with the dust of a +hundred and sixty years, reposes among the archives of the House of +Lords, will find much matter for eulogy. + +About the manner in which such a bill should have been framed there +will, in our time, be little difference of opinion among enlightened +Englishmen. They will agree in thinking that it would be most pernicious +to open the House of Commons to all placemen, and not less pernicious to +close that House against all placemen. To draw with precision the +line between those who ought to be admitted and those who ought to be +excluded would be a task requiring much time, thought and knowledge of +details. But the general principles which ought to guide us are obvious. +The multitude of subordinate functionaries ought to be excluded. A +few functionaries who are at the head or near the head of the great +departments of the administration ought to be admitted. + +The subordinate functionaries ought to be excluded, because their +admission would at once lower the character of Parliament and destroy +the efficiency of every public office. They are now excluded, and the +consequence is that the State possesses a valuable body of servants who +remain unchanged while cabinet after cabinet is formed and dissolved, +who instruct every successive minister in his duties, and with whom it +is the most sacred point of honour to give true information, sincere +advise, and strenuous assistance to their superior for the time being. +To the experience, the ability and the fidelity of this class of men is +to be attributed the ease and safety with which the direction of affairs +has been many times, within our own memory, transferred from Tories to +Whigs and from Whigs to Tories. But no such class would have existed if +persons who received salaries from the Crown had been suffered to sit +without restriction in the House of Commons. Those commissionerships, +assistant secretaryships, chief clerkships, which are now held for life +by persons who stand aloof from the strife of parties, would have been +bestowed on members of Parliament who were serviceable to the government +as voluble speakers or steady voters. As often as the ministry was +changed, all this crowd of retainers would have been ejected from +office, and would have been succeeded by another set of members of +Parliament who would probably have been ejected in their turn before +they had half learned their business. Servility and corruption in the +legislature, ignorance and incapacity in all the departments of the +executive administration, would have been the inevitable effects of such +a system. + +Still more noxious, if possible, would be the effects of a system +under which all the servants of the Crown, without exception, should be +excluded from the House of Commons. Aristotle has, in that treatise on +government which is perhaps the most judicious and instructive of all +his writings, left us a warning against a class of laws artfully framed +to delude the vulgar, democratic in seeming, but oligarchic in effect. +[374] Had he had an opportunity of studying the history of the English +constitution, he might easily have enlarged his list of such laws. That +men who are in the service and pay of the Crown ought not to sit in +an assembly specially charged with the duty of guarding the rights and +interests of the community against all aggression on the part of the +Crown is a plausible and a popular doctrine. Yet it is certain that if +those who, five generations ago, held that doctrine, had been able to +mould the constitution according to their wishes, the effect would have +been the depression of that branch of the legislature which springs from +the people and is accountable to the people, and the ascendency of the +monarchical and aristocratical elements of our polity. The government +would have been entirely in patrician hands. The House of Lords, +constantly drawing to itself the first abilities in the realm, would +have become the most august of senates, while the House of Commons would +have sunk almost to the rank of a vestry. From time to time undoubtedly +men of commanding genius and of aspiring temper would have made their +appearance among the representatives of the counties and boroughs. But +every such man would have considered the elective chamber merely as a +lobby through which he must pass to the hereditary chamber. The first +object of his ambition would have been that coronet without which he +could not be powerful in the state. As soon as he had shown that he +could be a formidable enemy and a valuable friend to the government, he +would have made haste to quit what would then have been in every sense +the Lower House for what would then have been in every sense the Upper. +The conflict between Walpole and Pulteney, the conflict between Pitt and +Fox, would have been transferred from the popular to the aristocratic +part of the legislature. On every great question, foreign, domestic or +colonial, the debates of the nobles would have been impatiently expected +and eagerly devoured. The report of the proceedings of an assembly +containing no person empowered to speak in the name of the government, +no person who had ever been in high political trust, would have been +thrown aside with contempt. Even the control of the purse of the nation +must have passed, not perhaps in form, but in substance, to that body in +which would have been found every man who was qualified to bring forward +a budget or explain an estimate. The country would have been governed by +Peers; and the chief business of the Commons would have been to wrangle +about bills for the inclosing of moors and the lighting of towns. + +These considerations were altogether overlooked in 1692. Nobody thought +of drawing a line between the few functionaries who ought to be allowed +to sit in the House of Commons and the crowd of functionaries who ought +to be shut out. The only line which the legislators of that day took +pains to draw was between themselves and their successors. Their own +interest they guarded with a care of which it seems strange that they +should not have been ashamed. Every one of them was allowed to keep +the places which he had got, and to get as many more places as he could +before the next dissolution of Parliament, an event which might not +happen for many years. But a member who should be chosen after the first +of February 1693 was not to be permitted to accept any place whatever. +[375] + +In the House of Commons the bill passed through all its stages rapidly +and without a single division. But in the Lords the contest was sharp +and obstinate. Several amendments were proposed in committee; but all +were rejected. The motion that the bill should pass was supported by +Mulgrave in a lively and poignant speech, which has been preserved, and +which proves that his reputation for eloquence was not unmerited. The +Lords who took the other side did not, it should seem, venture to deny +that there was an evil which required a remedy; but they maintained +that the proposed remedy would only aggravate the evil. The patriotic +representatives of the people had devised a reform which might perhaps +benefit the next generation; but they had carefully reserved to +themselves the privilege of plundering the present generation. If this +bill passed, it was clear that, while the existing Parliament lasted, +the number of placemen in the House of Commons would be little, if at +all, diminished; and, if this bill passed, it was highly probable that +the existing Parliament would last till both King William and Queen Mary +were dead. For as, under this bill, Their Majesties would be able to +exercise a much greater influence over the existing Parliament than +over any future Parliament, they would naturally wish to put off a +dissolution as long as possible. The complaint of the electors of +England was that now, in 1692, they were unfairly represented. It was +not redress, but mockery, to tell them that their children should be +fairly represented in 1710 or 1720. The relief ought to be immediate; +and the way to give immediate relief was to limit the duration of +Parliaments, and to begin with that Parliament which, in the opinion of +the country, had already held power too long. + +The forces were so evenly balanced that a very slight accident might +have turned the scale. When the question was put that the bill do pass, +eighty-two peers were present. Of these forty-two were for the bill, and +forty against it. Proxies were then called. There were only two proxies +for the bill; there were seven against it; but of the seven three were +questioned, and were with difficulty admitted. The result was that the +bill was lost by three votes. + +The majority appears to have been composed of moderate Whigs and +moderate Tories. Twenty of the minority protested, and among them +were the most violent and intolerant members of both parties, such as +Warrington, who had narrowly escaped the block for conspiring against +James, and Aylesbury, who afterwards narrowly escaped the block for +conspiring against William. Marlborough, who, since his imprisonment, +had gone all lengths in opposition to the government, not only put his +own name to the protest, but made the Prince of Denmark sign what it +was altogether beyond the faculties of His Royal Highness to comprehend. +[376] + +It is a remarkable circumstance that neither Caermarthen, the first in +power as well as in abilities of the Tory ministers, nor Shrewsbury, the +most distinguished of those Whigs who were then on bad terms with the +Court, was present on this important occasion. Their absence was in all +probability the effect of design; for both of them were in the House no +long time before and no long time after the division. + +A few days later Shrewsbury laid on the table of the Lord a bill for +limiting the duration of Parliaments. By this bill it was provided +that the Parliament then sitting should cease to exist on the first +of January 1694, and that no future Parliament should last longer than +three years. + +Among the Lords there seems to have been almost perfect unanimity on +this subject. William in vain endeavoured to induce those peers in whom +he placed the greatest confidence to support his prerogative. Some of +them thought the proposed change salutary; others hoped to quiet the +public mind by a liberal concession; and others had held such language +when they were opposing the Place Bill that they could not, without +gross inconsistency, oppose the Triennial Bill. The whole House too bore +a grudge to the other House, and had a pleasure in putting the other +House in a most disagreeable dilemma. Burnet, Pembroke, nay, even +Caermarthen, who was very little in the habit of siding with the people +against the throne, supported Shrewsbury. "My Lord," said the King to +Caermarthen, with bitter displeasure, "you will live to repent the part +which you are taking in this matter." [377] The warning was disregarded; +and the bill, having passed the Lords smoothly and rapidly, was carried +with great solemnity by two judges to the Commons. + +Of what took place in the Commons we have but very meagre accounts; but +from those accounts it is clear that the Whigs, as a body, supported the +bill, and that the opposition came chiefly from Tories. Old Titus, who +had been a politician in the days of the Commonwealth, entertained the +House with a speech in the style which had been fashionable in those +days. Parliaments, he said, resembled the manna which God bestowed on +the chosen people. They were excellent while they were fresh; but if +kept too long they became noisome; and foul worms were engendered by +the corruption of that which had been sweeter than honey. Littleton +and other leading Whigs spoke on the same side. Seymour, Finch, and +Tredenham, all stanch Tories, were vehement against the bill; and even +Sir John Lowther on this point dissented from his friend and patron +Caermarthen. Several Tory orators appealed to a feeling which was strong +in the House, and which had, since the Revolution, prevented many +laws from passing. Whatever, they said, comes from the Peers is to be +received with suspicion; and the present bill is of such a nature that, +even if it were in itself good, it ought to be at once rejected merely +because it has been brought down from them. If their Lordships were to +send us the most judicious of all money bills, should we not kick it to +the door? Yet to send us a money bill would hardly be a grosser affront +than to send us such a bill as this. They have taken an initiative +which, by every rule of parliamentary courtesy, ought to have been left +to us. They have sate in judgment on us, convicted us, condemned us to +dissolution, and fixed the first of January for the execution. Are we +to submit patiently to so degrading a sentence, a sentence too passed by +men who have not so conducted themselves as to have acquired any right +to censure others? Have they ever made any sacrifice of their own +interest, of their own dignity, to the general welfare? Have not +excellent bills been lost because we would not consent to insert in them +clauses conferring new privileges on the nobility? And now that their +Lordships are bent on obtaining popularity, do they propose to +purchase it by relinquishing even the smallest of their own oppressive +privileges? No; they offer to their country that which will cost them +nothing, but which will cost us and will cost the Crown dear. In such +circumstances it is our duty to repel the insult which has been offered +to us, and, by doing so, to vindicate the lawful prerogative of the +King. + +Such topics as these were doubtless well qualified to inflame the +passions of the House of Commons. The near prospect of a dissolution +could not be very agreeable to a member whose election was likely to be +contested. He must go through all the miseries of a canvass, must shake +hands with crowds of freeholders or freemen, must ask after their wives +and children, must hire conveyances for outvoters, must open alehouses, +must provide mountains of beef, must set rivers of ale running, and +might perhaps, after all the drudgery and all the expense, after being +lampooned, hustled, pelted, find himself at the bottom of the poll, see +his antagonists chaired, and sink half ruined into obscurity. All this +evil he was now invited to bring on himself, and invited by men whose +own seats in the legislature were permanent, who gave up neither dignity +nor quiet, neither power nor money, but gained the praise of patriotism +by forcing him to abdicate a high station, to undergo harassing labour +and anxiety, to mortgage his cornfields and to hew down his woods. There +was naturally much irritation, more probably than is indicated by the +divisions. For the constituent bodies were generally delighted with the +bill; and many members who disliked it were afraid to oppose it. The +House yielded to the pressure of public opinion, but not without a +pang and a struggle. The discussions in the committee seem to have been +acrimonious. Such sharp words passed between Seymour and one of the Whig +members that it was necessary to put the Speaker in the chair and the +mace on the table for the purpose of restoring order. One amendment was +made. The respite which the Lords had granted to the existing Parliament +was extended from the first of January to Lady Day, in order that there +might be full time for another session. The third reading was carried +by two hundred votes to a hundred and sixty-one. The Lords agreed to the +bill as amended; and nothing was wanting but the royal assent. Whether +that assent would or would not be given was a question which remained in +suspense till the last day of the session. [378] + +One strange inconsistency in the conduct of the reformers of that +generation deserves notice. It never occurred to any one of those who +were zealous for the Triennial Bill that every argument which could be +urged in favour of that bill was an argument against the rules which +had been framed in old times for the purpose of keeping parliamentary +deliberations and divisions strictly secret. It is quite natural that +a government which withholds political privileges from the commonalty +should withhold also political information. But nothing can be more +irrational than to give power, and not to give the knowledge without +which there is the greatest risk that power will be abused. What could +be more absurd than to call constituent bodies frequently together that +they might decide whether their representative had done his duty by +them, and yet strictly to interdict them from learning, on trustworthy +authority, what he had said or how he had voted? The absurdity however +appears to have passed altogether unchallenged. It is highly probable +that among the two hundred members of the House of Commons who voted for +the third reading of the Triennial Bill there was not one who would have +hesitated about sending to Newgate any person who had dared to publish +a report of the debate on that bill, or a list of the Ayes and the Noes. +The truth is that the secrecy of parliamentary debates, a secrecy which +would now be thought a grievance more intolerable than the Shipmoney +or the Star Chamber, was then inseparably associated, even in the most +honest and intelligent minds, with constitutional freedom. A few old +men still living could remember times when a gentleman who was known at +Whitehall to have let fall a sharp word against a court favourite would +have been brought before the Privy Council and sent to the Tower. Those +times were gone, never to return. There was no longer any danger that +the King would oppress the members of the legislature; and there was +much danger that the members of the legislature might oppress the +people. Nevertheless the words Privilege of Parliament, those words +which the stern senators of the preceding generation had murmured when a +tyrant filled their chamber with his guards, those words which a hundred +thousand Londoners had shouted in his ears when he ventured for the last +time within the walls of their city; still retained a magical influence +over all who loved liberty. It was long before even the most enlightened +men became sensible that the precautions which had been originally +devised for the purpose of protecting patriots against the displeasure +of the Court now served only to protect sycophants against the +displeasure of the nation. + +It is also to be observed that few of those who showed at this time the +greatest desire to increase the political power of the people were as +yet prepared to emancipate the press from the control of the government. +The Licensing Act, which had passed, as a matter of course, in 1685, +expired in 1693, and was renewed, not however without an opposition, +which, though feeble when compared with the magnitude of the object in +dispute, proved that the public mind was beginning dimly to perceive +how closely civil freedom and freedom of conscience are connected with +freedom of discussion. + +On the history of the Licensing Act no preceding writer has thought it +worth while to expend any care or labour. Yet surely the events which +led to the establishment of the liberty of the press in England, and in +all the countries peopled by the English race, may be thought to have +as much interest for the present generation as any of those battles and +sieges of which the most minute details have been carefully recorded. + +During the first three years of William's reign scarcely a voice seems +to have been raised against the restrictions which the law imposed on +literature. Those restrictions were in perfect harmony with the theory +of government held by the Tories, and were not, in practice, galling +to the Whigs. Roger Lestrange, who had been licenser under the last two +Kings of the House of Stuart, and who had shown as little tenderness +to Exclusionists and Presbyterians in that character as in his other +character of Observator, was turned out of office at the Revolution, and +was succeeded by a Scotch gentleman, who, on account of his passion for +rare books, and his habit of attending all sales of libraries, was known +in the shops and coffeehouses near Saint Paul's by the name of Catalogue +Fraser. Fraser was a zealous Whig. By Whig authors and publishers he +was extolled as a most impartial and humane man. But the conduct which +obtained their applause drew on him the abuse of the Tories, and was +not altogether pleasing to his official superior Nottingham. [379] No +serious difference however seems to have arisen till the year 1692. In +that year an honest old clergyman named Walker, who had, in the time of +the Commonwealth, been Gauden's curate, wrote a book which convinced +all sensible and dispassionate readers that Gauden, and not Charles the +First, was the author of the Icon Basilike. This book Fraser suffered to +be printed. If he had authorised the publication of a work in which the +Gospel of Saint John or the Epistle to the Romans had been represented +as spurious, the indignation of the High Church party could hardly have +been greater. The question was not literary, but religious. Doubt was +impiety. In truth the Icon was to many fervent Royalists a supplementary +revelation. One of them indeed had gone so far as to propose that +lessons taken out of the inestimable little volume should be read in +the churches. [380] Fraser found it necessary to resign his place; and +Nottingham appointed a gentleman of good blood and scanty fortune named +Edmund Bohun. This change of men produced an immediate and total change +of system; for Bohun was as strong a Tory as a conscientious man who +had taken the oaths could possibly be. He had been conspicuous as a +persecutor of nonconformists and a champion of the doctrine of passive +obedience. He had edited Filmer's absurd treatise on the origin of +government, and had written an answer to the paper which Algernon Sidney +had delivered to the Sheriffs on Tower Hill. Nor did Bohun admit that, +in swearing allegiance to William and Mary, he had done any thing +inconsistent with his old creed. For he had succeeded in convincing +himself that they reigned by right of conquest, and that it was the duty +of an Englishman to serve them as faithfully as Daniel had served Darius +or as Nehemiah had served Artaxerxes. This doctrine, whatever peace it +might bring to his own conscience, found little favour with any +party. The Whigs loathed it as servile; the Jacobites loathed it as +revolutionary. Great numbers of Tories had doubtless submitted to +William on the ground that he was, rightfully or wrongfully, King +in possession; but very few of them were disposed to allow that his +possession had originated in conquest. Indeed the plea which had +satisfied the weak and narrow mind of Bohun was a mere fiction, and, had +it been a truth, would have been a truth not to be uttered by Englishmen +without agonies of shame and mortification. [381] He however clung to +his favourite whimsy with a tenacity which the general disapprobation +only made more intense. His old friends, the stedfast adherents +of indefeasible hereditary right, grew cold and reserved. He asked +Sancroft's blessing, and got only a sharp word, and a black look. +He asked Ken's blessing; and Ken, though not much in the habit of +transgressing the rules of Christian charity and courtesy, murmured +something about a little scribbler. Thus cast out by one faction, Bohun +was not received by any other. He formed indeed a class apart; for he +was at once a zealous Filmerite and a zealous Williamite. He held that +pure monarchy, not limited by any law or contract, was the form of +government which had been divinely ordained. But he held that William +was now the absolute monarch, who might annul the Great Charter, abolish +trial by jury, or impose taxes by royal proclamation, without forfeiting +the right to be implicitly obeyed by Christian men. As to the rest, +Bohun was a man of some learning, mean understanding and unpopular +manners. He had no sooner entered on his functions than all Paternoster +Row and Little Britain were in a ferment. The Whigs had, under Fraser's +administration, enjoyed almost as entire a liberty as if there had been +no censorship. But they were now as severely treated as in the days of +Lestrange. A History of the Bloody Assizes was about to be published, +and was expected to have as great a run as the Pilgrim's Progress. But +the new licenser refused his Imprimatur. The book, he said, represented +rebels and schismatics as heroes and martyrs; and he would not sanction +it for its weight in gold. A charge delivered by Lord Warrington to the +grand jury of Cheshire was not permitted to appear, because His Lordship +had spoken contemptuously of divine right and passive obedience. +Julian Johnson found that, if he wished to promulgate his notions of +government, he must again have recourse, as in the evil times of King +James, to a secret press. [382] Such restraint as this, coming +after several years of unbounded freedom, naturally produced violent +exasperation. Some Whigs began to think that the censorship itself was a +grievance; all Whigs agreed in pronouncing the new censor unfit for his +post, and were prepared to join in an effort to get rid of him. + +Of the transactions which terminated in Bohun's dismission, and which +produced the first parliamentary struggle for the liberty of unlicensed +printing, we have accounts written by Bohun himself and by others; but +there are strong reasons for believing that in none of those accounts is +the whole truth to be found. It may perhaps not be impossible, even at +this distance of time, to put together dispersed fragments of evidence +in such a manner as to produce an authentic narrative which would have +astonished the unfortunate licenser himself. + +There was then about town a man of good family, of some reading, and of +some small literary talent, named Charles Blount. [383] In politics he +belonged to the extreme section of the Whig party. In the days of the +Exclusion Bill he had been one of Shaftesbury's brisk boys, and had, +under the signature of Junius Brutus, magnified the virtues and public +services of Titus Oates, and exhorted the Protestants to take signal +vengeance on the Papists for the fire of London and for the murder +of Godfrey. [384] As to the theological questions which were in issue +between Protestants and Papists, Blount was perfectly impartial. He was +an infidel, and the head of a small school of infidels who were troubled +with a morbid desire to make converts. He translated from the Latin +translation part of the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, and appended to it +notes of which the flippant profaneness called forth the severe censure +of an unbeliever of a very different order, the illustrious Bayle. [385] +Blount also attacked Christianity in several original treatises, or +rather in several treatises purporting to be original; for he was +the most audacious of literary thieves, and transcribed, without +acknowledgment, whole pages from authors who had preceded him. His +delight was to worry the priests by asking them how light existed +before the sun was made, how Paradise could be bounded by Pison, Gihon, +Hiddekel and Euphrates, how serpents moved before they were condemned +to crawl, and where Eve found thread to stitch her figleaves. To his +speculations on these subjects he gave the lofty name of the Oracles of +Reason; and indeed whatever he said or wrote was considered as oracular +by his disciples. Of those disciples the most noted was a bad writer +named Gildon, who lived to pester another generation with doggrel and +slander, and whose memory is still preserved, not by his own voluminous +works, but by two or three lines in which his stupidity and venality +have been contemptuously mentioned by Pope. [386] + +Little as either the intellectual or the moral character of Blount may +seem to deserve respect, it is in a great measure to him that we must +attribute the emancipation of the English press. Between him and the +licensers there was a feud of long standing. Before the Revolution one +of his heterodox treatises had been grievously mutilated by Lestrange, +and at last suppressed by orders from Lestrange's superior the Bishop +of London. [387] Bohun was a scarcely less severe critic than Lestrange. +Blount therefore began to make war on the censorship and the censor. +The hostilities were commenced by a tract which came forth without any +license, and which is entitled A Just Vindication of Learning and of the +Liberty of the Press, by Philopatris. [388] Whoever reads this piece, +and is not aware that Blount was one of the most unscrupulous plagiaries +that ever lived, will be surprised to find, mingled with the poor +thoughts and poor words of a thirdrate pamphleteer, passages so elevated +in sentiment and style that they would be worthy of the greatest name +in letters. The truth is that the just Vindication consists chiefly of +garbled extracts from the Areopagitica of Milton. That noble discourse +had been neglected by the generation to which it was addressed, had +sunk into oblivion, and was at the mercy of every pilferer. The literary +workmanship of Blount resembled the architectural workmanship of those +barbarians who used the Coliseum and the Theatre of Pompey as quarries, +who built hovels out of Ionian friezes and propped cowhouses on pillars +of lazulite. Blount concluded, as Milton had done, by recommending that +any book might be printed without a license, provided that the name of +the author or publisher were registered. [389] The Just Vindication was +well received. The blow was speedily followed up. There still remained +in the Areopagitica many fine passages which Blount had not used in his +first pamphlet. Out of these passages he constructed a second pamphlet +entitled Reasons for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing. [390] To these +Reasons he appended a postscript entitled A Just and True Character +of Edmund Bohun. This character was written with extreme bitterness. +Passages were quoted from the licenser's writings to prove that he held +the doctrines of passive obedience and nonresistance. He was accused of +using his power systematically for the purpose of favouring the enemies +and silencing the friends of the Sovereigns whose bread he ate; and it +was asserted that he was the friend and the pupil of his predecessor Sir +Roger. + +Blount's Character of Bohun could not be publicly sold; but it was +widely circulated. While it was passing from hand to hand, and while +the Whigs were every where exclaiming against the new censor as a second +Lestrange, he was requested to authorise the publication of an anonymous +work entitled King William and Queen Mary Conquerors. [391] He readily +and indeed eagerly complied. For in truth there was between the +doctrines which he had long professed and the doctrines which were +propounded in this treatise a coincidence so exact that many suspected +him of being the author; nor was this suspicion weakened by a passage +to which a compliment was paid to his political writings. But the real +author was that very Blount who was, at that very time, labouring to +inflame the public both against the Licensing Act and the licenser. +Blount's motives may easily be divined. His own opinions were +diametrically opposed to those which, on this occasion, he put forward +in the most offensive manner. It is therefore impossible to doubt that +his object was to ensnare and to ruin Bohun. It was a base and wicked +scheme. But it cannot be denied that the trap was laid and baited with +much skill. The republican succeeded in personating a high Tory. +The atheist succeeded in personating a high Churchman. The pamphlet +concluded with a devout prayer that the God of light and love would open +the understanding and govern the will of Englishmen, so that they +might see the things which belonged to their peace. The censor was in +raptures. In every page he found his own thoughts expressed more plainly +than he had ever expressed them. Never before, in his opinion, had the +true claim of their Majesties to obedience been so clearly stated. Every +Jacobite who read this admirable tract must inevitably be converted. The +nonjurors would flock to take the oaths. The nation, so long divided, +would at length be united. From these pleasing dreams Bohun was awakened +by learning, a few hours after the appearance of the discourse which had +charmed him, that the titlepage had set all London in a flame, and that +the odious words, King William and Queen Mary Conquerors, had moved the +indignation of multitudes who had never read further. Only four days +after the publication he heard that the House of Commons had taken the +matter up, that the book had been called by some members a rascally +book, and that, as the author was unknown, the Serjeant at Arms was in +search of the licenser. [392] Bohun's mind had never been strong; and he +was entirely unnerved and bewildered by the fury and suddenness of +the storm which had burst upon him. He went to the House. Most of the +members whom he met in the passages and lobbies frowned on him. When he +was put to the bar, and, after three profound obeisances, ventured to +lift his head and look round him, he could read his doom in the angry +and contemptuous looks which were cast on him from every side. He +hesitated, blundered, contradicted himself, called the Speaker My Lord, +and, by his confused way of speaking, raised a tempest of rude laughter +which confused him still more. As soon as he had withdrawn, it was +unanimously resolved that the obnoxious treatise should be burned in +Palace Yard by the common hangman. It was also resolved, without a +division, that the King should be requested to remove Bohun from the +office of licenser. The poor man, ready to faint with grief and fear, +was conducted by the officers of the House to a place of confinement. +[393] + +But scarcely was he in his prison when a large body of members +clamorously demanded a more important victim. Burnet had, shortly after +he became Bishop of Salisbury, addressed to the clergy of his diocese a +Pastoral Letter, exhorting them to take the oaths. In one paragraph of +this letter he had held language bearing some resemblance to that of the +pamphlet which had just been sentenced to the flames. There were indeed +distinctions which a judicious and impartial tribunal would not have +failed to notice. But the tribunal before which Burnet was arraigned was +neither judicious nor impartial. His faults had made him many enemies, +and his virtues many more. The discontented Whigs complained that he +leaned towards the Court, the High Churchmen that he leaned towards the +Dissenters; nor can it be supposed that a man of so much boldness and so +little tact, a man so indiscreetly frank and so restlessly active, +had passed through life without crossing the schemes and wounding the +feelings of some whose opinions agreed with his. He was regarded with +peculiar malevolence by Howe. Howe had never, even while he was in +office, been in the habit of restraining his bitter and petulant tongue; +and he had recently been turned out of office in a way which had +made him ungovernably ferocious. The history of his dismission is not +accurately known, but it was certainly accompanied by some circumstances +which had cruelly galled his temper. If rumour could be trusted, he had +fancied that Mary was in love with him, and had availed himself of an +opportunity which offered itself while he was in attendance on her +as Vice Chamberlain to make some advances which had justly moved her +indignation. Soon after he was discarded, he was prosecuted for having, +in a fit of passion, beaten one of his servants savagely within the +verge of the palace. He had pleaded guilty, and had been pardoned; but +from this time he showed, on every occasion, the most rancorous personal +hatred of his royal mistress, of her husband, and of all who were +favoured by either. It was known that the Queen frequently consulted +Burnet; and Howe was possessed with the belief that her severity was to +be imputed to Burnet's influence. [394] Now was the time to be revenged. +In a long and elaborate speech the spiteful Whig--for such he still +affected to be--represented Burnet as a Tory of the worst class. "There +should be a law," he said, "making it penal for the clergy to introduce +politics into their discourses. Formerly they sought to enslave us by +crying up the divine and indefeasible right of the hereditary prince. +Now they try to arrive at the same result by telling us that we are a +conquered people." It was moved that the Bishop should be impeached. +To this motion there was an unanswerable objection, which the Speaker +pointed out. The Pastoral Letter had been written in 1689, and was +therefore covered by the Act of Grace which had been passed in 1690. Yet +a member was not ashamed to say, "No matter: impeach him; and force +him to plead the Act." Few, however, were disposed to take a course so +unworthy of a House of Commons. Some wag cried out, "Burn it; burn it;" +and this bad pun ran along the benches, and was received with shouts of +laughter. It was moved that the Pastoral Letter should be burned by the +common hangman. A long and vehement debate followed. For Burnet was +a man warmly loved as well as warmly hated. The great majority of the +Whigs stood firmly by him; and his goodnature and generosity had made +him friends even among the Tories. The contest lasted two days. Montague +and Finch, men of widely different opinions, appear to have been +foremost among the Bishop's champions. An attempt to get rid of the +subject by moving the previous question failed. At length the main +question was put; and the Pastoral Letter was condemned to the flames by +a small majority in a full house. The Ayes were a hundred and sixty-two; +the Noes a hundred and fifty-five. [395] The general opinion, at least +of the capital, seems to have been that Burnet was cruelly treated. +[396] + +He was not naturally a man of fine feelings; and the life which he had +led had not tended to make them finer. He had been during many years +a mark for theological and political animosity. Grave doctors had +anathematized him; ribald poets had lampooned him; princes and ministers +had laid snares for his life; he had been long a wanderer and an exile, +in constant peril of being kidnapped, struck in the boots, hanged and +quartered. Yet none of these things had ever seemed to move him. His +selfconceit had been proof against ridicule, and his dauntless temper +against danger. But on this occasion his fortitude seems to have failed +him. To be stigmatized by the popular branch of the legislature as a +teacher of doctrines so servile that they disgusted even Tories, to be +joined in one sentence of condemnation with the editor of Filmer, was +too much. How deeply Burnet was wounded appeared many years later, when, +after his death, his History of his Life and Times was given to the +world. In that work he is ordinarily garrulous even to minuteness +about all that concerns himself, and sometimes relates with amusing +ingenuousness his own mistakes and the censures which those mistakes +brought upon him. But about the ignominious judgment passed by the House +of Commons on his Pastoral Letter he has preserved a most significant +silence. [397] + +The plot which ruined Bohun, though it did no honour to those who +contrived it, produced important and salutary effects. Before the +conduct of the unlucky licenser had been brought under the consideration +of Parliament, the Commons had resolved, without any division, and, as +far as appears, without any discussion, that the Act which subjected +literature to a censorship should be continued. But the question had +now assumed a new aspect; and the continuation of the Act was no longer +regarded as a matter of course. A feeling in favour of the liberty of +the press, a feeling not yet, it is true, of wide extent or formidable +intensity, began to show itself. The existing system, it was said, was +prejudicial both to commerce and to learning. Could it be expected that +any capitalist would advance the funds necessary for a great literary +undertaking, or that any scholar would expend years of toil and research +on such an undertaking, while it was possible that, at the last moment, +the caprice, the malice, the folly of one man might frustrate the whole +design? And was it certain that the law which so grievously restricted +both the freedom of trade and the freedom of thought had really added +to the security of the State? Had not recent experience proved that the +licenser might himself be an enemy of their Majesties, or, worse still, +an absurd and perverse friend; that he might suppress a book of which it +would be for their interest that every house in the country should have +a copy, and that he might readily give his sanction to a libel which +tended to make them hateful to their people, and which deserved to be +torn and burned by the hand of Ketch? Had the government gained much by +establishing a literary police which prevented Englishmen from +having the History of the Bloody Circuit, and allowed them, by way of +compensation, to read tracts which represented King William and Queen +Mary as conquerors? + +In that age persons who were not specially interested in a public +bill very seldom petitioned Parliament against it or for it. The only +petitions therefore which were at this conjuncture presented to the two +Houses against the censorship came from booksellers, bookbinders and +printers. [398] But the opinion which these classes expressed was +certainly not confined to them. + +The law which was about to expire had lasted eight years. It was renewed +for only two years. It appears, from an entry in the journals of the +Commons which unfortunately is defective, that a division took place on +an amendment about the nature of which we are left entirely in the dark. +The votes were ninety-nine to eighty. In the Lords it was proposed, +according to the suggestion offered fifty years before by Milton and +stolen from him by Blount, to exempt from the authority of the licenser +every book which bore the name of an author or publisher. This amendment +was rejected; and the bill passed, but not without a protest signed by +eleven peers who declared that they could not think it for the public +interest to subject all learning and true information to the arbitrary +will and pleasure of a mercenary and perhaps ignorant licenser. Among +those who protested were Halifax, Shrewsbury and Mulgrave, three +noblemen belonging to different political parties, but all distinguished +by their literary attainments. It is to be lamented that the signatures +of Tillotson and Burnet, who were both present on that day, should be +wanting. Dorset was absent. [399] + +Blount, by whose exertions and machinations the opposition to the +censorship had been raised, did not live to see that opposition +successful. Though not a very young man, he was possessed by an insane +passion for the sister of his deceased wife. Having long laboured in +vain to convince the object of his love that she might lawfully marry +him, he at last, whether from weariness of life, or in the hope of +touching her heart, inflicted on himself a wound of which, after +languishing long, he died. He has often been mentioned as a blasphemer +and selfmurderer. But the important service which, by means doubtless +most immoral and dishonourable, he rendered to his country, has passed +almost unnoticed. [400] + +Late in this busy and eventful session the attention of the Houses was +called to the state of Ireland. The government of that kingdom had, +during the six months which followed the surrender of Limerick, been +in an unsettled state. It was not till the Irish troops who adhered to +Sarsfield had sailed for France, and till the Irish troops who had made +their election to remain at home had been disbanded, that William at +length put forth a proclamation solemnly announcing the termination +of the civil war. From the hostility of the aboriginal inhabitants, +destitute as they now were of chiefs, of arms and of organization, +nothing was to be apprehended beyond occasional robberies and murders. +But the war cry of the Irishry had scarcely died away when the first +faint murmurs of the Englishry began to be heard. Coningsby was during +some months at the head of the administration. He soon made himself in +the highest degree odious to the dominant caste. He was an unprincipled +man; he was insatiable of riches; and he was in a situation in which +riches were easily to be obtained by an unprincipled man. Immense sums +of money, immense quantities of military stores had been sent over +from England. Immense confiscations were taking place in Ireland. The +rapacious governor had daily opportunities of embezzling and extorting; +and of those opportunities he availed himself without scruple or shame. +This however was not, in the estimation of the colonists, his greatest +offence. They might have pardoned his covetousness; but they could not +pardon the clemency which he showed to their vanquished and enslaved +enemies. His clemency indeed amounted merely to this, that he loved +money more than he hated Papists, and that he was not unwilling to sell +for a high price a scanty measure of justice to some of the oppressed +class. Unhappily, to the ruling minority, sore from recent conflict and +drunk with recent victory, the subjugated majority was as a drove of +cattle, or rather as a pack of wolves. Man acknowledges in the inferior +animals no rights inconsistent with his own convenience; and as man +deals with the inferior animals the Cromwellian thought himself at +liberty to deal with the Roman Catholic. Coningsby therefore drew on +himself a greater storm of obloquy by his few good acts than by his many +bad acts. The clamour against him was so violent that he was removed; +and Sidney went over, with the full power and dignity of Lord +Lieutenant, to hold a Parliament at Dublin. [401] + +But the easy temper and graceful manners of Sidney failed to produce a +conciliatory effect. He does not indeed appear to have been greedy of +unlawful gain. But he did not restrain with a sufficiently firm hand +the crowd of subordinate functionaries whom Coningsby's example and +protection had encouraged to plunder the public and to sell their good +offices to suitors. Nor was the new Viceroy of a temper to bear hard +on the feeble remains of the native aristocracy. He therefore speedily +became an object of suspicion and aversion to the Anglosaxon settlers. +His first act was to send out the writs for a general election. The +Roman Catholics had been excluded from every municipal corporation; but +no law had yet deprived them of the county franchise. It is probable +however that not a single Roman Catholic freeholder ventured to approach +the hustings. The members chosen were, with few exceptions, men animated +by the spirit of Enniskillen and Londonderry, a spirit eminently heroic +in times of distress and peril, but too often cruel and imperious in +the season of prosperity and power. They detested the civil treaty of +Limerick, and were indignant when they learned that the Lord Lieutenant +fully expected from them a parliamentary ratification of that odious +contract, a contract which gave a licence to the idolatry of the +mass, and which prevented good Protestants from ruining their Popish +neighbours by bringing civil actions for injuries done during the war. +[402] + +On the fifth of October 1692 the Parliament met at Dublin in Chichester +House. It was very differently composed from the assembly which had +borne the same title in 1689. Scarcely one peer, not one member of the +House of Commons, who had sate at the King's Inns, was to be seen. To +the crowd of O's and Macs, descendants of the old princes of the island, +had succeeded men whose names indicated a Saxon origin. A single O, +an apostate from the faith of his fathers, and three Macs, evidently +emigrants from Scotland, and probably Presbyterians, had seats in the +assembly. + +The Parliament, thus composed, had then less than the powers of the +Assembly of Jamaica or of the Assembly of Virginia. Not merely was the +Legislature which sate at Dublin subject to the absolute control of the +Legislature which sate at Westminster: but a law passed in the fifteenth +century, during the administration of the Lord Deputy Poynings, and +called by his name, had provided that no bill which had not been +considered and approved by the Privy Council of England should be +brought into either House in Ireland, and that every bill so considered +and approved should be either passed without amendment or rejected. +[403] + +The session opened with a solemn recognition of the paramount authority +of the mother country. The Commons ordered their clerk to read to them +the English Act which required them to take the Oath of Supremacy and to +subscribe the Declaration against Transubstantiation. Having heard the +Act read, they immediately proceeded to obey it. Addresses were then +voted which expressed the warmest gratitude and attachment to the King. +Two members, who had been untrue to the Protestant and English interest +during the troubles, were expelled. Supplies, liberal when compared with +the resources of a country devastated by years of predatory war, were +voted with eagerness. But the bill for confirming the Act of Settlement +was thought to be too favourable to the native gentry, and, as it could +not be amended, was with little ceremony rejected. A committee of the +whole House resolved that the unjustifiable indulgence with which the +Irish had been treated since the battle of the Boyne was one of the +chief causes of the misery of the kingdom. A Committee of Grievances +sate daily till eleven in the evening; and the proceedings of this +inquest greatly alarmed the Castle. Many instances of gross venality +and knavery on the part of men high in office were brought to light, and +many instances also of what was then thought a criminal lenity towards +the subject nation. This Papist had been allowed to enlist in the army; +that Papist had been allowed to keep a gun; a third had too good a +horse; a fourth had been protected against Protestants who wished to +bring actions against him for wrongs committed during the years of +confusion. The Lord Lieutenant, having obtained nearly as much money as +he could expect, determined to put an end to these unpleasant inquiries. +He knew, however, that if he quarrelled with the Parliament for treating +either peculators or Papists with severity, he should have little +support in England. He therefore looked out for a pretext, and was +fortunate enough to find one. The Commons had passed a vote which might +with some plausibility be represented as inconsistent with the +Poynings statute. Any thing which looked like a violation of that great +fundamental law was likely to excite strong disapprobation on the other +side of Saint George's Channel. The Viceroy saw his advantage, and +availed himself of it. He went to the chamber of the Lords at Chichester +House, sent for the Commons, reprimanded them in strong language, +charged them with undutifully and ungratefully encroaching on the rights +of the mother country, and put an end to the session. [404] + +Those whom he had lectured withdrew full of resentment. The imputation +which he had thrown on them was unjust. They had a strong feeling of +love and reverence for the land from which they sprang, and looked with +confidence for redress to the supreme Parliament. Several of them went +to London for the purpose of vindicating themselves and of accusing the +Lord Lieutenant. They were favoured with a long and attentive audience, +both by the Lords and by the Commons, and were requested to put the +substance of what had been said into writing. The humble language of +the petitioners, and their protestations that they had never intended to +violate the Poynings statute, or to dispute the paramount authority of +England, effaced the impression which Sidney's accusations had made. +Both Houses addressed the King on the state of Ireland. They censured +no delinquent by name; but they expressed an opinion that there had been +gross maladministration, that the public had been plundered, and that +Roman Catholics had been treated with unjustifiable tenderness. William +in reply promised that what was amiss should be corrected. His friend +Sidney was soon recalled, and consoled for the loss of the viceregal +dignity with the lucrative place of Master of the Ordnance. The +government of Ireland was for a time entrusted to Lords justices, among +whom Sir Henry Capel, a zealous Whig, very little disposed to show +indulgence to Papists, had the foremost place. + +The prorogation drew nigh; and still the fate of the Triennial Bill was +uncertain. Some of the ablest ministers thought the bill a good one; +and, even had they thought it a bad one, they would probably have tried +to dissuade their master from rejecting it. It was impossible, however, +to remove from his mind the impression that a concession on this point +would seriously impair his authority. Not relying on the judgment of his +ordinary advisers, he sent Portland to ask the opinion of Sir William +Temple. Temple had made a retreat for himself at a place called Moor +Park, in the neighbourhood of Farnham. The country round his dwelling +was almost a wilderness. His amusement during some years had been to +create in the waste what those Dutch burgomasters among whom he had +passed some of the best years of his life, would have considered as a +paradise. His hermitage had been occasionally honoured by the presence +of the King, who had from a boy known and esteemed the author of the +Triple Alliance, and who was well pleased to find, among the heath and +furze of the wilds of Surrey, a spot which seemed to be part of Holland, +a straight canal, a terrace, rows of clipped trees, and rectangular beds +of flowers and potherbs. + +Portland now repaired to this secluded abode and consulted the oracle. +Temple was decidedly of opinion that the bill ought to pass. He was +apprehensive that the reasons which led him to form this opinion might +not be fully and correctly reported to the King by Portland, who was +indeed as brave a soldier and as trusty a friend as ever lived, whose +natural abilities were not inconsiderable, and who, in some departments +of business, had great experience, but who was very imperfectly +acquainted with the history and constitution of England. As the state +of Sir William's health made it impossible for him to go himself to +Kensington, he determined to send his secretary thither. The secretary +was a poor scholar of four or five and twenty, under whose plain garb +and ungainly deportment were concealed some of the choicest gifts that +have ever been bestowed on any of the children of men; rare powers of +observation, brilliant wit, grotesque invention, humour of the most +austere flavour, yet exquisitely delicious, eloquence singularly pure, +manly and perspicuous. This young man was named Jonathan Swift. He was +born in Ireland, but would have thought himself insulted if he had been +called an Irishman. He was of unmixed English blood, and, through life, +regarded the aboriginal population of the island in which he first drew +breath as an alien and a servile caste. He had in the late reign kept +terms at the University of Dublin, but had been distinguished there only +by his irregularities, and had with difficulty obtained his degree. At +the time of the Revolution, he had, with many thousands of his fellow +colonists, taken refuge in the mother country from the violence of +Tyrconnel, and had thought himself fortunate in being able to obtain +shelter at Moor Park. [405] For that shelter, however, he had to pay +a heavy price. He was thought to be sufficiently remunerated for his +services with twenty pounds a year and his board. He dined at the second +table. Sometimes, indeed, when better company was not to be had, he was +honoured by being invited to play at cards with his patron; and on such +occasions Sir William was so generous as to give his antagonist a little +silver to begin with. [406] The humble student would not have dared to +raise his eyes to a lady of family; but, when he had become a clergyman, +he began, after the fashion of the clergymen of that generation, to make +love to a pretty waitingmaid who was the chief ornament of the servants' +hall, and whose name is inseparably associated with his in a sad and +mysterious history. + +Swift many years later confessed some part of what he felt when he found +himself on his way to Court. His spirit had been bowed down, and might +seem to have been broken, by calamities and humiliations. The language +which he was in the habit of holding to his patron, as far as we can +judge from the specimens which still remain, was that of a lacquey, +or rather of a beggar. [407] A sharp word or a cold look of the master +sufficed to make the servant miserable during several days. [408] But +this tameness was merely the tameness with which a tiger, caught, caged +and starved, submits to the keeper who brings him food. The humble +menial was at heart the haughtiest, the most aspiring, the most +vindictive, the most despotic of men. And now at length a great, a +boundless prospect was opening before him. To William he was already +slightly known. At Moor Park the King had sometimes, when his host was +confined by gout to an easy chair, been attended by the secretary about +the grounds. His Majesty had condescended to teach his companion the +Dutch way of cutting and eating asparagus, and had graciously asked +whether Mr. Swift would like to have a captain's commission in a cavalry +regiment. But now for the first time the young man was to stand in +the royal presence as a counsellor. He was admitted into the closet, +delivered a letter from Temple, and explained and enforced the arguments +which that letter contained, concisely, but doubtless with clearness and +ability. There was, he said, no reason to think that short Parliaments +would be more disposed than long Parliaments to encroach on the just +prerogatives of the Crown. In fact the Parliament which had, in the +preceding generation, waged war against a king, led him captive, sent +him to the prison, to the bar, to the scaffold, was known in our annals +as emphatically the Long Parliament. Never would such disasters have +befallen the monarchy but for the fatal law which secured that assembly +from dissolution. [409] There was, it must be owned, a flaw in this +reasoning which a man less shrewd than William might easily detect. That +one restriction of the royal prerogative had been mischievous did +not prove that another restriction would be salutary. It by no means +followed because one sovereign had been ruined by being unable to get +rid of a hostile Parliament that another sovereign might not be ruined +by being forced to part with a friendly Parliament. To the great +mortification of the ambassador, his arguments failed to shake the +King's resolution. On the fourteenth of March the Commons were summoned +to the Upper House; the title of the Triennial Bill was read; and it was +announced, after the ancient form, that the King and Queen would take +the matter into their consideration. The Parliament was then prorogued. + +Soon after the prorogation William set out for the Continent. It was +necessary that, before his departure, he should make some important +changes. He was resolved not to discard Nottingham, on whose integrity, +a virtue rare among English statesmen, he placed a well founded +reliance. Yet, if Nottingham remained Secretary of State, it was +impossible to employ Russell at sea. Russell, though much mortified, +was induced to accept a lucrative post in the household; and two naval +officers of great note in their profession, Killegrew and Delaval, were +placed at the Board of Admiralty and entrusted with the command of the +Channel Fleet. [410] These arrangements caused much murmuring among the +Whigs; for Killegrew and Delaval were certainly Tories, and were by many +suspected of being Jacobites. But other promotions which took place at +the same time proved that the King wished to bear himself evenly between +the hostile factions. Nottingham had, during a year, been the sole +Secretary of State. He was now joined with a colleague in whose society +he must have felt himself very ill at ease, John Trenchard. Trenchard +belonged to the extreme section of the Whig party. He was a Taunton man, +animated by that spirit which had, during two generations, peculiarly +distinguished Taunton. He had, in the days of Popeburnings and of +Protestant flails, been one of the renowned Green Riband Club; he had +been an active member of several stormy Parliaments; he had brought +in the first Exclusion Bill; he had been deeply concerned in the plots +formed by the chiefs of the opposition; he had fled to the Continent; +he had been long an exile; and he had been excepted by name from the +general pardon of 1686. Though his life had been passed in turmoil, his +temper was naturally calm; but he was closely connected with a set of +men whose passions were far fiercer than his own. He had married the +sister of Hugh Speke, one of the falsest and most malignant of the +libellers who brought disgrace on the cause of constitutional freedom. +Aaron Smith, the solicitor of the Treasury, a man in whom the fanatic +and the pettifogger were strangely united, possessed too much influence +over the new Secretary, with whom he had, ten years before, discussed +plans of rebellion at the Rose. Why Trenchard was selected in preference +to many men of higher rank and greater ability for a post of the first +dignity and importance, it is difficult to say. It seems however that, +though he bore the title and drew the salary of Secretary of State, he +was not trusted with any of the graver secrets of State, and that he was +little more than a superintendent of police, charged to look after the +printers of unlicensed books, the pastors of nonjuring congregations, +and the haunters of treason taverns. [411] + +Another Whig of far higher character was called at the same time to a +far higher place in the administration. The Great Seal had now been four +years in commission. Since Maynard's retirement, the constitution of +the Court of Chancery had commanded little respect. Trevor, who was the +First Commissioner, wanted neither parts nor learning; but his integrity +was with good reason suspected; and the duties which, as Speaker of the +House of Commons, he had to perform during four or five months in +the busiest part of every year, made it impossible for him to be an +efficient judge in equity. Every suitor complained that he had to wait +a most unreasonable time for a judgment, and that, when at length a +judgment had been pronounced, it was very likely to be reversed on +appeal. Meanwhile there was no efficient minister of justice, no great +functionary to whom it especially belonged to advise the King touching +the appointment of judges, of Counsel for the Crown, of Justices of the +Peace. [412] It was known that William was sensible of the inconvenience +of this state of things; and, during several months, there had been +flying rumours that a Lord Keeper or a Lord Chancellor would soon +be appointed. [413] The name most frequently mentioned was that of +Nottingham. But the same reasons which had prevented him from accepting +the Great Seal in 1689 had, since that year, rather gained than lost +strength. William at length fixed his choice on Somers. + +Somers was only in his forty-second year; and five years had not elapsed +since, on the great day of the trial of the Bishops, his powers had +first been made known to the world. From that time his fame had been +steadily and rapidly rising. Neither in forensic nor in parliamentary +eloquence had he any superior. The consistency of his public conduct had +gained for him the entire confidence of the Whigs; and the urbanity +of his manners had conciliated the Tories. It was not without great +reluctance that he consented to quit an assembly over which he exercised +an immense influence for an assembly where it would be necessary for him +to sit in silence. He had been but a short time in great practice. His +savings were small. Not having the means of supporting a hereditary +title, he must, if he accepted the high dignity which was offered to +him, preside during some years in the Upper House without taking part in +the debates. The opinion of others, however, was that he would be more +useful as head of the law than as head of the Whig party in the Commons. +He was sent for to Kensington, and called into the Council Chamber. +Caermarthen spoke in the name of the King. "Sir John," he said, "it is +necessary for the public service that you should take this charge upon +you; and I have it in command from His Majesty to say that he can admit +of no excuse." Somers submitted. The seal was delivered to him, with a +patent which entitled him to a pension of two thousand a year from the +day on which he should quit his office; and he was immediately sworn in +a Privy Councillor and Lord Keeper. [414] + +The Gazette which announced these changes in the administration, +announced also the King's departure. He set out for Holland on the +twenty-fourth of March. + +He left orders that the Estates of Scotland should, after a recess of +more than two years and a half, be again called together. Hamilton, who +had lived many months in retirement, had, since the fall of Melville, +been reconciled to the Court, and now consented to quit his retreat, +and to occupy Holyrood House as Lord High Commissioner. It was +necessary that one of the Secretaries of State for Scotland should be +in attendance on the King. The Master of Stair had therefore gone to the +Continent. His colleague, Johnstone, was chief manager for the Crown at +Edinburgh, and was charged to correspond regularly with Carstairs, who +never quitted William. [415] + +It might naturally have been expected that the session would be +turbulent. The Parliament was that very Parliament which had in 1689 +passed, by overwhelming majorities, all the most violent resolutions +which Montgomery and his club could frame, which had refused supplies, +which had proscribed the ministers of the Crown, which had closed the +Courts of justice, which had seemed bent on turning Scotland into an +oligarchical republic. In 1690 the Estates had been in a better temper. +Yet, even in 1690, they had, when the ecclesiastical polity of the realm +was under consideration, paid little deference to what was well known to +be the royal wish. They had abolished patronage; they had sanctioned the +rabbling of the episcopal clergy; they had refused to pass a Toleration +Act. It seemed likely that they would still be found unmanageable when +questions touching religion came before them; and such questions it +was unfortunately necessary to bring forward. William had, during the +recess, attempted to persuade the General Assembly of the Church to +receive into communion such of the old curates as should subscribe the +Confession of Faith and should submit to the government of Synods. But +the attempt had failed; and the Assembly had consequently been dissolved +by the Lord Commissioner. Unhappily, the Act which established the +Presbyterian polity had not defined the extent of the power which was +to be exercised by the Sovereign over the Spiritual Courts. No sooner +therefore had the dissolution been announced than the Moderator +requested permission to speak. He was told that he was now merely +a private person. As a private person he requested a hearing, and +protested, in the name of his brethren, against the royal mandate. +The right, he said, of the office bearers of the Church to meet and +deliberate touching her interests was derived from her Divine Head, +and was not dependent on the pleasure of the temporal magistrate. +His brethren stood up, and by an approving murmur signified their +concurrence in what their President had said. Before they retired they +fixed a day for their next meeting. [416] It was indeed a very distant +day; and when it came neither minister nor elder attended; for even the +boldest members shrank from a complete rupture with the civil +power. But, though there was not open war between the Church and the +Government, they were estranged from each other, jealous of each +other, and afraid of each other. No progress had been made towards a +reconciliation when the Estates met; and which side the Estates would +take might well be doubted. + +But the proceedings of this strange Parliament, in almost every one of +its sessions, falsified all the predictions of politicians. It had once +been the most unmanageable of senates. It was now the most obsequious. +Yet the old men had again met in the old hall. There were all the most +noisy agitators of the club, with the exception of Montgomery, who was +dying of want and of a broken heart in a garret far from his native +land. There was the canting Ross and the perfidious Annandale. There +was Sir Patrick Hume, lately created a peer, and henceforth to be +called Lord Polwarth, but still as eloquent as when his interminable +declamations and dissertations ruined the expedition of Argyle. But +the whole spirit of the assembly had undergone a change. The members +listened with profound respect to the royal letter, and returned an +answer in reverential and affectionate language. An extraordinary aid +of a hundred and fourteen thousand pounds sterling was granted to the +Crown. Severe laws were enacted against the Jacobites. The legislation +on ecclesiastical matters was as Erastian as William himself could have +desired. An Act was passed requiring all ministers of the Established +Church to swear fealty to their Majesties, and directing the General +Assembly to receive into communion those Episcopalian ministers, not +yet deprived, who should declare that they conformed to the Presbyterian +doctrine and discipline. [417] Nay, the Estates carried adulation so far +as to make it their humble request to the King that he would be pleased +to confer a Scotch peerage on his favourite Portland. This was +indeed their chief petition. They did not ask for redress of a single +grievance. They contented themselves with hinting in general terms that +there were abuses which required correction, and with referring the King +for fuller information to his own Ministers, the Lord High Commissioner +and the Secretary of State. [418] + +There was one subject on which it may seem strange that even the most +servile of Scottish Parliaments should have kept silence. More than a +year had elapsed since the massacre of Glencoe; and it might have +been expected that the whole assembly, peers, commissioners of shires, +commissioners of burghs, would with one voice have demanded a strict +investigation into that great crime. It is certain, however, that no +motion for investigation was made. The state of the Gaelic clans was +indeed taken into consideration. A law was passed for the more effectual +suppressing of depredations and outrages beyond the Highland line; and +in that law was inserted a special proviso reserving to Mac Callum More +his hereditary jurisdiction. But it does not appear, either from the +public records of the proceedings of the Estates, or from those private +letters in which Johnstone regularly gave Carstairs an account of what +had passed, that any speaker made any allusion to the fate of Mac +Ian and his kinsmen. [419] The only explanation of this extraordinary +silence seems to be that the public men who were assembled in the +capital of Scotland knew little and cared little about the fate of a +thieving tribe of Celts. The injured clan, bowed down by fear of +the allpowerful Campbells, and little accustomed to resort to the +constituted authorities of the kingdom for protection or redress, +presented no petition to the Estates. The story of the butchery had +been told at coffeehouses, but had been told in different ways. Very +recently, one or two books, in which the facts were but too truly +related, had come forth from the secret presses of London. But those +books were not publicly exposed to sale. They bore the name of no +responsible author. The Jacobite writers were, as a class, savagely +malignant and utterly regardless of truth. Since the Macdonalds did +not complain, a prudent man might naturally be unwilling to incur the +displeasure of the King, of the ministers, and of the most powerful +family in Scotland, by bringing forward an accusation grounded on +nothing but reports wandering from mouth to mouth, or pamphlets which no +licenser had approved, to which no author had put his name, and which no +bookseller ventured to place in his shop-window. But whether this be +or be not the true solution, it is certain that the Estates separated +quietly after a session of two months, during which, as far as can +now be discovered, the name of Glencoe was not once uttered in the +Parliament House. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + State of the Court of Saint Germains--Feeling of the Jacobites; + Compounders and Noncompounders--Change of Ministry at Saint Germains; + Middleton--New Declaration put forth by James--Effect of the new + Declaration--French Preparations for the Campaign; Institution of the + Order of Saint Lewis--Middleton's Account of Versailles--William's + Preparations for the Campaign--Lewis takes the Field--Lewis returns to + Versailles--Manoeuvres of Luxemburg--Battle of Landen--Miscarriage + of the Smyrna Fleet--Excitement in London--Jacobite Libels; William + Anderton--Writings and Artifices of the Jacobites--Conduct of + Caermarthen--Now Charter granted to the East India Company--Return of + William to England; Military Successes of France--Distress of France--A + Ministry necessary to Parliamentary Government--The First Ministry + gradually formed--Sunderland--Sunderland advises the King to give the + Preference to the Whigs--Reasons for preferring the Whigs--Chiefs of + the Whig Party; Russell--Somers--Montague--Wharton--Chiefs of the Tory + Party; Harley--Foley--Howe--Meeting of Parliament--Debates about the + Naval Miscarriages--Russell First Lord of the Admiralty; Retirement + of Nottingham--Shrewsbury refuses Office--Debates about the Trade with + India--Bill for the Regulation of Trials in Cases of Treason--Triennial + Bill--Place Bill--Bill for the Naturalisation of Foreign + Protestants--Supply--Ways and Means; Lottery Loan--The Bank of + England--Prorogation of Parliament; Ministerial Arrangements; Shrewsbury + Secretary of State--New Titles bestowed--French Plan of War; English + Plan of War--Expedition against Brest--Naval Operations in + the Mediterranean--War by Land--Complaints of Trenchard's + Administration--The Lancashire Prosecutions--Meeting of the Parliament; + Death of Tillotson--Tenison Archbishop of Canterbury; Debates on the + Lancashire Prosecutions--Place Bill--Bill for the Regulation of Trials + in Cases of Treason; the Triennial Bill passed--Death of Mary--Funeral + of Mary--Greenwich Hospital founded + +IT is now time to relate the events which, since the battle of La Hogue, +had taken place at Saint Germains. + +James, after seeing the fleet which was to have convoyed him back to his +kingdom burned down to the water edge, had returned in no good humour to +his abode near Paris. Misfortune generally made him devout after his +own fashion; and he now starved himself and flogged himself till his +spiritual guides were forced to interfere. [420] + +It is difficult to conceive a duller place than Saint Germains was when +he held his Court there; and yet there was scarcely in all Europe a +residence more enviably situated than that which the generous Lewis had +assigned to his suppliants. The woods were magnificent, the air clear +and salubrious, the prospects extensive and cheerful. No charm of +rural life was wanting; and the towers of the most superb city of the +Continent were visible in the distance. The royal apartments were richly +adorned with tapestry and marquetry, vases of silver and mirrors in +gilded frames. A pension of more than forty thousand pounds sterling +was annually paid to James from the French Treasury. He had a guard of +honour composed of some of the finest soldiers in Europe. If he +wished to amuse himself with field sports, he had at his command an +establishment far more sumptuous than that which had belonged to him +when he was at the head of a great kingdom, an army of huntsmen and +fowlers, a vast arsenal of guns, spears, buglehorns and tents, miles of +network, staghounds, foxhounds, harriers, packs for the boar and packs +for the wolf, gerfalcons for the heron and haggards for the wild +duck. His presence chamber and his antechamber were in outward show as +splendid as when he was at Whitehall. He was still surrounded by blue +ribands and white staves. But over the mansion and the domain brooded +a constant gloom, the effect, partly of bitter regrets and of deferred +hopes, but chiefly of the abject superstition which had taken complete +possession of his own mind, and which was affected by almost all those +who aspired to his favour. His palace wore the aspect of a monastery. +There were three places of worship within the spacious pile. Thirty or +forty ecclesiastics were lodged in the building; and their apartments +were eyed with envy by noblemen and gentlemen who had followed the +fortunes of their Sovereign, and who thought it hard that, when there +was so much room under his roof, they should be forced to sleep in the +garrets of the neighbouring town. Among the murmurers was the brilliant +Anthony Hamilton. He has left us a sketch of the life of Saint Germains, +a slight sketch indeed, but not unworthy of the artist to whom we owe +the most highly finished and vividly coloured picture of the English +Court in the days when the English Court was gayest. He complains that +existence was one round of religious exercises; that, in order to live +in peace, it was necessary to pass half the day in devotion or in the +outward show of devotion; that, if he tried to dissipate his melancholy +by breathing the fresh air of that noble terrace which looks down on the +valley of the Seine, he was driven away by the clamour of a Jesuit who +had got hold of some unfortunate Protestant royalists from England, +and was proving to them that no heretic could go to heaven. In general, +Hamilton said, men suffering under a common calamity have a strong +fellow feeling and are disposed to render good offices to each other. +But it was not so at Saint Germains. There all was discord, jealousy, +bitterness of spirit. Malignity was concealed under the show of +friendship and of piety. All the saints of the royal household were +praying for each other and backbiting each other from morning, to night. +Here and there in the throng of hypocrites might be remarked a man too +highspirited to dissemble. But such a man, however advantageously he +might have made himself known elsewhere, was certain to be treated with +disdain by the inmates of that sullen abode. [421] + +Such was the Court of James, as described by a Roman Catholic. Yet, +however disagreeable that Court may have been to a Roman Catholic, it +was infinitely more disagreeable to a Protestant. For the Protestant had +to endure, in addition to all the dulness of which the Roman Catholic +complained, a crowd of vexations from which the Roman Catholic was free. +In every competition between a Protestant and a Roman Catholic the Roman +Catholic was preferred. In every quarrel between a Protestant and a +Roman Catholic the Roman Catholic was supposed to be in the right. +While the ambitious Protestant looked in vain for promotion, while +the dissipated Protestant looked in vain for amusement, the serious +Protestant looked in vain for spiritual instruction and consolation. +James might, no doubt, easily have obtained permission for those members +of the Church of England who had sacrificed every thing in his cause to +meet privately in some modest oratory, and to receive the eucharistic +bread and wine from the hands of one of their own clergy; but he did not +wish his residence to be defiled by such impious rites. Doctor Dennis +Granville, who had quitted the richest deanery, the richest archdeaconry +and one of the richest livings in England, rather than take the oaths, +gave mortal offence by asking leave to read prayers to the exiles of his +own communion. His request was refused; and he was so grossly insulted +by his master's chaplains and their retainers that he was forced to +quit Saint Germains. Lest some other Anglican doctor should be equally +importunate, James wrote to inform his agents in England that he wished +no Protestant divine to come out to him. [422] Indeed the nonjuring +clergy were at least as much sneered at and as much railed at in his +palace as in his nephew's. If any man had a claim to be mentioned with +respect at Saint Germains, it was surely Sancroft. Yet it was reported +that the bigots who were assembled there never spoke of him but with +aversion and disgust. The sacrifice of the first place in the Church, +of the first place in the peerage, of the mansion at Lambeth and the +mansion at Croydon, of immense patronage and of a revenue of more than +five thousand a year was thought but a poor atonement for the great +crime of having modestly remonstrated against the unconstitutional +Declaration of Indulgence. Sancroft was pronounced to be just such a +traitor and just such a penitent as Judas Iscariot. The old hypocrite +had, it was said, while affecting reverence and love for his master, +given the fatal signal to his master's enemies. When the mischief had +been done and could not be repaired, the conscience of the sinner had +begun to torture him. He had, like his prototype, blamed himself and +bemoaned himself. He had, like his prototype, flung down his wealth at +the feet of those whose instrument he had been. The best thing that he +could now do was to make the parallel complete by hanging himself. [423] + +James seems to have thought that the strongest proof of kindness which +he could give to heretics who had resigned wealth, country, family, for +his sake, was to suffer them to be beset, on their dying beds, by his +priests. If some sick man, helpless in body and in mind, and deafened +by the din of bad logic and bad rhetoric, suffered a wafer to be thrust +into his mouth, a great work of grace was triumphantly announced to the +Court; and the neophyte was buried with all the pomp of religion. But +if a royalist, of the highest rank and most stainless character, died +professing firm attachment to the Church of England, a hole was dug in +the fields; and, at dead of night, he was flung into it and covered +up like a mass of carrion. Such were the obsequies of the Earl of +Dunfermline, who had served the House of Stuart with the hazard of +his life and to the utter ruin of his fortunes, who had fought at +Killiecrankie, and who had, after the victory, lifted from the earth the +still breathing remains of Dundee. While living he had been treated with +contumely. The Scottish officers who had long served under him had in +vain entreated that, when they were formed into a company, he might +still be their commander. His religion had been thought a fatal +disqualification. A worthless adventurer, whose only recommendation was +that he was a Papist, was preferred. Dunfermline continued, during a +short time, to make his appearance in the circle which surrounded the +Prince whom he had served too well; but it was to no purpose. The bigots +who ruled the Court refused to the ruined and expatriated Protestant +Lord the means of subsistence; he died of a broken heart; and they +refused him even a grave. [424] + +The insults daily offered at Saint Germains to the Protestant religion +produced a great effect in England. The Whigs triumphantly asked whether +it were not clear that the old tyrant was utterly incorrigible; and many +even of the nonjurors observed his proceedings with shame, disgust and +alarm. [425] The Jacobite party had, from the first, been divided into +two sections, which, three or four years after the Revolution, began to +be known as the Compounders and the Noncompounders. The Compounders were +those who wished for a restoration, but for a restoration accompanied by +a general amnesty, and by guarantees for the security of the civil and +ecclesiastical constitution of the realm. The Noncompounders thought +it downright Whiggery, downright rebellion; to take advantage of His +Majesty's unfortunate situation for the purpose of imposing on him any +condition. The plain duty of his subjects was to bring him back. What +traitors he would punish and what traitors he would spare, what laws he +would observe and with what laws he would dispense, were questions to be +decided by himself alone. If he decided them wrongly, he must answer for +his fault to heaven and not to his people. + +The great body of the English Jacobites were more or less Compounders. +The pure Noncompounders were chiefly to be found among the Roman +Catholics, who, very naturally, were not solicitous to obtain any +security for a religion which they thought heretical, or for a polity +from the benefits of which they were excluded. There were also some +Protestant nonjurors, such as Kettlewell and Hickes, who resolutely +followed the theory of Filmer to all the extreme consequences to which +it led. But, though Kettlewell tried to convince his countrymen that +monarchical government had been ordained by God, not as a means of +making them happy here, but as a cross which it was their duty to +take up and bear in the hope of being recompensed for their sufferings +hereafter, and though Hickes assured them that there was not a single +Compounder in the whole Theban legion, very few churchmen were inclined +to run the risk of the gallows merely for the purpose of reestablishing +the High Commission and the Dispensing Power. + +The Compounders formed the main strength of the Jacobite party in +England; but the Noncompounders had hitherto had undivided sway at Saint +Germains. No Protestant, no moderate Roman Catholic, no man who dared to +hint that any law could bind the royal prerogative, could hope for the +smallest mark of favour from the banished King. The priests and the +apostate Melfort, the avowed enemy of the Protestant religion and of +civil liberty, of Parliaments, of trial by jury and of the Habeas Corpus +Act, were in exclusive possession of the royal ear. Herbert was called +Chancellor, walked before the other officers of state, wore a black robe +embroidered with gold, and carried a seal; but he was a member of the +Church of England; and therefore he was not suffered to sit at the +Council Board. [426] + +The truth is that the faults of James's head and heart were incurable. +In his view there could be between him and his subjects no reciprocity +of obligation. Their duty was to risk property, liberty, life, in order +to replace him on the throne, and then to bear patiently whatever he +chose to inflict upon them. They could no more pretend to merit +before him than before God. When they had done all, they were still +unprofitable servants. The highest praise due to the royalist who shed +his blood on the field of battle or on the scaffold for hereditary +monarchy was simply that he was not a traitor. After all the severe +discipline which the deposed King had undergone, he was still as much +bent on plundering and abasing the Church of England as on the day when +he told the kneeling fellows of Magdalene to get out of his sight, or +on the day when he sent the Bishops to the Tower. He was in the habit +of declaring that he would rather die without seeing England again than +stoop to capitulate with those whom he ought to command. [427] In the +Declaration of April 1692 the whole man appears without disguise, full +of his own imaginary rights, unable to understand how any body but +himself can have any rights, dull, obstinate and cruel. Another paper +which he drew up about the same time shows, if possible, still more +clearly, how little he had profited by a sharp experience. In that paper +he set forth the plan according to which he intended to govern when he +should be restored. He laid it down as a rule that one Commissioner of +the Treasury, one of the two Secretaries of State, the Secretary at War, +the majority of the Great Officers of the Household, the majority of +the Lords of the Bedchamber, the majority of the officers of the army, +should always be Roman Catholics. [428] + +It was to no purpose that the most eminent Compounders sent from +London letter after letter filled with judicious counsel and earnest +supplication. It was to no purpose that they demonstrated in the +plainest manner the impossibility of establishing Popish ascendancy in +a country where at least forty-nine fiftieths of the population and much +more than forty-nine fiftieths of the wealth and the intelligence were +Protestant. It was to no purpose that they informed their master that +the Declaration of April 1692 had been read with exultation by his +enemies and with deep affliction by his friends, that it had been +printed and circulated by the usurpers, that it had done more than all +the libels of the Whigs to inflame the nation against him, and that it +had furnished those naval officers who had promised him support with a +plausible pretext for breaking faith with him, and for destroying the +fleet which was to have convoyed him back to his kingdom. He continued +to be deaf to the remonstrances of his best friends in England +till those remonstrances began to be echoed at Versailles. All the +information which Lewis and his ministers were able to obtain touching +the state of our island satisfied them that James would never be +restored unless he could bring himself to make large concessions to his +subjects. It was therefore intimated to him, kindly and courteously, +but seriously, that he would do well to change his counsels and his +counsellors. France could not continue the war for the purpose of +forcing a Sovereign on an unwilling nation. She was crushed by public +burdens. Her trade and industry languished. Her harvest and her vintage +had failed. The peasantry were starving. The faint murmurs of the +provincial Estates began to be heard. There was a limit to the amount +of the sacrifices which the most absolute prince could demand from those +whom he ruled. However desirous the Most Christian King might be to +uphold the cause of hereditary monarchy and of pure religion all +over the world, his first duty was to his own kingdom; and, unless a +counterrevolution speedily took place in England, his duty to his own +kingdom might impose on him the painful necessity of treating with the +Prince of Orange. It would therefore be wise in James to do without +delay whatever he could honourably and conscientiously do to win back +the hearts of his people. + +Thus pressed, James unwillingly yielded. He consented to give a share +in the management of his affairs to one of the most distinguished of the +Compounders, Charles Earl of Middleton. + +Middleton's family and his peerage were Scotch. But he was closely +connected with some of the noblest houses of England; he had resided +long in England; he had been appointed by Charles the Second one of the +English Secretaries of State, and had been entrusted by James with the +lead of the English House of Commons. His abilities and acquirements +were considerable; his temper was easy and generous; his manners were +popular; and his conduct had generally been consistent and honourable. +He had, when Popery was in the ascendant, resolutely refused to purchase +the royal favour by apostasy. Roman Catholic ecclesiastics had been sent +to convert him; and the town had been much amused by the dexterity with +which the layman baffled the divines. A priest undertook to demonstrate +the doctrine of transubstantiation, and made the approaches in the usual +form. "Your Lordship believes in the Trinity." "Who told you so?" said +Middleton. "Not believe in the Trinity!" cried the priest in amazement. +"Nay," said Middleton; "prove your religion to be true if you can; but +do not catechize me about mine." As it was plain that the Secretary +was not a disputant whom it was easy to take at an advantage, the +controversy ended almost as soon as it began. [429] When fortune +changed, Middleton adhered to the cause of hereditary monarchy with a +stedfastness which was the more respectable because he would have had no +difficulty in making his peace with the new government. His sentiments +were so well known that, when the kingdom was agitated by apprehensions +of an invasion and an insurrection, he was arrested and sent to the +Tower; but no evidence on which he could be convicted of treason was +discovered; and, when the dangerous crisis was past, he was set at +liberty. It should seem indeed that, during the three years which +followed the Revolution, he was by no means an active plotter. He saw +that a Restoration could be effected only with the general assent of the +nation, and that the nation would never assent to a Restoration without +securities against Popery and arbitrary power. He therefore conceived +that, while his banished master obstinately refused to give such +securities, it would be worse than idle to conspire against the existing +government. + +Such was the man whom James, in consequence of strong representations +from Versailles, now invited to join him in France. The great body +of Compounders learned with delight that they were at length to be +represented in the Council at Saint Germains by one of their favourite +leaders. Some noblemen and gentlemen, who, though they had not approved +of the deposition of James, had been so much disgusted by his perverse +and absurd conduct that they had long avoided all connection with him, +now began to hope that he had seen his error. They had refused to +have any thing to do with Melfort; but they communicated freely with +Middleton. The new minister conferred also with the four traitors whose +infamy has been made preeminently conspicuous by their station, their +abilities, and their great public services; with Godolphin, the great +object of whose life was to be in favour with both the rival Kings at +once, and to keep, through all revolutions and counterrevolutions, his +head, his estate and a place at the Board of Treasury; with Shrewsbury, +who, having once in a fatal moment entangled himself in criminal and +dishonourable engagements, had not had the resolution to break through +them; with Marlborough, who continued to profess the deepest repentance +for the past and the best intentions for the future; and with Russell, +who declared that he was still what he had been before the day of La +Hogue, and renewed his promise to do what Monk had done, on condition +that a general pardon should be granted to all political offenders, +and that the royal power should be placed under strong constitutional +restraints. + +Before Middleton left England he had collected the sense of all the +leading Compounders. They were of opinion that there was one expedient +which would reconcile contending factions at home, and lead to the +speedy pacification of Europe. This expedient was that James should +resign the Crown in favour of the Prince of Wales, and that the Prince +of Wales should be bred a Protestant. If, as was but too probable, His +Majesty should refuse to listen to this suggestion, he must at least +consent to put forth a Declaration which might do away the unfavourable +impression made by his Declaration of the preceding spring. A paper such +as it was thought expedient that he should publish was carefully drawn +up, and, after much discussion, approved. + +Early in the year 1693, Middleton, having been put in full possession of +the views of the principal English Jacobites, stole across the Channel, +and made his appearance at the Court of James. There was at that Court +no want of slanderers and sneerers whose malignity was only the more +dangerous because it wore a meek and sanctimonious air. Middleton found, +on his arrival, that numerous lies, fabricated by the priests who feared +and hated him, were already in circulation. Some Noncompounders too +had written from London that he was at heart a Presbyterian and a +republican. He was however very graciously received, and was appointed +Secretary of State conjointly with Melfort. [430] + +It very soon appeared that James was fully resolved never to resign the +Crown, or to suffer the Prince of Wales to be bred a heretic; and it +long seemed doubtful whether any arguments or entreaties would induce +him to sign the Declaration which his friends in England had prepared. +It was indeed a document very different from any that had yet appeared +under his Great Seal. He was made to promise that he would grant a free +pardon to all his subjects who should not oppose him after he should +land in the island; that, as soon as he was restored, he would call +a Parliament; that he would confirm all such laws, passed during the +usurpation, as the Houses should tender to him for confirmation; that +he would waive his right to the chimney money; that he would protect and +defend the Established Church in the enjoyment of all her possessions +and privileges; that he would not again violate the Test Act; that he +would leave it to the legislature to define the extent of his dispensing +power; and that he would maintain the Act of Settlement in Ireland. + +He struggled long and hard. He pleaded his conscience. Could a son of +the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church bind himself to protect and +defend heresy, and to enforce a law which excluded true believers from +office? Some of the ecclesiastics who swarmed in his household told +him that he could not without sin give any such pledge as his undutiful +subjects demanded. On this point the opinion of Middleton, who was a +Protestant, could be of no weight. But Middleton found an ally in +one whom he regarded as a rival and an enemy. Melfort, scared by the +universal hatred of which he knew himself to be the object, and afraid +that he should be held accountable, both in England and in France, for +his master's wrongheadedness, submitted the case to several eminent +Doctors of the Sorbonne. These learned casuists pronounced the +Declaration unobjectionable in a religious point of view. The great +Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, who was regarded by the Gallican Church as a +father scarcely inferior in authority to Cyprian or Augustin, showed, +by powerful arguments, both theological and political, that the scruple +which tormented James was precisely of that sort against which a +much wiser King had given a caution in the words, "Be not righteous +overmuch." [431] The authority of the French divines was supported by +the authority of the French government. The language held at Versailles +was so strong that James began to be alarmed. What if Lewis should take +serious offence, should think his hospitality ungratefully requited, +should conclude a peace with the usurpers, and should request his +unfortunate guests to seek another asylum? It was necessary to submit. +On the seventeenth of April 1693 the Declaration was signed and sealed. +The concluding sentence was a prayer. "We come to vindicate our own +right and to establish the liberties of our people; and may God give +us success in the prosecution of the one as we sincerely intend the +confirmation of the other!" [432] The prayer was heard. The success of +James was strictly proportioned to his sincerity. What his sincerity +was we know on the best evidence. Scarcely had he called on heaven to +witness the truth of his professions, when he directed Melfort to send a +copy of the Declaration to Rome with such explanations as might satisfy +the Pope. Melfort's letter ends thus: "After all, the object of this +Declaration is only to get us back to England. We shall fight the battle +of the Catholics with much greater advantage at Whitehall than at Saint +Germains." [433] + +Meanwhile the document from which so much was expected had been +despatched to London. There it was printed at a secret press in the +house of a Quaker; for there was among the Quakers a party, small +in number, but zealous and active, which had imbibed the politics of +William Penn. [434] To circulate such a work was a service of some +danger; but agents were found. Several persons were taken up while +distributing copies in the streets of the city. A hundred packets were +stopped in one day at the Post Office on their way to the fleet. But, +after a short time, the government wisely gave up the endeavour to +suppress what could not be suppressed, and published the Declaration at +full length, accompanied by a severe commentary. [435] + +The commentary, however, was hardly needed. The Declaration altogether +failed to produce the effect which Middleton had anticipated. The truth +is that his advice had not been asked till it mattered not what advice +he gave. If James had put forth such a manifesto in January 1689, the +throne would probably not have been declared vacant. If he had put forth +such a manifesto when he was on the coast of Normandy at the head of an +army, he would have conciliated a large part of the nation, and he might +possibly have been joined by a large part of the fleet. But both in 1689 +and in 1692 he had held the language of an implacable tyrant; and it +was now too late to affect tenderness of heart and reverence for the +constitution of the realm. The contrast between the new Declaration and +the preceding Declaration excited, not without reason, general suspicion +and contempt. What confidence could be placed in the word of a Prince +so unstable, of a Prince who veered from extreme to extreme? In 1692 +nothing would satisfy him but the heads and quarters of hundreds of poor +ploughmen and boatmen who had, several years before, taken some rustic +liberties with him at which his grandfather Henry the Fourth would have +had a hearty laugh. In 1693 the foulest and most ungrateful treasons +were to be covered with oblivion. Caermarthen expressed the general +sentiment. "I do not," he said, "understand all this. Last April I was +to be hanged. This April I am to have a free pardon. I cannot imagine +what I have done during the past year to deserve such goodness." +The general opinion was that a snare was hidden under this unwonted +clemency, this unwonted respect for law. The Declaration, it was said, +was excellent; and so was the Coronation oath. Every body knew how King +James had observed his Coronation oath; and every body might guess how +he would observe his Declaration. While grave men reasoned thus, +the Whig jesters were not sparing of their pasquinades. Some of the +Noncompounders, meantime, uttered indignant murmurs. The King was in bad +hands, in the hands of men who hated monarchy. His mercy was cruelty of +the worst sort. The general pardon which he had granted to his enemies +was in truth a general proscription of his friends. Hitherto the judges +appointed by the usurper had been under a restraint, imperfect indeed, +yet not absolutely nugatory. They had known that a day of reckoning +might come, and had therefore in general dealt tenderly with the +persecuted adherents of the rightful King. That restraint His Majesty +had now taken away. He had told Holt and Treby that, till he should land +in England, they might hang royalists without the smallest fear of being +called to account. [436] + +But by no class of people was the Declaration read with so much disgust +and indignation as by the native aristocracy of Ireland. This then was +the reward of their loyalty. This was the faith of kings. When England +had cast James out, when Scotland had rejected him, the Irish had still +been true to him; and he had, in return, solemnly given his sanction to +a law which restored to them an immense domain of which they had been +despoiled. Nothing that had happened since that time had diminished +their claim to his favour. They had defended his cause to the last; they +had fought for him long after he had deserted them; many of them, when +unable to contend longer against superior force, had followed him into +banishment; and now it appeared that he was desirous to make peace with +his deadliest enemies at the expense of his most faithful friends. There +was much discontent in the Irish regiments which were dispersed through +the Netherlands and along the frontiers of Germany and Italy. Even the +Whigs allowed that, for once, the O's and Macs were in the right, and +asked triumphantly whether a prince who had broken his word to his +devoted servants could be expected to keep it to his foes? [437] + +While the Declaration was the subject of general conversation in +England, military operations recommenced on the Continent. The +preparations of France had been such as amazed even those who estimated +most highly her resources and the abilities of her rulers. Both her +agriculture and her commerce were suffering. The vineyards of Burgundy, +the interminable cornfields of the Beauce, had failed to yield their +increase; the looms of Lyons were silent; and the merchant ships were +rotting in the harbour of Marseilles. Yet the monarchy presented to its +numerous enemies a front more haughty and more menacing than ever. Lewis +had determined not to make any advance towards a reconciliation with the +new government of England till the whole strength of his realm had been +put forth in one more effort. A mighty effort in truth it was, but too +exhausting to be repeated. He made an immense display of force at once +on the Pyrenees and on the Alps, on the Rhine and on the Meuse, in the +Atlantic and in the Mediterranean. That nothing might be wanting which +could excite the martial ardour of a nation eminently highspirited, he +instituted, a few days before he left his palace for the camp, a new +military order of knighthood, and placed it under the protection of his +own sainted ancestor and patron. The new cross of Saint Lewis shone on +the breasts of the gentlemen who had been conspicuous in the trenches +before Mons and Namur, and on the fields of Fleurus and Steinkirk; and +the sight raised a generous emulation among those who had still to win +an honourable fame in arms. [438] + +In the week in which this celebrated order began to exist Middleton +visited Versailles. A letter in which he gave his friends in England +an account of his visit has come down to us. [439] He was presented to +Lewis, was most kindly received, and was overpowered by gratitude and +admiration. Of all the wonders of the Court,--so Middleton wrote,--its +master was the greatest. The splendour of the great King's personal +merit threw even the splendour of his fortunes into the shade. The +language which His Most Christian Majesty held about English politics +was, on the whole, highly satisfactory. Yet in one thing this +accomplished prince and his able and experienced ministers were +strangely mistaken. They were all possessed with the absurd notion +that the Prince of Orange was a great man. No pains had been spared +to undeceive them; but they were under an incurable delusion. They saw +through a magnifying glass of such power that the leech appeared to them +a leviathan. It ought to have occurred to Middleton that possibly the +delusion might be in his own vision and not in theirs. Lewis and the +counsellors who surrounded him were far indeed from loving William. But +they did not hate him with that mad hatred which raged in the breasts of +his English enemies. Middleton was one of the wisest and most moderate +of the Jacobites. Yet even Middleton's judgment was so much darkened +by malice that, on this subject, he talked nonsense unworthy of his +capacity. He, like the rest of his party, could see in the usurper +nothing but what was odious and contemptible, the heart of a fiend, the +understanding and manners of a stupid, brutal, Dutch boor, who generally +observed a sulky silence, and, when forced to speak, gave short testy +answers in bad English. The French statesmen, on the other hand, judged +of William's faculties from an intimate knowledge of the way in which he +had, during twenty years, conducted affairs of the greatest moment +and of the greatest difficulty. He had, ever since 1673, been playing +against themselves a most complicated game of mixed chance and skill +for an immense stake; they were proud, and with reason, of their own +dexterity at that game; yet they were conscious that in him they had +found more than their match. At the commencement of the long contest +every advantage had been on their side. They had at their absolute +command all the resources of the greatest kingdom in Europe; and he was +merely the servant of a commonwealth, of which the whole territory was +inferior in extent to Normandy or Guienne. A succession of generals +and diplomatists of eminent ability had been opposed to him. A powerful +faction in his native country had pertinaciously crossed his designs. +He had undergone defeats in the field and defeats in the senate; but his +wisdom and firmness had turned defeats into victories. Notwithstanding +all that could be done to keep him down, his influence and fame had been +almost constantly rising and spreading. The most important and arduous +enterprise in the history of modern Europe had been planned and +conducted to a prosperous termination by him alone. The most extensive +coalition that the world had seen for ages had been formed by him, and +would be instantly dissolved if his superintending care were withdrawn. +He had gained two kingdoms by statecraft, and a third by conquest; and +he was still maintaining himself in the possession of all three in spite +of both foreign and domestic foes. That these things had been effected +by a poor creature, a man of the most ordinary capacity, was an +assertion which might easily find credence among the nonjuring parsons +who congregated at Sam's Coffee-house, but which moved the laughter of +the veteran politicians of Versailles. + +While Middleton was in vain trying to convince the French that +William was a greatly overrated man, William, who did full justice to +Middleton's merit, felt much uneasiness at learning that the Court of +Saint Germains had called in the help of so able a counsellor. [440] +But this was only one of a thousand causes of anxiety which during that +spring pressed on the King's mind. He was preparing for the opening of +the campaign, imploring his allies to be early in the field, rousing the +sluggish, haggling with the greedy, making up quarrels, adjusting points +of precedence. He had to prevail on the Cabinet of Vienna to send timely +succours into Piedmont. He had to keep a vigilant eye on those Northern +potentates who were trying to form a third party in Europe. He had to +act as tutor to the Elector of Bavaria in the Netherlands. He had to +provide for the defence of Liege, a matter which the authorities of +Liege coolly declared to be not at all their business, but the business +of England and Holland. He had to prevent the House of Brunswick +Wolfenbuttel from going to blows with the House of Brunswick Lunenburg; +he had to accommodate a dispute between the Prince of Baden and the +Elector of Saxony, each of whom wished to be at the head of an army on +the Rhine; and he had to manage the Landgrave of Hesse, who omitted to +furnish his own contingent, and yet wanted to command the contingents +furnished by other princes. [441] + +And now the time for action had arrived. On the eighteenth of May Lewis +left Versailles; early in June he was under the walls of Namur. The +Princesses, who had accompanied him, held their court within the +fortress. He took under his immediate command the army of Boufflers, +which was encamped at Gembloux. Little more than a mile off lay the army +of Luxemburg. The force collected in that neighbourhood under the French +lilies did not amount to less than a hundred and twenty thousand men. +Lewis had flattered himself that he should be able to repeat in 1693 the +stratagem by which Mons had been taken in 1691 and Namur in 1692; and +he had determined that either Liege or Brussels should be his prey. +But William had this year been able to assemble in good time a force, +inferior indeed to that which was opposed to him, but still formidable. +With this force he took his post near Louvain, on the road between the +two threatened cities, and watched every movement of the enemy. + +Lewis was disappointed. He found that it would not be possible for him +to gratify his vanity so safely and so easily as in the two preceding +years, to sit down before a great town, to enter the gates in triumph, +and to receive the keys, without exposing himself to any risk greater +than that of a staghunt at Fontainebleau. Before he could lay siege +either to Liege or to Brussels he must fight and win a battle. The +chances were indeed greatly in his favour; for his army was more +numerous, better officered and better disciplined than that of the +allies. Luxemburg strongly advised him to march against William. The +aristocracy of France anticipated with intrepid gaiety a bloody but a +glorious day, followed by a large distribution of the crosses of the new +order. William himself was perfectly aware of his danger, and prepared +to meet it with calm but mournful fortitude. [442] Just at this +conjuncture Lewis announced his intention to return instantly to +Versailles, and to send the Dauphin and Boufflers, with part of the army +which was assembled near Namur, to join Marshal Lorges who commanded in +the Palatinate. Luxemburg was thunderstruck. He expostulated boldly and +earnestly. Never, he said, was such an opportunity thrown away. If His +Majesty would march against the Prince of Orange, victory was almost +certain. Could any advantage which it was possible to obtain on the +Rhine be set against the advantage of a victory gained in the heart +of Brabant over the principal army and the principal captain of the +coalition? The Marshal reasoned; he implored; he went on his knees; but +in vain; and he quitted the royal presence in the deepest dejection. +Lewis left the camp a week after he had joined it, and never afterwards +made war in person. + +The astonishment was great throughout his army. All the awe which he +inspired could not prevent his old generals from grumbling and looking +sullen, his young nobles from venting their spleen, sometimes in curses +and sometimes in sarcasms, and even his common soldiers from holding +irreverent language round their watchfires. His enemies rejoiced with +vindictive and insulting joy. Was it not strange, they asked, that this +great prince should have gone in state to the theatre of war, and then +in a week have gone in the same state back again? Was it necessary +that all that vast retinue, princesses, dames of honour and tirewomen, +equerries and gentlemen of the bedchamber, cooks, confectioners and +musicians, long trains of waggons, droves of led horses and sumpter +mules, piles of plate, bales of tapestry, should travel four hundred +miles merely in order that the Most Christian King might look at his +soldiers and then return? The ignominious truth was too evident to be +concealed. He had gone to the Netherlands in the hope that he might +again be able to snatch some military glory without any hazard to his +person, and had hastened back rather than expose himself to the chances +of a pitched field. [443] This was not the first time that His Most +Christian Majesty had shown the same kind of prudence. Seventeen years +before he had been opposed under the wails of Bouchain to the same +antagonist. William, with the ardour of a very young commander, had most +imprudently offered battle. The opinion of the ablest generals was that, +if Lewis had seized the opportunity, the war might have been ended in a +day. The French army had eagerly asked to be led to the onset. The King +had called his lieutenants round him and had collected their opinions. +Some courtly officers to whom a hint of his wishes had been dexterously +conveyed had, blushing and stammering with shame, voted against +fighting. It was to no purpose that bold and honest men, who prized his +honour more than his life, had proved to him that, on all principles of +the military art, he ought to accept the challenge rashly given by the +enemy. His Majesty had gravely expressed his sorrow that he could not, +consistently with his public duty, obey the impetuous movement of his +blood, had turned his rein, and had galloped back to his quarters. [444] +Was it not frightful to think what rivers of the best blood of France, +of Spain, of Germany and of England, had flowed, and were destined still +to flow, for the gratification of a man who wanted the vulgar courage +which was found in the meanest of the hundreds of thousands whom he had +sacrificed to his vainglorious ambition? + +Though the French army in the Netherlands had been weakened by the +departure of the forces commanded by the Dauphin and Boufflers, and +though the allied army was daily strengthened by the arrival of fresh +troops, Luxemburg still had a superiority of force; and that superiority +he increased by an adroit stratagem. He marched towards Liege, and made +as if he were about to form the siege of that city. William was uneasy, +and the more uneasy because he knew that there was a French party among +the inhabitants. He quitted his position near Louvain, advanced to +Nether Hespen, and encamped there with the river Gette in his rear. On +his march he learned that Huy had opened its gates to the French. The +news increased his anxiety about Liege, and determined him to send +thither a force sufficient to overawe malecontents within the city, and +to repel any attack from without. [445] This was exactly what Luxemburg +had expected and desired. His feint had served its purpose. He turned +his back on the fortress which had hitherto seemed to be his object, and +hastened towards the Gette. William, who had detached more than twenty +thousand men, and who had but fifty thousand left in his camp, was +alarmed by learning from his scouts, on the eighteenth of July, that the +French General, with near eighty thousand, was close at hand. + +It was still in the King's power, by a hasty retreat, to put the narrow, +but deep, waters of the Gette, which had lately been swollen by rains, +between his army and the enemy. But the site which he occupied was +strong; and it could easily be made still stronger. He set all his +troops to work. Ditches were dug, mounds thrown up, palisades fixed in +the earth. In a few hours the ground wore a new aspect; and the King +trusted that he should be able to repel the attack even of a force +greatly outnumbering his own. Nor was it without much appearance of +reason that he felt this confidence. When the morning of the nineteenth +of July broke, the bravest men of Lewis's army looked gravely and +anxiously on the fortress which had suddenly sprung up to arrest their +progress. The allies were protected by a breastwork. Here and there +along the entrenchments were formed little redoubts and half moons. A +hundred pieces of cannon were disposed along the ramparts. On the left +flank, the village of Romsdorff rose close to the little stream of +Landen, from which the English have named the disastrous day. On the +right was the village of Neerwinden. Both villages were, after the +fashion of the Low Countries, surrounded by moats and fences; and, +within these enclosures, the little plots of ground occupied by +different families were separated by mud walls five feet in height and +a foot in thickness. All these barricades William had repaired and +strengthened. Saint Simon, who, after the battle, surveyed the ground, +could hardly, he tells us, believe that defences so extensive and so +formidable could have been created with such rapidity. + +Luxemburg, however, was determined to try whether even this position +could be maintained against the superior numbers and the impetuous +valour of his soldiers. Soon after sunrise the roar of cannon began +to be heard. William's batteries did much execution before the French +artillery could be so placed as to return the fire. It was eight o'clock +before the close fighting began. The village of Neerwinden was regarded +by both commanders as the point on which every thing depended. There an +attack was made by the French left wing commanded by Montchevreuil, a +veteran officer of high reputation, and by Berwick, who, though young, +was fast rising to a high place among the captains of his time. Berwick +led the onset, and forced his way into the village, but was soon driven +out again with a terrible carnage. His followers fled or perished; he, +while trying to rally them, and cursing them for not doing their duty +better, was surrounded by foes. He concealed his white cockade, and +hoped to be able, by the help of his native tongue, to pass himself off +as an officer of the English army. But his face was recognised by one +of his mother's brothers, George Churchill, who held on that day the +command of a brigade. A hurried embrace was exchanged between the +kinsmen; and the uncle conducted the nephew to William, who, as long as +every thing seemed to be going well, remained in the rear. The meeting +of the King and the captive, united by such close domestic ties, and +divided by such inexpiable injuries, was a strange sight. Both behaved +as became them. William uncovered, and addressed to his prisoner a few +words of courteous greeting. Berwick's only reply was a solemn bow. The +King put on his hat; the Duke put on his hat; and the cousins parted for +ever. + +By this time the French, who had been driven in confusion out of +Neerwinden, had been reinforced by a division under the command of the +Duke of Bourbon, and came gallantly back to the attack. William, well +aware of the importance of this post, gave orders that troops should +move thither from other parts of his line. This second conflict was long +and bloody. The assailants again forced an entrance into the village. +They were again driven out with immense slaughter, and showed little +inclination to return to the charge. + +Meanwhile the battle had been raging all along the entrenchments of +the allied army. Again and again Luxemburg brought up his troops within +pistolshot of the breastwork; but he could bring them no nearer. Again +and again they recoiled from the heavy fire which was poured on their +front and on their flanks. It seemed that all was over. Luxemburg +retired to a spot which was out of gunshot, and summoned a few of his +chief officers to a consultation. They talked together during some time; +and their animated gestures were observed with deep interest by all who +were within sight. + +At length Luxemburg formed his decision. A last attempt must be made to +carry Neerwinden; and the invincible household troops, the conquerors of +Steinkirk, must lead the way. + +The household troops came on in a manner worthy of their long and +terrible renown. A third time Neerwinden was taken. A third time William +tried to retake it. At the head of some English regiments he charged the +guards of Lewis with such fury that, for the first time in the memory of +the oldest warrior, that far famed band gave way. [446] It was only by +the strenuous exertions of Luxemburg, of the Duke of Chartres, and of +the Duke of Bourbon, that the broken ranks were rallied. But by this +time the centre and left of the allied army had been so much thinned +for the purpose of supporting the conflict at Neerwinden that the +entrenchments could no longer be defended on other points. A little +after four in the afternoon the whole line gave way. All was havoc and +confusion. Solmes had received a mortal wound, and fell, still alive, +into the hands of the enemy. The English soldiers, to whom his name was +hateful, accused him of having in his sufferings shown pusillanimity +unworthy of a soldier. The Duke of Ormond was struck down in the press; +and in another moment he would have been a corpse, had not a rich +diamond on his finger caught the eye of one of the French guards, +who justly thought that the owner of such a jewel would be a valuable +prisoner. The Duke's life was saved; and he was speedily exchanged for +Berwick. Ruvigny, animated by the true refugee hatred of the country +which had cast him out, was taken fighting in the thickest of the +battle. Those into whose hands he had fallen knew him well, and knew +that, if they carried him to their camp, his head would pay for that +treason to which persecution had driven him. With admirable generosity +they pretended not to recognise him, and suffered him to make his escape +in the tumult. + +It was only on such occasions as this that the whole greatness of +William's character appeared. Amidst the rout and uproar, while arms and +standards were flung away, while multitudes of fugitives were choking up +the bridges and fords of the Gette or perishing in its waters, the King, +having directed Talmash to superintend the retreat, put himself at the +head of a few brave regiments, and by desperate efforts arrested the +progress of the enemy. His risk was greater than that which others ran. +For he could not be persuaded either to encumber his feeble frame with +a cuirass, or to hide the ensigns of the garter. He thought his star a +good rallying point for his own troops, and only smiled when he was told +that it was a good mark for the enemy. Many fell on his right hand and +on his left. Two led horses, which in the field always closely followed +his person, were struck dead by cannon shots. One musket ball passed +through the curls of his wig, another through his coat; a third +bruised his side and tore his blue riband to tatters. Many years later +greyhaired old pensioners who crept about the arcades and alleys of +Chelsea Hospital used to relate how he charged at the head of Galway's +horse, how he dismounted four times to put heart into the infantry, how +he rallied one corps which seemed to be shrinking; "That is not the way +to fight, gentlemen. You must stand close up to them. Thus, gentlemen, +thus." "You might have seen him," an eyewitness wrote, only four days +after the battle, "with his sword in his hand, throwing himself upon the +enemy. It is certain that one time, among the rest, he was seen at the +head of two English regiments, and that he fought seven with these two +in sight of the whole army, driving them before him above a quarter of +an hour. Thanks be to God that preserved him." The enemy pressed on him +so close that it was with difficulty that he at length made his way over +the Gette. A small body of brave men, who shared his peril to the last, +could hardly keep off the pursuers as he crossed the bridge. [447] + +Never, perhaps, was the change which the progress of civilisation has +produced in the art of war more strikingly illustrated than on that day. +Ajax beating down the Trojan leader with a rock which two ordinary men +could scarcely lift, Horatius defending the bridge against an army, +Richard the Lionhearted spurring along the whole Saracen line without +finding an enemy to stand his assault, Robert Bruce crushing with one +blow the helmet and head of Sir Henry Bohun in sight of the whole array +of England and Scotland, such are the heroes of a dark age. In such an +age bodily vigour is the most indispensable qualification of a warrior. +At Landen two poor sickly beings, who, in a rude state of society, would +have been regarded as too puny to bear any part in combats, were the +souls of two great armies. In some heathen countries they would have +been exposed while infants. In Christendom they would, six hundred years +earlier, have been sent to some quiet cloister. But their lot had fallen +on a time when men had discovered that the strength of the muscles is +far inferior in value to the strength of the mind. It is probable that, +among the hundred and twenty thousand soldiers who were marshalled round +Neerwinden under all the standards of Western Europe, the two feeblest +in body were the hunchbacked dwarf who urged forward the fiery onset +of France, and the asthmatic skeleton who covered the slow retreat of +England. + +The French were victorious; but they had bought their victory dear. More +than ten thousand of the best troops of Lewis had fallen. Neerwinden was +a spectacle at which the oldest soldiers stood aghast. The streets were +piled breast high with corpses. Among the slain were some great lords +and some renowned warriors. Montchevreuil was there, and the mutilated +trunk of the Duke of Uzes, first in order of precedence among the +whole aristocracy of France. Thence too Sarsfield was borne desperately +wounded to a pallet from which he never rose again. The Court of Saint +Germains had conferred on him the empty title of Earl of Lucan; +but history knows him by the name which is still dear to the most +unfortunate of nations. The region, renowned in history as the battle +field, during many ages, of the most warlike nations of Europe, has +seen only two more terrible days, the day of Malplaquet and the day of +Waterloo. During many months the ground was strewn with skulls and bones +of men and horses, and with fragments of hats and shoes, saddles and +holsters. The next summer the soil, fertilised by twenty thousand +corpses, broke forth into millions of poppies. The traveller who, on the +road from Saint Tron to Tirlemont, saw that vast sheet of rich scarlet +spreading from Landen to Neerwinden, could hardly help fancying that the +figurative prediction of the Hebrew prophet was literally accomplished, +that the earth was disclosing her blood, and refusing to cover the +slain. [448] + +There was no pursuit, though the sun was still high in the heaven when +William crossed the Gette. The conquerors were so much exhausted by +marching and fighting that they could scarcely move; and the horses were +in even worse condition than the men. Their general thought it necessary +to allow some time for rest and refreshment. The French nobles unloaded +their sumpter horses, supped gaily, and pledged one another in champagne +amidst the heaps of dead; and, when night fell, whole brigades gladly +lay down to sleep in their ranks on the field of battle. The inactivity +of Luxemburg did not escape censure. None could deny that he had in the +action shown great skill and energy. But some complained that he wanted +patience and perseverance. Others whispered that he had no wish to bring +to an end a war which made him necessary to a Court where he had never, +in time of peace, found favour or even justice. [449] Lewis, who on this +occasion was perhaps not altogether free from some emotions of jealousy, +contrived, it was reported, to mingle with the praise which he bestowed +on his lieutenant blame which, though delicately expressed, was +perfectly intelligible. "In the battle," he said, "the Duke of Luxemburg +behaved like Conde; and since the battle the Prince of Orange has +behaved like Turenne." + +In truth the ability and vigour with which William repaired his terrible +defeat might well excite admiration. "In one respect," said the Admiral +Coligni, "I may claim superiority over Alexander, over Scipio, over +Caesar. They won great battles, it is true. I have lost four great +battles; and yet I show to the enemy a more formidable front than ever." +The blood of Coligni ran in the veins of William; and with the blood had +descended the unconquerable spirit which could derive from failure as +much glory as happier commanders owed to success. The defeat of Landen +was indeed a heavy blow. The King had a few days of cruel anxiety. +If Luxemburg pushed on, all was lost. Louvain must fall, and Mechlin, +Nieuport, and Ostend. The Batavian frontier would be in danger. The cry +for peace throughout Holland might be such as neither States General nor +Stadtholder would be able to resist. [450] But there was delay; and a +very short delay was enough for William. From the field of battle he +made his way through the multitude of fugitives to the neighbourhood of +Louvain, and there began to collect his scattered forces. His character +is not lowered by the anxiety which, at that moment, the most disastrous +of his life, he felt for the two persons who were dearest to him. As +soon as he was safe, he wrote to assure his wife of his safety. [451] In +the confusion of the flight he had lost sight of Portland, who was then +in very feeble health, and had therefore run more than the ordinary +risks of war. A short note which the King sent to his friend a few hours +later is still extant. [452] "Though I hope to see you this evening, I +cannot help writing to tell you how rejoiced I am that you got off so +well. God grant that your health may soon be quite restored. These are +great trials, which he has been pleased to send me in quick succession. +I must try to submit to his pleasure without murmuring, and to deserve +his anger less." + +His forces rallied fast. Large bodies of troops which he had, perhaps +imprudently, detached from his army while he supposed that Liege was the +object of the enemy, rejoined him by forced marches. Three weeks after +his defeat he held a review a few miles from Brussels. The number of men +under arms was greater than on the morning of the bloody day of Landen; +their appearance was soldierlike; and their spirit seemed unbroken. +William now wrote to Heinsius that the worst was over. "The crisis," he +said, "has been a terrible one. Thank God that it has ended thus." He +did not, however, think it prudent to try at that time the event of +another pitched field. He therefore suffered the French to besiege and +take Charleroy; and this was the only advantage which they derived +from the most sanguinary battle fought in Europe during the seventeenth +century. + +The melancholy tidings of the defeat of Landen found England agitated by +tidings not less melancholy from a different quarter. During many +months the trade with the Mediterranean Sea had been almost entirely +interrupted by the war. There was no chance that a merchantman from +London or from Amsterdam would, if unprotected, reach the Pillars of +Hercules without being boarded by a French privateer; and the protection +of armed vessels was not easily to be obtained. During the year 1691, +great fleets, richly laden for Spanish, Italian and Turkish markets, had +been gathering in the Thames and the Texel. In February 1693, near +four hundred ships were ready to start. The value of the cargoes was +estimated at several millions sterling. Those galleons which had long +been the wonder and envy of the world had never conveyed so precious +a freight from the West Indies to Seville. The English government +undertook, in concert with the Dutch government, to escort the vessels +which were laden with this great mass of wealth. The French government +was bent on intercepting them. + +The plan of the allies was that seventy ships of the line and about +thirty frigates and brigantines should assemble in the Channel under +the command of Killegrew and Delaval, the two new Lords of the English +Admiralty, and should convoy the Smyrna fleet, as it was popularly +called, beyond the limits within which any danger could be apprehended +from the Brest squadron. The greater part of the armament might then +return to guard the Channel, while Rooke, with twenty sail, might +accompany the trading vessels and might protect them against the +squadron which lay at Toulon. The plan of the French government was that +the Brest squadron under Tourville and the Toulon squadron under Estrees +should meet in the neighbourhood of the Straits of Gibraltar, and should +there lie in wait for the booty. + +Which plan was the better conceived may be doubted. Which was the better +executed is a question which admits of no doubt. The whole French navy, +whether in the Atlantic or in the Mediterranean, was moved by one will. +The navy of England and the navy of the United Provinces were subject to +different authorities; and, both in England and in the United Provinces, +the power was divided and subdivided to such an extent that no single +person was pressed by a heavy responsibility. The spring came. The +merchants loudly complained that they had already lost more by delay +than they could hope to gain by the most successful voyage; and still +the ships of war were not half manned or half provisioned. The Amsterdam +squadron did not arrive on our coast till late in April; the Zealand +squadron not till the middle of May. [453] It was June before the +immense fleet, near five hundred sail, lost sight of the cliffs of +England. + +Tourville was already on the sea, and was steering southward. But +Killegrew and Delaval were so negligent or so unfortunate that they had +no intelligence of his movements. They at first took it for granted that +he was still lying in the port of Brest. Then they heard a rumour that +some shipping had been seen to the northward; and they supposed that +he was taking advantage of their absence to threaten the coast of +Devonshire. It never seems to have occurred to them as possible that he +might have effected a junction with the Toulon squadron, and might be +impatiently waiting for his prey in the neighbourhood of Gibraltar. They +therefore, on the sixth of June, having convoyed the Smyrna fleet about +two hundred miles beyond Ushant, announced their intention to part +company with Rooke. Rooke expostulated, but to no purpose. It was +necessary for him to submit, and to proceed with his twenty men of +war to the Mediterranean, while his superiors, with the rest of the +armament, returned to the Channel. + +It was by this time known in England that Tourville had stolen out of +Brest, and was hastening to join Estrees. The return of Killegrew +and Delaval therefore excited great alarm. A swift sailing vessel was +instantly despatched to warn Rooke of his danger; but the warning never +reached him. He ran before a fair wind to Cape Saint Vincent; and there +he learned that some French ships were lying in the neighbouring Bay of +Lagos. The first information which he received led him to believe that +they were few in number; and so dexterously did they conceal their +strength that, till they were within half an hour's sail, he had no +suspicion that he was opposed to the whole maritime strength of a great +kingdom. To contend against fourfold odds would have been madness. It +was much that he was able to save his squadron from titter destruction. +He exerted all his skill. Two or three Dutch men of war, which were in +the rear, courageously sacrificed themselves to save the fleet. With +the rest of the armament, and with about sixty merchant ships, Rooke got +safe to Madeira and thence to Cork. But more than three hundred of +the vessels which he had convoyed were scattered over the ocean. Some +escaped to Ireland; some to Corunna; some to Lisbon; some to Cadiz; some +were captured, and more destroyed. A few, which had taken shelter under +the rock of Gibraltar, and were pursued thither by the enemy, were sunk +when it was found that they could not be defended. Others perished in +the same manner under the batteries of Malaga. The gain to the French +seems not to have been great; but the loss to England and Holland was +immense. [454] + +Never within the memory of man had there been in the City a day of more +gloom and agitation than that on which the news of the encounter in the +Bay of Lagos arrived. Many merchants, an eyewitness said, went away from +the Royal Exchange, as pale as if they had received sentence of death. +A deputation from the merchants who had been sufferers by this great +disaster went up to the Queen with an address representing their +grievances. They were admitted to the Council Chamber, where she was +seated at the head of the Board. She directed Somers to reply to them +in her name; and he addressed to them a speech well calculated to soothe +their irritation. Her Majesty, he said, felt for them from her heart; +and she had already appointed a Committee of the Privy Council to +inquire into the cause of the late misfortune, and to consider of the +best means of preventing similar misfortunes in time to come. [455] This +answer gave so much satisfaction that the Lord Mayor soon came to the +palace to thank the Queen for her goodness, to assure her that, through +all vicissitudes, London would be true to her and her consort, and to +inform her that, severely as the late calamity had been felt by many +great commercial houses, the Common Council had unanimously resolved to +advance whatever might be necessary for the support of the government. +[456] + +The ill humour which the public calamities naturally produced was +inflamed by every factious artifice. Never had the Jacobite pamphleteers +been so savagely scurrilous as during this unfortunate summer. The +police was consequently more active than ever in seeking for the dens +from which so much treason proceeded. With great difficulty and after +long search the most important of all the unlicensed presses was +discovered. This press belonged to a Jacobite named William Anderton, +whose intrepidity and fanaticism marked him out as fit to be employed +on services from which prudent men and scrupulous men shrink. During two +years he had been watched by the agents of the government; but where +he exercised his craft was an impenetrable mystery. At length he was +tracked to a house near Saint James's Street, where he was known by a +feigned name, and where he passed for a working jeweller. A messenger +of the press went thither with several assistants, and found Anderton's +wife and mother posted as sentinels at the door. The women knew the +messenger, rushed on him, tore his hair, and cried out "Thieves" +and "Murder." The alarm was thus given to Anderton. He concealed the +instruments of his calling, came forth with an assured air, and bade +defiance to the messenger, the Censor, the Secretary, and Little +Hooknose himself. After a struggle he was secured. His room was +searched; and at first sight no evidence of his guilt appeared. But +behind the bed was soon found a door which opened into a dark closet. +The closet contained a press, types and heaps of newly printed papers. +One of these papers, entitled Remarks on the Present Confederacy and the +Late Revolution, is perhaps the most frantic of all the Jacobite libels. +In this tract the Prince of Orange is gravely accused of having ordered +fifty of his wounded English soldiers to be burned alive. The governing +principle of his whole conduct, it is said, is not vainglory, or +ambition, or avarice, but a deadly hatred of Englishmen and a desire +to make them miserable. The nation is vehemently adjured, on peril of +incurring the severest judgments, to rise up and free itself from this +plague, this curse, this tyrant, whose depravity makes it difficult to +believe that he can have been procreated by a human pair. Many copies +were also found of another paper, somewhat less ferocious but perhaps +more dangerous, entitled A French Conquest neither desirable nor +practicable. In this tract also the people are exhorted to rise in +insurrection. They are assured that a great part of the army is with +them. The forces of the Prince of Orange will melt away; he will be glad +to make his escape; and a charitable hope is sneeringly expressed that +it may not be necessary to do him any harm beyond sending him back to +Loo, where he may live surrounded by luxuries for which the English have +paid dear. + +The government, provoked and alarmed by the virulence of the Jacobite +pamphleteers, determined to make Anderton an example. He was indicted +for high treason, and brought to the bar of the Old Bailey. Treby, +now Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and Powell, who had honourably +distinguished himself on the day of the trial of the bishops, were on +the Bench. It is unfortunate that no detailed report of the evidence has +come down to us, and that we are forced to content ourselves with such +fragments of information as can be collected from the contradictory +narratives of writers evidently partial, intemperate and dishonest. The +indictment, however, is extant; and the overt acts which it imputes to +the prisoner undoubtedly amount to high treason. [457] To exhort the +subjects of the realm to rise up and depose the King by force, and to +add to that exhortation the expression, evidently ironical, of a hope +that it may not be necessary to inflict on him any evil worse than +banishment, is surely an offence which the least courtly lawyer will +admit to be within the scope of the statute of Edward the Third. On this +point indeed there seems to have been no dispute, either at the trial or +subsequently. + +The prisoner denied that he had printed the libels. On this point it +seems reasonable that, since the evidence has not come down to us, +we should give credit to the judges and the jury who heard what the +witnesses had to say. + +One argument with which Anderton had been furnished by his advisers, +and which, in the Jacobite pasquinades of that time, is represented as +unanswerable, was that, as the art of printing had been unknown in the +reign of Edward the Third, printing could not be an overt act of treason +under a statute of that reign. The judges treated this argument very +lightly; and they were surely justified in so treating it. For it is +an argument which would lead to the conclusion that it could not be an +overt act of treason to behead a King with a guillotine or to shoot him +with a Minie rifle. + +It was also urged in Anderton's favour,--and this was undoubtedly an +argument well entitled to consideration,--that a distinction ought to +be made between the author of a treasonable paper and the man who merely +printed it. The former could not pretend that he had not understood the +meaning of the words which he had himself selected. But to the latter +those words might convey no idea whatever. The metaphors, the allusions, +the sarcasms, might be far beyond his comprehension; and, while his +hands were busy among the types, his thoughts might be wandering to +things altogether unconnected with the manuscript which was before him. +It is undoubtedly true that it may be no crime to print what it would be +a great crime to write. But this is evidently a matter concerning +which no general rule can be laid down. Whether Anderton had, as a mere +mechanic, contributed to spread a work the tendency of which he did +not suspect, or had knowingly lent his help to raise a rebellion, was +a question for the jury; and the jury might reasonably infer from his +change of his name, from the secret manner in which he worked, from the +strict watch kept by his wife and mother, and from the fury with which, +even in the grasp of the messengers, he railed at the government, +that he was not the unconscious tool, but the intelligent and zealous +accomplice of traitors. The twelve, after passing a considerable time +in deliberation, informed the Court that one of them entertained doubts. +Those doubts were removed by the arguments of Treby and Powell; and a +verdict of Guilty was found. + +The fate of the prisoner remained during sometime in suspense. The +Ministers hoped that he might be induced to save his own neck at the +expense of the necks of the pamphleteers who had employed him. But his +natural courage was kept up by spiritual stimulants which the nonjuring +divines well understood how to administer. He suffered death with +fortitude, and continued to revile the government to the last. The +Jacobites clamoured loudly against the cruelty of the judges who had +tried him and of the Queen who had left him for execution, and, not very +consistently, represented him at once as a poor ignorant artisan who was +not aware of the nature and tendency of the act for which he suffered, +and as a martyr who had heroically laid down his life for the banished +King and the persecuted Church. [458] + +The Ministers were much mistaken if they flattered themselves that the +fate of Anderton would deter others from imitating his example. His +execution produced several pamphlets scarcely less virulent than those +for which he had suffered. Collier, in what he called Remarks on the +London Gazette, exulted with cruel joy over the carnage of Landen, and +the vast destruction of English property on the coast of Spain. [459] +Other writers did their best to raise riots among the labouring people. +For the doctrine of the Jacobites was that disorder, in whatever place +or in whatever way it might begin, was likely to end in a Restoration. +A phrase which, without a commentary, may seem to be mere nonsense, +but which was really full of meaning, was often in their mouths at +this time, and was indeed a password by which the members of the party +recognised each other: "Box it about; it will come to my father." The +hidden sense of this gibberish was, "Throw the country into confusion; +it will be necessary at last to have recourse to King James." [460] +Trade was not prosperous; and many industrious men were out of work. +Accordingly songs addressed to the distressed classes were composed by +the malecontent street poets. Numerous copies of a ballad exhorting the +weavers to rise against the government were discovered in the house of +that Quaker who had printed James's Declaration. [461] Every art was +used for the purpose of exciting discontent in a much more formidable +body of men, the sailors; and unhappily the vices of the naval +administration furnished the enemies of the State with but too good a +choice of inflammatory topics. Some seamen deserted; some mutinied; then +came executions; and then came more ballads and broadsides representing +those executions as barbarous murders. Reports that the government +had determined to defraud its defenders of their hard earned pay were +circulated with so much effect that a great crowd of women from Wapping +and Rotherhithe besieged Whitehall, clamouring for what was due to their +husbands. Mary had the good sense and good nature to order four of +those importunate petitioners to be admitted into the room where she was +holding a Council. She heard their complaints, and herself assured them +that the rumour which had alarmed them was unfounded. [462] By this +time Saint Bartholomew's day drew near; and the great annual fair, the +delight of idle apprentices and the horror of Puritanical Aldermen, +was opened in Smithfield with the usual display of dwarfs, giants, and +dancing dogs, the man that ate fire, and the elephant that loaded and +fired a musket. But of all the shows none proved so attractive as a +dramatic performance which, in conception, though doubtless not in +execution, seems to have borne much resemblance to those immortal +masterpieces of humour in which Aristophanes held up Cleon and Lamachus +to derision. Two strollers personated Killegrew and Delaval. The +Admirals were represented as flying with their whole fleet before a few +French privateers, and taking shelter under the grins of the Tower. +The office of Chorus was performed by a Jackpudding who expressed very +freely his opinion of the naval administration. Immense crowds flocked +to see this strange farce. The applauses were loud; the receipts were +great; and the mountebanks, who had at first ventured to attack only the +unlucky and unpopular Board of Admiralty, now, emboldened by impunity +and success, and probably prompted and rewarded by persons of much +higher station than their own, began to cast reflections on other +departments of the government. This attempt to revive the license of the +Attic Stage was soon brought to a close by the appearance of a strong +body of constables who carried off the actors to prison. [463] Meanwhile +the streets of London were every night strewn with seditious handbills. +At all the taverns the zealots of hereditary right were limping about +with glasses of wine and punch at their lips. This fashion had just come +in; and the uninitiated wondered much that so great a number of jolly +gentlemen should have suddenly become lame. But, those who were in the +secret knew that the word Limp was a consecrated word, that every one +of the four letters which composed it was the initial of an august name, +and that the loyal subject who limped while he drank was taking off his +bumper to Lewis, James, Mary, and the Prince. [464] + +It was not only in the capital that the Jacobites, at this time, made a +great display of their wit. They mustered strong at Bath, where the Lord +President Caermarthen was trying to recruit his feeble health. Every +evening they met, as they phrased it, to serenade the Marquess. In other +words they assembled under the sick man's window, and there sang doggrel +lampoons on him. [465] + +It is remarkable that the Lord President, at the very time at which +he was insulted as a Williamite at Bath, was considered as a stanch +Jacobite at Saint Germains. How he came to be so considered is a +most perplexing question. Some writers are of opinion that he, like +Shrewsbury, Russell, Godolphin and Marlborough, entered into engagements +with one king while eating the bread of the other. But this opinion +does not rest on sufficient proofs. About the treasons of Shrewsbury, +of Russell, of Godolphin and of Marlborough, we have a great mass of +evidence, derived from various sources, and extending over several +years. But all the information which we possess about Caermarthen's +dealings with James is contained in a single short paper written by +Melfort on the sixteenth of October 1693. From that paper it is quite +clear that some intelligence had reached the banished King and his +Ministers which led them to regard Caermarthen as a friend. But there is +no proof that they ever so regarded him, either before that day or after +that day. [466] On the whole, the most probable explanation of this +mystery seems to be that Caermarthen had been sounded by some Jacobite +emissary much less artful than himself, and had, for the purpose of +getting at the bottom of the new scheme of policy devised by Middleton, +pretended to be well disposed to the cause of the banished King, that an +exaggerated account of what had passed had been sent to Saint Germains, +and that there had been much rejoicing there at a conversion which soon +proved to have been feigned. It seems strange that such a conversion +should even for a moment have been thought sincere. It was plainly +Caermarthen's interest to stand by the sovereigns in possession. He +was their chief minister. He could not hope to be the chief minister of +James. It can indeed hardly be supposed that the political conduct of a +cunning old man, insatiably ambitious and covetous, was much influenced +by personal partiality. But, if there were any person to whom +Caermarthen was partial, that person was undoubtedly Mary. That he had +seriously engaged in a plot to depose her, at the risk of his head if he +failed, and with the certainty of losing immense power and wealth if he +succeeded, was a story too absurd for any credulity but the credulity of +exiles. + +Caermarthen had indeed at that moment peculiarly strong reasons for +being satisfied with the place which he held in the counsels of William +and Mary. There is but too strong reason to believe that he was then +accumulating unlawful gain with a rapidity unexampled even in his +experience. + +The contest between the two East India Companies was, during the autumn +of 1693, fiercer than ever. The House of Commons, finding the Old +Company obstinately averse to all compromise, had, a little before the +close of the late session, requested the King to give the three years' +warning prescribed by the Charter. Child and his fellows now began to +be seriously alarmed. They expected every day to receive the dreaded +notice. Nay, they were not sure that their exclusive privilege might not +be taken away without any notice at all; for they found that they had, +by inadvertently omitting to pay the tax lately imposed on their stock +at the precise time fixed by law, forfeited their Charter; and, though +it would, in ordinary circumstances, have been thought cruel in the +government to take advantage of such a slip, the public was not inclined +to allow the Old Company any thing more than the strict letter of the +bond. Every thing was lost if the Charter were not renewed before the +meeting of Parliament. There can be little doubt that the proceedings +of the corporation were still really directed by Child. But he had, it +should seem, perceived that his unpopularity had injuriously affected +the interests which were under his care, and therefore did not obtrude +himself on the public notice. His place was ostensibly filled by his +near kinsman Sir Thomas Cook, one of the greatest merchants of London, +and Member of Parliament for the borough of Colchester. The Directors +placed at Cook's absolute disposal all the immense wealth which lay in +their treasury; and in a short time near a hundred thousand pounds were +expended in corruption on a gigantic scale. In what proportions this +enormous sum was distributed among the great men at Whitehall, and how +much of it was embezzled by intermediate agents, is still a mystery. We +know with certainty however that thousands went to Seymour and thousands +to Caermarthen. + +The effect of these bribes was that the Attorney General received orders +to draw up a charter regranting the old privileges to the old Company. +No minister, however, could, after what had passed in Parliament, +venture to advise the Crown to renew the monopoly without conditions. +The Directors were sensible that they had no choice, and reluctantly +consented to accept the new Charter on terms substantially the same with +those which the House of Commons had sanctioned. + +It is probable that, two years earlier, such a compromise would have +quieted the feud which distracted the City. But a long conflict, in +which satire and calumny had not been spared, had heated the minds of +men. The cry of Dowgate against Leadenhall Street was louder than ever. +Caveats were entered; petitions were signed; and in those petitions a +doctrine which had hitherto been studiously kept in the background +was boldly affirmed. While it was doubtful on which side the royal +prerogative would be used, that prerogative had not been questioned. +But as soon as it appeared that the Old Company was likely to obtain a +regrant of the monopoly under the Great Seal, the New Company began to +assert with vehemence that no monopoly could be created except by Act +of Parliament. The Privy Council, over which Caermarthen presided, after +hearing the matter fully argued by counsel on both sides, decided in +favour of the Old Company, and ordered the Charter to be sealed. [467] + +The autumn was by this time far advanced, and the armies in the +Netherlands had gone into quarters for the winter. On the last day of +October William landed in England. The Parliament was about to meet; and +he had every reason to expect a session even more stormy than the last. +The people were discontented, and not without cause. The year had been +every where disastrous to the allies, not only on the sea and in the Low +Countries, but also in Servia, in Spain, in Italy, and in Germany. The +Turks had compelled the generals of the Empire to raise the siege of +Belgrade. A newly created Marshal of France, the Duke of Noailles, had +invaded Catalonia and taken the fortress of Rosas. Another newly created +Marshal, the skilful and valiant Catinat, had descended from the Alps +on Piedmont, and had, at Marsiglia, gained a complete victory over the +forces of the Duke of Savoy. This battle is memorable as the first of +a long series of battles in which the Irish troops retrieved the honour +lost by misfortunes and misconduct in domestic war. Some of the exiles +of Limerick showed, on that day, under the standard of France, a valour +which distinguished them among many thousands of brave men. It is +remarkable that on the same day a battalion of the persecuted and +expatriated Huguenots stood firm amidst the general disorder round the +standard of Savoy, and fell fighting desperately to the last. + +The Duke of Lorges had marched into the Palatinate, already twice +devastated, and had found that Turenne and Duras had left him something +to destroy. Heidelberg, just beginning to rise again from its ruins, +was again sacked, the peaceable citizens butchered, their wives and +daughters foully outraged. The very choirs of the churches were stained +with blood; the pyxes and crucifixes were torn from the altars; the +tombs of the ancient Electors were broken open; the corpses, stripped +of their cerecloths and ornaments, were dragged about the streets. The +skull of the father of the Duchess of Orleans was beaten to fragments +by the soldiers of a prince among the ladies of whose splendid Court she +held the foremost place. + +And yet a discerning eye might have perceived that, unfortunate as the +confederates seemed to have been, the advantage had really been on their +side. The contest was quite as much a financial as a military contest. +The French King had, some months before, said that the last piece of +gold would carry the day; and he now began painfully to feel the truth +of the saying. England was undoubtedly hard pressed by public burdens; +but still she stood up erect. France meanwhile was fast sinking. Her +recent efforts had been too much for her strength, and had left her +spent and unnerved. Never had her rulers shown more ingenuity in +devising taxes or more severity in exacting them; but by no ingenuity, +by no severity, was it possible to raise the sums necessary for another +such campaign as that of 1693. In England the harvest had been abundant. +In France the corn and the wine had again failed. The people, as usual, +railed at the government. The government, with shameful ignorance or +more shameful dishonesty, tried to direct the public indignation +against the dealers in grain. Decrees appeared which seemed to have been +elaborately framed for the purpose of turning dearth into famine. The +nation was assured that there was no reason for uneasiness, that there +was more than a sufficient supply of food, and that the scarcity had +been produced by the villanous arts of misers, who locked up their +stores in the hope of making enormous gains. Commissioners were +appointed to inspect the granaries, and were empowered to send to +market all the corn that was not necessary for the consumption of the +proprietors. Such interference of course increased the suffering which +it was meant to relieve. But in the midst of the general distress there +was an artificial plenty in one favoured spot. The most arbitrary +prince must always stand in some awe of an immense mass of human beings +collected in the neighbourhood of his own palace. Apprehensions similar +to those which had induced the Caesars to extort from Africa and Egypt +the means of pampering the rabble of Rome induced Lewis to aggravate the +misery of twenty provinces for the purpose of keeping one huge city in +good humour. He ordered bread to be distributed in all the parishes of +the capital at less than half the market price. The English Jacobites +were stupid enough to extol the wisdom and humanity of this arrangement. +The harvest, they said, had been good in England and bad in France; and +yet the loaf was cheaper at Paris than in London; and the explanation +was simple. The French had a sovereign whose heart was French, and +who watched over his people with the solicitude of a father, while the +English were cursed with a Dutch tyrant, who sent their corn to Holland. +The truth was that a week of such fatherly government as that of Lewis +would have raised all England in arms from Northumberland to Cornwall. +That there might be abundance at Paris, the people of Normandy and Anjou +were stuffing themselves with nettles. That there might be tranquillity +at Paris, the peasantry were fighting with the bargemen and the troops +all along the Loire and the Seine. Multitudes fled from those rural +districts where bread cost five sous a pound to the happy place where +bread was to be had for two sous a pound. It was necessary to drive the +famished crowds back by force from the barriers, and to denounce the +most terrible punishments against all who should not go home and starve +quietly. [468] + +Lewis was sensible that the strength of France had been overstrained by +the exertions of the last campaign. Even if her harvest and her vintage +had been abundant, she would not have been able to do in 1694 what she +had done in 1693; and it was utterly impossible that, in a season of +extreme distress, she should again send into the field armies superior +in number on every point to the armies of the coalition. New conquests +were not to be expected. It would be much if the harassed and exhausted +land, beset on all sides by enemies, should be able to sustain a +defensive war without any disaster. So able a politician as the French +King could not but feel that it would be for his advantage to treat with +the allies while they were still awed by the remembrance of the gigantic +efforts which his kingdom had just made, and before the collapse which +had followed those efforts should become visible. + +He had long been communicating through various channels with some +members of the confederacy, and trying to induce them to separate +themselves from the rest. But he had as yet made no overture tending +to a general pacification. For he knew that there could be no general +pacification unless he was prepared to abandon the cause of James, and +to acknowledge the Prince and Princess of Orange as King and Queen of +England. This was in truth the point on which every thing turned. What +should be done with those great fortresses which Lewis had unjustly +seized and annexed to his empire in time of peace, Luxemburg which +overawed the Moselle, and Strasburg which domineered over the Upper +Rhine; what should be done with the places which he had recently won in +open war, Philipsburg, Mons and Namur, Huy and Charleroy; what barrier +should be given to the States General; on what terms Lorraine should be +restored to its hereditary Dukes; these were assuredly not unimportant +questions. But the all important question was whether England was to +be, as she had been under James, a dependency of France, or, as she +was under William and Mary, a power of the first rank. If Lewis really +wished for peace, he must bring himself to recognise the Sovereigns +whom he had so often designated as usurpers. Could he bring himself to +recognise them? His superstition, his pride, his regard for the unhappy +exiles who were pining at Saint Germains, his personal dislike of +the indefatigable and unconquerable adversary who had been constantly +crossing his path during twenty years, were on one side; his interests +and those of his people were on the other. He must have been sensible +that it was not in his power to subjugate the English, that he must at +last leave them to choose their government for themselves, and that what +he must do at last it would be best to do soon. Yet he could not at once +make up his mind to what was so disagreeable to him. He however opened +a negotiation with the States General through the intervention of Sweden +and Denmark, and sent a confidential emissary to confer in secret at +Brussels with Dykvelt, who possessed the entire confidence of William. +There was much discussion about matters of secondary importance; but +the great question remained unsettled. The French agent used, in private +conversation, expressions plainly implying that the government which he +represented was prepared to recognise William and Mary; but no formal +assurance could be obtained from him. Just at the same time the King +of Denmark informed the allies that he was endeavouring to prevail on +France not to insist on the restoration of James as an indispensable +condition of peace, but did not say that his endeavours had as yet +been successful. Meanwhile Avaux, who was now Ambassador at Stockholm, +informed the King of Sweden, that, as the dignity of all crowned heads +had been outraged in the person of James, the Most Christian King felt +assured that not only neutral powers, but even the Emperor, would try to +find some expedient which might remove so grave a cause of quarrel. The +expedient at which Avaux hinted doubtless was that James should waive +his rights, and that the Prince of Wales should be sent to England, bred +a Protestant, adopted by William and Mary, and declared their heir. +To such an arrangement William would probably have had no personal +objection. But we may be assured that he never would have consented to +make it a condition of peace with France. Who should reign in England +was a question to be decided by England alone. [469] + +It might well be suspected that a negotiation conducted in this manner +was merely meant to divide the confederates. William understood the +whole importance of the conjuncture. He had not, it may be, the eye of a +great captain for all the turns of a battle. But he had, in the highest +perfection, the eye of a great statesman for all the turns of a war. +That France had at length made overtures to him was a sufficient proof +that she felt herself spent and sinking. That those overtures were made +with extreme reluctance and hesitation proved that she had not yet come +to a temper in which it was possible to have peace with her on fair +terms. He saw that the enemy was beginning to give ground, and that this +was the time to assume the offensive, to push forward, to bring up every +reserve. But whether the opportunity should be seized or lost it did not +belong to him to decide. The King of France might levy troops and exact +taxes without any limit save that which the laws of nature impose on +despotism. But the King of England could do nothing without the support +of the House of Commons; and the House of Commons, though it had +hitherto supported him zealously and liberally, was not a body on +which he could rely. It had indeed got into a state which perplexed +and alarmed all the most sagacious politicians of that age. There +was something appalling in the union of such boundless power and such +boundless caprice. The fate of the whole civilised world depended on +the votes of the representatives of the English people; and there was +no public man who could venture to say with confidence what those +representatives might not be induced to vote within twenty-four hours. +[470] William painfully felt that it was scarcely possible for a prince +dependent on an assembly so violent at one time, so languid at another, +to effect any thing great. Indeed, though no sovereign did so much to +secure and to extend the power of the House of Commons, no sovereign +loved the House of Commons less. Nor is this strange; for he saw that +House at the very worst. He saw it when it had just acquired the power +and had not yet acquired the gravity of a senate. In his letters to +Heinsius he perpetually complains of the endless talking, the factious +squabbling, the inconstancy, the dilatoriness, of the body which +his situation made it necessary for him to treat with deference. His +complaints were by no means unfounded; but he had not discovered either +the cause or the cure of the evil. + +The truth was that the change which the Revolution had made in the +situation of the House of Commons had made another change necessary; +and that other change had not yet taken place. There was parliamentary +government; but there was no Ministry; and, without a Ministry, the +working of a parliamentary government, such as ours, must always be +unsteady and unsafe. + +It is essential to our liberties that the House of Commons should +exercise a control over all the departments of the executive +administration. And yet it is evident that a crowd of five or six +hundred people, even if they were intellectually much above the average +of the members of the best Parliament, even if every one of them were +a Burleigh, or a Sully, would be unfit for executive functions. It has +been truly said that every large collection of human beings, however +well educated, has a strong tendency to become a mob; and a country of +which the Supreme Executive Council is a mob is surely in a perilous +situation. + +Happily a way has been found out in which the House of Commons can +exercise a paramount influence over the executive government, without +assuming functions such as can never be well discharged by a body so +numerous and so variously composed. An institution which did not exist +in the times, of the Plantagenets, of the Tudors or of the Stuarts, an +institution not known to the law, an institution not mentioned in any +statute, an institution of which such writers as De Lolme and Blackstone +take no notice, began to exist a few years after the Revolution, grew +rapidly into importance, became firmly established, and is now almost +as essential a part of our polity as the Parliament itself. This +institution is the Ministry. + +The Ministry is, in fact, a committee of leading members of the two +Houses. It is nominated by the Crown; but it consists exclusively of +statesmen whose opinions on the pressing questions of the time agree, +in the main, with the opinions of the majority of the House of +Commons. Among the members of this committee are distributed the great +departments of the administration. Each Minister conducts the ordinary +business of his own office without reference to his colleagues. But the +most important business of every office, and especially such business +as is likely to be the subject of discussion in Parliament, is brought +under the consideration of the whole Ministry. In Parliament the +Ministers are bound to act as one man on all questions relating to +the executive government. If one of them dissents from the rest on a +question too important to admit of compromise, it is his duty to retire. +While the Ministers retain the confidence of the parliamentary majority, +that majority supports them against opposition, and rejects every motion +which reflects on them or is likely to embarrass them. If they forfeit +that confidence, if the parliamentary majority is dissatisfied with +the way in which patronage is distributed, with the way in which the +prerogative of mercy is used, with the conduct of foreign affairs, with +the conduct of a war, the remedy is simple. It is not necessary that the +Commons should take on themselves the business of administration, that +they should request the Crown to make this man a bishop and that man +a judge, to pardon one criminal and to execute another, to negotiate a +treaty on a particular basis or to send an expedition to a particular +place. They have merely to declare that they have ceased to trust the +Ministry, and to ask for a Ministry which they can trust. + +It is by means of Ministries thus constituted, and thus changed, that +the English government has long been conducted in general conformity +with the deliberate sense of the House of Commons, and yet has been +wonderfully free from the vices which are characteristic of governments +administered by large, tumultuous and divided assemblies. A few +distinguished persons, agreeing in their general opinions, are the +confidential advisers at once of the Sovereign and of the Estates of the +Realm. In the closet they speak with the authority of men who stand high +in the estimation of the representatives of the people. In Parliament +they speak with the authority of men versed in great affairs and +acquainted with all the secrets of the State. Thus the Cabinet has +something of the popular character of a representative body; and the +representative body has something of the gravity of a cabinet. + +Sometimes the state of parties is such that no set of men who can be +brought together possesses the full confidence and steady support of a +majority of the House of Commons. When this is the case, there must be +a weak Ministry; and there will probably be a rapid succession of weak +Ministries. At such times the House of Commons never fails to get into +a state which no person friendly to representative government can +contemplate without uneasiness, into a state which may enable us to form +some faint notion of the state of that House during the earlier years +of the reign of William. The notion is indeed but faint; for the weakest +Ministry has great power as a regulator of parliamentary proceedings; +and in the earlier years of the reign of William there was no Ministry +at all. + +No writer has yet attempted to trace the progress of this institution, +an institution indispensable to the harmonious working of our other +institutions. The first Ministry was the work, partly of mere chance, +and partly of wisdom, not however of that highest wisdom which is +conversant with great principles of political philosophy, but of that +lower wisdom which meets daily exigencies by daily expedients. Neither +William nor the most enlightened of his advisers fully understood the +nature and importance of that noiseless revolution,--for it was no +less,--which began about the close of 1693, and was completed about the +close of 1696. But every body could perceive that, at the close of +1693, the chief offices in the government were distributed not unequally +between the two great parties, that the men who held those offices were +perpetually caballing against each other, haranguing against each +other, moving votes of censure on each other, exhibiting articles of +impeachment against each other, and that the temper of the House of +Commons was wild, ungovernable and uncertain. Everybody could perceive +that at the close of 1696, all the principal servants of the Crown were +Whigs, closely bound together by public and private ties, and prompt to +defend one another against every attack, and that the majority of the +House of Commons was arrayed in good order under those leaders, and had +learned to move, like one man, at the word of command. The history +of the period of transition and of the steps by which the change was +effected is in a high degree curious and interesting. + +The statesman who had the chief share in forming the first English +Ministry had once been but too well known, but had long hidden himself +from the public gaze, and had but recently emerged from the obscurity +in which it had been expected that he would pass the remains of an +ignominious and disastrous life. During that period of general terror +and confusion which followed the flight of James, Sunderland had +disappeared. It was high time; for of all the agents of the fallen +government he was, with the single exception of Jeffreys, the most +odious to the nation. Few knew that Sunderland's voice had in secret +been given against the spoliation of Magdalene College and the +prosecution of the Bishops; but all knew that he had signed numerous +instruments dispensing with statutes, that he had sate in the High +Commission, that he had turned or pretended to turn Papist, that he had, +a few days after his apostasy, appeared in Westminster Hall as a witness +against the oppressed fathers of the Church. He had indeed atoned for +many crimes by one crime baser than all the rest. As soon as he had +reason to believe that the day of deliverance and retribution was at +hand, he had, by a most dexterous and seasonable treason, earned his +pardon. During the three months which preceded the arrival of the Dutch +armament in Torbay, he had rendered to the cause of liberty and of the +Protestant religion services of which it is difficult to overrate either +the wickedness or the utility. To him chiefly it was owing that, at the +most critical moment in our history, a French army was not menacing the +Batavian frontier and a French fleet hovering about the English coast. +William could not, without staining his own honour, refuse to protect +one whom he had not scrupled to employ. Yet it was no easy task even for +William to save that guilty head from the first outbreak of public fury. +For even those extreme politicians of both sides who agreed in nothing +else agreed in calling for vengeance on the renegade. The Whigs hated +him as the vilest of the slaves by whom the late government had been +served, and the Jacobites as the vilest of the traitors by whom it had +been overthrown. Had he remained in England, he would probably have died +by the hand of the executioner, if indeed the executioner had not +been anticipated by the populace. But in Holland a political refugee, +favoured by the Stadtholder, might hope to live unmolested. To Holland +Sunderland fled, disguised, it is said, as a woman; and his wife +accompanied him. At Rotterdam, a town devoted to the House of Orange, he +thought himself secure. But the magistrates were not in all the secrets +of the Prince, and were assured by some busy Englishmen that His +Highness would be delighted to hear of the arrest of the Popish dog, the +Judas, whose appearance on Tower Hill was impatiently expected by all +London. Sunderland was thrown into prison, and remained there till +an order for his release arrived from Whitehall. He then proceeded to +Amsterdam, and there changed his religion again. His second apostasy +edified his wife as much as his first apostasy had edified his master. +The Countess wrote to assure her pious friends in England that her poor +dear lord's heart had at last been really touched by divine grace, and +that, in spite of all her afflictions, she was comforted by seeing him +so true a convert. We may, however, without any violation of Christian +charity, suspect that he was still the same false, callous, Sunderland +who, a few months before, had made Bonrepaux shudder by denying the +existence of a God, and had, at the same time, won the heart of James +by pretending to believe in transubstantiation. In a short time the +banished man put forth an apology for his conduct. This apology, when +examined, will be found to amount merely to a confession that he had +committed one series of crimes in order to gain James's favour, and +another series in order to avoid being involved in James's ruin. The +writer concluded by announcing his intention to pass all the rest of his +life in penitence and prayer. He soon retired from Amsterdam to Utrecht, +and at Utrecht made himself conspicuous by his regular and devout +attendance on the ministrations of Huguenot preachers. If his letters +and those of his wife were to be trusted, he had done for ever with +ambition. He longed indeed to be permitted to return from exile, not +that he might again enjoy and dispense the favours of the Crown, not +that his antechambers might again be filled by the daily swarm of +suitors, but that he might see again the turf, the trees and the family +pictures of his country seat. His only wish was to be suffered to end +his troubled life at Althorpe; and he would be content to forfeit his +head if ever he went beyond the palings of his park. [471] + +While the House of Commons, which had been elected during the vacancy of +the throne, was busily engaged in the work of proscription, he could not +venture to show himself in England. But when that assembly had ceased to +exist, he thought himself safe. He returned a few days after the Act of +Grace had been laid on the table of the Lords. From the benefit of that +Act he was by name excluded; but he well knew that he had now nothing to +fear. He went privately to Kensington, was admitted into the closet, +had an audience which lasted two hours, and then retired to his country +house. [472] + +During many months be led a secluded life, and had no residence in +London. Once in the spring of 1692, to the great astonishment of the +public, he showed his face in the circle at Court, and was graciously +received. [473] He seems to have been afraid that he might, on his +reappearance in Parliament, receive some marked affront. He therefore, +very prudently, stole down to Westminster, in the dead time of the year, +on a day to which the Houses stood adjourned by the royal command, and +on which they met merely for the purpose of adjourning again. Sunderland +had just time to present himself, to take the oaths, to sign the +declaration against transubstantiation, and to resume his seat. None of +the few peers who were present had an opportunity of making any remark. +[474] It was not till the year 1692 that he began to attend regularly. +He was silent; but silent he had always been in large assemblies, even +when he was at the zenith of power. His talents were not those of a +public speaker. The art in which he surpassed all men was the art of +whispering. His tact, his quick eye for the foibles of individuals, +his caressing manners, his power of insinuation, and, above all, his +apparent frankness, made him irresistible in private conversation. +By means of these qualities he had governed James, and now aspired to +govern William. + +To govern William, indeed, was not easy. But Sunderland succeeded +in obtaining such a measure of favour and influence as excited much +surprise and some indignation. In truth, scarcely any mind was strong +enough to resist the witchery of his talk and of his manners. Every man +is prone to believe in the gratitude and attachment even of the most +worthless persons on whom he has conferred great benefits. It can +therefore hardly be thought strange that the most skilful of all +flatterers should have been heard with favour, when he, with every +outward sign of strong emotion, implored permission to dedicate all +his faculties to the service of the generous protector to whom he owed +property, liberty, life. It is not necessary, however, to suppose that +the King was deceived. He may have thought, with good reason, that, +though little confidence could be placed in Sunderland's professions, +much confidence might be placed in Sunderland's situation; and the truth +is that Sunderland proved, on the whole, a more faithful servant than a +much less depraved man might have been. He did indeed make, in profound +secresy, some timid overtures towards a reconciliation with James. +But it may be confidently affirmed that, even had those overtures +been graciously received,--and they appear to have been received very +ungraciously,--the twice turned renegade would never have rendered any +real service to the Jacobite cause. He well knew that he had done that +which at Saint Germains must be regarded as inexpiable. It was not +merely that he had been treacherous and ungrateful. Marlborough had been +as treacherous and ungrateful; and Marlborough had been pardoned. +But Marlborough had not been guilty of the impious hypocrisy of +counterfeiting the signs of conversion. Marlborough had not pretended +to be convinced by the arguments of the Jesuits, to be touched by divine +grace, to pine for union with the only true Church. Marlborough had not, +when Popery was in the ascendant, crossed himself, shrived himself, +done penance, taken the communion in one kind, and, as soon as a turn +of fortune came, apostatized back again, and proclaimed to all the world +that, when he knelt at the confessional and received the host, he was +merely laughing at the King and the priests. The crime of Sunderland +was one which could never be forgiven by James; and a crime which could +never be forgiven by James was, in some sense, a recommendation to +William. The Court, nay, the Council, was full of men who might hope +to prosper if the banished King were restored. But Sunderland had left +himself no retreat. He had broken down all the bridges behind him. He +had been so false to one side that he must of necessity be true to +the other. That he was in the main true to the government which now +protected him there is no reason to doubt; and, being true, he could not +but be useful. He was, in some respects, eminently qualified to be at +that time an adviser of the Crown. He had exactly the talents and the +knowledge which William wanted. The two together would have made up a +consummate statesman. The master was capable of forming and executing +large designs, but was negligent of those small arts in which the +servant excelled. The master saw farther off than other men; but what +was near no man saw so clearly as the servant. The master, though +profoundly versed in the politics of the great community of nations, +never thoroughly understood the politics of his own kingdom. The servant +was perfectly well informed as to the temper and the organization of the +English factions, and as to the strong and weak parts of the character +of every Englishman of note. + +Early in 1693, it was rumoured that Sunderland was consulted on all +important questions relating to the internal administration of the +realm; and the rumour became stronger when it was known that he had come +up to London in the autumn before the meeting of Parliament and that he +had taken a large mansion near Whitehall. The coffeehouse politicians +were confident that he was about to hold some high office. As yet, +however, he had the wisdom to be content with the reality of power, and +to leave the show to others. [475] + +His opinion was that, as long as the King tried to balance the two great +parties against each other, and to divide his favour equally between +them, both would think themselves ill used, and neither would lend to +the government that hearty and steady support which was now greatly +needed. His Majesty must make up his mind to give a marked preference +to one or the other; and there were three weighty reasons for giving the +preference to the Whigs. + +In the first place, the Whigs were on principle attached to the reigning +dynasty. In their view the Revolution had been, not merely necessary, +not merely justifiable, but happy and glorious. It had been the triumph +of their political theory. When they swore allegiance to William, they +swore without scruple or reservation; and they were so far from having +any doubt about his title that they thought it the best of all titles. +The Tories, on the other hand, very generally disapproved of that vote +of the Convention which had placed him on the throne. Some of them were +at heart Jacobites, and had taken the oath of allegiance to him only +that they might be able to injure him. Others, though they thought +it their duty to obey him as King in fact, denied that he was King by +right, and, if they were loyal to him, were loyal without enthusiasm. +There could, therefore, be little doubt on which of the two parties it +would be safer for him to rely. + +In the second place, as to the particular matter on which his heart +was at present set, the Whigs were, as a body, prepared to support him +strenuously, and the Tories were, as a body, inclined to thwart him. The +minds of men were at this time much occupied by the question, in what +way the war ought to be carried on. To that question the two parties +returned very different answers. An opinion had during many months been +growing among the Tories that the policy of England ought to be strictly +insular; that she ought to leave the defence of Flanders and the Rhine +to the States General, the House of Austria and the Princes of the +Empire; that she ought to carry on hostilities with vigour by sea, but +to keep up only such an army as might, with the help of the militia, be +sufficient to repel an invasion. It was plain that, if this system +were adopted, there might be an immediate reduction of the taxes which +pressed most heavily on the nation. But the Whigs maintained that +this relief would be dearly purchased. Many thousands of brave English +soldiers were now in Flanders. Yet the allies had not been able to +prevent the French from taking Mons in 1691, Namur in 1692, Charleroy in +1693. If the English troops were withdrawn, it was certain that Ostend, +Ghent, Liege, Brussels would fall. The German Princes would hasten to +make peace, each for himself. The Spanish Netherlands would probably be +annexed to the French monarchy. The United Provinces would be again in +as great peril as in 1672, and would accept whatever terms Lewis might +be pleased to dictate. In a few months, he would be at liberty to put +forth his whole strength against our island. Then would come a struggle +for life and death. It might well be hoped that we should be able to +defend our soil even against such a general and such an army as had +won the battle of Landen. But the fight must be long and hard. How many +fertile counties would be turned into deserts, how many flourishing +towns would be laid in ashes, before the invaders were destroyed or +driven out! One triumphant campaign in Kent and Middlesex would do more +to impoverish the nation than ten disastrous campaigns in Brabant. It is +remarkable that this dispute between the two great factions was, during +seventy years, regularly revived as often as our country was at war with +France. That England ought never to attempt great military operations on +the Continent continued to be a fundamental article of the creed of the +Tories till the French Revolution produced a complete change in their +feelings. [476] As the chief object of William was to open the +campaign of 1694 in Flanders with an immense display of force, it was +sufficiently clear to whom he must look for assistance. + +In the third place, the Whigs were the stronger party in Parliament. The +general election of 1690, indeed, had not been favourable to them. +They had been, for a time, a minority; but they had ever since been +constantly gaining ground; they were now in number a full half of the +Lower House; and their effective strength was more than proportioned +to their number; for in energy, alertness and discipline, they were +decidedly superior to their opponents. Their organization was not indeed +so perfect as it afterwards became; but they had already begun to +look for guidance to a small knot of distinguished men, which was long +afterwards widely known by the name of the junto. There is, perhaps, no +parallel in history, ancient or modern, to the authority exercised by +this council, during twenty troubled years, over the Whig body. The men +who acquired that authority in the days of William and Mary continued +to possess it, without interruption, in office and out of office, till +George the First was on the throne. + +One of these men was Russell. Of his shameful dealings with the Court of +Saint Germains we possess proofs which leave no room for doubt. But no +such proofs were laid before the world till he had been many years dead. +If rumours of his guilt got abroad, they were vague and improbable; they +rested on no evidence; they could be traced to no trustworthy author; +and they might well be regarded by his contemporaries as Jacobite +calumnies. What was quite certain was that he sprang from an illustrious +house, which had done and suffered great things for liberty and for the +Protestant religion, that he had signed the invitation of the thirtieth +of June, that he had landed with the Deliverer at Torbay, that he had in +Parliament, on all occasions, spoken and voted as a zealous Whig, +that he had won a great victory, that he had saved his country from an +invasion, and that, since he had left the Admiralty, every thing had +gone wrong. We cannot therefore wonder that his influence over his party +should have been considerable. + +But the greatest man among the members of the junto, and, in some +respects, the greatest man of that age, was the Lord Keeper Somers. He +was equally eminent as a jurist and as a politician, as an orator and as +a writer. His speeches have perished; but his State papers remain, and +are models of terse, luminous, and dignified eloquence. He had left +a great reputation in the House of Commons, where he had, during four +years, been always heard with delight; and the Whig members still looked +up to him as their leader, and still held their meetings under his roof. +In the great place to which he had recently been promoted, he had so +borne himself that, after a very few months, even faction and envy had +ceased to murmur at his elevation. In truth, he united all the +qualities of a great judge, an intellect comprehensive, quick and acute, +diligence, integrity, patience, suavity. In council, the calm wisdom +which he possessed in a measure rarely found among men of parts so quick +and of opinions so decided as his, acquired for him the authority of +an oracle. The superiority of his powers appeared not less clearly in +private circles. The charm of his conversation was heightened by the +frankness with which he poured out his thoughts. [477] His good temper +and his good breeding never failed. His gesture, his look, his tones +were expressive of benevolence. His humanity was the more remarkable, +because he had received from nature a body such as is generally found +united with a peevish and irritable mind. His life was one long malady; +his nerves were weak; his complexion was livid; his face was prematurely +wrinkled. Yet his enemies could not pretend that he had ever once, +during a long and troubled public life, been goaded, even by sudden +provocation, into vehemence inconsistent with the mild dignity of his +character. All that was left to them was to assert that his disposition +was very far from being so gentle as the world believed, that he was +really prone to the angry passions, and that sometimes, while his voice +was soft, and his words kind and courteous, his delicate frame was +almost convulsed by suppressed emotion. It will perhaps be thought that +this reproach is the highest of all eulogies. + +The most accomplished men of those times have told us that there was +scarcely any subject on which Somers was not competent to instruct and +to delight. He had never travelled; and, in that age, an Englishman who +had not travelled was generally thought incompetent to give an opinion +on works of art. But connoisseurs familiar with the masterpieces of the +Vatican and of the Florentine gallery allowed that the taste of Somers +in painting and sculpture was exquisite. Philology was one of his +favourite pursuits. He had traversed the whole vast range of polite +literature, ancient and modern. He was at once a munificent and severely +judicious patron of genius and learning. Locke owed opulence to Somers. +By Somers Addison was drawn forth from a cell in a college. In distant +countries the name of Somers was mentioned with respect and gratitude +by great scholars and poets who had never seen his face. He was the +benefactor of Leclerc. He was the friend of Filicaja. Neither political +nor religious differences prevented him from extending his powerful +protection to merit. Hickes, the fiercest and most intolerant of all +the nonjurors, obtained, by the influence of Somers, permission to +study Teutonic antiquities in freedom and safety. Vertue, a strict Roman +Catholic, was raised by the discriminating and liberal patronage of +Somers from poverty and obscurity to the first rank among the engravers +of the age. + +The generosity with which Somers treated his opponents was the more +honourable to him because he was no waverer in politics. From the +beginning to the end of his public life he was a steady Whig. His voice +was indeed always raised, when his party was dominant in the State, +against violent and vindictive counsels; but he never forsook his +friends, even when their perverse neglect of his advice had brought them +to the verge of ruin. + +His powers of mind and his acquirements were not denied, even by his +detractors. The most acrimonious Tories were forced to admit, with an +ungracious snarl, which increased the value of their praise, that he had +all the intellectual qualities of a great man, and that in him alone, +among his contemporaries, brilliant eloquence and wit were to be found +associated with the quiet and steady prudence which ensures success +in life. It is a remarkable fact, that, in the foulest of all the many +libels that were published against him, he was slandered under the name +of Cicero. As his abilities could not be questioned, he was charged with +irreligion and immorality. That he was heterodox all the country vicars +and foxhunting squires firmly believed; but as to the nature and extent +of his heterodoxy there were many different opinions. He seems to have +been a Low Churchman of the school of Tillotson, whom he always +loved and honoured; and he was, like Tillotson, called by bigots a +Presbyterian, an Arian, a Socinian, a Deist, and an Atheist. + +The private life of this great statesman and magistrate was malignantly +scrutinised; and tales were told about his libertinism which went on +growing till they became too absurd for the credulity even of party +spirit. At last, long after he had been condemned to flannel and chicken +broth, a wretched courtesan, who had probably never seen him except in +the stage box at the theatre, when she was following her vocation below +in a mask, published a lampoon in which she described him as the master +of a haram more costly than the Great Turk's. There is, however, reason +to believe that there was a small nucleus of truth round which this +great mass of fiction gathered, and that the wisdom and selfcommand +which Somers never wanted in the senate, on the judgment seat, at the +council board, or in the society of wits, scholars and philosophers, +were not always proof against female attractions. [478] + +Another director of the Whig party was Charles Montague. He was often, +when he had risen to power, honours and riches, called an upstart by +those who envied his success. That they should have called him so may +seem strange; for few of the statesmen of his time could show such a +pedigree as his. He sprang from a family as old as the Conquest; he was +in the succession to an earldom, and was, by the paternal side, cousin +of three earls. But he was the younger son of a younger brother; and +that phrase had, ever since the time of Shakspeare and Raleigh, and +perhaps before their time, been proverbially used to designate a person +so poor as to be broken to the most abject servitude or ready for the +most desperate adventure. + +Charles Montague was early destined for the Church, was entered on the +foundation of Westminster, and, after distinguishing himself there by +skill in Latin versification, was sent up to Trinity College, Cambridge. +At Cambridge the philosophy of Des Cartes was still dominant in the +schools. But a few select spirits had separated from the crowd, and +formed a fit audience round a far greater teacher. [479] Conspicuous +among the youths of high promise who were proud to sit at the feet of +Newton was the quick and versatile Montague. Under such guidance the +young student made considerable proficiency in the severe sciences; but +poetry was his favourite pursuit; and when the University invited her +sons to celebrate royal marriages and funerals, he was generally allowed +to have surpassed his competitors. His fame travelled to London; he +was thought a clever lad by the wits who met at Will's, and the lively +parody which he wrote, in concert with his friend and fellow student +Prior, on Dryden's Hind and Panther, was received with great applause. + +At this time all Montague's wishes pointed towards the Church. At a +later period, when he was a peer with twelve thousand a year, when his +villa on the Thames was regarded as the most delightful of all suburban +retreats, when he was said to revel in Tokay from the Imperial cellar, +and in soups made out of birds' nests brought from the Indian Ocean, and +costing three guineas a piece, his enemies were fond of reminding him +that there had been a time when he had eked out by his wits an income +of barely fifty pounds, when he had been happy with a trencher of mutton +chops and a flagon of ale from the College buttery, and when a tithe +pig was the rarest luxury for which he had dared to hope. The Revolution +came, and changed his whole scheme of life. He obtained, by the +influence of Dorset, who took a peculiar pleasure in befriending young +men of promise, a seat in the House of Commons. Still, during a few +months, the needy scholar hesitated between politics and divinity. But +it soon became clear that, in the new order of things, parliamentary +ability must fetch a higher price than any other kind of ability; and +he felt that in parliamentary ability he had no superior. He was in the +very situation for which he was peculiarly fitted by nature; and during +some years his life was a series of triumphs. + +Of him, as of several of his contemporaries, especially of Mulgrave and +of Sprat, it may be said that his fame has suffered from the folly of +those editors who, down to our own time, have persisted in reprinting +his rhymes among the works of the British poets. There is not a year in +which hundreds of verses as good as any that he ever wrote are not sent +in for the Newdigate prize at Oxford and for the Chancellor's medal at +Cambridge. His mind had indeed great quickness and vigour, but not that +kind of quickness and vigour which produces great dramas or odes; and +it is most unjust to him that his loan of Honour and his Epistle on +the Battle of the Boyne should be placed side by side with Comus +and Alexander's Feast. Other eminent statesmen and orators, Walpole, +Pulteney, Chatham, Fox, wrote poetry not better than his. But +fortunately for them, their metrical compositions were never thought +worthy to be admitted into any collection of our national classics. + +It has long been usual to represent the imagination under the figure of +a wing, and to call the successful exertions of the imagination flights. +One poet is the eagle; another is the swan; a third modestly compares +himself to the bee. But none of these types would have suited Montague. +His genius may be compared to that pinion which, though it is too weak +to lift the ostrich into the air, enables her, while she remains on the +earth, to outrun hound, horse and dromedary. If the man who possesses +this kind of genius attempts to ascend the heaven of invention, his +awkward and unsuccessful efforts expose him to derision. But if he will +be content to stay in the terrestrial region of business, he will find +that the faculties which would not enable him to soar into a higher +sphere will enable him to distance all his competitors in the lower. As +a poet Montague could never have risen above the crowd. But in the House +of Commons, now fast becoming supreme in the State, and extending +its control over one executive department after another, the young +adventurer soon obtained a place very different from the place which he +occupies among men of letters. At thirty, he would gladly have given all +his chances in life for a comfortable vicarage and a chaplain's scarf. +At thirty-seven, he was First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the +Exchequer and a Regent of the kingdom; and this elevation he owed not +at all to favour, but solely to the unquestionable superiority of his +talents for administration and debate. + +The extraordinary ability with which, at the beginning of the year 1692, +he managed the conference on the Bill for regulating Trials in cases of +Treason, placed him at once in the first rank of parliamentary orators. +On that occasion he was opposed to a crowd of veteran senators renowned +for their eloquence, Halifax, Rochester, Nottingham, Mulgrave, and +proved himself a match for them all. He was speedily seated at the Board +of Treasury; and there the clearheaded and experienced Godolphin soon +found that his young colleague was his master. When Somers had quitted +the House of Commons, Montague had no rival there. Sir Thomas Littleton, +once distinguished as the ablest debater and man of business among the +Whig members, was content to serve under his junior. To this day we may +discern in many parts of our financial and commercial system the marks +of the vigorous intellect and daring spirit of Montague. His bitterest +enemies were unable to deny that some of the expedients which he had +proposed had proved highly beneficial to the nation. But it was said +that these expedients were not devised by himself. He was represented, +in a hundred pamphlets, as the daw in borrowed plumes. He had taken, it +was affirmed, the hint of every one of his great plans from the writings +or the conversation of some ingenious speculator. This reproach was, +in truth, no reproach. We can scarcely expect to find in the same human +being the talents which are necessary for the making of new discoveries +in political science, and the talents which obtain the assent of divided +and tumultuous assemblies to great practical reforms. To be at once an +Adam Smith and a Pitt is scarcely possible. It is surely praise enough +for a busy politician that he knows how to use the theories of others, +that he discerns, among the schemes of innumerable projectors, the +precise scheme which is wanted and which is practicable, that he shapes +it to suit pressing circumstances and popular humours, that he proposes +it just when it is most likely to be favourably received, that he +triumphantly defends it against all objectors, and that he carries it +into execution with prudence and energy; and to this praise no English +statesman has a fairer claim than Montague. + +It is a remarkable proof of his selfknowledge that, from the moment at +which he began to distinguish himself in public life, he ceased to be +a versifier. It does not appear that, after he became a Lord of the +Treasury, he ever wrote a couplet, with the exception of a few well +turned lines inscribed on a set of toasting glasses which were sacred +to the most renowned Whig beauties of his time. He wisely determined +to derive from the poetry of others a glory which he never would have +derived from his own. As a patron of genius and learning he ranks with +his two illustrious friends, Dorset and Somers. His munificence fully +equalled theirs; and, though he was inferior to them in delicacy of +taste, he succeeded in associating his name inseparably with some names +which will last as long as our language. + +Yet it must be acknowledged that Montague, with admirable parts and +with many claims on the gratitude of his country, had great faults, and +unhappily faults not of the noblest kind. His head was not strong enough +to bear without giddiness the speed of his ascent and the height of his +position. He became offensively arrogant and vain. He was too often cold +to his old friends, and ostentatious in displaying his new riches. Above +all, he was insatiably greedy of praise, and liked it best when it was +of the coarsest and rankest quality. But, in 1693, these faults were +less offensive than they became a few years later. + +With Russell, Somers and Montague, was closely connected, during +a quarter of a century a fourth Whig, who in character bore little +resemblance to any of them. This was Thomas Wharton, eldest son of +Philip Lord Wharton. Thomas Wharton has been repeatedly mentioned in the +course of this narrative. But it is now time to describe him more +fully. He was in his forty-seventh year, but was still a young man in +constitution, in appearance and in manners. Those who hated him most +heartily,--and no man was hated more heartily,--admitted that his +natural parts were excellent, and that he was equally qualified for +debate and for action. The history of his mind deserves notice; for it +was the history of many thousands of minds. His rank and abilities +made him so conspicuous that in him we are able to trace distinctly +the origin and progress of a moral taint which was epidemic among his +contemporaries. + +He was born in the days of the Covenant, and was the heir of a +covenanted house. His father was renowned as a distributor of +Calvinistic tracts, and a patron of Calvinistic divines. The boy's first +years were past amidst Geneva bands, heads of lank hair, upturned eyes, +nasal psalmody, and sermons three hours long. Plays and poems, hunting +and dancing, were proscribed by the austere discipline of his saintly +family. The fruits of this education became visible, when, from the +sullen mansion of Puritan parents, the hotblooded, quickwitted young +patrician emerged into the gay and voluptuous London of the Restoration. +The most dissolute cavaliers stood aghast at the dissoluteness of the +emancipated precisian. He early acquired and retained to the last the +reputation of being the greatest rake in England. Of wine indeed he +never became the slave; and he used it chiefly for the purpose of making +himself the master of his associates. But to the end of his long life +the wives and daughters of his nearest friends were not safe from his +licentious plots. The ribaldry of his conversation moved astonishment +even in that age. To the religion of his country he offered, in the mere +wantonness of impiety, insults too foul to be described. His mendacity +and his effrontery passed into proverbs. Of all the liars of his time he +was the most deliberate, the most inventive and the most circumstantial. +What shame meant he did not seem to understand. No reproaches, even when +pointed and barbed with the sharpest wit, appeared to give him pain. +Great satirists, animated by a deadly personal aversion, exhausted +all their strength in attacks upon him. They assailed him with keen +invective; they assailed him with still keener irony; but they found +that neither invective nor irony could move him to any thing but an +unforced smile and a goodhumoured curse; and they at length threw down +the lash, acknowledging that it was impossible to make him feel. That, +with such vices, he should have played a great part in life, should have +carried numerous elections against the most formidable opposition by his +personal popularity, should have had a large following in Parliament, +should have risen to the highest offices of the State, seems +extraordinary. But he lived in times when faction was almost a madness; +and he possessed in an eminent degree the qualities of the leader of +a faction. There was a single tie which he respected. The falsest +of mankind in all relations but one, he was the truest of Whigs. The +religious tenets of his family he had early renounced with contempt; +but to the politics of his family he stedfastly adhered through all the +temptations and dangers of half a century. In small things and in great +his devotion to his party constantly appeared. He had the finest stud in +England; and his delight was to win plates from Tories. Sometimes when, +in a distant county, it was fully expected that the horse of a High +Church squire would be first on the course, down came, on the very eve +of the race, Wharton's Careless, who had ceased to run at Newmarket +merely for want of competitors, or Wharton's Gelding, for whom Lewis +the Fourteenth had in vain offered a thousand pistoles. A man whose mere +sport was of this description was not likely to be easily beaten in +any serious contest. Such a master of the whole art of electioneering +England had never seen. Buckinghamshire was his own especial province; +and there he ruled without a rival. But he extended his care over +the Whig interest in Yorkshire, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Wiltshire. +Sometimes twenty, sometimes thirty, members of Parliament were named by +him. As a canvasser he was irresistible. He never forgot a face that +he had once seen. Nay, in the towns in which he wished to establish an +interest, he remembered, not only the voters, but their families. +His opponents were confounded by the strength of his memory and the +affability of his deportment, and owned, that it was impossible to +contend against a great man who called the shoemaker by his Christian +name, who was sure that the butcher's daughter must be growing a fine +girl, and who was anxious to know whether the blacksmith's youngest boy +was breeched. By such arts as these he made himself so popular that +his journeys to the Buckinghamshire Quarter Sessions resembled royal +progresses. The bells of every parish through which he passed were rung, +and flowers were strewed along the road. It was commonly believed that, +in the course of his life, he expended on his parliamentary interest not +less than eighty thousand pounds, a sum which, when compared with the +value of estates, must be considered as equivalent to more than three +hundred thousand pounds in our time. + +But the chief service which Wharton rendered to the Whig party was that +of bringing in recruits from the young aristocracy. He was quite as +dexterous a canvasser among the embroidered coats at the Saint James's +Coffeehouse as among the leathern aprons at Wycombe and Aylesbury. He +had his eye on every boy of quality who came of age; and it was not +easy for such a boy to resist the arts of a noble, eloquent and wealthy +flatterer, who united juvenile vivacity to profound art and long +experience of the gay world. It mattered not what the novice preferred, +gallantry or field sports, the dicebox or the bottle. Wharton soon found +out the master passion, offered sympathy, advice and assistance, and, +while seeming to be only the minister of his disciple's pleasures, made +sure of his disciple's vote. + +The party to whose interests Wharton, with such spirit and constancy, +devoted his time, his fortune, his talents, his very vices, judged +him, as was natural, far too leniently. He was widely known by the +very undeserved appellation of Honest Tom. Some pious men, Burnet, for +example, and Addison, averted their eyes from the scandal which he gave, +and spoke of him, not indeed with esteem, yet with goodwill. A most +ingenious and accomplished Whig, the third Earl of Shaftesbury, author +of the Characteristics, described Wharton as the most mysterious of +human beings, as a strange compound of best and worst, of private +depravity and public virtue, and owned himself unable to understand how +a man utterly without principle in every thing but politics should in +politics be as true as steel. But that which, in the judgment of one +faction, more than half redeemed all Wharton's faults, seemed to the +other faction to aggravate them all. The opinion which the Tories +entertained of him is expressed in a single line written after his death +by the ablest man of that party; "He was the most universal villain that +ever I knew." [480] Wharton's political adversaries thirsted for +his blood, and repeatedly tried to shed it. Had he not been a man of +imperturbable temper, dauntless courage and consummate skill in fence, +his life would have been a short one. But neither anger nor danger ever +deprived him of his presence of mind; he was an incomparable swordsman; +and he had a peculiar way of disarming opponents which moved the envy of +all the duellists of his time. His friends said that he had never given +a challenge, that he had never refused one, that he had never taken a +life, and yet that he had never fought without having his antagonist's +life at his mercy. [481] + +The four men who have been described resembled each other so little that +it may be thought strange that they should ever have been able to act +in concert. They did, however, act in the closest concert during many +years. They more than once rose and more than once fell together. But +their union lasted till it was dissolved by death. Little as some of +them may have deserved esteem, none of them can be accused of having +been false to his brethren of the Junto. + +While the great body of the Whigs was, under these able chiefs, arraying +itself in order resembling that of a regular army, the Tories were in a +state of an ill drilled and ill officered militia. They were numerous; +and they were zealous; but they can hardly be said to have had, at this +time, any chief in the House of Commons. The name of Seymour had once +been great among them, and had not quite lost its influence. But, +since he had been at the Board of Treasury, he had disgusted them +by vehemently defending all that he had himself, when out of place, +vehemently attacked. They had once looked up to the Speaker, Trevor; but +his greediness, impudence and venality were now so notorious that all +respectable gentlemen, of all shades of opinion, were ashamed to see him +in the chair. Of the old Tory members Sir Christopher Musgrave alone had +much weight. Indeed the real leaders of the party were two or three men +bred in principles diametrically opposed to Toryism, men who had carried +Whiggism to the verge of republicanism, and who had been considered not +merely as Low Churchmen, but as more than half Presbyterians. Of these +men the most eminent were two great Herefordshire squires, Robert Harley +and Paul Foley. + +The space which Robert Harley fills in the history of three reigns, +his elevation, his fall, the influence which, at a great crisis, he +exercised on the politics of all Europe, the close intimacy in which +he lived with some of the greatest wits and poets of his time, and the +frequent recurrence of his name in the works of Swift, Pope, Arbuthnot, +and Prior, must always make him an object of interest. Yet the man +himself was of all men the least interesting. There is indeed a +whimsical contrast between the very ordinary qualities of his mind and +the very extraordinary vicissitudes of his fortune. + +He was the heir of a Puritan family. His father, Sir Edward Harley, +had been conspicuous among the patriots of the Long parliament, had +commanded a regiment under Essex, had, after the Restoration, been an +active opponent of the Court, had supported the Exclusion Bill, had +harboured dissenting preachers, had frequented meetinghouses, and had +made himself so obnoxious to the ruling powers that at the time of the +Western Insurrection, he had been placed under arrest, and his house +had been searched for arms. When the Dutch army was marching from Torbay +towards London, he and his eldest son Robert declared for the Prince +of Orange and a free Parliament, raised a large body of horse, took +possession of Worcester, and evinced their zeal against Popery by +publicly breaking to pieces, in the High Street of that city, a piece +of sculpture which to rigid precisians seemed idolatrous. Soon after the +Convention became a Parliament, Robert Harley was sent up to Westminster +as member for a Cornish borough. His conduct was such as might have +been expected from his birth and education. He was a Whig, and indeed an +intolerant and vindictive Whig. Nothing would satisfy him but a general +proscription of the Tories. His name appears in the list of those +members who voted for the Sacheverell clause; and, at the general +election which took place in the spring of 1690, the party which he had +persecuted made great exertions to keep him out of the House of Commons. +A cry was raised that the Harleys were mortal enemies of the Church; and +this cry produced so much effect that it was with difficulty that any of +them could obtain a seat. Such was the commencement of the public life +of a man whose name, a quarter of a century later, was inseparably +coupled with the High Church in the acclamations of Jacobite mobs. [482] + +Soon, however, it began to be observed that in every division Harley +was in the company of those gentlemen who held his political opinions +in abhorrence; nor was this strange; for he affected the character of +a Whig of the old pattern; and before the Revolution it had always +been supposed that a Whig was a person who watched with jealousy every +exertion of the prerogative, who was slow to loose the strings of the +public purse, and who was extreme to mark the faults of the ministers +of the Crown. Such a Whig Harley still professed to be. He did not admit +that the recent change of dynasty had made any change in the duties of a +representative of the people. The new government ought to be observed as +suspiciously, checked as severely, and supplied as sparingly as the old +one. Acting on these principles he necessarily found himself acting +with men whose principles were diametrically opposed to his. He liked to +thwart the King; they liked to thwart the usurper; the consequence +was that, whenever there was an opportunity of thwarting William, the +Roundhead stayed in the House or went into the lobby in company with the +whole crowd of Cavaliers. + +Soon Harley acquired the authority of a leader among those with whom, +notwithstanding wide differences of opinion, he ordinarily voted. His +influence in Parliament was indeed altogether out of proportion to his +abilities. His intellect was both small and slow. He was unable to take +a large view of any subject. He never acquired the art of expressing +himself in public with fluency and perspicuity. To the end of his life +he remained a tedious, hesitating and confused speaker. [483] + +He had none of the external graces of an orator. His countenance was +heavy, his figure mean and somewhat deformed, and his gestures uncouth. +Yet he was heard with respect. For, such as his mind was, it had been +assiduously cultivated. His youth had been studious; and to the last he +continued to love books and the society of men of genius and learning. +Indeed he aspired to the character of a wit and a poet, and occasionally +employed hours which should have been very differently spent in +composing verses more execrable than the bellman's. [484] His time +however was not always so absurdly wasted. He had that sort of industry +and that sort of exactness which would have made him a respectable +antiquary or King at Arms. His taste led him to plod among old records; +and in that age it was only by plodding among old records that any +man could obtain an accurate and extensive knowledge of the law of +Parliament. Having few rivals in this laborious and unattractive +pursuit, he soon began to be regarded as an oracle on questions of form +and privilege. His moral character added not a little to his influence. +He had indeed great vices; but they were not of a scandalous kind. +He was not to be corrupted by money. His private life was regular. No +illicit amour was imputed to him even by satirists. Gambling he held +in aversion; and it was said that he never passed White's, then the +favourite haunt of noble sharpers and dupes, without an exclamation of +anger. His practice of flustering himself daily with claret was hardly +considered as a fault by his contemporaries. His knowledge, his gravity +and his independent position gained for him the ear of the House; and +even his bad speaking was, in some sense, an advantage to him. For +people are very loth to admit that the same man can unite very different +kinds of excellence. It is soothing to envy to believe that what is +splendid cannot be solid, that what is clear cannot be profound. Very +slowly was the public brought to acknowledge that Mansfield was a great +jurist, and that Burke was a great master of political science. Montague +was a brilliant rhetorician, and, therefore, though he had ten times +Harley's capacity for the driest parts of business, was represented by +detractors as a superficial, prating pretender. But from the absence of +show in Harley's discourses many people inferred that there must be +much substance; and he was pronounced to be a deep read, deep thinking +gentleman, not a fine talker, but fitter to direct affairs of state than +all the fine talkers in the world. This character he long supported with +that cunning which is frequently found in company with ambitious and +unquiet mediocrity. He constantly had, even with his best friends, an +air of mystery and reserve which seemed to indicate that he knew some +momentous secret, and that his mind was labouring with some vast design. +In this way he got and long kept a high reputation for wisdom. It was +not till that reputation had made him an Earl, a Knight of the Garter, +Lord High Treasurer of England, and master of the fate of Europe, that +his admirers began to find out that he was really a dull puzzleheaded +man. [485] + +Soon after the general election of 1690, Harley, generally voting with +the Tories, began to turn Tory. The change was so gradual as to be +almost imperceptible; but was not the less real. He early began to hold +the Tory doctrine that England ought to confine herself to a maritime +war. He early felt the true Tory antipathy to Dutchmen and to +moneyed men. The antipathy to Dissenters, which was necessary to +the completeness of the character, came much later. At length the +transformation was complete; and the old haunter of conventicles became +an intolerant High Churchman. Yet to the last the traces of his early +breeding would now and then show themselves; and, while he acted after +the fashion of Laud, he sometimes wrote in the style of Praise God +Barebones. [486] + +Of Paul Foley we know comparatively little. His history, up to a certain +point, greatly resembles that of Harley: but he appears to have been +superior to Harley both in parts and in elevation of character. He was +the son of Thomas Foley, a new man, but a. man of great merit, who, +having begun life with nothing, had created a noble estate by ironworks, +and who was renowned for his spotless integrity and his munificent +charity. The Foleys were, like their neighbours the Harleys, Whigs and +Puritans. Thomas Foley lived on terms of close intimacy with Baxter, in +whose writings he is mentioned with warm eulogy. The opinions and the +attachments of Paul Foley were at first those of his family. But be, +like Harley, became, merely from the vehemence of his Whiggism, an ally +of the Tories, and might, perhaps, like Harley, have been completely +metamorphosed into a Tory, if the process of transmutation had not been +interrupted by death. Foley's abilities were highly respectable, and had +been improved by education. He was so wealthy that it was unnecessary +for him to follow the law as a profession; but he had studied it +carefully as a science. His morals were without stain; and the greatest +fault which could be imputed to him was that he paraded his independence +and disinterestedness too ostentatiously, and was so much afraid of +being thought to fawn that he was always growling. + +Another convert ought to be mentioned. Howe, lately the most virulent +of the Whigs, had been, by the loss of his place, turned into one of the +most virulent of the Tories. The deserter brought to the party which he +had joined no weight of character, no capacity or semblance of capacity +for great affairs, but much parliamentary ability of a low kind, much +spite and much impudence. No speaker of that time seems to have had, in +such large measure, both the power and the inclination to give pain. + +The assistance of these men was most welcome to the Tory party; but it +was impossible that they could, as yet, exercise over that party the +entire authority of leaders. For they still called themselves Whigs, +and generally vindicated their Tory votes by arguments grounded on Whig +principles. [487] + +From this view of the state of parties in the House of Commons, it +seems clear that Sunderland had good reason for recommending that the +administration should be entrusted to the Whigs. The King, however, +hesitated long before he could bring himself to quit that neutral +position which he had long occupied between the contending parties. If +one of those parties was disposed to question his title, the other +was on principle hostile to his prerogative. He still remembered with +bitterness the unreasonable and vindictive conduct of the Convention +Parliament at the close of 1689 and the beginning of 1690; and he shrank +from the thought of being entirely in the hands of the men who had +obstructed the Bill of Indemnity, who had voted for the Sacheverell +clause, who had tried to prevent him from taking the command of his army +in Ireland, and who had called him an ungrateful tyrant merely because +he would not be their slave and their hangman. He had once, by a bold +and unexpected effort, freed himself from their yoke; and he was not +inclined to put it on his neck again. He personally disliked Wharton +and Russell. He thought highly of the capacity of Caermarthen, of +the integrity of Nottingham, of the diligence and financial skill of +Godolphin. It was only by slow degrees that the arguments of Sunderland, +backed by the force of circumstances, overcame all objections. + +On the seventh of November 1693 the Parliament met; and the conflict of +parties instantly began. William from the throne pressed on the Houses +the necessity of making a great exertion to arrest the progress of +France on the Continent. During the last campaign, he said, she had, on +every point, had a superiority of force; and it had therefore been found +impossible to cope with her. His allies had promised to increase their +armies; and he trusted that the Commons would enable him to do the same. +[488] + +The Commons at their next sitting took the King's speech into +consideration. The miscarriage of the Smyrna fleet was the chief subject +of discussion. The cry for inquiry was universal: but it was evident +that the two parties raised that cry for very different reasons. +Montague spoke the sense of the Whigs. He declared that the disasters of +the summer could not, in his opinion, be explained by the ignorance and +imbecility of those who had charge of the naval administration. There +must have been treason. It was impossible to believe that Lewis, when he +sent his Brest squadron to the Straits of Gibraltar, and left the whole +coast of his kingdom from Dunkirk to Bayonne unprotected, had trusted +merely to chance. He must have been well assured that his fleet +would meet with a vast booty under a feeble convoy. As there had been +treachery in some quarters, there had been incapacity in others. The +State was ill served. And then the orator pronounced a warm panegyric on +his friend Somers. "Would that all men in power would follow the example +of my Lord Keeper! If all patronage were bestowed as judiciously and +disinterestedly as his, we should not see the public offices filled with +men who draw salaries and perform no duties." It was moved and carried +unanimously, that the Commons would support their Majesties, and would +forthwith proceed to investigate the cause of the disaster in the Bay of +Lagos. [489] The Lords of the Admiralty were directed to produce a +great mass of documentary evidence. The King sent down copies of the +examinations taken before the Committee of Council which Mary had +appointed to inquire into the grievances of the Turkey merchants. The +Turkey merchants themselves were called in and interrogated. Rooke, +though too ill to stand or speak, was brought in a chair to the bar, +and there delivered in a narrative of his proceedings. The Whigs soon +thought that sufficient ground had been laid for a vote condemning the +naval administration, and moved a resolution attributing the miscarriage +of the Smyrna fleet to notorious and treacherous mismanagement. That +there had been mismanagement could not be disputed; but that there had +been foul play had certainly not been proved. The Tories proposed that +the word "treacherous" should be omitted. A division took place; and the +Whigs carried their point by a hundred and forty votes to a hundred and +three. Wharton was a teller for the majority. [490] + +It was now decided that there had been treason, but not who was the +traitor. Several keen debates followed. The Whigs tried to throw the +blame on Killegrew and Delaval, who were Tories; the Tories did their +best to make out that the fault lay with the Victualling Department, +which was under the direction of Whigs. But the House of Commons has +always been much more ready to pass votes of censure drawn in general +terms than to brand individuals by name. A resolution clearing the +Victualling Office was proposed by Montague, and carried, after a +debate of two days, by a hundred and eighty-eight votes to a hundred and +fifty-two. [491] But when the victorious party brought forward a motion +inculpating the admirals, the Tories came up in great numbers from the +country, and, after a debate which lasted from nine in the morning till +near eleven at night, succeeded in saving their friends. The Noes were a +hundred and seventy, and the Ayes only a hundred and sixty-one. Another +attack was made a few days later with no better success. The Noes were +a hundred and eighty-five, the Ayes only a hundred and seventy-five. The +indefatigable and implacable Wharton was on both occasions tellers for +the minority. [492] + +In spite of this check the advantage was decidedly with the Whigs; +The Tories who were at the head of the naval administration had indeed +escaped impeachment; but the escape had been so narrow that it was +impossible for the King to employ them any longer. The advice of +Sunderland prevailed. A new Commission of Admiralty was prepared; and +Russell was named First Lord. He had already been appointed to the +command of the Channel fleet. + +His elevation made it necessary that Nottingham should retire. For, +though it was not then unusual to see men who were personally and +politically hostile to each other holding high offices at the same time, +the relation between the First Lord of the Admiralty and the Secretary +of State, who had charge of what would now be called the War Department, +was of so peculiar a nature that the public service could not be +well conducted without cordial cooperation between them; and between +Nottingham and Russell such cooperation was not to be expected. "I thank +you," William said to Nottingham, "for your services. I have nothing to +complain of in your conduct. It is only from necessity that I part with +you." Nottingham retired with dignity. Though a very honest man, he went +out of office much richer than he had come in five years before. What +were then considered as the legitimate emoluments of his place were +great; he had sold Kensington House to the Crown for a large sum; and he +had probably, after the fashion of that time, obtained for himself +some lucrative grants. He laid out all his gains in purchasing land. He +heard, he said, that his enemies meant to accuse him of having acquired +wealth by illicit means. He was perfectly ready to abide the issue of +an inquiry. He would not, as some ministers had done, place his fortune +beyond the reach of the justice of his country. He would have no secret +hoard. He would invest nothing in foreign funds. His property should all +be such as could be readily discovered and seized. [493] + +During some weeks the seals which Nottingham had delivered up remained +in the royal closet. To dispose of them proved no easy matter. They were +offered to Shrewsbury, who of all the Whig leaders stood highest in the +King's favour; but Shrewsbury excused himself, and, in order to avoid +further importunity, retired into the country. There he soon received +a pressing letter from Elizabeth Villiers. This lady had, when a girl, +inspired William with a passion which had caused much scandal and much +unhappiness in the little Court of the Hague. Her influence over him she +owed not to her personal charms,--for it tasked all the art of Kneller +to make her look tolerably on canvass,--not to those talents which +peculiarly belong to her sex,--for she did not excel in playful talk, +and her letters are remarkably deficient in feminine ease and grace--, +but to powers of mind which qualified her to partake the cares and guide +the counsels of statesmen. To the end of her life great politicians +sought her advice. Even Swift, the shrewdest and most cynical of her +contemporaries, pronounced her the wisest of women, and more than once +sate, fascinated by her conversation, from two in the afternoon till +near midnight. [494] By degrees the virtues and charms of Mary conquered +the first place in her husband's affection. But he still, in difficult +conjunctures, frequently applied to Elizabeth Villiers for advice and +assistance. She now implored Shrewsbury to reconsider his determination, +and not to throw away the opportunity of uniting the Whig party for +ever. Wharton and Russell wrote to the same effect. In reply came +flimsy and unmeaning excuses: "I am not qualified for a court life; I +am unequal to a place which requires much exertion; I do not quite agree +with any party in the State; in short, I am unfit for the world; I +want to travel; I want to see Spain." These were mere pretences. Had +Shrewsbury spoken the whole truth, he would have said that he had, in +an evil hour, been false to the cause of that Revolution in which he had +borne so great a part, that he had entered into engagements of which he +repented, but from which he knew not how to extricate himself, and that, +while he remained under those engagements, he was unwilling to enter +into the service of the existing government. Marlborough, Godolphin and +Russell, indeed, had no scruple about corresponding with one King while +holding office under the other. But Shrewsbury had, what was wanting +to Marlborough, Godolphin and Russell, a conscience, a conscience which +indeed too often failed to restrain him from doing wrong, but which +never failed to punish him. [495] + +In consequence of his refusal to accept the Seals, the ministerial +arrangements which the King had planned were not carried into entire +effect till the end of the session. Meanwhile the proceedings of the two +Houses had been highly interesting and important. + +Soon after the Parliament met, the attention of the Commons was again +called to the state of the trade with India; and the charter which had +just been granted to the Old Company was laid before them. They would +probably have been disposed to sanction the new arrangement, which, in +truth, differed little from that which they had themselves suggested not +many months before, if the Directors had acted with prudence. But the +Directors, from the day on which they had obtained their charter, had +persecuted the interlopers without mercy, and had quite forgotten that +it was one thing to persecute interlopers in the Eastern Seas, and +another to persecute them in the port of London. Hitherto the war of the +monopolists against the private trade had been generally carried on at +the distance of fifteen thousand miles from England. If harsh things +were done, the English did not see them done, and did not hear of them +till long after they had been done; nor was it by any means easy to +ascertain at Westminster who had been right and who had been wrong in a +dispute which had arisen three or four years before at Moorshedabad or +Canton. With incredible rashness the Directors determined, at the very +moment when the fate of their company was in the balance, to give the +people of this country a near view of the most odious features of the +monopoly. Some wealthy merchants of London had equipped a fine ship +named the Redbridge. Her crew was numerous, her cargo of immense value. +Her papers had been made out for Alicant: but there was some reason to +suspect that she was really bound for the countries lying beyond the +Cape of Good Hope. She was stopped by the Admiralty, in obedience to an +order which the Company obtained from the Privy Council, doubtless by +the help of the Lord President. Every day that she lay in the Thames +caused a heavy expense to the owners. The indignation in the City was +great and general. The Company maintained that from the legality of the +monopoly the legality of the detention necessarily followed. The +public turned the argument round, and, being firmly convinced that the +detention was illegal, drew the inference that the monopoly must be +illegal too. The dispute was at the height when the Parliament met. +Petitions on both sides were speedily laid on the table of the +Commons; and it was resolved that these petitions should be taken into +consideration by a Committee of the whole House. The first question on +which the conflicting parties tried their strength was the choice of +a chairman. The enemies of the Old Company proposed Papillon, once the +closest ally and subsequently the keenest opponent of Child, and carried +their point by a hundred and thirty-eight votes to a hundred and six. +The Committee proceeded to inquire by what authority the Redbridge had +been stopped. One of her owners, Gilbert Heathcote, a rich merchant and +a stanch Whig, appeared at the bar as a witness. He was asked whether he +would venture to deny that the ship had really been fitted out for the +Indian trade. "It is no sin that I know of," he answered, "to trade +with India; and I shall trade with India till I am restrained by Act of +Parliament." Papillon reported that in the opinion of the Committee, the +detention of the Redbridge was illegal. The question was then put, that +the House would agree with the Committee. The friends of the Old Company +ventured on a second division, and were defeated by a hundred and +seventy-one votes to a hundred and twenty-five. [496] + +The blow was quickly followed up. A few days later it was moved that all +subjects of England had equal right to trade to the East Indies unless +prohibited by Act of Parliament; and the supporters of the Old Company, +sensible that they were in a minority, suffered the motion to pass +without a division. [497] + +This memorable vote settled the most important of the constitutional +questions which had been left unsettled by the Bill of Rights. It has +ever since been held to be the sound doctrine that no power but that +of the whole legislature can give to any person or to any society an +exclusive privilege of trading to any part of the world. + +The opinion of the great majority of the House of Commons was that the +Indian trade could be advantageously carried on only by means of a joint +stock and a monopoly. It might therefore have been expected that the +resolution which destroyed the monopoly of the Old Company would have +been immediately followed by a law granting a monopoly to the New +Company. No such law, however, was passed. The Old Company, though not +strong enough to defend its own privileges, was able, with the help +of its Tory friends, to prevent the rival association from obtaining +similar privileges. The consequence was that, during some years, there +was nominally a free trade with India. In fact, the trade still lay +under severe restrictions. The private adventurer found indeed no +difficulty in sailing from England; but his situation was as perilous as +ever when he had turned the Cape of Good Hope. Whatever respect might +be paid to a vote of the House of Commons by public functionaries in +London, such a vote was, at Bombay or Calcutta, much less regarded than +a private letter from Child; and Child still continued to fight the +battle with unbroken spirit. He sent out to the factories of the Company +orders that no indulgence should be shown to the intruders. For the +House of Commons and for its resolutions he expressed the bitterest +contempt. "Be guided by my instructions," he wrote, "and not by the +nonsense of a few ignorant country gentlemen who have hardly wit enough +to manage their own private affairs, and who know nothing at all about +questions of trade." It appears that his directions were obeyed. + +Every where in the East, during this period of anarchy, servant of the +Company and the independent merchant waged war on each other, accused +each other of piracy, and tried by every artifice to exasperate the +Mogul government against each other. [498] + +The three great constitutional questions of the preceding year were, in +this year, again brought under the consideration of Parliament. In the +first week of the session, a Bill for the Regulation of Trials in cases +of High Treason, a Triennial Bill, and a Place Bill were laid on the +table of the House of Commons. + +None of these bills became a law. The first passed the Commons, but was +unfavourably received by the Peers. William took so much interest in the +question that he came down to the House of Lords, not in his crown and +robes, but in the ordinary dress of a gentleman, and sate through the +whole debate on the second reading. Caermarthen spoke of the dangers to +which the State was at that time exposed, and entreated his brethren +not to give, at such a moment, impunity to traitors. He was powerfully +supported by two eminent orators, who had, during some years, been on +the uncourtly side of every question, but who, in this session, showed +a disposition to strengthen the hands of the government, Halifax and +Mulgrave. Marlborough, Rochester and Nottingham spoke for the bill; +but the general feeling was so clearly against them that they did not +venture to divide. It is probable, however, that the reasons urged by +Caermarthen were not the reasons which chiefly swayed his hearers. The +Peers were fully determined that the bill should not pass without a +clause altering the constitution of the Court of the Lord High Steward: +they knew that the Lower House was as fully determined not to pass +such a clause; and they thought it better that what must happen at last +should happen speedily, and without a quarrel. [499] + +The fate of the Triennial Bill confounded all the calculations of the +best informed politicians of that time, and may therefore well seem +extraordinary to us. During the recess, that bill had been described in +numerous pamphlets, written for the most part by persons zealous for the +Revolution and for popular principles of government, as the one thing +needful, as the universal cure for the distempers of the State. On the +first, second and third readings in the House of Commons no division +took place. The Whigs were enthusiastic. The Tories seemed to be +acquiescent. It was understood that the King, though he had used +his Veto for the purpose of giving the Houses an opportunity of +reconsidering the subject, had no intention of offering a pertinacious +opposition to their wishes. But Seymour, with a cunning which long +experience had matured, after deferring the conflict to the last moment, +snatched the victory from his adversaries, when they were most secure. +When the Speaker held up the bill in his hands, and put the question +whether it should pass, the Noes were a hundred and forty-six, the +Ayes only a hundred and thirty-six. [500] Some eager Whigs flattered +themselves that their defeat was the effect of a surprise, and might be +retrieved. Within three days, therefore, Monmouth, the most ardent and +restless man in the whole party, brought into the Upper House a bill +substantially the same with that which had so strangely miscarried in +the Lower. The Peers passed this bill very expeditiously, and sent +it down to the Commons. But in the Commons it found no favour. Many +members, who professed to wish that the duration of parliaments should +be limited, resented the interference of the hereditary branch of the +legislature in a matter which peculiarly concerned the elective branch. +The subject, they said, is one which especially belongs to us; we +have considered it; we have come to a decision; and it is scarcely +parliamentary, it is certainly most indelicate, in their Lordships, to +call upon us to reverse that decision. The question now is, not whether +the duration of parliaments ought to be limited, but whether we ought +to submit our judgment to the authority of the Peers, and to rescind, +at their bidding, what we did only a fortnight ago. The animosity with +which the patrician order was regarded was inflamed by the arts and the +eloquence of Seymour. The bill contained a definition of the words, +"to hold a Parliament." This definition was scrutinised with extreme +jealousy, and was thought by many, with very little reason, to have been +framed for the purpose of extending the privileges, already invidiously +great, of the nobility. It appears, from the scanty and obscure +fragments of the debates which have come down to us, that bitter +reflections were thrown on the general conduct, both political and +judicial, of the Peers. Old Titus, though zealous for triennial +parliaments, owned that he was not surprised at the ill humour which +many gentlemen showed. "It is true," he said, "that we ought to be +dissolved; but it is rather hard, I must own, that the Lords are to +prescribe the time of our dissolution. The Apostle Paul wished to be +dissolved; but, I doubt, if his friends had set him a day, he would not +have taken it kindly of them." The bill was rejected by a hundred and +ninety-seven votes to a hundred and twenty-seven. [501] + +The Place Bill, differing very little from the Place Bill which had been +brought in twelve months before, passed easily through the Commons. +Most of the Tories supported it warmly; and the Whigs did not venture +to oppose it. It went up to the Lords, and soon came back completely +changed. As it had been originally drawn, it provided that no member of +the House of Commons, elected after the first of January, 1694, should +accept any place of profit under the Crown, on pain of forfeiting his +seat, and of being incapable of sitting again in the same Parliament. +The Lords had added the words, "unless he be afterwards again chosen to +serve in the same Parliament." These words, few as they were, sufficed +to deprive the bill of nine tenths of its efficacy, both for good and +for evil. It was most desirable that the crowd of subordinate public +functionaries should be kept out of the House of Commons. It was most +undesirable that the heads of the great executive departments should be +kept out of that House. The bill, as altered, left that House open both +to those who ought and to those who ought not to have been admitted. It +very properly let in the Secretaries of State and the Chancellor of the +Exchequer; but it let in with them Commissioners of Wine Licenses and +Commissioners of the Navy, Receivers, Surveyors, Storekeepers, Clerks of +the Acts and Clerks of the Cheque, Clerks of the Green Cloth and Clerks +of the Great Wardrobe. So little did the Commons understand what they +were about that, after framing a law, in one view most mischievous, and +in another view most beneficial, they were perfectly willing that it +should be transformed into a law quite harmless and almost useless. +They agreed to the amendment; and nothing was now wanting but the royal +sanction. + +That sanction certainly ought not to have been withheld, and probably +would not have been withheld, if William had known how unimportant the +bill now was. But he understood the question as little as the Commons +themselves. He knew that they imagined that they had devised a most +stringent limitation of the royal power; and he was determined not to +submit, without a struggle, to any such limitation. He was encouraged by +the success with which he had hitherto resisted the attempts of the two +Houses to encroach on his prerogative. He had refused to pass the bill +which quartered the judges on his hereditary revenue; and the Parliament +had silently acquiesced in the justice of the refusal. He had refused +to pass the Triennial Bill; and the Commons had since, by rejecting two +Triennial Bills, acknowledged that he had done well. He ought, however, +to have considered that, on both these occasions, the announcement +of his refusal was immediately followed by the announcement that the +Parliament was prorogued. On both these occasions, therefore, the +members had half a year to think and to grow cool before the next +sitting. The case was now very different. The principal business of +the session was hardly begun: estimates were still under consideration: +bills of supply were still depending; and, if the Houses should take a +fit of ill humour, the consequences might be serious indeed. + +He resolved, however, to run the risk. Whether he had any adviser is not +known. His determination seems to have taken both the leading Whigs and +the leading Tories by surprise. When the Clerk had proclaimed that the +King and Queen would consider of the bill touching free and impartial +proceedings in Parliament, the Commons retired from the bar of the Lords +in a resentful and ungovernable mood. As soon as the Speaker was again +in his chair there was a long and tempestuous debate. All other business +was postponed. All committees were adjourned. It was resolved that the +House would, early the next morning, take into consideration the state +of the nation. When the morning came, the excitement did not appear to +have abated. The mace was sent into Westminster Hall and into the Court +of Requests. All members who could be found were brought into the House. +That none might be able to steal away unnoticed, the back door was +locked, and the key laid on the table. All strangers were ordered to +retire. With these solemn preparations began a sitting which reminded a +few old men of some of the first sittings of the Kong Parliament. High +words were uttered by the enemies of the government. Its friends, afraid +of being accused of abandoning the cause of the Commons of England +for the sake of royal favour, hardly ventured to raise their voices. +Montague alone seems to have defended the King. Lowther, though high +in office and a member of the cabinet, owned that there were evil +influences at work, and expressed a wish to see the Sovereign surrounded +by counsellors in whom the representatives of the people could confide. +Harley, Foley and Howe carried every thing before them. A resolution, +affirming that those who had advised the Crown on this occasion were +public enemies, was carried with only two or three Noes. Harley, after +reminding his hearers that they had their negative voice as the King had +his, and that, if His Majesty refused then redress, they could refuse +him money, moved that they should go up to the Throne, not, as usual, +with a Humble Address, but with a Representation. Some members proposed +to substitute the more respectful word Address: but they were overruled; +and a committee was appointed to draw up the Representation. + +Another night passed; and, when the House met again, it appeared that +the storm had greatly subsided. The malignant joy and the wild hopes +which the Jacobites had, during the last forty-eight hours, expressed +with their usual imprudence, had incensed and alarmed the Whigs and +the moderate Tories. Many members too were frightened by hearing that +William was fully determined not to yield without an appeal to the +nation. Such an appeal might have been successful: for a dissolution, on +any ground whatever, would, at that moment, have been a highly popular +exercise of the prerogative. The constituent bodies, it was well known, +were generally zealous for the Triennial Bill, and cared comparatively +little about the Place Bill. Many Tory members, therefore, who had +recently voted against the Triennial Bill, were by no means desirous +to run the risks of a general election. When the Representation which +Harley and his friends had prepared was read, it was thought offensively +strong. After being recommitted, shortened and softened, it was +presented by the whole House. William's answer was kind and gentle; +but he conceded nothing. He assured the Commons that he remembered with +gratitude the support which he had on many occasions received from them, +that he should always consider their advice as most valuable, and that +he should look on counsellors who might attempt to raise dissension +between him and his Parliament as his enemies but he uttered not a word +which could be construed into an acknowledgment that he had used his +Veto ill, or into a promise that he would not use it again. + +The Commons on the morrow took his speech into consideration. Harley +and his allies complained that the King's answer was no answer at all, +threatened to tack the Place Bill to a money bill, and proposed to make +a second representation pressing His Majesty to explain himself more +distinctly. But by this time there was a strong reflux of feeling in the +assembly. The Whigs had not only recovered from their dismay, but were +in high spirits and eager for conflict. Wharton, Russell and Littleton +maintained that the House ought to be satisfied with what the King had +said. "Do you wish," said Littleton, "to make sport for your enemies? +There is no want of them. They besiege our very doors. We read, as we +come through the lobby, in the face and gestures of every nonjuror whom +we pass, delight at the momentary coolness which has arisen between us +and the King. That should be enough for us. We may be sure that we are +voting rightly when we give a vote which tends to confound the hopes of +traitors." The House divided. Harley was a teller on one side, Wharton +on the other. Only eighty-eight voted with Harley, two hundred and +twenty-nine with Wharton. The Whigs were so much elated by their victory +that some of them wished to move a vote of thanks to William for his +gracious answer; but they were restrained by wiser men. "We have lost +time enough already in these unhappy debates," said a leader of the +party. "Let us get to Ways and Means as fast as we can. The best form +which our thanks can take is that of a money bill." + +Thus ended, more happily than William had a right to expect, one of the +most dangerous contests in which he ever engaged with his Parliament. +At the Dutch Embassy the rising and going down of this tempest had been +watched with intense interest; and the opinion there seems to have been +that the King had on the whole lost neither power nor popularity by his +conduct. [502] + +Another question, which excited scarcely less angry feeling in +Parliament and in the country, was, about the same time, under +consideration. On the sixth of December, a Whig member of the House +of Commons obtained leave to bring in a bill for the Naturalisation of +Foreign Protestants. Plausible arguments in favour of such a bill +were not wanting. Great numbers of people, eminently industrious and +intelligent, firmly attached to our faith, and deadly enemies of our +deadly enemies, were at that time without a country. Among the Huguenots +who had fled from the tyranny of the French King were many persons of +great fame in war, in letters, in arts and in sciences; and even the +humblest refugees were intellectually and morally above the average of +the common people of any kingdom in Europe. With French Protestants +who had been driven into exile by the edicts of Lewis were now mingled +German Protestants who had been driven into exile by his arms. Vienna, +Berlin, Basle, Hamburg, Amsterdam, London, swarmed with honest laborious +men who had once been thriving burghers of Heidelberg or Mannheim, +or who had cultivated vineyards along the banks of the Neckar and the +Rhine. A statesman might well think that it would be at once generous +and politic to invite to the English shores and to incorporate with +the English people emigrants so unfortunate and so respectable. Their +ingenuity and their diligence could not fail to enrich any land which +should afford them an asylum; nor could it be doubted that they would +manfully defend the country of their adoption against him whose cruelty +had driven them from the country of their birth. + +The first two readings passed without a division. But, on the motion +that the bill should be committed, there was a debate in which the +right of free speech was most liberally used by the opponents of the +government. It was idle, they said, to talk about the poor Huguenots or +the poor Palatines. The bill was evidently meant for the benefit, not of +French Protestants or German Protestants, but of Dutchmen, who would be +Protestants, Papists or Pagans for a guilder a head, and who would, no +doubt, be as ready to sign the Declaration against Transubstantiation +in England as to trample on the Cross in Japan. They would come over in +multitudes. They would swarm in every public office. They would collect +the customs, and gauge the beer barrels. Our Navigation Laws would be +virtually repealed. Every merchant ship that cleared out from the +Thames or the Severn would be manned by Zealanders and Hollanders and +Frieslanders. To our own sailors would be left the hard and perilous +service of the royal navy. For Hans, after filling the pockets of his +huge trunk hose with our money by assuming the character of a native, +would, as soon as a pressgang appeared, lay claim to the privileges of +an alien. The intruders would soon rule every corporation. They would +elbow our own Aldermen off the Royal Exchange. They would buy the +hereditary woods and halls of our country gentlemen. Already one of the +most noisome of the plagues of Egypt was among us. Frogs had made their +appearance even in the royal chambers. Nobody could go to Saint James's +without being disgusted by hearing the reptiles of the Batavian marshes +croaking all round him; and if this bill should pass, the whole country +would be as much infested by the loathsome brood as the palace already +was. + +The orator who indulged himself most freely in this sort of rhetoric +was Sir John Knight, member for Bristol, a coarseminded and spiteful +Jacobite, who, if he had been an honest man, would have been a nonjuror. +Two years before, when Mayor of Bristol, he had acquired a discreditable +notoriety by treating with gross disrespect a commission sealed with the +great seal of the Sovereigns to whom he had repeatedly sworn allegiance, +and by setting on the rabble of his city to hoot and pelt the Judges. +[503] He now concluded a savage invective by desiring that the +Serjeant at Arms would open the doors, in order that the odious roll of +parchment, which was nothing less than a surrender of the birthright +of the English people, might be treated with proper contumely. "Let us +first," he said, "kick the bill out of the House; and then let us kick +the foreigners out of the kingdom." + +On a division the motion for committing the bill was carried by a +hundred and sixty-three votes to a hundred and twenty-eight. [504] But +the minority was zealous and pertinacious; and the majority speedily +began to waver. Knight's speech, retouched and made more offensive, soon +appeared in print without a license. Tens of thousands of copies were +circulated by the post, or dropped in the streets; and such was the +strength of national prejudice that too many persons read this ribaldry +with assent and admiration. But, when a copy was produced in the House, +there was such an outbreak of indignation and disgust, as cowed even the +impudent and savage nature of the orator. Finding himself in imminent +danger of being expelled and sent to prison, he apologized, and +disclaimed all knowledge of the paper which purported to be a report +of what he had said. He escaped with impunity; but his speech was voted +false, scandalous and seditious, and was burned by the hangman in Palace +Yard. The bill which had caused all this ferment was prudently suffered +to drop. [505] + +Meanwhile the Commons were busied with financial questions of grave +importance. The estimates for the year 1694 were enormous. The King +proposed to add to the regular army, already the greatest regular army +that England had ever supported, four regiments of dragoons, eight of +horse, and twenty-five of infantry. The whole number of men, officers +included, would thus be increased to about ninety-four thousand. [506] +Cromwell, while holding down three reluctant kingdoms, and making +vigorous war on Spain in Europe and America, had never had two thirds of +the military force which William now thought necessary. The great body +of the Tories, headed by three Whig chiefs, Harley, Foley and Howe, +opposed any augmentation. The great body of the Whigs, headed by +Montague and Wharton, would have granted all that was asked. After many +long discussions, and probably many close divisions, in the Committee +of Supply, the King obtained the greater part of what he demanded. The +House allowed him four new regiments of dragoons, six of horse, and +fifteen of infantry. The whole number of troops voted for the year +amounted to eighty-three thousand, the charge to more than two millions +and a half, including about two hundred thousand pounds for the +ordnance. [507] + +The naval estimates passed much more rapidly; for Whigs and Tories +agreed in thinking that the maritime ascendency of England ought to +be maintained at any cost. Five hundred thousand pounds were voted for +paying the arrears due to seamen, and two millions for the expenses of +the year 1694. [508] + +The Commons then proceeded to consider the Ways and Means. The land +tax was renewed at four shillings in the pound; and by this simple but +powerful machinery about two millions were raised with certainty and +despatch. [509] A poll tax was imposed. [510] Stamp duties had long been +among the fiscal resources of Holland and France, and had existed here +during part of the reign of Charles the Second, but had been suffered +to expire. They were now revived; and they have ever since formed an +important part of the revenue of the State. [511] The hackney coaches +of the capital were taxed, and were placed under the government of +commissioners, in spite of the resistance of the wives of the coachmen, +who assembled round Westminster Hall and mobbed the members. [512] +But, notwithstanding all these expedients, there was still a large +deficiency; and it was again necessary to borrow. A new duty on salt and +some other imposts of less importance were set apart to form a fund for +a loan. On the security of this fund a million was to be raised by a +lottery, but a lottery which had scarcely any thing but the name in +common with the lotteries of a later period. The sum to be contributed +was divided into a hundred thousand shares of ten pounds each. The +interest on each share was to be twenty shillings annually, or, in +other words, ten per cent., during sixteen years. But ten per cent. for +sixteen years was not a bait which was likely to attract lenders. An +additional lure was therefore held out to capitalists. On one fortieth +of the shares much higher interest was to be paid than on the other +thirty-nine fortieths. Which of the shares should be prizes was to be +determined by lot. The arrangements for the drawing of the tickets were +made by an adventurer of the name of Neale, who, after squandering away +two fortunes, had been glad to become groom porter at the palace. His +duties were to call the odds when the Court played at hazard, to provide +cards and dice, and to decide any dispute which might arise on the +bowling green or at the gaming table. He was eminently skilled in +the business of this not very exalted post, and had made such sums by +raffles that he was able to engage in very costly speculations, and was +then covering the ground round the Seven Dials with buildings. He was +probably the best adviser that could have been consulted about the +details of a lottery. Yet there were not wanting persons who thought +it hardly decent in the Treasury to call in the aid of a gambler by +profession. [513] + +By the lottery loan, as it was called, one million was obtained. But +another million was wanted to bring the estimated revenue for the year +1694 up to a level with the estimated expenditure. The ingenious and +enterprising Montague had a plan ready, a plan to which, except under +the pressure of extreme pecuniary difficulties, he might not easily +have induced the Commons to assent, but which, to his large and vigorous +mind, appeared to have advantages, both commercial and political, more +important than the immediate relief to the finances. He succeeded, +not only in supplying the wants of the State for twelve months, but +in creating a great institution, which, after the lapse of more than a +century and a half, continues to flourish, and which he lived to see +the stronghold, through all vicissitudes, of the Whig party, and the +bulwark, in dangerous times, of the Protestant succession. + +In the reign of William old men were still living who could remember the +days when there was not a single banking house in the city of London. So +late as the time of the Restoration every trader had his own strong box +in his own house, and, when an acceptance was presented to him, told +down the crowns and Caroluses on his own counter. But the increase +of wealth had produced its natural effect, the subdivision of labour. +Before the end of the reign of Charles the Second, a new mode of paying +and receiving money had come into fashion among the merchants of the +capital. A class of agents arose, whose office was to keep the cash of +the commercial houses. This new branch of business naturally fell into +the hands of the goldsmiths, who were accustomed to traffic largely in +the precious metals, and who had vaults in which great masses of bullion +could lie secure from fire and from robbers. It was at the shops of the +goldsmiths of Lombard Street that all the payments in coin were made. +Other traders gave and received nothing but paper. + +This great change did not take place without much opposition and +clamour. Oldfashioned merchants complained bitterly that a class of +men who, thirty years before, had confined themselves to their proper +functions, and had made a fair profit by embossing silver bowls and +chargers, by setting jewels for fine ladies, and by selling pistoles +and dollars to gentlemen setting out for the Continent, had become the +treasurers, and were fast becoming the masters, of the whole City. These +usurers, it was said, played at hazard with what had been earned by the +industry and hoarded by the thrift of other men. If the dice turned up +well, the knave who kept the cash became an alderman; if they turned +up ill, the dupe who furnished the cash became a bankrupt. On the other +side the conveniences of the modern practice were set forth in animated +language. The new system, it was said, saved both labour and money. Two +clerks, seated in one counting house, did what, under the old system, +must have been done by twenty clerks in twenty different establishments. +A goldsmith's note might be transferred ten times in a morning; and thus +a hundred guineas, locked in his safe close to the Exchange, did what +would formerly have required a thousand guineas, dispersed through many +tills, some on Ludgate Hill, some in Austin Friars, and some in Tower +Street. [514] + +Gradually even those who had been loudest in murmuring against the +innovation gave way and conformed to the prevailing usage. The last +person who held out, strange to say, was Sir Dudley North. When, in +1680, after residing many years abroad, he returned to London, nothing +astonished or displeased him more than the practice of making payments +by drawing bills on bankers. He found that he could not go on Change +without being followed round the piazza by goldsmiths, who, with low +bows, begged to have the honour of serving him. He lost his temper when +his friends asked where he kept his cash. "Where should I keep it," he +asked, "but in my own house?" With difficulty he was induced to put +his money into the hands of one of the Lombard Street men, as they +were called. Unhappily, the Lombard Street man broke, and some of his +customers suffered severely. Dudley North lost only fifty pounds; but +this loss confirmed him in his dislike of the whole mystery of banking. +It was in vain, however, that he exhorted his fellow citizens to return +to the good old practice, and not to expose themselves to utter ruin in +order to spare themselves a little trouble. He stood alone against the +whole community. The advantages of the modern system were felt every +hour of every day in every part of London; and people were no more +disposed to relinquish those advantages for fear of calamities which +occurred at long intervals than to refrain from building houses for fear +of fires, or from building ships for fear of hurricanes. It is a curious +circumstance that a man who, as a theorist, was distinguished from +all the merchants of his time by the largeness of his views and by +his superiority to vulgar prejudices, should, in practice, have been +distinguished from all the merchants of his time by the obstinacy with +which he adhered to an ancient mode of doing business, long after the +dullest and most ignorant plodders had abandoned that mode for one +better suited to a great commercial society. [515] + +No sooner had banking become a separate and important trade, than men +began to discuss with earnestness the question whether it would be +expedient to erect a national bank. The general opinion seems to have +been decidedly in favour of a national bank; nor can we wonder at this; +for few were then aware that trade is in general carried on to much more +advantage by individuals than by great societies; and banking really is +one of those few trades which can be carried on to as much advantage +by a great society as by an individual. Two public banks had long been +renowned throughout Europe, the Bank of Saint George at Genoa, and the +Bank of Amsterdam. The immense wealth which was in the keeping of those +establishments, the confidence which they inspired, the prosperity +which they had created, their stability, tried by panics, by wars, by +revolutions, and found proof against all, were favourite topics. The +bank of Saint George had nearly completed its third century. It had +begun to receive deposits and to make loans before Columbus had crossed +the Atlantic, before Gama had turned the Cape, when a Christian Emperor +was reigning at Constantinople, when a Mahomedan Sultan was reigning at +Granada, when Florence was a Republic, when Holland obeyed a hereditary +Prince. All these things had been changed. New continents and new oceans +had been discovered. The Turk was at Constantinople; the Castilian was +at Granada; Florence had its hereditary Prince; Holland was a Republic; +but the Bank of Saint George was still receiving deposits and making +loans. The Bank of Amsterdam was little more than eighty years old; +but its solvency had stood severe tests. Even in the terrible crisis +of 1672, when the whole Delta of the Rhine was overrun by the French +armies, when the white flags were seen from the top of the Stadthouse, +there was one place where, amidst the general consternation and +confusion, tranquillity and order were still to be found; and that +place was the Bank. Why should not the Bank of London be as great and +as durable as the Banks of Genoa and of Amsterdam? Before the end of +the reign of Charles the Second several plans were proposed, examined, +attacked and defended. Some pamphleteers maintained that a national bank +ought to be under the direction of the King. Others thought that the +management ought to be entrusted to the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Common +Council of the capital. [516] After the Revolution the subject was +discussed with an animation before unknown. For, under the influence +of liberty, the breed of political projectors multiplied exceedingly. +A crowd of plans, some of which resemble the fancies of a child or the +dreams of a man in a fever, were pressed on the government. Preeminently +conspicuous among the political mountebanks, whose busy faces were seen +every day in the lobby of the House of Commons, were John Briscoe and +Hugh Chamberlayne, two projectors worthy to have been members of that +Academy which Gulliver found at Lagado. These men affirmed that the one +cure for every distemper of the State was a Land Bank. A Land Bank would +work for England miracles such as had never been wrought for Israel, +miracles exceeding the heaps of quails and the daily shower of manna. +There would be no taxes; and yet the Exchequer would be full to +overflowing. There would be no poor rates; for there would be no poor. +The income of every landowner would be doubled. The profits of every +merchant would be increased. In short, the island would, to use +Briscoe's words, be the paradise of the world. The only losers would be +the moneyed men, those worst enemies of the nation, who had done more +injury to the gentry and yeomanry than an invading army from France +would have had the heart to do. [517] + +These blessed effects the Land Bank was to produce simply by issuing +enormous quantities of notes on landed security. The doctrine of the +projectors was that every person who had real property ought to have, +besides that property, paper money to the full value of that property. +Thus, if his estate was worth two thousand pounds, he ought to have his +estate and two thousand pounds in paper money. [518] Both Briscoe and +Chamberlayne treated with the greatest contempt the notion that there +could be an overissue of paper as long as there was, for every ten pound +note, a piece of land in the country worth ten pounds. Nobody, they +said, would accuse a goldsmith of overissuing as long as his vaults +contained guineas and crowns to the full value of all the notes which +bore his signature. Indeed no goldsmith had in his vaults guineas and +crowns to the full value of all his paper. And was not a square mile of +rich land in Taunton Dean at least as well entitled to be called wealth +as a bag of gold or silver? The projectors could not deny that many +people had a prejudice in favour of the precious metals, and that +therefore, if the Land Bank were bound to cash its notes, it would very +soon stop payment. This difficulty they got over by proposing that the +notes should be inconvertible, and that every body should be forced to +take them. + +The speculations of Chamberlayne on the subject of the currency may +possibly find admirers even in our own time. But to his other errors +he added an error which began and ended with him. He was fool enough to +take it for granted, in all his reasonings, that the value of an estate +varied directly as the duration. He maintained that if the annual income +derived from a manor were a thousand pounds, a grant of that manor for +twenty years must be worth twenty thousand pounds, and a grant for a +hundred years worth a hundred thousand pounds. If, therefore, the lord +of such a manor would pledge it for a hundred years to the Land Bank, +the Land Bank might, on that security, instantly issue notes for a +hundred thousand pounds. On this subject Chamberlayne was proof to +ridicule, to argument, even to arithmetical demonstration. He was +reminded that the fee simple of land would not sell for more than twenty +years' purchase. To say, therefore, that a term of a hundred years was +worth five times as much as a term of twenty years, was to say that a +term of a hundred years was worth five times the fee simple; in other +words, that a hundred was five times infinity. Those who reasoned thus +were refuted by being told that they were usurers; and it should +seem that a large number of country gentlemen thought the refutation +complete. [519] + +In December 1693 Chamberlayne laid his plan, in all its naked absurdity, +before the Commons, and petitioned to be heard. He confidently undertook +to raise eight thousand pounds on every freehold estate of a hundred and +fifty pounds a year which should be brought, as he expressed it, into +his Land Bank, and this without dispossessing the freeholder. [520] All +the squires in the House must have known that the fee simple of such an +estate would hardly fetch three thousand pounds in the market. That less +than the fee simple of such an estate could, by any device, be made to +produce eight thousand pounds, would, it might have been thought, have +seemed incredible to the most illiterate foxhunter that could be found +on the benches. Distress, however, and animosity had made the landed +gentlemen credulous. They insisted on referring Chamberlayne's plan to a +committee; and the committee reported that the plan was practicable, +and would tend to the benefit of the nation. [521] But by this time +the united force of demonstration and derision had begun to produce an +effect even on the most ignorant rustics in the House. The report +lay unnoticed on the table; and the country was saved from a calamity +compared with which the defeat of Landen and the loss of the Smyrna +fleet would have been blessings. + +All the projectors of this busy time, however, were not so absurd as +Chamberlayne. One among them, William Paterson, was an ingenious, though +not always a judicious, speculator. Of his early life little is known +except that he was a native of Scotland, and that he had been in the +West Indies. In what character he had visited the West Indies was a +matter about which his contemporaries differed. His friends said that +he had been a missionary; his enemies that he had been a buccaneer. He +seems to have been gifted by nature with fertile invention, an ardent +temperament and great powers of persuasion, and to have acquired +somewhere in the course of his vagrant life a perfect knowledge of +accounts. + +This man submitted to the government, in 1691, a plan of a national +bank; and his plan was favourably received both by statesmen and by +merchants. But years passed away; and nothing was done, till, in the +spring of 1694, it became absolutely necessary to find some new mode of +defraying the charges of the war. Then at length the scheme devised +by the poor and obscure Scottish adventurer was taken up in earnest by +Montague. With Montague was closely allied Michael Godfrey, the brother +of that Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey whose sad and mysterious death had, +fifteen years before, produced a terrible outbreak of popular feeling. +Michael was one of the ablest, most upright and most opulent of the +merchant princes of London. He was, as might have been expected from his +near connection with the martyr of the Protestant faith, a zealous +Whig. Some of his writings are still extant, and prove him to have had a +strong and clear mind. + +By these two distinguished men Paterson's scheme was fathered. Montague +undertook to manage the House of Commons, Godfrey to manage the City. An +approving vote was obtained from the Committee of Ways and Means; and a +bill, the title of which gave occasion to many sarcasms, was laid on the +table. It was indeed not easy to guess that a bill, which purported +only to impose a new duty on tonnage for the benefit of such persons +as should advance money towards carrying on the war, was really a bill +creating the greatest commercial institution that the world had ever +seen. + +The plan was that twelve hundred thousand pounds should be borrowed by +the government on what was then considered as the moderate interest +of eight per cent. In order to induce capitalists to advance the money +promptly on terms so favourable to the public, the subscribers were to +be incorporated by the name of the Governor and Company of the Bank of +England. The corporation was to have no exclusive privilege, and was to +be restricted from trading in any thing but bills of exchange, bullion +and forfeited pledges. + +As soon as the plan became generally known, a paper war broke out as +furious as that between the swearers and the nonswearers, or as that +between the Old East India Company and the New East India Company. The +projectors who had failed to gain the ear of the government fell +like madmen on their more fortunate brother. All the goldsmiths and +pawnbrokers set up a howl of rage. Some discontented Tories predicted +ruin to the monarchy. It was remarkable, they said, that Banks and Kings +had never existed together. Banks were republican institutions. There +were flourishing banks at Venice, at Genoa, at Amsterdam and at Hamburg. +But who had ever heard of a Bank of France or a Bank of Spain? [522] +Some discontented Whigs, on the other hand, predicted ruin to our +liberties. Here, they said, is an instrument of tyranny more formidable +than the High Commission, than the Star Chamber, than even the fifty +thousand soldiers of Oliver. The whole wealth of the nation will be in +the hands of the Tonnage Bank,--such was the nickname then in use;--and +the Tonnage Bank will be in the hands of the Sovereign. The power of the +purse, the one great security for all the rights of Englishmen, will be +transferred from the House of Commons to the Governor and Directors of +the new Company. This last consideration was really of some weight, and +was allowed to be so by the authors of the bill. A clause was therefore +most properly inserted which inhibited the Bank from advancing money to +the Crown without authority from Parliament. Every infraction of this +salutary rule was to be punished by forfeiture of three times the sum +advanced; and it was provided that the King should not have power to +remit any part of the penalty. + +The plan, thus amended, received the sanction of the Commons more easily +than might have been expected from the violence of the adverse clamour. +In truth, the Parliament was under duress. Money must be had, and could +in no other way be had so easily. What took place when the House had +resolved itself into a committee cannot be discovered; but, while the +Speaker was in the chair, no division took place. The bill, however, was +not safe when it had reached the Upper House. Some Lords suspected that +the plan of a national bank had been devised for the purpose of exalting +the moneyed interest at the expense of the landed interest. Others +thought that this plan, whether good or bad, ought not to have been +submitted to them in such a form. Whether it would be safe to call into +existence a body which might one day rule the whole commercial world, +and how such a body should be constituted, were questions which ought +not to be decided by one branch of the Legislature. The Peers ought to +be at perfect liberty to examine all the details of the proposed scheme, +to suggest amendments, to ask for conferences. It was therefore most +unfair that the law establishing the Bank should be sent up as part of a +law granting supplies to the Crown. The Jacobites entertained some hope +that the session would end with a quarrel between the Houses, that the +Tonnage Bill would be lost, and that William would enter on the campaign +without money. It was already May, according to the New Style. The +London season was over; and many noble families had left Covent Garden +and Soho Square for their woods and hayfields. But summonses were sent +out. There was a violent rush back to town. The benches which had lately +been deserted were crowded. The sittings began at an hour unusually +early, and were prolonged to an hour unusually late. On the day on which +the bill was committed the contest lasted without intermission from +nine in the morning till six in the evening. Godolphin was in the chair. +Nottingham and Rochester proposed to strike out all the clauses which +related to the Bank. Something was said about the danger of setting up a +gigantic corporation which might soon give law to the King and the +three Estates of the Realm. But the Peers seemed to be most moved by +the appeal which was made to them as landlords. The whole scheme, it was +asserted, was intended to enrich usurers at the expense of the nobility +and gentry. Persons who had laid by money would rather put it into the +Bank than lend it on mortgage at moderate interest. Caermarthen said +little or nothing in defence of what was, in truth, the work of his +rivals and enemies. He owned that there were grave objections to the +mode in which the Commons had provided for the public service of the +year. But would their Lordships amend a money bill? Would they engage in +a contest of which the end must be that they must either yield, or incur +the grave responsibility of leaving the Channel without a fleet during +the summer? This argument prevailed; and, on a division, the amendment +was rejected by forty-three votes to thirty-one. A few hours later the +bill received the royal assent, and the Parliament was prorogued. [523] +In the City the success of Montague's plan was complete. It was then at +least as difficult to raise a million at eight per cent. as it would now +be to raise thirty millions at four per cent. It had been supposed that +contributions would drop in very slowly; and a considerable time had +therefore been allowed by the Act. This indulgence was not needed. So +popular was the new investment that on the day on which the books were +opened three hundred thousand pounds were subscribed; three hundred +thousand more were subscribed during the next forty-eight hours; and, +in ten days, to the delight of all the friends of the government, it was +announced that the list was full. The whole sum which the Corporation +was bound to lend to the State was paid into the Exchequer before the +first instalment was due. [524] Somers gladly put the Great Seal to a +charter framed in conformity with the terms prescribed by Parliament; +and the Bank of England commenced its operations in the house of the +Company of Grocers. There, during many years, directors, secretaries and +clerks might be seen labouring in different parts of one spacious hall. +The persons employed by the bank were originally only fifty-four. They +are now nine hundred. The sum paid yearly in salaries amounted at first +to only four thousand three hundred and fifty pounds. It now exceeds two +hundred and ten thousand pounds. We may therefore fairly infer that the +incomes of commercial clerks are, on an average, about three times as +large in the reign of Victoria as they were in the reign of William the +Third. [525] + +It soon appeared that Montague had, by skilfully availing himself of the +financial difficulties of the country, rendered an inestimable service +to his party. During several generations the Bank of England +was emphatically a Whig body. It was Whig, not accidentally, but +necessarily. It must have instantly stopped payment if it had ceased to +receive the interest on the sum which it had advanced to the government; +and of that interest James would not have paid one farthing. Seventeen +years after the passing of the Tonnage Bill, Addison, in one of his most +ingenious and graceful little allegories, described the situation of the +great Company through which the immense wealth of London was constantly +circulating. He saw Public Credit on her throne in Grocers' Hall, the +Great Charter over her head, the Act of Settlement full in her view. Her +touch turned every thing to gold. Behind her seat, bags filled with coin +were piled up to the ceiling. On her right and on her left the floor +was hidden by pyramids of guineas. On a sudden the door flies open. The +Pretender rushes in, a sponge in one hand, in the other a sword which +he shakes at the Act of Settlement. The beautiful Queen sinks down +fainting. The spell by which she has turned all things around her into +treasure is broken. The money bags shrink like pricked bladders. The +piles of gold pieces are turned into bundles of rags or faggots of +wooden tallies. [526] The truth which this parable was meant to convey +was constantly present to the minds of the rulers of the Bank. So +closely was their interest bound up with the interest of the government +that the greater the public danger the more ready were they to come to +the rescue. In old times, when the Treasury was empty, when the taxes +came in slowly, and when the pay of the soldiers and sailors was in +arrear, it had been necessary for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to go, +hat in hand, up and down Cheapside and Cornhill, attended by the Lord +Mayor and by the Aldermen, and to make up a sum by borrowing a hundred +pounds from this hosier, and two hundred pounds from that ironmonger. +[527] Those times were over. The government, instead of laboriously +scooping up supplies from numerous petty sources, could now draw +whatever it required from an immense reservoir, which all those petty +sources kept constantly replenished. It is hardly too much to say that, +during many years, the weight of the Bank, which was constantly in the +scale of the Whigs, almost counterbalanced the weight of the Church, +which was as constantly in the scale of the Tories. + +A few minutes after the bill which established the Bank of England had +received the royal assent, the Parliament was prorogued by the King with +a speech in which he warmly thanked the Commons for their liberality. +Montague was immediately rewarded for his services with the place of +Chancellor of the Exchequer. [528] + +Shrewsbury had a few weeks before consented to accept the seals. He had +held out resolutely from November to March. While he was trying to find +excuses which might satisfy his political friends, Sir James Montgomery +visited him. Montgomery was now the most miserable of human beings. +Having borne a great part in a great Revolution, having been charged +with the august office of presenting the Crown of Scotland to the +Sovereigns whom the Estates had chosen, having domineered without a +rival, during several months, in the Parliament at Edinburgh, having +seen before him in near prospect the seals of Secretary, the coronet +of an Earl, ample wealth, supreme power, he had on a sudden sunk into +obscurity and abject penury. His fine parts still remained; and he was +therefore used by the Jacobites; but, though used, he was despised, +distrusted and starved. He passed his life in wandering from England to +France and from France back to England, without finding a resting place +in either country. Sometimes he waited in the antechamber at Saint +Germains, where the priests scowled at him as a Calvinist, and where +even the Protestant Jacobites cautioned one another in whispers against +the old Republican. Sometimes he lay hid in the garrets of London, +imagining that every footstep which he heard on the stairs was that of +a bailiff with a writ, or that of a King's messenger with a warrant. He +now obtained access to Shrewsbury, and ventured to talk as a Jacobite to +a brother Jacobite. Shrewsbury, who was not at all inclined to put his +estate and his neck in the power of a man whom he knew to be both rash +and perfidious, returned very guarded answers. Through some channel +which is not known to us, William obtained full intelligence of what +had passed on this occasion. He sent for Shrewsbury, and again spoke +earnestly about the secretaryship. Shrewsbury again excused himself. +His health, he said, was bad. "That," said William, "is not your only +reason." "No, Sir," said Shrewsbury, "it is not." And he began to speak +of public grievances, and alluded to the fate of the Triennial Bill, +which he had himself introduced. But William cut him short. "There is +another reason behind. When did you see Montgomery last?" Shrewsbury was +thunderstruck. The King proceeded to repeat some things which Montgomery +had said. By this time Shrewsbury had recovered from his dismay, and +had recollected that, in the conversation which had been so accurately +reported to the government, he had fortunately uttered no treason, +though he had heard much. "Sir," said he, "since Your Majesty has been +so correctly informed, you must be aware that I gave no encouragement +to that man's attempts to seduce me from my allegiance." William did not +deny this, but intimated that such secret dealings with noted Jacobites +raised suspicions which Shrewsbury could remove only by accepting the +seals. "That," he said, "will put me quite at ease. I know that you are +a man of honour, and that, if you undertake to serve me, you will serve +me faithfully." So pressed, Shrewsbury complied, to the great joy of +his whole party; and was immediately rewarded for his compliance with a +dukedom and a garter. [529] + +Thus a Whig ministry was gradually forming. There were now two Whig +Secretaries of State, a Whig Keeper of the Great Seal, a Whig First Lord +of the Admiralty, a Whig Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Lord Privy +Seal, Pembroke, might also be called a Whig; for his mind was one which +readily took the impress of any stronger mind with which it was brought +into contact. Seymour, having been long enough a Commissioner of the +Treasury to lose much of his influence with the Tory country gentlemen +who had once listened to him as to an oracle, was dismissed, and his +place was filled by John Smith, a zealous and able Whig, who had taken +an active part in the debates of the late session. [530] The only Tories +who still held great offices in the executive government were the Lord +President, Caermarthen, who, though he began to feel that power was +slipping from his grasp, still clutched it desperately, and the first +Lord of the Treasury, Godolphin, who meddled little out of his own +department, and performed the duties of that department with skill and +assiduity. + +William, however, still tried to divide his favours between the two +parties. Though the Whigs were fast drawing to themselves the substance +of power, the Tories obtained their share of honorary distinctions. +Mulgrave, who had, during the late session, exerted his great +parliamentary talents in favour of the King's policy, was created +Marquess of Normanby, and named a Cabinet Councillor, but was never +consulted. He obtained at the same time a pension of three thousand +pounds a year. Caermarthen, whom the late changes had deeply mortified, +was in some degree consoled by a signal mark of royal approbation. He +became Duke of Leeds. It had taken him little more than twenty years to +climb from the station of a Yorkshire country gentleman to the highest +rank in the peerage. Two great Whig Earls were at the same time created +Dukes, Bedford and Devonshire. It ought to be mentioned that Bedford +had repeatedly refused the dignity which he now somewhat reluctantly +accepted. He declared that he preferred his Earldom to a Dukedom, +and gave a very sensible reason for the preference. An Earl who had +a numerous family might send one son to the Temple and another to a +counting house in the city. But the sons of a Duke were all lords; and +a lord could not make his bread either at the bar or on Change. The old +man's objections, however, were overcome; and the two great houses +of Russell and Cavendish, which had long been closely connected by +friendship and by marriage, by common opinions, common sufferings and +common triumphs, received on the same day the greatest honour which it +is in the power of the Crown to confer. [531] + +The Gazette which announced these creations announced also that the King +had set out for the Continent. He had, before his departure, consulted +with his ministers about the means of counteracting a plan of naval +operations which had been formed by the French government. Hitherto +the maritime war had been carried on chiefly in the Channel and the +Atlantic. But Lewis had now determined to concentrate his maritime +forces in the Mediterranean. He hoped that, with their help, the army of +Marshal Noailles would be able to take Barcelona, to subdue the whole +of Catalonia, and to compel Spain to sue for peace. Accordingly, +Tourville's squadron, consisting of fifty three men of war, set sail +from Brest on the twenty-fifth of April and passed the Straits of +Gibraltar on the fourth of May. + +William, in order to cross the designs of the enemy, determined to send +Russell to the Mediterranean with the greater part of the combined fleet +of England and Holland. A squadron was to remain in the British seas +under the command of the Earl of Berkeley. Talmash was to embark on +board of this squadron with a large body of troops, and was to attack +Brest, which would, it was supposed, in the absence of Tourville and his +fifty-three vessels, be an easy conquest. + +That preparations were making at Portsmouth for an expedition, in which +the land forces were to bear a part, could not be kept a secret. +There was much speculation at the Rose and at Garraway's touching the +destination of the armament. Some talked of Rhe, some of Oleron, some of +Rochelle, some of Rochefort. Many, till the fleet actually began to +move westward, believed that it was bound for Dunkirk. Many guessed that +Brest would be the point of attack; but they only guessed this; for the +secret was much better kept than most of the secrets of that age. [532] +Russell, till he was ready to weigh anchor, persisted in assuring his +Jacobite friends that he knew nothing. His discretion was proof even +against all the arts of Marlborough. Marlborough, however, had other +sources of intelligence. To those sources he applied himself; and he +at length succeeded in discovering the whole plan of the government. He +instantly wrote to James. He had, he said, but that moment ascertained +that twelve regiments of infantry and two regiments of marines were +about to embark, under the command of Talmash, for the purpose of +destroying the harbour of Brest and the shipping which lay there. +"This," he added, "would be a great advantage to England. But no +consideration can, or ever shall, hinder me from letting you know what +I think may be for your service." He then proceeded to caution James +against Russell. "I endeavoured to learn this some time ago from him; +but he always denied it to me, though I am very sure that he knew the +design for more than six weeks. This gives me a bad sign of this man's +intentions." + +The intelligence sent by Marlborough to James was communicated by +James to the French government. That government took its measures with +characteristic promptitude. Promptitude was indeed necessary; for, when +Marlborough's letter was written, the preparations at Portsmouth were +all but complete; and, if the wind had been favourable to the English, +the objects of the expedition might have been attained without a +struggle. But adverse gales detained our fleet in the Channel during +another month. Meanwhile a large body of troops was collected at Brest. +Vauban was charged with the duty of putting the defences in order; and, +under his skilful direction, batteries were planted which commanded +every spot where it seemed likely that an invader would attempt to +land. Eight large rafts, each carrying many mortars, were moored in the +harbour, and, some days before the English arrived, all was ready for +their reception. + +On the sixth of June the whole allied fleet was on the Atlantic about +fifteen leagues west of Cape Finisterre. There Russell and Berkeley +parted company. Russell proceeded towards the Mediterranean. Berkeley's +squadron, with the troops on board, steered for the coast of Brittany, +and anchored just without Camaret Bay, close to the mouth of the harbour +of Brest. Talmash proposed to land in Camaret Bay. It was therefore +desirable to ascertain with accuracy the state of the coast. The eldest +son of the Duke of Leeds, now called Marquess of Caermarthen, undertook +to enter the basin and to obtain the necessary information. The passion +of this brave and eccentric young man for maritime adventure was +unconquerable. He had solicited and obtained the rank of Rear Admiral, +and had accompanied the expedition in his own yacht, the Peregrine, +renowned as the masterpiece of shipbuilding, and more than once already +mentioned in this history. Cutts, who had distinguished himself by +his intrepidity in the Irish war, and had been rewarded with an Irish +peerage, offered to accompany Caermarthen, Lord Mohun, who, desirous, +it may be hoped, to efface by honourable exploits the stain which a +shameful and disastrous brawl had left on his name, was serving with +the troops as a volunteer, insisted on being of the party. The Peregrine +went into the bay with its gallant crew, and came out safe, but not +without having run great risks. Caermarthen reported that the defences, +of which however he had seen only a small part, were formidable. But +Berkeley and Talmash suspected that he overrated the danger. They were +not aware that their design had long been known at Versailles, that an +army had been collected to oppose them, and that the greatest engineer +in the world had been employed to fortify the coast against them. They +therefore did not doubt that their troops might easily be put on shore +under the protection of a fire from the ships. On the following morning +Caermarthen was ordered to enter the bay with eight vessels and to +batter the French works. Talmash was to follow with about a hundred +boats full of soldiers. It soon appeared that the enterprise was even +more perilous than it had on the preceding day appeared to be. Batteries +which had then escaped notice opened on the ships a fire so murderous +that several decks were soon cleared. Great bodies of foot and horse +were discernible; and, by their uniforms, they appeared to be regular +troops. The young Rear Admiral sent an officer in all haste to warn +Talmash. But Talmash was so completely possessed by the notion that +the French were not prepared to repel an attack that he disregarded all +cautions and would not even trust his own eyes. He felt sure that the +force which he saw assembled on the shore was a mere rabble of peasants, +who had been brought together in haste from the surrounding country. +Confident that these mock soldiers would run like sheep before real +soldiers, he ordered his men to pull for the beach. He was soon +undeceived. A terrible fire mowed down his troops faster than they +could get on shore. He had himself scarcely sprung on dry ground when he +received a wound in the thigh from a cannon ball, and was carried back +to his skiff. His men reembarked in confusion. Ships and boats made +haste to get out of the bay, but did not succeed till four hundred +seamen and seven hundred soldiers had fallen. During many days the waves +continued to throw up pierced and shattered corpses on the beach of +Brittany. The battery from which Talmash received his wound is called, +to this day, the Englishman's Death. + +The unhappy general was laid on his couch; and a council of war was held +in his cabin. He was for going straight into the harbour of Brest +and bombarding the town. But this suggestion, which indicated but too +clearly that his judgment had been affected by the irritation of a +wounded body and a wounded mind, was wisely rejected by the naval +officers. The armament returned to Portsmouth. There Talmash died, +exclaiming with his last breath that he had been lured into a snare by +treachery. The public grief and indignation were loudly expressed. The +nation remembered the services of the unfortunate general, forgave his +rashness, pitied his sufferings, and execrated the unknown traitors +whose machinations had been fatal to him. There were many conjectures +and many rumours. Some sturdy Englishmen, misled by national prejudice, +swore that none of our plans would ever be kept a secret from the enemy +while French refugees were in high military command. Some zealous Whigs, +misled by party sprit, muttered that the Court of Saint Germains would +never want good intelligence while a single Tory remained in the Cabinet +Council. The real criminal was not named; nor, till the archives of the +House of Stuart were explored, was it known to the world that Talmash +had perished by the basest of all the hundred villanies of Marlborough. +[533] + +Yet never had Marlborough been less a Jacobite than at the moment when +he rendered this wicked and shameful service to the Jacobite cause. It +may be confidently affirmed that to serve the banished family was not +his object, and that to ingratiate himself with the banished family was +only his secondary object. His primary object was to force himself into +the service of the existing government, and to regain possession of +those important and lucrative places from which he had been dismissed +more than two years before. He knew that the country and the Parliament +would not patiently bear to see the English army commanded by foreign +generals. Two Englishmen only had shown themselves fit for high military +posts, himself and Talmash. If Talmash were defeated and disgraced, +William would scarcely have a choice. In fact, as soon as it was known +that the expedition had failed, and that Talmash was no more, the +general cry was that the King ought to receive into his favour the +accomplished Captain who had done such good service at Walcourt, at Cork +and at Kinsale. Nor can we blame the multitude for raising this cry. +For every body knew that Marlborough was an eminently brave, skilful +and successful officer; but very few persons knew that he had, while +commanding William's troops, while sitting in William's council, while +waiting in William's bedchamber, formed a most artful and dangerous plot +for the subversion of William's throne; and still fewer suspected the +real author of the recent calamity, of the slaughter in the Bay of +Camaret, of the melancholy fate of Talmash. The effect therefore of the +foulest of all treasons was to raise the traitor in public estimation. +Nor was he wanting to himself at this conjuncture. While the Royal +Exchange was in consternation at this disaster of which he was the +cause, while many families were clothing themselves in mourning for the +brave men of whom he was the murderer, he repaired to Whitehall; and +there, doubtless with all that grace, that nobleness, that suavity, +under which lay, hidden from all common observers, a seared conscience +and a remorseless heart, he professed himself the most devoted, the most +loyal, of all the subjects of William and Mary, and expressed a hope +that he might, in this emergency, be permitted to offer his sword to +their Majesties. Shrewsbury was very desirous that the offer should be +accepted; but a short and dry answer from William, who was then in +the Netherlands, put an end for the present to all negotiation. About +Talmash the King expressed himself with generous tenderness. "The poor +fellow's fate," he wrote, "has affected me much. I do not indeed think +that he managed well; but it was his ardent desire to distinguish +himself that impelled him to attempt impossibilities." [534] + +The armament which had returned to Portsmouth soon sailed again for the +coast of France, but achieved only exploits worse than inglorious. An +attempt was made to blow up the pier at Dunkirk. Some towns inhabited by +quiet tradesmen and fishermen were bombarded. In Dieppe scarcely a house +was left standing; a third part of Havre was laid in ashes; and shells +were thrown into Calais which destroyed thirty private dwellings. The +French and the Jacobites loudly exclaimed against the cowardice +and barbarity of making war on an unwarlike population. The English +government vindicated itself by reminding the world of the sufferings of +the thrice wasted Palatinate; and, as against Lewis and the flatterers +of Lewis, the vindication was complete. But whether it were consistent +with humanity and with sound policy to visit the crimes which an +absolute Prince and a ferocious soldiery had committed in the Palatinate +on shopkeepers and labourers, on women and children, who did not know +that the Palatinate existed, may perhaps be doubted. + +Meanwhile Russell's fleet was rendering good service to the common +cause. Adverse winds had impeded his progress through the Straits so +long that he did not reach Carthagena till the middle of July. By that +time the progress of the French arms had spread terror even to the +Escurial. Noailles had, on the banks of the Tar, routed an army +commanded by the Viceroy of Catalonia; and, on the day on which this +victory was won, the Brest squadron had joined the Toulon squadron in +the Bay of Rosas. Palamos, attacked at once by land and sea, was taken +by storm. Gerona capitulated after a faint show of resistance. Ostalric +surrendered at the first summons. Barcelona would in all probability +have fallen, had not the French Admirals learned that the conquerors of +La Hogue was approaching. They instantly quitted the coast of Catalonia, +and never thought themselves safe till they had taken shelter under the +batteries of Toulon. + +The Spanish government expressed warm gratitude for this seasonable +assistance, and presented to the English Admiral a jewel which was +popularly said to be worth near twenty thousand pounds sterling. There +was no difficulty in finding such a jewel among the hoards of gorgeous +trinkets which had been left by Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second +to a degenerate race. But, in all that constitutes the true wealth of +states, Spain was poor indeed. Her treasury was empty; her arsenals were +unfurnished; her ships were so rotten that they seemed likely to fly +asunder at the discharge of their own guns. Her ragged and starving +soldiers often mingled with the crowd of beggars at the doors of +convents, and battled there for a mess of pottage and a crust of bread. +Russell underwent those trials which no English commander whose hard +fate it has been to cooperate with Spaniards has escaped. The Viceroy +of Catalonia promised much, did nothing, and expected every thing. He +declared that three hundred and fifty thousand rations were ready to be +served out to the fleet at Carthagena. It turned out that there were not +in all the stores of that port provisions sufficient to victual a single +frigate for a single week. Yet His Excellency thought himself entitled +to complain because England had not sent an army as well as a fleet, and +because the heretic Admiral did not choose to expose the fleet to utter +destruction by attacking the French under the guns of Toulon. Russell +implored the Spanish authorities to look well to their dockyards, and to +try to have, by the next spring, a small squadron which might at least +be able to float; but he could not prevail on them to careen a single +ship. He could with difficulty obtain, on hard conditions, permission to +send a few of his sick men to marine hospitals on shore. Yet, in spite +of all the trouble given him by the imbecility and ingratitude of a +government which has generally caused more annoyance to its allies than +to its enemies, he acquitted himself well. It is but just to him to +say that, from the time at which he became First Lord of the Admiralty, +there was a decided improvement in the naval administration. Though +he lay with his fleet many months near an inhospitable shore, and at a +great distance from England, there were no complaints about the quality +or the quantity of provisions. The crews had better food and drink +than they had ever had before; comforts which Spain did not afford were +supplied from home; and yet the charge was not greater than when, in +Torrington's time, the sailor was poisoned with mouldy biscuit and +nauseous beer. + +As almost the whole maritime force of France was in the Mediterranean, +and as it seemed likely that an attempt would be made on Barcelona +in the following year, Russell received orders to winter at Cadiz. +In October he sailed to that port; and there he employed himself in +refitting his ships with an activity unintelligible to the Spanish +functionaries, who calmly suffered the miserable remains of what had +once been the greatest navy in the world to rot under their eyes. [535] + +Along the eastern frontier of France the war during this year seemed to +languish. In Piedmont and on the Rhine the most important events of the +campaign were petty skirmishes and predatory incursions. Lewis remained +at Versailles, and sent his son, the Dauphin, to represent him in the +Netherlands; but the Dauphin was placed under the tutelage of Luxemburg, +and proved a most submissive pupil. During several months the hostile +armies observed each other. The allies made one bold push with the +intention of carrying the war into the French territory; but Luxemburg, +by a forced march, which excited the admiration of persons versed in the +military art, frustrated the design. William on the other hand succeeded +in taking Huy, then a fortress of the third rank. No battle was fought; +no important town was besieged; but the confederates were satisfied with +their campaign. Of the four previous years every one had been marked by +some great disaster. In 1690 Waldeck had been defeated at Fleurus. +In 1691 Mons had fallen. In 1692 Namur had been taken in sight of the +allied army; and this calamity had been speedily followed by the defeat +of Steinkirk. In 1693 the battle of Landen had been lost; and Charleroy +had submitted to the conqueror. At length in 1694 the tide had begun to +turn. The French arms had made no progress. What had been gained by the +allies was indeed not much; but the smallest gain was welcome to those +whom a long run of evil fortune had discouraged. + +In England, the general opinion was that, notwithstanding the disaster +in Camaret Bay, the war was on the whole proceeding satisfactorily +both by land and by sea. But some parts of the internal administration +excited, during this autumn, much discontent. + +Since Trenchard had been appointed Secretary of State, the Jacobite +agitators had found their situation much more unpleasant than before. +Sidney had been too indulgent and too fond of pleasure to give them much +trouble. Nottingham was a diligent and honest minister; but he was as +high a Tory as a faithful subject of William and Mary could be; he loved +and esteemed many of the nonjurors; and, though he might force himself +to be severe when nothing but severity could save the State, he was +not extreme to mark the transgressions of his old friends; nor did he +encourage talebearers to come to Whitehall with reports of conspiracies. +But Trenchard was both an active public servant and an earnest Whig. +Even if he had himself been inclined to lenity, he would have been urged +to severity by those who surrounded him. He had constantly at his side +Hugh Speke and Aaron Smith, men to whom a hunt after a Jacobite was +the most exciting of all sports. The cry of the malecontents was that +Nottingham had kept his bloodhounds in the leash, but that Trenchard had +let them slip. Every honest gentleman who loved the Church and hated +the Dutch went in danger of his life. There was a constant bustle at +the Secretary's Office, a constant stream of informers coming in, and of +messengers with warrants going out. It was said too, that the warrants +were often irregularly drawn, that they did not specify the person, that +they did not specify the crime, and yet that, under the authority of +such instruments as these, houses were entered, desks and cabinets +searched, valuable papers carried away, and men of good birth and +breeding flung into gaol among felons. [536] The minister and his agents +answered that Westminster Hall was open; that, if any man had been +illegally imprisoned, he had only to bring his action; that juries were +quite sufficiently disposed to listen to any person who pretended to +have been oppressed by cruel and griping men in power, and that, as +none of the prisoners whose wrongs were so pathetically described had +ventured to resort to this obvious and easy mode of obtaining redress, +it might fairly be inferred that nothing had been done which could +not be justified. The clamour of the malecontents however made a +considerable impression on the public mind; and at length, a transaction +in which Trenchard was more unlucky than culpable, brought on him and on +the government with which he was connected much temporary obloquy. + +Among the informers who haunted his office was an Irish vagabond who had +borne more than one name and had professed more than one religion. He +now called himself Taaffe. He had been a priest of the Roman Catholic +Church, and secretary to Adda the Papal Nuncio, but had since the +Revolution turned Protestant, had taken a wife, and had distinguished +himself by his activity in discovering the concealed property of those +Jesuits and Benedictines who, during the late reign, had been quartered +in London. The ministers despised him; but they trusted him. They +thought that he had, by his apostasy, and by the part which he had borne +in the spoliation of the religious orders, cut himself off from all +retreat, and that, having nothing but a halter to expect from King +James, he must be true to King William. [537] + +This man fell in with a Jacobite agent named Lunt, who had, since the +Revolution, been repeatedly employed among the discontented gentry +of Cheshire and Lancashire, and who had been privy to those plans of +insurrection which had been disconcerted by the battle of the Boyne in +1690, and by the battle of La Hogue in 1692. Lunt had once been arrested +on suspicion of treason, but had been discharged for want of legal proof +of his guilt. He was a mere hireling, and was, without much difficulty, +induced by Taaffe to turn approver. The pair went to Trenchard. Lunt +told his story, mentioned the names of some Cheshire and Lancashire +squires to whom he had, as he affirmed, carried commissions from Saint +Germains, and of others, who had, to his knowledge, formed secret hoards +of arms and ammunition. His simple oath would not have been sufficient +to support a charge of high treason; but he produced another witness +whose evidence seemed to make the case complete. The narrative was +plausible and coherent; and indeed, though it may have been embellished +by fictions, there can be little doubt that it was in substance true. +[538] Messengers and search warrants were sent down to Lancashire. Aaron +Smith himself went thither; and Taaffe went with him. The alarm had been +given by some of the numerous traitors who ate the bread of William. +Some of the accused persons had fled; and others had buried their sabres +and muskets and burned their papers. Nevertheless, discoveries were +made which confirmed Lunt's depositions. Behind the wainscot of the old +mansion of one Roman Catholic family was discovered a commission signed +by James. Another house, of which the master had absconded, was strictly +searched, in spite of the solemn asseverations of his wife and his +servants that no arms were concealed there. While the lady, with her +hand on her heart, was protesting on her honour that her husband was +falsely accused, the messengers observed that the back of the chimney +did not seem to be firmly fixed. It was removed, and a heap of blades +such as were used by horse soldiers tumbled out. In one of the garrets +were found, carefully bricked up, thirty saddles for troopers, as +many breastplates, and sixty cavalry swords. Trenchard and Aaron Smith +thought the case complete; and it was determined that those culprits who +had been apprehended should be tried by a special commission. [539] + +Taaffe now confidently expected to be recompensed for his services; +but he found a cold reception at the Treasury. He had gone down to +Lancashire chiefly in order that he might, under the protection of a +search warrant, pilfer trinkets and broad pieces from secret drawers. +His sleight of hand however had not altogether escaped the observation +of his companions. They discovered that he had made free with the +communion plate of the Popish families, whose private hoards he had +assisted in ransacking. When therefore he applied for reward, he was +dismissed, not merely with a refusal, but with a stern reprimand. He +went away mad with greediness and spite. There was yet one way in which +he might obtain both money and revenge; and that way he took. He made +overtures to the friends of the prisoners. He and he alone could undo +what he had done, could save the accused from the gallows, could cover +the accusers with infamy, could drive from office the Secretary and the +Solicitor who were the dread of all the friends of King James. Loathsome +as Taaffe was to the Jacobites, his offer was not to be slighted. He +received a sum in hand; he was assured that a comfortable annuity for +life should be settled on him when the business was done; and he was +sent down into the country, and kept in strict seclusion against the day +of trial. [540] + +Meanwhile unlicensed pamphlets, in which the Lancashire plot was classed +with Oates's plot, with Dangerfield's plot, with Fuller's plot, with +Young's plot, with Whitney's plot, were circulated all over the kingdom, +and especially in the county which was to furnish the jury. Of these +pamphlets the longest, the ablest, and the bitterest, entitled a Letter +to Secretary Trenchard, was commonly ascribed to Ferguson. It is not +improbable that Ferguson may have furnished some of the materials, and +may have conveyed the manuscript to the press. But many passages are +written with an art and a vigour which assuredly did not belong to him. +Those who judge by internal evidence may perhaps think that, in some +parts of this remarkable tract, they can discern the last gleam of the +malignant genius of Montgomery. A few weeks after the appearance of the +Letter he sank, unhonoured and unlamented, into the grave. [541] + +There were then no printed newspapers except the London Gazette. +But since the Revolution the newsletter had become a more important +political engine than it had previously been. The newsletters of one +writer named Dyer were widely circulated in manuscript. He affected to +be a Tory and a High Churchman, and was consequently regarded by the +foxhunting lords of manors, all over the kingdom, as an oracle. He had +already been twice in prison; but his gains had more than compensated +for his sufferings, and he still persisted in seasoning his intelligence +to suit the taste of the country gentlemen. He now turned the Lancashire +plot into ridicule, declared that the guns which had been found were old +fowling pieces, that the saddles were meant only for hunting, and that +the swords were rusty reliques of Edge Hill and Marston Moor. [542] The +effect produced by all this invective and sarcasm on the public mind +seems to have been great. Even at the Dutch Embassy, where assuredly +there was no leaning towards Jacobitism, there was a strong impression +that it would be unwise to bring the prisoners to trial. In Lancashire +and Cheshire the prevailing sentiments were pity for the accused and +hatred of the prosecutors. The government however persevered. In October +four Judges went down to Manchester. At present the population of that +town is made up of persons born in every part of the British Isles, and +consequently has no especial sympathy with the landowners, the farmers +and the agricultural labourers of the neighbouring districts. But in +the seventeenth century the Manchester man was a Lancashire man. His +politics were those of his county. For the old Cavalier families of his +county he felt a great respect; and he was furious when he thought that +some of the best blood of his county was about to be shed by a knot +of Roundhead pettifoggers from London. Multitudes of people from the +neighbouring villages filled the streets of the town, and saw with grief +and indignation the array of drawn swords and loaded carbines which +surrounded the culprits. Aaron Smith's arrangements do not seem to have +been skilful. The chief counsel for the Crown was Sir William Williams, +who, though now well stricken in years and possessed of a great estate, +still continued to practise. One fault had thrown a dark shade over the +latter part of his life. The recollection of that day on which he had +stood up in Westminster Hall, amidst laughter and hooting, to defend the +dispensing power and to attack the right of petition, had, ever +since the Revolution, kept him back from honour. He was an angry and +disappointed man, and was by no means disposed to incur unpopularity in +the cause of a government to which he owed nothing, and from which he +hoped nothing. + +Of the trial no detailed report has come down to us; but we have both +a Whig narrative and a Jacobite narrative. [543] It seems that the +prisoners who were first arraigned did not sever in their challenges, +and were consequently tried together. Williams examined or rather +crossexamined his own witnesses with a severity which confused them. The +crowd which filled the court laughed and clamoured. Lunt in particular +became completely bewildered, mistook one person for another, and did +not recover himself till the judges took him out of the hands of the +counsel for the Crown. For some of the prisoners an alibi was set up. +Evidence was also produced to show, what was undoubtedly quite true, +that Lunt was a man of abandoned character. The result however seemed +doubtful till, to the dismay of the prosecutors, Taaffe entered the box. +He swore with unblushing forehead that the whole story of the plot was a +circumstantial lie devised by himself and Lunt. Williams threw down his +brief; and, in truth, a more honest advocate might well have done the +same. The prisoners who were at the bar were instantly acquitted; those +who had not yet been tried were set at liberty; the witnesses for +the prosecution were pelted out of Manchester; the Clerk of the Crown +narrowly escaped with life; and the judges took their departure amidst +hisses and execrations. + +A few days after the close of the trials at Manchester William returned +to England. On the twelfth of November, only forty-eight hours after +his arrival at Kensington, the Houses met. He congratulated them on the +improved aspect of affairs. Both by land and by sea the events of the +year which was about to close had been, on the whole, favourable to the +allies; the French armies had made no progress; the French fleets had +not ventured to show themselves; nevertheless, a safe and honourable +peace could be obtained only by a vigorous prosecution of the war; +and the war could not be vigorously prosecuted without large supplies. +William then reminded the Commons that the Act by which they had settled +the tonnage and poundage on the Crown for four years was about to +expire, and expressed his hope that it would be renewed. + +After the King had spoken, the Commons, for some reason which no writer +has explained, adjourned for a week. Before they met again, an event +took place which caused great sorrow at the palace, and through all the +ranks of the Low Church party. Tillotson was taken suddenly ill while +attending public worship in the chapel of Whitehall. Prompt remedies +might perhaps have saved him; but he would not interrupt the prayers; +and, before the service was over, his malady was beyond the reach of +medicine. He was almost speechless; but his friends long remembered with +pleasure a few broken ejaculations which showed that he enjoyed peace of +mind to the last. He was buried in the church of Saint Lawrence Jewry, +near Guildhall. It was there that he had won his immense oratorical +reputation. He had preached there during the thirty years which preceded +his elevation to the throne of Canterbury. His eloquence had attracted +to the heart of the City crowds of the learned and polite, from the +Inns of Court and from the lordly mansions of Saint James's and Soho. A +considerable part of his congregation had generally consisted of young +clergymen, who came to learn the art of preaching at the feet of him who +was universally considered as the first of preachers. To this church his +remains were now carried through a mourning population. The hearse was +followed by an endless train of splendid equipages from Lambeth through +Southwark and over London Bridge. Burnet preached the funeral sermon. +His kind and honest heart was overcome by so many tender recollections +that, in the midst of his discourse, he paused and burst into tears, +while a loud moan of sorrow rose from the whole auditory. The Queen +could not speak of her favourite instructor without weeping. Even +William was visibly moved. "I have lost," he said, "the best friend that +I ever had, and the best man that I ever knew." The only Englishman who +is mentioned with tenderness in any part of the great mass of letters +which the King wrote to Heinsius is Tillotson. The Archbishop had left a +widow. To her William granted a pension of four hundred a year, which he +afterwards increased to six hundred. His anxiety that she should receive +her income regularly and without stoppages was honourable to him. Every +quarterday he ordered the money, without any deduction, to be brought to +himself, and immediately sent it to her. Tillotson had bequeathed to her +no property, except a great number of manuscript sermons. Such was his +fame among his contemporaries that those sermons were purchased by the +booksellers for the almost incredible sum of two thousand five hundred +guineas, equivalent, in the wretched state in which the silver coin then +was, to at least three thousand six hundred pounds. Such a price had +never before been given in England for any copyright. About the same +time Dryden, whose reputation was then in the zenith, received thirteen +hundred pounds for his translation of all the works of Virgil, and was +thought to have been splendidly remunerated. [544] + +It was not easy to fill satisfactorily the high place which Tillotson +had left vacant. Mary gave her voice for Stillingfleet, and pressed +his claims as earnestly as she ever ventured to press any thing. In +abilities and attainments he had few superiors among the clergy. But, +though he would probably have been considered as a Low Churchman by +Jane and South, he was too high a Churchman for William; and Tenison was +appointed. The new primate was not eminently distinguished by eloquence +or learning: but he was honest, prudent, laborious and benevolent; he +had been a good rector of a large parish and a good bishop of a large +diocese; detraction had not yet been busy with his name; and it might +well be thought that a man of plain sense, moderation and integrity, was +more likely than a man of brilliant genius and lofty spirit to succeed +in the arduous task of quieting a discontented and distracted Church. + +Meanwhile the Commons had entered upon business. They cheerfully voted +about two million four hundred thousand pounds for the army, and as +much for the navy. The land tax for the year was again fixed at four +shillings in the pound; the Tonnage Act was renewed for a term of five +years; and a fund was established on which the government was authorised +to borrow two millions and a half. + +Some time was spent by both Houses in discussing the Manchester trials. +If the malecontents had been wise, they would have been satisfied with +the advantage which they had already gained. Their friends had been set +free. The prosecutors had with difficulty escaped from the hands of an +enraged multitude. The character of the government had been seriously +damaged. The ministers were accused, in prose and in verse, sometimes +in earnest and sometimes in jest, of having hired a gang of ruffians to +swear away the lives of honest gentlemen. Even moderate politicians, who +gave no credit to these foul imputations, owned that Trenchard ought to +have remembered the villanies of Fuller and Young, and to have been +on his guard against such wretches as Taaffe and Lunt. The unfortunate +Secretary's health and spirits had given way. It was said that he was +dying; and it was certain that he would not long continue to hold the +seals. The Tories had won a great victory; but, in their eagerness to +improve it, they turned it into a defeat. + +Early in the session Howe complained, with his usual vehemence and +asperity, of the indignities to which innocent and honourable men, +highly descended and highly esteemed, had been subjected by Aaron Smith +and the wretches who were in his pay. The leading Whigs, with great +judgment, demanded an inquiry. Then the Tories began to flinch. They +well knew that an inquiry could not strengthen their case, and might +weaken it. The issue, they said, had been tried; a jury had pronounced; +the verdict was definitive; and it would be monstrous to give the +false witnesses who had been stoned out of Manchester an opportunity +of repeating their lesson. To this argument the answer was obvious. The +verdict was definitive as respected the defendants, but not as respected +the prosecutors. The prosecutors were now in their turn defendants, and +were entitled to all the privileges of defendants. It did not follow, +because the Lancashire gentlemen had been found, and very properly +found, not guilty of treason, that the Secretary of State or the +Solicitor of the Treasury had been guilty of unfairness or even of +rashness. The House, by one hundred and nineteen votes to one hundred +and two resolved that Aaron Smith and the witnesses on both sides +should be ordered to attend. Several days were passed in examination +and crossexamination; and sometimes the sittings extended far into the +night. It soon became clear that the prosecution had not been lightly +instituted, and that some of the persons who had been acquitted had been +concerned in treasonable schemes. The Tories would now have been content +with a drawn battle; but the Whigs were not disposed to forego their +advantage. It was moved that there had been a sufficient ground for the +proceedings before the Special Commission; and this motion was carried +without a division. The opposition proposed to add some words implying +that the witnesses for the Crown had forsworn themselves; but these +words were rejected by one hundred and thirty-six votes to one hundred +and nine, and it was resolved by one hundred and thirty-three votes to +ninety-seven that there had been a dangerous conspiracy. The Lords had +meanwhile been deliberating on the same subject, and had come to the +same conclusion. They sent Taaffe to prison for prevarication; and they +passed resolutions acquitting both the government and the judges of all +blame. The public however continued to think that the gentlemen who +had been tried at Manchester had been unjustifiably persecuted, till +a Jacobite plot of singular atrocity, brought home to the plotters by +decisive evidence, produced a violent revulsion of feeling. [545] + +Meanwhile three bills, which had been repeatedly discussed in preceding +years, and two of which had been carried in vain to the foot of the +throne, had been again brought in; the Place Bill, the Bill for the +Regulation of Trials in cases of Treason, and the Triennial Bill. + +The Place Bill did not reach the Lords. It was thrice read in the Lower +House, but was not passed. At the very last moment it was rejected by +a hundred and seventy-five votes to a hundred and forty-two. Howe and +Barley were the tellers for the minority. [546] + +The Bill for the Regulation of Trials in cases of Treason went up again +to the Peers. Their Lordships again added to it the clause which had +formerly been fatal to it. The Commons again refused to grant any new +privilege to the hereditary aristocracy. Conferences were again held; +reasons were again exchanged; both Houses were again obstinate; and the +bill was again lost. [547] + +The Triennial Bill was more fortunate. It was brought in on the first +day of the session, and went easily and rapidly through both Houses. The +only question about which there was any serious contention was, how long +the existing Parliament should be suffered to continue. After several +sharp debates November in the year 1696 was fixed as the extreme term. +The Tonnage Bill and the Triennial Bill proceeded almost side by side. +Both were, on the twenty-second of December, ready for the royal assent. +William came in state on that day to Westminster. The attendance of +members of both Houses was large. When the Clerk of the Crown read the +words, "A Bill for the frequent Calling and Meeting of Parliaments," the +anxiety was great. When the Clerk of the Parliament made answer, "Le roy +et la royne le veulent," a loud and long hum of delight and exultation +rose from the benches and the bar. [548] William had resolved many +months before not to refuse his assent a second time to so popular a +law. [549] There was some however who thought that he would not have +made so great a concession if he had on that day been quite himself. +It was plain indeed that he was strangely agitated and unnerved. It +had been announced that he would dine in public at Whitehall. But he +disappointed the curiosity of the multitude which on such occasions +flocked to the Court, and hurried back to Kensington. [550] + +He had but too good reason to be uneasy. His wife had, during two or +three days, been poorly; and on the preceding evening grave symptoms had +appeared. Sir Thomas Millington, who was physician in ordinary to the +King, thought that she had the measles. But Radcliffe, who, with coarse +manners and little book learning, had raised himself to the first +practice in London chiefly by his rare skill in diagnostics, uttered +the more alarming words, small pox. That disease, over which science has +since achieved a succession of glorious and beneficient victories, was +then the most terrible of all the ministers of death. The havoc of the +plague had been far more rapid; but the plague had visited our shores +only once or twice within living memory; and the small pox was always +present, filling the churchyards with corpses, tormenting with constant +fears all whom it had not yet stricken, leaving on those whose lives +it spared the hideous traces of its power, turning the babe into a +changeling at which the mother shuddered, and making the eyes and cheeks +of the betrothed maiden objects of horror to the lover. Towards the +end of the year 1694, this pestilence was more than usually severe. At +length the infection spread to the palace, and reached the young and +blooming Queen. She received the intimation of her danger with true +greatness of soul. She gave orders that every lady of her bedchamber, +every maid of honour, nay, every menial servant, who had not had the +small pox, should instantly leave Kensington House. She locked herself +up during a short time in her closet, burned some papers, arranged +others, and then calmly awaited her fate. + +During two or three days there were many alternations of hope and fear. +The physicians contradicted each other and themselves in a way which +sufficiently indicates the state of medical science in that age. The +disease was measles; it was scarlet fever; it was spotted fever; it was +erysipelas. At one moment some symptoms, which in truth showed that +the case was almost hopeless, were hailed as indications of returning +health. At length all doubt was over. Radcliffe's opinion proved to be +right. It was plain that the Queen was sinking under small pox of the +most malignant type. + +All this time William remained night and day near her bedside. The +little couch on which he slept when he was in camp was spread for him +in the antechamber; but he scarcely lay down on it. The sight of his +misery, the Dutch Envoy wrote, was enough to melt the hardest heart. +Nothing seemed to be left of the man whose serene fortitude had been +the wonder of old soldiers on the disastrous day of Landen, and of old +sailors on that fearful night among the sheets of ice and banks of +sand on the coast of Goree. The very domestics saw the tears running +unchecked down that face, of which the stern composure had seldom been +disturbed by any triumph or by any defeat. Several of the prelates were +in attendance. The King drew Burnet aside, and gave way to an agony of +grief. "There is no hope," he cried. "I was the happiest man on earth; +and I am the most miserable. She had no fault; none; you knew her well; +but you could not know, nobody but myself could know, her goodness." +Tenison undertook to tell her that she was dying. He was afraid that +such a communication, abruptly made, might agitate her violently, and +began with much management. But she soon caught his meaning, and, with +that gentle womanly courage which so often puts our bravery to shame, +submitted herself to the will of God. She called for a small cabinet +in which her most important papers were locked up, gave orders that, as +soon as she was no more, it should be delivered to the King, and then +dismissed worldly cares from her mind. She received the Eucharist, and +repeated her part of the office with unimpaired memory and intelligence, +though in a feeble voice. She observed that Tenison had been long +standing at her bedside, and, with that sweet courtesy which was +habitual to her, faltered out her commands that he would sit down, and +repeated them till he obeyed. After she had received the sacrament she +sank rapidly, and uttered only a few broken words. Twice she tried to +take a last farewell of him whom she had loved so truly and entirely; +but she was unable to speak. He had a succession of fits so alarming +that his Privy Councillors, who were assembled in a neighbouring room, +were apprehensive for his reason and his life. The Duke of Leeds, at the +request of his colleagues, ventured to assume the friendly guardianship +of which minds deranged by sorrow stand in need. A few minutes before +the Queen expired, William was removed, almost insensible, from the sick +room. + +Mary died in peace with Anne. Before the physicians had pronounced the +case hopeless, the Princess, who was then in very delicate health, had +sent a kind message; and Mary had returned a kind answer. The Princess +had then proposed to come herself; but William had, in very gracious +terms, declined the offer. The excitement of an interview, he said, +would be too much for both sisters. If a favourable turn took place, Her +Royal Highness should be most welcome to Kensington. A few hours later +all was over. [551] + +The public sorrow was great and general. For Mary's blameless life, her +large charities and her winning manners had conquered the hearts of +her people. When the Commons next met they sate for a time in profound +silence. At length it was moved and resolved that an Address of +Condolence should be presented to the King; and then the House broke +up without proceeding to other business. The Dutch envoy informed the +States General that many of the members had handkerchiefs at their +eyes. The number of sad faces in the street struck every observer. The +mourning was more general than even the mourning for Charles the Second +had been. On the Sunday which followed the Queen's death her virtues +were celebrated in almost every parish church of the Capital, and in +almost every great meeting of nonconformists. [552] + +The most estimable Jacobites respected the sorrow of William and the +memory of Mary. But to the fiercer zealots of the party neither the +house of mourning nor the grave was sacred. At Bristol the adherents of +Sir John Knight rang the bells as if for a victory. [553] It has often +been repeated, and is not at all improbable, that a nonjuring divine, in +the midst of the general lamentation, preached on the text, "Go; see +now this cursed woman and bury her; for she is a King's daughter." It is +certain that some of the ejected priests pursued her to the grave with +invectives. Her death, they said, was evidently a judgment for her +crime. God had, from the top of Sinai, in thunder and lightning, +promised length of days to children who should honour their parents; and +in this promise was plainly implied a menace. What father had ever been +worse treated by his daughters than James by Mary and Anne? Mary was +gone, cut off in the prime of life, in the glow of beauty, in the +height of prosperity; and Anne would do well to profit by the warning. +Wagstaffe went further, and dwelt much on certain wonderful coincidences +of time. James had been driven from his palace and country in Christmas +week. Mary had died in Christmas week. There could be no doubt that, if +the secrets of Providence were disclosed to us, we should find that the +turns of the daughter's complaint in December 1694 bore an exact +analogy to the turns of the father's fortune in December 1688. It was +at midnight that the father ran away from Rochester; it was at midnight +that the daughter expired. Such was the profundity and such the +ingenuity of a writer whom the Jacobite schismatics justly regarded as +one of their ablest chiefs. [554] + +The Whigs soon had an opportunity of retaliating. They triumphantly +related that a scrivener in the Borough, a stanch friend of hereditary +right, while exulting in the judgment which had overtaken the Queen, had +himself fallen down dead in a fit. [555] + +The funeral was long remembered as the saddest and most august that +Westminster had ever seen. While the Queen's remains lay in state at +Whitehall, the neighbouring streets were filled every day, from sunrise +to sunset, by crowds which made all traffic impossible. The two Houses +with their maces followed the hearse, the Lords robed in scarlet and +ermine, the Commons in long black mantles. No preceding Sovereign had +ever been attended to the grave by a Parliament; for, till then, the +Parliament had always expired with the Sovereign. A paper had indeed +been circulated, in which the logic of a small sharp pettifogger was +employed to prove that writs, issued in the joint names of William and +Mary, ceased to be of force as soon as William reigned alone. But this +paltry cavil had completely failed. It had not even been mentioned +in the Lower House, and had been mentioned in the Upper only to be +contemptuously overruled. The whole Magistracy of the City swelled the +procession. The banners of England and France, Scotland and Ireland, +were carried by great nobles before the corpse. The pall was borne +by the chiefs of the illustrious houses of Howard, Seymour, Grey, and +Stanley. On the gorgeous coffin of purple and gold were laid the crown +and sceptre of the realm. The day was well suited to such a ceremony. +The sky was dark and troubled; and a few ghastly flakes of snow fell on +the black plumes of the funeral car. Within the Abbey, nave, choir +and transept were in a blaze with innumerable waxlights. The body was +deposited under a magnificent canopy in the centre of the church while +the Primate preached. The earlier part of his discourse was deformed by +pedantic divisions and subdivisions; but towards the close he told what +he had himself seen and heard with a simplicity and earnestness more +affecting than the most skilful rhetoric. Through the whole ceremony the +distant booming of cannon was heard every minute from the batteries of +the Tower. The gentle Queen sleeps among her illustrious kindred in the +southern aisle of the Chapel of Henry the Seventh. [556] + +The affection with which her husband cherished her memory was soon +attested by a monument the most superb that was ever erected to any +sovereign. No scheme had been so much her own, none had been so near her +heart, as that of converting the palace at Greenwich into a retreat +for seamen. It had occurred to her when she had found it difficult to +provide good shelter and good attendance for the thousands of brave men +who had come back to England wounded after the battle of La Hogue. While +she lived scarcely any step was taken towards the accomplishing of her +favourite design. But it should seem that, as soon as her husband had +lost her, he began to reproach himself for having neglected her wishes. +No time was lost. A plan was furnished by Wren; and soon an edifice, +surpassing that asylum which the magnificent Lewis had provided for +his soldiers, rose on the margin of the Thames. Whoever reads the +inscription which runs round the frieze of the hall will observe that +William claims no part of the merit of the design, and that the praise +is ascribed to Mary alone. Had the King's life been prolonged till the +works were completed, a statue of her who was the real foundress of +the institution would have had a conspicuous place in that court which +presents two lofty domes and two graceful colonnades to the multitudes +who are perpetually passing up and down the imperial river. But that +part of the plan was never carried into effect; and few of those who +now gaze on the noblest of European hospitals are aware that it is a +memorial of the virtues of the good Queen Mary, of the love and sorrow +of William, and of the great victory of La Hogue. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + Effect of Mary's Death on the Continent--Death of Luxemburg--Distress of + William--Parliamentary Proceedings; Emancipation of the Press--Death + of Halifax--Parliamentary Inquiries into the Corruption of the Public + Offices--Vote of Censure on the Speaker--Foley elected Speaker; Inquiry + into the Accounts of the East India Company--Suspicious Dealings of + Seymour--Bill against Sir Thomas Cook--Inquiry by a joint Committee + of Lords and Commons--Impeachment of Leeds--Disgrace of Leeds--Lords + Justices appointed; Reconciliation between William and the + Princess Anne--Jacobite Plots against William's Person--Charnock; + Porter--Goodman; Parkyns--Fenwick--Session of the Scottish Parliament; + Inquiry into the Slaughter of Glencoe--War in the Netherlands; Marshal + Villeroy--The Duke of Maine--Jacobite Plots against the Government + during William's Absence--Siege of Namur--Surrender of the Town of + Namur--Surrender of the Castle of Namur--Arrest of Boufflers--Effect + of the Emancipation of the English Press--Return of William to England; + Dissolution of the Parliament--William makes a Progress through the + Country--The Elections--Alarming State of the Currency--Meeting of the + Parliament; Loyalty of the House of Commons--Controversy touching the + Currency--Parliamentary Proceedings touching the Currency--Passing + of the Act regulating Trials in Cases of High Treason--Parliamentary + Proceedings touching the Grant of Crown Lands in Wales to Portland--Two + Jacobite Plots formed--Berwick's Plot; the Assassination Plot; + Sir George Barclay--Failure of Berwick's Plot--Detection of the + Assassination Plot--Parliamentary Proceedings touching the + Assassination Plot--State of Public Feeling--Trial of Charnock, King and + Keyes--Execution of Charnock, King and Keyes--Trial of Friend--Trial of + Parkyns--Execution of Friend and Parkyns--Trials of Rookwood, Cranburne + and Lowick--The Association--Bill for the Regulation of Elections--Act + establishing a Land Bank + +ON the Continent the news of Mary's death excited various emotions. The +Huguenots, in every part of Europe to which they had wandered, bewailed +the Elect Lady, who had retrenched from her own royal state in order to +furnish bread and shelter to the persecuted people of God. [557] In the +United Provinces, where she was well known and had always been +popular, she was tenderly lamented. Matthew Prior, whose parts and +accomplishments had obtained for him the patronage of the magnificent +Dorset, and who was now attached to the Embassy at the Hague, wrote +that the coldest and most passionless of nations was touched. The very +marble, he said, wept. [558] The lamentations of Cambridge and Oxford +were echoed by Leyden and Utrecht. The States General put on mourning. +The bells of all the steeples of Holland tolled dolefully day after +day. [559] James, meanwhile, strictly prohibited all mourning at Saint +Germains, and prevailed on Lewis to issue a similar prohibition at +Versailles. Some of the most illustrious nobles of France, and among +them the Dukes of Bouillon and of Duras, were related to the House of +Nassau, and had always, when death visited that House, punctiliously +observed the decent ceremonial of sorrow. They were now forbidden to +wear black; and they submitted; but it was beyond the power of the great +King to prevent his highbred and sharpwitted courtiers from whispering +to each other that there was something pitiful in this revenge taken by +the living on the dead, by a parent on a child. [560] + +The hopes of James and of his companions in exile were now higher than +they had been since the day of La Hogue. Indeed the general opinion of +politicians, both here and on the Continent was that William would find +it impossible to sustain himself much longer on the throne. He would +not, it was said, have sustained himself so long but for the help of his +wife. Her affability had conciliated many who had been repelled by his +freezing looks and short answers. Her English tones, sentiments and +tastes had charmed many who were disgusted by his Dutch accent and Dutch +habits. Though she did not belong to the High Church party, she loved +that ritual to which she had been accustomed from infancy, and complied +willingly and reverently with some ceremonies which he considered, not +indeed as sinful, but as childish, and in which he could hardly bring +himself to take part. While the war lasted, it would be necessary that +he should pass nearly half the year out of England. Hitherto she had, +when he was absent, supplied his place, and had supplied it well. +Who was to supply it now? In what vicegerent could he place equal +confidence? To what vicegerent would the nation look up with equal +respect? All the statesmen of Europe therefore agreed in thinking that +his position, difficult and dangerous at best, had been made far more +difficult and more dangerous by the death of the Queen. But all the +statesmen of Europe were deceived; and, strange to say, his reign was +decidedly more prosperous and more tranquil after the decease of Mary +than during her life. + +A few hours after he had lost the most tender and beloved of all his +friends, he was delivered from the most formidable of all his enemies. +Death had been busy at Paris as well as in London. While Tenison was +praying by the bed of Mary, Bourdaloue was administering the last +unction to Luxemburg. The great French general had never been a +favourite at the French Court; but when it was known that his feeble +frame, exhausted by war and pleasure, was sinking under a dangerous +disease, the value of his services was, for the first time, fully +appreciated; the royal physicians were sent to prescribe for him; the +sisters of Saint Cyr were ordered to pray for him; but prayers and +prescriptions were vain. "How glad the Prince of Orange will be," said +Lewis, "when the news of our loss reaches him." He was mistaken. That +news found William unable to think of any loss but his own. [561] + +During the month which followed the death of Mary the King was incapable +of exertion. Even to the addresses of the two Houses of Parliament he +replied only by a few inarticulate sounds. The answers which appear in +the journals were not uttered by him, but were delivered in writing. +Such business as could not be deferred was transacted by the +intervention of Portland, who was himself oppressed with sorrow. During +some weeks the important and confidential correspondence between the +King and Heinsius was suspended. At length William forced himself to +resume that correspondence: but his first letter was the letter of a +heartbroken man. Even his martial ardour had been tamed by misery. "I +tell you in confidence," he wrote, "that I feel myself to be no longer +fit for military command. Yet I will try to do my duty; and I hope that +God will strengthen me." So despondingly did he look forward to the most +brilliant and successful of his many campaigns. [562] + +There was no interruption of parliamentary business. While the Abbey was +hanging with black for the funeral of the Queen, the Commons came to a +vote, which at the time attracted little attention, which produced no +excitement, which has been left unnoticed by voluminous annalists, and +of which the history can be but imperfectly traced in the archives of +Parliament, but which has done more for liberty and for civilisation +than the Great Charter or the Bill of Rights. Early in the session a +select committee had been appointed to ascertain what temporary statutes +were about to expire, and to consider which of those statutes it +might be expedient to continue. The report was made; and all the +recommendations contained in that report were adopted, with one +exception. Among the laws which the committee advised the House to renew +was the law which subjected the press to a censorship. The question was +put, "that the House do agree with the committee in the resolution that +the Act entitled an Act for preventing Abuses in printing seditious, +treasonable and unlicensed Pamphlets, and for regulating of Printing and +Printing Presses, be continued." The Speaker pronounced that the Noes +had it; and the Ayes did not think fit to divide. + +A bill for continuing all the other temporary Acts, which, in the +opinion of the Committee, could not properly be suffered to expire, was +brought in, passed and sent to the Lords. In a short time this bill came +back with an important amendment. The Lords had inserted in the list of +Acts to be continued the Act which placed the press under the control of +licensers. The Commons resolved not to agree to the amendment, demanded +a conference, and appointed a committee of managers. The leading +manager was Edward Clarke, a stanch Whig, who represented Taunton, the +stronghold, during fifty troubled years, of civil and religious freedom. + +Clarke delivered to the Lords in the Painted Chamber a paper containing +the reasons which had determined the Lower House not to renew the +Licensing Act. This paper completely vindicates the resolution to which +the Commons had come. But it proves at the same time that they knew not +what they were doing, what a revolution they were making, what a power +they were calling into existence. They pointed out concisely, clearly, +forcibly, and sometimes with a grave irony which is not unbecoming, the +absurdities and iniquities of the statute which was about to expire. But +all their objections will be found to relate to matters of detail. On +the great question of principle, on the question whether the liberty of +unlicensed printing be, on the whole, a blessing or a curse to society, +not a word is said. The Licensing Act is condemned, not as a thing +essentially evil, but on account of the petty grievances, the exactions, +the jobs, the commercial restrictions, the domiciliary visits which were +incidental to it. It is pronounced mischievous because it enables +the Company of Stationers to extort money from publishers, because +it empowers the agents of the government to search houses under the +authority of general warrants, because it confines the foreign book +trade to the port of London; because it detains valuable packages of +books at the Custom House till the pages are mildewed. The Commons +complain that the amount of the fee which the licenser may demand is not +fixed. They complain that it is made penal in an officer of the Customs +to open a box of books from abroad, except in the presence of one of the +censors of the press. How, it is very sensibly asked, is the officer to +know that there are books in the box till he has opened it? Such were +the arguments which did what Milton's Areopagitica had failed to do. + +The Lords yielded without a contest. They probably expected that some +less objectionable bill for the regulation of the press would soon be +sent up to them; and in fact such a bill was brought into the House of +Commons, read twice, and referred to a select committee. But the session +closed before the committee had reported; and English literature +was emancipated, and emancipated for ever, from the control of the +government. [563] This great event passed almost unnoticed. Evelyn and +Luttrell did not think it worth mentioning in their diaries. The +Dutch minister did not think it worth mentioning in his despatches. +No allusion to it is to be found in the Monthly Mercuries. The public +attention was occupied by other and far more exciting subjects. + +One of those subjects was the death of the most accomplished, the most +enlightened, and, in spite of great faults, the most estimable of the +statesmen who were formed in the corrupt and licentious Whitehall of +the Restoration. About a month after the splendid obsequies of Mary, a +funeral procession of almost ostentatious simplicity passed round the +shrine of Edward the Confessor to the Chapel of Henry the Seventh. +There, at the distance of a few feet from her coffin, lies the coffin of +George Savile, Marquess of Halifax. + +Halifax and Nottingham had long been friends; and Lord Eland, now +Halifax's only son, had been affianced to the Lady Mary Finch, +Nottingham's daughter. The day of the nuptials was fixed; a joyous +company assembled at Burley on the Hill, the mansion of the bride's +father, which, from one of the noblest terraces in the island, looks +down on magnificent woods of beech and oak, on the rich valley of +Catmos, and on the spire of Oakham. The father of the bridegroom was +detained to London by indisposition, which was not supposed to be +dangerous. On a sudden his malady took an alarming form. He was told +that he had but a few hours to live. He received the intimation with +tranquil fortitude. It was proposed to send off an express to summon his +son to town. But Halifax, good natured to the last, would not disturb +the felicity of the wedding day. He gave strict orders that his +interment should be private, prepared himself for the great change by +devotions which astonished those who had called him an atheist, and died +with the serenity of a philosopher and of a Christian, while his friends +and kindred, not suspecting his danger, were tasting the sack posset and +drawing the curtain. [564] His legitimate male posterity and his titles +soon became extinct. No small portion, however, of his wit and eloquence +descended to his daughter's son, Philip Stanhope, fourth Earl +of Chesterfield. But it is perhaps not generally known that some +adventurers, who, without advantages of fortune or position, made +themselves conspicuous by the mere force of ability, inherited the blood +of Halifax. He left a natural son, Henry Carey, whose dramas once drew +crowded audiences to the theatres, and some of whose gay and spirited +verses still live in the memory of hundreds of thousands. From Henry +Carey descended that Edmund Kean, who, in our time, transformed himself +so marvellously into Shylock, Iago and Othello. + +More than one historian has been charged with partiality to Halifax. The +truth is that the memory of Halifax is entitled in an especial manner +to the protection of history. For what distinguishes him from all other +English statesmen is this, that, through a long public life, and through +frequent and violent revolutions of public feeling, he almost invariably +took that view of the great questions of his time which history has +finally adopted. He was called inconstant, because the relative position +in which he stood to the contending factions was perpetually varying. As +well might the pole star be called inconstant because it is sometimes to +the east and sometimes to the west of the pointers. To have defended the +ancient and legal constitution of the realm against a seditious populace +at one conjuncture and against a tyrannical government at another; to +have been the foremost defender of order in the turbulent Parliament of +1680 and the foremost defender of liberty in the servile Parliament of +1685; to have been just and merciful to Roman Catholics in the days of +the Popish plot and to Exclusionists in the days of the Rye House Plot; +to have done all in his power to save both the head of Stafford and +the head of Russell; this was a course which contemporaries, heated +by passion and deluded by names and badges, might not unnaturally call +fickle, but which deserves a very different name from the late justice +of posterity. + +There is one and only one deep stain on the memory of this eminent man. +It is melancholy to think that he, who had acted so great a part in the +Convention, could have afterwards stooped to hold communication with +Saint Germains. The fact cannot be disputed; yet for him there are +excuses which cannot be pleaded for others who were guilty of the same +crime. He did not, like Marlborough, Russell, Godolphin and Shrewsbury, +betray a master by whom he was trusted, and with whose benefits he was +loaded. It was by the ingratitude and malice of the Whigs that he was +driven to take shelter for a moment among the Jacobites. It may be added +that he soon repented of the error into which he had been hurried by +passion, that, though never reconciled to the Court, he distinguished +himself by his zeal for the vigorous prosecution of the war, and +that his last work was a tract in which he exhorted his countrymen to +remember that the public burdens, heavy as they might seem, were light +when compared with the yoke of France and of Rome. [565] + +About a fortnight after the death of Halifax, a fate far more cruel than +death befell his old rival and enemy, the Lord President. That able, +ambitious and daring statesman was again hurled down from power. In his +first fall, terrible as it was, there had been something of dignity; and +he had, by availing himself with rare skill of an extraordinary crisis +in public affairs, risen once more to the most elevated position among +English subjects. The second ruin was indeed less violent than the +first; but it was ignominious and irretrievable. + +The peculation and venality by which the official men of that age were +in the habit of enriching themselves had excited in the public mind +a feeling such as could not but vent itself, sooner or later, in +some formidable explosion. But the gains were immediate; the day of +retribution was uncertain; and the plunderers of the public were as +greedy and as audacious as ever, when the vengeance, long threatened +and long delayed, suddenly overtook the proudest and most powerful among +them. + +The first mutterings of the coming storm did not at all indicate the +direction which it would take, or the fury with which it would burst. +An infantry regiment, which was quartered at Royston, had levied +contributions on the people of that town and of the neighbourhood. The +sum exacted was not large. In France or Brabant the moderation of the +demand would have been thought wonderful. But to English shopkeepers +and farmers military extortion was happily quite new and quite +insupportable. A petition was sent up to the Commons. The Commons +summoned the accusers and the accused to the bar. It soon appeared that +a grave offence had been committed, but that the offenders were not +altogether without excuse. The public money which had been issued +from the Exchequer for their pay and subsistence had been fraudulently +detained by their colonel and by his agent. It was not strange that +men who had arms and who had not necessaries should trouble themselves +little about the Petition of Right and the Declaration of Right. But it +was monstrous that, while the citizen was heavily taxed for the purpose +of paying to the soldier the largest military stipend known in Europe, +the soldier should be driven by absolute want to plunder the citizen. +This was strongly set forth in a representation which the Commons laid +before William. William, who had been long struggling against abuses +which grievously impaired the efficiency of his army, was glad to have +his hands thus strengthened. He promised ample redress, cashiered the +offending colonel, gave strict orders that the troops should receive +their due regularly, and established a military board for the purpose of +detecting and punishing such malpractices as had taken place at Royston. +[566] + +But the whole administration was in such a state that it was hardly +possible to track one offender without discovering ten others. In the +course of the inquiry into the conduct of the troops at Royston, it +was discovered that a bribe of two hundred guineas had been received +by Henry Guy, member of Parliament for Heydon and Secretary of the +Treasury. Guy was instantly sent to the Tower, not without much +exultation on the part of the Whigs; for he was one of those tools who +had passed, together with the buildings and furniture of the public +offices, from James to William; he affected the character of a High +Churchman; and he was known to be closely connected with some of the +heads of the Tory party, and especially with Trevor. [567] + +Another name, which was afterwards but too widely celebrated, first +became known to the public at this time. James Craggs had begun life as +a barber. He had then been a footman of the Duchess of Cleveland. His +abilities, eminently vigorous though not improved by education, had +raised him in the world; and he was now entering on a career which +was destined to end, after a quarter of a century of prosperity, in +unutterable misery and despair. He had become an army clothier. He was +examined as to his dealings with the colonels of regiments; and, as +he obstinately refused to produce his books, he was sent to keep Guy +company in the Tower. [568] + +A few hours after Craggs had been thrown into prison, a committee, which +had been appointed to inquire into the truth of a petition signed by +some of the hackney coachmen of London, laid on the table of the House a +report which excited universal disgust and indignation. It appeared that +these poor hardworking men had been cruelly wronged by the board under +the authority of which an Act of the preceding session had placed them. +They had been pillaged and insulted, not only by the commissioners, but +by one commissioner's lacquey and by another commissioner's harlot. The +Commons addressed the King; and the King turned the delinquents out of +their places. [569] + +But by this time delinquents far higher in power and rank were beginning +to be uneasy. At every new detection, the excitement, both within and +without the walls of Parliament, became more intense. The frightful +prevalence of bribery, corruption and extortion was every where the +subject of conversation. A contemporary pamphleteer compares the state +of the political world at this conjuncture to the state of a city in +which the plague has just been discovered, and in which the terrible +words, "Lord have mercy on us," are already seen on some doors. [570] +Whispers, which at another time would have speedily died away and been +forgotten, now swelled, first into murmurs, and then into clamours. A +rumour rose and spread that the funds of the two wealthiest corporations +in the kingdom, the City of London and the East India Company, had been +largely employed for the purpose of corrupting great men; and the names +of Trevor, Seymour and Leeds were mentioned. + +The mention of these names produced a stir in the Whig ranks. Trevor, +Seymour and Leeds were all three Tories, and had, in different ways, +greater influence than perhaps any other three Tories in the kingdom. +If they could all be driven at once from public life with blasted +characters, the Whigs would be completely predominant both in the +Parliament and in the Cabinet. + +Wharton was not the man to let such an opportunity escape him. At +White's, no doubt, among those lads of quality who were his pupils in +politics and in debauchery, he would have laughed heartily at the fury +with which the nation had on a sudden begun to persecute men for doing +what every body had always done and was always trying to do. But if +people would be fools, it was the business of a politician to make use +of their folly. The cant of political purity was not so familiar to the +lips of Wharton as blasphemy and ribaldry; but his abilities were so +versatile, and his impudence so consummate, that he ventured to appear +before the world as an austere patriot mourning over the venality and +perfidy of a degenerate age. While he, animated by that fierce party +spirit which in honest men would be thought a vice, but which in him +was almost a virtue, was eagerly stirring up his friends to demand an +inquiry into the truth of the evil reports which were in circulation, +the subject was suddenly and strangely forced forward. It chanced that, +while a bill of little interest was under discussion in the Commons, +the postman arrived with numerous letters directed to members; and the +distribution took place at the bar with a buzz of conversation which +drowned the voices of the orators. Seymour, whose imperious temper +always prompted him to dictate and to chide, lectured the talkers on the +scandalous irregularity of their conduct, and called on the Speaker to +reprimand them. An angry discussion followed; and one of the offenders +was provoked into making an allusion to the stories which were current +about both Seymour and the Speaker. "It is undoubtedly improper to talk +while a bill is under discussion; but it is much worse to take money +for getting a bill passed. If we are extreme to mark a slight breach of +form, how severely ought we to deal with that corruption which is eating +away the very substance of our institutions!" That was enough; the +spark had fallen; the train was ready; the explosion was immediate and +terrible. After a tumultuous debate in which the cry of "the Tower" was +repeatedly heard, Wharton managed to carry his point. Before the House +rose a committee was appointed to examine the books of the City of +London and of the East India Company. [571] + +Foley was placed in the chair of the committee. Within a week he +reported that the Speaker, Sir John Trevor, had in the preceding session +received from the City a thousand guineas for expediting a local bill. +This discovery gave great satisfaction to the Whigs, who had always +hated Trevor, and was not unpleasing to many of the Tories. During six +busy sessions his sordid rapacity had made him an object of general +aversion. The legitimate emoluments of his post amounted to about four +thousand a year; but it was believed that he had made at least ten +thousand a year. [572] His profligacy and insolence united had been +too much even for the angelic temper of Tillotson. It was said that the +gentle Archbishop had been heard to mutter something about a knave as +the Speaker passed by him. [573] Yet, great as were the offences of this +bad man, his punishment was fully proportioned to them. As soon as the +report of the committee had been read, it was moved that he had been +guilty of a high crime and misdemeanour. He had to stand up and to put +the question. There was a loud cry of Aye. He called on the Noes; and +scarcely a voice was heard. He was forced to declare that the Ayes +had it. A man of spirit would have given up the ghost with remorse and +shame; and the unutterable ignominy of that moment left its mark even on +the callous heart and brazen forehead of Trevor. Had he returned to the +House on the following day, he would have had to put the question on +a motion for his own expulsion. He therefore pleaded illness, and shut +himself up in his bedroom. Wharton soon brought down a royal message +authorising the Commons to elect another Speaker. + +The Whig chiefs wished to place Littleton in the chair; but they were +unable to accomplish their object. Foley was chosen, presented and +approved. Though he had of late generally voted with the Tories, he +still called himself a Whig, and was not unacceptable to many of the +Whigs. He had both the abilities and the knowledge which were necessary +to enable him to preside over the debates with dignity; but what, in the +peculiar circumstances in which the House then found itself placed, was +not unnaturally considered as his principal recommendation, was +that implacable hatred of jobbery and corruption which he somewhat +ostentatiously professed, and doubtless sincerely felt. On the day after +he entered on his functions, his predecessor was expelled. [574] + +The indiscretion of Trevor had been equal to his baseness; and his guilt +had been apparent on the first inspection of the accounts of the City. +The accounts of the East India Company were more obscure. The committee +reported that they had sate in Leadenhall Street, had examined +documents, had interrogated directors and clerks, but had been unable +to arrive at the bottom of the mystery of iniquity. Some most suspicious +entries had been discovered, under the head of special service. The +expenditure on this account had, in the year 1693, exceeded eighty +thousand pounds. It was proved that, as to the outlay of this money, +the directors had placed implicit confidence in the governor, Sir Thomas +Cook. He had merely told them in general terms that he had been at a +charge of twenty-three thousand, of twenty-five thousand, of thirty +thousand pounds, in the matter of the Charter; and the Court had, +without calling on him for any detailed explanation, thanked him for +his care, and ordered warrants for these great sums to be instantly +made out. It appeared that a few mutinous directors had murmured at this +immense outlay, and had called for a detailed statement. But the only +answer which they had been able to extract from Cook was that there were +some great persons whom it was necessary to gratify. + +The committee also reported that they had lighted on an agreement by +which the Company had covenanted to furnish a person named Colston with +two hundred tons of saltpetre. At the first glance, this transaction +seemed merchantlike and fair. But it was soon discovered that Colston +was merely an agent for Seymour. Suspicion was excited. The complicated +terms of the bargain were severely examined, and were found to be framed +in such a manner that, in every possible event, Seymour must be a gainer +and the Company a loser to the extent of ten or twelve thousand pounds. +The opinion of all who understood the matter was that the compact was +merely a disguise intended to cover a bribe. But the disguise was so +skilfully managed that the country gentlemen were perplexed, and that +the lawyers doubted whether there were such evidence of corruption as +would be held sufficient by a court of justice. Seymour escaped without +even a vote of censure, and still continued to take a leading part in +the debates of the Commons. [575] But the authority which he had long +exercised in the House and in the western counties of England, though +not destroyed, was visibly diminished; and, to the end of his life, +his traffic in saltpetre was a favourite theme of Whig pamphleteers and +poets. [576] + +The escape of Seymour only inflamed the ardour of Wharton and of +Wharton's confederates. They were determined to discover what had been +done with the eighty or ninety thousand pounds of secret service money +which had been entrusted to Cook by the East India Company. Cook, who +was member for Colchester, was questioned in his place; he refused to +answer; he was sent to the Tower; and a bill was brought in providing +that if, before a certain day, he should not acknowledge the whole +truth, he should be incapable of ever holding any office, should refund +to the Company the whole of the immense sum which had been confided to +him, and should pay a fine of twenty thousand pounds to the Crown. Rich +as he was, these penalties would have reduced him to penury. The +Commons were in such a temper that they passed the bill without a single +division. [577] Seymour, indeed, though his saltpetre contract was the +talk of the whole town, came forward with unabashed forehead to plead +for his accomplice; but his effrontery only injured the cause which +he defended. [578] In the Upper House the bill was condemned in the +strongest terms by the Duke of Leeds. Pressing his hand on his heart, he +declared, on his faith, on his honour, that he had no personal interest +in the question, and that he was actuated by no motive but a pure love +of justice. His eloquence was powerfully seconded by the tears and +lamentations of Cook, who, from the bar, implored the Peers not to +subject him to a species of torture unknown to the mild laws of England. +"Instead of this cruel bill," he said, "pass a bill of indemnity; and +I will tell you all." The Lords thought his request not altogether +unreasonable. After some communication with the Commons, it was +determined that a joint committee of the two Houses should be appointed +to inquire into the manner in which the secret service money of the East +India Company had been expended; and an Act was rapidly passed providing +that, if Cook would make to this committee a true and full discovery, he +should be indemnified for the crimes which he might confess; and that, +till he made such a discovery, he should remain in the Tower. To this +arrangement Leeds gave in public all the opposition that he could with +decency give. In private those who were conscious of guilt employed +numerous artifices for the purpose of averting inquiry. It was whispered +that things might come out which every good Englishman would wish to +hide, and that the greater part of the enormous sums which had passed +through Cook's hands had been paid to Portland for His Majesty's use. +But the Parliament and the nation were determined to know the truth, +whoever might suffer by the disclosure. [579] + +As soon as the Bill of Indemnity had received the royal assent, the +joint committee, consisting of twelve lords and twenty-four members of +the House of Commons, met in the Exchequer Chamber. Wharton was placed +in the chair; and in a few hours great discoveries were made. + +The King and Portland came out of the inquiry with unblemished honour. +Not only had not the King taken any part of the secret service money +dispensed by Cook; but he had not, during some years, received even the +ordinary present which the Company had, in former reigns, laid annually +at the foot of the throne. It appeared that not less than fifty thousand +pounds had been offered to Portland, and rejected. The money lay during +a whole year ready to be paid to him if he should change his mind. He +at length told those who pressed this immense bribe on him, that if +they persisted in insulting him by such an offer, they would make him +an enemy of their Company. Many people wondered at the probity which +he showed on this occasion, for he was generally thought interested and +grasping. The truth seems to be that he loved money, but that he was a +man of strict integrity and honour. He took, without scruple, whatever +he thought that he could honestly take, but was incapable of stooping +to an act of baseness. Indeed, he resented as affronts the compliments +which were paid him on this occasion. [580] The integrity of Nottingham +could excite no surprise. Ten thousand pounds had been offered to him, +and had been refused. The number of cases in which bribery was fully +made out was small. A large part of the sum which Cook had drawn from +the Company's treasury had probably been embezzled by the brokers whom +he had employed in the work of corruption; and what had become of the +rest it was not easy to learn from the reluctant witnesses who were +brought before the committee. One glimpse of light however was caught; +it was followed; and it led to a discovery of the highest moment. A +large sum was traced from Cook to an agent named Firebrace, and from +Firebrace to another agent named Bates, who was well known to be closely +connected with the High Church party and especially with Leeds. Bates +was summoned, but absconded; messengers were sent in pursuit of him; +he was caught, brought into the Exchequer Chamber and sworn. The story +which he told showed that he was distracted between the fear of losing +his ears and the fear of injuring his patron. He owned that he had +undertaken to bribe Leeds, had been for that purpose furnished with five +thousand five hundred guineas, had offered those guineas to His Grace, +and had, by His Grace's permission, left them at His Grace's house in +the care of a Swiss named Robart, who was His Grace's confidential +man of business. It should seem that these facts admitted of only one +interpretation. Bates however swore that the Duke had refused to +accept a farthing. "Why then," it was asked, "was the gold left, by +his consent, at his house and in the hands of his servant?" "Because," +answered Bates, "I am bad at telling coin. I therefore begged His Grace +to let me leave the pieces, in order that Robart might count them for +me; and His Grace was so good as to give leave." It was evident that, +if this strange story had been true, the guineas would, in a few hours, +have been taken-away. But Bates was forced to confess that they had +remained half a year where he had left them. The money had indeed at +last,--and this was one of the most suspicious circumstances in the +case,--been paid back by Robart on the very morning on which the +committee first met in the Exchequer Chamber. Who could believe that, if +the transaction had been free from all taint of corruption, the guineas +would have been detained as long as Cook was able to remain silent, and +would have been refunded on the very first day on which he was under the +necessity of speaking out? [581] + +A few hours after the examination of Bates, Wharton reported to the +Commons what had passed in the Exchequer Chamber. The indignation +was general and vehement. "You now understand," said Wharton, "why +obstructions have been thrown in our way at every step, why we have +had to wring out truth drop by drop, why His Majesty's name has been +artfully used to prevent us from going into an inquiry which has brought +nothing to light but what is to His Majesty's honour. Can we think it +strange that our difficulties should have been great, when we consider +the power, the dexterity, the experience of him who was secretly +thwarting us? It is time for us to prove signally to the world that it +is impossible for any criminal to double so cunningly that we cannot +track him, or to climb so high that we cannot reach him. Never was there +a more flagitious instance of corruption. Never was there an offender +who had less claim to indulgence. The obligations which the Duke of +Leeds has to his country are of no common kind. One great debt we +generously cancelled; but the manner in which our generosity has been +requited forces us to remember that he was long ago impeached for +receiving money from France. How can we be safe while a man proved to be +venal has access to the royal ear? Our best laid enterprises have been +defeated. Our inmost counsels have been betrayed. And what wonder is +it? Can we doubt that, together with this home trade in charters, a +profitable foreign trade in secrets is carried on? Can we doubt that he +who sells us to one another will, for a good price, sell us all to +the common enemy?" Wharton concluded by moving that Leeds should be +impeached of high crimes and misdemeanours. [582] + +Leeds had many friends and dependents in the House of Commons; but they +could say little. Wharton's motion was carried without a division; and +he was ordered to go to the bar of the Lords, and there, in the name +of the Commons of England, to impeach the Duke. But, before this order +could be obeyed, it was announced that His Grace was at the door and +requested an audience. + +While Wharton had been making his report to the Commons, Leeds had been +haranguing the Lords. He denied with the most solemn asseverations that +he had taken any money for himself. But he acknowledged, and indeed +almost boasted, that he had abetted Bates in getting money from the +Company, and seemed to think that this was a service which any man +in power might be reasonably expected to render to a friend. Too +many persons, indeed, in that age made a most absurd and pernicious +distinction between a minister who used his influence to obtain presents +for himself and a minister who used his influence to obtain presents +for his dependents. The former was corrupt; the latter was merely +goodnatured. Leeds proceeded to tell with great complacency a story +about himself, which would, in our days, drive a public man, not +only out of office, but out of the society of gentlemen. "When I was +Treasurer, in King Charles's time, my Lords, the excise was to be +farmed. There were several bidders. Harry Savile, for whom I had a great +value, informed me that they had asked for his interest with me, and +begged me to tell them that he had done his best for them. 'What!' said +I; 'tell them all so, when only one can have the farm?' 'No matter;' +said Harry: 'tell them all so; and the one who gets the farm will think +that he owes it to me.' The gentlemen came. I said to every one of them +separately, 'Sir, you are much obliged to Mr. Savile;' 'Sir, Mr. Savile +has been much your friend.' In the end Harry got a handsome present; and +I wished him good luck with it. I was his shadow then. I am Mr. Bates's +shadow now." + +The Duke had hardly related this anecdote, so strikingly illustrative +of the state of political morality in that generation, when it was +whispered to him that a motion to impeach him had been made in the House +of Commons. He hastened thither; but, before he arrived, the question +had been put and carried. Nevertheless he pressed for admittance; and +he was admitted. A chair, according to ancient usage, was placed for +him within the bar; and he was informed that the House was ready to hear +him. + +He spoke, but with less tact and judgment than usual. He magnified his +own public services. But for him, he said, there would have been +no House of Commons to impeach him; a boast so extravagant that it +naturally made his hearers unwilling to allow him the praise which his +conduct at the time of the Revolution really deserved. As to the charge +against him he said little more than that he was innocent, that there +had long been a malicious design to ruin him, that he would not go +into particulars, that the facts which had been proved would bear two +constructions, and that of the two constructions the most favourable +ought in candour to be adopted. He withdrew, after praying the House to +reconsider the vote which had just been passed, or, if that could not +be, to let him have speedy justice. + +His friends felt that his speech was no defence, and did not attempt to +rescind the resolution which had been carried just before he was heard. +Wharton, with a large following, went up to the Lords, and informed +them that the Commons had resolved to impeach the Duke. A committee +of managers was appointed to draw up the articles and to prepare the +evidence. [583] + +The articles were speedily drawn; but to the chain of evidence one +link appeared to be wanting. That link Robart, if he had been severely +examined and confronted with other witnesses, would in all probability +have been forced to supply. He was summoned to the bar of the Commons. +A messenger went with the summons to the house of the Duke of Leeds, and +was there informed that the Swiss was not within, that he had been three +days absent, and that where he was the porter could not tell. The Lords +immediately presented an address to the King, requesting him to give +orders that the ports might be stopped and the fugitive arrested. But +Robart was already in Holland on his way to his native mountains. + +The flight of this man made it impossible for the Commons to proceed. +They vehemently accused Leeds of having sent away the witness who alone +could furnish legal proof of that which was already established by +moral proof. Leeds, now at ease as to the event of the impeachment, gave +himself the airs of an injured man. "My Lords," he said, "the conduct of +the Commons is without precedent. They impeach me of a high crime; they +promise to prove it; then they find that they have not the means of +proving it; and they revile me for not supplying them with the means. +Surely they ought not to have brought a charge like this, without well +considering whether they had or had not evidence sufficient to support +it. If Robart's testimony be, as they now say, indispensable, why did +they not send for him and hear his story before they made up their +minds? They may thank their own intemperance, their own precipitancy, +for his disappearance. He is a foreigner; he is timid; he hears that a +transaction in which he has been concerned has been pronounced by the +House of Commons to be highly criminal, that his master is impeached, +that his friend Bates is in prison, that his own turn is coming. He +naturally takes fright; he escapes to his own country; and, from what +I know of him, I will venture to predict that it will be long before he +trusts himself again within reach of the Speaker's warrant. But what is +that to me? Am I to lie all my life under the stigma of an accusation +like this, merely because the violence of my accusers has scared their +own witness out of England? I demand an immediate trial. I move your +Lordships to resolve that, unless the Commons shall proceed before the +end of the session, the impeachment shall be dismissed." A few friendly +voices cried out "Well moved." But the Peers were generally unwilling to +take a step which would have been in the highest degree offensive to the +Lower House, and to the great body of those whom that House represented. +The Duke's motion fell to the ground; and a few hours later the +Parliament was prorogued. [584] + +The impeachment was never revived. The evidence which would warrant a +formal verdict of guilty was not forthcoming; and a formal verdict of +guilty would hardly have answered Wharton's purpose better than +the informal verdict of guilty which the whole nation had already +pronounced. The work was done. The Whigs were dominant. Leeds was no +longer chief minister, was indeed no longer a minister at all. William, +from respect probably for the memory of the beloved wife whom he had +lately lost, and to whom Leeds had shown peculiar attachment, avoided +every thing that could look like harshness. The fallen statesman +was suffered to retain during a considerable time the title of Lord +President, and to walk on public occasions between the Great Seal +and the Privy Seal. But he was told that he would do well not to +show himself at Council; the business and the patronage even of the +department of which he was the nominal head passed into other hands; and +the place which he ostensibly filled was considered in political circles +as really vacant. [585] + +He hastened into the country, and hid himself there, during some months, +from the public eye. When the Parliament met again, however, he emerged +from his retreat. Though he was well stricken in years and cruelly +tortured by disease, his ambition was still as ardent as ever. With +indefatigable energy he began a third time to climb, as he flattered +himself, towards that dizzy pinnacle which he had twice reached, and +from which he had twice fallen. He took a prominent part in debate; but, +though his eloquence and knowledge always secured to him the attention +of his hearers, he was never again, even when the Tory party was in +power, admitted to the smallest share in the direction of affairs. + +There was one great humiliation which he could not be spared. William +was about to take the command of the army in the Netherlands; and it +was necessary that, before he sailed, he should determine by whom the +government should be administered during his absence. Hitherto Mary had +acted as his vicegerent when he was out of England; but she was gone. +He therefore delegated his authority to seven Lords Justices, Tenison, +Archbishop of Canterbury, Somers, Keeper of the Great Seal, Pembroke, +Keeper of the Privy Seal, Devonshire, Lord Steward, Dorset, Lord +Chamberlain, Shrewsbury, Secretary of State, and Godolphin, First +Commissioner of the Treasury. It is easy to judge from this list of +names which way the balance of power was now leaning. Godolphin alone +of the seven was a Tory. The Lord President, still second in rank, and +a few days before first in power, of the great lay dignitaries of the +realm, was passed over; and the omission was universally regarded as an +official announcement of his disgrace. [586] + +There were some who wondered that the Princess of Denmark was not +appointed Regent. The reconciliation, which had been begun while +Mary was dying, had since her death been, in external show at least, +completed. This was one of those occasions on which Sunderland was +peculiarly qualified to be useful. He was admirably fitted to manage a +personal negotiation, to soften resentment, to soothe wounded pride, to +select, among all the objects of human desire, the very bait which +was most likely to allure the mind with which he was dealing. On this +occasion his task was not difficult. He had two excellent assistants, +Marlborough in the household of Anne, and Somers in the cabinet of +William. + +Marlborough was now as desirous to support the government as he had once +been to subvert it. The death of Mary had produced a complete change in +all his schemes. There was one event to which he looked forward with +the most intense longing, the accession of the Princess to the English +throne. It was certain that, on the day on which she began to reign, he +would be in her Court all that Buckingham had been in the Court of James +the First. Marlborough too must have been conscious of powers of a very +different order from those which Buckingham had possessed, of a genius +for politics not inferior to that of Richelieu, of a genius for war not +inferior to that of Turenne. Perhaps the disgraced General, in obscurity +and inaction, anticipated the day when his power to help and hurt in +Europe would be equal to that of her mightiest princes, when he would be +servilely flattered and courted by Caesar on one side and by Lewis +the Great on the other, and when every year would add another hundred +thousand pounds to the largest fortune that had ever been accumulated +by any English subject. All this might be if Mrs. Morley were Queen. But +that Mr. Freeman should ever see Mrs. Morley Queen had till lately been +not very probable. Mary's life was a much better life than his, and +quite as good a life as her sister's. That William would have issue +seemed unlikely. But it was generally expected that he would soon die. +His widow might marry again, and might leave children who would succeed +her. In these circumstances Marlborough might well think that he had +very little interest in maintaining that settlement of the Crown which +had been made by the Convention. Nothing was so likely to serve his +purpose as confusion, civil war, another revolution, another abdication, +another vacancy of the throne. Perhaps the nation, incensed against +William, yet not reconciled to James, and distracted between hatred of +foreigners and hatred of Jesuits, might prefer both to the Dutch King +and to the Popish King one who was at once a native of our country and +a member of our Church. That this was the real explanation of +Marlborough's dark and complicated plots was, as we have seen, firmly +believed by some of the most zealous Jacobites, and is in the highest +degree probable. It is certain that during several years he had spared +no efforts to inflame the army and the nation against the government. +But all was now changed. Mary was gone. By the Bill of Rights the Crown +was entailed on Anne after the death of William. The death of William +could not be far distant. Indeed all the physicians who attended him +wondered that he was still alive; and, when the risks of war were added +to the risks of disease, the probability seemed to be that in a few +months he would be in his grave. Marlborough saw that it would now be +madness to throw every thing into disorder and to put every thing +to hazard. He had done his best to shake the throne while it seemed +unlikely that Anne would ever mount it except by violent means. But he +did his best to fix it firmly, as soon as it became highly probably that +she would soon be called to fill it in the regular course of nature and +of law. + +The Princess was easily induced by the Churchills to write to the King +a submissive and affectionate letter of condolence. The King, who was +never much inclined to engage in a commerce of insincere compliments, +and who was still in the first agonies of his grief, showed little +disposition to meet her advances. But Somers, who felt that every +thing was at stake, went to Kensington, and made his way into the royal +closet. + +William was sitting there, so deeply sunk in melancholy that he did not +seem to perceive that any person had entered the room. The Lord Keeper, +after a respectful pause, broke silence, and, doubtless with all that +cautious delicacy which was characteristic of him, and which eminently +qualified him to touch the sore places of the mind without hurting them, +implored His Majesty to be reconciled to the Princess. "Do what you +will," said William; "I can think of no business." Thus authorised, the +mediators speedily concluded a treaty. [587] Anne came to Kensington, +and was graciously received; she was lodged in Saint James's Palace; a +guard of honour was again placed at her door; and the Gazettes again, +after a long interval, announced that foreign ministers had had the +honour of being presented to her. [588] The Churchills were again +permitted to dwell under the royal roof. But William did not at first +include them in the peace which he had made with their mistress. +Marlborough remained excluded from military and political employment; +and it was not without much difficulty that he was admitted into the +circle at Kensington, and permitted to kiss the royal hand. [589] The +feeling with which he was regarded by the King explains why Anne was +not appointed Regent. The Regency of Anne would have been the Regency +of Marlborough; and it is not strange that a man whom it was not thought +safe to entrust with any office in the State or the army should not have +been entrusted with the whole government of the kingdom. + +Had Marlborough been of a proud and vindictive nature he might have +been provoked into raising another quarrel in the royal family, and into +forming new cabals in the army. But all his passions, except ambition +and avarice, were under strict regulation. He was destitute alike of the +sentiment of gratitude and of the sentiment of revenge. He had conspired +against the government while it was loading him with favours. He +now supported it, though it requited his support with contumely. He +perfectly understood his own interest; he had perfect command of his +temper; he endured decorously the hardships of his present situation, +and contented himself by looking forward to a reversion which would +amply repay him for a few years of patience. He did not indeed cease +to correspond with the Court of Saint Germains; but the correspondence +gradually became more and more slack, and seems, on his part, to have +been made up of vague professions and trifling excuses. + +The event which had changed all Marlborough's views had filled the +minds of fiercer and more pertinacious politicians with wild hopes and +atrocious projects. + +During the two years and a half which followed the execution of +Grandval, no serious design had been formed against the life of William. +Some hotheaded malecontents had indeed laid schemes for kidnapping +or murdering him; but those schemes were not, while his wife lived, +countenanced by her father. James did not feel, and, to do him justice, +was not such a hypocrite as to pretend to feel, any scruple about +removing his enemies by those means which he had justly thought base and +wicked when employed by his enemies against himself. If any such scruple +had arisen in his mind, there was no want, under his roof, of casuists +willing and competent to soothe his conscience with sophisms such as had +corrupted the far nobler natures of Anthony Babington and Everard +Digby. To question the lawfulness of assassination, in cases where +assassination might promote the interests of the Church, was to question +the authority of the most illustrious Jesuits, of Bellarmine and Suarez, +of Molina and Mariana; nay, it was to rebel against the Chair of Saint +Peter. One Pope had walked in procession at the head of his cardinals, +had proclaimed a jubilee, had ordered the guns of Saint Angelo to +be fired, in honour of the perfidious butchery in which Coligni had +perished. Another Pope had in a solemn allocution hymned the murder of +Henry the Third of France in rapturous language borrowed from the ode of +the prophet Habakkuk, and had extolled the murderer above Phinehas +and Judith. [590] William was regarded at Saint Germains as a monster +compared with whom Coligni and Henry the Third were saints. Nevertheless +James, during some years, refused to sanction any attempt on his +nephew's person. The reasons which he assigned for his refusal have come +down to us, as he wrote them with his own hand. He did not affect to +think that assassination was a sin which ought to be held in horror by a +Christian, or a villany unworthy of a gentleman; he merely said that +the difficulties were great, and that he would not push his friends +on extreme danger when it would not be in his power to second them +effectually. [591] In truth, while Mary lived, it might well be doubted +whether the murder of her husband would really be a service to the +Jacobite cause. By his death the government would lose indeed the +strength derived from his eminent personal qualities, but would at the +same time be relieved from the load of his personal unpopularity. His +whole power would at once devolve on his widow; and the nation would +probably rally round her with enthusiasm. If her political abilities +were not equal to his, she had not his repulsive manners, his foreign +pronunciation, his partiality for every thing Dutch and for every thing +Calvinistic. Many, who had thought her culpably wanting in filial piety, +would be of opinion that now at least she was absolved from all duty to +a father stained with the blood of her husband. The whole machinery +of the administration would continue to work without that interruption +which ordinarily followed a demise of the Crown. There would be no +dissolution of the Parliament, no suspension of the customs and excise; +commissions would retain their force; and all that James would have +gained by the fall of his enemy would have been a barren revenge. + +The death of the Queen changed every thing. If a dagger or a bullet +should now reach the heart of William, it was probable that there would +instantly be general anarchy. The Parliament and the Privy Council would +cease to exist. The authority of ministers and judges would expire with +him from whom it was derived. It might seem not improbable that at such +a moment a restoration might be effected without a blow. + +Scarcely therefore had Mary been laid in the grave when restless and +unprincipled men began to plot in earnest against the life of William. +Foremost among these men in parts, in courage and in energy was Robert +Charnock. He had been liberally educated, and had, in the late reign, +been a fellow of Magdalene College, Oxford. Alone in that great society +he had betrayed the common cause, had consented to be the tool of the +High Commission, had publicly apostatized from the Church of England, +and, while his college was a Popish seminary, had held the office of +Vice President. The Revolution came, and altered at once the whole +course of his life. Driven from the quiet cloister and the old grove of +oaks on the bank of the Cherwell, he sought haunts of a very different +kind. During several years he led the perilous and agitated life of a +conspirator, passed and repassed on secret errands between England and +France, changed his lodgings in London often, and was known at different +coffeehouses by different names. His services had been requited with a +captain's commission signed by the banished King. + +With Charnock was closely connected George Porter, an adventurer who +called himself a Roman Catholic and a Royalist, but who was in truth +destitute of all religious and of all political principle. Porter's +friends could not deny that he was a rake and a coxcomb, that he drank, +that he swore, that he told extravagant lies about his amours, and that +he had been convicted of manslaughter for a stab given in a brawl at +the playhouse. His enemies affirmed that he was addicted to nauseous +and horrible kinds of debauchery, and that he procured the means of +indulging his infamous tastes by cheating and marauding; that he was one +of a gang of clippers; that he sometimes got on horseback late in the +evening and stole out in disguise, and that, when he returned from these +mysterious excursions, his appearance justified the suspicion that he +had been doing business on Hounslow Heath or Finchley Common. [592] + +Cardell Goodman, popularly called Scum Goodman, a knave more abandoned, +if possible, than Porter, was in the plot. Goodman had been on the +stage, had been kept, like some much greater men, by the Duchess of +Cleveland, had been taken into her house, had been loaded by her with +gifts, and had requited her by bribing an Italian quack to poison two of +her children. As the poison had not been administered, Goodman could +be prosecuted only for a misdemeanour. He was tried, convicted and +sentenced to a ruinous fine. He had since distinguished himself as one +of the first forgers of bank notes. [593] + +Sir William Parkyns, a wealthy knight bred to the law, who had been +conspicuous among the Tories in the days of the Exclusion Bill, was one +of the most important members of the confederacy. He bore a much fairer +character than most of his accomplices; but in one respect he was more +culpable than any of them. For he had, in order to retain a lucrative +office which he held in the Court of Chancery, sworn allegiance to the +Prince against whose life he now conspired. + +The design was imparted to Sir John Fenwick, celebrated on account of +the cowardly insult which he had offered to the deceased Queen. Fenwick, +if his own assertion is to be trusted, was willing to join in an +insurrection, but recoiled from the thought of assassination, and showed +so much of what was in his mind as sufficed to make him an object of +suspicion to his less scrupulous associates. He kept their secret, +however, as strictly as if he had wished them success. + +It should seem that, at first, a natural feeling restrained the +conspirators from calling their design by the proper name. Even in their +private consultations they did not as yet talk of killing the Prince of +Orange. They would try to seize him and to carry him alive into France. +If there were any resistance they might be forced to use their swords +and pistols, and nobody could be answerable for what a thrust or a +shot might do. In the spring of 1695, the scheme of assassination, thus +thinly veiled, was communicated to James, and his sanction was earnestly +requested. But week followed week; and no answer arrived from him. He +doubtless remained silent in the hope that his adherents would, after +a short delay, venture to act on their own responsibility, and that he +might thus have the advantage without the scandal of their crime. They +seem indeed to have so understood him. He had not, they said, authorised +the attempt; but he had not prohibited it; and, apprised as he was of +their plan, the absence of prohibition was a sufficient warrant. They +therefore determined to strike; but before they could make the necessary +arrangements William set out for Flanders; and the plot against his life +was necessarily suspended till his return. + +It was on the twelfth of May that the King left Kensington for +Gravesend, where he proposed to embark for the Continent. Three days +before his departure the Parliament of Scotland had, after a recess +of about two years, met again at Edinburgh. Hamilton, who had, in the +preceding session, sate on the throne and held the sceptre, was dead; +and it was necessary to find a new Lord High Commissioner. The person +selected was John Hay, Marquess of Tweedale, Chancellor of the Realm, a +man grown old in business, well informed, prudent, humane, blameless in +private life, and, on the whole, as respectable as any Scottish lord +who had been long and deeply concerned in the politics of those troubled +times. + +His task was not without difficulty. It was indeed well known that the +Estates were generally inclined to support the government. But it was +also well known that there was one subject which would require the most +dexterous and delicate management. The cry of the blood shed more than +three years before in Glencoe had at length made itself heard. Towards +the close of the year 1693, the reports, which had at first been +contemptuously derided as factious calumnies, began to be generally +thought deserving of serious attention. Many people little disposed to +place confidence in any thing that came forth from the secret presses of +the Jacobites owned that, for the honour of the government, some inquiry +ought to be instituted. The amiable Mary had been much shocked by what +she heard. William had, at her request, empowered the Duke of Hamilton +and several other Scotchmen of note to investigate the whole matter. +But the Duke died; his colleagues were slack in the performance of their +duty; and the King, who knew little and cared little about Scotland, +forgot to urge them. [594] + +It now appeared that the government would have done wisely as well as +rightly by anticipating the wishes of the country. The horrible story +repeated by the nonjurors pertinaciously, confidently, and with so +many circumstances as almost enforced belief, had at length roused all +Scotland. The sensibility of a people eminently patriotic was galled by +the taunts of southern pamphleteers, who asked whether there was on the +north of the Tweed, no law, no justice, no humanity, no spirit to demand +redress even for the foulest wrongs. Each of the two extreme parties, +which were diametrically opposed to each other in general politics, was +impelled by a peculiar feeling to call for inquiry. The Jacobites were +delighted by the prospect of being able to make out a case which would +bring discredit on the usurper, and which might be set off against the +many offences imputed by the Whigs to Claverhouse and Mackenzie. The +zealous Presbyterians were not less delighted at the prospect of being +able to ruin the Master of Stair. They had never forgotten or forgiven +the service which he had rendered to the House of Stuart in the time of +the persecution. They knew that, though he had cordially concurred in +the political revolution which had freed them from the hated dynasty, he +had seen with displeasure that ecclesiastical revolution which was, in +their view, even more important. They knew that church government was +with him merely an affair of State, and that, looking at it as an affair +of State, he preferred the episcopal to the synodical model. They could +not without uneasiness see so adroit and eloquent an enemy of pure +religion constantly attending the royal steps and constantly breathing +counsel in the royal ear. They were therefore impatient for an +investigation, which, if one half of what was rumoured were true, must +produce revelations fatal to the power and fame of the minister whom +they distrusted. Nor could that minister rely on the cordial support +of all who held office under the Crown. His genius and influence had +excited the jealousy of many less successful courtiers, and especially +of his fellow secretary, Johnstone. + +Thus, on the eve of the meeting of the Scottish Parliament, Glencoe +was in the mouths of all Scotchmen of all factions and of all sects. +William, who was just about to start for the Continent, learned that, on +this subject, the Estates must have their way, and that the best thing +that he could do would be to put himself at the head of a movement which +it was impossible for him to resist. A Commission authorising Tweedale +and several other privy councillors to examine fully into the matter +about which the public mind was so strongly excited was signed by the +King at Kensington, was sent down to Edinburgh, and was there sealed +with the Great Seal of the realm. This was accomplished just in time. +[595] The Parliament had scarcely entered on business when a member +rose to move for an inquiry into the circumstances of the slaughter +of Glencoe. Tweedale was able to inform the Estates that His Majesty's +goodness had prevented their desires, that a Commission of Precognition +had, a few hours before, passed in all the forms, and that the lords and +gentlemen named in that instrument would hold their first meeting before +night. [596] The Parliament unanimously voted thanks to the King for +this instance of his paternal care; but some of those who joined in the +vote of thanks expressed a very natural apprehension that the second +investigation might end as unsatisfactorily as the first investigation +had ended. The honour of the country, they said, was at stake; and the +Commissioners were bound to proceed with such diligence that the result +of the inquest might be known before the end of the session. Tweedale +gave assurances which, for a time, silenced the murmurers. [597] But, +when three weeks had passed away, many members became mutinous +and suspicious. On the fourteenth of June it was moved that the +Commissioners should be ordered to report. The motion was not carried; +but it was renewed day after day. In three successive sittings Tweedale +was able to restrain the eagerness of the assembly. But, when he at +length announced that the report had been completed; and added that it +would not be laid before the Estates till it had been submitted to the +King, there was a violent outcry. The public curiosity was intense; +for the examination had been conducted with closed doors; and both +Commissioners and clerks had been sworn to secrecy. The King was in the +Netherlands. Weeks must elapse before his pleasure could be taken; and +the session could not last much longer. In a fourth debate there were +signs which convinced the Lord High Commissioner that it was expedient +to yield; and the report was produced. [598] + +It is a paper highly creditable to those who framed it, an excellent +digest of evidence, clear, passionless, and austerely just. No source +from which valuable information was likely to be derived had been +neglected. Glengarry and Keppoch, though notoriously disaffected to the +government, had been permitted to conduct the case on behalf of their +unhappy kinsmen. Several of the Macdonalds who had escaped from the +havoc of that night had been examined, and among them the reigning Mac +Ian, the eldest son of the murdered Chief. The correspondence of the +Master of Stair with the military men who commanded in the Highlands had +been subjected to a strict but not unfair scrutiny. The conclusion to +which the Commissioners came, and in which every intelligent and candid +inquirer will concur, was that the slaughter of Glencoe was a barbarous +murder, and that of this barbarous murder the letters of the Master of +Stair were the sole warrant and cause. + +That Breadalbane was an accomplice in the crime was not proved; but he +did not come off quite clear. In the course of the investigation it was +incidentally discovered that he had, while distributing the money of +William among the Highland Chiefs, professed to them the warmest zeal +for the interest of James, and advised them to take what they could get +from the usurper, but to be constantly on the watch for a favourable +opportunity of bringing back the rightful King. Breadalbane's defence +was that he was a greater villain than his accusers imagined, and that +he had pretended to be a Jacobite only in order to get at the bottom +of the Jacobite plans. In truth the depths of this man's knavery were +unfathomable. It was impossible to say which of his treasons were, to +borrow the Italian classification, single treasons, and which double +treasons. On this occasion the Parliament supposed him to have +been guilty only of a single treason, and sent him to the Castle of +Edinburgh. The government, on full consideration, gave credit to his +assertion that he had been guilty of a double treason, and let him out +again. [599] + +The Report of the Commission was taken into immediate consideration +by the Estates. They resolved, without one dissentient voice, that the +order signed by William did not authorise the slaughter of Glencoe. They +next resolved, but, it should seem, not unanimously, that the slaughter +was a murder. [600] They proceeded to pass several votes, the sense of +which was finally summed up in an address to the King. How that part of +the address which related to the Master of Stair should be framed was a +question about which there was much debate. Several of his letters were +called for and read; and several amendments were put to the vote. It +should seem that the Jacobites and the extreme Presbyterians were, with +but too good cause, on the side of severity. The majority, under the +skilful management of the Lord High Commissioner, acquiesced in words +which made it impossible for the guilty minister to retain his office, +but which did not impute to him such criminality as would have affected +his life or his estate. They censured him, but censured him in terms far +too soft. They blamed his immoderate zeal against the unfortunate clan, +and his warm directions about performing the execution by surprise. His +excess in his letters they pronounced to have been the original cause +of the massacre; but, instead of demanding that he should be brought to +trial as a murderer, they declared that, in consideration of his absence +and of his great place, they left it to the royal wisdom to deal with +him in such a manner as might vindicate the honour of the government. + +The indulgence which was shown to the principal offender was not +extended to his subordinates. Hamilton, who had fled and had been vainly +cited by proclamation at the City Cross to appear before the Estates, +was pronounced not to be clear of the blood of the Glencoe men. +Glenlyon, Captain Drummond, Lieutenant Lindsey, Ensign Lundie, and +Serjeant Barbour, were still more distinctly designated as murderers; +and the King was requested to command the Lord Advocate to prosecute +them. + +The Parliament of Scotland was undoubtedly, on this occasion, severe in +the wrong place and lenient in the wrong place. The cruelty and baseness +of Glenlyon and his comrades excite, even after the lapse of a hundred +and sixty years, emotions which make it difficult to reason calmly. +Yet whoever can bring himself to look at the conduct of these men with +judicial impartiality will probably be of opinion that they could +not, without great detriment to the commonwealth, have been treated +as assassins. They had slain nobody whom they had not been positively +directed by their commanding officer to slay. That subordination without +which an army is the worst of all rabbles would be at an end, if every +soldier were to be held answerable for the justice of every order +in obedience to which he pulls his trigger. The case of Glencoe was, +doubtless, an extreme case; but it cannot easily be distinguished in +principle from cases which, in war, are of ordinary occurrence. Very +terrible military executions are sometimes indispensable. Humanity +itself may require them. Who then is to decide whether there be an +emergency such as makes severity the truest mercy? Who is to determine +whether it be or be not necessary to lay a thriving town in ashes, to +decimate a large body of mutineers, to shoot a whole gang of banditti? +Is the responsibility with the commanding officer, or with the rank and +file whom he orders to make ready, present and fire? And if the general +rule be that the responsibility is with the commanding officer, and +not with those who obey him, is it possible to find any reason for +pronouncing the case of Glencoe an exception to that rule? It is +remarkable that no member of the Scottish Parliament proposed that any +of the private men of Argyle's regiment should be prosecuted for murder. +Absolute impunity was granted to everybody below the rank of Serjeant. +Yet on what principle? Surely, if military obedience was not a valid +plea, every man who shot a Macdonald on that horrible night was a +murderer. And, if military obedience was a valid plea for the musketeer +who acted by order of Serjeant Barbour, why not for Barbour who acted +by order of Glenlyon? And why not for Glenlyon who acted by order of +Hamilton? It can scarcely be maintained that more deference is due +from a private to a noncommissioned officer than from a noncommissioned +officer to his captain, or from a captain to his colonel. + +It may be said that the orders given to Glenlyon were of so peculiar a +nature that, if he had been a man of virtue, he would have thrown up his +commission, would have braved the displeasure of colonel, general, and +Secretary of State, would have incurred the heaviest penalty which +a Court Martial could inflict, rather than have performed the part +assigned to him; and this is perfectly true; but the question is not +whether he acted like a virtuous man, but whether he did that for which +he could, without infringing a rule essential to the discipline of camps +and to the security of nations, be hanged as a murderer. In this case, +disobedience was assuredly a moral duty; but it does not follow that +obedience was a legal crime. + +It seems therefore that the guilt of Glenlyon and his fellows was not +within the scope of the penal law. The only punishment which could +properly be inflicted on them was that which made Cain cry out that +it was greater than he could bear; to be vagabonds on the face of the +earth, and to carry wherever they went a mark from which even bad men +should turn away sick with horror. + +It was not so with the Master of Stair. He had been solemnly pronounced, +both by the Commission of Precognition and by the Estates of the Realm +in full Parliament, to be the original author of the massacre. That it +was not advisable to make examples of his tools was the strongest reason +for making an example of him. Every argument which can be urged against +punishing the soldier who executes the unjust and inhuman orders of his +superior is an argument for punishing with the utmost rigour of the law +the superior who gives unjust and inhuman orders. Where there can be no +responsibility below, there should be double responsibility above. What +the Parliament of Scotland ought with one voice to have demanded was, +not that a poor illiterate serjeant, who was hardly more accountable +than his own halbert for the bloody work which he had done, should be +hanged in the Grassmarket, but that the real murderer, the most politic, +the most eloquent, the most powerful, of Scottish statesmen, should be +brought to a public trial, and should, if found guilty, die the death of +a felon. Nothing less than such a sacrifice could expiate such a crime. +Unhappily the Estates, by extenuating the guilt of the chief offender, +and, at the same time, demanding that his humble agents should be +treated with a severity beyond the law, made the stain which the +massacre had left on the honour of the nation broader and deeper than +before. + +Nor is it possible to acquit the King of a great breach of duty. It +is, indeed, highly probable that, till he received the report of +his Commissioners, he had been very imperfectly informed as to the +circumstances of the slaughter. We can hardly suppose that he was much +in the habit of reading Jacobite pamphlets; and, if he did read them, +he would have found in them such a quantity of absurd and rancorous +invective against himself that he would have been very little inclined +to credit any imputation which they might throw on his servants. He +would have seen himself accused, in one tract, of being a concealed +Papist, in another of having poisoned Jeffreys in the Tower, in a third +of having contrived to have Talmash taken off at Brest. He would have +seen it asserted that, in Ireland, he once ordered fifty of his wounded +English soldiers to be burned alive. He would have seen that the +unalterable affection which he felt from his boyhood to his death for +three or four of the bravest and most trusty friends that ever prince +had the happiness to possess was made a ground for imputing to him +abominations as foul as those which are buried under the waters of the +Dead Sea. He might therefore naturally be slow to believe frightful +imputations thrown by writers whom he knew to be habitual liars on a +statesman whose abilities he valued highly, and to whose exertions he +had, on some great occasions, owed much. But he could not, after he +had read the documents transmitted to him from Edinburgh by Tweedale, +entertain the slightest doubt of the guilt of the Master of Stair. To +visit that guilt with exemplary punishment was the sacred duty of a +Sovereign who had sworn, with his hand lifted up towards heaven, that he +would, in his kingdom of Scotland, repress, in all estates and degrees, +all oppression, and would do justice, without acceptance of persons, +as he hoped for mercy from the Father of all mercies. William contented +himself with dismissing the Master from office. For this great fault, a +fault amounting to a crime, Burnet tried to frame, not a defence, but an +excuse. He would have us believe that the King, alarmed by finding how +many persons had borne a part in the slaughter of Glencoe, thought +it better to grant a general amnesty than to punish one massacre by +another. But this representation is the very reverse of the truth. +Numerous instruments had doubtless been employed in the work of death; +but they had all received their impulse, directly or indirectly, from +a single mind. High above the crowd of offenders towered one offender, +preeminent in parts, knowledge, rank and power. In return for many +victims immolated by treachery, only one victim was demanded by justice; +and it must ever be considered as a blemish on the fame of William that +the demand was refused. + +On the seventeenth of July the session of the Parliament of Scotland +closed. The Estates had liberally voted such a supply as the poor +country which they represented could afford. They had indeed been put +into high good humour by the notion that they had found out a way of +speedily making that poor country rich. Their attention had been divided +between the inquiry into the slaughter of Glencoe and some specious +commercial projects of which the nature will be explained and the fate +related in a future chapter. + +Meanwhile all Europe was looking anxiously towards the Low Countries. +The great warrior who had been victorious at Fleurus, at Steinkirk and +at Landen had not left his equal behind him. But France still possessed +Marshals well qualified for high command. Already Catinat and Boufflers +had given proofs of skill, of resolution, and of zeal for the interests +of the state. Either of those distinguished officers would have been a +successor worthy of Luxemburg and an antagonist worthy of William; but +their master, unfortunately for himself, preferred to both the Duke of +Villeroy. The new general had been Lewis's playmate when they were both +children, had then become a favourite, and had never ceased to be so. +In those superficial graces for which the French aristocracy was then +renowned throughout Europe, Villeroy was preeminent among the French +aristocracy. His stature was tall, his countenance handsome, his manners +nobly and somewhat haughtily polite, his dress, his furniture, his +equipages, his table, magnificent. No man told a story with more +vivacity; no man sate his horse better in a hunting party; no man made +love with more success; no man staked and lost heaps of gold with more +agreeable unconcern; no man was more intimately acquainted with the +adventures, the attachments, the enmities of the lords and ladies +who daily filled the halls of Versailles. There were two characters +especially which this fine gentleman had studied during many years, and +of which he knew all the plaits and windings, the character of the King, +and the character of her who was Queen in every thing but name. But +there ended Villeroy's acquirements. He was profoundly ignorant both of +books and of business. At the Council Board he never opened his mouth +without exposing himself. For war he had not a single qualification +except that personal courage which was common to him with the whole +class of which he was a member. At every great crisis of his political +and of his military life he was alternately drunk with arrogance +and sunk in dejection. Just before he took a momentous step his +selfconfidence was boundless; he would listen to no suggestion; he would +not admit into his mind the thought that failure was possible. On +the first check he gave up every thing for lost, became incapable of +directing, and ran up and down in helpless despair. Lewis however loved +him; and he, to do him justice, loved Lewis. The kindness of the master +was proof against all the disasters which were brought on his kingdom +by the rashness and weakness of the servant; and the gratitude of the +servant was honourably, though not judiciously, manifested on more than +one occasion after the death of the master. [601] + +Such was the general to whom the direction of the campaign in the +Netherlands was confided. The Duke of Maine was sent to learn the art of +war under this preceptor. Maine, the natural son of Lewis by the Duchess +of Montespan, had been brought up from childhood by Madame de Maintenon, +and was loved by Lewis with the love of a father, by Madame de Maintenon +with the not less tender love of a foster mother. + +Grave men were scandalized by the ostentatious manner in which the King, +while making a high profession of piety, exhibited his partiality for +this offspring of a double adultery. Kindness, they said, was doubtless +due from a parent to a child; but decency was also due from a Sovereign +to his people. In spite of these murmurs the youth had been publicly +acknowledged, loaded with wealth and dignities, created a Duke and Peer, +placed, by an extraordinary act of royal power, above Dukes and Peers of +older creation, married to a Princess of the blood royal, and appointed +Grand Master of the Artillery of the Realm. With abilities and courage +he might have played a great part in the world. But his intellect was +small; his nerves were weak; and the women and priests who had educated +him had effectually assisted nature. He was orthodox in belief, correct +in morals, insinuating in address, a hypocrite, a mischiefmaker and a +coward. + +It was expected at Versailles that Flanders would, during this year, be +the chief theatre of war. Here, therefore, a great army was collected. +Strong lines were formed from the Lys to the Scheld, and Villeroy fixed +his headquarters near Tournay. Boufflers, with about twelve thousand +men, guarded the banks of the Sambre. + +On the other side the British and Dutch troops, who were under +`-William's immediate command, mustered in the neighbourhood of Ghent. +The Elector of Bavaria, at the head of a great force, lay near Brussels. +A smaller army, consisting chiefly of Brandenburghers was encamped not +far from Huy. + +Early in June military operations commenced. The first movements of +William were mere feints intended to prevent the French generals from +suspecting his real purpose. He had set his heart on retaking Namur. +The loss of Namur had been the most mortifying of all the disasters of a +disastrous war. The importance of Namur in a military point of view had +always been great, and had become greater than ever during the +three years which had elapsed since the last siege. New works, the +masterpieces of Vauban, had been added to the old defences which had +been constructed with the utmost skill of Cohorn. So ably had the two +illustrious engineers vied with each other and cooperated with nature +that the fortress was esteemed the strongest in Europe. Over one gate +had been placed a vaunting inscription which defied the allies to wrench +the prize from the grasp of France. + +William kept his own counsel so well that not a hint of his intention +got abroad. Some thought that Dunkirk, some that Ypres was his object. +The marches and skirmishes by which he disguised his design were +compared by Saint Simon to the moves of a skilful chess player. +Feuquieres, much more deeply versed in military science than Saint +Simon, informs us that some of these moves were hazardous, and that such +a game could not have been safely played against Luxemburg; and this is +probably true, but Luxemburg was gone; and what Luxemburg had been to +William, William now was to Villeroy. + +While the King was thus employed, the Jacobites at home, being unable, +in his absence, to prosecute their design against his person, contented +themselves with plotting against his government. They were somewhat less +closely watched than during the preceding year; for the event of +the trials at Manchester had discouraged Aaron Smith and his agents. +Trenchard, whose vigilance and severity had made him an object of terror +and hatred, was no more, and had been succeeded, in what may be called +the subordinate Secretaryship of State, by Sir William Trumball, a +learned civilian and an experienced diplomatist, of moderate opinions, +and of temper cautious to timidity. [602] The malecontents were +emboldened by the lenity of the administration. William had scarcely +sailed for the Continent when they held a great meeting at one of their +favourite haunts, the Old King's Head in Leadenhall Street. Charnock, +Porter, Goodman, Parkyns and Fenwick were present. The Earl of Aylesbury +was there, a man whose attachment to the exiled house was notorious, but +who always denied that he had ever thought of effecting a restoration +by immoral means. His denial would be entitled to more credit if he +had not, by taking the oaths to the government against which he was +constantly intriguing, forfeited the right to be considered as a man of +conscience and honour. In the assembly was Sir John Friend, a nonjuror +who had indeed a very slender wit, but who had made a very large fortune +by brewing, and who spent it freely in sedition. After dinner,--for the +plans of the Jacobites were generally laid over wine, and generally bore +some trace of the conviviality in which they had originated,--it +was resolved that the time was come for an insurrection and a French +invasion, and that a special messenger should carry the sense of the +meeting to Saint Germains. Charnock was selected. He undertook the +commission, crossed the Channel, saw James, and had interviews with the +ministers of Lewis, but could arrange nothing. The English malecontents +would not stir till ten thousand French troops were in the island; and +ten thousand French troops could not, without great risk, be withdrawn +from the army which was contending against William in the Low Countries. +When Charnock returned to report that his embassy had been unsuccessful, +he found some of his confederates in gaol. They had during his absence +amused themselves, after their fashion, by trying to raise a riot in +London on the tenth of June, the birthday of the unfortunate Prince +of Wales. They met at a tavern in Drury Lane, and, when hot with +wine, sallied forth sword in hand, headed by Porter and Goodman, beat +kettledrums, unfurled banners, and began to light bonfires. But the +watch, supported by the populace, was too strong for the revellers. They +were put to rout; the tavern where they had feasted was sacked by the +mob; the ringleaders were apprehended, tried, fined and imprisoned, but +regained their liberty in time to bear a part in a far more criminal +design. [603] + +By this time all was ready for the execution of the plan which William +had formed. That plan had been communicated to the other chiefs of +the allied forces, and had been warmly approved. Vaudemont was left in +Flanders with a considerable force to watch Villeroy. The King, with +the rest of his army, marched straight on Namur. At the same moment the +Elector of Bavaria advanced towards the same point on one side, and the +Brandenburghers on another. So well had these movements been concerted, +and so rapidly were they performed, that the skilful and energetic +Boufflers had but just time to throw himself into the fortress. He was +accompanied by seven regiments of dragoons, by a strong body of gunners, +sappers and miners, and by an officer named Megrigny, who was esteemed +the best engineer in the French service with the exception of Vauban. +A few hours after Boufflers had entered the place the besieging forces +closed round it on every side; and the lines of circumvallation were +rapidly formed. + +The news excited no alarm at the French Court. There it was not doubted +that William would soon be compelled to abandon his enterprise with +grievous loss and ignominy. The town was strong; the castle was believed +to be impregnable; the magazines were filled with provisions and +ammunition sufficient to last till the time at which the armies of that +age were expected to retire into winter quarters; the garrison consisted +of sixteen thousand of the best troops in the world; they were commanded +by an excellent general; he was assisted by an excellent engineer; nor +was it doubted that Villeroy would march with his great army to the +assistance of Boufflers, and that the besiegers would then be in much +more danger than the besieged. + +These hopes were kept up by the despatches of Villeroy. He proposed, +he said, first to annihilate the army of Vaudemont, and then to drive +William from Namur. Vaudemont might try to avoid an action; but he could +not escape. The Marshal went so far as to promise his master news of a +complete victory within twenty-four hours. Lewis passed a whole day +in impatient expectation. At last, instead of an officer of high rank +loaded with English and Dutch standards, arrived a courier bringing news +that Vaudemont had effected a retreat with scarcely any loss, and was +safe under the walls of Ghent. William extolled the generalship of his +lieutenant in the warmest terms. "My cousin," he wrote, "you have shown +yourself a greater master of your art than if you had won a pitched +battle." [604] In the French camp, however, and at the French Court it +was universally held that Vaudemont had been saved less by his own skill +than by the misconduct of those to whom he was opposed. Some threw +the whole blame on Villeroy; and Villeroy made no attempt to vindicate +himself. But it was generally believed that he might, at least to a +great extent, have vindicated himself, had he not preferred royal favour +to military renown. His plan, it was said, might have succeeded, had not +the execution been entrusted to the Duke of Maine. At the first glimpse +of danger the bastard's heart had died within him. He had not been able +to conceal his poltroonery. He had stood trembling, stuttering, calling +for his confessor, while the old officers round him, with tears in their +eyes, urged him to advance. During a short time the disgrace of the son +was concealed from the father. But the silence of Villeroy showed +that there was a secret; the pleasantries of the Dutch gazettes soon +elucidated the mystery; and Lewis learned, if not the whole truth, yet +enough to make him miserable. Never during his long reign had he been so +moved. During some hours his gloomy irritability kept his servants, his +courtiers, even his priests, in terror. He so far forgot the grace and +dignity for which he was renowned throughout the world that, in the +sight of all the splendid crowd of gentlemen and ladies who came to see +him dine at Marli, he broke a cane on the shoulders of a lacquey, and +pursued the poor man with the handle. [605] + +The siege of Namur meanwhile was vigorously pressed by the allies. The +scientific part of their operations was under the direction of Cohorn, +who was spurred by emulation to exert his utmost skill. He had suffered, +three years before, the mortification of seeing the town, as he had +fortified it, taken by his great master Vauban. To retake it, now that +the fortifications had received Vauban's last improvements, would be a +noble revenge. + +On the second of July the trenches were opened. On the eighth a gallant +sally of French dragoons was gallantly beaten back; and, late on the +same evening, a strong body of infantry, the English footguards leading +the way, stormed, after a bloody conflict, the outworks on the Brussels +side. The King in person directed the attack; and his subjects were +delighted to learn that, when the fight was hottest, he laid his hand on +the shoulder of the Elector of Bavaria, and exclaimed, "Look, look at +my brave English!" Conspicuous in bravery even among those brave English +was Cutts. In that bulldog courage which flinches from no danger, +however terrible, he was unrivalled. There was no difficulty in finding +hardy volunteers, German, Dutch and British, to go on a forlorn hope; +but Cutts was the only man who appeared to consider such an expedition +as a party of pleasure. He was so much at his ease in the hottest +fire of the French batteries that his soldiers gave him the honourable +nickname of the Salamander. [606] + +On the seventeenth the first counterscarp of the town was attacked. +The English and Dutch were thrice repulsed with great slaughter, and +returned thrice to the charge. At length, in spite of the exertions of +the French officers, who fought valiantly sword in hand on the glacis, +the assailants remained in possession of the disputed works. While the +conflict was raging, William, who was giving his orders under a shower +of bullets, saw with surprise and anger, among the officers of his +staff, Michael Godfrey the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. This +gentleman had come to the King's headquarters in order to make some +arrangements for the speedy and safe remittance of money from England +to the army in the Netherlands, and was curious to see real war. Such +curiosity William could not endure. "Mr. Godfrey," he said, "you ought +not to run these hazards; you are not a soldier; you can be of no use +to us here." "Sir," answered Godfrey, "I run no more hazard than Your +Majesty." "Not so," said William; "I am where it is my duty to be; and +I may without presumption commit my life to God's keeping; but you--" +While they were talking a cannon ball from the ramparts laid Godfrey +dead at the King's feet. It was not found however that the fear of being +Godfreyed,--such was during some time the cant phrase,--sufficed to +prevent idle gazers from coming to the trenches. [607] Though William +forbade his coachmen, footmen and cooks to expose themselves, he +repeatedly saw them skulking near the most dangerous spots and trying to +get a peep at the fighting. He was sometimes, it is said, provoked into +horsewhipping them out of the range of the French guns; and the story, +whether true or false, is very characteristic. + +On the twentieth of July the Bavarians and Brandenburghers, under the +direction of Cohorn, made themselves masters, after a hard fight, of a +line of works which Vauban had cut in the solid rock from the Sambre to +the Meuse. Three days later, the English and Dutch, Cutts, as usual, in +the front, lodged themselves on the second counterscarp. All was ready +for a general assault, when a white flag was hung out from the ramparts. +The effective strength of the garrison was now little more than one half +of what it had been when the trenches were opened. Boufflers apprehended +that it would be impossible for eight thousand men to defend the whole +circuit of the walls much longer; but he felt confident that such a +force would be sufficient to keep the stronghold on the summit of the +rock. Terms of capitulation were speedily adjusted. A gate was delivered +up to the allies. The French were allowed forty-eight hours to retire +into the castle, and were assured that the wounded men whom they left +below, about fifteen hundred in number, should be well treated. On the +sixth the allies marched in. The contest for the possession of the +town was over; and a second and more terrible contest began for the +possession of the citadel. [608] + +Villeroy had in the meantime made some petty conquests. Dixmuyde, which +might have offered some resistance, had opened its gates to him, not +without grave suspicion of treachery on the part of the governor. +Deynse, which was less able to make any defence, had followed the +example. The garrisons of both towns were, in violation of a convention +which had been made for the exchange of prisoners, sent into France. The +Marshal then advanced towards Brussels in the hope, as it should seem, +that, by menacing that beautiful capital, he might induce the allies +to raise the siege of the castle of Namur. During thirty-six hours he +rained shells and redhot bullets on the city. The Electress of Bavaria, +who was within the walls, miscarried from terror. Six convents perished. +Fifteen hundred houses were at once in flames. The whole lower town +would have been burned to the ground, had not the inhabitants stopped +the conflagration by blowing up numerous buildings. Immense quantities +of the finest lace and tapestry were destroyed; for the industry and +trade which made Brussels famous throughout the world had hitherto been +little affected by the war. Several of the stately piles which looked +down on the market place were laid in ruins. The Town Hall itself, the +noblest of the many noble senate houses reared by the burghers of the +Netherlands, was in imminent peril. All this devastation, however, +produced no effect except much private misery. William was not to be +intimidated or provoked into relaxing the firm grasp with which he held +Namur. The fire which his batteries kept up round the castle was such as +had never been known in war. The French gunners were fairly driven from +their pieces by the hail of balls, and forced to take refuge in vaulted +galleries under the ground. Cohorn exultingly betted the Elector +of Bavaria four hundred pistoles that the place would fall by the +thirty-first of August, New Style. The great engineer lost his wager +indeed, but lost it only by a few hours. [609] + +Boufflers now began to feel that his only hope was in Villeroy. Villeroy +had proceeded from Brussels to Enghien; he had there collected all the +French troops that could be spared from the remotest fortresses of the +Netherlands; and he now, at the head of more than eighty thousand men, +marched towards Namur. Vaudemont meanwhile joined the besiegers. William +therefore thought himself strong enough to offer battle to Villeroy, +without intermitting for a moment the operations against Boufflers. The +Elector of Bavaria was entrusted with the immediate direction of the +siege. The King of England took up, on the west of the town, a strong +position strongly intrenched, and there awaited the French, who were +advancing from Enghien. Every thing seemed to indicate that a great +day was at hand. Two of the most numerous and best ordered armies that +Europe had ever seen were brought face to face. On the fifteenth of +August the defenders of the castle saw from their watchtowers the mighty +host of their countrymen. But between that host and the citadel was +drawn up in battle order the not less mighty host of William. Villeroy, +by a salute of ninety guns, conveyed to Boufflers the promise of a +speedy rescue; and at night Boufflers, by fire signals which were seen +far over the vast plain of the Meuse and Sambre, urged Villeroy to +fulfil that promise without delay. In the capitals both of France and +England the anxiety was intense. Lewis shut himself up in his oratory, +confessed, received the Eucharist, and gave orders that the host should +be exposed in his chapel. His wife ordered all her nuns to their knees. +[610] London was kept in a state of distraction by a succession of +rumours fabricated some by Jacobites and some by stockjobbers. Early one +morning it was confidently averred that there had been a battle, that +the allies had been beaten, that the King had been killed, that the +siege had been raised. The Exchange, as soon as it was opened, was +filled to overflowing by people who came to learn whether the bad news +was true. The streets were stopped up all day by groups of talkers and +listeners. In the afternoon the Gazette, which had been impatiently +expected, and which was eagerly read by thousands, calmed the +excitement, but not completely; for it was known that the Jacobites +sometimes received, by the agency of privateers and smugglers who put to +sea in all weathers, intelligence earlier than that which came through +regular channels to the Secretary of State at Whitehall. Before night, +however, the agitation had altogether subsided; but it was suddenly +revived by a bold imposture. A horseman in the uniform of the Guards +spurred through the City, announcing that the King had been killed. He +would probably have raised a serious tumult, had not some apprentices, +zealous for the Revolution and the Protestant religion, knocked him down +and carried him to Newgate. The confidential correspondent of the +States General informed them that, in spite of all the stories which the +disaffected party invented and circulated, the general persuasion was +that the allies would be successful. The touchstone of sincerity in +England, he said, was the betting. The Jacobites were ready enough +to prove that William must be defeated, or to assert that he had been +defeated; but they would not give the odds, and could hardly be induced +to take any moderate odds. The Whigs, on the other hand, were ready to +stake thousands of guineas on the conduct and good fortune of the King. +[611] + +The event justified the confidence of the Whigs and the backwardness of +the Jacobites. On the sixteenth, the seventeenth, and the eighteenth +of August the army of Villeroy and the army of William confronted each +other. It was fully expected that the nineteenth would be the decisive +day. The allies were under arms before dawn. At four William mounted, +and continued till eight at night to ride from post to post, disposing +his own troops and watching the movements of the enemy. The enemy +approached his lines in several places, near enough to see that it would +not be easy to dislodge him; but there was no fighting. He lay down to +rest, expecting to be attacked when the sun rose. But when the sun rose +he found that the French had fallen back some miles. He immediately sent +to request that the Elector would storm the castle without delay. While +the preparations were making, Portland was sent to summon the garrison +for the last time. It was plain, he said to Boufflers, that Villeroy had +given up all hope of being able to raise the siege. It would therefore +be an useless waste of life to prolong the contest. Boufflers however +thought that another day of slaughter was necessary to the honour of the +French arms; and Portland returned unsuccessful. [612] + +Early in the afternoon the assault was made in four places at once by +four divisions of the confederate army. One point was assigned to the +Brandenburghers, another to the Dutch, a third to the Bavarians, and +a fourth to the English. The English were at first less fortunate than +they had hitherto been. The truth is that most of the regiments which +had seen service had marched with William to encounter Villeroy. As +soon as the signal was given by the blowing up of two barrels of powder, +Cutts, at the head of a small body of grenadiers, marched first out of +the trenches with drums beating and colours flying. This gallant band +was to be supported by four battalions which had never been in action, +and which, though full of spirit, wanted the steadiness which so +terrible a service required. The officers fell fast. Every Colonel, +every Lieutenant Colonel, was killed or severely wounded. Cutts received +a shot in the head which for a time disabled him. The raw recruits, left +almost without direction, rushed forward impetuously till they found +themselves in disorder and out of breath, with a precipice before them, +under a terrible fire, and under a shower, scarcely less terrible, +of fragments of rock and wall. They lost heart, and rolled back in +confusion, till Cutts, whose wound had by this time been dressed, +succeeded in rallying them. He then led them, not to the place from +which they had been driven back, but to another spot where a fearful +battle was raging. The Bavarians had made their onset gallantly but +unsuccessfully; their general had fallen; and they were beginning to +waver when the arrival of the Salamander and his men changed the fate +of the day. Two hundred English volunteers, bent on retrieving at all +hazards the disgrace of the recent repulse, were the first to force a +way, sword in hand, through the palisades, to storm a battery which had +made great havoc among the Bavarians, and to turn the guns against the +garrison. Meanwhile the Brandenburghers, excellently disciplined and +excellently commanded, had performed, with no great loss, the duty +assigned to them. The Dutch had been equally successful. When the +evening closed in the allies had made a lodgment of a mile in extent on +the outworks of the castle. The advantage had been purchased by the loss +of two thousand men. [613] + +And now Boufflers thought that he had done all that his duty required. +On the morrow he asked for a truce of forty-eight hours in order that +the hundreds of corpses which choked the ditches and which would soon +have spread pestilence among both the besiegers and the besieged might +be removed and interred. His request was granted; and, before the time +expired, he intimated that he was disposed to capitulate. He would, he +said, deliver up the castle in ten days, if he were not relieved sooner. +He was informed that the allies would not treat with him on such terms, +and that he must either consent to an immediate surrender, or prepare +for an immediate assault. He yielded, and it was agreed that he and his +men should be suffered to depart, leaving the citadel, the artillery, +and the stores to the conquerors. Three peals from all the guns of the +confederate army notified to Villeroy the fall of the stronghold which +he had vainly attempted to succour. He instantly retreated towards +Mons, leaving William to enjoy undisturbed a triumph which was made more +delightful by the recollection of many misfortunes. + +The twenty-sixth of August was fixed for an exhibition such as the +oldest soldier in Europe had never seen, and such as, a few weeks +before, the youngest had scarcely hoped to see. From the first battle of +Conde to the last battle of Luxemburg, the tide of military success had +run, without any serious interruption, in one direction. That tide +had turned. For the first time, men said, since France had Marshals, a +Marshal of France was to deliver up a fortress to a victorious enemy. + +The allied forces, foot and horse, drawn up in two lines, formed a +magnificent avenue from the breach which had lately been so desperately +contested to the bank of the Meuse. The Elector of Bavaria, the +Landgrave of Hesse, and many distinguished officers were on horseback +in the vicinity of the castle. William was near them in his coach. The +garrison, reduced to about five thousand men, came forth with drums +beating and ensigns flying. Boufflers and his staff closed the +procession. There had been some difficulty about the form of the +greeting which was to be exchanged between him and the allied +Sovereigns. An Elector of Bavaria was hardly entitled to be saluted by +the Marshal with the sword. A King of England was undoubtedly entitled +to such a mark of respect; but France did not recognise William as King +of England. At last Boufflers consented to perform the salute without +marking for which of the two princes it was intended. He lowered his +sword. William alone acknowledged the compliment. A short conversation +followed. The Marshal, in order to avoid the use of the words Sire and +Majesty, addressed himself only to the Elector. The Elector, with every +mark of deference, reported to William what had been said; and William +gravely touched his hat. The officers of the garrison carried back to +their country the news that the upstart who at Paris was designated +only as Prince of Orange, was treated by the proudest potentates of the +Germanic body with a respect as profound as that which Lewis exacted +from the gentlemen of his bedchamber. [614] + +The ceremonial was now over; and Boufflers passed on but he had +proceeded but a short way when he was stopped by Dykvelt who accompanied +the allied army as deputy from the States General. "You must return to +the town, Sir," said Dykvelt. "The King of England has ordered me to +inform you that you are his prisoner." Boufflers was in transports of +rage. His officers crowded round him and vowed to die in his defence. +But resistance was out of the question; a strong body of Dutch cavalry +came up; and the Brigadier who commanded them demanded the Marshal's +sword. The Marshal uttered indignant exclamations: "This is an infamous +breach of faith. Look at the terms of the capitulation. What have I done +to deserve such an affront? Have I not behaved like a man of honour? +Ought I not to be treated as such? But beware what you do, gentlemen. +I serve a master who can and will avenge me." "I am a soldier, Sir," +answered the Brigadier, "and my business is to obey orders without +troubling myself about consequences." Dykvelt calmly and courteously +replied to the Marshal's indignant exclamations. "The King of England +has reluctantly followed the example set by your master. The soldiers +who garrisoned Dixmuyde and Deynse have, in defiance of plighted faith, +been sent prisoners into France. The Prince whom they serve would be +wanting in his duty to them if he did not retaliate. His Majesty might +with perfect justice have detained all the French who were in Namur. But +he will not follow to such a length a precedent which he disapproves. +He has determined to arrest you and you alone; and, Sir, you must not +regard as an affront what is in truth a mark of his very particular +esteem. How can he pay you a higher compliment than by showing that he +considers you as fully equivalent to the five or six thousand men whom +your sovereign wrongfully holds in captivity? Nay, you shall even now be +permitted to proceed if you will give me your word of honour to return +hither unless the garrisons of Dixmuyde and Deynse are released within a +fortnight." "I do not at all know," answered Boufflers, "why the King my +master detains those men; and therefore I cannot hold out any hope that +he will liberate them. You have an army at your back; I am alone; and +you must do your pleasure." He gave up his sword, returned to Namur, and +was sent thence to Huy, where he passed a few days in luxurious repose, +was allowed to choose his own walks and rides, and was treated with +marked respect by those who guarded him. In the shortest time in which +it was possible to post from the place where he was confined to the +French Court and back again, he received full powers to promise that the +garrisons of Dixmuyde and Deynse should be sent back. He was instantly +liberated; and he set off for Fontainebleau, where an honourable +reception awaited him. He was created a Duke and a Peer. That he might +be able to support his new dignities a considerable sum of money was +bestowed on him; and, in the presence of the whole aristocracy of +France, he was welcomed home by Lewis with an affectionate embrace. +[615] + +In all the countries which were united against France the news of +the fall of Namur was received with joy; but here the exultation was +greatest. During several generations our ancestors had achieved nothing +considerable by land against foreign enemies. We had indeed occasionally +furnished to our allies small bands of auxiliaries who had well +maintained the honour of the nation. But from the day on which the +two brave Talbots, father and son, had perished in the vain attempt to +reconquer Guienne, till the Revolution, there had been on the Continent +no campaign in which Englishmen had borne a principal part. At length +our ancestors had again, after an interval of near two centuries and a +half, begun to dispute with the warriors of France the palm of military +prowess. The struggle had been hard. The genius of Luxemburg and the +consummate discipline of the household troops of Lewis had pervailed +in two great battles; but the event of those battles had been long +doubtful; the victory had been dearly purchased, and the victor had +gained little more than the honour of remaining master of the field +of slaughter. Meanwhile he was himself training his adversaries. The +recruits who survived his severe tuition speedily became veterans. +Steinkirk and Landen had formed the volunteers who followed Cutts +through the palisades of Namur. The judgment of all the great warriors +whom all the nations of Western Europe had sent to the confluence of the +Sambre and the Meuse was that the English subaltern was inferior to +no subaltern and the English private soldier to no private soldier in +Christendom. The English officers of higher rank were thought hardly +worthy to command such an army. Cutts, indeed, had distinguished himself +by his intrepidity. But those who most admired him acknowledged that he +had neither the capacity nor the science necessary to a general. + +The joy of the conquerors was heightened by the recollection of the +discomfiture which they had suffered, three years before, on the same +spot, and of the insolence with which their enemy had then triumphed +over them. They now triumphed in their turn. The Dutch struck medals. +The Spaniards sang Te Deums. Many poems, serious and sportive, appeared, +of which one only has lived. Prior burlesqued, with admirable spirit +and pleasantry, the bombastic verses in which Boileau had celebrated +the first taking of Namur. The two odes, printed side by side, were read +with delight in London; and the critics at Will's pronounced that, in +wit as in arms, England had been victorious. + +The fall of Namur was the great military event of this year. The Turkish +war still kept a large part of the forces of the Emperor employed in +indecisive operations on the Danube. Nothing deserving to be mentioned +took place either in Piedmont or on the Rhine. In Catalonia the +Spaniards obtained some slight advantages, advantages due to their +English and Dutch allies, who seem to have done all that could be +done to help a nation never much disposed to help itself. The maritime +superiority of England and Holland was now fully established. During +the whole year Russell was the undisputed master of the Mediterranean, +passed and repassed between Spain and Italy, bombarded Palamos, spread +terror along the whole shore of Provence, and kept the French fleet +imprisoned in the harbour of Toulon. Meanwhile Berkeley was the +undisputed master of the Channel, sailed to and fro in sight of the +coasts of Artois, Picardy, Normandy and Brittany, threw shells into +Saint Maloes, Calais and Dunkirk, and burned Granville to the ground. +The navy of Lewis, which, five years before, had been the most +formidable in Europe, which had ranged the British seas unopposed from +the Downs to the Land's End, which had anchored in Torbay and had laid +Teignmouth in ashes, now gave no sign of existence except by pillaging +merchantmen which were unprovided with convoy. In this lucrative war +the French privateers were, towards the close of the summer, very +successful. Several vessels laden with sugar from Barbadoes were +captured. The losses of the unfortunate East India Company, already +surrounded by difficulties and impoverished by boundless prodigality in +corruption, were enormous. Five large ships returning from the Eastern +seas, with cargoes of which the value was popularly estimated at a +million, fell into the hands of the enemy. These misfortunes produced +some murmuring on the Royal Exchange. But, on the whole, the temper of +the capital and of the nation was better than it had been during some +years. + +Meanwhile events which no preceding historian has condescended to +mention, but which were of far greater importance than the achievements +of William's army or of Russell's fleet, were taking place in London. +A great experiment was making. A great revolution was in progress. +Newspapers had made their appearance. + +While the Licensing Act was in force there was no newspaper in England +except the London Gazette, which was edited by a clerk in the office +of the Secretary of State, and which contained nothing but what the +Secretary of State wished the nation to know. There were indeed many +periodical papers; but none of those papers could be called a newspaper. +Welwood, a zealous Whig, published a journal called the Observator; but +his Observator, like the Observator which Lestrange had formerly edited, +contained, not the news, but merely dissertations on politics. A crazy +bookseller, named John Dunton, published the Athenian Mercury; but the +Athenian Mercury merely discussed questions of natural philosophy, of +casuistry and of gallantry. A fellow of the Royal Society, named John +Houghton, published what he called a Collection for the Improvement of +Industry and Trade. But his Collection contained little more than the +prices of stocks, explanations of the modes of doing business in +the City, puffs of new projects, and advertisements of books, quack +medicines, chocolate, spa water, civet cats, surgeons wanting ships, +valets wanting masters and ladies wanting husbands. If ever he printed +any political news, he transcribed it from the Gazette. The Gazette was +so partial and so meagre a chronicle of events that, though it had no +competitors, it had but a small circulation. Only eight thousand copies +were printed, much less than one to each parish in the kingdom. In truth +a person who had studied the history of his own time only in the Gazette +would have been ignorant of many events of the highest importance. +He would, for example, have known nothing about the Court Martial +on Torrington, the Lancashire Trials, the burning of the Bishop of +Salisbury's Pastoral Letter or the impeachment of the Duke of Leeds. +But the deficiencies of the Gazette were to a certain extent supplied in +London by the coffeehouses, and in the country by the newsletters. + +On the third of May 1695 the law which had subjected the press to a +censorship expired. Within a fortnight, a stanch old Whig, named Harris, +who had, in the days of the Exclusion Bill, attempted to set up a +newspaper entitled Intelligence Domestic and Foreign, and who had +been speedily forced to relinquish that design, announced that the +Intelligence Domestic and Foreign, suppressed fourteen years before +by tyranny, would again appear. Ten days after the first number of the +Intelligence Domestic and Foreign was printed the first number of the +English Courant. Then came the Packet Boat from Holland and Flanders, +the Pegasus, the London Newsletter, the London Post, the Flying Post, +the Old Postmaster, the Postboy and the Postman. The history of the +newspapers of England from that time to the present day is a most +interesting and instructive part of the history of the country. At first +they were small and meanlooking. Even the Postboy and the Postman, +which seem to have been the best conducted and the most prosperous, were +wretchedly printed on scraps of dingy paper such as would not now be +thought good enough for street ballads. Only two numbers came out in a +week, and a number contained little more matter than may be found in a +single column of a daily paper of our time. What is now called a +leading article seldom appeared, except when there was a scarcity of +intelligence, when the Dutch mails were detained by the west wind, when +the Rapparees were quiet in the Bog of Allen, when no stage coach had +been stopped by highwaymen, when no nonjuring congregation had been +dispersed by constables, when no ambassador had made his entry with a +long train of coaches and six, when no lord or poet had been buried in +the Abbey, and when consequently it was difficult to fill up four scanty +pages. Yet the leading articles, though inserted, as it should +seem, only in the absence of more attractive matter, are by no means +contemptibly written. + +It is a remarkable fact that the infant newspapers were all on the side +of King William and the Revolution. This fact may be partly explained +by the circumstance that the editors were, at first, on their good +behaviour. It was by no means clear that their trade was not in itself +illegal. The printing of newspapers was certainly not prohibited by any +statute. But, towards the close of the reign of Charles the Second, +the judges had pronounced that it was a misdemeanour at common law to +publish political intelligence without the King's license. It is true +that the judges who laid down this doctrine were removable at the royal +pleasure and were eager on all occasions to exalt the royal prerogative. +How the question, if it were again raised, would be decided by Holt +and Treby was doubtful; and the effect of the doubt was to make the +ministers of the Crown indulgent and to make the journalists cautious. +On neither side was there a wish to bring the question of right to +issue. The government therefore connived at the publication of the +newspapers; and the conductors of the newspapers carefully abstained +from publishing any thing that could provoke or alarm the government. It +is true that, in one of the earliest numbers of one of the new journals, +a paragraph appeared which seemed intended to convey an insinuation that +the Princess Anne did not sincerely rejoice at the fall of Namur. But +the printer made haste to atone for his fault by the most submissive +apologies. During a considerable time the unofficial gazettes, though +much more garrulous and amusing than the official gazette, were scarcely +less courtly. Whoever examines them will find that the King is always +mentioned with profound respect. About the debates and divisions of the +two Houses a reverential silence is preserved. There is much invective; +but it is almost all directed against the Jacobites and the French. It +seems certain that the government of William gained not a little by the +substitution of these printed newspapers, composed under constant dread +of the Attorney General, for the old newsletters, which were written +with unbounded license. [616] + +The pamphleteers were under less restraint than the journalists; yet +no person who has studied with attention the political controversies +of that time can have failed to perceive that the libels on William's +person and government were decidedly less coarse and rancorous during +the latter half of his reign than during the earlier half. And the +reason evidently is that the press, which had been fettered during the +earlier half of his reign, was free during the latter half. While the +censorship existed, no tract blaming, even in the most temperate and +decorous language, the conduct of any public department, was likely to +be printed with the approbation of the licenser. To print such a +tract without the approbation of the licenser was illegal. In general, +therefore, the respectable and moderate opponents of the Court, not +being able to publish in the manner prescribed by law, and not thinking +it right or safe to publish in a manner prohibited by law, held their +peace, and left the business of criticizing the administration to two +classes of men, fanatical nonjurors who sincerely thought that the +Prince of Orange was entitled to as little charity or courtesy as the +Prince of Darkness, and Grub Street hacks, coarseminded, badhearted and +foulmouthed. Thus there was scarcely a single man of judgment, temper +and integrity among the many who were in the habit of writing against +the government. Indeed the habit of writing against the government had, +of itself, an unfavourable effect on the character. For whoever was in +the habit of writing against the government was in the habit of breaking +the law; and the habit of breaking even an unreasonable law tends to +make men altogether lawless. However absurd a tariff may be, a smuggler +is but too likely to be a knave and a ruffian. How ever oppressive a +game law may be, the transition is but too easy from a poacher to a +murderer. And so, though little indeed can be said in favour of the +statutes which imposed restraints on literature, there was much risk +that a man who was constantly violating those statutes would not be a +man of high honour and rigid uprightness. An author who was determined +to print, and could not obtain the sanction of the licenser, must employ +the services of needy and desperate outcasts, who, hunted by the peace +officers, and forced to assume every week new aliases and new disguises, +hid their paper and their types in those dens of vice which are the pest +and the shame of great capitals. Such wretches as these he must bribe to +keep his secret and to run the chance of having their backs flayed and +their ears clipped in his stead. A man stooping to such companions and +to such expedients could hardly retain unimpaired the delicacy of his +sense of what was right and becoming. The emancipation of the press +produced a great and salutary change. The best and wisest men in the +ranks of the opposition now assumed an office which had hitherto been +abandoned to the unprincipled or the hotheaded. Tracts against the +government were written in a style not misbecoming statesmen and +gentlemen; and even the compositions of the lower and fiercer class of +malecontents became somewhat less brutal and less ribald than in the +days of the licensers. + +Some weak men had imagined that religion and morality stood in need of +the protection of the licenser. The event signally proved that they +were in error. In truth the censorship had scarcely put any restraint +on licentiousness or profaneness. The Paradise Lost had narrowly escaped +mutilation; for the Paradise Lost was the work of a man whose politics +were hateful to the ruling powers. But Etherege's She Would If She +Could, Wycherley's Country Wife, Dryden's Translations from the Fourth +Book of Lucretius, obtained the Imprimatur without difficulty; for +Dryden, Etherege and Wycherley were courtiers. From the day on which the +emancipation of our literature was accomplished, the purification of +our literature began. That purification was effected, not by the +intervention of senates or magistrates, but by the opinion of the great +body of educated Englishmen, before whom good and evil were set, and who +were left free to make their choice. During a hundred and sixty years +the liberty of our press has been constantly becoming more and more +entire; and during those hundred and sixty years the restraint imposed +on writers by the general feeling of readers has been constantly +becoming more and more strict. At length even that class of works +in which it was formerly thought that a voluptuous imagination was +privileged to disport itself, love songs, comedies, novels, have become +more decorous than the sermons of the seventeenth century. At this day +foreigners, who dare not print a word reflecting on the government under +which they live, are at a loss to understand how it happens that the +freest press in Europe is the most prudish. + +On the tenth of October, the King, leaving his army in winter quarters, +arrived in England, and was received with unwonted enthusiasm. During +his passage through the capital to his palace, the bells of every church +were ringing, and every street was lighted up. It was late before he +made his way through the shouting crowds to Kensington. But, late as it +was, a council was instantly held. An important point was to be decided. +Should the House of Commons be permitted to sit again, or should there +be an immediate dissolution? The King would probably have been willing +to keep that House to the end of his reign. But this was not in his +power. The Triennial Act had fixed the twenty-fifth of March as the +latest day of the existence of the Parliament. If therefore there were +not a general election in 1695, there must be a general election in +1696; and who could say what might be the state of the country in 1696? +There might be an unfortunate campaign. There might be, indeed there +was but too good reason to believe that there would be, a terrible +commercial crisis. In either case, it was probable that there would be +much ill humour. The campaign of 1695 had been brilliant; the nation +was in an excellent temper; and William wisely determined to seize the +fortunate moment. Two proclamations were immediately published. One of +them announced, in the ordinary form, that His Majesty had determined to +dissolve the old Parliament and had ordered writs to be issued for a new +Parliament. The other proclamation was unprecedented. It signified the +royal pleasure to be that every regiment quartered in a place where an +election was to be held should march out of that place the day before +the nomination, and should not return till the people had made their +choice. From this order, which was generally considered as indicating +a laudable respect for popular rights, the garrisons of fortified towns +and castles were necessarily excepted. + +But, though William carefully abstained from disgusting the constituent +bodies by any thing that could look like coercion or intimidation, he +did not disdain to influence their votes by milder means. He resolved +to spend the six weeks of the general election in showing himself to +the people of many districts which he had never yet visited. He hoped to +acquire in this way a popularity which might have a considerable +effect on the returns. He therefore forced himself to behave with a +graciousness and affability in which he was too often deficient; and the +consequence was that he received, at every stage of his progress, marks +of the good will of his subjects. Before he set out he paid a visit in +form to his sister in law, and was much pleased with his reception. +The Duke of Gloucester, only six years old, with a little musket on his +shoulder, came to meet his uncle, and presented arms. "I am learning my +drill," the child said, "that I may help you to beat the French." The +King laughed much, and, a few days later, rewarded the young soldier +with the Garter. [617] + +On the seventeenth of October William went to Newmarket, now a place +rather of business than of pleasure, but, in the autumns of the +seventeenth century, the gayest and most luxurious spot in the island. +It was not unusual for the whole Court and Cabinet to go down to the +meetings. Jewellers and milliners, players and fiddlers, venal wits and +venal beauties followed in crowds. The streets were made impassable by +coaches and six. In the places of public resort peers flirted with maids +of honour; and officers of the Life Guards, all plumes and gold +lace, jostled professors in trencher caps and black gowns. For +the neighbouring University of Cambridge always sent her highest +functionaries with loyal addresses, and selected her ablest theologians +to preach before the Sovereign and his splendid retinue. In the wild +days of the Restoration, indeed, the most learned and eloquent divine +might fail to draw a fashionable audience, particularly if Buckingham +announced his intention of holding forth; for sometimes His Grace would +enliven the dulness of a Sunday morning by addressing to the bevy of +fine gentlemen and fine ladies a ribald exhortation which he called +a sermon. But the Court of William was more decent; and the Academic +dignitaries were treated with marked respect. With lords and ladies from +Saint James's and Soho, and with doctors from Trinity College and King's +College, were mingled the provincial aristocracy, foxhunting squires and +their rosycheeked daughters, who had come in queerlooking family coaches +drawn by carthorses from the remotest parishes of three or four counties +to see their Sovereign. The heath was fringed by a wild gipsylike camp +of vast extent. For the hope of being able to feed on the leavings of +many sumptuous tables, and to pick up some of the guineas and crowns +which the spendthrifts of London were throwing about, attracted +thousands of peasants from a circle of many miles. [618] + +William, after holding his court a few days at this joyous place, and +receiving the homage of Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Suffolk, +proceeded to Althorpe. It seems strange that he should, in the course +of what was really a canvassing tour, have honoured with such a mark of +favour a man so generally distrusted and hated as Sunderland. But the +people were determined to be pleased. All Northamptonshire crowded to +kiss the royal hand in that fine gallery which had been embellished by +the pencil of Vandyke and made classical by the muse of Waller; and +the Earl tried to conciliate his neighbours by feasting them at eight +tables, all blazing with plate. From Althorpe the King proceeded to +Stamford. The Earl of Exeter, whose princely seat was, and still is, one +of the great sights of England, had never taken the oaths, and had, in +order to avoid an interview which must have been disagreeable, found +some pretext for going up to London, but had left directions that the +illustrious guest should be received with fitting hospitality. William +was fond of architecture and of gardening; and his nobles could not +flatter him more than by asking his opinion about the improvement of +their country seats. At a time when he had many cares pressing on his +mind he took a great interest in the building of Castle Howard; and a +wooden model of that edifice, the finest specimen of a vicious style, +was sent to Kensington for his inspection. We cannot therefore wonder +that he should have seen Burleigh with delight. He was indeed not +content with one view, but rose early on the following morning for the +purpose of examining the building a second time. From Stamford he went +on to Lincoln, where he was greeted by the clergy in full canonicals, +by the magistrates in scarlet robes, and by a multitude of baronets, +knights and esquires, from all parts of the immense plain which lies +between the Trent and the German Ocean. After attending divine service +in the magnificent cathedral, he took his departure, and journeyed +eastward. On the frontier of Nottinghamshire the Lord Lieutenant of the +county, John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, with a great following, met +the royal carriages and escorted them to his seat at Welbeck, a mansion +surrounded by gigantic oaks which scarcely seem older now than on the +day when that splendid procession passed under their shade. The house in +which William was then, during a few hours, a guest, passed long after +his death, by female descents, from the Holleses to the Harleys, and +from the Harleys to the Bentincks, and now contains the originals of +those singularly interesting letters which passed between him and his +trusty friend and servant Portland. At Welbeck the grandees of the north +were assembled. The Lord Mayor of York came thither with a train of +magistrates, and the Archbishop of York with a train of divines. William +hunted several times in that forest, the finest in the kingdom, which in +old times gave shelter to Robin Hood and Little John, and which is now +portioned out into the princely domains of Welbeck, Thoresby, Clumber +and Worksop. Four hundred gentlemen on horseback partook of his sport. +The Nottinghamshire squires were delighted to hear him say at table, +after a noble stag chase, that he hoped that this was not the last run +which he should have with them, and that he must hire a hunting +box among their delightful woods. He then turned southward. He was +entertained during one day by the Earl of Stamford at Bradgate, the +place where Lady Jane Grey sate alone reading the last words of Socrates +while the deer was flying through the park followed by the whirlwind of +hounds and hunters. On the morrow the Lord Brook welcomed his Sovereign +to Warwick Castle, the finest of those fortresses of the middle +ages which have been turned into peaceful dwellings. Guy's Tower was +illuminated. A hundred and twenty gallons of punch were drunk to His +Majesty's health; and a mighty pile of faggots blazed in the middle of +the spacious court overhung by ruins green with the ivy of centuries. +The next morning the King, accompanied by a multitude of +Warwickshire gentlemen on horseback, proceeded towards the borders of +Gloucestershire. He deviated from his route to dine with Shrewsbury at +a secluded mansion in the Wolds, and in the evening went on to Burford. +The whole population of Burford met him, and entreated him to accept a +small token of their love. Burford was then renowned for its saddles. +One inhabitant of the town, in particular, was said by the English to +be the best saddler in Europe. Two of his masterpieces were respectfully +offered to William, who received them with much grace, and ordered them +to be especially reserved for his own use. [619] + +At Oxford he was received with great pomp, complimented in a Latin +oration, presented with some of the most beautiful productions of the +Academic press, entertained with music, and invited to a sumptuous feast +in the Sheldonian theatre. He departed in a few hours, pleading as +an excuse for the shortness of his stay that he had seen the colleges +before, and that this was a visit, not of curiosity, but of kindness. As +it was well known that he did not love the Oxonians and was not loved +by them, his haste gave occasion to some idle rumours which found credit +with the vulgar. It was said that he hurried away without tasting the +costly banquet which had been provided for him, because he had been +warned by an anonymous letter, that, if he ate or drank in the theatre, +he was a dead man. But it is difficult to believe that a Prince who +could scarcely be induced, by the most earnest entreaties of his +friends, to take the most common precautions against assassins of whose +designs he had trustworthy evidence, would have been scared by so silly +a hoax; and it is quite certain that the stages of his progress had been +marked, and that he remained at Oxford as long as was compatible with +arrangements previously made. [620] + +He was welcomed back to his capital by a splendid show, which had been +prepared at great cost during his absence. Sidney, now Earl of Romney +and Master of the Ordnance, had determined to astonish London by an +exhibition which had never been seen in England on so large a scale. +The whole skill of the pyrotechnists of his department was employed to +produce a display of fireworks which might vie with any that had been +seen in the gardens of Versailles or on the great tank at the Hague. +Saint James's Square was selected as the place for the spectacle. All +the stately mansions on the northern, eastern and western sides were +crowded with people of fashion. The King appeared at a window of +Romney's drawing room. The Princess of Denmark, her husband and her +court occupied a neighbouring house. The whole diplomatic body assembled +at the dwelling of the minister of the United Provinces. A huge pyramid +of flame in the centre of the area threw out brilliant cascades which +were seen by hundreds of thousands who crowded the neighbouring streets +and parks. The States General were informed by their correspondent that, +great as the multitude was, the night had passed without the slightest +disturbance. [621] + +By this time the elections were almost completed. In every part of the +country it had been manifest that the constituent bodies were generally +zealous for the King and for the war. The City of London, which had +returned four Tories in 1690, returned four Whigs in 1695. Of the +proceedings at Westminster an account more than usually circumstantial +has come down to us. In 1690 the electors, disgusted by the Sacheverell +Clause, had returned two Tories. In 1695, as soon as it was known that a +new Parliament was likely to be called, a meeting was held, at which it +was resolved that a deputation should be sent with an invitation to two +Commissioners of the Treasury, Charles Montague and Sir Stephen Fox. Sir +Walter Clarges stood on the Tory interest. On the day of nomination +near five thousand electors paraded the streets on horseback. They were +divided into three bands; and at the head of each band rode one of the +candidates. It was easy to estimate at a glance the comparative strength +of the parties. For the cavalcade which followed Clarges was the least +numerous of the three; and it was well known that the followers of +Montague would vote for Fox, and the followers of Fox for Montague. The +business of the day was interrupted by loud clamours. The Whigs cried +shame on the Jacobite candidate who wished to make the English go +to mass, eat frogs and wear wooden shoes. The Tories hooted the two +placemen who were raising great estates out of the plunder of the poor +overburdened nation. From words the incensed factions proceeded to +blows; and there was a riot which was with some difficulty quelled. +The High Bailiff then walked round the three companies of horsemen, and +pronounced, on the view, that Montague and Fox were duly elected. A poll +was demanded. The Tories exerted themselves strenuously. Neither money +nor ink was spared. Clarges disbursed two thousand pounds in a few +hours, a great outlay in times when the average income of a member of +Parliament was not estimated at more than eight hundred a year. In the +course of the night which followed the nomination, broadsides filled +with invectives against the two courtly upstarts who had raised +themselves by knavery from poverty and obscurity to opulence and power +were scattered all over the capital. The Bishop of London canvassed +openly against the government; for the interference of peers in +elections had not yet been declared by the Commons to be a breach of +privilege. But all was vain. Clarges was at the bottom of the poll +without hope of rising. He withdrew; and Montague was carried on the +shoulders of an immense multitude from Westminster Abbey to his office +at Whitehall. [622] + +The same feeling exhibited itself in many other places. The freeholders +of Cumberland instructed their representatives to support the King, and +to vote whatever supplies might be necessary for the purpose of carrying +on the war with vigour; and this example was followed by several +counties and towns. [623] Russell did not arrive in England till after +the writs had gone out. But he had only to choose for what place he +would sit. His popularity was immense; for his villanies were secret, +and his public services were universally known. He had won the battle of +La Hogue. He had commanded two years in the Mediterranean. He had there +shut up the French fleets in the harbour of Toulon, and had stopped and +turned back the French armies in Catalonia. He had taken many vessels, +and among them two ships of the line; and he had not, during his long +absence in a remote sea, lost a single vessel either by war or by +weather. He had made the red cross of Saint George an object of terror +to all the princes and commonwealths of Italy. The effect of his +successes was that embassies were on their way from Florence, Genoa +and Venice, with tardy congratulations to William on his accession. +Russell's merits, artfully magnified by the Whigs, made such an +impression that he was returned to Parliament not only by Portsmouth +where his official situation gave him great influence, and by +Cambridgeshire where his private property was considerable, but also by +Middlesex. This last distinction, indeed, he owed chiefly to the name +which he bore. Before his arrival in England it had been generally +thought that two Tories would be returned for the metropolitan county. +Somers and Shrewsbury were of opinion that the only way to avert such a +misfortune was to conjure with the name of the most virtuous of all the +martyrs of English liberty. They entreated Lady Russell to suffer her +eldest son, a boy of fifteen, who was about to commence his studies at +Cambridge, to be put in nomination. He must, they said, drop, for one +day, his new title of Marquess of Tavistock, and call himself Lord +Russell. There will be no expense. There will be no contest. Thousands +of gentlemen on horseback will escort him to the hustings; nobody will +dare to stand against him; and he will not only come in himself, but +bring in another Whig. The widowed mother, in a letter written with +all the excellent sense and feeling which distinguished her, refused +to sacrifice her son to her party. His education, she said, would be +interrupted; his head would be turned; his triumph would be his undoing. +Just at this conjuncture the Admiral arrived. He made his appearance +before the freeholders of Middlesex assembled on the top of Hampstead +Hill, and was returned without opposition. [624] + +Meanwhile several noted malecontents received marks of public +disapprobation. John Knight, the most factious and insolent of those +Jacobites who had dishonestly sworn fealty to King William in order to +qualify themselves to sit in Parliament, ceased to represent the +great city of Bristol. Exeter, the capital of the west, was violently +agitated. It had been long supposed that the ability, the eloquence, the +experience, the ample fortune, the noble descent of Seymour would make +it impossible to unseat him. But his moral character, which had +never stood very high, had, during the last three or four years, been +constantly sinking. He had been virulent in opposition till he had got +a place. While he had a place he had defended the most unpopular acts +of the government. As soon as he was out of place, he had again been +virulent in opposition. + +His saltpetre contract had left a deep stain on his personal honour. Two +candidates were therefore brought forward against him; and a contest, +the longest and fiercest of that age, fixed the attention of the whole +kingdom, and was watched with interest even by foreign governments. The +poll was open five weeks. The expense on both sides was enormous. The +freemen of Exeter, who, while the election lasted, fared sumptuously +every day, were by no means impatient for the termination of their +luxurious carnival. They ate and drank heartily; they turned out +every evening with good cudgels to fight for Mother Church or for King +William; but the votes came in very slowly. It was not till the eve +of the meeting of Parliament that the return was made. Seymour was +defeated, to his bitter mortification, and was forced to take refuge in +the small borough of Totness. [625] + +It is remarkable that, at this election as at the preceding election, +John Hampden failed to obtain a seat. He had, since he ceased to be a +member of Parliament, been brooding over his evil fate and his indelible +shame, and occasionally venting his spleen in bitter pamphlets against +the government. When the Whigs had become predominant at the Court and +in the House of Commons, when Nottingham had retired, when Caermarthen +had been impeached, Hampden, it should seem, again conceived the hope +that he might play a great part in public life. But the leaders of +his party, apparently, did not wish for an ally of so acrimonious and +turbulent a spirit. He found himself still excluded from the House of +Commons. He led, during a few months, a miserable life, sometimes trying +to forget his cares among the wellbred gamblers and frail beauties who +filled the drawingroom of the Duchess of Mazarine, and sometimes sunk +in religious melancholy. The thought of suicide often rose in his mind. +Soon there was a vacancy in the representation of Buckinghamshire, +the county which had repeatedly sent himself and his progenitors to +Parliament; and he expected that he should, by the help of Wharton, +whose dominion over the Buckinghamshire Whigs was absolute, be returned +without difficulty. Wharton, however, gave his interest to another +candidate. This was a final blow. The town was agitated by the news that +John Hampden had cut his throat, that he had survived his wound a few +hours, that he had professed deep penitence for his sins, had requested +the prayers of Burnet, and had sent a solemn warning to the Duchess of +Mazarine. A coroner's jury found a verdict of insanity. The wretched man +had entered on life with the fairest prospects. He bore a name which was +more than noble. He was heir to an ample estate and to a patrimony much +more precious, the confidence and attachment of hundreds of thousands +of his countrymen. His own abilities were considerable, and had been +carefully cultivated. Unhappily ambition and party spirit impelled +him to place himself in a situation full of danger. To that danger his +fortitude proved unequal. He stooped to supplications which saved him +and dishonoured him. From that moment, he never knew peace of mind. +His temper became perverse; and his understanding was perverted by +his temper. He tried to find relief in devotion and in revenge, in +fashionable dissipation and in political turmoil. But the dark shade +never passed away from his mind, till, in the twelfth year of his +humiliation, his unhappy life was terminated by an unhappy death. [626] + +The result of the general election proved that William had chosen a +fortunate moment for dissolving. The number of new members was about a +hundred and sixty; and most of these were known to be thoroughly well +affected to the government. [627] + +It was of the highest importance that the House of Commons should, at +that moment, be disposed to cooperate cordially with the King. For it +was absolutely necessary to apply a remedy to an internal evil which had +by slow degrees grown to a fearful magnitude. The silver coin, which was +then the standard coin of the realm, was in a state at which the boldest +and most enlightened statesmen stood aghast. [628] + +Till the reign of Charles the Second our coin had been struck by a +process as old as the thirteenth century. Edward the First had invited +hither skilful artists from Florence, which, in his time, was to London +what London, in the time of William the Third, was to Moscow. During +many generations, the instruments which were then introduced into our +mint continued to be employed with little alteration. The metal was +divided with shears, and afterwards shaped and stamped by the hammer. +In these operations much was left to the hand and eye of the workman. It +necessarily happened that some pieces contained a little more and some +a little less than the just quantity of silver; few pieces were exactly +round; and the rims were not marked. It was therefore in the course of +years discovered that to clip the coin was one of the easiest and most +profitable kinds of fraud. In the reign of Elizabeth it had been thought +necessary to enact that the clipper should be, as the coiner had long +been, liable to the penalties of high treason. [629] The practice of +paring down money, however, was far too lucrative to be so checked; and, +about the time of the Restoration, people began to observe that a large +proportion of the crowns, halfcrowns and shillings which were passing +from hand to hand had undergone some slight mutilation. + +That was a time fruitful of experiments and inventions in all the +departments of science. A great improvement in the mode of shaping +and striking the coin was suggested. A mill, which to a great extent +superseded the human hand, was set up in the Tower of London. This +mill was worked by horses, and would doubtless be considered by modern +engineers as a rude and feeble machine. The pieces which it produced, +however, were among the best in Europe. It was not easy to counterfeit +them; and, as their shape was exactly circular, and their edges were +inscribed with a legend, clipping was not to be apprehended. [630] The +hammered coins and the milled coins were current together. They were +received without distinction in public, and consequently in private, +payments. The financiers of that age seem to have expected that the new +money, which was excellent, would soon displace the old money which was +much impaired. Yet any man of plain understanding might have known that, +when the State treats perfect coin and light coin as of equal value, the +perfect coin will not drive the light coin out of circulation, but will +itself be driven out. A clipped crown, on English ground, went as far in +the payment of a tax or a debt as a milled crown. But the milled crown, +as soon as it had been flung into the crucible or carried across the +Channel, became much more valuable than the clipped crown. It might +therefore have been predicted, as confidently as any thing can be +predicted which depends on the human will, that the inferior pieces +would remain in the only market in which they could fetch the same price +as the superior pieces, and that the superior pieces would take some +form or fly to some place in which some advantage could be derived from +their superiority. [631] + +The politicians of that age, however, generally overlooked these very +obvious considerations. They marvelled exceedingly that every body +should be so perverse as to use light money in preference to good money. +In other words, they marvelled that nobody chose to pay twelve ounces of +silver when ten would serve the turn. The horse in the Tower still paced +his rounds. Fresh waggon loads of choice money still came forth from +the mill; and still they vanished as fast as they appeared. Great masses +were melted down; great masses exported; great masses hoarded; but +scarcely one new piece was to be found in the till of a shop, or in the +leathern bag which the farmer carried home from the cattle fair. In the +receipts and payments of the Exchequer the milled money did not exceed +ten shillings in a hundred pounds. A writer of that age mentions the +case of a merchant who, in a sum of thirty-five pounds, received only a +single halfcrown in milled silver. Meanwhile the shears of the clippers +were constantly at work. The comers too multiplied and prospered; for +the worse the current money became the more easily it was imitated. +During more than thirty years this evil had gone on increasing. At first +it had been disregarded; but it had at length become an insupportable +curse to the country. It was to no purpose that the rigorous laws +against coining and clipping were rigorously executed. At every session +that was held at the Old Bailey terrible examples were made. Hurdles, +with four, five, six wretches convicted of counterfeiting or mutilating +the money of the realm, were dragged month after month up Holborn Hill. +On one morning seven men were hanged and a woman burned for clipping; +But all was vain. The gains were such as to lawless spirits seemed more +than proportioned to the risks. Some clippers were said to have made +great fortunes. One in particular offered six thousand pounds for a +pardon. His bribe was indeed rejected; but the fame of his riches did +much to counteract the effect which the spectacle of his death was +designed to produce. [632] Nay the severity of the punishment gave +encouragement to the crime. For the practice of clipping, pernicious as +it was, did not excite in the common mind a detestation resembling +that with which men regard murder, arson, robbery, nay, even theft. +The injury done by the whole body of clippers to the whole society was +indeed immense; but each particular act of clipping was a trifle. To +pass a halfcrown, after paring a pennyworth of silver from it, seemed a +minute, an almost imperceptible, fault. Even while the nation was crying +out most loudly under the distress which the state of the currency had +produced, every individual who was capitally punished for contributing +to bring the currency into that state had the general sympathy on his +side. Constables were unwilling to arrest the offenders. Justices were +unwilling to commit. Witnesses were unwilling to tell the whole truth. +Juries were unwilling to pronounce the word Guilty. It was vain to tell +the common people that the mutilators of the coin were causing far more +misery than all the highwaymen and housebreakers in the island. For, +great as the aggregate of the evil was, only an infinitesimal part of +that evil was brought home to the individual malefactor. There was, +therefore, a general conspiracy to prevent the law from taking its +course. The convictions, numerous as they might seem, were few indeed +when compared with the offences; and the offenders who were convicted +looked on themselves as murdered men, and were firm in the belief that +their sin, if sin it were, was as venial as that of a schoolboy who goes +nutting in the wood of a neighbour. All the eloquence of the ordinary +could seldom induce them to conform to the wholesome usage of +acknowledging in their dying speeches the enormity of their wickedness. +[633] + +The evil proceeded with constantly accelerating velocity. At length in +the autumn of 1695 it could hardly be said that the country possessed, +for practical purposes, any measure of the value of commodities. It was +a mere chance whether what was called a shilling was really tenpence, +sixpence or a groat. The results of some experiments which were tried at +that time deserve to be mentioned. The officers of the Exchequer weighed +fifty-seven thousand two hundred pounds of hammered money which had +recently been paid in. The weight ought to have been above two hundred +and twenty thousand ounces. It proved to be under one hundred and +fourteen thousand ounces. [634] Three eminent London goldsmiths were +invited to send a hundred pounds each in current silver to be tried by +the balance. Three hundred pounds ought to have weighed about twelve +hundred ounces. The actual weight proved to be six hundred and +twenty-four ounces. The same test was applied in various parts of the +kingdom. It was found that a hundred pounds, which should have weighed +about four hundred ounces, did actually weigh at Bristol two hundred and +forty ounces, at Cambridge two hundred and three, at Exeter one hundred +and eighty, and at Oxford only one hundred and sixteen. [635] There +were, indeed, some northern districts into which the clipped money had +only begun to find its way. An honest Quaker, who lived in one of these +districts, recorded, in some notes which are still extant, the amazement +with which, when he travelled southward, shopkeepers and innkeepers +stared at the broad and heavy halfcrowns with which he paid his way. +They asked whence he came, and where such money was to be found. The +guinea which he purchased for twenty-two shillings at Lancaster bore a +different value at every stage of his journey. When he reached London +it was worth thirty shillings, and would indeed have been worth more had +not the government fixed that rate as the highest at which gold should +be received in the payment of taxes. [636] + +The evils produced by this state of the currency were not such as have +generally been thought worthy to occupy a prominent place in history. +Yet it may well be doubted whether all the misery which had been +inflicted on the English nation in a quarter of a century by bad Kings, +bad Ministers, bad Parliaments and bad judges, was equal to the misery +caused in a single year by bad crowns and bad shillings. Those events +which furnish the best themes for pathetic or indignant eloquence are +not always those which most affect the happiness of the great body of +the people. The misgovernment of Charles and James, gross as it had +been, had not prevented the common business of life from going steadily +and prosperously on. While the honour and independence of the State +were sold to a foreign power, while chartered rights were invaded, while +fundamental laws were violated, hundreds of thousands of quiet, honest +and industrious families laboured and traded, ate their meals and +lay down to rest, in comfort and security. Whether Whigs or Tories, +Protestants or Jesuits were uppermost, the grazier drove his beasts to +market; the grocer weighed out his currants; the draper measured out +his broadcloth; the hum of buyers and sellers was as loud as ever in +the towns; the harvest home was celebrated as joyously as ever in the +hamlets; the cream overflowed the pails of Cheshire; the apple juice +foamed in the presses of Herefordshire; the piles of crockery glowed in +the furnaces of the Trent; and the barrows of coal rolled fast along the +timber railways of the Tyne. But when the great instrument of exchange +became thoroughly deranged, all trade, all industry, were smitten as +with a palsy. The evil was felt daily and hourly in almost every place +and by almost every class, in the dairy and on the threshing floor, by +the anvil and by the loom, on the billows of the ocean and in the depths +of the mine. Nothing could be purchased without a dispute. Over every +counter there was wrangling from morning to night. The workman and his +employer had a quarrel as regularly as the Saturday came round. On a +fair day or a market day the clamours, the reproaches, the taunts, the +curses, were incessant; and it was well if no booth was overturned +and no head broken. [637] No merchant would contract to deliver goods +without making some stipulation about the quality of the coin in which +he was to be paid. Even men of business were often bewildered by the +confusion into which all pecuniary transactions were thrown. The simple +and the careless were pillaged without mercy by extortioners whose +demands grew even more rapidly than the money shrank. The price of +the necessaries of life, of shoes, of ale, of oatmeal, rose fast. The +labourer found that the bit of metal which when he received it was +called a shilling would hardly, when he wanted to purchase a pot of beer +or a loaf of rye bread, go as far as sixpence. Where artisans of more +than usual intelligence were collected together in great numbers, as in +the dockyard at Chatham, they were able to make their complaints heard +and to obtain some redress. [638] But the ignorant and helpless peasant +was cruelly ground between one class which would give money only by +tale and another which would take it only by weight. Yet his sufferings +hardly exceeded those of the unfortunate race of authors. Of the way in +which obscure writers were treated we may easily form a judgment from +the letters, still extant, of Dryden to his bookseller Tonson. One day +Tonson sends forty brass shillings, to say nothing of clipped money. +Another day he pays a debt with pieces so bad that none of them will go. +The great poet sends them all back, and demands in their place guineas +at twenty-nine shillings each. "I expect," he says in one letter, "good +silver, not such as I have had formerly." "If you have any silver that +will go," he says in another letter, "my wife will be glad of it. I lost +thirty shillings or more by the last payment of fifty pounds." These +complaints and demands, which have been preserved from destruction only +by the eminence of the writer, are doubtless merely a fair sample of the +correspondence which filled all the mail bags of England during several +months. + +In the midst of the public distress one class prospered greatly, the +bankers; and among the bankers none could in skill or in luck bear a +comparison with Charles Duncombe. He had been, not many years before, a +goldsmith of very moderate wealth. He had probably, after the fashion of +his craft, plied for customers under the arcades of the Royal Exchange, +had saluted merchants with profound bows, and had begged to be allowed +the honour of keeping their cash. But so dexterously did he now avail +himself of the opportunities of profit which the general confusion of +prices gave to a moneychanger, that, at the moment when the trade of +the kingdom was depressed to the lowest point, he laid down near ninety +thousand pounds for the estate of Helmsley in the North Riding of +Yorkshire. That great property had, in a troubled time, been bestowed by +the Commons of England on their victorious general Fairfax, and had been +part of the dower which Fairfax's daughter had brought to the brilliant +and dissolute Buckingham. Thither Buckingham, having wasted in mad +intemperance, sensual and intellectual, all the choicest bounties of +nature and of fortune, had carried the feeble ruins of his fine person +and of his fine mind; and there he had closed his chequered life under +that humble roof and on that coarse pallet which the great satirist +of the succeeding generation described in immortal verse. The spacious +domain passed to a new race; and in a few years a palace more splendid +and costly than had ever been inhabited by the magnificent Villiers rose +amidst the beautiful woods and waters which had been his, and was called +by the once humble name of Duncombe. + +Since the Revolution the state of the currency had been repeatedly +discussed in Parliament. In 1689 a committee of the Commons had been +appointed to investigate the subject, but had made no report. In 1690 +another committee had reported that immense quantities of silver were +carried out of the country by Jews, who, it was said, would do any thing +for profit. Schemes were formed for encouraging the importation and +discouraging the exportation of the precious metals. One foolish bill +after another was brought in and dropped. At length, in the beginning of +the year 1695, the question assumed so serious an aspect that the Houses +applied themselves to it in earnest. The only practical result of their +deliberations, however, was a new penal law which, it was hoped, would +prevent the clipping of the hammered coin and the melting and exporting +of the milled coin. It was enacted that every person who informed +against a clipper should be entitled to a reward of forty pounds, that +every clipper who informed against two clippers should be entitled to a +pardon, and that whoever should be found in possession of silver filings +or parings should be burned in the cheek with a redhot iron. Certain +officers were empowered to search for bullion. If bullion were found in +a house or on board of a ship, the burden of proving that it had never +been part of the money of the realm was thrown on the owner. If he +failed in making out a satisfactory history of every ingot he was +liable to severe penalties. This Act was, as might have been expected, +altogether ineffective. During the following summer and autumn, the +coins went on dwindling, and the cry of distress from every county in +the realm became louder and more piercing. + +But happily for England there were among her rulers some who clearly +perceived that it was not by halters and branding irons that her +decaying industry and commerce could be restored to health. The state of +the currency had during some time occupied the serious attention of four +eminent men closely connected by public and private ties. Two of +them were politicians who had never, in the midst of official and +parliamentary business, ceased to love and honour philosophy; and +two were philosophers, in whom habits of abstruse meditation had not +impaired the homely good sense without which even genius is mischievous +in politics. Never had there been an occasion which more urgently +required both practical and speculative abilities; and never had the +world seen the highest practical and the highest speculative abilities +united in an alliance so close, so harmonious, and so honourable as that +which bound Somers and Montague to Locke and Newton. + +It is much to be lamented that we have not a minute history of the +conferences of the men to whom England owed the restoration of her +currency and the long series of prosperous years which dates from +that restoration. It would be interesting to see how the pure gold of +scientific truth found by the two philosophers was mingled by the two +statesmen with just that quantity of alloy which was necessary for +the working. It would be curious to study the many plans which were +propounded, discussed and rejected, some as inefficacious, some as +unjust, some as too costly, some as too hazardous, till at length a +plan was devised of which the wisdom was proved by the best evidence, +complete success. + +Newton has left to posterity no exposition of his opinions touching +the currency. But the tracts of Locke on this subject are happily still +extant; and it may be doubted whether in any of his writings, even in +those ingenious and deeply meditated chapters on language which form +perhaps the most valuable part of the Essay on the Human Understanding, +the force of his mind appears more conspicuously. Whether he had ever +been acquainted with Dudley North is not known. In moral character +the two men bore little resemblance to each other. They belonged to +different parties. Indeed, had not Locke taken shelter from tyranny in +Holland, it is by no means impossible that he might have been sent to +Tyburn by a jury which Dudley North had packed. Intellectually, however, +there was much in common between the Tory and the Whig. They had +laboriously thought out, each for himself, a theory of political +economy, substantially the same with that which Adam Smith afterwards +expounded. Nay, in some respects the theory of Locke and North was more +complete and symmetrical than that of their illustrious successor. Adam +Smith has often been justly blamed for maintaining, in direct opposition +to all his own principles, that the rate of interest ought to be +regulated by the State; and he is the more blamable because, long before +he was born, both Locke and North had taught that it was as absurd to +make laws fixing the price of money as to make laws fixing the price of +cutlery or of broadcloth. [639] + +Dudley North died in 1693. A short time before his death he published, +without his name, a small tract which contains a concise sketch of a +plan for the restoration of the currency. This plan appears to have been +substantially the same with that which was afterwards fully developed +and ably defended by Locke. + +One question, which was doubtless the subject of many anxious +deliberations, was whether any thing should be done while the war +lasted. In whatever way the restoration of the coin might be effected, +great sacrifices must be made, the whole community or by a part of the +community. And to call for such sacrifices at a time when the nation was +already paying taxes such as, ten years before, no financier would have +thought it possible to raise, was undoubtedly a course full of danger. +Timorous politicians were for delay; but the deliberate conviction of +the great Whig leaders was that something must be hazarded, or that +every thing was lost. Montague, in particular, is said to have expressed +in strong language his determination to kill or cure. If indeed there +had been any hope that the evil would merely continue to be what it was, +it might have been wise to defer till the return of peace an experiment +which must severely try the strength of the body politic. But the evil +was one which daily made progress almost visible to the eye. There might +have been a recoinage in 1691 with half the risk which must be run +in 1696; and, great as would be the risk in 1696, that risk would be +doubled if the coinage were postponed till 1698. + +Those politicians whose voice was for delay gave less trouble than +another set of politicians, who were for a general and immediate +recoinage, but who insisted that the new shilling should be worth only +ninepence or ninepence halfpenny. At the head of this party was William +Lowndes, Secretary of the Treasury, and member of Parliament for the +borough of Seaford, a most respectable and industrious public servant, +but much more versed in the details of his office than in the higher +parts of political philosophy. He was not in the least aware that a +piece of metal with the King's head on it was a commodity of which the +price was governed by the same laws which govern the price of a piece of +metal fashioned into a spoon or a buckle, and that it was no more in +the power of Parliament to make the kingdom richer by calling a crown +a pound than to make the kingdom larger by calling a furlong a mile. +He seriously believed, incredible as it may seem, that, if the ounce +of silver were divided into seven shillings instead of five, foreign +nations would sell us their wines and their silks for a smaller number +of ounces. He had a considerable following, composed partly of dull men +who really believed what he told them, and partly of shrewd men who were +perfectly willing to be authorised by law to pay a hundred pounds with +eighty. Had his arguments prevailed, the evils of a vast confiscation +would have been added to all the other evils which afflicted the nation; +public credit, still in its tender and sickly infancy, would have been +destroyed; and there would have been much risk of a general mutiny of +the fleet and army. Happily Lowndes was completely refuted by Locke in +a paper drawn up for the use of Somers. Somers was delighted with this +little treatise, and desired that it might be printed. It speedily +became the text book of all the most enlightened politicians in the +kingdom, and may still be read with pleasure and profit. The effect of +Locke's forcible and perspicuous reasoning is greatly heightened by his +evident anxiety to get at the truth, and by the singularly generous +and graceful courtesy with which he treats an antagonist of powers far +inferior to his own. Flamsteed, the Astronomer Royal, described the +controversy well by saying that the point in dispute was whether five +was six or only five. [640] + +Thus far Somers and Montague entirely agreed with Locke; but as to the +manner in which the restoration of the currency ought to be effected +there was some difference of opinion. Locke recommended, as Dudley North +had recommended, that the King should by proclamation fix a near day +after which the hammered money should in all payments pass only by +weight. The advantages of this plan were doubtless great and obvious. It +was most simple, and, at the same time, most efficient. What searching, +fining, branding, hanging, burning, had failed to do would be done in an +instant. The clipping of the hammered pieces, the melting of the milled +pieces would cease. Great quantities of good coin would come forth from +secret drawers and from behind the panels of wainscots. The mutilated +silver would gradually flow into the mint, and would come forth again in +a form which would make mutilation impossible. In a short time the +whole currency of the realm would be in a sound state, and, during the +progress of this great change, there would never at any moment be any +scarcity of money. + +These were weighty considerations; and to the joint authority of North +and Locke on such a question great respect is due. Yet it must be owned +that their plan was open to one serious objection, which did not indeed +altogether escape their notice, but of which they seem to have thought +too lightly. The restoration of the currency was a benefit to the whole +community. On what principle then was the expense of restoring the +currency to be borne by a part of the community? It was most desirable +doubtless that the words pound and shilling should again have a fixed +signification, that every man should know what his contracts meant and +what his property was worth. But was it just to attain this excellent +end by means of which the effect would be that every farmer who had +put by a hundred pounds to pay his rent, every trader who had scraped +together a hundred pounds to meet his acceptances, would find his +hundred pounds reduced in a moment to fifty or sixty? It was not +the fault of such a farmer or of such a trader that his crowns and +halfcrowns were not of full weight. The government itself was to blame. +The evil which the State had caused the State was bound to repair, and +it would evidently have been wrong to throw the charge of the reparation +on a particular class, merely because that class was so situated that +it could conveniently be pillaged. It would have been as reasonable to +require the timber merchants to bear the whole cost of fitting out the +Channel fleet, or the gunsmiths to bear the whole cost of supplying arms +to the regiments in Flanders, as to restore the currency of the kingdom +at the expense of those individuals in whose hands the clipped sliver +happened at a particular moment to be. + +Locke declared that he regretted the loss which, if his advice were +taken, would fall on the holders of the short money. But it appeared to +him that the nation must make a choice between evils. And in truth it +was much easier to lay down the general proposition that the expenses +of restoring the currency ought to be borne by the public than to devise +any mode in which they could without extreme inconvenience and danger be +so borne. Was it to be announced that every person who should within a +term of a year or half a year carry to the mint a clipped crown should +receive in exchange for it a milled crown, and that the difference +between the value of the two pieces should be made good out of the +public purse? That would be to offer a premium for clipping. The shears +would be more busy than ever. The short money would every day become +shorter. The difference which the taxpayers would have to make good +would probably be greater by a million at the end of the term than +at the beginning; and the whole of this million would go to reward +malefactors. If the time allowed for the bringing in of the hammered +coin were much shortened, the danger of further clipping would be +proportionally diminished; but another danger would be incurred. The +silver would flow into the mint so much faster than it could possibly +flow out, that there must during some months be a grievous scarcity of +money. + +A singularly bold and ingenious expedient occurred to Somers and was +approved by William. It was that a proclamation should be prepared with +great secresy, and published at once in all parts of the kingdom. This +proclamation was to announce that hammered coins would thenceforth pass +only by weight. But every possessor of such coins was to be invited to +deliver them up within three days, in a sealed packet, to the public +authorities. The coins were to be examined, numbered, weighed, and +returned to the owner with a promissory note entitling him to receive +from the Treasury at a future time the difference between the actual +quantity of silver in his pieces and the quantity of silver which, +according to the standard, those pieces ought to have contained. [641] +Had this plan been adopted an immediate stop would have been put to +the clipping, the melting and the exporting; and the expense of the +restoration of the currency would have been borne, as was right, by the +public. The inconvenience arising from a scarcity of money would have +been of very short duration; for the mutilated pieces would have been +detained only till they could be told and weighed; they would then have +been sent back into circulation, and the recoinage would have taken +place gradually and without any perceptible suspension or disturbance +of trade. But against these great advantages were to be set off hazards, +which Somers was prepared to brave, but from which it is not strange +that politicians of less elevated character should have shrunk. The +course which he recommended to his colleagues was indeed the safest for +the country, but was by no means the safest for themselves. His plan +could not be successful unless the execution were sudden; the execution +could not be sudden if the previous sanction of Parliament were asked +and obtained; and to take a step of such fearful importance without +the previous sanction of Parliament was to run the risk of censure, +impeachment, imprisonment, ruin. The King and the Lord Keeper were +alone in the Council. Even Montague quailed; and it was determined to do +nothing without the authority of the legislature. Montague undertook to +submit to the Commons a scheme, which was not indeed without dangers and +inconveniences, but which was probably the best which he could hope to +carry. + +On the twenty-second of November the Houses met. Foley was on that +day again chosen Speaker. On the following day he was presented and +approved. The King opened the session with a speech very skilfully +framed. He congratulated his hearers on the success of the campaign on +the Continent. That success he attributed, in language which must have +gratified their feelings, to the bravery of the English army. He spoke +of the evils which had arisen from the deplorable state of the coin, and +of the necessity of applying a speedy remedy. He intimated very plainly +his opinion that the expense of restoring the currency ought to be borne +by the State; but he declared that he referred the whole matter to the +wisdom of his Great Council. Before he concluded he addressed himself +particularly to the newly elected House of Commons, and warmly expressed +his approbation of the excellent choice which his people had made. The +speech was received with a low but very significant hum of assent both +from above and from below the bar, and was as favourably received by the +public as by the Parliament. [642] In the Commons an address of thanks +was moved by Wharton, faintly opposed by Musgrave, adopted without a +division, and carried up by the whole House to Kensington. At the palace +the loyalty of the crowd of gentlemen showed itself in a way which +would now be thought hardly consistent with senatorial gravity. When +refreshments were handed round in the antechamber, the Speaker filled +his glass, and proposed two toasts, the health of King William, and +confusion to King Lewis; and both were drunk with loud acclamations. Yet +near observers could perceive that, though the representatives of the +nation were as a body zealous for civil liberty and for the Protestant +religion, and though they were prepared to endure every thing rather +than see their country again reduced to vassalage, they were anxious and +dispirited. All were thinking of the state of the coin; all were saying +that something must be done; and all acknowledged that they did not know +what could be done. "I am afraid," said a member who expressed what many +felt, "that the nation can bear neither the disease nor the cure." [643] + +There was indeed a minority by which the difficulties and dangers of +that crisis were seen with malignant delight; and of that minority the +keenest, boldest and most factious leader was Howe, whom poverty had +made more acrimonious than ever. He moved that the House should resolve +itself into a Committee on the State of the Nation; and the Ministry, +for that word may now with propriety be used, readily consented. Indeed +the great question touching the currency could not be brought forward +more conveniently than in such a Committee. When the Speaker had left +the chair, Howe harangued against the war as vehemently as he had in +former years harangued for it. He called for peace, peace on any terms. +The nation, he said, resembled a wounded man, fighting desperately on, +with blood flowing in torrents. During a short time the spirit might +bear up the frame; but faintness must soon come on. No moral energy +could long hold out against physical exhaustion. He found very little +support. The great majority of his hearers were fully determined to put +every thing to hazard rather than submit to France. It was sneeringly +remarked that the state of his own finances had suggested to him +the image of a man bleeding to death, and that, if a cordial were +administered to him in the form of a salary, he would trouble himself +little about the drained veins of the commonwealth. "We did not," said +the Whig orators, "degrade ourselves by suing for peace when our flag +was chased out of our own Channel, when Tourville's fleet lay at anchor +in Torbay, when the Irish nation was in arms against us, when every +post from the Netherlands brought news of some disaster, when we had to +contend against the genius of Louvois in the Cabinet and of Luxemburg in +the field. And are we to turn suppliants now, when no hostile squadron +dares to show itself even in the Mediterranean, when our arms are +victorious on the Continent, when God has removed the great statesman +and the great soldier whose abilities long frustrated our efforts, and +when the weakness of the French administration indicates, in a manner +not to be mistaken, the ascendency of a female favourite?" Howe's +suggestion was contemptuously rejected; and the Committee proceeded to +take into consideration the state of the currency. [644] + +Meanwhile the newly liberated presses of the capital never rested a +moment. Innumerable pamphlets and broadsides about the coin lay on the +counters of the booksellers, and were thrust into the hands of members +of Parliament in the lobby. In one of the most curious and amusing of +these pieces Lewis and his ministers are introduced, expressing the +greatest alarm lest England should make herself the richest country in +the world by the simple expedient of calling ninepence a shilling, and +confidently predicting that, if the old standard were maintained, there +would be another revolution. Some writers vehemently objected to the +proposition that the public should bear the expense of restoring +the currency; some urged the government to take this opportunity of +assimilating the money of England to the money of neighbouring nations; +one projector was for coining guilders; another for coining dollars. +[645] + +Within the walls of Parliament the debates continued during several +anxious days. At length Montague, after defeating, first those who were +for letting things remain unaltered till the peace, and then those who +were for the little shilling, carried eleven resolutions in which the +outlines of his own plan were set forth. It was resolved that the money +of the kingdom should be recoined according to the old standard both of +weight and of fineness; that all the new pieces should be milled; that +the loss on the clipped pieces should be borne by the public; that a +time should be fixed after which no clipped money should pass, except in +payments to the government; and that a later time should be fixed, after +which no clipped money should pass at all. What divisions took place in +the Committee cannot be ascertained. When the resolutions were reported +there was one division. It was on the question whether the old standard +of weight should be maintained. The Noes were a hundred and fourteen; +the Ayes two hundred and twenty-five. [646] + +It was ordered that a bill founded on the resolutions should be brought +in. A few days later the Chancellor of the Exchequer explained to the +Commons, in a Committee of Ways and Means, the plan by which he proposed +to meet the expense of the recoinage. It was impossible to estimate +with precision the charge of making good the deficiencies of the clipped +money. But it was certain that at least twelve hundred thousand pounds +would be required. Twelve hundred thousand pounds the Bank of England +undertook to advance on good security. It was a maxim received among +financiers that no security which the government could offer was so +good as the old hearth money had been. That tax, odious as it was to the +great majority of those who paid it, was remembered with regret at the +Treasury and in the City. It occurred to the Chancellor of the Exchequer +that it might be possible to devise an impost on houses, which might be +not less productive nor less certain than the hearth money, but which +might press less heavily on the poor, and might be collected by a +less vexatious process. The number of hearths in a house could not be +ascertained without domiciliary visits. The windows a collector +might count without passing the threshold. Montague proposed that the +inhabitants of cottages, who had been cruelly harassed by the chimney +men, should be altogether exempted from the new duty. His plan was +approved by the Committee of Ways and Means, and was sanctioned by the +House without a division. Such was the origin of the window tax, a tax +which, though doubtless a great evil, must be considered as a blessing +when compared with the curse from which it rescued the nation. [647] + +Thus far things had gone smoothly. But now came a crisis which required +the most skilful steering. The news that the Parliament and the +government were determined on a reform of the currency produced an +ignorant panic among the common people. Every man wished to get rid of +his clipped crowns and halfcrowns. No man liked to take them. There +were brawls approaching to riots in half the streets of London. The +Jacobites, always full of joy and hope in a day of adversity and public +danger, ran about with eager looks and noisy tongues. The health of King +James was publicly drunk in taverns and on ale benches. Many members of +Parliament, who had hitherto supported the government, began to +waver; and, that nothing might be wanting to the difficulties of the +conjuncture, a dispute on a point of privilege arose between the Houses. +The Recoinage Bill, framed in conformity with Montague's resolutions, +had gone up to the Peers and had come back with amendments, some of +which, in the opinion of the Commons, their Lordships had no right to +make. The emergency was too serious to admit of delay. Montague brought +in a new bill; which was in fact his former bill modified in some +points to meet the wishes of the Lords; the Lords, though not perfectly +contented with the new bill, passed it without any alteration; and +the royal assent was immediately given. The fourth of May, a date long +remembered over the whole kingdom and especially in the capital, was +fixed as the day on which the government would cease to receive the +clipped money in payment of taxes. [648] + +The principles of the Recoinage Act are excellent. But some of the +details, both of that Act and of a supplementary Act which was passed at +a later period of the session, seem to prove that Montague had not +fully considered what legislation can, and what it cannot, effect. For +example, he persuaded the Parliament to enact that it should be penal +to give or take more than twenty-two shillings for a guinea. It may be +confidently affirmed that this enactment was not suggested or approved +by Locke. He well knew that the high price of gold was not the evil +which afflicted the State, but merely a symptom of that evil, and that a +fall in the price of gold would inevitably follow, and could by no human +power or ingenuity be made to precede, the recoinage of the silver. In +fact, the penalty seems to have produced no effect whatever, good or +bad. Till the milled silver was in circulation, the guinea continued, in +spite of the law, to pass for thirty shillings. When the milled silver +became plentiful, the guinea fell, not to twenty-two shillings, which +was the highest price allowed by the law, but to twenty-one shillings +and sixpence. [649] + +Early in February the panic which had been caused by the first debates +on the currency subsided; and, from that time till the fourth of May, +the want of money was not very severely felt. The recoinage began. Ten +furnaces were erected, in the garden behind the Treasury; and every day +huge heaps of pared and defaced crowns and shillings were turned into +massy ingots which were instantly sent off to the mint in the Tower. +[650] + +With the fate of the law which restored the currency was closely +connected the fate of another law, which had been several years under +the consideration of Parliament, and had caused several warm disputes +between the hereditary and the elective branch of the legislature. The +session had scarcely commenced when the Bill for regulating Trials in +cases of High Treason was again laid on the table of the Commons. Of +the debates to which it gave occasion nothing is known except one +interesting circumstance which has been preserved by tradition. Among +those who supported the bill appeared conspicuous a young Whig of +high rank, of ample fortune, and of great abilities which had been +assiduously improved by study. This was Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord +Ashley, eldest son of the second Earl of Shaftesbury, and grandson of +that renowned politician who had, in the days of Charles the Second, +been at one time the most unprincipled of ministers, and at another +the most unprincipled of demagogues. Ashley had just been returned to +Parliament for the borough of Poole, and was in his twenty-fifth year. +In the course of his speech he faltered, stammered and seemed to lose +the thread of his reasoning. The House, then, as now, indulgent to +novices, and then, as now, well aware that, on a first appearance, the +hesitation which is the effect of modesty and sensibility is quite +as promising a sign as volubility of utterance and ease of manner, +encouraged him to proceed. "How can I, Sir," said the young orator, +recovering himself, "produce a stronger argument in favour of this +bill than my own failure? My fortune, my character, my life, are not at +stake. I am speaking to an audience whose kindness might well inspire me +with courage. And yet, from mere nervousness, from mere want of practice +in addressing large assemblies, I have lost my recollection; I am unable +to go on with my argument. How helpless, then, must be a poor man who, +never having opened his lips in public, is called upon to reply, without +a moment's preparation, to the ablest and most experienced advocates in +the kingdom, and whose faculties are paralysed by the thought that, +if he fails to convince his hearers, he will in a few hours die on a +gallows, and leave beggary and infamy to those who are dearest to him." +It may reasonably be suspected that Ashley's confusion and the ingenious +use which he made of it had been carefully premeditated. His speech, +however, made a great impression, and probably raised expectations which +were not fulfilled. His health was delicate; his taste was refined even +to fastidiousness; he soon left politics to men whose bodies and +minds were of coarser texture than his own, gave himself up to mere +intellectual luxury, lost himself in the mazes of the old Academic +philosophy, and aspired to the glory of reviving the old Academic +eloquence. His diction, affected and florid, but often singularly +beautiful and melodious, fascinated many young enthusiasts. He had not +merely disciples, but worshippers. His life was short; but he lived +long enough to become the founder of a new sect of English freethinkers, +diametrically opposed in opinions and feelings to that sect of +freethinkers of which Hobbes was the oracle. During many years the +Characteristics continued to be the Gospel of romantic and sentimental +unbelievers, while the Gospel of coldblooded and hardheaded unbelievers +was the Leviathan. + +The bill, so often brought in and so often lost, went through the +Commons without a division, and was carried up to the Lords. It soon +came back with the long disputed clause altering the constitution of the +Court of the Lord High Steward. A strong party among the representatives +of the people was still unwilling to grant any new privilege to the +nobility; but the moment was critical. The misunderstanding which +had arisen between the Houses touching the Recoinage Bill had produced +inconveniences which might well alarm even a bold politician. It was +necessary to purchase concession by concession. The Commons, by a +hundred and ninety-two votes to a hundred and fifty, agreed to the +amendment on which the Lords had, during four years, so obstinately +insisted; and the Lords in return immediately passed the Recoinage Bill +without any amendment. + +There had been much contention as to the time at which the new system of +procedure in cases of high treason should come into operation; and the +bill had once been lost in consequence of a dispute on this point. Many +persons were of opinion that the change ought not to take place till the +close of the war. It was notorious, they said, that the foreign enemy +was abetted by too many traitors at home; and, at such a time, the +severity of the laws which protected the commonwealth against the +machinations of bad citizens ought not to be relaxed. It was at +last determined that the new regulations should take effect on the +twenty-fifth of March, the first day, according to the old Calendar, of +the year 1696. + +On the twenty-first of January the Recoinage Bill and the Bill for +regulating Trials in cases of High Treason received the royal assent. On +the following day the Commons repaired to Kensington on an errand by +no means agreeable either to themselves or to the King. They were, as +a body, fully resolved to support him, at whatever cost and at whatever +hazard, against every foreign and domestic foe. But they were, as indeed +every assembly of five hundred and thirteen English gentlemen that could +by any process have been brought together must have been, jealous of the +favour which he showed to the friends of his youth. He had set his heart +on placing the house of Bentinck on a level in wealth and splendour with +the houses of Howard and Seymour, of Russell and Cavendish. + +Some of the fairest hereditary domains of the Crown had been granted to +Portland, not without murmuring on the part both of Whigs and Tories. +Nothing had been done, it is true, which was not in conformity with the +letter of the law and with a long series of precedents. Every English +sovereign had from time immemorial considered the lands to which he had +succeeded in virtue of his office as his private property. Every family +that had been great in England, from the De Veres down to the Hydes, +had been enriched by royal deeds of gift. Charles the Second had carved +ducal estates for his bastards out of his hereditary domain. Nor did the +Bill of Rights contain a word which could be construed to mean that the +King was not at perfect liberty to alienate any part of the estates of +the Crown. At first, therefore, William's liberality to his countrymen, +though it caused much discontent, called forth no remonstrance from the +Parliament. But he at length went too far. In 1695 he ordered the Lords +of the Treasury to make out a warrant granting to Portland a magnificent +estate in Denbighshire. This estate was said to be worth more than a +hundred thousand pounds. The annual income, therefore, can hardly +have been less than six thousand pounds; and the annual rent which was +reserved to the Crown was only six and eightpence. This, however, was +not the worst. With the property were inseparably connected extensive +royalties, which the people of North Wales could not patiently see +in the hands of any subject. More than a century before Elizabeth had +bestowed a part of the same territory on her favourite Leicester. On +that occasion the population of Denbighshire had risen in arms; and, +after much tumult and several executions, Leicester had thought it +advisable to resign his mistress's gift back to her. The opposition to +Portland was less violent, but not less effective. Some of the chief +gentlemen of the principality made strong representations to the +ministers through whose offices the warrant had to pass, and at length +brought the subject under the consideration of the Lower House. An +address was unanimously voted requesting the King to stop the grant; +Portland begged that he might not be the cause of a dispute between his +master and the Parliament; and the King, though much mortified, yielded +to the general wish of the nation. [651] + +This unfortunate affair, though it terminated without an open quarrel, +left much sore feeling. The King was angry with the Commons, and still +more angry with the Whig ministers who had not ventured to defend his +grant. The loyal affection which the Parliament had testified to him +during the first days of the session had perceptibly cooled; and he was +almost as unpopular as he had ever been, when an event took place which +suddenly brought back to him the hearts of millions, and made him for a +time as much the idol of the nation as he had been at the end of 1688. +[652] + +The plan of assassination which had been formed in the preceding +spring had been given up in consequence of William's departure for the +Continent. The plan of insurrection which had been formed in the summer +had been given up for want of help from France. But before the end of +the autumn both plans were resumed. William had returned to England; and +the possibility of getting rid of him by a lucky shot or stab was again +seriously discussed. The French troops had gone into winter quarters; +and the force, which Charnock had in vain demanded while war was raging +round Namur, might now be spared without inconvenience. Now, therefore, +a plot was laid, more formidable than any that had yet threatened +the throne and the life of William; or rather, as has more than once +happened in our history, two plots were laid, one within the other. The +object of the greater plot was an open insurrection, an insurrection +which was to be supported by a foreign army. In this plot almost all the +Jacobites of note were more or less concerned. Some laid in arms; some +bought horses; some made lists of the servants and tenants in whom they +could place firm reliance. The less warlike members of the party could +at least take off bumpers to the King over the water, and intimate by +significant shrugs and whispers that he would not be over the water +long. It was universally remarked that the malecontents looked wiser +than usual when they were sober, and bragged more loudly than usual when +they were drunk. [653] To the smaller plot, of which the object was the +murder of William, only a few select traitors were privy. + +Each of these plots was under the direction of a leader specially +sent from Saint Germains. The more honourable mission was entrusted to +Berwick. He was charged to communicate with the Jacobite nobility and +gentry, to ascertain what force they could bring into the field, and +to fix a time for the rising. He was authorised to assure them that the +French government was collecting troops and transports at Calais, and +that, as soon as it was known there that a rebellion had broken out in +England, his father would embark with twelve thousand veteran soldiers, +and would be among them in a few hours. + +A more hazardous part was assigned to an emissary of lower rank, but +of great address, activity and courage. This was Sir George Barclay, a +Scotch gentleman who had served with credit under Dundee, and who, +when the war in the Highlands had ended, had retired to Saint Germains. +Barclay was called into the royal closet, and received his orders from +the royal lips. He was directed to steal across the Channel and to +repair to London. He was told that a few select officers and soldiers +should speedily follow him by twos and threes. That they might have no +difficulty in finding him, he was to walk, on Mondays and Thursdays, in +the Piazza of Covent Garden after nightfall, with a white handkerchief +hanging from his coat pocket. He was furnished with a considerable sum +of money, and with a commission which was not only signed but written +from beginning to end by James himself. This commission authorised the +bearer to do from time to time such acts of hostility against the Prince +of Orange and that Prince's adherents as should most conduce to the +service of the King. What explanation of these very comprehensive words +was orally given by James we are not informed. + +Lest Barclay's absence from Saint Germains should cause any suspicion, +it was given out that his loose way of life had made it necessary for +him to put himself under the care of a surgeon at Paris. [654] He set +out with eight hundred pounds in his portmanteau, hastened to the coast, +and embarked on board of a privateer which was employed by the Jacobites +as a regular packet boat between France and England. This vessel +conveyed him to a desolate spot in Romney Marsh. About half a mile +from the landing place a smuggler named Hunt lived on a dreary and +unwholesome fen where he had no neighbours but a few rude shepherds. His +dwelling was singularly well situated for a contraband traffic in French +wares. Cargoes of Lyons silk and Valenciennes lace sufficient to load +thirty packhorses had repeatedly been landed in that dismal solitude +without attracting notice. But, since the Revolution, Hunt had +discovered that of all cargoes a cargo of traitors paid best. His lonely +abode became the resort of men of high consideration, Earls and Barons, +Knights and Doctors of Divinity. Some of them lodged many days under +his roof while waiting for a passage. A clandestine post was established +between his house and London. The couriers were constantly going and +returning; they performed their journeys up and down on foot; but they +appeared to be gentlemen, and it was whispered that one of them was the +son of a titled man. The letters from Saint Germains were few and small. +Those directed to Saint Germains were numerous and bulky; they were made +up like parcels of millinery, and were buried in the morass till they +were called for by the privateer. + +Here Barclay landed in January 1696; and hence he took the road +to London. He was followed, a few days later, by a tall youth, who +concealed his name, but who produced credentials of the highest +authority. This youth too proceeded to London. Hunt afterwards +discovered that his humble roof had had the honour of sheltering the +Duke of Berwick. [655] + +The part which Barclay had to perform was difficult and hazardous; and +he omitted no precaution. He had been little in London; and his face was +consequently unknown to the agents of the government. Nevertheless +he had several lodgings; he disguised himself so well that his oldest +friends would not have known him by broad daylight; and yet he seldom +ventured into the streets except in the dark. His chief agent was a monk +who, under several names, heard confessions and said masses at the risk +of his neck. This man intimated to some of the zealots with whom he +consorted a special agent of the royal family was to be spoken with in +Covent Garden, on certain nights, at a certain hour, and might be known +by certain signs. [656] In this way Barclay became acquainted with +several men fit for his purpose. The first persons to whom he fully +opened himself were Charnock and Parkyns. He talked with them about the +plot which they and some of their friends had formed in the preceding +spring against the life of William. Both Charnock and Parkyns declared +that the scheme might easily be executed, that there was no want of +resolute hearts among the Royalists, and that all that was wanting was +some sign of His Majesty's approbation. + +Then Barclay produced his commission. He showed his two accomplices that +James had expressly commanded all good Englishmen, not only to rise in +arms, not only to make war on the usurping government, not only to seize +forts and towns, but also to do from time to time such other acts +of hostility against the Prince of Orange as might be for the royal +service. These words, Barclay said, plainly authorised an attack on the +Prince's person. Charnock and Parkyns were satisfied. How in truth was +it possible for them to doubt that James's confidential agent correctly +construed James's expressions? Nay, how was it possible for them to +understand the large words of the commission in any sense but one, +even if Barclay had not been there to act as commentator? If indeed the +subject had never been brought under James's consideration, it might +well be thought that those words had dropped from his pen without any +definite meaning. But he had been repeatedly apprised that some of his +friends in England meditated a deed of blood, and that they were waiting +only for his approbation. They had importuned him to speak one word, +to give one sign. He had long kept silence; and, now that he had broken +silence, he merely told them to do what ever might be beneficial to +himself and prejudicial to the usurper. They had his authority as +plainly given as they could reasonably expect to have it given in such a +case. [657] + +All that remained was to find a sufficient number of courageous and +trustworthy assistants, to provide horses and weapons, and to fix the +hour and the place of the slaughter. Forty or fifty men, it was thought, +would be sufficient. Those troopers of James's guard who had already +followed Barclay across the Channel made up nearly half that number. +James had himself seen some of these men before their departure from +Saint Germains, had given them money for their journey, had told them by +what name each of them was to pass in England, had commanded them to +act as they should be directed by Barclay, and had informed them where +Barclay was to be found and by what tokens he was to be known. [658] +They were ordered to depart in small parties, and to assign different +reasons for going. Some were ill; some were weary of the service; +Cassels, one of the most noisy and profane among them, announced that, +since he could not get military promotion, he should enter at the Scotch +college and study for a learned profession. Under such pretexts about +twenty picked men left the palace of James, made their way by Romney +Marsh to London, and found their captain walking in the dim lamplight of +the Piazza with the handkerchief hanging from his pocket. One of these +men was Ambrose Rockwood, who held the rank of Brigadier, and who had a +high reputation for courage and honour; another was Major John Bernardi, +an adventurer of Genoese extraction, whose name has derived a melancholy +celebrity from a punishment so strangely prolonged that it at length +shocked a generation which could not remember his crime. [659] + +It was in these adventurers from France that Barclay placed his chief +trust. In a moment of elation he once called them his Janissaries, and +expressed a hope that they would get him the George and Garter. But +twenty more assassins at least were wanted. The conspirators probably +expected valuable help from Sir John Friend, who had received a +Colonel's commission signed by James, and had been most active in +enlisting men and providing arms against the day when the French should +appear on the coast of Kent. The design was imparted to him; but he +thought it so rash, and so likely to bring reproach and disaster on the +good cause, that he would lend no assistance to his friends, though he +kept their secret religiously. [660] Charnock undertook to find eight +brave and trusty fellows. He communicated the design to Porter, not with +Barclay's entire approbation; for Barclay appears to have thought that +a tavern brawler, who had recently been in prison for swaggering drunk +about the streets and huzzaing in honour of the Prince of Wales, was +hardly to be trusted with a secret of such fearful import. Porter +entered into the plot with enthusiasm, and promised to bring in others +who would be useful. Among those whose help he engaged was his servant +Thomas Keyes. Keyes was a far more formidable conspirator than might +have been expected from his station in life. The household troops +generally were devoted to William; but there was a taint of disaffection +among the Blues. The chief conspirators had already been tampering +with some Roman Catholics who were in that regiment; and Keyes was +excellently qualified to bear a part in this work; for he had formerly +been trumpeter of the corps, and, though he had quitted the service, he +still kept up an acquaintaince with some of the old soldiers in whose +company he had lived at free quarter on the Somersetshire farmers after +the battle of Sedgemoor. + +Parkyns, who was old and gouty, could not himself take a share in the +work of death. But he employed himself in providing horses, saddles and +weapons for his younger and more active accomplices. In this department +of business he was assisted by Charles Cranburne, a person who had long +acted as a broker between Jacobite plotters and people who dealt in +cutlery and firearms. Special orders were given by Barclay that the +swords should be made rather for stabbing than for slashing. Barclay +himself enlisted Edward Lowick, who had been a major in the Irish army, +and who had, since the capitulation of Limerick, been living obscurely +in London. The monk who had been Barclay's first confidant recommended +two busy Papists, Richard Fisher and Christopher Knightley; and this +recommendation was thought sufficient. Knightley drew in Edward King, a +Roman Catholic gentleman of hot and restless temper; and King procured +the assistance of a French gambler and bully named De la Rue. [661] + +Meanwhile the heads of the conspiracy held frequent meetings at treason +taverns, for the purpose of settling a plan of operations. Several +schemes were proposed, applauded, and, on full consideration, abandoned. +At one time it was thought that an attack on Kensington House at dead +of night might probably be successful. The outer wall might easily be +scaled. If once forty armed men were in the garden, the palace would +soon be stormed or set on fire. Some were of opinion that it would be +best to strike the blow on a Sunday as William went from Kensington +to attend divine service at the chapel of Saint James's Palace. The +murderers might assemble near the spot where Apsley House and Hamilton +Place now stand. Just as the royal coach passed out of Hyde Park, and +was about to enter what has since been called the Green Park, thirty +of the conspirators, well mounted, might fall on the guards. The guards +were ordinarily only five and twenty. They would be taken completely +by surprise; and probably half of them would be shot or cut down before +they could strike a blow. Meanwhile ten or twelve resolute men on foot +would stop the carriage by shooting the horses, and would then without +difficulty despatch the King. At last the preference was given to a plan +originally sketched by Fisher and put into shape by Porter. William was +in the habit of going every Saturday from Kensington to hunt in Richmond +Park. There was then no bridge over the Thames between London and +Kingston. The King therefore went, in a coach escorted by some of his +body guards, through Turnham Green to the river. There he took boat, +crossed the water and found another coach and another set of guards +ready to receive him on the Surrey side. The first coach and the first +set of guards awaited his return on the northern bank. The conspirators +ascertained with great precision the whole order of these journeys, and +carefully examined the ground on both sides of the Thames. They thought +that they should attack the King with more advantage on the Middlesex +than on the Surrey bank, and when he was returning than when he was +going. For, when he was going, he was often attended to the water side +by a great retinue of lords and gentlemen; but on his return he had only +his guards about him. The place and time were fixed. The place was to be +a narrow and winding lane leading from the landingplace on the north +of the rover to Turnham Green. The spot may still be easily found. +The ground has since been drained by trenches. But in the seventeenth +century it was a quagmire, through which the royal coach was with +difficulty tugged at a foot's pace. The time was to be the afternoon +of Saturday the fifteenth of February. On that day the Forty were to +assemble in small parties at public houses near the Green. When the +signal was given that the coach was approaching they were to take horse +and repair to their posts. As the cavalcade came up this lane Charnock +was to attack the guards in the rear, Rockwood on one flank, Porter on +the other. Meanwhile Barclay, with eight trusty men, was to stop the +coach and to do the deed. That no movement of the King might escape +notice, two orderlies were appointed to watch the palace. One of these +men, a bold and active Fleming, named Durant, was especially charged to +keep Barclay well informed. The other, whose business was to communicate +with Charnock, was a ruffian named Chambers, who had served in the Irish +army, had received a severe wound in the breast at the Boyne, and, on +account of that wound, bore a savage personal hatred to William. [662] + +While Barclay was making all his arrangements for the assassination, +Berwick was endeavouring to persuade the Jacobite aristocracy to rise +in arms. But this was no easy task. Several consultations were held; +and there was one great muster of the party under the pretence of a +masquerade, for which tickets were distributed among the initiated +at one guinea each. [663] All ended however in talking, singing and +drinking. Many men of rank and fortune indeed declared that they would +draw their swords for their rightful Sovereign as soon as their rightful +Sovereign was in the island with a French army; and Berwick had been +empowered to assure there that a French army should be sent as soon as +they had drawn the sword. But between what they asked and what he +was authorised to grant there was a difference which admitted of no +compromise. Lewis, situated as he was, would not risk ten or twelve +thousand excellent soldiers on the mere faith of promises. Similar +promises had been made in 1690; and yet, when the fleet of Tourville had +appeared on the coast of Devonshire, the western counties had risen as +one man in defence of the government, and not a single malecontent had +dared to utter a whisper in favour of the invaders. Similar promises had +been made in 1692; and to the confidence which had been placed in those +promises was to be attributed the great disaster of La Hogue. The +French King would not be deceived a third time. He would gladly help the +English royalists; but he must first see them help themselves. There +was much reason in this; and there was reason also in what the Jacobites +urged on the other side. If, they said, they were to rise, without a +single disciplined regiment to back them, against an usurper supported +by a regular army, they should all be cut to pieces before the news that +they were up could reach Versailles. As Berwick could hold out no hope +that there would be an invasion before there was an insurrection, and +as his English friends were immovable in their determination that there +should be no insurrection till there was an invasion, he had nothing +more to do here, and became impatient to depart. + +He was the more impatient to depart because the fifteenth of February +drew near. For he was in constant communication with Barclay, and was +perfectly apprised of all the details of the crime which was to be +perpetrated on that day. He was generally considered as a man of sturdy +and even ungracious integrity. But to such a degree had his sense of +right and wrong been perverted by his zeal for the interests of his +family, and by his respect for the lessons of his priests, that he did +not, as he has himself ingenuously confessed, think that he lay under +any obligation to dissuade the assassins from the execution of their +purpose. He had indeed only one objection to their design; and that +objection he kept to himself. It was simply this, that all who were +concerned were very likely to be hanged. That, however, was their +affair; and, if they chose to run such a risk in the good cause, it was +not his business to discourage them. His mission was quite distinct from +theirs; he was not to act with them; and he had no inclination to suffer +with then. He therefore hastened down to Romney Marsh, and crossed to +Calais. [664] + +At Calais he found preparations making for a descent on Kent. Troops +filled the town; transports filled the port. Boufflers had been ordered +to repair thither from Flanders, and to take the command. James himself +was daily expected. In fact he had already left Saint Germains. Berwick, +however, would not wait. He took the road to Paris, met his father at +Clermont, and made a full report of the state of things in England. His +embassy had failed; the Royalist nobility and gentry seemed resolved +not to rise till a French army was in the island; but there was still a +hope; news would probably come within a few days that the usurper was +no more; and such news would change the whole aspect of affairs. James +determined to go on to Calais, and there to await the event of +Barclay's plot. Berwick hastened to Versailles for the purpose of giving +explanations to Lewis. What the nature of the explanations was we know +from Berwick's own narrative. He plainly told the French King that a +small band of loyal men would in a short time make an attempt on the +life of the great enemy of France. The next courier might bring tidings +of an event which would probably subvert the English government and +dissolve the European coalition. It might have been thought that a +prince who ostentatiously affected the character of a devout Christian +and of a courteous knight would instantly have taken measures for +conveying to his rival a caution which perhaps might still arrive in +time, and would have severely reprimanded the guests who had so grossly +abused his hospitality. Such, however, was not the conduct of Lewis. Had +he been asked to give his sanction to a murder he would probably +have refused with indignation. But he was not moved to indignation by +learning that, without his sanction, a crime was likely to be committed +which would be far more beneficial to his interests than ten such +victories as that of Landen. He sent down orders to Calais that his +fleet should be in such readiness as might enable him to take advantage +of the great crisis which he anticipated. At Calais James waited with +still more impatience for the signal that his nephew was no more. That +signal was to be given by a fire, of which the fuel was already prepared +on the cliffs of Kent, and which would be visible across the straits. +[665] + +But a peculiar fate has, in our country, always attended such +conspiracies as that of Barclay and Charnock. The English regard +assassination, and have during some ages regarded it, with a loathing +peculiar to themselves. So English indeed is this sentiment that it +cannot even now be called Irish, and till a recent period, it was not +Scotch. In Ireland to this day the villain who shoots at his enemy from +behind a hedge is too often protected from justice by public sympathy. +In Scotland plans of assassination were often, during the sixteenth +and seventeenth centuries, successfully executed, though known to great +numbers of persons. The murders of Beaton, of Rizzio, of Darnley, of +Murray, of Sharpe, are conspicuous instances. The royalists who murdered +Lisle in Switzerland were Irishmen; the royalists who murdered Ascham at +Madrid were Irishmen; the royalists who murdered Dorislaus at the Hague +were Scotchmen. In England, as soon as such a design ceases to be a +secret hidden in the recesses of one gloomy and ulcerated heart, the +risk of detection and failure becomes extreme. Felton and Bellingham +reposed trust in no human being; and they were therefore able to +accomplish their evil purposes. But Babington's conspiracy against +Elizabeth, Fawkes's conspiracy against James, Gerard's conspiracy +against Cromwell, the Rye House conspiracy, the Cato Street conspiracy, +were all discovered, frustrated and punished. In truth such a conspiracy +is here exposed to equal danger from the good and from the bad qualities +of the conspirators. Scarcely any Englishman, not utterly destitute of +conscience and honour, will engage in a plot for slaying an unsuspecting +fellow creature; and a wretch who has neither conscience nor honour is +likely to think much on the danger which he incurs by being true to his +associates, and on the rewards which he may obtain by betraying them. +There are, it is true, persons in whom religious or political fanaticism +has destroyed all moral sensibility on one particular point, and yet has +left that sensibility generally unimpaired. Such a person was Digby. He +had no scruple about blowing King, Lords and Commons into the air. Yet +to his accomplices he was religiously and chivalrously faithful; nor +could even the fear of the rack extort from him one word to their +prejudice. But this union of depravity and heroism is very rare. The +vast majority of men are either not vicious enough or not virtuous +enough to be loyal and devoted members of treacherous and cruel +confederacies; and, if a single member should want either the necessary +vice or the necessary virtue, the whole confederacy is in danger. To +bring together in one body forty Englishmen, all hardened cutthroats, +and yet all so upright and generous that neither the hope of opulence +nor the dread of the gallows can tempt any one of them to be false to +the rest, has hitherto been found, and will, it is to be hoped, always +be found impossible. + +There were among Barclay's followers both men too bad and men too good +to be trusted with such a secret as his. The first whose heart failed +him was Fisher. Even before the time and place of the crime had been +fixed, he obtained an audience of Portland, and told that lord that a +design was forming against the King's life. Some days later Fisher came +again with more precise intelligence. But his character was not such +as entitled him to much credit; and the knavery of Fuller, of Young, of +Whitney and of Taffe, had made men of sense slow to believe stories of +plots. Portland, therefore, though in general very easily alarmed where +the safety of his master and friend was concerned, seems to have thought +little about the matter. But, on the evening of the fourteenth of +February, he received a visit from a person whose testimony he could not +treat lightly. This was a Roman Catholic gentleman of known courage and +honour, named Pendergrass. He had, on the preceding day, come up to town +from Hampshire, in consequence of a pressing summons from Porter, who, +dissolute and unprincipled as he was, had to Pendergrass been a +most kind friend, indeed almost a father. In a Jacobite insurrection +Pendergrass would probably have been one of the foremost. But he learned +with horror that he was expected to bear a part in a wicked and shameful +deed. He found himself in one of those situations which most cruelly +torture noble and sensitive natures. What was he to do? Was he to +commit a murder? Was he to suffer a murder which he could prevent to be +committed? Yet was he to betray one who, however culpable, had loaded +him with benefits? Perhaps it might be possible to save William without +harming Porter? Pendergrass determined to make the attempt. "My Lord," +he said to Portland, "as you value King William's life, do not let +him hunt tomorrow. He is the enemy of my religion; yet my religion +constrains me to give him this caution. But the names of the +conspirators I am resolved to conceal; some of them are my friends; one +of them especially is my benefactor; and I will not betray them." + +Portland went instantly to the King; but the King received the +intelligence very coolly, and seemed determined not to be frightened +out of a good day's sport by such an idle story. Portland argued and +implored in vain. He was at last forced to threaten that he would +immediately make the whole matter public, unless His Majesty would +consent to remain within doors during the next day; and this threat was +successful. [666] + +Saturday the fifteenth came. The Forty were all ready to mount, when +they received intelligence from the orderlies who watched Kensington +House that the King did not mean to hunt that morning. "The fox," said +Chambers, with vindictive bitterness, "keeps his earth." Then he opened +his shirt; showed the great scar in his breast, and vowed revenge on +William. + +The first thought of the conspirators was that their design had been +detected. But they were soon reassured. It was given out that the +weather had kept the King at home; and indeed the day was cold and +stormy. There was no sign of agitation at the palace. No extraordinary +precaution was taken. No arrest was made. No ominous whisper was +heard at the coffeehouses. The delay was vexatious; but Saturday the +twenty-second would do as well. + +But, before Saturday the twenty-second arrived, a third informer, De +la Rue, had presented himself at the palace. His way of life did not +entitle him to much respect; but his story agreed so exactly with what +had been said by Fisher and Pendergrass that even William began to +believe that there was real danger. + +Very late in the evening of Friday the twenty-first, Pendergrass, who +had as yet disclosed much less than either of the other informers, but +whose single word was worth much more than their joint oath, was sent +for to the royal closet. The faithful Portland and the gallant Cutts +were the only persons who witnessed the singular interview between the +King and his generous enemy. William, with courtesy and animation +which he rarely showed, but which he never showed without making a +deep impression, urged Pendergrass to speak out. "You are a man of true +probity and honour; I am deeply obliged to you; but you must feel that +the same considerations which have induced you to tell us so much ought +to induce you to tell us something more. The cautions which you have as +yet given can only make me suspect every body that comes near me. They +are sufficient to embitter my life, but not sufficient to preserve it. +You must let me know the names of these men." During more than half an +hour the King continued to entreat and Pendergrass to refuse. At last +Pendergrass said that he would give the information which was required, +if he could be assured that it would be used only for the prevention of +the crime, and not for the destruction of the criminals. "I give you +my word of honour," said William, "that your evidence shall not be used +against any person without your own free consent." It was long +past midnight when Pendergrass wrote down the names of the chief +conspirators. + +While these things were passing at Kensington, a large party of the +assassins were revelling at a Jacobite tavern in Maiden Lane. Here they +received their final orders for the morrow. "Tomorrow or never," said +King. "Tomorrow, boys," cried Cassels with a curse, "we shall have the +plunder of the field." The morrow came. All was ready; the horses +were saddled; the pistols were loaded; the swords were sharpened; the +orderlies were on the alert; they early sent intelligence from the +palace that the King was certainly going a hunting; all the usual +preparations had been made; a party of guards had been sent round by +Kingston Bridge to Richmond; the royal coaches, each with six horses, +had gone from the stables at Charing Cross to Kensington. The chief +murderers assembled in high glee at Porter's lodgings. Pendergrass, who, +by the King's command, appeared among them, was greeted with ferocious +mirth. "Pendergrass," said Porter, "you are named one of the eight who +are to do his business. I have a musquetoon for you that will carry +eight balls." "Mr. Pendergrass," said King, "pray do not be afraid of +smashing the glass windows." From Porter's lodgings the party adjourned +to the Blue Posts in Spring Gardens, where they meant to take some +refreshment before they started for Turnham Green. They were at table +when a message came from an orderly that the King had changed his mind +and would not hunt; and scarcely had they recovered from their first +surprise at this ominous news, when Keyes, who had been out scouting +among his old comrades, arrived with news more ominous still. "The +coaches have returned to Charing Cross. The guards that were sent round +to Richmond have just come back to Kensington at full gallop, the flanks +of the horses all white with foam. I have had a word with one of +the Blues. He told me that strange things are muttered." Then the +countenances of the assassins fell; and their hearts died within them. +Porter made a feeble attempt to disguise his uneasiness. He took up +an orange and squeezed it. "What cannot be done one day may be done +another. Come, gentlemen, before we part let us have one glass to the +squeezing of the rotten orange." The squeezing of the rotten orange was +drunk; and the company dispersed. [667] + +A few hours elapsed before all the conspirators abandoned all hope. Some +of them derived comfort from a report that the King had taken physic, +and that this was his only reason for not going to Richmond. If it were +so, the blow might still be struck. Two Saturdays had been unpropitious. +But Sunday was at hand. One of the plans which had formerly been +discussed and abandoned might be resumed. The usurper might be set upon +at Hyde Park Corner on his way to his chapel. Charnock was ready for any +enterprise however desperate. If the hunt was up, it was better to die +biting and scratching to the last than to be worried without resistance +or revenge. He assembled some of his accomplices at one of the numerous +houses at which he had lodgings, and plied there hard with healths to +the King, to the Queen, to the Prince, and to the Grand Monarch, as they +called Lewis. But the terror and dejection of the gang were beyond the +power of wine; and so many had stolen away that those who were left +could effect nothing. In the course of the afternoon it was known that +the guards had been doubled at the palace; and soon after nightfall +messengers from the Secretary of State's office were hurrying to and fro +with torches through the streets, accompanied by files and musketeers. +Before the dawn of Sunday Charnock was in custody. A little later, +Rockwood and Bernardi were found in bed at a Jacobite alehouse on Tower +Hill. Seventeen more traitors were seized before noon; and three of the +Blues were put under arrest. That morning a Council was held; and, as +soon as it rose, an express was sent off to call home some regiments +from Flanders; Dorset set out for Sussex, of which he was Lord +Lieutenant; Romney, who was Warden of the Cinque Ports, started for the +coast of Kent; and Russell hastened down the Thames to take the command +of the fleet. In the evening the Council sate again. Some of the +prisoners were examined and committed. The Lord Mayor was in attendance, +was informed of what had been discovered, and was specially charged to +look well to the peace of the capital. [668] + +On Monday morning all the trainbands of the City were under arms. The +King went in state to the House of Lords, sent for the Commons, and +from the throne told the Parliament that, but for the protection of a +gracious Providence, he should at that moment have been a corpse, and +the kingdom would have been invaded by a French army. The danger of +invasion, he added, was still great; but he had already given such +orders as would, he hoped, suffice for the protection of the realm. Some +traitors were in custody; warrants were out against others; he should +do his part in this emergency; and he relied on the Houses to do theirs. +[669] + +The Houses instantly voted a joint address in which they thankfully +acknowledged the divine goodness which had preserved him to his people, +and implored him to take more than ordinary care of his person. They +concluded by exhorting him to seize and secure all persons whom he +regarded as dangerous. + +On the same day two important bills were brought into the Commons. By +one the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended. The other provided that the +Parliament should not be dissolved by the death of William. Sir Rowland +Gwyn, an honest country gentleman, made a motion of which he did not +at all foresee the important consequences. He proposed that the members +should enter into an association for the defence of their Sovereign and +their country. Montague, who of all men was the quickest at taking and +improving a hint, saw how much such an association would strengthen the +government and the Whig party. [670] An instrument was immediately +drawn tip, by which the representatives of the people, each for himself, +solemnly recognised William as rightful and lawful King, and bound +themselves to stand by him and by each other against James and James's +adherents. Lastly they vowed that, if His Majesty's life should be +shortened by violence, they would avenge him signally on his murderers, +and would, with one heart, strenuously support the order of succession +settled by the Bill of Rights. It was ordered that the House should +be called over the next morning. [671] The attendance was consequently +great; the Association, engrossed on parchment, was on the table; and +the members went up, county by county, to sign their names. [672] + +The King's speech, the joint address of both Houses, the Association +framed by the Commons, and a proclamation, containing a list of +the conspirators and offering a reward of a thousand pounds for the +apprehension of any one of them, were soon cried in all the streets of +the capital and carried out by all the postbags. Wherever the news came +it raised the whole country. Those two hateful words, assassination and +invasion, acted like a spell. No impressment was necessary. The seamen +came forth from their hiding places by thousands to man the fleet. Only +three days after the King had appealed to the nation, Russell sailed out +of the Thames with one great squadron. Another was ready for action at +Spithead. The militia of all the maritime counties from the Wash to +the Land's End was under arms. For persons accused of offences merely +political there was generally much sympathy. But Barclay's assassins +were hunted like wolves by the whole population. The abhorrence which +the English have, through many generations, felt for domiciliary visits, +and for all those impediments which the police of continental states +throws in the way of travellers, was for a time suspended. The gates of +the City of London were kept many hours closed while a strict search was +made within. The magistrates of almost every walled town in the kingdom +followed the example of the capital. On every highway parties of armed +men were posted with orders to stop passengers of suspicious appearance. +During a few days it was hardly possible to perform a journey without a +passport, or to procure posthorses without the authority of a justice +of the peace. Nor was any voice raised against these precautions. The +common people indeed were, if possible, more eager than the public +functionaries to bring the traitors to justice. This eagerness may +perhaps be in part ascribed to the great rewards promised by the royal +proclamation. The hatred which every good Protestant felt for Popish +cutthroats was not a little strengthened by the songs in which the +street poets celebrated the lucky hackney coachman who had caught +his traitor, had received his thousand pounds, and had set up as a +gentleman. [673] The zeal of the populace could in some places hardly +be kept within the limits of the law. At the country seat of Parkyns +in Warwickshire, arms and accoutrements sufficient to equip a troop of +cavalry were found. As soon as this was known, a furious mob assembled, +pulled down the house and laid the gardens utterly waste. [674] Parkyns +himself was tracked to a garret in the Temple. Porter and Keyes, who +had fled into Surrey, were pursued by the hue and cry, stopped by the +country people near Leatherhead, and, after some show of resistance, +secured and sent to prison. Friend was found hidden in the house of a +Quaker. Knightley was caught in the dress of a fine lady, and recognised +in spite of his patches and paint. In a few days all the chief +conspirators were in custody except Barclay, who succeeded in making his +escape to France. + +At the same time some notorious malecontents were arrested, and were +detained for a time on suspicion. Old Roger Lestrange, now in his +eightieth year, was taken up. Ferguson was found hidden under a bed +in Gray's Inn Lane, and was, to the general joy, locked up in Newgate. +[675] Meanwhile a special commission was issued for the trial of the +traitors. There was no want of evidence. For, of the conspirators who +had been seized, ten or twelve were ready to save themselves by bearing +witness against their associates. None had been deeper in guilt, +and none shrank with more abject terror from death, than Porter. The +government consented to spare him, and thus obtained, not only his +evidence, but the much more respectable evidence of Pendergrass. +Pendergrass was in no danger; he had committed no offence; his character +was fair; and his testimony would have far greater weight with a jury +than the testimony of a crowd of approvers swearing for their necks. But +he had the royal word of honour that he should not be a witness without +his own consent; and he was fully determined not to be a witness unless +he were assured of Porter's safety. Porter was now safe; and Pendergrass +had no longer any scruple about relating the whole truth. + +Charnock, King and Keyes were set first to the bar. The Chiefs of the +three Courts of Common Law and several other judges were on the bench; +and among the audience were many members of both Houses of Parliament. + +It was the eleventh of March. The new Act which regulated the +procedure in cases of high treason was not to come into force till +the twenty-fifth. The culprits urged that, as the Legislature had, by +passing that Act, recognised the justice of allowing them to see their +indictment, and to avail themselves of the assistance of an advocate, +the tribunal ought either to grant them what the highest authority had +declared to be a reasonable indulgence, or to defer the trial for a +fortnight. The judges, however, would consent to no delay. They have +therefore been accused by later writers of using the mere letter of +the law in order to destroy men who, if that law had been construed +according to its spirit, might have had some chance of escape. This +accusation is unjust. The judges undoubtedly carried the real intention +of the Legislature into effect; and, for whatever injustice was +committed, the Legislature, and not the judges, ought to be held +accountable. The words, "twenty-fifth of March," had not slipped into +the Act by mere inadvertence. All parties in Parliament had long been +agreed as to the principle of the new regulations. The only matter about +which there was any dispute was the time at which those regulations +should take effect. After debates extending through several sessions, +after repeated divisions with various results, a compromise had been +made; and it was surely not for the Courts to alter the terms of that +compromise. It may indeed be confidently affirmed that, if the Houses +had foreseen the Assassination Plot, they would have fixed, not an +earlier, but a later day for the commencement of the new system. +Undoubtedly the Parliament, and especially the Whig party, deserved +serious blame. For, if the old rules of procedure gave no unfair +advantage to the Crown, there was no reason for altering them; and if, +as was generally admitted, they did give an unfair advantage to the +Crown, and that against a defendant on trial for his life, they ought +not to have been suffered to continue in force a single day. But no +blame is due to the tribunals for not acting in direct opposition both +to the letter and to the spirit of the law. + +The government might indeed have postponed the trials till the new Act +came into force; and it would have been wise, as well as right, to do +so; for the prisoners would have gained nothing by the delay. The case +against them was one on which all the ingenuity of the Inns of Court +could have made no impression. Porter, Pendergrass, De la Rue and others +gave evidence which admitted of no answer. Charnock said the very little +that he had to say with readiness and presence of mind. The jury found +all the defendants guilty. It is not much to the honour of that age that +the announcement of the verdict was received with loud huzzas by the +crowd which surrounded the Courthouse. Those huzzas were renewed when +the three unhappy men, having heard their doom, were brought forth under +a guard. [676] + +Charnock had hitherto shown no sign of flinching; but when he was again +in his cell his fortitude gave way. He begged hard for mercy. He +would be content, he said, to pass the rest of his days in an easy +confinement. He asked only for his life. In return for his life, he +promised to discover all that he knew of the schemes of the Jacobites +against the government. If it should appear that he prevaricated or that +he suppressed any thing, he was willing to undergo the utmost rigour +of the law. This offer produced much excitement, and some difference of +opinion, among the councillors of William. But the King decided, as in +such cases he seldom failed to decide, wisely and magnanimously. He +saw that the discovery of the Assassination Plot had changed the whole +posture of affairs. His throne, lately tottering, was fixed on an +immovable basis. His popularity had risen impetuously to as great a +height as when he was on his march from Torbay to London. Many who +had been out of humour with his administration, and who had, in their +spleen, held some communication with Saint Germains, were shocked to +find that they had been, in some sense, leagued with murderers. He would +not drive such persons to despair. He would not even put them to the +blush. Not only should they not be punished; they should not undergo the +humiliation of being pardoned. He would not know that they had offended. +Charnock was left to his fate. [677] When he found that he had no chance +of being received as a deserter, he assumed the dignity of a martyr, and +played his part resolutely to the close. That he might bid farewell to +the world with a better grace, he ordered a fine new coat to be hanged +in, and was very particular on his last day about the powdering and +curling of his wig. [678] Just before he was turned off, he delivered +to the Sheriffs a paper in which he avowed that he had conspired against +the life of the Prince of Orange, but solemnly denied that James had +given any commission authorising assassination. The denial was doubtless +literally correct; but Charnock did not deny, and assuredly could not +with truth have denied, that he had seen a commission written and signed +by James, and containing words which might without any violence be +construed, and which were, by all to whom they were shown, actually +construed, to authorise the murderous ambuscade of Turnham Green. + +Indeed Charnock, in another paper, which is still in existence, but has +never been printed, held very different language. He plainly said that, +for reasons too obvious to be mentioned, he could not tell the +whole truth in the paper which he had delivered to the Sheriffs. He +acknowledged that the plot in which he had been engaged seemed, even +to many loyal subjects, highly criminal. They called him assassin +and murderer. Yet what had he done more than had been done by Mucius +Scaevola? Nay, what had he done more than had been done by every body +who bore arms against the Prince of Orange? If an array of twenty +thousand men had suddenly landed in England and surprised the usurper, +this would have been called legitimate war. Did the difference between +war and assassination depend merely on the number of persons engaged? +What then was the smallest number which could lawfully surprise an +enemy? Was it five thousand, or a thousand, or a hundred? Jonathan and +his armourbearer were only two. Yet they made a great slaughter of the +Philistines. Was that assassination? It cannot, said Charnock, be the +mere act, it must be the cause, that makes killing assassination. It +followed that it was not assassination to kill one,--and here the +dying man gave a loose to all his hatred,--who had declared a war of +extermination against loyal subjects, who hung, drew and quartered every +man who stood up for the right, and who had laid waste England to +enrich the Dutch. Charnock admitted that his enterprise would have been +unjustifiable if it had not been authorised by James; but he maintained +that it had been authorised, not indeed expressly, but by implication. +His Majesty had indeed formerly prohibited similar attempts; but +had prohibited them, not as in themselves criminal, but merely as +inexpedient at this or that conjuncture of affairs. Circumstances had +changed. The prohibition might therefore reasonably be considered as +withdrawn. His Majesty's faithful subjects had then only to look to +the words of his commission; and those words, beyond all doubt, fully +warranted an attack on the person of the usurper. [679] + +King and Keyes suffered with Charnock. King behaved with firmness and +decency. He acknowledged his crime, and said that he repented of it. He +thought it due to the Church of which he was a member, and on which his +conduct had brought reproach, to declare that he had been misled, not by +any casuistry about tyrannicide, but merely by the violence of his +own evil passions. Poor Keyes was in an agony of terror. His tears and +lamentations moved the pity of some of the spectators. It was said at +the time, and it has often since been repeated, that a servant drawn +into crime by a master was a proper object of royal clemency. But +those who have blamed the severity with which Keyes was treated +have altogether omitted to notice the important circumstance which +distinguished his case from that of every other conspirator. He had been +one of the Blues. He had kept up to the last an intercourse with his +old comrades. On the very day fixed for the murder he had contrived to +mingle with them and to pick up intelligence from them. The regiment had +been so deeply infected with disloyalty that it had been found necessary +to confine some men and to dismiss many more. Surely, if any example +was to be made, it was proper to make an example of the agent by whose +instrumentality the men who meant to shoot the King communicated with +the men whose business was to guard him. + +Friend was tried next. His crime was not of so black a dye as that of +the three conspirators who had just suffered. He had indeed invited +foreign enemies to invade the realm, and had made preparations +for joining them. But, though he had been privy to the design of +assassination, he had not been a party to it. His large fortune however, +and the use which he was well known to have made of it, marked him out +as a fit object for punishment. He, like Charnock, asked for counsel, +and, like Charnock, asked in vain. The judges could not relax the law; +and the Attorney General would not postpone the trial. The proceedings +of that day furnish a strong argument in favour of the Act from the +benefit of which Friend was excluded. It is impossible to read them +over at this distance of time without feeling compassion for a silly ill +educated man, unnerved by extreme danger, and opposed to cool, astute +and experienced antagonists. Charnock had defended himself and those +who were tried with him as well as any professional advocate could have +done. But poor Friend was as helpless as a child. He could do little +more than exclaim that he was a Protestant, and that the witnesses +against him were Papists, who had dispensations from their priests for +perjury, and who believed that to swear away the lives of heretics was +a meritorious work. He was so grossly ignorant of law and history as to +imagine that the statute of treasons, passed in the reign of Edward the +Third, at a time when there was only one religion in Western Europe, +contained a clause providing that no Papist should be a witness, and +actually forced the Clerk of the Court to read the whole Act from +beginning to end. About his guilt it was impossible that there could be +a doubt in any rational mind. He was convicted; and he would have been +convicted if he had been allowed the privileges for which he asked. + +Parkyns came next. He had been deeply concerned in the worst part of +the plot, and was, in one respect, less excusable than any of his +accomplices; for they were all nonjurors; and he had taken the oaths +to the existing government. He too insisted that he ought to be tried +according to the provisions of the new Act. But the counsel for the +Crown stood on their extreme right; and his request was denied. As he +was a man of considerable abilities, and had been bred to the bar, he +probably said for himself all that counsel could have said for him; +and that all amounted to very little. He was found guilty, and received +sentence of death on the evening of the twenty-fourth of March, within +six hours of the time when the law of which he had vainly demanded the +benefit was to come into force. [680] + +The execution of the two knights was eagerly expected by the population +of London. The States General were informed by their correspondent that, +of all sights, that in which the English most delighted was a hanging, +and that, of all hangings within the memory of the oldest man, that of +Friend and Parkyns excited the greatest interest. The multitude had been +incensed against Friend by reports touching the exceeding badness of the +beer which he brewed. It was even rumoured that he had, in his zeal for +the Jacobite cause, poisoned all the casks which he had furnished to the +navy. An innumerable crowd accordingly assembled at Tyburn. Scaffolding +had been put up which formed an immense amphitheatre round the gallows. +On this scaffolding the wealthier spectators stood, row above row; and +expectation was at the height when it was announced that the show was +deferred. The mob broke up in bad humour, and not without many fights +between those who had given money for their places and those who refused +to return it. [681] + +The cause of this severe disappointment was a resolution suddenly passed +by the Commons. A member had proposed that a Committee should be sent +to the Tower with authority to examine the prisoners, and to hold out +to them the hope that they might, by a full and ingenuous confession, +obtain the intercession of the House. The debate appears, from the +scanty information which has come down to us, to have been a very +curious one. Parties seemed to have changed characters. It might have +been expected that the Whigs would have been inexorably severe, and +that, if there was any tenderness for the unhappy men, that tenderness +would have been found among the Tories. But in truth many of the Whigs +hoped that they might, by sparing two criminals who had no power to do +mischief, be able to detect and destroy numerous criminals high in rank +and office. On the other hand, every man who had ever had any dealings +direct or indirect with Saint Germains, or who took an interest in any +person likely to have had such dealings, looked forward with dread to +the disclosures which the captives might, under the strong terrors of +death, be induced to make. Seymour, simply because he had gone further +in treason than almost any other member of the House, was louder than +any other member of the House in exclaiming against all indulgence +to his brother traitors. Would the Commons usurp the most sacred +prerogative of the Crown? It was for His Majesty, and not for them, to +judge whether lives justly forfeited could be without danger spared. The +Whigs however carried their point. A Committee, consisting of all the +Privy Councillors in the House, set off instantly for Newgate. Friend +and Parkyns were interrogated, but to no purpose. They had, after +sentence had been passed on them, shown at first some symptoms of +weakness; but their courage had been fortified by the exhortations of +nonjuring divines who had been admitted to the prison. The rumour +was that Parkyns would have given way but for the entreaties of his +daughter, who adjured him to suffer like a man for the good cause. The +criminals acknowledged that they had done the acts of which they had +been convicted, but, with a resolution which is the more respectable +because it seems to have sprung, not from constitutional hardihood, but +from sentiments of honour and religion, refused to say any thing which +could compromise others. [682] + +In a few hours the crowd again assembled at Tyburn; and this time the +sightseers were not defrauded of their amusement. They saw indeed +one sight which they had not expected, and which produced a greater +sensation than the execution itself. Jeremy Collier and two other +nonjuring divines of less celebrity, named Cook and Snatt, had attended +the prisoners in Newgate, and were in the cart under the gallows. When +the prayers were over, and just before the hangman did his office, the +three schismatical priests stood up, and laid their hands on the heads +of the dying men who continued to kneel. Collier pronounced a form of +absolution taken from the service for the Visitation of the Sick, and +his brethren exclaimed "Amen!" + +This ceremony raised a great outcry; and the outcry became louder +when, a few hours after the execution, the papers delivered by the two +traitors to the Sheriffs were made public. It had been supposed that +Parkyns at least would express some repentance for the crime which had +brought him to the gallows. Indeed he had, before the Committee of the +Commons, owned that the Assassination Plot could not be justified. But, +in his last declaration, he avowed his share in that plot, not only +without a word indicating remorse, but with something which resembled +exultation. Was this a man to be absolved by Christian divines, absolved +before the eyes of tens of thousands, absolved with rites evidently +intended to attract public attention, with rites of which there was no +trace in the Book of Common Prayer or in the practice of the Church of +England? + +In journals, pamphlets and broadsides, the insolence of the three +Levites, as they were called, was sharply reprehended. Warrants were +soon out. Cook and Snatt were taken and imprisoned; but Collier was able +to conceal himself, and, by the help of one of the presses which were at +the service of his party, sent forth from his hiding place a defence of +his conduct. He declared that he abhorred assassination as much as any +of those who railed against him; and his general character warrants us +in believing that this declaration was perfectly sincere. But the +rash act into which he had been hurried by party spirit furnished his +adversaries with very plausible reasons for questioning his sincerity. +A crowd of answers to his defence appeared. Preeminent among them in +importance was a solemn manifesto signed by the two Archbishops and by +all the Bishops who were then in London, twelve in number. Even Crewe +of Durham and Sprat of Rochester set their names to this document. They +condemned the proceedings of the three nonjuring divines, as in form +irregular and in substance impious. To remit the sins of impenitent +sinners was a profane abuse of the power which Christ had delegated +to his ministers. It was not denied that Parkyns had planned an +assassination. It was not pretended that he had professed any repentance +for planning an assassination. The plain inference was that the divines +who absolved him did not think it sinful to assassinate King William. +Collier rejoined; but, though a pugnacious controversialist, he on this +occasion shrank from close conflict, and made his escape as well as he +could under a cloud of quotations from Tertullian, Cyprian and Jerome, +Albaspinaeus and Hammond, the Council of Carthage and the Council of +Toledo. The public feeling was strongly against the three absolvers. The +government however wisely determined not to confer on them the honour of +martyrdom. A bill was found against them by the grand jury of Middlesex; +but they were not brought to trial. Cook and Snatt were set at liberty +after a short detention; and Collier would have been treated with equal +lenity if he would have consented to put in bail. But he was determined +to do no act which could be construed into a recognition of the usurping +government. He was therefore outlawed; and when he died, more than +thirty years later, his outlawry had not been reversed. [683] + +Parkyns was the last Englishman who was tried for high treason under the +old system of procedure. The first who was tried under the new system +was Rockwood. He was defended by Sir Bartholomew Shower, who in the +preceding reign had made himself unenviably conspicuous as a servile and +cruel sycophant, who had obtained from James the Recordership of +London when Holt honourably resigned it, and who had, as Recorder, +sent soldiers to the gibbet for breaches of military discipline. By +his servile cruelty he had earned the nickname of the Manhunter. Shower +deserved, if any offender deserved, to be excepted from the Act of +Indemnity, and left to the utmost rigour of those laws which he had so +shamelessly perverted. But he had been saved by the clemency of William, +and had requited that clemency by pertinacious and malignant opposition. +[684] It was doubtless on account of Shower's known leaning towards +Jacobitism that he was employed on this occasion. He raised some +technical objections which the Court overruled. On the merits of the +case he could make no defence. The jury returned a verdict of guilty. +Cranburne and Lowick were then tried and convicted. They suffered with +Rookwood; and there the executions stopped. [685] + +The temper of the nation was such that the government might have shed +much more blood without incurring the reproach of cruelty. The feeling +which had been called forth by the discovery of the plot continued +during several weeks to increase day by day. Of that feeling the able +men who were at the head of the Whig party made a singularly skilful +use. They saw that the public enthusiasm, if left without guidance, +would exhaust itself in huzzas, healths and bonfires, but might, if +wisely guided, be the means of producing a great and lasting effect. The +Association, into which the Commons had entered while the King's speech +was still in their ears, furnished the means of combining four fifths of +the nation in one vast club for the defence of the order of succession +with which were inseparably combined the dearest liberties of the +English people, and of establishing a test which would distinguish those +who were zealous for that order of succession from those who sullenly +and reluctantly acquiesced in it. Of the five hundred and thirty members +of the Lower House about four hundred and twenty voluntarily subscribed +the instrument which recognised William as rightful and lawful King of +England. It was moved in the Upper House that the same form should be +adopted; but objections were raised by the Tories. Nottingham, ever +conscientious, honourable and narrow minded, declared that he could not +assent to the words "rightful and lawful." He still held, as he had +held from the first, that a prince who had taken the Crown, not by +birthright, but by the gift of the Convention, could not properly be so +described. William was doubtless King in fact, and, as King in fact, was +entitled to the obedience of Christians. "No man," said Nottingham, "has +served or will serve His Majesty more faithfully than I. But to this +document I cannot set my hand." Rochester and Normanby held similar +language. Monmouth, in a speech of two hours and a half, earnestly +exhorted the Lords to agree with the Commons. Burnet was vehement on the +same side. Wharton, whose father had lately died, and who was now Lord +Wharton, appeared in the foremost rank of the Whig peers. But no man +distinguished himself more in the debate than one whose life, both +public and private, had been one long series of faults and disasters, +the incestuous lover of Henrietta Berkeley, the unfortunate lieutenant +of Monmouth. He had recently ceased to be called by the tarnished name +of Grey of Wark, and was now Earl of Tankerville. He spoke on that day +with great force and eloquence for the words, "rightful and lawful." +Leeds, after expressing his regret that a question about a mere phrase +should have produced dissension among noble persons who were all equally +attached to the reigning Sovereign, undertook the office of mediator. +He proposed that their Lordships, instead of recognising William as +rightful and lawful King, should declare that William had the right +by law to the English Crown, and that no other person had any right +whatever to that Crown. Strange to say, almost all the Tory peers were +perfectly satisfied with what Leeds had suggested. Among the Whigs there +was some unwillingness to consent to a change which, slight as it was, +might be thought to indicate a difference of opinion between the two +Houses on a subject of grave importance. But Devonshire and Portland +declared themselves content; their authority prevailed; and the +alteration was made. How a rightful and lawful possessor is to be +distinguished from a possessor who has the exclusive right by law is +a question which a Whig may, without any painful sense of shame, +acknowledge to be beyond the reach of his faculties, and leave to be +discussed by High Churchmen. Eighty-three peers immediately affixed +their names to the amended form of association; and Rochester was among +them. Nottingham, not yet quite satisfied, asked time for consideration. +[686] + +Beyond the walls of Parliament there was none of this verbal quibbling. +The language of the House of Commons was adopted by the whole country. +The City of London led the way. Within thirty-six hours after the +Association had been published under the direction of the Speaker it +was subscribed by the Lord Mayor, by the Aldermen, and by almost all the +members of the Common Council. The municipal corporations all over the +kingdom followed the example. The spring assizes were just beginning; +and at every county town the grand jurors and the justices of the peace +put down their names. Soon shopkeepers, artisans, yeomen, farmers, +husbandmen, came by thousands to the tables where the parchments were +laid out. In Westminster there were thirty-seven thousand associators, +in the Tower Hamlets eight thousand, in Southwark eighteen thousand. The +rural parts of Surrey furnished seventeen thousand. At Ipswich all the +freemen signed except two. At Warwick all the male inhabitants who had +attained the age of sixteen signed, except two Papists and two Quakers. +At Taunton, where the memory of the Bloody Circuit was fresh, every man +who could write gave in his adhesion to the government. All the churches +and all the meeting houses in the town were crowded, as they had never +been crowded before, with people who came to thank God for having +preserved him whom they fondly called William the Deliverer. Of all the +counties of England Lancashire was the most Jacobitical. Yet Lancashire +furnished fifty thousand signatures. Of all the great towns of England +Norwich was the most Jacobitical. The magistrates of that city were +supposed to be in the interest of the exiled dynasty. The nonjurors were +numerous, and had, just before the discovery of the plot, seemed to be +in unusual spirits and ventured to take unusual liberties. One of the +chief divines of the schism had preached a sermon there which gave rise +to strange suspicions. He had taken for his text the verse in which the +Prophet Jeremiah announced that the day of vengeance was come, that +the sword would be drunk with blood, that the Lord God of Hosts had a +sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates. Very soon it was +known that, at the time when this discourse was delivered, swords had +actually been sharpening, under the direction of Barclay and Parkyns, +for a bloody sacrifice on the north bank of the river Thames. The +indignation of the common people of Norwich was not to be restrained. +They came in multitudes, though discouraged by the municipal +authorities, to plight faith to William, rightful and lawful King. In +Norfolk the number of signatures amounted to forty-eight thousand, in +Suffolk to seventy thousand. Upwards of five hundred rolls went up +to London from every part of England. The number of names attached to +twenty-seven of those rolls appears from the London Gazette to have been +three hundred and fourteen thousand. After making the largest allowance +for fraud, it seems certain that the Association included the great +majority of the adult male inhabitants of England who were able to sign +their names. The tide of popular feeling was so strong that a man who +was known not to have signed ran considerable risk of being publicly +affronted. In many places nobody appeared without wearing in his hat a +red riband on which were embroidered the words, "General Association +for King William." Once a party of Jacobites had the courage to parade +a street in London with an emblematic device which seemed to indicate +their contempt for the new Solemn League and Covenant. They were +instantly put to rout by the mob, and their leader was well ducked. The +enthusiasm spread to secluded isles, to factories in foreign countries, +to remote colonies. The Association was signed by the rude fishermen +of the Scilly Rocks, by the English merchants of Malaga, by the English +merchants of Genoa, by the citizens of New York, by the tobacco planters +of Virginia and by the sugar planters of Barbadoes. [687] + +Emboldened by success, the Whig leaders ventured to proceed a step +further. They brought into the Lower House a bill for the securing of +the King's person and government. By this bill it was provided that +whoever, while the war lasted, should come from France into England +without the royal license should incur the penalties of treason, that +the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act should continue to the end of +the year 1696, and that all functionaries appointed by William should +retain their offices, notwithstanding his death, till his successor +should be pleased to dismiss them. The form of Association which the +House of Commons had adopted was solemnly ratified; and it was provided +that no person should sit in that House or should hold any office, civil +or military, without signing. The Lords were indulged in the use of +their own form; and nothing was said about the clergy. + +The Tories, headed by Finch and Seymour, complained bitterly of this +new test, and ventured once to divide, but were defeated. Finch seems to +have been heard patiently; but, notwithstanding all Seymour's eloquence, +the contemptuous manner in which he spoke of the Association raised a +storm against which he could not stand. Loud cries of "the Tower, the +Tower," were heard. Haughty and imperious as he was, he was forced to +explain away his words, and could scarcely, by apologizing in a manner +to which he was little accustomed, save himself from the humiliation of +being called to the bar and reprimanded on his knees. The bill went up +to the Lords, and passed with great speed in spite of the opposition of +Rochester and Nottingham. [688] + +The nature and extent of the change which the discovery of the +Assassination Plot had produced in the temper of the House of Commons +and of the nation is strikingly illustrated by the history of a bill +entitled a Bill for the further Regulation of Elections of Members +of Parliament. The moneyed interest was almost entirely Whig, and was +therefore an object of dislike to the Tories. The rapidly growing power +of that interest was generally regarded with jealousy by landowners +whether they were Whigs or Tories. It was something new and monstrous +to see a trader from Lombard Street, who had no tie to the soil of our +island, and whose wealth was entirely personal and movable, post down to +Devonshire or Sussex with a portmanteau full of guineas, offer himself +as candidate for a borough in opposition to a neighbouring gentleman +whose ancestors had been regularly returned ever since the Wars of the +Roses, and come in at the head of the poll. Yet even this was not the +worst. More than one seat in Parliament, it was said, had been bought +and sold over a dish of coffee at Garraway's. The purchaser had not been +required even to go through the form of showing himself to the electors. +Without leaving his counting house in Cheapside, he had been chosen to +represent a place which he had never seen. Such things were intolerable. +No man, it was said, ought to sit in the English legislature who was +not master of some hundreds of acres of English ground. [689] A bill was +accordingly brought in which provided that every member of the House of +Commons must have a certain estate in land. For a knight of a shire the +qualification was fixed at five hundred a year; for a burgess at two +hundred a year. Early in February this bill was read a second time and +referred to a Select Committee. A motion was made that the Committee +should be instructed to add a clause enacting that all elections should +be by ballot. Whether this motion proceeded from a Whig or a Tory, by +what arguments it was supported and on what grounds it was opposed, +we have now no means of discovering. We know only that it was rejected +without a division. + +Before the bill came back from the Committee, some of the most +respectable constituent bodies in the kingdom had raised their voices +against the new restriction to which it was proposed to subject them. +There had in general been little sympathy between the commercial towns +and the Universities. For the commercial towns were the chief seats of +Whiggism and Non conformity; and the Universities were zealous for the +Crown and the Church. Now, however, Oxford and Cambridge made common +cause with London and Bristol. It was hard, said the Academics, that a +grave and learned man, sent by a large body of grave and learned men to +the Great Council of the nation, should be thought less fit to sit in +that Council than a boozing clown who had scarcely literature enough +to entitle him to the benefit of clergy. It was hard, said the traders, +that a merchant prince, who had been the first magistrate of the first +city in the world, whose name on the back of a bill commanded entire +confidence at Smyrna and at Genoa, at Hamburg and at Amsterdam, who +had at sea ships every one of which was worth a manor, and who had +repeatedly, when the liberty and religion of the kingdom were in peril, +advanced to the government, at an hour's notice, five or ten thousand +pounds, should be supposed to have a less stake in the prosperity of the +commonwealth than a squire who sold his own bullocks and hops over a pot +of ale at the nearest market town. On the report, it was moved that the +Universities should be excepted; but the motion was lost by a hundred +and fifty-one votes to a hundred and forty-three. On the third reading +it was moved that the City of London should be excepted; but it was not +thought advisable to divide. The final question that the bill do pass, +was carried by a hundred and seventy-three votes to a hundred and fifty +on the day which preceded the discovery of the Assassination Plot. The +Lords agreed to the bill without any amendment. + +William had to consider whether he would give or withhold his assent. +The commercial towns of the kingdom, and among them the City of London, +which had always stood firmly by him, and which had extricated him +many times from great embarrassments, implored his protection. It was +represented to him that the Commons were far indeed from being unanimous +on this subject; that, in the last stage, the majority had been only +twenty-three in a full House; that the motion to except the Universities +had been lost by a majority of only eight. On full consideration he +resolved not to pass the bill. Nobody, he said, could accuse him of +acting selfishly on this occasion; his prerogative was not concerned in +the matter; and he could have no objection to the proposed law except +that it would be mischievous to his people. + +On the tenth of April 1696, therefore, the Clerk of the Parliament was +commanded to inform the Houses that the King would consider of the Bill +for the further Regulation of Elections. Some violent Tories in the +House of Commons flattered themselves that they might be able to carry +a resolution reflecting on the King. They moved that whoever had advised +His Majesty to refuse his assent to their bill was an enemy to him and +to the nation. Never was a greater blunder committed. The temper of +the House was very different from what it had been on the day when the +address against Portland's grant had been voted by acclamation. The +detection of a murderous conspiracy, the apprehension of a French +invasion, had changed every thing. The King was popular. Every day ten +or twelve bales of parchment covered with the signatures of associators +were laid at his feet. Nothing could be more imprudent than to propose, +at such a time, a thinly disguised vote of censure on him. The +moderate Tories accordingly separated themselves from their angry +and unreasonable brethren. The motion was rejected by two hundred and +nineteen votes to seventy; and the House ordered the question and the +numbers on both sides to be published, in order that the world might +know how completely the attempt to produce a quarrel between the King +and the Parliament had failed. [690] + +The country gentlemen might perhaps have been more inclined to resent +the loss of their bill, had they not been put into high goodhumour by +another bill which they considered as even more important. The project +of a Land Bank had been revived; not in the form in which it had, two +years before, been brought under the consideration of the House of +Commons, but in a form much less shocking to common sense and less +open to ridicule. Chamberlayne indeed protested loudly against all +modifications of his plan, and proclaimed, with undiminished confidence, +that he would make all his countrymen rich if they would only let +him. He was not, he said, the first great discoverer whom princes and +statesmen had regarded as a dreamer. Henry the Seventh had, in an evil +hour, refused to listen to Christopher Columbus; the consequence had +been that England had lost the mines of Mexico and Peru; yet what were +the mines of Mexico and Peru to the riches of a nation blessed with an +unlimited paper currency? But the united force of reason and ridicule +had reduced the once numerous sect which followed Chamberlayne to a +small and select company of incorrigible fools. Few even of the squires +now believed in his two great doctrines; the doctrine that the State +can, by merely calling a bundle of old rags ten millions sterling, add +ten millions sterling to the riches of the nation; and the doctrine +that a lease of land for a term of years may be worth many times the fee +simple. But it was still the general opinion of the country gentlemen +that a bank, of which it should be the special business to advance money +on the security of land, might be a great blessing to the nation. +Harley and the Speaker Foley now proposed that such a bank should be +established by Act of Parliament, and promised that, if their plan +was adopted, the King should be amply supplied with money for the next +campaign. + +The Whig leaders, and especially Montague, saw that the scheme was a +delusion, that it must speedily fail, and that, before it failed, it +might not improbably ruin their own favourite institution, the Bank of +England. But on this point they had against them, not only the whole +Tory party, but also their master and many of their followers. The +necessities of the State were pressing. The offers of the projectors +were tempting. The Bank of England had, in return for its charter, +advanced to the State only one million at eight per cent. The Land +Bank would advance more than two millions and a half at seven per cent. +William, whose chief object was to procure money for the service of the +year, was little inclined to find fault with any source from which two +millions and a half could be obtained. Sunderland, who generally +exerted his influence in favour of the Whig leaders, failed them on this +occasion. The Whig country gentlemen were delighted by the prospect of +being able to repair their stables, replenish their cellars, and give +portions to their daughters. It was impossible to contend against such a +combination of force. A bill was passed which authorised the government +to borrow two million five hundred and sixty-four thousand pounds at +seven per cent. A fund, arising chiefly from a new tax on salt, was set +apart for the payment of the interest. If, before the first of August, +the subscription for one half of this loan should have been filled, +and if one half of the sum subscribed should have been paid into the +Exchequer, the subscribers were to become a corporate body, under the +name of the National Land Bank. As this bank was expressly intended to +accommodate country gentlemen, it was strictly interdicted from lending +money on any private security other than a mortgage of land, and was +bound to lend on mortgage at least half a million annually. The interest +on this half million was not to exceed three and a half per cent., if +the payments were quarterly, or four per cent., if the payments were +half yearly. At that time the market rate of interest on the best +mortgages was full six per cent. The shrewd observers at the Dutch +Embassy therefore thought that capitalists would eschew all connection +with what must necessarily be a losing concern, and that the +subscription would never be half filled up; and it seems strange that +any sane person should have thought otherwise. [691] + +It was vain however to reason against the general infatuation. The +Tories exultingly predicted that the Bank of Robert Harley would +completely eclipse the Bank of Charles Montague. The bill passed both +Houses. On the twenty-seventh of April it received the royal assent; and +the Parliament was immediately afterwards prorogued. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + Military Operations in the Netherlands--Commercial Crisis in + England--Financial Crisis--Efforts to restore the Currency--Distress of + the People; their Temper and Conduct--Negotiations with France; the + Duke of Savoy deserts the Coalition--Search for Jacobite Conspirators + in England; Sir John Fenwick--Capture of Fenwick--Fenwick's + Confession--Return of William to England--Meeting of Parliament; + State of the Country; Speech of William at the Commencement of + the Session--Resolutions of the House of Commons--Return of + Prosperity--Effect of the Proceedings of the House of Commons on + Foreign Governments--Restoration of the Finances--Effects of Fenwick's + Confession--Resignation of Godolphin--Feeling of the Whigs + about Fenwick--William examines Fenwick--Disappearance of + Goodman--Parliamentary Proceedings touching Fenwick's Confession--Bill + for attainting Fenwick--Debates of the Commons on the Bill of + Attainder--The Bill of Attainder carried up to the Lords--Artifices of + Monmouth--Debates of the Lords on the Bill of Attainder--Proceedings + against Monmouth--Position and Feelings of Shrewsbury--The Bill of + Attainder passed; Attempts to save Fenwick--Fenwick's Execution; + Bill for the Regulating of Elections--Bill for the Regulation of + the Press--Bill abolishing the Privileges of Whitefriars and the + Savoy--Close of the Session; Promotions and Appointments--State of + Ireland--State of Scotland--A Session of Parliament at Edinburgh; + Act for the Settling of Schools--Case of Thomas Aikenhead--Military + Operations in the Netherlands--Terms of Peace offered by France--Conduct + of Spain; Conduct of the Emperor--Congress of Ryswick--William opens a + distinct Negotiation--Meetings of Portland and Boufflers--Terms of Peace + between France and England settled--Difficulties caused by Spain and the + Emperor--Attempts of James to prevent a general Pacification--The Treaty + of Ryswick signed; Anxiety in England--News of the Peace arrives in + England--Dismay of the Jacobites--General Rejoicing--The King's Entry + into London--The Thanksgiving Day + +ON the seventh of May 1696, William landed in Holland. [692] Thence he +proceeded to Flanders, and took the command of the allied forces, which +were collected in the neighbourhood of Ghent. Villeroy and Boufflers +were already in the field. All Europe waited impatiently for great news +from the Netherlands, but waited in vain. No aggressive movement was +made. The object of the generals on both sides was to keep their troops +from dying of hunger; and it was an object by no means easily attained. +The treasuries both of France and England were empty. Lewis had, +during the winter, created with great difficulty and expense a gigantic +magazine at Givet on the frontier of his kingdom. The buildings were +commodious and of vast extent. The quantity of provender laid up in +them for horses was immense. The number of rations for men was commonly +estimated at from three to four millions. But early in the spring +Athlone and Cohorn had, by a bold and dexterous move, surprised Givet, +and had utterly destroyed both storehouses and stores. [693] France, +already fainting from exhaustion, was in no condition to repair such a +loss. Sieges such as those of Mons and Namur were operations too costly +for her means. The business of her army now was, not to conquer, but to +subsist. + +The army of William was reduced to straits not less painful. The +material wealth of England, indeed, had not been very seriously impaired +by the drain which the war had caused; but she was suffering severely +from the defective state of that instrument by which her material wealth +was distributed. + +Saturday, the second of May, had been fixed by Parliament as the last +day on which the clipped crowns, halfcrowns and shillings were to be +received by tale in payment of taxes. [694] The Exchequer was besieged +from dawn till midnight by an immense multitude. It was necessary to +call in the guards for the purpose of keeping order. On the following +Monday began a cruel agony of a few months, which was destined to be +succeeded by many years of almost unbroken prosperity. [695] + +Most of the old silver had vanished. The new silver had scarcely made +its appearance. About four millions sterling, in ingots and hammered +coin, were lying in the vaults of the Exchequer; and the milled money as +yet came forth very slowly from the Mint. [696] Alarmists predicted that +the wealthiest and most enlightened kingdom in Europe would be reduced +to the state of those barbarous societies in which a mat is bought with +a hatchet, and a pair of mocassins with a piece of venison. + +There were, indeed, some hammered pieces which had escaped mutilation; +and sixpences not clipped within the innermost ring were still current. +This old money and the new money together made up a scanty stock of +silver, which, with the help of gold, was to carry the nation through +the summer. [697] The manufacturers generally contrived, though with +extreme difficulty, to pay their workmen in coin. [698] The upper +classes seem to have lived to a great extent on credit. Even an opulent +man seldom had the means of discharging the weekly bills of his baker +and butcher. [699] A promissory note, however, subscribed by such a man, +was readily taken in the district where his means and character were +well known. The notes of the wealthy moneychangers of Lombard Street +circulated widely. [700] The paper of the Bank of England did much +service, and would have done more, but for the unhappy error into which +the Parliament had recently been led by Harley and Foley. The confidence +which the public had felt in that powerful and opulent Company had been +shaken by the Act which established the Land Bank. It might well be +doubted whether there would be room for the two rival institutions; and +of the two, the younger seemed to be the favourite of the government and +of the legislature. The stock of the Bank of England had gone rapidly +down from a hundred and ten to eighty-three. Meanwhile the goldsmiths, +who had from the first been hostile to that great corporation, were +plotting against it. They collected its paper from every quarter; and on +the fourth of May, when the Exchequer had just swallowed up most of the +old money, and when scarcely any of the new money had been issued, they +flocked to Grocers' Hall, and insisted on immediate payment. A single +goldsmith demanded thirty thousand pounds. The Directors, in this +extremity, acted wisely and firmly. They refused to cash the notes which +had been thus maliciously presented, and left the holders to seek a +remedy in Westminster Hall. Other creditors, who came in good faith to +ask for their due, were paid. The conspirators affected to triumph over +the powerful body, which they hated and dreaded. The bank which had +recently begun to exist under such splendid auspices, which had seemed +destined to make a revolution in commerce and in finance, which had been +the boast of London and the envy of Amsterdam, was already insolvent, +ruined, dishonoured. Wretched pasquinades were published, the Trial +of the Land Bank for murdering the Bank of England, the last Will and +Testament of the Bank of England, the Epitaph of the Bank of England, +the Inquest on the Bank of England. But, in spite of all this clamour +and all this wit, the correspondents of the States General reported, +that the Bank of England had not really suffered in the public esteem, +and that the conduct of the goldsmiths was generally condemned. [701] + +The Directors soon found it impossible to procure silver enough to meet +every claim which was made on them in good faith. They then bethought +them of a new expedient. They made a call of twenty per cent. on the +proprietors, and thus raised a sum which enabled them to give every +applicant fifteen per cent. in milled money on what was due to him. They +returned him his note, after making a minute upon it that part had +been paid. [702] A few notes thus marked are still preserved among the +archives of the Bank, as memorials of that terrible year. The paper +of the Corporation continued to circulate, but the value fluctuated +violently from day to day, and indeed from hour to hour; for the public +mind was in so excitable a state that the most absurd lie which a +stockjobber could invent sufficed to send the price up or down. At one +time the discount was only six per cent., at another time twenty-four +per cent. A tenpound note, which had been taken in the morning as worth +more than nine pounds, was often worth less than eight pounds before +night. [703] + +Another, and, at that conjuncture, a more effectual substitute for +a metallic currency, owed its existence to the ingenuity of Charles +Montague. He had succeeded in engrafting on Harley's Land Bank Bill a +clause which empowered the government to issue negotiable paper bearing +interest at the rate of threepence a day on a hundred pounds. In the +midst of the general distress and confusion appeared the first Exchequer +Bills, drawn for various amounts from a hundred pounds down to five +pounds. These instruments were rapidly distributed over the kingdom by +the post, and were every where welcome. The Jacobites talked violently +against them in every coffeehouse, and wrote much detestable verse +against them, but to little purpose. The success of the plan was such, +that the ministers at one time resolved to issue twentyshilling bills, +and even fifteenshilling bills, for the payment of the troops. But it +does not appear that this resolution was carried into effect. [704] + +It is difficult to imagine how, without the Exchequer Bills, the +government of the country could have been carried on during that year. +Every source of revenue had been affected by the state of the currency; +and one source, on which the Parliament had confidently reckoned for the +means of defraying more than half the charge of the war, had yielded not +a single farthing. + +The sum expected from the Land Bank was near two million six hundred +thousand pounds. Of this sum one half was to be subscribed, and one +quarter paid up by the first of August. The King, just before his +departure, had signed a warrant appointing certain commissioners, among +whom Harley and Foley were the most eminent, to receive the names of the +contributors. [705] A great meeting of persons interested in the scheme +was held in the Hall of the Middle Temple. One office was opened at +Exeter Change, another at Mercers' Hall. Forty agents went down into the +country, and announced to the landed gentry of every shire the approach +of the golden age of high rents and low interest. The Council of +Regency, in order to set an example to the nation, put down the King's +name for five thousand pounds; and the newspapers assured the world that +the subscription would speedily be filled. [706] But when three weeks +had passed away, it was found that only fifteen hundred pounds had been +added to the five thousand contributed by the King. Many wondered at +this; yet there was little cause for wonder. The sum which the friends +of the project had undertaken to raise was a sum which only the enemies +of the project could furnish. The country gentlemen wished well to +Harley's scheme; but they wished well to it because they wanted to +borrow money on easy terms; and, wanting to borrow money, they of course +were not able to lend it. The moneyed class alone could supply what +was necessary to the existence of the Land Bank; and the Land Bank was +avowedly intended to diminish the profits, to destroy the political +influence and to lower the social position of the moneyed class. As the +usurers did not choose to take on themselves the expense of putting down +usury, the whole plan failed in a manner which, if the aspect of public +affairs had been less alarming, would have been exquisitely ludicrous. +The day drew near. The neatly ruled pages of the subscription book at +Mercers' Hall were still blank. The Commissioners stood aghast. In +their distress they applied to the government for indulgence. Many great +capitalists, they said, were desirous to subscribe, but stood aloof +because the terms were too hard. There ought to be some relaxation. +Would the Council of Regency consent to an abatement of three hundred +thousand pounds? The finances were in such a state, and the letters in +which the King represented his wants were so urgent, that the Council +of Regency hesitated. The Commissioners were asked whether they would +engage to raise the whole sum, with this abatement. Their answer was +unsatisfactory. They did not venture to say that they could command +more than eight hundred thousand pounds. The negotiation was, therefore, +broken off. The first of August came; and the whole amount contributed +by the whole nation to the magnificent undertaking from which so much +had been expected was two thousand one hundred pounds. [707] + +Just at this conjuncture Portland arrived from the Continent. He had +been sent by William with charge to obtain money, at whatever cost +and from whatever quarter. The King had strained his private credit +in Holland to procure bread for his army. But all was insufficient. He +wrote to his Ministers that, unless they could send him a speedy supply, +his troops would either rise in mutiny or desert by thousands. He knew, +he said, that it would be hazardous to call Parliament together during +his absence. But, if no other resource could be devised, that hazard +must be run. [708] The Council of Regency, in extreme embarrassment, +began to wish that the terms, hard as they were, which had been offered +by the Commissioners at Mercers' Hall had been accepted. The negotiation +was renewed. Shrewsbury, Godolphin and Portland, as agents for the +King, had several conferences with Harley and Foley, who had recently +pretended that eight hundred thousand pounds were ready to be subscribed +to the Land Bank. The Ministers gave assurances, that, if, at this +conjuncture, even half that sum were advanced, those who had done this +service to the State should, in the next session, be incorporated as a +National Land Bank. Harley and Foley at first promised, with an air of +confidence, to raise what was required. But they soon went back from +their word; they showed a great inclination to be punctilious and +quarrelsome about trifles; at length the eight hundred thousand pounds +dwindled to forty thousand; and even the forty thousand could be had +only on hard conditions. [709] So ended the great delusion of the Land +Bank. The commission expired; and the offices were closed. + +And now the Council of Regency, almost in despair, had recourse to the +Bank of England. Two hundred thousand pounds was the very smallest sum +which would suffice to meet the King's most pressing wants. Would the +Bank of England advance that sum? The capitalists who lead the chief +sway in that corporation were in bad humour, and not without reason. But +fair words, earnest entreaties and large promises were not spared; all +the influence of Montague, which was justly great, was exerted; the +Directors promised to do their best; but they apprehended that it would +be impossible for them to raise the money without making a second call +of twenty per cent. on their constituents. It was necessary that the +question should be submitted to a General Court; in such a court more +than six hundred persons were entitled to vote; and the result might +well be doubted. The proprietors were summoned to meet on the fifteenth +of August at Grocers' Hall. During the painful interval of suspense, +Shrewsbury wrote to his master in language more tragic than is often +found in official letters. "If this should not succeed, God knows what +can be done. Any thing must be tried and ventured rather than lie down +and die." [710] On the fifteenth of August, a great epoch in the history +of the Bank, the General Court was held. In the chair sate Sir John +Houblon, the Governor, who was also Lord Mayor of London, and, what +would in our time be thought strange, a Commissioner of the Admiralty. +Sir John, in a speech, every word of which had been written and had been +carefully considered by the Directors, explained the case, and implored +the assembly to stand by King William. There was at first a little +murmuring. "If our notes would do," it was said, "we should be most +willing to assist His Majesty; but two hundred thousand pounds in hard +money at a time like this." The Governor announced explicitly that +nothing but gold or silver would supply the necessities of the army in +Flanders. At length the question was put to the vote; and every hand in +the Hall was held up for sending the money. The letters from the Dutch +Embassy informed the States General that the events of that day had +bound the Bank and the government together in close alliance, and that +several of the ministers had, immediately after the meeting, purchased +stock merely in order to give a pledge of their attachment to the body +which had rendered so great a service to the State. [711] + +Meanwhile strenuous exertions were making to hasten the recoinage. Since +the Restoration the Mint had, like every other public establishment in +the kingdom, been a nest of idlers and jobbers. The important office of +Warden, worth between six and seven hundred a year, had become a mere +sinecure, and had been filled by a succession of fine gentlemen, +who were well known at the hazard table of Whitehall, but who never +condescended to come near the Tower. This office had just become vacant, +and Montague had obtained it for Newton. [712] The ability, the industry +and the strict uprightness of the great philosopher speedily produced +a complete revolution throughout the department which was under his +direction. [713] He devoted himself to his task with an activity which +left him no time to spare for those pursuits in which he had surpassed +Archimedes and Galileo. Till the great work was completely done, he +resisted firmly, and almost angrily, every attempt that was made by men +of science, here or on the Continent, to draw him away from his official +duties. [714] The old officers of the Mint had thought it a great feat +to coin silver to the amount of fifteen thousand pounds in a week. +When Montague talked of thirty or forty thousand, these men of form +and precedent pronounced the thing impracticable. But the energy of +the young Chancellor of the Exchequer and of his friend the Warden +accomplished far greater wonders. Soon nineteen mills were going at once +in the Tower. As fast as men could be trained to the work in London, +bands of them were sent off to other parts of the kingdom. Mints +were established at Bristol, York, Exeter, Norwich and Chester. This +arrangement was in the highest degree popular. The machinery and the +workmen were welcomed to the new stations with the ringing of bells and +the firing of guns. The weekly issue increased to sixty thousand pounds, +to eighty thousand, to a hundred thousand, and at length to a hundred +and twenty thousand. [715] Yet even this issue, though great, not only +beyond precedent, but beyond hope, was scanty when compared with the +demands of the nation. Nor did all the newly stamped silver pass into +circulation; for during the summer and autumn those politicians who were +for raising the denomination of the coin were active and clamorous; +and it was generally expected that, as soon as the Parliament should +reassemble, the standard would be lowered. Of course no person who +thought it probable that he should, at a day not far distant, be able +to pay a debt of a pound with three crown pieces instead of four, was +willing to part with a crown piece, till that day arrived. Most of the +milled pieces were therefore hoarded. [716] May, June and July passed +away without any perceptible increase in the quantity of good money. It +was not till August that the keenest observer could discern the first +faint signs of returning prosperity. [717] + +The distress of the common people was severe, and was aggravated by the +follies of magistrates and by the arts of malecontents. A squire who was +one of the quorum would sometimes think it his duty to administer to his +neighbours, at this trying conjuncture, what seemed to him to be equity; +and as no two of these rural praetors had exactly the same notion of +what was equitable, their edicts added confusion to confusion. In one +parish people were, in outrageous violation of the law, threatened with +the stocks, if they refused to take clipped shillings by tale. In the +next parish it was dangerous to pay such shillings except by weight. +[718] The enemies of the government, at the same time, laboured +indefatigably in their vocation. They harangued in every place of public +resort, from the Chocolate House in Saint James's Street to the sanded +kitchen of the alehouse on the village green. In verse and prose they +incited the suffering multitude to rise up in arms. Of the tracts +which they published at this time, the most remarkable was written by +a deprived priest named Grascombe, of whose ferocity and scurrility the +most respectable nonjurors had long been ashamed. He now did his best +to persuade the rabble to tear in pieces those members of Parliament +who had voted for the restoration of the currency. [719] It would be too +much to say that the malignant industry of this man and of men like him +produced no effect on a population which was doubtless severely tried. +There were riots in several parts of the country, but riots which were +suppressed with little difficulty, and, as far as can be discovered, +without the shedding of a drop of blood. [720] In one place a crowd of +poor ignorant creatures, excited by some knavish agitator, besieged the +house of a Whig member of Parliament, and clamorously insisted on having +their short money changed. The gentleman consented, and desired to know +how much they had brought. After some delay they were able to produce a +single clipped halfcrown. [721] Such tumults as this were at a distance +exaggerated into rebellions and massacres. At Paris it was gravely +asserted in print that, in an English town which was not named, a +soldier and a butcher had quarrelled about a piece of money, that the +soldier had killed the butcher, that the butcher's man had snatched up +a cleaver and killed the soldier, that a great fight had followed, and +that fifty dead bodies had been left on the ground. [722] The truth +was, that the behaviour of the great body of the people was beyond +all praise. The judges when, in September, they returned from their +circuits, reported that the temper of the nation was excellent. [723] +There was a patience, a reasonableness, a good nature, a good faith, +which nobody had anticipated. Every body felt that nothing but mutual +help and mutual forbearance could prevent the dissolution of society. A +hard creditor, who sternly demanded payment to the day in milled money, +was pointed at in the streets, and was beset by his own creditors with +demands which soon brought him to reason. Much uneasiness had been felt +about the troops. It was scarcely possible to pay them regularly; if +they were not paid regularly, it might well be apprehended that they +would supply their wants by rapine; and such rapine it was certain that +the nation, altogether unaccustomed to military exaction and oppression, +would not tamely endure. But, strange to say, there was, through this +trying year, a better understanding than had ever been known between +the soldiers and the rest of the community. The gentry, the farmers, +the shopkeepers supplied the redcoats with necessaries in a manner +so friendly and liberal that there was no brawling and no marauding. +"Severely as these difficulties have been felt," L'Hermitage writes, +"they have produced one happy effect; they have shown how good the +spirit of the country is. No person, however favourable his opinion +of the English may have been, could have expected that a time of such +suffering would have been a time of such tranquillity." [724] + +Men who loved to trace, in the strangely complicated maze of human +affairs, the marks of more than human wisdom, were of opinion that, but +for the interference of a gracious Providence, the plan so elaborately +devised by great statesmen and great philosophers would have failed +completely and ignominiously. Often, since the Revolution, the English +had been sullen and querulous, unreasonably jealous of the Dutch, and +disposed to put the worst construction on every act of the King. Had +the fourth of May found our ancestors in such a mood, it can scarcely be +doubted that sharp distress, irritating minds already irritable, would +have caused an outbreak which must have shaken and might have subverted +the throne of William. Happily, at the moment at which the loyalty of +the nation was put to the most severe test, the King was more popular +than he had ever been since the day on which the Crown was tendered to +him in the Banqueting House. The plot which had been laid against his +life had excited general disgust and horror. His reserved manners, his +foreign attachments were forgotten. He had become an object of personal +interest and of personal affection to his people. They were every where +coming in crowds to sign the instrument which bound them to defend and +to avenge him. They were every where carrying about in their hats the +badges of their loyalty to him. They could hardly be restrained from +inflicting summary punishment on the few who still dared openly to +question his title. Jacobite was now a synonyme for cutthroat. Noted +Jacobite laymen had just planned a foul murder. Noted Jacobite priests +had, in the face of day, and in the administration of a solemn ordinance +of religion, indicated their approbation of that murder. Many honest and +pious men, who thought that their allegiance was still due to James, had +indignantly relinquished all connection with zealots who seemed to think +that a righteous end justified the most unrighteous means. Such was +the state of public feeling during the summer and autumn of 1696; and +therefore it was that hardships which, in any of the seven preceding +years, would certainly have produced a rebellion, and might perhaps +have produced a counterrevolution, did not produce a single tumult too +serious to be suppressed by the constable's staff. + +Nevertheless, the effect of the commercial and financial crisis in +England was felt through all the fleets and armies of the coalition. The +great source of subsidies was dry. No important military operation could +any where be attempted. Meanwhile overtures tending to peace had been +made, and a negotiation had been opened. Callieres, one of the ablest +of the many able envoys in the service of France, had been sent to +the Netherlands, and had held many conferences with Dykvelt. Those +conferences might perhaps have come to a speedy and satisfactory close, +had not France, at this time, won a great diplomatic victory in another +quarter. Lewis had, during seven years, been scheming and labouring in +vain to break the great array of potentates whom the dread of his might +and of his ambition had brought together and kept together. But, during +seven years, all his arts had been baffled by the skill of William; and, +when the eighth campaign opened, the confederacy had not been weakened +by a single desertion. Soon however it began to be suspected that the +Duke of Savoy was secretly treating with the enemy. He solemnly assured +Galway, who represented England at the Court of Turin, that there +was not the slightest ground for such suspicions, and sent to William +letters filled with professions of zeal for the common cause, and with +earnest entreaties for more money. This dissimulation continued till a +French army, commanded by Catinat, appeared in Piedmont. Then the Duke +threw off his disguise, concluded peace with France, joined his troops +to those of Catinat, marched into the Milanese, and informed the allies +whom he had just abandoned that, unless they wished to have him for an +enemy, they must declare Italy neutral ground. The Courts of Vienna +and Madrid, in great dismay, submitted to the terms which he dictated. +William expostulated and protested in vain. His influence was no longer +what it had been. The general opinion of Europe was, that the riches +and the credit of England were completely exhausted; and both her +confederates and her enemies imagined that they might safely treat her +with indignity. Spain, true to her invariable maxim that every thing +ought to be done for her and nothing by her, had the effrontery to +reproach the Prince to whom she owed it that she had not lost the +Netherlands and Catalonia, because he had not sent troops and ships +to defend her possessions in Italy. The Imperial ministers formed and +executed resolutions gravely affecting the interests of the coalition +without consulting him who had been the author and the soul of the +coalition. [725] Lewis had, after the failure of the Assassination Plot, +made up his mind to the disagreeable necessity of recognising William, +and had authorised Callieres to make a declaration to that effect. But +the defection of Savoy, the neutrality of Italy, the disunion among the +allies, and, above all, the distresses of England, exaggerated as they +were in all the letters which the Jacobites of Saint Germains received +from the Jacobites of London, produced a change. The tone of Callieres +became high and arrogant; he went back from his word, and refused to +give any pledge that his master would acknowledge the Prince of Orange +as King of Great Britain. The joy was great among the nonjurors. They +had always, they said, been certain that the Great Monarch would not be +so unmindful of his own glory and of the common interest of Sovereigns +as to abandon the cause of his unfortunate guests, and to call an +usurper his brother. They knew from the best authority that His Most +Christian Majesty had lately, at Fontainebleau, given satisfactory +assurances on this subject to King James. Indeed, there is reason +to believe that the project of an invasion of our island was again +seriously discussed at Versailles. [726] Catinat's army was now at +liberty. France, relieved from all apprehension on the side of Savoy, +might spare twenty thousand men for a descent on England; and, if the +misery and discontent here were such as was generally reported, the +nation might be disposed to receive foreign deliverers with open arms. + +So gloomy was the prospect which lay before William, when, in the +autumn of 1696, he quitted his camp in the Netherlands for England. His +servants here meanwhile were looking forward to his arrival with very +strong and very various emotions. The whole political world had +been thrown into confusion by a cause which did not at first appear +commensurate to such an effect. + +During his absence, the search for the Jacobites who had been concerned +in the plots of the preceding winter had not been intermitted; and of +these Jacobites none was in greater peril than Sir John Fenwick. His +birth, his connections, the high situations which he had filled, the +indefatigable activity with which he had, during several years, laboured +to subvert the government, and the personal insolence with which he had +treated the deceased Queen, marked him out as a man fit to be made an +example. He succeeded, however, in concealing himself from the officers +of justice till the first heat of pursuit was over. In his hiding place +he thought of an ingenious device which might, as he conceived, save him +from the fate of his friends Charnock and Parkyns. Two witnesses were +necessary to convict him. It appeared from what had passed on the trials +of his accomplices, that there were only two witnesses who could prove +his guilt, Porter and Goodman. His life was safe if either of these men +could be persuaded to abscond. + +Fenwick was not the only person who had strong reason to wish that +Porter or Goodman, or both, might be induced to leave England. Aylesbury +had been arrested, and committed to the Tower; and he well knew that, if +these men appeared against him, his head would be in serious danger. His +friends and Fenwick's raised what was thought a sufficient sum; and two +Irishmen, or, in the phrase of the newspapers of that day, bogtrotters, +a barber named Clancy, and a disbanded captain named Donelagh, undertook +the work of corruption. + +The first attempt was made on Porter. Clancy contrived to fall in with +him at a tavern, threw out significant hints, and, finding that those +hints were favourably received, opened a regular negotiation. The terms +offered were alluring; three hundred guineas down, three hundred more as +soon as the witness should be beyond sea, a handsome annuity for life, +a free pardon from King James, and a secure retreat in France. Porter +seemed inclined, and perhaps was really inclined, to consent. He said +that he still was what he had been, that he was at heart attached to +the good cause, but that he had been tried beyond his strength. Life was +sweet. It was easy for men who had never been in danger to say that none +but a villain would save himself by hanging his associates; but a few +hours in Newgate, with the near prospect of a journey on a sledge +to Tyburn, would teach such boasters to be more charitable. After +repeatedly conferring with Clancy, Porter was introduced to Fenwick's +wife, Lady Mary, a sister of the Earl of Carlisle. Every thing was soon +settled. Donelagh made the arrangements for the flight. A boat was in +waiting. The letters which were to secure to the fugitive the protection +of King James were prepared by Fenwick. The hour and place were fixed at +which Porter was to receive the first instalment of the promised reward. +But his heart misgave him. He had, in truth, gone such lengths that it +would have been madness in him to turn back. He had sent Charnock, King, +Keyes, Friend, Parkyns, Rookwood, Cranburne, to the gallows. It was +impossible that such a Judas could ever be really forgiven. In France, +among the friends and comrades of those whom he had destroyed, his life +would not be worth one day's purchase. No pardon under the Great Seal +would avert the stroke of the avenger of blood. Nay, who could say that +the bribe now offered was not a bait intended to lure the victim to the +place where a terrible doom awaited him? Porter resolved to be true +to that government under which alone he could be safe; he carried +to Whitehall information of the whole intrigue; and he received full +instructions from the ministers. On the eve of the day fixed for his +departure he had a farewell meeting with Clancy at a tavern. Three +hundred guineas were counted out on the table. Porter pocketed them, +and gave a signal. Instantly several messengers from the office of the +Secretary of State rushed into the room, and produced a warrant. +The unlucky barber was carried off to prison, tried for his offence, +convicted and pilloried. [727] + +This mishap made Fenwick's situation more perilous than ever. At the +next sessions for the City of London a bill of indictment against him, +for high treason, was laid before the grand jury. Porter and Goodman +appeared as witnesses for the Crown; and the bill was found. Fenwick +now thought that it was high time to steal away to the Continent. +Arrangements were made for his passage. He quitted his hiding place, and +repaired to Romney Marsh. There he hoped to find shelter till the vessel +which was to convey him across the Channel should arrive. For, though +Hunt's establishment had been broken up, there were still in that dreary +region smugglers who carried on more than one lawless trade. It chanced +that two of these men had just been arrested on a charge of harbouring +traitors. The messenger who had taken them into custody was returning to +London with them, when, on the high road, he met Fenwick face to face. +Unfortunately for Fenwick, no face in England was better known than his. +"It is Sir John," said the officer to the prisoners: "Stand by me, my +good fellows, and, I warrant you, you will have your pardons, and a +bag of guineas besides." The offer was too tempting to be refused; but +Fenwick was better mounted than his assailants; he dashed through them, +pistol in hand, and was soon out of sight. They pursued him; the hue and +cry was raised; the bells of all the parish churches of the Marsh rang +out the alarm; the whole country was up; every path was guarded; every +thicket was beaten; every hut was searched; and at length the fugitive +was found in bed. Just then a bark, of very suspicious appearance, came +in sight; she soon approached the shore, and showed English colours; but +to the practised eyes of the Kentish fishermen she looked much like +a French privateer. It was not difficult to guess her errand. After +waiting a short time in vain for her passenger, she stood out to sea. +[728] + +Fenwick, unluckily for himself, was able so far to elude the vigilance +of those who had charge of him as to scrawl with a lead pencil a short +letter to his wife. Every line contained evidence of his guilt. All, he +wrote, was over; he was a dead man, unless, indeed, his friends could, +by dint of solicitation, obtain a pardon for him. Perhaps the united +entreaties of all the Howards might succeed. He would go abroad; he +would solemnly promise never again to set foot on English ground, and +never to draw sword against the government. Or would it be possible +to bribe a juryman or two to starve out the rest? "That," he wrote, "or +nothing can save me." This billet was intercepted in its way to the +post, and sent up to Whitehall. Fenwick was soon carried to London and +brought before the Lords Justices. At first he held high language and +bade defiance to his accusers. He was told that he had not always been +so confident; and his letter to his wife was laid before him. He had not +till then been aware that it had fallen into hands for which it was not +intended. His distress and confusion became great. He felt that, if +he were instantly sent before a jury, a conviction was inevitable. +One chance remained. If he could delay his trial for a short time, the +judges would leave town for their circuits; a few weeks would be gained; +and in the course of a few weeks something might be done. + +He addressed himself particularly to the Lord Steward, Devonshire, with +whom he had formerly had some connection of a friendly kind. The unhappy +man declared that he threw himself entirely on the royal mercy, +and offered to disclose all that he knew touching the plots of the +Jacobites. That he knew much nobody could doubt. Devonshire advised his +colleagues to postpone the trial till the pleasure of William could be +known. This advice was taken. The King was informed of what had +passed; and he soon sent an answer directing Devonshire to receive the +prisoner's confession in writing, and to send it over to the Netherlands +with all speed. [729] + +Fenwick had now to consider what he should confess. Had he, according to +his promise, revealed all that he knew, there can be no doubt that his +evidence would have seriously affected many Jacobite noblemen, gentlemen +and clergymen. But, though he was very unwilling to die, attachment to +his party was in his mind a stronger sentiment than the fear of death. +The thought occurred to him that he might construct a story, which might +possibly be considered as sufficient to earn his pardon, which would at +least put off his trial some months, yet which would not injure a +single sincere adherent of the banished dynasty, nay, which would cause +distress and embarrassment to the enemies of that dynasty, and which +would fill the Court, the Council, and the Parliament of William with +fears and animosities. He would divulge nothing that could affect those +true Jacobites who had repeatedly awaited, with pistols loaded and +horses saddled, the landing of the rightful King accompanied by a French +army. But if there were false Jacobites who had mocked their banished +Sovereign year after year with professions of attachment and promises +of service, and yet had, at every great crisis, found some excuse for +disappointing him, and who were at that moment among the chief supports +of the usurper's throne, why should they be spared? That there were +such false Jacobites, high in political office and in military command, +Fenwick had good reason to believe. He could indeed say nothing against +them to which a Court of Justice would have listened; for none of them +had ever entrusted him with any message or letter for France; and all +that he knew about their treachery he had learned at second hand +and third hand. But of their guilt he had no doubt. One of them was +Marlborough. He had, after betraying James to William, promised to make +reparation by betraying William to James, and had, at last, after much +shuffling, again betrayed James and made peace with William. Godolphin +had practised similar deception. He had long been sending fair words to +Saint Germains; in return for those fair words he had received a +pardon; and, with this pardon in his secret drawer, he had continued to +administer the finances of the existing government. To ruin such a man +would be a just punishment for his baseness, and a great service to King +James. Still more desirable was it to blast the fame and to destroy the +influence of Russell and Shrewsbury. Both were distinguished members +of that party which had, under different names, been, during three +generations, implacably hostile to the Kings of the House of Stuart. +Both had taken a great part in the Revolution. The names of both were +subscribed to the instrument which had invited the Prince of Orange +to England. One of them was now his Minister for Maritime Affairs; the +other his Principal Secretary of State; but neither had been constantly +faithful to him. Both had, soon after his accession, bitterly resented +his wise and magnanimous impartiality, which, to their minds, disordered +by party spirit, seemed to be unjust and ungrateful partiality for the +Tory faction; and both had, in their spleen, listened to agents from +Saint Germains. Russell had vowed by all that was most sacred that he +would himself bring back his exiled Sovereign. But the vow was broken as +soon as it had been uttered; and he to whom the royal family had looked +as to a second Monk had crushed the hopes of that family at La Hogue. +Shrewsbury had not gone such lengths. Yet he too, while out of humour +with William, had tampered with the agents of James. With the power and +reputation of these two great men was closely connected the power and +reputation of the whole Whig party. That party, after some quarrels, +which were in truth quarrels of lovers, was now cordially reconciled to +William, and bound to him by the strongest ties. If those ties could be +dissolved, if he could be induced to regard with distrust and aversion +the only set of men which was on principle and with enthusiasm devoted +to his interests, his enemies would indeed have reason to rejoice. + +With such views as these Fenwick delivered to Devonshire a paper so +cunningly composed that it would probably have brought some severe +calamity on the Prince to whom it was addressed, had not that Prince +been a man of singularly clear judgment and singularly lofty spirit. The +paper contained scarcely any thing respecting those Jacobite plots in +which the writer had been himself concerned, and of which he intimately +knew all the details. It contained nothing which could be of the +smallest prejudice to any person who was really hostile to the existing +order of things. The whole narrative was made up of stories, too true +for the most part, yet resting on no better authority than hearsay, +about the intrigues of some eminent warriors and statesmen, who, +whatever their former conduct might have been, were now at least hearty +in support of William. Godolphin, Fenwick averred, had accepted a seat +at the Board of Treasury, with the sanction and for the benefit of King +James. Marlborough had promised to carry over the army, Russell to +carry over the fleet. Shrewsbury, while out of office, had plotted with +Middleton against the government and King. Indeed the Whigs were now the +favourites at Saint Germains. Many old friends of hereditary right +were moved to jealousy by the preference which James gave to the new +converts. Nay, he had been heard to express his confident hope that the +monarchy would be set up again by the very hands which had pulled it +down. + +Such was Fenwick's confession. Devonshire received it and sent it by +express to the Netherlands, without intimating to any of his fellow +councillors what it contained. The accused ministers afterwards +complained bitterly of this proceeding. Devonshire defended himself +by saying that he had been specially deputed by the King to take the +prisoner's information, and was bound, as a true servant of the Crown, +to transmit that information to His Majesty and to His Majesty alone. + +The messenger sent by Devonshire found William at Loo. The King read the +confession, and saw at once with what objects it had been drawn up. It +contained little more than what he had long known, and had long, with +politic and generous dissimulation, affected not to know. If he spared, +employed and promoted men who had been false to him, it was not because +he was their dupe. His observation was quick and just; his intelligence +was good; and he had, during some years, had in his hands proofs of much +that Fenwick had only gathered from wandering reports. It has seemed +strange to many that a Prince of high spirit and acrimonious temper +should have treated servants, who had so deeply wronged him, with a +kindness hardly to be expected from the meekest of human beings. But +William was emphatically a statesman. Ill humour, the natural and +pardonable effect of much bodily and much mental suffering, might +sometimes impel him to give a tart answer. But never did he on any +important occasion indulge his angry passions at the expense of the +great interests of which he was the guardian. For the sake of those +interests, proud and imperious as he was by nature, he submitted +patiently to galling restraints, bore cruel indignities and +disappointments with the outward show of serenity, and not only forgave, +but often pretended not to see, offences which might well have moved him +to bitter resentment. He knew that he must work with such tools as +he had. If he was to govern England he must employ the public men of +England; and in his age, the public men of England, with much of a +peculiar kind of ability, were, as a class, lowminded and immoral. There +were doubtless exceptions. Such was Nottingham among the Tories, and +Somers among the Whigs. But the majority, both of the Tory and of the +Whig ministers of William, were men whose characters had taken the ply +in the days of the Antipuritan reaction. They had been formed in +two evil schools, in the most unprincipled of courts, and the most +unprincipled of oppositions, a court which took its character from +Charles, an opposition headed by Shaftesbury. From men so trained +it would have been unreasonable to expect disinterested and stedfast +fidelity to any cause. But though they could not be trusted, they might +be used and they might be useful. No reliance could be placed on their +principles but much reliance might be placed on their hopes and on their +fears; and of the two Kings who laid claim to the English crown, the +King from whom there was most to hope and most to fear was the King +in possession. If therefore William had little reason to esteem these +politicians his hearty friends, he had still less reason to number them +among his hearty foes. Their conduct towards him, reprehensible as it +was, might be called upright when compared with their conduct towards +James. To the reigning Sovereign they had given valuable service; to the +banished Sovereign little more than promises and professions. Shrewsbury +might, in a moment of resentment or of weakness, have trafficked with +Jacobite agents; but his general conduct had proved that he was as far +as ever from being a Jacobite. Godolphin had been lavish of fair words +to the dynasty which was out; but he had thriftily and skilfully managed +the revenues of the dynasty which was in. Russell had sworn that he +would desert with the English fleet; but he had burned the French fleet. +Even Marlborough's known treasons,--for his share in the disaster of +Brest and the death of Talmash was unsuspected--, had not done so much +harm as his exertions at Walcourt, at Cork and at Kinsale had done +good. William had therefore wisely resolved to shut his eyes to perfidy, +which, however disgraceful it might be, had not injured him, and still +to avail himself, with proper precautions, of the eminent talents which +some of his unfaithful counsellors possessed, Having determined on this +course, and having long followed it with happy effect, he could not but +be annoyed and provoked by Fenwick's confession. Sir John, it was plain, +thought himself a Machiavel. If his trick succeeded, the Princess, whom +it was most important to keep in good humour, would be alienated from +the government by the disgrace of Marlborough. The whole Whig party, +the firmest support of the throne, would be alienated by the disgrace of +Russell and Shrewsbury. In the meantime not one of those plotters whom +Fenwick knew to have been deeply concerned in plans of insurrection, +invasion, assassination, would be molested. This cunning schemer should +find that he had not to do with a novice. William, instead of turning +his accused servants out of their places, sent the confession to +Shrewsbury, and desired that it might be laid before the Lords Justices. +"I am astonished," the King wrote, "at the fellow's effrontery. You know +me too well to think that such stories as his can make any impression +on me. Observe this honest man's sincerity. He has nothing to say +except against my friends. Not a word about the plans of his brother +Jacobites." The King concluded by directing the Lords justices to send +Fenwick before a jury with all speed. [730] + +The effect produced by William's letter was remarkable. Every one of the +accused persons behaved himself in a manner singularly characteristic. +Marlborough, the most culpable of all, preserved a serenity, mild, +majestic and slightly contemptuous. Russell, scarcely less criminal +than Marlborough, went into a towering passion, and breathed nothing but +vengeance against the villanous informer. Godolphin, uneasy, but wary, +reserved and selfpossessed, prepared himself to stand on the defensive. +But Shrewsbury, who of all the four was the least to blame, was utterly +overwhelmed. He wrote in extreme distress to William, acknowledged with +warm expressions of gratitude the King's rare generosity, and protested +that Fenwick had malignantly exaggerated and distorted mere trifles into +enormous crimes. "My Lord Middleton,"--such was the substance of the +letter,--"was certainly in communication with me about the time of +the battle of La Hogue. We are relations; we frequently met; we supped +together just before he returned to France; I promised to take care of +his interests here; he in return offered to do me good offices there; +but I told him that I had offended too deeply to be forgiven, and that +I would not stoop to ask forgiveness." This, Shrewsbury averred, was the +whole extent of his offence. [731] It is but too fully proved that this +confession was by no means ingenuous; nor is it likely that William +was deceived. But he was determined to spare the repentant traitor the +humiliation of owning a fault and accepting a pardon. "I can see," the +King wrote, "no crime at all in what you have acknowledged. Be assured +that these calumnies have made no unfavourable impression on me. Nay, +you shall find that they have strengthened my confidence in you." [732] +A man hardened in depravity would have been perfectly contented with an +acquittal so complete, announced in language so gracious. But Shrewsbury +was quite unnerved by a tenderness which he was conscious that he had +not merited. He shrank from the thought of meeting the master whom he +had wronged, and by whom he had been forgiven, and of sustaining the +gaze of the peers, among whom his birth and his abilities had gained for +him a station of which he felt that he was unworthy. The campaign in +the Netherlands was over. The session of Parliament was approaching. +The King was expected with the first fair wind. Shrewsbury left town and +retired to the Wolds of Gloucestershire. In that district, then one of +the wildest in the south of the island, he had a small country seat, +surrounded by pleasant gardens and fish-ponds. William had, in his +progress a year before, visited this dwelling, which lay far from the +nearest high road and from the nearest market town, and had been much +struck by the silence and loneliness of the retreat in which he found +the most graceful and splendid of English courtiers. + +At one in the morning of the sixth of October, the King landed at +Margate. Late in the evening he reached Kensington. The following +morning a brilliant crowd of ministers and nobles pressed to kiss his +hand; but he missed one face which ought to have been there, and asked +where the Duke of Shrewsbury was, and when he was expected in town. The +next day came a letter from the Duke, averring that he had just had a +bad fall in hunting. His side had been bruised; his lungs had suffered; +he had spit blood, and could not venture to travel. [733] That he had +fallen and hurt himself was true; but even those who felt most kindly +towards him suspected, and not without strong reason, that he made the +most of his convenient misfortune, and, that if he had not shrunk from +appearing in public, he would have performed the journey with little +difficulty. His correspondents told him that, if he was really as ill +as he thought himself, he would do well to consult the physicians and +surgeons of the capital. Somers, especially, implored him in the most +earnest manner to come up to London. Every hour's delay was mischievous. +His Grace must conquer his sensibility. He had only to face calumny +courageously, and it would vanish. [734] The King, in a few kind lines, +expressed his sorrow for the accident. "You are much wanted here," he +wrote: "I am impatient to embrace you, and to assure you that my esteem +for you is undiminished." [735] Shrewsbury answered that he had resolved +to resign the seals. [736] Somers adjured him not to commit so fatal an +error. If at that moment His Grace should quit office, what could the +world think, except that he was condemned by his own conscience? He +would, in fact, plead guilty; he would put a stain on his own honour, +and on the honour of all who lay under the same accusation. It would no +longer be possible to treat Fenwick's story as a romance. "Forgive me," +Somers wrote, "for speaking after this free manner; for I do own I can +scarce be temperate in this matter." [737] A few hours later William +himself wrote to the same effect. "I have so much regard for you, that, +if I could, I would positively interdict you from doing what must +bring such grave suspicions on you. At any time, I should consider your +resignation as a misfortune to myself but I protest to you that, at this +time, it is on your account more than on mine that I wish you to remain +in my service." [738] Sunderland, Portland, Russell and Wharton joined +their entreaties to their master's; and Shrewsbury consented to remain +Secretary in name. But nothing could induce him to face the Parliament +which was about to meet. A litter was sent down to him from London, but +to no purpose. He set out, but declared that he found it impossible to +proceed, and took refuge again in his lonely mansion among the hills. +[739] + +While these things were passing, the members of both Houses were from +every part of the kingdom going up to Westminster. To the opening of the +session, not only England, but all Europe, looked forward with intense +anxiety. Public credit had been deeply injured by the failure of +the Land Bank. The restoration of the currency was not yet half +accomplished. The scarcity of money was still distressing. Much of the +milled silver was buried in private repositories as fast as it came +forth from the Mint. Those politicians who were bent on raising the +denomination of the coin had found too ready audience from a population +suffering under severe pressure; and, at one time, the general voice of +the nation had seemed to be on their side. [740] Of course every person +who thought it likely that the standard would be lowered, hoarded as +much money as he could hoard; and thus the cry for little shillings +aggravated the pressure from which it had sprung. [741] Both the allies +and the enemies of England imagined that her resources were spent, +that her spirit was broken, that the Commons, so often querulous and +parsimonious even in tranquil and prosperous times, would now positively +refuse to bear any additional burden, and would, with an importunity not +to be withstood, insist on having peace at any price. + +But all these prognostications were confounded by the firmness and +ability of the Whig leaders, and by the steadiness of the Whig majority. +On the twentieth of October the Houses met. William addressed to them +a speech remarkable even among all the remarkable speeches in which +his own high thoughts and purposes were expressed in the dignified and +judicious language of Somers. There was, the King said, great reason +for congratulation. It was true that the funds voted in the preceding +session for the support of the war had failed, and that the recoinage +had produced great distress. Yet the enemy had obtained no advantage +abroad; the State had been torn by no convulsion at home; the loyalty +shown by the army and by the nation under severe trials had disappointed +all the hopes of those who wished evil to England. Overtures tending to +peace had been made. What might be the result of those overtures, +was uncertain; but this was certain, that there could be no safe or +honourable peace for a nation which was not prepared to wage vigorous +war. "I am sure we shall all agree in opinion that the only way of +treating with France is with our swords in our hands." + +The Commons returned to their chamber; and Foley read the speech from +the chair. A debate followed which resounded through all Christendom. +That was the proudest day of Montague's life, and one of the proudest +days in the history of the English Parliament. In 1798, Burke held up +the proceedings of that day as an example to the statesmen whose hearts +had failed them in the conflict with the gigantic power of the French +republic. In 1822, Huskisson held up the proceedings of that day as an +example to a legislature which, under the pressure of severe distress, +was tempted to alter the standard of value and to break faith with +the public creditor. Before the House rose the young Chancellor of the +Exchequer, whose ascendency, since the ludicrous failure of the Tory +scheme of finance, was undisputed, proposed and carried three memorable +resolutions. The first, which passed with only one muttered No, declared +that the Commons would support the King against all foreign and domestic +enemies, and would enable him to prosecute the war with vigour. The +second, which passed, not without opposition, but without a division, +declared that the standard of money should not be altered in fineness, +weight or denomination. The third, against which not a single opponent +of the government dared to raise his voice, pledged the House to make +good all the deficiencies of all parliamentary fund's established since +the King's accession. The task of framing an answer to the royal speech +was entrusted to a Committee exclusively composed of Whigs. Montague +was chairman; and the eloquent and animated address which he drew up may +still be read in the journals with interest and pride. [742] + +Within a fortnight two millions and a half were granted for the military +expenditure of the approaching year, and nearly as much for the maritime +expenditure. Provision was made without any dispute for forty thousand +seamen. About the amount of the land force there was a division. The +King asked for eighty-seven thousand soldiers; and the Tories thought +that number too large. The vote was carried by two hundred and +twenty-three to sixty-seven. + +The malecontents flattered themselves, during a short time, that +the vigorous resolutions of the Commons would be nothing more than +resolutions, that it would be found impossible to restore public credit, +to obtain advances from capitalists, or to wring taxes out of the +distressed population, and that therefore the forty thousand seamen and +the eighty-seven thousand soldiers would exist only on paper. Howe, +who had been more cowed than was usual with him on the first day of the +session, attempted, a week later, to make a stand against the Ministry. +"The King," he said, "must have been misinformed; or His Majesty never +would have felicitated Parliament on the tranquil state of the country. +I come from Gloucestershire. I know that part of the kingdom well. The +people are all living on alms, or ruined by paying alms. The soldier +helps himself, sword in hand, to what he wants. There have been serious +riots already; and still more serious riots are to be apprehended." +The disapprobation of the House was strongly expressed. Several +members declared that in their counties every thing was quiet. If +Gloucestershire were in a more disturbed state than the rest of England, +might not the cause be that Gloucestershire was cursed with a more +malignant and unprincipled agitator than all the rest of England could +show? Some Gloucestershire gentlemen took issue with Howe on the facts. +There was no such distress, they said, no such discontent, no such +rioting as he had described. In that county, as in every other county, +the great body of the population was fully determined to support the +King in waging a vigorous war till he could make an honourable peace. +[743] + +In fact the tide had already turned. From the moment at which the +Commons notified their fixed determination not to raise the denomination +of the coin, the milled money began to come forth from a thousand strong +boxes and private drawers. There was still pressure; but that pressure +was less and less felt day by day. The nation, though still suffering, +was joyful and grateful. Its feelings resembled those of a man who, +having been long tortured by a malady which has embittered his life, has +at last made up his mind to submit to the surgeon's knife, who has gone +through a cruel operation with safety, and who, though still smarting +from the steel, sees before him many years of health and enjoyment, and +thanks God that the worst is over. Within four days after the meeting of +Parliament there was a perceptible improvement in trade. The discount +on bank notes had diminished by one third. The price of those wooden +tallies, which, according to an usage handed to us from a rude age, +were given as receipts for sums paid into the Exchequer, had risen. The +exchanges, which had during many months been greatly against England, +had begun to turn. [744] Soon the effect of the magnanimous firmness of +the House of Commons was felt at every Court in Europe. So high indeed +was the spirit of that assembly that the King had some difficulty in +preventing the Whigs from moving and carrying a resolution that an +address should be presented to him, requesting him to enter into no +negotiation with France, till she should have acknowledged him as King +of England. [745] Such an address was unnecessary. The votes of the +Parliament had already forced on Lewis the conviction that there was no +chance of a counterrevolution. There was as little chance that he would +be able to effect that compromise of which he had, in the course of +the negotiations, thrown out hints. It was not to be hoped that either +William or the English nation would ever consent to make the settlement +of the English crown a matter of bargain with France. And even had +William and the English nation been disposed to purchase peace by such a +sacrifice of dignity, there would have been insuperable difficulties in +another quarter. James could not endure to hear of the expedient which +Lewis had suggested. "I can bear," the exile said to his benefactor, "I +can bear with Christian patience to be robbed by the Prince of Orange; +but I never will consent to be robbed by my own son." Lewis never again +mentioned the subject. Callieres received orders to make the concession +on which the peace of the civilised world depended. He and Dykvelt came +together at the Hague before Baron Lilienroth, the representative of +the King of Sweden, whose mediation the belligerent powers had accepted. +Dykvelt informed Lilienroth that the Most Christian King had engaged, +whenever the Treaty of Peace should be signed, to recognise the Prince +of Orange as King of Great Britain, and added, with a very intelligible +allusion to the compromise proposed by France, that the recognition +would be without restriction, condition or reserve. Callieres then +declared that he confirmed, in the name of his master, what Dykvelt had +said. [746] A letter from Prior, containing the good news, was delivered +to James Vernon, the Under Secretary of State, in the House of Commons. +The tidings ran along the benches--such is Vernon's expression--like +fire in a field of stubble. A load was taken away from every heart; +and all was joy and triumph. [747] The Whig members might indeed well +congratulate each other. For it was to the wisdom and resolution which +they had shown, in a moment of extreme danger and distress, that their +country was indebted for the near prospect of an honourable peace. + +Meanwhile public credit, which had, in the autumn, sunk to the lowest +point, was fast reviving. Ordinary financiers stood aghast when they +learned that more than five millions were required to make good the +deficiencies of past years. But Montague was not an ordinary financier. +A bold and simple plan proposed by him, and popularly called the General +Mortgage, restored confidence. New taxes were imposed; old taxes +were augmented or continued; and thus a consolidated fund was formed +sufficient to meet every just claim on the State. The Bank of England +was at the same time enlarged by a new subscription; and the regulations +for the payment of the subscription were framed in such a manner as to +raise the value both of the notes of the corporation and of the public +securities. + +Meanwhile the mints were pouring forth the new silver faster than ever. +The distress which began on the fourth of May 1696, which was almost +insupportable during the five succeeding months, and which became +lighter from the day on which the Commons declared their immutable +resolution to maintain the old standard, ceased to be painfully felt in +March 1697. Some months were still to elapse before credit completely +recovered from the most tremendous shock that it has ever sustained. But +already the deep and solid foundation had been laid on which was to rise +the most gigantic fabric of commercial prosperity that the world had +ever seen. The great body of the Whigs attributed the restoration of the +health of the State to the genius and firmness of their leader Montague. +His enemies were forced to confess, sulkily and sneeringly, that every +one of his schemes had succeeded, the first Bank subscription, the +second Bank subscription, the Recoinage, the General Mortgage, the +Exchequer Bills. But some Tories muttered that he deserved no more +praise than a prodigal who stakes his whole estate at hazard, and has +a run of good luck. England had indeed passed safely through a terrible +crisis, and was the stronger for having passed through it. But she had +been in imminent danger of perishing; and the minister who had exposed +her to that danger deserved, not to be praised, but to be hanged. Others +admitted that the plans which were popularly attributed to Montague were +excellent, but denied that those plans were Montague's. The voice of +detraction, however, was for a time drowned by the loud applauses of +the Parliament and the City. The authority which the Chancellor of +the Exchequer exercised in the House of Commons was unprecedented and +unrivalled. In the Cabinet his influence was daily increasing. He had no +longer a superior at the Board of Treasury. In consequence of Fenwick's +confession, the last Tory who held a great and efficient office in the +State had been removed, and there was at length a purely Whig Ministry. + +It had been impossible to prevent reports about that confession from +getting abroad. The prisoner, indeed, had found means of communicating +with his friends, and had doubtless given them to understand that he +had said nothing against them, and much against the creatures of the +usurper. William wished the matter to be left to the ordinary tribunals, +and was most unwilling that it should be debated elsewhere. But his +counsellors, better acquainted than himself with the temper of large +and divided assemblies, were of opinion that a parliamentary discussion, +though perhaps undesirable, was inevitable. It was in the power of a +single member of either House to force on such a discussion; and in both +Houses there were members who, some from a sense of duty, some from mere +love of mischief, were determined to know whether the prisoner had, +as it was rumoured, brought grave charges against some of the most +distinguished men in the kingdom. If there must be an inquiry, it was +surely desirable that the accused statesmen should be the first to +demand it. There was, however, one great difficulty. The Whigs, who +formed the majority of the Lower House, were ready to vote, as one man, +for the entire absolution of Russell and Shrewsbury, and had no wish to +put a stigma on Marlborough, who was not in place, and therefore excited +little jealousy. But a strong body of honest gentlemen, as Wharton +called them, could not, by any management, be induced to join in a +resolution acquitting Godolphin. To them Godolphin was an eyesore. All +the other Tories who, in the earlier years of William's reign, had +borne a chief part in the direction of affairs, had, one by one, been +dismissed. Nottingham, Trevor, Leeds, were no longer in power. Pembroke +could hardly be called a Tory, and had never been really in power. But +Godolphin still retained his post at Whitehall; and to the men of the +Revolution it seemed intolerable that one who had sate at the Council +Board of Charles and James, and who had voted for a Regency, should be +the principal minister of finance. Those who felt thus had learned with +malicious delight that the First Lord of the Treasury was named in +the confession about which all the world was talking; and they were +determined not to let slip so good an opportunity of ejecting him from +office. On the other hand, every body who had seen Fenwick's paper, and +who had not, in the drunkenness of factious animosity, lost all sense +of reason and justice, must have felt that it was impossible to make +a distinction between two parts of that paper, and to treat all that +related to Shrewsbury and Russell as false, and all that related to +Godolphin as true. This was acknowledged even by Wharton, who of all +public men was the least troubled by scruples or by shame. [748] If +Godolphin had stedfastly refused to quit his place, the Whig leaders +would have been in a most embarrassing position. But a politician of no +common dexterity undertook to extricate them from their difficulties. +In the art of reading and managing the minds of men Sunderland had no +equal; and he was, as he had been during several years, desirous to +see all the great posts in the kingdom filled by Whigs. By his skilful +management Godolphin was induced to go into the royal closet, and to +request permission to retire from office; and William granted that +permission with a readiness by which Godolphin was much more surprised +than pleased. [749] + +One of the methods employed by the Whig junto, for the purpose of +instituting and maintaining through all the ranks of the Whig party a +discipline never before known, was the frequent holding of meetings of +members of the House of Commons. Some of those meetings were numerous; +others were select. The larger were held at the Rose, a tavern +frequently mentioned in the political pasquinades of that time; [750] +the smaller at Russell's in Covent Garden, or at Somers's in Lincoln's +Inn Fields. + +On the day on which Godolphin resigned his great office two select +meetings were called. In the morning the place of assembly was Russell's +house. In the afternoon there was a fuller muster at the Lord Keeper's. +Fenwick's confession, which, till that time, had probably been known +only by rumour to most of those who were present, was read. The +indignation of the hearers was strongly excited, particularly by one +passage, of which the sense seemed to be that not only Russell, not only +Shrewsbury, but the great body of the Whig party was, and had long +been, at heart Jacobite. "The fellow insinuates," it was said, "that the +Assassination Plot itself was a Whig scheme." The general opinion was +that such a charge could not be lightly passed over. There must be a +solemn debate and decision in Parliament. The best course would be that +the King should himself see and examine the prisoner, and that Russell +should then request the royal permission to bring the subject before the +House of Commons. As Fenwick did not pretend that he had any authority +for the stories which he had told except mere hearsay, there could be no +difficulty in carrying a resolution branding him as a slanderer, and an +address to the throne requesting that he might be forthwith brought to +trial for high treason. [751] + +The opinion of the meeting was conveyed to William by his ministers; +and he consented, though not without reluctance, to see the prisoner. +Fenwick was brought into the royal closet at Kensington. A few of +the great officers of state and the Crown lawyers were present. "Your +papers, Sir John," said the King, "are altogether unsatisfactory. +Instead of giving me an account of the plots formed by you and your +accomplices, plots of which all the details must be exactly known to +you, you tell me stories, without authority, without date, without +place, about noblemen and gentlemen with whom you do not pretend to +have had any intercourse. In short your confession appears to be a +contrivance intended to screen those who are really engaged in designs +against me, and to make me suspect and discard those in whom I have good +reason to place confidence. If you look for any favour from me, give me, +this moment and on this spot, a full and straightforward account of +what you know of your own knowledge." Fenwick said that he was taken +by surprise, and asked for time. "No, Sir," said the King. "For what +purpose can you want time? You may indeed want time if you mean to draw +up another paper like this. But what I require is a plain narrative of +what you have yourself done and seen; and such a narrative you can give, +if you will, without pen and ink." Then Fenwick positively refused to +say any thing. "Be it so," said William. "I will neither hear you nor +hear from you any more." [752] Fenwick was carried back to his prison. +He had at this audience shown a boldness and determination which +surprised those who had observed his demeanour. He had, ever since he +had been in confinement, appeared to be anxious and dejected; yet now, +at the very crisis of his fate, he had braved the displeasure of +the Prince whose clemency he had, a short time before, submissively +implored. In a very few hours the mystery was explained. Just before +he had been summoned to Kensington, he had received from his wife +intelligence that his life was in no danger, that there was only +one witness against him, that she and her friends had succeeded in +corrupting Goodman. [753] + +Goodman had been allowed a liberty which was afterwards, with some +reason, made matter of charge against the government. For his testimony +was most important; his character was notoriously bad; the attempts +which had been made to seduce Porter proved that, if money could save +Fenwick's life, money would not be spared; and Goodman had not, like +Porter, been instrumental in sending Jacobites to the gallows, and +therefore was not, like Porter, bound to the cause of William by an +indissoluble tie. The families of the imprisoned conspirators employed +the agency of a cunning and daring adventurer named O'Brien. This +man knew Goodman well. Indeed they had belonged to the same gang of +highwaymen. They met at the Dog in Drury Lane, a tavern which was +frequented by lawless and desperate men. O'Brien was accompanied by +another Jacobite of determined character. A simple choice was offered to +Goodman, to abscond and to be rewarded with an annuity of five hundred +a year, or to have his throat cut on the spot. He consented, half from +cupidity, half from fear. O'Brien was not a man to be tricked as Clancy +had been. He never parted company with Goodman from the moment when the +bargain was struck till they were at Saint Germains. [754] + +On the afternoon of the day on which Fenwick was examined by the King at +Kensington it began to be noised abroad that Goodman was missing. He had +been many hours absent from his house. He had not been seen at his usual +haunts. At first a suspicion arose that he had been murdered by +the Jacobites; and this suspicion was strengthened by a singular +circumstance. Just after his disappearance, a human head was found +severed from the body to which it belonged, and so frightfully mangled +that no feature could be recognised. The multitude, possessed by the +notion that there was no crime which an Irish Papist might not be found +to commit, was inclined to believe that the fate of Godfrey had befallen +another victim. On inquiry however it seemed certain that Goodman had +designedly withdrawn himself. A proclamation appeared promising a reward +of a thousand pounds to any person who should stop the runaway; but it +was too late. [755] + +This event exasperated the Whigs beyond measure. No jury could now find +Fenwick guilty of high treason. Was he then to escape? Was a long series +of offences against the State to go unpunished merely because to those +offences had now been added the offence of bribing a witness to suppress +his evidence and to desert his bail? Was there no extraordinary method +by which justice might strike a criminal who, solely because he was +worse than other criminals, was beyond the reach of the ordinary law? +Such a method there was, a method authorised by numerous precedents, a +method used both by Papists and by Protestants during the troubles of +the sixteenth century, a method used both by Roundheads and by Cavaliers +during the troubles of the seventeenth century, a method which scarcely +any leader of the Tory party could condemn without condemning himself, a +method of which Fenwick could not decently complain, since he had, a few +years before, been eager to employ it against the unfortunate Monmouth. +To that method the party which was now supreme in the State determined +to have recourse. + +Soon after the Commons had met, on the morning of the sixth of November, +Russell rose in his place and requested to be heard. The task which he +had undertaken required courage not of the most respectable kind; but to +him no kind of courage was wanting. Sir John Fenwick, he said, had sent +to the King a paper in which grave accusations were brought against some +of His Majesty's servants; and His Majesty had, at the request of his +accused servants, graciously given orders that this paper should be +laid before the House. The confession was produced and read. The Admiral +then, with spirit and dignity worthy of a better man, demanded justice +for himself and Shrewsbury. "If we are innocent, clear us. If we are +guilty, punish us as we deserve. I put myself on you as on my country, +and am ready to stand or fall by your verdict." + +It was immediately ordered that Fenwick should be brought to the +bar with all speed. Cutts, who sate in the House as member for +Cambridgeshire, was directed to provide a sufficient escort, and was +especially enjoined to take care that the prisoner should have no +opportunity of making or receiving any communication, oral or written, +on the road from Newgate to Westminster. The House then adjourned till +the afternoon. + +At five o'clock, then a late hour, the mace was again put on the table; +candles were lighted; and the House and lobby were carefully cleared of +strangers. Fenwick was in attendance under a strong guard. He was called +in, and exhorted from the chair to make a full and ingenuous confession. +He hesitated and evaded. "I cannot say any thing without the King's +permission. His Majesty may be displeased if what ought to be known only +to him should be divulged to others." He was told that his apprehensions +were groundless. The King well knew that it was the right and the duty +of his faithful Commons to inquire into whatever concerned the safety of +his person and of his government. "I may be tried in a few days," said +the prisoner. "I ought not to be asked to say any thing which may rise +up in judgment against me." "You have nothing to fear," replied the +Speaker, "if you will only make a full and free discovery. No man +ever had reason to repent of having dealt candidly with the Commons of +England." Then Fenwick begged for delay. He was not a ready orator; his +memory was bad; he must have time to prepare himself. He was told, as he +had been told a few days before in the royal closet, that, prepared or +unprepared, he could not but remember the principal plots in which he +had been engaged, and the names of his chief accomplices. If he +would honestly relate what it was quite impossible that he could have +forgotten, the House would make all fair allowances, and would grant him +time to recollect subordinate details. Thrice he was removed from the +bar; and thrice he was brought back. He was solemnly informed that the +opportunity then given him of earning the favour of the Commons would +probably be the last. He persisted in his refusal, and was sent back to +Newgate. + +It was then moved that his confession was false and scandalous. +Coningsby proposed to add that it was a contrivance to create jealousies +between the King and good subjects for the purpose of screening real +traitors. A few implacable and unmanageable Whigs, whose hatred of +Godolphin had not been mitigated by his resignation, hinted their doubts +whether the whole paper ought to be condemned. But after a debate +in which Montague particularly distinguished himself the motion was +carried. One or two voices cried "No;" but nobody ventured to demand a +division. + +Thus far all had gone smoothly; but in a few minutes the storm broke +forth. The terrible words, Bill of Attainder, were pronounced; and all +the fiercest passions of both the great factions were instantly roused. +The Tories had been taken by surprise, and many of them had left the +house. Those who remained were loud in declaring that they never would +consent to such a violation of the first principles of justice. The +spirit of the Whigs was not less ardent, and their ranks were unbroken. +The motion for leave to bring in a bill attainting Sir John Fenwick +was carried very late at night by one hundred and seventy-nine votes to +sixty-one; but it was plain that the struggle would be long and hard. +[756] + +In truth party spirit had seldom been more strongly excited. On both +sides there was doubtless much honest zeal; and on both sides an +observant eye might have detected fear, hatred, and cupidity disguised +under specious pretences of justice and public good. The baleful heat +of faction rapidly warmed into life poisonous creeping things which had +long been lying torpid, discarded spies and convicted false witnesses, +the leavings of the scourge, the branding iron and the shears. Even +Fuller hoped that he might again find dupes to listen to him. The world +had forgotten him since his pillorying. He now had the effrontery to +write to the Speaker, begging to be heard at the bar and promising much +important information about Fenwick and others. On the ninth of November +the Speaker informed the House that he had received this communication; +but the House very properly refused even to suffer the letter of so +notorious a villain to be read. + +On the same day the Bill of Attainder, having been prepared by the +Attorney and Solicitor General, was brought in and read a first time. +The House was full and the debate sharp. John Manley, member for +Bossiney, one of those stanch Tories who, in the preceding session, +had long refused to sign the Association, accused the majority, in no +measured terms, of fawning on the Court and betraying the liberties of +the people. His words were taken down; and, though he tried to explain +them away, he was sent to the Tower. Seymour spoke strongly against +the bill, and quoted the speech which Caesar made in the Roman Senate +against the motion that the accomplices of Catiline should be put to +death in an irregular manner. A Whig orator keenly remarked that the +worthy Baron had forgotten that Caesar was grievously suspected of +having been himself concerned in Catiline's plot. [757] In this stage +a hundred and ninety-six members voted for the bill, a hundred and +four against it. A copy was sent to Fenwick, in order that he might +be prepared to defend himself. He begged to be heard by counsel; his +request was granted; and the thirteenth was fixed for the hearing. + +Never within the memory of the oldest member had there been such a stir +round the House as on the morning of the thirteenth. The approaches +were with some difficulty cleared; and no strangers, except peers, were +suffered to come within the doors. Of peers the throng was so great that +their presence had a perceptible influence on the debate. Even Seymour, +who, having formerly been Speaker, ought to have been peculiarly mindful +of the dignity of the Commons, so strangely forgot himself as once to +say "My Lords." Fenwick, having been formally given up by the Sheriffs +of London to the Serjeant at Arms, was put to the bar, attended by two +barristers who were generally employed by Jacobite culprits, Sir +Thomas Powis and Sir Bartholomew Shower. Counsel appointed by the House +appeared in support of the bill. + +The examination of the witnesses and the arguments of the advocates +occupied three days. Porter was called in and interrogated. It was +established, not indeed by legal proof, but by such moral proof as +determines the conduct of men in the affairs of common life, that +Goodman's absence was to be attributed to a scheme planned and executed +by Fenwick's friends with Fenwick's privity. Secondary evidence of what +Goodman, if he had been present, would have been able to prove, +was, after a warm debate, admitted. His confession, made on oath and +subscribed by his hand, was put in. Some of the grand jurymen who had +found the bill against Sir John gave an account of what Goodman had +sworn before them; and their testimony was confirmed by some of the +petty jurymen who had convicted another conspirator. No evidence was +produced in behalf of the prisoner. After counsel for him and against +him had been heard, he was sent back to his cell. [758] Then the real +struggle began. It was long and violent. The House repeatedly sate from +daybreak till near midnight. Once the Speaker was in the chair fifteen +hours without intermission. Strangers were freely admitted; for it was +felt that, since the House chose to take on itself the functions of a +court of justice, it ought, like a court of justice, to sit with +open doors. [759] The substance of the debates has consequently been +preserved in a report, meagre, indeed, when compared with the reports +of our time, but for that age unusually full. Every man of note in the +House took part in the discussion. The bill was opposed by Finch with +that fluent and sonorous rhetoric which had gained him the name of +Silvertongue, and by Howe with all the sharpness both of his wit and of +his temper, by Seymour with characteristic energy, and by Harley with +characteristic solemnity. On the other side Montague displayed +the powers of a consummate debater, and was zealously supported by +Littleton. Conspicuous in the front ranks of the hostile parties were +two distinguished lawyers, Simon Harcourt and William Cowper. + +Both were gentlemen of honourable descent; both were distinguished +by their fine persons and graceful manners; both were renowned for +eloquence; and both loved learning and learned men. It may be added that +both had early in life been noted for prodigality and love of pleasure. +Dissipation had made them poor; poverty had made them industrious; and +though they were still, as age is reckoned at the Inns of Court, very +young men, Harcourt only thirty-six, Cowper only thirty-two, they +already had the first practice at the bar. They were destined to rise +still higher, to be the bearers of the great seal of the realm, and +the founders of patrician houses. In politics they were diametrically +opposed to each other. Harcourt had seen the Revolution with disgust, +had not chosen to sit in the Convention, had with difficulty reconciled +his conscience to the oaths, and had tardily and unwillingly signed the +Association. Cowper had been in arms for the Prince of Orange and a free +Parliament, and had, in the short and tumultuary campaign which preceded +the flight of James, distinguished himself by intelligence and courage. +Since Somers had been removed to the Woolsack, the law officers of the +Crown had not made a very distinguished figure in the Lower House, or +indeed any where else; and their deficiencies had been more than once +supplied by Cowper. His skill had, at the trial of Parkyns, recovered +the verdict which the mismanagement of the Solicitor General had, for a +moment, put in jeopardy. He had been chosen member for Hertford at +the general election of 1695, and had scarcely taken his seat when he +attained a high place among parliamentary speakers. Chesterfield many +years later, in one of his letters to his son, described Cowper as an +orator who never spoke without applause, but who reasoned feebly, and +who owed the influence which he long exercised over great assemblies to +the singular charm of his style, his voice and his action. Chesterfield +was, beyond all doubt, intellectually qualified to form a correct +judgment on such a subject. But it must be remembered that the object of +his letters was to exalt good taste and politeness in opposition to much +higher qualities. He therefore constantly and systematically attributed +the success of the most eminent persons of his age to their superiority, +not in solid abilities and acquirements, but in superficial graces of +diction and manner. He represented even Marlborough as a man of very +ordinary capacity, who, solely because he was extremely well bred and +well spoken, had risen from poverty and obscurity to the height of power +and glory. It may confidently be pronounced that both to Marlborough and +to Cowper Chesterfield was unjust. The general who saved the Empire and +conquered the Low Countries was assuredly something more than a fine +gentleman; and the judge who presided during nine years in the Court of +Chancery with the approbation of all parties must have been something +more than a fine declaimer. + +Whoever attentively and impartially studies the report of the debates +will be of opinion that, on many points which were discussed at great +length and with great animation, the Whigs had a decided superiority in +argument, but that on the main question the Tories were in the right. + +It was true that the crime of high treason was brought home to Fenwick +by proofs which could leave no doubt on the mind of any man of common +sense, and would have been brought home to him according to the strict +rules of law, if he had not, by committing another crime, eluded the +justice of the ordinary tribunals. It was true that he had, in the very +act of professing repentance and imploring mercy, added a new offence +to his former offences, that, while pretending to make a perfectly +ingenuous confession, he had, with cunning malice, concealed every thing +which it was for the interest of the government that he should divulge, +and proclaimed every thing which it was for the interest of the +government to bury in silence. It was a great evil that he should be +beyond the reach of punishment; it was plain that he could be reached +only by a bill of pains and penalties; and it could not be denied, +either that many such bills had passed, or that no such bill had ever +passed in a clearer case of guilt or after a fairer hearing. + +All these propositions the Whigs seem to have fully established. +They had also a decided advantage in the dispute about the rule which +requires two witnesses in cases of high treason. The truth is that the +rule is absurd. It is impossible to understand why the evidence which +would be sufficient to prove that a man has fired at one of his fellow +subjects should not be sufficient to prove that he has fired at his +Sovereign. It can by no means be laid down as a general maxim that +the assertion of two witnesses is more convincing to the mind than the +assertion of one witness. The story told by one witness may be in itself +probable. The story told by two witnesses may be extravagant. The +story told by one witness may be uncontradicted. The story told by two +witnesses may be contradicted by four witnesses. The story told by one +witness may be corroborated by a crowd of circumstances. The story told +by two witnesses may have no such corroboration. The one witness may be +Tillotson or Ken. The two witnesses may be Oates and Bedloe. + +The chiefs of the Tory party, however, vehemently maintained that +the law which required two witnesses was of universal and eternal +obligation, part of the law of nature, part of the law of God. Seymour +quoted the book of Numbers and the book of Deuteronomy to prove that +no man ought to be condemned to death by the mouth of a single witness. +"Caiaphas and his Sanhedrim," said Harley, "were ready enough to set up +the plea of expediency for a violation of justice; they said,--and we +have heard such things said,--'We must slay this man, or the Romans +will come and take away our place and nation.' Yet even Caiaphas and his +Sanhedrim, in that foulest act of judicial murder, did not venture to +set aside the sacred law which required two witnesses." "Even Jezebel," +said another orator, "did not dare to take Naboth's vineyard from him +till she had suborned two men of Belial to swear falsely." "If the +testimony of one grave elder had been sufficient," it was asked, "what +would have become of the virtuous Susannah?" This last allusion called +forth a cry of "Apocrypha, Apocrypha," from the ranks of the Low +Churchmen. [760] + +Over these arguments, which in truth can scarcely have imposed on those +who condescended to use them, Montague obtained a complete and easy +victory. "An eternal law! Where was this eternal law before the reign of +Edward the Sixth? Where is it now, except in statutes which relate only +to one very small class of offences. If these texts from the Pentateuch +and these precedents from the practice of the Sanhedrim prove any thing, +they prove the whole criminal jurisprudence of the realm to be a mass of +injustice and impiety. One witness is sufficient to convict a murderer, +a burglar, a highwayman, an incendiary, a ravisher. Nay, there are cases +of high treason in which only one witness is required. One witness can +send to Tyburn a gang of clippers and comers. Are you, then, prepared to +say that the whole law of evidence, according to which men have during +ages been tried in this country for offences against life and property, +is vicious and ought to be remodelled? If you shrink from saying this, +you must admit that we are now proposing to dispense, not with a divine +ordinance of universal and perpetual obligation, but simply with an +English rule of procedure, which applies to not more than two or three +crimes, which has not been in force a hundred and fifty years, which +derives all its authority from an Act of Parliament, and which may +therefore be by another, Act abrogated or suspended without offence to +God or men." + +It was much less easy to answer the chiefs of the opposition when they +set forth the danger of breaking down the partition which separates the +functions of the legislator from those of the judge. "This man," it was +said, "may be a bad Englishman; and yet his cause may be the cause of +all good Englishmen. Only last year we passed an Act to regulate the +procedure of the ordinary courts in cases of treason. We passed that +Act because we thought that, in those courts, the life of a subject +obnoxious to the government was not then sufficiently secured. Yet the +life of a subject obnoxious to the government was then far more secure +than it will be if this House takes on itself to be the supreme criminal +judicature in political cases." Warm eulogies were pronounced on the +ancient national mode of trial by twelve good men and true; and indeed +the advantages of that mode of trial in political cases are obvious. The +prisoner is allowed to challenge any number of jurors with cause, and a +considerable number without cause. The twelve, from the moment at which +they are invested with their short magistracy, till the moment when they +lay it down, are kept separate from the rest of the community. Every +precaution is taken to prevent any agent of power from soliciting or +corrupting them. Every one of them must hear every word of the evidence +and every argument used on either side. The case is then summed up by a +judge who knows that, if he is guilty of partiality, he may be called to +account by the great inquest of the nation. In the trial of Fenwick at +the bar of the House of Commons all these securities were wanting. Some +hundreds of gentlemen, every one of whom had much more than half made +up his mind before the case was opened, performed the functions both of +judge and jury. They were not restrained, as a judge is restrained, by +the sense of responsibility; for who was to punish a Parliament? They +were not selected, as a jury is selected, in a manner which enables the +culprit to exclude his personal and political enemies. The arbiters of +his fate came in and went out as they chose. They heard a fragment here +and there of what was said against him, and a fragment here and there of +what was said in his favour. During the progress of the bill they were +exposed to every species of influence. One member was threatened by the +electors of his borough with the loss of his seat; another might obtain +a frigate for his brother from Russell; the vote of a third might be +secured by the caresses and Burgundy of Wharton. In the debates +arts were practised and passions excited which are unknown to well +constituted tribunals, but from which no great popular assembly divided +into parties ever was or ever will be free. The rhetoric of one orator +called forth loud cries of "Hear him." Another was coughed and scraped +down. A third spoke against time in order that his friends who were +supping might come in to divide. [761] If the life of the most worthless +man could be sported with thus, was the life of the most virtuous man +secure? + +The opponents of the bill did not, indeed, venture to say that there +could be no public danger sufficient to justify an Act of Attainder. +They admitted that there might be cases in which the general rule must +bend to an overpowering necessity. But was this such a case? Even if it +were granted, for the sake of argument, that Strafford and Monmouth were +justly attainted, was Fenwick, like Strafford, a great minister who had +long ruled England north of Trent, and all Ireland, with absolute power, +who was high in the royal favour, and whose capacity, eloquence and +resolution made him an object of dread even in his fall? Or was Fenwick, +like Monmouth, a pretender to the Crown and the idol of the common +people? Were all the finest youths of three counties crowding to enlist +under his banners? What was he but a subordinate plotter? He had indeed +once had good employments; but he had long lost them. He had once had +a good estate; but he had wasted it. Eminent abilities and weight of +character he had never had. He was, no doubt, connected by marriage +with a very noble family; but that family did not share his political +prejudices. What importance, then, had he, except that importance which +his persecutors were most unwisely giving him by breaking through all +the fences which guard the lives of Englishmen in order to destroy him? +Even if he were set at liberty, what could he do but haunt Jacobite +coffeehouses, squeeze oranges, and drink the health of King James and +the Prince of Wales? If, however, the government, supported by the Lords +and the Commons, by the fleet and the army, by a militia one hundred and +sixty thousand strong, and by the half million of men who had signed the +Association, did really apprehend danger from this poor ruined baronet, +the benefit of the Habeas Corpus Act might be withheld from him. He +might be kept within four walls as long as there was the least chance of +his doing mischief. It could hardly be contended that he was an enemy so +terrible that the State could be safe only when he was in the grave. + +It was acknowledged that precedents might be found for this bill, or +even for a bill far more objectionable. But it was said that whoever +reviewed our history would be disposed to regard such precedents rather +as warnings than as examples. It had many times happened that an Act of +Attainder, passed in a fit of servility or animosity, had, when fortune +had changed, or when passion had cooled, been repealed and solemnly +stigmatized as unjust. Thus, in old times, the Act which was passed +against Roger Mortimer, in the paroxysm of a resentment not unprovoked, +had been, at a calmer moment, rescinded on the ground that, however +guilty he might have been, he had not had fair play for his life. Thus, +within the memory of the existing generation, the law which attainted +Strafford had been annulled, without one dissentient voice. Nor, it +was added, ought it to be left unnoticed that, whether by virtue of the +ordinary law of cause and effect, or by the extraordinary judgment of +God, persons who had been eager to pass bills of pains and penalties, +had repeatedly perished by such bills. No man had ever made a more +unscrupulous use of the legislative power for the destruction of his +enemies than Thomas Cromwell; and it was by an unscrupulous use of the +legislative power that he was himself destroyed. If it were true that +the unhappy gentleman whose fate was now trembling in the balance had +himself formerly borne a part in a proceeding similar to that which was +now instituted against him, was not this a fact which ought to suggest +very serious reflections? Those who tauntingly reminded Fenwick that he +had supported the bill which attainted Monmouth might perhaps themselves +be tauntingly reminded, in some dark and terrible hour, that they had +supported the bill which had attainted Fenwick. "Let us remember what +vicissitudes we have seen. Let us, from so many signal examples of the +inconstancy of fortune, learn moderation in prosperity. How little +we thought, when we saw this man a favourite courtier at Whitehall, a +general surrounded with military pomp at Hounslow, that we should live +to see him standing at our bar, and awaiting his doom from our lips! And +how far is it from certain that we may not one day, in the bitterness of +our souls, vainly invoke the protection of those mild laws which we now +treat so lightly! God forbid that we should ever again be subject to +tyranny! But God forbid, above all, that our tyrants should ever be able +to plead, in justification of the worst that they can inflict upon us, +precedents furnished by ourselves!" + +These topics, skilfully handled, produced a great effect on many +moderate Whigs. Montague did his best to rally his followers. We +still possess the rude outline of what must have been a most effective +peroration. "Gentlemen warn us"--this, or very nearly this, seems to +have been what he said--"not to furnish King James with a precedent +which, if ever he should be restored, he may use against ourselves. Do +they really believe that, if that evil day shall ever come, this just +and necessary law will be the pattern which he will imitate? No, Sir, +his model will be, not our bill of attainder, but his own; not our bill, +which, on full proof, and after a most fair hearing, inflicts deserved +retribution on a single guilty head; but his own bill, which, without +a defence, without an investigation, without an accusation, doomed near +three thousand people, whose only crimes were their English blood and +their Protestant faith, the men to the gallows and the women to the +stake. That is the precedent which he has set, and which he will follow. +In order that he never may be able to follow it, in order that the fear +of a righteous punishment may restrain those enemies of our country who +wish to see him ruling in London as he ruled at Dublin, I give my vote +for this bill." + +In spite of all the eloquence and influence of the ministry, the +minority grew stronger and stronger as the debates proceeded. The +question that leave should be given to bring in the bill had been +carried by nearly three to one. On the question that the bill should be +committed, the Ayes were a hundred and eighty-six, the Noes a hundred +and twenty-eight. On the question that the bill should pass, the Ayes +were a hundred and eighty-nine, the Noes a hundred and fifty-six. + +On the twenty-sixth of November the bill was carried up to the Lords. +Before it arrived, the Lords had made preparations to receive it. Every +peer who was absent from town had been summoned up: every peer who +disobeyed the summons and was unable to give a satisfactory explanation +of his disobedience was taken into custody by Black Rod. On the day +fixed for the first reading, the crowd on the benches was unprecedented. +The whole number of temporal Lords, exclusive of minors, Roman Catholics +and nonjurors, was about a hundred and forty. Of these a hundred and +five were in their places. Many thought that the Bishops ought to have +been permitted, if not required, to withdraw; for, by an ancient canon, +those who ministered at the altars of God were forbidden to take any +part in the infliction of capital punishment. On the trial of a peer +impeached of high treason, the prelates always retire, and leave the +culprit to be absolved or condemned by laymen. And surely, if it be +unseemly that a divine should doom his fellow creatures to death as a +judge, it must be still more unseemly that he should doom them to death +as a legislator. In the latter case, as in the former, he contracts +that stain of blood which the Church regards with horror; and it will +scarcely be denied that there are some grave objections to the shedding +of blood by Act of Attainder which do not apply to the shedding of blood +in the ordinary course of justice. In fact, when the bill for taking +away the life of Strafford was under consideration, all the spiritual +peers withdrew. Now, however, the example of Cranmer, who had voted +for some of the most infamous acts of attainder that ever passed, was +thought more worthy of imitation; and there was a great muster of lawn +sleeves. It was very properly resolved that, on this occasion, the +privilege of voting by proxy should be suspended, that the House should +be called over at the beginning and at the end of every sitting, and +that every member who did not answer to his name should be taken into +custody. [762] + +Meanwhile the unquiet brain of Monmouth was teeming with strange +designs. He had now reached a time of life at which youth could no +longer be pleaded as an excuse for his faults; but he was more wayward +and eccentric than ever. Both in his intellectual and in his moral +character there was an abundance of those fine qualities which may be +called luxuries, and a lamentable deficiency of those solid qualities +which are of the first necessity. He had brilliant wit and ready +invention without common sense, and chivalrous generosity and delicacy +without common honesty. He was capable of rising to the part of the +Black Prince; and yet he was capable of sinking to the part of Fuller. +His political life was blemished by some most dishonourable actions; +yet he was not under the influence of those motives to which most of the +dishonourable actions of politicians are to be ascribed. He valued +power little and money less. Of fear he was utterly insensible. If he +sometimes stooped to be a villain,--for no milder word will come up to +the truth,--it was merely to amuse himself and to astonish other people. +In civil as in military affairs, he loved ambuscades, surprises, night +attacks. He now imagined that he had a glorious opportunity of making +a sensation, of producing a great commotion; and the temptation was +irresistible to a spirit so restless as his. + +He knew, or at least strongly suspected, that the stories which Fenwick +had told on hearsay, and which King, Lords and Commons, Whigs and +Tories, had agreed to treat as calumnies, were, in the main, true. Was +it impossible to prove that they were true, to cross the wise policy of +William, to bring disgrace at once on some of the most eminent men +of both parties, to throw the whole political world into inextricable +confusion? + +Nothing could be done without the help of the prisoner; and with the +prisoner it was impossible to communicate directly. It was necessary to +employ the intervention of more than one female agent. The Duchess of +Norfolk was a Mordaunt, and Monmouth's first cousin. Her gallantries +were notorious; and her husband had, some years before, tried to induce +his brother nobles to pass a bill for dissolving his marriage; but the +attempt had been defeated, in consequence partly of the zeal with +which Monmouth had fought the battle of his kinswoman. The lady, though +separated from her lord, lived in a style suitable to her rank, and +associated with many women of fashion, among others, with Lady Mary +Fenwick, and with a relation of Lady Mary, named Elizabeth Lawson. By +the instrumentality of the Duchess, Monmouth conveyed to the prisoner +several papers containing suggestions framed with much art. Let Sir +John,--such was the substance of these suggestions,--boldly affirm that +his confession is true, that he has brought accusations, on hearsay +indeed, but not on common hearsay, that he has derived his knowledge of +the facts which he has asserted from the highest quarters; and let him +point out a mode in which his veracity may be easily brought to the +test. Let him pray that the Earls of Portland and Romney, who are well +known to enjoy the royal confidence, may be called upon to declare +whether they are not in possession of information agreeing with what he +has related. Let him pray that the King may be requested to lay before +Parliament the evidence which caused the sudden disgrace of Lord +Marlborough, and any letters which may have been intercepted while +passing between Saint Germains and Lord Godolphin. "Unless," said +Monmouth to his female agents, "Sir John is under a fate, unless he +is out of his mind, he will take my counsel. If he does, his life and +honour are safe. If he does not, he is a dead man." Then this strange +intriguer, with his usual license of speech, reviled William for what +was in truth one of William's best titles to glory. "He is the worst +of men. He has acted basely. He pretends not to believe these charges +against Shrewsbury, Russell, Marlborough, Godolphin. And yet he +knows,"--and Monmouth confirmed the assertion by a tremendous oath,--"he +knows that every word of the charges is true." + +The papers written by Monmouth were delivered by Lady Mary to her +husband. If the advice which they contained had been followed, there can +be little doubt that the object of the adviser would have been attained. +The King would have been bitterly mortified; there would have been a +general panic among public men of every party; even Marlborough's serene +fortitude would have been severely tried; and Shrewsbury would probably +have shot himself. But that Fenwick would have put himself in a better +situation is by no means clear. Such was his own opinion. He saw that +the step which he was urged to take was hazardous. He knew that he was +urged to take that step, not because it was likely to save himself, but +because it was certain to annoy others; and he was resolved not to be +Monmouth's tool. + +On the first of December the bill went through the earliest stage +without a division. Then Fenwick's confession, which had, by the royal +command, been laid on the table, was read; and then Marlborough stood +up. "Nobody can wonder," he said, "that a man whose head is in danger +should try to save himself by accusing others. I assure Your Lordships +that, since the accession of his present Majesty, I have had no +intercourse with Sir John on any subject whatever; and this I declare +on my word of honour." [763] Marlborough's assertion may have been true; +but it was perfectly compatible with the truth of all that Fenwick had +said. Godolphin went further. "I certainly did," he said, "continue to +the last in the service of King James and of his Queen. I was esteemed +by them both. But I cannot think that a crime. It is possible that they +and those who are about them may imagine that I am still attached to +their interest. That I cannot help. But it is utterly false that I have +had any such dealings with the Court of Saint Germains as are described +in the paper which Your Lordships have heard read." [764] + +Fenwick was then brought in, and asked whether he had any further +confession to make. Several peers interrogated him, but to no purpose. +Monmouth, who could not believe that the papers which he had sent to +Newgate had produced no effect, put, in a friendly and encouraging +manner, several questions intended to bring out answers which would have +been by no means agreeable to the accused Lords. No such answer however +was to be extracted from Fenwick. Monmouth saw that his ingenious +machinations had failed. Enraged and disappointed, he suddenly turned +round, and became more zealous for the bill than any other peer in the +House. Every body noticed the rapid change in his temper and manner; but +that change was at first imputed merely to his well known levity. + +On the eighth of December the bill was again taken into consideration; +and on that day Fenwick, accompanied by his counsel, was in attendance. +But, before he was called in, a previous question was raised. Several +distinguished Tories, particularly Nottingham, Rochester, Normanby and +Leeds, said that, in their opinion, it was idle to inquire whether the +prisoner was guilty or not guilty, unless the House was of opinion that +he was a person so formidable that, if guilty, he ought to be attainted +by Act of Parliament. They did not wish, they said, to hear any +evidence. For, even on the supposition that the evidence left no doubt +of his criminality, they should still think it better to leave him +unpunished than to make a law for punishing him. The general sense, +however, was decidedly for proceeding. [765] The prisoner and his +counsel were allowed another week to prepare themselves; and, at length, +on the fifteenth of December, the struggle commenced in earnest. + +The debates were the longest and the hottest, the divisions were the +largest, the protests were the most numerously signed that had ever been +known in the whole history of the House of Peers. Repeatedly the benches +continued to be filled from ten in the morning till past midnight. [766] +The health of many lords suffered severely; for the winter was bitterly +cold; but the majority was not disposed to be indulgent. One evening +Devonshire was unwell; he stole away and went to bed; but Black Rod was +soon sent to bring him back. Leeds, whose constitution was extremely +infirm, complained loudly. "It is very well," he said, "for young +gentlemen to sit down to their suppers and their wine at two o'clock in +the morning; but some of us old men are likely to be of as much use here +as they; and we shall soon be in our graves if we are forced to keep +such hours at such a season." [767] So strongly was party spirit +excited that this appeal was disregarded, and the House continued to sit +fourteen or fifteen hours a day. The chief opponents of the bill were +Rochester, Nottingham, Normanby and Leeds. The chief orators on the +other side were Tankerville, who, in spite of the deep stains which +a life singularly unfortunate had left on his public and private +character, always spoke with an eloquence which riveted the attention +of his hearers; Burnet, who made a great display of historical learning; +Wharton, whose lively and familiar style of speaking, acquired in the +House of Commons, sometimes shocked the formality of the Lords; and +Monmouth, who had always carried the liberty of debate to the verge of +licentiousness, and who now never opened his lips without inflicting +a wound on the feelings of some adversary. A very few nobles of great +weight, Devonshire, Dorset, Pembroke and Ormond, formed a third party. +They were willing to use the Bill of Attainder as an instrument of +torture for the purpose of wringing a full confession out of the +prisoner. But they were determined not to give a final vote for sending +him to the scaffold. + +The first division was on the question whether secondary evidence of +what Goodman could have proved should be admitted. On this occasion +Burnet closed the debate by a powerful speech which none of the Tory +orators could undertake to answer without premeditation. A hundred and +twenty-six lords were present, a number unprecedented in our history. +There were seventy-three Contents, and fifty-three Not Contents. +Thirty-six of the minority protested against the decision of the House. +[768] + +The next great trial of strength was on the question whether the bill +should be read a second time. The debate was diversified by a curious +episode. Monmouth, in a vehement declamation, threw some severe and well +merited reflections on the memory of the late Lord Jeffreys. The title +and part of the ill gotten wealth of Jeffreys had descended to his son, +a dissolute lad, who had lately come of age, and who was then sitting in +the House. The young man fired at hearing his father reviled. The House +was forced to interfere, and to make both the disputants promise that +the matter should go no further. On this day a hundred and twenty-eight +peers were present. The second reading was carried by seventy-three to +fifty-five; and forty-nine of the fifty-five protested. [769] + +It was now thought by many that Fenwick's courage would give way. It +was known that he was very unwilling to die. Hitherto he might have +flattered himself with hopes that the bill would miscarry. But now that +it had passed one House, and seemed certain to pass the other, it was +probable that he would save himself by disclosing all that he knew. He +was again put to the bar and interrogated. He refused to answer, on the +ground that his answers might be used against him by the Crown at the +Old Bailey. He was assured that the House would protect him; but he +pretended that this assurance was not sufficient; the House was not +always sitting; he might be brought to trial during a recess, and hanged +before their Lordships met again. The royal word alone, he said, would +be a complete guarantee. The Peers ordered him to be removed, and +immediately resolved that Wharton should go to Kensington, and should +entreat His Majesty to give the pledge which the prisoner required. +Wharton hastened to Kensington, and hastened back with a gracious +answer. Fenwick was again placed at the bar. The royal word, he was +told, had been passed that nothing which he might say there should be +used against him in any other place. Still he made difficulties. He +might confess all that he knew, and yet might be told that he was still +keeping something back. In short, he would say nothing till he had a +pardon. He was then, for the last time, solemnly cautioned from the +Woolsack. He was assured that, if he would deal ingenuously with the +Lords, they would be intercessors for him at the foot of the throne, +and that their intercession would not be unsuccessful. If he continued +obstinate, they would proceed with the bill. A short interval was +allowed him for consideration; and he was then required to give his +final answer. "I have given it," he said; "I have no security. If I had, +I should be glad to satisfy the House." He was then carried back to his +cell; and the Peers separated, having sate far into the night. [770] + +At noon they met again. The third reading was moved. Tenison spoke for +the bill with more ability than was expected from him, and Monmouth with +as much sharpness as in the previous debates. But Devonshire declared +that he could go no further. He had hoped that fear would induce Fenwick +to make a frank confession; that hope was at an end; the question +now was simply whether this man should be put to death by an Act of +Parliament; and to that question Devonshire said that he must answer, +"Not Content." It is not easy to understand on what principle he can +have thought himself justified in threatening to do what he did not +think himself justified in doing. He was, however, followed by Dorset, +Ormond, Pembroke, and two or three others. Devonshire, in the name of +his little party, and Rochester, in the name of the Tories, offered +to waive all objections to the mode of proceeding, if the penalty were +reduced from death to perpetual imprisonment. But the majority, +though weakened by the defection of some considerable men, was still a +majority, and would hear of no terms of compromise. The third reading +was carried by only sixty-eight votes to sixty-one. Fifty-three Lords +recorded their dissent; and forty-one subscribed a protest, in which +the arguments against the bill were ably summed up. [771] The peers whom +Fenwick had accused took different sides. Marlborough steadily voted +with the majority, and induced Prince George to do the same. Godolphin +as steadily voted with the minority, but, with characteristic wariness, +abstained from giving any reasons for his votes. No part of his life +warrants us in ascribing his conduct to any exalted motive. It is +probable that, having been driven from office by the Whigs and forced +to take refuge among the Tories, he thought it advisable to go with his +party. [772] + +As soon as the bill had been read a third time, the attention of the +Peers was called to a matter which deeply concerned the honour of their +order. Lady Mary Fenwick had been, not unnaturally, moved to the highest +resentment by the conduct of Monmouth. He had, after professing a great +desire to save her husband, suddenly turned round, and become the most +merciless of her husband's persecutors; and all this solely because +the unfortunate prisoner would not suffer himself to be used as an +instrument for the accomplishing of a wild scheme of mischief. She might +be excused for thinking that revenge would be sweet. In her rage she +showed to her kinsman the Earl of Carlisle the papers which she had +received from the Duchess of Norfolk. Carlisle brought the subject +before the Lords. The papers were produced. Lady Mary declared that she +had received them from the Duchess. The Duchess declared that she had +received them from Monmouth. Elizabeth Lawson confirmed the evidence of +her two friends. All the bitter things which the petulant Earl had said +about William were repeated. The rage of both the great factions +broke forth with ungovernable violence. The Whigs were exasperated by +discovering that Monmouth had been secretly labouring to bring to shame +and ruin two eminent men with whose reputation the reputation of +the whole party was bound up. The Tories accused him of dealing +treacherously and cruelly by the prisoner and the prisoner's wife. Both +among the Whigs and among the Tories Monmouth had, by his sneers and +invectives, made numerous personal enemies, whom fear of his wit and +of his sword had hitherto kept in awe. [773] All these enemies were now +openmouthed against him. There was great curiosity to know what he would +be able to say in his defence. His eloquence, the correspondent of the +States General wrote, had often annoyed others. He would now want it +all to protect himself. [774] That eloquence indeed was of a kind much +better suited to attack than to defence. Monmouth spoke near three hours +in a confused and rambling manner, boasted extravagantly of his services +and sacrifices, told the House that he had borne a great part in the +Revolution, that he had made four voyages to Holland in the evil times, +that he had since refused great places, that he had always held lucre +in contempt. "I," he said, turning significantly to Nottingham, "have +bought no great estate; I have built no palace; I am twenty thousand +pounds poorer than when I entered public life. My old hereditary mansion +is ready to fall about my ears. Who that remembers what I have done and +suffered for His Majesty will believe that I would speak disrespectfully +of him?" He solemnly declared,--and this was the most serious of the +many serious faults of his long and unquiet life,--that he had nothing +to do with the papers which had caused so much scandal. The Papists, +he said, hated him; they had laid a scheme to ruin him; his ungrateful +kinswoman had consented to be their implement, and had requited the +strenuous efforts which he had made in defence of her honour by trying +to blast his. When he concluded there was a long silence. He asked +whether their Lordships wished him to withdraw. Then Leeds, to whom he +had once professed a strong attachment, but whom he had deserted with +characteristic inconstancy and assailed with characteristic petulance, +seized the opportunity of revenging himself. "It is quite unnecessary," +the shrewd old statesman said, "that the noble Earl should withdraw +at present. The question which we have now to decide is merely whether +these papers do or do not deserve our censure. Who wrote them is a +question which may be considered hereafter." It was then moved and +unanimously resolved that the papers were scandalous, and that the +author had been guilty of a high crime and misdemeanour. Monmouth +himself was, by these dexterous tactics, forced to join in condemning +his own compositions. [775] Then the House proceeded to consider the +charge against him. The character of his cousin the Duchess did not +stand high; but her testimony was confirmed both by direct and by +circumstantial evidence. Her husband said, with sour pleasantry, that he +gave entire faith to what she had deposed. "My Lord Monmouth thought her +good enough to be wife to me; and, if she is good enough to be wife to +me, I am sure that she is good enough to be a witness against him." In a +House of near eighty peers only eight or ten seemed inclined to show any +favour to Monmouth. He was pronounced guilty of the act of which he had, +in the most solemn manner, protested that he was innocent; he was sent +to the Tower; he was turned out of all his places; and his name was +struck out of the Council Book. [776] It might well have been thought +that the ruin of his fame and of his fortunes was irreparable. But there +was about his nature an elasticity which nothing could subdue. In his +prison, indeed, he was as violent as a falcon just caged, and would, if +he had been long detained, have died of mere impatience. His only solace +was to contrive wild and romantic schemes for extricating himself from +his difficulties and avenging himself on his enemies. When he regained +his liberty, he stood alone in the world, a dishonoured man, more hated +by the Whigs than any Tory, and by the Tories than any Whig, and reduced +to such poverty that he talked of retiring to the country, living like +a farmer, and putting his Countess into the dairy to churn and to make +cheeses. Yet even after this fall, that mounting spirit rose again, and +rose higher than ever. When he next appeared before the world, he had +inherited the earldom of the head of his family; he had ceased to be +called by the tarnished name of Monmouth; and he soon added new lustre +to the name of Peterborough. He was still all air and fire. His +ready wit and his dauntless courage made him formidable; some amiable +qualities which contrasted strangely with his vices, and some great +exploits of which the effect was heightened by the careless levity with +which they were performed, made him popular; and his countrymen were +willing to forget that a hero of whose achievements they were proud, and +who was not more distinguished by parts and valour than by courtesy and +generosity, had stooped to tricks worthy of the pillory. + +It is interesting and instructive to compare the fate of Shrewsbury with +the fate of Peterborough. The honour of Shrewsbury was safe. He had been +triumphantly acquitted of the charges contained in Fenwick's confession. +He was soon afterwards still more triumphantly acquitted of a still more +odious charge. A wretched spy named Matthew Smith, who thought that +he had not been sufficiently rewarded, and was bent on being revenged, +affirmed that Shrewsbury had received early information of the +Assassination Plot, but had suppressed that information, and had taken +no measures to prevent the conspirators from accomplishing their design. +That this was a foul calumny no person who has examined the evidence +can doubt. The King declared that he could himself prove his minister's +innocence; and the Peers, after examining Smith, pronounced the +accusation unfounded. Shrewsbury was cleared as far as it was in the +power of the Crown and of the Parliament to clear him. He had power and +wealth, the favour of the King and the favour of the people. No man had +a greater number of devoted friends. He was the idol of the Whigs; yet +he was not personally disliked by the Tories. It should seem that +his situation was one which Peterborough might well have envied. But +happiness and misery are from within. Peterborough had one of those +minds of which the deepest wounds heal and leave no scar. Shrewsbury +had one of those minds in which the slightest scratch may fester to +the death. He had been publicly accused of corresponding with Saint +Germains; and, though King, Lords and Commons had pronounced him +innocent, his conscience told him that he was guilty. The praises which +he knew that he had not deserved sounded to him like reproaches. He +never regained his lost peace of mind. He left office; but one cruel +recollection accompanied him into retirement. He left England; but one +cruel recollection pursued him over the Alps and the Apennines. On a +memorable day, indeed, big with the fate of his country, he again, after +many inactive and inglorious years, stood forth the Shrewsbury of 1688. +Scarcely any thing in history is more melancholy than that late and +solitary gleam, lighting up the close of a life which had dawned so +splendidly, and which had so early become hopelessly troubled and +gloomy. + +On the day on which the Lords passed the Bill of Attainder, they +adjourned over the Christmas holidays. The fate of Fenwick consequently +remained during more than a fortnight in suspense. In the interval plans +of escape were formed; and it was thought necessary to place a strong +military guard round Newgate. [777] Some Jacobites knew William so +little as to send him anonymous letters, threatening that he should +be shot or stabbed if he dared to touch a hair of the prisoner's head. +[778] On the morning of the eleventh of January he passed the bill. He +at the same time passed a bill which authorised the government to detain +Bernardi and some other conspirators in custody during twelve months. +On the evening of that day a deeply mournful event was the talk of all +London. The Countess of Aylesbury had watched with intense anxiety the +proceedings against Sir John. Her lord had been as deep as Sir John in +treason, was, like Sir John, in confinement, and had, like Sir John, +been a party to Goodman's flight. She had learned with dismay that +there was a method by which a criminal who was beyond the reach of the +ordinary law might be punished. Her terror had increased at every stage +in the progress of the Bill of Attainder. On the day on which the royal +assent was to be given, her agitation became greater than her frame +could support. When she heard the sound of the guns which announced that +the King was on his way to Westminster, she fell into fits, and died in +a few hours. [779] + +Even after the bill had become law, strenuous efforts were made to save +Fenwick. His wife threw herself at William's feet, and offered him a +petition. He took the petition, and said, very gently, that it should be +considered, but that the matter was one of public concern, and that he +must deliberate with his ministers before he decided. [780] She then +addressed herself to the Lords. She told them that her husband had +not expected his doom, that he had not had time to prepare himself for +death, that he had not, during his long imprisonment, seen a divine. +They were easily induced to request that he might be respited for a +week. A respite was granted; but, forty-eight hours before it expired, +Lady Mary presented to the Lords another petition, imploring them to +intercede with the King that her husband's punishment might be commuted +to banishment. The House was taken by surprise; and a motion to adjourn +was with difficulty carried by two votes. [781] On the morrow, the last +day of Fenwick's life, a similar petition was presented to the Commons. +But the Whig leaders were on their guard; the attendance was full; and +a motion for reading the Orders of the Day was carried by a hundred and +fifty-two to a hundred and seven. [782] In truth, neither branch of the +legislature could, without condemning itself, request William to spare +Fenwick's life. Jurymen, who have, in the discharge of a painful duty, +pronounced a culprit guilty, may, with perfect consistency, recommend +him to the favourable consideration of the Crown. But the Houses ought +not to have passed the Bill of Attainder unless they were convinced, not +merely that Sir John had committed high treason, but also that he could +not, without serious danger to the Commonwealth, be suffered to live. He +could not be at once a proper object of such a bill and a proper object +of the royal mercy. + +On the twenty-eighth of January the execution took place. In compliment +to the noble families with which Fenwick was connected, orders were +given that the ceremonial should be in all respects the same as when a +peer of the realm suffers death. A scaffold was erected on Tower Hill +and hung with black. The prisoner was brought from Newgate in the coach +of his kinsman the Earl of Carlisle, which was surrounded by a troop +of the Life Guards. Though the day was cold and stormy, the crowd of +spectators was immense; but there was no disturbance, and no sign that +the multitude sympathized with the criminal. He behaved with a firmness +which had not been expected from him. He ascended the scaffold with +steady steps, and bowed courteously to the persons who were assembled +on it, but spoke to none, except White, the deprived Bishop of +Peterborough. White prayed with him during about half an hour. In the +prayer the King was commended to the Divine protection; but no name +which could give offence was pronounced. Fenwick then delivered a sealed +paper to the Sheriffs, took leave of the Bishop, knelt down, laid his +neck on the block, and exclaimed, "Lord Jesus, receive my soul." His +head was severed from his body at a single blow. His remains were +placed in a rich coffin, and buried that night, by torchlight, under +the pavement of Saint Martin's Church. No person has, since that day, +suffered death in England by Act of Attainder. [783] + +Meanwhile an important question, about which public feeling was much +excited, had been under discussion. As soon as the Parliament met, a +Bill for Regulating Elections, differing little in substance from the +bill which the King had refused to pass in the preceding session, was +brought into the House of Commons, was eagerly welcomed by the country +gentlemen, and was pushed through every stage. On the report it +was moved that five thousand pounds in personal estate should be a +sufficient qualification for the representative of a city or borough. +But this amendment was rejected. On the third reading a rider was +added, which permitted a merchant possessed of five thousand pounds +to represent the town in which he resided; but it was provided that no +person should be considered as a merchant because he was a proprietor of +Bank Stock or East India Stock. The fight was hard. Cowper distinguished +himself among the opponents of the bill. His sarcastic remarks on the +hunting, hawking boors, who wished to keep in their own hands the whole +business of legislation, called forth some sharp rustic retorts. A plain +squire, he was told, was as likely to serve the country well as the most +fluent gownsman, who was ready, for a guinea, to prove that black was +white. On the question whether the bill should pass, the Ayes were two +hundred, the Noes a hundred and sixty. [784] + +The Lords had, twelve months before, readily agreed to a similar bill; +but they had since reconsidered the subject and changed their opinion. +The truth is that, if a law requiring every member of the House of +Commons to possess an estate of some hundreds of pounds a year in land +could have been strictly enforced, such a law would have been very +advantageous to country gentlemen of moderate property, but would have +been by no means advantageous to the grandees of the realm. A lord of a +small manor would have stood for the town in the neighbourhood of which +his family had resided during centuries, without any apprehension that +he should be opposed by some alderman of London, whom the electors had +never seen before the day of nomination, and whose chief title to their +favour was a pocketbook full of bank notes. But a great nobleman, who +had an estate of fifteen or twenty thousand pounds a year, and who +commanded two or three boroughs, would no longer be able to put his +younger son, his younger brother, his man of business, into Parliament, +or to earn a garter or a step in the peerage by finding a seat for a +Lord of the Treasury or an Attorney General. On this occasion therefore +the interest of the chiefs of the aristocracy, Norfolk and Somerset, +Newcastle and Bedford, Pembroke and Dorset, coincided with that of the +wealthy traders of the City and of the clever young aspirants of the +Temple, and was diametrically opposed to the interest of a squire of +a thousand or twelve hundred a year. On the day fixed for the second +reading the attendance of lords was great. Several petitions from +constituent bodies, which thought it hard that a new restriction should +be imposed on the exercise of the elective franchise, were presented and +read. After a debate of some hours the bill was rejected by sixty-two +votes to thirty-seven. [785] Only three days later, a strong party in +the Commons, burning with resentment, proposed to tack the bill which +the Peers had just rejected to the Land Tax Bill. This motion would +probably have been carried, had not Foley gone somewhat beyond the +duties of his place, and, under pretence of speaking to order, shown +that such a tack would be without a precedent in parliamentary history. +When the question was put, the Ayes raised so loud a cry that it was +believed that they were the majority; but on a division they proved +to be only a hundred and thirty-five. The Noes were a hundred and +sixty-three. [786] + +Other parliamentary proceedings of this session deserve mention. While +the Commons were busily engaged in the great work of restoring the +finances, an incident took place which seemed, during a short time, +likely to be fatal to the infant liberty of the press, but which +eventually proved the means of confirming that liberty. Among the +many newspapers which had been established since the expiration of the +censorship, was one called the Flying Post. The editor, John Salisbury, +was the tool of a band of stockjobbers in the City, whose interest it +happened to be to cry down the public securities. He one day published a +false and malicious paragraph, evidently intended to throw suspicion on +the Exchequer Bills. On the credit of the Exchequer Bills depended, at +that moment, the political greatness and the commercial prosperity of +the realm. The House of Commons was in a flame. The Speaker issued his +warrant against Salisbury. It was resolved without a division that a +bill should be brought in to prohibit the publishing of news without a +license. Forty-eight hours later the bill was presented and read. But +the members had now had time to cool. There was scarcely one of them +whose residence in the country had not, during the preceding summer, +been made more agreeable by the London journals. Meagre as those +journals may seem to a person who has the Times daily on his breakfast +table, they were to that generation a new and abundant source of +pleasure. No Devonshire or Yorkshire gentleman, Whig or Tory, could bear +the thought of being again dependent, during seven months of every year, +for all information about what was doing in the world, on newsletters. +If the bill passed, the sheets, which were now so impatiently expected +twice a week at every country seat in the kingdom, would contain nothing +but what it suited the Secretary of State to make public; they would be, +in fact, so many London Gazettes; and the most assiduous reader of the +London Gazette might be utterly ignorant of the most important events of +his time. A few voices, however, were raised in favour of a censorship. +"These papers," it was said, "frequently contain mischievous +matter." "Then why are they not prosecuted?" was the answer. "Has the +Attorney-General filed an information against any one of them? And is +it not absurd to ask us to give a new remedy by statute, when the old +remedy afforded by the common law has never been tried?" On the question +whether the bill should be read a second time, the Ayes were only +sixteen, the Noes two hundred. [787] + +Another bill, which fared better, ought to be noticed as an instance of +the slow, but steady progress of civilisation. The ancient immunities +enjoyed by some districts of the capital, of which the largest and the +most infamous was Whitefriars, had produced abuses which could no longer +be endured. The Templars on one side of Alsatia, and the citizens on the +other, had long been calling on the government and the legislature to +put down so monstrous a nuisance. Yet still, bounded on the west by the +great school of English jurisprudence, and on the east by the great mart +of English trade, stood this labyrinth of squalid, tottering houses, +close packed, every one, from cellar to cockloft, with outcasts whose +life was one long war with society. The best part of the population +consisted of debtors who were in fear of bailiffs. The rest were +attorneys struck off the roll, witnesses who carried straw in their +shoes as a sign to inform the public where a false oath might be +procured for half a crown, sharpers, receivers of stolen goods, clippers +of coin, forgers of bank notes, and tawdry women, blooming with paint +and brandy, who, in their anger, made free use of their nails and their +scissors, yet whose anger was less to be dreaded than their kindness. +With these wretches the narrow alleys of the sanctuary swarmed. The +rattling of dice, the call for more punch and more wine, and the noise +of blasphemy and ribald song never ceased during the whole night. The +benchers of the Inner Temple could bear the scandal and the annoyance no +longer. They ordered the gate leading into Whitefriars to be bricked up. +The Alsatians mustered in great force, attacked the workmen, killed one +of them, pulled down the wall, knocked down the Sheriff who came to keep +the peace, and carried off his gold chain, which, no doubt, was soon in +the melting pot. The riot was not suppressed till a company of the Foot +Guards arrived. This outrage excited general indignation. The City, +indignant at the outrage offered to the Sheriff, cried loudly for +justice. Yet, so difficult was it to execute any process in the dens of +Whitefriars, that near two years elapsed before a single ringleader was +apprehended. [788] + +The Savoy was another place of the same kind, smaller indeed, and less +renowned, but inhabited by a not less lawless population. An unfortunate +tailor, who ventured to go thither for the purpose of demanding payment +of a debt, was set upon by the whole mob of cheats, ruffians and +courtesans. He offered to give a full discharge to his debtor and a +treat to the rabble, but in vain. He had violated their franchises; +and this crime was not to be pardoned. He was knocked down, stripped, +tarred, feathered. A rope was tied round his waist. He was dragged naked +up and down the streets amidst yells of "A bailiff! A bailiff!" Finally +he was compelled to kneel down and to curse his father and mother. +Having performed this ceremony he was permitted,--and the permission was +blamed by many of the Savoyards,--to limp home without a rag upon him. +[789] The Bog of Allen, the passes of the Grampians, were not more +unsafe than this small knot of lanes, surrounded by the mansions of the +greatest nobles of a flourishing and enlightened kingdom. + +At length, in 1697, a bill for abolishing the franchises of these places +passed both Houses, and received the royal assent. The Alsatians +and Savoyards were furious. Anonymous letters, containing menaces of +assassination, were received by members of Parliament who had made +themselves conspicuous by the zeal with which they had supported the +bill; but such threats only strengthened the general conviction that +it was high time to destroy these nests of knaves and ruffians. A +fortnight's grace was allowed; and it was made known that, when that +time had expired, the vermin who had been the curse of London would be +unearthed and hunted without mercy. There was a tumultuous flight to +Ireland, to France, to the Colonies, to vaults and garrets in less +notorious parts of the capital; and when, on the prescribed day, the +Sheriff's officers ventured to cross the boundary, they found those +streets where, a few weeks before, the cry of "A writ!" would have drawn +together a thousand raging bullies and vixens, as quiet as the cloister +of a cathedral. [790] + +On the sixteenth of April, the King closed the session with a speech, +in which he returned warm and well merited thanks to the Houses for the +firmness and wisdom which had rescued the nation from commercial and +financial difficulties unprecedented in our history. Before he set out +for the Continent, he conferred some new honours, and made some +new ministerial arrangements. Every member of the Whig junto was +distinguished by some conspicuous mark of royal favour. Somers delivered +up the seal, of which he was Keeper; he received it back again with the +higher title of Chancellor, and was immediately commanded to affix it to +a patent, by which he was created Baron Somers of Evesham. [791] Russell +became Earl of Orford and Viscount Barfleur. No English title had +ever before been taken from a place of battle lying within a foreign +territory. But the precedent then set has been repeatedly followed; and +the names of Saint Vincent, Trafalgar, Camperdown, and Douro are now +borne by the successors of great commanders. Russell seems to have +accepted his earldom, after his fashion, not only without gratitude, but +grumblingly, and as if some great wrong had been done him. What was +a coronet to him? He had no child to inherit it. The only distinction +which he should have prized was the garter; and the garter had been +given to Portland. Of course, such things were for the Dutch; and it was +strange presumption in an Englishman, though he might have won a victory +which had saved the State, to expect that his pretensions would be +considered till all the Mynheers about the palace had been served. [792] + +Wharton, still retaining his place of Comptroller of the Household, +obtained the lucrative office of Chief Justice in Eyre, South of Trent; +and his brother, Godwin Wharton, was made a Lord of the Admiralty. [793] + +Though the resignation of Godolphin had been accepted in October, no new +commission of Treasury was issued till after the prorogation. Who should +be First Commissioner was a question long and fiercely disputed. For +Montague's faults had made him many enemies, and his merits many more, +Dull formalists sneered at him as a wit and poet, who, no doubt, showed +quick parts in debate, but who had already been raised far higher than +his services merited or than his brain would bear. It would be absurd +to place such a young coxcomb, merely because he could talk fluently and +cleverly, in an office on which the wellbeing of the kingdom depended. +Surely Sir Stephen Fox was, of all the Lords of the Treasury, the +fittest to be at the head of the Board. He was an elderly man, grave, +experienced, exact, laborious; and he had never made a verse in his +life. The King hesitated during a considerable time between the two +candidates; but time was all in Montague's favour; for, from the first +to the last day of the session, his fame was constantly rising. The +voice of the House of Commons and of the City loudly designated him as +preeminently qualified to be the chief minister of finance. At length +Sir Stephen Fox withdrew from the competition, though not with a very +good grace. He wished it to be notified in the London Gazette that the +place of First Lord had been offered to him, and declined by him. Such +a notification would have been an affront to Montague; and Montague, +flushed with prosperity and glory, was not in a mood to put up with +affronts. The dispute was compromised. Montague became First Lord of +the Treasury; and the vacant seat at the Board was filled by Sir Thomas +Littleton, one of the ablest and most consistent Whigs in the House +of Commons. But, from tenderness to Fox, these promotions were not +announced in the Gazette. [794] + +Dorset resigned the office of Chamberlain, but not in ill humour, +and retired loaded with marks of royal favour. He was succeeded by +Sunderland, who was also appointed one of the Lords Justices, not +without much murmuring from various quarters. [795] To the Tories +Sunderland was an object of unmixed detestation. Some of the Whig +leaders had been unable to resist his insinuating address; and others +were grateful for the services which he had lately rendered to the +party. But the leaders could not restrain their followers. Plain men, +who were zealous for civil liberty and for the Protestant religion, who +were beyond the range of Sunderland's irresistible fascination, and +who knew that he had sate in the High Commission, concurred in the +Declaration of Indulgence, borne witness against the Seven Bishops, and +received the host from a Popish priest, could not, without indignation +and shame, see him standing, with the staff in his hand, close to the +throne. Still more monstrous was it that such a man should be entrusted +with the administration of the government during the absence of the +Sovereign. William did not understand these feelings. Sunderland was +able; he was useful; he was unprincipled indeed; but so were all the +English politicians of the generation which had learned, under the +sullen tyranny of the Saints, to disbelieve in virtue, and which had, +during the wild jubilee of the Restoration, been utterly dissolved in +vice. He was a fair specimen of his class, a little worse, perhaps, than +Leeds or Godolphin, and about as bad as Russell or Marlborough. Why he +was to be hunted from the herd the King could not imagine. + +Notwithstanding the discontent which was caused by Sunderland's +elevation, England was, during this summer, perfectly quiet and in +excellent temper. All but the fanatical Jacobites were elated by the +rapid revival of trade and by the near prospect of peace. Nor were +Ireland and Scotland less tranquil. + +In Ireland nothing deserving to be minutely related had taken place +since Sidney had ceased to be Lord Lieutenant. The government had +suffered the colonists to domineer unchecked over the native population; +and the colonists had in return been profoundly obsequious to the +government. The proceedings of the local legislature which sate at +Dublin had been in no respect more important or more interesting than +the proceedings of the Assembly of Barbadoes. Perhaps the most momentous +event in the parliamentary history of Ireland at this time was a dispute +between the two Houses which was caused by a collision between the coach +of the Speaker and the coach of the Chancellor. There were, indeed, +factions, but factions which sprang merely from personal pretensions and +animosities. The names of Whig and Tory had been carried across Saint +George's Channel, but had in the passage lost all their meaning. A man +who was called a Tory at Dublin would have passed at Westminster for as +stanch a Whig as Wharton. The highest Churchmen in Ireland abhorred +and dreaded Popery so much that they were disposed to consider every +Protestant as a brother. They remembered the tyranny of James, the +robberies, the burnings, the confiscations, the brass money, the Act +of Attainder, with bitter resentment. They honoured William as their +deliverer and preserver. Nay, they could not help feeling a certain +respect even for the memory of Cromwell; for, whatever else he might +have been, he had been the champion and the avenger of their race. +Between the divisions of England, therefore, and the divisions of +Ireland, there was scarcely any thing in common. In England there were +two parties, of the same race and religion, contending with each other. +In Ireland there were two castes, of different races and religions, one +trampling on the other. + +Scotland too was quiet. The harvest of the last year had indeed been +scanty; and there was consequently much suffering. But the spirit of +the nation was buoyed up by wild hopes, destined to end in cruel +disappointment. A magnificent daydream of wealth and empire so +completely occupied the minds of men that they hardly felt the present +distress. How that dream originated, and by how terrible an awakening it +was broken, will be related hereafter. + +In the autumn of 1696 the Estates of Scotland met at Edinburgh. The +attendance was thin; and the session lasted only five weeks. A supply +amounting to little more than a hundred thousand pounds sterling was +voted. Two Acts for the securing of the government were passed. One of +those Acts required all persons in public trust to sign an Association +similar to the Association which had been so generally subscribed in +the south of the island. The other Act provided that the Parliament of +Scotland should not be dissolved by the death of the King. But by far +the most important event of this short session was the passing of the +Act for the settling of Schools. By this memorable law it was, in the +Scotch phrase, statuted and ordained that every parish in the realm +should provide a commodious schoolhouse and should pay a moderate +stipend to a schoolmaster. The effect could not be immediately felt. +But, before one generation had passed away, it began to be evident +that the common people of Scotland were superior in intelligence to +the common people of any other country in Europe. To whatever land the +Scotchman might wander, to whatever calling he might betake himself, in +America or in India, in trade or in war, the advantage which he derived +from his early training raised him above his competitors. If he was +taken into a warehouse as a porter, he soon became foreman. If he +enlisted in the army, he soon became a serjeant. Scotland, meanwhile, +in spite of the barrenness of her soil and the severity of her climate, +made such progress in agriculture, in manufactures, in commerce, in +letters, in science, in all that constitutes civilisation, as the Old +World had never seen equalled, and as even the New World has scarcely +seen surpassed. + +This wonderful change is to be attributed, not indeed solely, but +principally, to the national system of education. But to the men by whom +that system was established posterity owes no gratitude. They knew +not what they were doing. They were the unconscious instruments of +enlightening the understandings and humanising the hearts of millions. +But their own understandings were as dark and their own hearts as +obdurate as those of the Familiars of the Inquisition at Lisbon. In the +very month in which the Act for the settling of Schools was touched with +the sceptre, the rulers of the Church and State in Scotland began to +carry on with vigour two persecutions worthy of the tenth century, +a persecution of witches and a persecution of infidels. A crowd of +wretches, guilty only of being old and miserable, were accused of +trafficking with the devil. The Privy Council was not ashamed to issue +a Commission for the trial of twenty-two of these poor creatures. [796] +The shops of the booksellers of Edinburgh were strictly searched for +heretical works. Impious books, among which the sages of the Presbytery +ranked Thomas Burnet's Sacred Theory of the Earth, were strictly +suppressed. [797] But the destruction of mere paper and sheepskin would +not satisfy the bigots. Their hatred required victims who could feel, +and was not appeased till they had perpetrated a crime such as has never +since polluted the island. + +A student of eighteen, named Thomas Aikenhead, whose habits were +studious and whose morals were irreproachable, had, in the course of his +reading, met with some of the ordinary arguments against the Bible. He +fancied that he had lighted on a mine of wisdom which had been hidden +from the rest of mankind, and, with the conceit from which half educated +lads of quick parts are seldom free, proclaimed his discoveries to four +or five of his companions. Trinity in unity, he said, was as much a +contradiction as a square circle. Ezra was the author of the Pentateuch. +The Apocalypse was an allegorical book about the philosopher's stone. +Moses had learned magic in Egypt. Christianity was a delusion which +would not last till the year 1800. For this wild talk, of which, in all +probability, he would himself have been ashamed long before he was five +and twenty, he was prosecuted by the Lord Advocate. The Lord Advocate +was that James Stewart who had been so often a Whig and so often a +Jacobite that it is difficult to keep an account of his apostasies. He +was now a Whig for the third if not for the fourth time. Aikenhead +might undoubtedly have been, by the law of Scotland, punished with +imprisonment till he should retract his errors and do penance before the +congregation of his parish; and every man of sense and humanity would +have thought this a sufficient punishment for the prate of a forward +boy. But Stewart, as cruel as he was base, called for blood. There was +among the Scottish statutes one which made it a capital crime to revile +or curse the Supreme Being or any person of the Trinity. Nothing that +Aikenhead had said could, without the most violent straining, be brought +within the scope of this statute. But the Lord Advocate exerted all his +subtlety. The poor youth at the bar had no counsel. He was altogether +unable to do justice to his own cause. He was convicted, and sentenced +to be hanged and buried at the foot of the gallows. It was in vain that +he with tears abjured his errors and begged piteously for mercy. Some +of those who saw him in his dungeon believed that his recantation was +sincere; and indeed it is by no means improbable that in him, as in many +other pretenders to philosophy who imagine that they have completely +emancipated themselves from the religion of their childhood, the near +prospect of death may have produced an entire change of sentiment. He +petitioned the Privy Council that, if his life could not be spared, he +might be allowed a short respite to make his peace with the God whom +he had offended. Some of the Councillors were for granting this small +indulgence. Others thought that it ought not to be granted unless the +ministers of Edinburgh would intercede. The two parties were evenly +balanced; and the question was decided against the prisoner by the +casting vote of the Chancellor. The Chancellor was a man who has been +often mentioned in the course of this history, and never mentioned with +honour. He was that Sir Patrick Hume whose disputatious and factious +temper had brought ruin on the expedition of Argyle, and had caused not +a little annoyance to the government of William. In the Club which had +braved the King and domineered over the Parliament there had been no +more noisy republican. But a title and a place had produced a wonderful +conversion. Sir Patrick was now Lord Polwarth; he had the custody of the +Great Seal of Scotland; he presided in the Privy Council; and thus he +had it in his power to do the worst action of his bad life. + +It remained to be seen how the clergy of Edinburgh would act. That +divines should be deaf to the entreaties of a penitent who asks, not for +pardon, but for a little more time to receive their instructions and to +pray to Heaven for the mercy which cannot be extended to him on earth, +seems almost incredible. Yet so it was. The ministers demanded, not +only the poor boy's death, but his speedy death, though it should be his +eternal death. Even from their pulpits they cried out for cutting him +off. It is probable that their real reason for refusing him a respite +of a few days was their apprehension that the circumstances of his case +might be reported at Kensington, and that the King, who, while reciting +the Coronation Oath, had declared from the throne that he would not be a +persecutor, might send down positive orders that the sentence should +not be executed. Aikenhead was hanged between Edinburgh and Leith. He +professed deep repentance, and suffered with the Bible in his hand. The +people of Edinburgh, though assuredly not disposed to think lightly of +his offence, were moved to compassion by his youth, by his penitence, +and by the cruel haste with which he was hurried out of the world. It +seems that there was some apprehension of a rescue; for a strong body of +fusileers was under arms to support the civil power. The preachers who +were the boy's murderers crowded round him at the gallows, and, while +he was struggling in the last agony, insulted Heaven with prayers more +blasphemous than any thing that he had ever uttered. Wodrow has told no +blacker story of Dundee. [798] + +On the whole, the British islands had not, during ten years, been so +free from internal troubles as when William, at the close of April 1697, +set out for the Continent. The war in the Netherlands was a little, +and but a little, less languid than in the preceding year. The French +generals opened the campaign by taking the small town of Aeth. They then +meditated a far more important conquest. They made a sudden push for +Brussels, and would probably have succeeded in their design but for the +activity of William. He was encamped on ground which lies within +sight of the Lion of Waterloo, when he received, late in the evening, +intelligence that the capital of the Netherlands was in danger. He +instantly put his forces in motion, marched all night, and, having +traversed the field destined to acquire, a hundred and eighteen years +later, a terrible renown, and threaded the long defiles of the Forest of +Soignies, he was at ten in the morning on the spot from which Brussels +had been bombarded two years before, and would, if he had been only +three hours later, have been bombarded again. Here he surrounded himself +with entrenchments which the enemy did not venture to attack. This was +the most important military event which, during that summer, took place +in the Low Countries. In both camps there was an unwillingness to run +any great risk on the eve of a general pacification. + +Lewis had, early in the spring, for the first time during his long +reign, spontaneously offered equitable and honourable conditions to his +foes. He had declared himself willing to relinquish the conquests which +he had made in the course of the war, to cede Lorraine to its own Duke, +to give back Luxemburg to Spain, to give back Strasburg to the Empire +and to acknowledge the existing government of England. [799] + +Those who remembered the great woes which his faithless and merciless +ambition had brought on Europe might well suspect that this unwonted +moderation was not to be ascribed to sentiments of justice or humanity. +But, whatever might be his motive for proposing such terms, it was +plainly the interest and the duty of the Confederacy to accept them. +For there was little hope indeed of wringing from him by war concessions +larger than those which he now tendered as the price of peace. The most +sanguine of his enemies could hardly expect a long series of campaigns +as successful as the campaign of 1695. Yet in a long series of +campaigns, as successful as that of 1695, the allies would hardly be +able to retake all that he now professed himself ready to restore. +William, who took, as usual, a clear and statesmanlike view of the whole +situation, now gave his voice as decidedly for concluding peace as he +had in former years given it for vigorously prosecuting the war; and he +was backed by the public opinion both of England and of Holland. But, +unhappily, just at the time when the two powers which alone, among +the members of the coalition, had manfully done their duty in the long +struggle, were beginning to rejoice in the near prospect of repose, some +of those governments which had never furnished their full contingents, +which had never been ready in time, which had been constantly sending +excuses in return for subsidies, began to raise difficulties such as +seemed likely to make the miseries of Europe eternal. + +Spain had, as William, in the bitterness of his spirit, wrote to +Heinsius, contributed nothing to the common cause but rodomontades. She +had made no vigorous effort even to defend her own territories against +invasion. She would have lost Flanders and Brabant but for the English +and Dutch armies. She would have lost Catalonia but for the English +and Dutch fleets. The Milanese she had saved, not by arms, but by +concluding, in spite of the remonstrances of the English and Dutch +governments, an ignominious treaty of neutrality. She had not a ship of +war able to weather a gale. She had not a regiment that was not ill paid +and ill disciplined, ragged and famished. Yet repeatedly, within the +last two years, she had treated both William and the States General with +an impertinence which showed that she was altogether ignorant of her +place among states. She now became punctilious, demanded from Lewis +concessions which the events of the war gave her no right to expect, and +seemed to think it hard that allies, whom she was constantly treating +with indignity, were not willing to lavish their blood and treasure for +her during eight years more. + +The conduct of Spain is to be attributed merely to arrogance and folly. +But the unwillingness of the Emperor to consent even to the fairest +terms of accommodation was the effect of selfish ambition. The Catholic +King was childless; he was sickly; his life was not worth three years' +purchase; and when he died, his dominions would be left to be struggled +for by a crowd of competitors. Both the House of Austria and the House +of Bourbon had claims to that immense heritage. It was plainly for the +interest of the House of Austria that the important day, come when it +might, should find a great European coalition in arms against the House +of Bourbon. The object of the Emperor therefore was that the war should +continue to be carried on, as it had hitherto been carried on, at a +light charge to him and a heavy charge to England and Holland, not till +just conditions of peace could be obtained, but simply till the King +of Spain should die. "The ministers of the Emperor," William wrote to +Heinsius, "ought to be ashamed of their conduct. It is intolerable +that a government which is doing every thing in its power to make the +negotiations fail, should contribute nothing to the common defence." +[800] + +It is not strange that in such circumstances the work of pacification +should have made little progress. International law, like other law, has +its chicanery, its subtle pleadings, its technical forms, which may +too easily be so employed as to make its substance inefficient. Those +litigants therefore who did not wish the litigation to come to a speedy +close had no difficulty in interposing delays. There was a long dispute +about the place where the conferences should be held. The Emperor +proposed Aix la Chapelle. The French objected, and proposed the Hague. +Then the Emperor objected in his turn. At last it was arranged that the +ministers of the Allied Powers should meet at the Hague, and that the +French plenipotentiaries should take up their abode five miles off +at Delft. [801] To Delft accordingly repaired Harlay, a man of +distinguished wit and good breeding, sprung from one of the great +families of the robe; Crecy, a shrewd, patient and laborious +diplomatist; and Cailleres, who, though he was named only third in the +credentials, was much better informed than either of his colleagues +touching all the points which were likely to be debated. [802] At the +Hague were the Earl of Pembroke and Edward, Viscount Villiers, who +represented England. Prior accompanied them with the rank of Secretary. +At the head of the Imperial Legation was Count Kaunitz; at the head of +the Spanish Legation was Don Francisco Bernardo de Quiros; the ministers +of inferior rank it would be tedious to enumerate. [803] + +Half way between Delft and the Hague is a village named Ryswick; and +near it then stood, in a rectangular garden, which was bounded by +straight canals, and divided into formal woods, flower beds and melon +beds, a seat of the Princes of Orange. The house seemed to have been +built expressly for the accommodation of such a set of diplomatists as +were to meet there. In the centre was a large hall painted by Honthorst. +On the right hand and on the left were wings exactly corresponding to +each other. Each wing was accessible by its own bridge, its own gate and +its own avenue. One wing was assigned to the Allies, the other to the +French, the hall in the centre to the mediator. [804] Some preliminary +questions of etiquette were, not without difficulty, adjusted; and +at length, on the ninth of May, many coaches and six, attended by +harbingers, footmen and pages, approached the mansion by different +roads. The Swedish Minister alighted at the grand entrance. The +procession from the Hague came up the side alley on the right. The +procession from Delft came up the side alley on the left. At the first +meeting, the full powers of the representatives of the belligerent +governments were delivered to the mediator. At the second meeting, +forty-eight hours later, the mediator performed the ceremony of +exchanging these full powers. Then several meetings were spent in +settling how many carriages, how many horses, how many lacqueys, how +many pages, each minister should be entitled to bring to Ryswick; +whether the serving men should carry canes; whether they should wear +swords; whether they should have pistols in their holsters; who should +take the upper hand in the public walks, and whose carriage should break +the way in the streets. It soon appeared that the mediator would have to +mediate, not only between the coalition and the French, but also between +the different members of the coalition. The Imperial Ambassadors claimed +a right to sit at the head of the table. The Spanish Ambassador would +not admit this pretension, and tried to thrust himself in between two +of them. The Imperial Ambassadors refused to call the Ambassadors of +Electors and Commonwealths by the title of Excellency. "If I am not +called Excellency," said the Minister of the Elector of Brandenburg, "my +master will withdraw his troops from Hungary." The Imperial Ambassadors +insisted on having a room to themselves in the building, and on having +a special place assigned to their carriages in the court. All the +other Ministers of the Confederacy pronounced this a most unjustifiable +demand, and a whole sitting was wasted in this childish dispute. It may +easily be supposed that allies who were so punctilious in their dealings +with each other were not likely to be very easy in their intercourse +with the common enemy. The chief business of Earlay and Kaunitz was to +watch each other's legs. Neither of them thought it consistent with the +dignity of the Crown which he served to advance towards the other faster +than the other advanced towards him. If therefore one of them perceived +that he had inadvertently stepped forward too quick, he went back to the +door, and the stately minuet began again. The ministers of Lewis drew +up a paper in their own language. The German statesmen protested against +this innovation, this insult to the dignity of the Holy Roman Empire, +this encroachment on the rights of independent nations, and would not +know any thing about the paper till it had been translated from good +French into bad Latin. In the middle of April it was known to every body +at the Hague that Charles the Eleventh, King of Sweden, was dead, and +had been succeeded by his son; but it was contrary to etiquette that any +of the assembled envoys should appear to be acquainted with this fact +till Lilienroth had made a formal announcement; it was not less contrary +to etiquette that Lilienroth should make such an announcement till his +equipages and his household had been put into mourning; and some weeks +elapsed before his coachmakers and tailors had completed their task. At +length, on the twelfth of June, he came to Ryswick in a carriage lined +with black and attended by servants in black liveries, and there, in +full congress, proclaimed that it had pleased God to take to himself +the most puissant King Charles the Eleventh. All the Ambassadors then +condoled with him on the sad and unexpected news, and went home to put +off their embroidery and to dress themselves in the garb of sorrow. In +such solemn trifling week after week passed away. No real progress was +made. Lilienroth had no wish to accelerate matters. While the congress +lasted, his position was one of great dignity. He would willingly have +gone on mediating for ever; and he could not go on mediating, unless the +parties on his right and on his left went on wrangling. [805] + +In June the hope of peace began to grow faint. Men remembered that the +last war had continued to rage, year after year, while a congress was +sitting at Nimeguen. The mediators had made their entrance into that +town in February 1676. The treaty had not been signed till February +1679. Yet the negotiation of Nimeguen had not proceeded more slowly +than the negotiation of Ryswick. It seemed but too probable that the +eighteenth century would find great armies still confronting each other +on the Meuse and the Rhine, industrious populations still ground down +by taxation, fertile provinces still lying waste, the ocean still made +impassable by corsairs, and the plenipotentiaries still exchanging +notes, drawing up protocols, and wrangling about the place where this +minister should sit, and the title by which that minister should be +called. + +But William was fully determined to bring this mummery to a speedy +close. He would have either peace or war. Either was, in his view, +better than this intermediate state which united the disadvantages of +both. While the negotiation was pending there could be no diminution +of the burdens which pressed on his people; and yet he could expect +no energetic action from his allies. If France was really disposed to +conclude a treaty on fair terms, that treaty should be concluded in +spite of the imbecility of the Catholic King and in spite of the selfish +cunning of the Emperor. If France was insecure, the sooner the truth was +known, the sooner the farce which was acting at Ryswick was over, the +sooner the people of England and Holland,--for on them every thing +depended,--were told that they must make up their minds to great +exertions and sacrifices, the better. + +Pembroke and Villiers, though they had now the help of a veteran +diplomatist, Sir Joseph Williamson, could do little or nothing to +accelerate the proceedings of the Congress. For, though France had +promised that, whenever peace should be made, she would recognise the +Prince of Orange as King of Great Britain and Ireland, she had not yet +recognised him. His ministers had therefore had no direct intercourse +with Harlay, Crecy and Cailleres. William, with the judgment and +decision of a true statesman, determined to open a communication +with Lewis through one of the French Marshals who commanded in the +Netherlands. Of those Marshals Villeroy was the highest in rank. But +Villeroy was weak, rash, haughty, irritable. Such a negotiator was +far more likely to embroil matters than to bring them to an amicable +settlement. Boufflers was a man of sense and temper; and fortunately he +had, during the few days which he had passed at Huy after the fall of +Namur, been under the care of Portland, by whom he had been treated with +the greatest courtesy and kindness. A friendship had sprung up between +the prisoner and his keeper. They were both brave soldiers, honourable +gentlemen, trusty servants. William justly thought that they were far +more likely to come to an understanding than Harlay and Kaunitz even +with the aid of Lilienroth. Portland indeed had all the essential +qualities of an excellent diplomatist. In England, the people were +prejudiced against him as a foreigner; his earldom, his garter, his +lucrative places, his rapidly growing wealth, excited envy; his dialect +was not understood; his manners were not those of the men of fashion +who had been formed at Whitehall; his abilities were therefore greatly +underrated; and it was the fashion to call him a blockhead, fit only +to carry messages. But, on the Continent, where he was judged without +malevolence, he made a very different impression. It is a remarkable +fact that this man, who in the drawingrooms and coffeehouses of London +was described as an awkward, stupid, Hogan Mogan,--such was the phrase +at that time,--was considered at Versailles as an eminently polished +courtier and an eminently expert negotiator. [806] His chief +recommendation however was his incorruptible integrity. It was certain +that the interests which were committed to his care would be as dear to +him as his own life, and that every report which he made to his master +would be literally exact. + +Towards the close of June Portland sent to Boufflers a friendly message, +begging for an interview of half an hour. Boufflers instantly sent off +an express to Lewis, and received an answer in the shortest time in +which it was possible for a courier to ride post to Versailles and back +again. Lewis directed the Marshal to comply with Portland's request, to +say as little as possible, and to learn as much as possible. [807] + +On the twenty-eighth of June, according to the Old Style, the meeting +took place in the neighbourhood of Hal, a town which lies about ten +miles from Brussels, on the road to Mons. After the first civilities +had been exchanged, Boufflers and Portland dismounted; their attendants +retired; and the two negotiators were left alone in an orchard. Here +they walked up and down during two hours, and, in that time, did +much more business than the plenipotentiaries at Ryswick were able to +despatch in as many months. [808] + +Till this time the French government had entertained a suspicion, +natural indeed, but altogether erroneous, that William was bent on +protracting the war, that he had consented to treat merely because +he could not venture to oppose himself to the public opinion both +of England and of Holland, but that he wished the negotiation to be +abortive, and that the perverse conduct of the House of Austria and the +difficulties which had arisen at Ryswick were to be chiefly ascribed +to his machinations. That suspicion was now removed. Compliments, cold, +austere and full of dignity, yet respectful, were exchanged between the +two great princes whose enmity had, during a quarter of a century, kept +Europe in constant agitation. The negotiation between Boufflers and +Portland proceeded as fast as the necessity of frequent reference to +Versailles would permit. Their first five conferences were held in the +open air; but, at their sixth meeting, they retired into a small house +in which Portland had ordered tables, pens, ink and paper to be placed; +and here the result of their labours was reduced to writing. + +The really important points which had been in issue were four. William +had at first demanded two concessions from Lewis; and Lewis had demanded +two concessions from William. + +William's first demand was that France should bind herself to give no +help or countenance, directly or indirectly, to any attempt which might +be made by James, or by James's adherents, to disturb the existing order +of things in England. + +William's second demand was that James should no longer be suffered to +reside at a place so dangerously near to England as Saint Germains. + +To the first of these demands Lewis replied that he was perfectly +ready to bind himself by the most solemn engagements not to assist or +countenance, in any manner, any attempt to disturb the existing order of +things in England; but that it was inconsistent with his honour that the +name of his kinsman and guest should appear in the treaty. + +To the second demand Lewis replied that he could not refuse his +hospitality to an unfortunate king who had taken refuge in his +dominions, and that he could not promise even to indicate a wish that +James would quit Saint Germains. But Boufflers, as if speaking his own +thoughts, though doubtless saying nothing but what he knew to be in +conformity to his master's wishes, hinted that the matter would probably +be managed, and named Avignon as a place where the banished family might +reside without giving any umbrage to the English government. + +Lewis, on the other side, demanded, first, that a general amnesty should +be granted to the Jacobites; and secondly, that Mary of Modena should +receive her jointure of fifty thousand pounds a year. + +With the first of these demands William peremptorily refused to comply. +He should always be ready, of his own free will, to pardon the offences +of men who showed a disposition to live quietly for the future under +his government; but he could not consent to make the exercise of his +prerogative of mercy a matter of stipulation with any foreign power. The +annuity claimed by Mary of Modena he would willingly pay, if he could +only be satisfied that it would not be expended in machinations against +his throne and his person, in supporting, on the coast of Kent, another +establishment like that of Hunt, or in buying horses and arms for +another enterprise like that of Turnham Green. Boufflers had mentioned +Avignon. If James and his Queen would take up their abode there, no +difficulties would be made about the jointure. + +At length all the questions in dispute were settled. After much +discussion an article was framed by which Lewis pledged his word of +honour that he would not favour, in any manner, any attempt to subvert +or disturb the existing government of England. William, in return, gave +his promise not to countenance any attempt against the government of +France. This promise Lewis had not asked, and at first seemed inclined +to consider as an affront. His throne, he said, was perfectly secure, +his title undisputed. There were in his dominions no nonjurors, no +conspirators; and he did not think it consistent with his dignity to +enter into a compact which seemed to imply that he was in fear of plots +and insurrections such as a dynasty sprung from a revolution might +naturally apprehend. On this point, however, he gave way; and it was +agreed that the covenants should be strictly reciprocal. William ceased +to demand that James should be mentioned by name; and Lewis ceased to +demand that an amnesty should be granted to James's adherents. It was +determined that nothing should be said in the treaty, either about the +place where the banished King of England should reside, or about the +jointure of his Queen. But William authorised his plenipotentiaries at +the Congress to declare that Mary of Modena should have whatever, on +examination, it should appear that she was by law entitled to have. +What she was by law entitled to have was a question which it would have +puzzled all Westminster Hall to answer. But it was well understood that +she would receive, without any contest, the utmost that she could have +any pretence for asking as soon as she and her husband should retire to +Provence or to Italy. [809] + +Before the end of July every thing was settled, as far as France +and England were concerned. Meanwhile it was known to the ministers +assembled at Ryswick that Boufflers and Portland had repeatedly met +in Brabant, and that they were negotiating in a most irregular and +indecorous manner, without credentials, or mediation, or notes, or +protocols, without counting each other's steps, and without calling each +other Excellency. So barbarously ignorant were they of the rudiments of +the noble science of diplomacy that they had very nearly accomplished +the work of restoring peace to Christendom while walking up and down +an alley under some apple trees. The English and Dutch loudly applauded +William's prudence and decision. He had cut the knot which the Congress +had only twisted and tangled. He had done in a month what all the +formalists and pedants assembled at the Hague would not have done in +ten years. Nor were the French plenipotentiaries ill pleased. "It +is curious," said Harlay, a man of wit and sense, "that, while the +Ambassadors are making war, the generals should be making peace." [810] +But Spain preserved the same air of arrogant listlessness; and the +ministers of the Emperor, forgetting apparently that their master had, +a few months before, concluded a treaty of neutrality for Italy without +consulting William, seemed to think it most extraordinary that William +should presume to negotiate without consulting their master. It became +daily more evident that the Court of Vienna was bent on prolonging the +war. On the tenth of July the French ministers again proposed fair +and honourable terms of peace, but added that, if those terms were not +accepted by the twenty-first of August, the Most Christian King would +not consider himself bound by his offer. [811] William in vain exhorted +his allies to be reasonable. The senseless pride of one branch of the +House of Austria and the selfish policy of the other were proof to all +argument. The twenty-first of August came and passed; the treaty had not +been signed. + +France was at liberty to raise her demands; and she did so. For just at +this time news arrived of two great blows which had fallen on Spain, +one in the Old and one in the New World. A French army, commanded by +Vendome, had taken Barcelona. A French squadron had stolen out of Brest, +had eluded the allied fleets, had crossed the Atlantic, had sacked +Carthagena, and had returned to France laden with treasure. [812] The +Spanish government passed at once from haughty apathy to abject terror, +and was ready to accept any conditions which the conqueror might +dictate. The French plenipotentiaries announced to the Congress that +their master was determined to keep Strasburg, and that, unless the +terms which he had offered, thus modified, were accepted by the tenth +of September, he should hold himself at liberty to insist on further +modifications. Never had the temper of William been more severely tried. +He was provoked by the perverseness of his allies; he was provoked by +the imperious language of the enemy. It was not without a hard struggle +and a sharp pang that he made up his mind to consent to what France now +proposed. But he felt that it would be utterly impossible, even if it +were desirable, to prevail on the House of Commons and on the States +General to continue the war for the purpose of wresting from France a +single fortress, a fortress in the fate of which neither England nor +Holland had any immediate interest, a fortress, too, which had been lost +to the Empire solely in consequence of the unreasonable obstinacy of the +Imperial Court. He determined to accept the modified terms, and +directed his Ambassadors at Ryswick to sign on the prescribed day. The +Ambassadors of Spain and Holland received similar instructions. There +was no doubt that the Emperor, though he murmured and protested, would +soon follow the example of his confederates. That he might have time to +make up his mind, it was stipulated that he should be included in the +treaty if he notified his adhesion by the first of November. + +Meanwhile James was moving the mirth and pity of all Europe by his +lamentations and menaces. He had in vain insisted on his right to send, +as the only true King of England, a minister to the Congress. [813] +He had in vain addressed to all the Roman Catholic princes of the +Confederacy a memorial in which he adjured them to join with France in +a crusade against England for the purpose of restoring him to his +inheritance, and of annulling that impious Bill of Rights which excluded +members of the true Church from the throne. [814] When he found that +this appeal was disregarded, he put forth a solemn protest against the +validity of all treaties to which the existing government of England +should be a party. He pronounced all the engagements into which his +kingdom had entered since the Revolution null and void. He gave notice +that he should not, if he should regain his power, think himself bound +by any of those engagements. He admitted that he might, by breaking +those engagements, bring great calamities both on his own dominions and +on all Christendom. But for those calamities he declared that he should +not think himself answerable either before God or before man. It seems +almost incredible that even a Stuart, and the worst and dullest of the +Stuarts, should have thought that the first duty, not merely of his own +subjects, but of all mankind, was to support his rights; that Frenchmen, +Germans, Italians, Spaniards, were guilty of a crime if they did not +shed their blood and lavish their wealth, year after year, in his cause; +that the interests of the sixty millions of human beings to whom peace +would be a blessing were of absolutely no account when compared with the +interests of one man. [815] + +In spite of his protests the day of peace drew nigh. On the tenth of +September the Ambassadors of France, England, Spain and the United +Provinces, met at Ryswick. Three treaties were to be signed, and there +was a long dispute on the momentous question which should be signed +first. It was one in the morning before it was settled that the treaty +between France and the States General should have precedence; and the +day was breaking before all the instruments had been executed. Then the +plenipotentiaries, with many bows, congratulated each other on having +had the honour of contributing to so great a work. [816] + +A sloop was in waiting for Prior. He hastened on board, and on the +third day, after weathering an equinoctial gale, landed on the coast of +Suffolk. [817] + +Very seldom had there been greater excitement in London than during the +month which preceded his arrival. When the west wind kept back the +Dutch packets, the anxiety of the people became intense. Every morning +hundreds of thousands rose up hoping to hear that the treaty was signed; +and every mail which came in without bringing the good news caused +bitter disappointment. The malecontents, indeed, loudly asserted that +there would be no peace, and that the negotiation would, even at this +late hour, be broken off. One of them had seen a person just arrived +from Saint Germains; another had had the privilege of reading a letter +in the handwriting of Her Majesty; and all were confident that Lewis +would never acknowledge the usurper. Many of those who held this +language were under so strong a delusion that they backed their opinion +by large wagers. When the intelligence of the fall of Barcelona arrived, +all the treason taverns were in a ferment with nonjuring priests +laughing, talking loud, and shaking each other by the hand. [818] + +At length, in the afternoon of the thirteenth of September, some +speculators in the City received, by a private channel, certain +intelligence that the treaty had been signed before dawn on the morning +of the eleventh. They kept their own secret, and hastened to make a +profitable use of it; but their eagerness to obtain Bank stock, and +the high prices which they offered, excited suspicion; and there was +a general belief that on the next day something important would be +announced. On the next day Prior, with the treaty, presented himself +before the Lords justices at Whitehall. Instantly a flag was hoisted on +the Abbey, another on Saint Martin's Church. The Tower guns proclaimed +the glad tidings. All the spires and towers from Greenwich to Chelsea +made answer. It was not one of the days on which the newspapers +ordinarily appeared; but extraordinary numbers, with headings in large +capitals, were, for the first time, cried about the streets. The price +of Bank stock rose fast from eighty-four to ninety-seven. In a few +hours triumphal arches began to rise in some places. Huge bonfires were +blazing in others. The Dutch ambassador informed the States General that +he should try to show his joy by a bonfire worthy of the commonwealth +which he represented; and he kept his word; for no such pyre had ever +been seen in London. A hundred and forty barrels of pitch roared and +blazed before his house in Saint James's Square, and sent up a flame +which made Pall Mall and Piccadilly as bright as at noonday. [819] + +Among the Jacobites the dismay was great. Some of those who had betted +deep on the constancy of Lewis took flight. One unfortunate zealot of +divine right drowned himself. But soon the party again took heart. The +treaty had been signed; but it surely would never be ratified. In a +short time the ratification came; the peace was solemnly proclaimed by +the heralds; and the most obstinate nonjurors began to despair. Some +divines, who had during eight years continued true to James, now swore +allegiance to William. They were probably men who held, with Sherlock, +that a settled government, though illegitimate in its origin, is +entitled to the obedience of Christians, but who had thought that the +government of William could not properly be said to be settled while +the greatest power in Europe not only refused to recognise him, but +strenuously supported his competitor. [820] The fiercer and more +determined adherents of the banished family were furious against Lewis. +He had deceived, he had betrayed his suppliants. It was idle to talk +about the misery of his people. It was idle to say that he had drained +every source of revenue dry, and that, in all the provinces of his +kingdom, the peasantry were clothed in rags, and were unable to eat +their fill even of the coarsest and blackest bread. His first duty was +that which he owed to the royal family of England. The Jacobites +talked against him, and wrote against him, as absurdly, and almost as +scurrilously, as they had long talked and written against William. One +of their libels was so indecent that the Lords justices ordered the +author to be arrested and held to bail. [821] + +But the rage and mortification were confined to a very small minority. +Never, since the year of the Restoration, had there been such signs +of public gladness. In every part of the kingdom where the peace was +proclaimed, the general sentiment was manifested by banquets, pageants, +loyal healths, salutes, beating of drums, blowing of trumpets, breaking +up of hogsheads. At some places the whole population, of its own accord, +repaired to the churches to give thanks. At others processions of girls, +clad all in white, and crowned with laurels, carried banners inscribed +with "God bless King William." At every county town a long cavalcade of +the principal gentlemen, from a circle of many miles, escorted the mayor +to the market cross. Nor was one holiday enough for the expression of +so much joy. On the fourth of November, the anniversary of the King's +birth, and on the fifth, the anniversary of his landing at Torbay, the +bellringing, the shouting, and the illuminations were renewed both in +London and all over the country. [822] On the day on which he returned +to his capital no work was done, no shop was opened, in the two thousand +streets of that immense mart. For that day the chiefs streets had, mile +after mile, been covered with gravel; all the Companies had provided new +banners; all the magistrates new robes. Twelve thousand pounds had been +expended in preparing fireworks. Great multitudes of people from all the +neighbouring shires had come up to see the show. Never had the City been +in a more loyal or more joyous mood. The evil days were past. The guinea +had fallen to twenty-one shillings and sixpence. The bank note had risen +to par. The new crowns and halfcrowns, broad, heavy and sharply +milled, were ringing on all the counters. After some days of impatient +expectation it was known, on the fourteenth of November, that His +Majesty had landed at Margate. Late on the fifteenth he reached +Greenwich, and rested in the stately building which, under his auspices, +was turning from a palace into a hospital. On the next morning, a bright +and soft morning, eighty coaches and six, filled with nobles, prelates, +privy councillors and judges, came to swell his train. In Southwark he +was met by the Lord Mayor and the Aldermen in all the pomp of office. +The way through the Borough to the bridge was lined by the Surrey +militia; the way from the bridge to Walbrook by three regiments of the +militia of the City. All along Cheapside, on the right hand and on the +left, the livery were marshalled under the standards of their trades. At +the east end of Saint Paul's churchyard stood the boys of the school of +Edward the Sixth, wearing, as they still wear, the garb of the sixteenth +century. Round the Cathedral, down Ludgate Hill and along Fleet Street, +were drawn up three more regiments of Londoners. From Temple Bar to +Whitehall gate the trainbands of Middlesex and the Foot Guards were +under arms. The windows along the whole route were gay with tapestry, +ribands and flags. But the finest part of the show was the innumerable +crowd of spectators, all in their Sunday clothing, and such clothing +as only the upper classes of other countries could afford to wear. "I +never," William wrote that evening to Heinsius, "I never saw such a +multitude of welldressed people." Nor was the King less struck by the +indications of joy and affection with which he was greeted from the +beginning to the end of his triumph. His coach, from the moment when +he entered it at Greenwich till he alighted from it in the court of +Whitehall, was accompanied by one long huzza. Scarcely had he reached +his palace when addresses of congratulation, from all the great +corporations of his kingdom, were presented to him. It was remarked that +the very foremost among those corporations was the University of Oxford. +The eloquent composition in which that learned body extolled the wisdom, +the courage and the virtue of His Majesty, was read with cruel vexation +by the nonjurors, and with exultation by the Whigs. [823] + +The rejoicings were not yet over. At a council which was held a +few hours after the King's public entry, the second of December was +appointed to be the day of thanksgiving for the peace. The Chapter of +Saint Paul's resolved that, on that day, their noble Cathedral, which +had been long slowly rising on the ruins of a succession of pagan +and Christian temples, should be opened for public worship. William +announced his intention of being one of the congregation. But it was +represented to him that, if he persisted in that intention, three +hundred thousand people would assemble to see him pass, and all the +parish churches of London would be left empty. He therefore attended +the service in his own chapel at Whitehall, and heard Burnet preach a +sermon, somewhat too eulogistic for the place. [824] At Saint Paul's the +magistrates of the City appeared in all their state. Compton ascended, +for the first time, a throne rich with the sculpture of Gibbons, and +thence exhorted a numerous and splendid assembly. His discourse has not +been preserved; but its purport may be easily guessed; for he preached +on that noble Psalm: "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go +into the house of the Lord." He doubtless reminded his hearers that, in +addition to the debt which was common to them with all Englishmen, they +owed as Londoners a peculiar debt of gratitude to the divine goodness, +which had permitted them to efface the last trace of the ravages of the +great fire, and to assemble once more, for prayer and praise, after +so many years, on that spot consecrated by the devotions of thirty +generations. Throughout London, and in every part of the realm, even +to the remotest parishes of Cumberland and Cornwall, the churches were +filled on the morning of that day; and the evening was an evening of +festivity. [825] + +These was indeed reason for joy and thankfulness. England had passed +through severe trials, and had come forth renewed in health and +vigour. Ten years before, it had seemed that both her liberty and her +independence were no more. Her liberty she had vindicated by a just and +necessary revolution. Her independence she had reconquered by a not +less just and necessary war. She had successfully defended the order of +things established by the Bill of Rights against the mighty monarchy of +France, against the aboriginal population of Ireland, against the avowed +hostility of the nonjurors, against the more dangerous hostility of +traitors who were ready to take any oath, and whom no oath could bind. +Her open enemies had been victorious on many fields of battle. Her +secret enemies had commanded her fleets and armies, had been in charge +of her arsenals, had ministered at her altars, had taught at her +Universities, had swarmed in her public offices, had sate in her +Parliament, had bowed and fawned in the bedchamber of her King. +More than once it had seemed impossible that any thing could avert +a restoration which would inevitably have been followed, first by +proscriptions and confiscations, by the violation of fundamental laws, +and the persecution of the established religion, and then by a third +rising up of the nation against that House which two depositions and two +banishments had only made more obstinate in evil. To the dangers of +war and the dangers of treason had recently been added the dangers of +a terrible financial and commercial crisis. But all those dangers were +over. There was peace abroad and at home. The kingdom, after many years +of ignominious vassalage, had resumed its ancient place in the first +rank of European powers. Many signs justified the hope that the +Revolution of 1688 would be our last Revolution. The ancient +constitution was adapting itself, by a natural, a gradual, a peaceful +development, to the wants of a modern society. Already freedom of +conscience and freedom of discussion existed to an extent unknown in any +preceding age. The currency had been restored. Public credit had been +reestablished. Trade had revived. The Exchequer was overflowing. There +was a sense of relief every where, from the Royal Exchange to the +most secluded hamlets among the mountains of Wales and the fens +of Lincolnshire. The ploughmen, the shepherds, the miners of the +Northumbrian coalpits, the artisans who toiled at the looms of Norwich +and the anvils of Birmingham, felt the change, without understanding +it; and the cheerful bustle in every seaport and every market town +indicated, not obscurely, the commencement of a happier age. + +***** ***** + + +[Footnote 1: Relation de la Voyage de Sa Majeste Britannique en +Hollande, enrichie de planches tres curieuses, 1692; Wagenaar; London +Gazette, Jan. 29. 1693; Burnet, ii. 71] + +[Footnote 2: The names of these two great scholars are associated in a +very interesting letter of Bentley to Graevius, dated April 29. 1698. +"Sciunt omnes qui me norunt, et si vitam mihi Deus O.M. prorogaverit, +scient etiam posteri, ut te et ton panu Spanhemium, geminos hujus +aevi Dioscuros, lucida literarum sidera, semper praedicaverim, semper +veneratus sim."] + +[Footnote 3: Relation de la Voyage de Sa Majeste Britannique en Hollande +1692; London Gazette, Feb. 2. 1691,; Le Triomphe Royal ou l'on voit +descrits les Arcs de Triomphe, Pyramides, Tableaux et Devises an Nombre +de 65, erigez a la Haye a l'hounneur de Guillaume Trois, 1692; Le +Carnaval de la Haye, 1691. This last work is a savage pasquinade on +William.] + +[Footnote 4: London Gazette, Feb. 5. 1693; His Majesty's Speech to the +Assembly of the States General of the United Provinces at the Hague the +7th of February N.S., together with the Answer of their High and Mighty +Lordships, as both are extracted out of the Register of the Resolutions +of the States General, 1691.] + +[Footnote 5: Relation de la Voyage de Sa Majeste Britannique en +Hollande; Burnet, ii. 72.; London Gazette, Feb. 12. 19. 23. 1690/1; +Memoires du Comte de Dohna; William Fuller's Memoirs.] + +[Footnote 6: Wagenaar, lxii.; Le Carnaval de la Haye, Mars 1691; Le +Tabouret des Electeurs, April 1691; Ceremonial de ce qui s'est passe +a la Haye entre le Roi Guillaume et les Electeurs de Baviere et de +Brandebourg. This last tract is a MS. presented to the British Museum by +George IV,] + +[Footnote 7: London Gazette, Feb. 23. 1691.] + +[Footnote 8: The secret article by which the Duke of Savoy bound himself +to grant toleration to the Waldenses is in Dumont's collection. It was +signed Feb. 8, 1691.] + +[Footnote 9: London Gazette from March 26. to April 13. 1691; Monthly +Mercuries of March and April; William's Letters to Heinsius of March +18. and 29., April 7. 9.; Dangeau's Memoirs; The Siege of Mons, a +tragi-comedy, 1691. In this drama the clergy, who are in the interest of +France, persuade the burghers to deliver up the town. This treason calls +forth an indignant exclamation, + + "Oh priestcraft, shopcraft, how do ye effeminate + The minds of men!"] + +[Footnote 10: Trial of Preston in the Collection of State Trials. A +person who was present gives the following account of Somers's opening +speech: "In the opening the evidence, there was no affected exaggeration +of matters, nor ostentation of a putid eloquence, one after another, as +in former trials, like so many geese cackling in a row. Here was nothing +besides fair matter of fact, or natural and just reflections from thence +arising." The pamphlet from which I quote these words is entitled, An +Account of the late horrid Conspiracy by a Person who was present at the +Trials, 1691.] + +[Footnote 11: State Trials.] + +[Footnote 12: Paper delivered by Mr. Ashton, at his execution, to Sir +Francis Child, Sheriff of London; Answer to the Paper delivered by Mr. +Ashton. The Answer was written by Dr. Edward Fowler, afterwards Bishop +of Gloucester. Burnet, ii. 70.; Letter from Bishop Lloyd to Dodwell, in +the second volume of Gutch's Collectanea Curiosa.] + +[Footnote 13: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.] + +[Footnote 14: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; Burnet, ii. 71.] + +[Footnote 15: Letter of Collier and Cook to Sancroft among the Tanner +MSS.] + +[Footnote 16: Caermarthen to William, February 3. 1690/1; Life of James, +ii. 443.] + +[Footnote 17: That this account of what passed is true in substance is +sufficiently proved by the Life of James, ii. 443. I have taken one or +two slight circumstances from Dalrymple, who, I believe, took them from +papers, now irrecoverably lost, which he had seen in the Scotch College +at Paris.] + +[Footnote 18: The success of William's "seeming clemency" is admitted by +the compiler of the Life of James. The Prince of Orange's method, it is +acknowledged, "succeeded so well that, whatever sentiments those Lords +which Mr. Penn had named night have had at that time, they proved in +effect most bitter enemies to His Majesty's cause afterwards."-ii. 443.] + +[Footnote 19: See his Diary; Evelyn's Diary, Mar. 25., April 22., July +11. 1691; Burnet, ii. 71.; Letters of Rochester to Burnet, March 21. and +April 2. 1691.] + +[Footnote 20: Life of James, ii. 443. 450.; Legge Papers in the +Mackintosh Collection.] + +[Footnote 21: Burnet, ii. 71; Evelyn's Diary, Jan. 4. and 18. 1690,; +Letter from Turner to Sancroft, Jan. 19. 1690/1; Letter from Sancroft to +Lloyd of Norwich April 2. 1692. These two letters are among the Tanner +MSS. in the Bodleian, and are printed in the Life of Ken by a Layman. +Turner's escape to France is mentioned in Narcissus Luttrell's Diary +for February 1690. See also a Dialogue between the Bishop of Ely and +his Conscience, 16th February 1690/1. The dialogue is interrupted by the +sound of trumpets. The Bishop hears himself proclaimed a traitor, and +cries out, + +"Come, brother Pen, 'tis time we both were gone."] + +[Footnote 22: For a specimen of his visions, see his Journal, page 13; +for his casting out of devils, page 26. I quote the folio edition of +1765.] + +[Footnote 23: Journal, page 4] + +[Footnote 24: Ibid. page 7.] + +[Footnote 25: "What they know, they know naturally, who turn from the +command and err from the spirit, whose fruit withers, who saith that +Hebrew, Greek, and Latine is the original: before Babell was, the earth +was of one language; and Nimrod the cunning hunter, before the Lord +which came out of cursed Ham's stock, the original and builder of +Babell, whom God confounded with many languages, and this they say is +the original who erred from the spirit and command; and Pilate had his +original Hebrew, Greek and Latine, which crucified Christ and set over +him."--A message from the Lord to the Parliament of England by G. Fox, +1654. The same argument will be found in the journals, but has been put +by the editor into a little better English. "Dost thou think to make +ministers of Christ by these natural confused languages which sprung +from Babell, are admired in Babylon, and set atop of Christ, the Life, +by a persecutor?"-Page 64.] + +[Footnote 26: His journal, before it was published, was revised by men +of more sense and knowledge than himself, and therefore, absurd as it +is, gives us no notion of his genuine style. The following is a fair +specimen. It is the exordium of one of his manifestoes. "Them which the +world who are without the fear of God calls Quakers in scorn do deny all +opinions, and they do deny all conceivings, and they do deny all sects, +and they do deny all imaginations, and notions, and judgments which +riseth out of the will and the thoughts, and do deny witchcraft and all +oaths, and the world and the works of it, and their worships and their +customs with the light, and do deny false ways and false worships, +seducers and deceivers which are now seen to be in the world with the +light, and with it they are condemned, which light leadeth to peace and +life from death which now thousands do witness the new teacher Christ, +him by whom the world was made, who raigns among the children of light, +and with the spirit and power of the living God, doth let them see and +know the chaff from the wheat, and doth see that which must be shaken +with that which cannot be shaken nor moved, what gives to see that which +is shaken and moved, such as live in the notions, opinions, conceivings, +and thoughts and fancies these be all shaken and comes to be on heaps, +which they who witness those things before mentioned shaken and removed +walks in peace not seen and discerned by them who walks in those things +unremoved and not shaken."--A Warning to the World that are Groping in +the Dark, by G. Fox, 1655.] + +[Footnote 27: See the piece entitled, Concerning Good morrow and Good +even, the World's Customs, but by the Light which into the World is come +by it made manifest to all who be in the Darkness, by G. Fox, 1657.] + +[Footnote 28: Journal, page 166.] + +[Footnote 29: Epistle from Harlingen, 11th of 6th month, 1677.] + +[Footnote 30: Of Bowings, by G. Fox, 1657.] + +[Footnote 31: See, for example, the Journal, pages 24. 26. and 51.] + +[Footnote 32: See, for example, the Epistle to Sawkey, a justice of +the peace, in the journal, page 86.; the Epistle to William Larnpitt, +a clergyman, which begins, "The word of the Lord to thee, oh Lampitt," +page 80.; and the Epistle to another clergyman whom he calls Priest +Tatham, page 92.] + +[Footnote 33: Journal, page 55.] + +[Footnote 34: Ibid. Page 300.] + +[Footnote 35: Ibid. page 323.] + +[Footnote 36: Ibid. page 48.] + +[Footnote 37: "Especially of late," says Leslie, the keenest of all the +enemies of the sect, "some of them have made nearer advances towards +Christianity than ever before; and among them the ingenious Mr. Penn has +of late refined some of their gross notions, and brought them into some +form, and has made them speak sense and English, of both which George +Fox, their first and great apostle, was totally ignorant..... They +endeavour all they can to make it appear that their doctrine was uniform +from the beginning, and that there has been no alteration; and therefore +they take upon them to defend all the writings of George Fox, and others +of the first Quakers, and turn and wind them to make them (but it is +impossible) agree with what they teach now at this day." (The Snake in +the Grass, 3rd ed. 1698. Introduction.) Leslie was always more civil to +his brother Jacobite Penn than to any other Quaker. Penn himself says of +his master, "As abruptly and brokenly as sometimes his sentences would +fall from him about divine things; it is well known they were often as +texts to many fairer declarations." That is to say, George Fox talked +nonsense and some of his friends paraphrased it into sense.] + +[Footnote 38: In the Life of Penn which is prefixed to his works, we +are told that the warrants were issued on the 16th of January 1690, in +consequence of an accusation backed by the oath of William Fuller, who +is truly designated as a wretch, a cheat and. an impostor; and this +story is repeated by Mr. Clarkson. It is, however, certainly false. +Caermarthen, writing to William on the 3rd of February, says that there +was then only one witness against Penn, and that Preston was that one +witness. It is therefore evident that Fuller was not the informer on +whose oath the warrant against Penn was issued. In fact Fuller +appears from his Life of himself, to have been then at the Hague. When +Nottingham wrote to William on the 26th of June, another witness had +come forward.] + +[Footnote 39: Sidney to William, Feb. 27. 1690,. The letter is in +Dalrymple's Appendix, Part II. book vi. Narcissus Luttrell in his Diary +for September 1691, mentions Penn's escape from Shoreham to France. On +the 5th of December 1693 Narcissus made the following entry: "William +Penn the Quaker, having for some time absconded, and having compromised +the matters against him, appears now in public, and, on Friday last, +held forth at the Bull and Month, in Saint Martin's." On December 18/28. +1693 was drawn up at Saint Germains, under Melfort's direction, a paper +containing a passage of which the following is a translation + +"Mr. Penn says that Your Majesty has had several occasions, but never +any so favourable, as the present; and he hopes that Your Majesty +will be earnest with the most Christian King not to neglect it: that a +descent with thirty thousand men will not only reestablish Your Majesty, +but according to all appearance break the league." This paper is among +the Nairne MSS., and was translated by Macpherson.] + +[Footnote 40: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, April 11. 1691.] + +[Footnote 41: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, August 1691; Letter from +Vernon to Wharton, Oct. 17. 1691, in the Bodleian.] + +[Footnote 42: The opinion of the Jacobites appears from a letter which +is among the archives of the French War Office. It was written in London +on the 25th of June 1691.] + +[Footnote 43: Welwood's Mercurius Reformatus, April 11. 24. 1691; +Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, April 1691; L'Hermitage to the States +General, June 19/29 1696; Calamy's Life. The story of Fenwick's rudeness +to Mary is told in different ways. I have followed what seems to me the +most authentic, and what is certainly the last disgraceful, version.] + +[Footnote 44: Burnet, ii. 71.] + +[Footnote 45: Lloyd to Sancroft, Jan. 24. 1691. The letter is among the +Tanner MSS., and is printed in the Life of Ken by a Layman.] + +[Footnote 46: London Gazette, June 1. 1691; Birch's Life of Tillotson; +Congratulatory Poem to the Reverend Dr. Tillotson on his Promotion, +1691; Vernon to Wharton, May 28. and 30. 1691. These letters to +Wharton are in the Bodleian Library, and form part of a highly curious +collection, which was kindly pointed out to me by Dr. Bandinel.] + +[Footnote 47: Birch's Life of Tillotson; Leslie's Charge of Socinianism +against Dr. Tillotson considered, by a True Son of the Church 1695; +Hickes's Discourses upon Dr. Burnet and Dr. Tillotson, 1695; Catalogue +of Books of the Newest Fashion to be Sold by Auction at the Whigs Coffee +House, evidently printed in 1693. More than sixty years later Johnson +described a sturdy Jacobite as firmly convinced that Tillotson died an +Atheist; Idler, No, 10.] + +[Footnote 48: Tillotson to Lady Russell, June 23. 1691.] + +[Footnote 49: Birch's Life of Tillotson; Memorials of Tillotson by his +pupil John Beardmore; Sherlock's sermon preached in the Temple Church on +the death of Queen Mary, 1694/5.] + +[Footnote 50: Wharton's Collectanea quoted in Birch's Life of +Tillotson.] + +[Footnote 51: Wharton's Collectanea quoted in D'Oyly's Life of Sancroft; +Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.] + +[Footnote 52: The Lambeth MS. quoted in D'Oyly's Life of Sancroft; +Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; Vernon to Wharton, June 9. 11. 1691.] + +[Footnote 53: See a letter of R. Nelson, dated Feb. 21. 1709/10, in +the appendix to N. Marshall's Defence of our Constitution in Church and +State, 1717; Hawkins's Life of Ken; Life of Ken by a Layman.] + +[Footnote 54: See a paper dictated by him on the 15th Nov. 1693, in +Wagstaffe's letter from Suffolk.] + +[Footnote 55: Kettlewell's Life, iii. 59.] + +[Footnote 56: See D'Oyly's Life of Sancroft, Hallam's Constitutional +History, and Dr. Lathbury's History of the Nonjurors.] + +[Footnote 57: See the autobiography of his descendant and namesake the +dramatist. See also Onslow's note on Burnet, ii. 76.] + +[Footnote 58: A vindication of their Majesties' authority to fill the +sees of the deprived Bishops, May 20. 1691; London Gazette, April 27. +and June 15. 1691; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, May 1691. Among the +Tanner MSS. are two letters from Jacobites to Beveridge, one mild and +decent, the other scurrilous even beyond the ordinary scurrility of the +nonjurors. The former will be found in the Life of Ken by a Layman.] + +[Footnote 59: It does not seem quite clear whether Sharp's scruple about +the deprived prelates was a scruple of conscience or merely a scruple of +delicacy. See his Life by his Son.] + +[Footnote 60: See Overall's Convocation Book, chapter 28. Nothing can be +clearer or more to the purpose than his language + +"When, having attained their ungodly desires, whether ambitious kings +by bringing any country into their subjection, or disloyal subjects +by rebellious rising against their natural sovereigns, they have +established any of the said degenerate governments among their people, +the authority either so unjustly established, or wrung by force from the +true and lawful possessor, being always God's authority, and therefore +receiving no impeachment by the wickedness of those that have it, is +ever, when such alterations are thoroughly settled, to be reverenced +and obeyed; and the people of all sorts, as well of the clergy as of the +laity, are to be subject unto it, not only for fear, but likewise for +conscience sake." + +Then follows the canon + +"If any man shall affirm that, when any such new forms of government, +begun by rebellion, are after thoroughly settled, the authority in them +is not of God, or that any who live within the territories of any such +new governments are not bound to be subject to God's authority which is +there executed, but may rebel against the same, he doth greatly err."] + +[Footnote 61: A list of all the pieces which I have read relating to +Sherlock's apostasy would fatigue the reader. I will mention a few +of different kinds. Parkinson's Examination of Dr. Sherlock's Case of +Allegiance, 1691; Answer to Dr. Sherlock's Case of Allegiance, by a +London Apprentice, 1691; the Reasons of the New Converts taking the +Oaths to the present Government, 1691; Utrum horum? or God's ways of +disposing of Kingdoms and some Clergymen's ways of disposing of +them, 1691; Sherlock and Xanthippe 1691; Saint Paul's Triumph in his +Sufferings for Christ, by Matthew Bryan, LL.D., dedicated Ecclesim sub +cruce gementi; A Word to a wavering Levite; The Trimming Court Divine; +Proteus Ecclesiasticus, or observations on Dr. Sh--'s late Case of +Allegiance; the Weasil Uncased; A Whip for the Weasil; the Anti-Weasils. +Numerous allusions to Sherlock and his wife will be found in the ribald +writings of Tom Brown, Tom Durfey, and Ned Ward. See Life of James, ii. +318. Several curious letters about Sherlock's apostasy are among the +Tanner MSS. I will give two or three specimens of the rhymes which the +Case of Allegiance called forth. + + "When Eve the fruit had tasted, + She to her husband hasted, + And chuck'd him on the chin-a. + Dear Bud, quoth she, come taste this fruit; + 'Twill finly with your palate suit, + To eat it is no sin-a." + + "As moody Job, in shirtless ease, + With collyflowers all o'er his face, + Did on the dunghill languish, + His spouse thus whispers in his ear, + Swear, husband, as you love me, swear, + 'Twill ease you of your anguish." + + "At first he had doubt, and therefore did pray + That heaven would instruct him in the right way, + Whether Jemmy or William he ought to obey, + Which nobody can deny, + + "The pass at the Boyne determin'd that case; + And precept to Providence then did give place; + To change his opinion he thought no disgrace; + Which nobody can deny. + + "But this with the Scripture can never agree, + As by Hosea the eighth and the fourth you may see; + 'They have set up kings, but yet not by me,' + Which nobody can deny."] + +[Footnote 62: The chief authority for this part of my history is the +Life of James, particularly the highly important and interesting passage +which begins at page 444. and ends at page 450. of the second volume.] + +[Footnote 63: Russell to William, May 10 1691, in Dalrymple's Appendix, +Part II. Book vii. See also the Memoirs of Sir John Leake.] + +[Footnote 64: Commons' Journals, Mar. 21. 24. 1679; Grey's Debates; +Observator.] + +[Footnote 65: London Gazette, July 21. 1690.] + +[Footnote 66: Life of James, ii. 449.] + +[Footnote 67: Shadwell's Volunteers.] + +[Footnote 68: Story's Continuation; Proclamation of February 21. 1690/1; +the London Gazette of March 12.] + +[Footnote 69: Story's Continuation.] + +[Footnote 70: Story's Impartial History; London Gazette, Nov. 17. 1690.] + +[Footnote 71: Story's Impartial History. The year 1684 had been +considered as a time of remarkable prosperity, and the revenue from the +Customs had been unusually large. But the receipt from all the ports +of Ireland, during the whole year, was only a hundred and twenty-seven +thousand pounds. See Clarendon's Memoirs.] + +[Footnote 72: Story's History and Continuation; London Gazettes of +September 29. 1690, and Jan. 8. and Mar. 12. 1690/1.] + +[Footnote 73: See the Lords' Journals of March 2. and 4. 1692/3 and the +Commons' Journals of Dec. 16. 1693, and Jan. 29. 1695/4. The story, bad +enough at best, was told by the personal and political enemies of the +Lords justices with additions which the House of Commons evidently +considered as calumnious, and which I really believe to have been +so. See the Gallienus Redivivus. The narrative which Colonel Robert +Fitzgerald, a Privy Councillor and an eyewitness delivered in writing to +the House of Lords, under the sanction of an oath, seems to me perfectly +trustworthy. It is strange that Story, though he mentions the murder of +the soldiers, says nothing about Gafney.] + +[Footnote 74: Burnet, ii. 66.; Leslie's Answer to King.] + +[Footnote 75: Macariae Excidium; Fumeron to Louvois Jan 31/Feb 10 1691. +It is to be observed that Kelly, the author of the Macariae Excidium and +Fumeron, the French intendant, are most unexceptionable witnesses. +They were both, at this time, within the walls of Limerick. There is no +reason to doubt the impartiality of the Frenchman; and the Irishman was +partial to his own countrymen.] + +[Footnote 76: Story's Impartial History and Continuation and the London +Gazettes of December, January, February, and March 1690/1.] + +[Footnote 77: It is remarkable that Avaux, though a very shrewd judge +of men, greatly underrated Berwick. In a letter to Louvois, dated Oct. +15/25. 1689, Avaux says: "Je ne puis m'empescher de vous dire qu'il est +brave de sa personne, a ce que l'on dit mais que c'est un aussy mechant +officie, qu'il en ayt, et qu'il n'a pas le sens commun."] + +[Footnote 78: Leslie's Answer to King, Macariae Excidium.] + +[Footnote 79: Macariae Excidium.] + +[Footnote 80: Macariae Excidium; Life of James, ii. 422.; Memoirs of +Berwick.] + +[Footnote 81: Macariae Excidium.] + +[Footnote 82: Life of James, ii. 422, 423.; Memoires de Berwick.] + +[Footnote 83: Life of James, ii. 433-457.; Story's Continuation.] + +[Footnote 84: Life of James, ii. 438.; Light to the Blind; Fumeron to +Louvois, April 22/May 2 1691.] + +[Footnote 85: Macariae Excidium; Memoires de Berwick; Life of James, ii. +451, 452.] + +[Footnote 86: Macariae Excidium; Burnet, ii. 78.; Dangeau; The Mercurius +Reformatus, June 5. 1691.] + +[Footnote 87: An exact journal of the victorious progress of their +Majesties' forces under the command of General Ginckle this summer in +Ireland, 1691; Story's Continuation; Mackay's Memoirs.] + +[Footnote 88: London Gazette, June 18. 22. 1691; Story's Continuation; +Life of James, ii. 452. The author of the Life accuses the Governor of +treachery or cowardice.] + +[Footnote 89: London Gazette, June 22. 25. July 2. 1691; Story's +Continuation; Exact Journal.] + +[Footnote 90: Life of James, ii. 373. 376. 377] + +[Footnote 91: Macariae Excidium. I may observe that this is one of +the many passages which lead me to believe the Latin text to be the +original. The Latin is: "Oppidum ad Salaminium amnis latus recentibus ac +sumptuosioribus aedificiis attollebatur; antiquius et ipsa vetustate in +cultius quod in Paphiis finibus exstructum erat." The English version +is: "The town on Salaminia side was better built than that in Paphia." +Surely there is in the Latin the particularity which we might expect +from a person who had known Athlone before the war. The English +version is contemptibly bad, I need hardly say that the Paphian side is +Connaught, and the Salaminian side Leinster.] + +[Footnote 92: I have consulted several contemporary maps of Athlone. One +will be found in Story's Continuation.] + +[Footnote 93: Diary of the Siege of Athlone, by an Engineer of the Army, +a Witness of the Action, licensed July 11. 1691; Story's Continuation; +London Gazette, July 2. 1691; Fumeron to Louvois, June 28/July 8. 1691. +The account of this attack in the Life of James, ii. 453., is an absurd +romance. It does not appear to have been taken from the King's original +Memoirs.] + +[Footnote 94: Macariae Excidium. Here again I think that I see clear +proof that the English version of this curious work is only a +bad translation from the Latin. The English merely says: +"Lysander,"--Sarsfield,--"accused him, a few days before, in the +general's presence," without intimating what the accusation was. The +Latin original runs thus: "Acriter Lysander, paucos ante dies, coram +praefecto copiarum illi exprobraverat nescio quid, quod in aula Syriaca +in Cypriorum opprobrium effutivisse dicebatur." The English translator +has, by omitting the most important words, and by using the aorist +instead of the preterpluperfect tense, made the whole passage +unmeaning.] + +[Footnote 95: Story's Continuation; Macariae Excidium; Daniel Macneal to +Sir Arthur Rawdon, June 28. 1691, in the Rawdon Papers.] + +[Footnote 96: London Gazette, July 6. 1691; Story's Continuation; +Macariae Excidium; Light to the Blind.] + +[Footnote 97: Macariae Excidium; Light to the Blind.] + +[Footnote 98: Life of James, ii. 460.; Life of William, 1702.] + +[Footnote 99: Story's Continuation; Mackay's Memoirs; Exact Journal; +Diary of the Siege of Athlone.] + +[Footnote 100: Story's Continuation.; Macariae Excid.; Burnet, ii. 78, +79.; London Gaz. 6. 13. 1689; Fumeron to Louvois June 30/July 10 1690; +Diary of the Siege of Athlone; Exact Account.] + +[Footnote 101: Story's Continuation; Life of James, ii. 455. Fumeron to +Louvois June 30/July 10 1691; London Gazette, July 13.] + +[Footnote 102: The story, as told by the enemies of Tyrconnel, will be +found in the Macariae Excidium, and in a letter written by Felix O'Neill +to the Countess of Antrim on the 10th of July 1691. The letter was found +on the corpse of Felix O'Neill after the battle of Aghrim. It is printed +in the Rawdon Papers. The other story is told in Berwick's Memoirs and +in the Light to the Blind.] + +[Footnote 103: Macariae Excidium; Life of James, ii 456.; Light to the +Blind.] + +[Footnote 104: Macariae Excidium.] + +[Footnote 105: Story's Continuation.] + +[Footnote 106: Burnet, ii. 79.; Story's Continuation.] + +[Footnote 107: "They maintained their ground much longer than they had +been accustomed to do," says Burnet. "They behaved themselves like men +of another nation," says Story. "The Irish were never known to fight +with more resolution," says the London Gazette.] + +[Footnote 108: Story's Continuation; London Gazette, July 20. 23. 1691; +Memoires de Berwick; Life of James, ii. 456.; Burnet, ii. 79.; Macariae +Excidium; Light to the Blind; Letter from the English camp to Sir Arthur +Rawdon, in the Rawdon Papers; History of William the Third, 1702.] + +The narratives to which I have referred differ very widely from +each other. Nor can the difference be ascribed solely or chiefly to +partiality. For no two narratives differ more widely than that which +will be found in the Life of James, and that which will be found in the +memoirs of his son.] + +In consequence, I suppose, of the fall of Saint Ruth, and of the absence +of D'Usson, there is at the French War Office no despatch containing a +detailed account of the battle.] + +[Footnote 109: Story's Continuation.] + +[Footnote 110: Story's Continuation; Macariae Excidium; Life of James, +ii. 464.; London Gazette, July 30., Aug. 17. 1691; Light to the Blind.] + +[Footnote 111: Story's Continuation; Macariae Excidium; Life of James, +ii. 459; London Gazette, July 30., Aug. 3. 1691.] + +[Footnote 112: He held this language in a letter to Louis XIV., dated +the 5/15th of August. This letter, written in a hand which it is not +easy to decipher, is in the French War Office. Macariae Excidium; Light +to the Blind.] + +[Footnote 113: Macariae Excidium; Life of James, ii. 461, 462.] + +[Footnote 114: Macariae Excidium; Life of James, ii. 459. 462.; +London Gazette, Aug. 31 1691; Light to the Blind; D'Usson and Tesse to +Barbesieux, Aug. 13/23.] + +[Footnote 115: Story's Continuation; D'Usson and Tesse to Barbesieux +Aug. 169r. An unpublished letter from Nagle to Lord Merion of Auk. +15. This letter is quoted by Mr. O'Callaghan in a note on Macariae +Excidium.] + +[Footnote 116: Macariae Excidium; Story's Continuation.] + +[Footnote 117: Story's Continuation; London Gazette, Sept. 28. 1691; +Life of James, ii. 463.; Diary of the Siege of Lymerick, 1692; Light to +the Blind. In the account of the siege which is among the archives of +the French War Office, it is said that the Irish cavalry behaved worse +than the infantry.] + +[Footnote 118: Story's Continuation; Macariae Excidium; R. Douglas to +Sir A. Rawdon, Sept. 25. 1691, in the Rawdon Papers; London Gazette, +October 8.; Diary of the Siege of Lymerick; Light to the Blind; Account +of the Siege of Limerick in the archives of the French War Office. + +The account of this affair in the Life of James, ii. 464., deserves to +be noticed merely for its preeminent absurdity. The writer tells us +that seven hundred of the Irish held out some time against a much larger +force, and warmly praises their heroism. He did not know, or did +not choose to mention, one fact which is essential to the right +understanding of the story; namely, that these seven hundred men were in +a fort. That a garrison should defend a fort during a few hours against +superior numbers is surely not strange. Forts are built because they can +be defended by few against many.] + +[Footnote 119: Account of the Siege of Limerick in the archives of the +French War Office; Story's Continuation.] + +[Footnote 120: D'Usson to Barbesieux, Oct. 4/14. 1691.] + +[Footnote 121: Macariae Excidium.] + +[Footnote 122: Story's Continuation; Diary of the Siege of Lymerick.] + +[Footnote 123: London Gazette, Oct. S. 1691; Story's Continuation; Diary +of the Siege of Lymerick.] + +[Footnote 124: Life of James, 464, 465.] + +[Footnote 125: Story's Continuation.] + +[Footnote 126: Story's Continuation; Diary of the Siege of Lymerick; +Burnet, ii. 81.; London Gazette, Oct. 12. 1691.] + +[Footnote 127: Story's Continuation; Diary of the Siege of Lymerick; +London Gazette, Oct. 15. 1691.] + +[Footnote 128: The articles of the civil treaty have often been +reprinted.] + +[Footnote 129: Story's Continuation; Diary of the Siege of Lymerick.] + +[Footnote 130: Story's Continuation; Diary of the Siege of Lymerick.] + +[Footnote 131: Story's Continuation. His narrative is confirmed by the +testimony which an Irish Captain who was present has left us in bad +Latin. "Hic apud sacrum omnes advertizantur a capellanis ire potius in +Galliam."] + +[Footnote 132: D'Usson and Tesse to Barbesieux, Oct. 17. 1691.] + +[Footnote 133: That there was little sympathy between the Celts of +Ulster and those of the Southern Provinces is evident from the curious +memorial which the agent of Baldearg O'Donnel delivered to Avaux.] + +[Footnote 134: Treasury Letter Book, June 19. 1696; Journals of the +Irish House of Commons Nov. 7. 1717.] + +[Footnote 135: This I relate on Mr. O'Callaghan's authority. History of +the Irish Brigades Note 47.] + +[Footnote 136: There is, Junius wrote eighty years after the +capitulation of Limerick, "a certain family in this country on which +nature seems to have entailed a hereditary baseness of disposition. As +far as their history has been known, the son has regularly improved upon +the vices of the father, and has taken care to transmit them pure and +undiminished into the bosom of his successors." Elsewhere he says of the +member for Middlesex, "He has degraded even the name of Luttrell." He +exclaims, in allusion to the marriage of the Duke of Cumberland and Mrs. +Horton who was born a Luttrell: "Let Parliament look to it. A Luttrell +shall never succeed to the Crown of England." It is certain that very +few Englishmen can have sympathized with Junius's abhorrence of +the Luttrells, or can even have understood it. Why then did he use +expressions which to the great majority of his readers must have been +unintelligible? My answer is that Philip Francis was born, and passed +the first ten years of his life, within a walk of Luttrellstown.] + +[Footnote 137: Story's Continuation; London Gazette, Oct. 22. 1691; +D'Usson and Tesse to Lewis, Oct. 4/14., and to Barbesieux, Oct. 7/17.; +Light to the Blind.] + +[Footnote 138: Story's Continuation; London Gazette Jan. 4. 1691/2] + +[Footnote 139: Story's Continuation; Macariae Excidium, and Mr. +O'Callaghan's note; London Gazette, Jan. 4. 1691/2.] + +[Footnote 140: Some interesting facts relating to Wall, who was minister +of Ferdinand the Sixth and Charles the Third, will be found in the +letters of Sir Benjamin Keene and Lord Bristol, published in Coxe's +Memoirs of Spain.] + +[Footnote 141: This is Swift's language, language held not once, but +repeatedly and at long intervals. In the Letter on the Sacramental Test, +written in 1708, he says: "If we (the clergy) were under any real fear +of the Papists in this kingdom, it would be hard to think us so stupid +as not to be equally apprehensive with others, since we are likely to be +the greater and more immediate sufferers; but, on the contrary, we +look upon them to be altogether as inconsiderable as the women and +children.... The common people without leaders, without discipline, or +natural courage, being little better than hewers of wood and drawers of +water, are out of all capacity of doing any mischief, if they were ever +so well inclined." In the Drapier's Sixth Letter, written in 1724, he +says: "As to the people of this kingdom, they consist either of Irish +Papists, who are as inconsiderable, in point of power, as the women and +children, or of English Protestants." Again, in the Presbyterian's Plea +of Merit written in 1731, he says, + +"The estates of Papists are very few, crumbling into small parcels, and +daily diminishing; their common people are sunk in poverty, ignorance +and cowardice, and of as little consequence as women and children. Their +nobility and gentry are at least one half ruined, banished or converted. +They all soundly feel the smart of what they suffered in the last Irish +war. Some of them are already retired into foreign countries; others, as +I am told, intend to follow them; and the rest, I believe to a man, who +still possess any lands, are absolutely resolved never to hazard them +again for the sake of establishing their superstition." + +I may observe that, to the best of my belief, Swift never, in any thing +that he wrote, used the word Irishman to denote a person of Anglosaxon +race born in Ireland. He no more considered himself as an Irishman than +an Englishman born at Calcutta considers himself as a Hindoo.] + +[Footnote 142: In 1749 Lucas was the idol of the democracy of his own +caste. It is curious to see what was thought of him by those who were +not of his own caste. One of the chief Pariah, Charles O'Connor, wrote +thus: "I am by no means interested, nor is any of our unfortunate +population, in this affair of Lucas. A true patriot would not have +betrayed such malice to such unfortunate slaves as we." He adds, with +too much truth, that those boasters the Whigs wished to have liberty all +to themselves.] + +[Footnote 143: On this subject Johnson was the most liberal politician +of his time. "The Irish," he said with great warmth, "are in a most +unnatural state for we see there the minority prevailing over the +majority." I suspect that Alderman Beckford and Alderman Sawbridge +would have been far from sympathizing with him. Charles O'Connor, whose +unfavourable opinion of the Whig Lucas I have quoted, pays, in the +Preface to the Dissertations on Irish History, a high compliment to the +liberality of the Tory Johnson.] + +[Footnote 144: London Gazette, Oct. 22. 1691.] + +[Footnote 145: Burnet, ii. 78, 79.; Burchett's Memoirs of Transactions +at Sea; Journal of the English and Dutch fleet in a Letter from an +Officer on board the Lennox, at Torbay, licensed August 21. 1691. The +writer says: "We attribute our health, under God, to the extraordinary +care taken in the well ordering of our provisions, both meat and +drink."] + +[Footnote 146: Lords' and Commons' Journals, Oct. 22. 1691.] + +[Footnote 147: This appears from a letter written by Lowther, after he +became Lord Lonsdale, to his son. A copy of this letter is among the +Mackintosh MSS.] + +[Footnote 148: See Commons' Journals, Dec. 3. 1691; and Grey's Debates. +It is to be regretted that the Report of the Commissioners of Accounts +has not been preserved. Lowther, in his letter to his son, alludes to +the badgering of this day with great bitterness. "What man," he asks, +"that hath bread to eat, can endure, after having served with all the +diligence and application mankind is capable of, and after having given +satisfaction to the King from whom all officers of State derive their +authoritie, after acting rightly by all men, to be hated by men who do +it to all people in authoritie?"] + +[Footnote 149: Commons' Journals, Dec. 12. 1691.] + +[Footnote 150: Commons' Journals, Feb. 15. 1690/1; Baden to the States +General, Jan 26/Feb 5] + +[Footnote 151: Stat. 3 W. & M. c. 2., Lords' Journals; Lords' Journals, +16 Nov. 1691; Commons' Journals, Dec. 1. 9. 5.] + +[Footnote 152: The Irish Roman Catholics complained, and with but +too much reason, that, at a later period, the Treaty of Limerick was +violated; but those very complaints are admissions that the Statute 3 W. +& M. c. 2. was not a violation of the Treaty. Thus the author of A Light +to the Blind speaking of the first article, says: "This article, in +seven years after, was broken by a Parliament in Ireland summoned by the +Prince of Orange, wherein a law was passed for banishing the Catholic +bishops, dignitaries, and regular clergy." Surely he never would have +written thus, if the article really had, only two months after it was +signed, been broken by the English Parliament. The Abbe Mac Geoghegan, +too, complains that the Treaty was violated some years after it was +made. But he does not pretend that it was violated by Stat. 3 W. & M. c. +2.] + +[Footnote 153: Stat. 21 Jac. 1. c. 3.] + +[Footnote 154: See particularly Two Letters by a Barrister concerning +the East India Company (1676), and an Answer to the Two Letters +published in the same year. See also the judgment of Lord Jeffreys +concerning the Great Case of Monopolies. This judgment was published +in 1689, after the downfall of Jeffreys. It was thought necessary to +apologize in the preface for printing anything that bore so odious a +name. "To commend this argument," says the editor, "I'll not undertake +because of the author. But yet I may tell you what is told me, that it +is worthy any gentleman's perusal." The language of Jeffreys is most +offensive, sometimes scurrilous, sometimes basely adulatory; but +his reasoning as to the mere point of law is certainly able, if not +conclusive.] + +[Footnote 155: Addison's Clarinda, in the week of which she kept a +journal, read nothing but Aurengzebe; Spectator, 323. She dreamed that +Mr. Froth lay at her feet, and called her Indamora. Her friend Miss +Kitty repeated, without book, the eight best lines of the play; those, +no doubt, which begin, "Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay." There +are not eight finer lines in Lucretius.] + +[Footnote 156: A curious engraving of the India House of the seventeenth +century will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for December 1784.] + +[Footnote 157: See Davenant's Letter to Mulgrave.] + +[Footnote 158: Answer to Two Letters concerning the East India Company, +1676.] + +[Footnote 159: Anderson's Dictionary; G. White's Account of the Trade to +the East Indies, 1691; Treatise on the East India Trade by Philopatris, +1681.] + +[Footnote 160: Reasons for constituting a New East India Company in +London, 1681; Some Remarks upon the Present State of the East India +Company's Affairs, 1690.] + +[Footnote 161: Evelyn, March 16. 1683] + +[Footnote 162: See the State Trials.] + +[Footnote 163: Pepys's Diary, April 2. and May 10 1669.] + +[Footnote 164: Tench's Modest and Just Apology for the East India +Company, 1690.] + +[Footnote 165: Some Remarks on the Present State of the East India +Company's Affairs, 1690; Hamilton's New Account of the East Indies.] + +[Footnote 166: White's Account of the East India Trade, 1691; Pierce +Butler's Tale, 1691.] + +[Footnote 167: White's Account of the Trade to the East Indies, 1691; +Hamilton's New Account of the East Indies; Sir John Wyborne to Pepys +from Bombay, Jan. 7. 1688.] + +[Footnote 168: London Gazette, Feb. 16/26 1684.] + +[Footnote 169: Hamilton's New Account of the East Indies.] + +[Footnote 170: Papillon was of course reproached with his inconsistency. +Among the pamphlets of that time is one entitled "A Treatise concerning +the East India Trade, wrote at the instance of Thomas Papillon, Esquire, +and in his House, and printed in the year 1680, and now reprinted for +the better Satisfaction of himself and others."] + +[Footnote 171: Commons' Journals, June 8. 1689.] + +[Footnote 172: Among the pamphlets in which Child is most fiercely +attacked are Some Remarks on the Present State of the East India +Company's Affairs, 1690; fierce Butler's Tale, 1691; and White's Account +of the Trade to the East Indies, 1691.] + +[Footnote 173: Discourse concerning the East India Trade, showing it +to be unprofitable to the Kingdom, by Mr. Cary; pierce Butler's Tale, +representing the State of the Wool Case, or the East India Case truly +stated, 1691. Several petitions to the same effect will be found in the +Journals of the House of Commons.] + +[Footnote 174: Reasons against establishing an East India Company with a +joint Stock, exclusive to all others, 1691.] + +[Footnote 175: The engagement was printed, and has been several times +reprinted. As to Skinners' Hall, see Seymour's History of London, 1734] + +[Footnote 176: London Gazette, May 11. 1691; White's Account of the East +India Trade.] + +[Footnote 177: Commons' Journals, Oct. 28. 1691.] + +[Footnote 178: Ibid. Oct. 29. 1691.] + +[Footnote 179: Rowe, in the Biter, which was damned, and deserved to be +so, introduced an old gentleman haranguing his daughter thus: "Thou hast +been bred up like a virtuous and a sober maiden; and wouldest thou take +the part of a profane wretch who sold his stock out of the Old East +India Company?"] + +[Footnote 180: Hop to the States General, Oct 30/Nov. 9 1691.] + +[Footnote 181: Hop mentions the length and warmth of the debates; Nov. +12/22. 1691. See the Commons' Journals, Dec. 17. and 18.] + +[Footnote 182: Commons' Journals, Feb 4. and 6. 1691.] + +[Footnote 183: Ibid. Feb. 11. 1691.] + +[Footnote 184: The history of this bill is to be collected from the +bill itself, which is among the Archives of the Upper House, from +the Journals of the two Houses during November and December 1690, and +January 1691; particularly from the Commons' Journals of December 11. +and January 13. and 25., and the Lords' Journals of January 20. and 28. +See also Grey's Debates.] + +[Footnote 185: The letter, dated December 1. 1691, is in the Life of +James, ii. 477.] + +[Footnote 186: Burnet, ii. 85.; and Burnet MS. Harl. 6584. See also a +memorial signed by Holmes, but consisting of intelligence furnished +by Ferguson, among the extracts from the Nairne Papers, printed by +Macpherson. It bears date October 1691. "The Prince of Orange," says +Holmes, "is mortally hated by the English. They see very fairly that he +hath no love for them; neither doth he confide in them, but all in his +Dutch... It's not doubted but the Parliament will not be for foreigners +to ride them with a caveson."] + +[Footnote 187: Evelyn's Diary, Jan. 24.; Hop to States General, Jan +22/Feb 1 1691; Bader to States General, Feb. 16/26] + +[Footnote 188: The words of James are these; they were written in +November 1692:--"Mes amis, l'annee passee, avoient dessein de me +rappeler par le Parlement. La maniere etoit concertee; et Milord +Churchill devoit proposer dans le Parlement de chasser tous les +etrangers tant des conseils et de l'armee que du royaume. Si le Prince +d'Orange avoit consenti a cette proposition ils l'auroient eu entre +leurs mains. S'il l'avoit refusee, il auroit fait declarer le Parlement +contre lui; et en meme temps Milord Churchill devoir se declarer avec +l'armee pour le Parlement; et la flotte devoit faire de meme; et l'on +devoit me rappeler. L'on avoit deja commence d'agir dans ce projet; et +on avoit gagne un gros parti, quand quelques fideles sujets indiscrets, +croyant me servir, et s'imaginant que ce que Milord Churchill faisoit +n'etoit pas pour moi, mais pour la Princesse de Danemarck, eurent +l'imprudence de decouvrir le tout a Benthing, et detournerent ainsi le +coup." + +A translation of this most remarkable passage, which at once solves many +interesting and perplexing problems, was published eighty years ago by +Macpherson. But, strange to say, it attracted no notice, and has never, +as far as I know, been mentioned by any biographer of Marlborough. + +The narrative of James requires no confirmation; but it is strongly +confirmed by the Burnet MS. Harl. 6584. "Marleburrough," Burnet wrote in +September 1693, "set himself to decry the King's conduct and to lessen +him in all his discourses, and to possess the English with an aversion +to the Dutch, who, as he pretended, had a much larger share of the +King's favour and confidence than they,"--the English, I suppose,--"had. +This was a point on which the English, who are too apt to despise all +other nations, and to overvalue themselves, were easily enough inflamed. +So it grew to be the universal subject of discourse, and was the +constant entertainment at Marleburrough's, where there was a constant +randivous of the English officers." About the dismission of Marlborough, +Burnet wrote at the same time: "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 the nation +against the Dutch." + +It is curious to compare this plain tale, told while the facts were +recent, with the shuffling narrative which Burnet prepared for the +public eye many years later, when Marlborough was closely united to the +Whigs, and was rendering great and splendid services to the country. +Burnet, ii. 90. + +The Duchess of Marlborough, in her Vindication, had the effrontery to +declare that she "could never learn what cause the King assigned for his +displeasure." She suggests that Young's forgery may have been the cause. +Now she must have known that Young's forgery was not committed till some +months after her husband's disgrace. She was indeed lamentably deficient +in memory, a faculty which is proverbially said to be necessary to +persons of the class to which she belonged. Her own volume convicts her +of falsehood. She gives us a letter from Mary to Anne, in which Mary +says, "I need not repeat the cause my Lord Marlborough has given the +King to do what he has done." These words plainly imply that Anne had +been apprised of the cause. If she had not been apprised of the cause +would she not have said so in her answer? But we have her answer; and it +contains not a word on the subject. She was then apprised of the cause; +and is it possible to believe that she kept it a secret from her adored +Mrs. Freeman?] + +[Footnote 189: My account of these transactions I have been forced to +take from the narrative of the Duchess of Marlborough, a narrative which +is to be read with constant suspicion, except when, as is often the +case, she relates some instance of her own malignity and insolence.] + +[Footnote 190: The Duchess of Marlborough's Vindication; Dartmouth's +Note on Burnet, ii. 92.; Verses of the Night Bellman of Piccadilly and +my Lord Nottingham's Order thereupon, 1691. There is a bitter lampoon on +Lady Marlborough of the same date, entitled The Universal Health, a true +Union to the Queen and Princess.] + +[Footnote 191: It must not be supposed that Anne was a reader of +Shakspeare. She had no doubt, often seen the Enchanted Island. That +miserable rifacimento of the Tempest was then a favourite with the town, +on account of the machinery and the decorations.] + +[Footnote 192: Burnet MS. Harl. 6584.] + +[Footnote 193: The history of an abortive attempt to legislate on this +subject may be studied in the Commons' Journals of 1692/3.] + +[Footnote 194: North's Examen,] + +[Footnote 195: North's Examen; Ward's London Spy; Crosby's English +Baptists, vol. iii. chap. 2.] + +[Footnote 196: The history of this part of Fuller's life I have taken +from his own narrative.] + +[Footnote 197: Commons' Journals, Dec. 2. and 9. 1691; Grey's Debates.] + +[Footnote 198: Commons' Journals, Jan. 4. 1691/2 Grey's Debates.] + +[Footnote 199: Commons' Journals, Feb. 22, 23, and 24. 1691/2.] + +[Footnote 200: Fuller's Original Letters of the late King James and +others to his greatest Friends in England.] + +[Footnote 201: Burnet, ii. 86. Burnet had evidently forgotten what the +bill contained. Ralph knew nothing about it but what he had learned from +Burnet. I have scarcely seen any allusion to the subject in any of +the numerous Jacobite lampoons of that day. But there is a remarkable +passage in a pamphlet which appeared towards the close of William's +reign, and which is entitled The Art of Governing by Parties. The writer +says, "We still want an Act to ascertain some fund for the salaries of +the judges; and there was a bill, since the Revolution, past both Houses +of Parliament to this purpose; but whether it was for being any way +defective or otherwise that His Majesty refused to assent to it, I +cannot remember. But I know the reason satisfied me at that time. And I +make no doubt but he'll consent to any good bill of this nature whenever +'tis offered." These words convinced me that the bill was open to +some grave objection which did not appear in the title, and which no +historian had noticed. I found among the archives of the House of Lords +the original parchment, endorsed with the words "Le Roy et La Royne +s'aviseront." And it was clear at the first glance what the objection +was.] + +There is a hiatus in that part of Narcissus Luttrell's Diary which +relates to this matter. "The King," he wrote, "passed ten public bills +and thirty-four private ones, and rejected that of the--"] + +As to the present practice of the House of Commons in such cases, see +Hatsell's valuable work, ii. 356. I quote the edition of 1818. Hatsell +says that many bills which affect the interest of the Crown may be +brought in without any signification of the royal consent, and that it +is enough if the consent be signified on the second reading, or even +later; but that, in a proceeding which affects the hereditary revenue, +the consent must be signified in the earliest stage.] + +[Footnote 202: The history of these ministerial arrangements I have +taken chiefly from the London Gazette of March 3. and March 7. 1691/2 +and from Narcissus Luttrell's Diary for that month. Two or three slight +touches are from contemporary pamphlets.] + +[Footnote 203: William to Melville, May 22. 1690.] + +[Footnote 204: See the preface to the Leven and Melville Papers. I have +given what I believe to be a true explanation of Burnet's hostility to +Melville. Melville's descendant who has deserved well of all students +of history by the diligence and fidelity with which he has performed his +editorial duties, thinks that Burnet's judgment was blinded by zeal for +Prelacy and hatred of Presbyterianism. This accusation will surprise and +amuse English High Churchmen.] + +[Footnote 205: Life of James, ii. 468, 469.] + +[Footnote 206: Burnet, ii. 88.; Master of Stair to Breadalbane, Dee. 2. +1691.] + +[Footnote 207: Burnet, i. 418.] + +[Footnote 208: Crawford to Melville, July 23. 1689; The Master of +Stair to Melville, Aug. 16. 1689; Cardross to Melville, Sept. 9. 1689; +Balcarras's Memoirs; Annandale's Confession, Aug. i4. 1690.] + +[Footnote 209: Breadalbane to Melville, Sept. 17. 1690.] + +[Footnote 210: The Master of Stair to Hamilton, Aug. 17/27. 1691; Hill +to Melville, June 26. 1691; The Master of Stair to Breadalbane, Aug. 24. +1691.] + +[Footnote 211: "The real truth is, they were a branch of the Macdonalds +(who were a brave courageous people always), seated among the Campbells, +who (I mean the Glencoe men) are all Papists, if they have any religion, +were always counted a people much given to rapine and plunder, or +sorners as we call it, and much of a piece with your highwaymen in +England. Several governments desired to bring them to justice; but their +country was inaccessible to small parties." See An impartial Account of +some of the Transactions in Scotland concerning the Earl of Breadalbane, +Viscount and Master of Stair, Glenco Men, &c., London, 1695.] + +[Footnote 212: Report of the Commissioners, signed at Holyrood, June 20. +1695.] + +[Footnote 213: Gallienus Redivivus; Burnet, ii. 88.; Report of the +Commission of 1695.] + +[Footnote 214: Report of the Glencoe Commission, 1695.] + +[Footnote 215: Hill to Melville, May 15. 1691.] + +[Footnote 216: Ibid. June 3. 1691.] + +[Footnote 217: Burnet, ii. 8, 9.; Report of the Glencoe Commission. The +authorities quoted in this part of the Report were the depositions of +Hill, of Campbell of Ardkinglass, and of Mac Ian's two sons.] + +[Footnote 218: Johnson's Tour to the Hebrides.] + +[Footnote 219: Proclamation of the Privy Council of Scotland, Feb. q. +1589. I give this reference on the authority of Sir Walter Scott. See +the preface to the Legend of Montrose.] + +[Footnote 220: Johnson's Tour to the Hebrides.] + +[Footnote 221: Lockhart's Memoirs.] + +[Footnote 222: "What under heaven was the Master's byass in this matter? +I can imagine none." Impartial Account, 1695. "Nor can any man of +candour and ingenuity imagine that the Earl of Stair, who had neither +estate, friendship nor enmity in that country, nor so much as knowledge +of these persons, and who was never noted for cruelty in his temper, +should have thirsted after the blood of these wretches." Complete +History of Europe, 1707.] + +[Footnote 223: Dalrymple, in his Memoirs, relates this story, without +referring to any authority. His authority probably was family tradition. +That reports were current in 1692 of horrible crimes committed by the +Macdonalds of Glencoe, is certain from the Burnet MS. Marl. 6584. "They +had indeed been guilty of many black murthers," were Burnet's words, +written in 1693. He afterwards softened down this expression.] + +[Footnote 224: That the plan originally framed by the Master of Stair +was such as I have represented it, is clear from parts of his letters +which are quoted in the Report of 1695; and from his letters to +Breadalbane of October 27., December 2., and December 3. 1691. Of these +letters to Breadalbane the last two are in Dalrymple's Appendix. The +first is in the Appendix to the first volume of Mr. Burtons valuable +History of Scotland. "It appeared," says Burnet (ii. 157.), "that a +black design was laid, not only to cut off the men of Glencoe, but +a great many more clans, reckoned to be in all above six thousand +persons."] + +[Footnote 225: This letter is in the Report of 1695.] + +[Footnote 226: London Gazette, January 14and 18. 1691.] + +[Footnote 227: "I could have wished the Macdonalds had not divided; and +I am sorry that Keppoch and Mackian of Glenco are safe."--Letter of the +Master of Stair to Levingstone, Jan. 9. 1691/2 quoted in the Report of +1695.] + +[Footnote 228: Letter of the Master of Stair to Levingstone, Jan. 11 +1692, quoted in the Report of 1695.] + +[Footnote 229: Burnet, in 1693, wrote thus about William:--"He suffers +matters to run till there is a great heap of papers; and then he signs +them as much too fast as he was before too slow in despatching them." +Burnet MS. Harl. 6584. There is no sign either of procrastination or +of undue haste in William's correspondence with Heinsius. The truth is, +that the King understood Continental politics thoroughly, and gave his +whole mind to them. To English business he attended less, and to Scotch +business least of all.] + +[Footnote 230: Impartial Account, 1695.] + +[Footnote 231: See his letters quoted in the Report of 1695, and in the +Memoirs of the Massacre of Glencoe.] + +[Footnote 232: Report of 1695.] + +[Footnote 233: Deposition of Ronald Macdonald in the Report of 1695; +Letters from the Mountains, May 17. 1773. I quote Mrs. Grant's authority +only for what she herself heard and saw. Her account of the massacre +was written apparently without the assistance of books, and is grossly +incorrect. Indeed she makes a mistake of two years as to the date.] + +[Footnote 234: I have taken the account of the Massacre of Glencoe +chiefly from the Report of 1695, and from the Gallienus Redivivus. An +unlearned, and indeed a learned, reader may be at a loss to guess why +the Jacobites should have selected so strange a title for a pamphlet on +the massacre of Glencoe. The explanation will be found in a letter of +the Emperor Gallienus, preserved by Trebellius Pollio in the Life of +Ingenuus. Ingenuus had raised a rebellion in Moesia. He was defeated and +killed. Gallienus ordered the whole province to be laid waste, and wrote +to one of his lieutenants in language to which that of the Master of +Stair bore but too much resemblance. "Non mihi satisfacies si tantum +armatos occideris, quos et fors belli interimere potuisset. Perimendus +est omnis sexus virilis. Occidendus est quicunque maledixit. Occidendus +est quicunque male voluit. Lacera. Occide. Concide."] + +[Footnote 235: What I have called the Whig version of the story is +given, as well as the Jacobite version, in the Paris Gazette of April 7. +1692.] + +[Footnote 236: I believe that the circumstances which give so peculiar a +character of atrocity to the Massacre of Glencoe were first published in +print by Charles Leslie in the Appendix to his answer to King. The date +of Leslie's answer is 1692. But it must be remembered that the date of +1692 was then used down to what we should call the 25th of March 1693. +Leslie's book contains some remarks on a sermon by Tillotson which +was not printed till November 1692. The Gallienus Redivivus speedily +followed.] + +[Footnote 237: Gallienus Redivivus.] + +[Footnote 238: Hickes on Burnet and Tillotson, 1695.] + +[Footnote 239: Report of 1695.] + +[Footnote 240: Gallienus Redivivus.] + +[Footnote 241: Report of 1695.] + +[Footnote 242: London Gazette, Mar. 7. 1691/2] + +[Footnote 243: Burnet (ii. 93.) says that the King was not at this time +informed of the intentions of the French Government. Ralph contradicts +Burnet with great asperity. But that Burnet was in the right is proved +beyond dispute, by William's correspondence with Heinsius. So late as +April 24/May 4 William wrote thus: "Je ne puis vous dissimuler que je +commence a apprehender une descente en Angleterre, quoique je n'aye pu +le croire d'abord: mais les avis sont si multiplies de tous les cotes, +et accompagnes de tant de particularites, qu'il n'est plus guere +possible d'en douter." I quote from the French translation among the +Mackintosh MSS.] + +[Footnote 244: Burnet, ii. 95. and Onslow's note; Memoires de Saint +Simon; Memoires de Dangeau.] + +[Footnote 245: Life of James ii. 411, 412.] + +[Footnote 246: Memoires de Dangeau; Memoires de Saint Simon. Saint Simon +was on the terrace and, young as he was, observed this singular scene +with an eye which nothing escaped.] + +[Footnote 247: Memoires de Saint Simon; Burnet, ii. 95.; Guardian No. +48. See the excellent letter of Lewis to the Archbishop of Rheims, which +is quoted by Voltaire in the Siecle de Louis XIV.] + +[Footnote 248: In the Nairne papers printed by Macpherson are two +memorials from James urging Lewis to invade England. Both were written +in January 1692.] + +[Footnote 249: London Gazette, Feb. 15. 1691/2] + +[Footnote 250: Memoires de Berwick; Burnet, ii. 92.; Life of James, ii. +478. 491.] + +[Footnote 251: History of the late Conspiracy, 1693.] + +[Footnote 252: Life of James, ii. 479. 524. Memorials furnished by +Ferguson to Holmes in the Nairne Papers.] + +[Footnote 253: Life of James, ii. 474.] + +[Footnote 254: See the Monthly Mercuries of the spring of 1692.] + +[Footnote 255: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary for April and May 1692; London +Gazette, May 9. and 12.] + +[Footnote 256: Sheridan MS.; Life of James, ii. 492.] + +[Footnote 257: Life of James, ii. 488.] + +[Footnote 258: James told Sheridan that the Declaration was written by +Melfort. Sheridan MS.] + +[Footnote 259: A Letter to a Friend concerning a French Invasion to +restore the late King James to his Throne, and what may be expected from +him should he be successful in it, 1692; A second Letter to a Friend +concerning a French Invasion, in which the Declaration lately dispersed +under the Title of His Majesty's most gracious Declaration to all his +loving Subjects, commanding their Assistance against the P. of O. +and his Adherents, is entirely and exactly published according to +the dispersed Copies, with some short Observations upon it, 1692; The +Pretences of the French Invasion examined, 1692; Reflections on the late +King James's Declaration, 1692. The two Letters were written, I believe, +by Lloyd Bishop of Saint Asaph. Sheridan says, "The King's Declaration +pleas'd none, and was turn'd into ridicule burlesque lines in England." +I do not believe that a defence of this unfortunate Declaration is to be +found in any Jacobite tract. A virulent Jacobite writer, in a reply to +Dr. Welwood, printed in 1693, says, "As for the Declaration that was +printed last year... I assure you that it was as much misliked by +many, almost all, of the King's friends, as it can be exposed by his +enemies."] + +[Footnote 260: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, April 1692.] + +[Footnote 261: Sheridan MS.; Memoires de Dangeau.] + +[Footnote 262: London Gazette, May 12. 16. 1692; Gazette de Paris, May +31. 1692.] + +[Footnote 263: London Gazette, April 28. 1692] + +[Footnote 264: Ibid. May 2. 5. 12. 16.] + +[Footnote 265: London Gazette, May 16. 1692; Burchett.] + +[Footnote 266: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; London Gazette, May 19. +1692.] + +[Footnote 267: Russell's Letter to Nottingham, May 20. 1692, in the +London Gazette of May 23.; Particulars of Another Letter from the Fleet +published by authority; Burchett; Burnet, ii. 93.; Life of James, ii. +493, 494.; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; Memoires de Berwick. See also the +contemporary ballad on the battle one of the best specimens of English +street poetry, and the Advice to a Painter, 1692.] + +[Footnote 268: See Delaval's Letter to Nottingham, dated Cherburg, May +22., in the London Gazette of May 26.] + +[Footnote 269: London Gaz., May 26. 1692; Burchett's Memoirs of +Transactions at Sea; Baden to the States General, May 24/June 3; Life of +James, ii. 494; Russell's Letters in the Commons' Journals of Nov. 28. +1692; An Account of the Great Victory, 1692; Monthly Mercuries for June +and July 1692; Paris Gazette, May 28/June 7; Van Almonde's despatch +to the States General, dated May 24/June 3. 1692. The French official +account will be found in the Monthly Mercury for July. A report drawn up +by Foucault, Intendant of the province of Normandy, will be found in M. +Capefigue's Louis XIV.] + +[Footnote 270: An Account of the late Great Victory, 1692; Monthly +Mercury for June; Baden to the States General, May 24/ June 3; Narcissus +Luttrell's Diary.] + +[Footnote 271: London Gazette, June 2. 1692; Monthly Mercury; Baden to +the States General, June 14/24. Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.] + +[Footnote 272: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; Monthly Mercury.] + +[Footnote 273: London Gazette, June 9.; Baden to the States General, +June 7/17] + +[Footnote 274: Baden to the States General, June. 3/13] + +[Footnote 275: Baden to the States General, May 24/June 3; Narcissus +Luttrell's Diary.] + +[Footnote 276: An Account of the late Great Victory, 1692; Narcissus +Luttrell's Diary.] + +[Footnote 277: Baden to the States General, June 7/17. 1692.] + +[Footnote 278: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.] + +[Footnote 279: I give one short sentence as a specimen: "O fie that ever +it should be said that a clergyman have committed such durty actions!"] + +[Footnote 280: Gutch, Collectanea Curiosa.] + +[Footnote 281: My account of this plot is chiefly taken from Sprat's +Relation of the late Wicked Contrivance of Stephen Blackhead and Robert +Young, 1692. There are very few better narratives in the language.] + +[Footnote 282: Baden to the States General, Feb. 14/24 1693.] + +[Footnote 283: Postman, April 13. and 20. 1700; Postboy, April 18.; +Flying Post, April 20.] + +[Footnote 284: London Gazette, March 14. 1692.] + +[Footnote 285: The Swedes came, it is true, but not till the campaign +was over. London Gazette, Sept, 10 1691,] + +[Footnote 286: William to Heinsius March 14/24. 1692.] + +[Footnote 287: William to Heinsius, Feb. 2/12 1692.] + +[Footnote 288: Ibid. Jan 12/22 1692.] + +[Footnote 289: Ibid. Jan. 19/29. 1692.] + +[Footnote 290: Burnet, ii. 82 83.; Correspondence of William and +Heinsius, passim.] + +[Footnote 291: Memoires de Torcy.] + +[Footnote 292: William to Heinsius, Oct 28/Nov 8 1691.] + +[Footnote 293: Ibid. Jan. 19/29. 1692.] + +[Footnote 294: His letters to Heinsius are full of this subject.] + +[Footnote 295: See the Letters from Rome among the Nairne Papers. Those +in 1692 are from Lytcott; those in 1693 from Cardinal Howard; those in +1694 from Bishop Ellis; those in 1695 from Lord Perth. They all tell the +same story.] + +[Footnote 296: William's correspondence with Heinsius; London Gazette, +Feb. 4. 1691. In a pasquinade published in 1693, and entitled "La Foire +d'Ausbourg, Ballet Allegorique," the Elector of Saxony is introduced +saying, + + "Moy, je diray naivement, + Qu'une jartiere d'Angleterre + Feroit tout Mon empressement; + Et je ne vois rien sur la terre + Ou je trouve plus d'agrement."] + +[Footnote 297: William's correspondence with Heinsius. There is a +curious account of Schoening in the Memoirs of Count Dohna.] + +[Footnote 298: Burnet, ii. 84.] + +[Footnote 299: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.] + +[Footnote 300: Monthly Mercuries of January and April 1693; Burnet, ii. +84. In the Burnet MS. Hail. 6584, is a warm eulogy on the Elector of +Bavaria. When the MS. was written he was allied with England against +France. In the History, which was prepared for publication when he was +allied with France against England, the eulogy is omitted.] + +[Footnote 301: "Nec pluribus impar."] + +[Footnote 302: Memoires de Saint Simon; Dangeau; Racine's Letters, and +Narrative entitled Relation de ce qui s'est passe au Siege de Namur; +Monthly Mercury, May 1692.] + +[Footnote 303: Memoires de Saint Simon; Racine to Boileau, May 21. +1692.] + +[Footnote 304: Monthly Mercury for June; William to Heinsius May 26/ +June 5 1692.] + +[Footnote 305: William to Heinsius, May 26/June 5 1692.] + +[Footnote 306: Monthly Mercuries of June and July 1692; London Gazettes +of June; Gazette de Paris; Memoires de Saint Simon; Journal de Dangeau; +William to Heinsius, May 30/June 9 June 2/12 June 11/21; Vernon's +Letters to Colt, printed in Tindal's History; Racine's Narrative, and +Letters to Boileau of June 15. and 24.] + +[Footnote 307: Memoires de Saint Simon.] + +[Footnote 308: London Gazette, May 30. 1692; Memoires de Saint Simon; +Journal de Dangeau; Boyer's History of William III.] + +[Footnote 309: Memoires de Saint Simon; Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV. +Voltaire speaks with a contempt which is probably just of the account +of this affair in the Causes Celebres. See also the Letters of Madame +de Sevigne during the months of January and February 1680. In several +English lampoons Luxemburg is nicknamed Aesop, from his deformity, and +called a wizard, in allusion to his dealings with La Voisin. In one +Jacobite allegory he is the necromancer Grandorsio. In Narcissus +Luttrell's Diary for June 1692 he is called a conjuror. I have seen two +or three English caricatures of Luxemburg's figure.] + +[Footnote 310: Memoires de Saint Simon; Memoires de Villars; Racine to +Boileau, May 21. 1692.] + +[Footnote 311: Narcissus Luttrell, April 28. 1692.] + +[Footnote 312: London Gazette Aug. 4. 8. 11. 1692; Gazette de Paris, +Aug. 9. 16.; Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV.; Burnet, ii. 97; Memoires +de Berwick; Dykvelt's Letter to the States General dated August 4. 1692. +See also the very interesting debate which took place in the House of +Commons on Nov. 21. 1692. An English translation of Luxemburg's very +elaborate and artful despatch will be found in the Monthly Mercury +for September 1692. The original has recently been printed in the new +edition of Dangeau. Lewis pronounced it the best despatch that he had +ever seen. The editor of the Monthly Mercury maintains that it was +manufactured at Paris. "To think otherwise," he says, "is mere folly; +as if Luxemburg could be at so much leisure to write such a long letter, +more like a pedant than a general, or rather the monitor of a school, +giving an account to his master how the rest of the boys behaved +themselves." In the Monthly Mercury will be found also the French +official list of killed and wounded. Of all the accounts of the battle +that which seems to me the best is in the Memoirs of Feuquieres. It +is illustrated by a map. Feuquieres divides his praise and blame very +fairly between the generals. The traditions of the English mess tables +have been preserved by Sterne, who was brought up at the knees of +old soldiers of William. "'There was Cutts's' continued the Corporal, +clapping the forefinger of his right hand upon the thumb of his left, +and counting round his hand; 'there was Cutts's, Mackay's Angus's, +Graham's and Leven's, all cut to pieces; and so had the English +Lifeguards too, had it not been for some regiments on the right, who +marched up boldly to their relief, and received the enemy's fire in +their faces before any one of their own platoons discharged a musket. +They'll go to heaven for it,' added Trim."] + +[Footnote 313: Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV.] + +[Footnote 314: Langhorne, the chief lay agent of the Jesuits in England, +always, as he owned to Tillotson, selected tools on this principle. +Burnet, i. 230.] + +[Footnote 315: I have taken the history of Grandval's plot chiefly from +Grandval's own confession. I have not mentioned Madame de Maintenon, +because Grandval, in his confession, did not mention her. The accusation +brought against her rests solely on the authority of Dumont. See also +a True Account of the horrid Conspiracy against the Life of His most +Sacred Majesty William III. 1692; Reflections upon the late horrid +Conspiracy contrived by some of the French Court to murder His Majesty +in Flanders 1692: Burnet, ii. 92.; Vernon's letters from the camp +to Colt, published by Tindal; the London Gazette, Aug, 11. The Paris +Gazette contains not one word on the subject,--a most significant +silence.] + +[Footnote 316: London Gazette, Oct. 20. 24. 1692.] + +[Footnote 317: See his report in Burchett.] + +[Footnote 318: London Gazette, July 28. 1692. See the resolutions of the +Council of War in Burchett. In a letter to Nottingham, dated July 10, +Russell says, "Six weeks will near conclude what we call summer." Lords +Journals, Dec. 19. 1692.] + +[Footnote 319: Monthly Mercury, Aug. and Sept. 1692.] + +[Footnote 320: Evelyn's Diary, July 25. 1692; Burnet, ii. 94, 95., and +Lord Dartmouth's Note. The history of the quarrel between Russell and +Nottingham will be best learned from the Parliamentary Journals and +Debates of the Session of 1692/3.] + +[Footnote 321: Commons' Journals, Nov. 19. 1692; Burnet, ii. 95.; +Grey's Debates, Nov. 21. 1692; Paris Gazettes of August and September; +Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, Sept.] + +[Footnote 322: See Bart's Letters of Nobility, and the Paris Gazettes of +the autumn of 1692.] + +[Footnote 323: Memoires de Du Guay Trouin.] + +[Footnote 324: London Gazette, Aug. 11. 1692; Evelyn's Diary, Aug. +10.; Monthly Mercury for September; A Full Account of the late dreadful +Earthquake at Port Royal in Jamaica, licensed Sept. 9. 1692.] + +[Footnote 325: Evelyn's Diary, June 25. Oct. 1. 1690; Narcissus +Luttrell's Diary, June 1692, May 1693; Monthly Mercury, April, May, and +June 1693; Tom Brown's Description of a Country Life, 1692.] + +[Footnote 326: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, Nov. 1692.] + +[Footnote 327: See, for example, the London Gazette of Jan. 12. 1692] + +[Footnote 328: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, Dec. 1692.] + +[Footnote 329: Ibid. Jan. 1693.] + +[Footnote 330: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, July 1692.] + +[Footnote 331: Evelyn's Diary, Nov. 20. 1692: Narcissus Luttrell's +Diary; London Gazette, Nov. 24.; Hop to the Greffier of the States +General, Nov. 18/28] + +[Footnote 332: London Gazette, Dec. 19. 1692.] + +[Footnote 333: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, Dec. 1692.] + +[Footnote 334: Ibid. Nov. 1692.] + +[Footnote 335: Ibid. August 1692.] + +[Footnote 336: Hop to the Greffier of the States General, Dec 23/Jan +2 1693. The Dutch despatches of this year are filled with stories of +robberies.] + +[Footnote 337: Hop to the Greffier of the States General, Dec 23/Jan 2 +1693; Historical Records of the Queen's Bays, published by authority; +Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, Nov. 15.] + +[Footnote 338: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, Dee. 22.] + +[Footnote 339: Ibid. Dec. 1692; Hop, Jan. 3/13 Hop calls Whitney, "den +befaamsten roover in Engelandt."] + +[Footnote 340: London Gazette January 2. 1692/3.] + +[Footnote 341: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, Jan. 1692/3.] + +[Footnote 342: Ibid. Dec. 1692.] + +[Footnote 343: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, January and February; Hop Jan +31/Feb 10 and Feb 3/13 1693; Letter to Secretary Trenchard, 1694; New +Court Contrivances or more Sham Plots still, 1693.] + +[Footnote 344: Lords' and Commons' Journals, Nov. 4., Jan. 1692.] + +[Footnote 345: Commons' Journals, Nov. 10 1692.] + +[Footnote 346: See the Lords' Journals from Nov. 7. to Nov. 18. 1692; +Burnet, ii. 102. Tindall's account of these proceedings was taken from +letters addressed by Warre, Under Secretary of State, to Colt, envoy at +Hanover. Letter to Mr. Secretary Trenchard, 1694.] + +[Footnote 347: Lords' Journals, Dec. 7.; Tindal, from the Colt Papers; +Burnet, ii. 105.] + +[Footnote 348: Grey's Debates, Nov. 21. and 23. 1692.] + +[Footnote 349: Grey's Debates, Nov. 21. 1692; Colt Papers in Tindal.] + +[Footnote 350: Tindal, Colt Papers; Commons' Journals, Jan. 11. 1693.] + +[Footnote 351: Colt Papers in Tindal; Lords' Journals from Dec. 6. to +Dec. 19. 1692; inclusive,] + +[Footnote 352: As to the proceedings of this day in the House of +Commons, see the Journals, Dec. 20, and the letter of Robert Wilmot, +M.P. for Derby, to his colleague Anchitel Grey, in Grey's Debates.] + +[Footnote 353: Commons' Journals, Jan. 4. 1692/3.] + +[Footnote 354: Colt Papers in Tindal; Commons' Journals, Dec. 16. 1692, +Jan. 11 1692; Burnet ii. 104.] + +[Footnote 355: The peculiar antipathy of the English nobles to the Dutch +favourites is mentioned in a highly interesting note written by Renaudot +in 1698, and preserved among the Archives of the French Foreign Office.] + +[Footnote 356: Colt Papers in Tindal; Lords' Journals, Nov. 28. and 29. +1692, Feb. 18. and 24. 1692/3.] + +[Footnote 357: Grey's Debates, Nov 18. 1692; Commons' Journals, Nov. +18., Dec. 1. 1692.] + +[Footnote 358: See Cibber's Apology, and Mountford's Greenwich Park.] + +[Footnote 359: See Cibber's Apology, Tom Brown's Works, and indeed the +works of every man of wit and pleasure about town.] + +[Footnote 360: The chief source of information about this case is the +report of the trial, which will be found in Howell's Collection. See +Evelyn's Diary, February 4. 1692/3. I have taken some circumstances from +Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, from a letter to Sancroft which is among the +Tanner MSS in the Bodleian Library, and from two letters addressed by +Brewer to Wharton, which are also in the Bodleian Library.] + +[Footnote 361: Commons' Journals, Nov. 14. 1692.] + +[Footnote 362: Commons' Journals of the Session, particularly of Nov. +17., Dec. 10., Feb. 25., March 3.; Colt Papers in Tindal.] + +[Footnote 363: Commons' Journals, Dec. 10.; Tindal, Colt Papers.] + +[Footnote 364: See Coke's Institutes, part iv. chapter 1. In 1566 a +subsidy was 120,000L.; in 1598, 78,000L.; when Coke wrote his +Institutes, about the end of the reign of James I. 70,000L. Clarendon +tells us that, in 1640, twelve subsidies were estimated at about +600,000L.] + +[Footnote 365: See the old Land Tax Acts, and the debates on the Land +Tax Redemption Bill of 1798.] + +[Footnote 366: Lords' Journals Jan. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.; Commons' +Journals, Jan. 17, 18. 20. 1692; Tindal, from the Colt Papers; Burnet, +ii. 104, 105. Burnet has used an incorrect expression, which Tindal, +Ralph and others have copied. He says that the question was whether the +Lords should tax themselves. The Lords did not claim any right to alter +the amount of taxation laid on them by the bill as it came up to them. +They only demanded that their estates should be valued, not by the +ordinary commissioners, but by special commissioners of higher rank.] + +[Footnote 367: Commons' Journals, Dec. 2/12. 1692,] + +[Footnote 368: For this account of the origin of stockjobbing in the +City of London I am chiefly indebted to a most curious periodical paper, +entitled, "Collection for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade, by +J. Houghton, F.R.S." It is in fact a weekly history of the commercial +speculations of that time. I have looked through the files of several +years. In No. 33., March 17. 1693, Houghton says: "The buying and +selling of Actions is one of the great trades now on foot. I find a +great many do not understand the affair." On June 13. and June 22. 1694, +he traces the whole progress of stockjobbing. On July 13. of the same +year he makes the first mention of time bargains. Whoever is desirous +to know more about the companies mentioned in the text may consult +Houghton's Collection and a pamphlet entitled Anglia Tutamen, published +in 1695.] + +[Footnote 369: Commons' Journals; Stat. 4 W. & M. c. 3.] + +[Footnote 370: See a very remarkable note in Hume's History of England, +Appendix III.] + +[Footnote 371: Wealth of Nations, book v. chap. iii.] + +[Footnote 372: Wesley was struck with this anomaly in 1745. See his +Journal.] + +[Footnote 373: Pepys, June 10. 1668.] + +[Footnote 374: See the Politics, iv. 13.] + +[Footnote 375: The bill will be found among the archives of the House of +Lords.] + +[Footnote 376: Lords' Journals, Jan. 3. 1692/3.] + +[Footnote 377: Introduction to the Copies and Extracts of some Letters +written to and from the Earl of Danby, now Duke of Leeds, published by +His Grace's Direction, 1710.] + +[Footnote 378: Commons' Journals; Grey's Debates. The bill itself is +among the archives of the House of Lords.] + +[Footnote 379: Dunton's Life and Errors; Autobiography of Edmund Bohun, +privately printed in 1853. This autobiography is, in the highest degree, +curious and interesting.] + +[Footnote 380: Vox Cleri, 1689.] + +[Footnote 381: Bohun was the author of the History of the Desertion, +published immediately after the Revolution. In that work he propounded +his favourite theory. "For my part," he says, "I am amazed to see men +scruple the submitting to the present King; for, if ever man had a just +cause of war, he had; and that creates a right to the thing gained by +it. The King by withdrawing and disbanding his army yielded him the +throne; and if he had, without any more ceremony, ascended it, he had +done no more than all other princes do on the like occasions."] + +[Footnote 382: Character of Edmund Bohun, 1692.] + +[Footnote 383: Dryden, in his Life of Lucian, speaks in too high terms +of Blount's abilities. But Dryden's judgment was biassed; for Blount's +first work was a pamphlet in defence of the Conquest of Granada.] + +[Footnote 384: See his Appeal from the Country to the City for the +Preservation of His Majesty's Person, Liberty, Property, and the +Protestant Religion.] + +[Footnote 385: See the article on Apollonius in Bayle's Dictionary. +I say that Blount made his translation from the Latin; for his works +contain abundant proofs that he was not competent to translate from the +Greek.] + +[Footnote 386: See Gildon's edition of Blount's Works, 1695.] + +[Footnote 387: Wood's Athenae Oxonienses under the name Henry Blount +(Charles Blount's father); Lestrange's Observator, No. 290.] + +[Footnote 388: This piece was reprinted by Gildon in 1695 among Blount's +Works.] + +[Footnote 389: That the plagiarism of Blount should have been detected +by few of his contemporaries is not wonderful. But it is wonderful +that in the Biographia Britannica his just Vindication should be warmly +extolled, without the slightest hint that every thing good in it is +stolen. The Areopagitica is not the only work which he pillaged on this +occasion. He took a noble passage from Bacon without acknowledgment.] + +[Footnote 390: I unhesitatingly attribute this pamphlet to Blount, +though it was not reprinted among his works by Gildon. If Blount did not +actually write it he must certainly have superintended the writing. That +two men of letters, acting without concert, should bring out within +a very short time two treatises, one made out of one half of the +Areopagitica and the other made out of the other half, is incredible. +Why Gildon did not choose to reprint the second pamphlet will appear +hereafter.] + +[Footnote 391: Bohun's Autobiography.] + +[Footnote 392: Bohun's Autobiography; Commons' Journals, Jan. 20. +1692/3.] + +[Footnote 393: Ibid. Jan. 20, 21. 1692/3] + +[Footnote 394: Oldmixon; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, Nov. and Dec. 1692; +Burnet, ii. 334; Bohun's Autobiography.] + +[Footnote 395: Grey's Debates; Commons' Journals Jan. 21. 23. 1692/3.; +Bohun's Autobiography; Kennet's Life and Reign of King William and Queen +Mary.] + +[Footnote 396: "Most men pitying the Bishop."--Bohun's Autobiography.] + +[Footnote 397: The vote of the Commons is mentioned, with much feeling +in the memoirs which Burnet wrote at the time. "It look'd," he says, +"somewhat extraordinary that I, who perhaps was the greatest assertor +of publick liberty, from my first setting out, of any writer of the age, +should be so severely treated as an enemy to it. But the truth was the +Toryes never liked me, and the Whiggs hated me because I went not into +their notions and passions. But even this, and worse things that may +happen to me shall not, I hope, be able to make me depart from moderate +principles and the just asserting the liberty of mankind."--Burnet MS. +Harl. 6584.] + +[Footnote 398: Commons' Journals, Feb. 27. 1692/3; Lords' Journals, Mar. +4.] + +[Footnote 399: Lords' Journals, March 8. 1692/3.] + +[Footnote 400: In the article on Blount in the Biographia Britannica he +is extolled as having borne a principal share in the emancipation of the +press. But the writer was very imperfectly informed as to the facts. + +It is strange that the circumstances of Blount's death should be so +uncertain. That he died of a wound inflicted by his own hand, and that +he languished long, are undisputed facts. The common story was that he +shot himself; and Narcissus Luttrell at the time, made an entry to this +effect in his Diary. On the other hand, Pope, who had the very best +opportunities of obtaining accurate information, asserts that Blount, +"being in love with a near kinswoman of his, and rejected, gave himself +a stab in the arm, as pretending to kill himself, of the consequence of +which he really died."--Note on the Epilogue to the Satires, Dialogue I. +Warburton, who had lived first with the heroes of the Dunciad, and then +with the most eminent men of letters of his time ought to have known +the truth; and Warburton, by his silence, confirms Pope's assertion. +Gildon's rhapsody about the death of his friend will suit either story +equally.] + +[Footnote 401: The charges brought against Coningsby will be found in +the journals of the two Houses of the English Parliament. Those charges +were, after the lapse of a quarter of a century, versified by Prior, +whom Coningsby had treated with great insolence and harshness. I will +quote a few stanzas. + +It will be seen that the poet condescended to imitate the style of the +street ballads. + + "Of Nero tyrant, petty king, + Who heretofore did reign + In famed Hibernia, I will sing, + And in a ditty plain. + + "The articles recorded stand + Against this peerless peer; + Search but the archives of the land, + You'll find them written there." + +The story of Gaffney is then related. Coningsby's speculations are +described thus: + + "Vast quantities of stores did he + Embezzle and purloin + Of the King's stores he kept a key, + Converting them to coin. + + "The forfeited estates also, + Both real and personal, + Did with the stores together go. + Fierce Cerberas swallow'd all." + +The last charge is the favour shown the Roman Catholics: + + "Nero, without the least disguise, + The Papists at all times + Still favour'd, and their robberies + Look'd on as trivial crimes. + + "The Protestants whom they did rob + During his government, + Were forced with patience, like good Job, + To rest themselves content. + + "For he did basely them refuse + All legal remedy; + The Romans still he well did use, + Still screen'd their roguery."] + +[Footnote 402: An Account of the Sessions of Parliament in Ireland, +1692, London, 1693.] + +[Footnote 403: The Poynings Act is 10 H. 7. c. 4. It was explained by +another Act, 3&4P.and M.c. [4].] + +[Footnote 404: The history of this session I have taken from the +journals of the Irish Lords and Commons, from the narratives laid +in writing before the English Lords and Commons by members of the +Parliament of Ireland and from a pamphlet entitled a Short Account of +the Sessions of Parliament in Ireland, 1692, London, 1693. Burnet seems +to me to have taken a correct view of the dispute, ii. 118. "The English +in Ireland thought the government favoured the Irish too much; some said +this was the effect of bribery, whereas others thought it was necessary +to keep them safe from the prosecutions of the English, who hated +them, and were much sharpened against them.... There were also great +complaints of an ill administration, chiefly in the revenue, in the pay +of the army, and in the embezzling of stores."] + +[Footnote 405: As to Swift's extraction and early life, see the +Anecdotes written by himself.] + +[Footnote 406: Journal to Stella, Letter liii.] + +[Footnote 407: See Swift's Letter to Temple of Oct. 6. 1694.] + +[Footnote 408: Journal to Stella, Letter xix.;] + +[Footnote 409: Swift's Anecdotes.] + +[Footnote 410: London Gazette, March 27. 1693.] + +[Footnote 411: Burnet, ii. 108, and Speaker Onslow's Note; Sprat's True +Account of the Horrid Conspiracy; Letter to Trenchard, 1694.] + +[Footnote 412: Burnett, ii. 107.] + +[Footnote 413: These rumours are more than once mentioned in Narcissus +Luttrell's Diary.] + +[Footnote 414: London Gazette, March 27. 1693; Narcissus Luttrell's +Diary:] + +[Footnote 415: Burnett, ii, 123.; Carstairs Papers.] + +[Footnote 416: Register of the Actings or Proceedings of the General +Assembly of the Church of Scotland held at Edinburgh, Jan. 15. 1692, +collected and extracted from the Records by the Clerk thereof. This +interesting record was printed for the first time in 1852.] + +[Footnote 417: Act. Parl. Scot., June 12. 1693.] + +[Footnote 418: Ibid. June 15. 1693.] + +[Footnote 419: The editor of the Carstairs Papers was evidently very +desirous, from whatever motive, to disguise this most certain and +obvious truth. He has therefore prefixed to some of Johnstone's letters +descriptions which may possibly impose on careless readers. For example +Johnstone wrote to Carstairs on the 18th of April, before it was known +that the session would be a quiet one, "All arts have been used and will +be used to embroil matters." The editor's account of the contents of +this letter is as follows: + +"Arts used to embroil matters with reference to the affair of Glencoe." +Again, Johnstone, in a letter written some weeks later, complained +that the liberality and obsequiousness of the Estates had not been +duly appreciated. "Nothing," he says, "is to be done to gratify the +Parliament, I mean that they would have reckoned a gratification." +The editor's account of the contents of this letter is as follows: +"Complains that the Parliament is not to be gratified by an inquiry into +the massacre of Glencoe."] + +[Footnote 420: Life of James, ii. 479.] + +[Footnote 421: Hamilton's Zeneyde.] + +[Footnote 422: A View of the Court of St. Germains from the Year 1690 +to 1695, 1696; Ratio Ultima, 1697. In the Nairne Papers is a letter in +which the nonjuring bishops are ordered to send a Protestant divine +to Saint Germains. This letter was speedily followed by another +letter revoking the order. Both letters will be found in Macpherson's +collection. They both bear date Oct. 16. 1693. I suppose that the first +letter was dated according to the New Style and the letter of revocation +according to the Old Style.] + +[Footnote 423: Ratio Ultima, 1697; History of the late Parliament, +1699.] + +[Footnote 424: View of the Court of Saint Germains from 1690 to 1695. +That Dunfermline was grossly ill used is plain even from the Memoirs of +Dundee, 1714.] + +[Footnote 425: So early as the year 1690, that conclave of the +leading Jacobites which gave Preston his instructions made a strong +representation to James on this subject. "He must overrule the bigotry +of Saint Germains; and dispose their minds to think of those methods +that are more likely to gain the nation. For there is one silly thing or +another daily done there, that comes to our notice here which prolongs +what they so passionately desire." See also A Short and True Relation +of Intrigues transacted both at Home and Abroad to restore the late King +James, 1694.] + +[Footnote 426: View of the Court of Saint Germains. The account given in +this View is confirmed by a remarkable paper, which is among the +Nairne MSS. Some of the heads of the Jacobite party in England made a +representation to James, one article of which is as follows: "They beg +that Your Majesty would be pleased to admit of the Chancellor of England +into your Council; your enemies take advantage of his not being in it." +James's answer is evasive. "The King will be, on all occasions, ready to +express the just value and esteem he has for his Lord Chancellor."] + +[Footnote 427: A short and true Relation of Intrigues, 1694.] + +[Footnote 428: See the paper headed "For my Son the Prince of Wales, +1692." It is printed at the end of the Life of James.] + +[Footnote 429: Burnet, i. 683.] + +[Footnote 430: As to this change of ministry at Saint Germains see +the very curious but very confused narrative in the Life of James, ii. +498-575.; Burnet, ii. 219.; Memoires de Saint Simon; A French Conquest +neither desirable nor practicable, 1693; and the Letters from the Nairne +MSS. printed by Macpherson.] + +[Footnote 431: Life of James, ii. 509. Bossuet's opinion will be found +in the Appendix to M. Mazure's history. The Bishop sums up his arguments +thus "Je dirai done volontiers aux Catholiques, s'il y en a qui +n'approuvent point la declaration dont il s'agit; Noli esse justus +multum; neque plus sapias quam necesse est, ne obstupescas." In the Life +of James it is asserted that the French Doctors changed their opinion, +and that Bossuet, though he held out longer than the rest, saw at last +that he had been in error, but did not choose formally to retract. I +think much too highly of Bossuet's understanding to believe this.] + +[Footnote 432: Life of James, ii. 505.] + +[Footnote 433: "En fin celle cy--j'entends la declaration--n'est que +pour rentrer: et l'on peut beaucoup mieux disputer des affaires des +Catholiques a Whythall qu'a Saint Germain."--Mazure, Appendix.] + +[Footnote 434: Baden to the States General, June 2/12 1693. Four +thousand copies, wet from the press, were found in this house.] + +[Footnote 435: Baden's Letters to the States General of May and June +1693; An Answer to the Late King James's Declaration published at Saint +Germains, 1693.] + +[Footnote 436: James, ii. 514. I am unwilling to believe that Ken was +among those who blamed the Declaration of 1693 as too merciful.] + +[Footnote 437: Among the Nairne Papers is a letter sent on this occasion +by Middleton to Macarthy, who was then serving in Germany. Middleton +tries to soothe Macarthy and to induce Macarthy to soothe others. +Nothing more disingenuous was ever written by a Minister of State. "The +King," says the Secretary, "promises in the foresaid Declaration to +restore the Settlement, but at the same time, declares that he will +recompense all those who may suffer by it by giving them equivalents." +Now James did not declare that he would recompense any body, but merely +that he would advise with his Parliament on the subject. He did not +declare that he would even advise with his Parliament about recompensing +all who might suffer, but merely about recompensing such as had followed +him to the last. Finally he said nothing about equivalents. Indeed the +notion of giving an equivalent to every body who suffered by the Act of +Settlement, in other words, of giving an equivalent for the fee simple +of half the soil of Ireland, was obviously absurd. Middleton's letter +will be found in Macpherson's collection. I will give a sample of the +language held by the Whigs on this occasion. "The Roman Catholics of +Ireland," says one writer, "although in point of interest and profession +different from us yet, to do them right, have deserved well from the +late King, though ill from us; and for the late King to leave them +and exclude them in such an instance of uncommon ingratitude that +Protestants have no reason to stand by a Prince that deserts his own +party, and a people that have been faithful to him and his interest to +the very last."--A short and true Relation of the Intrigues, &c., 1694.] + +[Footnote 438: The edict of creation was registered by the Parliament of +Paris on the 10th of April 1693.] + +[Footnote 439: The letter is dated the 19th of April 1693. It is among +the Nairne MSS., and was printed by Macpherson.] + +[Footnote 440: "Il ne me plait nullement que M. Middleton est alle en +France. Ce n'est pas un homme qui voudroit faire un tel pas sans quelque +chose d'importance, et de bien concerte, sur quoy j'ay fait beaucoup +de reflections que je reserve a vous dire avostre heureuse +arrivee."--William to Portland from Loo. April 18/28 1693.] + +[Footnote 441: The best account of William's labours and anxieties at +this time is contained in his letters to Heinsius--particularly the +letters of May 1. 9. and 30. 1693.] + +[Footnote 442: He speaks very despondingly in his letter to Heinsius +of the 30th of May, Saint Simon says: "On a su depuis que le Prince +d'Orange ecrivit plusieurs fois au prince de Vaudmont son ami intime, +qu'il etait perdu et qu'il n'y avait que par un miracle qu'il pût +echapper."] + +[Footnote 443: Saint Simon; Monthly Mercury, June 1693; Burnet, ii. +111.] + +[Footnote 444: Memoires de Saint Simon; Burnet, i. 404.] + +[Footnote 445: William to Heinsius, July. 1693.] + +[Footnote 446: Saint Simon's words are remarkable. "Leur cavalerie," he +says, "y fit d'abord plier des troupes d'elite jusqu'alors invincibles." +He adds, "Les gardes du Prince d'Orange, ceux de M. de Vaudemont, et +deux regimens Anglais en eurent l'honneur."] + +[Footnote 447: Berwick; Saint Simon; Burnet, i. 112, 113.; Feuquieres; +London Gazette, July 27. 31. Aug. 3. 1693; French Official Relation; +Relation sent by the King of Great Britain to their High Mightinesses, +Aug. 2. 1693; Extract of a Letter from the Adjutant of the King of +England's Dragoon Guards, Aug. 1.; Dykvelt's Letter to the States +General dated July 30. at noon. The last four papers will be found in +the Monthly Mercuries of July and August 1693. See also the History +of the Last Campaign in the Spanish Netherlands by Edward D'Auvergne, +dedicated to the Duke of Ormond, 1693. The French did justice to +William. "Le Prince d'Orange," Racine wrote to Boileau, "pensa etre +pris, apres avoir fait des merveilles." See also the glowing description +of Sterne, who, no doubt, had many times heard the battle fought over +by old soldiers. It was on this occasion that Corporal Trim was left +wounded on the field, and was nursed by the Beguine.] + +[Footnote 448: Letter from Lord Perth to his sister, June 17. 1694.] + +[Footnote 449: Saint Simon mentions the reflections thrown on the +Marshal. Feuquieres, a very good judge, tells us that Luxemburg was +unjustly blamed, and that the French army was really too much crippled +by its losses to improve the victory.] + +[Footnote 450: This account of what would have taken place, if Luxemburg +had been able and willing to improve his victory, I have taken from what +seems to have been a very manly and sensible speech made by Talmash +in the House of Commons on the 11th of December following. See Grey's +Debates.] + +[Footnote 451: William to Heinsius, July 20/30. 1693.] + +[Footnote 452: William to Portland, July 21/31. 1693.] + +[Footnote 453: London Gazette, April 24., May 15. 1693.] + +[Footnote 454: Burchett's Memoirs of Transactions at Sea; Burnet, ii. +114, 115, 116.; the London Gazette, July 17. 1693; Monthly Mercury of +July; Letter from Cadiz, dated July 4.] + +[Footnote 455: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; Baden to the States General, +Jul 14/24, July 25/Aug 4. Among the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian Library +are letters describing the agitation in the City. "I wish," says one of +Sancroft's Jacobite correspondents, "it may open our eyes and change our +minds. But by the accounts I have seen, the Turkey Company went from the +Queen and Council full of satisfaction and good humour."] + +[Footnote 456: London Gazette, August 21 1693; L'Hermitage to the States +General, July 28/Aug 7 As I shall, in this and the following chapters, +make large use of the despatches of L'Hermitage, it may be proper to say +something about him. He was a French refugee, and resided in London +as agent for the Waldenses. One of his employments had been to +send newsletters to Heinsius. Some interesting extracts from those +newsletters will be found in the work of the Baron Sirtema de +Grovestins. It was probably in consequence of the Pensionary's +recommendation that the States General, by a resolution dated July +24/Aug 3 1693, desired L'Hermitage to collect and transmit to them +intelligence of what was passing in England. His letters abound with +curious and valuable information which is nowhere else to be found. His +accounts of parliamentary proceedings are of peculiar value, and seem to +have been so considered by his employers. + +Copies of the despatches of L'Hermitage, and, indeed of the despatches +of all the ministers and agents employed by the States General in +England from the time of Elizabeth downward, now are or will soon be +in the library of the British Museum. For this valuable addition to the +great national storehouse of knowledge, the country is chiefly +indebted to Lord Palmerston. But it would be unjust not to add that his +instructions were most zealously carried into effect by the late Sir +Edward Disbrowe, with the cordial cooperation of the enlightened men who +have charge of the noble collection of Archives at the Hague.] + +[Footnote 457: It is strange that the indictment should not have been +printed in Howell's State Trials. The copy which is before me was made +for Sir James Mackintosh.] + +[Footnote 458: Most of the information which has come down to us about +Anderton's case will be found in Howell's State Trials.] + +[Footnote 459: The Remarks are extant, and deserve to be read.] + +[Footnote 460: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.] + +[Footnote 461: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.] + +[Footnote 462: There are still extant a handbill addressed to All +Gentlemen Seamen that are weary of their Lives; and a ballad accusing +the King and Queen of cruelty to the sailors. + + "To robbers, thieves, and felons, they + Freely grant pardons every day. + Only poor seamen, who alone + Do keep them in their father's throne, + Must have at all no mercy shown."] + +Narcissus Luttrell gives an account of the scene at Whitehall.] + +[Footnote 463: L'Hermitage, Sept. 5/15. 1693; Narcissus Luttrell's +Diary.] + +[Footnote 464: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.] + +[Footnote 465: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary. In a pamphlet published +at this time, and entitled A Dialogue between Whig and Tory, the Whig +alludes to "the public insolences at the Bath upon the late defeat in +Flanders." The Tory answers, "I know not what some hotheaded drunken +men may have said and done at the Bath or elsewhere." In the folio +Collection of State Tracts, this Dialogue is erroneously said to have +been printed about November 1692.] + +[Footnote 466: The Paper to which I refer is among the Nairne MSS., +and will be found in Macpherson's collection. That excellent writer Mr. +Hallam has, on this subject, fallen into an error of a kind very rare +with him. He says that the name of Caermarthen is perpetually mentioned +among those whom James reckoned as his friends. I believe that the +evidence against Caermarthen will be found to begin and to end with the +letter of Melfort which I have mentioned. There is indeed, among the +Nairne MSS, which Macpherson printed, an undated and anonymous letter +in which Caermarthen is reckoned among the friends of James. But this +letter is altogether undeserving of consideration. The writer was +evidently a silly hotheaded Jacobite, who knew nothing about the +situation or character of any of the public men whom he mentioned. He +blunders grossly about Marlborough, Godolphin, Russell, Shrewsbury +and the Beaufort family. Indeed the whole composition is a tissue of +absurdities.] + +It ought to be remarked that, in the Life of James compiled from his own +Papers, the assurances of support which he received from Marlborough, +Russell, Godolphin Shrewsbury, and other men of note are mentioned with +very copious details. But there is not a word indicating that any such +assurances were ever received from Caermarthen.] + +[Footnote 467: A Journal of several Remarkable Passages relating to the +East India Trade, 1693.] + +[Footnote 468: See the Monthly Mercuries and London Gazettes of +September, October, November and December 1693; Dangeau, Sept. 5. 27., +Oct. 21., Nov. 21.; the Price of the Abdication, 1693.] + +[Footnote 469: Correspondence of William and Heinsius; Danish Note, +dated Dec 11/21 1693. The note delivered by Avaux to the Swedish +government at this time will be found in Lamberty's Collection and in +the Memoires et Negotiations de la Paix de Ryswick.] + +[Footnote 470: "Sir John Lowther says, nobody can know one day what a +House of Commons would do the next; in which all agreed with him." These +remarkable words were written by Caermarthen on the margin of a paper +drawn up by Rochester in August 1692. Dalrymple, Appendix to part ii. +chap. 7.] + +[Footnote 471: See Sunderland's celebrated Narrative which has often +been printed, and his wife's letters, which are among the Sidney papers, +published by the late Serjeant Blencowe.] + +[Footnote 472: Van Citters, May 6/16. 1690.] + +[Footnote 473: Evelyn, April 24. 1691.] + +[Footnote 474: Lords' Journals, April 28. 1693.] + +[Footnote 475: L'Hermitage, Sept. 19/29, Oct 2/12 1693.] + +[Footnote 476: It is amusing to see how Johnson's Toryism breaks out +where we should hardly expect to find it. Hastings says, in the Third +Part of Henry the Sixth, + +"Let us be back'd with God and with the seas Which He hath given for +fence impregnable, And with their helps alone defend ourselves." + +"This," says Johnson in a note, "has been the advice of every man who, +in any age, understood and favoured the interest of England."] + +[Footnote 477: Swift, in his Inquiry into the Behaviour of the Queen's +last Ministry, mentions Somers as a person of great abilities, who used +to talk in so frank a manner that he seemed to discover the bottom +of his heart. In the Memoirs relating to the Change in the Queen's +Ministry, Swift says that Somers had one and only one unconversable +fault, formality. It is not very easy to understand how the same man +can be the most unreserved of companions and yet err on the side of +formality. Yet there may be truth in both the descriptions. It is well +known that Swift loved to take rude liberties with men of high rank and +fancied that, by doing so, he asserted his own independence. He has been +justly blamed for this fault by his two illustrious biographers, both +of them men of spirit at least as independent as his, Samuel Johnson +and Walter Scott. I suspect that he showed a disposition to behave with +offensive familiarity to Somers, and that Somers, not choosing to submit +to impertinence, and not wishing to be forced to resent it, resorted, +in selfdefence, to a ceremonious politeness which he never would have +practised towards Locke or Addison.] + +[Footnote 478: The eulogies on Somers and the invectives against him are +innumerable. Perhaps the best way to come to a just judgment would be to +collect all that has been said about him by Swift and by Addison. They +were the two keenest observers of their time; and they both knew him +well. But it ought to be remarked that, till Swift turned Tory, he +always extolled Somers not only as the most accomplished, but as the +most virtuous of men. In the dedication of the Tale of a Tub are these +words, "There is no virtue, either of a public or private life, which +some circumstances of your own have not often produced upon the stage of +the world;" and again, "I should be very loth the bright example of your +Lordship's virtues should be lost to other eyes, both for their sake and +your own." In the Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions at Athens +and Rome, Somers is the just Aristides. After Swift had ratted he +described Somers as a man who "possessed all excellent qualifications +except virtue."] + +[Footnote 479: See Whiston's Autobiography.] + +[Footnote 480: Swift's note on Mackay's Character of Wharton.] + +[Footnote 481: This account of Montague and Wharton I have collected +from innumerable sources. I ought, however, to mention particularly the +very curious Life of Wharton published immediately after his death.] + +[Footnote 482: Much of my information about the Harleys I have derived +from unpublished memoirs written by Edward Harley, younger brother of +Robert. A copy of these memoirs is among the Mackintosh MSS.] + +[Footnote 483: The only writer who has praised Harley's oratory, as far +as I remember, is Mackay, who calls him eloquent. Swift scribbled in the +margin, "A great lie." And certainly Swift was inclined to do more than +justice to Harley. "That lord," said Pope, "talked of business in so +confused a manner that you did not know what he was about; and every +thing he went to tell you was in the epic way; for he always began in +the middle."--Spence's Anecdotes.] + +[Footnote 484: "He used," said Pope, "to send trifling verses from Court +to the Scriblerus Club almost every day, and would come and talk idly +with them almost every night even when his all was at stake." Some +specimens of Harley's poetry are in print. The best, I think, is a +stanza which he made on his own fall in 1714; and bad is the best. + + "To serve with love, + And shed your blood, + Approved is above; + But here below + The examples show + 'Tis fatal to be good."] + +[Footnote 485: The character of Harley is to be collected from +innumerable panegyrics and lampoons; from the works and the private +correspondence of Swift, Pope, Arbuthnot, Prior and Bolingbroke, and +from multitudes of such works as Ox and Bull, the High German Doctor, +and The History of Robert Powell the Puppet Showman.] + +[Footnote 486: In a letter dated Sept. 12. 1709 a short time before he +was brought into power on the shoulders of the High Church mob, he says: +"My soul has been among Lyons, even the sons of men, whose teeth are +spears and arrows, and their tongues sharp swords. But I learn how good +it is to wait on the Lord, and to possess one's soul in peace." The +letter was to Carstairs. I doubt whether Harley would have canted thus +if he had been writing to Atterbury.] + +[Footnote 487: The anomalous position which Harley and Foley at this +time occupied is noticed in the Dialogue between a Whig and a Tory, +1693. "Your great P. Fo-y," says the Tory, "turns cadet and carries arms +under the General of the West Saxons. The two Har-ys, father and son, +are engineers under the late Lieutenant of the Ordnance, and bomb any +bill which he hath once resolv'd to reduce to ashes." Seymour is the +General of the West Saxons. Musgrave had been Lieutenant of the Ordnance +in the reign of Charles the Second.] + +[Footnote 488: Lords' and Commons' Journals, Nov. 7. 1693.] + +[Footnote 489: Commons' Journals, Nov. 13. 1693; Grey's Debates.] + +[Footnote 490: Commons' Journals, Nov. 17. 1693.] + +[Footnote 491: Ibid. Nov. 22. 27. 1693; Grey's Debates.] + +[Footnote 492: Commons' Journals, Nov. 29. Dec. 6. 1693; L'Hermitage, +Dec. 1/11 1693.] + +[Footnote 493: L'Hermitage, Sept. 1/11. Nov. 7/17 1693.] + +[Footnote 494: See the Journal to Stella, lii. liii. lix. lxi.; and Lady +Orkney's Letters to Swift.] + +[Footnote 495: See the letters written at this time by Elizabeth +Villiers, Wharton, Russell and Shrewsbury, in the Shrewsbury +Correspondence.] + +[Footnote 496: Commons' Journals, Jan. 6. 8. 1693/4.] + +[Footnote 497: Ibid. Jan. 19. 1693/4] + +[Footnote 498: Hamilton's New Account.] + +[Footnote 499: The bill I found in the Archives of the Lords. Its +history I learned from the journals of the two Houses, from a passage +in the Diary of Narcissus Luttrell, and from two letters to the States +General, both dated on Feb 27/March 9 1694 the day after the debate in +the Lords. One of these letters is from Van Citters; the other, which +contains fuller information, is from L'Hermitage.] + +[Footnote 500: Commons' Journals, Nov. 28. 1693; Grey's Debates. +L'Hermitage expected that the bill would pas;, and that the royal assent +would not be withheld. On November. he wrote to the States General, +"Il paroist dans toute la chambre beaucoup de passion a faire passer ce +bil." On Nov 28/Dec 8 he says that the division on the passing "n'a pas +cause une petite surprise. Il est difficile d'avoir un point fixe sur +les idees qu'on peut se former des emotions du parlement, car il paroist +quelquefois de grander chaleurs qui semblent devoir tout enflammer, et +qui, peu de tems apres, s'evaporent." That Seymour was the chief manager +of the opposition to the bill is asserted in the once celebrated Hush +Money pamphlet of that year.] + +[Footnote 501: Commons' Journals; Grey's Debates. The engrossed copy of +this Bill went down to the House of Commons and is lost. The original +draught on paper is among the Archives of the Lords. That Monmouth +brought in the bill I learned from a letter of L'Hermitage to the +States General Dec. 13. 1693. As to the numbers on the division, I have +followed the journals. But in Grey's Debates and in the letters of Van +Citters and L'Hermitage, the minority is said to have been 172.] + +[Footnote 502: The bill is in the Archives of the Lords. Its history I have +collected from the journals, from Grey's Debates, and from the highly +interesting letters of Van Citters and L'Hermitage. I think it clear +from Grey's Debates that a speech which L'Hermitage attributes to a +nameless "quelq'un" was made by Sir Thomas Littleton.] + +[Footnote 503: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, September 1691.] + +[Footnote 504: Commons' Journals, Jan. 4. 1693/4.] + +[Footnote 505: Of the Naturalisation Bill no copy, I believe exists. The +history of that bill will be found in the Journals. From Van Citters +and L'Hermitage we learn less than might have been expected on a subject +which must have been interesting to Dutch statesmen. Knight's speech +will be found among the Somers Papers. He is described by his brother +Jacobite, Roger North, as "a gentleman of as eminent integrity and +loyalty as ever the city of Bristol was honoured with."] + +[Footnote 506: Commons' Journals, Dec 5. 1694.] + +[Footnote 507: Commons' Journals, Dec. 20. and 22. 1693/4. The journals +did not then contain any notice of the divisions which took place when +the House was in committee. There was only one division on the army +estimates of this year, when the mace was on the table. That division +was on the question whether 60,000L. or 147,000L. should be +granted for hospitals and contingencies. The Whigs carried the larger +sum by 184 votes to 120. Wharton was a teller for the majority, Foley +for the minority.] + +[Footnote 508: Commons' Journals, Nov. 25. 1694.] + +[Footnote 509: Stat. 5 W. & M. c. I.] + +[Footnote 510: Stat. 5 & 6 W.& M. c. 14.] + +[Footnote 511: Stat. 5 & 6 W. & M. c. 21.; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.] + +[Footnote 512: Stat. 5 & 6 W. & M. c. 22.; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.] + +[Footnote 513: Stat. 5 W. & M. c. 7.; Evelyn's Diary, Oct. 5, Nov. 22. +1694; A Poem on Squire Neale's Projects; Malcolm's History of London. +Neale's functions are described in several editions of Chamberlayne's +State of England. His name frequently appears in the London Gazette, as, +for example, on July 28. 1684.] + +[Footnote 514: See, for example, the Mystery of the Newfashioned +Goldsmiths or Brokers, 1676; Is not the Hand of Joab in all this? 1676; +and an answer published in the same year. See also England's Glory in +the great Improvement by Banking and Trade, 1694.] + +[Footnote 515: See the Life of Dudley North, by his brother Roger.] + +[Footnote 516: See a pamphlet entitled Corporation Credit; or a Bank of +Credit, made Current by Common Consent in London, more Useful and Safe +than Money.] + +[Footnote 517: A proposal by Dr. Hugh Chamberlayne, in Essex Street, for +a Bank, of Secure Current Credit to be founded upon Land, in order to +the General Good of Landed Men, to the great Increase in the Value of +Land, and the no less Benefit of Trade and Commerce, 1695; Proposals for +the supplying their Majesties with Money on Easy Terms, exempting the +Nobility, Gentry, &c., from Taxes enlarging their Yearly Estates, and +enriching all the Subjects of the Kingdom by a National Land Bank; by +John Briscoe. "O fortunatos nimium bona si sua norint Anglicanos." +Third Edition, 1696. Briscoe seems to have been as much versed in Latin +literature as in political economy.] + +[Footnote 518: In confirmation of what is said in the text, I extract +a single paragraph from Briscoe's proposals. "Admit a gentleman hath +barely 100L. per annum estate to live on, and hath a wife and four +children to provide for; this person, supposing no taxes were upon +his estates must be a great husband to be able to keep his charge, but +cannot think of laying up anything to place out his children in the +world; but according to this proposed method he may give his children +500l. a piece and have 90l. per annum left for himself and his wife to +live upon, the which he may also leave to such of his children as he +pleases after his and his wife's decease. For first having settled his +estate of 100l. per annum, as in proposals 1. 3., he may have bills of +credit for 2000L. for his own proper use, for 10s per cent. per annum as +in proposal 22., which is but 10L. per annum for the 2000L., which being +deducted out of his estate of 100L. per annum, there remains 90L. per +annum clear to himself." It ought to be observed that this nonsense +reached a third edition.] + +[Footnote 519: See Chamberlayne's Proposal, his Positions supported by +the Reasons explaining the Office of Land Credit, and his Bank Dialogue. +See also an excellent little tract on the other side entitled "A Bank +Dialogue between Dr. H. C. and a Country Gentleman, 1696," and "Some +Remarks upon a nameless and scurrilous Libel entitled a Bank Dialogue +between Dr. H. C. and a Country Gentleman, in a Letter to a Person of +Quality."] + +[Footnote 520: Commons' Journals Dec. 7. 1693. I am afraid that I may +be suspected of exaggerating the absurdity of this scheme. I therefore +transcribe the most important part of the petition. "In consideration +of the freeholders bringing their lands into this bank, for a fund +of current credit, to be established by Act of Parliament, it is now +proposed that, for every 150L per annum, secured for 150 years, for but +one hundred yearly payments of 100L per annum, free from all manner of +taxes and deductions whatsoever, every such freeholder shall receive +4000L in the said current credit, and shall have 2000L more put into +the fishery stock for his proper benefit; and there may be further +2000L reserved at the Parliament's disposal towards the carrying on this +present war..... The free holder is never to quit the possession of his +said estate unless the yearly rent happens to be in arrear."] + +[Footnote 521: Commons' Journals, Feb. 5. 1693/4.] + +[Footnote 522: Account of the Intended Bank of England, 1694.] + +[Footnote 523: See the Lords' Journals of April 23, 24, 25. 1694, and +the letter of L'Hermitage to the States General dated April 24/May 4] + +[Footnote 524: Narcissus Luttrell's. Diary, June 1694.] + +[Footnote 525: Heath's Account of the Worshipful Company of Grocers; +Francis's History of the Bank of England.] + +[Footnote 526: Spectator, No. 3.] + +[Footnote 527: Proceedings of the Wednesday Club in Friday Street.] + +[Footnote 528: Lords' Journals, April 25. 1694; London Gazette, May 7. +1694.] + +[Footnote 529: Life of James ii. 520.; Floyd's (Lloyd's) Account in the +Nairne Papers, under the date of May 1. 1694; London Gazette, April 26. +30. 1694.] + +[Footnote 530: London Gazette, May 3. 1694.] + +[Footnote 531: London Gazette, April 30. May 7. 1694; Shrewsbury to +William, May 11/21; William to Shrewsbury, May 22? June 1; L'Hermitage, +April 27/Nay 7] + +[Footnote 532: L'Hermitage, May 15/25. After mentioning the various +reports, he says, "De tous ces divers projets qu'on s'imagine aucun +n'est venu a la cognoissance du public." This is important; for it has +often been said, in excuse for Marlborough, that he communicated to the +Court of Saint Germains only what was the talk of all the coffeehouses, +and must have been known without his instrumentality.] + +[Footnote 533: London Gazette, June 14. 18. 1694; Paris Gazette June +16/July 3; Burchett; Journal of Lord Caermarthen; Baden, June 15/25; +L'Hermitage, June 15/25. 19/29] + +[Footnote 534: Shrewsbury to William, June 15/25. 1694. William to +Shrewsbury, July 1; Shrewsbury to William, June 22/July 2] + +[Footnote 535: This account of Russell's expedition to the Mediterranean +I have taken chiefly from Burchett.] + +[Footnote 536: Letter to Trenchard, 1694.] + +[Footnote 537: Burnet, ii. 141, 142.; and Onslow's note; Kingston's True +History, 1697.] + +[Footnote 538: See the Life of James, ii. 524.,] + +[Footnote 539: Kingston; Burnet, ii. 142.] + +[Footnote 540: Kingston. For the fact that a bribe was given to Taaffe, +Kingston cites the evidence taken on oath by the Lords.] + +[Footnote 541: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, Oct. 6. 1694.] + +[Footnote 542: As to Dyer's newsletter, see Narcissus Luttrell's Diary +for June and August 1693, and September 1694.] + +[Footnote 543: The Whig narrative is Kingston's; the Jacobite narrative, +by an anonymous author, has lately been printed by the Chetham Society. +See also a Letter out of Lancashire to a Friend in London, giving some +Account of the late Trials, 1694.] + +[Footnote 544: Birch's Life of Tillotson; the Funeral Sermon preached by +Burnet; William to Heinsius, Nov 23/Dec 3 1694.] + +[Footnote 545: See the Journals of the two Houses. The only account that +we have of the debates is in the letters of L'Hermitage.] + +[Footnote 546: Commons' Journals, Feb. 20. 1693/4 As this bill never +reached the Lords, it is not to be found among their archives. I have +therefore no means of discovering whether it differed in any respect +from the bill of the preceding year.] + +[Footnote 547: The history of this bill may be read in the Journals of +the Houses. The contest, not a very vehement one, lasted till the 20th +of April.] + +[Footnote 548: "The Commons," says Narcissus Luttrell, "gave a great +hum." "Le murmure qui est la marque d'applaudissement fut si grand qu'on +pent dire qu'il estoit universel. "--L'Hermitage, Dec. 25/Jan. 4.] + +[Footnote 549: L'Hermitage says this in his despatch of Nov. 20/30.] + +[Footnote 550: Burnet, ii. 137.; Van Citters, Dec 25/Jan 4.] + +[Footnote 551: Burnet, ii. 136. 138.; Narcissus Luttrell's Dairy; Van +Citters, Dec 28/Jan 7 1694/5; L'Hermitage, Dec 25/Jan 4, Dec 28/Jan +7 Jan. 1/11; Vernon to Lord Lexington, Dec. 21. 25. 28., Jan. 1.; +Tenison's Funeral Sermon.] + +[Footnote 552: Evelyn's Dairy; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; Commons' +Journals, Dec. 28. 1694; Shrewsbury to Lexington, of the same date; Van +Citters of the same date; L'Hermitage, Jan. 1/11 1695. Among the sermons +on Mary's death, that of Sherlock, preached in the Temple Church, and +those of Howe and Bates, preached to great Presbyterian congregations, +deserve notice.] + +[Footnote 553: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.] + +[Footnote 554: Remarks on some late Sermons, 1695; A Defence of the +Archbishop's Sermon, 1695.] + +[Footnote 555: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.] + +[Footnote 556: L'Hermitage, March 1/11, 6/16 1695; London Gazette, March +7,; Tenison's Funeral Sermon; Evelyn's Diary.] + +[Footnote 557: See Claude's Sermon on Mary's death.] + +[Footnote 558: Prior to Lord and Lady Lexington, Jan. 14/24 1695. The +letter is among the Lexington papers, a valuable collection, and well +edited.] + +[Footnote 559: Monthly Mercury for January 1695. An orator who +pronounced an eulogium on the Queen at Utrecht was so absurd as to say +that she spent her last breath in prayers for the prosperity of the +United Provinces:--"Valeant et Batavi;"--these are her last words--"sint +incolumes; sint florentes; sint beati; stet in sternum, stet immota +praeclarissima illorum civitas hospitium aliquando mihi gratissimum, +optime de me meritum." See also the orations of Peter Francius of +Amsterdam, and of John Ortwinius of Delft.] + +[Footnote 560: Journal de Dangeau; Memoires de Saint Simon.] + +[Footnote 561: Saint Simon; Dangeau; Monthly Mercury for January 1695.] + +[Footnote 562: L'Hermitage, Jan. 1/11. 1695; Vernon to Lord Lexington +Jan. I. 4.; Portland to Lord Lexington, Jan 15/25; William to Heinsius, +Jan 22/Feb 1] + +[Footnote 563: See the Commons' Journals of Feb. 11, April 12. and +April 27., and the Lords' Journals of April 8. and April is. 1695. +Unfortunately there is a hiatus in the Commons' Journal of the 12th +of April, so that it is now impossible to discover whether there was a +division on the question to agree with the amendment made by the Lords.] + +[Footnote 564: L'Hermitage, April 10/20. 1695; Burnet, ii. 149.] + +[Footnote 565: An Essay upon Taxes, calculated for the present Juncture +of Affairs, 1693.] + +[Footnote 566: Commons' Journals, Jan. 12 Feb. 26. Mar. 6.; A Collection +of the Debates and Proceedings in Parliament in 1694 and 1695 upon the +Inquiry into the late Briberies and Corrupt Practices, 1695; L'Hermitage +to the States General, March 8/18; Van Citters, Mar. 15/25; L'Hermitage +says, + +"Si par cette recherche la chambre pouvoit remedier au desordre qui +regne, elle rendroit un service tres utile et tres agreable au Roy."] + +[Footnote 567: Commons' Journals, Feb. 16, 1695; Collection of the +Debates and Proceedings in Parliament in 1694 and 1695; Life of Wharton; +Burnet, ii. 144.] + +[Footnote 568: Speaker Onslow's note on Burnet ii. 583.; Commons' +Journals, Mar 6, 7. 1695. The history of the terrible end of this man +will be found in the pamphlets of the South Sea year.] + +[Footnote 569: Commons' Journals, March 8. 1695; Exact Collection of +Debates and Proceedings in Parliament in 1694 and 1695; L'Hermitage, +March 8/18] + +[Footnote 570: Exact Collection of Debates.] + +[Footnote 571: L'Hermitage, March 8/18. 1695. L'Hermitage's narrative is +confirmed by the journals, March 7. 1694/5. It appears that just before +the committee was appointed, the House resolved that letters should not +be delivered out to members during a sitting.] + +[Footnote 572: L'Hermitage, March 19/29 1695.] + +[Footnote 573: Birch's Life of Tillotson.] + +[Footnote 574: Commons' Journals, March 12 13, 14 15, 16, 1694/5; Vernon +to Lexington, March 15.; L'Hermitage, March 15/25.] + +[Footnote 575: On vit qu'il etoit impossible de le poursuivre en +justice, chacun toutefois demeurant convaincu que c'etoit un marche +fait a la main pour lui faire present de la somme de 10,000L. et qu'il +avoit ete plus habile que les autres novices que n'avoient pas su faire +si finement leure affaires.--L'Hermitage, March 29/April 8; Commons' +Journals, March 12.; Vernon to Lexington, April 26.; Burnet, ii. 145.] + +[Footnote 576: In a poem called the Prophecy (1703), is the line + + "when Seymour scorns saltpetre pence." + +In another satire is the line + + "Bribed Seymour bribes accuses."] + +[Footnote 577: Commons' Journals from March 26. to April 8. 1695.] + +[Footnote 578: L'Hermitage, April 10/20 1695.] + +[Footnote 579: Exact Collection of Debates and Proceedings.] + +[Footnote 580: L'Hermitage, April 30/May 10 1695; Portland to Lexington, +April 23/May 3] + +[Footnote 581: L'Hermitage (April 30/May 10 1695) justly remarks, that +the way in which the money was sent back strengthened the case against +Leeds.] + +[Footnote 582: There can, I think, be no doubt, that the member who is +called D in the Exact Collection was Wharton.] + +[Footnote 583: As to the proceedings of this eventful day, April 27. +1695, see the Journals of the two Houses, and the Exact Collection.] + +[Footnote 584: Exact Collection; Lords' Journals, May 3. 1695; Commons' +Journals, May 2, 3.; L'Hermitage, May 3/13.; London Gazette, May 13.] + +[Footnote 585: L'Hermitage, May 10/20. 1695; Vernon to Shrewsbury, June +22. 1697.] + +[Footnote 586: London Gazette, May 6. 1695.] + +[Footnote 587: Letter from Mrs. Burnet to the Duchess of Marlborough, +1704, quoted by Coxe; Shrewsbury to Russell, January 24. 1695; Burnett, +ii. 149.] + +[Footnote 588: London Gazette April 8. 15. 29. 1695.] + +[Footnote 589: Shrewsbury to Russell, January 24. 1695; Narcissus +Luttrell's Diary,] + +[Footnote 590: De Thou, liii. xcvi.] + +[Footnote 591: Life of James ii. 545., Orig. Mem. Of course James does +not use the word assassination. He talks of the seizing and carrying +away of the Prince of Orange.] + +[Footnote 592: Every thing bad that was known or rumoured about Porter +came out on the State Trials of 1696.] + +[Footnote 593: As to Goodman see the evidence on the trial of Peter +Cook; Cleverskirke, Feb 28/March 9 1696; L'Hermitage, April 10/20 1696; +and a pasquinade entitled the Duchess of Cleveland's Memorial.] + +[Footnote 594: See the preamble to the Commission of 1695.] + +[Footnote 595: The Commission will be found in the Minutes of the +Parliament.] + +[Footnote 596: Act. Parl. Scot., May 21. 1695; London Gazette, May 30.] + +[Footnote 597: Act. Parl. Scot. May 23. 1695.] + +[Footnote 598: Ibid. June 14. 18. 20. 1695; London Gazette, June 27.] + +[Footnote 599: Burnet, ii. 157.; Act. Parl., June 10 1695.] + +[Footnote 600: Act. Parl., June 26. 1695; London Gazette, July 4.] + +[Footnote 601: There is an excellent portrait of Villeroy in St. Simon's +Memoirs.] + +[Footnote 602: Some curious traits of Trumball's character will be found +in Pepys's Tangier Diary.] + +[Footnote 603: Postboy, June 13., July 9. 11., 1695; Intelligence +Domestic and Foreign, June 14.; Pacquet Boat from Holland and Flanders, +July 9.] + +[Footnote 604: Vaudemont's Despatch and William's Answer are in the +Monthly Mercury for July 1695.] + +[Footnote 605: See Saint Simon's Memoirs and his note upon Dangeau.] + +[Footnote 606: London Gazette July 22. 1695; Monthly Mercury of August, +1695. Swift ten years later, wrote a lampoon on Cutts, so dull and so +nauseously scurrilous that Ward or Gildon would have been ashamed of it, +entitled the Description of a Salamander.] + +[Footnote 607: London Gazette, July 29. 1695; Monthly Mercury for August +1695; Stepney to Lord Lexington, Aug. 16/26; Robert Fleming's Character +of King William, 1702. It was in the attack of July 17/27 that Captain +Shandy received the memorable wound in his groin.] + +[Footnote 608: London Gazette, Aug. r. 5. 1695; Monthly Mercury of +August 1695, containing the Letters of William and Dykvelt to the States +General.] + +[Footnote 609: Monthly Mercury for August 1695; Stepney to Lord +Lexington, Aug. 16/26] + +[Footnote 610: Monthly Mercury for August 1695; Letter from Paris, Aug +26/Sept 5 1695, among the Lexington Papers.] + +[Footnote 611: L'Hermitage, Aug. 13/23 1695.] + +[Footnote 612: London Gazette, Aug. 26. 1695; Monthly Mercury, Stepney +to Lexington, Aug. 20/30.] + +[Footnote 613: Boyer's History of King William III, 1703; London +Gazette, Aug. 29. 1695; Stepney to Lexington, Aug. 20/30.; Blathwayt to +Lexington, Sept. 2.] + +[Footnote 614: Postscript to the Monthly Mercury for August 1695; London +Gazette, Sept. 9.; Saint Simon; Dangeau.] + +[Footnote 615: Boyer, History of King William III, 2703; Postscript to +the Monthly Mercury, Aug. 1695; London Gazette, Sept. 9. 12.; Blathwayt +to Lexington, Sept. 6.; Saint Simon; Dangeau.] + +[Footnote 616: There is a noble, and I suppose, unique Collection of the +newspapers of William's reign in the British Museum. I have turned over +every page of that Collection. It is strange that neither Luttrell nor +Evelyn should have noticed the first appearance of the new journals. The +earliest mention of those journals which I have found, is in a +despatch of L'Hermitage, dated July 12/22, 1695. I will transcribe his +words:--"Depuis quelque tems on imprime ici plusieurs feuilles volantes +en forme de gazette, qui sont remplies de toutes series de nouvelles. +Cette licence est venue de ce que le parlement n'a pas acheve le bill +ou projet d'acte qui avoit ete porte dans la Chambre des Communes pour +regler l'imprimerie et empecher que ces sortes de choses n'arrivassent. +Il n'y avoit ci-devant qu'un des commis des Secretaires d'Etat qui eut +le pouvoir de faire des gazettes: mais aujourdhui il s'en fait plusieurs +sons d'autres noms." L'Hermitage mentions the paragraph reflecting on +the Princess, and the submission of the libeller.] + +[Footnote 617: L'Hermitage, Oct. 15/25., Nov. 15/25. 1695.] + +[Footnote 618: London Gazette, Oct. 24. 1695. See Evelyn's Account of +Newmarket in 1671, and Pepys, July 18. 1668. From Tallard's despatches +written after the Peace of Ryswick it appears that the autumn meetings +were not less numerous or splendid in the days of William than in those +of his uncles.] + +[Footnote 619: I have taken this account of William's progress chiefly +from the London Gazettes, from the despatches of L'Hermitage, from +Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, and from the letters of Vernon, Yard and +Cartwright among the Lexington Papers.] + +[Footnote 620: See the letter of Yard to Lexington, November 8. 1695, +and the note by the editor of the Lexington Papers.] + +[Footnote 621: L'Hermitage, Nov. 15/25. 1695.] + +[Footnote 622: L'Hermitage Oct 25/Nov 4 Oct 29/Nov 8 1695.] + +[Footnote 623: Ibid. Nov. 5/15 1695.] + +[Footnote 624: L'Hermitage, Nov. 15/25 1695; Sir James Forbes to Lady +Russell, Oct. 3. 1695; Lady Russell to Lord Edward Russell; The Postman, +Nov. 1695.] + +[Footnote 625: There is a highly curious account of this contest in the +despatches of L'Hermitage.] + +[Footnote 626: Postman, Dec. 15. 17. 1696; Vernon to Shrewsbury, Dec. +13. 15.; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; Burnet, i. 647.; Saint Evremond's +Verses to Hampden.] + +[Footnote 627: L'Hermitage, Nov. 13/23. 1695.] + +[Footnote 628: I have derived much valuable information on this subject +from a MS. in the British Museum, Lansdowne Collection, No. 801. It +is entitled Brief Memoires relating to the Silver and Gold Coins of +England, with an Account of the Corruption of the Hammered Money, and of +the Reform by the late Grand Coinage at the Tower and the Country Mints, +by Hopton Haynes, Assay Master of the Mint.] + +[Footnote 629: Stat. 5 Eliz. c. ii., and 18 Eliz. c. 1] + +[Footnote 630: Pepys's Diary, November 23. 1663.] + +[Footnote 631: The first writer who noticed the fact that, where good +money and bad money are thown into circulation together, the bad money +drives out the good money, was Aristophanes. He seems to have thought +that the preference which his fellow citizens gave to light coins was to +be attributed to a depraved taste such as led them to entrust men like +Cleon and Hyperbolus with the conduct of great affairs. But, though his +political economy will not bear examination, his verses are excellent:-- + + pollakis g' emin edoksen e polis peponthenai + tauton es te ton politon tous kalous te kagathous + es te tarkhaion nomisma Kai to kainon khrusion. + oute gar toutoisin ousin ou kekibdeleumenios + alla kallistois apanton, us dokei, nomismaton, + kai monois orthos kopeisi, kai kekodonismenois + en te tois Ellisim kai tois barbarioisi pantahkou + khrometh' ouden, alla toutois tois ponerois khalkiois, + khthes te kai proen kopeisi to kakistu kommati. + ton politon th' ous men ismen eugeneis kai sophronas + andras ontas, kai dikaious, kai kalous te kagathous, + kai traphentas en palaistrais, kai khorois kai mousiki + prouseloumen tois de khalkois, kai ksenois, kai purriais, + kai ponerois kak poneron eis apanta khrometha.] + +[Footnote 632: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary is filled with accounts of +these executions. "Le metier de rogneur de monnoye," says L'Hermitage, +"est si lucratif et paroit si facile que, quelque chose qu'on fasse pour +les detruire, il s'en trouve toujours d'autres pour prendre leur place. +Oct 1/11. 1695."] + +[Footnote 633: As to the sympathy of the public with the clippers, +see the very curious sermon which Fleetwood afterwards Bishop of Ely, +preached before the Lord Mayor in December 1694. Fleetwood says that "a +soft pernicious tenderness slackened the care of magistrates, kept back +the under officers, corrupted the juries, and withheld the evidence." He +mentions the difficulty of convincing the criminals themselves that +they had done wrong. See also a Sermon preached at York Castle by George +Halley, a clergyman of the Cathedral, to some clippers who were to be +hanged the next day. He mentions the impenitent ends which clippers +generally made, and does his best to awaken the consciences of his +bearers. He dwells on one aggravation of their crime which I should not +have thought of. "If," says he, "the same question were to be put in +this age, as of old, 'Whose is this image and superscription?' we could +not answer the whole. We may guess at the image; but we cannot tell +whose it is by the superscription; for that is all gone." The testimony +of these two divines is confirmed by that of Tom Brown, who tells a +facetious story, which I do not venture to quote, about a conversation +between the ordinary of Newgate and a clipper.] + +[Footnote 634: Lowndes's Essay for the Amendment of the Silver Coins, +1695.] + +[Footnote 635: L'Hermitage, Nov 29/Dec 9 1695.] + +[Footnote 636: The Memoirs of this Lancashire Quaker were printed a few +years ago in a most respectable newspaper, the Manchester Guardian.] + +[Footnote 637: Lowndes's Essay.] + +[Footnote 638: L'Hermitage, Dec 24/Jan 3 1695.] + +[Footnote 639: It ought always to be remembered, to Adam Smith's honour, +that he was entirely converted by Bentham's Defence of Usury, and +acknowledged, with candour worthy of a true philosopher, that the +doctrine laid down in the Wealth of Nations was erroneous.] + +[Footnote 640: Lowndes's Essay for the Amendment of the Silver Coins; +Locke's Further Considerations concerning raising the Value of Money; +Locke to Molyneux, Nov. 20. 1695; Molyneux to Locke, Dec. 24. 1695.] + +[Footnote 641: Burnet, ii. 147.] + +[Footnote 642: Commons' Journals, Nov. 22, 23. 26. 1695; L'Hermitage, +Nov 26/Dec 6] + +[Footnote 643: Commons' Journals, Nov. 26, 27, 28, 29. 1695; +L'Hermitage, Nov 26./Dec 6 Nov. 29/Dec 9 Dec 3/13] + +[Footnote 644: Commons' Journals, Nov. 28, 29. 1695; L'Hermitage, Dec. +3/13] + +[Footnote 645: L'Hermitage, Nov 22/Dec 2, Dec 6/16 1695; An Abstract of +the Consultations and Debates between the French King and his Council +concerning the new Coin that is intended to be made in England, +privately sent by a Friend of the Confederates from the French Court +to his Brother at Brussels, Dec. 12. 1695; A Discourse of the General +Notions of Money, Trade and Exchanges, by Mr. Clement of Bristol; A +Letter from an English Merchant at Amsterdam to his Friend in London; A +Fund for preserving and supplying our Coin; An Essay for regulating +the Coin, by A. V.; A Proposal for supplying His Majesty with +1,200,000L, by mending the Coin, and yet preserving the ancient Standard +of the Kingdom. These are a few of the tracts which were distributed +among members of Parliament at this conjuncture.] + +[Footnote 646: Commons' Journals, Dec. 10. 1695; L'Hermitage, Dec. 3/13 +6/16 10/20] + +[Footnote 647: Commons' Journals, Dec. 13. 1695.] + +[Footnote 648: Stat. 7 Gul. 3.c. [1].; Lords' and Commons' Journals; +L'Hermitage, Dec 31/Jan 10 Jan 7/17 10/20 14/24 1696. L'Hermitage +describes in strong language the extreme inconvenience caused by the +dispute between the Houses:--"La longueur qu'il y a dans cette affaire +est d'autant plus desagreable qu'il n'y a point (le sujet sur lequel le +peuple en general puisse souffrir plus d'incommodite, puisqu'il n'y a +personne qui, a tous moments, n'aye occasion de l'esprouver.)] + +[Footnote 649: That Locke was not a party to the attempt to make gold +cheaper by penal laws, I infer from a passage in which he notices +Lowndes's complaints about the high price of guineas. "The only remedy," +says Locke, "for that mischief, as well as a great many others, is the +putting an end to the passing of clipp'd money by tale." Locke's Further +Considerations. That the penalty proved, as might have been expected, +inefficacious, appears from several passages in the despatches of +L'Hermitage, and even from Haynes's Brief Memoires, though Haynes was a +devoted adherent of Montague.] + +[Footnote 650: L'Hermitage, Jan 14/24 1696.] + +[Footnote 651: Commons' Journals, Jan. 14. 17. 23. 1696; L'Hermitage, +Jan. 14/24; Gloria Cambriae, or Speech of a Bold Briton against a Dutch +Prince of Wales 1702; Life of the late Honourable Robert Price, +&c. 1734. Price was the bold Briton whose speech--never, I believe, +spoken--was printed in 1702. He would have better deserved to be called +bold, if he had published his impertinence while William was living. +The Life of Price is a miserable performance, full of blunders and +anachronisms.] + +[Footnote 652: L'Hermitage mentions the unfavourable change in the +temper of the Commons; and William alludes to it repeatedly in his +letters to Heinsius, Jan 21/31 1696, Jan 28/Feb 7.] + +[Footnote 653: The gaiety of the Jacobites is said by Van Cleverskirke +to have been noticed during some time; Feb 25/March 6 1696.] + +[Footnote 654: Harris's deposition, March 28. 1696.] + +[Footnote 655: Hunt's deposition.] + +[Footnote 656: Fisher's and Harris's depositions.] + +[Footnote 657: Barclay's narrative, in the Life of James, ii. 548.; +Paper by Charnock among the MSS. in the Bodleian Library.] + +[Footnote 658: Harris's deposition.] + +[Footnote 659: Ibid. Bernardi's autobiography is not at all to be +trusted.] + +[Footnote 660: See his trial.] + +[Footnote 661: Fisher's deposition; Knightley's deposition; Cranburne's +trial; De la Rue's deposition.] + +[Footnote 662: See the trials and depositions.] + +[Footnote 663: L'Hermitage, March 3/13] + +[Footnote 664: See Berwick's Memoirs.] + +[Footnote 665: Van Cleverskirke, Feb 25/March 6 1696. I am confident +that no sensible and impartial person, after attentively reading +Berwick's narrative of these transactions and comparing it with the +narrative in the Life of James (ii. 544.) which is taken, word for word, +from the Original Memoirs, can doubt that James was accessory to the +design of assassination.] + +[Footnote 666: L'Hermitage, March Feb 25/March 6] + +[Footnote 667: My account of these events is taken chiefly from +the trials and depositions. See also Burnet, ii. 165, 166, 167, and +Blackmore's True and Impartial History, compiled under the direction of +Shrewsbury and Somers, and Boyer's History of King William III., 1703.] + +[Footnote 668: Portland to Lexington, March 3/13. 1696; Van +Cleverskirke, Feb 25/Mar 6 L'Hermitage, same date.] + +[Footnote 669: Commons' Journals, Feb. 24 1695.] + +[Footnote 670: England's Enemies Exposed, 1701.] + +[Footnote 671: Commons' Journals, Feb. 24. 1695/6.] + +[Footnote 672: Ibid. Feb. 25. 1695/6; Van Cleverskirke, Feb 28/March 9; +L'Hermitage, of the same date.] + +[Footnote 673: According to L'Hermitage, Feb 27/Mar 8,there were two of +these fortunate hackney coachmen. A shrewd and vigilant hackney coachman +indeed was from the nature of his calling, very likely to be successful +in this sort of chase. The newspapers abound with proofs of the general +enthusiasm.] + +[Footnote 674: Postman March 5. 1695/6] + +[Footnote 675: Ibid. Feb. 29., March 2., March 12., March 14. 1695/6.] + +[Footnote 676: Postman, March 12. 1696; Vernon to Lexington, March 13; +Van Cleverskirke, March 13/23 The proceedings are fully reported in the +Collection of State Trials.] + +[Footnote 677: Burnet, ii. 171.; The Present Disposition of England +considered; The answer entitled England's Enemies Exposed, 1701; +L'Hermitage, March 17/27. 1696. L'Hermitage says, "Charnock a fait des +grandes instances pour avoir sa grace, et a offert de tout declarer: +mais elle lui a este refusee."] + +[Footnote 678: L'Hermitage, March 17/27] + +[Footnote 679: This most curious paper is among the Nairne MSS. in the +Bodleian Library. A short, and not perfectly ingenuous abstract of it +will be found in the Life of James, ii. 555. Why Macpherson, who has +printed many less interesting documents did not choose to print this +document, it is easy to guess. I will transcribe two or three important +sentences. "It may reasonably be presumed that what, in one juncture His +Majesty had rejected he might in another accept, when his own and the +public good necessarily required it. For I could not understand it in +such a manner as if he had given a general prohibition that at no time +the Prince of Orange should be touched... Nobody that believes His +Majesty to be lawful King of England can doubt but that in virtue of his +commission to levy war against the Prince of Orange and his adherents, +the setting upon his person is justifiable, as well by the laws of the +land duly interpreted and explained as by the law of God."] + +[Footnote 680: The trials of Friend and Parkyns will be found, +excellently reported, among the State Trials.] + +[Footnote 681: L'Hermitage, April 3/13 1696.] + +[Footnote 682: Commons' Journals, April 1, 2. 1696; L'Hermitage, April +3/13. 1696; Van Cleverskirke, of the same date.] + +[Footnote 683: L'Hermitage, April 7/17. 1696. The Declaration of the +Bishops, Collier's Defence, and Further Defence, and a long legal +argument for Cook and Snatt will be found in the Collection of State +Trials.] + +[Footnote 684: See the Manhunter, 1690.] + +[Footnote 685: State Trials.] + +[Footnote 686: The best, indeed the only good, account of these debates +is given by L'Hermitage, Feb 28/March 9 1696. He says, very truly; "La +difference n'est qu'une dispute de mots, le droit qu'on a a une chose +selon les loix estant aussy bon qu'il puisse estre."] + +[Footnote 687: See the London Gazettes during several weeks; +L'Hermitage, March 24/April 3 April 14/24. 1696; Postman, April 9 25 30] + +[Footnote 688: Journals of the Commons and Lords; L'Hermitage, April +7/17 10/20 1696.] + +[Footnote 689: See the Freeholder's Plea against Stockjobbing Elections +of Parliament Men, and the Considerations upon Corrupt Elections of +Members to serve in Parliament. Both these pamphlets were published in +1701.] + +[Footnote 690: The history of this bill will be found in the Journals +of the Commons, and in a very interesting despatch of L'Hermitage, April +14/24 1696.] + +[Footnote 691: The Act is 7 & 8 Will. 3. c. 31. Its history maybe traced +in the Journals.] + +[Footnote 692: London Gazette, May 4. 1696] + +[Footnote 693: Ibid. March 12. 16. 1696; Monthly Mercury for March, +1696.] + +[Footnote 694: The Act provided that the clipped money must be brought +in before the fourth of May. As the third was a Sunday, the second was +practically the last day.] + +[Footnote 695: L'Hermitage, May 5/15 1696; London Newsletter, May 4., +May 6. In the Newsletter the fourth of May is mentioned as "the day so +much taken notice of for the universal concern people had in it."] + +[Footnote 696: London Newsletter, May 21. 1696; Old Postmaster, June +25.; L'Hermitage, May 19/29.] + +[Footnote 697: Haynes's Brief Memoirs, Lansdowne MSS. 801.] + +[Footnote 698: See the petition from Birmingham in the Commons' +Journals, Nov. 12. 1696; and the petition from Leicester, Nov. 21] + +[Footnote 699: "Money exceeding scarce, so that none was paid or +received; but all was on trust."--Evelyn, May 13. And again, on June +11.: "Want of current money to carry on the smallest concerns, even for +daily provisions in the markets."] + +[Footnote 700: L'Hermitage, May 22/June 1; See a Letter of Dryden to +Tonson, which Malone, with great probability, supposes to have been +written at this time.] + +[Footnote 701: L'Hermitage to the States General May 8/18.; Paris +Gazette, June 2/12.; Trial and Condemnation of the Land Bank at Exeter +Change for murdering the Bank of England at Grocers' Hall, 1696. The +Will and the Epitaph will be found in the Trial.] + +[Footnote 702: L'Hermitage, June 12/22. 1696.] + +[Footnote 703: On this subject see the Short History of the Last +Parliament, 1699; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; the newspapers of 1696 +passim, and the letters of L'Hermitage passim. See also the petition +of the Clothiers of Gloucester in the Commons' Journal, Nov. 27. 1696. +Oldmixon, who had been himself a sufferer, writes on this subject with +even more than his usual acrimony.] + +[Footnote 704: See L'Hermitage, June 12/22, June 23/July, 3 June 30/July +10, Aug 1/11 Aug 28/Sept 7 1696. The Postman of August 15. mentions the +great benefit derived from the Exchequer Bills. The Pegasus of Aug. 24. +says: "The Exchequer Bills do more and more obtain with the public; and +'tis no wonder." The Pegasus of Aug. 28. says: "They pass as money from +hand to hand; 'tis observed that such as cry them down are ill affected +to the government." "They are found by experience," says the Postman +of the seventh of May following, "to be of extraordinary use to the +merchants and traders of the City of London, and all other parts of +the kingdom." I will give one specimen of the unmetrical and almost +unintelligible doggrel which the Jacobite poets published on this +subject:-- + + "Pray, Sir, did you hear of the late proclamation, + Of sending paper for payment quite thro' the nation? + Yes, Sir, I have: they're your Montague's notes, + Tinctured and coloured by your Parliament votes. + But 'tis plain on the people to be but a toast, + They come by the carrier and go by the post."] + +[Footnote 705: Commons' Journals, Nov. 25. 1696.] + +[Footnote 706: L'Hermitage, June 2/12. 1696; Commons' Journals, Nov. +25.; Post-man, May 5., June 4., July 2.] + +[Footnote 707: L'Hermitage, July. [3]/13 10/20 1696; Commons' Journals, +Nov. 25.; Paris Gazette, June 30., Aug. 25.; Old Postmaster, July 9.] + +[Footnote 708: William to Heinsius, July 30. 1696; William to +Shrewsbury, July 23. 30. 31.] + +[Footnote 709: Shrewsbury to William, July 28. 31., Aug. 4. 1696; +L'Hermitage, Aug. 1/11] + +[Footnote 710: Shrewsbury to William, Aug 7. 1696; L'Hermitage, Aug +14/24.; London Gazette, Aug. 13.] + +[Footnote 711: L'Hermitage, Aug. [18]/28. 1696. Among the records of the +Bank is a resolution of the Directors prescribing the very words which +Sir John Houblon was to use. William's sense of the service done by the +Bank on this occasion is expressed in his letter to Shrewsbury, of +Aug. 24/Sept 3. One of the Directors, in a letter concerning the Bank, +printed in 1697, says: "The Directors could not have answered it to +their members, had it been for any less occasion than the preservation +of the kingdom."] + +[Footnote 712: Haynes's Brief Memoires; Lansdowne MSS. 801. Montague's +friendly letter to Newton, announcing the appointment, has been +repeatedly printed. It bears date March 19. 1695/6.] + +[Footnote 713: I have very great pleasure in quoting the words of +Haynes, an able, experienced and practical man, who had been in the +habit of transacting business with Newton. They have never I believe, +been printed. "Mr. Isaac Newton, public Professor of the Mathematicks +in Cambridge, the greatest philosopher, and one of the best men of this +age, was, by a great and wise statesman, recommended to the favour of +the late King for Warden of the King's Mint and Exchanges, for which he +was peculiarly qualified, because of his extraordinary skill in numbers, +and his great integrity, by the first of which he could judge correctly +of the Mint accounts and transactions as soon as he entered upon his +office; and by the latter--I mean his integrity--he set a standard to +the conduct and behaviour of every officer and clerk in the Mint. Well +had it been for the publick, had he acted a few years sooner in that +situation." It is interesting to compare this testimony, borne by a man +who thoroughly understood the business of the Mint, with the childish +talk of Pope. "Sir Isaac Newton," said Pope, "though so deep in algebra +and fluxions, could not readily make up a common account; and, whilst he +was Master of the Mint, used to get somebody to make up the accounts +for him." Some of the statesmen with whom Pope lived might have told him +that it is not always from ignorance of arithmetic that persons at the +head of great departments leave to clerks the business of casting up +pounds, shillings and pence.] + +[Footnote 714: "I do not love," he wrote to Flamsteed, "to be printed +on every occasion, much less to be dunned and teased by foreigners about +mathematical things, or to be thought by our own people to be trifling +away my time about them, when I am about the King's business."] + +[Footnote 715: Hopton Haynes's Brief Memoires; Lansdowne MSS. 801.; the +Old Postmaster, July 4. 1696; the Postman May 30., July 4, September +12. 19., October 8,; L'Hermitage's despatches of this summer and autumn, +passim.] + +[Footnote 716: Paris Gazette, Aug. 11. 1696.] + +[Footnote 717: On the 7th of August L'Hermitage remarked for the first +time that money seemed to be more abundant.] + +[Footnote 718: Compare Edmund Bohn's Letter to Carey of the 31st of July +1696 with the Paris Gazette of the same date. Bohn's description of the +state of Norfolk is coloured, no doubt, by his constitutionally gloomy +temper, and by the feeling with which he, not unnaturally, regarded +the House of Commons. His statistics are not to be trusted; and his +predictions were signally falsified. But he may be believed as to plain +facts which happened in his immediate neighbourhood.] + +[Footnote 719: As to Grascombe's character, and the opinion entertained +of him by the most estimable Jacobites, see the Life of Kettlewell, part +iii., section 55. Lee the compiler of the Life of Kettlewell mentions +with just censure some of Grascombe's writings, but makes no allusion +to the worst of them, the Account of the Proceedings in the House of +Commons in relation to the Recoining of the Clipped Money, and falling +the price of Guineas. That Grascombe was the author, was proved before a +Committee of the House of Commons. See the Journals, Nov. 30. 1696.] + +[Footnote 720: L'Hermitage, June 12/22., July 7/17. 1696.] + +[Footnote 721: See the Answer to Grascombe, entitled Reflections on a +Scandalous Libel.] + +[Footnote 722: Paris Gazette, Sept. 15. 1696,] + +[Footnote 723: L'Hermitage, Oct. 2/12 1696.] + +[Footnote 724: L'Hermitage, July 20/30., Oct. 2/12 9/10 1696.] + +[Footnote 725: The Monthly Mercuries; Correspondence between Shrewsbury +and Galway; William to Heinsius, July 23. 30. 1696; Memoir of the +Marquess of Leganes.] + +[Footnote 726: William to Heinsius, Aug 27/Sept 6, Nov 15/25 Nov. 17/27 +1696; Prior to Lexington, Nov. 17/27; Villiers to Shrewsbury, Nov. +13/23] + +[Footnote 727: My account of the attempt to corrupt Porter is taken from +his examination before the House of Commons on Nov. 16. 1696, and from +the following sources: Burnet, ii. 183.; L'Hermitage to the States +General, May 8/18. 12/22 1696; the Postboy, May 9.; the Postman, May 9.; +Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; London Gazette, Oct. 19. 1696.] + +[Footnote 728: London Gazette; Narcissus Luttrell; L'Hermitage, June +12/22; Postman, June 11.] + +[Footnote 729: Life of William III. 1703; Vernon's evidence given in his +place in the House of Commons, Nov. 16. 1696.] + +[Footnote 730: William to Shrewsbury from Loo, Sept. 10. 1696.] + +[Footnote 731: Shrewsbury to William, Sept. 18. 1696.] + +[Footnote 732: William to Shrewsbury, Sept. 25. 1696.] + +[Footnote 733: London Gazette, Oct. 8. 1696; Vernon to Shrewsbury, +October 8. Shrewsbury to Portland, Oct. 11.] + +[Footnote 734: Vernon to Shrewsbury, Oct. 13. 1696; Somers to +Shrewsbury, Oct. 15.] + +[Footnote 735: William to Shrewsbury, Oct. 9. 1696.] + +[Footnote 736: Shrewsbury to William, Oct. 11. 1696.] + +[Footnote 737: Somers to Shrewsbury, Oct. 19. 1696.] + +[Footnote 738: William to Shrewsbury, Oct. 20. 1696.] + +[Footnote 739: Vernon to Shrewsbury, Oct. 13. 15.; Portland to +Shrewsbury, Oct, 20, 1696.] + +[Footnote 740: L'Hermitage, July 10/20 1696.] + +[Footnote 741: Lansdowne MS. 801.] + +[Footnote 742: I take my account of these proceedings from the Commons' +Journals, from the despatches of Van Cleverskirke and L'Hermitage to the +States General, and from Vernon's letter to Shrewsbury of the 27th of +October 1696. "I don't know," says Vernon "that the House of Commons +ever acted with greater concert than they do at present."] + +[Footnote 743: Vernon to Shrewsbury, Oct. 29. 1696; L'Hermitage, Oct +30/Nov 9 L'Hermitage calls Howe Jaques Haut. No doubt the Frenchman had +always heard Howe spoken of as Jack.] + +[Footnote 744: Postman, October 24. 1696; L'Hermitage, Oct 23/Nov 2. +L'Hermitage says: "On commence deja a ressentir des effets avantageux +des promptes et favorables resolutions que la Chambre des Communes prit +Mardy. Le discomte des billets de banque, qui estoit le jour auparavant +a 18, est revenu a douze, et les actions ont aussy augmente, aussy bien +que les taillis."] + +[Footnote 745: William to Heinsius, Nov. 13/23 1696.] + +[Footnote 746: Actes et Memoires des Negociations de la Paix de Ryswick, +1707; Villiers to Shrewsbury Dec. 1. [11]. 4/14. 1696; Letter of +Heinsius quoted by M. Sirtema de Grovestins. Of this letter I have not a +copy.] + +[Footnote 747: Vernon to Shrewsbury, Dec. 8. 1696.] + +[Footnote 748: Wharton to Shrewsbury, Oct. 27. 1696.] + +[Footnote 749: Somers to Shrewsbury, Oct. 27. 31. 1696; Vernon to +Shrewsbury, Oct. 31.; Wharton to Shrewsbury, Nov. 10. "I am apt to +think," says Wharton, "there never was more management than in bringing +that about."] + +[Footnote 750: See for example a poem on the last Treasury day at +Kensington, March 1696/7.] + +[Footnote 751: Somers to Shrewsbury, Oct 31. 1696; Wharton to +Shrewsbury, of the same date.] + +[Footnote 752: Somers to Shrewsbury, Nov. 3. 1696. The King's +unwillingness to see Fenwick is mentioned in Somers's letter of the 15th +of October.] + +[Footnote 753: Vernon to Shrewsbury, Nov. 3. 1696.] + +[Footnote 754: The circumstances of Goodman's flight were ascertained +three years later by the Earl of Manchester, when Ambassador at Paris, +and by him communicated to Jersey in a letter dated Sept 25/Oct 5 1699.] + +[Footnote 755: London Gazette Nov. 9. 1696; Vernon to Shrewsbury, Nov. +3.; Van Cleverskirke and L'Hermitage of the same date.] + +[Footnote 756: The account of the events of this day I have taken +from the Commons' Journals; the valuable work entitled Proceedings in +Parliament against Sir John Fenwick, Bart. upon a Bill of Attainder for +High Treason, 1696; Vernon's Letter to Shrewsbury, November 6. 1696, and +Somers's Letter to Shrewsbury, November 7. From both these letters it +is plain that the Whig leaders had much difficulty in obtaining the +absolution of Godolphin.] + +[Footnote 757: Commons' Journals, Nov. 9. 1696--Vernon to Shrewsbury, +Nov. 10. The editor of the State Trials is mistaken in supposing that +the quotation from Caesar's speech was made in the debate of the 13th.] + +[Footnote 758: Commons' Journals, Nov. 13. 16, 17.; Proceedings against +Sir John Fenwick.] + +[Footnote 759: A Letter to a Friend in Vindication of the Proceedings +against Sir John Fenwick, 1697.] + +[Footnote 760: This incident is mentioned by L'Hermitage.] + +[Footnote 761: L'Hermitage tells us that such things took place in these +debates.] + +[Footnote 762: See the Lords' Journals, Nov. 14., Nov. 30., Dec. 1. +1696.] + +[Footnote 763: Wharton to Shrewsbury, Dec. 1. 1696; L'Hermitage, of same +date.] + +[Footnote 764: L'Hermitage, Dec. 4/14. 1696; Wharton to Shrewsbury, Dec. +1.] + +[Footnote 765: Lords' Journals Dec. 8. 1696; L'Hermitage, of the same +date.] + +[Footnote 766: L'Hermitage, Dec. 15/25 18/28 1696.] + +[Footnote 767: Ibid. Dec. 18/28 1696.] + +[Footnote 768: Lords' Journals, Dec. 15. 1696; L'Hermitage, Dec. +[18]/28; Vernon to Shrewsbury, Dec. 15. About the numbers there is +a slight difference between Vernon and L'Hermitage. I have followed +Vernon.] + +[Footnote 769: Lords' Journals, Dec. 18. 1696; Vernon to Shrewsbury, +Dec. 19.; L'Hermitage, Dec 22/Jan 1. I take the numbers from Vernon.] + +[Footnote 770: Lords' Journals, Dec. 25 1696; L'Hermitage, Dec 26/Jan 4. +In the Vernon Correspondence there is a letter from Vernon to Shrewsbury +giving an account of the transactions of this day; but it is erroneously +dated Dec. 2., and is placed according to that date. This is not the +only blunder of the kind. A letter from Vernon to Shrewsbury, evidently +written on the 7th of November 1696, is dated and placed as a letter of +the 7th of January 1697. A letter of June 14. 1700 is dated and placed +as a letter of June 15. 1698. The Vernon Correspondence is of great +value; but it is so ill edited that it cannot be safely used without +much caution, and constant reference to other authorities.] + +[Footnote 771: Lords' Journals, Dec. 23. 1696; Vernon to Shrewsbury, +Dec. 24; L'Hermitage, Dec 25/Jan 4.] + +[Footnote 772: Vernon to Shrewsbury, Dec, 24 1696.] + +[Footnote 773: Dohna, who knew Monmouth well, describes him thus: "Il +avoit de l'esprit infiniment, et meme du plus agreable; mais il y avoir +un peu trop de haut et de bas dans son fait. Il ne savoit ce que c'etoit +que de menager les gens; et il turlupinoit a l'outrance ceux qui ne lui +plaisoient pas."] + +[Footnote 774: L'Hermitage, Jan. 12/22 1697.] + +[Footnote 775: Lords' Journals, Jan. 9. 1696/7; Vernon to Shrewsbury, of +the same date; L'Hermitage, Jan. 12/22.] + +[Footnote 776: Lords' Journals, Jan. 15. 1691; Vernon to Shrewsbury, of +the same date; L'Hermitage, of the same date.] + +[Footnote 777: Postman, Dec. 29. 31. 1696.] + +[Footnote 778: L'Hermitage, Jan. 12/22. 1697.] + +[Footnote 779: Van Cleverskirke, Jan. 12/22. 1697; L'Hermitage, Jan. +15/25.] + +[Footnote 780: L'Hermitage, Jan. 15/25. 1697.] + +[Footnote 781: Lords' Journals, Jan. 22. 26. 1696/7; Vernon to +Shrewsbury, Jan. 26.] + +[Footnote 782: Commons' Journals, Jan. 27. 169. The entry in the +journals, which might easily escape notice, is explained by a letter of +L'Hermitage, written Jan 29/Feb 8] + +[Footnote 783: L'Hermitage, Jan 29/Feb 8; 1697; London Gazette, Feb. 1.; +Paris Gazette; Vernon to Shrewsbury; Jan. 28.; Burnet, ii. 193.] + +[Footnote 784: Commons' Journals, December 19. 1696; Vernon to +Shrewsbury, Nov. 28. 1696.] + +[Footnote 785: Lords' Journals, Jan. 23. 1696/7; Vernon to Shrewsbury, +Jan. 23.; L'Hermitage, Jan 26/Feb 5.] + +[Footnote 786: Commons' Journals, Jan. 26. 1696/7; Vernon to Shrewsbury +and Van Cleverskirke to the States General of the same date. It is +curious that the King and the Lords should have made so strenuous a +fight against the Commons in defence of one of the five points of the +Peoples Charter.] + +[Footnote 787: Commons' Journals, April 1. 3. 1697; Narcissus Luttrell's +Diary; L'Hermitage, April 2/12 As L'Hermitage says, "La plupart des +membres, lorsqu'ils sont a la campagne, estant bien aises d'estre +informez par plus d'un endroit de ce qui se passe, et s'imaginant que +la Gazette qui se fait sous la direction d'un des Secretaires d'Etat, ne +contiendroit pas autant de choses que fait celle-cy, ne sont pas fichez +que d'autres les instruisent." The numbers on the division I take from +L'Hermitage. They are not to be found in the Journals. But the Journals +were not then so accurately kept as at present.] + +[Footnote 788: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, June 1691, May 1693.] + +[Footnote 789: Commons' Journals, Dec 30. 1696; Postman, July 4. 1696.] + +[Footnote 790: Postman April 22. 1696; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.] + +[Footnote 791: London Gazette, April 26. 29. 1697,] + +[Footnote 792: London Gazette, April 29. 1697; L'Hermitage, April 23/May +3] + +[Footnote 793: London Gazette, April 26. 29 1697 L'Hermitage, April +23/May 3] + +[Footnote 794: What the opinion of the public was we learn from a letter +written by L'Hermitage immediately after Godolphin's resignation, Nov +3/13. 1696, "Le public tourne plus la veue sur le Sieur Montegu, qui +a la seconde charge de la Tresorerie que sur aucun autre." The strange +silence of the London Gazette is explained by a letter of Vernon to +Shrewsbury, dated May 1. 1697.] + +[Footnote 795: London Gazette, April 22. 26: 1697.] + +[Footnote 796: Postman, Jan. 26; Mar. 7. 11. 1696/7; April 8. 1697.] + +[Footnote 797: Ibid. Oct. 29. 1696.] + +[Footnote 798: Howell's State Trials; Postman, Jan. 9/19 1696/7.] + +[Footnote 799: See the Protocol of February 10 1697, in the Actes et +Memoires des Negociations de la Paix de Ryswick, 1707.] + +[Footnote 800: William to Heinsius, Dec. 11/21 1696. There are similar +expressions in other letters written by the King about the same time.] + +[Footnote 801: See the papers drawn up at Vienna, and dated Sept. 16. +1696, and March 14 1697. See also the protocol drawn up at the Hague, +March 14. 1697. These documents will be found in the Actes et Memoires +des Negociations de la Paix de Ryswick, 1707.] + +[Footnote 802: Characters of all the three French ministers are given by +Saint Simon.] + +[Footnote 803: Actes et Memoires des Negociations de la Paix de +Ryswick.] + +[Footnote 804: An engraving and ground plan of the mansion will be found +in the Actes et Memoires.] + +[Footnote 805: Whoever wishes to be fully informed as to the idle +controversies and mummeries in which the Congress wasted its time, may +consult the Actes et Memoires.] + +[Footnote 806: Saint Simon was certainly as good a judge of men as any +of those English grumblers who called Portland a dunce and a boor; Saint +Simon too had every opportunity of forming a correct judgment; for he +saw Portland in a situation full of difficulties; and Saint Simon says, +in one place, "Benting, discret, secret, poli aux autres, fidele a +son maitre, adroit en affaires, le servit tres utilement;" in another, +"Portland parut avec un eclat personnel, une politesse, un air de monde +et de cour, une galanterie et des graces qui surprirent; avec cela, +beaucoup de dignite, meme (le hauteur), mais avec discernement et un +jugement prompt sans rien de hasarde." Boufflers too extols Portland's +good breeding and tact. Boufflers to Lewis, July 9. 1697. This letter +is in the archives of the French Foreign Office. A translation will be +found in the valuable collection published by M. Grimblot.] + +[Footnote 807: Boufflers to Lewis, June 21/July 1 1697; Lewis to +Boufflers, June 22/July 2; Boufflers to Lewis, June 25/July 5] + +[Footnote 808: Boufflers to Lewis June 28/July 8, June 29/July 9 1697] + +[Footnote 809: My account of this negotiation I have taken chiefly +from the despatches in the French Foreign Office. Translations of those +despatches have been published by M. Grimblot. See also Burnet, ii. 200, +201. + +It has been frequently asserted that William promised to pay Mary of +Modena fifty thousand pounds a year. Whoever takes the trouble to +read the Protocol of Sept. 10/20 1697, among the Acts of the Peace of +Ryswick, will see that my account is correct. Prior evidently understood +the protocol as I understand it. For he says, in a letter to Lexington +of Sept. 17. 1697, "No. 2. is the thing to which the King consents as to +Queen Marie's settlements. It is fairly giving her what the law allows +her. The mediator is to dictate this paper to the French, and enter it +into his protocol; and so I think we shall come off a bon marche upon +that article." + +It was rumoured at the time (see Boyer's History of King William III. +1703) that Portland and Boufflers had agreed on a secret article by +which it was stipulated that, after the death of William, the Prince of +Wales should succeed to the English throne. This fable has often been +repeated, but was never believed by men of sense, and can hardly, since +the publication of the letters which passed between Lewis and Boufflers, +find credit even with the weakest. Dalrymple and other writers imagined +that they had found in the Life of James (ii. 574, 575.) proof that the +story of the secret article was true. The passage on which they relied +was certainly not written by James, nor under his direction; and the +authority of those portions of the Life which were not written by him, +or under his direction, is but small. Moreover, when we examine this +passage, we shall find that it not only does not bear out the story of +the secret article, but directly contradicts that story. The compiler +of the Life tells us that, after James had declared that he never would +consent to purchase the English throne for his posterity by surrendering +his own rights, nothing more was said on the subject. Now it is quite +certain that James in his Memorial published in March 1697, a Memorial +which will be found both in the Life (ii. 566,) and in the Acts of the +Peace of Ryswick, declared to all Europe that he never would stoop to so +low and degenerate an action as to permit the Prince of Orange to +reign on condition that the Prince of Wales should succeed. It follows, +therefore, that nothing can have been said on this subject after March +1697. Nothing therefore, can have been said on this subject in the +conferences between Boufflers and Portland, which did not begin till +late in June. + +Was there then absolutely no foundation for the story? I believe that +there was a foundation; and I have already related the facts on which +this superstructure of fiction has been reared. It is quite certain +that Lewis, in 1693, intimated to the allies through the government +of Sweden, his hope that some expedient might be devised which would +reconcile the Princes who laid claim to the English crown. The expedient +at which he hinted was, no doubt, that the Prince of Wales should +succeed William and Mary. It is possible that, as the compiler of the +Life of James says, William may have "show'd no great aversness" to this +arrangement. He had no reason, public or private, for preferring his +sister in law to his brother in law, if his brother in law were bred a +Protestant. But William could do nothing without the concurrence of the +Parliament; and it is in the highest degree improbable that either he or +the Parliament would ever have consented to make the settlement of the +English crown a matter of stipulation with France. What he would or +would not have done, however, we cannot with certainty pronounce. For +James proved impracticable. Lewis consequently gave up all thoughts +of effecting a compromise and promised, as we have seen, to recognise +William as King of England "without any difficulty, restriction, +condition, or reserve." It seems certain that, after this promise, which +was made in December 1696, the Prince of Wales was not again mentioned +in the negotiations.] + +[Footnote 810: Prior MS.; Williamson to Lexington, July 20/30. 1697; +Williamson to Shrewsbury, July 23/Aug 2] + +[Footnote 811: The note of the French ministers, dated July 10/20 1697, +will be found in the Actes et Memoires.] + +[Footnote 812: Monthly Mercuries for August and September, 1697.] + +[Footnote 813: Life of James, ii: 565.] + +[Footnote 814: Actes et Memoires des Negociations de la Paix de Ryswick; +Life of James, ii. 566.] + +[Footnote 815: James's Protest will be found in his Life, ii. 572.] + +[Footnote 816: Actes et Memoires des Negociations de la Paix de Ryswick; +Williamson to Lexington, Sept 14/24 1697; Prior MS.] + +[Footnote 817: Prior MS.] + +[Footnote 818: L'Hermitage, July 20/30; July 27/Aug 6, Aug 24/Sept 3, +Aug 27/Sept 6 Aug 31/Sept 10 1697 Postman, Aug. 31.] + +[Footnote 819: Van Cleverskirke to the States General, Sept. 14/24 1697; +L'Hermitage, Sept. 14/24; Postscript to the Postman, of the same date; +Postman and Postboy of Sept. 19/29 Postman of Sept. 18/28.] + +[Footnote 820: L'Hermitage, Sept 17/27, Sept 25/Oct 4 1697 Oct 19/29; +Postman, Nov. 20.] + +[Footnote 821: L'Hermitage, Sept 21/Oct 1 Nov 2/12 1697; Paris Gazette, +Nov. 20/30; Postboy, Nov. 2. At this time appeared a pasquinade +entitled, A Satyr upon the French King, written after the Peace was +concluded at Reswick, anno 1697, by a Non-Swearing Parson, and said to +be drop'd out of his Pocket at Sam's Coffee House. I quote a few of the +most decent couplets. + + "Lord! with what monstrous lies and senseless shams + Have we been cullied all along at Sam's! + Who could have e'er believed, unless in spite + Lewis le Grand would turn rank Williamite? + Thou that hast look'd so fierce and talk'd so big, + In thine old age to dwindle to a Whig! + Of Kings distress'd thou art a fine securer. + Thou mak'st me swear, that am a known nonjuror. + Were Job alive, and banter'd by such shufflers, + He'd outrail Oates, and curse both thee and Boufflers + For thee I've lost, if I can rightly scan 'em, + Two livings, worth full eightscore pounds per annum, + Bonae et legalis Angliae Monetae. + But now I'm clearly routed by the treaty."] + +[Footnote 822: London Gazettes; Postboy of Nov. 18 1697; L'Hermitage, +Nov. 5/15.] + +[Footnote 823: London Gazette, Nov. 18. 22 1697; Van Cleverskirke Nov. +16/26, 19/29.; L'Hermitage, Nov. 16/26; Postboy and Postman, Nov. 18. +William to Heinsius, Nov. 16/26] + +[Footnote 824: Evelyn's Diary, Dec, 2. 1697. The sermon is extant; and I +must acknowledge that it deserves Evelyn's censure.] + +[Footnote 825: London Gazette, Dec. 6. 1697; Postman, Dec. 4.; Van +Cleverskirke, Dec. 2/12; L'Hermitage, Nov. 19/29.] + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 2613 *** |