The French however reaped no solid advantage from this victory, which cost them about three thousand men, including the prince of Turenne, the marquis de Bellefond, Tilladet, and Fernacon, with many officers of distinction: as for Millevoix the spy, he was hanged on a tree on the right wing of the allied army. King William retired unmolested to his own camp; and notwithstanding all his overthrows, continued a respectable enemy, by dint of invincible fortitude and a genius fruitful in resources. That he was formidable to the French nation, even in the midst of his ill success, appears from divers undeniable testimonies, and from none more than from the extravagance of joy expressed by the people of France on the occasion of this unimportant victory. When the princes who served in the battle returned to Paris, the roads through which they passed were almost blocked up with multitudes; and the whole air resounded with acclamation. All the ornaments of the fashion peculiar to both sexes adopted the name of Steenkirk: every individual who had been personally engaged in the action was revered as a being of a superior species, and the transports of the women rose almost to a degree of frenzy.
The French ministry did not entirely depend upon the fortune of the war for the execution of their revenge against king William, They likewise employed assassins to deprive him of life in the most treacherous manner.
When Louvois died, his son the marquis de Barbesieux, who succeeded him in his office of secretary, found among his papers the draft of a scheme for this purpose, and immediately revived the design by means of the chevalier de Grandval, a captain of dragoons in the service. He and colonel Parker engaged one Dumont, who undertook to assassinate king William. Madame de Maintenon, and Paparel, paymaster to the French army, were privy to the scheme, which they encouraged: the conspirators are said to have obtained an audience of king James, who approved of their undertaking, and assured them of his protection; but that unfortunate monarch was unjustly charged with the guilt of countenancing the intended murder, as they communicated nothing to him but an attempt to seize the person of the prince of Orange. Dumont actually enlisted in the confederate army, that he might have the better opportunity to shoot the king of England when he should ride out to visit the linos, while Grandval and Parker repaired to the French camp, with orders to Luxembourg to furnish them with a party of horse for the rescue of Dumont, after the blow should be struck. Whether this man’s heart failed him, or he could not find the opportunity he desired, after having resided some weeks in the camp of the allies, he retired to Hanover; but still corresponded with Grandval and Barbesieux. This last admitted one Leofdale, a Dutch baron, into the secret, and likewise imparted it to monsieur Chanlais, quarter-master general of the French army, who animated Grandval and Leefdale with the promise of a considerable reward, and promised to cooperate with Parker for bringing off Dumont, for this assassin still persisted in his undertaking. Leefdale had been sent from Holland on purpose to dive to the bottom of this conspiracy, in consequence of advice given by the British envoy at Hanover, where Dumont had dropped some hints that alarmed his suspicion. The Dutchman not only insinuated himself into the confidence of the conspirators, but likewise inveigled Grandval to Eyndhoven, where he was apprehended. Understanding that Dumont had already discovered the design to the duke of Zell, and that he himself had been betrayed by Leefdale, he freely confessed all the particulars without enduring the torture; and, being found guilty by a court-martial, was executed as a traitor.
About this period the duke of Leinster arrived at Ostend, with the troops which had been embarked at St. Helen’s. He was furnished with cannon sent down the Meuse from Maestricht, and reinforced by a large detachment from the king’s camp at Gramont, under the command of general Ptolemache. He took possession of Furnes, was joined by the earl of Portland and M. d’Auverquerque, and a disposition was made for investing Dunkirk; but on further deliberation the enterprise was thought very dangerous, and therefore laid aside. Furnes and Dixmuyde, lately reduced by brigadier Ramsay, were strengthened with new works, and secured by strong garrisons. The cannon were sent back, and the troops returning to Ostend, re-embarked for England. This fruitless expedition, added to the inglorious issue of the campaign, increased the ill humour of the British nation. They taxed William with having lain inactive at Gramont with an army of one hundred thousand men, while Luxembourg was posted at Courtray with half that number. They said, if he had found the French lines too strong to be forced, he might have passed the Scheld higher up, and not only laid the enemy’s conquests under contribution, but even marched into the bowels of France; and they complained that Furnes and Dixmuyde were not worth the sums expended in maintaining their garrisons. On the twenty-sixth day of September king William left the army under the command of the elector of Bavaria, and repaired to his house at Loo: in two days after his departure the camp at Gramont was broke up; the infantry marched to Marienkerke, and the horse; to Caure. On the sixteenth day of October, the king receiving intelligence that Boufflers had invested Charleroy, and Luxembourg taken post in the neighbourhood of Condé, ordered the troops to be instantly reassembled between the village of Ixells and Halle, with design to raise the siege, and repaired to Brussels, where he held a council of war, in which the proper measures were concerted. He then returned to Holland, leaving the command with the elector of Bavaria, who forthwith began his march for Charleroy. At his approach Boufflers abandoned the siege, and moved towards Philip-ville. The elector having reinforced the place, and thrown supplies into Aeth, distributed his forces into winter-quarters. Then Luxembourg, who had cantoned his army between Condé, Leuzet, and Tournay, returned to Paris, leaving Boufflers to command in his absence.
The allies had been unsuccessful in Flanders, and they were not fortunate in Germany. The landgrave of Hesse Cassol undertook the siege of Eberemburgh, which, however, he was obliged to abandon. The duke de Lorges, who commanded the French forces on the Rhine, surprised, defeated, and took the duke of Wirtemberg, who had posted himself with four thousand horse near Ridelsheim, to check the progress of the enemy. Count Tallard having invested Rhinefield, the landgrave marched to its relief with such expedition that the French wore obliged to desist and retreat with considerable damage. The elector of Saxony had engaged to bring an army into the field; but he complained that the emperor left the burden of the war with France upon the princes, and converted his chief power and attention to the campaign in Hungary. A jealousy and misunderstanding ensued: Schoning the Saxon general, in his way to the hot baths at Dablitz in Bohemia, was seized by the emperor’s order on suspicion of having maintained a private correspondence with the enemy, and very warm expostulations on this subject passed between the courts of Vienna and Dresden. Schoning was detained two years in custody; and at length released on condition that he should never be employed again in the empire. The war in Hungary produced no event of importance. The ministry of the Ottoman Porte was distracted by factions, and the seraglio threatened with tumults. The people were tired of maintaining an unsuccessful war; the vizier was deposed; and in the midst of this confusion, the garrison of great Waradin, which had been blocked up by the imperialists during the whole winter, surrendered on capitulation. Lord Paget, the English ambassador at Vienna, was sent to Constantinople with powers to mediate a peace; but the terms offered by the emperor were rejected at the Porte: the Turkish army lay upon the defensive, and the season was spent in a fruitless negotiation.
The prospect of affairs in Piedmont was favourable for the allies; but the court of France had brought the pope to an accommodation, and began to tamper with the duke of Savoy. M. Chanlais was sent to Turin with advantageous proposals, which however the duke would not accept, because he thought himself entitled to better terms, considering that the allied army in Piedmont amounted to fifty thousand effective men, while Catinat’s forces were not sufficient to defend his conquests in that country. In the month of July the duke marched into Dauphiné, where he plundered a number of villages, and reduced the fortress of Guillestre; then passing the river Darance, he invested Ambrun, which, after a siege of nine days, surrendered on capitulation: he afterwards laid all the neighbouring J towns under contribution. Here duke Schomberg, who commanded the auxiliaries in the English pay, published a declaration in the name of king William, inviting the people to join his standard, assuring them that his master had no other design in ordering his troops to invade France, but that of restoring the noblesse to their ancient splendour, their parliaments to their former authority, and the people to their just privileges. He even offered his protection to the clergy, and promised to use his endeavours for reviving the edict of Nantes, which had been guaranteed by the kings of England. These offers, however, produced little effect; and the Germans ravaged the whole country in revenge for the cruelties which the French had committed in the Palatinate. The allied army advanced from Ambrun to Gap, on the frontiers of Provence, and this place submitted without opposition. The inhabitants of Grenoble, the capital of Dauphiné, and even of Lyons, were overwhelmed with consternation; and a fairer opportunity of humbling France could never occur, as that part of the kingdom had been left almost quite defenceless; but this was fatally neglected, either from the spirit of dissension which began to prevail in the allied army, or from the indisposition of the duke of Savoy, who was seized with the small-pox in the midst of this expedition; or, lastly, from his want of sincerity, which was shrewdly suspected. He is said to have maintained a constant correspondence with the court of Versailles, in complaisance to which he retarded the operations of the confederates. Certain it is, he evacuated all his conquests, and about the middle of September quitted the French territories, after having pillaged and laid waste the country through which he had penetrated.* In Catalonia the French attempted nothing of importance during this campaign, and the Spaniards were wholly inactive in that province.
* At this period queen Mary, understanding that the protestant Vaudois were destitute of ministers to preach or teach the gospel, established a fund from her own privy purse to maintain ten preachers, and as many schoolmasters, in the valleys of Piedmont.
The protestant interest in Germany acquired an accession of strength by the creation of a ninth electorate in favour of Ernest Augustus, duke of Hanover. He had by this time renounced all his connexions with France, and engaged to enter heartily into the interest of the allies, in consideration of his obtaining the electoral dignity. King William exerted himself so vigorously in his behalf at the court of Vienna, that the emperor agreed to the proposal, in case the consent of the other electors could be procured. This assent, however, was extorted by the importunities of the king of England, whom he durst not disoblige. Leopold was blindly bigotted to the religion of Rome, and consequently averse to a new creation that would weaken the catholic interest in the electoral college. He therefore employed his emissaries to thwart the duke’s measures. Some protestant princes opposed him from motives of jealousy, and the French king used all his artifice and influence to prevent the elevation of the house of Hanover. When the duke had surmounted all this opposition, so far as to gain over a majority of the electors, new objections were started. The emperor suggested that another popish electorate should be created to balance the advantage which the Lutherans would reap from that of Hanover; and he proposed that Austria should be raised to the same dignity; but violent opposition was made to this expedient, which would have vested the emperor with a double vote in the electoral college. At length, after a tedious negotiation, the duke of Hanover, on the nineteenth day of December, was honoured with the investiture as elector of Brunswick; created great marshal of the empire, and did homage to the emperor: nevertheless, he was not yet admitted into the college, because he had not been able to procure the unanimous consent of all the electors.*
* In the beginning of September the shock of an earthquake was felt in London, and many other parts of England, as well as in France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Violent agitations of the same kind had happened about two months before in Sicily and Malta; and the town of Port-Royal in Jamaica was almost totally ruined by the earthquake: the place was so suddenly overflowed, that about fifteen hundred persons perished.
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False Information against the Earl of Marlborough, the Bishop of Rochester, and others..... Sources of National Discontent..... Dissension between the Queen and the Prince’s Anne of Denmark..... The House of Lords vindicate their Privileges in behalf of their imprisoned Members..... The Commons present Addresses to The King and Queen..... They acquit Admiral Russel, and resolve to advise his Majesty..... They comply with all the Demands of the Ministry..... The Lords present an Address of Advice to the King..... The Dispute between the Lords and Commons concerning Admiral Russel..... The Commons address the King..... They establish the Land tax and other Impositions..... Burnet’s Pastoral Letter burned by the Hangman..... Proceedings of the Lower House against the Practice of kidnapping Men for the Service..... The two Houses address the King on the Grievances of Ireland ..... An Account of the Place-bill, and that for triennial Parliaments..... The Commons petition his Majesty that he would dissolve the East India Company..... Trial of Lord Mohan for Murder..... Alterations in the Ministry..... The king repairs to the Continent, and assembles the Confederate Army in Flanders..... The French reduce Huy..... Luxembourg resolves to attack the Allies..... who are defeated at Landen..... Charleroy is besieged and taken by the Enemy..... Campaign on the Rhine..... The Duke of Savoy is defeated by Catinat in the Plain of Marsaglia..... Transactions in Hungary and Catalonia..... Naval Affairs..... A Fleet of Merchant Ships under Convoy of Sir George Rooke attacked, and partly destroyed by the French Squadrons ..... Wheeler’s Expedition to the West Indies..... Benbow bombards St. Maloes..... The French King has recourse to the Mediation of Denmark..... Severity of the Government against the Jacobites..... Complaisance of the Scottish Parliament..... The King returns to England, makes some Changes in the Ministry, and opens the Session of Parliament..... Both Houses inquire into the Miscarriages by Sea..... The Commons grant a vast Sum for the Services of the ensuing Year..... The King rejects the Bill against free and impartial Proceedings in Parliament; and the Lower House remonstrates on this Subject..... Establishment of the Bank of England..... The East India Company obtain a now Charter..... Bill for a general Naturalization dropped..... Sir Francis Wheeler perishes in a Storm..... The English attempt to make a Descent in Camaret Bay, but are repulsed with Loss..... They bombard Dieppe, Havre-de-Grace, Dunkirk, and Calais..... Admiral Russel sails for the Mediterranean, relieves Barcelona, and winters at Cadiz..... Campaign in Flanders..... The Allies reduce Huy..... The Prince of Baden passes the Rhine, but is obliged to repass that River..... Operations in Hungary..... Progress of the French in Catalonia..... State of the War in Piedmont..... The King returns to England..... The Parliament meets..... The Bill for Triennial Parliaments receives the Royal Assent..... Death of Archbishop Tillotson and of Queen Mary..... Reconciliation between the King and the Princess of Denmark.
WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.
While king William seemed wholly engrossed by the affairs of the continent, England was distracted by domestic dissension, and overspread with vice, corruption, and profaneness. Over and above the Jacobites, there was a set of malcontents whose number daily increased. They not only murmured at the grievances of the nation, but composed and published elaborate dissertations upon the same subject. These made such impressions upon the people, already irritated by heavy burdens, distressed in their trade, and disappointed in their sanguine expectations, that the queen thought it necessary to check the progress of those writers by issuing out a proclamation offering a reward to such as would discover seditious libellers. The earl of Marlborough had been committed to the Tower on the information of one Robert Young, a prisoner in Newgate, who had forged that nobleman’s hand-writing, and contrived the scheme of an association in favour of king James, to which he affixed the names of the earls of Marlborough and Salisbury, Sprat, bishop of Rochester, the lord Cornbury, and sir Basil Firebrace. One of his emissaries had found means to conceal this paper in a certain part of the bishop’s house at Bromley in Kent, where it was found by the king’s messengers, who secured the prelate in consequence of Young’s information. But he vindicated himself to the satisfaction of the whole council; and the forgery of the informer was detected by the confession of his accomplice. The bishop obtained his release immediately and the earl of Marlborough was admitted to bail in the court of king’s bench.
So many persons of character and distinction had been imprisoned during this reign upon the slightest suspicion, that the discontented part of the nation had some reason to insinuate they had only exchanged one tyrant for another. They affirmed that thehabeas-corpusact was either insufficient to protect the subject from false imprisonment, or had been shamefully misused. They expatiated upon the loss of ships, which had lately fallen a prey to the enemy; the consumption of seamen; the neglect of the fisheries; the interruption of commerce, in which the nation was supplanted by her allies, as well as invaded by her enemies; the low ebb of the kingdom’s treasure, exhausted in hiring foreign bottoms, and paying foreign troops to fight foreign quarrels; and the slaughter of the best and bravest of their countrymen, whose blood had been lavishly spilt in support of connexions with which they ought to have had no concern. They demonstrated the mischiefs that necessarily arose from the unsettled state of the nation. They observed that the government could not be duly established until a solemn declaration should confirm the legality of that tenure by which their majesties possessed the throne; that the structure of parliaments was deficient in point of solidity, as they existed entirely at the pleasure of the crown, which would use them no longer than they should be found necessary in raising supplies for the use of the government. They exclaimed against the practice of quartering soldiers in private houses contrary to the ancient laws of the land, the petition of rights, and the subsequent act on that subject passed in the reign of the second Charles. They enumerated among their grievances the violation of property, by pressing transport ships into the service without settling any fund of payment for the owners; the condition of the militia, which was equally burdensome and useless; the flagrant partiality in favour of allies, who carried on an open commerce with France, and supplied the enemy with necessaries, while the English laboured under the severest prohibitions, and were in effect the dupes of those very powers whom they protected. They dwelt upon the ministry’s want of conduct, foresight, and intelligence, and inveighed against their ignorance, insolence, and neglect, which were as pernicious to the nation as if they had formed a design of reducing it to the lowest ebb of disgrace and destruction. By this time, indeed, public virtue was become the object of ridicule, and the whole kingdom was overspread with immorality and corruption; towards the increase of which many concurring circumstances happened to contribute. The people were divided into three parties, namely, the Williamites, the Jacobites, and the discontented Revolutioners; these factions took all opportunities to thwart, to expose, and to ridicule the measures and principles of each other, so that patriotism was laughed out of doors as an hypocritical pretence. This contention established a belief that every man consulted his own private interest at the expense of the public, a belief that soon grew into a maxim almost universally adopted. The practice of bribing a majority in parliament had a pernicious influence upon the morals of all ranks of people, from the candidate to the lowest borough elector. The expedient of establishing funds of credit for raising supplies to defray the expenses of government, threw large premiums and sums of money into the hands of low sordid usurers, brokers, and jobbers, who distinguished themselves by the name of the monied interest. Intoxicated by this flow of wealth, they affected to rival the luxury and magnificence of their superiors; but being destitute of sentiment and taste to conduct them in their new career, they ran into the most absurd and illiberal extravagancies. They laid aside all decorum; became lewd, insolent, intemperate, and riotous. Their example was caught by the vulgar. All principle, and even decency, was gradually banished; talent lay uncultivated, and the land was deluged with a tide of ignorance and profligacy.
King William having ascertained the winter quarters of the army, and concerted the operations of the ensuing campaign with the states-general and the ministers of the allies, set sail for England on the fifteenth day of October; on the eighteenth landed at Yarmouth, was met by the queen at Newhall, and passed through the city of London to Kensington amidst the acclamations of the populace. He received a congratulatory address from the lord-mayor and aldermen, with whom he dined in public by invitation. A day of thanksgiving was appointed for the victory obtained at sea. The lustring company was established by patent, and the parliament met on the fourth day of November. The house of lords was deeply infected with discontent, which in some measure proceeded from the dissension between the queen and her sister, the princess of Denmark, which last underwent every mortification which the court could inflict. Her guards were taken away; all honours which had been paid to her rank by the magistrates of Bath, where she sometimes resided, and even by the ministers of the church where she attended at divine service, were discontinued by the express order of his majesty. Her cause was naturally espoused by those noblemen who had adhered to her in her former contest with the king about an independent settlement; and these were now reinforced by all the friends of the earl of Marlborough, united for a double tie; for they resented the disgrace and confinement of that lord, and thought it their duty to support the princess Anne under a persecution incurred by an attachment to his countess. The earl of Shrewsbury lived in friendship with Marlborough, and thought he had been ungratefully treated by the king; the marquis of Halifax befriended him from opposition to the ministry; the earl of Mulgrave for an opportunity to display his talents, and acquire that consideration which he thought due to his merit. Devonshire, Montague, and Bradford, joined in the same cause from principle; the same pretence was used by the earls of Stamford, Monmouth, Warrington, and other whigs, though in effect they were actuated by jealousy and resentment against those by whom they had been supplanted. As for the Jacobites, they gladly contributed their assistance to promote any scheme that had a tendency to embroil the administration.
The king, in his speech to parliament, thanked them for their last supplies, congratulated them upon the victory obtained at sea, condoled them on the bad success of the campaign by land, magnified the power of France, represented the necessity of maintaining a great force to oppose it, and demanded subsidies equal to the occasion. He expressed his reluctance to load them with additional burdens, which he said could not be avoided, without exposing his kingdom to inevitable destruction. He desired their advice towards lessening the inconveniences of exporting money for the payment of the forces. He intimated a design of making a descent upon France; declared he had no aim but to make his subjects a happy people; and that he would again cheerfully expose his life for the welfare of the nation. The lords, after an adjournment of three days, began with great warmth to assert their privileges, which they conceived had been violated in the cases of the earl of Marlborough and the other noblemen who had been apprehended, committed to prison, and afterwards admitted to bail by the court of king’s-bench. These circumstances being fully discussed in a violent debate, the house ordered lord Lucas, constable of the Tower, to produce the warrants of commitment, and the clerk of the king’s-bench to deliver the affidavit of Aaron Smith, the court solicitor, upon which the lords had been remanded to prison. At the same time the whole affair was referred to a committee, empowered to send for persons, papers, and records. The judges were ordered to attend: Aaron Smith was examined touching the evidence against the committed lords. The committee reported their general resolution, which produced a vehement dispute. The opinion of the judges was unsatisfactory to both parties; the debate was referred to a committee of the whole house, in which it was resolved and declared, as the sense of that assembly, that in pursuance of thehabeas-corpusact, it was the duty of the judges and gaol-delivery to discharge the prisoner on bail if committed for high treason, unless it be made appear, upon oath, that there are two witnesses against the said prisoner, who cannot be produced in that term, session, or general gaol-delivery. They likewise resolved it was the intention of the said statute, that in case there should be more than one prisoner to be bailed or remanded, there must be oath made that there are two witnesses against each prisoner, otherwise he cannot be remanded to prison. These resolutions were entered in the books as standing directions to all future-judges, yet not without great opposition from the court members. The next debate turned upon the manner in which the imprisoned lords should be set at liberty. The contest became so warm that the courtiers began to be afraid, and proposed an expedient which was put in practice. The house adjourned to the seventeenth day of the month, and at its next meeting was given to understand that the king had discharged the imprisoned noblemen. After another warm debate, a formal entry was made in the journals, importing, That the house being informed of his majesty’s having given directions for discharging the lords under bail in the king’s-bench, the debate about that matter ceased. The resentment of the peers being thus allayed, they proceeded to take his majesty’s speech into consideration.
The commons having voted an address of thanks, and another, praying that his majesty’s foreign alliances should be laid before them, determined on a bill for regulating trials in cases of high treason. They passed a vote of thanks to admiral Russel, his officers and seamen, for the victory they had obtained, and then proceeded to an inquiry, Why that victory had not been pursued? why the descent had not been made? and why the trade had not been better protected from the enemy’s cruisers? The admiral having justified his own conduct, they commanded the lords of the admiralty to produce copies of all the letters and orders which had been sent to the admiral; they ordered Russel to lay before them his answers; and the commissioners of the transports, victuallers, and office of ordnance, to deliver in an account of their proceedings. They then presented addresses to the king and queen, acknowledging the favour of God in restoring him to his people; congratulating him upon his deliverance from the snares of his open and secret enemies; and assuring him they would, according to his majesty’s desire in his most gracious speech, be always ready to advise and assist him in the support of his government. The queen was thanked for her gracious and prudent administration during his majesty’s absence; they congratulated her on their signal deliverance from a bold and cruel design formed for their destruction, as well as on the glorious victory which her fleet had gained; and they assured her that the grateful sense they had of their happiness under her government, should always be manifested in constant returns of duty and obedience.
After this formal compliment, the house, instead of proceeding to the supplies, insisted upon perusing the treaties, public accounts, and estimates, that they might be in a condition to advise as well as to assist his majesty. Being indulged with those papers, they passed a previous vote that a supply should be given; then they began to concert their articles of advice. Some of the members loudly complained of partiality to foreign generals, and particularly reflected upon the insolence of count Solmes, and his misconduct at Steenkirk. After some warm altercation, the house resolved one article of their advice should be, that his majesty would be pleased to fill up the vacancies that should happen among the general officers, with such only as were natives of his dominions, and that the commander-in-chief of the English should be an Englishman. Their next resolution implied, that many of the great affairs of the government having been for some time past unsuccessfully managed, the house should advise his majesty to prevent such mischiefs for the future, by employing men of knowledge, ability, and integrity. Individual members inveighed bitterly against cabinet councils, as a novelty in the British system of government by which the privy-council was jostled out of its province. They complained that all the grievances of the nation proceeded from the vicious principles of the ministry: they observed, that he who opposed the establishment could not be expected to support it with zeal. The earl of Nottingham was mentioned by name, and the house resolved that his majesty should be advised to employ in his councils such persons only whose principles obliged them to support his rights against the late king, and all other pretenders. Marlborough’s interest still predominated among the commons. His friend Russel acquitted himself to the satisfaction of the house, and shifted the blame of the miscarriage upon his enemy the earl of Nottingham, by declaring that twenty days elapsed between his first letter to that nobleman and his lordship’s answer. The earl’s friends, of whom there was a great number in the house, espoused his cause with great vigour, and even recriminated upon Russel; so that a very violent debate ensued. Both parties agreed that there had been mismanagement in the scheme of a descent. It was moved, that one cause of the miscarriage was the want of giving timely and necessary orders, by those to whom the management of the affair was committed. The house divided, and it was carried in the affirmative by one voice only. At the next sitting of the committee, sir Richard Temple proposed they should consider how to pay the forces abroad, by means of English manufactures, without ex porting money. They resolved that the house should be moved to appoint a committee to take this expedient into consideration. Sir Francis Wilmington was immediately called upon to leave the chair, and the speaker resumed his place. All that had been done was now void, as no report had been made; and the committee was dissolved. The house however revived it, and appointed a day for its sitting; but before it could resume its deliberations, admiral Russel moved for its being adjourned, and all its purposes were defeated.
The court agents had by this time interposed, and secured a majority by the infamous arts of corruption. The commons no longer insisted upon their points of advice. Their whole attention was now centered in the article of assistance. They granted about two millions for the maintenance of three-and-thirty thousand seamen, the building of some additional ships of war, and the finishing of Plymouth dock; and seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds to supply the deficiency of the quarterly poll. The estimates of the land-service were not discussed without tedious debates and warm disputes. The ministry demanded fifty-four thousand men, twenty thousand of whom should be kept at home for the defence of the nation, while the rest should serve abroad in the allied army. Many members declared their aversion to a foreign war, in which the nation had no immediate concern and so little prospect of success. Others agreed that the allies should be assisted on the continent with a proportion of British forces; but that the nation should act as an auxiliary, not as a principal, and pay no more than what the people would cheerfully contribute to the general expense. These reflections, however, produced no other effect than that of prolonging the debate. Ministerial influence had surmounted all opposition. The house voted the number of men demanded. Such was their servile complaisance, that when they examined the treaties by which the English and Dutch contracted equally with the German princes, and found that, notwithstanding these treaties, Britain bore two-thirds of the expense, they overlooked this flagrant instance of partiality, and enabled the king to pay the proportion. Nay, their maxims were so much altered, that, instead of prosecuting their resentment against foreign generals, they assented to a motion that the prince of Wirtemberg, the major-generals Tetteau and La Forest, who commanded the Danish troops in the pay of the states-general, should be indulged with such an addition to their appointments as would make up the difference between the pay of England and that of Holland. Finally, they voted above two millions for the subsistence of the land forces, and for defraying extraordinary expenses attending the war upon the continent, including subsidies to the electors of Saxony and Hanover.
The house of lords meanwhile was not free from animosity and contention. The Marlborough faction exerted themselves with great vivacity. They affirmed, it was the province of their house to advise the sovereign: like the commons, they insisted upon the king’s having asked their advice because he had mentioned that word in his speech, though he never dreamed that they would catch at it with such eagerness. They moved, that the task of digesting the articles of advice should be undertaken by a joint committee of both houses; but all the dependents of the court, including the whole bench of bishops, except Watson of St. David’s, were marshalled to oppose this motion, which was rejected by a majority of twelve; and this victory was followed with a protest of the vanquished. Notwithstanding this defeat, they prosecuted their scheme of giving advice; and after much wrangling and declamation, the house agreed in an address of remonstrance, advising and beseeching his majesty, That the commanding officer of the British forces should be an Englishman; that English officers might take rank of those in the confederate armies, who did not belong to crowned heads; that the twenty thousand men to be left for the defence of the kingdom should be all English, and commanded by an English general; that the practice of pressing men for the fleet should be remedied; that such officers as were guilty of this practice should be cashiered and punished; and, lastly, that no foreigners should sit at the board of ordnance. This address was presented to the king, who received it coldly, and said he would take it into consideration.
Then the lords resolved to inquire into the miscarriage of the purposed descent, and called for all the papers relating to that affair; but the aim of the majority was not so much to rectify the errors of the government, as to screen Nottingham, and censure Russel. That nobleman produced his own book of entries, together with the whole correspondence between him and the admiral, whom he verbally charged with having contributed to the miscarriage of the expedition. This affair was referred to a committee. Sir John Ashby was examined. The house directed the earl to draw up the substance of his charge; and these papers were afterwards delivered to a committee of the commons, at a conference by the lord-president, and the rest of the committee above. They were offered for the inspection of the commons, as they concerned some members of that house, by whom they might be informed more fully of the particulars they contained. At another conference which the commons demanded, their committee declared, in the name of the house, That they had read and well considered the papers which their lordships had sent them, and which they now returned: that finding Mr. Russel, one of their members, often mentioned in the said papers, they had unanimously resolved, that admiral Russel, in his command of the fleets during the last summer’s expedition, had behaved with fidelity, courage, and conduct. The lords irritated at this declaration, and disappointed in their resentment against Russel, desired a free conference between the committees of both houses. The earl of Rochester told the commons, he was commanded by the house of lords to inform them that their lordships looked upon the late vote and proceeding of the lower house, in returning their papers, to be irregular and unparliamentary, as they had not communicated to their lordships the lights they had received, and the reason upon which their vote was founded. A paper to the same purport was delivered to colonel Granville, who promised to present it to the commons, and make a faithful report of what his lordship had said. Thus the conference ended, and the inquiry was discontinued.
The lower house seemed to be as much exasperated against the earl of Nottingham as the lords were incensed at Russel. A motion was made that his majesty should be advised to appoint such commissioners of the board of admiralty as were of known experience in maritime affairs. Although this was overruled, they voted an address to the king, praying, that for the future, all orders for the engagement of the fleet might pass through the hands of the said commissioners; a protest by implication against the conduct of the secretary. The consideration of ways and means was the next object that engrossed the attention of the lower house. They resolved that a rate of four shillings in the pound, for one year, should be charged upon all lands according to their yearly value; as also upon all personal estates, and upon all offices and employments of profit, other than military offices in the army and navy. The act founded on this resolution empowered the king to borrow money on the credit of it, at seven per cent. They further enabled him to raise one million on the general credit of the exchequer, by granting annuities. They laid several new duties on a variety of imports. They renewed the last quarterly poll, providing that in case it should not produce three hundred thousand pounds, the deficiencies might be made up by borrowing on the general credit of the exchequer. They continued the impositions on wine, vinegar, tobacco, and sugar, for five years; and those on East-India goods for four years. They laid a new imposition of eight per cent, on the capital stock of the East-India company, estimated at seven hundred and forty-four thousand pounds; of one per cent, on the African; of five pounds on every share of the stock belonging to the Hudson’s Bay company; and they empowered his majesty to borrow five hundred thousand pounds on these funds, which were expressly established for maintaining the war with vigour.*
* The French king hearing how liberally William was supplied, exclaimed, with some emotion, “My little cousin the prince of Orange is fixed in the saddle—but, no matter, the last Louis d’or must carry it.”
The money-bills were retarded in the upper house by the arts of Halifax, Mulgrave, and other malcontents. They grafted a clause on the land-tax bill, importing, that the lords should tax themselves. It was adopted by the majority, and the bill sent with this amendment to the commons, by whom it was unanimously rejected as a flagrant attempt upon their privileges. They demanded a conference, in which they declared that the clause in question was a notorious encroachment upon the right the commons possessed, of regulating all matters relating to supplies granted by parliament. When this report was debated in the house of lords, the earl of Mulgrave displayed uncommon powers of eloquence and argument, in persuading the house, that, by yielding to this claim of the commons, they would divest themselves of their true greatness, and nothing would remain but the name and shadow of a peer, which was but a pageant. Notwithstanding all his oratory, the lords relinquished their clause, declaring, at the same time, that they had agreed to pass the bill without alteration, merely in regard to the present urgent state of affairs, as being otherwise of opinion that they had a right to insist upon their clause. A formal complaint being made in the house of commons against the pamphlet entitled, “King William and Queen Mary Conquerors,” as containing assertions of dangerous consequence to their majesties, to the liberty of the subject, and the peace of the kingdom, the licenser and printer were taken into custody. The book being examined, resolved that it should be burned by the hands of the common hangman, and that the king should be moved to dismiss the licenser from his employment. The same sentence they pronounced upon a pastoral letter of bishop Burnet, in which this notion of conquest had been at first asserted. The lords, in order to manifest their sentiments on the same subject, resolved, That such an assertion was highly injurious to their majesties, inconsistent with the principles on which the government was founded, and tending to the subversion of the rights of the people. Bohun the licenser was brought to the bar of the house, and discharged upon his own petition, after having been reprimanded on his knees by the speaker.
Several members having complained that their servants had been kidnapped and sent to serve as soldiers in Flanders, the house appointed a committee to inquire into the abuses committed by press-masters; and a suitable remonstrance was presented to the king, who expressed his indignation at this practice, and assured the house that the delinquents should be brought to exemplary punishment. Understanding however in the sequel, that the methods taken by his majesty for preventing this abuse had not proved, effectual, they resumed their inquiry, and proceeded with, uncommon vigour on the information they received. A great number of persons who had been pressed were discharged by order of the house; and captain Winter, the chief undertaker for this method of recruiting the army, was carried by the sergeant before the lord chief justice, that he might be prosecuted according to law.
Before the heats occasioned by this unpopular expedient were allayed, the discontent of the nation was further inflamed by complaints from Ireland, where lord Sidney was said to rule with despotic authority. These complaints were exhibited by sir Francis Brewster, sir William Gore, sir John Macgill, lieutenant Stafford, Mr. Stone, and Mr. Kerne. They were examined at the bar of the house, and delivered an account of their grievances in writing. Both houses concurred in this inquiry; which, being finished, they severally presented addresses to the king. The lords observed, That there had been great abuses in disposing of the forfeited estates; that protections had been granted to the Irish not included in the articles of Limerick; so that protestants were deprived of the benefit of the law against them; that the quarters of the army had not been paid according to the provision made by parliament; that a mayor had been imposed upon the city of Dublin for two years successively, contrary to the ancient privileges and charter; that several persons accused of murder had been executed without proof; and one Sweetman, the most guilty, discharged without prosecution. The commons spoke more freely in their address; they roundly explained the abuses and mismanagement of that government, by exposing the protestant subjects to the free quarter and violence of a licentious army; by recruiting the troops with Irish papists who had been in open rebellion against his majesty; by granting protections to Irish Roman-catholics, whereby the course of the law was stopped; by reversing outlawries for high treason not comprehended in the articles of Limerick; by letting the forfeited estates at undervalue, to the prejudice of his majesty’s revenue; by embezzling the stores left in the towns and garrisons by the late king James, as well as the effects belonging to the forfeited estates, which might have been employed for the better preservation of the kingdom; and, finally, by making additions to the articles of Limerick after the capitulation was signed and the place surrendered. They most humbly besought his majesty to redress these abuses, which had greatly encouraged the papists, and weakened the protestant interest in Ireland. The king graciously received both addresses, and promised to pay a particular regard to all remonstrances that should come from either house of parliament; but no material step was taken against the lords Sidney, Athlone, and Coningsby, who appeared to have engrossed great part of the forfeitures by grants from the crown; and even commissioner Culliford, who had been guilty of the most grievous acts of oppression, escaped with impunity.
WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.